Piranha's Retreat: Chapter 3
I woke up in complete darkness. Nothing unusual, but when I got up, I realized I was still fully dressed. Groaning, I realized that last night I was worn out just like dynamite felt after it was used. "Chestnut, let's go for a walk." I said, my voice still groggy, considering it was only 5 am. Chestnut gave me a look that told me to go back to bed.
Instead, I got up, and gave him his breakfast, which got a much more perky reaction. I went to boil some water while I took a quick shower, I had to get the shopping germs off of me someway or the other. By the time I got out, I could make myself some tea, and read a good book that I found a few days ago. It was called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, and has a very interesting summary.
By the time I finished the first chapter and my tea, Chestnut had to go for a walk, so I slipped my feet into some flip flops, put my damp hair in a messy ponytail, and grabbed the leash. I still had about a half hour before I could get my breakfast. I enjoyed having breakfast with the guests, it makes me feel less lonely.
Before I could even make my way out the main lobby door, I met him again. I really think he's stalking me.
"Ms. Reiko, what are you doing up so early?" he asked, looking slightly surprised to see me and my dog.
"I could ask you the same thing. I'm really starting to think that you're stalking me." I said lightly, while walking onwards until we reached the grassy parts of the lawn. As Hatori took out a cigarette I looked at him witheringly. "Mr. Hatori, you'll kill yourself if you continue to smoke."
"I know, just a bad habit." He said as he lit it, "I'm sorry for yesterday, Ayame is a handful."
"No problem, I found a great dress. That's all I could ask for." I said, picking up Chestnut's poop. "Mr. Hatori, meet Chestnut." I remembered my handsome little dog when he accidently crashed into my legs.
"You're right; he is very handsome Ms. Reiko. But why do you always call me Mr. Hatori?"
"Oh, that, well, considering that you have a large family, I find it easier to remember the first names. I was out sick when, I believe, your entire family was here. But I do believe that I met a Mrs. Tohru Sohma and Mr. Kyo Sohma a few years ago. Are they related to you?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Hatori said, "You have a great memory."
"Thank you, I only remember the kind guests, or the exceptionally rude." I said, I had mastered the art of avoiding the rude people by my second year of working here.
"Which do I fall under?" Hatori asked, looking at me with interest. I looked away for a second before meeting his glance, and answering him.
"You're a kind guest." I stated as I unconsciously started to pet Chestnut. "And you also remind me of someone. I don't know who, but defiantly someone in my past." It was his turn to look away uncomfortably; I decided to ignore it, why should I care anyway?
"I was wondering if you'd like to go to the Animal's Right ball with me." Hatori admitted to my face. I'll never understand why men always asked me about this stuff.
I smiled slightly, and scratching Chestnut a little harder.
"What do you say, Chestnut? Should we allow Mr. Hatori to escort us to the ball? Or shall we allow him to flounder away like all the other countless victims? Oops, I meant guests." I looked at my doggy, while he sniffed the man. He then wagged his tail, and started to vigorously lick his hand. I smiled harder, "I guess you have your answer Mr. Hatori, I'd be glad to come with you. On one condition."
"Which is?" Hatori prompted me.
"Just call me Reiko, I don't like hearing Ms. It makes me feel old." I said.
"Then call me Hatori. And Reiko, you're defiantly not old."
"Thanks. Shall we go inside now?" I looked at the sky, "It looks like it should start raining soon."
"Would you like to join my family for breakfast this morning? They've been interested in you since well, since you greeted us."
I blushed slightly, "Sure, but, I don't know why they would think I'm interesting." I started to walk down to my room, wondering if he was following me. As I reached to my door, Hatori answered my statement.
"You have an interesting personality." He said simply, "May I come in?"
"Why not? It's not like you're going to kill my room's aura." I shook my head slightly as I let Chestnut off his leash. "I don't have that unique of a personality." I added once Hatori stepped into my room.
