Crossing Stars

Chapter One-London

[Just a reminder that votes/reads/additions to your library are always appreciated. As of now, I am not writing for money, so feedback and my own personal enjoyment is all I have.]
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London was a terrible name for anything other than a city, in many people's opinions.

Fiona White was one of the people who thought this. She was twenty-nine, but she had been only fifteen when she had her only son, and at the time, she had considered London to be a unique and classy name. Her mother had disagreed with her, but then again, Fiona didn't talk to her mother very often anymore. She had learned to raise London with no help from her mother whatsoever, and preferred to keep it that way.

Fiona was a talented cook. She had taught herself how to make stews and soups and desserts, though she only ended up making a small portion of the types of foods she knew how to, as London had grown pickier in his teens. She would usually make him chowder or seasoned poultry with various vegetarian sides, since she enjoyed cooking both and he enjoyed eating them.

One Sunday, though, she was trying something different; a shepherd's pie recipe she had found on the Internet. London was sitting on the counter next to the cutting board, watching her chop carrots. He had never liked to cook, but he found observing the preparation process relaxing.

"London, grab me the pepper, will you?" Fiona asked, not looking up from the cutting board.

London slid off the counter and took a small pepper grinder from the shelf on the other side of the kitchen. He tossed it across the room to his mother, and it hit the counter loudly and skitted across the linoleum.

"London!" Fiona snapped, reaching across the counter for the pepper.

"Sorry."

Fiona rolled her eyes. "If you're not going to help, don't get in the way. Go in the living room or something."

"I am gonna help."

Fiona laughed. "No, you're not, sweetie, sorry. I can make it myself."

London shrugged and walked into the living room, as his mother had suggested. He fell backwards onto the couch, with his knees bent over the armrest and his feet dangling, and dug his phone out of his pocket. He turned it on and tapped on one of the three apps he had downloaded. The other two were games, which he rarely played and had considered deleting. The one he used was an unpopular social media website called Zodiak, which was rumored to have been created as an easy way to spread bugs and hack computer cameras. London hadn't noticed anything unusual about his phone since he downloaded it, though, so he disregarded the rumors.

Only one of his friends was active, a girl with the username 'daizy889.' Her real name was Margarita Reyes, which she openly told London the first day they had chatted on Zodiak. London had informed her of the dangers of online predators, which she had disregarded with a string of emojis.

London went to her profile and opened chat. 'hi,' he typed, and she responded almost immediately.

Margarita: Hi! :) How's it going?

London: ok. you?

Margarita: Same, but pretty good. We had a super boring assignment in my biology class yesterday.

London: i have biology too.

Margarita: I think you actually told me that before! :P It's fine, though. Have you talked to Pippa lately? She hasn't been responding to my messages.

London: no. i messaged her a few days ago and she never replied.

Margarita: :/

London: she's probably busy. exams are coming up at my school. she probably has some.