Chp 117 : The Beginning Pt. I

Hey, I'm back(?). And welcome to September, which another 3 months we will greet the beginning of the new year. Whether the virus gone or it getting worse. I lost my job and in process of waiting for the new one. In my country, the rich getting richer, the poor going to the afterlife quicker, and as for middle class like me suffer the most.

Loss of motivation and inspiration held me back bringing you the chapters and I hope this new month brought me new motivation to finish this fic.

Here we are 2 more chapters before the end of volume 1. Enjoy!

~~~

Al went back to the orphanage along with Gwen. It was a bit hard to get permission from her parents when they knew she was going with her boyfriend.

But after some whining from Gwen, they finally relented and permitted her to go with him, but with one condition, she needed to back to the house before 10.

Gwen tried to argue by telling that even Cinderella was given time until midnight but her father told her she was not yet an adult and she should stop watching Disney cartoon. That brought laughs to everyone in the house, including him.

Getting embarrassed, she immediately took Al's hand and went out straight to the car, saying that they had no time to lose.

As soon he arrived, all of his brothers and sisters greeted them and threw a group hug at them with Al and Gwen was being the center of that hug.

Not long after they arrived, the bell rang and one by one guess also arrived. From Ione and Robin, then the trio, Drew, Jolie, and Mila along with their mothers, and his agent, Ari, who came to drop by, bringing along Wendy, Mary's friend who introduced Al to Ari.

The last to his surprise was Winona Horowitz or Ryder, whatever she wanted to be called. She really did come here with her mother.

She wore a maroon one-piece dress and she looked cute in that outfit, different from the goth look she wore yesterday.

Al couldn't take his eyes away from her before Gwen stepped on his feet. Al looked questioningly at fuming Gwen who pouted.

Clearing his throat because of the awkwardness, he came to greet them and introduced them to everyone else.

He gave her the side hug to signal Gwen that nothing happened between him and the new girl. "Hello, Winona, you came! This must be your mother. Welcome, Mrs. Horowitz."

"Winny!!" Robin screamed, dragging along Ione while the other kids following her. They also got curious and wanted to know who was the new guest.

Ione and Robin already knew her so they came to her and acted like a long-lost friend. But when Winona was introduced to Gwen, the air instantly getting heavier.

The tension became so thick that he swore he could cut it with a knife. He could guess that there's an aura of competitiveness that suddenly emerged in both girls.

He might sound a bit narcissistic right at this moment because he could tell that Winona might have developed feelings for him. He could see all the signs and that's a bit weird, they were just met yesterday.

He decided to leave the scene and let the girls talked to each other before he became their target of hostility. Robin already did a cutthroat sign in his direction.

He led Mrs. Horowitz to meet Mrs. K and the rest of the mothers. They were having a nice and warm chat near the Christmas tree with tea and snacks.

Then he proceeds to gather everyone else to play some games. The girls joined them and he was glad that Gwen and Winona seemed to be friendly. It must be because Ione and Robin acted as middlemen. He was glad to have friends like them.

After they were done playing some games, they agreed to have a movie night and this time Mary came with a surprise. She brought a tape contained the animation film that the delegation from the far east offered to their company. They needed the help so they could distribute this animation to the United States.

Mary said that a lot of distribution companies had rejected them because a foreign animation usually did not sell well here. The process was too complicated such as they needed to dub the animation because most of the Americans were lazy to watch a film with subtitles.

It was titled Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta and below, there's a translation Laputa: Castle In The Sky.

Al was surprised to find this diamond in the rough right here laying on his doorstep. On the original timeline, it was released in 1986 in Japan and it took more than 10 years before this anime dubbed by Disney was released in North America.

The profit from this film distribution might be small or even nonexistent. But to see this anime which brought him a lot of childhood memories made him excited.

Mary brought this film here to ask for his opinion so Al explains to her about the process of dubbing and small revenue from this film.

But he also explains that this might get them a good reputation as a foreign film distributor, especially Japanese animation film and Japan's goodwill.

He asked Mary to play the VHS tape so everyone could judge the film. Fortunately, they added English subtitles to this film and his siblings were not like most of the Americans, they were able to follow through the subtitles although some of them still asked what were those words meant. Still, they were all so cute when they did that.

Except for little El who dozed off on his lap, everyone else enjoyed this anime. A lot of emotion showed while they were watching this animation such as sad, happy, excited, etc.

Seeing the positive response from everyone who watched it, Al immediately gave a green light for this film to Mary.

The Christmas Night ended with him taking Gwen back to her house and he went back to his house in Beverly Hills.

~~~

A few days later after the Christmas party, Al was in the living room on his house, playing the music notes with his guitar and keyboard. Once he found the harmony of the music he played, he translated it into music notes on the paper.

Ione's word from Christmas Eve's Eve rang aloud on his mind. He followed her suggestion to make singles or maybe an album for a try.

