The Timeline

13.

February 21st, 2014:

Anna's due date was at least six months away but Claire was already competing for the role of best aunt in the world. Her competition were her other siblings, and she had a very good head start, despite not having spoken to Anna for almost a month. Ben and Natasha were in Australia, and despite from the weekly call to catch up, they couldn't exactly do much to climb the ranking of best uncles and aunts in the world; Stephen, on the other hand, lived in England but was too wrapped up in his recent breakup with Gemma, therefore he was emotionally unavailable (and he hadn't been very impressed by Anna's announcement).

The people who had reacted best to Anna's announcement were - to everyone's surprises - Jane and Philip, who were ecstatic at the prospect of becoming grandparents again. Richard had reasoned that, since they were both old, they felt like they had reached the age where they could finally stop being 'parents' and start getting excited about being 'grandparents', which was a job that required less attention than being parents, because the babies weren't technically theirs.

Hearing those words had made Claire's gut hurt like she had just received a very low blow to it, complete with brass knuckles and a whip. Her parents had, probably, started practicing in their 'grandparents' role with her, because they had never truly treated her like a daughter. More like a grandkid who was their responsibility for a maximum of three hours a day. Ever since she had moved out of their house, it hurt to remember, they still hadn't made any type of effort to contact her. Neither had she, but for fuck's sake! they were her goddamned parents, they should've been the ones to try harder!

Richard had realized immediately the huge mistake he had made, and had looked at Claire with wide eyes and a shut mouth, that classical expression that read 'I know I fucked up, but I do not know how to fix this!'. So, to lighten the mood, Claire had shrugged and made a joke:

"That means that, in order for them to care about me, I shall be the next in line to pop out a kid!"

Thankfully, everyone had laughed at that, and the tension had left the room. Richard, however, had looked at her very seriously, and had made her promise that she would've never had a kid unless she was 100% sure about it. And that even if she was 100% sure then, she was too young, and should've waited to be at least! 25 years old. Claire had agreed wholeheartedly, because she was focused on winning an Oscar before having a baby. Richard said he was sure she would've won it by the time she was 21. An EGOT, even. He had researched what it meant, and was now saving information to start his own personal campaign to have her win one.

Now, Friday, Claire was at LAMDA, for her very full day. Her and her course friends, Jack and Katie, would've met their tutors for the second semester of the first year. From what they had learned already, they would've been tutored by last year students, who would've helped them develop even more into their acting style. And - and this was the most exciting part of them all - they would've also guided them in the creation of their very first acting portfolio, which consisted of a short curriculum and their headshots. The portfolio would've, then, served as their pass into any agency for representation. That felt very grown-up and professional. Claire was bouncing on the soles of her feet when she wasn't walking, and when she wasn't bouncing on the soles of her feet she was skipping down the corridors and the classrooms and the stairs.

She had gotten the sheet with her tutor's name: a woman, Emma Sanders, last year student who would've graduated from LAMDA at the end of that semester. Tutoring, apparently, contributed to the 10% of her final grade. Claire had heard her name spoken with only the utmost respect and admiration both from teachers and students. According to the voices, Emma was the most promising student in her year, and already had some upcoming offers on her plate: commercials, a theatre company and an agency were looking to book her under their wing to represent her. Landing a representative agency right after graduating meant that your chances at finding a serious acting gig in the first year after your graduation increased expeditiously.