Chapter Seventeen

Wedding, Work, and School

Deirdre heard Kieko roll over in the next bedagain. She looked over at her alarm clock–it was one in the morning.

"Kieko?"

She rolled over. "Did I wake you?"

"No" And it was true. She hadn't slept much at all during their visit. Tomorrow was the day. Tomorrow as Kieko and Huy's wedding and the day she'd leave to return to her office. She had it all planned out. She'd take a shuttle back to Earth. And rent a hotel room. There, she'd pop out the contacts and dye her hair blond again, it's natural color, and then she'd meet Milliardo at a store about three blocks away, and he'd take her home, and back to work. But how she was going to tell Tai.

"You haven't been sleeping either?"

"No"

Kieko sat up in bed. "This is silly. Neither of us can sleep so we've been laying here for hours trying to get to sleep. Let's just get up and do something."

"Okay. What do you want to do?"

Kieko hunched back against the backboard. "I don't knownothing's open this time of night."

"There's that all night diner," Deirdre suggested.

"Okay." They climbed out of bed and threw their clothes on. Neither worried about hair or make up. The diner was only two blocks away so they decided to walk. "I never understood why they have an all night diner in a small town like this."

"Me neither, but that doesn't mean I'm not grateful for it!" Deirdre said as they walked in and were seated. They ordered a sundae and sat, slowly munching on it. "So I guess you are pretty nervous."

Kieko nodded and swallowed her ice cream. "There is so much to coordinate and make sure goes right! Word to the wise–just elope! The day after you get engaged!" Deirdre smiled and patted her hand.

"But you'll be happily married tomorrow! Huy's been wonderful and the only episode he's ever had was at Christmas. It will be okay."

"YahI guess. But I have to pick up my mom from the shuttleport at five in the morning."

"I take it that's not a good thing–seeing your mom."

Kieko grimaced. "As I said before, we don't get along very well." She idly swirled her spoon around in a pool of melted ice cream on the edge of the dish. "So what are you so nervous about?"

"My job."

"I didn't know you had one yet."

"I've always had one lined up and waiting for me, even when I first entered college. I picked my major so that it would fit that job."

"What is it?"

"It's in the United Earth Sphere foreign relations department."

"Is that why you've been reading all those old political journals and such?" Deirdre nodded. "It is nerve-racking to start a new job. Even when I was a teenager and got little fast-food jobs, I was terrified. I haven't even thought about how I'll be finishing up my schooling and another college. Ack!"

"Oh, it will be okay, you're a good student."

Then Kieko got that look in her eyes that Deirdre was getting to know all to well. She looked like that every time she was about to pester her about Tai. "Say, you and Tai looked pretty cozy that first night you got here."

Deirdre choked on a piece of banana. "You saw us?"

"Noticed you were gone so I made an excuse and went to look for you–I hadn't noticed that Tai was gone too. So what was up?"

"Nothing. It really was nothing exciting."

"I thought it looked like something."

"He didn't kiss me or anything even close to that. I was just talking to him about my job, that's all. He's a friend, so he tried to comfort me like friends do."

"Usually friends that are boys don't do that! That's what I call a friend with privileges."

"Kieko! That sounds horrible. And I swear nothing happened. And nothing ever will." Her mind wandered off again and she gazed out the window. It had started to rain, casting long dripping shadows of the street lights on the sidewalks and asphalt.

"Noit can't rain now! Can't you wait till the day AFTER tomorrow?" Kieko pleaded with the sky.

"I wouldn't be too worried. Ryuzou said he made sure that on the day of the wedding they didn't have any rain scheduled."

"Well, that's comforting. I can't believe I'll be Mrs. Iwasato tomorrow!"

Deirdre smiled at her and patted her arm. "You have my condolences."

Kieko turned and looked at Deirdre, but then they both started giggling. "Who needs alcohol to get kooky this time of night!"

Deirdre woke to a loud beeping in her ear, and she couldn't figure out what it was so she just told it to shut up a couple times. Then something hard hit her in the head. She jumped up to find herself in her hotel room and Kieko giggling in an almost drunken manner. A shoe lay on her pillow next to where her head had lain.

"I'm up, I'm up."

It was a mess in the room. Both girls were still so tired from the night before, and especially Kieko who'd gotten up at four-thirty to get her mother, that everything from the soggy Cheerio's they had for breakfast to the sound of a flushing toilet made them crack up.

