Chapter 2
Kida arrived at the company party fashionably late. All eyes were on her as she walked in wearing her glittering, strapless, blue gown with it's matching shawl draped at her elbows; her honey brown hair piled in curls on top of her head.
The party was for all the benefactors and shareholders to come and meet the scientists. The lab president wanted a non-business stetting for them to converse and feel satisfied with their investments, and in the projects the scientists would talk to them about. Kida laughed and talked to investors all night, reassuring people and talking about her minor projects. She backed up her fellow scientists when they needed it and encouraged them, making jokes and complimenting their outfits whenever they started to feel overwhelmed.
By the end of the night she was exhausted, and her feet were killing her. Justin had insisted that she dance with him at least once which lead, in turn, to her dancing with several other people for a good portion of the night. As she arrived home her phone was still buzzing with her friend's text messages, worried that they had made bad impressions. It was a full hour before she was finally able to sit down and relax. She had already changed and made herself a late, late dinner.
She sprawled out on her couch in sweatpants and a baggy shirt eating french-fries and popcorn chicken. Monster's Inc. played on the tv and she found herself once again longing for simpler times when she had watched these kinds of movies as a child.
Nothing in her life had turned out the way she had planned or hoped. Her work was the only thing that had turned out anything like she planned. Though she was far from working her dream job, she was still a scientist non-the-less, and she felt all the wonder and curiosity when she worked that she had when pretending as a child.
A distant gunshot echoed outside, and she flinched, she never liked the idea of shooting. It seemed like such an awful way to kill someone; hit the wrong place and they could suffer for hours or even days before bleeding out, freezing, or starving. Furthermore, if your intent is not to kill but simply maim or immobilize the repercussions could be devastating. You could accidentally kill them or cause permanent damage. And it was far too easy to pull the trigger before you meant to. She walked to the window and sighed as she dialed her phone and waited.
"Kida? It's 2am and I'm on duty. What's going on?"
"Sorry Gary, but you know how I hate calling 911. I heard some gunshots in my neighborhood." Kida could hear shouting in the background and Gary muffled the phone as he barked some orders.
"Yeah, the calls just started flooding in. How close to your apartment do you reckon they were?"
"Not very, probably a few blocks away."
"Alright, thanks for calling in. Stay inside ok? I gotta go." The line went dead, and she sighed again.
"Oh Neeki, when did the world get to be so messed up?" She asked looking up sadly at the old teddy bear on her mantle, who predictably, didn't answer. She switched off the tv and headed to bed with a heavy heart.