I wonder if the lack of participation in my poll is an indication of how few people care one way or another about Releena, of how few people are willing to review, orof how few people actually read the authors notes. Oh well, not that it matters. One thing that disturbed me was the suggestion that Pricilla will be of special interest in herself, and be similar to her brother and his friends. This time around, I'd like you to tell me your impressions of Pricilla, both before and after you read this chapter. Do you expect her to be some sort of self insertion, or Mary Sue? Once you've actually met her, did your opinions change?
Incoming Attack
Quatre hurried to put his things away after fourth hour the next day.
"Slow down. And don't worry, it's just a sister. It's not like you have to impress her or anything." Duo soothed.
"Things in my family have been uneasy ever since they realized I had become a Gundam Pilot. It only got worse after everyone started squabbling for money and stock in the company after my father died." Quatre shut the locker door a little too loudly, and zipped up his backpack. "I'm not nervous, I'm just kind of …apprehensive. I don't know where this is going to lead, or how to carry and portray myself." He leaned against the locker door for a brief reprieve. "I guess I just don't know if she's a friend, and enemy, or a neutral party."
"Do you want us to come with you?" Heero asked.
"No. Maybe. I dunno. It may not be a great first impression if I show up with all the cannons out."
"None of us are there to fight. Besides, it's on our way to the cafeteria." Wufei closed his own locker and replaced the lock. "We'll just go with you to pick your sister and the other new students, and then head to lunch. It won't mean anything, so they can't draw any conclusions from it."
The team walked down the hallway. The principal's secretary was waiting for them at the corner of the hallway, and hurriedly spoke.
"There's only four. That's a good number. We usually don't get that many new students, but this is good. One of them is your sister. Did you know that? Of course you did, that's why you're here. You just introduce yourself to the others, take them to lunch, and they'll shadow you in your classes so they can get a feel for this place. Then you can show them the rest of the campus. But not the girl's dorms, even though she's your sister, because it's against the rules, silly! Some one else will show the girls their rooms, you can show the boys around. They don't have any friends here, except for you, and you're really a relative. Are your friends coming? That's good, then they can get to know more people. By 'they' I mean the new students, not your friends. But don't all of you come in at once, it'll be too crowded. The office is really small. I wish we had bigger offices."
They arrived. Quatre spotted his sister through the glass walls of the office, or at least the back of her head. He stepped in with the secretary, Heero, and Wufei, and Trowa and Duo hovered outside the door. The new students were sitting in chairs lined up with their backs against the glass wall. Across from the door, the principal rose from where he was sitting, and ushered them in.
Pricilla rose suddenly. She had been sitting five seats down from the door, between her and them were two boys and two empty seats. She crossed that distance in the measured step all true ladies were taught since birth, and positioned herself near, but at a polite distance from, Quatre.
The principal started to say something, but Quatre knew what path to take. He held out his hand to this new relation.
"I'm number twenty-seven." He said.
"Yes. And the number-one son. I'm the twenty eighth daughter, and the twenty-ninth child."
"It may be easier to just say 'second youngest' and 'fourth youngest'."
"Maybe. My name is Pricilla."
"I'm-"
"Quatre. Yes. I know. Every one does. Even before the war, we knew you because you were the only boy."
Like he had told his teammates, all of Quatre's sisters looked extremely alike. Pricilla was no different. She had the nose that had been deemed 'perfect', the eyes that were a deliberately enchanting shade of blue, and the hair that was of an immaculate tone for regality and seduction. She was shorter than all the other sisters he had ever met, but then again, all the other sisters had been older sisters. This was the first time he could remember meeting one of his few younger siblings.
"Welcome to the school." He said.
"Thank you."
He offered her his arm, but before she could take it, the principal butted in to introduce the two other two students, and mumbled something about the other one having gone to freshen up.
"We can wait." Quatre said. He moved to introduce his friends to the newcomers, watching their expressions carefully. Pricilla either didn't know or didn't care that she was shaking hands that had been stained with blood, and neither did either of the boys. That was good, Quatre thought, as he couldn't tell what her opinion of him was at this time. The newcomers stepped outside to shake hands with Duo and Trowa, and as soon as the door was shut behind them the Principal started talking to the pilots that were in the room (a lot of it was the same as what the secretary had said earlier).
Quatre made the mistake of ignoring the sound of the opening and shutting door behind him, so intent on looking like he was interested in what the principal was saying. The next thing he knew, some one was talking in his ear.
"R901001-MDvMS. Data upload complete. The Zero System has you now."
Quatre screamed horribly and jumped away, in to Heero. He stayed there, hanging on to Heero's neck and practically in his arms. His face was taunt, his mouth pulled back in a grimace, his eyes bugged out, and his entire body tense and in fear of what was before him.
Dorothy Catalonia.
An evil, evil young lady.
Heero pushed Quatre off him, stepped around the boy that still could not find the strength to move, and stood between the two blonds. It was her all right. The self- assured smile, the vampire-white skin, and the freakish eyebrows that stood out like they were two cockroaches that were leeching into her forehead. She peered around Heero at her target, and looked down at Quatre like she was going to eat him, until Heero stepped back into her line of sight.
