Cloned.

Chapter 2 - World Premier

Thursday 5 June 2014 11:11

"See? It's not that hard, Kai. You've got it in you, you just have to let it surface."

Once again, Uncle Luke showed me how to half-smile half-stare into the camera lens, repeating the action for the umpteenth time. I mimicked the facial expression, a little more closer to his than the last attempt.

"Good job, boy! You're getting there." 'Smoldering' into the camera, as he liked to call it, was easier said than done. Aside fromthe fact that I'd never seen a camera before in my whole life until about a week ago, I'd now had to learn and copy the way Zayn Malik from One Direction - known amongst the fans for his special way of posing - behaved in front of a shutter. No pressure there at all. Note the sarcasm.

Like Luke had promised that Saturday weeks ago, he had begun my Zayn-education (or Zayducation because Luke is oh so funny) the very following day. You quite literally could say that that Saturday was the day my freedom was taken away. Each of the following days up to the present had been crammed with not only academic stuff like learning the lyrics for their songs and the basic and more deep details of his life in order to be able to sing in the tour and answer questions in interviews, but also thinking about seemingly trivial but incredibly vital factors like the way Zayn would absentmindedly drum with his fingers when deeply thinking, or the fact that he usually sticks his tongue out when playfully smiling. 

Everything needed to be kept the same.

"Alright, I think it's time for lunch now." Some food was exactly what I needed after the morning full of learning. My appetite had doubled in size ever since I'd been able to actually walk and move around outside the suffocating walls of my room. I didn't spend any time in there anymore besides from sleeping.

Especially during the sporty activities, (every man needs some basic knowledge in athletics to be 'cool'), I had burned  calories like a fire swallowing wood. My breakfast alone had increased to three packages of powder instead of one. I smiled at a memory of me scoring over Luke in a football game, and nodded my head as an agreement to Luke's former statement.

"Let's eat." 

                                       ***

The midday meal was nothing out of the ordinary. At the beginning it had been a bit weird and awkward to eat together at the same table as someone else after years of isolation, but by the third day Luke had managed to open me up fully and broken the ice with the help of some silly joke-cracking and mini self-biographies. So now it didn't feel any different than eating alone. 

"You know what day it is today Kai, don't you?" Uncle Luke suddenly asked when I was in the middle of munching down my second packet. 

"Thursday?" I asked rhetorically. 

He pulled back the hand holding the fork with a meatball attached to it, shaking his head. 

"No, boy. Today is the last day of your practice. You are a full-fledged copy of your original now." He stared into my eyes with a undoubtedly serious look etched on his face, and considering the fact that he looked a bit like santa claus with his white wisp of hair and beard I had to hold back a chuckle.

Then his words hit me. Today was the final day. All of the things I'd learned the past weeks were going to be tested out in the real world. There was no room for failure when I had to keep up the charade of being Zayn Malik perfectly. No room for errors whatsoever. 

Was it time already? I didn't think I was ready for this. Not yet.  

Despite the inner turmoil going on inside my head, my answer to Luke was nothing more than,