Chapter Five
Unexpected

When I came to, I naturally felt extremely groggy and disoriented.  Usually when I woke, it was in my own bed, and generally I don’t remember falling asleep in the first place.  I wasn’t one who typically fell asleep while I was reading – I could tell I was getting tired and at least remembered that I put the book down for a second to rest my eyes.  But I wasn’t too worried, since this was my usual reaction after falling asleep while traveling.  I was a light sleeper, which made it difficult, but not impossible, for me to fall asleep on the plane.  But considering it was such a long flight, it was inevitable.  Even Penny and Phoebe usually ended zonking out at some point during the flight, although they supposedly did it with a touch more class or something.

Still, I really had no clue where the hell I was when I first woke up, feeling comfortable enough to be in my own bed, but where I could tell something was a little off.  Of course, it was the hum of the engines and the gentle vibrations they gave off, but at that second, I had forgotten I was on a plane.  I thought I had fallen asleep on the couch, as through that were actually something I did.  For one thing, even if I was laying on the couch, it was in a public place, and Penny and Phoebe could easily find me.  Mom used to scold me for staying in my room all day until she realized that the only reason I was was because I was escaping my sisters.  In which case, she was perfectly fine with the act, as long as I came out from time to time to prove that I was still alive in there.

Once I realized I was on a plane, I was still thrown off, because it was much too quiet.  Even if Penny and Phoebe were asleep, typically someone on the plane was awake, and usually talking in hushed tones with someone else.  But typically, when I was awake, so were my sisters, and neither of them could shut up to save their lives.  Even when I opened my eyes in confusion I was still baffled, since the cabin looked remarkably like my father’s plane when staring at the ceiling from a couch.

It was when I sat up and saw that I was alone that I remembered what was going on.  I was on a chartered flight to Greece, my family going ahead of me, and that I was blissfully free of my sisters for the time being.  I grinned at myself, unable to help it.  Eleven hours free of Penny and Phoebe’s antics.  This right here was my whole vacation.  I couldn’t wait until I could get out of the house, and Penny and Phoebe would have no reason to bug me anymore.  Unlike Papa, I could very well keep them out of the house, and kick them out if they ever found a way in.

My house would be a sister-free zone.  Anyone with the name Penelope or Phoebe Karalis would not be allowed to set foot inside, no matter how much they begged or Mom and Papa wanted me to have them over for the holidays.  Family might be important to my father’s family, but that was just because they didn’t have to deal with siblings as infuriating as mine.  I’m sure they’d make an exception in that case.

Besides, I had a feeling Mom and Papa would be using my house as an escape once I set it up.  I only had four more years to deal with this, I told myself.  Shorter if I could convince Papa to allow me to get an apartment with Maddie in our junior year like we were talking about.  They didn’t allow juniors or seniors in the dorms, so she’d either have to move back home or get an apartment, and I figured Papa would realized I paid my dues at that point.  Besides, it wouldn’t be like I was that far away.

And it wasn’t like I wouldn’t go visit them or anything.  Or that they couldn’t come and visit us.  I had a feeling it would be the latter more often than the former.  I was just sort of afraid that Papa would actually make me get a job for breaking my promise, and at that point in my schooling, having a job might not be the best thing.  Not like I wanted to be that spoiled rich kid who lived off her father’s money and never got a job.  I just wanted to concentrate on my schooling first.

Maddie’s talking about how she’s worried about the fact that we’ll be entering into the workplace without any experience at all at the rate we’re going, and she wonders if that’ll work against us.  Of course, I’m not worried about it, because I know people’ll be jumping to hire me just based off my surname.  But for Maddie, I could see where she was coming from, and it was the one case where I wouldn’t mind Papa’s influence coming into play.  He liked Maddie well enough that I was sure he’d be willing to help her get a job.  Except I didn’t want to tell her that, because I knew that she liked the idea of getting a job on her own.

