. I bet this chapter is going to be another short one. But thanks to everyone who reviewed the 2nd chap! :-) Now, forward march! And Erin, I'm sorry if I spell your nick-name wrong.
"Hey guys!" Erin called as she walked over dragging a black bag behind her.
"Hi Memeru, you made it." Yuki said as Erin joined the group.
"Isn't that your back pack?" Claire asked looking at Erin's bag.
"Yep," she replied, pushing the handle back in. "I took all my books out and put all my clothes and stuff in."
"Smart." Kilana commented with her thumbs in her pockets.
"Your stuff can go over there." Claire said pointing to where a pile of suitcases had already been made under a sign taped to the library window that read, 'Please put all of your belongings here.' in a very neat script.
After Erin had added her stuff to the pile and everyone had talked a bit more, an old lady wearing an eye patch walked down towards the all girl group from the commons area. She was pulling a small wagon that was covered by a tarp.
"Is this everyone?" she said once she was close enough to the group that she didn't have to talk too loud to be heard.
"No. I don't think Becky's here yet." Kilana responded as the girls turned so that they all faced the old woman. Just then, the named girl came in the front door dragging a lumpy laundry bag behind her and trying to keep a suitcase from falling off her shoulder.
"You bring enough stuff there Beck?" Kilana called over to the final group member.
"Yeah, I think so." She walked over dragging the bag. Once Becky had put her things next to the pile of suitcases and joined the group, the one-eyed lady started to talk.
"Does everyone have their forms?" There was some shuffling as people reached into pockets and purses for permission forms and money. "If ye could all hand them to me now." Everyone came forward and handed her all their things. "Good." The lady quickly looked over the names of everyone before calling them out.
"Erin?" Erin raised her hand.
"Ashley?" Kanji waved her hand above her head a bit.
"Clara?" Clara put up her hand just a bit, said, 'Here,' then let her arm fall again.
"Sarah?" Sarah called, 'Here,' from where she was standing.
"Claire?" Claire put up her hand, fingers out stretched.
"Brianna?" She said reading the name as she saw it, but Yuki corrected her, "Bre-ann." (That is how you pronounce it right? I know it's not spelled that way.)
"Kilana?" "Over here." Kilana called from next to Clara.
"Rebecca?" "That's me." Becky responded.
"So that's everyone? Just ye eight?" There were some nodded heads and spoken answers of 'Yes'. "Well since I now know all of ye's names, I expect ye wish to know mine.' There was dead silence. "My name is Kaede." The now identified lady told them.
"Good Lord!!" Everyone turned around to see who had yelled.
"Whose bag is this?!?" demanded a tall slender lady in jeans and a pale yellow tee shirt as she pointed to the large laundry bag. Her eyes, mostly a light blue but red around the pupil, showed that she was more shocked and afraid of what she had found then mad.
"Mine." Becky said, unsure of what else to say or do.
"Explain why you have what you do in your bag!!" The new lady bellowed.
"Hold on," Clara cut in. "How do you know what's in her bag?"
"There are some items you will not be allowed to take on your trip and I am making sure you didn't ignore our polite request and bring some things anyway." The lady said pointedly. "As you can see, I have already found some 'illegal' objects." At this she gestured at a small pile of objects that included a camera, a CD player and a number of CD's.
"Hey! Those are mine!" Erin protested.
"The camera's mine though." Claire muttered just loud enough for the ones around her to hear.
"And the forms you got said no modern items! So these things have to stay here unless you can give me a very good reason why you should be able to bring them." The lady said as she glared over at Erin and Claire for a second before turning her attention back to Becky and her bag. "Now, explain."
"Well, he went on my last plane ride with me so I though he'd like to come on this one too." Becky tried to explain.
"He? Becky, what do you have in there?!" Kilana said in a very shocked voice.
"This." The lady said up-ending the laundry bag. Out fell, of all possible things, a man.
He had blond curly hair, was lean and muscular, and currently waking up. Becky looked at him like he was a god or something.
"Oh my god Becky!" Clara screeched, staring at this unexpected extra person. "What did you do?"
