Chapter 3- A Day With The Girls

It's late at night. You are supposed to be asleep, but insomnia has gripped you again. You are buzzing with pride. Earlier that day you were named Captain of your newly formed group. Grinning a bit, you turn over, and see what you hoped was a dream:  a burly boy, X205W, "Wex", crying, sitting up in his cot.

"I can't take it anymore." He says to you when he notices you are watching him. "I'm so sick of living like this."

"W-what do you mean Wex?" you sit up and dangle your legs over the side of your bed.

"I'm tired of living in this torture chamber!" you notice he has a gun in his hand, and become aware of his intentions.

"Wex, please think this through!" you say urgently.

"I have," he is shaking now. He raises the gun to his head. "I'm sorry, Cap."

"Wex, no!' you shout, but it does no good.

Everyone in the room wakes up as the shot rings in the air. Wex's body falls onto his bed, the gun clatters on the tile floor. Pain and guilt courses through your body as Wex's blood blooms like flowers on the crisp white sheets.

Sarian woke up with a jolt. She was shaking, and covered in cold sweat. "It was just a dream," she told herself. "A dream of the past." She got out of bed and did not even bother to grab at least her underwear (she had slept in the nude) before going down the hall to the bathroom.

"Put some clothes on!" Wufei shouted at her before shutting his door shut.

"What? Haven't you ever seen a naked girl before?" Sarian yelled back. Being naked around guys was not new for her. Back at the Delta Compound, there had been one bathroom for each group, and everyone had used it at once.

The third floor bathroom was at the end of the hall. Sarian opened the door, stepped inside, and locked the door. Almost immediately after, there was the sound of someone running up the stairs.

"I heard the words "naked" and "girl" used in the same sentence," it was Duo.

"She's in the bathroom with the door locked." Wufei answered.

Sarian stopped listening after Duo gave a whine of protest. After a quick shower, Sarian had a hard time finding a towel.

Wufei' s so disorganized in here, Sarian thought as she moved aside a six-pack of deodorant. And apparently has a bad B.O. problem. Eventually, Sarian did find a towel under a heap of tissue boxes. After unlocking the door, and checking to see if Duo was still out there waiting to sneak a peek, Sarian walked back into her room and shut the door.

"So, finally got out of the shower, did you?"  Mika was sitting on Sarian's bed (which had been made when she was in the shower). A pile of folded clothes, underwear, sandals, and hair accessories sat next to her. "Relena and I decided that you couldn't go shopping in your uniform. So, since we're, like, the same sizes, you'll borrow my clothes for today, or whenever, until you get your own. Now, let's get started."

Sarian had been pulling on the underwear, which was considerably smaller than what she was used to, and was now working on the jeans. "With what?" she exclaimed. Mika had already helped her enough with the clothes.

"With your hair, silly!" Mika giggled. "Now, the straight layered look is in, but, let's face it, you can't wear it like that all the time."

"Why not?" Sarian asked as she tried on the sandals, which fitted perfectly.

"Because it will bore people. Boys especially." Mika giggled some more as she sat Sarian down on the bed and began to twist her hair into rolled cornrows.

"What do I care?" Sarian said exasperated.

"Ah, I know you don't mean that," Mika replied. "In fact, I saw Duo giving you a few hard looks last night during dinner."

"Please, he has better things on his mind."

"I don't know. He is a seventeen-year-old guy with raging hormones. You know what I'm talking about." Mika elbowed Sarian suggestively in the back.

"Don't remind me," Sarian sighed sadly.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," Sarian wanted to change the subject. "So, why are you here?"

"I'm an orphan. My parents were military officials who died in battle when I was five. I lived with relatives until they all died. I move here with the guys last year, after the final battle before the peace." Mika was silent until she said, "What did you do all day back at the Compound?"

Sarian thought a little bit, "Drills mostly. I had classes to, Human Relations, Language, Worldly Appearance, etc. I worked out a lot to keep my body in the shape it needed to be. Occasionally Day, my adoptive father since my biological dad wanted nothing to do with me, helped my with my training. Once we played a weird game called chess that the general let me have." Sarian smiled at that memory.

"Sounds like a prison," Mika remarked.

"You get used to it. It became dull for me after I turned fifteen."

