Chapter 32 - Pool Party

Pool party



Seto's reaction to the news about the crash was pretty much the same as Kaede's. He vowed to kill Joey, or die trying, and even Kaede didn't see any point in arguing with him. But she did tell him to wait, because they had other, much more important stuff to think about.

They had decided to have their wedding in the summer, and hold a large reception in the garden of Seto's mansion. But Seto had left it to Kaede to decide what day, and where.

`July is good,' Kaede mused, flicking through wedding catalogue, lying on her stomach on Seto's four poster bed in his mansion the day after finding out the truth about the crash. `But where…'

`That's up to you,' Seto muttered, whilst writing some stuff on a piece of paper. `You want an engagement party, don't you?'

`Yeah, and some time soon,' she thought about it. `What's happening on Friday?'

`Nothing, as far as I'm concerned,' Seto pushed back his chair and rested his feet on the desk. `Got work then?'

Kaede shook her head. `I might has well resign, what is the point of being a lifeguard when I'm married? That would just be pointless.'

`No it isn't,' Seto came and sat down next to her. `If it's what you want to do-'

`It isn't, trust me,' Kaede shook her head. `I don't want to spend the rest of my life sitting on that lifeguard's throne and moping up the changing rooms.

Seto sat there, watching her looking at the catalogue. `Anyway,' he said, changing the subject. `Where do you want to get married?'

Kaede shrugged. `My parents all always wanted me to get married in a church, but I never really liked that idea. I thought maybe in a garden or something.'

`What, like our gardens?' Seto laughed.

`No, unless they are SERIOUSLY done up,' Kaede pushed him slightly.

`Well, I'll get it sorted then,' Seto stood up again and went back to his desk, picked up a pen and wrote quickly on a piece of paper.

`What?! We're getting married in the gardens? You serious?' Kaede sat up and stared at him.

`Yeah,' Seto said absentmindedly as he wrote.

`But, it needs so much doing up,' Kaede struggled to her feet, tripping over the duvet. She straightened up and jogged over to Seto. `And when do we have the time to-'

`WE'RE not going to do it,' Seto looked at her, raising an eyebrow at her. `I'll get a landscape gardener to do it.'

`How much money are you spending on this wedding?' Ebony asked, leaning against the desk.

`It doesn't matter,' Seto smiled at her, and put his arms around her waist. `Just as long as we do get married.'

He kissed her and hugged her to him, and she leaned her head against his chest.

`Do you know what you're wearing?' he asked suddenly, and she jumped.

`No, I have absolutely no idea,' she laughed. `Seto, you asked me to marry you three days ago, I haven't planned that much yet.'

`Well, you should,' Seto said, turning back to his work. `Because it will be July before you know it.'

Kaede sighed and sat back down on the bed.

`Just go shopping with your friends,' Seto called over his shoulder.

Kaede thought about this, and then jumped up. `Cool, I'll go home and organise I shopping trip, you sort out that engagement party.'

Kissing him quickly on the cheek, Kaede grabbed her jacket and left, hurrying down the steps to her van. She jumped inside and sped home.

`I'm home,' she called, and her grandmother came out of the kitchen, a dish and a tea towel in her hand, clearly in the middle of drying up.

`Hello Kaede darling,' she said, and kissed her quickly on the forehead. Kaede grinned at her and ran to the foot of the stairs, but her grandmother called her back.

`Um, Kaede, have you given thought to your dress at all?'

Kaede sighed and retreated her steps. She stood in front of her grandmother and sighed again. `Yeah, Seto said I should start planning, but we have ages until the wedding.'

`Kaede, you want to get married in July, which is just over a month away. Please start thinking about it.'

Kaede nodded and went up to her room, dumping her stuff and grabbing the phone next to her bed. She dialled Yuula's number first.

Takumi answered the phone with a random, `Heeeeeeeeeeeeello.'

`Um, hi, Takumi, is Yuula around?' Kaede said, nearly dropping the phone in fright. Takumi was so weird.

