"If you need anything," Cye said. "My room is the light blue door. Don't hesitate to wake me up for anything."
"Thanks," Azia said. "I guess I'll see you and the guys in the morning?"
"Sure. I'm making breakfast in the morning. What would you like?"
Alvina leaned against the doorframe and looked at him with her deep eyes. She saw him stiffen and she smiled inside. She loved playing with guys this way. There was a reason her parents gave her this body, so she used it to its full extent.
"I never tried your cooking," she said sweetly. "What would you suggest I try?"
"Well, the guys don't complain about it. I think I'll make you my well known fried eggs over easy with whole grain toast, bacon and your choice of orange juice or milk."
"Orange juice for me and a small saucer of milk for Salem if you please."
Cye nodded and stared at her for a few seconds before he smiled and said goodnight again and moved down the hall and descended the stairs to the kitchen. Alvina closed the door and leaned against it and slid to the floor where Salem hopped onto her lap. For some strange reason or another, her body screamed at her for not doing what it wanted. Now, she regretted not reaching out and capturing those soft lips of his.
What is going on with me? I just met the guy not even an hour ago and I'm flirting with him and already thinking about doing unmentionables to him… my Mum would have a cow if she could read my mind. He is cute though.
She picked up Salem and looked at him in the eyes.
"Do you think he's out of my league, Salem?" she asked. Salem gave her a cat look and made a purring sound as Alvina stroked his belly. "I knew I could count on you buddy."
Alvina picked herself off the floor and looked around at her new bedroom for the next year. It was suited for her possible needs. The bed was a twin size like at home with warm sheets and a cherry blossom embroidered comforter. The black metal headboard had a fake flower vine entwined between the bars for an accent. The walls were blue sponged over a creamy white background and it reminded her of the ocean. The carpet was a dark green, almost black color and her feet sank into it about a half-inch. The bedside table had a regular lamp with a white lampshade and a box of tissues.
Alvina lifted one of her suitcases onto the bed and opened it. She went over to the large vanity set and opened a drawer. She neatly placed her pants on one side and her shorts on the other. Opening the next drawer, she placed her shirts and tank tops. The third she used for her personals and the last she used for her pajamas. She then arranged her lotions and styling products in front of the big oval mirror.
She moved to the walk in closet and put away her assorted boots and shoes in the many opened boxes in the wall. She made a mental note to try that at home. She then filled the rack with her dressing items; skirts, pants, shirts, dresses. That sort of thing.
Damn, she thought. It looks like I packed to stay. I know I had to have over packed a little. Oh well.
After all of her clothes were put away, she moved to the last of her big suitcases. She opened it and began to make the room her own. She taped up her sketches worth showing off and arranged her pictures on the small hard wood desk. She unhooked the bedside lamp and placed it on the top shelf in the closet. She placed her own blue lava lamp on the table and plugged it in and turned it on. She knew they were little kids, but it was a gift from her father she had received a month before the "accident". She then placed her favorite picture of her father next to it and then her electric digital alarm clock. She looked at her watch and set it for the correct time and set the alarm for five thirty in the morning.
After that, she worked on the bed. She carefully took the vine off and wrapped it up in a plastic bag, placing it with the lamp. She dug around in her suitcase and pulled out the multiple strings of seashells she made in a craft store with her mother. One of the very few things she did with her. She wove it around in the same fashion as the vine. After doing that, she took out a string of frosted Christmas lights and wove it around the bars as well. She would plug them in at night to give her a little light while she slept. Since the accident, she was afraid to wake up in pitch darkness, thinking that the shooter would be there in the dark waiting.
After putting the last suitcase in the closet with the others, she stepped back and admired it.
"What you think, Salem?" she asked her furry companion. He meowed in response and Alvina smiled. "I like it too. Just like home."
