𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗕𝗬 𝗠𝗘, Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz

𝗜 | 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚

"Ugh, why on earth is it so hot here!" Cleo stumbled as she tried to carry her two suitcases up the house steps.

"Why are we in California?" Mai asked her mother,  Gianna , who was helping unload the suitcases from the trunk. Their family was rich, so why could they not go somewhere else for a family vacation?

"Because this is our family vacation." Gianna responded as he handed Mai her suitcase.

Thanks to her Karate practice, Mai could fully lift up her suitcase high into the air without feeling tired. Mai was the youngest daughter of the Kaidanovsky-Wu family. She had an older sister, Cleo, and an older brother, Nick.

"We are not becoming poor, are we?" Mai asked, peaking her head to the side of the suitcase to be able to see her parents. Usually during summer vacation, her family vacation was going to Greece, or maybe Rome, Dubai, Japan, Scotland, somewhere nice. Except it wasn't summer and instead the start of a new school year.

"No, we are not. Your mother just wants an excuse to visit her best friend, Scarlet." Andrey, Mai's father, explained. Mai remembered that when she was around 9-10, they had come to visit her mom's best friend. Scarlet had a daughter named Yasmine, who Mai often texted.

"I get that, but LA isn't very vacation-y." Mai complained as she began walking up the steps. The family car was parked in the driveway of the giant mansion.

"What is 'vacation-y' ?" Gianna asked Mai, but her daughter was already inside the house.

Mai stepped into the white with large windows, AC-powered, living room. Cleo was plopped down on the couch, while Nick was decorating and moving stuff around. "It's so fresh in here." Mai said, relieved after experiencing the temperature outside.

"I know right." Cleo responded. "Thank God for AC."

Mai slipped off her shoes, grabbed slippers from the cubby next to the door way, and put the slippers on. She left her suitcase by the door, next to one of Cleo's suitcases, and went to sit down on the comfy and white couch. Nick was going down the stairs and saw two suitcase by the door. "What am I, your maid?" Nick asked as he began picking up the suitcases.

"Yes, Cinderella." Cleo laughed.

Mai received a text message from Yasmine, while Cleo and Nick began arguing. Mai's mother and father began bringing stuff into the house.

Yasmine

Mai

Are you free this saturday?

We're having a pool party at Sam's house.

Mai

Sam?

Yasmine

Moon and Sam, remember?

I can introduce them to you at the pool party

I'll send you the address

Mai

Sure, I'll go!

Yasmine

Great, I'll see you there!

"Who's texting you?" Cleo asked, trying to peek at Mai's phone.

Mai showed Cleo her phone. "Remember Yasmine? She invited me to this pool party." Mai explained, rolling her eyes. Mai didn't even know how to swim, she told Yasmine she was going to go, but when Saturday came around, she would just make up an excuse not to go.

"Are you going to go?" Cleo asked.

"I told her I was, but I'll come up with an excuse not go." Mai smiled.

Cleo chuckled. "Are you kidding? That's so mean!"

"It's not..."

"You have to go!" Cleo told Mai. "Besides, you also might make new friends for the school year." Cleo explained.

Mai shrugged. "I don't even want to go to school, if it's not a private school." The nearest private school was a few towns over, and Mai was certainly not waking up EXTRA early just to to go to school.

"Look how bougie you sound." Cleo chuckled.

"Have you seen American public schools?" Mai asked Cleo.

"I have, actually. It's really not that bad, Mai." Cleo nodded her head. Cleo was entering her senior year, while Mai was entering her Sophomore year. Nick was going to fly to England to go back to Oxford in a few days.

"I don't even have anything to wear." Mai told Cleo. "You know I don't like pools."

"Then we can go shopping!" Cleo said excitedly.

"Don't you wanna help instead of talking about shopping?" Nick asked, carrying a box up the stairs.

"No, I don't think so. I'm already sweating." Cleo responded. "I already had my workout."

"Mom, when are we getting a house keeper and a maid?" Mai asked her mother, who was going down the stairs.

"Nick is our maid." Cleo chuckled. Nick rolled his eyes and threw a blanket at Cleo. She stumbled back, fighting the blanket as she tried to get it off of herself.

"Both of you stop. And to answer you question, the housekeeper will be coming tomorrow." Gianna responded.

Cleo finally managed to get the weighted blanket off. " We seriously couldn't go to Scotland, the Bahamas, Dubai, Italy, or even Paris?" Cleo asked.

"I love Scotland..."

"Haven't you heard the news? We're officially poor." Nick said.

"We are not poor! And this is not a summer vacation, it's just a traveling experience." Gianna responded as she took a seat next to Mai and Cleo.

"Clearly, who goes on vacation to LA?" Cleo asked.

"Us." Mai rolled her eyes.

"Would you prefer that I send you all to Russia?" Gianna asked her children.

"I think I'm good here." Cleo responded, their grandparents in Russia were OVERLY strict.

"I liked Moscow. It was pretty..." Mai commented.

"Well, I have Oxford to attend to." Nick declared. "I feel bad that you have to stay here." He told Cleo and Mai. "It's so hot out here, I feel like I'm gonna melt."

"Me too." Mai pouted.

︵‿︵‿୨💗୧‿︵‿︵

Mai and Cleo's room were on one end of the hallway, so they had to share a bathroom. Their parents and Nick's bedroom a.k.a guest room were on the other end of the hallway. The middle of the hallway didn't actually have walls, instead it had rails. Which looked down upon the first floor. In total there was 3 floors in the lake house. It was very modern-y and white, Mai preferred mansions that looked like castles. It made her feel like she was in a fairytale.

Mai had just finished taking a shower, put on lotion, her clothes and had also finished unpacking. Most of the house was already furnished because the family owned this house and had stayed here before.

She laid down on her bed, the thought of school coming soon made Mai feel sick to her stomach. Not that she was scared or anything, she just had never liked school. And not to mention she was going to a new school where she only knew one person. Being friends with Yasmine would automatically make Mai popular too. And she wasn't sure she wanted that.

Mai close her eyes and placed her hands above her stomach. In all honesty, she just wanted to go back home. To be with her friends, the ones she actually knew and not people who were just Yasmine's friends. She just wanted to go home and train with her friends from her dojo. Going to the school where she already knew everyone, where she didn't have to be friends with someone just to be popular.