I wasn’t entirely sure what time it was, but I had a feeling that I was probably in the middle of my flight.  I wondered if Zephyr was taking a little break, since I doubted he’d be up to flying the entire time.  It was a rather long flight, after all, which was one reason I was surprised he was flying on his own.  At least if he had a copilot, they could take turns flying and napping.  But I guess that’s just not how things worked for this company, and he either had to fly the entire time, or else put it on autopilot, and keep one eye open.  That sort of made sense, considering we were spending the majority of the flight over the ocean.  Unless one of the engines gave out – and I was pretty sure both of us would feel that – then there’s not much work he needed to do once he had it at altitude until we were closer to Athens.

I glanced at the screen which gave me the location the plane was at only to see that it had turned to static.  I sat up a little straighter seeing that, quickly becoming more awake.  That didn’t look good.  That meant that there was some sort of error in the system.  I had seen it once before, and luckily we managed to land all right, but the plane had to be serviced before we were able to use it again.  I hoped it wasn’t anything too serious, and that we at least made it to dry land before it resulted in anything terrible.

Still, it annoyed me because I wasn’t entirely sure where we were, and how much longer I had to wait.  It was still relatively dark outside, so I couldn’t see anything.  Not like I would see much anyway, other than ocean and more ocean.  I had stupidly packed away my watch, and there were no clocks in the cabin to give me the time.  I glance at my luggage and sort of laughed at myself.  Sure, I’ll ruin Mom’s packing job, but at least I’d know what time it was.

It was after I wobbled over to my suitcase and just started to pull it open that I realized that m ears were actually popping.  I could barely make out the sound of the landing gearing being lowered, and I blinked at my suitcase.  We were landing?

Did I seriously just sleep for eleven hours?

I didn’t bother with my suitcase any further, shoving myself into the seat beside it in surprise.  There was no sense in destroying it looking for my watch when I’d just be getting off the plane soon.  But I hadn’t realized I was that tired.  I suppose the stress of both school and having to deal with my sisters’ realty show was slowly catching up to me, and the fact that I was so comfortable and relaxed allowed me to catch up on my sleep.  I did feel a lot more rested than I had in a long time, although I was never really tired. 

But still, it was a strange thing to think, sleeping for that long.  I would expect to at least sleep my normal eight hours, which would leave three hours at some point of just being bored.  Hell, even nine hours would make sense.  But eleven?

I have never slept that much in my life, based the point where I was just a baby, and it unnerved me a little. 

But there wasn’t much I could do about it now, so I just sort of shrugged it off, and prepared for landing.  I thought it was going to be a little lighter when I landed, but I guess, due to the time differences and the early time of my flight, I was in fact landing in the evening.

That was fine. Sure, I just screwed up my jet lag by sleeping several hours, but hopefully the sun was close to rising, and I’d have all day to spend with my father’s family without being fatigued.  That was one nice thing about getting all that sleep.

Of course, the really nice thing about getting all that sleep is that I didn’t have to wait through the flight.  I got on, and I got off, and there was none of that boredom in between.  I didn’t really mind the long flights because it meant I got to read and escape the world for a bit, since it was really rare for me to have long stretches of time that weren’t before bed to read.

I found myself getting excited about seeing my father again, despite the fact that I had seen him before heading off the school.  I loved spending time with my father, and the best thing about being in Greece was the fact that he got to be Nik Karalis, father, rather than Nik Karalis, businessman.  No one cared about his reputation over there, and he always designated the time spent over there as time he wasn’t to be working.  Not unless one of his businesses blew up or something.  If it didn’t involve loss of life (or someone injuring themselves in general), he didn’t want to hear about it.  This was time spent with his family – he didn’t want to be on the phone at all hours, trying to manage something that could easily be managed without him for a few days, or even a month.  It’s not like he doesn’t plan these things months in advance, and that it caught anyone by surprise, after all.

As per tradition, Papa had promised a tour of the town he grew up in once I got settled in.  I had been around it so many times that I felt I could tell the stories he told me, but I never minded.  It was fascinating to see the places he knew when he was around my age, and to learn how he grew up.  Penny and Phoebe cared little for it – they’d head right to the beach in order to escape the peasants.  They didn’t want to deal with anyone that was poorer than they were.

Unless, of course, they were hot, in which case, they felt they could be forgiven.

