Chapter 13

I leapt onto the hotel bed with a shriek of delight, kicking my legs in the air. We had just come from the Regional competition in San Francisco and this time had come out of it with the 1st place trophy!

Unlike the last time, there hadn't even been any comparison to us and the other teams. As soon as we had stepped on stage it had been total magic.

This competition was based around olden famous composers and our task was to take one of their pieces and to add on our own modern twist on it. All the schools' principals pulled a long dead name out of a hat to see which one we would base our performances on.

We actually ended up with Mozart which wasn't necessarily a good thing. With such a famous composer we would need to go over the top just to be considered. Fortunately, through Lily and Sesshomaru's genius thinking, we had managed to come up with a truly amazing piece that centered on Kohako's piano skills.

Kohaku really came through for us and all our instruments had blended together to make a wonderful combination of old and new music. The crowd had been roaring on their feet even before our last note had ended.

Ruby's school had done well too, unfortunately, and had placed 2nd so she would be at Nationals too but right then I totally didn't care. We had won Regionals!

Lily and Isabella flung themselves onto the bed next to me and before I knew it we were having an old-fashioned pillow fight. It amazed me sometimes that even the rich and wealthy could enjoy the simple things like this.

Personally, I was just glad Isabella was finally willing to open up to us a little. Not to mention she was finally sharing a room with Lily and me. I was glad she had gotten off that high throne of hers to join the rest of us.

I laughed as I hit Lily with my pillow and she collapsed laughing helplessly onto the bed. "We were so good!" she exclaimed between gasps.

"I know!" I said, flopping down beside her, utterly exhausted.

Isabella stood over us, looking down in amusement and said, "No real celebrating yet, my girls. Win Nationals and then we can really party."

"Ever heard of living in the moment, Isabella?" I asked as I reached up and, grabbing onto Isabella's dress, pulled her down on top of us.

We all shrieked as we tumbled off the bed onto the floor. Just then, without any knocking, the door to our room swung open the Will stood in, raising an eyebrow when he saw the three of us sprawled out on the floor.

"You guys aren't drunk right?" asked Kohaku as he too walked through the door.

"They're not," Lucas assured him, walking in followed by Sesshomaru, "Believe me, I've seen people drunk and they aren't. Right, William?"

Will shot an injured look at his friend and chose not to answer. Instead he turned to us and announced, "We are going out to a late dinner to celebrate. You girls in?"

"Are you kidding?" demanded Isabella, "I'm starved! Let's go!"

We ended up at the Le Jardin Secret which meant Secret Garden in French. It was a totally fancy restaurant that I would normally never be able to afford going to but Will and Isabella were paying so I planned on taking full advantage.

I ordered a pasta dish and everyone else also made their orders. Lily raised up her glass of cider and announced, "To us! For the Regional win and our chance to go on to Nationals!"

Laughing, we all rose up our glasses and chorused, "To the Nationals!"

"You all do know that this is just going to mean a whole lot more work, right?" asked Sesshomaru, shaking his head slowly, "Obviously you guys aren't used to winning big competitions. Right Rin?"

I looked at my best friend in mock sorrow and answered, "Oh, come now, Sesshomaru. We can let them live in ignorance a little longer, can't we?"

Lucas was looking from Sesshomaru to me with a look of mild concern. "Are you two being serious?" he asked tentatively.

Sesshomaru quirked an eyebrow at the younger boy and said, "Dead serious."

Lucas winced. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that," he muttered.

"Well you shouldn't," said Sesshomaru, all traces of teasing gone. "Tonight is for celebrating but I am being serious, guys. We are going to the Nationals in Washington DC. This is a huge deal. It's going to mean working harder than you ever had in your entire life. But as I said, tonight is for celebration, so try not to think too much about it."

"As if we could after that speech," muttered Kohaku.

I threw Sesshomaru a nasty look and was about to reassure my friends when Isabella's voice suddenly cut through mine. "Rin, Sesshomaru," she said quietly, not looking at any of us, "Was that what it was like for you all the time? Nothing but intense practice and hard competitions? Have you really lived with all that pressure for so long?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that so I looked at Sesshomaru but he just smiled and gestured for me to answer. Gee thanks Sesshomaru.

I considered the questions for a few seconds before replying carefully, "I guess you could say that but it was much more. There is a lot of joy in music along with the disappointment and stress."

Isabella looked up at me and replied softly, "I never really thought of it like that before."

I shrugged. "You give some things up to do the things you love," I said.

