Challenging a Lawyer!

Meda definitely didn’t want to approach her father directly, at least not with me by her side. It wasn’t hard to figure out why, because how would she ever explain that a handsome, strapping young man, who barely scraped by his math classes, was casually hanging out with her this late into the evening?

I had a plan.

It might not have been the wisest thing to meet him directly, but was I known for my wisdom? Meda was dragging me down like dead weight to prevent a confrontation, but I figured it was high time I had a face to face chat with the big man himself.

‘Hade, don’t do this.’ she begged. ‘Please. I don’t want you getting a restraining order.’

“Sounds like all the more reason someone needs to stand up to him,” I said. “Just trust me, alright?”

“No!” she said. ‘He can’t know my secret!’

“And he will continue to not know your secret…for now,” I said. “I left the telescope behind that tree for a reason, Meda. Just trust me, okay?”

She was really locked in his overprotective grip and afraid to be free. I think I would’ve been too if my dad was a lawyer.

Her dad was different from mine though in every way. He wasn’t a jerk because he was evil at his core. He cared about her and wanted the best, or at least, that’s what I believed with everything she’d told me about him.

I wanted to see for myself if he was half as good a man as I came to think. If so, there was a way to change his mind.

Admittedly, I had a decent amount of experience chatting up the fathers of girls I went out with. Would you believe they assumed I was always trying to use their daughters? I wonder how they could have ever come to that conclusion?

Usually it was pretty easy to play up that I had only the best intentions. Which was true, because I never abused a gal before or made her do something she didn’t want to. I think that’s fair enough to admit. But they were always very careful to scrutinize me even still, and I had to assume the same here, only tenfold or more.

That was why I was going to approach this with the utmost respect and sincerity. Not rude or outwardly challenging to his authority. Just a man to another man.

Meda saw my confidence and calmed a little. She chose to trust me.

We both walked around the school casually, not trying to play a sneaky game or anything. The more out in the open we were, the less suspicious our interaction looked.

Meda was all kinds of nervous still, especially as we turned the corner and started heading for her dad. He wasn’t looking at us yet, but I had an idea to change that.

“So, the extended diameter of the satellite dish is far too short to work, you say?” I blurted out nonsense that sounded mathematical.

“Huh…?” her head tilted as a visible question mark appeared above her.

“I’ll have to make an order for a bigger one.” I started raising my voice to catch attention. “I never would have figured this out if you weren’t so good at math!”

…And got his attention I did, like a wolf suddenly sensing oblivious prey.

“Andromeda, is that you?” His deep voice suddenly growled toward us.

No, it’s just the other blond foreigner at this school.

“What are you doing with that boy?” he continued. “I thought you were supposed to be studying with the math team?”

Oh yeah. He was a bundle of nerves that needed to be undone if he automatically assumed something was wrong.

I had to be careful not only with my words, but also with how I presented them. This was a father at the top of his game, and a professional lawyer on top of even that. He could smell a handsome boy lying from a kilometer away.

“Hey, Andromeda-san, is this your dad?” I asked, bowing with an earnest motion to him. “I’m Nodo Hade, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” I did everything in my power to seem genuine, not playing my voice up. “Andromeda-san was helping the broadcast club with setting up a satellite dish so we can upgrade our range.”

I couldn’t lie to him. If I said we were checking the school yard for ways to implement satellite radio, then by golly that’s exactly what we just did! To what degree, that was up to debate. But I wouldn't be called out as a liar at this point in the story.

I also seeded another thing by using that as our excuse for being out here. From what Meda’s told me, her dad acknowledged her epic skills in math. And space stuff was all about math and triangulation, as she showed me first hand. So, if I give an example of how that skill could aid in a practical example that aligned with Meda’s hobby, it would chip away a little of his worry that astronomy was pointless.

His harsh eyes were glued to mine, waiting for his challenging gaze to force away my eye contact and prove me the beta male in this encounter. This wasn’t just a moment where he was deciding to trust me as a father, it was also a trial to see if I could withstand his manliness, and boy was he a big, scary man.

His brow nit and his hand reached out for a shake.

I gripped his hand with my own, locking it in place tightly, feeling his fingers squeeze so hard that it was like an attack. But I didn’t show any hint of backing down and kept eye contact, accompanied by a casual smile.

“Call me Mr. Cepheus. I’m this young lady's father.”

That introduction was a sign of moderate respect, but not enough for us to be on a first name basis.

“It’s a pleasure, Mr. Cepheus,” I said.

