Chapter 9 : Manila’s Thataway!

 

Author’s Notes : for those who don’t know what X/99 is don’t worry, I won’t put in too much here. All you need to know is that Kamui is Fuuma’s bestfriend, Fuuma is Kotori’s sister and Kotori is Kamui’s sweetheart. I totally just copy and pasted the characters, forgetting the plot of X/99. Aha, sorry to the purists.

 

*****

 

“What?!?” Jericah’s shout echoed through the hotel room. “The Van is WHAT?!?!?!?”

 

Erika shook her ear out for a while and said, “I said that the Van isn’t starting. Something wrong with the Spark Plugs supposedly.”

 

“Then how are we going home?” asked Andrea from her place on the floor. She had her camera in one hand and was editing something on it when Erika broke the bad news to them. Meg looked up and shrugged and went back to fiddling the camera that Andrea held.

 

“Fly?” ventured Yuuki as she sat crosslegged on the bed.

 

She was met with Andrea’s and Jericah’s glare.

 

“uhmm….” Said Yuuki by way of apology.

 

“*You* sprout wings…!” pouted Jericah. “I wanna go home!” she fairly whined.

 

Erika sighed and said, “I have a solution…” Andrea and Jericah perked up when she said solution. “But you might not like it.”

 

She was met with two raised eyebrows.

 

She sighed and started to explain.

 

 

*****

 

 “Who’s coming with us?” Yvonne fairly growled.

 

“Erika and the rest of her friends,” reiterated Anne to her. “Are you deaf?”

 

Yvonne spared Anne a glare and said, “Why?”

 

Syl shrugged demurely and said, “Their van’s inoperable, and we’re basically going the same way.” She smiled sweetly up at the younger woman, seeming oblivious of Yvonne’s deep frown, “So I asked them to join us in going home.”

 

“What  do they think about it?” asked Jericho from his perch on the armchair.

 

Before Syl could answer, they could hear from the opposite room…

 

“NO, NO WAY, NEVER EVER! IN THAT ORDER!!!!!!” came a screech that sounded a lot like Andrea and Jericah.

 

“Now you know” muttered De after the silence that had fallen.

 

“Oh Syl,” said Anne as if an afterthought, “Did you tell them about the Hiking trip?”

 

Syl looked a bit surprised, “Oh…I don’t think so…”

 

*****

 

Packing in each of the rooms was very sullen and very quiet.

 

Erika stuffed a few neatly folded shirts in her bag and mused quietly. She knew that the van’s clonking out on them wasn’t her fault but she had a feeling that her grandfather just might blame it on her. She rolled her eyes at the thought. :At least I had time to enjoy  the vacation.: she muttered to herself.

 

Anne was reading a book by her packed bags. She had packed already the night before and all she had to do was pick up the bag and go. She was too absorbed in the book to notice anything else.

 

Neatly folding one shirt at a time, Andrea wanted to panic but had no time to. There was still packing to be done, her camera to be arranged, the hotel room to scour just in case either her or one of her friends might have lost something. No time to muse on what just might happen later on the trip home.

 

Syl however was beatifically stretched out on the balcony reclining chair, sketching the forested horizon. Her bags were already downstairs in the car and she was just biding her time until the rest of her companions were done packing.

 

Meg chose that moment to put on her make-up and fix up her hair. Her bags lay neatly on a pile with the others and she just waited for the stragglers to finish packing. From time to time she would glare as some thought occurred to her but those were rare.

 

De was just going around the hotel room muttering to herself. She kept on finding something that either belonged to Jericho or to Yvonne and she would unceremoniously dump it on them when she did find it. She had long finished packing and was just finding a way to keep her hands busy.

 

Yuuki just finished zipping up her bag and sat on the bag looking very tired. Wondering if she had left something in the bathroom she jumped up and went there, checking out each corner in boredom.

 

Yvonne was already actually finished with packing but De kept on recovering something that she neglected to put into her bag and she kept on opening and closing it again and again. She muttered darkly about it and threw a few glares at Jericho’s direction.

 

Jericah was hurriedly stuffing in clothes into her bag randomly, not caring whether she had folded them or not. This made her bag twice as bulky with half the space. She grumbled repeatedly as she vainly tried to push her clothes into the bag.

 

Jericho had stuffed his bag full of clothes and seeing it to bulky he was attacked by guilt and opened it to fix it again. But now that he was taking twice as long he regretted having felt guilty an opening his bag again.

 

And thus was the packing.

 

 

*****

 

Jericah tapped her foot impatiently as she and her friends along with the teachers waited for the car to pull up in front of the lobby. She was pointedly ignoring Yvonne and Jericho. :Damn. Can we just go home na?: she muttered darkly to herself.

 

“Erika?” was a call from behind them.

 

They all turned and saw a young man waving at Erika. He was accompanied by a sweet young lady and a taller young man who hovered over the  girl with an almost maternal air.

 

“Kamui?” called Erika. “Oi what are you doing here?”

 

The young man laughed and said, “I should be asking you that! Are you leaving already?”

 

Erika nodded, “Yeah, remember? I told you that we would leave after two weeks?”

 

Kamui nodded and said, “Only two weeks of paradise?” he waved his hands around. “Man are you gonna miss a lot!”