"I gave him some sleeping pills so that he would wake up when we got to Japan, but I guess they're wearing off early." Becky stated calmly.
"He can't come." The lady said in a very, 'End of discussion' tone. She bent down beside the man, blocking the girls' view of him so they weren't sure how he managed to stand up with her a few seconds later.
"What happened?" The man asked in a Scottish accent. "Where am I?" He looked around and saw Becky. "You brought me here didn't you!"
"Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you where we were going." Becky smiled.
"You are you?" He asked looking the lady.
"Introductions later. Where do you live? I could probably take you home and then come back in no time."
"I live about a two hour drive north of the Blarney Stone."
"Isn't that in Ireland or something?" Kanji asked.
"Yes. I live in Scotland, why?" the man looked really confused now.
"You're in North America dude." Claire answered. "That's a long way from here."
"That's alright!" Becky said happily. "He can come on the plane with us and get off in England!"
"We're not taking a plane." The lady said solemnly. "Here, I'll take you somewhere else for a little and then when I get down with these girls, I'll come back and we'll find a way to sort all this out."
"What do you mean we're not taking a plane?!" Clara shouted.
"I mean, you're not riding in an airplane to get to Japan." The lady called back as she led the extremely confused Scottish man down the hall to the main office.
"Then how are we supposed to get there?" Clara asked to no one in particular.
"Becky, who was that?" Claire asked her friend.
"Remember the SG I told you about when I got back from England?"
"Yeah..."
"That was him." Claire and Kilana stared in complete and utter shock.
"Becky you went on that trip during summer vacation! Where have you been keeping him?" Kilana finally managed to ask. Becky never got a chance to answer because at that moment, the lady returned.
"I'll find some way to send him home later. Right now, I have to help send you girls on your way."
"I have everything ye asked me for, but I think we should explain a bit more of this to the ladies before they get too confused themselves." Kaede spoke for almost everyone there.
"I suppose you're right." The lady said putting one arm behind her head. "Can you hand out the bags, please?" Kaede nodded and uncovered the wagon to reveal ten grayish colored back pack like bags which she handed to everyone two at a time as the newer and younger lady spoke again.
"Well, my name isn't important but if you want to call me something, call me GK. You are all here to go on a trip to Japan, which is what you'll be doing, but not to the now Japan." Here she stopped to do a quick head count. "Ok, only eight. Lady Kaede, could I have one of the spare bags?" the old one eyed lady handed a sack to GK before continuing to hand the rest of the bags out.
"These are going to be the bags you use in your trip." She said holding hers up. "Inside you will find three sets of clean clothes, a small knife for when you cook, a small box of bandages and medicines, a blanket for at night, a container for storing water, some candles and flint, and a bit of dried food." As she named each item she pulled then out of her bag. "Most of the things you brought here with you will stay here and you will pick them up when you return. Anything you want to bring get now and show me so that I can determine whither or not it can go with you." As she finished the first part of her explanation, she gestured to the pile of suitcases.
Once everyone had gone through and claimed what they wanted and gotten it approved they put those things in their new bags. Kanji had gotten her Spoon (it was a regular metal spoon tied with a red ribbon, but she called it sacred and wouldn't leave it behind), Yuki brought paper and a pencil so that she could draw if she ever got bored, Claire had secured her journal, Kilana got her own notebook for writing in, though it wasn't really a journal, Becky brought her asthmatic medications and a picture of her family (hamsters included), Sarah dug her pockey out of a side pocket, and Clara unearthed her Book of Shadows from under her clothes.
GK did a final look over the girls and found the necklaces Claire, Clara, and Kilana were wearing. Fortunately, they were allowed to keep them as long as they stayed hidden most of the time. However, any earrings anyone was wearing had to be turned in.
"Alright, well now that everyone had what they want, pull out one set of clothes." Everyone reached into their sacks and pulled out different colored skirts, shirts, and white socks. "Now, go into a bathroom or something and change into them."
The girls all looked around for a minute before heading toward the rest rooms by the student entrance, also near where they had seen Kaede coming from.
