32 Unexpected Morning

The awfully loud noise made my ears feel like bleeding in the early morning where moonlight dripped through the window. When I looked at the time on the alarm, it was 4AM! From what I knew, I always set up my alarm to somewhere around 6-7AM, which meant someone tampered with my alarm.

I knew that someone was probably the one who woke me before the sunrise. My forehead scrunched up with great annoyance since I could've gotten a few more hours of sleep.

"Why?" I asked the person with an agitated frown.

"We have to go to work by 1PM today. Do you not remember the message we got a week ago?" Luke said like it was obvious.

"Well, it's by 1PM, which means to me by my normal standards, we probably don't need to wake up this early to go to work." My head was starting to boil with anger.

Luke started to untangle my ruby red hair in the dim lights when I rubbed my eyes to try to believe that this wasn't a dream. When my hair was yanked by the brush, I knew it wasn't a dream due to the faint pain.

"So, when do we eat breakfast?" I asked.

Usually, the morning routine was to be woken up by Luke, go to the washroom to freshen up, wear my uniform, make preparations for the classes in the morning, and then go to the cafeteria to go eat breakfast. However, I somehow got a hint that today would be no ordinary day since Luke woke me up earlier than usual.

"We're not eating breakfast today," Luke responded.

When my jaws dropped in shock, Luke added, "we don't have enough time for breakfast, so I prepared a chocolate bar to eat instead during the time we walk to the teleportation circle."

What! No breakfast? Just what were we doing that took up more than nine hours to prepare to go to work?

"What are we possibly doing today that will take up as much as nine hours of my sleep time to get ready for our assignment," I yelled in astonishment.

"Just some shopping and going to other detours along the way," Luke answered very vaguely.

"Oh, just some shopping I see, well I don't need to go. I'll just wear my uniform there. My sleeping time is very important to me you see. It cannot be wasted with idle things such as shopping" I tried to flop back into my bed.

"Well, we wouldn't have to this if you had proper clothes to wear at work," Luke tried to appease me.

"Ummm. I do have proper clothes. Remember the clothes I bought at the mall with you?" I countered back.

Luke sighed, "Well you need even finer clothes to work in the first district as part of the dress code."

This was when I recalled most of the clothes that Luke picked out at the mall was one of the most expensive clothes in each store that we visited in the third district. I remembered that I had spent most of my savings that I gotten from my parents even though there was a lot of money piled up from the past years that I haven't visited them.

"So, when are we going shopping?" I added.

"Right after you dress." Luke finished brushing my hair.

I quickly put on the clothes that I bought from the mall. A white lace dress that dabbled up to the middle of my thighs and white dress shoes should be adequate to shop in the first district!

When Luke approved the outfit, we walked out of the dorm to go to the teleportation circle. I had assumed we would land at someplace like a mall in the first district. But, in front of me, were glittering diamonds, rubies, gold, and other jewels that I could not name.

Was this a clothing store? I could not spot any fabrics nor any clothes. Only one worker was standing in front of us greeted us.

The worker brilliantly smiled that radiated kindness, "What can I do for you today my dear patrons?"

"We would like seven pieces of clothing each for Rika and me" Luke answered naturally.

"Do you have any preferences, my dear patrons?" The worker asked respectfully.

I could've listened further than this point, but it was impossible to understand because Luke had so many requirements and details of how he wanted the clothes to be when they were just clothes! At one point, Luke asked for my opinion of what I wanted to be in the design or whatnot, but I said that he could be in control of everything at this point.

My eyes were starting to droop from my lack of sleep and I was tired of standing in a room filled with an endless number of jewels. I wanted to sit down and relax, but there were no chairs or anywhere to sit in this room. This was a big contrast from all the other luxurious clothing shops I went to previously with Luke that it was almost astonishing.

It was 8:30AM when Luke's conversation finally seemed like it was finishing.

"Are you done yet?" I lightly slapped my cheeks to keep myself awake.

"You just need to pick seven diamonds from this pile," Luke answered while looking tired himself.

You would assume that the one would be easily able to tell the difference between the piles of diamonds. However, the number of diamonds looked like it would go on for miles and I could not tell the difference from what was considered to be a 'good' diamond from a 'bad' diamond. At this rate, I thought any one of them would do. I went to the front of the pile of diamonds and dug out some random diamonds that sparkled brilliantly in front of my eyes.

"Here," I passed the diamonds onto Luke.

Luke confusingly passed the diamonds back to me one by one. When each diamond landed on top of my hands, it went into the marble almost immediately afterward. Not even caring what that even meant, I asked, "Can we go somewhere else now?"

Luke nodded and soon afterward, I found myself fading away as I heard a loud voice, "Thank you for your patronage."

The next place I found myself was a luxurious shop which was completely the opposite of the clothing store. There was a nice twinkling chandelier like I expected and it had nice red velvet plush couches and a small table with a tea set and cookies. Finally, a place to sit down! When I was about to walk towards the couches, I found myself held back by Luke's tight grip on my hand.

"My precious customers, would you like to sit down and have some refreshments while browsing?" The server asked in the sweetest voice.

'Yes! I would like to sit down and enjoy those free snacks that I see right in front of me because I was brought here before getting a chance to eat anything,' My eyes glittered towards the snacks.

"No, unfortunately, we do not have enough time so we would, unfortunately, like to decline your offer," Luke responded with a stone face.

"What?" I accidentally yelled.

"I've been standing for more than three hours and had to skip breakfast and you're declining their offer? It's fine if YOU decline their offer, but leave ME out of it!" I whispered harshly into Luke's ear.

Luke coldly explained with his eyes narrowed, "we have three more stores to go after this and at most we can spend around one hour per store because we have to return to the dorm as well to get ready with the things we bought."

I became speechless from being astonished. No wonder he woke me up at 4AM! I decided to stand still and follow his lead until we went back to our dorms. We teleported to each store anyways and Luke would drag me to wherever he needed me to go.