 

Erika nodded, “yeah I know but we promised our parents that we would be home around this time and” she took a significant look towards Jericah and Andrea, “Some people don’t like too much vacation with” a nod towards the teacher’s direction, “Present company.”

 

“Ahhh.” Said Fuuma who had joined the conversation. “Hey, where is that Syl that you wanted me to meet?”

 

Erika nodded towards Syl’s direction and said, “There, that one wearing a purple blouse. That’s her.”

 

Fuuma nodded and said, “I’ll be saying good bye to Jericah and Meg.”

 

Erika nodded.

 

“Oi, Meg, Jericah.” Fuuma called, waving at the two younger girls. “Are you leaving already?”

 

Meg rolled her eyes and said, “Duh. “ and waved around her feet where their bags were strewn about. “What does it look like?”

 

Fuuma laughed, “Okay, okay. I know what you mean.” He smiled again at the two of them and said, “Would you mind doing me favor?’

 

“Shoot.” Affirmed Jericah.

 

“Could you introduce me to Syl?”

 

Meg raised an eyebrow at this, “Fuuma dearest, Syl’s over thirty.”

 

Fuuma looked confused. “Hunh?”

 

“And you’re not even in your late twenties yet.” Continued Meg.

 

Fuuma and Jericah sweatdropped. “Anou…” stammered Fuuma, “That’s not what I meant…”

 

Jericah just sighed and said, “Never mind” she tugged at the older boy’s hand, “C’mon.”

 

They approached Syl and Jericah said, “Ms. Paladin?”

 

“yes dear?” asked Syl with a smile.

 

“I would like you to meet somebody.” She pointed to Fuuma who bowed deeply from waist down. :Formally Japanese to the end: mused Jericah to herself. “This is Fuuma, we met him and his sister in the Bazaar.”

 

“Why hello dear!” said Syl who took the boy’s hand and shook it. “I’m glad to meet you. I’m Syl Paladin.”

 

“Hajimashite, Ma’am” said Fuuma. For a few moments both were quiet.

 

Jericah looked at tboth of them oddly. There was something odd happening and she felt something else under the surface….what was Fuuma and Syl doing?

 

“You are quite a remarkable boy.” Said Syl after a while, surprising Jericah.

 

“Yes, and I understand then” said Fuuma with a mysterious smile. “I’ll ask your leave then.”

 

“Nice to meet you Fuuma.” Said Syl.

 

They moved away from her and Jericah tugged at Fuuma’s sleeve. Fuuma gave her a bright smile in return.

 

But when Jericah opened her mouth to ask, Fuuma put a finger across her lips, silencing her, “Do not ask for it will be too complicated and doesn’t involve you.”

 

Jericah shut her mouth, partially understanding. Whatever that was, that exchange was supernatural. And for her to get tangled into a business that doesn’t concern her would not be good for anybody’s  sake.

 

Any further thoughts on the matter were halted as Syl’s driver entered the lobby and started taking their bags.

 

When they were all set to go, she kissed Fuuma softly on the cheek, bringing a blush to the older boy’s visage.

 

“Thank you.” She said referring to the favor *he* had done for her. [1]

 

“Don’t think of it” he answered. “You wish was granted. You’re happy. That’s all I need to know.”

 

“Bye” She said as she walked out.

 

*****

 

They were finally stuffed into the car with all their numerous baggage. (How? God knows how. It’s gotta be a miracle how they all got to fit in the StarX) [2]

 

In front sat, of course, the driver with Syl and Andrea sharing the front seat. How Andrea got the seat was most likely due to the fact that she was the last to go in and the only seat left was beside Syl…or on top of the roof. At this point in time, Andrea was wishing that she had chosen to sit on the roof instead.

 

In the middle seats were Yuuki and Jericah, squished in between Jericho and Yvonne, much to Jericah’s, Jericho’s and Yvonne’s irritation. At this point, all three were wishing *they* went to sit on the roof.

 

At the back was De, Anne, Meg and Erika, uncomfortably stuffed along with the rest of the bags.

 

They were already on their way when Erika finally noticed that they were going *away* from Manila.

 

“Ms. Paladin?” she called over the people’s heads, “Oh, Ms. Paladin?”

 

“Yes Erika dear?”

 

“Why are we going away from Manila? Aren’t we supposed to be going” she jerked her thumb behind her, “Thataway?”

 

“Oh I think I forgot  to tell you about the Hiking trip.”

 

A collective groan echoed within the car.

 

“Ooops.” Said Syl. At least she had the decency  to look ashamed.

 

“By the way, “ she said to Andrea after a while. “We’re going to Mount Makiling.” She smiled brightly at Andrea, “Wanna come?”

 

*** Owari ***

 

Author’s notes : [1] ahhhh…side story ‘to wala masyadong connect sa Barkada bakasyon and focuses mostly on me. I’ll add an entry about it na lang sa diary

 

[2] I forgot wat the name was for the  big car.  Ano nga ba yung Kat? Basta, yun yun.

 

Okay, I’m not sure whether Mt. Makiling is closer to or farther than Tagaytay from Manila pero for the sake of the Fic, let’s say that it is okay?