But then a round, middle-aged Japanese woman came running into the room. She and Kieko were screaming at each other within minutes. The woman was telling Kieko how ugly the dress was, how she needed to lose weight, and on and on. Deirdre could only assume that this was Kieko's famed mother. She was a terror.

Deridre did the only thing she could think of to do. She called Ai. "Deridre! Hello dear! Is Kieko getting ready?"

"Kieko's mom just showed up. We could use some help."

Ai seemed to understand exactly what she meant because she was there in ten minutes, just as Kieko's mom was about to slap her daughter. "Don't talk to me like that!" she was screeching when Ai came speeding into the room.

"Kieko! My, this room is a mess. Let's see if we can't get you ready. Ma'am, why don't you go on ahead. I can help here."

Kieko's mother glared at Ai, but Ai was already gently but firmly guiding her to the door. She shut it firmly, then turned around. "Okay, let's see if we can't get you ready." Kieko burst into tears and crumpled to the floor. Deirdre ran to her side and started stroking her hair.

"Come one, it can't be so badyou're going to be getting married and living away from her." Kieko nodded into Deirdre's shirt, accidentally wiping some tears and nose drippings on her.

"Sorryit's justwhy does she have to be such a, such a."

"It doesn't matter," Ai interrupted. "Now let's get you cleaned up."

Deirdre was strongly reminded of her own mother as she watched Ai comfort and dress Kieko, who was such a nervous wreck now that she was hardly capable of buttoning her dress. She missed her mother. Maybe she could take a side trip and visit her mother, spend some time with her. It had been four years after all.

"Deirdre, is your dress all ready? Does it need to be ironed or anything?"

"No. I think it's okay." She quickly pulled it on and put on her makeup. She started to work on her hair but Ai stopped her and told her she'd help her in a minute. Then there was a knock on the door and Deirdre answered it. Gina and Hanako came in with curling irons and bobby pins.

"Never fear, the women are here!" Gina declared and set to work on Deirdre's head.

Within a half an hour they were ready to go and driving to the house. As they pulled up into the driveway, Huy came running out. Gina and Deirdre, who were sitting on either side of Kieko, pushed her down so that he couldn't see her, despite her protests of, "You'll mess up my hair!"

"Mom! Kieko's mom's been screaming at everyone. What happened!"

"She just decided to help Kieko and it turned into a mess, as usual. Don't worry about anything she said. Just go make sure everything's ready."

He nodded but was obviously looking in the car for Kieko. "Where is she?"

Kieko awkwardly raised an arm that came out on the other side of Gina. "I'm hwre!" she said in a muffled voice.

"You aren't to see the bride till the she walks down the isle!" Gina told him, laughing as she pushed Kieko's arm back down.

Deirdre had almost forgotten about Tai and what she had to tell him today, but then she saw him. She was walking down the isle with Gina, Hanako, Julie, and a couple girls she didn't know when she saw him, standing next to his brother at the front. It was beautiful outside. They had white folding chair set up on either side and light purple flowers everywhere. And Tai was watching everything all around. His eyes paused on her, she could see them, and he didn't try to hide it. He gave her a very small smile, so that only she would notice because she was looking right at him and had seen the change in his face. But then he went back to normal. The girls filed off to one side and Kieko came down the isle, with Ryuzou. Her step-father hadn't come.

But she didn't seem to care. She took Huy's arm and glowed. He was grinning back at her like an idiot, but that was actually a pretty common expression on his face. It was a beautiful ceremony. Short and sweet. And Huy and Kieko seemed to have forgotten that anyone else was present.

They laughed and smiled and held hands as they walked together to the house, never letting go. They looked completely content, and like the happiest people in existence. They loved each other, anyone could see that this wedding was really about love, and not some other little side plot. They wanted each other and only each other.

Someday they'd probably have kids. They'd have a nice little house, just like this one, and raise their kids there. Huy would have an eight to five job and come home for dinner every night and Kieko would be smiling and happy. They'd be the perfect little couple and family. Normal, stable, and comfortable.

She felt a strange sadness climb over her. She'd never have that. It would only be work for her. Why couldn't someone else do her job? Why couldn't she enjoy a life like that? Both had had unusual childhoods, whereas she had had a very comfortable and stable childhood with the Darlians. Maybe this was the trade off. It didn't seem fair though.

