Teleportations and Stations

It was a brilliantly beautiful day to go to the beach, and Zan thanked her lucky stars, and the meteorologists, for the accurate weather report. The last time she made plans to go to the beach, a sudden and unpredictable storm hit the area. The time before that, she had a not-so-nice breakup with her ex-boyfriend that alienated her from her friend group. But this time…? This time, things were going to go great.

Though she wasn’t an early riser by nature, today she was an early riser by choice. Past Zan had been smart enough to set an extremely annoying alarm, which Present Zan both despised and appreciated. The only way to turn off the alarm was to traipse to the opposite side of her apartment and type in a password, and she begrudgingly did so. Previously, she’d set it to be disabled by a tap of her bracelet, but she’d learnt quite quickly she could throw her bracelet at the screen and that was good enough. So, the password system it was.

Zan yawned and reached under her pyjama top to lazily scratch at her stomach.

“Don,” She called out to her home’s AI, “Please make me some eggs.”

“How would you like your eggs?” The robotic voice asked from multiple speakers around her.

Zan pondered this question deeply, as though a wrong answer could result in her death.

“Scrambled.”

“Your eggs will be ready for you in twenty minutes.”

While the eggs themselves didn’t take 20 minutes to cook, obviously, that was roughly how long it would take for Zan to get ready. She quickly hopped in the shower and got dressed in the clothes she’d picked out the day before – a beige bikini, covered by a lilac t-shirt that was so large it was more like a dress.

Feeling adequately cute, Zan plopped down on a stool by her kitchen counter, and happily monched on her eggs as she scrolled through her family group chat. It took a while to catch up with all the new messages, but most of them were pictures of birds. She took the time to go through each picture and react with a heart emoji; she liked birds.

With the eggs completely devoured, Zan began to potter about her home with a tote bag. She threw in anything she thought might be helpful; sunscreen, towels, sunglasses, water, and multiple inflatable pool floaties to help Lena learn how to swim.

Zan very tenderly picked up Dave, a yellow rubber duck from her collection of duck paraphernalia. She considered bringing him with her, but the fear of losing him in the great big ocean loomed over her and she placed him back down.

Zan wasn’t the first to arrive at the Teleportation Station, despite being a solid ten minutes early. It was Exer who had the honour of arriving first, and had taken a seat at their meeting place, a large purple statue of a squiggly multi-eyed monster.

“God morning, Exer!” Zan beamed as she approached, an excited skip in her step.

They visibly grimaced at her arrival, though Zan pretended not to notice.

“Morning.” Exer grumbled.

They’d never been the most joyous person, but this was the most miserable Zan had ever seen them. Her brain quickly flicked through all of the causes of their misery, and settled on the one that hurt her the least; they simply weren’t a morning person. With an unwavering brightness, she sat down beside them.

Exer checked the time on their bracelet, and Zan peered over to sneak a look. But she didn’t get to read the time, because she got far too distracted by Exer’s choice of clothes that somehow she’d only just noticed. They’d paired a blood red pair of swimming trunks with a pastel green and blue hoodie. She made a mental note to offer Exer a shopping trip to buy new clothes.

The two sat in silence as they waited for Lena to appear. While Zan would usually consider herself a master of small talk, Exer had been difficult to interact from the moment they first met, half a year ago. She’d all but given up on befriending them, when Lena arrived and sparked new life into their group. Lena was so odd, that everyone couldn’t help but find her endearing, even Exer. It had softened them all, just a little.

Their seats were facing the main entrance to the station, so both Zan and Exer were quick to spot when Lena arrived. Though her clothes no longer gave her ex-fringe status away, everything else about her stood out like a sore thumb.

The glass doors in front of her were automatic, but Lena approached them with great caution, like she couldn’t quite be sure.

“Should we go over to her?” Exer asked Zan, whose eyes were still fixed on Lena.

When the doors slid open, Lena scurried through them with a surprising amount of speed, then came to an abrupt halt at the other side of the door. Her shoulder lifted, proud of her achievement.

Zan tilted her head. “She’s got this…”

The mousey brunette girl whipped her head back and forth in search for their meeting spot, somehow skipping over the obnoxious purple statue multiple times.

“Probably” Zan added.

After a few more seconds of Lena’s cluelessness, Zan stood up and waved to her, finally catching her attention. Lena waved back and walked over calmly, like she hadn’t just been panicking over whether or not she was in the right place.

“Good morning.” Lena said, fiddling with the strap of her satchel. “Sorry, I hope I’m not late.”

Exer checked their bracelet again, to see that she had arrived exactly on time. They were quietly impressed with her punctuality.

“Nope, it’s okay!” Zan grinned, incredibly relieved Lena was here to break the awkward tension. “Let’s get going!”

She grabbed her bag with one hand, and used the other to herd Lena over to a Teleportation Terminal. Exer paced quickly ahead of them and entered the small room first.

The room itself was encased in mundane concrete, its defining features being the control panel to one side, and the engraved pattern on the floor that glowed neon blue. Exer beelined for the control panel and entered their destination, while Zan happily watch from behind as Lena entered. She took small careful steps on her toes, making sure not to tread on any of the glowing lines. Zan found it quite adorable; it was like watching a toddler experiencing the world for the first time.

Exer back away from the control panel.

“Ready.” They said, and the floor pulsed in time with their voice.

“Ready!” Zan repeated, causing another surge in light.

The two of them stopped and looked to Lena, who was still busy looking at the floor. She felt their gazes on her and looked back up.

“Oh, uh… Ready?”

Blue light engulfed the room.