Chapter Text
I’ve always hated parent teacher conference days. Not the conferences themselves, I was always perfectly okay to sit in the corridor and read a book or talk to my friends. No, the part I hated was afterwards, when my mother barely acknowledged all the good things I’d done and only focused on the negatives. Well, can’t be helped, I suppose.
I’d been sitting awkwardly in an uncomfortable chair (why do schools always have the most uncomfortable chairs known to humankind???), waiting for my name to be called by one of the various teachers. I started squeezing my hoodie sleeves, something I always did when I was bored or nervous.
“Aled Last?”
Finally! I stood up and went to sit in the corridor, which was all in a dark blue shadow.
“How about you go talk to some of your friends while I sit down and listen to your teachers talk about all your great achievements, hmm Allie?” My mother asked.
Great achievements. Yeah right. The only great thing I was achieving in this class was a great amount of stress every night.
“Yeah, okay” I said instead.
Mother smiled at me, and closed the door to enter the various parent teacher conferences.
Friends. Right. I could do this. I had friends. I scanned the room for any of them.
The Paris Gang? I’d considered them my main friend group for a few years, but now none of them seemed to want to talk to me these days. Just part of growing up, I suppose. Which I was totally fine with.
Daniel? He was my best friend after all, but things had been… awkward between us since he’d confessed his romantic feelings towards me. I still didn’t know how to feel about that, to be honest.
…Did I have any other friends?
I stood around the corridor awkwardly. I started walking around the hallways, hoping to find somebody else I could make small talk with.
Some parents and their children (Understandable. It was parent teacher interview night, after all).
A few teachers.
Small groups of students, none of whom I knew well enough to talk to.
I turned a corner, expecting more of the same, and that’s when I saw her.
She was maybe a year or two older than me, with dyed blonde hair and fingerless gloves. She was sitting with her back against a vending machine, reading a book that I couldn’t see the cover of.
“Um, hi?” I said.
She looked up at me. Her eyeliner reminded me of a fox’s eyes. She seemed familiar, although I couldn't place how exactly.
“What book are you reading?” I asked her. That was always a safe conversation started, I had found out. Not that I went around starting lots of conversations, I was an introvert through and through. This was probably the first conversation I had initiated in several months.
The girl turned the book cover so I could read it’: Universe City Official Episode Guide’ The cover was pretty, with a city landscape lit up in all shades of blue and purple on it.
“Universe City?”
“Do you listen to it?” She responded.
“I- No. I want to, though.” I stammered as a response.
“You should. It’s interesting. What did you say your name was again?”
“Aled Last”
“Oh hey, mine’s Carys Last. We have the same last name, pun intended”
We both laughed at this. Even though we’d only known each other for a few minutes, it didn’t feel awkward. I took a seat with my back behind the other vending machine, so I was facing her.
“What’s Universe City about? I’ve only heard of it”
Carys sat upright, her eyes sparkling.
“It’s about this university student, who’s called Radio Silence, trying to broadcast messages from a futuristic city infested with sci-fi monsters and cyborgs. They’re trying to find someone called February Friday, who they think can help them escape the city, which is called Universe City, which is how the podcast itself got its name. You can read about some of the episodes here if you want!” She handed me her episode guide.
I scanned my eyes over all the pages: dark blue, skater boy, c0mput3r m4g1c, cosmic noise-
“Allie? Where are you, dear?”
I stiffened without meaning to.
“Sorry.” I said quietly as I stood up from where I was sitting on the carpet.
“Don’t apologise. Here,” Carys stopped to write something down on her bookmark — which was clearly just a piece of paper ripped from a maths textbook — and wrote something on it. “My address. UC episodes come out every Friday at 11pm, if you ever want to come to my house, we can listen to one toge-“
“Aled, please come over. I don’t have all day!” My mother’s voice was getting sharper and more annoyed.
Carys slipped me the note.
“Sorry Mother. I’m here.” I said, coming out of the space between the vending machines.
“There you are! Well, all your teachers said you’ve been doing brilliantly in all your classes, however your English teacher said she’s noticed you daydreaming in class, and of course we can’t be having that”
I drifted in and out of that conversation, only nodding or shaking my head when I needed to.
I’d forgotten what I was normally like when I was around other people. I wasn’t like that with Carys, that’s for sure.