[ Chapter 9 ]
It wasn't like Mia hadn't been thankful to her mother for picking out her outfits or anything – which she TOTALLY thankful for sense she barely had any fashion sense beyond picking out her own clothes – but still…
Truthfully, she thought her mother's style was a little…let's just say adventurous and out-there, but it was her style after all. Mia was more…confused beyond belief, as if the girl had been color blind and didn't know which color went with which, but she didn't mind it that way. She liked her questionable style because it was more her. And besides, she'd having many more years to experiment with different styles and test out new looks to see what she liked, but for now, Mia satisfied with her back side up and random style – which is why Mia decided that today she was going to handle her own fashion, with whatever clothes her mother packed along to assist her.
At 6:30 she started, standing in front of the mirror with her suitcase in front of her and by the time 7:46 rolled around, she'd finally decided on a look.
Sure it wasn't as fashionable and girly as her mother's style, but it was Mia and that's all she needed from her wardrobe. It had to be Mia and nothing else.
"I think it's good enough." She nodded to herself, staring intensely serious at her outfit. She had been wearing (from top to bottom) a turtle neck striped dark green and white long-sleeved t-shirt and on top of that was a red and white checkered shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Next were her purple just-above-the-knee shorts, followed by white stockings with black hearts and open-toe yellow wedged heels.
As for her hair, she had straightened it with Faith's straighter and parted it down the middle and finished it off by combing it on both sides. Somehow, she was fond of her look, even though she wasn't sure what to call it; mix-matched and spooky, maybe?
"Mia," Faith called, her voice sang. "It's time for Dakota to go!"
"Coming," She called back, her wedges heels clanking against the wooden floor. In that moment she had been thankful that her hooves were mysteriously shaped like a normal girl's feet were. If they hadn't been, she would've no doubt fallen by now. It was already hard enough for her to walk with a split in the middle of her hooves, but she'd learn to get use to it by now, after having lived with her hooves like this since she was small. "Sorry for taking so long, again."
"It's alright," Dakota said, his head tilting. In his head he wondered what exactly the girl had been wearing. "I'm not in a hurry."
Mia smiled, noticing his new hairstyle. Instead of wearing it down or in some odd style, he'd just simply combed all of it to the side. It highlighted his oval shaped head and big ears that would forever remain so cute on him. "I like your hair."
"Thanks." He poked out his lips, still staring perplexed at Mia with her odd sense of fashion.
"What?" her head tiled, her face turned a slight soft pink.
He grin, offering a half-smile that showed off his sharpening fangs that were still growing in. "It's nothing, you just look cute, a bit silly, yes, but still preferable cute. You look comfortable in your clothes, you look more like yourself today."
"O-oh, is that so?" Mia blinked away.
Dakota steadied his tie. "Well, I'm leaving now, ittekimasu."
"Bye," Mia perked up, leaving Dakota with a gentle smile as he shut the door. He grins as he made his way down the steps, his morning instantly brightened by Mia's smile.
He loved how it was always crooked and cute.
"So Mia, how about later we all spend some time together?" Faith asked, her smile brightly warm and friendly.
Mia nodded, her eyes flickering with thrill. "I'd love to."
"Good, this time I'll be able to get photos of all of us this time instead of just myself and those two." Faith said, hinting to Jin, who had been bringing the now dry laundry hanging on the clothing line outside, and Cara, who had been stocking up on their adventure for later.
Mia watched, giggles softly at her sister as she packed a cloth bag with carrots, cookies, strawberries, apples, sugar cubes, and bread, along with bottles of water and two glass containers of milk. Mia wondered just what it was they would be doing later.
"I told her to make sandwiches for the picnic…that girl." Faith said, raising an eyebrow at Cara as she added three bags of slat and vinegar Lays chips to the bag.
"She only hears what she wants to hear." Mia says, offering a small grin, hoping it will spare Cara's impulsive, thoughtless behavior.
"I suppose its fine; I'll just make the sandwiches myself." Faith pet's Mia head and goes over to Cara, who is now also adding trail mix to the bag.
Mia watches momentarily as the scene plays out before her eyes. Cara blinks at Faith, as if she was speaking a foreign language, then, a smile appears on her face and she adds yogurt to the bag before she assists in making sandwich. She first washes her hands.
Mia takes a deep breath, making her way out the front door. She closes it softly and greets the morning breeze that chills the air with a soft smile. It splashes against her skin, causes her hair to "ride the waves".
She blinks, looking up at the sky filled with little clouds. The sun bathes her in golden, white lights that showers along her string-like hair. "It's so peaceful here." She thinks aloud.
"It is when it's quiet, most of the time it's pretty noisy here. I guess you could it gets really eventful in these apartments." A girl says as she exits her home, keys and a filled garbage bag in her hands.
Mia turns to the girl. "Does it really? It's been pretty silent here since I got here."
The girl lets go of the tied up bag and sketches, her arms high and back tall. "Well," her arms fold behind her head. "That's pretty unusual. Hi there, my name's Erika. Did you just move here?"
"Oh no," Mia says timidly. "I'm just visiting a friend."
