[Scene: Makoto Kino's house, she unlocks the door and turns on the light to reveal a toothpaste green living room and kitchen tiled with yellow linoleum. Dev tiptoes in after her, carrying a three foot tall trophy.]

Makoto: You don't have to be quiet. I live alone.

Dev: You live alone? And how old are you?

Makoto: I'm going to be seventeen in a few months. [goes into the kitchen and puts on an apron and opens the refrigerator] You like steak?

Dev: Who doesn't? [Looks around and sets the trophy next to the fireplace]

Makoto: [takes a rib eye steak out of the refrigerator and looks at it with a critical eye] I wasn't expecting company tonight. I better cook up some pasta as a side dish. [pulls some homemade noodles, eggs, cream, herbs and a wedge of hard cheese from the fridge.]

Dev: [Gives her a wolfish look as he takes off his coat and drapes it over the arm of the loveseat] You're beautiful, you cook, you dance like a dream and you don't have a curfew. How is it possible you don't already have a boyfriend?

Makoto: Most boys in our school don't want to date a linebacker.

Dev: [sits on the couch and loosens his tie while he watches her cook] That works out pretty well for me, then, because I absolutely do. Especially one with such an enormous amount of talent. [lounges on the couch] So where are your parents? Off in the tropics on some permanent vacation?

Makoto: [sets a pot of water on the stove and starts prepping the steak and pasta] My parents died in a plane crash when I was a little girl.

Dev: Oh, I'm sorry...That must have been one terrible phonecall.

Makoto: [puzzled] Phonecall? [comprehension dawns] No, I was on the plane.

[Dev looks appropriately stricken]

Makoto: Sole survivor...I'm going to come into a LOT of money when I reach adulthood...but I still can't look at an airplane.

Dev: I'll bet.

Makoto: I came here to live with my grandmother, but she passed away a couple of years ago, and I got the house in her will.

Dev: So your family just left you here?

Makoto: [whisking together a sauce and putting it on the stove to simmer] Pretty much. They all flew out for the funeral, but then they flew right back home after the wake. I think everyone assumed someone else was going to take me in.

Dev: That's awful. I can't imagine anything worse than being all alone in the world.

Makoto: [puts the steak in to broil] It not so bad. I have a lot of friends, and I tend to stay fairly busy, so I don't really have time to be lonely.

Dev: When did your grandmother die?

Makoto: About three years ago.

Dev: [looks around] If your family is not helping you out, and haven't gotten your insurance money, how do you pay the bills?

Makoto: [gives him a conspiratorial wink] Can you keep a secret? One that might get me into a bit of hot water, legally speaking?

Dev: Still collecting social security checks for your dead grandmother? [grins] Don't worry. I approve.

Makoto: Oh, no. [laughs] Nothing like that. Have you ever heard of 'Auntie Em's Catering'?

Dev: Well yes, aren't they supposed to be the go to caterers for most of Hen Tie? I noticed their van out front. So you've been working under the table for them as a prep cook and or delivery driver, or something?

Makoto: Not exactly. I'm Auntie Em.

Dev: [beams] Oh, really?

Makoto:[blushes a bit] Well, technically, I am an aunt, and my name begins with 'M' and I've been getting raves about my cooking since I was tall enough to reach a stove, and I needed to pay the bills...so...

Dev: That's amazing. But still, that's a lot of work. Especially for someone who is still in highschool.

Makoto: [stirs the sauce] I don't mind. I do pretty well here. Hen Tie is a really nice town, and the most likely guardian for me would be my nasty older half-sister. Who already has her hands full raising four bratty kids. In Cleveland, Ohio.

Dev: Hey. Cleveland is a nice place.

[Makoto give him some side eye]

Dev: They have the Rock & Roll Hall of fame there.

Makoto: Wow. [stirring the pasta sauce] You must really like music.

Dev: I do. [Spots a vintage piano along the wall] May I?

Makoto: Please do.

[Dev sits at the piano, tests the keys, and then plays a hypnotic melody, reminiscent of Brahms.]

[Makoto finds herself drifting over to him, as if by the pied piper, until she remembers she has a couple of pots boiling on the stove and rushes back to attend to her cooking.]

Makoto: That's beautiful. I've never heard that song before. Did you write that?

Dev: This is actually one of my Mother's. She was a composer, she wrote this one while she was pregnant with us. They say El got her smarts, and I inherited her love of music.

Makoto: What was your childhood like?

Dev: It was your pretty standard fairytale childhood... If you consider "Hansel and Gretel" to be a fairytale.

Makoto: That bad, huh?

[Dev gives her a knowing grin as he continues playing.]

Dev: My darling trophy girl, you have no idea.