"Hmm," Mika hummed. "There, you're done! Just let me put on some eye makeup. Damn, you have good skin!"

Sarian stood up and looked in the mirror that hung over the bureau. She looked good, but she did not look like herself. Her hair was rolled into rows all around her head, and all this ended with spiky feathers of hair. Her eyes glistened with glitter and sparkly eyeliner. Mika had put tiny hair clips at the ends of the rows and rhinestone-studded hairpins held the rows tight on her head.

"The guys will freak!" Mika giggled.

They certainly will, Sarian thought.

***

"Mika! What have you done to Sarian?!?" Duo exclaimed as he leapt out of the big easy chair in the living room. "She's gorgeous!"

"She wasn't before?" Trowa countered from his corner.

"Well, she was but…is she wearing the top I gave you for your birthday?" Duo asked Mika.

"Relena, what time's Sally getting here?" Mika asked quickly.

"Should be any minute," she answered from the couch where she was snuggling with Heero. Actually, she was snuggling and Heero was trying to make a bid for freedom.

"Well, (cough) since you haven't seen al of the house yet," Trowa asked nervously, "maybe I could give you a quick tour?"

Desperate to be out of the room, Sarian said yes.

***

They started on the second floor as Sarian already knew where everything was on the third floor, including the woman-hating baka. Trowa told Sarian where each of the guys' rooms were, even juicy tid bits about each one.

"Okay, on the far right is Quatre's room. This area is to be avoided at all costs if you have allergies. The flowers in there are toxic. Duo's room is right next to Quatre's. Never go in there unless you're (cough) looking for a good time. Heero's room is across from Duo's. You don't have anything to fear in there. The only things in there are his bed and his clothes. Mika's room is to the left of Heero's. Since you're a girl, you have nothing to fear. But if you're a guy…let's just say Duo went in there one day and came back out with his hair in tight cornrows. A small closet's by Duo's room, and the bathroom is across from the closet." As Trowa had been saying this, he had been gesturing with his hand, showing Sarian where everything was.

"This floor's so crowded. Why don't some more people live upstairs?" Sarian wondered aloud.

"You've been in the bathroom on the third floor, haven't you?"

"Yeah…"

"I rest my case."

Next, Trowa showed Sarian the basement, as she had already seen all of the ground floor. As it turned out, this was the floor Sarian would grow to love. Most of the basement was a workout center. Weights ranging from five to fifty pounds lay on racks, and a punching bag hung in the corner. The floor and one sidewall were covered in an inch thick pad.

"I love this room. What's over there?" Sarian asked, pointing at two wooden doors.

"Well," Trowa said, shifting, "the left one leads to a bathroom, and the right one's my room."

"You live in the basement?" Sarian laughed.

"Yeah, want to have a look?" Trowa asked nervously.

"Sure," Sarian answered curiously. It's not everyday you meet a guy who lives in the basement of a mansion.

Trowa opened the door to his room, and tuned on the light. "I'm sorry it's not its cleanest."

Sarian did not think anything of it. There were some clothes, and a few magazines on the floor, but the bed was made and the drawers on everything shut with nothing hanging out.

"Awesome," Sarian said as she unconsciously sat down on the bed, taking in the sights.  The room was furnished just the same as Sarian's:  wardrobe, bureau with hanging mirror, closet.  Posters of popular rock groups hung on the walls, and Sarian was interested in them.  She'd never seen, or even heard, rock performed.

"It's a bit more than what I'm used to," Trowa said, sitting down beside her.

"I think it's wonderful," Sarian lay back with her hands on her stomach and immediately regretted it; those hairpins hurt.  She did not get up though.

"I think you're wonderful too," Trowa said softly.

Before Sarian could fully process this in her brain, there was a hung bang from upstairs.

"What the hell?" Trowa exclaimed, throwing open the door (When did he close that? thought Sarian) and running up the stairs with Sarian at his heels.

They ran sown the hallway past the living room and into the kitchen. The was a fountain spouting from the faucet by the sink.  Duo was crouching under the table, screeching, "I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" The soccer ball by him suggested otherwise.

Relena and Mika had discovered an umbrella, and were hovering under it. "Get under here!" Mika yelled, grabbing Sarian's arm and yanking her under the umbrella, "you'll ruin your hair!" Sarian looked out the French doors and saw that Wufei and Quatre had taken refuge in the garden.  As Quatre was wearing an apron over his clothes, Sarian concluded that he had been doing the dishes.