But it would be okay because she'd be making sure that they could live like this, happy and safe. She felt Tai fall in step beside her. Suddenly, she didn't think she could follow through with her plan.

Tai stood in the back of the room. He was getting a little bored. People didn't make him nervous, not by their sheer numbers, but this was dull. Kieko and Huy looked wonderful. Their faces were shining as the talked to old friends and family. They stood there–Kieko looking magnificent in her long white gown, and Huy with a protective arm at her waist, never letting go, not even loosening.

They cut the cake and shoved it into each others' noses, and shortly after the bouquet and garter were thrown. Then he noticed Deirdre's red head progressing to the door, shortly after the bride and groom had disappeared to change and prepare for their flight.

He cut through the crowd and intercepted her in the hall. She had her coat half-on and as she bent over, the darkened window letting the light hit her hair, giving it an almost violet hue. "Leaving?"

She jumped a little and looked up at him with her stern look as if steeling herself. "Taithat was a beautiful wedding, wasn't it? Give them my apologies. I must be going."

Tai nodded. "Why the hurry?"

She closed her eyes for a moment, and looked down. But then she stood up straight and looked right at him. "I'm going back soon. I have to get ready."

"I thought you weren't doing it till the fall."

"It seems that I'm needed, rather desperately." She suddenly looked very serious, very old and tired.

"What's happening?" Tai wasn't sure he wanted to know though.

"I can't talk about it."

"Can't or won't?"

"Okay, fine. Won't. I won't let you get dragged into this again. You are happy and living a life which many of us only dream of. I won't drag you into this so I won't tell you anything about it, Tai." She started to turn but Tai grabbed her arm and held her still.

"And you can be dragged in? Why you?"

"Because it's what I know how to do! It's what I'm good at and what I want. I want to make it so that you can keep living as you do."

"Relena" Tai's eyes softened as he looked down at her, but it seemed that Deirdre felt threatened because she backed away.

"I'm still Deirdre!" she glared at him. "I'm not her, not yet."

"Then why do you leave?"

Deirdre looked up at him in utter disbelief. That was when Tai realized the irony of the situation. "I'm sorry Deirdre. I'm sorry. Do what you must."

She nodded and looked a little relieved. But as she started to go, something clicked in Tai. "Deirdre, wait." She turned and looked at him, holding the door open. "Will I get to talk to you anymore?" Tai suddenly realized how much he wanted to talk to her, to keep her there and just talk, not let her go, she who knew his past better than anyone, she who knew him and did not judge.

"TaiI don't thinkI thinkonce I go back, it would be better if we didn't associate again. It's too dangerousfor you. Someone might find you and then."

Tai wanted to interrupt and tell her she was being silly, but at the same time something in her face wouldn't let him do it, or say it. So he nodded. "Okay. I'll see you later then." But before she could go, a sudden impulse took over and he bent and kissed her on the cheek. "Good luck. Call me if you ever need me." She blinked back tears and nodded.

"Bye." Then she left very, very quickly.

Tai turned around and leaned against the door, rubbing his hands up his face and through his fingers and let out a huge sigh. Then he opened his eyes to Kieko and Huy dressed and ready to go, but as they stood there, hand in hand, and they were both staring at him with large eyes.

"What was that?" Huy asked, breaking the silence.

"How long were you there?"

"Only for the last little bitabout her leaving and not being able to talk to you again," said Kieko.

Tai nodded. "I'll explain later."

Huy looked like he had just swallowed a lemon. "You always say that! What the heck is going on with you two? This is driving me mad!"

"Look Huy, I'm sorry but I can't tell you. But very shortly I will be able to tell you!"

"That's what you said last fall" Huy growled.

"Well, this time it will be very soon–probably in a couple weeks even. I'm sorry, but can't tell you till then. I have to see what's going to happen first."

"So you will only be telling me part of what's going on then?" he asked sarcastically. Kieko took his arm and started mumbling things to him. "I will not calm down!" he told her, but not as fiercely as he was yelling at Tai.

"Huy, since when have I ever told you everything that's ever happened to me?"

Huy closed his eyes, and nodded. "You're right. You never have. I'll always only be looking in but never really know you."