"Leave now, or face the consequences." Heero warned.
"Leave? I'm not going to leave. I just got into this school, and I'm staying until graduation." She let out that giggle of hers that sounded like the mating call of the devil.
"Do you know each other?" the clueless principal scratched his bald head.
"We've met." Wufei helped Quatre to his feet. Through the window, people stared, and not just the ones who had business to loiter. The three boys stumbled out of the room, and Dorothy followed.
"The lunch room is this way."
What ever impression Quatre had wanted to make, this was certainly not it. While none but the occupants of the room had witnessed the full events of Dorothy's re-emergence in their lives, there obviously had been something going on, and so the gossip started on them. It wasn't helping that Quatre was having trouble keeping himself together. On one side of things, he had to escort his sister and the rest around for the rest of the day, and couldn't ditch them under any circumstances. On the other hand, this was Dorothy, the most twisted female mind that any of them had ever come across. Even Wufei acknowledged that she was a formidable enemy. Quatre had quite a day ahead of him.
First of all, he couldn't sit at lunch with the others, he had to sit with his charges. He managed to seat himself as faraway from Dorothy as possible, but couldn't avoid her words. She wanted to know what he had been up to 'since we saw each other last' (she was dancing around the subject of the circumstances of their encounter), and also told him of the tedious life she had led since they departed. If anything this made things with Pricilla even shakier, as it was obvious that Dorothy and Quatre knew each other (if begrudgingly) better than the brother and sister. Pricilla also seemed to resent being left out of the subject, and that her time to talk with Quatre had been cut out, although Quatre wasn't sure if she was mad at him for ignoring her, or at Dorothy for monopolizing her brother.
Heero and Quatre led them to the chemistry lab, and Quatre was grateful for Heero's attempts to distract Dorothy so he could actually focus on getting a word in with Pricilla and giving the grand tour like he was supposed to. The Chemistry teacher ignored their talking in class, but he did shoot dirty looks in their direction for all of the times Quatre's chair would make squeeches across the linoleum as Dorothy would try to touch him.
Heero collared some girls on their way to PE, and convinced them to take Dorothy and Pricilla to the girls locker room to talk with the instructor in charge and get changed. Heero caught up with the rest of their class, but Quatre was eight minutes late because it took the girls so long to get ready. The four new students stood back and watched as the class ran laps and did stretches. After it was over, Dorothy wasted no time in telling the boys just how silly this class was compared to what they used to do.
"What did you use to do?" one of the new boys, Ethan, asked, still unenlightened about the identity of his guide. Pricilla looked smug as Dorothy danced around the answer, and Quatre led his friends to hush her up.
The other four pilots excused themselves for basketball tryouts, and jogged off. Quatre hoped that Dorothy wouldn't try anything with witnesses around, and led the four around campus to some of the more important (and more popular) spots.
"What are you doing up here?" David the Woman believed he had snuck up on Duo, and expected him to jump at the words, but Duo didn't budge from his position, crouched on the roof of their dormitory, and peering through a heavy-duty pair of binoculars.
"What's it to you?"
"We-e-e-ell, you could get in trouble for being up here…"
"So could you."
"And you'd be double-y in trouble for spying on people."
"I have a good reason."
"Looking down girls shirts is not a good reason."
"I'm not looking down any body's shirt."
"Good. But I still need to know what you're doing up here, unless you want me to get some one else to ask you the question…"
Duo shifted his legs, which were in danger of falling asleep. "I'm doing a security check. For Quatre."
David made an 'Ooooh' sound, puckering up his lips in exaggeration. "A security check. Sounds like fun, and it's a big military word, too. What's it for?"
Duo chose not to point out that it was two words. "I need to make sure that Dorothy doesn't try anything."
"Dorothy? Who's Dorothy?"
"She's a new student. Just came in today. We met her back in the…back a few years ago."
David wised up and didn't say anything. This was one of the few real references to the war that any of the five had ever made (in the presence of others, in a language common people could understand, loud enough to hear).
"Where are the rest of you?" David finally asked.
"Around. We drew straws, and I got the high ground. If that witch tries anything, we'll be on her faster than an Aquarius runs out of air after you've severed its pipes"
"That's…..too bad for her."
"No. It's perfect. The victim here is Quatre, and I'm not sure how much more he can keep this up."
"What's so bad about her? She's just some girl."
"Wrong. She's a rich, spoiled sadist who used her money and family to get away with the attempted slaughter of billions of people. She's targeted Quatre in the past, and we'll not let her get away with it again."
David the Woman thought that maybe it was time to leave for less creepy company, and leave his unflattering impression of the French teacher for another day.
By dinner Quatre was more tired than truly nervous. He knew better than to let his guard down, but the situation seemed to be under control. Ethan and Freddy had made friends and gone off to eat with them, so he could sit at the table with Pricilla on his right and Trowa on his left and feel safe that Dorothy didn't want a repeat of events. Small talk with Pricilla went swimmingly, as they could just chat about the sisters they had met, and their childhoods, which had been tailor-made for all Winner children, surrounding tutors and high society (he just cut out the parts about training and fighting). Pricilla was not blind to the stone cold glares that the boys tossed at Dorothy, but made no comment. Nor did she bring up the current state of the family company (no business at the table) and Quatre's inexcusable actions (no politics at the table either, just like she had been taught.)
