Chapter 150 - Surprise, Mrs Wilde!

New York City. Scarlet missed it a little after being in the East for so long. On the side note, Alex was late. Lin Lin and Scarlet had been going around for two hours now. Claire said that they touched down already so why wasn't her sister out of the customs?

"Are they going to be mad at us?" Farid asked a little nervously. After six years, the child Thomas Edison had lost most of his arrogance and was replaced by a more level-headed youth with some self-esteem issues.

"I doubt it. Even if they are, we won't be the one taking the blame," Nathan assured his friend and colleague. Unlike Scarlet and Lin Lin who had just arrived this morning, the boys landed late last night. Instead of spending time to check into a hotel for the night, they decided to sleep and wait in the airport instead. That was also how they found Scarlet and Lin Lin first.

"Sorry, I'm late!" someone shouted after they left the immigration counters. Alex's face was red from running and panting as she dragged her heavy suitcases with her. Claire followed not too far behind and the model apologised for the delay.

"There was a baggage mix up so Claire had to sort it out earlier," Alex explained and gave Lin Lin a hug. Like Scarlet, Lin Lin hadn't grown much and was still as adorable as everyone remembered her to be. In the composer's defence, she hasn't experienced her growth spurt yet.

"Finally!" Farid sighed and smiled. Now that the five of them were ready, Scarlet called Pamela and Raven to get ready. Tina decided not to join them this time and went on a day tour with Sue who travelled down to Beijing for a short holiday paid out of Scarlet and Alex's pockets. They'd been such wonderful caretakers that the girls felt bad about not giving them enough time offs.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Scarlet smiled. "Are you ready for Operation Surprise Mrs Wilde?"

The wide grin on everyone's face told Scarlet everything she needed to know. Ever since Scarlet and Alex knew about how Orita was organising the reunion party for them, the girls decided to prepare a little something in return to thank their mother for supporting them so much. However, it wasn't a surprise that they could manage by themselves so the girls asked for some external help in the form of two very intelligent people who worked for NASA.

Claire didn't make a single sound as all five children loaded their luggage into the limousine and got into the back. The bodyguard got in the front seat with the assigned driver and requested for the privacy screen to be up so that the teens could talk in peace. The head maid didn't feel bad about not informing her employers about the surprise they wanted to prepare for Orita. In fact, she had sworn secrecy to not divulge it before time. Not all of the E.C. Class and Special class knew about it. Jasper and Elfie were definitely aware but their jobs were to create a diversion and from Jenna's photographs in the group chat, the boys were doing a good job at it.

"Did you bring it?" Alex asked in a whisper once the privacy screen was up.

The young engineer grinned and pulled out a small device. He pressed a button and at once, a holographic image appeared. "Elfie did the coding for it. How's it? Very life-like, right?"

Nathan groaned at the thought of having to help with the calculations for this holographic projector. While it wasn't difficult, it was tedious. Thankfully, Scarlet and Alex didn't ask for the impossible. With this holographic projector that could be linked to any app with a video call function, Orita would be able to have an actual face-to-face conversation with her husband. Of course, this gift project was funded out of Wilmer's own pockets but under Kiwi Cat Studio's name as one of their new side projects.

Scarlet received the precious device and tried it out for herself. Alex worked hard recording the input for this device's voice and Lin Lin helped with that. Apart from acting as a holographic projector, the device could be connected using Bluetooth to act as a smart home system coordinator with an AI that rivalled Siri. Scarlet had been testing the AI out for a while now since last year. It was Elfie's personal project that Scarlet agreed to help out as a beta tester. More importantly, this device had another very important function that nobody else other than Scarlet, Jasper and Elfie knew about. It had a security feedback function that will monitor the Wilde mansion's security network and take control of the system to fire out responses to the main house's security team if they spotted anyone.

The five of them were fashionably late to the party because they were finalising the modifications to this device up until the very last possible moment. Naturally, the efforts paid off and Scarlet thanked everyone.

"Don't mention it," Nathan laughed. "It was a fun project even though there were frustrating moments."

Farid nodded. "If I resign from NASA please ask Jasper to employ me at his company on account that I helped to create this smart home assistant."

