Ding. Ding. Ding. Calista heard her sleep capsule whir as it opened.
The Artificial Intelligence for Domestic Assistance started its morning narration. “Good morning, Miss Calista Medley. It is now 10:00 in the morning of August 1st, 2349 in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana.”
As she rose, the AIDA immediately fixed her long black hair for her, leaving it in a perfect, shiny waterfall. “Morning,” she yawned, her green eyes squeezing out light tears from the pressure. “Any messages?”
“You have a pending message from… The SociaLights… which arrived at 10:00 PM on July 30th, 2349.”
“Ugh. I’ll listen later.”
“Acknowledged.”
She was too busy to talk to them, anyway. Her mother would be giving her ‘runway classes’ again today. Apparently, a tradition at NYWS was for new students to participate in a fashion show, displaying their finest work to impress the more famous students and increase their chances of getting popular in the industry. Being the fashion designer of her channel, Calista was especially pressured to look the part for this event, not to mention her name. Being Jennifer Zyben’s daughter carried an immense weight.
Despite the power and prestige she still held, Jennifer’s reputation had taken a hit with Calista’s birth. Instead of preserving her body’s ‘perfection’, she’d chosen a natural pregnancy and birth. It was understandable; Hajjian terrorists had been shutting down birthing pods all over Earth at the time, killing the babies inside. Most Socializers considered natural births disgusting and careless when it came to preserving one’s looks, and someone like Jennifer having a natural birth was very controversial.
After Calista was born, Jennifer spent a lot of money on Thinners and Modifiers to get her waist back to its former glory; perfectly flat and thin. But as much as she tried to cover it up, eventually all her followers found out and slammed her with criticism and body-shaming comments. Jennifer had to release the most heartfelt apology statement she could muster and reassure them that Calista was ‘worth the trouble’. For Katelyn and Quincy’s births— Calista’s sister and brother— she made sure everyone saw her visiting them at the birthing pods.
Calista knew that if she failed at impressing anyone at the Socializer school, the controversies would come back to bite the family. She was the next titleholder, being the oldest daughter, and being the one who caused such damage to her mother’s once perfect body. Calista Medley needed to be a name people respected and admired, not one that spurred a downward spiral of gossip and hatred.
She went to her closet and stepped inside. Her pajamas were switched out with a pink crop top and white capris she’d designed, and her face was coated with a thick, but subtle layer of makeup. She would probably change into different outfits during this little training session, but it was a good everyday outfit to have.
Checking herself in the mirror screen, her perfectly painted lips twisted at the slight bulge that was accumulating around her waist. To her mother, it would be an eyesore. She’d probably send her to the Thinning Spa after practicing.
She stopped by Katelyn’s room before going to meet Jennifer. The 16-year old girl was lounging in her room, designing homes and rooms on her simulator. While Calista dabbled in fashion, Katelyn dabbled in architecture. She would make a good enough Socializer. The middle Medley child wouldn’t have as much pressure on her. She never showed an interest for anything else, so she had it easy.
Quincy was only nine, and being the baby of the family, he’d probably also have an easy path. Men had less pressure on them as Socializers than women did. Male Socializers usually concentrated on other talents besides looking handsome and participating in pageants— much like Elizabeth, they would show off talents like making art without technology or performing music. Women were expected to concentrate on pageantry, politics, and diplomatic relations in their early career years before moving onto what they really wanted to do.
“Hey, Cali,” Katelyn said, glancing at her. Her blond hair was tied up in a messy bun. “Going with Mom?”
“Yeah, she wants me to practice again.”
“Did you finish your portfolio?”
“Yup, last night.” She chuckled. “I feel like showing it to Mom is scarier than showing it to the admissions board.”
“She criticizes everything. Just act like you care about what she says and move on,” Katelyn said dismissively, with a bit of irritation. She was right— Jennifer was very hyper-critical, especially with Calista. Katelyn didn’t have that great of a relationship with her mother, since their tastes differed greatly.
At least she could afford dismissing her mom like that. It was easy for her to say. Calista didn’t say that aloud, though. She didn’t want to guilt-trip her sister over something she couldn’t control. “Good tip,” was all she could think of saying.
“Why do you even need a portfolio? Didn’t you get into the school with that scholarship?”
“Not exactly. We still have to apply like any other student.”
Katelyn shrugged. “Eh. Mom probably knows someone on the board. It’ll be fine. If not her, Grandma will fix something up for you.”
