Her Inheritance

CHAPTER 3 -•- Twelve Years Later

           Aurora stared out at the Orange and yellowing leaves outside the cafeteria window. They glimmered with traces of golden sunlight and carried a fresh, earthy scent that easily crept its way into the school, even over the smell of body odor, underlying chemical tang, humid, static signatures, and occasional waft of unusual, unique endowment scents. The sky was clear and bright blue over the horizon, hardly a cloud passing by. It was just as beautiful as the day she lost her mother.
           "So, there's this guy I've been casually talking to on Chats," Mae began, already breathless as she stared at her phone, "I met him on the local parties in Overcast— he's really good at it— I mean, he is marks better than me. I told him he should be a beamcaster. He could make so much money, and he wouldn't even have to show his face!" she explained more about the dude with a small smile, "But anyway, I think he's the perfect candidate. And he has a few friends! Are you going to help me cast my claim or what? Should I do it right now? Or— wait— did your dad ever answer you about me spending the night at yours?" Mae explained her entire thought process within the span of a few seconds, while Aurora quietly nibbled the end of a stale fry.
           "I asked him this morning. He said we have to stay at your house if we want to, because he's working tonight," Aurora explained quietly.
           "Ugh. No-o-o! I hate my house... Is he, like, working on stuff for his new job? Or is he gonna be home?" Mae asked her, beginning to open one of the fifty packets of ketchup she grabbed for her slider.
           "He'll be home," Aurora confirmed.
           "Then what's the big deal? He's just gonna lock himself in his office all night," Mae questioned her, slapping a bun that was hard as a rock on top of her mountain of ketchup, which was piled on top of the crispy patty. She immediately shoveled it into her face, "Ugh... this slider makes me want to barf," she commented, followed by an immediate second bite before she even fully swallowed the first one.
           "Yeah, but you know how he gets. He's just gonna yell at us all night for being too loud, or having the volume on the TV too high," Aurora trailed off in thought, coming to the slight realization that he also often acted weird and paranoid when he was "working from home", remembering instances where she'd enter the room without knocking and startle him out of his wits, or watching him stand up quickly and push paperwork behind his back, or closing his computer screen before she even noticed it was on; but she always brushed it off as some kind of confidentiality thing with work, and she presumed it was the same reason he didn't like having the girls home when he was having one of those long nights in his home office, "I don't mind going to your house," she shrugged.
           "Yeah, but your house smells better than mine... just feels more serene, you know?" Mae explained with her mouth full. Aurora just looked back at her tray in thought, not totally sure why Mae felt that way.
           "So... what's his name?" Aurora asked her, referring to the guy.
           "I think his real name is Chester, but he calls himself... Cheddar," Mae stared forward with a confused, and slightly disgusted look.
           "Why?" Aurora raised a thin, black eyebrow at her, to which Mae shrugged and slowly shook her head with a frown, "is it... like a name his parents gave him? Maybe something to do with his endowment?"
           "I don't know, and I honestly don't care either. I'm actually not sure what his endowment is," she said.
           "Really? You haven't asked?" Aurora questioned her.
           "Why would I care what his endowment is? All it's gonna do is make him ask me what mine is... why dig myself into that hole? Besides, it can't be anything good," Mae wiped her face, finishing the last crumbs of her pathetic sandwich before moving onto her sorry excuse for fries.
           "What do you mean?"
           "He said he likes me because I'm not the type of girl who sees someone's endowment before I see them," Mae told her, raising one of her eyebrows back at Aurora, who sucked her teeth with pity and physically recoiled at her claim.
           "You're right... that can't mean anything good," Aurora shook her head painfully, "Well... you think his friends would want to go out with me?"
           "Oh, yeah," Mae nodded without hesitation, tapping her fingers on her phone screen again. Aurora frowned with a bashful expression crossing over her.
           "H... how can you be so sure?" she asked her shyly.
           "Oh, come on, don't be like that. You have a better chance at landing a guy than me, wick-bone," Mae gave her an almost judgemental stare, scanning her frail figure with her eyes, and gesturing to her larger frame, "anyway, these guys are desperate. I've seen them around the school. They'll take one look at you, and they'll be on you like Naelis on water," Mae told her with a confident sneer, before turning her phone screen towards her, revealing her and 'Cheddar's' conversation on ChatPics, "Look. I just sent it!" she told her giddily.
           Aurora leaned forwards to ward the words on the screen;
           Mae-Mae: Heyy, would u want to kick it @ the bleachers 2day 4 lunch?
           Aurora smiled at her with excitement. They both gasp when his little avatar peaked his head down from the top of the chat. Then the avatar jumped to the bottom of the screen and started typing on an avatar-sized phone, signaling to the girls that he was typing back. They both held back squeals and bounced at the table in excitement.
           Chedz: Ya that would be cool :p
           The two of them had to physically stop themselves from screaming over the crowd of teenagers.
           "Come on, let's go meet our boy toys!" Mae giggled, grabbing her friend by her thin wrists and yanking her out of the table, abandoning their trays behind them.