"Now that's just crap Huy and you know it," Tai countered. "You know me better than almost anyone and you don't need to know what's happened to me, you sense it. It's beyond speaking." The two brothers sighed at each other. "Now get going or you'll miss your flight." Huy nodded and pulled Tai into a one-armed hug.

"I'm sorry man. Sorry."

"Yah, you're pretty sorry alright. Now have fun. Kieko, take care of him for me."

Deirdre hurried to her cab in front. "The Hotel on Center street," she told him. Then leaned back and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the tears to stop. She couldn't cry, she wouldn't. But she could see Tai's face as she spoke to him and it burned her.

The cab stopped in front of the hotel and she asked the driver to wait for her. She ran upstairs and picked up her carefully packed backpack. Kieko had already cleaned her things out so Deirdre checked out and ran to the cab, then told him to go to the shuttle port. In the car, she put her few souvenirs from the wedding inside her bag–a napkin, a program, and a purple flower with a ribbon on it.

It hit her suddenly that Tai had actually kissed her on the cheek, and she started to cry again. But then the cab stopped.

The shuttle she sat down in the back of was small and a bit rusty. It made her nervous. She also looked around for Kieko and Huy, so that they wouldn't see her catching a shuttle. However, she had made sure to catch a different one than the one Kieko and Huy were taking.

A briefcase sat at her feet and she left it there until they took off, then she picked it up and began to read–she only had five hundred pages left of what Milliardo had sent her. The shuttle stopped at a larger colony nearby and Deirdre switched shuttles. She had to wait in the port for an hour though, and she got a lot of reading done. But then she started getting jumpy. Someone would find her, someone would recognize her. She was traveling alone and she would be caught.

But she wasn't and she landed safely on earth, unscathed. It was an overnight flight, so she was exhausted and checked into her hotel as soon as possible. But it was wonderful breathing the air on earth–it had a different feel to it, almost sweet. And everything looked bright–buildings were allowed to get old on Earth, unlike the geometric colonies. She liked the decaying statues in front of the government buildings, it made things real, gave them a history and a past.

The hotel was small and crummy but near a shopping strip so she went over and bought herself some bread and granola bars–she just needed something to last her till tomorrow when Milliardo came to get her. But she was too tired to eat now, and she crawled into her bed, and fell deeply asleep.

It was good that she was so tired because she had been able to forget for a short time what she had to do. She also had forgotten what she had left behind. But then she woke up, famished, and sat alone snacking on bread and overly sweet granola bars while watching pathetic late-night TV, she pictured Kieko and Huy sitting together, laughing, in each other's arms.

Suddenly she lost her appetite and got restless. It was three in the morning and she was a mess. She decided to dye her hair now. So she got in the shower and opened the box. But her hands shook and it took her five minutes to get it open, and by the time she had finished her hair, she was crying again, curled into fetal position by the bathtub drain.

What's wrong with me! Then she started laughing, thinking how stupid she was, siting here and bawling her eyes out. It was so silly.

So she wrapped herself up in a towel and climbed into bed with her reading. She was good at what she did, she told herself. She was going to save lives and help people and do what was right and protect everyone. She would uphold peace and that's all that mattered. She wouldn't have family like Tai and Huy and Kieko, but she had people she loved and loved her. That's all that mattered, so she would never be weak again. It was time to be strong.

The next morning at eight, she checked out of her room and walked down the street, with nothing but the clothes on her back, a credit card in her pocket, and a worn leather briefcase. She had thrown all of her other things away in a dumpster behind an old resturant. All her things from college that she wanted to keep, she had left in a storage facility, and then Noin had picked it up later. No one would track her.

She walked to the bus stop and an old, dented blue car pulled up. Milliardo pushed open the door and Deirdre wanted to laugh. He had his hair stuffed up in a hat and had large sunglasses on. "Hey, what do you expect me to do? Walk out in full uniform?"

"It's nice to see you brother."

"It's nice to see you too."

Tai pulled into the driveway, having just gotten off work. Today had been a bit unusual because he had done a little job shadowing as well as his work as a CNA, but it didn't get him anywhere nearer to deciding what to do about a specialty.

He walked in the put his keys down on the ground by the stairs and kicked off his shoes, but was surprised by voices in another room. Normally the house was empty whenever he came home for a little while. Yachi helped at a kid's summer camp and Ai volunteered all day at the hospital.

