Lady Radiance: Fall

Chapter Five: One Snake... or Fifty?

<< 7:36am - Friday, August 25 >>

Arianna walked towards Charlotte who strummed her ukelele. Max kept his eyes focused on the camera. Arianna waited with Charlotte briefly glancing over at her every now and then.

Charlotte always sang a song at the start of her morning. Max, passionate in film, always worked on his skills while filming her. They were a good duo, being able to use each other's skills to make their skills stronger.

Arianna never got to see the magic happen; she always arrived too late to see.

As Charlotte sang, people passing by would turn their heads. Some of them stopped to watch. Arianna read some of the comments under Charlotte's videos and TikToks. Every now and then, someone had left a comment saying they had a rough morning, but Charlotte's singing and song interpretation would cheer them up. People looked forward to Charlotte's music in the morning. The goal of many musicians.

Max always hovered around her with a camera in his hand. At the beginning, Max annoyed Charlotte with his constant filming, but Max struck the deal of helping build some social platforms, and growing they were.

Both of them were so skilled, Arianna couldn't help but admire their work. They always looked for new opportunities to improve. As perfectionist as they were, it forced them to improve even faster. Max was a skilled cameraman knowing how to take a dull environment and transform it through his lenses and angles. And Charlotte was a great actress, but an even better singer.

Charlotte continued her song as it got more and more passionate. Arianna could almost feel Charlotte's soul project out of her body and touch her. Even when her high note was flat at the end of the bridge. Arianna could feel everything Charlotte wanted her to.

Why does Charlotte prefer to be in theatre rather than choir...?

"... And that was the last shot!"

"It was?"

Max replayed the footage of the video. "Yeah, looks great. The sunrise, the backlight, not too many people walking behind us..."

"I was totally flat though! We have to film it again!"

Max pinched the bridge of his nose. "But there's no point if we've already recorded you actually singing."

"But I still want my video to be somewhat genuine."

"Well... if we film it again, the sun is already up higher, so the video won't look continuous. Not only that, but more people are coming in too." Max stopped looking at his camera to face his elder sister. "So we'll film tomorrow and not post today?"

Charlotte sighed and turned to Arianna. "And what brings you here so early?"

Arianna checked her phone. "This is usually the time I get here."

"Well, you should've warned me!" The two girls stood before each other, Charlotte still fuming from her little skirmish from Max, Arianna not quite knowing what to do about the situation. But there was always one thing for sure... "Either way let's get to Riwana. Who knows what story she'll have to bring to the table again?" Charlotte's anger never lasted.

Charlotte grabbed Arianna's arm and dragged her into the school. Arianna internally cursed at her height.

While dragged across the school, fragments of other peoples' conversations drowned Arianna's hearing:

Who was she?

What was she?

Was this real?

The cameras had evidence.