Chapter 321 Unexpected Encounter
Klaus felt reassured by Ms. Nairn's decision to appoint Lara Cavalcanti as Captain of the Archery Department. He believed that she had chosen the right person to lead the department, considering all the qualities she had mentioned were necessary for this leadership position. Actually, Klaus was a little excited to get to know this woman named Lara better, because he had noticed her presence from the first minute he entered the hangar, only he had never had the chance to talk to her. Now that she was the head of his department, at least he would have other opportunities.
However, he did not expect that fate would make a small push to facilitate their meeting.
Even after the test for the captain of the archery department was over, some members continued to practice even after Ms. Nairn had dismissed them and left. Klaus was one of those people, because he knew that he needed to improve not only in Rise Online, but also in some things in real life, and he believed that if he could improve in archery in real life, he would eventually improve in Rise Online as well, so he wouldn't let this opportunity pass him by.
When most of the members had left, Klaus decided that he should too. However, when he left the locker room, there was no one left in the hangar except for Lara Cavalcanti herself, who was standing in front of a vending machine, trying to figure out how it worked.
pǎпdǎ Й?νê1,сòМ "Have a good evening, Captain." Klaus said, heading for the exit.
She looked at him in surprise and when he opened the door, she said:
"Hey, wait a minute, Klaus. Can you help me with this?" She pointed to the vending machine with an embarrassed look on her face.
Klaus was surprised, because vending machines were relatively old things a long time ago, who the hell wouldn't know how to use one? Nevertheless, he decided to help her.
"All right. What's the problem?" he asked, coming closer and looking at the machine.
"I put the money in and pushed the button like Carrie said, but the drink isn't there." She said, putting her hand in the slot where the drink should have fallen.
"Oh, that's super normal. In some old machines like this, some drinks can get stuck, so all it takes is a little tap for the drink to fall out. Like this." Next, Klaus gave the side of the machine a light tap, causing it to shake.
A moment later, Lara and Klaus could hear the metallic sound of the soda can falling into the compartment just below the buttons.
"Ohh!" she clapped her hands, truly impressed.
Klaus picked up the can, held it out to her and smiled. "Here you go."
"N-no, please take it as a gift for helping me. You really were my savior, for a second I thought I was going to lose my money for nothing. I'll get another soda."
"Thank you." He accepted without hesitation.
As she put the money in the machine to get another Coke, Klaus opened his.
"Something bothers me, Captain. How can you not know how to operate a simple machine like this? If you were from Georgia, I would understand, but you're from New York too, right?" asked Klaus, not afraid to satisfy his curiosity.
"HEHE! Actually, it is not that easy for me. I haven't lived in America for many years. My family is Brazilian, and although I was born here, I spent most of my childhood in Brazil and didn't live in a big city there. When I was a little older, I came to live with my mother in Oswego, but I never saw a machine like that there."
"Oswego? Isn't that upstate? That explains it."
She smiled with closed lips and finally took her soda. "Shall we go? I need to turn off the lights."
"Sure." Klaus said and they walked out of the hangar together.
"What about you, Klaus? Where are you from?" Lara asked. "You have the face of someone from the big city."
"Actually, I'm from a small town in southeastern Long Island." 𝐟𝓇𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝐛n𝐨ν𝙚𝚕. c𝚘ｍ
She looked at him with a confused expression, as if she didn't understand what that meant, and it reminded him that she hadn't lived in America that long.
"Long Island is near New York City, just to be clear."
"There you go! I knew you were from the city. It must have been nice growing up in a place like that."
"It has its good and bad points."
"I can imagine. Well, Klaus, it was nice to meet you and talk to you. Thank you again for your help earlier." She held out her hand in greeting.
Klaus returned the handshake. "It was nothing, with time you'll get the hang of it. By the way, congratulations on your new position. I'm looking forward to working with you and helping the team succeed under your leadership."
Lara smiled back and thanked him. Klaus noticed that she seemed a little surprised by the congratulations, but was happy about his welcome. In the end, he noticed that she was an even cooler girl than he had expected and also different from most girls, as she had a friendlier aura.
Since it was getting late, Klaus knew that he had no more time to play Rise Online that day, so he decided to go back to his dorm to see if his classmates had eaten dinner yet.
However, Klaus' plans were suddenly interrupted, because as he crossed the campus to go to the dorm, he met a girl in the middle of the way. She had long black hair, white skin and emerald green eyes. She was beautiful and Klaus knew her already. This girl was Ashley Cox, the girl he had bet with before the selection process.
Ashley was even more surprised than Klaus when she saw him. Only she knew how much she thought about him during those first days on campus. On the first day, while exploring the campus with some of her classmates, she found herself unconsciously looking for him in all sorts of places, be it lectures, classrooms, or cafeterias, but she never found him, so she began to believe that the mysterious boy really hadn't made it through the selection process as she had imagined.
However, when Ashley finally found him, contrary to his and her expectations, she averted her eyes and face, looking like a snob. Actually, she was trying to hide her surprised expression, after all, what would he think if he noticed that she was looking forward to seeing him again?
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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