About ten minutes later, they all came back in old traditional style kimonos. Erin and Becky had red skirts and off white long sleeved shirts. Everyone had basically the same thing on except for the color of their skirts. Kilana, Clara, and Kanji all had green skirts somewhere between the brightness of grass and the darkness of a tree leaf. Claire and Sarah had skirts of deep water blue. Yuki had a skirt somewhere between brown-orange and the color of a gold non-metallic colored pencil.
Coming back into the area where they had left Kaede and GK, they saw GK putting the last of their bags into the wagon.
"Why are we wearing these?" Kanji questioned.
"Because," GK answered as she pulled the tarp over the bags. "When you get to where you're going, you don't want to stick out anymore then you will anyway." She finished and faced the girls. "You girls look very nice!"
"Thanks." Erin answered for everyone.
"I won't keep you much longer, so bear with me for about 15 more minutes."
"Your eyes changed!" Claire suddenly burst out.
"What?"
"They were blue and red earlier and now they're brown!"
"Oh," She reached up and touched her eye. "I guess they did. They do that often; brown just means I'm calm. When they're blue I'm scared or shocked, red-I'm mad, hazel-happy, and green-doing magic or tired. See?" She smiled. "They have a wide variety and sometimes can be two or three at once. It's normal."
"You can do magic?" Yuki asked.
"Yes, but I'll get to that again later. Right now, you should all go over and find your shoes." GK pointed over to where Kaede was standing beside a row of simple black shoes where their bags had been before.
Eventually everyone got the right sized shoe and had put the sneakers they had been in the wagon with their other things. GK looked them over carefully.
"I think they look good. What do you think Lady?"
"They look like they followed me here." Kaede answered.
"Wonderful! Now, one last thing before I send you all off on your great adventure." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny glass bottle filled with ten red pills. "Since none of you can speak fluid Japanese, these will help you." Saying this she handed one to everyone. "Just swallow them down and then you can leave."
Claire looked at her pill uncertainly. 'What the heck.' She thought as she popped it into her mouth. Around her everyone else was following suit.
"Hot!" Kilana said as she waved at her mouth.
"You should have warned them not to bite into them." Kaede said to GK.
"I guess you're right..."
"What was that? And why did it burn?" Kilana asked once she had gotten over the shock of having an extremely hot item go down her throat.
"Put simply, magic." GK said bluntly. "Now you can all speak perfect Japanese though so you won't be at a total loss if someone talks to you." She said all this to them in Japanese and they understood her wonderfully, so there was no reason for them to doubt her. Switching back into English she continued, "I will now send you all to Japan with Lady Kaede. She will take charge of you from then until other people come to watch you. Remember to be polite to everyone, even those who don't exactly seem thrilled to meet you." She paused for a moment as she looked at the girls. "I wish you all the best of luck. I will see you again soon enough to bring you home. Lady Kaede will explain everything in better detail when you get to her home. Good bye." At this she put her hands in front of her and 16 lights appeared as she closed her eyes and concentrated. The lights grew brighter and GK started the sing.
Between Gk and the girls and Kaede who had stepped forward to be at the front of the group, appeared a large glowing portal. On the other side they could see GK's outline and the shadows of a bunch of people behind her who had added their own voices to the spell. On their breasts show the different lights.
"Come on children. They cannot hold the way for long." Kaede said as she stepped toward the lights. And disappeared,
Everyone stood and marveled at the beautiful sight before them for just a moment longer.
"We should go." Becky said as she tore herself out of the song.
Everyone silently agreed and they walked one by one after Kaede.
Whoot! I guess it turned out longer then I expected! But that's a good thing!
I love how I described that last part! So pretty! ((gets far away look)) La....((gets smacked on the head by Nicole)) Hey!
Nicole-Stop spacing out and get on with it!
Ok, ok. Anyway, I wasn't sure if I should give your real names or not (talking to Kanji and Yuki) but it'll only be there; for the rest of the story you will be called by your nicknames. Becky, I put in the Scottish guy, but not Alan. Sorry! But again, it's still a good thing and you got him in and he isn't gone yet! At least not totally.
And you all have found out why I wanted to know your favorite colors! :-)
That should be it. Review Please!