The voices were coming from the living room, so Tai headed in that direction.

"Hey! How're you doing?" Huy greeted. Kieko was sitting next to him on the couch and Ai was in a chair across the room.

"Fine. You guys have a good time?" Kieko nodded and Tai noticed they were holding hands–he took it as a good sign that they hadn't killed each other yet.

"Tai, why don't you help me unload the grocery's? I left them in the kitchen," Ai told him. Tai felt a twinge of the unjust, as he had just gotten off work, but he didn't argue and before he knew it, he was also cutting vegetables for dinner. It was fun to eat at home, actually. Though he had never cared about his past before he met his family, now that he had one he found Japan and the culture very interesting. He felt more like a foreigner learning to like something new, but he did like it, including the food–cooking was always an adventure. But he'd finally mastered the rice balls and dumplings. He wasn't up to sushi or sashimi yet.

That night, Tai left Huy and Yachi giggling over a board came to go up to his room and read. But the same thing happened–it had happened nearly every day he walked into his room now–Huy's things were mostly gone. They were preparing to move into their new apartment on another colony, and it was empty. Huy and Kieko were using Gina's old room while they visited for a few days before moving on. But it was worse even now because the rest of Huy's things were in boxes sitting at the end of the bunk beds. And Tai felt lonely again.

He shook it off and told himself how silly he was–after all, he'd spent years and years all alone, why was it so different now? But Tai knew the answer to that–he knew the difference, he knew what it was like to have someone.

Then he did the same thing he did every time this started to bother him–he pictured the rest of his family and all his friends and reminded himself that vid and telephones and email were wonderful inventions.

Tai heard the door open behind him. "You disappeared on me man! Left me to my own devices with Yachi!"

"How'd you escape?" he asked, turning around to face his brother.

"Oh, I got her and Kieko talking and just kind ofslipped away," he explained as he settled himself onto the floor in front of the closet and pulled several boxes out. "It's amazing how much junk you accumulate over the years! I didn't realize how much I had in this room!"

Tai joined him and nodded in agreement. He'd never had many belongings before, but just in a few short years, he suddenly had more than he knew what to do with.

"How's work going?" Huy continued.

Tai shrugged. "It's work. Same as always."

"Do you think you'll be able to survive these few months before school starts?"

"I'll live. I'll find some projects, maybe start studying ahead of time."

"Sohow's Deirdre?"

Tai wasn't fooled for a minute. He knew exactly what Huy was aiming at. "I'll tell you as soon as I can. I haven't heard from her since she said goodbye at the wedding."

"Hm." Huy looked thoughtful a minute, as if he was about to say something, but thought better of it. Tai felt that was a first for his brother and almost congratulated him. "You know," Huy began finally. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I really think that some day you will find someone wonderful, Tai. And being married–it's the strangest thing. Waking up and belonging to someone, not just being with them, it's a totally different feeling. I guess I just see you and Deirdre together and I keep hoping that you'll get together with her because you fit each other so well, and then we'll be in the same place in life again. I mean, these last few years we've done everything together and understood everything about each other. But now it's different and I miss it. I want to be where you are again, but I would never give up Kieko so I want you to be where I am. Does that make sense?"

"Sort of." Tai was touched though, by his brother's thought. "But you know that's not likely to happen, don't you? I could never inflict myself upon anyone else."

"Tai, quit saying that. You sound like you're in high school again." Tai jumped at his brother's words. It was one thing for him to say that to Huy, but Huy never told him that, and that was because Tai had never acted like a child in his life–he'd never been a child. But Huy went on. "You sound melodramatic and silly. Yes you have problems, things that you worry about left over from the war, but we all have our own problems and we get over them. And there's someone for everyone–you find someone who can understand and live with you. So don't talk like that."

"It's not that simple Huy. What if I woke up from a nightmare and accidentally stabbed my wife? Or what if someone finds me, what if they hurt those I love?"

"Then why do you allow yourself a mother and father and siblings? What's the difference? Tai, I think you are just making excuses to avoid something else, some other bigger problem that you are blocking from your mind so you don't have to identify it and deal with it."

Tai didn't know what to say. He was stunned but felt immediately defensive, which told him that at least something his brother had said was true. So he just kept looking at his hands.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start giving you a lecture. I just don't want you becoming a lonely old recluse reading really huge books and shouting at people for letting their dogs poop on your yard."