It was going to be interesting to see how Penny handles her flirtatious behavior, considering it wasn’t something she really did in Donald’s presence.  She wanted to make it seem like she only had eyes for him so that he wouldn’t get any ideas and divorce her.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out for her once the show started airing, since all she seemed to be doing was making out with her friends.  Phoebe had it easier – she literally did have eyes only for Nate, and she never went beyond actually flirting with a guy.  And she could explain that away as simply show to help with ratings.

I wasn’t sure if Nate would go for that, but it was easier to forgive than actually shoving your tongue down another guy’s throat.

And I knew that Donald was going to want to spend as much time as humanly possible with his young and pretty wife.  They were never actually together for very long, and I knew he was eager to correct that.  I was sort of wondering how they were going to handle the sleeping arrangements, since, being married, Nona would allow them to share a room, and would probably get suspicious if they refused.  But I also knew that Penny refused to sleep in the same room as Donald.

At least that explained why she insisted on several of her male friends joining her, although she could get more drama out of her female friends.  I think she was planning on sneaking around, sleeping with them the entire time she was there.  Oh God, I hoped Nona caught her.  That would be hilarious.

Not like I wished that sort of thing on Nona, but she was the only one who could –and would – do something about it, and I suppose I just delighted in the idea of my sister getting into huge trouble for being basically a slut.

I told myself that I probably shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about my sisters and their friends this week.  They’d be doing their thing, doing whatever it was they were going to do to increase ratings.  I was going to enjoy spending time with my large Greek family, being admired for simply being me for once, and generally having a good time having my father pretty much all to myself.

I’m sure Mom would want to take the tour as well, and I wouldn’t mind that at all, although traditionally it was just something Papa and I would do.  I knew he could never say no to Mom, and I liked having her around.  I didn’t used to, because she was too similar to my sisters at times, but since they all moved out, she’s mellowed out considerably, and I liked to believe that she was starting to reveal her true self at last.

I did enjoy spending time with both my parents.  It made me feel like an only child, actually.

I heard the engines whine a little louder as we came in for a landing, and I braced myself for when the wheels hit the tarmac.  That was probably the worst part about flying, as well as the deceleration afterwards, but once that was over, I was able to breathe a little easier, and wait for when the plane came to a complete stop.  One great thing about never flying a commercial flight was that I never had to worry about other people taking up too much time exiting the plane, and thus getting stuck in my seat.  I merely had to grab my bag and wait, and I’d be off as soon as Zephyr opened the door for me.

I wasn’t sure how far he was going to go helping me with my bag, but I made preparations to drag my own bag around.  I wasn’t the sort of person who just expected someone to do things for me, although I never exactly argued when they did.  It was their choice, after all, although usually if it was something I could handle, I politely refused the first time to see if it was really something they wanted to do.  If they gave up too easily, that meant that were just asking to be nice, and then I’d feel like I was taking advantage of them.

I didn’t want to be one of those rich girls who wanted everything handed to them.  I wanted to be one of those rich girls who could in fact make it on my own if I really had to.  And I was planning on doing just that as soon as I was able to.

It seemed to take longer than usual for Zephyr to park the plane, but I guess he had to find an available terminal or spot in which to do it.  Athens was a fairly busy airport, after all, and you could just have a random airplane sitting in the middle of all that.  Papa had his own hanger there, so it was never an issue for him, but since I knew his plane was there, I knew this plane couldn’t park there, despite holding his daughter.  I didn’t mind waiting, really.  I knew I was there, and that’s all that mattered.  I wasn’t going to fall out of the sky or anything.

I knew I was going to get an earful from my mother, all while Papa was going to attempt to calm her down.  She would eventually forgive me, since I was the good daughter, and I was allowed to make mistakes like that so long as I didn’t make them again.  Once I explained I was caught up in the boarding process, I think she’d understand.  And when I point out that I fell asleep before I remembered to do it – and slept the entire time – I think she’d be fine with it.  But I knew she was at the airport, standing with my father, probably both exhausted from their own flight, waiting for me to arrive.