It wasn't weird for actors to make music or released songs, as long as they could sing a little and had some name for themselves. Maybe they thought a few side jobs could make their pocket deeper.

But for him, he didn't like half-assed results or an effort. If he wanted to make music, he wants to his music to break the scales of Billboard music. And so it was done, 10 songs with total run if he was right, at least 35 mins length.

He can't wait to record these songs, and he hoped he could break the American music industry next year! 'I should add an evil laugh.' He mused.

But first, he must send these music notes to Sylvie and register the copyright of his songs before it was too late.

He relaxed his body to the comfy sofa to release the stress he had accumulated.

Al had some reason why he could write an album in a mere few days. Yes, he might copy a liiiiitllllle bit of songs from the future but it was not plagiarizing when the songs were not coming up yet.

It was because he had so damn much free time. There has been a bit of trouble after the Christmas party that made him confined at his house.

He was seen and photographed by a few paparazzi near the orphanage with Gwen and like it was like blood to sharks. They smelled it and swarmed the area the next morning. He distracted all of the paparazzi by showing up in the 7-11 near his house and ran back to his house.

At least he directed their attention from Gwen and out of the orphanage area. He didn't know how much chaos they could cause the moment they knew who Gwen really was or where the orphanage was located.

Not only making music, but he also reviewed some scripts he got from Ari at the Christmas party and only a few of them had piqued his interest.

He wondered if he could change the fate of bad films if he starred in them. He immediately shook his head and banished those plans out of his mind.

Being a director who could control everything from A to Z was different from becoming an actor who only acts and waited for the film studio's planning. He couldn't risk if the film he was starring was flopped and ruined his reputation as an actor.

So it was best for him to follow which film had the greatest potential in terms of rating and box office.

Suddenly he felt his closed eyes were covered by two soft fluffy hands. A delightful sensation of pillowy soft buns rested on his head.

"Guess who!" Came voice that he heard like an estrogen-injected Batman.

"Let me guess... Is this Jodie Foster?"

"Ha! You wish!" She laughed.

"No? So that means this is Annabelle. I told you to keep your spirit inside the doll in the attic. Where's the priest I requested to church last month!" He complained.

Suddenly she felt goosebumps when Al said it and immediately released her hands from his face. "Okay, you've successfully made me scared." She said.

She jumped from behind the sofa to sit beside him. "Who's this Annabelle and you know last year was the first and last time I want to see ghosts!"

"Oh hey Robin, I thought you were Annabelle." He teased and continued to explain who Annabelle was.

After he finished his story, Robin paled and asked, "You- did you have that cursed doll?" She asked warily.

Seeing her so defenseless made him want to laugh but he didn't do so out of pity, so he just chuckled. "No, it was safe with the Warrens and bathed with holy water once or twice per month so the doll won't escape." Robin sighed once she heard that.

"But it won't deny the accident may happen in the future."

"ED!!"

"I'm just kidding, Roby." He said while laughing at her. "By the way, how did you enter my house?"

"Oh, I met John and he let me in." She said while smiling. He felt his eyebrows twitching at her innocent answer.

"Okay, enough about me, how about we talk about you." She pointed in his direction.

"Me?"

"Yes, you! You locked yourself at home these past few days. You never called me, your best friend and I'm worried sick."

"I've been busy with something." He looked at his table filled with music sheets and scripts. "And I can't go out for a moment, there's dozens of paparazzi outside and I'm a bit uncomfortable around them."

"Have you look yourself in the mirror? When was the last time you take a bath? Last month?" She sarcastically said, "You know what, you need to get a touch from a woman. I will take you to Gwen."

"Uh, Robin, Gwen is not here for a moment. She was in NYC." He pointed out.

"I know. That's why I had my daddy's jet ready for us. Let's go to New York City, now!"

"What!? Sometimes I wonder how rich your father is." He said stupefied.

"I don't know and don't care! Besides, aren't you missing her?"

"Of course, I miss her. I also worried about her. This also will be her biggest debut."

"ED, you know, shouldn't you be there with her, to support her? Ione talked with Gwen all day long because of how nervous she is."

His eyes widened. He felt like the goddess of relationship was just bitchslapped him. What the fuck was he thinking. He was too focused on protecting Gwen from paparazzi that he did not realize about how nervous Gwen might be.

"I've been a very, very bad boyfriend." He whispered.

"Then let's go to New York! We can surprise her." Then she smiled evilly, "Maybe with this, we can catch her red-handed cheating."

What Robin said was entirely a joke and he knew that. But when he heard it leave a bad taste in his mouth.

Al suddenly became depressed. One thing he would never expect was Gwen cheating on him. He immediately shut off his mind before his imagination ran wild.

"Okay Roby, I'm coming with ya." He said.

"That's the spirit. Big Apple, we are coming!" She screamed at top of her lungs.

To Be Continued...

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