June 17, SD 772
Earth.
When I learned Sophia would be joining us on our vacation to Hyda IV, I was ecstatic. The two of us had grown up together, and all but lived with each other because our parents were always at work.
My father, Robert Leingod, had promised a trip to Hyda to my mom years ago, and had finally made arrangements in his busy schedule that allowed him to go. Ryoko, of course, was excited.
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June 18
The Korskakov
It took us over three hours to finally get aboard our ship, and then we had to wait another hour for our luggage. "Feces." That's what the fellow in front of me said. "It's utter rubbish that I'm forced to wait so long. Don't you know who I am!"
This went for the first 52 minutes. The loaders kindly informed the pretentious fellow that they could have been done half an hour ago, but they enjoyed his ranting enough to drag it out.
He then left to complain to the captain. I didn't see him on that flight again. I later learned that he was loaded in with the luggage.
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Throughout the entire flight, the ambient music was modeled entirely around one N. Rimsky Korskakov. Some kind of gimmick, apparently. Flight of the Bumblebee can only be endured so many times before one begins to lose their patience, not to mention their sanity…
After two days of this, we finally reached Hyda IV.
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June 20
Hyda was unbelievably beautiful. Beaches unscarred by wastes and carbon dioxide; clean, unfiltered air; and the absolute latest in combat simulators. They even accepted my WoW account.
So of course that was the first thing I wanted to do after we unpacked. Master Adonis Klein became a god that day.
As every good thing eventually does, it turned out I had supposedly promised to hang out with Sophia at the beach as my first act upon setting foot on the planet.
She wasn't very merciful when she found me, wasted, after a 7 hour leveling spree. When I tried to placate her with offers of returning to the beach, she told me that she had swam enough.
Then I remembered rule #19 of The Guide to Placating Angry Women, offer to go shopping.
I was amazed it worked. I made a mental note to send a letter to the author.
Of course, Sophia couldn't resist a parting shot – she wanted to change her clothes first. I didn't really understand that. I thought she looked all right in that sweater hanging over her new bikini.
I should remember to never say that out loud…
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It took over half an hour for her to come out of the room. Which was all right, because I was listening to the radio (some weird kind of ballad was playing – sort of unnerved me).
…
It took me all of half a second to realize she was undone. And another half second to catch myself from blurting it out. She'd probably think I was calling her fat.
Sadly, it took me a full three seconds to realize those were the jeans I bought her the last time we went shopping. Three years ago. In New York. Talk about guilt trip.
And all I said was "Took you long enough."
Sometimes I'm glad I don't say half of what I think. Because her rebuttal was bad enough. Something about "serves you right" and "let's go."
Whenever Sophia's mad at me, I try to lose myself in obscure facts. It's my coping mechanism. As we passed the doors on our way to the transporter, I noticed there was no room 4. I remembered that an old superstition associated the number four with death, and that some hotels and factories would refuse to build a Room 4.
I told Sophia this. She seemed interested, but I knew she was only covering further frustration. I figured I'd better move and keep my mouth shut.
We went to the beach first. Go figure. I met a really hot chick that wanted to talk to me. Sophia was of in a corner, moping, I think.
Hmmm….
The two of us were hardly introduced when Sophia came up and tried to get me to go. The chick asked who Sophia was.
The choices, the choices…
On the one hand, Sophia had chewed me out and was already angry at me… I could flirt a bit longer and make her jealous, too.
But on the other hand, Sophia had chewed me out and was angry at me. And blood is thicker than lust … or at least childhood friends are closer than some hot bikini babe and a blue haired young man (I don't even dye it…).
So I told the flirt that Sophia was my girlfriend. That kinda sorta flustered her. If she had been an anime character, the entire region from her forehead to her mouth would have been covered in red squiggly lines.
The chick of course was more than a little ticked off. Said something about coming to an ex-peeen-sive (that's how she said it) resort to pick up a hot guy. I kinda stopped listening after that, though I distinctly remember being told to step aside for her to pass between Sophia and I. How rude.
Sophia still looked a bit out of it, so I apologized to her. I figured she must have been embarrassed by my forward speech. I mean, come on, childhood friends never end up getting hitched to each other.
Strangely, this both flustered and slightly annoyed her more. I also picked up something of … something I'd never seen in her before. Huh. Oh, well. Hey, there's my parents. I should check up on them. I want to make sure their enjoying their vacation. They've earned it.
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A/N: So there's the first real chapter. My updates will probably be sporadic, but I'll try to get some kind of schedule together for this. What with college starting up soon, that could be difficult.
Until next time, with the pink-paletted daemon of devilishly devastating counters, Soufflé!
Or Peppita, if you prefer….