7: SELF WORTH
//
1:13 P.M. // 8 - 29 - 2023 // Arc
Starring ???
Featuring ???
//
“What?”
“No, seriously, the Awakening Program just opened up!” Regan hopped up and down excitedly like a kid on a sugar rush, and then put her hands over my own, still clutched to the textbook. “Stop studying and let’s go sign up. C’mon, it’s only the first day. We literally just got our books this morning and you’ve stuffed your face into them.” She shook her head amusedly. “Like usual, you try-hard.”
I let out a slight breath. “That’s why I do better than you in school.”
She snorted. “Bro, do you want a desk job or awesome powers? Not gonna lie, the first option makes me shiver.”
I scoffed melodramatically and dropped my book into my backpack. “Fiiine, let’s go.” Her hand loosened and she smiled, as did I.
In the grand scheme of things, Regan and I were definitely insignificant. We didn’t attract much attention, we didn’t do anything too out of the ordinary, we always stay above the teacher’s radar, and our looks were probably overall an average out of ten, considering all of the insane lookers and double-takes that we were constantly walking by… most of this was according to the Memory from last night.
Well, I guess I’d rather be me than someone higher or lower in this school’s hierarchy. At least, I’d rather be Kali Lapuz.
“C’mon, hurry up!” Regan urged me, impatience shaking from her head to her feet. “You already know how fast time goes, especially during our free period.”
Regan sure was a ball of energy.
Regan pulled my arm as soon as I finished stuffing my bag with my things making me yelp, and she ran me to the open doors, dragging my arm along with her.
The weather was uncomfortably hot today, and already I felt the sweat in my pits.
“By the way,” Regan put in as we paced forward, “how’s your hand?”
My left hand hanging free from Regan’s grip stung a slight bit at the reminder. The band-aid, the giant kind, stuck well enough but was uncomfortable. I still remembered the torture of the healers rubbing alcohol into the wound before doing their thing. “Did I mess up choosing the sword?” I muttered to myself quietly.
“Huh? Say what?”
“What? It’s fine, I mean, well… yeah.”
Regan’s turned to me, her hair reflecting light into mine. Like my own, was cut short just above her neck, with no bangs to cover her windy eyes and bright face. “Then move faster, you sloth! The line’s probably so long right now already!”
I started forward to match her pace, and yelled back, “We’ll see about sloth.”
“Bet!”
The air moved past them like warm jello, and each foot in front of the other was getting heavier and heavier as I grew more and more tired. Finally we arrived, panting, behind a huge line that spanned from outside the cafeteria building under a little overhead pop-up tent. Students were arriving behind them one by one, and the ones at the front were leaving with a paper in their hands and grinning ear to ear.
“Geez, I didn’t think it would be this long,” I panted, completely out of breath. I was so sweaty from my brow to my pits to my toes, and my face cleanser was all the way back in the apartment, which I probably wouldn’t be coming back to until the end of my shift at the Shiba Tea Shoppe. A breakout was inevitable.
“Don’t worry, girl,” Regan reached into her little purse, and like she read my mind she pulled out her own face cleanser. “I gotchu.”
“Mmm!” I hugged her, she was a bit less tired than me, though still sweating like a pig. “You’re the best!”
“I know,” Regan snickered. “You better know that too.”
I groaned and pulled back. “Never mind.” She giggled again.
“If I remember yesterday, wasn’t this haircut your idea?”
My own hair stuck out behind my head through a hairband, sticking up almost-spiky style because it was so short, and a swooping bang swept on my forehead. That meant more sweat dripping from my hair, meaning clogged pores and blotchy skin. Oh, the misery of puberty.
“So now we're pointing fingers? Well, your fault for sleeping!” Regan slapped my back with a smile and I, now thoroughly annoyed, grabbed her shoulders and pushed my sweaty noggin into her forehead, staring straight at her. She stared back unflinchingly with her unfailing and stupidly annoying smile, clearly repressing several laughs. “How so very gay.”
Don’t respond to that.
“You’re the root cause of why my skin sucks,” I said lowly and as menacingly as I could.
She leaned in deeper, and then stuck out her tongue. “I brought a face cleanser. You didn’t.” She pushed back and finally cracked into fits of laughter. “I win again! Ha!”
I sighed and shook my head. “Win, my sweaty armpits.”
