This is actually my favorite chapter, I think and. I really enjoyed making up stuff for the book Alan writes and the video game that Norbert plays. But at the same time I was worried that with all the fluff I was adding and talking about things would get confusing quickly. All that was mentioned about "Tale of the Darkest Star" is that it is a sci-fi novel that includes sub-space portals. I'm more of a fantasy than science fiction person, but I think my spin on it could work in either. Hopefully though, my additions enhances the story instead of detracting from it.
Also, I think I'll update the look of this blog sometime soon, while I'm slapping a few posts on here. For now though, grab a slice of pizza and join Eileen in another day of date-searching!
. . .
At Wendy’s suggestion I checked the library first the next day. As I browsed random shelves, wondering if I would be lucky today, I noticed a familiar face and backtracked.
“Yes! This must be Alan!” I thought, watching him flip intently through a book. His caramel-colored hair was loose and casual compared to the formal photo on the book sleeve of The Tale of the Darkest Star, and his eyes were a vivid green. I hated to distract him from his book, but I had to catch his attention.
“Excuse me, miss. I think you’ve dropped a book!”
What a soft, pleasant voice! It resembled my imagined voice of the narrator of The Tale of the Darkest Star so neatly I was tempted to greet him by his protagonist’s name, Sorin. Instead, I checked the books in my arm before accepting the “accidentally” dropped book with a shy smile. “Oh no, Clumsy me, thank you very much!”
“You’re welcome! It can happen to anyone.”
I made myself look up into his eyes as I asked, “Are you Alan, by any chance? I believe I’ve seen your face in a book!”
“Yes, I guess that’s me,” he said with a modest smile. “Have you read my novel?”
“I read it overnight and had so much fun! I’m waiting for the sequel,” I replied enthusiastically. I didn’t need to act: I had been reading feverishly the past two nights.
“You did? How rare! Not many girls enjoy reading sci-fi books!”
“You seem to be surrounded by fangirls though!”
He almost sighed and admitted, “It’s pleasant to a degree, I suppose, but most of them haven’t even read the book.”
“Oh?”
“Indeed. Those few who have only comment on which pairings and ships they support. I received exactly one comment regarding the structure of the alien government and philosophy, but it was from a philosophy major in college as well as a friend. I’m rather disappointed in the feedback I’ve gotten.”
I pondered for a response to this. “Maybe they don’t understand the idea of the subspace portals? If they’re not familiar with the idea then Sorin’s trials through the highways and Adelaide’s uncanny abilities might confuse them. And if they skipped over the parts describing the subspace highways then they’d miss the main conflict in the history and functionality of the portals. I’m sure everyone understood the political and romantic lines though. The Lor’Cargon and Lor’Euqruk clans and their strifes were fairly simple to understand. I’m sure they just skipped over what they didn’t understand and focused on aspects familiar to them.“
I was worried I had said too much because he looked like he was a step away from gapping at me, but abruptly he shook his head. “Woah! You’re amazing,…! Oops, pardon me, I don’t even know your name. Are you a student of this school? I haven’t seen you around.”
“It’s Eileen. I just changed schools.”
“That’s great! Welcome!”
We shook hands and I noticed that his hand was as soft has his voice.
“About your hypothe—“
Whatever he was going to say was rudely cut off by the bell.
“Ah,” he said, disappointment crossing his features. “Too bad I have to go now or else I’ll miss my PE class again. I do hope to see you around soon though.”
“I should be going to English as well now. Erjin jie numonen, Pharin Alan,” I said, attempting the two-fingered alien bow and farewell: ‘May we meet again’. “I hope I pronounced that correctly?”
“Flawlessly,” he said with a smile. “Jie numenor, Sahrea Eileen. Yiw erjin xhihalla.”
It took me a moment to recall and translate that he had said “We will meet again, Miss Eileen. May you shine forever brighter”; I remembered distinctly that Turrek had said the last part to Adelaide after she saved his life; he had been paying her the respect due a “Star”. Later though, he had also mentioned it as a subtle confession of his feelings for her.
