Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Always There For You ❯ 12 ( Chapter 12 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: see chapter one.

Always There For You Chapter 12:

December 18th, A.C. 194.

Rain was in her sixth period Honors Geometry class, taking a quiz on parallelograms. She punched a few numbers into her graphing calculator and tapped the top of her mechanical pencil silently on her desk while she thought.

'It has a perpendicular bisector...so that means 2x+7 and 3x+4 equal 90...so x is...' Rain quickly worked out the algebraic equation and jotted down her answer. She skimmed her quiz to make sure she had answered every problem, then flipped her paper over to show she was finished as her teacher had instructed.

Rain glanced around and saw that many of her classmates were still taking their quizzes. She looked down at her scrap paper and began doodling while she thought about the past month's events.

It had been one month since Rain had accidentally shot Relena. The day after Rain had run away to Derek's house, she had returned home to find out that her mother was alive, but she was in a coma. Heero had offered to take Rain to visit her, but Rain had denied his offer. She still felt guilty about what had happened, and was worried about how her mother would react to her if by chance, she woke up. Rain remembered the pain that had sliced her heart after Relena had first seen Rain at Shelly's mansion. Rain just didn't know if she could go through that again.

Rain's geometry teacher walked around the room collecting quizzes once all the students had finished. Rain glanced at the clock on the wall to her right above the classroom vid- phone/intercom. Rain was sitting in the second to last seat in the row farthest from the door. Her friend's were in the same class, sitting near by. Rain was happy that all her friends from the previous year had all ended up in her math class again.

Sitting directly behind her, since the seating chart was done in alphabetical order, was Katrina Zeara. Sitting one seat up, to Rain's right was Alisa Tice. Chelsea Wales was seated in the first seat of Rain's row, directly in front of Rain.

"Hey Rain..." Katrina whispered from behind her. Rain shifted in her seat so she could turn her head slightly in Katrina's direction without being too obvious.

"Yeah?" She responded.

"How do you think you did on the quiz?"

"Good. It was really easy." Rain spoke in her normal, indoor voice after the teacher announced the quiz was over and everyone could talk again. Chelsea turned around in her seat to talk to Rain and Katrina. Rain turned her whole body sideways so she could see everyone while she talked. Alisa, who was to the right of the other three girls, turned sideways to see everyone as well.

"Are you excited about tonight?" Alisa asked. She was referring to Rain's birthday party that evening. Rain's birthday was the Tuesday of the following week, but Rain had wanted to have the party on the weekend, so she and her father had planned it for that day; Friday.

"Yeah. It's gonna be really fun." Rain answered.

"Who all is coming?" Chelsea asked. Rain thought for a moment.

"You three, Jack, Derek..." Rain trailed off momentarily while she recalled the names of the other guests.

Derek and his parents had moved back to LA the previous month after the mission to get Relena back. Derek, Jack, Chelsea, Alisa, Katrina, and Rain had all been hanging out together since he had returned. It was as though he had never left.

In the past month, Jack and the others had all met Mei Li and Jason as well. They were still home-schooled, but, they normally got together with the Rain and the others after school and on weekends. Rain was not surprised that Chelsea and the others had gotten along well with Jason and Mei Li right away. She knew all her friends were very warm and friendly and they had been open to new members entering their little group.

Of course, Chelsea and the others had no clue about the rescue mission for Relena. It was kept a secret with in the former gundam pilots' families. Rain had introduced Jason and Mei Li to the others as having met them because their parents were her father's co-workers. Which was true, it simply was not the entire story.

"Jason and Mei Li, are coming and my aunt and uncle might stop by....and...Uhm...I think some more people RSVP'd, but I can't remember who." Rain shrugged.

The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. Rain, Chelsea, Alisa, and Katrina all put on their backpacks and headed out the door, for their lockers.

There was a lot of commotion in the hallways that afternoon as students rushed about, trying to hurry up and leave. It was 2:45 p.m. on Friday, and also the last day of school before winter break. Rain and her friends were bustling with excitement. It was finally winter break. They were all looking forward to two weeks of staying up late, sleeping in, and no school. Rain's birthday party was a good kick-off to that winter break too. They could start off their break with a bang.