My sisters and their friends would have already headed over to my grandparents’ house, since it was a much better place to film than the airport, and like hell were either of them going to hang around and wait for me.  It was just as well, I suppose.  The people in Papa’s hometown didn’t care who he was, but the Greeks in general viewed him as a favorite son, and tended to mob him almost as bad as Americans.  So having to deal with all the film crew on top of all that would probably be just too much.

Still, the thought of being so close to seeing my parents again made all the taxiing we were doing a little unbearable.  All good things for those who wait, Psyche, I told myself as I finally felt the plane start to slow down.

I didn’t want to seem rude and too eager, so I remained in my seat while Zephyr did his final flight checks, and was ready to let me out.  I started tapping my foot without realizing it, and he glanced at it in annoyance when he finally stepped out of the cockpit.  For a man that had been flying for eleven hours straight, he looked pretty rested, which lead me to believe that he did put the plane on autopilot and took a nap while we were flying.

I didn’t hold it against him; a man needed his rest, after all.

I was sort of expecting him to just open the airlock and pretty much be done with me, his duty done and me being delivered.  He’s probably head to a hotel to zonk out for a while before heading back.  Maybe he had another passenger in Greece that he needed to take somewhere?  That would make sense – why send someone all the way to Greece just to have him turn around and come back without anyone else?  That was just bad business, after all.

So I was pleasantly surprised when he actually reached down and took my bags for me without hesitation.  Such a gentleman, this one.  He pretty much kicked open the airlock, and as we strolled out, I got my first look of Athens International Airport that I’ve had in months.

Except when I stepped out, it wasn’t to Athens International Airport.

I immediately froze upon the sight, Zephyr continuing on until he reached the bottom.  Sitting in front of me wasn’t the usual sight of the airport I was used to, but rather a massive mansion on what I assumed was a massive grounds, considering it seemed to have its own landing strip.  The mansion itself seemed to be designed in a weird Greek revival style, shaping modern and ancient styles together into something that somehow just worked together.  The grounds itself seemed to stretch out for a mile in each direction before it was marred by forests, which seemed to surround the property completely.  Topiaries, statues, and small gardens dotted the property at pleasant intervals.

But the thing that got me the most was the fact that I could see everything perfectly thanks to the fact that the sun was in fact out.  Which meant that the windows on the plane were somehow made to just look like it was night, and sure enough, when I glanced back, I noticed that all the windows were blacked out.

Of course, they hadn’t been when we took off, which confused me even more.  How the hell did all the windows become blackened while we were still in the air?

But obviously Zephyr didn’t want to me to see our approach and get suspicious.  He glanced at me now, waiting patiently for me to descend.  “Miss Karalis?” he asked, looking amused once again but trying to sound concerned.

I jabbed a finger at him.  “You kidnapped me,” I accused.

“Ah yes, well…technically, I didn’t, because you came willingly.”

“It’s still kidnapping if you take me somewhere I didn’t know about in the first place.”

“So when your little friends decide to play a prank on you and drive you somewhere you don’t know, that’s kidnapping?”

“Okay, first of all, I don’t know any friends that would do something like that to me.  And second on all, yes.  As a matter of fact, they usually refer to it as kidnapping.”

“But no one gets up in arms about it, Miss Karalis.”

I glared at him.  “Its Psyche, please.  And are you seriously trying to reason with me about kidnapping me?”

He shrugged.  “Apparently.”

“God, we knew this was going to happen someday.  Look, Papa’s already decided that he wasn’t going to give in to you idiots, and he’d never pay ransom for any of his children.  He doesn’t want to give anyone any ideas that they could do something like this and get away with it.”

“Hmm, I can certainly see why that would be an issue.  The daughters of Nikodemus Karalis would take in a nice ransom.  If, of course, your father were willing to play along.  But he sounds like he’s a smart man.  However, I do wonder if his policy would extend to his youngest and favorite daughter.”

I paused.  With Penny and Phoebe, I could see him not willing to give in, allowing them to suffer a little in hopes of humiliating them into submission.  I, on the other hand, never really did anything to embarrass him, and I was generally his baby girl.  So I wondered if that would hold true in my case.