“No, you’ve never won against me, ‘you’re the cause of all my problems, bleh bleh’,” she loudly mocked me, her face like that of a duck. “Come back when you’re older and wiser, and think twice before falling asleep in a hair salon.”
I couldn’t help but to giggle a bit myself. “But it was so boooring. You said so, too!”
“Meh, at least I’m not rude enough to snore while the barber is snipping at my hair.”
“You’re plenty rude right now.”
“And it looks like you couldn’t give half a crap about it. I. Win. Take. The. L!”
She had a rebuttal for everything, and I rolled my eyes. “You should really consider being an MC or an actor.”
“Mhmm, I’m so perfect,” she grinned obnoxiously.
Swinging around my backpack I unzipped it and reached in, pulling out some spare scrap pieces of paper, and held a few to Regan.
“I have nothing better to wipe down our sweat, and your handkerchief won’t absorb enough. Take it.”
She accepted the paper. “Thanks, babe,” she said in her falsely sweet voice.
“Backetcha, pookie.”
We shared a laugh.
When we finally reached the front the papers were soaked, and we still had so much sweat to spare, the sun was so insanely hot. Why did Arc have to be so close to the equator? The lady sat at the desk looked up, a monitor behind her. She had on a pink top and brown pants, as did all the other people under the tent as uniform, but also with glasses giving her an almost nerdy appearance. Her name tag said Lyanne Bakshi.
Regan pushed my shoulder lightly. “You first.”
“Hello,” the woman started. She had a slightly noticeable accent, “I’d like your identification please.”
I nodded and tapped my watch. It blared on, but then I lowered the size of the screen to around the aspect of a card, then opened the Arc app. I tapped my profile, scrolled past a picture of Kali with long hair, and showed it to the lady.
——
1 8 2 4 5 5 0 0 1 0
Kali Lapuz | Year 1 | UAH4
Rank 1476 | Rank 7713
Katana | Criminology 101 | N/A
——
“Kali Lapuz, is it?” Lyanne turned around to type down something into the keyboard.
“Sorry, I cut my hair yesterday,” I nervously chuckled. I had no say in all of the information on the card except the katana, and even that I was apprehensive about. Though I had a pretty high rank for an unawakened kid, I was still low enough to be judged.
“Oh, no worries, I think you look great with that hairstyle.” She waved her hand out exaggeratedly. My worries flew out the window as the lady looked up with a smile, though fake it could possibly be. It was just her job, but still I felt somewhat pleased to be gratified by her.
“Kali Lapuz, the Awakening program begins tomorrow after the last class of the day, which should be at 7 PM, and will be at 7 PM every weekday. Eat a light dinner and be sure to show up on time at the Club Streets which is the area just around the Square, meet at the entrance.” She pointed her finger behind me in the general direction of the stadium, or what they called the Square. “This is a commitment. You’re sure you want to do this, right?” Lyanne seemed to have most of this memorized and said it really fast, but yet tried to make it sound organic at the same time which I appreciated.
“Yes, I want to attend the program,” I responded.
She pointed to my right, another guy with a beige widehat under the tent in the same pink uniform. His eyes were glued to his watch. “You’ll get your consent form from David there and turn it back to him, and take an information sheet on the way out in the bins right there.” She beckoned me over to him, and waved me off though politely. “Alright, good luck and see you around, Kali.”
“Thank you,” I said, unsure of what to call her. Miss? Ma’am? Lyanne?
David noticed me, and then reached behind him to grab a form. He was a pretty scruffy man, but kind of cute, which was to be expected. It seemed like there was also a passing requirement for physical attractiveness during the admission exams to Arc as far as I was concerned.
“Here you go, the pen is here too.”
“Thanks, David,” I said, accepting the pen. The consent sheet looked okay enough with no ridiculous clause, so my expression was mostly neutral as I made up a signature for Kali on the spot. I hoped that it wouldn’t conflict too much with her past signatures.
I handed David back the form and he placed it on the top of a huge stack, and at the same time handed a form to Regan just beside me, who was quivering with energy. She was always doing that.
“Omigosh omigosh, this is it, this is it!” Regan squealed as silently as she could manage. Just looking at her I was surprised she wasn’t screaming her head off in delight right now.
//
7:00 P.M. // 8 - 29 - 2023 // Arc - Club Streets
Starring Dean Harvest
//
The sun was already dipping below the horizon yet the moon was only a sliver in the sky. A large crowd was gathered just outside the stadium. I stood at the outskirts where I could only see the hair of the people in charge.