When the group reached the quad in front of the school, Rain's father was already there, waiting. Heero had promised to take Rain to the store immediately after school to get some last minute things for her party. She wanted to get the shopping over with so that they would have time to set everything up and still have some spare time to do whatever else.

Rain said her good-byes, then hopped into the car. Everyone was supposed to arrive at the Yuy home about three hours from then, around 6 p.m.

After Rain was in the car and had her seat belt on, Heero pulled the car away from the curb. Without taking his eyes off the road, he spoke to Rain.

"We have to go to Party Boutique first to get the balloons." Rain said.

"Did you call last night and give them our order?"

"Yep. I told them we'd be there to pick the balloons up between 3 and 3:30." Rain settled into her seat. She couldn't wait for that evening.

*****

Ping! The doorbell rang. Rain looked up at her father. She and Heero were both in the kitchen, setting out refreshments. Rain glanced at her watch. It was about 6:25 p.m.

After Rain and her father had returned from their party supply shopping, they had immediately started decorating the living room and kitchen. The living room, kitchen, and foyer were a big mass of color. There was various colored crepe paper and balloons lining the ceiling, doorways, and even the ceiling fans. Rain and Heero were proud of their work. They had decorated in a hurry, having still had to set out the refreshments and the like.

"I'll finish setting up in here. You go answer the door." Heero said. Rain nodded and set the tray of chips and salsa down on the counter. She ran from the kitchen to the front door.

Rain subconsciously ran her fingers through her hair; it was a little damp. Rain and Heero had had to take quick showers after the decorating was done. They'd both wanted to look fresh for the party. When Rain had finished showering, there was only about fifteen minutes before people would start arriving. She had to half way blow dry her hair, then rush downstairs to help her father finish setting up for the party.

Rain pulled open the door and looked out onto the porch. She smiled when she saw Katrina.

"Hey Katrina! C'mon in." Rain said, stepping aside so that Katrina could walk in. Katrina smiled back and entered the house. She turned around to wave goodbye to her father who was in the driveway. He waved back and left. Katrina turned back to look at Rain. Rain shut the door. She led the way to the kitchen where her father was setting a stack of clearish-neon plastic cups on the counter.

"Katrina's here." Rain said, gesturing towards her. Heero looked up at Katrina.

"Hello Katrina." Heero said with a light smile. Katrina greeted him back, then turned to Rain.

"Here. This is for you." Katrina said. She held out a present wrapped in dark blue paper.

"Oh. Thanks." Rain said with a smile. She took the gift and set it on the kitchen table among a few other gifts from her relatives.

"So...I'm the first one here huh?" Katrina said.

"Yep." Rain said simply. Katrina watched as Heero set out plates and napkins.

"Anything I can do to help?" Katrina asked. Heero looked up.

"No, I've got it. But, you can go help Rain pick out some music." Heero suggested. Katrina nodded. She followed Rain into the living room where the receiver for the stereo system was.

Katrina and Rain sat down on the light blue carpeted floor of the living room before the large built-in-the-wall wooden cabinet that held the TV and stereo system receiver. Rain set a stack of CDs between them. They searched through the stack, chattering while they looked.

They finally decided on a poppy/rock CD that both the adults and teens would like. Rain put the CD in the CD player and turned on the surround sound speaker system. She hit another button to turn on the surround house speakers. The sound system was wired through the kitchen, living room, foyer, and den. It made the house sound less dead than it had previously.

"...yeah. Nick seems really sweet...Why?" Rain asked with a smirk. Nick was a guy that Katrina and Rain had met in their English class at the beginning of the year. She had thought about inviting him along with several other people whom weren't really in their "group", but had decided against it. Rain had figured they would have felt too awkward not knowing most of the other people there.

"No reason." Katrina smiled sheepishly. Rain was about to press it further, but the doorbell rang.

"Let's go see who's here." Rain said. She and Katrina went back into the foyer without saying anything more.

*****

About half an hour later, all of the party guests had arrived. Rain was in the kitchen with Chelsea, Jack, Katrina, and Alisa getting drink refills. Mei Li, Jason, and Derek had decided to stay in the living room along with the adults.

"My dad finally realized who you were." Jack said. Rain gave him a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?" Rain asked, as she put more ice into her cup.