Sesshomaru snorted and added, "Or if your parents force you."

Kohaku turned to Sesshomaru in surprise and asked, "You mean playing isn't your choice? It was your parents who made you?"

"In the beginning," replied Sesshomaru, "Sure, I love it now, but what six year old kid wants to spend hours on end practicing on a violin?"

"I guess you have a point," conceded Kohaku.

"Anyway," I broke in, "Sesshomaru is right. From now on we are going to have to devote our lives to practice but we don't go home until tomorrow night. So why don't we have some fun while we can?"

A grin broke out over Lily's face and she exclaimed excitedly, "Yes! Actually I've been thinking about what we should do tomorrow and I have made up my mind!"

"Uh-oh," Isabella said, rolling her eyes, "here we go again. What is it this time, Lily?"

Lily shot her a dirty look and answered, "Well, after that I'm not so sure but I thought we could have a girl's day out. Get away from these noisy boys for a while."

I grinned across the table at Sesshomaru and leaned back saying "Sound good to me."

This time it was Sesshomaru's turn to throw me a dirty look and then he smirked and replied, "Actually I wouldn't mind going out with the guys for the day. I don't think it's healthy to be around so many girls all the time."

After that decision the evening lapsed back into a happier mood and I went to bed that night more content than I had been in a very long time. Lily, Isabella and I had all tumbled in a single bed and it felt great to have such amazing friends. I had never really had the chance to have many female friends and I was glad to finally have them. I didn't plan on letting them go easily.

The next day we all slept in and I was rudely awoken when Lily hit me on the back with a pillow. I looked up blearily into her smiling face and gave a groan of protest.

"Up and at em, Rin!" she said cheerily, "We're going to spend the day at the mall!"

"Mall?" I asked groggily, still half asleep.

"Yes, mall," answered Lily, moving away, "we never have time to do any girl stuff together and this is probably the only time we'll get. Girls go shopping so that is what we're going to do!"

I sat up to both Lily and Isabella getting ready and assumed that I had little say in the matter. Half an hour later we were off in search of the nearest shopping mall.

Isabella took charge and hailed a taxi and told the driver to take us to the larger shopping mall. Before long we had reached the mall and I stepped out the car and stared.

I had never been in a mall the size of this one in San Francisco. It had to be at least ten stories high and was plenty long.

"Oh this is going to be fun!" exclaimed Isabella, rubbing her hands together in glee.

The next few hours flew by in a confused blur as Isabella and Lily pulled me from store to store as we tried on countless outfits and bought most of them. Normally I wouldn't be able to afford something like this but we had all been given some money to spend after winning Regionals and Isabella and Lily were also helping out so it was fine. However, I was getting tired of relying on my new friends for money.

I had tried to protest but Lily had pointed out that they had practically forced me to join them and besides, it wasn't like they couldn't afford it. After that, I accepted the money because they were right, on both accounts.

Isabella tended to lean toward dresses and skirts while Lily like t-shirts and jewelry. I simply picked up things that caught my eye which included a whole assortment of scarves and hats.

We finally stopped around two o' clock in the food area and got some really excellent seafood. I wistfully thought about how great it would be if we could do this all the time but I knew that free and fun time would soon become something of the distant past.

"I'm going to go get a refill," announced Lily and without further a due, she got up in search of her drink.

I went right on eating until Isabella's voice cut through my thoughts, calling my name. I looked up and asked, "Yes?"

Isabella actually looked embarrassed and was staring down at the table. "I just wanted to say…." she started, broke off, looked up and me, back down at the table and continued, "I'm sorry."

Carefully placing my fork down I looked across the table at Isabella. I knew how much pride and dignity this girl had so for her to be apologizing was something pretty big. "What for?" I asked, thinking of about a dozen possible reasons.

"For what I said that day at your brother's grave," Isabella replied.

I sat back, slightly stunned. That certainly hadn't been what I had expected.

Encouraged by my silence Isabella continued, "I said some hurtful things to you about things I didn't really understand. I've learned a lot since then so I'm sorry."

I smiled slightly. This really showed how much Isabella, and all of us, had grown over the last few months. "Apology accepted," I said, "thanks, Isabella, that really means a lot to me."

She grinned cheekily and said, "Yeah, it better because that is going to be the last apology you'll ever hear from these lips."

I began to giggle just as Lily got back. "What's so funny?" she asked in confusion but by then both Isabella and I were laughing too hard to answer.

Off the Nationals! See you all there! R&R