“So, why did you ask ‘my’ daughter of all people to help you with that satellite dish?”

That was a question I was waiting for. I had to watch my reply, because it was yet another deciding factor of our fate.

Meda was deaf, so communication was going to be limited by nature. The fact that she and I could chat enough to discuss a big project, like installing a satellite dish, meant I was largely invested in her, and her in this goal.

“Of all the people I’d ever met at this school, which is a lot of them, maybe even everyone…” I had to butter myself up a little because I was so good at it, and at this point it came out naturally. “She’s one of the best at math I’ve met. And she was kind enough to donate a little day time here and there to help the cause.” I playfully saluted her.

“So nobody else on the math team could be bothered to lend a hand before a deaf girl?”

“All of them have been pretty busy. Meda over here doesn’t procrastinate with her homework though, so she had some time to spare. She’s pretty good at reading lips too, so we didn’t have much issue communicating.”

“And why does she care to help you?” he turned to her for an explanation this time, which meant she was on her own for that part. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with your interest in space, would it?”

He wasn’t beating around the bush. I couldn’t tell if he was more worried about me being near his daughter, or the fact that she had a hobby he didn’t like.

She didn’t have an answer for him though, and it wouldn’t have been right for me to give one in her place.

“Andromeda, you know space is a dangerous place,” he said. “There’s too much risk and so little reward that you’d be safer sticking to a down to earth career.”

Maybe he was right in a way. There were better jobs out there that made a whole lot more money, but Meda had good enough eyes that it would have been a shame she didn’t put them to good use there. The fact that nobody had spotted a huge chunk of obviously evaporating ice out there was proof of that. Call it circumstance or fate, but if she could do that with a dingy children's antique, what could she do if we gave her some real high-powered gear on top of a mountain?

My feelings were renewed just then and I felt a flow of passion to support her.

“Sir, if I may…” I started. “I can’t glaze her up enough. This girl’s real smart. Smarter than me, that’s for sure. She has an eye for detail like nothing I’ve ever seen, no pun intended.”

“Hmm?” he glared at me, a brow arched higher upwards, crinkling his forehead like an overdesigned oni mask.

“All I’m saying is that no matter what she ends up doing in life, I’m giving her some much needed endorsement.”

“And why would your endorsement mean anything to me, boy?”

I was ‘boy’ now, eh?

The battle had begun. I didn’t intend for any hostility, but now I had to present my challenge to him as the first strike of my sharp tongue. The trick was going to be not disrespecting him.

“Tune into the school's radio show tomorrow and you’ll find out,” I said, glancing toward Meda. “What do you say about that though?”

She was rightfully flustered while put on the spot, but we needed an answer now. That would give us time to prepare and also get her mentally motivated for the challenge.

“You’re making some sort of announcement regarding my daughter?” he discerned.

He was trying to trip me up. If I made it sound like we were going to explicitly say something about Meda, he’d look into it before we could announce it ourselves, and that would ruin the theatrics of the reveal.

“Did I say that?” I scratched the back of my head. “Don’t recall those words coming out of my mouth.”

His face furrowed, realizing the game I was playing.

“You know, I’ve heard through the grape vine there’s a radio show host from this school who goes from girl to girl, like each of them is a new fad. Care to make a comment on that?”

He did his homework. There’s no way he could have known I’d be the one to interact with his daughter, but he must have looked into any potential dangers she’d face while in this town. At any rate, now he was going for the jugular.

“Sounds like someone who lacks investment.”

“Indeed.” A puff of cigar smoke rushed from his nostrils. “Very well, Mr. Hade. I’ll listen to your show tomorrow. I expect it to be entertaining.”

“You won’t be disappointed, Mr. Cepheus.” I grinned, turning to Meda. “How ‘bout you? Gonna’ listen in?”

‘How am I going to listen in, Maka?’ she signed, her face expressing pouty disappointment.

“That was a joooke,” I clarified, nervously chuckling to save face. “But seriously. You in?”

She bit her lower lip, turning back and forth between her father and me. Then she closed her eyes and tensed up.

“OK!” she announced, loud and proud in English. Then she glared hostility at me, like I did something mean by putting her on the spot.

‘That was stressful…” Meda said and signed to me when her dad’s back was turned.

“There’s no going back now.” I grinned. ‘Ganbatte, Meda-chan.’

Now it was time for the two of us to prepare our variants of announcement. My battlefront was the airwaves, and hers was the internet.