Trapped Together Till Haloween

Rei bit her thumbnail nervously as she listened to Motoki’s plan. When he finished speaking she said, “Well, I’m all for getting them to stop fighting, but a *month*? I know school’s out for break but…that’s still a *very* long time! What about Mamoru’s job?”

Motoki smiled, “I already thought about that. Mamoru just told me he finished the temp job he had and was looking around for another one.”

Rei sighed and looked at her other three friends. The blue, short-haired Ami questioned, “Well, what about Usagi? Her parents will call the police if she doesn’t come home. They’re very protective of her.”

“That’s where you four come in,” Motoki explained, “I need you to come up with a trip or something that you can tell Usagi’s parents all five of you are going on.”

Minako, the newest member of the group, jumped up, making her long blonde hair bounce around her. With starry, brilliant blue eyes, she clapped and squealed, “Oh! I vote for the beach! Let’s all go see the hot looking guys in their swimsuits!”

Everyone else in the room shook their heads in disbelief at the ditsy blonde. Rei admonished, “Minako! Didn’t you listen? We’re not *really* going on a trip! We just need to tell Usagi’s parents that so they won’t worry about her!”

Disappointed, Minako whined, “Aww! But I wanted to go!”

Tearing her attention from their clueless friend, Ami said, “Motoki, we four need to discuss this alone for a moment.”

Perplexed, Motoki and Reika looked askance of the other girls.

All four girls nodded their heads and Rei offered, “We won’t be long,” as they filed out of the kitchen and into the women’s bathroom.

Rei locked the door behind them and quickly made sure they were alone. “Gather close and keep your voices down,” she quietly instructed.

Ami whispered, “What are we going to do? We can’t let them do this. What if ‘you know who’ is needed?”

Makoto offered, “Since we defeated those two generals we haven’t heard boo from the Dark Kingdom though. Maybe that was the last of them.”

Rei answered, “Maybe, but we don’t know for certain. It’s a shame. I’d love to let them do it.”

Minako interrupted, “Hey guys, you were fighting with only four before and doing fine for the most part. I think we could handle it for a month. I vote we do this! Usagi looked like she could use a good vacation.”

The three other girls stared bug-eyed at the blonde. Ami stuttered, “A v-v-vacation?!”

Makoto overcame her shock and let out a muffled, “Woohoo!” from behind her hand.

“A ‘good’ vacation!” Rei sputtered trying not to laugh too loudly. She tried to catch her breath then started to laugh again as she added, “What the heck! Let’s give Usagi a ‘good’ vacation. She deserves it!”

Wide-eyed with horror, Ami whispered, “Rei! You don’t really mean it! Do you?”

Minako looked from one girl to the next totally perplexed, “What’s wrong with that? Usagi worked really hard at the last fight. ‘One good turn makes a right.’ Right?”

This was just too much for Rei. She doubled over laughing and began to quickly hobble to the stall. She prayed she’d get there in time.

Makoto still had her hand over her mouth. Tears were forming at the corners of her eyes and her face was turning blue from trying to hold her laughter in. Ami glanced up and demanded, “Breath, Mako!” as she grabbed the tall girl’s arm to yank it from her face.

Gasping in a big lungful of air, Mako wiped her eyes and rasped out, “I vote with Minako and Rei. This is just too good of an opportunity to pass up!”

A smile lit up Minako’s face as she grabbed Ami’s shoulders and wheedled, “Come on Ami! That just leaves you. Don’t be a spoilsport! You’re out voted anyway so just agree already. You’ll see! It’ll be great for her and she’ll come back a new person!”

Rei guffawed from behind the stall door at Minako’s optimistic statement. Ami shook her head resignedly and sighed, “You probably would do it anyway. Fine, I’ll help but it’s just to make sure you guys don’t get her killed!”

Minako happily bounced up and down as she exclaimed, “Yeah! This’ll be fun!” Suddenly she stopped. With a serious scowl she whined, “Rei! What’s taking so long? I need a turn!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hello?” Rei hesitantly said when someone picked up the Tsukino’s phone.

Usagi’s mother repeated, “Hello? May I ask who’s calling?”

Rei breathed a sigh of relief then said, “It’s me, Rei, Usagi’s friend. We, I mean Ami, Makoto, Minako and I were wondering if Usagi could go to the beach with us. We’re going to Maebara Beach in Kamogawa for a month. My grandfather rented a house there.”

“A month?!” Mrs. Tuskino exclaimed. She observed, “That’s a very long time, Rei. When do you need to know by?”

Rei answered, “That’s the thing. It’s kind of a last minute plan and my grandfather will be leaving in the next hour or so.”

Mrs. Tsukino sounded very reluctant as she pointed out, “Usagi doesn’t have anything packed even. Maybe next…”

“Oh please?” Rei implored, “We really want her to go!”

