Sonata of The Shattered | Book I

Exactly Like The Past

14 May 2022

The guest lectures that became the faculty's agenda for this term finally ended after days. Several guest lecturers were invited to give the students special lectures based on their expertise and area of work. The head of the faculty thanked her, Fransesca, once again for her success in holding the event in a very short period of time.

By that, it means that the event should be publicized through the faculty's website today so it could be read and known by everyone who put their interest in NUS Faculty of Arts. Documentation and the wordings of the article itself should be carefully considered and picked in order to give the right impression to the viewer and audience.

The article itself also became a report of their annual agenda as well. An implementation of their mission and vision as the number one public university in the whole country of Singapore, well-known for its rank across the world and mostly in Asia itself.

"Miss Adelaidine, will you help the press secretary to pick the pictures from the documentation? From day one to day four?" asked the head of the faculty, in which Fransesca nodded as she agreed to do so. "I'll go there in a second, Sir. The article should be ready by this evening to be published on the faculty's website tomorrow morning." Fransesca replied.

And so, she was left alone once again in her room. She took her phone and put it inside her blazer's pocket. Then, she took her tablet with her, where she saved the draft of the article given by the press secretary earlier this morning.

Walking along the corridor, then a right turn to the stairs that brought her downstairs, she was greeted by several students and other lecturers.

"Fransesca!" Rachel called her from afar as she soon ran towards her with a tote bag full of books and other teaching materials inside. "Where are you going?" asked the lass. "I'm going to the press secretary. The head of the faculty asked me to pick some pictures from the guest lectures documentation file as well as to revise the video and the article. Wanna help?" offered the mother of one.

Rachel nodded her head in excitement and walked towards the room side by side with Fransesca. "Estelle's husband is currently recovering. He fell from the stairs and broke both of his legs. It'll take a while for the man to recover just like how he used to be." Rachel informed her about the latest news. "Oh no, that's awful! I can't imagine how painful and stressful it would be. Should we pay him a visit?" asked Fransesca.

The younger lecturer nodded. "I'll call Naira to see if she's available this afternoon then perhaps we could pay him a visit and wish him to get well soon."

They soon arrived in front of the press secretary's door. Fransesca knocked the door twice before she entered the room along with Rachel by her side. "Miss Irene, I was asked to pick the pictures for the publication tomorrow and I've revised the draft as well. I'll send the final copy to you through email, then?" Fransesca smiled at the younger woman.

"Oh, Professor Fransesca! Yes, please do send me the final copy there. I'll let you pick the pictures and leave you both alone then? I'll be back in thirty minutes. You can just drag the picture you've chosen to this file on the left."

Irene gave the two lecturers a guide on how they should pick the pictures. After they both understood how it works, Irene, the press secretary, left them for a peaceful time to choose several out of hundreds of pictures taken yesterday by the documentation team, a team consisting of several volunteers from the students themselves.

Rachel and Fransesca sat on the two chairs as they started to focus themselves on the Mac screen, scrolling and checking each picture from day one to day four by themselves. One by one, manually. "Should we start from the fourth day first, then?" asked Fransesca. "That would be a great idea!" Rachel responded.

It wasn't a hard task but it wasn't easy either. Scrolling hundreds of pictures to pick the best out of it manually was super time-consuming and it wouldn't be an easy task under thirty minutes only. They knew that they'll need more time to decide which would be the best to be publicized through the faculty's website.

Ten minutes passed and they finally got into the second day already.

"This one looks better than that one. The enthusiasm from their faces could be seen there!" Rachel shared her opinion, in which Fransesca agreed and dragged the picture to the other file named 'Final Article Guest Lectures 2022'. Basically, Rachel helped the woman to point out several possible pictures that could be chosen as the one to be published.

"We're moving to day one now.." Fransesca muttered before she went silent when she saw pictures of Clayton everywhere. She saw him on the big screen, everywhere. Estelle was there standing next to his podium to assist, taken right before she left abruptly after the urgent call from her husband's office. But that man, Clayton, looks exactly the same just like he was back then.

Eleven years older than her, yet he looks the same. Nothing changed except those strands of hair that turned white, hiding behind other black strands of hair. Still, he didn't change that much. He could see the man today exactly how he was back then.

Rachel patted her back and smiled at Fransesca. "Take your time, Fransesca. Slowly. You can do this. Find two pictures and you're good to go. It's only pictures and he'll stay there." she whispered, trying to calm Fransesca down from her turmoil of emotions inside that Rachel could feel and sense from her seat.

Fransesca nodded as she started to scroll down the screen carefully, trying to see which pictures would be the best to be published tomorrow. Honestly, she didn't know if his charm was the one that hypnotized her or what, but all the pictures that she's currently looking at right now... she couldn't just choose one. Everything looks perfect! Somehow, the student in charge of the documentation of that particular lecture must've been super talented in photography.

"Rachel, how about this one?" asked the woman carefully.

She let her see a picture of Clayton interacting with a student who's sitting on the front row. Then, a picture of Clayton taking a picture together during the lecture together with all the students and the lecturer in charge of that particular schedule, Erika and Estelle.

'You always look handsome. You always prepare your best look everyday, especially in a memorable event,' she said to herself as she waited for Rachel's opinion as well. After her colleague slash best friend nodded, then Fransesca dragged both pictures into the file and sighed in relief.

"Done! Thank you, Rachel." she thanked her friend, in which Rachel returned with a smile on her face. "I'll leave a note to Irene as we're finished already." said Fransesca as she tore a post-it and wrote a message down on the sticky notes.

'The pictures are all in the file. Thank you, Irene! xx'

She stuck the notes to the iMac's screen and stood up from her seat. "Come on Rachel, let's go somewhere while we wait for Naira's answer." she told her, trying to distract herself from the thoughts of Clayton that were running around her head at the moment. She couldn't easily erase that figure from his mind no matter how hard she tried to doso.

Rachel knew and she didn't bring up the topic once again. She knew that Fransesca tried to distract herself from something and so she agreed by giving her lame jokes during their way out of the room. The least Rachel could do for her best friend, Fransesca, whose heart is currently under so many overwhelming feelings.

to be continued.