I smiled girlishly to myself. He was so sweet!
But there was no more time to dawdle in my admiration of Alan. I was nearly late! Did I have enough time to talk to Wendy before our class? Besides, where was she? I was nearing the corridor of our classroom and I still hadn’t caught sight of the blue journalist-to-be.
“Hey, freshman!”
I snapped out of my search for Wendy as the call continued. “Are you talking to me?” I asked. I recognized the girl I had tripped over my first day here. “I’m new, but I’m actually a senior,” I clarified as politely as I could.
She ignored me. “What’s up with this silly hairstyle of yours?” she questioned, approaching me. Students rushing to class dodged out of our way, drawing as little attention to themselves as possible.
The girl was now only a few feet away from me. I was so confused. Who was she and What did she need?
“I’ll give you one last warning, new girl. You try anything at the ball and there’s going to be trouble. In fact, you better just not go.”
“I-“
“Oh, don’t think I don’t know you’re not looking for a date. I saw you talking to Curtis and Kenneth yesterday. You’d better drop out before someone gets hurt.”
I was puzzled. What did it matter to her that I was looking to go to the ball? Instead, I asked, “Was that a threat?” as calmly as I could.
“Just a friendly suggestion,” she said, tossing her hair and strutting away to class. I shuddered and hurried to my own class.
“Eileen, wait! There you are!”
I paused, recognizing Wendy’s voice. “There’s no time to lose,” she said as we power-walked the rest of the way to class. “Have you talked to Alan?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy with that conversation.” The encounter with the mean girl vanished from my mind and I felt a little blush creep into my cheeks. This earned an approving exclamation from Wendy.
“Perfect! Now go, we must run! Try to talk to Kenneth before the second lesson!”
“Okay!”
She winked and whispered good luck as we slipped into the classroom just as the bell rang. Perfectly on time.
I glanced around the classroom with a feeling of relaxation and delight. I loved english lessons almost as much as I did drama practices. But…where was Kenneth? Was he going to be late? I sat down in my seat and took out my MP3 along with my notebook intent on waiting until the teacher got there.
By lunch at 11:30 I realized that Kenneth didn’t come to school. Boo-hoo! I hoped he didn’t catch a cold or something! I had so been looking forward to asking him if they were going to make a second album too!
“Is Mr. Guitarist absent today?” Wendy asked me over lunch.
“Yeah, it seems to. Maybe he got scared of that English test? What a pity!”
“It wasn’t that hard…” she mused for a moment. She shrugged. “Don’t worry,” Wendy consoled with a sympathetic touch. “Let’s try to find the geek boy then!”
“You don’t mean Norbert? He didn’t seem to be online yesterday.”
“Did you play that online game he likes?”
“For like, half the evening! It was enjoyable!” I was exaggerating a little about how long, but it was a fun three hours. “I played a few rounds with Nick and my brother until I had caught up in the storyline with them. I’m lucky you took Louis out otherwise I’m sure he would have been laughing at us the whole time! I was so out of touch with the controls! But… Norbert didn’t show up online at any time.”
Wendy didn’t seem bothered and laughed. “You’re a good student of mine; I’m proud of you!”
I grinned. “Tee-hee! Thanks!
“Let’s have a sandwich each then, and find Norbert, of course! PB and J?”
I nodded enthusiastically. “Sounds like a plan!”
We had a great lunch. The problem was that I can’t find Norbert! Maybe Wendy’s been lucky today and found him? I waited for her outside the cafeteria, still searching for Norbert. Instead, I overheard a couple of girls pass by.
“…His sister just moved here. I haven’t seen her yet though. Apparently he goes to the nearby university!”
“Really? I hope she doesn’t get hurt if she chooses to go to the ball. That’d be horrible!”
“Her last few months of high school and possibly even her summer break would be ruined!”
“Boo hoo!”
At first I thought they were mocking the poor girl, but I glanced up and saw that their expressions were grave and concerned. Poor girl.
“Did you find him?” Wendy asked, appearing next to me.