Tai snorted. "I don't think there's any danger of that. And maybe you are right. I don't know."

"Promise me that this next semester you will ask out at least two girls, or go on two dates."

Tai glared at his brother. "I will not promise any such thing. That's silly."

Huy sighed again. Just then Kieko and Yachi came running into the room and their discussion ended.

The few months till he was to go to school passes quickly and he was already getting off the shuttle and walking on Earth again, the first time he had done so since the Marimeia incident. It was strange because he really didn't feel any different, like he'd crossed some invisible line, as he thought he should.

He scanned the room and almost immediately found Donny, tall and lanky as ever, but his skin looked healthier, as if he'd actually been able to eat a few square meals, unlike when they'd been starving together on that run-down colony. It seemed so long ago.

"Long time, no see!" Donny said cheerfully and gave Tai a one armed hug. "Tai now, huh? Remind me if I forget to call you that!"

"Sure thing. You still got space for me in your apartment?"

"Oh yah. I ran off my last roommate," Donny told him, winking. "Just for you."

"Only for me, eh?"

"Your stuff got here okay a couple days ago. I threw it into your room."

"Thanks." They climbed into Donny's old car, but at least it run. Donny flipped on the radio and started rapping loudly along with it.

Funny how much things could change. And somehow, Tai felt more comfortable with Donny than even Huy or Duo. Things were different between people when you starved together.

The place Donny parked in front was down a nice little suburban road with lots of neat little houses trimmed by old men and little old women knitting in porch swings. He loved it immediately. The house was yellow and small but neat and they had their own door to the basement from the outside so they didn't have to tramp through their landlady's living quarters upstairs.

Donny had a way of finding cheap, but decent, clean places to live. It had a kitchen and small living room and a bathroom and two bedrooms, all of them reasonable sizes. And the landlady, a little hunched over woman who was partially senile but very cute, was gone most of the time playing bridge or outside gardening and bringing them fresh vegetables–at least that's what Donny had told him.

There were some steps that went downward and underground a little bit to get to the door–the basement was entirely underground, except for the tops of small, rectangular windows that were nearly at the ceiling in all the rooms. Donny handed him a key. "This is yours. It only works for this door, not the landlady's door. And she keeps the basement door to the upstairs locked and she never comes down here so it's pretty much private. It may be a little like a cave, but it's nice. Also, she is going a little crazy so make sure you get any agreement you make with her in writing. She tries to get away with not writing anything, but inevitably she forgets and it's just a huge mess."

Donny began pointing out the rooms and then opened one room at the back of the house. "Here is your humble abode. It didn't come furnished but the last guy here left his bed and an old bookshelf so you have a little stuff in there." It was full of his boxes he'd mailed several weeks prior. "Anything you want to store in the kitchen, just make room for yourself. And unfortunately I have a test on some things for training at work so I need to get going."

"Thanks."

Donny nodded and grinned and disappeared up the stairs. Tai turned and looked at the bare room–a twin bed and built in closet with a crooked bookshelf in a corner. The bed frame was rusting in spots and the mattress was nearly thread bare–Tai wasn't too surprised the last guy left them there. He'd have to do a little shopping–maybe get Donny to take him when he came back. And he dug into his boxes.

Four hours later, he had all his kitchen things stored away and all the clothes that needed to be hung in the closet. He tried out the bed and decided he'd have to find a new matress. Donny stuck his head in the room and knocked on the wall. "You hungry?"

"Yah"

"Let's grab something." In the car, Donny was giving him a run down of the town and pointing things out. The medical school was near by, within walking distance so it was even better for Tai.

They stopped at Walmart and Tai bought some furniture kits–a desk, bookshelf, and short chest of drawers. Then he got a mattress pad to tide him over till he got a new bed. And groceries–the all-important groceries. They stopped at a fast food joint on the way home.

It felt like he was in high school again.

But he spent all night putting the furniture together with Donny's"help."

"Okay, so you put the nail in this way and use this thing to pound it in?" he asked.

"That's a screw and you need a screw driver to use that."

"OH! So that's why it wasn't working! You know, for easy-to-follow-directions', it sure is complicated."

Tai just shook his head. "How do you like working for the Preventors?"

