The EH-101 helicopter, another of Tom’s winning proposals, touched down. The eight friends who had spent the morning travelling, in some cases over a thousand miles, rushed out to greet Tom and Lela. After a very noisy reunion, the group split in two, Tom and his four friends headed straight to the basement for a bit of flying, while Lela and her four friends headed across to the Lodge House.
The Kennedy Estate had three houses, the Main House with five bedrooms, the Lodge House with four and the Guest House with three. The Lodge House was Saki and Lela’s, a mere 250 yards away from the Main House. The only difference between it and the Main House was that one bedroom had been replaced by a small gym for Lela’s training. Other than that, everything else was identical. During the construction of the two houses, Rachel had ensured that both Tom and Lela’s rooms were identical (in size, not decor). Although they would live in separate houses, they were to be raised as brother and sister and one would never feel more special than the other.
Lela and her friends spent the next few hours listening to music and catching up on gossip. The boys enjoyed a slightly more adventurous time, crashing as dramatically as possible in the simulator. They had given up trying to do the best landing and resorted instead to the best deaths.
“That was definitely better than Tom’s,” said Tristan, the UK Prime Minister’s son and one of Tom’s best friends, as the A380 somersaulted end over end on the runway.
“Close call I think,” replied Ahmad, the son of the Saudi Ambassador to the UK.
“Guys?” Tom turned to Ben and Leo for support but they both sat on the fence. “OK, you win Trist,” said Tom, anything to keep the peace.
“Cool, who’s next then?” asked Tristan, triumphant in victory.
Tom checked his watch. It was almost 7.00 p.m. they had been down there for almost three hours.
“God, we’d better hurry up, the movie starts in forty minutes, let’s go,” urged Tom as he undid his seat-belt.
“But I thought you had a cinema down here?” asked Ben, pointing to the cinema housed in the vault behind them.
“Yeah but unfortunately my dad organised the movie so unless you speak German, we need to go to the local cinema complex,” replied Tom. “But it does have a ten pin bowling alley,” he added.
Tristan groaned.
“What, don’t you like tenpin bowling?” asked Ben.
“No, I love it but not when Lela plays,” replied Tristan.
When they arrived in the lounge, the girls were waiting patiently for them.
“Dad’s just gone to get the minibus,” said Lela as they entered. “He won’t be long, in fact, he’s probably already waiting outside.”
“OK, let’s go then, what are we waiting for?” said Tom, as he ushered them out, discussing tactics with the boys on how they would beat the girls at bowling.