Pandora's Box

Chapter 7: Clara

20 hours until The Sealing

***

After some relentless peer pressuring from Thomas and August, Clara agreed to grab dinner with them. There was still a fair amount of work to get done, but based on what they were able to achieve so far, Clara figured that a little break wouldn't hurt.

They agreed to meet at Riki's, a diner that sat in the middle of town. August had texted to say that Mari would be joining as well, and that the two of them would drive over together. Not feeling like driving herself, Clara tossed Thomas the keys to the car and climbed into the passenger's seat.

As Thomas and Clara made their way to the diner, Thomas's phone suddenly began vibrating in the cup holder. Upon their request, Clara grabbed Thomas's phone and saw that Cassius was calling. With a big grin on her face, Clara answered the phone. Thomas braced himself for what he knew would be coming.

"HEY CAZZY!" Clara exclaimed. "I haven't talked to you in forever."

"And I couldn't be happier about that," Cassius responded with a deadpan inflection. Clara promptly gave him a middle finger, but this didn't seem to phase Cassius.

Cassius was Thomas's childhood friend. He was on the shorter side, and he always wore a beanie over his strawberry blonde curls. Cassius was also only 15, making him the youngest in the friend group. This resulted in multiple people babying him, much to his dismay.

Despite being the youngest, Cassius was by far the smartest of the bunch. Taking all advanced classes, Cassius was on route to be class valedictorian by a landslide. Whenever anyone was struggling with a homework assignment, they always went to Cassius for help.

Cassius had been less active in the Encore group lately, but he did inform them that he would be there to play Pandora's Box at its launch. Clara couldn't help feeling pride at the idea of all of her friends coming together to play the game she worked on. August had once told her that she was the glue of the group, but she had never really felt like it until now.

"Anyways, I'm here to talk to Thomas, not you Clara. So if you could kindly pass the phone on..." Cassius said in an expectant tone.

Feigning a yawn, Clara responded dismissively, "Sorry Caz, but this car has a strict 'no distracted driving' policy, so you're gonna have to wait until we get to where we're going."

Cassius let out an exaggerated sigh and hung up. Clara mumbled some choice words at this, but she put the phone back in the cup holder.

"I'll call him later," Thomas reassured. With that conversation abruptly ending, Clara and Thomas drove towards the middle of town, singing along to various nostalgic pop songs on the radio.

As they pulled in to the diner, Clara spotted August's car in the parking lot. She was surprised by this, as August had a tendency to be late. Mari tended to only make this issue worse.

Thomas and Clara entered the diner to see their friends waving at them from a booth in the corner. After exchanging hugs and greetings, they all took their seats together.

"It was super sweet of you to surprise Clara and visit her," Mari gushed. This caused Thomas to go a little red; Thomas wasn't the best with compliments, which Clara found to be endearing.

"Ah, well I just hadn't seen her in so long," Thomas responded. "Sorry no one else tagged along. They all had school this week like y'all, so they weren't able to make the flight."

Mari said nothing to this, and August seemed to take note of her uncomfortable silence. As if he was trying to make up for it, he butted in. "That's okay! We'll be seeing them in-game tomorrow, and that's basically the same thing."

"That's somewhat true," Clara confessed. "The Vairo software is basically linking our consciousnesses in a way, so the only parts of us that won't be together will be our physical bodies."

Clara could see the looks of confusion on August and Mari's faces, and she decided not to try to explain further. As long as they had fun, that's all that really mattered anyways.

"So Mari, have you talked to Sam at all lately?" Thomas asked politely. Clara inwardly sighed at his question. Thomas could be painfully oblivious, and although she found it somewhat funny, it also could be problematic at times. This was definitely one of those times.

August looked as though he was going to try changing the conversation again, but Mari responded this time. "We haven't really talked since last summer. Or at least we haven't talked one-on-one."

"Aww that sucks," Thomas said with a frown. "Will you guys be okay when we play tomorrow?"

"I don't see why we wouldn't be," Mari responded nonchalantly. Clara then watched this her expression move towards curiosity as she leaned forward. "Why, did he say something to you?"

Thomas shook his head before responding, "No, but I just thought I'd check. I'm glad you guys are okay though!"

Mari seemed slight disappointed with his answer, and she sat back in her seat again. Shortly after that conversation, a waitress arrived at the table and began to take everyone's orders. The rest of the night was filled with conversations about expectations for Pandora's Box gameplay and features. Despite working on the game, Thomas and Clara knew surprisingly little about what to expect. Regardless, they did their best to answer any questions to the best of their abilities.

After the group finished eating and said their goodbyes, Clara and Thomas made their way back to their car. As Clara climbed into the passenger seat, she let out a long yawn. Thomas spotted this and laughed, planting a kiss on her forehead as he got into the drivers seat.

"Alright Love, looks like it's bed time for you," Thomas stated. Clara shook her head at this, and unsuccessfully fought off another yawn.

"There's still work that I gotta get done tonight," Clara explained. She began to list all of the tasks on her list for the night, but Thomas stopped her.

"Any work you do while tired isn't going to be your best work, which means that you'll want to redo it tomorrow anyways. Just get to bed early tonight so that you have lots of energy going in to tomorrow," Thomas implored with a sheepish smile.

Not having the energy to argue, Clara just muttered an agreement and closed her eyes. Thomas let her sleep the rest of the ride home and helped her into the house upon arriving. Climbing into bed, Clara fell asleep immediately, letting the tasks that await her drift away.