Quincy came through the transient wall. “Hey, Cali. Mom wants you. She’s waiting in the Air-Car.”
“Hey, who said you could come in here?” Katelyn said.
“The wall was open.”
“Well, request first. Don’t just come in here.”
Quincy rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” The boy was going through an early puberty phase. He was the most sarcastic nine-year old Calista knew.
“So just the practice runway today?” Katelyn asked Calista, continuing to work.
“And probably the Thinning Spa.”
“Thinning Spa? What for?” Katelyn turned in her hovering chair to look at her properly.
“Let me guess, you have a bulge.” Quincy tapped his belt, summoning his Pet. The palm-sized sphere hovered in midair with two transparent wings beating like a hummingbird’s. It projected a screen so he could play a game.
“It’s noticeable,” Calista defended.
“There’s literally nothing there.” Quincy pointed at Calista’s stomach. “If anything, you need some fat.”
“Mom won’t think so.”
The boy shrugged and went back to his game, knowing she was right.
“I should go. I’m stalling.” Calista half-smiled at her siblings. “I’ll see you.”
“Get him out of here,” Katelyn said, turning back to her screen with a cursory glance at her brother.
“Why?” Quincy whined.
“You’re distracting.”
Quincy groaned and returned his Pet to his belt, practically stomping out of the room. Calista smirked and blew a kiss to her sister before leaving.
She teleported to the first floor of their contemporary Medley Mansion and went to the car storage unit to meet her mother. Jennifer was already sitting in the Air-Car, browsing on her AIDA band. “What took you so long?” she asked.
“Talking to Kat,” Calista answered, slumping in her seat with a sigh.
Jennifer glanced at her, then flickered her deep green eyes down to Calista’s stomach. Calista tried stretching her crop top to cover it, but knew it was too late. “We should go to the Thinning Spa after the runway.”
Calista sighed expectantly. “Sure.”
“Alright. Air-Car, take us to Runway House 3, #23 East, Entertainment District.”
The car zoomed off at her command, joining the many other vehicles smoothly flying through the streets. It drove towards the Portals to take them to the required district. The residential neighborhood transformed into glowing billboards and blinking signs once they crossed the threshold. They would reach their destination in only a few minutes.
In the meanwhile, Calista tuned into the many announcements echoing through the air, the Air-Car capturing the sounds and replaying them so she could hear them clearly.
“…playing at the HARP Experience August 29th…”
“…this Friday at 6:00 PM…”
“…Lisa White has now been officially hired as the new Dean of Fistborn Academy’s Versus School, giving our planet a lot of hope for…”
“…it’s that time of year, citizens! Fistborn Academy’s applications are open and ready to welcome 5,000 more students! And good luck to those aiming for the Versus Fighting School; only 330 lucky applicants will be accepted! The new freshman class will start at Fistborn the Tuesday after Labor Day…”
She nervously glanced at her mother, but it didn’t seem like she noticed. She decided to turn the tuning off and use her AIDA band instead. The last thing she needed was some rant about the Versus Games.
Once they arrived at the Runway House, they went to one of the available rooms and started to practice. It was a simple runway with about a hundred seats around, usually reserved for smaller shows. This was nothing compared to the school, though. The whole student body would be watching, and they were all women. All of them would be looking for something to judge in each new student that went up.
“Shoulders back, chin up,” Jennifer reminded her for the fiftieth time as she walked down the strip. “You’re cocking your hips too sharply.”
Calista reached the end of the strip, doing her usual poses, and walked back to the beginning. She turned gracefully, her black hair sweeping behind her.
Jennifer’s lips twisted. “You need something new.”
“New?”
“Those poses… they’re not that remarkable. You need something more memorable than that.”
“Some of them are yours.”
“That’s me. You need your own signature. Something that makes them think of Calista Medley, not Jennifer Zyben.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Poses? Outfits; she could easily come up with. But poses?
“Grab one of your more formal outfits. We can work with that instead.” Calista saw her mother’s eyes briefly glance at her stomach again. She knew that it would bug her, but today, it seemed to be bugging her more than usual. Had someone said something to her?
Calista shimmied down the runway in a silver full bodysuit she’d designed with a tall collar. It was part of what she called her ‘Retrograde’ collection. Going back to the past while staying in the present.
“I don’t really like that pose. Try another one.”
“Don’t raise your head that much when wearing that collar.”