Mrs. Tsukino sighed then said, “Let me talk to Usagi please.”

Rei froze in panic then stuttered, “H-h-hold on a moment,” as she hit the mute button on her phone.

“She wants to speak to Usagi! *Now* what’ll we do?!” Rei squealed in fear.

Ami and Makoto stared back at a total loss.

Minako held out her hand to Rei and said, “Let me talk to her.”

Shocked, Rei asked, “Why? What can you do?”

Smiling, Minako said, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” She reached out and plucked the receiver from Rei’s hands before Rei realized it.

Mako covered her eyes, Ami covered her mouth and Rei covered her ears. All three cringed as Minako pressed the mute button back on.

“Hi, Mom!” Minako enthused, “I *really* *really* want to go with the girls! Please, Mom, Please!”

“But sweetheart,” Mrs. Tuskino reasoned, “Your father won’t like you being gone so long and what will you wear? You have *nothing* packed!”

“We figured I could wear Rei’s things and anything I really need that they don’t have, her grandfather said he’d buy. I really only need a toothbrush. Please Mom, I *really* want to go! It’ll be *soo…* much fun! Daddy will be okay about it. I’m sure you could explain it to him. You’re good at things like that! Please, please, *please* Mom!”

Mrs. Tuskino hesitated then capitulated with a sigh, “Okay, honey. I guess you can go. You have your cell phone with you, right?”

Minako gave a thumbs up to the astounded girls as she answered, “Yes, Mom, I have my phone. Thank you, *thank you*! I love you lots! I have to go now. Bye!” Minako hung up the phone and crowed, “Yeah!” while flashing ‘V’ for victory with her hand.

Mako, Rei and Ami just stood there with their mouths open.

Giggling, Minako observed, “You look like ‘fish out of the frying pan’ with your mouths open like that!” She paused then asked, “What? Haven’t you ever heard of people doing impressions before?! I want to be an actress. I’m pretty good at it too, aren’t I?”

The three still speechless girls slowly nodded in agreement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time the group had got to the marina where Reika’s father kept his yacht, it was quite late. The group was so large they had to take both Reika and Motoki’s cars. Reika had already stopped at the marina office and logged their course. She had taken her father’s boat out many times for partying, so she knew just what to do. Her father was in the USA on a business trip until the first week of November, which was even better.

A few of the other yacht club members had given them strange looks when they were supporting, or rather carrying the comatose Usagi and Mamoru onto the boat. Other than that, things were going surprisingly well. Each girl had been able to buy, beg, borrow or steal the things Motoki has told her to find.

Motoki and Reika worked on deck to launch the yacht while the girls got Mamoru and Usagi comfortably situated on the bed below deck. The girls had already made sure they found and took Usagi’s cell phone, transformational brooch and moon wand. They didn’t come across her communicator so they figured she must have left it at home.

All that was left to do was the hardest parts of Motoki’s plan. The girls needed to cut Usagi’s hair to her shoulders then strip the clothes off both of their victims. The girls only managed to cut Usagi’s hair.

Once the boat was launched and on course for a certain bird sanctuary island Motoki knew of, he went below deck. There he found all four girls sitting on the floor, holding parts of Usagi’s flowing mane and crying.

Looking up at him with sad, tear filled eyes Makoto asked, “Please tell me again why we needed to cut Usagi’s beautiful hair?”

Shaking his head, Motoki reiterated, “First, there aren’t showers on the island so it would be very hard for her to wash her long hair. Second, Mamoru won’t be able to call her ‘Meatball Head’ if her hair is short. They don’t need anything he can tease her about. Remember, our goal is for them to be friends by the end of the month.”

Ami suddenly looked up at him and accused, “This is *crazy*! It’s *cold* out! You can’t do this to them! We should turn around and go home right now! The other three girls were also feeling tired, cold and more than a little guilty. They all looked up at Motoki and nodded.

Motoki thought a moment. He sighed then sat down on the edge of the bed. “Listen, I know this seems rough but remember we’ve already tried everything else. This is all we have left so it just *has* to work! We’ve all worked so hard to come this far. Please just trust me a little longer. Please? I promise it will be worth it in the end.”

The girls sighed, looked at each other then said, “Okay.”

Suddenly realizing that the girls were still pretty young, Motoki took pity on them. He called to Reika to stop the boat and come below. Motoki then sent the girls up on deck. Reika finished getting Usagi ready and Motoki took care of prepping Mamoru for their grand adventure.

Now they just needed to find the island to complete their plan. The sun was just beginning to rise when Reika woke the girls and announced that they were there.

Chapter 3 - \"Georgie, Porgie, Pudding Pie…\" will be posted soon. ^_^


Thank you for reading my story. If you\'re enjoying it, or if you have any (politely worded) suggestions/comments about my story, please let me know via review. I truly appreciate feedback. ^_^

Sincerely,


Luna Hope ^_^