“Attendance will begin now,” the woman named Lyanne announced from the head of the crowd under that familiar tent, her voice amplified by speakers around them. The loud chatter slowly faded leaving behind only hushed whispers. Though it was dark in the distance around us, there was plenty of brightness from all of the lighting fixtures on the floors, walls, and lamps.
My watch buzzed and I procedurally followed through. Present, raise hand, down.
Finally once she finished taking attendance, the woman started, “I assume that all you here today are unawakened and are ready to begin the Awakening program. If you are Awakened, please leave.” Here she paused for a moment, a moment where no one inched even a bit.
Lyanne continued, “Now before we begin, I’d like to give you guys a quick overview of the Awakening process. Most of this should be review for all of you.” At this point no one was talking anymore, and each person was attentive and listening.
“As you all should know, the Awakened are a subset category of creatures that have transcended the humanistic and physical limitations of the laws of the universe, a mutation of their species if you will. Interestingly enough, all of our research related to the Awakening of a homosapien relies on luck. You guys should also know the uncanny but very useful resemblance of Awakening to video games and other online media, and so we aptly named everything after media surfacing on the Internet. Luck is one such factor.”
Her connection of Awakening to video games caused a surge in excited talking and laughter, the talking and laughter of familiarity.
“One of the most notable things each person will get when they Awaken is a ‘System.’”
My curiosity piqued and then pivoted into confusion. Huh?
Wait, don’t I already have a system?
Does that already mean I’m Awakened?
“Systems are what provide the Awakened ability, the ability to do in accordance with the descriptor.”
I don’t have abilities, though? Just as I was about to say something, she raised her finger into the air.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Fun fact, did you know that all Awakened have a relation to their abilities on a deeper level than the usage of said ability? And that’s why we are here today.”
Clearly not only I but everyone else was more than confused, judging from the whispers. I saw the top of Lyanne’s hair ruffle as if she was shaking her head.
“What I mean is that one’s talent, preferences, specialty, or personality will translate to one’s set of abilities.”
Around me I sensed a sudden spark of excitement. I couldn’t exactly place my finger on what exactly everyone was feeling all of a sudden, just a change in mood, like a spell of revelation had cleared a fog that had been covering our eyes.
But not my eyes.
I was still concerned about my own System and inability.
I raised my hand.
“Excuse me—” but the chatter around was already too loud for me to be heard.
“Hey…” I faltered. What was I going to say next? I have a System with no abilities?
Wasn’t self cultivation the only reason Dean came to Arc? Surely voicing my weakness would only get me kicked out.
Why was I here in the first place? Not Dean, but me.
The Memories didn’t tell me anything.
Then I couldn’t do anything about it. So, I should just follow along.
It was the only right option there was.
//
7:14 P.M. // 8 - 29 - 2023 // Arc - Club Center
Starring Avil Daniase
Featuring Gwen Olynn
//
“Avil,” Gwen nudged me, “did you choose yet?”
“Oh,” I said lightly. “I still don’t really know, to be honest.” Looking at all of the options, I couldn’t see which one was meant for me. Or, which ones were meant for my schedule.
——
Acrobatic || Art || …
Craft || Culinary || Culture || …
Dance || Debate || Deliver || Develop || …
Enrich || Entertain || Explore || …
Facial-care || Family || Film || Fitness || …
Garden ||
Health || Home || …
Industry || Invent || …
Law || Life || Literature || Love || …
Marksmanship || Martial || Medical || Music || …
Pioneer || Politics || Preserve || Problem-solve || …
Religion || Run || …
Sew || Swim || …
Tennis || Travel || …
…
——
I groaned loudly. “Maybe I should just take the test.”
Gwen scoffed. “16 minutes. Time’s ticking.”
That made me frown. “Did you already choose one?”
She nodded her head. “I’m not telling you.”
“Why not?”
“You’ll see.”
“C’mon, Gwen, just tell me!” I persisted. Gwen clicked her tongue.
“15 minutes, idiot.”
Dammit.
Rolling my eyes, I scrolled to the top of the page to the button that said TEST. Behind me someone let out a sigh of relief. Actually, all around were people making probably the most important decisions of their lives. I could feel the nervous air that surrounded the Club Center like a blizzard. Gwen and I however contributed nothing to dampen the winds of fear. We were also just as stressed, though it wasn’t like we would be all over each other talking about feelings.
