The Life Sailors Part 1 Written By: Rowan's Girl and Aria Chiba Rated: PG-13 You can e-mail your comments to rowansgirl@hotmail.com or ariachiba@hotmail.com This was a story that we have been writing back and forth. So to put an actual idea about what this story is about at this time... you'll just have to read to find out what we manage to come up with! No, we don't own Sailor Moon. Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon is copyrighted to Ms Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Nakayosi, DiC, etc. This story is soley for fans and entertainment. Any simularities between the Rowan on Ronin Warriors and our Rowan are purely coincidental. ***************************************************************************** "And here's an extra scoop for you," Sister Mary whispered and placed an extra pile of pudding on my plate. "Thank you, Sister Mary," I said, my eyes innocent and my mouth bearing a sweet smile. As Sister Mary went on to the next child, Tommy, the boy across from me, said, "Zahara, you're a suck up!" Susie, his sister, started chanting, "Zahara is a suck up! Zahara is a suck up!" over and over. Tommy was 7 and Susie was a little over 4, and they both came from a tribe in South Africa. I was 4½ and unusually smart, or so all the sisters said. I was from a tribe in North Africa. I couldn't remember the name since I came to the orphanage when I was only a baby. My tribe was overcome with some plauge, so my parents sent me here, to the Christian Sisters' Orphanage in Kenya. I stuck my tounge out at the black boy and slowly ate my pudding, to show that sucking up gave sweet rewards. I myself was tan in color and had brown hair and brown eyes. I was also tall for my age. We finished our evening meal and settled down for playtime before we had to go to bed. "Let's play hide and go seek!" I suggested brightly. "Okay, but I'm not it this time," Tommy grumbled. "I'll be it," Susie voulenteered. She covered her eyes and started counting, "1, 2, 5, 17, 90, 23, uh... 10! Ready or not, here I come!" I scurried into the sisters' office and hid under the nearest desk, waiting for Susie to find me. Susie was like my little sister. I took care of her whenever Tommy couldn't. No matter how much Tommy denied it, I also thought of him as my big brother. They came to the orphanage soon after I did, about 4 years ago. Tommy always protected Susie, and he even protected me, sometimes. I crouched down as much as I could. The light flicked on and I waited in anticipation. Instead of Susie's little, quiet, pitter-patter footsteps, though, there were several sets of heavy, adult footsteps. I hid further down under the desk. Now a voice became clear, "I'm glad we could fill your needs." That was Sister Chandra, the head sister. Five sets of legs came into view. Then around the legs scurried a little boy with white skin, red hair, and freckles. "Oh! I understand now!" I thought. "We're getting a new kid at the orphanage!" I thought excitedly. I ran out from under the desk... and stopped short with a puzzled look as Sister Chandra said, "Oh, good! Just the person we were looking for!" When Sister Chandra saw the puzzled look on my face, she explaind. "Mr. and Mrs. O' Connor want to adopt you. You'll get to live in Ireland with them. Mr. and Mrs. O' Malley are going to support you since the O' Connors don't have enough money. This is Jacob, the O' Malley's son. He's your age. Five, right?" Mrs. O'Malley nodded as my face fell. "I'm... leaving?" I asked in disbelief. "Yes, as soon as the paper work is completed." Everyone started chatting about how wonderful it was. I fled, tears streaming down my face, unnoticed by all, except the little freckled boy. He followed me to where I was hiding, under the covers of my bed. "Why are you so sad?" he asked. "'Cause I have to leave," I mumbled under the covers. He reached over and pulled the covers off. "Why is it sad that you have to leave? You're getting a family." "This IS my family. I've grown up here," I replied. "But you'll have a REAL family," he insisted. "This IS a real family," I answered. We got into a huge debate if the orphanage was a real family or not. "I'm right!" he said, reaching over and tickling me. "No... you're... not!" I gasped in between giggles, trying to push him away. After I pushed him off my bed and managed to catch my breath, I said, "But if I have a brother like you, I'll give it a try." He got up and sat on the bed. "I won't be you're brother, but I'll be you're friend," he said. "Deal," I said, shaking his hand. ***************************************************************************** *SEVERAL MONTHS LATER* "And here's you're room," My foster mother said. My foster pappa sat my suit case down inside the room. The doorbell rang and my foster mother went down to answer it. She came back up a couple of minutes later. "Jacob and Aria are here to see you," she said. My foster parents left, leaving Jake and a white skinned girl with red hair and red freckles. "Zahara, this is Aria," Jake said. "Hi!" I said, eager to make a new friend. "Hi!" she replied. We settled down to play some games and get to know each other. We three have been inseperable since. ***************************************************************************** *11 YEARS LATER* "Let's go find Aria and Jake," I said with a wink to Lizzie. "Yea! I wanna go find Jakey!" She cried, towing Rion along after her. I started looking all over the place for my 2 best friends. After much search, I finally found them, embraced, near a booth where you had to knock down the bottles. "See what happens when I leave ya two alone for a second?" I said. "Oh, whatever Zahara. It's