Chapter 1
Callum entered the fast food centre. It was going to be another boring day and he had to work at the same boring counter taking orders again. He told Harold, the boy who works the shift before him, that he can leave but he doesn't and tells Callum that the manager had called him and that he was told to work Callum’s shift as well. Worried that he got in trouble, he approaches his manager.
“Good evening, Callum,” his manager greets him.
“Good Evening.”
“Why so serious?” he asks, smiling.
“Um…”
“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble.” he says, laughing.
“Okay.”
“I called you because we have a new worker at our centre. I thought it would be nice if you could help her and give her an idea of how everything works because she’s Xadian and new to Katolis. So, there might be a few differences… Would you be okay with that? Her shift is the same time as yours.”
“Oh, sure. I wouldn’t mind.”
“Great! She’s over there. You can go talk to her. Her name is Rayla.”
Callum goes to the place his manager told him to and sees a Moonshadow elf wearing black tight fit jeans and a light blue plain T-shirt. She seemed to be about his age. She was very pretty. She had pale skin, blue markings under her eyes and blonde- almost white shiny hair tied into a bun.
He approaches her and says, “Hi. Um, are you Rayla?”
“Yes, that would be me.” she replies, with an accent that Callum’s never heard before.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too…” she looks at his name tag “Callum?”
“Uh, yeah. My name is Callum, sorry.”
“Why?”
“For not telling you my name.”
She gives a light chuckle. “That’s alright.”
“So, the manager told me to show you around, I mean- tell you how everything works and what you should be doing.”
“Okay.”
Callum goes to the counter expecting Rayla to follow. He spends his whole shift explaining what she’s supposed to do, how to take orders and to be polite to the customers.
“Alright, Rayla. Our shift is over. We can go home now.”
“Already?”
“It was a 4-hour shift!”
“Felt a lot shorter. Probably because I was having fun.”
“Fun?”
“Yeah. I got to learn new things with a new friend.”
Callum was surprised to hear her refer to him as a friend although they didn’t know a thing about each other except their names. “Yeah, I guess that is fun.”
“What, you didn’t have fun?”
“Um, well it was fun but I’m kinda used to all this so I didn’t have as much ‘fun’ as you did.”
“Makes sense.” She smiles. “Thank you.”
“Um... for what?”
“For spending 4 hours just to show me how everything works and that too with great patience.”
He smiles. “Of course.”
They exit the fast food centre.
“Bye… Rayla was it?”
“Yep.”
“Bye, Rayla.”
She doesn’t say it back and instead after a few moments, she says, “Wait!”
He turns back. “What is it?”
“So… I’m a bit new to the city so if you wouldn’t mind… could you tell me which route or tram I should take to reach the street named ‘Oak Gardens’?”
“Oak Gardens? You’re in luck! That’s the same street I live in!”
“Really? That’s great!”
“Same shift, same street. What a coincidence.”
“Yeah.”
“Come. Let's go together.”
They walk to the tram station, take the tram and arrive at their stop. As they do, Callum explains everything so that she’ll remember where to go and what tram to take if she’s alone. Then, they reach the lane where the apartments lie.
“That one over there is my apartment.”
“Really? Mine is that one. Just 3 blocks away from yours!”
“Yep. Another coincidence.”
She smiles and says, “Yeah. Thank you again, Ca…”
“Callum.”
“Callum. Thank you.”
He smiles. “You’re welcome.”