"Well. I used to always call you Stephania, and sometimes I still do, but, you never really go by that anymore." Jack explained. Rain was still confused.

"So...he thought Rain and Stephania were two different people?" Rain asked. Jack nodded.

"By the way, why did you switch back to using Rain?" Chelsea asked.

"Well...to be honest, Stephania's not really my middle name. It was my first grade teacher's sister's name. That woman was evil. She said my name wasn't really a name...so she said I should go by a real name. And, she wrote it on all my school stuff, so, whenever I went to a new grade, the teachers always called me Stephania." Rain said.

"Then why did you say it was your middle name?" Jack asked. Rain shrugged.

"I guess I was embarrassed."

"Oh well, everyone's calling you Rain now. So it's cool. I just thought the look on my dad's face was funny when he said, 'Oooooh! THAT girl'." Jack said with a grin.

"I've never even met your dad." Rain said. "The one time I would have seen him...when he picked you up from school, I didn't even think to look." Rain got a thoughtful look on her face. She had seen Chelsea and Jack's mother during all the times she had been over at their house, but their father had always been at work or away on business.

Jack and Chelsea shared a curious look.

"You've never met him...he's here...you're the one who greeted him. He works with your dad." Chelsea said. Everyone in the group looked at Rain. She tilted her head to the side slightly.

"Huh? I would've known who your dad was if he worked with my father...I know all the people my dad works with. They're all my sorta...adoptive aunts and uncles." Rain said.

"Does he have a different last name than you two...?" Katrina asked.

"Yeah. My mom and I have different last names..." Alisa added. Chelsea and Jack both shook their heads. Duo walked into the kitchen at that moment. He smiled at the group of teens.

"Hey, you guys having fun?" Duo asked.

"Yeah." They all chorused. Rain looked at Duo.

"Hey Duo. Do you and my dad work with a guy who's name is Mr. Wales?" She asked. Duo thought for a moment.

"Nope. Sorry. Name doesn't sound familiar. Maybe your dad would recognize it." Duo said with a shrug He picked up his drink and walked back out into the living room.

"I don't get it...you said I greeted him...He's here...but, I have no clue how I could know your dad, but not know he is your dad..." Rain said.

"Well, I'll go get him and your dad. Then we can figure this all out." Jack said. Rain nodded. Jack walked out into the living room.

He returned a minute later with Heero and Quatre.

"What's the problem?" Heero asked, looking at the group.

"Uncle Quatre's your father!?" Rain exclaimed.

"Yeah..." Jack and Chelsea both said simply. Heero looked at Quatre with an equally puzzled look.

"Jack and Chelsea are your kids? Explain..." Heero said. Quatre smiled.

"I thought you knew...then again...I guess the subject of kids doesn't come up much when I'm actually at Preventor's..." Quatre began. Heero, Rain, and the others in the kitchen at the time gave him looks telling him to continue.

"Ok...first of all. Uhm...yes, these are my children. And, as you know, Dorothy's my wife." Quatre said. Rain knew Ms. Dorothy Wales, but she did not know her father knew her too.

"Dorothy...and you had kids...?" Heero asked. Rain was getting more and more confused.

"Yes. You see, after the Eve Wars, I ran into Dorothy and well..." Quatre glanced briefly at all the teens still in the room, listening closely. "One thing led to another... And Dorothy was pregnant with Jack. After that, we decided to get married. And, as heirs to the Winner Corporation, Jack and Chelsea would have media after them. Dorothy and I didn't want that. So, we changed the family name from Winner to Wales shortly after Jack was born." Quatre finished.

Jack and Chelsea already knew that story. They simply forgot about the changed last name when they were trying to explain to Rain how she knew their father. Their last name had been changed before they were born and was not discussed often, so they had no real reason to think about it.

Rain nodded, taking it all in. Everything became clear to her. She still had no idea how her father new Ms. Wales. She figured she must have some how been involved in the wars her father had fought in years before. Alisa and Katrina were the only two who did not really know what it all meant. They did not really mind though. They knew why Rain did not know who Jack and Chelsea's parents were, and that was good enough for them.

"Apparently, we don't all talk enough at work...or see enough of each other outside of work. Jason and Mei Li just met the others about a month ago." Heero said. Quatre nodded. There was a gap of silence, so Rain spoke up.