`Sure, wait there,' he dropped the phone with a clatter, almost deafening Kaede, but not as much as when he roared at the top of his voice, `YUULA! PHONE!'

To make it worse, Yuula shouted back at him, and the two of them started a full on shouting match.

`WHO IS IT?'

`I DUNNO!'

`WELL FIND OUT DOOFUS!'

`NO, YOU COME DOWN HERE AND FIND OUT!'

`MAKE ME!'

`NO, YOU LAZY GIRL, GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!'

`BRING THE PHONE UP TO ME AND ASK WHO IT IS!'

`WHY DON'T YOU JUST ASK YOURSELF?'

`I'M NOT TALKING TO SOMEONE WHO I PROBABLY DON'T KNOW!'

`TAKUMI!' Kaede yelled down the phone. He must have heard her because he picked the phone up again.

`Yes?'

`It's Kaede.'

`Oh, right okay,' phone drops with clatter. `YUULA, IT'S KAEDE!'

The sound of footsteps running down the stairs sounded so blissfully quiet, even though they were anything but that. Kaede heard Takumi retreat to the living room or somewhere as Yuula picked up the phone.

`Hello,' she said. She sounded loud even as she said that.

`Hi, is it possible you and Takumi could be slightly louder?'

`Why?'

`Because I am sure that there are people the other side of the world who might not have quite heard you!'

Yuula began muttering angrily and then asked irritably, `So why are you ringing me anyway?'

`Do I need an excuse to ring you?'

`YES!'

`Fine, I won't tell you then.'

`WHAT?!'

`Why are you being so impatient?'

`JUST TELL ME ALRIGHT?'

`Only if you calm down!'

`Alright, calming down.'

`Okay, are you free this Saturday?'

`Yeah, sure, why?'

`What to come and help me choose a wedding dress?'

`YES!!!!!!'

`Ooookay then, I'll meet you at the mall at 11.30 on Saturday. See you then, bye,' Kaede hung up and then repeated this call to Sakura and Tea, but the difference was they were slightly quieter.

Kaede grabbed her uniform after sorting out the shopping trip and drove to the swimming pool. She arrived and ran into the reception, preparing to sign in.

But as soon as she walked through the door she was immediately seized by several pairs of hands and dragged into the staff room. It was full of the lifeguards she worked with and over to one side was a huge table of food, and on the other side there was a sound system and a DJ. Overhead were the words, `CONGRATULATIONS KAEDE!' in huge red letters of a banner across the room.

Kyoko grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a circle of space amongst her friends and beamed at them all. `And here she is, the woman of the hour, Kaede Mishua!'

They exploded with cheering and Kaede blushed, wanting to shrink away from the limelight.

`She may be leaving us soon, but we will never forget the times we have shared with her and will always be here for you and,' she leaned closer to Kaede and said in a mock whisper, `if you ever want a party on the Monster Island, you know who to ask for favours!'

Everyone laughed, and a glass of orange juice was pushed into her hands. `No alcohol yet, wait until the reception,' people said, grinning at her, all holding their own drinks of orange juice. She took a sip and immediately smelt the sharp but delicious smell of champagne.

`Well, maybe a little!' they grinned.

Kyoko banged on the table, and there was a hush again.

`Well, we can write a series of books about all the fun times we've had with Kaede; her training when she managed to pass the test by falling into the pool and swimming as fast as she could to the other side; the time that she saved at boy from drowning and it turned out he was only pretending to get her to do CPR on him; and the time she brought all over her friends to the pool!'

Everyone snickered and Kaede blushed even more, her face almost as red as her hair. She tried to hide but Kyoko pulled her arms down.

`So, let's raise a toast, to the new Mrs Kaiba!'

`MRS KAIBA!' everyone toasted and drank, and Kaede felt that, even if Seto didn't manage to organise an engagement party, she wouldn't mind, because this meant more to her, this party that probably cost about 10,000 yen (about £50) at most, than anything that even Seto could have come up with.

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