Here is the beginning of another story, started on a whim. This time, it’s not for an assignment, but writing for the sake of writing. Here goes:
Rain. Aolin hated the rain. She had to remind herself that this will be quick, whatever it was.
Riding her bike during a storm was nothing new to Aolin. Cold, stinging drops smacking her face, both shower and puddles alike doing their best to drench her woefully-nonrepellant clothes, numb fingers grasping the handlebars — she knew all of this well.
Kinda hard not to get used to it, living in Washington, she thought bitterly. It never became any less unpleasant, though. As always, she hoped her glasses would still be usable, exposed to all this moisture.
However unhappy she would have been on any other rainy day, Aolin knew that this occasion would be worse. Professor Stenton had requested her presence for a meeting. No doubt he wants to discuss my latest failure of an exam. God, it’s not my fault you can’t teach!
She could see the entire meeting unfold in her mind. “You are obviously intelligent,” he would say. “If only you applied yourself more to your studies…”
Aolin sighed, her breath steaming the raindrop-dense air in front of her. Whatever, let’s just get this over with.
A chime sounded in her left ear. Aolin instinctively touched the left frame of her glasses, and was pleased to see the name “Chloe Brandt” floating before her in glowing font.
“Hi, Chloe!”
“Hey, ‘Lin, if you got a minute, I’ve just got to tell you something –”
“It may have to wait — I have a meeting with Stink-ton in a bit. Rain check?” The irony of what she just said struck her a second later.
“Ha, yeah, sure. Wait, ‘Lin, are you out riding in the rain again?”
“Come on, Chloe, it’s not that big of a deal –”
“You should be careful; at least take off your specs. I heard that a guy in LA was wearing his during a storm, and a short caused some sort of electric discharge or something and gave him permanent brain damage.”
“I’m fine. And you’re the one talking to me!”
“At least I’m indoors.”
“Ha, fair, I’ll take them off.”
“That’s all I ask.”
Aolin was reaching up to her face to remove her specs when Chloe spoke up again. “And don’t let me catch you riding in the rain again!”
“Hey, what happened to ‘that’s all I ask’?”
Chloe sighed into Aolin’s ear. “Fine. See you.”
“Bye.” Chloe’s name disappeared from Aolin’s vision, and she removed the specs, slipping the device into her messenger bag slung over her shoulder to her right side.
She arrived at the entrance of the Department of Metaphysics, a large, four-story box-shaped building seemingly composed of porous metal. Aolin dismounted her bike and pushed a blue button set into the center of the bicycle frame, prompting the bike to collapse and lock itself to the nearest fold-rack. She looked down the row of fold-rack slots, and saw only a couple more bikes collapsed here.
Not many people here today, she thought. The entrance’s translucent double-doors slid laterally outwards as Aolin approached. Upon entering the building, her surface was scanned, and countless simultaneous precision laser pulses dried her clothes in seconds.
Ah, much better. She looked across the atrium, ignoring its gleaming marble floor and reception desk, into the long, white hall directly across from where she was standing. Time to face Stink-ton.
**
Let’s see where this one goes.
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