"Hey, I think we should eat the cake now..." Rain said. Heero nodded. He walked to the freezer and pulled out the ice cream cake. The cake was in a plastic container; so, Heero had to pull the lid off after he set it down on the counter in order to put the candles in.

"Rain, why don't you go move all the presents to the coffee table. You can open them while everyone eats their cake." Heero said.

"Ok." Rain said. She looked over at her friends. "Will you guys help me?" Rain asked. They all nodded. Rain picked up a few of the gifts and walked into the living room. With the help of the others, she managed to transport all the gifts from the kitchen table to the coffee table in one trip. Quatre had followed them out to inform everyone else that it was cake and present time. He set a knife, a stack of paper plates, and a stack of napkins down on the coffee table in the clear spot so that Heero could cut the cake after Rain blew out the candles.

Heero switched off the light and carried in the candle-lit cake. Everyone crowded around the coffee table and began singing...

"Happy Birthday to you..."

*****
It was December 23rd, A.C. 194, two days after Rain's birthday. The party had been about a week before that. Rain was lying on her stomach, on her bed. She looked out the window at the fluffy clouds that passed by. She glanced at her clock. It was noon. She and Chelsea had planned to see a movie around 3 p.m. that afternoon.

Rain was bored. She wanted to get out. Her father was at work that day. She had the house to herself and it was lonely. She would have gone to Chelsea's earlier that day, but she had to wait for Chelsea to get home. Chelsea had gone shopping for last minute Christmas presents with her mother that morning. It was the day before Christmas Eve. Rain and her father had already finished all of their shopping.

Out of all the people Rain knew, only Katrina's and Alisa'a families really celebrated the religious part of Christmas. There were so many different religious beliefs among her father's and her friends. None of them really cared though. Everyone had the mutual agreement that Christmas was mostly about being with your loved ones and doing something special for them.

Rain's stomach grumbled. She realized she had not eaten yet that day. She pushed herself off her bed and walked downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat. There was still over two hours to kill before Chelsea got home. Rain decided she would eat and watch TV for a little bit before Chelsea came to pick her up.

On her way down to the kitchen, Rain thought about her birthday party a few days earlier. She thought it was interesting that her "uncle" was Chelsea and Jack's father. It also brought Chelsea, Jack, Derek, Jason, Mei Li, and Rain closer together. They all had an ex-gundam pilot for a parent. Their parents all worked together with the preventors, so it was one less secret Rain had to keep from them. Of course, Rain and the others still could never tell Alisa and Katrina about the preventors, the fact that she was related to a former gundam pilot, or that her mother had been kidnapped years ago by a psychopath out to disrupt the peace between Earth and the colonies. Rain hoped that one day things would be different and she could tell Alisa and Katrina everything that she and the others knew.

After Rain and Heero found out about the Wales actually being the Winners, the party had gone on with out much conflict. Rain had opened all her presents, everyone had had cake, then everyone went home after they all watched a movie. Everyone had had a great time.

Rain had reached her destination of the kitchen. She searched mindlessly through the cabinets and the fridge trying to decide what to eat. She did not spend too much time thinking. Her stomach was all but growing a mouth and verbally telling her not to be picky.

Grilled cheese and a green apple. Rain knew grilled cheese wasn't the healthiest thing to eat, but it was easy enough to make. She just hoped she wouldn't be too full for that one-of-a-kind movie theater popcorn. (A/N: YUMMY!)

*****

Later that day, at about 6 p.m., Rain was standing on her front porch. Chelsea and her mother had just dropped Rain off after the movie. Chelsea and Rain had gone to see a drama/action movie based on the Eve Wars of A.C. 195. They whispered comments back and forth to each other and covered their mouths with their hands while they calmed their fits of laughter. Keeping their noise level to a minimum proved to be a very difficult task. The movie had a deeply romantic plot that totally destroyed the non-fictional basis. The idea for the movie had started out based on a collection of recorded interviews and writings from soldiers, but the movie writers had turned it into a two-hour love story.

An old woman sitting beside Chelsea had been totally captivated by the plot. She had cried twice during the movie. Rain and Chelsea had to hold back their grins when they offered the woman napkins to use as tissues.