My room was defiantly small for a place to live in for any length of time. I had a mini-fridge, a microwave, and a table with chair for my kitchen. My living room consisted of a small love seat, coffee table, and a second hand TV. My bedroom consisted of a queen size bed and a night stand. And all in the shape of a single room, no need to walk into walls here. I was surprised he didn't have any rude comments, considering Utau said that the Sohma family was loaded with cash.
"So who am I meeting at breakfast?" I asked, glancing at my watch quickly, only 5 minutes until the breakfast bar opened up. Luckily, I didn't have to help with breakfast; my mother hired some other cronies to do that work.
"Just some of my cousins, Akito, Shigure, Momiji, Hatsuharu, Rin, Ayame, and Mine have all decide it was time for a trip. Naturally, I had to be come to make sure they didn't destroy everything in their paths."
"Large group, 'kay, let's go then." I said, grabbing him and rushing out the door, making sure I locked it again. Wouldn't want anyone to steal my babies coffin, now would we? We were a minute early, "Mwahaha, we're here a minute early. Aren't we evil Hatori?" I asked, looking around the room, nope, Tadageek just wasn't here yet. "Cool, no spy's today." I said, sitting down at one of the round tables.
"Why would there be spies here?" Hatori asked, confusedly, he obviously couldn't read my mind.
"The owner likes to watch her cronies, ah, I mean worker bees. So she send in some other worker bees to spy on the other, off duty, worker bees." I said, scanning the room for hidden cameras, "Does that make any sense?"
"Vaguely." Was Hatori's curt reply, a small kiddish dude skipped into the room, followed by a black and white haired dude, and a girl wearing a miniskirt and low-cut tank-top all heading this way. Now, if my memory was clear, and not foggy, these where part of his group when they checked in. "Here comes some of my cousins now."
"Hatori! Did you know that everybody here is really nice? Somebody gave me this huge lollypop last night! And said I should enjoy it! And this blond haired dude told me to enjoy breakfast today!" the hyper kid was an inch away from bouncing up and down on the ceiling.
"Wait, a blond dude? About this tall, side bangs, and hair sticking up in places?" I asked the kid dude. Making gestures with my hands. The kid nodded very energetically, "Well, this puts a damper on my day." I said, waiting for the upcoming banging (literally, since the doors scared the hell out of kid dude) entrance of Tadageek.
"That's just plain mean, Reiko." Tadase said, I ignored him, as I tried to punch him in the arm, "Mom wants to see you, Reiko, she wants to discuss your routine for tomorrow's performance. " he paused as he returned the blow, "Right now, so don't give me any excuses."
"Can I just sit here, sip some coffee, and meet some guests first? I don't want to go see her yet!" I whined.
"Since when do you drink coffee? I thought you were a tea person. And I can only give you five minutes before walking back there empty handed, and telling her I couldn't find you."
"Thanks, Tadadork!" I called after him, as he left me in peace. "That, was the spy I was talking about, Hatori." I said, slumping in my chair for a second, before opening my purse up, and dry swallowing an advil. "My guess is that you're not Shigure, Mine, or Ayame." I said, scrutinizing the new kids standing before me. "So my guess is that you're Momiji," I said, pointing to the kid-dude, "you're Hatsuharu," I said to the black and white hair dude, "and you must be Akito?" I asked, slightly unsure of who the female was.
"Close, my name is Rin Sohma." She said, looking slightly annoyed that I got the boys right, and her name completely wrong.
"Sorry about that, I was using the power of deduction." I said lightly, I got up, grabbed a bagel, no spreading's on it, and a cup of orange juice. I looked at my wrist watch, to find that it was no longer ticking. So, instead I looked up at the wall clock in the room. Great, only 3 more minutes until I have to run down to my mother's office and go over what I was going to do again.