Erika's eyes flicker over to the home labeled 6 in silver, she rubs her chin. "Ah, I see. So you're friends of the Wolf family…odd, they don't seem to ever have many guest, let alone friends over. They seem to keep to themselves really – well, expect the oldest son, he's kind off…well, a player I would say, but I'm sure he means good."
"Yeah, that's Rocco for you." Mia smiles, rubbing the back of her head as memories of how Rocco use to hit on every girl he saw replays in Mia's head. She even remembered how he use to try to hit on her before she turned twelve. Now he seemed to go for older girls, girls like Erika with experience and features in all the right departments.
Mia glanced at Erika, silently applauding her sculpted figure. She was beautiful with foreign, American blue-green eyes and smooth olive skin. She had been a summer blonde with almost unnoticeable brown highlights. Her face noticeable freckled all over, but they seemed to compliment her youthful face.
As for her frame, workings, and features, she'd been thin with crazy long slender legs and an arched back. She had wide hips and breasts girls got operations for.
"So do you, by chance, live here?" Mia asked suddenly.
Erika's eyes snaked back to Mia. She gave her a wide smile. "Well, no, not really. My friend lives here…well, actually it may be more appropriate to call him my lover. We haven't quite made the couple-thing official yet, but he asked me to move in today."
"O-oh." Mia's faces turned red at the word lover. "T-That's…um…"
"I was kidding." Erika said playfully, as if she was testing Mia. "I'm actually a teacher here. I'm teaching English starting tomorrow. It'll be my first year teaching, I just moved into this apartment a little over last week. It's also my first year here in Japan, I was super happy when I found it for cheap."
Mia blinked at Erika, wondering if a lot of foreigners moved here. "Oh? Well, how do you like it here?"
Erika looks up, thinking for a second. "It's been pretty nice, everyone seems to keep to themselves about their private life and such, which I don't practically mind. Everyone here is pretty nice and will show you good manners if you respect them enough to show your own manners. I like that about the people here in Japan. It's refreshing to see since American people are…well, you know, right?"
"Y-Yeah, sure…" Mia nodded, as if really knowing.
Erika giggled softly, her hand placed in front of her lips. "How cute. Tell me, what's your name, hun?"
"It's M-Mia, um, Mia T-Tumnus." Mia said bashfully.
"Tumnus?" Erika's eyes glanced instantly at Mia's horns. She'd been trying not to stare, but they looked so…authentic there on Mia's round head.
"Um…yeah." Mia glanced away. "Anyway, I should go."
"Yeah, sure," Erika flashed a curious smile. It had been friendly, but all the same curious. She was despite to know if those horns on Mia's head had been real. They looked the part…
"I'll catch you around maybe, Mia, was it?"
"Yeah, that was it." Mia bowed her head, reentering the Wolf household.
Jin looked at her worriedly. "Mia, what have I told you? You shouldn't go out…"
"Then what's the point of getting dressed?" Mia pouted in a mumble.
"Well, um," Jin fumbled, trying to think of at least something to tell his almost teenage daughter. "It's to, uh…oh, I don't know, Mia, the point of getting dressed is to go out on the balcony, not outside the front door."
"Then how do you explain going out the front door yesterday when you all decided to go to a theme park where a lot of people lurked?" Mia asked, becoming slightly irritated.
"Well..um…that…well, you see…um…" Jin tried to think of an excuse, but came up empty.
"Look, Mia, don't give your old man a hard time. He's doing his best to protect your family secret, and besides, I practically forced him and Cara to join me yesterday." Faith said, coming to Jin's rescue.
"Right, well he and Cara looked eager enough to go out to me." Mia's turned her head, giving off a disappointed look as she folded her arms.
"Mia dear…I think maybe you should eat something sweet, you seem to be having quite the mood swings today. Did something happen maybe?" Faith asks, genuinely worried.
Mia though back to Minami and the whole scene in the living room. She remembered how Dakota was quick to make up an excuse after Mia explained that her horns were fake and yet Minami didn't believe her in the slightest. She remembered how Dakota had begged the boy not to tell anyone of her secret. She also remembered the sour feeling in her stomach as she sat there, her legs under her as she watched Dakota wear such a disturbing face.
The same sour expression settled on her own face. Guilt was staining her. "Never mind, just forget that I said anything, I'm fine."
"Alright…but you sure that you don't want something sweet?" Faith asked, her tone soft and nurturing like a mother would be.
"I'm said that I'm fine, didn't I?" Mia suddenly shouted, although her voice was respectably low and her tone more soft and hushed. The poor girl's voice could never be loud even if she wanted it to.
"Alright then, Mia. I'll stop asking then." Faith said, as if receiving the blow Mia's voice would have made had it actually been loud.
"I…I'm going to take a walk." Mia said, exiting through the front door even after she had been warned and scold for what she had just done.
As she trampled down the stairs with somewhat of a skipping-motion, she remember the vague expression of heavy curiosity that she saw in Erika's eyes. It had made her skin crawl for some reason. Had Mia actually been that interesting for once?
Deep in her heart, she'd hoped for her sake that she was not.