Without a second thought my finger landed on the button and the screen changed.
It looked like a simple form. My name and all my other information was told to have been on recorded, but other than that it kind of looked like a personality test besides the obvious title:
Awakening Program - Self Assessment
I looked at the first question.
——
‘If you lived in a world without the Awakened, what would have been your dream profession?’
——
My mouth gaped open.
Maybe I would have been well prepared if I had properly answered the job forms back in my real world, but hell, I didn’t know how to answer this.
With no answers and one obvious option, I opened up my Guide menu. How many did I have left…? 3?
I looked at the amount of questions on the form and almost toppled off the bench. 40 questions. My eyes peeked over the top of the screen and glimpsed Gwen’s smug look on her face staring directly back into me.
“I told you. Chop chop.”
Man, was I sweating bullets. Maybe the one with better knowledge of this world… or themself…?
The Guide was blaring and blinding behind my head. I took a short breath, like getting a flu shot.
========================
Answer
Memory
Overtake
Will you use a Guide?
Yes//No
========================
Yes.
Then Avil woke up.
//
11:20 P.M. // 9 - 4 - 2023 // Arc - Housing District
Starring Cedrance Manamune
//
Six days.
Every single time he arrived back home, there was this vibration coming from the room next to him.
He would come home sweaty, tired, and would desire nothing but silence. But noooo, Ced swore he could hear a tuba honking in the other room. It was anything but silent.
Sometimes it sounded like the SWAT team was banging on his walls.
And the worst part was that they would continue until three in the morning. Being a slightly insomniac light sleeper was bad enough.
But this…
This was hell.
Six. Days. Lying awake in a bag of a sore body after exhausting activities, and yet never able to sleep more than two hours before habitually waking up.
No, it wasn’t a nightmare.
It was the hell of being sleep deprived.
His patience hadn’t run thin. It was simply gone.
//
6:55 P.M. // 9 - 4 - 2023 // Shiba Tea Shoppe
Starring Zendolyn Ato
Featuring Kali Lapuz and ???
//
Three hours into a shift and I was already a complete robot. There was still a crowd outside the front door even though rush hour had passed late into when I began working.
“Sorry, Zen, could you take the counter for a moment?” One of my coworkers tapped my shoulder, waking me up. She also happened to be the manager. “Kali’s shift is over and you’re next in line.”
I glanced up at the front almost groggily, pulling the cup out of the sealing machine.
Nodding with a tired smile, I motioned the ticket to the coworker. “Ah, then could you take over this order for me then, Maria?” I didn’t have the energy to take over the front, or talk to people, or anything.
She smiled back and took the little paper. “Of course.”
Kali looked back at the rest of the barista just as she finished taking a man’s order and spotted me walking towards her, and a look of relief washed over her face. She nodded her appreciation and I took her place at the counter. A few moments later Kali was out of her employee outfit and booking it out the doors like there was no tomorrow.
The next person in line stepped up. Customer service mode on. Smile activated. Fingers hovering at the ready. The screen on the little device in front of me was pretty clean considering how many people were walking through the doors each second. There seemed to be no end to the hoard of students and residents.
“Hello, what can I get for you today?” The guy in front of me took a moment to glance at the seasonals board to his right I had just put up this morning. He didn’t seem like the chatty type, so I indulged in his silence. I preferred not talking anyways.
“You’re Zendolyn Ato, right?”
My smile was still plastered over my face and didn’t falter even for a second. He probably just read my name tag.
“Yes, sir. Would you like any recommendations?”
The guy frowned. He looked to be around my age, or rather Zen’s age. Maybe he went to Arc, but I’d never seen him on campus before. Well, not like I’d remember him. He was even paler than myself, a black hoodie over his head already donned with a cap and hands in his jean pockets like a true introvert. Not a very notable person. No, probably an extra.
“Umm, I’ll get a Shiba Matcha.”
I tapped in the order. Shiba Matcha. Honestly, a pretty good choice, though not one of the seasonals. I guess he just didn’t like the idea of a Pinetwister. “Is 100 percent your preferred sweetness?”
“75 percent. I’d like brown sugar boba, too, and please make it small—I mean, a small cup.”