“No. I suppose you didn’t succeed as well, since you’re asking.”
“We’re unlucky today!” She said, sounding so unhappy that I felt the need to cheer her up.
“Naah, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said, but she didn’t sound much better.
I changed the subject: “The football team’s practice ends at 4 today afternoon. That means plenty of time to talk with Curtis.”
This brightened her up: “You’re learning more quickly than I expected! You deserve a cookie, you smart girl!”
I laughed. “Thank you!”
We were almost to the field when she got a text message on her phone. I might have imagined it, but I thought she got a little paler.
“Something wrong?”
“Nothing,” Wendy replied, smiling. “Just something for the school newspaper. Actually, I like the sound of that. What about you go talk to Curtis and I’ll go get cookies for us?”
“I’ll meet you at the journalism room then,” I said, much relieved.
“Okay, let’s go! I’ll see you at 5!”
“Roger!”
I headed outside and took a deep breath of the fresh air. The sunlight was a beautiful speckled orange on the football grounds, and a few of the footballs team were already practicing. With the birds twittering the atmosphere was just marvelous. If I closed my eyes, I could just imagine I was back home. Where everything was peaceful and people were comfortable enough with me to ask me to make clothes for them and I was comfortable making costumes for them. But that kinda of thinking wasn’t fair; after all, I’d met some amazing people already and everyone had been fairly friendly. Well, aside from that one girl. But I was more than willing to ignore that.
I opened my eyes and caught sight of Curtis, almost by accident: He had been defending against another player and with a quick sweep of his foot he’d kicked the ball away to a teammate and raced for the goal. Before I knew it, his teammates were cheering as the ball hit the net, a second before the goalie would have pounced on it. I could almost imagine my friend Samantha cheering with them. She had gone to every football practice at my old school and dragged me along to some as well.
“Whoot! Eileen! Did you see that? Hi! Eileen!”
I smiled before I abruptly realized that I wasn’t imagining someone calling my name. Curtis was walking over to me as the other half of the team rethought their strategy.
“Hi Eileen!”
“Hello! Woah, that goal was awesome!”
“Thanks!”
“How are you doing?”
“I feel in top shape today,” he said with brilliant smile. “And aside from a few nitty gritty things, I think the team’s in top shape too! We’ll be ready for the statewide championship tomorrow!”
“That’s great to hear! Is it here? Or an away game?”
“We’ll be at their place.” He paused for a beat as I took that in. “What’re you up to anyways? The classes are already over.”
“I came to watch the football practice. Hope you won’t mind?”
“Sure thing! You’re a big fan of football, aren’t you?”
I nodded.
“We’ll be here for a while though. Won’t you get uncomfortable sitting out here all afternoon?”
He was worried about my comfort! How sweet! “Not at all. The field is lovely this time of day too; the fresh air and sunlight are perfect.”
“I like it quite a lot too.”
“Curtis! We’re starting again!” a teammate called at that point. He turned and nodded. “How about that—I’ll try to score another goal just for you.”
I must have turned scarlet at this. “Really? Gosh, that’s wonderful!”
“Well, you’re really amazing!” He said, running off with a wave. I picked a seat in the stands and watched. Sure enough, Curtis soon managed to corner another player on the other side. This time though, they were prepared and passed the ball before he could sweep it out from under them. Fortunately for him though, another teammate intercepted the ball before it made it to the goal.
“Curtis! Go!”
His teammate passed him the ball and it barely touched his foot before he launched it into the corner of the goal, a blur of black and white soaring out of the goalie’s reach. He looked up over the field and caught my eye. I gave him a double-thumbs up and he flashed a grin at me before returning to the game.
It was a pretty fun practice. I noticed Curtis was more generous after that, encouraging his teammates to practice making goals instead of shooting them himself. He must have been giving them extra practice before the big game tomorrow, I figured.
A few minutes before the end practice a few girls from the cheerleading team came out, the mean girl in the lead. I hoped she didn’t notice me, and to my relief they chose the other side of the field to practice one. I also noticed the two girls that had passed me in the hall and almost grimaced at how badly the uniforms fit the shorter girls. Although I had to say the bright pink ribbon looked nice in everyone’s hair.
