Ok , so I'm pretty surprised at the number of hits I've gotten in the past 9 hours since I posted this? Now that is weird, my cell phone that I was looking for all night just popped up beside me on the bed. To clear up some confusion on the location: this is completely set in England and will probably remain that way throughout the rest of the story. Mai was in an English airport.
Alright, well now that this is settled, let's get rid of this guy before our guest gets here. Putting on a polite smile, Gene popped out of his chair.
"Thank you so much for accepting my case. Would you prefer me to keep the park open or to close it while you are working?"
"Whether or not you close the park until we solve this case is up to you. It won't affect us either way. Well, what do you think Noll?"
"Keep it open."
Mr. Parker nodded as he stood up and Gene said, "Well, we will see you later on this week. I hope you have a safe trip home."
Just as he led the client out of the room, he heard the doorbell ring. Ah, perfect timing.
Mai only had to wait a few seconds after ringing the doorbell for the door to open. Standing on the other side of the door was an old man in a business and a very handsome boy who looked to be about the same age as her.
Aw, Noll, you should come take a look at our kawaii guest. Perhaps you'll take a liking to this one.
Hearing Gene's thoughts, Noll sighed and stood up. Gene, you very well know that I am too busy to 'take a liking' to any type of girl. Now, how about you let her in at least?
Eh, right…she looks a bit afraid of me. Or maybe she's awed by my good looks. Gene laughed inwardly at that idea.
Mai realized that the old man was looking to get out of the house and stepped to the side to let him through.
After Mr. Parker left, Gene smiled warmly at the girl on his front porch. She smiled back and said in fractured English, "Err…hello, I am..Mai Taniyama." To her surprise, the boy standing there chuckled and replied in perfect Japanese.
"I'm Eugene; but really Taniyama-san, please don't worry about trying to speak English. Everybody in this family except my father knows how to speak Japanese. Here, let me take your bags and see if I can't get the rest of my overly reclusive family in here." Switching over to English he yelled down the hall, "Oi, Noll! Get your butt in here!" and up the stairs, "MOM! DAD! MAI'S HERE~~!!"
He closed the door and showed Mai to the downstairs living room. "I'll be right back. Everybody else should be in here shortly." He grabbed her luggage and carried it out of the room and up to her bedroom.
As soon as Gene left out of one doorway, Noll appeared in the opposite doorway. Leaning on the doorframe he said quietly, "Good evening, Taniyama-san." Mai spun around to see the other speaker only to find the same person that had just left but in different clothes.
"Wah, how did you do that?"
"Do what?" He smirked slightly.
"Eh, uh….never mind." She heard heavy footsteps of somebody running downstairs and turned back around to find…the same person again. "Oh, boy." Yikes. Twins I take it.
"Ah, Taniyama-san, I see you've met my brother. Noll, introduce yourself already."
After straightening up, Noll walked into the room to the girl and in the same quiet voice said to her as his parents walked in, "Hello Taniyama-san, I am Oliver Davis. These are our parents, Luella and Martin Davis. I hope the trip over was well?" Mai nodded.
His mother walked over to Mai, practically pushing him out of the way, and enveloped the girl in a giant hug. "Hello dear. I'm Luella Davis, but you can just call me Luella. My sons can be rude sometimes. They're so absentminded." Gesturing at her husband she added, "That's my husband. You can just call him Martin. I'm sure he doesn't mind, right? As for those two you can call them either Noll or Gene. Doesn't matter if you get them mixed up, Gene will answer to just about anything. Noll, however, rarely even talks."
"Mum, you talk too much. Is dinner ready yet? I'm sure she's tired and hungry after that plane ride."
"Yes, of course, I'm sorry dear. I do tend to rant. Follow me to the dining room." Finding it unnecessary to reply, Mai simply followed the rest of the family to their dining room where they had dinner.
Ok, enough of that. I'm bored just thinking about this thankfully short chapter. I'm glad it's over as well. It's definitely a filler page . I hate those, but I had to get this all out of the way before I could go any further. I'm trying to write straight through a writer's block. It worked well late last night, but it's a little harder when I'm thinking straight. I'm definitely going to put up another chapter tonight and I promise it will get more interesting.