A young bunoid came by to guide me to the student sleeping quarters after Janus bid me farewell.

We boarded a golf cart-like vehicle, which drove us down many new areas in the spaceship. At that point, I was so tired I dozed off as we zipped past gardens, canteens, theatre halls, and sports courts, which were facilities available for the staff at the job faire spaceship.

When we reached the dorms, the bunoid, who introduced herself as Rebeki, shook me gently, and as I shrugged the heavy bag back onto my shoulders, Rebeki held open the door to the dorms for me so that I could walk in easily while clutching my harp tightly to my chest. 

My room was two flights up in the windowless area of the building. Finally, when Rebeki stopped in front of one of the featureless doors, she handed me a card which she said would open the door if I tapped it to the handle, and informed me that dinner was at 8 pm to 12 am, and if I missed it then breakfast started at 5 am till 9 am.

“We will be announcing team assignments at 10 am, so please gather at the main courtyard,” Rebeki said, showing me a wide-open auditorium space. “ Take any personal trams by saying your location while you are seated in the tram, and it will take you right to your destination if you are too far to walk,” Rebeki explained.

“Alright, thank you so much for your assistance,” I said, tapping my card on the door handle. The sound of a hinge moving and snapping back was pleasing to the ears, and as I pushed at the door, it swung open easily, revealing a small interior with a single bed and a small desk.

“Alright, have a good day,” Rebeki said, disappearing down the hall as I entered my room.

 Walking further into the room, I turned to notice a small window above my bed. The view was of the sand dunes that stretched far until the wall that separated the Job Fair spaceship from the town. I felt a tightness well up inside me as I looked out on that sandy expanse; so much had happened today that I didn’t even have a moment to take it all in. 

I dumped my heavy bag on the ground next to the chair at my desk and turned to notice a door across from it. Pushing it open led me to a small shower and toilet, big enough for a small human like myself. I wondered if larger species were given larger living quarters because this would be too small for someone like Leo.

I closed the bathroom and sat on the edge of the bed. I was exhausted. Kicking off my shoes, I lay down and threw an arm across my eyes, thinking I’d just take a short nap. The excessive running, fighting, and walking were starting to catch up with me. My entire body was screaming and aching, and although a second shower, one which was burning hot to soothe my overworked muscles, sounded lovely right about now, it was sleep that won me over first. 

I work with a start at the sound of buzzing. Jumping out of bed, I tried to draw my dagger from a familiar place, but everything on my body felt wrong. I patted myself down while taking in my surroundings. This wasn’t my house; did I get taken somewhere in the middle of the night?

Then reality caught up to me, and I calmed down. Dropping my hands to the side, I sighed. The buzzing was the door. 

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and lightly smacked my cheeks, trying to ease my face and not look so much like I had just taken a nap. Then I went to the door and opened it. Rebeki stood on the other side with a bundle of clothes and two coupons.

“Good morning. Last night, I left your evening meal coupon here, but it seems that you didn’t see it when you went to dinner last night, so I thought I’d just give it to you by hand,” She said and handed me the clothes and placed the coupons on top of the pile.

“Oh, sorry, I umm, I fell asleep; I haven’t eaten yet,” I explained, confused.

“Ah! Well, it’s 5 am, so if you want to get the good stuff you should wash up and go to the canteen. Take any personal trams; it’ll be faster to get to the canteen that way from here,” Rebeki advised and left, looking at her tablet for her next assignment.

I closed the door and dumped the clothes on my bed. Looking at the coupons, it seemed that they were meal tickets. 

“Redeemable at any A Point or Job Faire canteen. Expired one year from issue,” read the fine print. I folded one and put it in a random pocket that wasn’t being used, then put the one I’d use today on the desk for later. 

I then turned and inspected the clothes. Holding it up, I saw that it seemed to be a single jumpsuit. There were pockets on it, but other than that, it looked like something a mechanic would wear. It was a light blue color, making it the least conspicuous outfit to be wearing out and about in the jungle. 

I shook my head, took out one of my daggers, and sliced off a bit of fabric. There was no way I was wandering around in something this conspicuous; I may as well have a target on my back. I stuffed the piece of cloth in the same pocket as the extra coupon and then noticed there was a triangular leather bag left on the bed after I had picked up the jumpsuit. I held it up and looked it over, and a note fell out.

“A custom fit for the bone harp, this should keep it nice and dry for a long time,” read the note, and it was signed off by Janus.

I grinned, grabbed my harp off the table, and slipped it into the bag. It fits perfectly like a glove. The bag had a few parts to it. First, you zip it up to keep it in there tight, then there was a large flap that flopped over to further stop water from going in, and lastly, there were metal buckles that kept the flap in place. There were many zips all over the bag, presumably for storing all the materials I needed to gather and make the tuning fork and the polish. There was also a very convenient extra belt provided that already had hooks installed to make it easy to hook onto the harp and strap it around my waist. I put it on and buckled the harp to my waist and immediately felt an overwhelming sense of relief. I never wanted to be parted from my heirloom again. 

Something in my vest pocket vibrated, and I took out the little compressed tables and activated them to see what was causing them to vibrate. A message reminding me that breakfast was at 5 am beeped angrily on the screen, as well as other messages telling me about the 10 am meeting and reminders that tardiness would be marked down under poor performance, along with the state of our cleanliness and out manners. 