By the time she was finished decorating, it was nearly passed midnight. She stored the rest of her bags and such in the closet and quickly set up Salem's bed by the heater in the wall. On cold nights, he liked the heat. But he would just jump up on Alvina's bed and sleep next to her body for warmth. Alvina dressed in a pale blue cotton tank and large baggy pajama pants of the same color. She slid into the big soft bed that cocooned her in comfort. She wasn't used to sleeping in a bed this soft, but she wasn't complaining. Just before she dozed off, she reached over and turned off her alarm.
"I'll wait until I get used to the time difference before I go out on my early morning walks," she whispered to Salem, who had made his bed under her chin as usual. Alvina kissed his wet nose and fell asleep.
Cye was downstairs washing the dishes from dinner that the other guys had "forgotten" to do. They were still in the living room with the girls watching the end of Titanic. They begged Cye to stay and watch the end with them, but he declined. Out of all the movies based on the ocean, he hated that one. It was more of a tragedy, and Cye thought it should be watched with a companion. It wouldn't have worked for him. He thought about asking Alvina if she wanted to come down and watch, but she had to prepare her room to her liking and would have been tired. Instead, Cye came in and did the dishes.
After trying to scrub clean a burnt pot, he finally gave up and threw it in the trash. He was pissed. He knew this would happen. Now, he had to go out early tomorrow to buy new pots and pans before the guys woke up. That means he had to find a store somewhere in Toyama that opened before six thirty in the morning. No doubt there was a place like that.
He managed to get the other dishes clean, so he dried them and placed them back in the cupboards where they belonged. He then opened the fridge to get something to eat since he missed whatever it was that the other s made. To his surprise (sure…) he found that the fridge was empty, save for a moldy rotten sandwich he had forgotten was even in there.
"Damn you Kento and your stomach." He closed the door and cleaned a little more in the kitchen until he heard the end credit song of the movie. He listened as they turned off the TV and say goodbye to their movie dates before Cye listened to the girls walk out of the door to their cars.
"You guys enjoy the movie?" Cye asked while leaning in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. The others yawned and nodded their heads in unison. Then, Sage being Sage piped up on the subject Cye was not in the mood to hear.
"She's hot, isn't she, Cye?"
"No idea what you're talking about," Cye said, trying to steer the conversation the other way.
"Yes you do," Ryo said. "We saw the way you looked at her when she walked upstairs. You couldn't take your eyes off of her."
"I still don't know what you're talking about. We only talked for about an hour."
"So?" Kento asked. "You two must've found something you guys have in common."
"We did."
"You gonna tell us?" Rowan asked, not wanting to be left out.
"Absolutely not. It's not my information to give away. You want to learn what I did, you'll just ask her tomorrow at breakfast."
"But you like her, right?" Sage asked hopefully. Cye figured he wouldn't hear the end of it until he gave him the answer he wanted to hear.
"Yes, I like her. She's a nice girl. Happy?"
The four others nodded their heads and directed their attention to the mezzanine above the TV. Cye looked up to see Alvina staring down upon them. She leaned against the wooden railing. She had on a light, almost pale blue tank with really baggy matching pajama pants. Her shoulder length hair fell across her face, placing shadows over her eyes. Cye noticed that she wore an anklet made of twine and seashells on her left ankle.
But there was something completely different from the girl he met at the airport. Her face was dark and her stare was cold, cold enough to freeze the blood in your veins. The group was unsure of what was happening.
"Are you o…okay, Alvina?" he asked. She continued to stare.
After another few seconds, she walked back down the hall out of sight. When they heard the door to her room close, they felt the oxygen come back to their lungs. They all looked at each other.
"Ooooooookay," Kento said shortly.
"What's up with her?" Rowan asked.
"We were probably talking too loud or something," Ryo said. "We probably woke her up."
"Okay, but that doesn't mean she couldn't say 'Excuse me, but you guys are talking too loud. Do you mind turning down a little so I could sleep? Thanks'"
"Sage has a point," Ryo said. "She looked like she was sizing us for execution."
"Way to go Mr. Obvious," Sage said. Ryo threw him a glance.