"Eh, it's work. But they're training me on the radio equipment! And you wouldn't believe all the stuff they let me work on putting together!"

Tai rolled out of bed three days later and got dressed, picked up his back pack weighed down with three gargantuan textbooks and slugged to school. The first day of post-grad work–he wasn't really nervous though.

The school itself was small–only several thousand students, which as an adjustment from being totally anonymous at his previous schools. Here, you could at least recognize everyone you met. His first class was anatomy and he found the room easily. It was a largish lecture hall–big enough for several hundred people. A man stood at the front by a table with what Tai assumed was a body sitting on top of it. But it was shrouded in cloth and plastic wrappings.

The bell rang and the man immediately began to go over reasons to respect the cadavers they'd be working. A girl next to him looked green in the face as the professor pointed at various muscles on the skinned cadaver's face.

He was glad when the bell rang–he was tired of hearing that girl gag. He'd make sure not to sit near her the next class.

"That was sure interesting, wasn't?" a girl walking beside him said enthusiastically. She was about his height and had an abundance of bouncing brown curls all over, making her look a little like a fallen angel.

"Yah." He knew he should be friendly, but he wasn't sure how–what was he supposed to say?

"Hey, I'm going to start up a study group. You wanna be in it?" She asked.

Tai shrugged. "Why not?"

"Great! I'm Siduri McKlellin!"

"Tai Iwasato." Then all of a sudden, she was gone again. Tai figured that he wouldn't see her again, but he was wrong. Then next class she was sitting next to him and happily babbling just like last time. And she kept doing that every class–they were on week five now.

"Hey! How're you doing!" the bouncy brunette asked him as she sat down next to him.

Tai shrugged in response. "Okay. What about you?"

"Oh, fine. But I was trying to read that stupid anatomy book and it made me wish that I'd paid more attention in Latin andoh hi!" She waved to another guy in their group–she had apparently approached several other people, having analyzed the entire room and decided who she wanted to study with.

He nodded vaguely and came over. "HelloSiduri, Tai" he sat down next to them. And the torrent of information rushed over them, flowing from the teacher's mouth, right over their heads. Which was why they went to lunch together and reviewed everything immediately after. There were five people in their little group–so they pulled up an extra chair for the four-person table in the little outdoor café that they always studied at. Emi, the Russian, liked to watch the news on the TV's in all the corners.

"Okay, so I've got my notes and.what's wrong?" Siduri asked, looking over at Emily, fishing around in her purse.

"I've lost my planner! I think I was supposed to have a lunch date today." And the distressed blond was looking frantically through her bag, which was the size of Texas.

Siduri pulled it away. "Well you are studying so it doesn't really matter anyway! Now lets get moving."

By the time Emi had watched his ten minutes of news, Emily had put away her bag, and Vince had ordered his food, Tai was getting impatient started wondering if he should just study on his own–he wasn't a fan of group studies. It was nearly an hour later when they actually began studyingand studyingand kept studying till about ten that night. Tai had never been lazy, but this was ridiculous, he thought.

But then they stopped for dinner and Emi turned on the news again. And Tai about fell out of his seat. "And now the shocking return of Relena Darlian. Now that the rumors of her death have been put to rest"

"I have to go," Tai said quickly and grabbed his bag before anyone could say anything, and sprinted home. He swung down the stairs, landing on his knees and raced to the phone. It normally took him twenty minutes to walk home. Today he did it in ten. Kieko picked up the phone when it rang.

"Been for a little jog?" she asked him, observing his red face over the vidphone.

"Ineed to /pant/ talk to H-/pant pant/Huy"

"Let me get him."

Huy grinned at him. "How's school?"

"Hard. /Pant/ Turn on the newsyou have to /pant/ see"

Huy cocked an eyebrow. "I have to see, huh?" He shrugged and turned it on, and sat down. Tai could see Kieko leaning on the couch behind him to watch.

"So what's up? What is it I'm supposed to see?"

"It'll come onjust wait"

"How am I supposed to know what you" Huy's voice trailed off and he leaned forward. "Tai, Relena Darlian, she's back!"

Tai nodded. "I know that's what"

"You said you knew her before–aren't you excited?" Huy said, not really hearing Tai at all.

"I am"

"She looks like Deirdre," Huy said in a surprised, skeptical voice.

"She is Deirdre."

"Oh. Oh, I see."