My sister taptaps my shoulder. “Ami, shouldn’t you send your girlfriend a message or call her? She must be worried about you.” She suggests with a smile.
“I will.” I nod. “I wanted to do it earlier but I didn’t like the idea of doing that before getting the watch.”
“It’s smart not to cry victory too soon. That never ends well.” Lise smiles. “I’ll go and give Nikki a call as well.” She says as she takes out her phone. To give me a bit of privacy she leaves the room for me.
I look at my watch and see that it’s right about time for Sam to be having her midday break. So instead of sending a message I just decide to call her.
The phone only rings once before Sam picks up. “Ami? Are you okay?” Sam does sound really worried, rightfully so.
“Yeah. I am.” I smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t send you a message earlier, but I’ve not been awake for too long.”
“How did it go?”
“Well…” I explain everything Gamma had revealed to us earlier and how the watch around my wrist is supposed to help me.
“I see… That watch does sound useful to have around. Do you know if it transfers into Turn of Destiny too?”
“Hmmm, I didn’t ask but I presume it does.”
“It could be quite the useful tool there as well, just in case some city guard makes you angry or something like that.”
“It does.”
“Well, I’m happy to hear that everything went fine. Though I am a bit sad I can’t be with my girlfriend right now. The moment I’m done with lessons I’ll be rushing over.”
“I miss you too, Sam. But my sister is taking good care of me.”
“I hope Gamma didn’t get bonked too much by her?”
“Only a little.”
We both laugh.
“Anyway, there’s two girls here who’d also really like to talk with you.” I can hear Sam pass the phone to someone else.
“Ami!” Carol calls out to me. “We are coming too after uni!”
“Haha, hey Carol.”
“I’m here as well. We put the phone on speaker.” Hailey replies, polite as always.
“Do you want me to give you the same explanation I gave to Sam?” I ask.
“Nah, we’ll get it from her after we hang up.” Carol replies confidently. “We just wanted to tell you we’ve been dutifully recording the lessons for you. The professors didn’t even mind a single bit. We can transfer over to file when we get to your house.”
“Thanks a lot, girls. You are the best friends a catgirl like me could wish for.”
“Awh, that’s so sweet.” Carol almost squeeks.
“That’s what friends are for, Ami.” Hailey replies. “I also will bring a couple of notes with me from the lessons that you can copy. That way you have a summary as well.”
“I’d offer mine but I don’t think you will be able to read my handwriting.” Carol jokes.
“Hehe, I’m very very grateful.” I say with an increasing grin. “I’ll make some snacks for you all for when you come over.”
Hailey chuckles. “We’ll be looking forward to it.”
“You are going to make some for me too, right?” This time it was Sam again who spoke over the phone.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Of course I will, babe. I wouldn’t dare not to since I couldn’t bring you the food I promised.”
“Yay! Now I can go about the second half of the day without any problem! Steeled by the expectation of my girlfriend’s made snacks.”
“Hehe.”
“I’ll send a message in advance when we are about to leave uni, okay?”
“Alrighty.” I reply. “Love you, Sam. And Hailey and Carol too, of course.”
“Love you too, Ami!” My friends reply.
“I love you lots and lots.” Sam replies a couple of seconds later. It sounds like she’s taken the phone off-speaker and is holding it against her ear.
I mimic a kissing sound. “Be safe on your way home, okay?”
“Always.” She mimics a kissing sound back to me. “And thank you for calling.”
“No problem.” I kiss the microphone once more. “See you in a bit okay?”
“Te amo, corazón.” Sam hangs up shortly after that.
I stand up from my seat and go scan the kitchen to see if we still have the required ingredients to throw us a little party, but sadly it seems we might have run out of most things, unless we just want to use dry crackers.
When I close the kitchen cabinet again my sister walks into the living room. “Did you call Sam?” She asks, putting her phone on the table and stretching her right arm.
“I did. How was Nikki?” I ask in return.
“She’s doing okay. She was very happy to hear everything went well.”
“But?”
“But what?”
“That sentence sounded like there was going to be a but included.”
“Ah, not really, she’s just a tiny bit stressed still about her work. She did tell me her project is pretty much done but the home stretch is always the most difficult one.” Lise smiles. “But she can do it. No doubt about that.”
I smile back at my sister. Her confidence in her partner is really touching.
“Anyway, what are you in the kitchen for?”
“I was looking to see if we still had snacks, since Carol and Hailey are coming over after uni.”
“Hmm, I’m pretty sure we are out of those.” My sister scratches her cheek.
“Yeah, there’s only crackers left.”
From my sister's pout I can tell she doesn’t really like crackers by themselves either. “Well, then I should probably go to the store.”
“Can I come with you?”
She looks at my watch, thinks for a second and then gives me a nod. “Might as well. I can’t keep you locked into the house forever and like this we can at least test it out together.”
“Alright, I’ll put on my shoes then.”
“Yeah, give me a second, need to grab a hoodie or something too. Would rather not go out in just a shirt. It’s a bit chilly outside according to the weather broadcast.
My sister and I head out to the store that’s down the street. As it’s just after lunch time, there’s really not that many people around at the moment.
“What kind of snacks should we buy?” My sister asks as she takes a basket.
“I’m not sure actually. Do you have any recommendations?”
“Well… I guess we could try making salsa for some tortilla chips. I would recommend not making the chips ourselves as that will just take too much time. But a couple of salsas should be nice.”
“Maybe some small sausage rolls too?”
“That definitely sounds like an idea.” She smiles. “We can make us some nice chicken tenders as well together with some mozzarella cheese sticks and then some veggies with dip to round it all off so we don’t only have unhealthy stuff.”
“What about some cherry tomatoes out of the oven too, with garlic?”
My sister smiles. “Good idea, let’s gather up the ingredients.”
We stroll through the mostly empty store for a while. Gathering the ingredients for the different salsas, the sausage rolls, chicken tenders, et cetera which ends us up with a nicely filled basket. With a couple of bags of tortilla chips to finish it all off, we just need some drinks too.
“We still have some at home but feel free to take some bottles of stuff you like.” Lise looks through the inventory herself while I look around. I’m not great at identifying great drinks as I mostly stay with the soft drinks like cola and orange soda.
“I’m not sure… I don’t know much about drinks.”
“Right back at you.” She laughs. “Maybe we should take those.” She points at a brand on the other side of the isle. “I heard about this before, it’s some artisanal soda brand.”
“Doesn’t artisanal mean expensive?”
Lise chuckles and crouches down to put her hand on a six pack of bottles. “Not if it’s discounted.”
“Oh, lucky us.”
“Could you carry this for me? I got my hands kind of full already.”
“Sure!” With the bottles in my arms I can tell that this is no usual sixpack. Instead, what I’m holding is a pack with six different flavors. You have your usual orange flavour, then there’s lemon as well and then there’s some other more unusual ones. Grape, blueberry, mango and then finally a ginger ale. I’m not sure how that’ll all taste but at least we have a bit of variety now. And who knows, maybe we will find ourselves a new favourite soda.
We return home with our veritable bounty of ingredients and all that without my watch even jumping up ten percent. Then again, the real test still has to follow when I am gone from home for entire days to follow lessons at uni. But I’m sure, with the help of my girlfriend and my friends, it should be more than okay.