Amnesia

Chapter 11

Once I'm back, I do two lectures,  just preparing for the competition. It's nearly the new year, so it'll soon be two years to the competition. Nine days until I can start working with Evan. We've got plenty of time. I walk to the hall to meet up with Aria and Faith.
"Wanna go to Starbucks?" Aria asks. I shrug.
"Sure. We can't be too long though."

We walk into town, stopping off by Penneys. We browse for about ten minutes, feeling the material of the clothes and staring enviously at the shoes.
   "Guys, y'know the way its nearly Kyle's birthday? We should probably get him a present."

"Well, Kyle's as straight as a moose's antlers, so I think Penneys is the right place" I giggle as we walk into the men's. We all snort with laughter and figure the presents out. Aria's getting him clothes, Faith's getting him shoes, and I've already ordered something.

I went on one of the "decorate your own cup" websites and stuck on a picture of him, big nerdy glasses and stylish clothes, and wrote Straight As A Moose's Antlers, on top of the photo, which I think he'll appreciate. Aria and Faith hunt for presents for half an hour, while I browsed in the women's.

Aria settled on a red and black checked shirt, black skinny jeans, and red and black decorated glasses. Faith matched the outfit perfectly with black and red shoes. I added in a black and red polka dot bow tie too, just because.
  We purchased our items and went off to Starbucks. There was only one other person there, a young man on his computer. We walked up to the cashier and ordered.

For me, a hot chocolate with cream and a chocolate chip muffin, for Aria, the same as me but no cream on her hot chocolate, and Faith went for a Frapachino and muffin.

"What are your names?" The lady asks, surprising us with a strong Italian accent.
   Is she serious? There is one other person in this cafe. His name is hardly gonna be Sam or Aria or Faith. I sigh and give her our names.
   We wander around Starbucks, enjoying being able to pick any seat we want. We settle on the sofas beside the window and, bonus, the radiator. We lean our bags on our chairs and chat as we wait for our names to be called.

"Aria, Faith, and Sam?" She calls. I push my chair out and stand up. I stride slowly to the cashier to collect our drinks, wobbling, not wanting the hot liquids to spill. I balance the tray on my fore arm, wrapping my fingers around the edge.
   I practically throw the money at her, needing to quickly stabilize the wobbling tray. I thank her and walk back to our table. I sit myself back down and lay the tray on the table. Aria takes her Frapachino and chocolate muffin, Faith and I take or hot chocolate and muffins too.
I sip the hit chocolate warily, aware that it is roasting hot. The cream forms a moustache on my upper lip, causing the two girls to explode with giggles. I sheepishly wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and laugh with them.

We munch and sip in content, then finish. Before leaving, Aria makes us go to the bathroom with her for her to put more lip gloss on. Faith and I roll our eyes at eachother but agree.
  We turn the brass handle on the white painted door and enter. Faith walks into a stall to pee, while Aria and I look in the mirrors. Aria scrapes her  shoulder length purple hair back in a pony tail and holds it, seeing if it looks nice. She looks at me for my opinion and I shrug, kind of saying "so-so". She nods and separates her purple waves into two sections, and starts doing a french plait on each side.

She ties a bobbin around her plaits once finished and looks at me. "Is this nice?"
I nod and smile, giving her the thumbs up. Faith flushes and exits the cubicle, walking in on me sitting on the counter swinging my legs, and Aria applying lip gloss.

Faith washes and dries her hands then looks up at us. "Let's go?"
   We nod and walk out of Starbucks back to college. Once in UC Berkeley, Aria and Faith wave goodbye and go to their room to study, while I go into Evan, ready for me challenge.

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"Hey Evan" I grin, staring over at the black haired boy leaning over a book. He hold up his index finger, indicating for me to wait a moment. He turns pages until at the end of the chapter, folds the page, closes the book, and looks up at me.

"Ready for challenge number 2?" He smirks at me while passing me the list.

"Zoo Surprise" I read out loud. Sounds harmless enough, apart from the surprise bit.

I hate surprises.

He grins and tells me in an hour we'll go, so we have time to study.
I agree and sit myself on my swingy chair, turning myself into the desk. I check my timetable, seeing what my last class is.
Lab at 1:00
I look at my watch. 12:13. I have time to study.

Evan suggests we go to the library, and I agree. We walk through the hall and turn left, to enter the library.
   The walls have huge bookshelves, so high there's a ladder beside it to get the top books. Evan goes over to there to read about literature for his English test.

I didn't know about college tests until recently. Unlike secondary and primary tests, answering questions and going over stuff you learnt, in college you do the research and find stuff out yourself, to impress the teacher.

I walk on the red carpet to the computers. I get out my notebook and pen and start researching.
  At quarter to one, I leave Evan to go to the labs. Evan goes to his three in a row tutorial class, so we'll be going to the zoo at four.

I step into the doors of the elevator, letting it bring me up to the labs. I go into the lab room, packed full with 23 young adults with goggles on. I go up to my lab partner Maya, a small girl with blonde hair.

The teacher teaches us about a new experiment, then shows us how to do it. Maya and I giggle at the sight of black foam coming out of our container once we added soap to the carbon dioxide. Don't think it's meant to be black.

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At four, I meet up with Evan at the exit. We push through the revolving door into the outside, glad to be free and have a break. The wind blows in our face, making our cheeks go red with the cold. I pull my coat closer to me, trying to conserve body heat.
Evan drives us to the zoo, leaving me completely oblivious to what the "surprise" is. Zoos seem perfectly safe and normal. We walk through the gates, leading my eyes to animals everywhere. I love animals. But I don't like them in zoos.

It's OK if they're just there for a bit because they're injured, but its not OK to keep them there forever for our entertainment and photography.

"Follow me" Evan says. I follow him to the arachnids house. I freeze. Spiders? Spiders? Spiders? Spiders????

No. No no no no no. Spiders are my biggest fear. I suppose I'll do it to gain his trust. I guess.

***

Ten minutes later I'm panicking silently with a tarantula on my hand. I regret coming to the zoo. None can be as bad as this though. Nothing can compare to this.