• Story 1: The Meeting
    It was about 7:00 in the evening on a Thursday in June. Not many people were left on the streets and the ones who were left were on their way home. “Come on slow pokes we need to get home before it gets Dark,” Mimiko was yelling at Jiro for walking so slow.
    “Come on Mimiko I’ve been walking around in the sun all day and I’m tired,” Jiro was complaining about his sensitivity to the sun when *WHAM* something ran into him.
    “Oh I am so sorry I can’t see anything from behind these packages.” A girl had run into Jiro. She couldn’t be older than 18 and she had been carrying 6 boxes which she had dropped in the collision.
    “Oh it’s no problem at all,” Jiro was once again demonstrating his manners and helped the girl pick up her boxes. Jiro handed her one and they both looked up at the same time. Their eyes met and neither one could move. They just stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Jiro was taking in everything he possibly could about her. She had stunning blue eyes shaped like almonds. She had long blonde hair that nearly went down to her waste. She had a clip with a line of pearls in her hair to hold her hair out of her face. Her hands were smooth but looked strong. She was wearing a long white dress with a u-neck and long flowing sleeves, a little too formal to just be picking up some packages.
    “Thank you so much.” Jiro felt like he could drink in the sound of her sweet voice. “Oh it’s no problem at all. Maybe we should help you carry these packages after all we wouldn’t want you to have any more accidents.”
    “Thank you I would appreciate that.”
    “So where are you headed?”
    “Home I live at the end of Baker Street.”
    “Really? We live on Baker Street.”
    “Great then you won’t be going out of your way.” Jiro grabbed one box for Mimiko, one for Kataro, and one for himself. Mimiko nearly collapsed with the weight of it.
    “Dang what do you have in these things bricks?” Mimiko yelled at her. The girl laughed and she stacked up the boxes carrying two in one hand and one under the other arm. Mimiko was astounded at her strength. No one talked for awhile, but Jiro did peak a few glances at the mysterious girl and that’s when he realized it.
    “You know I never properly introduced myself. I’m Jiro Mochizuki it’s nice to make your acquaintance miss…”
    “Madeline Reynolds.”
    “Really? Well you don’t sound French.”
    “That’s because I’ve been living in the United States for the past 18 years.”
    “Oh well that makes sense. This is my little brother Kataro and my friend Mimiko.”
    “Hi it’s nice to meet both of you.” Madeline smiled at them, and Kataro grinned back. “Oh here we are.” They had just come into seeing distance of a huge mansion. It was about three stories high and there was no way of estimating just how big it was.
    “You live here?” Mimiko said in astonishment.
    “Yea the construction finished a couple days ago. Well come on I don’t want to keep you guys for too long.” Madeline directed them down a hall and opened the door to a huge room. The walls were covered in Bookshelves that were stuffed with books and there were even some bookcases lined up parallel to the walls. There was a couch and a desk in the room and on the desk there were stacks of books. “Just put the boxes down anywhere.” Madeline said. Mimiko immediately dropped her box and collapsed on the couch. Kataro put his box next to the desk and Jirro put his on top of the desk chair. He opened the box and on top was a first edition copy of Pride and Prejudiced. Jiro gawked at the book and under that was a first edition copy of Romeo and Juliet.
    “How did you get these?”Jiro asked Madeline.
    “Oh it took me awhile so please be careful with them.” Jiro picked up Romeo and Juliet and found a box that looked like a box set for a series. He opened that box and read the spine on one. It read “Death Note”.
    “You have a very wide ranged taste in books don’t you Madeline”
    “Of course I do. I read everything from romance to horror. All you have to do is give me a book and I’ll read it as you can see from my collection.” Jirro looked at all the books she had in her, there’s no other way to describe it, Library. He found so many of his favorites on one book shelf. “I can’t believe you have all of Shakespeare’s works.”
    “Yea I love his plays so much. I could read them for hours.”
    “I probably will,” Jiro said under his breath. Madeline turned around and saw Kataro and Mimiko asleep on the couch. She looked over at the clock on the desk and gasped.
    “It’s that time already.” Jiro went over and saw that it was 10:00.
    “Wow I don’t know where the time went,” Jiro said.
    “Well let’s not wake them you can just stay here tonight. There are guest rooms upstairs just open up the first door you see up the stairs.”
    “Thank you Madeline.”
    “You know Jiro you can call me Maddie.”
    “Alright well goodnight Maddie.”
    “Goodnight Jiro.” Maddie waved as she left the room and closed the Door behind her. Jiro immediately sat down in the chair by the desk and started to read. He read for awhile and then realized that he could hear a girl singing. He went to the door and opened it. The voice was growing stronger. He walked up the stairs and followed the voice. He walked down the Hall and realized the voice was coming from a room right next to him. The door was cracked and he saw Maddie in a beautiful Golden night gown. She was brushing her hair and singing a lullaby. Jiro slowly started to get sleepy. He had no idea how but somehow he was lying down just listening to the beautiful lullaby. Before the song ended he was fast asleep.
    Story 2: The Art of Having Fun
    The Next Morning Kataro woke up on a soft bed wondering how he’d got there. He turned over and saw that Mimiko was beside him. He looked around the room. It was a simple little room. It was almost like a Hotel Room. Kataro got out of bed and went to the door. He took a look into the hall and saw a girl dressed in overalls backing out of a room a couple doors away. “Oh good you’re up,” She said. “So Kataro, did you sleep well?” Then Kataro remembered meeting the girl the day before.