They all left it at that and decided it was time for bed. They had a busy day tomorrow. They were going to take Alvina to the Toyama Mall to get her school supplies and her uniform.
But Cye was having trouble sleeping. He couldn't stop thinking about the sudden mood swing. Alvina was so friendly in the car on the way here that it made no sense. He turned on the bedside lamp and opened the table drawer and pulled out her Exchange file. He flipped through the pages for the medical section and looked through the notes. According to the papers, she was physically and mentally healthy. It made him feel better that they weren't housing a deranged lunatic.
Cye read the rest of her file. Alvina was born January 21, 1972. Meaning that this January she would be seventeen. She was five feet, five inches tall at one hundred and thirty-eight pounds. Under school activities, she was a major in a lot of things. The top two that were listed were singing and swimming. She was part of the high school's girls swimming team with the fastest time.
After looking at the clock, he reluctantly placed the papers away, happy that she had no mental situations whatsoever. He turned off his lamp and rolled around in his bed. He pulled the covers up to his chin and fell sound asleep.
Alvina woke up slowly from her dreamless sleep. She waited a few seconds for her eyes to cope with the dim light the lights gave off. She focused on her alarm clock that was next to her face. It was six in the morning. After her brain calculated what the clock said, she was awake in no time. She never really needed an alarm. Her body was always set at six no matter where on the planet she was. She had always gotten up this early, weekend or not.
She hopped out of bed and went to the vanity. She got her personals, a blue and white tie-dye tank top and a pair of form fitting blue jeans with a beaded design on the bottom of her left pant leg. Before leaving the room, she patted Salem on the head. He stretched and went back to sleep. Alvina smiled and opened the door and made her way to the bathroom in the barely lit hallway.
She took a cool shower to get her body senses going. She dried herself with her towel and dressed. She added her deodorant and her black eyeliner, then some clear lip-gloss and a little mascara. She gathered her stuff and returned to her room. The hallway had lightened some more with the rising sun.
Putting her things back, she pulled on some socks and grabbed her leather boots and carried them downstairs. She placed the boots by the foyer in the living room and made her way to the kitchen. She shook her wet hair as she snooped around, looking at a board with notes and chore duties. When she heard a car pull up the driveway, she walked to the front door and looked out to see Cye's auburn head pop out of the driver's side.
She opened the door as he made his way to the door with a bunch of heavy bags. Alvina ran to help him and he was startled to see her up this early.
"I guess Sage isn't the only early riser anymore," he said. "Why are you up so early?"
"I'm up every day at six," she said, placing the bags on the kitchen table and mindlessly putting things away. Because of her snooping, she knew where certain things went. "Ever since I was ten I'd been getting up at six and going out for an early morning walk. Since then, my body just got used to it so I wake up automatically."
After getting confused with where things go, she gave up and sat down at the table. The kitchen was simple. A stainless steel refrigerator, matching stove, porcelain countertop with a built in sink and cutting board. The walls were a dark cream color with a ceiling boarder of Tuscany fruits. The floor was a light colored hardwood and a rug was placed under the table and chairs so the floor would not get scratched. The table itself was big enough to fit about bight people where the one in the dining room could fit almost fifteen.
She continued looking around when she caught the sight of a very large doggy door placed in the back door of the kitchen to go out into the forest.
"You guys must have a Saint Bernard for the doggy door to be so big." She said. Cye looked at the door and slapped his forehead for being so stupid.
"We don't have a dog," he said. "We have White Blaze. He belongs to Ryo and he's…"
As if on cue, White Blaze made his appearance and walked into the kitchen. Cye looked over at Alvina who had gone flour white. She stiffened at the sight of the large cat and she looked as if she was going to scream, but couldn't get the sound out. White Blaze saw the fear surrounding the new person and sat down by the door and looked at Cye.
