It's My Life
Okay, as promised, here's Lena's side of 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel'.
"Lena, how does your friend take her coffee?" Draca inquired as she carried her and Hilde's coffee over to the sugar and half/half packets.
Twisting open her bottle of Coke, Relena replied, "She likes it with no sugar and lots of milk."
Opening Hilde's coffee, Draca poured in one packet of half/half and stirred. "Is that enough?"
Glancing over, Relena shook her head. "Lots of milk," she repeated. "So, another packet and half would probably be fine, I think."
"Okay," shrugged Draca, adding the packet and half of half/half.
"Here you guys go, pizzas for everyone," Lynn announced, exchanging two pizzas with Relena for her drink. "This is a Milky Way Cappuccino, right?"
"Of course, we weren't going to torture you with some chocolate caramel," assured Relena, balancing the two pizzas on one hand, one pizza on top of another.
Lynn tapped Relena's shin with her foot as a sort of playful kick. "When did you become so teasing? Uh? It certainly wasn't while you were in politics, trust me," teased Lynn.
Relena returned the playfulness, she had become able to once again decipher between her friends' teasing moments and when they were serious. At that moment Lynn was being playful and she was inviting Relena to be playful as well.
"Well, let's go pay your friend a little visit and put our little play in action. The curtain is rising and the imperfect actors are needed on stage," Draca declared decisively.
"Hilde hunting we go," sighed Lynn, leading the way out of the food court, holding the door open for Relena and Draca.
Leading the way around campus, Relena was the first to spot her friend sitting at one of the picnic tables, intently reading the files she had been carrying before.
"Well, let's go say 'hi'," grinned Draca, moving ahead of Lynn and Relena. "Hey Hilde, here," Draca greeted Hilde, startling the girl. Setting down the cup of coffee in front of the preventer, Draca took a seat next to Hilde.
Relena watched how Draca's head snapped up and she put a hand to her heart. She had to laugh inwardly as she approached the table with Lynn at her side. Relena had seen the expression of fright several times on her friend's face when she had startled Hilde in the dark.
While in politics Relena had developed a sort insomnia disorder where she would have difficulty sleeping due to the stress of the day or the next day, or even just the stress of all the paperwork that needed to be done. So, to keep herself awake Relena would drink lots of coffee and sometimes take short walks around the house at night. During her walks she would bump into Hilde, scaring her.
"It's only you three," sighed Hilde. "You know you really shouldn't sneak up on people!"
"Sorry but it was an open opportunity," apologized Draca with an equally apologetic smile which Relena had to acknowledge resembled her own smile. "We brought some lunch and coffee for you since I doubt you've had anything to eat since you woke up."
"Thank you," nodded Hilde, taking a plate from Relena, and than set it down in front of her while Lynn took a seat across from her and Salimar across from Draca.
"Still doing research on us?" noted Relena, nodding towards the files that laid out open. I hope Rickey did a really great job on the forging.
"Yeah," Hilde confirmed, "interesting histories you three and classes. Want to tell me how you three each knew Relena?"
Now was the moment of truth, Relena really hoped that they could pull off this little performance.
Taking a sip of her coke to calm her nerves, Relena answered, "We knew her from the St. Gabriel Institution; all four of us were in the same class. I guess we were the first to actually see that Relena wasn't exactly dumb to why most of the people at school liked her at all, they knew nothing of the real her."
It was true; most of the other students at the institution hadn't known Relena for who she really was and yet they called her 'friend'. Relena hadn't been as blind as some people believed to how her classmates thought of her as the perfect role model of refinement and pose. The fact that her piers held her at such a high, metaphoric pedestal had always unnerved Relena.
She wasn't perfect at anything and she would always be the first person to say so.
As for money, well…that was the reason as to why so many students tried so hard to fall into Relena's good graces and be titled as 'Relena's Friend'.
"Being me, I was the first to approach her during class and introduce myself," interjected Draca swallowing a bit of her pizza. "She was a bit surprised that I even bothered to ask her for what she thought of our project that we were assigned to do rather than ask Lynn, she sat right in front of me. It was a bit humorous; that must have been the first time that someone actually included her into a bit of gossip that didn't consist of guys or having someone try to be proper."
Biting into her pizza, Relena had to somehow keep from laughing. What Draca had said about Draca being the first person to talk to her about something that didn't include guys or proper behavior.
I don't believe discussing opinions about a class project can be considered 'gossip' though, Relena thought with a smile. And she was the first person to actually ask for my honest opinion.
"Which was impossible for Draca," Lynn spoke up, "she could never be proper much less formal. Always gave the nuns nicknames and gave Relena the nickname Lena, which was something no one else at school even did. Than there was the fact that we didn't really give a damn of her money that Relena must've found a bit odd."
Taking a sip of soda this time, Relena covered her mouth to wipe away the bit of coke and to hide a grin.
"Most definitely, since those other girls were always talking about her, not saying nothing mean or anything, but just talking about her and how lucky she was all the time," agreed Draca.
She felt like blushing, Relena truly felt like blushing and crying. It was amazing how simple statements could make Relena realize how well her friends knew her and how much they really cared for her as a person.
I should say something to let them know how much they have effected me, Relena decided. "In a way, it was Draca who got us all together with becoming Relena's friends," she stated, giving Draca a meaningful glance.
