Chapter 12
By LirinStar

Lirin only took a ten minute shower this time as she didn’t want to keep the boys waiting to long. She still had to do her hair, which would take the longest. ‘Although, Sage will probably take about half an hour on his hair.’ she thought with a snicker. When she got out of the shower she dried off and got dressed in to the change of cloths she had brought. She then noticed that she had forgotten her hair brush. She walked out of the bathroom to look for one of Sage’s sisters. She found the girls talking in the living room. She went over to them. "Umm, I seem to have forgotten a hair brush. Do you mind if I use one of yours and possibly your hair dryer?" she asked.

        "Of course not!" Lizzy said. "I have a vanity stand in my room where I ‘prepare’ myself. I keep everything there. I’ll show you."

        "Mia, now that Lirin’s out of the shower, did you want to take one? I know that it’s easiest to style your hair and stuff after a shower." Kat asked.

        "If it’s okay with you girls, that doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea." Mia replied.

        "Of course it’s okay with us!" said Lizzy. "Kat, why don’t you show her where the bathroom is while I take Lirin to our room?"

        "Kay." Kat answered.

        When Lizzy brought Lirin over to the room she shared with her sister she asked Lirin if there was anything else she needed.

        "Umm.. Don’t suppose I could get you to put the top half of my hair up in a French braid for me? It’s a lot easier when someone else does it. Although I’ll warn you, I’ve got a lot of hair so it’ll probably be a tedious process."

        "Sure! I used to do Sage’s hair for him when he was little. Now THAT was a tedious process" said Lizzy as she unwrapped the towel from Lirin’s hair. Both girls started laughing.

 

 

Time passes…

 

        When they were finished, Lizzy and Lirin went to the living room to wait for everyone. Kento, Rowen and Ryo were already there waiting. They looked her over and Kento let out a whistle. Lirin blushed. "Lookin’ good Lirin!" he told her, making her blush even more.

        "Thank you. You all look pretty spiffy yourself." she praised, coming to sit by Rowen on the couch.

        Lirin was dressed in a light mint green dress that hugged her figure at the top and fanned out a bit near the bottom. The dress was modestly short, the bottom of it coming to about 3 inches above her knees. It was off the shoulder with thin spaghetti straps. Over the mint green silk of the dress, was a sheer fabric of the same color that went about an inch below where the silk stopped. She had on matching mint green shoes that had a thick one inch heal and had a one inch strap going around her ankles.

        Lizzy had done the top half of her hair in the French braid and had clasped the tail of the braid with a white gold butterfly clip. A few loose strands curled delicately around her soft face. There were two white gold butterflies in her hair by the loose strands, one on each side, and she had on a matching butterfly necklace with matching earrings. She had put white eye shadow on with a little bit of blush and some light pink lip gloss. Lizzy had on a little bit of eyeliner and mascara too. The overall effect was breathtaking. Lirin looked gorgeous.

        Rowen had on some light brown dress pants, a purplish blue collared shirt, a navy blue sports jacket and a loosely tied dark maroon neck tie. Ryo had on black dress pants, a light blue collared dress shirt, a black sports jacket, and a plane red tie. Kento had on the same thing as Ryo, only instead of a black tie he had a tan tie with black diagonal stripes, and instead of a light blue dress shirt, he had a white dress shirt.

        Sai came out into the living then. He was wearing tan slacks and sports coat with a white collared dress shirt and a light blue tan tie. He came and sat on the remaining space on the couch by Lirin.

They all sat together in companionable silence, waiting for Sage and Mia to come out. Mia came out not to much later. Her hair had a braid going along her bangs across her head and the rest she wore down. She had a red dress that was fitted, but not too tight and the bottom came up to about 3 inches above her knee as well. On the front of the dress was a big black bow at the bottom of the neck line. It had triangular like straps that went and tied around the back of her neck. She had long matching red gloves on that came to halfway between her elbow and the top of her shoulder. Her shoes were also red and had a two inch heal. They covered her toes and the back of her heal and left the rest of her foot bare. There was also a red half-inch strap going around from the top of the heal cover to the front of her ankles. She had dark brown eye shadow on with some eyeliner and mascara and dark red lipstick on.

Lirin, Ryo, Kento, and Rowen told Sai and Mia how nice they looked and they both blushed. Since there were no more seats left in the living room, Ryo, being a gentleman, stood up and offered Mia his seat on the chair. "Thank you, Ryo." Mia accepted.

 

 

Much, much later…

 

        "My God! Honestly, how long does it take a person to do their hair!" fumed Lirin. They had all be waiting for sage for almost 45 minutes. "He takes longer than I do!"