Chelsea and Rain had heard many things about the war from their parents. The movie had been quite humorous. The acting had been terrible; they had turned battle scenes into a soap opera. There was far more drama than anything else. By the time Rain and Chelsea had left the theater when the movie was over, they weren't sure how much of the non-fictitious plot had survived after the director's cut.

Rain unlocked the front door and let herself into the house. She put her coat in the closet in the foyer, then went over to the vid-phone on the wall to check the messages. Her father had not been home yet and had said he would call and leave a message if he was going to be home later than expected.

The vid-phone screen blinked and some words scrolled onto the screen.

"You have 2 new messages." The screen read. Rain pushed a button and watched the first message. An image of her aunt Noin appeared on the screen.

"Hey. It's me. I was just calling to tell Rain that she doesn't have to come until 7 instead of 6 to baby-sit tomorrow. Rain, please call Zechs or me whenever you get in to let us know if that's going to be a problem or not. Thanks!" Noin smiled cheerfully before the message ended and the screen temporarily went blank. Rain deleted the first message and played the second.

The second message was from Rain's chorus teacher. He was calling to remind her that her state chorus try-out was the day school got back in from winter break.

Rain decided to call her aunt and uncle Peacecraft and let them know she could still baby-sit for them. Derek had offered to take her there the following day. She and Derek had planned on meeting up with the rest of their friends at GameDance. It was one of the largest arcade and VR facilities in LA. Rain and the others had plans to play laser tag there the following evening. The cost was half price because it was Christmas Eve and not very many people would show up. Derek had offered to leave and come back so he could drop Rain off at her aunt and uncle's house. He would be happy that they could stay the whole time.

Rain's uncle was the one whom answered the vid-phone.

"Hey uncle Mili." Rain smiled.

"Hello Rain. Did you get Noin's message?"

"Yes, I did. I can still baby-sit Luke and Cody for you tomorrow night." Rain answered.

"Are you sure? You won't have any schedule conflicts by coming later?"

"Nope, actually, coming later makes things work out all the better. My friends and I were going to play laser tag before I went over there. Derek offered to leave, then go back to take me to your house. Now, he and I can stay the whole time." Rain explained. Milliardo nodded.

"Ah, well, I'm glad things worked out then. Noin and I will see you tomorrow."

"Alright. See you tomorrow." Rain replied before turning off the vid-phone.

Rain sighed. She hoped taking care of her two younger cousins wouldn't be more exhausting than the laser tag wars she and her friends had. She had been baby-sitting her cousins since she had turned 13 the previous year and was dubbed old enough and mature enough to baby-sit.

Cody and Luke were Rain's only cousins since her father was an orphan and she did not really know her mother's adopted family; the Dorlains. Luke was 6 and Cody was 7. Both were normally pretty hyper, but Rain thought they were adorable and usually well behaved for their age. Rain figured it was because of who their parents were.

Noin and Milliardo had been somewhat older for being the parents of two young children, but like Rain's father, Cody and Luke's parents didn't look a day over 25.

Rain also knew that Milliardo and Noin had had a lot of practice with children before they'd had their own. Noin and Milliardo had baby-sat for Heero after Relena had been kidnapped. Rain thought her uncle Mili and aunt Noin were great parents. She loved them dearly.

After pausing to think for a minute, Rain called Derek to let him know about the schedule change for the following evening. She could not wait until laser tag the next day. Rain, like the rest of the gundam pilots' kids, was a master. They had picked up stealth and sniper tactics from their parents. Each one of them had their own personal strengths in laser tag, just as the former gundam pilots had as soldiers. Laser tag was a fun way to battle out their acquired skills. Rain grinned as she quickly dialed Derek's number.

-End of Chapter 12-

Author's Notes: If any one was wondering what the answer to that math problem Rain did was, it's "x = 15.8". I was tutoring my friend Geometry when I got the idea for this chapter. (^.^) Well, thanks for reading. I know this chapter was kinda short. The next one will be longer. And, I'm sorry I took so long to update. I was waiting for a break to start this. I started it after Thanks Giving, and couldn't really work on it again until after school got back in after winter break and I had some slack time. I'm supposed to be working on homework right now...but, I really wanted to hurry up and update already. So, more soon! Please review! Thanks!
-AlyRain