Heero nonchalantly walked into the kitchen from the living room.  Taking one look at the fountain of water, he walked over to the sink, and turned the tap off.

"Mission accomplished," Sarian heard him mutter as he walked back into the living room. Then, "Hi, Sally."

"Hide me!  Hide me!" Duo yelled as Sally Po walked into the room, water soaking into her clogs.

"Duo!" Sally sighed, exasperated.

"Sally, I can explain," Duo said as he crawled out from under the table. " I was just . . . "

"Duo, I don't care!" Sally said, cutting him off. "All I want is for this mess to be cleaned up and the faucet fixed by the time we get home!  Understood?"

"Yes m'am," Duo sadly answered, hanging his head.

"Good," then, Sally turned to the girls and smiled. "Come on! Let's go have some fun!"

As they walked out of the house towards Sally's car (a bright red convertible with the top down), there was the crash of a breaking plate.

"Duo!" came Quatre's frightened voice. "Sally'll kill you!"

"Hmm," Sally muttered as Sarian got into the back seat with Mika and Relena took the front.  She walked back up to the house, opened the door and yelled, "Hey, Duo! As you're cleaning up anyway, why don't you clean all the bathrooms as well? And make sure to get Sarian and Wufei's! It's horrible up there.  Don't want Miss Sarian dying of intoxication!"

As Duo gave his second whine for the second time that day, the girls drove away, laughing their heads off.

***

The first store they went to was a trendy clothes store called "Cipher's Pick". There, Sally bought Sarian two hundred seventy and six dollars and fifty-three cents worth of jeans, shirts, two belts, and some new underwear.  The jeans were low cut and tighter than what Sarian was used to.  The shirts were better.  Sarian liked the bright colors and witty sayings, but they were short and a little too revealing in the chest area for Sarian's liking.

"You'll look good in them," Mika reassured her.  "You got to flaunt what you've got!" Sarian was not too sure about that.

Next, they went to Dulworth's, which was a store that sold uniforms for local schools.  Mika and Relena had stayed in the car to listen to the radio.  Sarian had soon found out why.  The store was rightly called Dulworth's because it was so dull. No one had been in the store when Sarian and Sally had entered, the salesgirl was sleeping at the register, and no music was playing over the speakers.

Sally had navigated through the store quickly; she seemed to know where she was going.  Sally stopped at a rack that held bright green and purple uniforms.

"What's the name of the school I'll be going to?" Sarian asked.

"Atherton-Wexel Academy," Sally said as she looked through the rack. "Here we are!" She held up a uniform that consisted of a long-sleeved green shirt under a purple vest that was lined with green and the school crest on the left side of the chest, and a green/purple plaid skirt.  Sarian was disgusted.

"It does look bad on the hanger, I'll admit," Sally said as she handed the outfit to Sarian. "But it looks better with the beret, jacket, and knee-socks."

"I hope so," Sarian thought as Sally found a beret and jammed it onto the teenager's head.

"I can't wait to see what you look like in the Academy uniform!" Sally said excitedly as they paid for five sets of the uniform, a jacket, a beret, and a pack of socks.

I can, thought Sarian as they left the store.

Most of the rest of the day went by quickly.  Lunch at a fancy restaurant; shoe shopping (Sarian got three pairs:  sandals, tennis shoes, and dress shoes for school), and a shop that sold almost every type of beauty aide and accessory imaginable.  Mika and Relena had gone into frenzy here.  They kept running back to each other, saying things like, "How about this color?" "Does this match my dress?" "Would this look good standing next to him?"

"What's going on?" Sarian asked Sally curiously.

"You'll find out soon," Sally said with a smile. "Look at these pretty earrings." They were pretty:  rhinestone diamonds in a diamond shape, falling from a large diamond stud.

Sarian got those earrings, and a matching necklace and bracelet, hair accessories, a hairbrush and some make-up.  Relena had complemented Sarian on her choice of eye shadow, but the truth was she had just chosen the first assortment she saw.

"We have to take her to the Garden of Eden!" squealed Mika as they got into Sally's car, and so they did.