"…a tiger." Cye finished. After a few minutes, Alvina calmed and some of her color returned to her skin. She realized that White Blaze would have attacked her if he was a wild animal. But she looked at the cat in the eyes and saw that he meant her no harm and that he only wanted to be friends. White Blaze cautiously made his way over to Alvina and gently placed his head in her lap. His tail flicked back and forth on the floor and it almost looked like he smiled at her. Alvina smiled back and started petting him.
"He's really sweet," she said scratching under his chin. "I just wish you told me about him earlier."
"Sorry, I forgot. How, I'm really not sure. It's kind of hard to forget about this kitten."
Cye watched as White Blaze basked in Alvina's attention, and how inhumanly happy she seemed. The thought brought him to the episode the night before.
"I don't mean to sound rude," he said. "But, what was with the mood swing last night? You scared us all shitless with that look you gave us." Alvina stopped rubbing White Blaze and looked at Cye with remorse.
"I want to apologize for that," she said looking at him. "You see, back in Cardiff, I'm what you would call a Bad Ass. I'm stronger than most of the guys in my school and I have a hot temper sometimes. It's not a mental problem; I just flip when someone goes too far in pushing my buttons. Think of me as… the ocean. I'm cool and calm one minute and the next I would break someone's arm if they tick me off enough. I heard Sage and Ryo bug you about things I could have told them if they just came to me. That really upset me that they needed a via to find out about me. I hope you and your friends could forgive me."
Cye looked at her. The way she looked back at him with those sorrowful eyes made him want to embrace her and soothe her. She was telling the truth about her temper issue, and she really did want to be friends.
At least she's honest about it, he thought. Good friends will be honest to each other if they really want to be friends.
"Thank you for telling me this. The others aren't mad at you, just unsure of your mental stability. I know, that was harsh, but I don't know how else to state it. Just let them know about it and they'll understand."
"You're right, that was harsh, but I'm happy that you just came out and said it. That's what I like and want people to do. They're all worried that I would flip on them. That depends. If it's something about the way I act, screw them. That's who I am."
Having that conversation out if the way, Alvina insisted that she help Cye make breakfast. They made an abundance of waffles, pancakes of every flavor, eggs, bacon, and she taught him how to make her secret Breakfast Wraps.
"You MUST keep the secret to yourself," she said after seeing Cye's face light up after taking the first bite. "You are the first person I gave the recipe to that I haven't killed."
"You're joking with me, aren't you?" Cye asked.
"Yeah." They started laughing. Cye and Alvina both knew this was the start of a good friendship.
They stopped when the back door opened and Sage came inside. He kicked off his shoes and slipped his own slippers on and looked at the two blushing people at the stove. He had his own thoughts of what just happened, but he felt it wise to keep it to himself. He passed Cye and headed to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup and sat down at the table with some whole grain toast. Alvina looked at Sage's choice of food and glanced at Cye. He merely shrugged and gave a face saying "Forget about it."
But Alvina wouldn't. There was no way she was going to let Sage leave the house again without a proper breakfast. She placed one of her Wraps on a plate with some bacon and placed it in front of him. Sage looked at the plate and at Alvina. He smiled and slightly pushed the plate away.
"No thanks," he said. "I'm set."
Alvina smiled back and placed the plate in front of him again.
"You're not leaving this table until you try it," she said. "You seem undernourished. Coffee and toast is not the best thing to go on a shopping spree with."
"Shopping spree?" he asked. "What are you talking about?"
"We have to go to the mall to get Alvina's school supplies and uniform." Cye answered. "The Headmaster wants her totally prepared on Monday. We have to go today because the mall is closed tomorrow."
"Headmaster wants who prepared on Monday?" Ryo asked walking into the kitchen in a red shirt and blue jeans. He sat down at the table next to Sage and greeted White Blaze with a pat on the head. Alvina placed a plate of food in front of Ryo and he began eating.
"Me," she said. Kento came down the kitchen stairs and floated over to the stove where Alvina was making more food. Cye came up and slapped him on his butt with a spatula.