sooo much better when your not around to supervise!" Aria said cheerfully. She looked around and asked, "Have you seen Mum, Da, Lizzie, or Rion? "Naw, but why would ya want to?" I said, laughing. "Look at the time! It's almost time to leave, and you know Da, he'll take off just to teach us a lesson!" Aria said, smiling. "Oh, like it'd be all that bad stuck in an amusement park with my two favorite girls..." Jacob started to say before he was inturrupeted. "TWO FAVORITE GIRLS! I thought i was your favorite Jakey!" cried a little voice. We turned around and found 4 year old Lizzie standing there, tears in her eyes, 8 year old Rion and Aria's parents behind her. Jacob quickly stooped down and formulated a story as he picked her up. "Of course your my favorite Lizzie! You know," he quieted his voice, pretending to say it as if only for her ears." You know how jealous they'd get, if I showed my true feelings! Your big sis would probally beat me up!" She giggled and gave him a kiss. "Ok, I forgive you!" she whispered back as he set her back down. Aria's dad spoke up, "It's almost time to leave, but let's just stay for the drawing. Ya never know, we might win a trip or something!" 'Oh whatever, like that'd happen' we thought to ourselves, but didn't say anything when we saw the looks on Lizzies and Rion's faces. "Let's go listen kids," her mom anounced, picking up Lizzie and grabbing Rion's hands. Her dad came up next to them and whispered, "Ya guys are getting so mature. What great 15 year olds you are!" He pulled Aria into a headlock and started after his wife. "Daddy!" she cried, trying to wrench her head free. ********************************************************************* *NEAR THE END OF THE RAFFLE* "Congratulations to the lucky family and their new TV set. Now, for the final prize... a 5 person round trip package to Japan!" "5 person?!" I sobbed. "Then you and I wouldn't be able to go Jake! Unless your family put up the money..." I said, with an evil grin. Jacob was the only son of one of the richest families in the area. He laughed. "I'm sure mum and da wouldn't mind putting up something to get rid of us, Zahara." We quieted down as the man reached into the bin of names, and people stood, holding their breaths. He pulled out a slip, unfolded it, and smiled. "The lucky winner is... Riona O'Malley!" "MOM YOU WON!" Aria cried in amazement, getting crushed in a family hug. "Jake! Remember what you said!" I cried gleefully. Lizzie and Rion had already run up to the podium, dancing happily. The rest of us joined the two (of course, we didn't dance with them). Aria gave Jacob a giant bear hug and whispered to him, "You better come too, can you imagine! Japan! The language is so beautiful!" "Don't worry, I'll make sure both Zahara and I make the journey. Mum and Da won't mind too much, and I wouldn't even dream of letting ya go alone." "Everyone, smile!" cried a voice of a photographer, not that it was necessary to ask, since nothing could wipe the smiles off our faces at that moment. ********************************************************************** "Lookie, lookie! You can see Japan!" Lizzie cried. She tapped Rion's shoulder, pointed to the window, and signed Japan. Rion was deaf, born that way. "Oh my gosh, we're going to land soon! My hair must be a mess!" Aria cried, grabbing her brush and brushed through her waist length hair. I was already doing the same to my shoulder length hair. Jacob reached over from beside her and tugged on one of the mini-meatballs that held the hair on top of her head back. "There is no way that hair wouldn't look great." "What about my hair Jakey?" Lizzie cried from the seat next to him. He leaned over and whispered, "10 times more gorgeous then Aria's." Aria kicked him in the shin, and he looked over and grinned. The announcement to buckle up and such soon came on, and before long, they had landed. Most of us knew Japanese (except for Lizzie and Rion) since Aria's mom and dad had good friends who had lived there, and taught us. We got off the plain and were immediatly surrounded by all sorts of people speaking all different languages. Jacob picked up Lizzie and Aria's dad picked up an upset Rion(8 year olds don't like to be picked up). We threaded through the crouds till we found the baggage area. Fortunatly, we found our luggage quickly, and we had soon left the international airport. "TAXI!" Aria's da called, and a taxi soon came. We stuffed our stuff in the trunk, and we were off to their motel. It was a tight fit, but with Lizzie and Rion sitting on their parents laps, and Aria sitting on Jacob's lap, everything was ok. Her father, always a good guy about Jacob, still commented, "I'm going to have to get a rental car soon!" Soon the taxi pulled up to The Crystal Towers, our motel, we piled out and checked in. We had three rooms, one for Aria and I, one for the rest of the family, and one for Jacob. The rooms were large and cozy, and the windows looked out over the lake. "Gosh, it's beautiful!" I said, amazed. "Mmmmmmm, how romantic..." Aria said dreamily, causing me to swat her over the head. "Aria, can't ya think about anything else but Jake?" "Uh uh. Hey!" she jumped up, "I'm going to go ask him if he wants to take a walk down by the lake! Want to come with?" "Naw, I think I'm going to go explore the motel," I said. We both pulled on some sandles and headed out. "Ja ne Zahara!" Aria called to me as I walked down the hall in the opposite direction. I headed down the stairs, planning on doing some heavy site-seeing. ***************************************************************************** ~~Check out both Aria's and Zahara's part as the story unfolds.