The young maiden and the golden fish pt 4.

When Serena and the twins got dropped off at the festival, it was already early evening. The festival was held on a hill that lay somewhere on the outskirts of the city. The squares and streets were lined with colorfully decorated stalls. There were a lot of people around, they were talking, playing games, or eating some food. Next to the entrance, Serena spotted Nia and Ti, who wore the red yukata they bought at the mall. Ti started waving at Serena.

“Hey Serena, thank you for coming”

Ti looked at Kate and Mary who stood next to Serena.

“Are these friends you brought along?”

Serena nodded.

“These are… the master’s daughters Kate and Mary”

Ti reached out a hand to the two girls.

“My name is Timothy, but most people call me Ti-chan”

“Omg, Ti - chan you're so cute!”

Mary started petting Ti’s hair.

“Enough Mary!”

After Ti managed to escape

“And this is Nia”

Kate sighed.

“We know... didn’t expect to see you here today”

“I guess this we about what we expected from you”

Nia looked aggravated, but just before she could open her mouth, Mary toned down the tension.

“Kate! Don’t be so mean - this is a summer festival, let’s be happy!”

“Let’s go visit the stalls!”

Mary was about to run up the hill.

“W.. wait”

Serena said after which Ti added.

“Yeah, we should wait for one more person”

Just that moment, a brown-haired girl came biking toward them. She was breathing heavily and all sweating from riding up the hill in the hot summer weather.

“Mona!”

Mona parked her bike next to the festival’s entrance gate.

*Pant.. pant*

“This little festival of you has almost killed me…”

Mona said while heavily breathing.

“I don’t know who you two are, but let’s get some shaved ice shall we?”

The girls entered through the festival gate together.

Food Stalls

The six girls walked through the rows of stalls together. Nia and the twins are still avoiding each other. Serena wonders if they may have met before and what could be wrong between them. She should have told the twins about the other girls when she invited them. What if this ruins the entire festival? Serena starts panicking a little.

“Rena-chan, are you feeling okay?”

Ti seemed concerned about her.

“You look like you may have a heatstroke”

“What if I treat you all with some shaved ice?”

Mona was pointing at a stall.

“Let me check how many cones I can buy”

Money grabbed her purse and shook it above her hand. A single coin and a paper clip fell out. Mona rubbed her hand across her forehand.

“Eheh - it seems the number of cones I can buy is no more than zero”

Nia sighed and grabbed her wallet.

“Let me all treat you today, okay?”

“Are you sure Nia?”

Kate said with a sarcastic smirk on her face.

“I don’t want to bankrupt your family”

“Who even is this girl? She would freak out if saw the dump my family lives... ”

Mona whispered way too loud in Ti’s ear.

Serena blushed from embarrassment. Why did they have to fight on a day like this?

Meanwhile, Nia was about to explode.

“My family isn’t poor at all okay! I could buy a million cones if I wanted!”

“It’s okay Nia, calm down, Kate is just a meany like always!”

Mary tried to calm Nia.

“She’s been like this to Serena too, ever since we went to middle school”

Kate sighed.

“Mary, you are always so naive, people don’t suddenly become a maid for no reason”

Mary tried to come up with something.

“Well, maids are cute, that is a good reason right?”

“Worked for me”

Mona added to the conversation.

“I just like to be a maid okay! It’s not like I owe you an explanation or something”

“So please let me buy some ice cream for you all”

High tension

After eating some ice cream the group split into different pairs. Ti and Serena ended up playing a block toss game together. A good moment to apologize, Serena thought.

“I must ap.. poligize Ti”

“Why would you Serena? It’s not your fault”

“It is... I shouldn’t have brought the twins”

Ti tried to comfort Serena.

“Where do they know each other from anyway?”

“I.. I don’t know… maybe Nia can tell”

The two of them decided to ask Nia, who was hanging around with Mona.

Luckily Nia had calmed down a little.

“Mary and Kate?”

“We used to be friends or something in middle school”

She said with a nonchalant tone.

“But since I announced I would go to Yamamoto Academy, they became more and more distant”

Ti was clearly thinking.

“Mmm, maybe Kate didn’t like you going to a different high school”

“Or she just doesn’t like maids”

“What do you think Serena? You know her well.”

Serena thought really hard about it. Why would Kate be so mean to Nia but also to herself? They used to be really close to each other when they were children. Serena thought of the twins as her sisters, it made sense since they lived together and were the same age. Sure, they had different parents, but that didn’t really bother them when they were children. Kate used to admire Serena’s father because of his good cooking skills. But once they started to go to different middle schools, the twins started to become more and more distant.

