Hello to all. Here’s ch. 6.
Usual disclaimers apply!
Enjoy!
The Parent Trap: Chapter 6 - Family Reunions and Discussions
Serena had decided to go to the pool to think more clearly.
Rini, and Usagi had gone down earlier to be with Andrew and Mina, and
Serena thought, (Ya, right. More like play matchmaker between those
two. Are my daughters trying to make this a career or something?)
Serena had just stepped onto the hotel patio looking for either
Rini or Usagi when she heard one of them shout, “DAD, watch out!!!”
Serena turned just in time to see Darien plunge, back first, into the
swimming pool.
Obviously he tripped on someone cause he went in with his
clothes still on, and Serena laughed a bit while thinking, (Oh, where
is a camera when you need one? We met at a pool, now we meet again at
a pool.)
Darien, since he was in the pool now, decided to just walk
across the pool to reach Serena. When he climbed out of the pool, on
her side of it, he looked up to see Serena practically laughing at the
predicament he was in. Darien got this smirk on his face and said,
“Hi, Serena,” when Serena didn’t stop laughing he asked, “You think
this is funny Serena? I’m tempted to throw you in there right now to
switch places here, but I got other things on my mind right now, like
what are you doing here? Because I’m surprised to see you, but you
don’t look surprised to see me. I haven’t seen or heard from you in 7
or 8 years,and…”
Just then Darien’s daughter came around from behind Serena and
said, “Dad, I can explain why she’s here.”
Darien was shocked, “Chib-Usa, you know who this is?”
Serena at this point began to snort with laughter again, but
managed to keep it down, (He’ll get a kick out what’s next, and what's
with the Chibi-Usa?)
Rini decided not to beet around the bush, “Yes I do actually,
and actually, I’m not Usagi.”
Usagi, at this point, made her presence known by coming up from
where she was sitting, near the bushes, “Actually, I’m Usagi.”
Darien’s eyes were ready to pop out in shock and excitement
before asking, “Both of them? Rini? Usagi?!?”
“Well, Dad,” Rini said, interrupting the moment, “You and Mom
seem to think alike cause the two of you sent us to the same camp and,
after a little quarrel between us, we figured it out that we were
sisters.”
Darien still looked a bit confused, so Serena cleared his
thoughts, “They switched places on us Darien.”
“You mean I’ve had Rini with me since camp ended,” at Rini’s
nod, Darien held out arms, “Come here you.” Rini, in the old tradition
dating back to her mother’s early teens, flew into her father’s arms,
and Darien caught her like a pro, “Last time I saw you, you had diaper
rashes all over you. (And I still can‘t believe I was that careless
changing her diapers either.)”
Rini stepped back a bit and said, “Well I’m all grown up now,
and quite without a Father.”
Rini backed up to her mother as Usagi said, “And do you have
any idea what fun I had with Mother in the past few days, and missed
out on my whole life?”
This just occurred to Darien, “Chibi-Usa you were in Napa all
this time?” Usagi nodded before running into her Dad to get a hug too.
Just then, Mina and Andrew made their presence known, and Mina
asked, “So, what did we miss?”
Darien asked, “Serena who is this?”
“My sister Mina,” Serena then turned to the four onlookers,
“Will you four excuse us. Darien and I have to talk a bit.”
Mina and Andrew left quietly, and Rini said, “Go ahead.”
Usagi finished, “Take your time.” Then the two made
themselves scarce.
Darien and Serena found a table and sat down to talk, but
before they said anything, Beryl showed up, “Darien, where have you…..
Oh, good you two have met. Darien, Serena here has a vineyard and…
wait how did you two meet, and Darien why are you all wet?”
“Your hosting our wedding,” Darien asked.
“Well I didn’t know she was your fiancé,” was Serena’s reply.
Beryl was getting confused, “Am I missing something here?”
Both Serena and Darien were close to laughing again, and
Darien said, “You know this is turning out to be one small world.”
Beryl raised an eye brow, “How small?”
In answer to her question, Rini showed up and said, “Hi Beryl.”
Beryl turned and just said, “Hi.”
Usagi showed up on her other side, “How are you doing?”
Beryl began screaming in shock and fright, (Oh, great! TWO OF
THEM!)
Darien asked, “Uh, Beryl, did I mention Usagi was a twin?”
Many hours later, after calming Beryl down and having a little
chat with the twins, Darien and Serena were getting ready for a family
outing, courtesy of their daughters. Darien had just finished getting
dressed when he turned around to nearly have his eyes bug out at the
site of Usagi with her hair in coned shaped meatballs.
Usagi knew what her Dad was about to ask and said, “Before you
ask, Rini taught me back at camp.”
With that said, the two left their room. As they left, Darien
was thinking, (I wonder where Andrew is?) Little did he know that
Serena had the same question about Mina.
Seeing both his girls with Serena, in their meatball hair
styles, made Darien see just how much the girls were like their Mother.
He also noticed how beautiful Serena looked in her dress that night.
They all got into a Limo going who-knows-where as far as Serena and
Darien were concerned. Darien tried asking Serena where they were
going but she confessed she was as clueless as he was.
The Limo finally came to a stop at the end of a pier. All
four came out Serena asked, “Where are we?”
Darien asked, “Is this where we’re eating?” Both girls shook
their heads and pointed toward the water, where a yacht was sitting
just as a zodiac boat came to the pier to pick them up.
When both Serena and Darien asked who’s paying for all the
dinner and yacht for the night, the twins said, “Grandpa.”
This nearly floored both of Serena and Darien, while Darien
thought, (Ken? He pulled out his wallet instead of his ammo for his
gun?). Serena and Darien were in awe over the dinning area they were
escorted to. It was in the back room of the boat, with a gorgeous view
of the bay. The room had a few candles here and there in the room,
two of which stood at the center of the dinning table set for two.