        The guys and Mia all snickered. "Sage ALWAYS takes this long to do his hair." Rowen told her.

        "Well, if he doesn’t hurry up, we’re going to be late." Mia announced. Before they had left the mansion, she had made reservations at that nice restaurant she had talked about.

        "I like being fashionably late." said Sage, walking into the living room. He wore dark brown dress pants and sports jacket with a white collared dress shirt. He wasn’t wearing a neck tie but had a green handkerchief in his chest pocket.

        "Finally!" cried Kento.

        "Yah man, we were just about to leave without you." teased Ryo.

        "Leave without me? The life of the party?" he jokingly asked.

        They all said goodbye to the Date family and climbed into the car and headed towards the restaurant.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

        The group was only a few minutes late, and when they came in, the maitre-d (no, I have no idea how to spell that) took Mia’s hand and kissed it. "Welcome Miss Koji! It’s so nice to see you back again!"

        Mia smiled at him. "Thank you, Pierre. These people here are my friends and are the rest of my party."

        He took Lirin’s hand and kissed it, making her blush. "Welcome to the Moonlight Palace. Here, let me escort you to your table!" He called on a waiter to take over his job as host so that he could serve Mia and her friends. They were seated at a large round in the back corner of the restaurant. Because of the fact that Mia was very rich and her grandfather was a very important person she and her group were treated as the VIP of the evening. When they got to the table, Ryo pulled out Mia’s chair for her, and Sage pulled out Lirin’s. The girls thanked them. Ryo sat down in the seat next to Mia. Lirin was on the other side of Mia with Sage taking the seat by her. Rowen was on the other side of Sage, and Sai was on the other side of Rowen. Kento sat in between Ryo and Sai.

        "This is the best seat in the house! I personally will be serving you tonight, so if there is anything you need just let me know!" he told them, handing them all menu’s. "I have also taken the liberty of having a complimentary bottle of the Palace’s finest champagne being sent to your table."

        "Thank you! That is very kind of you." Mia told him.

        He beamed and then asked, "Would any of you like anything else to drink?"

        "Well, since I’m the designated driver," began Lirin, "I’d like some Earl Gray tea please."

        "Oh, that sounds good, I’ll have the same." Mia continued.

        Pierre looked at the boys, but they said that they were fine. "I’ll be right back with your tea ladies." he excused himself.

        "How many times have you eaten here, Mia?" Lirin asked her.
        "Grandfather and I used to come here about once a week. It was his favorite place to eat."

        "What would you recommend I get?"

        "Well, the salmon here is excellent." Sai went pale and started to look sick. "But the duck is good too." she quickly added.

        "Don’t worry, Sai, none of us will order any sea food." Lirin assured him. "Will we?" she threatened the rest of the guys.

        "We wouldn’t do that to yah, bud!" Kento said, seeing the look Lirin and Mia were giving them.

        "Of course not!" Ryo assured him. Rowen and Sage nodded their heads to show they agreed with Kento and Ryo. Sai’s color started to return to his face and he didn’t look quick so sickly.

        When Pierre returned with the girls’ tea, he asked them if they were ready to order an appetizer. They ordered escargot and potato skins that had cheese, bacon, and parsley on them. Kento, Mia, and Sage were the only ones to eat the escargot. Lirin, Rowen, Sai, and Ryo absolutely refused to even touch them and ate the potato skins.

        Pierre came and took their plates and asked whether they would like soup or salad. Lirin ordered a Caesar salad, Ryo and Sai ordered chef’s salad, Sage, Mia, and Rowen ordered minestrone soup, and Kento ordered garden salad and Beef and Vegetable stew. Everyone was enjoying their food tremendously so far. Especially Kento. This was Lirin’s first time being in a fancy restaurant and she was enjoying herself. She was also having a lot of fun watching Mia and Ryo. She didn’t know if any one else had noticed how close they sat to one another, or how they kept looking over at each other smiling and then blushing and looking away. After they had finished their soup and salads, Mia excused her self saying she need to ‘powder her nose.’

        "I’ll go with you Mia." Lirin said. She had a devious grin on her face and her eyes were twinkling mischievously. Mia missed it, but the boys all saw the look on her face and wondered what was going through her head. They watched her link arms with Mia and start talking to her rapidly. They saw Mia blush deeply but then they disappeared from view.

        "Did you all notice the look Lirin had on her face?" Rowen asked.

        "Yeah, I didn’t like it one bit." Sage answered.

        "Wonder what she’s up to." Sai thought aloud.