The Garden of Eden turned out to be a fancy boutique, specializing in formal gowns.  You actually did not see any on the racks. There were just doors spaced along the back wall, and couches, chairs, and tables were clustered here and there.  As they entered, a perky salesgirl set upon the group of women.

"Good afternoon!  Welcome to the Garden of Eden!  What can I do for you?"

Sally stepped forward with Sarian in tow, "This is Sarian.  She needs a gown for the Cherry Blossom Spring Ball at Atherton-Wexel Academy.  We need the dress today."

The salesgirl looked Sarian up and down, "We have a few dresses that will work for you. Keesha!" A skinny girl rushed over holding a pencil and a pad of paper. "Get dress 107, dress 436, dresses 105 through 112 and dress 36. NOW!"  The girl scurried off to somewhere in the store's innards. The salesgirl smiled, "Come with me, ladies."  She sat them on a couch as eleven models came out of the nearest door.  The models all wore different dresses, but about six were either blue or green.

"Take your pick," the salesgirl smiled a toothy grin.

Sarian looked at each of the ten dresses.  Then, pointing at model number seven, said, "I want that one," It was a crystal blue dress with a green undertone.  It looked like a thin-strapped kimono, tied to the side, and decorated in a dragon pattern with tiny, aqua-colored seed beads.

"Beautiful! Your girl has good taste." The salesgirl smiled big. "We've sold seven of this type of dress this month!"

"None to anyone attending the Cherry Blossom Spring ball?" Relena asked seriously.

"No, m'am.  We register every dress we sell and to where the ladies will wear it.  I wouldn't have brought it out otherwise. Now, Miss, please come here."  She gestured to Sarian who, following orders, stood up and walked over to where the salesgirl was. "Ann, Michelle, Brianna; measurements!"  Three women suddenly surrounded Sarian and measured her top to bottom.

After conferring, Michelle said, "She's a size eight."

The sales girl nodded and the models left. "Get a size eight dress. Number 107!" She barked to the retreating assistants. "Now, the dress comes with matching shoes. Do you want these?" she smiled at Sarian. "What is your shoe size?"

"Eight," Sarian responded.

"Fabulous. Now, do you have someone coming by to pick up the dress?"

"Yes, a boy called Heero Yuy will be here in less than an hour," Relena supplied, pulling her mobile phone out of her purse.  They all stood and walked toward the entrance.

"Thank you for shopping at the Garden of Eden!" the saleslady called as they exited.

"Your brother is going to have a heart attack when he sees today's bill." Sally said to Relena as she started her car.

"Maybe we should give him something to drink before he gets it!" Relena laughed.

They arrived back at the house just as Heero was pulling out of the driveway in a black car.  Through the window, Sarian saw that he looked annoyed and angry.  The girls unpacked the bulging trunk of the car, and took their purchases up to Sarian's room.  When Sally had left to check up on Duo's mess, Mika and Relena helped Sarian put away all he new things.  After all that, Mika and Relena went down to Mika's room to look at her dress for the ball, and Sarian collapsed on her bed and felt more tired than she had felt for a long time.

"It's not so bad," she thought as she drifted off to sleep, "being normal."

AUTHOR'S NOTE- Alright, my third chapter of my first fic.  DAY said keeping up on all of this might be hard for me with my absent mindedness, but I'm finding all this easy.  I just get to talk to yal, something I usually don't do much of.

You'll notice the conflicting ideas about fashion between Sarian and Mika.  I took this from real life, DAY's ideas versus mine.  DAY is like Sarian.  She really doesn't go all out in her dress, but when she does (she'll never agree with me on this one) she looks really cute.  She does, however, let me put make-up on her face. But I think that's because she likes to humor me.  I'm exactly like Mika.  On the average day, you might find me reading "Seventeen" or "Cosmo Girl".  But, during the summer when I'm not going anywhere, an old T-shirt and a pair of sports shorts suit me just fine, especially in the heat.  I do compromise my hair too by putting it up in a ponytail instead of leaving it down.  But I'm babbling on now.

I might not upload as often now because I'm preparing to go to Japan, as well as studying my (horrible) Japanese.  So far, I only know how to swear, and respond to invites at nightclubs.  My group leader will be thrilled (not).

Review!  Sayonara! Ja! Mata!