This didn’t go unnoticed by Darien, “Girls, the table is only set for
two.”
Rini said, “That’s the other part of the surprise. Usagi and
I aren’t joining you.”
“Your not,” their mother asked.
Just then a familiar blond waiter walked in, “No, but I am.
Good evening I’m Mina, and I’ll be your waiter this evening.”
Another familiar blond appeared also, “And I’m Andrew. The
one who got manipulated into this by these two adorable 8 year olds.”
Rini and Usagi blushed at this, and excused themselves to a different
part of the ship to eat.
Serena looked around the room and took notice of it. She
looked around until she spotted a life saver flotation device with
the words ‘Queen Elisabeth 2’ and Serena knew right then what the
girls were trying to do, “They’re trying to recreate the night we met,
how sweet.” The day she met Darien was still the best day of her life,
despite how it eventually ended up almost a year later. Occasionally,
when Rini wasn’t around, she’d still cry that their marriage ended, and
wished it hadn’t.
Darien had similar thoughts, but he quickly stomped them out
after remembering he was engaged to Beryl, “Ya, it is. Serena, can we
talk?”
The two sat at their table as Mina and Andrew left their
dinner on the table and left. Serena asked, “About what?”
“How did things come to this,” Darien asked.
Serena didn’t know what he meant by that, so she answered it as
best as she could, “Oh, Darien. We said so many things, and things
just didn’t work out I guess. I don’t know what else to say. My
question is, why did you break all contact with me?”
Darien didn’t want to really answer that question, (Because I
didn’t want to give into temptation and try to get you back. I gave
you your freedom so we wouldn’t fight like we did anymore.) Darien
realized Serena was still waiting for an answer, “I don’t know. I
guess it was because we had decided not to see each other again I
guess.”
(Liar,) was Serena’s thoughts, “Not we Darien. I don’t recall
me ever saying I never wanted to see you again.”
Tension was in the room. Tension that was broken when Darien
looked toward the doors to see two pink-haired girls duck down, “Now I
know how a gold fish feels.”
Serena was sad, but managed to cover it up on the outside, (I
wish you knew how I feel.) Despite the years of separation, Serena
knew she was still as much in love with Darien as she was 8 years ago,
if not more, “Well lets just give the girls a show and enjoy the food,
shall we?” Darien agreed and the two enjoyed their dinner, totally
oblivious to the fact that just on the other side of a curtained
doorway, Andrew and Mina were stuck in the hall way, and kissing each
other.
Usagi and Rini knew that this plan wasn’t working as well as
they had hoped. Rini asked, “Ok, Mom and Dad made some progress, but
not enough, so you got any ideas? Mine wasn’t as effective as it
shouldhave been.”
Usagi got a grin on her face, “Ya, I got an idea. We do what
we did to get these two back together in the first place.” Rini looked
puzzled till Usagi whispered into Rini’s ear what she had in mind.
Rini grinned, “Oh, that’s good.”
The rest of the night was uneventful, and everyone got back to
the hotel by midnight and went to bed. Before they left the boat
though, Serena and Darien hashed out a plan to allow the twins to
continue to see each other.
The next morning, Serena reserved a flight for Mina, Rini and
herself to fly back to California, and went downstairs to check out,
with Mina. She met Darien down their, who was also checking out, and
she said, “I’ll send Rini back for Thanksgiving.”
Darien said, “And Usagi will spend Christmas with you.”
Serena turned to Mina, “Where’s Rini?”
“I just rang up she is on her way down,” Mina said. On the
inside, Mina was not happy with Serena’s decision to leave so soon, for
she and Andrew confessed their love to each other last night, and now
she had to leave him so soon. But Mina’s expression lit up when she
noticed both Rini and Usagi come off the elevator, wearing identical
clothes, and hair style, (Oh, good one girls! These two will not know
which is which and we’ll have to stay till they find out.)
Serena noticed the girls and asked, “Rini, what are you doing
in those clothes. We have a plane to catch.”
One of the girls said, “Here’s the deal. We feel like we’ve
been totally gypped. There is a camping trip in a few days, and we
want to go.”
Darien didn’t know what they were talking about, “What camping
trip?”
“The one we go on every summer before school starts,” one of
the girls, most likely Usagi, replied.
“Rini come on. We have a plane to catch,” Serena said, looking
at her daughter on the left.
Her Daughter standing to the left of the other asked, “Are you
sure I’m Rini?
“Yes I’m sure,” Serena said.
Serena’s other daughter, using the first daughters’s voice,
said, “But it’s hard to be 100% positive, isn’t it.”
Darien didn’t look happy, “Girls stop this. Your going to
make your mother miss her plane.” Darien then began to scrutinize the
girls’ looks and pointed to the one on the left, “This ones Usagi.”
Serena looked at Darien as if he grew a second head, (How can
he tell? I can’t.) She then asked, “Are you sure?”
Darien grinned, “I’m sure.”
The daughter in question said, “You know I hope your right Dad.
Cause you wouldn’t want to send the wrong kid back to California…”
The other daughter finished, “Would you?”
Darien looked from one to the other, (I hate it when these two
are right.) With that he stood back, next to Serena.
Then the daughter of the right said, “Here’s our proposition.
We go back to Dad’s and the ‘FOUR’ of us go on the camping trip.”
Serena was thinking, (BUGS! WHERE DID I PACK MY BUG SPRAY?)
Serena, truth be told, loved camping, but always made sure she had
enough bug spray for any camping trip, but she wanted to get home
right now, “Or one of you comes home with me wither you like it or
not.”
So what do you think will happen? Send all comments to
gbess@iname.com. Visit my web site at
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