"Otherwise, well done!" Momiji said, looking even happier than he did 2 minutes ago.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go to the witch's castle, so I must leave you to your breakfast. See you around if you're not out of your rooms when I come around to clean, well, only if there isn't 'please do not disturb' sign on your door!" I said, "If I don't see you then, I'll see you just around, after all, it's not like this place is a maze." I said. I waved goodbye to them, and they waved goodbye to me, as I left the room with my loot, a bagel and some juice.
As I walked down to my mother's office, the place she stayed in whenever there wasn't anyone at the main desk, I realized that I actually did find Hatori to be amazingly cute.
I knocked on her door, before making my grand entrance. "Mom, you wanted to see me?" I asked, as I looked at the women who gave birth to me, and my only brother, Tadase Hotori.
'Yes come in, as you know the Animal Right's Ball is being held tomorrow, we're going to be short a few hands, and since you don't have a date yet, I was wondering about putting you on the waiter's team." Yeah, Mom! You remembered that my birthday was tomorrow! Perhaps you also remember the simple little fact that every worker gets a day off on their birthday?
"Mother, I do happen to have a date." I said, looking at her with poison eyes.
"Going with your dog doesn't count." She replied sharply.
"Ouch, Mother," I said, pretending to wince, "Do you really not know? I thought your little camera spies told you all? I'm going with Hatori Sohma."
"Our highly regarded, doctor guest?" my mother asked, looking surprise. Please, it's not like I'm that bad at choosing guys! I only dated a drug addict/trafficer before I decided to stop seeing random men. Not doing too well in that department, but I had a gut feeling Hatori was a nice man.
"Oh, he's a doctor?" I asked, slightly surprised at that once the detail started to sink in my peanut sized brain.
"Yes. And if you piss him off, he may never come back! So don't piss him off! And treat him with respect!" my mother cried, in an impressive outburst.
"Does that mean I get to go to the ball without working, except for the act I volunteered willingly?" I asked, stars in my eyes with hopefulness.
"Fine, but don't piss him off, I'll be watching you." My mother said. Hooray!
"'Kay then, see you later!" I called as I rushed out the door, my mother must have thought I was crazy as I raced back to the breakfast hall, wondering if he was still there. As I bombarded into the room, knowing I left my Advil behind, I walked up behind Hatori and demanded, "Hatori, did you see my Advil here? I could have sworn I left it here!"
A realized something, arrogant dude, hyper dude, a new girl, and the maid were added to the group from before. It looked like arrogant dude was hitched with the new girl, sitting next to him.
"Reiko, we were just talking about the Animal Rights ball." Crap, they found out. Okay, the mission, get my Advil, move to America, and never again set foot in Japan again if I don't want to die of embarrassment. Arrogant dude was smirking like he won a bet or something.
"Really? Well I was just talking to myself and said that I had to have my Advil if I want to live." I said coldly to one and only, Shigure Sohma a.k.a. Arrogent dude.
"Advil? I believe that Haa-san has that! He said that he was going to give it to you when he next saw you." Shigure, the evil, or the most repulsive crap-head ever alive. Or so my aunt says to describe her ex-author/client. Her name is, after all, is Mitsuru Hotori.
I held my hand out to Hatori, who gave me back my little white and blue bottle of pills. "Thanks, Hatori!" I said cheerily, "Oh, yeah, Shigure, Mitsu-chan told me to tell you that she found a new client, and is happily working without practical jokes going on every minute of every day." I said, turning my voice cold full force all the way.
"You know Mitsuru?" Mwahahaha! Shigure's face was priceless.
"Well she is my aunt. Of course she hates my mother's guts, but hey, at least she still talks to me!" I said, unconsciously rubbing my head. A loud 'achem' came from the new girl. "Hey! You must be Ms. Akito!" I said, offering my hand out for her to shake, her short black hair featured her sharp planes on her face.
"Yes, and you must be Reiko." She said, her voice sounded harsher than I expected, defiantly not a gushy kind of girl.