    “Yea I slept ok but can you tell me how I got into a bed?” Madeline laughed.
    “I carried you. I didn’t want to wake you or Mimiko up so I carried you up here. Speaking of Mimiko you should probably go wake her up.”
    “OK” Kataro ran back into the room and started tapping Mimiko on the face. “Mimiko you need to get up. You have to go to work.” Mimiko grudgingly opened her eyes. Then she started to freak out when she realized the time. Kataro left her to get ready and went out to the hall. Madeline was still there.
    “Hey Kataro, do you want to help me with a special project?”
    She was carrying a box and Kataro was curiouse so he said, “Sure!” Kataro Followed Madeline down the stairs and into a room at the end of the hall. When he looked inside he thought it was amazing. He had walked into a room that was almost completely empty except for some jars filled with colors and a huge canvas that went almost to the ceiling. The walls were completely spattered with paint, the ceiling was pretty high and one entire wall was made of glass that was spattered with paint as well. “This room is awesome!”
    “Thank you. I do a lot of painting in this room. That’s actually what I wanted you’re help with. I need someone to help me paint a picture do you want to help?”
    “I’d love too, but I’m not the best artist.”
    “That’s ok. All I need you to do is throw paint onto this huge canvas. Can you do that?”
    “Yea! Let’s get started!”
    “Hold your horses. You can’t paint in that.” Kataro was wearing his usual old fashion clothes. “Go next door and change. There should be something in your size.” Kataro went into the room next to the one they were in and it was full of clothes that looked just like what Madeline was wearing. Kataro found something in his size and went back to the painting room. “Alright now that you’re dressed let’s get started,” Madeline said. Madeline and Kataro were in that room for an hour throwing paint, chasing each other, playing, and laughing like crazy. Eventually Jiro woke up upstairs and heard the laughing. He went downstairs to find Kataro and when he opened the door a wad of paint almost hit him.
    “What’s going on?!” He shouted.
    “Oh Hey there big brother. Madeline and I were working on a project.”
    “Kataro didn’t I ask you to call me Maddie.”
    “Oh right. Maddie and I are working on a project. Do you want to help?” Jiro looked down at his clothes and before he could say anything Maddie jumped in.
    “You can wear something in the next room.” Jiro went and changed when he got back Maddie and Kataro were attaching balloons to the canvas. “Oh there you are. Go ahead and take some darts,” Maddie said.
    “What are we doing?”
    “We’re going to pop the balloons filled with paint big brother,” Kataro said. The three of them spent the next few hours popping the balloons and painting. When all this was done they took a look at the finished product. It was a beautiful painting with splashes of color. The last thing Maddie had done was paint circles on the canvas that captured bits of color and fun in them. You could almost feel the fun and free spirit leap from the canvas. Neither Jiro nor Kataro could have ever thought that it would turn out this good.
    “So what do you guys think?” Maddie asked.
    “It’s amazing!” Kataro said.
    “Well that’s good. I wouldn’t want to put your names on something you don’t like.”
    “Huh?” Jiro asked.
    “Well I can’t take credit for it if you guys help. It’s the law.”
    “How do you know so much about this?” Jiro asked.
    “I’m an artist. I’m pretty famous actually. That’s how I made the money to build this place.” Jiro didn’t know what to say to that. After that they took the canvas outside through the glass door and let the sun dry it. “Ok guys we better go wash up for lunch.” Jiro froze. He hadn’t thought of this. “What’s wrong Jiro?” Maddie asked.
    “Water and I don’t mix well.”
    “Oh yea you’re a vampire right.”
    “How did you know that?” Jiro asked.
    “You were steaming in the sun. It wasn’t too hard to figure out.” Maddie paused while she was thinking. “Kataro if you’re ok there’s a bathroom down the hall. It’ll be the 5th door on your left.” Kataro went off down the hall. “Ok now Jiro. I can get you clean without burning you, but you have to promise to keep your eyes closed for as long as I tell you to ok?”
    “All right I don’t see why we can’t give it a shot.” Maddie took Jiro’s hand and led him into a small bathroom with just a sink and a toilet. “No shower?” Jiro asked.
    “Oh no we don’t need a shower for this. Now sit down here and close your eyes.” Jiro did as he was told and closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Then he started to feel warm in some spots. He didn’t feel like it was burning him. It was just warm on his skin. It wasn’t wet and there wasn’t any pressure like she was scrapping the paint off. Then he could feel the warmth on his face. He couldn’t figure out what she was doing. “Ok. I’m just about done.” Jiro heard a splash in the sink and he opened his eyes. Maddie’s face was just inches away from his. Neither of them moved for several seconds and then finally Maddie backed up. “Uh sorry about that. The process takes a lot of concentration.”
    “No it’s ok really.”
    “All right then I’ll let you get changed. Your clothes are in your lap.” Jiro looked down and sure enough his clothes were right there. He looked up again and Maddie was gone. She had moved so fast that Jiro wondered if she was a vampire, but he shrugged off that thought because he had seen her teeth and he didn’t smell any vampire blood in her. Well one way or another Maddie was one special and mysterious girl. Jiro wasn’t sure of what he was feeling, but he felt like it reminded him of something. Something he’d felt before but hadn’t felt in a very long time.