Little Star

Chapter Five

My cellphone rang in class. I should have had it on silent, of course, because there's nothing more embarrassing then interrupting a lecture about gender constructions in the media with your annoying ringtone. Especially if your lecturer happens to be Dr Eastham, because he'll launch into a fifteen minute tirade about the demands of modern technology and that Alexander Graham Bell hated the telephone and how we've all sunk into a quagmire of confused priorities and are slaves to the demands of machines.

And then the other hundred people in the class will hate you for putting them through that yet again.

It wasn't silenced because I just plain forgot. Or maybe subconsciously I was hoping it would ring - Duke hadn't spoken to me since Saturday night. It made sharing a bed difficult.

I scrabbled around in my bag, muttering, "Sorry, I'm so sorry," to the rest of the room. The number wasn't one I recognised. The phone was buzzing and beeping in my hand. Naturally, with the entire class staring at me, I felt someone flustered – so instead of hanging it up, I answered it.

"…Hello?" I whispered.

"HELLO?" shouted back at me.

"Hello!" I whispered again, urgently.

"…Yo, are you there?"

"I'm here…"

People glared. Why? Why was I doomed to go through life with rooms full of people glaring at me? Curse the genes that created me and my brother's brains…

"Helloooo? I can't hear you, I'm going to hang up."

"Hello!" I said loudly, and stood.

People began to mutter.

"I'm sorry!" I called, at no one in particular. I pushed out past the row of my fellow students, who all looked somewhat disgruntled.

"Hey, no need to apologise, Dollface, I can hear you just fine now."

"…Mokuba?" I hissed indignantly.

"Who else would it be?"

"You got me there," I muttered.

By now I was at the front of the room. The lecturer extended a hand in my direction, waving at me as I walked past. "I'll talk to you later, Ms Wheeler," he said, sternly.

"I'm sorry, Dr Eastham! It's an emergency."

"Boyfriends do not constitute emergencies," he stated dryly. The class twittered.

I felt my face flush, and then I crashed out the doors. Given the circumstances, my boyfriend would have been preferable.

"…'Renny? Are you still there?" a voice was saying in my ear.

"I was in class, Mokuba!" I walked a little away from the closed doors of the lecture hall.

I could practically hear him shrug over the line. "Well, why'd you answer your phone, then?"

I groaned. "This had better be important, brat."

"Ouch, Serenity. Way harsh. You've wounded my dignity. I'm considering not hiring you, now. I'll find someone else to be my personal French maid, though of course, they won't be nearly as sexy without your red hair."

I laughed involuntarily. "What are you talking about?" I leaned against the wall, trying to keep my voice down. I was still inside, afteral, and classes were going on around me.

"Everything you say is making me reconsider my offer. How organised can someone be if they don't remember being given a job?" His voice was gentle and teasing. He was clearly trying to cheer me up by driving me clinically insane.

"Right, a job. It's all coming back to me. The six am drunken escort to my front door."

"You were drunk at six am? First Friday, then Saturday, and now today, when you had school! I think maybe you have a drinking problem, 'Renny."

"Mokuba!" I screamed.

A moment later, someone poked their head out of the classroom door opposite me, with a somewhat concerned expression on their face. I smiled brightly at them.

"Right, anyway, meet me for lunch?"

"…It's almost three in the afternoon."

"Well, I just woke up!" he pleaded.

I stared at my foot, scuffing the carpet. "I don't think I should, I have a lot of reading to do, and Duke…"

"What? He's mad at you after you after the weekend?"

"…What did you hear about it?"

"Just the part that was on the news. 'And this morning's entertainment headline: No more Mr Dice Guy?' Those news types are so witty."

I groaned again. "Yes, he's mad."

"But luuuuuuunch!" Mokuba whined. "I'll waste awaaaaaay without foooood."

"And I'm supposed to have dinner at Joey and Mai's tonight!"

"Why Serenity, it's so nice of you to invite me along; you're right, dinner would be much better than lunch!"

I hung my head. "I'm beginning to regret I was ever nice to you."

"I sense the bitter tone of defeat in your voice, thus, I shall pick you up from outside the campus bookstore in about half an hour."

A dial tone suddenly encountered my ear. I walked back to the class and tried to discreetly re-enter. Unfortunately, as I slowly cracked open the door, my phone began to ring again. I slammed the door in front of a stunned and outraged Dr Eastham.

At least the screen showed that it was someone I knew this time. "Hello, Tristan…"

"Basically, it's simple," Mokuba said, as I climbed into his car. It was a silver Ferrari. Some taxi service. Lucky me - or so I thought, until he swerved out from the curb and sped down the university road towards the freeway on-ramp. I clutched at the end of my seat.

"Um… How long have you been driving?"

"Since I was fourteen; now don't interrupt."

