Seven Billion Years [UNFINISHED]

Chapter 4

84 DAYS

Clothes, hair, makeup, scarf.

I hate having to wake up so early on a Saturday morning, but I better get used to this routine. The performance that I'm going to be practising for, the Culture Concert, or the CC's rehearsals happen every Saturday morning. Today it's not much of a rehearsal, but instead a meeting to get to know everyone and what we're working with.

I head down to the ground floor in the elevator, expecting to see Erin at the desk, until I realise today is a weekend, when she doesn't work.

I head out the exit, grabbing out my phone to remember which route to take to get to the sports hall we'll be practising in.

"Ugh, why can't we go straight in? What's with this whole signing in business?"

"Settle down, Ms Abuchi, this only takes place on the first day."

The girl a few people down from me in line is making a fuss about literally just saying her name and waiting a few seconds, which the lady at the desk is clearly getting infuriated by.

Oh, yeah. And that girl at the desk, making the huge fuss, with the big attitude?

Abigail Abuchi. The AbiAbu.

Laila would be pissing her pants if she were here, or even if she knew that Abigail was going to be here, which is precisely why I never told her. Besides, in case Laila's dreams get crushed, I wanted to check her out to see if she really is the gentle and caring person the media makes her out to be, which so far she seems not to be.

In a few moments, I'm already almost at the front of the line. The boy in front of me walks up to the desk, and nervously says his name, clutching the sleeves of his oversized jumper, rolling them up for one moment, before quickly rolling them back down again.

"Name?" the woman asks, looking up at the boy from her small desk.

"Tristan Finley," he says, and the woman proceeds to write it down on her clipboard. The boy glances over the desk to see what the woman is writing.

"Oh, uh, it's Tristan but the 'i' is a 'y'," the boy says, and the woman sighs, turns around her erasable pen and writes his name again.

"You can go on now," the lady sighs, quite tired of these youths with strangely spelt names. Oh hey, she's about to get another one.

I walk up to the desk, the lady asks my name and I say it, but before she could ask how to spell it, I do it for her.

"It sounds like Veeda Saisero, but it's V-E-D-A C-I-C-E-R-O."

The woman copies down my name as I spell it, and tells me to move on. I follow the direction signs down the hallway until I spot the boy that was in the line in front of me, Trystan.

I quicken my pace to catch up with him. "Hey!"

Trystan immediately tenses up on the spot before turning to face me, a slightly shocked expression on his face.

"No need to look so scared!" I say with a smile as I approach, slowing down. "I was behind you in the line just then. It seemed like she had trouble with both our names!"

I try not to come off as too overfamiliar, but sometimes I just can't help it, I just try too hard to be friendly.

"Oh, uh, really?" Trystan says awkwardly, unsure how to react. "What's yours?"

"Veda Cicero," I say, standing right beside him by now. "It kinda means... knowledgeable cherry. Oh, and I already know yours. Not trying to sound creepy though."