Day One PART 1
Akane woke up to find that Emerald was no longer beside her. She stretched her arms and legs and then sat up in the bed to see where the young maid had gone. She then heard someone whispering in a harsh voice out in the hallway and decided to get up and see who it was. Her door was cracked so she quietly sat along the wall so that the crack was open to her right ear and listened.
"Now WHY would you go in there is sleep in the same room as her!? You are a MAID and she is a GUEST. If I had wanted all the maids to sleep in the same rooms as the guests then I wouldn't have a maids quarter now would I!?" It was Francois yelling at…((EMERALD!! OH NO! She must have gotten in trouble. But she didn't do anything wrong so why is he yelling at her like that! WHY I OUGHTTA!!!!… Never mind, I do hope that she isn't too sad. Maybe I'll talk to him about it so that she can stay in here with me…))
"But sir it was that…" Francois cut her off.
"I don't want to hear any BUTS there is no excuse for your actions! Now I want you to go apologize to here right now!"
"But sir…"
"I said NOW!"
Akane heard this and ran to her closet and pretended that she was rummaging through her things so when the two of them walked in it would not appear as though she was eavesdropping.
"Excuse me ms. Akane, my maid has something she would like to say to you." With that he lightly but forcefully pushed Emerald toward Akane.
Emerald looked at Akane and then bowed. "I'm so sorry to have troubled you, I can assure you it will not happen again."
"NO NO! It was no trouble at all!" She then turned to François and said to him, "I'm sorry, I was feeling a little homesick and so I asked her to spend the night in here with me. But please if you don't mind, may she sleep in here with me so that I don't get homesick. I would REALLY help and mean a lot to me if you were to allow her to."
Francois looked skeptically at Emerald then at Akane and finally his hard features softened and he agreed. He then went on to tell her about breakfast and how it would be shortly ready.
"I'm Sorry Francois but I would like to go shopping this morning for the Karaoke party late on tonight."
"That's fine."
"And I'm afraid I don't know my way around, and I'm sure that you wouldn't want to go spend HOURS and HOURS shopping around in girl stored, so if you don't mind may I take her with me."
Emerald averted her gaze from the floor to look at Akane with shock. Francois seriously considered the thought of him going with her, but then that thought quickly vanished with the thought of the task; so he agreed to let the two venture on their own.
The market streets were not much of streets but more like dirt roads or paths. ((Man, could he live ANYMORE in the COUNTRY!?!?)) As they walked down one of the paths Emerald began to speak.
"Here we are! Now try not to be too overwhelmed!" she said as she smiled and bean to walk faster. Akane altered her gaze from the ground to the enormous building in front of her. ((To think, in the middle of NOWHERE there would actually be a mall)) Akane thought to herself. She then shrugged her shoulders and kept walking.
"Isn't it AMAZING!" Emerald said over enthusiastic.
"Yes, it is, but where I come from, these places are not uncommon."
"Wow, I should go live where you do!"
Akane smiled at Emerald sweetly.
"Well Akane, there are mostly western style stores here, so I hope that you can find something you like."
The two then entered the mall and window shopped for a while, never seeming to find something that quite fit or looked right on Akane, they had just about given up hope when they came to a place called "Lynne's Clothing and Accessories".
"What do you say Akane, it couldn't hurt to go in and see what they have."
The pair walked into the store where an elderly short lady greeted them with a sewing needle in her mouth and a tape measurer hanging from around her neck.
"Welcome to Lynne's Clothing and Accessories, my name is…" the phone rang mid speech. "Please excuse me" Akane and Emerald looked at each other then burst into a semi quiet laughter; for if one were to look at the old lady they might find it comical too that she was constantly tripping over the tape measurer then turning around to karate chop whoever it was that was stepping on her measuring shawl. The lady returned afterwards with a half-witted almost drunken smile on her face and continued to assist the two young women. " Are you young ladies looking for anything in particular? What is the occasion? What's your favorite color? Would you like something long or short?"
Akane stood there trying to absorb or even remember all of the questions that the woman had just asked the two; so Emerald took over.
"We are looking for something for her to wear to a casual gathering tonight; It is going to be a very large karaoke party; I think that she should wear something a dark blue like her hair; and we are looking for something that will make her stand out but not make her look like a whor…"
"EMERALD!!" Akane said astounded at what she was about to say.
