Chapter 9

One morning, I decided to read some more of my book.  I have given up on having a life, I was destined to do nothing and live with my 'mother' the rest of my life.  She was right about me not getting a job.  Sure I only tried once, but I have a prominent gut feeling that that's how it would be for all my possible jobs.  It's as if I have been given a 'bad name' or commited some fatal crime that I don't even know about.  But that's just silly...  Besides, I just want to be a scientist, I don't know what else I could be.  And the only way I could see myself getting out of Harah's grasp is if I were to buy a house-and where would I get that money from?  I rely on Harah for everything and I hate it.

My book is about a girl named Hannah getting over her ex boyfriend who was abusing her!  It took her much counseling to get over it, and the beginning was very depressing, but for some reason I just couldn't put the book down!  Though it was very sad, it was good.  Later in the book (I'm on the good part), she met this guy and he's really nice and it's obvious that they're going to get together and she'll be officially 'healed'.

So I put my book down for a minute, and I started to think about my romantic life which is nonexistent now.  Dumar was so sweet and nice-but then it turns out that he has been cheating on me with Chesca.  I don't even know how long he must've been disloyal-he met her just a few days after he met me, so he very well could've been cheating on me for a long time.  But, I guess it could've been after we decided that we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend, because it was after that that he was starting to act so weird.  Yeah, that's probably what it was.  I wonder what his logic behind that was?

I fidgeted in my seat, and took a deep breath.

I want to have a succesful romantic life like Hannah.  I know that it's going to work out for them, and even though she had a bad first relationship, it looks like things will go well for her and Ben.  So maybe Pumell isn't so bad after all-.

I shoved aside the fact that he was definitly onto me when he first came up to me (and that was the last time I saw him, actually), and I found the slip of paper he gave me with his ID on it.  I have been using it as a bookmark.  I have been shunning the idea of calling him, but now-all of a sudden, I really want to.  It was almost as if I subconsiously wanted to call him, so I kept it as a bookmark so it would be close to me.

"Hey, Pumell-this is Jezabelle, the girl you met at Tankbar.  Could we hang out?"

I cringed at asking him, but I figured it he was so direct before that of course I can be direct now.

"Glad you changed your mind!  Sure, I'll be over there in a few."

I sighed in happiness and surprised that he was free right then...

"Wait-don't you need my address?"

"Oh-um..yeah."

So I told him my address, but I was skeptical, it seemed like he wasn't even listening to me saying my address.  I shrugged it off and decided to be happy he was coming over.

When I hung up, I immediatly walked over to the door in anticipation for his arrival.  I was a little kid, I haven't been this happy in a while!  Being eighteen with no possibility of a future would get any girl depressed.

It hadn't been that long when I saw Pumell walking to the door.  I didn't have time to wonder if he was going to show since it didn't seem like he heard me mention my address, he came that fast!

"Hey Jezabelle, I'm so glad to hear from you!  I've been thinking about you a lot lately..."

I decided not to get creeped out about him thinking about me.  We barely met, what could he have thought about?  My looks?  Well, that would be done.  I pale in comparison to all the other girls-but these Brightian guys seem to have a hazy sense of beauty, at least that's how it's going so far.

I couldn't say that I was the same, so instead I said, "yes-well, I got an inkling to call you."

"So I was thinking we could go to Zorein."

I gasped.  Zorien is the zero gravity place in town.  It is really expensive there, and I've only gone there a few times in my life.

He smiled in response to my gasp, and we walked over to Zorein as it's really close to my house. 

I looked at the building in amazement.  When I was little it seemed so massive, so tall.  I recall daydreaming about going into space when I looked at the spaceship statue on the roof.  I've always wanted to go to space, and more importantly, to Earth, but without my being a scientist, it seems to only be a dream.

When we went inside, we went right over to the receptionist to pay for our way in.  Pumell was getting ready by flexing his muscles, and he looked at me.

I am not sure why, but that just really turned me off, do you want my approval of your man muscles or something?  You're not going to get it.

"Two for a gravity room alone."