I shut my eyes as we shot onto the motorway. "That's not even legal…" I squeezed out.

"Basically, I'm starting a television station."

"You're what?" I opened my eyes again, which as a mistake, because I got to watch as Mokuba changed lanes and squeezed his tiny car in between two large trucks. "I'm going to be a pancake…"

"Me 'what?'? You're the one babbling about breakfast foods! Look," Mokuba wrenched the wheel, "I'm starting up tv channel which is going to consist of shows about things I think are cool, and I could use a foxy young college girl to help me run the thing. …You can open your eyes again now, we're in front of all the other cars."

"So… You want me to do what now?"

"I don't know, how does vice president sound?"

"I'm going to have a heart attack."

"Are you sure your major isn't in drama?"

"I'm flattered, but I can't help you run a company, Mokuba; classes keep me busy enough!"

He switched on the car's cd player. Bass started to reverberate in my stomach. I don't think there was any possible way I could have felt more like an endangered species. And I never made up with Duke before I died…

"Yeah, that was a joke, mostly."

"Mostly?"

"So I know you didn't want to be your boyfriend's personal assistant, but I promise I won't try to get any nookie from you during work hours."

"Mokuba!"

"Fine, I promise I'll try not to try to get some nookie - but I can't make any promises."

I sunk down into the soft leather chair, my knuckles and fingerjoints still white, squeezing its edge. Maybe it would just be easier if I died then and there, afterall.

The car stopped at a red light. I considered flinging myself out of the passenger door and into the safety of the busy road.

"Okay, I'll be serious for a moment." He looked serious, too. His lips didn't have the usual quirk at the edges, and I could see his eyes properly; his dark blue and white hair was pushed back off his face, today, with the pair of large black sunglasses that were sitting on top of his head. "I really need someone who will come to work and take me seriously. I'm not as bossy or as charismatic as Seto, and it's hard to get people to do what an eighteen year old says without having to answer a million of their questions, first."

It didn't seem to warrant a response from me, yet.

"I need to have someone around that will hopefully set an example for everyone else."

The light changed and I left my stomach about ten metres behind me. Alas, poor stomach, I knew you well…

"So you want me to do… What?" I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that my fate was to be perpetually confused by life.

"Come to work a few days a week, be my personal advisor and assistant – we'll have loads of fun and I'll pay you more than you make in tips and maybe if you treat me like I'm the boss when we're in public some of it will rub off on my other employees," he blurted out. He sounded nervous – maybe he wasn't just an evil, spikey-haired demon, afterall.

I frowned, and not just because we'd narrowly missed a cyclist. "Look, Mokuba, I really appreciate the offer, but I turned down Duke because I need to be independent. I don't want to take advantage of you."

"Oh please, Serenity - take advantage of me! All night long, if you have to!"

If he hadn't been driving a vehicle, I would have hit him. Of course, 'driving' seemed to be loosely applied to the situation anyway, but why make it even worse?

"I mean it!"

"You're not taking advantage of me, honest. I need you. I'll die without you. I can't live without your personal assistance!"

I sighed.

"If anything, I'm taking advantage of you, forcing you to become a hot young thing that will publicly worship me."

"Okay, okay, I'll think about it!"

The car stopped again. I don't mean it gradually drew to halt. I mean, one second we were speeding down the road, and the next we were just… Stopped. I was afraid to believe I wasn't dead. There was just no way that we'd made the hour drive from campus to Joey's house in twenty minutes.

Yet there we were.

"Pleeeease."

"Do you always get your way when you whine?" I opened my car door, still in a state of shock.

"Usually."

"Well, I'm not your brother – who, by the way, doesn't seem to want me to spend time with you, so…"

"Ah yes, did I mention that you should do it for my brother? Otherwise he'll lose money and look bad! And worst of all, if I don't succeed, he'll have to put up with me at KaibaCorp again."

I shut the car door on Mokuba's big, round eyes, and headed towards Mai and Joey's apartment building. For better or for worse, Mokuba made it only a few footsteps behind.

I pushed the buzzer. "Hellooo?"

"You're early! Come on up!" Mai's voice rang happily through the small box.

The door buzzed and Mokuba charged through, gallantly holding it open for me. Now that he was out of the car I could see he was wearing, hallelujah, not leather pants but nice, normal jeans. It would have been nice if his light blue shirt was actually buttoned, but I guess I couldn't ask for another miracle. I was still alive after the Ferrari ride of death, afterall.

I shook my head and pushed the button again. "Hey, guys, a word of warning: I've brought company."

AN... Oh my gawd – I updated in timely fashion. Could I be back in the business? Don't hold your breath. Anyway, I hope this story seems like it's going somewhere to you guys. Because it is. Or it's going to be going somewhere. I think it might end up kinda long… Much, muchlove to reviewers.