“Don’t stick your foot out too much.”
“Don’t hold up your hand like that.”
Calista was exhausted by the end of the session. She was back in her crop and capris, desperate to get in her sleep capsule and relax. Maybe the Thinning Spa would provide her some relief. It would reduce the critiques and relax her.
“Let me see that portfolio you made,” Jennifer reminded her.
“Oh, yeah.” Calista brought it up on her AIDA band and swiped it to her mother’s. Her stomach twisted and her palms sweated as she waited for her to get through the whole thing. She wiped her palms on her pants and lightly bounced on her feet.
“Don’t show you’re nervous. Project confidence,” Jennifer said without looking at her.
“Right.” Calista took a breath and assumed a neutral pose, as she was taught. After a few more agonizing minutes, her mother wordlessly closed the screen and started towards the door. Calista followed her, confused. “Um… did you like it?”
“It’s average.”
“Average?”
“Some of the outfits are pretty good, but most of them are things I’ve seen you do years ago. You need new stuff.”
“All of them are new.”
“You’re bouncing them off your old designs. Also…” She paused.
“What?”
“A couple of your designs bugged me.” She swiped the designs back to Calista’s band.
The outfits were from her ‘Out of this Galaxy’ collection. They focused on dark and neon colors, inspired by the astronaut suits humans would use in the pre-Utopian era, when they were just discovering space, way before aliens’ existence was known. Calista had worked all night to take away the extra ‘bulkiness’ of the outfits while preserving the ‘retro’ style, adding a bit of Martian aesthetic to it.
“What’s with them? These are my favorites.”
“That’s the thing. They look like those suits those fighters use.”
Calista’s steps stuttered. “What?”
“I know that it’s Versus season right now. Knowing you, it’s hard for you. But you cannot let that come through in your designs. Looking at those, that was the first thing I thought of.”
“How do you know what they look like?”
“Please, they project those ragers’ faces all over the city every Versus year. I hope you haven’t been looking at that platform.”
She shook her head fervently. “Bugs, no! No. You know I wouldn’t do that, Mom.”
“Alright, well, you’ll have to rethink that collection, or at least take those out of the portfolio. They’re too much like those fighter suits.”
“But what about the others?” She looked through the ‘Breezy’ collection and pulled up a few outfits. “Like these?”
“They’re okay.”
“They’re new! Brand-new! I’ve never done something like this before!”
“Calista, you’re my daughter. I don’t want that board— my friends— thinking of my daughter as mediocre. You’ll have to come up with something else. Danica, Rebecca, and that other girl can be as average as they want, but you need to really impress the girls at that school. Get into the Art School. Don’t limit yourself.” They teleported to the Air-Car. “Take us to Thinning Spa 84, #432 West, Entertainment District.”
Calista was disheartened. She really thought her mother would be impressed, at least a little bit. And those outfits looked nothing like fighter suits! They couldn’t! She didn’t even remember what fighter suits looked like.
If she failed at this, her family would never let her live it down. This was her only chance for a real future. All the higher species wouldn’t let a human girl like her excel in anything else. Not that she could do anything else; she wasn’t much of a talented person, like Elizabeth.
Maybe she could look for some kind of backup. That was harmless, right? She just needed to make sure her mother didn’t know… and she knew just the person to help her.
===
Katelyn closed her Augmented Design course for the day. As much as she loved fashioning buildings, rooms, and ImaginationStation maps for kids, she still needed a break every now and then. The human mind needed time to relax.
“Jennifer Zyben-Medley and Calista Medley have arrived,” AIDA announced.
She allowed herself a melancholic sigh. For as long as she remembered, Calista had always carried the heavy weight of their mother’s name. Their father came from a prominent family, too, but they weren’t as pressuring as their mother’s side. After all, Jennifer won Miss Milky Way. She beat women from all across the galaxy. She was perfect in every way, from her wavy black hair to her graceful walk.
From what Katelyn remembered, Jennifer was less hard on Calista when she was a child. There was a clear memory of when she and Calista watched their first Versus with their father, Henry. He never much cared about the Socializers vs. Fighters debate and often watched the Junior tournaments or smaller rounds like the Regional or National competitions. He wasn’t a Socializer himself, unlike his parents, and he was the youngest of his siblings, so there wasn’t much pressure on him.