"What was that for?" he asked, rubbing the spot Cye had slapped him.
"You know the rules," Cye said shaking the spatula at him. "Into the living room until everyone else gets their food then you get whatever's left."
Kento made a growling noise and was marched into the living room with Cye on his ass the whole way. Rowan came in through the living room door with a smile on his face. He sat down at the table and Alvina placed a dark blue plate in front of him. She brought over the frying pan and placed another Wrap on his plate followed by a few strips of bacon.
"This smells good," he said as he started eating.
"It's my own Secret Recipe," Alvina said. "I came up with the idea a few years ago. This is the first time I ever let anyone else try it other than my Mum. What do ya' think?"
"Delicious." Ryo said taking his empty plate to the sink. Alvina looked at Sage who has yet to even touch it. She finally got fed up and walked over to him. She pulled out his chair and spun it around so they were face to face. Sage looked at her almost half scared. Alvina had her hands on the back of the chair on either side of his head. Her right knee was on the chair between his legs and in a position where she could kick him and do serious damage to his future reproduction things. The others looked at them with wide eyes, and Cye and Kento watched from the doorway.
"Look," she whispered so only he could hear. "I get the idea that you don't normally eat breakfast. Cye told me about it. However, I have a babysitting job I would do on Weekend mornings back in Cardiff. The little brats are just as stubborn as you are. Since they are only five years old, I'm easy on them. You on the other hand are a seventeen year old." She leaned closer to his ear and whispered something that made his eyes wide and his face pale. Alvina faced him again and smiled wickedly.
"Humor me," she said. She moved away and went back to the stove with a satisfactory smile. The four other boys watched in amazement as Sage picked up his fork and begin eating the food that was on his green plate.
"Alvina, how did you do that?" Rowan asked as Sage placed his empty plate in the sink and sit back down with the Saturday morning newspaper.
"I have my ways," she said preparing Cye's plate and handing it to him. He sat down and Alvina made her plate and sat down next to him.
"Okay Kento," she said. "The rest is yours." Kento made a cheering scream and piled whatever was left onto his orange plate. Ryo looked at the blond boy behind the newspaper.
"Wow," he said. "Alvina got you to eat a full meal. There's hope for you after all."
"Shut up."
After she was done, Alvina placed a large bowl of the raw meat on the floor for White Blaze per Ryo's instructions and placed a small saucer of milk and canned cat food for Salem who had recently joined them. She smiled at the sight: A giant snow tiger eating next to a miniature black cat. She thought about what she talked to Cye about earlier. She turned and looked at the other five boys.
"Guys," she said. The all looked at her as she shuffled her feet. "I just want to apologize for the way I acted last night. Cye said that the way I looked at all of you, you all must think I'm a deranged psycho. I just what you let you all know that I don't like it when people ask for information from someone else concerning me. It sort of ticks me off. Please, if you want to know about me, just ask. That's sort of the way rumors and lies get around."
They all nodded in agreement and Alvina felt more at peace knowing that her unexpected temper could rest with these guys.
"So, do you play any sports?" Ryo asked. "Like, are you on any teams back in Cardiff?"
"What teams are you on?" Rowan asked.
"Tennis, cross country, and swim."
"No kidding?" asked Kento. "Who good are you?"
"Pretty good. I'm the fastest on the team and I bring home most of the awards."
"You thinking about joining the girls team?" Cye asked.
"Not really," Alvina said. "But now that you mention it, I think I will. I'll just die if I don't get into water. Do you guys think…"
"Yes!" Alvina jumped as the five boys said that.
"The girls suck," Ryo said. "Sam's on the team and she'll tell you the same. The desperately need help."
"He has a point," Cye said. "I've seen them practice. They couldn't get into the sectionals last year. If you're really as good as you say, they could use your help."
"Okay," she said. "I'll try out on Monday."
"Good." Cye said. "With that settled, lets get a move on before the mall's parking lot gets all jammed up."