OK, since I haven't updated in forever, I'm posting about three chapters in a row. Hope you don't mind the overload, but I feel like a loser cause I haven't updated.
Chapter Five
"Wow, that Lt. Commander West sure was hard on you," a voice said during lunch on the second day of classes.
Kaori looked up and behind her, seeing a blonde-haired cadet with dark brown eyes standing there with his tray in his hand. She motioned for him to join them at the table, and he nodded quick hellos to Mei, Luke, and Hayden as he sat down next to Kaori.
"What has she got against you anyway?" he continued as he started picking through his lovely cafeteria lunch. "I'm Daniel, by the way," he added, introducing himself. He looked up expectantly and glanced around the table.
"Hayden Maxwell." Daniel leaned up in his seat to shake hands.
"Daniel Jackson," he replied.
"And I'm Mei Chang," Mei said, not thinking this guy would catch on if she gave her last name first, in traditional style.
"Nice to meet you," he said with a smile as he shook her hand, too.
"Maxwell. Luke Maxwell," the younger brother said with a grin.
"Brothers?" Daniel asked with a raised eyebrow. Both Maxwells nodded to affirm that they were, in fact, brothers. "I thought so when I first saw you two, but didn't want to jump to conclusions." He shook Luke's hand too.
"Smart of you not to assume," Kaori said in a low voice. She had habits of saying random crap like that, Mei thought with a little disdain. Here this guy was, trying to be nice, and she says some confusing fortune-cookie advice.
Daniel shrugged it off and continued with his further conversation, after deciding the girl wasn't about to introduce herself. "You guys all sit together in the back, right?" he asked, scooping some unknown meat into his mouth as he began the conversation again. More heads nodded around the table as they tried to stomach their lunch. "I sit in the front during Colonel Yuy's class," he said, leaning forward a little to see the nametag on Kaori's shirt. "Yuy?" he read out loud.
"That's right," Kaori said with no emotion in her voice.
"Related to Col. Yuy?" Daniel asked, not masking the surprise or awe in his voice.
"That's right," Kaori repeated.
"Col. Yuy is Kaori's father," Luke blurted, unable to handle how quiet Kaori was. She glared at him for answering in her place. He only gave her a silly look and said, "How could I keep quiet? You're being a wet mop!"
Realization dawned on poor Daniel. "Wait a minute," he said, calling Luke out of his 'mess with Kaori' session. "Yuy…" he pointed at Kaori, "Maxwell…" he pointed at the brothers, "and Chang…" he said, pointing to Mei. "You're all kids of the instructors here?"
"Yep!" Luke said with another Duo grin. Mei and Hayden nodded. Kaori was stone. Luke frowned at her a little before he was distracted by the rest of the conversation.
"My true name is Chang Po," Mei said.
"As in Dr. Po?" Daniel asked.
Mei nodded.
"Wow," he said. "Did I ever pick the right table to come and sit at! You guys must already know all the stuff we learn in class. Is it boring?"
"Not for us," Luke said, jumping right into the conversation. With Kaori being strangely quiet, he felt like he had to make up for her silence. "Hade and I moved away from here when we were tiny and don't even remember any of it," he explained. "All this stuff is new to us, too. But Mei and Kaori here are old pros. They promised to help us out."
"Maybe you guys could help me out too," Daniel said with a little hope on his face. "I really can't afford to not graduate." Questioning looks showed on all their faces, save Kaori's. She seemed content to eat and simply listen to them talk, rather than actively participate. "I was taken in by this really nice lady after my parents died when I was younger. I guess her husband was killed in the war or something because she's always wanted me to "follow in his footsteps" and join the only military available."
"A lot of kids here had a parent that was in the Eve wars," Mei said. "Even us." She smiled warmly at the newcomer. She knew Kaori wasn't fond of crowds, but it looked like they were going to accept this new guy into their tight circle. Kaori would have to deal with it. "It's almost time for next class," she announced. "How about you come and sit with us during Col. Maxwell's class?" she offered to Daniel.
"That sounds great!" the blonde exclaimed, standing with the rest of them to head to their next class.
* * * * * * *
Hayden glared at Daniel for what seemed like the thousandth time since they'd met four weeks ago in the cafeteria. Since then, the happy-go-lucky attitude of the blonde won over Mei and Luke as friends. Kaori was still a little standoffish, but she did talk to him more often than not and smiled his direction several times a day. The guy had his brother's, and father's, personality and you couldn't help but like him. He'd be goofy when someone was feeling sad, and he'd be a comforting shoulder when someone didn't perform well in Chang's class or someone had to endure Lieutenant Commander West's push-up punishment. Worst of all, Hayden couldn't help but like the guy either. Which made it harder to despise him every time he got closer to Kaori.
He was watching them as they emerged from Chang's class. Daniel turned out to be a natural and excelled in martial arts, despite his previous experience – which was zero. Wufei recognized his potential, even through the newcomer's rookie mistakes, and was having him stay an hour after class with a few other students, including Luke, Mei, and Kaori. Of course, Mei and Kaori assisted in instruction rather than receiving extra tutelage like Luke and Daniel. Hayden wasn't a part of this get-together because Kaori still gave him private lessons after dinner, and therefore Wufei didn't insist that he join the afterschool bunch.
Those private instructions Kaori gave him were the only time in which they could be alone together. Either Daniel or Luke was always around her. And no matter how much Kaori warmed up to him during those lessons, she always gave equal attention to all of them when she was around more than one boy at a time. That made it impossible for Hayden to determine whether or not she liked him. It drove Hayden up the wall.
"Hey, Hayden," Daniel called, noticing him standing around in the hallway outside the gym.