"Um, I meant to say that won't make her look like a…. horrible dresser with no fashion sense! YES! That is what I was about to say!"
The older woman stood there for a moment and rubbed her fingers on her chin and eyed Akane. She then walked around her and then clapped her hands together frantically and yelled with excitement, "I think we can do it!" the woman pulled her measuring tape from around her neck and straightened the long flexible strip with a snap and then let it fall. Her assistant then stood by with her pen and a clipboard with a survey on it prepared to write. The woman with the tape measurer then started to measure Akane rapidly throwing numbers at her assistant who was writing so fast it appeared as though there was actually smoke coming from the paper. After 20 seconds the older woman was finished and took Akane's hand over to her computer. The entered the measurements that she had gotten into her computer and then all of a sudden in the middle of the room was a holographic image of Akane herself.
"Wow…" Akane and Emerald Awed simultaneously. The older woman smirked with a proud smile. She then continued to type on the computer; then she stopped and cleared her throat.
"Excuse me ladies, but we have this that I believe would do the trick for the young lady."
Now on the holographic mannequin was a black knee length halter-top dress with a pair of black pumps with a strap that went across her foot right above her toes and then another strap that connected the shoe at the ankle.
"AWW! It's REALLY CUTE! We'll take it! Just charge it on this card." Emerald said with a very bright smile on her face.
"I can't let you pay for that Emerald." Akane said and started to rummage through her handbag.
Emerald laughed out loud then replied, " I couldn't let myself pay for it either; so I used Mr. Francois's credit card; he won't mind."
After they paid for the items they headed back to the mansion. By now it was late afternoon and the two were walking down the pathway that lead to the door of the mansion when they heard noises from a building on the other side of the house.
"What's that sound?" Akane asked Emerald as she looked over towards the other part of the house.
" Oh, it is probably Mr. Francois's martial arts class. They fight rough, and sometimes even dirty. But aside from the dirty tricks, they are actually quiet good."
"I would like to go see." With that Akane started to walk towards the room where the noises were coming from. She heard something large and heavy hit the wall, which made her wince but before she could open her eyes again to see what had hit she was being pulled in the other direction. She tried to occasionally look back to see what was back there and the last time that she had turned her head she saw two male figures standing across the yard.
" We don't have any time to waste, the party starts at 5 and it is already 3:30, we have to get going to get you ready."
"Will you be going to the party too?"
"Yes, but not to enjoy myself, I'm going to help out. But, lets get you all fancied up for Ranma why don't we!?"
"Mm hmm" Akane agreed as she nodded her head. Emerald, who still had a tight hold on Akane's wrist, began to run back to their side of the yard.
Meanwhile on the other side of the yard stood two martial artist out in the yard, who rubbing his lower back.
"Man! You sure do throw people like their nothing! My name is Marcus, what's yours?"
"Ranma, Ranma Saotome. Sorry about that, I didn't think that I had thrown you that hard."
The two stood there and then began to laugh. Marcus stopped laughing and noticed two people walking towards them.
"Hey look at the chicks! The one running looks kind of young but the one walking in front of her is kindda cute!"
"Huh?" Ranma stopped laughing to see the two approaching figures. ((Could that be…)) The woman being pulled looked back one last time. ((Was that…Akane? No it couldn't be, I must be imagining things…)) "Well I couldn't really see her, so I couldn't tell ya."
"Well, it doesn't matter if you saw her now because you'll see her tonight." Marcus replied as he made his was back into the main part of that side of the house.
"What do you mean tonight?" Ranma asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"HAHA man didn't you know? Tonight's the big Karaoke competition. EVEYONE will be there, which means so will she. How about we go together, I always get stuck sitting by people that I don't know, at least this way we both have someone to talk to and don't look like total losers sitting by ourselves. HAHA!"
"Sure, when do you want to meet?"
"Um, we can meet right here under this tree at 4:30, how's about it?"
"Sounds fine, see ya tonight."
A/N Sorry it took me so long to write this chapter too… I actually wrote down a list of events for the chapter but it would be like a 5thousand word chapter if I wrote it all in one so I decided that I should break it into two parts. The next couple of chapters will be in days also, so I hope you don't mind. So since you have read it, PLEASE REVIEW, I would like to know what you think about it. THANKS IN ADVANCE!