Finally, after the meal was finished and the plates cleared away (by waiters), he was able to escort the ladies to their dorms. Dorothy was in the 'A' building which was for seniors only, and he dropped her off along the way, and enjoyed a few brief moments being alone with his sister as he walked her over to 'E' building, a place for a mix of freshmen and sophomores.
"It was rather rude of you to treat Miss Catalonia that way." Pricilla said finally.
This was the first step to a talk on real issues. "Which in particular are you referring to?" Quatre asked.
"You tried to ignore her all afternoon. You siced your friends on her to harass her. And when we were called up to the front of the class room, you introduced her as 'The Wicked Witch of the East'"
My friends did not 'harass' her. And she really is the Wicked Witch of the East." He saw the look on his sister's face. "I'm telling the truth. Her radio call sign translates from Russian almost exactly into just that."
"Hmph. It was still rude thing to do to one of my friends."
"How long have you two been friends?" Quatre was disbelieving.
"I met her just today."
"Good. Stay away from her."
"That's a horrible thing to say!"
"I'm serious Pricilla. Dorothy Catalonia is bad news. She's dangerous, stay as far away from her as possible."
They had stopped walking. Pricilla was letting her anger show on her face, and she clenched her fists to her sides. "She can't be any more dangerous than you and your violent ways!" She started to storm off, but Quatre caught her shoulder.
"She's a hundred times more dangerous than me or any of my friends. What I did was against our family teachings of peace and kindness, but I did it because I felt I had to. What she did was perfectly in line with her family's teachings of warmongering and senseless slaughter, and she enjoyed every moment of it."
"What are you blathering about? Dorothy's a nice person. She never did anything like you!"
"You mean you don't know who she is?" Quatre peered in the light from the lampposts into Pricilla's face, and found nothing. "I first met Dorothy in the Sanq Kingdom. I was posing as a student so I could be a body guard for Princess Releena, and so that I could learn more about her version of total pacifism."
Pricilla stopped pulling away from him to listen, and he relinquished his grip on her, but was ready to catch her again if she rejected his next word.
"Dorothy Catalonia was there as a student from the Romafeller Foundation, and was there to spy on the kingdom and pass on information that would eventually lead to the country's downfall."
Pricilla looked stunned. "That's right." Quatre said. "They wanted to either wipe out the kingdom, or force Princess Releena to abandon her Total Pacifism to defend herself. Dorothy gleefully endangered the lives of an entire city, and it was only Releena's quick thinking that saved thousands from a horrible death."
"Dorothy stayed in the sidelines for a while, but showed up in the White Fang forces." Pricilla looked skeptical at this until he explained. "The Romafeller Foundation no longer suited her, because she was in love with the idea of a long and bloody war, and Romafeller had tried to become peaceful. She switched sides to be where the action was, and worked under Milliardo Peacecraft to start a war, and ultimately worked to help destroy all of earth. She thrives on the pain and death of others."
Pricilla frowned. "You're lying. You just don't like her because she was on the opposite side of the war as you!"
"I dislike her for personal reasons, and matters that took place after the war. But that doesn't make her any less of a danger."
"So you admit that you hate her!"
"I didn't say that. And the others don't hate her either, they just don't like her because of what she did to me."
"Did to you? What could she have possibly have done to you?" Pricilla looked angry, and then smug, as she seemed to come to a realization. "Were you and her…romantically invoved?"
"What? No. Not quite" Quatre started up the walk again. It was really getting late, and Pricilla needed to get settled in.
"You were, weren't you?" Pricilla seemed more her age, and Quatre was finally able to classify her personality. She seemed the hopeless romantic type.
"No." He said firmly.
"You protest too much. Geeze, if you're that bitter at your old girlfriend, then I guess it would be awkward if she and I became friends. Ok, I'll stay away. But you really need to lighten up. You didn't need to make up all that stuff about her being evil just to scare me away. Oh, my, Gawd, I can't wait to tell everyone that you're not really gay!"
"I beg your pardon?" Quatre said, suddenly felling like Dorothy was the last of his problems.
"Tee hee hee! What else did you expect? You never told us about any girlfriend, and all you do is hang out with a bunch of guys who've also never had girlfriends. Everyone just assumed you were a bunch of homo's and would use living together at this school to have massive orgies and stuff!"
"They WHAT!"
"Don't blow your gasket. I'll make sure to set them to rights. Don't you worry!"
"Don't worry! I just found out my entire family thinks I'm gay!"
"Good night." Pricilla skipped up the steps to the dorm.
"Good…good night." Quatre stormed off.
Poor, poor Quatre. Everybodys judging him, and many times their two plus two adds up to make nine. Stay tuned next time, same Kabochya place, same Kabochya channel, for more of his (and his friends) struggle for a life not spent surrounded by idiots.