"Hey," he called back with fake enthusiasm. Only Kaori would know that he wasn't genuinely thrilled to see Daniel. She frowned at him a little as he walked up to the group.
"We were going to go to town tonight," Luke said with a big smile. That's right, Hayden thought, tonight was their one night off for the next two weeks. "We're all going," Luke continued, looking aside to Mei and Kaori. Daniel nodded as Luke spoke.
Hayden took a step back and shook his head slowly. "No, I don't think I want to go out anywhere tonight." He looked at Kaori, hoping she'd back out too.
"Too bad," she said to him, giving him a sly smile. "I guess we'll just see you tomorrow then." Hayden's mouth nearly dropped open. "I'm taking a shower," Kaori said to the rest of the group. "Meet up after we get dressed?"
"Sounds good to me," Daniel said.
They all said their quick goodbyes to Hayden and split for upstairs. That didn't go the way he wanted at all.
* * * * * * *
Mei sighed as she brushed out Kaori's hair. It had gotten shorter and shorter after Hayden's initial hacking and by now her hair was usually in a short tuft of a ponytail with strings of her hair that won't stretch back to the band falling in front of her face and down her neck. But tonight she decided to wear it down. Mei was having trouble styling such short hair. And there were other things on her mind besides Kaori's hair.
"What's wrong?" her roommate asked, bending her head back to look up at her.
Mei sighed again, putting the brush down and falling backwards onto Kaori's bed. "This just sucks." Kaori turned around in her chair, facing Mei and waiting for her to continue with her rant. "I just don't know what to do."
"I take it you have more problems than just my hair," Kaori said with a smile.
"You don't know the half of it! You know I like Luke, right?"
"Yeah. You like him."
"Right! See? You know it. I know it. Practically our whole class knows it. But does Luke know it? NO! The boy is completely clueless!" Mei sat up on the bed, waving her hands wildly as she spoke.
"Then clue him in."
"I try, I try…but, I know it's a bad idea to stay in the family like this," she said, referring to their makeshift "family" and all their fathers being brothers. "But I just can't help it. I have a soft spot for Americans."
"Who doesn't?" Kaori said. Often she'd found herself wanting to make a move on Hayden, but refrained because…well, she didn't know why she never said anything to him…
"And he's so big! I mean, there's just something alluring about being that tall…"
"So you like them big and tall?" Kaori asked with a suggestive smile.
Mei rolled her eyes. "I'm not trying to be perverted here. There's just something about a tall guy that attracts me."
"Tall and American?" Mei nodded. "Then you should go for Luke, obviously," Kaori suggested.
"I don't know though. I just get mixed feelings from him. Sometimes he's really nice and I think he likes me. Then other times he just runs cold. I try to send signals…"
"Then use other signals…"
"Like what!?" Mei was starting to get more frustrated just thinking about it. "You know what I did yesterday? Did you see me when we were practicing in Daddy's afterschool class? We ended up this close…" she leaned forward, her face uncomfortably close to Kaori's. In fact, they were nearly touching noses as they looked at each other. "This close," she continued, not moving from her too close proximity, "just staring at each other. Not moving." They stared at each other for a moment longer. "I mean COME ON! How can you be this close to someone and NOT want to kiss them!" Mei screamed in frustration.
"Wow," a voice said from the doorway. The girls instantly pulled back away from each other and looked at the entrance to their doorway.
"Daniel!" Mei shrieked as she got up from the bed.
"We should walk in on the roommates a little more often, don't you think?" Daniel said to Luke beside him.
"Definitely," Luke agreed, not blinking.
Daniel was a little smoother on the recovery. "You guys don't have to stop your little lesbian romp just because we're here. Please, continue. We'll watch."
"Daniel," Kaori warned, getting up from her chair and deciding to just put her hair back in a ponytail and forget any fancy styling. "Mei was just demonstrating something."
"Please, demonstrate on me," Luke pleaded, too quiet for anyone to hear.
Kaori continued, "She was just explaining that you can't have someone be that close to you and not get the idea that they want to kiss you. That's all."
"Oh," Daniel said, walking closer to Mei. "You mean you're little episode with Luke, don't you?" he teased as he whispered in her ear.
Mei nearly fainted. "You know about that?"
Daniel just nodded and smiled, putting his finger to his lips in a signal for her to be quiet. He nodded in Luke's direction behind him. The poor guy was still there, stunned from having walked in on Mei and Kaori so close to each other. Mei understood Daniel's gesture. They shouldn't talk about it with Luke around.
"You guys ready to go?" Kaori asked, slipping and arm around Luke's waist and leading him out the door. He still needed some help walking.
* * * * * * *
The loud music and noise along with the bright lights of the club bothered Kaori. But she didn't tell any of her friends about it. They looked like they were having too much of a good time.
Daniel and Mei were on the dance floor, amidst the swirl of twisting and writhing bodies. Luke had been out there, making the group easy to spot due to his towering height, but now he was taking a rest from the hullabaloo and sitting at the booth next to Kaori. His eyes never left Mei's moving body on the dance floor as she flowed in circles around Daniel. Mei looked over to the booth every now and then, to make sure that Luke was still watching her.
Leaning in close to Kaori's ear, Luke spoke loud enough for her to hear him. "She looks beautiful tonight," Luke said, appreciating the short skirt the Chinese girl was wearing.
Kaori just nodded in agreement, not bothering to talk because Luke most likely wouldn't hear her anyway.
"Do you think she likes me?" he asked, leaning a little closer to make sure Kaori would catch his words.
She smiled and spoke into his ear. "I think that's obvious, the way she's been winking at you all night long," Kaori teased. "You should tell her."
"I think I might," was all Luke could say before his attention was entirely devoted to Mei.