As I watched the football practice, I daydreamed of ways I would adjust the cheerleading uniform.
Finally, Curtis dismissed the football team on a hearty note. Most of the guys headed for the locker rooms, trailed by a few of the cheerleaders, but Curtis was walking directly for me!
“Hey! You stayed the whole time!”
“You guys were great! I’m sure you’ll win tomorrow!”
“I’m feeling good about them too! Will you come here tomorrow as well then? If we get back early, I know a great pizza place I was going to take them to after.”
“You wouldn’t mind me there? I wouldn’t want to intrude on the team’s season-end party.”
“No way! Spectators are always welcome at the party!”
“I’ll be there, then,” I said with a smile.
“See you tomorrow then! ” He left me at the door of the school and jogged back. I smiled after him, giddyness rising in me. Aiyee! Success! And pizza!
I yawned once I was indoors. It was already 4 p.m. I couldn’t wait to go home and have a short nap before starting homework. I was daydreaming about the vanilla latte I was going to have when I woke up from my nap. Hopefully Jason had some left over from the bunch he made last night.
“Hang on a moment, don’t go yet!” Wendy’s voice called me out of my dream-like state.
“Ah, sorry!” I said, remembering. “I’m tired. DId a lot of talking today.”
“I know,” she said sympathetically. “If everything goes well, tomorrow’s the last day you can befriend one of the guys before the ball! You’ll have some rest afterwards.”
“I’m looking forward to it!” I said with a smile. “What’s the plan for tomorrow then?”
“We’ll try to find Norbert in the morning. Also, Alan has some evening classes on Thursdays, so he sits in the library nearly all the afternoon. It’s your chance too.”
“What about the other guys?”
“We’ll see what the day brings. Hopefully Kenneth comes to class tomorrow.” We stopped at my door. She checked her bag with an “Oh!” and handed me a few flyers. “I remember you telling Kenneth that you liked singing and picked this up for you. There’s a school-sponsored karaoke contest at the Cactus club next week I thought you would be interested in it.”
“Oh! I’ll check it out! Thanks!”
“Now go and have some rest, girl!”
“Sounds like a busy day ahead! See you tomorrow!”
Wendy seemed to chuckle to herself as we parted ways, but I was too worn out to wonder why.
To my surprise, I was greeted by my brother. He quickly explained that in college not all classes met every day and some only met once a week, which led to weird schedules. I decided to just go with it. I wouldn’t have to worry about confusing college schedules until next year.
“Um—Casayo? Do you know if there’s any of that vanilla latte left from yesterday?” I asked, looking through the refrigerator. “I could really use a bit of caffeine right now.”
“Sorry, I just finished it,” he said with a little chuckle “I’ll ask Jason to make more tonight though.” He laughed and a mischievous smirk formed on his face. “He’s with Gwen right now. Lou stole their books and left them at the college so they would be forced to go on a little date to get them back.” He rolled his eyes amusedly.
“Brilliant, if I do say so myself!” Louis said, coming into the kitchen and pulling out a can of soda. He winked at me. “It was bound to happen anyways.”
I mimicked my brother’s eye roll and laughed. “They’ll know it was you, silly.”
Louis shrugged. “All the better. Then they’ll be able to thank me properly.”
They both howled with laughter and I left Louis scheming up other tricks and my brother playing good-humoredly along.
I was finishing homework and humming along to The Super Soundwaves’ debut album, “Colors” when Casayo knocked on the door a few hours later. “Eileen, dinner’s ready!”
“Be there in a moment!”
I finished up the problem and went downstairs to the kitchen area.
“Nick’s staying over at his parents’ place, but Gwen and Wendy’ll be joining us,” Casayo explained.
“Hi Eileen!” Wendy greeted. “Oh, oh. Let me introduce you to my Sister! Eilee, this is my older sister, Guinevere. Gwen, this is Eileen Hieron, Casayo’s younger sister and my new friend!”