        They just looked at each other and shrugged. They figured they’d find out soon enough.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

        Mia went to the mirror and touched up her makeup. Lirin just kept drilling her with that same question she had been asking ever since they left their table, much to Mia’s dismay. "Common Mia, you can tell me! So, are you and Ryo an item or what?" Still silence from Mia, although Lirin could tell she was getting somewhere because Mia’s face was starting to match the color of her dress. "You know that I’m gonna keep buggin yah until you answer me!" she threatened.

        "Oh all right!" Mia said, exasperated. "But you have to promise not to tell another living soul."

        Lirin made drew an ‘x’ on her heart. "Cross my heart, and hope to die. You have my word that I won’t tell another person."

        "Okay. Well, we’re not going out or anything. I don’t know if he even likes me as more than a friend, but I do think that I’m in love him."

        Lirin squealed with delight. "That is so great, Mia!" she looked at her watch. "We better get back out there or they’ll wonder what happened to us."

        "Okay, but remember! You promised not to tell anyone!"

        "Don’t worry, Mia! I always keep my word."

 

        When they were walking back to the table, the guys noticed Lirin’s triumphant, beaming face. They saw her whisper something into Mia’s ear making her blush again. They didn’t know what Lirin had done or said to Mia, but they automatically felt sympathy for her. They wondered what she had done. They were about to ask when Pierre came up before they could.

        "What would you all like to have for your main course?" Pierre asked. Because Mia had said the duck was good they all ordered that. Kento also ordered some lamb chops.

        Just then they heard the orchestra start up and saw couples start to head for the dance floor. Lirin watched in glee as Ryo asked Mia if she would like to dance. Mia, of course, accepted and they headed towards the floor.

        Rowen was debating on whether or not he should ask Lirin to dance when Sage beat him to it. Sage stood up over Lirin. "Lirin," he began picking up her hand and kissing it, "I would be honored if a lovely vision such as yourself would grace me with the pleasure of dancing with you."

        She blushed slightly and giggled, "Your such a flirt, Sage." She stood up, "But what the heck."

        "There you go again Casanova! Always stealing my girls!" Kento teased, and Sage started chuckling.

        Sage helped Lirin out of her chair and led her to the dance floor to join Mia and Ryo. Much to Sage’s dismay, Lirin kept her eye on Mia and Ryo the whole time. He decided to ask her what she and Mia had talked about. "Oh, just girl talk." was the only reply he got.

        The song stopped and everyone gave a hand to the orchestra. Sage was about to ask her for a second dance when he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Kento. "My turn to dance with her, Sage." he smiled. Lirin laughed. Still all through the dance she could stop looking at Mia and Ryo. Kento didn’t really mind too much though. Rowen finally gathered up enough courage to ask her for the next dance. She gave him a big smile when he approached, she had been waiting for him to ask her to dance. But she frowned when she saw Sai ask Mia to dance with him for the next dance. Rowen saw her frown and mistook it. "You know, Lirin, you don’t have to dance with me if you don’t want to." he said, hurt.

        "Now why would I not want to dance with you Rowen?" she asked, giving him a warm smile. "I wasn’t frowning at you, I was just frowning when I saw that Sai had cut in to dance with Mia. She and Ryo looked like they were having a good time."

        "Yeah, I noticed you were watching them all this time."

        She put on a sheepish smile. ‘I’m gonna give you my full attention now though.’ she thought. "I guess that means that you were watching me the whole time then?" she asked him with a grin. It was his turn to put on a sheepish smile. The music started and they began to dance. It was a slow song. Lirin looked up into his eyes and Rowen looked down into hers and both became lost in each others’ gaze.

Before they knew it the dance was over. Rowen realized just then that she had her head leaning on his shoulder and he realized how close they were to each other. Lirin noticed the same thing just then and snapped out of her reverie and blushed. "Um, I think I’ll go powder my nose now." she told him, making an excuse to get away from all the curious stares they were receiving from Mia and the rest of the guys.

        As she was walking back to their table she noticed that their dinner had arrived. She was about half way there when a man she didn’t know came up to her. "Hello." the man greeted. "May I have this dance with you?" he asked.

        ‘Why do have this bad feeling about him?’ she thought to herself. ‘He feels…evil. Better stay away from him.’ Politely, she said aloud, "I’m sorry, but it seems that our main course has been served and I must get back to my friends now. Please excuse me."

        Mia and the guys had seen the man come up to Lirin. The guys stared at him with distrusting looks. "There’s something about him that doesn’t feel right." Sage told them and the rest agreed. They soon found out why.