I had to be honest – I hoped that was the case.  I didn’t want to be kidnapped for too long.

“So you admit it – you did kidnap me!”

“In the general sense of the word, I did,” he said, holding out his hand for me so that I would finish getting off his plane.  “But is there malicious intent behind it?  No, of course not.”

I raised my eyebrow at him.  “What do you mean, of course not?”

“I do have to admit that it was incredibly easy to kidnap you, though, Psyche,” he continued.  “You’re entirely too trusting.  A man with a sign at the right moment could easily take you, as I so aptly proved.”

“Did my father actually send you to see how easily kidnapped I would be?”

He shook his head.  “No,” he insisted.  “But let me ask you this, Psyche: would you have gotten on the plane with me if you didn’t think I was trustworthy?”

I blinked at him.  Only those you really knew me knew of my strange sense of people.  I took an immediate liking to Nate because I felt he was extremely loyal, and he’s proven to be a good man and something of a big brother to me.  Even Donald was a mixed bag – he was creepy as hell, but he never meant me any harm, so I couldn’t help but find myself trusting him slightly.  Even my gravitating to Maddie when we were in kindergarten seemed to be a result of my sense, because I just seemed to know that Maddie was someone worth knowing, even back when I was five.

I couldn’t tell if he was seriously asking me this, or if it was just a general question.  I’m sure plenty of people wouldn’t get on a plane with someone they didn’t feel they could trust.  Mom’s commented several times about people she felt she couldn’t trust.  There’ve been several times when we’ve had to hire some new help, and sometimes she’d feel she couldn’t hire someone because she felt she couldn’t trust them.

I wasn’t the only one with a gut instinct, but the difference was that my gut instinct was always one hundred percent right.  There’ve been times when Mom hired someone I didn’t like at all, and had to fire them within a day or two because they turned out to be completely unreliable or actually trying to rob us.  Or, like when she was hiring our cook, she felt like he couldn’t be trust, but I had a different sense to him, and managed to convince her or hire him anyway, because he was the only one of the candidates I did like.  One went on to rob a convenience store, one turned out to be a convicted criminal, and the one we hired turned out to just be a Gulf War veteran who managed to save him buddies from a grenade, but didn’t get out himself unscathed.

“Er, well, no,” I said slowly, now a little unsure about him.  The way he looked amused was a little infuriating. 

“Aside from this whole kidnapping situation, I’m willing to bet you can’t find a reason not to trust me at the moment,” he continued.

I couldn’t.  Yes, he kidnapped me, and openly admitted to it, but I found my feet moving against my own volition until I found myself on the tarmac, glaring at him.

“Well, I don’t think I like you very much at the moment,” I commented to him.

“Well, I’m not asking you to like me, merely trust me.  There’s actually a very good reason I’m doing this.”

“Oh?”

“Um, I’m not allowed to reveal that to you, unfortunately,” he admitted sheepishly.  “But trust me when I say there’s a very good reason behind it.”

I frowned at him.  I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell was going on, but it was so strange that I had this nagging feeling that I could trust him, despite the fact that he had clearly taken me somewhere I wasn’t sure where it was.  The sky was entirely too blue, the grass entirely too green, and everything just seemed too artificially perfect that it was just creepy.  Everything was just so…clean. 

“I…I do,” I said, feeling confused.  His amused expression retuned, but this time it felt like I was actually in on the joke.  “But can you at least tell me what the deal is?”

“The deal?”

“Like…why did you kidnap me in the first place if you don’t have any malicious intent behind it?  People kidnap other people for a reason, you know.”

“I know, I know,” he said hastily as he started to lead me towards the house.  It was starting to feel awkward just standing beside the plane, I suppose.  “The full reason is part of the whole thing in which I can’t reveal, but I can tell you that you do have a choice in the matter.”

“Really.  I have a choice,” I said hotly.

“Well, this is not your ordinary kidnapping situation, Psyche.  I mean you no harm, and as such, that means you get a choice.  You can either choose to stay here, and perhaps maybe find out exactly what that reason is for all this in the first place, or you could choose to leave.  And if you do, I’ll return you to your father, and it’ll be like none of this happened at all.  You’ll think it was just a dream.”

