After both planes land safely at the capital of the country, Arthur gets a suite for Carol and him, at a very nice five stars hotel.
The suite has all the comforts they could need and besides the large bedroom, it had a living room and office area, with plasma TV and last generation computer to say the least.
While Carol is taking a relaxing warm bath, with flower aromas in the jacuzzi, Arthur instructs George about last minute tasks that need immediate attention.
When Carol joins him in the living room, they sit together on the soft satin finish couch, and without further explanations, he turns on the TV and Mandy is alive on the large screen.
She is giggling and talking to her friend Rose. The sound is mute, but the image is perfect.
“How is it possible, Arthur?”
“Steve has one of our guys following Mandy and recording her in real time. She won´t notice, since he was trained by our Special Operations Squad. The came
Mrs. Chilsony hurried the girls to get ready and join the others for breakfast at the hotel´s restaurant. It was very enjoyable. There was a fellowship among the students that came from many parts of the country to compete. The truth is that they shared the love of math and found it enjoyable to discuss these matters with their peers.They were accommodated in a long table for more or less thirty people, and the other hotel guests would be impressed when eavesdropping on their chats, “Did you find the coseno and cotangent at first try?” “Nooo. It took me a while. How did you do with the hypotenuse?” And so on… The competition was only on Saturday. For now, they saw each other as friends with a similar interest. Many of them kept in touch for the years to come.But what impressed everybody the most was the beautiful roses bouquet delivered to Mandy there. They were from Mark. And they kept coming every morning to her surprise and del
Carol joined Mandy on Thursday for dinner, pretending on having just arrived. Of course, she would confess all the charade to her daughter when they were back home. She just didn´t want to worry her so near the important day.But surely there was not a place for lies between them. Their love wouldn´t permit it. And also, it was unnecessary because they supported one another, no matter what.Mandy was so happy to have her mom and Arthur joining her cheerful group.Professor Jackson was very optimistic for the results.“Then, are you planning on reviews of the topics for tomorrow?”“No, Arthur. These kids will be tested on their deep knowledge of the mathematics, not on some eve memorization of a couple of formulas.”“And is that good or bad, Jackson?”Everybody at their table laughed heartedly at Arthur´s question.”“It´s good, my friend. It will allow them
Mandy said her goodbyes to The Mathemaniacs on Sunday after breakfast.“See you back home, guys?”“Aren´t you flying with us?” Clayton just couldn´t let this one pass without a remark. “Are we not important enough for you?”There was an akward silence, soon interrupted by a helpful Rose, “And don´t we smell as good as that gorgeous boyfriend of yours?”“Aren´t our hairs as soft as Mark´s?” Ronald added with a smile.Mandy was giggling now. It was all a joke.“Come on guys. It´s easier for me to go with my mom.”“And that´s the reason.” Rose kept teasing Mandy to distract everybody from Clayton´s rudeness.“Sure. That and the reason that I´m completely in love with my handsome perfumed soft-haired boyfriend.”The girls laughed at that. Ronald was busy pushing Clayton´s
Arthur had told Mandy that after watching how serious Steph was about her career, he had decided to invest on it to help her achieve fame.“She will be making an unbelievable amount of money. And this from the shows alone. Not to mention from marketing of her image and launching of products related to her.”“Oh, that´s so exciting. Can I tell her right now?”“Of course, you can. But I have a better. Why don´t you bring her over here tomorrow morning, so she can meet our showbiz staff?”“That´s great. Thank you, Arthur.”“Don´t mention it. Go make your call now. I can see you can´t wait to tell her.”With a cheerful ‘yep’, Mandy left his office and ran to get her phone.MUSIC CAREERArthur was explaining to a very attentive Steph about his vision of her career.“You´ve built an internet presence and shown that y
WEDDING PLANNINGCarol had only a few months to plan her wedding. Of course, budget wouldn´t be a problem. And she immediately hired a professional wedding planner. She took her three assistents to her meeting with her.“Mrs. Wannago, should I worry?”“Absolutely not, dear bride Carol.”The Planner referred to her as bride Carol. She didn´t mind.“What are the main things to check?”Since Mrs. Wannago had a long checklist, Carol took a copy and went home to underline the main things from the list.She had a talk with her assistents.“Well, I think it will be very productive if Grass is in charge of checking the groom´s things, like attire and. Green will help with the bride´s tasks. Oh, dear, I´m the bride! What a thrill. So that will be the dress, makeup, hair, you know. And Gray is in charge of everything that is not related to the bride and groom. Like t
DINNER AT CAROL´SBecause they were going in separate cars, Mark had arrived earlier and was helping Carol set the appetizers on the table.Mandy was taking a while longer in the shower. And she was extra careful with her hair and soft looking makeup.When Don and Pam arrived, their son welcomed them in. Mark felt more at home there, than at his own place. Mandy and Carol made sure to guarantee that he kept feeling like that.The thing is, he was loved there, and they weren´t afraid of showing their emotions. Neither did him, towards them.As he made the introductions, Mark said the warmest things about Carol. For an outsider, it would look like she was his blood relation instead of Pamela.Carol was very warm with the Smiths.“Thanks for the Medicine books you gave Mandy, Donald. She can´t seem to put them down.”“Does she read them?” It was a pleasant surprise for him to verify that h
MRS. BOSSThere was one more introduction so necessary to happen before the wedding day and that was to Arthur´s mother, Mrs. Boss.It was arranged that she should come over before they went on vacation. And so she arrived all shining and bright making her presence impossible to ignore.She had maids running up and down only to get her a glass of water and then she would decline that and ask for coffee instead.She made one cook cry and one maid quit.Mr. Sunsquash had to write down lists and lists in the improvement of the house´s administration, only to have Mrs~Boss tearing them apart and declaring dramatically, “This place will never be a castle.”It made Mr. Sunsquash open his eyes very wide and show that he was enormously impressed.And all of this had happened only during the first morning of her stay.Arthur was excited and he went personally to pick up Carol at her house.She had chosen a
CLAYTON Clayton was far from being a genius, but he was intelligent and dedicated to his studies. He went to this great private high school thanks to a scholarship granted to him because of good grades. The only down point in his situation was that his emotions did not match his intellect. Not only he was introspective, but also he wouldn´t ever see the good of anybody else. His parents never encouraged or complimented him about his school achievements, because they didn´t understand them, for the guy was a mechanic and the woman was a cleaner. They loved their son but only talked about football and soap opera, which made him mad. Many times, his father had told him to drop school and get a job since they could use the extra money. Their house was kind of falling apart. It made Clayton furious and his mother interfered telling his dad to let him be. So, up to now, Clayton´s expectations were to win prizes that allowed him to get a college scho