Into Space

The Lottery

It was a knock on the door that woke Cory up.

"I'm awake." She says, still sleep drunken. She looks at the digital calendar next to her and stretches out, until every bone in her body cracks. She taps twice on her right wrist and a screen, or better said, a hologram forms above it.

'27 missed calls, 20 messages from Abbs,
1 message from Keef'

Cory then remembers what day it is. She unwillingly gets up and chooses her outfit for today.  Once dressed and fresh, she gets out to the kitchen. She meets her android, MIST, who just finished making breakfast.

"Good morning, miss Evans."

"Good morning."

Cory lives on her own. Well... if you don't count her Android. She's an orphan ever since she can remember. The people who work at the orphanage told her that her mom was bawling her eyes out, while her husband forced her to hand Cory over. Cory always felt bad for her mom and didn't blame her at all, although she was disappointed her mom didn't visit her even once.
At the age of eighteen, she got kicked out with enough money to buy a small apartment. She got the smallest concrete box that would be considered a room and slept on a mattress on the floor.

She studied astronomy for a year but dropped it after being burned out from it. She was always fascinated by the stars and celestial bodies. Dreaming of running around on the ring of Saturn or having a cold drink on Venus.
After that she started studying medication. It wasn't any better but she managed to get through it, somehow.

Now she delivers food to people for money. A waste of a lifetime. Though she still wants to become a astronaut or astronomer someday.

Cory eats her avocado toast with bacon and a soft boiled egg. She taps twice on her wrist and puts the screen in front of her, so she can eat and watch at the same time. She quickly scrolls through the news and scans if any of them are interesting enough.

'Sunniva Corp. is giving out fifteen free tickets for a round around the whole solar system, from Mercury to Neptune.'
'Demonstrators infront of Sunniva Corp. HQ because it's too dangerous for mankind to go so close to the sun.'
'Sunniva Corp.'s CEO, Wyatt Blinken, LIVE press conference about Sunniva Corp.'s new project.'

She stops scrolling after seeing the word 'Sunniva' twenty times.

She finishes her breakfast and goes out. She takes the bus to Dawn Station. During the bus ride she looks at the messages she missed.

Abbs
'Hey!
You awake yet?
Wake up sleepy head!!
Come to the Dawn Square!!
You can't miss it
Hello???
I see you were last online since 5:21
Don't sleep so late!!
Come quick it's about to start!!
Wake up
Wake up
WAKE UP!!!
Heyyyyy
Hello????
I'm going to call you! You better pick up!
Pick up!!
Wake uppp
Coryyy
CORYYYYY
Hurry upppp'

Cory sighs and just replies with an 'omw' and checks her other message.

Keef
'Hey Cor when you wake up you better come quick. Abigail is testing my patience rn and I need someone to hold me back. Be quick.'

The bus stops before she could even respond and the intercom confirms they're at Dawn Station. She steps out and walks towards the big crowd gathered at Dawn Square. She scans the crowd and almost immediately sees a guy with dark-blue-dyed hair. She goes over to them and taps the guy on the shoulder.
"Finally you're here." "Yeah sorry, I couldn't sleep well last night so..."
Keith Hogens, Cory's best friend since, well, three years ago. "I see Abigail is still well, so your impatience hasn't gotten to her yet?" Cory says while checking to see if Abigail could hear. Luckily she was too busy staring at Sunniva's massive building and cheering like everyone else. "Lucky her, I guess. What were you even doing last night? I saw you were online till 5:30 or something." Before she could answer a loud microphone interrupted.