Adventurers, you are proving yourselves to be balls-to-the-wall gutsy! Last week, we left you staring up into the blue blue eyes of President Allen’s son, Chance, and you chose to C. Invite Chance to sit down at the table and let Rolex and Tiny work their silverware music magic?
How will you do that? Will he even WANT to join you all? There’s no time like the present to find out!
Chapter 03: We Could Dance and Party—All Night—And Drink Some Cherry Wine—Uh Huh!
Quick! You tell yourself, now’s your chance! Then you have a silent giggle, because…’chance’.
You blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind. “Um, you were looking for me?” Chance looks puzzled, and purses his rather nice lips in question. Already horrified by your own mouth, you continue, seemingly unable to stop yourself, “You were asking about me? Sev…” No sign of recognition from Chance that any of these words make sense to him, but you do notice that his hand is still on your arm, steadying you.
“I’m sorry, I, uh, I don’t know what Sev was talking about. You know with Sev, sometimes I only half-listen…” despite your lack of filter, your brain is at least present enough to realize that you are lending credence to the whole ‘head case’ thing. You try to tell yourself, self, get a hold of yourself!
You glance back at Tiny and Rolex who are watching the whole exchange with unabashed interest. You swallow the lump in your throat and take a breath for courage.
“Hey,” you figure starting over is the best idea, “would you like to join us? Tiny and Rolex were just telling me the most fascinating stories.”
Chance smiles at you and you find yourself thinking that he really is one of those perfect kind of specimens they talk about in your ‘Follies of Man’ class. The kind that would make vids, except in the olden days they weren’t educational, and they were called ‘moves’, or something like that.
Finally, mercifully, Chance speaks, “Oh, I’d really love to, but I actually have someplace I need to be.”
Disappointment drops like a weight in your stomach. Well, you tried, at least.
“But hey,” Chance continues, his voice conspiratorial, “I wanted to invite you,” he turns to Tiny and Rolex, “and you guys could come, too.” Chance glances over his shoulder to the cameras sweeping the caf, “I’m having a little secret social engagement, and I wanted to invite you. If you’re interested, I’ll get coordinates to you.”
Unsure if this is a trick, or if the president’s son really did just invite you to a highly illegal gathering of young persons, you search for something witty to say.
“Okay. I’ll think about it.” Well, mouth, that was a disappointment.
“I’ll be in touch,” and with that Chance moves on, and you sink back into your seat. You notice that your food tray has sunk back into the table. Once the computers see that you haven’t touched it for more than 61.5 seconds, they assume you have finished. Great, I’ll be even more hungry by tonight.
Tiny claps you on the back. “That deserves an ‘E’ for effort!” You are puzzled by this expression, and Rolex snorts. “It’s ‘A’ for effort, Tiny”
“But, ‘effort’ begins with an ‘e’!” You find yourself amazed that you never noticed Tiny’s great use of hand gestures before. Although, maybe he felt more subdued around the Bunsen burners.
“Anyway,” Rolex ignores Tiny’s argument, “What my friend is trying to say is that you’ve won us over with your rather… uncoordinated attempt at getting Chance to join us.” He stands. “We’ll find a way to notify you of OUR next meeting place.” He turns to go, with Tiny preparing to follow.
“Wait!” There’s, well, a lot of things you want to know, but one in particular. “Who was that sitting here before I arrived?”
Tiny gives you a knowing smirk. “Whoever could she mean, Rolex?” Fake recognition dawns on his face as he questions you, “Oh! Fabulous hair, prince-of-darkness pout? That one?” Blushing, you nod. “Cain.That was Cain Connor.”
You know that name. But you can’t remember why.
The mysterious Cain Connor is not far from your thoughts for the rest of the afternoon, although you don’t see him again in any of your classes. After wolfing down your evening meal, and re-watching your vids so you won’t fail, you are exhausted and ready for bed.
Just as you crawl between the covers, you hear a funny, whispery, shuffling sound, and realize there is a note being slipped under your door. As you go to retrieve it, you wonder how the person did it without being detected. If you stand outside someone’s door for more than 5 seconds, the computer announces you.
You unfold the note with trembling hands and read:
Football stadium. The outside. At midnight. -C
Sighing, you look longingly at your bed. How would you even get out at midnight? You’d have to trick your door monitoring system. And which ‘C’ is it? Is it Chance? Or Cain. Your pulse quickens as you think of the latter.
Do you:
A. Say screw it. A girl needs her sleep. Go back to bed and try again tomorrow?
B. Wait for Sev to come back to the room, spill your guts to her, and maybe convince her to come with you?
C. Figure out a way to make everyone think you went to bed early, and go out now, find this football stadium, and watch, but do not attend? You need to know a WHOLE lot more before risking the amount of trouble you could get into if caught.
D. Go to the football stadium at midnight, like instructed?