“Wait, what?” I asked, halting again.  “I’m pretty sure I’ll remember this, Zephyr.”

He shrugged.  He was very noncommittal.  “It’s up to you, Psyche.  I know you were looking forward to a week with your father’s family.  A good family, those Karalises.  Still believe in the old ways.  But I also know that you were dreading spending that entire week without an escape from your sisters.”

“How do you know this?”

“It doesn’t matter.  All that matters is that it’s true.”

It was true.  I wasn’t expecting them to hang around Nona’s house all weekend, but without school for me to escape to, I had no way of hiding my shame at what Penny and Phoebe were doing.  Sure, they couldn’t film with me around, so long as I was speaking, and I’m pretty sure none of my aunts, uncles, or cousins would consent to this nonsense.  But that didn’t mean that couldn’t film around my grandparent’s house.  The town itself was public domain, and my grandmother couldn’t chase away the film crew with her broom, like I’ve seen her do with ducks, outside her home.

But it wasn’t something I had really allowed myself to consider, because I wanted to make sure I enjoyed my visit.  Even with a legitimate reason, Nona wouldn’t allow me to hide in my room the entire time, especially not with the wedding festivities planned.  It was going to be sheer hell, and I knew it very well.

Except…I did want to see Chryssa be married.  I was so happy for her, and I wanted to see her happiness.  It would be selfish of me to refuse to see that just to save myself the hassle of dealing with Penny and Phoebe.  Wouldn’t it?

But if I left, I’d be left with so many questions unanswered, even if this guy claimed I’d view it all as a dream.  How would that even be possible?  Would that be something that I’d be questioning my whole life?  Would I come to regret not agreeing to stay, just so I could see what happened next?

After all, I could see my father’s side of the family anytime I wanted, really.  All I had to do was tell Papa that I did, and he’d arrange something for me.  A weekend getaway wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for me.  This, however, seemed to be the opportunity of a lifetime.

And there was something about this place.  Something like that paranoid feeling I’d have, that, despite being pretty damn sure I had never seen this place in my life, felt comfortable and familiar somehow.  Like I had been here before, but couldn’t see to remember it.

Which was ridiculous.  I’d remember a place as beautiful as this.  And that’s what it was to me, I realized.  Yes, everything was oddly perfect, but there was beauty in it as well.  Anyone else could see it easily, but I suppose I had become jaded in my wealth.  I was used to seeing things on a grand and clean scale, and I knew what sort of effort went into keeping it like this.  And it disgusted me a little whenever I saw it.  Our own mansion felt that way at times, which I think was one reason Papa tended to keep it a little on the cluttered side at times.  It annoyed the crap out of Mom, who grew up in a clean environment, but Papa claimed it made the place feel more like a home.

And that’s what this place felt like: home. 

I glanced at Zephyr, who was patiently waiting for my answer.  I think he knew what it was before I even knew it.  He didn’t say anything, but his calm mask had a sense of confidence to it, which normally would infuriate me.  But the mere fact that I was silent meant I was considering it, and since I didn’t immediately say I wanted to go home, that meant there was a pretty good chance that I would answer as he expected.

I almost told him to take me to my father based on that alone.  Why do what was expected?  I could be weighing the pros and the cons, and come to the realization that I didn’t care about what happened next.  Except I totally did.

I took a deep breath.  Papa would understand, I was sure.  Mom would freak out, and I felt bad about ruining her entire week.  But she would come to understand as well.  But I had to know.  I don’t know why I did, but that was the truth of the matter.  I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I most likely might not, but I had to give it a chance.

I felt like this would make everything about my life make perfect sense, and if I passed up this opportunity, I’d be regretting it my entire life, even if I didn’t remember it like Zephyr said I wouldn’t.  Something in the back of my mind would be telling me constantly that I made a mistake, and that I could be living a very different life right now.  And it’d be all because I made the wrong choice when I was too young to know any better.

“Okay,” I said after a moment.  “I’ll stay.”

Chapter Four

Modern Day Cupid Chapter Five

Chapter Six