“You make my name sound like a disgusting dish,” the lady that had to be Gwen said, scrunching up her face. She smiled at me as we shook hands. “Call be Gwen, please.”
“Pleased to meet you. Thank you for lending me your copy of Tale of the Darkest Star.”
Gwen’s eyes brightened with interest. “No problem! Did you like it?”
“I loved it!”
“Me too!” She gauged me suspiciously. “Are you for the Cargon or Euqruk clan?”
I grinned as we sat down. “I have to say I side with the Lor’ Euqruk government in their current conflict, but if I were an alien, I’d chose Lor’Cargon.”
She beamed. “And I would have to agree with you!” She winked. “Anyways, Turrek Lor’Cargon sounds a lot cuter than Eigiene Lor’ Euqruk.”
I laughed. “I nearly cried when Eigiene died though! Especially since he just met Adelaide. He had so many questions to ask a star, and then he was killed just before he could ask any of them.”
Gwen agreed with that as well. “I foreshadowed his death when he was introduced, so it wasn’t a surprise when he died. But it was still really sad when he did.”
“And then Turrek setting his body off to bring peace to their clans…”
We both sighed, lost in our memories of the book. The conversation continued as we brought up bits an pieces of our observations. We both shipped Aderin—that was, Adelaide and Sorin, and came up with a dozen alternatives for Turrek’s happiness. Over dessert we discussed the alien customs and laughed over our pronunciations of the languages. We shared our predictions about Sorin and Turrek’s next paths for action in a potential sequel and theories of Adelaide’s past while washing the dishes.
Jason and Casayo had both read the book and occasionally contributed their ideas and speculations. Jason had so much to offer on the government and philosophy that I suspected he knew more about the alien cultures than was mentioned in the book. The conversation moved to the living room and Louis noted that “The Super Soundwaves dedicated a song or two to it. Their lead guitarist is apparently a fan” before declaring us all geeky bookworms and entertaining himself with teaching Wendy Legacy of Lords on my account. I was though, greatly interested by this comment and resolved to ask Kenneth about it later.
"It's so sappy!" Louis interrupted everyone with a loud laugh at the cutscene that was playing on Legacy of Lords. I recognized the part as when the dying Lord Tyron had finally gave his nephew and his poor lover his blessing.
"But it's so sad!" Wendy was insisting. "Everything's fine now and now he has to die! i liked the old guy!" She pressed the "replay clip" button and read the subtitles aloud. "'It is my great pleasure and great pain to tell you that I must leave now. The worlds beyond call to me.' He's going to die! You can hear it in the lines! That's death's door he's walking through!"
Louis cracked up and continued dramatically, "'The future-- '"he swept his hands out in a grand gesture "'nay, my future as well!-- rests in your hands now, my brrraaavvveee hero.' Really now. is he talking to our character or his nephew? Has he forgotten we're still here? Jeez old man. I just cleared up the big deal in your house! Some recognition would be nice!"
"'The apologies are all mine, and the mirth should all be yours,'" Wendy continued, undeterred. "...'indeed, I shall be sorely disappointed if you have anything else.' It's all so wonderful,” she gushed.
"I have to agree with Wendy," I ventured. "It's sappy, sure, but it's a sweet scene nonetheless. It’s heartbreaking.”
Louis rolled his eyes at the two of us and kissed Wendy's cheek before pressing the "continue" key onscreen. "Go back to your bookworming," he directed me. "There are better heartwarming, tear-jerking scenes, Wendy. You should see the reunion between Lord Brennick and his daughter.”
I smiled at his antics before directing my attention back to Jason, who was commenting on the role of architecture in the alien worlds.
As we talked, I brought out my sketchbook and jotted down interesting notes and sketched outfit designs for the characters. Occasionally one of the college students would offer feedback or share their views on the clothing styles and appearances of the characters and by the end of the evening we had decided on a look for each major character, complete with a “uniform” or “normal appearance”.
I giggled to myself as I turned off the lights that night. How I looked forward to getting Alan’s thoughts on the drawings!
