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his
wife onto his lap, drawing her in for a kiss. She shrieked in
surprise and giggled as she kissed him back. Anais wrinkled her
nose.
    “Please,” she
said. “Save it for the bedroom.”
    Mrs Finch broke away
from her husband's embrace looking flustered, but pleased.
    “Well if you'd left
on time, you wouldn't be here to witness it now would you?” she
chided her daughter, as she smoothed back her pale green hair.
    An icon in Anais'
vision flashed, informing her she had one hour before her
appointment at City Hall. Another icon appeared next to it, stating
that she had a new invitation waiting. Curiously, she opened it, her
heart giving a little leap as she saw who it was from:

    Request
from Xander Silvas. Cinema. Proposed time: 20:00 - 22:00. Accept?

    Anais couldn't stop
the smile spreading across her face.
    "What are you so
happy about?" Mrs Finch asked, looking suspiciously up at Anais
from where she still sat on her husband's lap.
    "Nothing,"
Anais said, immediately wiping the smile off her face. "Just
something Dalla sent me. I've got to go, see you later."
    "Good luck! Be
careful today," Mrs Finch called after her. "And come
straight home after you've finished. Okay?"
    Anais waved back at
her parents to show she'd heard. As she picked up her jacket, the
message from Xander still glowed gently at the top of her eyesight.
She hesitated for a moment. She knew her parents wouldn't approve of
her going out tonight, not after the news of the murder, but
privately she thought they were overreacting slightly. Murder
in the Imperial City wasn't unheard of, but it was uncommon,
especially since the penalty if you were found guilty was death.
    She was torn between wanting to see Xander, and not wanting to
cause her parents any extra stress. But she only had to think of
Xander's indigo eyes, crinkled into a smile as he looked at her, and
her mind was made up.
    Anais accepted the invitation as she rushed out of the flat, into
the bright autumn morning.

Two

    Anais had to run to
the station, her candy floss pink hair flying out behind her as she
ran round street corners, dodging in and out of the other commuters.
Her parents, like her grandparents before them, had chosen pastel
coloured hair for their only child - Anais strongly suspected it was
because pastel shades were one of the cheaper options when choosing
your child's initial DNA, but she'd never asked.
    As Anais ran down the
path and onto the street, she called up the map function on her
RetCom, programming it to City Hall. She'd only ever been to the
City Hall once, when she was five years old, and her parents had to
register her for school. An orange line appeared in her vision,
guiding her to the maglev station and informing her to take line 7
into the city centre. There was another ping inside her head,
and this time she was unsurprised to see Dalla's name flash up next
to the little message icon:

    At
station. Where are you?! D xxx

    Anais fired off a
reply back to Dalla saying that she was on her way and upped her
pace. Today of all days, Dalla was likely to be even more wound up
that usual about being late.
    Colourful blocks of
flats towered above her, their large glass windows gleaming in the
morning light. Trees lined the city streets, their dark green leaves
waving in the breeze. As Anais rounded another corner, she could
just make out the shining glass and steel skyscrapers through the
hazy horizon that marked the beginning of the city's downtown
district. Despite how late she was, she couldn't help but drink in
the sight in front of her, taking in deep breaths of fresh air as
she ran. A slow smile spread across her face as the city glinted
before her in the morning sun.
    Her RetCom went off
again and she opened the new message without breaking her stride.
This time it was from Xander. Anais' heart gave a funny little
backflip as she read through it:

    Hey
A. Looking forward to tonight ;). Good luck at your CA! X

    How was it that
everyone else remembered