"Yuppie do da!" I sang as I looked at my watch, only one more hour before I got to clean a few dirty rooms. "Hatori met Chestnut this morning; you guys have to see him too! He's like a furry ball of evil and cute! He gets into everything and anything, including my baby coffin! At one point he even knocked the entire thing over!" I gushed completely ignoring the confused looks of the other guests.
I glanced at the door behind me, because I heard an all too familiar voice.
"Reiko!" mother's harsh voice called at me. Great, just what I needed, another reason to wince. "What the heck are you doing here? We need all hands on deck today! Another huge reservation is being met today." My 'friends' blinked slightly; surprised I was treated so harshly.
"Sorry, ma'am, got a little side tracked." I said gingerly, pretending that she wasn't' my mother, cause that's the best way to treat her in times like this.
"Then go get changed, and go talk to your father, your brother is waiting with him." She said, before returning to her good grace and smiling so charmingly to our guests. "How is your stay? I hope everything is fine, and I hope Reiko didn't do anything rash!" I left the room; feeling like every eye was trained onto me.
As I walked slowly back to my room, I felt a pain, not in my head, but in my heart. Like I knew what was really coming. As I changed into the all familiar dark green skirt and white shirt, Chestnut looked at me like I was crazy as I threw my larger purse down, and took my coin purse. I felt like talking to him, but I didn't have the time. While hopping up and down, trying to put on my shoes, I made my way too my parent's headquarters.
"Papa, may I come in?" I asked softly, while knocking.
"You may, Reiko." The hoarse whisper of my father almost made me run away. The room was dark again, the curtains were drawn closed.
"Papa, you need light, without light it's hard to see in here." I said, going over to open the blinds, to be stopped by my brother. He had the same eyes and hair as our father. I got the look of my grandmother, a wonderful woman who should have stayed alive longer.
"Reiko, not tonight." My father said, his voice was as harsh as it could be. I turned silent, looking at him, emotionless. "I've called you, my children, because I need to discuss my will to you." I watched, with horror filled eyes. He was still talking about death, I couldn't listen. It was too sad, too much memory was trying to fill my brain, but I listened as hard as I could, trying to ignore the pain growing in my head.
As my father was rambling on about what he left us, I noticed that his voice was getting softer as he started to sink back down into an un-restful slumber. As Tadase and I tip toed out the room, it was time to start work.
"Sorry, bro, gotta go work for the ice queen!" I said, pretending to bounce back into my peppy façade.
"Alright, but don't forget to hang up that new dress you got. Otherwise it'll wrinkle, and I don't have time to straighten it up for you." Tadase reminded me, again, for the 50th time this month.
"Seriously, it's getting annoying how people think I can be so thick sometimes. I already hanged it up!" I lied, to be honest, I forgot all about it until now. "Jeez, just because you moved out before I did, that doesn't mean I'm any less intelligent than you."
"Never said you were." Gahh! Tadageek made it hard for me to be mad at him! He's such a dork sometimes, however, this wasn't that time.
"Hey are you working tomorrow night?" I asked, playing with the cart, and also waiting for super cleaning girl to clock in so we could get started.
"No, mom never asked me too work. So I'm bringing a date." I sighed. "Why? Did she ask you?" Thankfully I didn't have to go work.
"I'm going with Hatori Sohma. Ever heard of him? I never did until now." Of course, work started, so me and Amu had to get to work before I heard his reply. "Amu, darling, you've heard of the Sohma family. I was wondering if you knew why they were 'famous'."
"They're filthy rich and a huge family," Amu said as we made a bed, "Ikuto hung out with these guys named Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori. He said that Hatori was very serious, and Ayame and Shigure liked to pretend they were lovers."
"Eww!" I screeched softly, "You mean they like to pretend that they really gay?" as we started to get into a discussion of whether they were acting or not, as we did our diligent jobs, the day went on as normal, with no more accidental meetings with Hatori or his family, even when we cleaned they're rooms, they seemed to have just gone to see the sights. And yes, that was the very huge, highlight of my day.
Author's Note: This chapter has been edited (roughly)