Draca's playful smirk softened to a genuine and larger smile. She may not ever say it but she was truly flattered and moved by Relena's indirect compliment.
"Then the guys came around after that one horse incident," Relena added with a bit of giggle as she recalled that day.
"Guys?" echoed Hilde.
"Adam and Sage," replied Lynn. "During class one day, I kind of fell off a horse and the boys were the first ones to actually take action by carrying me off to the nurse's office. When Relena came to visit with these two, they met Adam and Sage there. That's when we all really began becoming really close to each other."
"Now is it Adam or Adem?" inquired Hilde, taking out a notepad to take down some of these notes.
Having an idea of what Hilde was trying to get at, Relena answered, "Adam, with an A."
"Thank you. What about your band name, 'For Rel'? How is that spelt?" continued Hilde.
"R-e-l," replied Lynn.
"Adam's idea since that was his nickname for Relena. When we began the band it was around the time that Relena ran off, so when Adam heard about it he wanted to somehow remember Relena somehow. Thus the title 'For Rel' instead of 'For Real', r-e-a-l," jumped in Draca. "Him and Relena were very close actually, but then he and Sage had to move to Miami, Florida because of family business."
"Yeah, then it was the domino effect from there," included Relena, turning her eyes downcast. It hurt to think about how her friends all had to leave her, especially before the time when she really needed them.
"Which reminds me Salimar, why did you finish high school in Korea when your grandfather was in Moscow?" questioned Hilde, looking up from the notepad to watch the reaction to the question.
Holding her calm and reserve, Relena met Hilde's gaze, something most people in her situation wouldn't do and Relena knew that.
"My grandfather was and still is a busy man, Hilde. He had no time to spend with me without being on call, so he suggested that I go to Korea to finish my schooling while staying with one of his friends. All he wanted was me to be able to stay in touch with others my age as well as learn to be the best I could, and boy did I. Never want to go through that again! Going to school for 15 hours a day was no camping trip," explained Relena, improvising the entire explanation as she finished off her pizza and drowned down her coke.
"That explains quite a bit. Can you tell me the name of the family you were staying with?"
"I was staying with the Lim family," responded Relena, gathering up the empty plates and getting up to throw them away. She recalled the name written in her forged files.
Dumping the empty plates, Relena took a moment to take a breather and recollect herself again. They just had to pull off this little act and hopefully they would wrap it up fairly soon.
Exhaling, Relena turned to return to the table. As she approached she heard Draca saying to Hilde, "My Uncle is William Ison actually, an oil man in Texas though he's quite a genius."
Sensing an ending to the interrogation, Relena didn't even bother to sit down. Standing by the table, Relena waited for Hilde to conclude their interview.
"Again, thank you, each of you, for your time and for answering these questions for me," thanked Hilde, getting up and gathering up the files before heading to her jeep.
Sitting down at the table, Relena buried her face in her hands and heaved a sigh of relief.
"Aw…it wasn't really that bad now was it Lena?" teased Draca, reaching over to try and pry Relena's hands away from her face.
Taking her hands away from her face, Relena just smiled weakly. "I'm just relieved that that is over and done with," she admitted.
"Well, we have class to go to, so let's get going," suggested Lynn with an air of decidedness as she got up from the table.
That night, while leaning over her Perspectives in Literature text book there was a knock on Relena's door.
"Enter," she replied automatically, not even bothering to look up from her work, she had a ten-paged, perspective paper due the next week.
Quietly coming into the room was Draca and Lynn, followed by Sage and Adam. At first Relena ignored them until each one of them sat down on her bed and Adam closed her book.
Getting the feeling that her friends had something that they really wanted to discuss, Relena looked up with innocent eyes and glanced between each of her friends. "What's wrong?" she inquired.
"Lena, we're your friends and as your friends you should open up to us about how you feel with meeting up with all your old friends, Heero, and talk to us about how it was before you ran away," Adam answered, putting an arm around Relena's shoulders and flashing her that winning smile that he had.
He was right, she should open up to them beyond the tale of what happened the night she ran away.
"What would you guys like to hear?" Relena offered.
"Let's start with the present," suggested Lynn. "How do you feel after having encountered the preventers and Sylvia Noventa?"
Relena leaned back into her pillows to get comfortable while Adam stayed by her side and moved with her. It was going to be a long night of telling stories but it was going to be worth it to Relena, after all, a person had to vent somehow, someway.
"Well, I feel a bit uneasy about it but not to the point where I think any of them will be able to figure out that Salimar and I are the same person," she responded with a bit of a sigh. "It was awkward to talk to them without them knowing that it was I, Relena Darlian-Peacecraft, who they were talking to. I mean I was right under their noses the entire time and they never saw through it."
The group nodded in understanding.
"What about Heero? What do you feel or think about Heero?" Sage questioned.
"Heero…I feel…I feel a bit confused about him right now," Relena answered honestly. "I am just confused about him.
"Ah…well, we have time to help you figure it all out, but for right now we simply have to talk about that fundraiser gig your grandpa arranged for us," Draca spoke up, pulling everyone away from the subject of Heero and the preventers. For the time being.
Thank you to: Ulitheal, Morrighan of Crimson and Sable, Lynn-Minmay, lil dev g, and DogDemonK9. I think every one of you guys as reviewed all of my chapters or almost all of my chapters. Wow, thank you so much!