This was a little bit embarrassing. “Brown sugar boba comes along with Shiba Matcha. Also would you like 70 percent or 80 percent? 75 isn’t an option, and unfortunately, our drinks here only come in one size.”
He nodded unaffectedly. I noticed he had never made eye contact with me once. This one was a force to be reckoned with, a guy whose embarrassment had been neutered.
“80 percent, then.”
“Anything else?”
“No, that’s it.”
I turned the screen around to him. “So a Shiba Matcha with 80 percent sweetness. Did I miss anything?”
He shook his head, “No.” Thank you for being an easy customer. “Would you like to pay with card or points? We offer a discount for spending points.”
“…points.”
“Okay, please move your watch to the screen. Can I get a name for this order?”
He obliged. “Parker.”
I smiled and typed in his name wordlessly.
S***.
I forgot. The villain’s in the house.
Parker walked away and the next person came up.
My heart was slamming in my chest and my brain was spinning. But I kept on my customer service smile.
I hoped I could remember his face the next time we met.
…
“That woman was the last one,” I called out to the rest of the kitchen, “and it’s 9 now. Time to close up.” Many people had already ended their shift by then, so only I and three others were left behind to finish up the evening shift. I was still by the counter, my coworker Maria handed me a mop and a bucket full of water.
I frowned but said nothing.
She called out, “Good job today, everyone.”
We responded almost in unison with a ‘Good job’ of our own.
“Make sure to sign the checklist while you clean,” Maria said, giving every person something to scrub down the place with, “I want this place spotless. The faster you all work the faster you all can go!”
I signed up for something like this, didn’t I? At least this place paid pretty well, though it was super popular and exhausting.
And, no one judged me for, well, being Zen. At least not that I noticed. Maybe the news had passed a while ago and I was just paranoid.
Sniffing loudly as I moved the mop along the floor in the usual pattern, I thought that I was probably right, and it was just paranoia.
Though recently I’ve been having peace, the last few days haven't been nice to me, and neither have my classmates, nor any other class for that matter.
Point one, the gym was starting to see some use, and I was probably the only person who went there that hopped off the treadmill five minutes in due to the constant mocking of the low speed setting I was on, how obviously skinny I was, and mostly how not fit and tired my body was. I felt it before, how easily this body exhausted, but holy hell did I need to start working out. Not like I did that in the real world.
Point two, I was lonely, and tropes stood to tell that loners had it hard. Really hard. Verbal abuse and harassment, odd pranks meant to inconvenience me, and I honestly had no clue why people even bothered to call me out for random stuff I had no recollection about as I hardly ever talked. What night? One touch? Was there some sort of big red target on my back?
I subconsciously itched my back. Nope, no paper that said ‘punch me’. Maybe I was lucky it hadn't been elevated to physical confrontations.
Point three, I wasn’t attending the Awakening program.
I had reasons for not signing up. Very simple reasons, well thought out, and very, very impulsive.
Shaking my head, I started on the seats lining the wall even though they were pretty clean already. Whatever, just doing my job.
I needed money.
Well, points, same thing. I had three reasons again for not attending the program.
With points I wouldn’t, I couldn’t, be kicked out of school as long as I ranked high enough. Obvious issue number one.
Two, Awakening was a finicky process. I would know. I wrote about it. There was a firm chance that I and I specifically would encounter disaster if ever something wrong happened while I was entertaining the idea of Awakening. Disaster?
Trauma. I could become a weakling. My abilities could be terrible. Of course it could swing in the other direction and make me overpowered, but the most likely thing to happen was that the trauma of bullying would kick in, and I, still not used to bad stuff happening to me, would not be able to handle it.
Second Awakening was an obvious solution but I simply had no resolve to do that. My mentality did not like the idea of slaving for the slight chance of that, especially because of the hidden requirement.
“Alright, everyone did an amazing job today,” Maria said loudly and clapped her hands together. In front of her were her cleaning supplies. She clearly hadn’t missed out on scrubbing too. What a good manager. “You can all go home. Your points will be sent to your watch soon, or your money will be sent to your bank account, whichever one you chose. Goodbye, goodnight, and see you all Tuesday tomorrow.”
I set down my mop and pulled the bucket into the back of the kitchen into the supplies closet.
Plus I already had a sure fire way to Awakening strong abilities that applied to me, to Zen and only Zendolyn Ato.
If I wrote the system correctly, it was simple.
Passion.
Stories.
And luck.