Katelyn found the Versus interesting and exciting, but never imagined herself participating. Her sister, on the other hand… the way her green eyes watched the fighters on their Holo-Augmented Reality Projector, sparkling with admiration and wonder— even at four years old, Katelyn could tell she wanted to be one of them.
Jennifer didn’t seem to care too much about them watching the Versus back then. She disagreed with it, but she let them be. Once they got older, though, after having Quincy, she started telling her husband to stop ‘filling their heads with that death game’. Maybe, with the birth of a new baby, people started to scrutinize Jennifer’s life a bit more than usual. Her skills as a mother were always under a microscope from the moment she decided to naturally give birth to Calista.
Calista’s rebel phase a few years ago involved a lot of yelling and fighting between her and her mother, with Henry and Katelyn acting as mediators most of the time. The previously close relationship between the two faded away, made worse by their family’s interference. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins… most of them were practically begging Calista to forget about the Versus and not ‘glitch up the name’. Katelyn watched every bit of Calista’s confidence in herself melt with every word.
Jennifer had let Calista apply for the Junior Versus with a warning: “When you fail, don’t you dare come crying to me that I was right.” It seemed that the comment was enough to discourage Calista. She’d done averagely on the test and failed to get in. She secretly tried a second time a couple years later, only to humor Katelyn when she pushed her to try again. That second failure led her to concentrate fully on her Socializer life, agreeing to join the SociaLights channel and follow in her mother’s footsteps.
Katelyn considered herself blessed that she wasn’t the oldest. Being the middle child meant she didn’t get a lot of attention from her parents, especially her mother. She took advantage of her mother’s obliviousness to her and did a lot of things behind her back that would have their family gossiping for years to come— her biggest secret being that she worked at an illegal bar on the Genesis X space station.
Of course, she wasn’t stupid. She wore a Mask to conceal her identity and assumed an alias. Middle child or not, she was still Jennifer Zyben’s daughter, and fighters and Socializers alike would come to the same bar, hiding themselves from their regular lives. If it ever got out that she was working there, her mother would never be able to live it down.
She wouldn’t normally have chosen such a risky line of work to be in, but it would be a while until she would eventually be forced to start a channel or join someone else’s, and she planned to move out of the Medley Mansion as soon as she turned of age. If she left the family, she could do her own thing without getting too much cache for it.
Architecture was a hard field to get into for a human, and even though she could segue into the field through NYWS, she wouldn’t dream of attending that popularity school. She wouldn’t get too far without followers. The very thought of it made her shiver. She’d rather go through the levels and take the species bias she’d inevitably face from the aliens living on Earth that were monumentally better than her in terms of talent and prestige.
Katelyn left her room and took the teleporter to the first floor of the house. Jennifer went straight to her office without so much as a glance, probably for another meeting with a charity or an offer to speak at a Socializer school across the planet. Conferences, panels, and broadcasts were her mother’s life, and all of them brought digits to pay for their home and their technology.
Calista looked thinner than ever, to the point that Katelyn worried she’d overdone it at the spa. She could tell she was upset; her perfectly painted lips were stuck in a pout and her perfectly trimmed eyebrows were ever so slightly knitted.
“I’m guessing it didn’t go well?” Katelyn said with a small smile.
Calista was unusually silent, merely going to the HARP room and crashing onto the sofa. Now concerned, Katelyn sat next to her, observing her closely. “You okay?”
“She said my portfolio… that some of the outfits looked like fighter suits.”
“Fighter suits?”
“The ones they use in the Versus. I don’t even remember what they looked like.”
“Maybe it stuck with you and you didn’t realize it. She didn’t have to take it so personally, though.”
“And everything else, she says it’s average.” Calista brought out her portfolio and swiped it to Katelyn’s AIDA band. “You’ve seen it, right?”
Katelyn scrolled through the different outfits. “Yeah. They’re amazing. Nothing I could come up with.” Their mother said this was average? If this was average, what wasn’t? “What did she say looked like fighter suits?”
“These.” Calista put up the ‘Out of This Galaxy’ collection.
“They’re astronaut suits, not fighter suits. She didn’t see how retro they looked?”
“Apparently not.”
“Unbelievable.” Katelyn shook her head, outraged. What was she trying to do to Calista? How could she hope to ‘project confidence’ like this?
“I don’t think I can do this, Kate.” Calista massaged the forming lines across her forehead. “She keeps telling me I’m not good enough. I have to keep the name up. I have to impress the girls at school. I have to get into the Art School clique. I have to do basically everything I can so people are talking about us being uber-awesome and not about… you know.”