I sighed; I guess that meant I had to bathe. I unstrapped the harp, placed it next to the food coupon, and headed for the shower. 

A few minutes later, I re-dressed and wondered what I should do on the third day. On the first and second days, I could walk around in the same clothes, but on the third day…

I sighed and pushed the thought to the back of my head. I’d deal with that hurdle when I came to it. 

I strapped on my harp and shrugged on my bag pack, then grabbed the coupon and headed and left the room, heading back down the corridor that Rebeki had guided me down. 

Once outside the dorm, there was so much hustle and bustle for 5:30 am in the morning. Things weren’t even this exciting back at Winter Manor, and everyone had to wake up at 4:00 am.

I spied a set of personal trams parked near what looked to be a lift, so I made a beeline for them, and just as I boarded one, I got pushed further in my someone huge and lanky.

“Hey! What it?” I exclaimed and turned to find none other than Leo grinning from ear to ear.

“Morning, sleepy head! Looks like someone made it alive!” He grinned and hugged me tight to his fuzzy chest.

“Awe, Leo, what a sight for sore eyes. I haven’t seen anyone in hours that I recognize,” I said, returning the hug.

“A Tram, Canteen,” Leo said, and the Tram started up, diligently zipping down the corridors, taking us to the canteen.

“Well, that’s cause someone skipped dinner. I’m guessing you fell asleep the moment you saw the bed in the dorm room?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, you caught me. I only intended to take a brief nap; the next thing I knew, Rebeki was knocking on my door, telling me that I didn’t collect my coupons and I should put on this jumpsuit,” I said.

“Well, looks like you skipped on the jumpsuit,” Leo said, looking me over.

“That jumpsuit is a “kick me” jumpsuit! I’m not going to wear something that screams, “ I am an apprentice, shot me and stole my gear” in the middle of a forest,” I replied heatedly.

“Hey, I know, me neither, no need to get feisty,” Leo grinned, ruffling my hair. “ As you can see, I just went with the pants. I’m guessing you went with a scrap” 

I grinned and nodded. “ They didn’t say how big of the uniform I needed to have on my person, so I went with the smallest amount. Besides, as a double major, I don’t have the space for a bunch of unnecessary material” 

“Double major? I didn’t know you could do that,” Leo asked, shocked.

“Only for the Entertainment Class. Apparently, we aren’t skilled enough to survive on just our craft. So I’m going F&B as my second major,” I explained disgruntled. 

“Wow. ok err….I never thought I[‘d say this, but I think there is finally something that could kill you; you’re cooking,” Leo said and laughed as I punched him in the arm.

“Hey! It’s not that bad!” I exclaimed.

“Allycat, you came first in our poison brewing exam when we were 12; you need to remember you are trying to feed yourself, not eliminate yourself,” Leo laughed, wiping tears from his large feline eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. So what did you choose in the end?” I asked as the A tram pulled into a small parking area and came to a stop. Leo and I clambered out of the tram, pulling on our bags, and walked towards a hall with the huge sign “CANTEEN” in red above it. 

“Well, you know how Margaret is into Galactica Engineering, so I thought I’d do something similar but different. I’m also majoring in F&B,” Leo said and shrugged. “ Maybe we can cook up some cool F&B-related advances in the future. There are so many homeless and starving beings galaxy-wide; I think it would be awesome if we would find a way to make gathering and sanitizing food easier and more affordable for everyone,” Leo explained, beaming with pride at his vision.

“Well, I think you’ll be great at it. I guess failing to wipe up a decent poison just meant that you were meant to wipe up a decent meal for the needy.” I grinned, and Leo ruffled my hair some more.

“I knew you would understand my lil sis,” Leo said with a warm smile.

“Leo!” I heard a familiar voice call out. We both looked to find Margaret waving in our direction, and we went over to join her at the food tray area.

Margaret had always been like an older sister to me, and secretly, I already saw her as family, as she and Leo just felt meant to be, you know, so it was so relaxing to finally have a sit-down meal with the two of them, joking and reminiscing about our successful High Break, as well as talking about the future. 

“Have you spoken to any of the other high breakers?” I asked as we ate.

“No, not really. There are so many people on staff and so many more people coming in from other parts of our planet. It turns out that although the spaceship is stationed near our town, there are teleports in other areas of our world where if someone wanted to attend the job fair, they could go to and be teleported here directly, so the number keeps growing despite the fact there were only about 16 of us at first” Margaret explained, chewing thoughtfully on her boiled cauliflower. 

“Well, we will see everyone at the meeting later today at 10 am. so don’t worry; I’m sure you can say thank you to that moth girl you fancy at the meeting later.” Leo grinned and winked at me.

“I do not fancy her!” I said, blushing, but even Margaret could see right through me.

“Sure, but either way, she will be there, and you can say thank you to all of us. She really came in the nick of time and saved our asses,” Margaret said.

I nodded and ate my salad, thinking about what I’d say to her if we were to meet again. Her large multi-eyes were mesmerizing. I’d have to try my best not to get weak knees, or else she’d see right through me as well.