Serena sighed, and things started to make sense.

“For Kate… maids are just employees”

“So what does that mean? She couldn’t be friends with one?”

Ti was clearly confused.

Serena nodded.

“Ehehe, we should kidnap her and dress her up as a maid some other time”

Mona said after which she had an evil laugh.

Ti agreed, that would be quite fun.

At that moment Kate and Mary rejoined the rest.

Mary whispered in Kate’s ear and pushed her into the middle of the group.

All the girls were now paying close attention to her.

Kate cleared her throat and started her little speech.

“I would like to apologize to you all for being so mean”

“I will now stop ruining the summer festival spirit, yeah”

Nia crossed her arm.

“Now say it like you mean it, you're just saying something Mary whispered in your ear!”

Kate repeated the words, now with a really awkward bow.

After which she looked into Nia’s eyes, waiting for her approval.

“It’s alright, I forgive you. For now at least…”

“We have a fun punishment for you, later”

Mona winked.

Golden Fish

With the tension between the girls somewhat relieved, Serena and the other girls could finally have some fun at the summer festival. They went over to the goldfish scooping booth, where Ti and Mona tried their best to scoop themselves a fish.

“Let me try one more time, this will be it I swear”

Nia sighed and reluctantly paid for one more paper scoop for Mona.

Careless as always, Mona broke the scoop instantly.

“I guess that’s it for me…”

Mona shrugged it off.

“The goldfish wouldn’t have been a good match for Mr. Cat anyway’s”

“You only think of that now, you cost me all my allowance!”

“Would you also like to try Serena?”

Serena wanted to refuse at first, but Ti was quite persistent.

“I know you can do it, Serena, you have a lot of patience, in contrast to her”

Serena grabbed the scoop, put it in the water and -

She caught a goldfish, in one scoop.

As Serena was holding the fish, a familiar-sounding voice spoke to her.

“Excellent my dear!”

Serena turned around to see who this voice belonged to - and next to her stood Tsuchida-san, the master’s mother’s friend who came to visit the mansion.

Ti turned around as well and asked Serena a question.

“Isn’t that woman - a famous author?”

Tsuchida-san heard it and smiled.

“Nice to meet you, darling, according to some people I am”

Ti bowed toward the elderly woman.

“Thank you a lot for writing The Pensive Gentleman!”

“I am a big fan”

Tsuchida-san laughed.

“No need to be so formal, that wasn’t even my best novel”

Mona grinned.

“I don’t recognize her, but I like this lady's sense of humor”

“Mona don’t be so disrespectful!”

But Tsuchida didn’t seem to mind.

She now focused her attention on Serena again.

“I guess that story I told you about the golden fish came true after all”

Serena laughed since she didn’t know how to respond to this otherwise.

The booth vendor handed the goldfish to Serena, wrapped in a plastic bag.

“Please take good care of him”

The elderly man said.

“I always ask people to name my fishes, do you have one in mind?”

“Ehh..eh”

Serena couldn’t come up with anything, luckily Mona was always full of ideas.

“Let’s name him Bubbles!”

All the girls seemed to agree.

“Welcome to the squad Bubbles!”

Fireworks

“Hurry up girls, the fireworks are about to begin!”

Nia was pointing toward the clock, it was almost 11 pm.

“Let’s hurry up the hill okay, I know a special spot”

Serena looked around, and she only counted four other girls. Someone must have gone missing.

“Ti check… Mona check… Nia check… Kate check”

“Where… where is Mary?”

The other girls looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen indeed.

Kate sighed.

“She probably got distracted by some butterfly again. I’ll go look for my little sister now, I’ll catch up to you later”

With only the four school friends left, they started running up the hill.

Just as they reached the top, the first arrow was shot into the air. Soon the sky was filled with a million colorful lights. The hill provided a unique nighttime view of the city, and which myriad of lights complimented the fireworks.

This is the city I grew up in Serena thought. Memories of her childhood, the people she met, and the friends she made along the way. She looked at Mona, Ti, and Nia who stood alongside her. Their paths had crossed and became intertwined immediately this past half year. Her quirky roommate, the birthday cake, the investigation squad, the conference, the school festival, the camping trip, and now these fireworks display today. She hadn’t ever made so many memories in such a short time. If only this moment could last forever…

“Tha.. thank you for being my friends!”

The other girls looked at Serena.

“I am glad to have you too”

Mona said back to her.

She reached for her bag and grabbed out some cans of drink and handed them to her friends.

“Let’s have a toast okay?”

The girls all nodded.

“Let’s toast to many more adventures to come!”

“Yeah!”

All the girls yelled in unison.