Junior Year Box Set

As much as I might not want to admit it, I was having fun. Kent and Hana did Drunk in Love by Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Then Megan floored us. The girl could sing. She was hiding a huge voice in her little body, and she slew (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin.

Knowing we were outclassed, the rest of us did a shot, declaring Megan the winner. If I didn’t have the video to prove it, I couldn’t make the following claim: when I get drunk, I can actually sing. With my deep voice, I killed some Elvis and Barry White songs. I tore up Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot.

During the night, everyone tried on the different costumes the girls had picked out. We even got Paul to put on a pimp hat. Things got a little hot when the girls put on schoolgirl uniforms and sang … Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. When they were done, I found Megan on my lap while Hana sat on Kent’s.

Thankfully, Paul was there, or we might have done something embarrassing on camera. He rounded us up, made sure he grabbed the video, and then took us back to the hotel.

◊◊◊ Thursday July 7

Cassidy woke me up again.

“Get up, get up, get up!” she said, poking me in the ribs, and then noticed I wasn’t alone.

Megan popped her head up and then scurried off to the bathroom.

“You are a bad, bad boy,” Cassidy scolded.

I cocked my head sideways. The only flaw in Cassidy’s logic was Megan still wore the same clothes she’d had on last night. I tried to remember what had happened. We were drunk; well, I was drunk. Kent and Hana had gone to their rooms, or so I hoped. Megan made sure I got to mine.

I remembered her looking up at me behind those glasses and thinking the cute little girl really did look like a mouse. Then everything sort of became fuzzy as the last vodka shot and beer caught up with me. I doubted anything untoward happened.

“No, she still had her clothes on. I don’t think anything happened.”

Cassidy gave me a doubtful look. It suddenly occurred to me that I was naked as I was talking to her. Megan came out of the bathroom and over to the side of the bed and dropped to her knees with her head bowed and her hands in her lap.

“Does Master require anything else?” Megan asked.

Frick, I didn’t need this. Bad enough that my mouth tasted like a rat had pooped in it, and my head would explode at any moment.

“Oh, this is good. Hang on, I have to get Brook,” Cassidy said and bolted for the door.

“Uhm … did we …?” I asked.

“No. You did get naked and showed me you could do the helicopter,” Megan said, and a vague memory pushed its way forward.

“I … uh … I … uh … sorry,” I stammered.

“Then you announced that you were the Master of the Universe and all your subjects should bow to you. You sort of ruined it when you stumbled over to your bed and passed out,” Megan said as she smiled and patted my cheek.

“Are we good? I didn’t do anything to cause you to want to sue me, did I?” I asked.

“I believe Caryn has a form for that, but no, you didn’t do anything that offended me. But I have to admit, I did think about molesting you,” she said as we heard the key card enter the lock, and Cassidy and Brook burst into the room.

“Take them to breakfast,” I told Megan. “They won’t leave me alone until they know everything, and I need to take some aspirin, take a shower, and catch a flight.”

I think mouthwash was also called for.

◊◊◊

Cassidy, Brook, and Megan decided to remain in Iwakuni and play tourist for another day. Everyone else packed up and flew back to Tokyo. Upon our arrival at Haneda Airport, we were swarmed by paparazzi. I suspected I had a leak in my organization—Saul—because as we walked to baggage claim, one of the paparazzi said they’d meet us at the hotel. Thankfully, Paul had hired the same security as before, and they neatly cleared a path to the cars.

When we reached our hotel, there was a package waiting for me. It contained the script for my part in My Butterfly. I gave it to Hana so she could read it over. Everyone came to my suite, including Saul.

“If you’re going to announce my presence, you have to tell Paul,” I chastised Saul.

“I think he needs to face them with you,” Paul suggested.

“Have you thought about possibly staying for another couple of weeks?” Saul pleaded. “There have been some interesting offers sent over. You could make even more money.”

“I’m already staying an extra day. I want to get back and get acclimated to the time change before I go to Houston for USA Baseball.”

“Just saying, you’re big over here.”

Hana and I worked on my lines. J-dramas tended to have between ten and twelve episodes. They already had six done, and it looked like they planned to shoot scenes for the last six episodes today with me here. I didn’t know I was a recurring character.