Lin Lin rolled her eyes and the girls laughed. It was still quite a drive away from the Wilde mansion so the exhausted teens agreed on a nap. Claire frowned after twenty minutes. It was too silent at the back. She dropped the privacy screen and chuckled at the sight of five tired teens snoozing away. Without a word, she took a picture and sent it to the group chat so that Jenna and Orita could stop fretting over their safety. Once that was done, the head maid raised the privacy screen once more and let them rest. It wouldn't be long till they reached the mansion anyway. Besides, the boys were still preparing for the backyard barbecue.

By the time the five VIPs arrived, the preparations for the barbecue were almost ready. Drinks were chilled, decorations were complete, food was prepared under Vivian's strict supervision and the grills were heated. There really wasn't anything much to be done except for the five of them to get changed while the servants unloaded their luggage and brought it to their rooms. Scarlet hadn't been to the main mansion as often so she still got lost without a guide. Thankfully, everyone made it just in time for the grand opening speech by Orita.

"Thank you, everyone, for making it to the class reunion after six years. I'm Orita Wilde, I believe you've seen me before at the last gathering back at the beach resort. It makes me happy to see that every single one of you has grown up splendidly and are pursuing your own paths in life. Once again, I would like to thank everyone for the wonderful friendship that you have with my children. Over the years I've made and lost many friends but I wish that the friendship that all of you share today won't be anything as fragile as that. Here's a toast to strong everlasting friendship!"

The speech elicited cheers and the teens raised their plastic cups full of fruit punch and soda before getting the real party started. Fires were lit, balloons were popped, music was played and messes were caused. Still, the laughter that followed the chaos made Orita enjoy herself immensely.

The E.C. Class and Special Class' unique friendship was still the same kind of interesting as it was before. Khalid took on the official role of a DJ for the party while the dancers started to have a dance battle. Naturally, Rowan wasn't one to pass up the opportunity and collected the bets that some other classmates placed. The Lopez twins were stunning but the two idol trainees didn't miss a beat either. Scarlet had never seen Si-Han or Tom dance before but when they did, she felt her heart skip a beat. They were just too devilishly handsome! However, thanks to the male to female ratio, the Lopez twins won by a landslide and some of the rowdier boys took the responsibility of dunking both idols into the pool.

Jenna sighed at the chaos. The party had only started but already, these teens were wrecking the garden. For some reason, the butler was glad the original plan of hosting the reunion gathering gala styled indoors didn't happen. She tried to imagine all the hyperactive and hot-blooded youths climbing the tapestries and jumping on the long tables along to dub-step music and shuddered.

With everyone else busy and distracted, Scarlet passed the wrapped up device to her sister with a nudge. Alex was strangely nervous about giving her mother a gift. Usually, she was on the receiving end of gifts from her parents. This would be the first time she was giving her mother a gift when it wasn't a special occasion like a birthday or a celebration. Then again, after knowing Scarlet, Alex had a first time for many things. Having one more exception in her life wouldn't amount to much.

Mustering her courage, Alex approached Orita shyly with the gift behind her back. Her coy demeanour made Orita amused almost immediately. She had only seen Alex acting this shy on a few occasions, usually when she did something wrong and wanted to ask for forgiveness.

Unknown to the mother and daughter, Raven was filming the precious scene from a balcony on the third floor according to Scarlet's instructions. The surprise gift wasn't really the real surprise. In fact, the true surprise was what would happen after.

"Mommy, I have a gift for you."

Orita smiled as Alex presented her a small box. She opened it carefully and was puzzled by the sight of an electronic gadget. Alex then demonstrated the use of the device and explained how it could be used. To 'test' it, Alex called Wilmer and connected it to the device.

Wilmer picked up his daughter's call and was immediately surprised by his wife's face appearing on his video call's screen. He had just finished his last meeting for the day and the call was a pleasant surprise. Orita didn't usually call him using the video function because the heiress found it too troublesome.

"Darling?"

Orita wanted to cry. She hasn't seen her husband in years even though they called frequently. With the holographic projector, he seemed very real even though it was only his face. Alex watched as her mother and father talked and decided to give them some privacy before she returned to the party. The model passed by her sister and gave her a hi-five. Scarlet grinned. The true surprise and present wasn't the device. It was Wilmer who they couldn't convince to come for the reunion party.

"Alright," Scarlet nodded in satisfaction. "Let's get some food. Remember, when on a vacation, there's no such thing as dieting."

Alex nodded and the girls walked over to the grill area to snatch the first batch of honey chicken wings.