Maki wiped her hair with a warm towel. I wonder how the script is going...
"Ah, Maki." Eli stopped Maki as she was walking down the stairs. "Umi told me you won. Good job."
Maki nodded. "Thanks. How's the script?"
Eli smiled. "It's done. We still need you to double check, though."
"Wow, so fast," Maki frowned. "Are you guys really humans?"
Eli chuckled. "Anyways, I need you to go back to the working room with me after dinner."
"Sure."
Maki walked past Eli and entered the dining room, where everyone was already seated and talking excitedly.
"Oh, Maki!" Rin shouted without a hint of her earlier sadness. "You won, so choose your prize!"
Maki raised her eyebrow. "What prize?"
Nico glared at Maki as she talked. "Well, since you won, you can choose to make us do anything you want."
"Anything," Nozomi whispered.
"Uh..." Maki thought about what she should ask for. Maybe I should tell them to not bother me? Or maybe I should tell them not to drink alcohol for the rest of the trip.
"10..." Rin counted impatiently.
"9..."
Maki panicked inwardly. No bothering or no alcohol? Gah! I can't choose!
"8..."
Wait but what if I tell Nozomi to delete the videos of when I was drunk?
"7..."
"6..."
Maki furrowed her brows. Or maybe I should tell Nico to stop dragging me into her dumb videos! Ugh, there's too many to choose from!
"5..."
"4..."
"3...Maki just choose already!" Rin hollered.
Should I ask them no to bother me or not to drink alcohol or to delete the videos or to-
"2..." Rin continued counting.
Oh! I have a perfect idea! Rin will never find a way around this!
"Gah!" Maki screamed. "Fine! Fine! I got it!"
"What is it?" Nozomi pressed.
"From now on until the end of this vacation...you guys ARE NOT ALLOWED TO bother me OR drink alcohol-"
Honoka let out a giant gasp.
"-OR drag me into Youtube videos AND Nozomi has to delete all the videos she took yesterday!"
"You're not allowed to request 4 things," Nozomi announced.
...And of course, they found a way around it.
Maki sighed. "Fine."
Honoka sighed in relief. "Thank goodness! What would we do without alcohol?"
Maki pondered over her choices. If I told them not to bother me, no wait, shouldn't I think of what mother told me? She told me not to let my friends burn down our house.
"Okay, I've got it," Maki started.
Everyone except Eli (who was still upstairs) looked at Maki excitedly.
"From now on until the end of this vacation...you guys are not allowed to do stupid things that damage this house in any way. That includes not burning down the house."
Honoka nodded. "We'll take that into consideration."
Little did anyone know how tempted Nico was to burn down the mansion.
Maki stepped into the working room. "Eli, I'm here."
Eli, who was sitting at her laptop, turned her head to Maki. "Good. Here, sit next to me."
Maki walked up to Eli and sat on the chair next to her. "Have you printed the script?"
"No, because you need to check it first." Eli lifted the laptop and put it in front of Maki.
Maki scanned the script. "Wow, 80 pages?"
Eli shrugged. "We needed to make the play at least an hour, so..."
Maki read the first paragraph. "It's similar to what I envisioned so far...hm...oh!" Maki highlighted a long monologue of the princess's. "I don't think we should add this. Nico would be bored out of her mind."
Eli nodded. "We can delete it."
Maki pressed delete and carried on.
"You know, Eli," Maki said as she was about to leave the working room. "That script you guys wrote was really professional. Did you two...major in writing or something?"
Eli chuckled. "Ahaha... we both majored in business."
Maki gasped slightly at the sheer prodigiousness at her friends. There are people like Eli...and then there's Nico.
And that's an update!
...As short as it is.