“I know.”
“And I can’t. If this— my best work— isn’t good enough… then I don’t know what is. I’ll never make it.”
Katelyn wanted to reassure her, to encourage her, do anything to make her feel better. But nothing came to mind. What could she say? “I’m sure you’ll make it with some more hard work”? “I’m sure Mom will come around if she looks at the portfolio one more time”? Lies were the last thing she needed right now.
“AIDA, play the latest episode of Astrana,” Calista said.
“Playing Astrana, season 8, episode 34.” The HARP environment transformed into a medieval fantasy world. Katelyn leaned back, startled, as the Prince Rainer character swiped his sword.
“Is there anything else you think I’m good at?” Calista suddenly asked.
“Besides fashion?”
“Yeah. Anything else you think I can do besides… this? Maybe I can ‘impress’ people at school with something else. Like singing.”
“Calista, I love you, but I’m not going to lie and say you’re a good singer.” The two laughed.
“You’re good at dancing.” Quincy entered the HARP bubble and plopped next to them.
“Where did you come from?” Calista said.
“I was there the whole time. You guys just don’t pay attention.”
Katelyn rolled her eyes. “You know, it’s rude to listen in on stuff that’s none of your business.”
“How is this so private?” Quincy defended. “Mom doesn’t like Calista’s fashion, so she needs to try something else. We all know that.”
“You think I’m good at dancing?” Calista asked.
“You’re really good at DanceSim. I’ve seen you.”
“That won’t do much. People don’t dance as a career anymore.”
“Then… drawing or painting.”
“That’s Kate’s thing.”
“I do buildings,” she reminded Calista. “You can do… like, anything else.”
“I’ve never drawn before.”
“Then work in engineering, like Dad. You’re good at tech stuff,” Quincy said.
“Not that good.”
The two huffed, exhausted. Katelyn didn’t know what else to say to her sister. If all she was good at was fashion and Socializing, then that was what she’d do… except…
“You’re good at fighting.”
A veil of silence draped over them. Katelyn regretted her words. Calista was already depressed enough. What was she thinking with salting the wound?
“You know I can’t do that,” Calista finally said, redirecting her attention to the HARP series.
“Can’t do what?” The three of them jumped, finding their father coming through the HARP bubble.
“When did you get back?” Katelyn asked, kissing his cheek as a greeting.
“Just now.” He looked at Calista, noticing her demeanor. “Something wrong? Your mother bugging you?”
“Among other things.”
“Don’t let her get to you. She’s just stressed because of some things her followers said.” He scrunched his nose at the program. “There’s a Phoenix game on. Can we watch that?”
“Dad, I just started. I was here first.” Calista frowned. “Use the HARP in your room.”
“What do you mean?” Katelyn asked. “Mom’s followers?”
“Yeah, well, one of Calista’s friends decided to personally broadcast that they got the scholarship to NYWS… which was stupid.”
“What?!” Calista groaned. “I didn’t know that! Who was it?”
“Daniella.”
“Danica,” she corrected.
“Whatever. Because of that, your mom’s followers have been nagging her about you and what you’re going to do… bringing up a lot. I figured she’d be hard on you.” Henry sighed, gazing at his eldest daughter. “You want me to talk to her?”
Calista shook her head. “Nah. Won’t do anything.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Despite her and Henry’s marriage being arranged, the two had genuinely fallen in love by the time their wedding came around. Jennifer wasn’t one to listen to anyone else but her followers, but if there was one exception, it was her husband.
“You should talk to her, Dad,” Katelyn told him. “Calista Thinned today.”
“Thinned? Why?”
“Mom thought she had a bulge,” Quincy said sarcastically.
“Kate, it’s fine.” Calista sighed in frustration. “Can you guys just let me watch the show? AIDA, restart the episode.”
“Oh, no. That’s enough.” Henry rose from the sofa. “I’ll be back.” He exited the bubble and went straight to the office Jennifer had holed herself up in.
“I don’t think even Dad can talk her out of this,” Calista said. “You know Mom. Whatever her followers want, they’ll get. Even if I have to turn into a skeleton.”
Katelyn stared at her older sister. She used to be so sure of herself. She didn’t used to care about what their mother’s followers thought. Now… she was wasting away bit by bit.
And all she could do was watch.