The Z star

Part 4

Do not ignore dreams. They are a line from the past to the future. All nightmares are real.
– Max Gladstone

I gasped, jumped up as I held my neck. The dream being so life like that it felt as if they were injecting me with something. I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was nearly 6 am. Deciding to go for a run to shake of the weird nightmare, I changed into a pair of jogging clothes. I took my Mp3 player and earphones and left the room. 

I treaded softly out of my room as I made my way to the front door. Putting on my sneakers I left a note on the kitchen counter that I've gone for a run, I shut the door silently and then plugged on my ear phones and started jogging. 

I ran for two blocks and then noticed a cafe Breakfast Muffin at Eden so I stopped to have a bite. I ordered a Vanilla Latte and a Coconut-Raspberry Waffles. Sitting at the bar I munched on my waffle. The freshly made whipped cream melted on my tongue as the raspberry waffle brought my taste buds to life. 

"You look like you're on heaven", a voice startled me bringing me out of my fantasy food world. 

"Hey Nora, g'morning what's up?", I greeted. 

"Good morning, just the normal morning routine", she placed her order and sat beside me. 

"I had no clue you stay here", I stated. 

"You had no clue of me. But yeah I stay around the corner and since its vacation time I get to come to this cafe and enjoy instead of being in a  hurry as usual".

"Oh you're a teacher". She nodded. "I teach in a school"

I  took a bite of my waffle while the server placed a tray in front of her. "Thanks Dina" she smiled at the server.

She ordered a Cheesy bacon croissant, which was cut in half and you could see the cheese flowing out of the croissant and a tall glass of orange juice. 

"So where do you think you are going to get a job?" She asked. 

"I hope to get a job at Nexton company, the landscape is amazing and there's a lot of opportunities. If I could create some of my designs I could send the pictures for the garden-love competition they hold every year."

"Garden-love?" she questioned. 

"Yeah, it's held at the Hill View garden, you're given a random patch and you can create anything. Last time I visited it was so pretty, row and rows of flowers and there were so many colorful butterflies, bushes and trees were in the shape of humans and animals and objects. It was so mesmerizing. I spent a lot of time there, took notes and pictures. My mom thought I was crazy". A sad smile appeared on my face as the memories played through my mind 

By the time the conversation was done so was my food. I paid for the food, bid farewell to Nora and left for home. 

"Good morning Aunt Lisa", I greeted her as  soon as I saw her. 

"Good morning, have you read the newspaper?" I shook my head in response and she handed it over to me as I sat down beside her on the couch. 

"Check out page 6", she said before getting up and going to her room. 

I turned over the pages to page 6 and it stated that the results would be out earlier than expected. It usually took two weeks however they had tried out some new techniques due to which the results would be out tomorrow. 

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and texted my friends to check if they had got the news. Gladly everyone knew about it as it was posted on all the news apps and social media apps.  

For the rest of the day, I watched movies, baked a cake with my aunt, helped with dinner, practically did anything to keep my mind of the fact that tomorrow were the results. 

The results would state where I worked and how good I did in the test and I prayed that I got exactly what I wanted.

Once I finished dinner I went up to my room and passed out on my bed due to exhaustion. 

The next day, I woke up to my aunt shaking me. "What's the time?" I asked groggily, eyes still shut. 

"You slept through your alarm get up we have to leave in fifteen minutes", she said in a hurry as she pulled the bed sheets off my body. I sprang up from the bed as  I rushed to freshen up. I ran to the living room once I was done and my aunt threw an apple at me. 

We sat in the car and I started munching on the apple. Time passed by quickly as we reached the center, I walked to the crowded area. People were pushing their way through to the notice boards. 

I pushed a bit and struggled for a while before I finally found the board which had my name on it. Thankfully it wasn't as crowded. I read about my results and my job situation. 

I walked back to my aunt solemnly. As soon as she saw me her face changed into a worried look. 

"It's okay whatever your results are we are proud of you". she pulled me in for a hug as soon as I reached her. 

"You should be proud of me, I got an A grade and also landed the job at Nexton company". 

I waited for the news to sink into her as she jumped up in excitement. "Congratulations", she wished me as she squashed me in a bear hug. 

Days passed by and it was my first day at the work. I dressed up in a pair of overalls, tied my hair up in a dutch braid, tucked all my bangs in place with bobby pins. Carried my bag, I left the house. I caught a bus and at the fourth stop, got off. 

I made my way to the main entrance - GATE NO 1  where there was a lady standing checking everyone's identification cards. 

I handed her my test results, she glanced over them and then typed something into a keyboard. She then handed me a card and pointed me off in a direction to go. Following the instructions led me to the huge garden. I noticed there were already a couple of people walking in the garden, few were sitting at the gazebo and eating food while chatting away. A guy was cutting a bush in the distance, I noticed him and walked in that direction. 

"Hello good morning, I'm Emery", I stood behind the guy and introduced myself. However, I received no response. I tapped him and he jumped in the air and took off his earphones from his ears. 

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you", he muttered. 

"I am the new gardener, Emery", I put out my hand to give a handshake. 

"Oh, yeah I completely forgot about that, I was informed that you would be joining today. I'm Tony", the words rushed out of his mouth as he shook my hand. 

"I'll show you around", he picked up all his tools and made an action for me to follow him. 

We walked for a while till we reached a room. "This is our supply room, you will find all the tools here. Also, sometimes we get brand new technologies to try out which is awesome most of the time. Although this one time it caught fire and we had a bit of a problem but other than that it's fine". 

"This is going to be your uniform, so go get changed, The washroom is right over there", he pointed to the right corner of the room and handed me a blue color shirt and pant. The shirt was a short sleeve shirt which had a company logo on it and the pants reached till my knees. 

"Cool, thanks", I took it from his hands and walked off. Quickly changing into my clothes, I kept all my accessories in my bag and headed out. 

"That was quick but good", he said as he noticed me and put his phone in his pocket. "You can keep your stuff in this locker", he pointed out one. 

I thanked him and stuffed my bag in the locker. 

"I'll show you the cafeteria and then we can go check out the garden", he stated. 

We made small talk as we walked to the cafeteria and then to the garden. 

"So where do you want to start from?", I grinned like a kid on Christmas and pointed to the direction filled with trees cut in different shapes.