He looked at me and smiled.  There are only four gravity rooms in the building, but that usually isn't that much of a problem because of its expensive price.  But sometimes you have to share the room with up to three other people, but if you really want to be alone, you have to pay an extra fee. 

"That'll be a thousand simoleons."

My eyes widened. Oh my llama, a thousand simoleons!  I've never went up in a room for that much...

A thousand simoleons is nothing to sneeze at, but Pumell willingly handed over the cash.  This Pumell guy must be rich.

"You may go into the locker room to change shoes. Your gravity room is number one."

So we went into the locker room to change into the shoes for the zero gravity room.  They're black special sneakers that are especially bouncy, perfect for bounding off walls in the zero gravity rooms.  They're extremely comfortable. 

I put on my shoes, and put my other shoes away in a locker and Pumell did the same.

After we were done changing, we went up the elevator to the floor in which we could go up to our room.  We found the first room's pole, and Pummel looked like he was ready to show me how it's done, but I quickly made it to the pole and start to pull myself up.  I looked over at him to see his reaction, and he was certainly surprised to see that I could get up it, no problem.  I just gave him a nervous smile.

If only you knew how I know how to do this, then you'd think I was a geek...

After I made it up, Pumell made it up no problem as well.

When we made it inside, I could instantly feel the effects of the zero gravity.  I steadied myself to get used to it.  Usually it takes me five minutes (that is, the few times I've gone) to get used to the lack of gravity and to re-learn how to "balance myself".  I started to float up gracefully, and I stared at a random painting so I wouldn't get sick.  When I'm done with the first five minutes, I know I'll be fine.  I looked over at Pumell and supressed a grin.  He was taking it so well, he was already starting to toss and turn in the gravity-free air, moving up and down swiftly.  Luckily, there are certain invisible slowing shields near the bottom of the room to make it almost impossible to land on your head or awkwardly tumble.  In order to land, it has to be gradual.  That's probably part of the reason why it's so expensive to go into these zero gravity rooms, and also the company that owns Zorein had to somehow remove the chemical that the Brightians added to the moon to add gravity, and somehow they also found out how to take away the rest of its gravity, since the moon originally did have some gravity.

As I started to drift higher, I started smacking the air to feel how the air does without its gravity, while Pumell was staring at some painting.  I didn't even think how weird that was since I was too exhilerated at being in zero gravity.  Aparently Pumell was too, because we haven't spoken since we got in the room.  But I decided I better break the silence, "so...what made you decide to ask me out?  Or-erm...giving me your ID number?"

"Oh-I have my reasons."  I wasn't looking at him since I was randomly floating and sometimes it's hard to look at people directly in these rooms, but I could picture him looking really mysterious with one eyebrow raised.

"So you won't tell me."

He instantly evaded the subject, "well, it is really fun in here, isn't it?  How nice am I to bring us here?"

I let him change the subject, "I agree, I used to love to come in here as a kid, but I only did a few times.  It's so expensive here!  How could you afford to take me here?  A thousand simoleons is an insane amount of cash!"

I could feel myself floating higher, higher, until I reached the cieling.  I pushed off the cieling, and started screaming in exhileration.  I made my way to the trampoline to get higher.  The trampoline is really nice to have here, because it helps you get higher in the room, even though it is zero gravity.  Or maybe it's nice especially because of the zero gravity-a person can get very high from jumping off a trampoline in no gravity!

"Hmm...I wouldn't say that I'm rich, actually Jezabelle.  Quite the opposite actually-"

I laughed.  He has got to be kidding me!  Of course he has money if he took me here, right? 

"Well-I'm not talking about simoleons, Jezabelle."

I gave the air in front of me a weird look since he wasn't currently in my field of view.  Pumell, how could it not have to do with simoleons?  Then how are you poor?

Then he jumped up really high from the trampoline and lightly took hold of my foot and pulled me to him.  I could smell his scent:  alien, with a touch of Axe.  I breathed him in and sighed in happiness.  I decided to forget about his mysteries and strangeness, and kissed him on the lips.  He happily obligued.