Chapter One

Shelly, a young white girl around the age of twenty-three years old, sighed as she unfolded an intricately designed card in her delicate hands. She already knew what the contents of the little card would read before she had even opened it, for on the front of it was a photograph of a brand new large building, a new museum that had just been finished no more than a few months ago. Her expression turned into one of hesitance and indecision as she opened the card and read the contents, not surprised at all by the fact she had predicted what it said. 

"You are cordially invited to the first ever event here at the Old Detroit city museum, sponsored by the New American-European Governmental Art Division director William Bays III." Shelly said, reading the contents of the card aloud to herself, before she rolled her eyes. The governments of the European countries and the American one had been merged into a singular governmental body after World War V, and ever since then someone couldn't even fetch the mail anymore without seeing some sort of propaganda for the continued existence of the overbearing government in their lives. This event at the museum was just another way for the government to attempt to show that they were everywhere in the lives of the people, watching everything they did. If that wasn't bad enough, the rich populace always had to muscle in, making things as hard as possible for the average person to even go shopping, while the rich did anything they could to make themselves the center of attention. Nothing had changed at all from how things had been more than a thousand years ago, according to the history books.

"Do I really have to go to this..." Shelly muttered under her breath, though she already knew she didn't have a choice. But it was not the government forcing her to attend the event at the museum, for it was her mother that wished for her to go. Of course, she had tried to get out of having to go, but that had just lead to another large fight between the two of them, ending in the usual yelling and slamming of doors. She never wanted her fights with her mom to end the way they always did, as she loved her mom whom was her only parent left after her dad died, but somehow and someway whenever they fought it always went the same direction. It was depressing at times like that, for it meant that she was all alone with nothing more than her phone and computer, with memories of happier times and closer friends, left to keep her company in her room. 

Frowning and crumbling up the card in her hands, Shelly tosses the wadded up stiff paper in the small trashcan beside her desk before plopping back on her bed, letting herself fall backwards and sprawling herself across the flat and comfortable surface, feeling the bed cushion around her body, letting her softly sink into it while she closed her green eyes briefly, her long light brown hair slightly spread around her blankets underneath her. She remained there for several minutes, trying to forget about everything that made her life feel so negative, allowing herself to fall deeper and deeper into the cushion of her own quiet subconscious, until the quiet little sound of the doorknob to her room turning in place, and the sound of the door sliding open, slightly startling her while she quickly lifted herself back off of the soft surface of her bed despite her body's protests. Her expression changed to one of slight surprise when she spied her mother standing at the door, with an apologetic look in her eyes, and a small cup in her hand. 

"Look... sweetie, if you really don't want to go..." her mother began, while she slowly made her way to her daughter's bed, softly sitting down next to her and gently offering her the cup. It was a warm cup of hot chocolate, an old recipe that had been carried down the family tree since times long gone. While Shelly quietly accepted the cup with a small smile, and raised it to her lips, her mother continued while gently running the fingers of her left hand through the girl's hair. "You don't have to go... it's just that Rossi is coming over tonight, and the event at the museum starts tonight..."

Rossi. Shelly's expression soured a little at the mention of his name, and a flicker of pain passed through her eyes while she lowered the cup down into her lap. Rossi was the name of her mother's boyfriend, whom she had been dating for several months now. Her mother knew that she didn't like him, but unlike most parents whom would try to force their child into getting along with the one they were dating, her mother was the opposite. Because of the fact that it was just them in the house, with Shelly being an only child and her father deceased, their bond had grown far beyond that of a simple mother-daughter relationship. Shelly knew that, when they fought like they did, both of them were left all alone in the house with no one else there for real company until they cooled back down. She leaned ever so slightly against her mother's body while closing her eyes again, remaining quiet while her hair was methodically straightened again with her mother's fingers. When she felt her mom pull her into a hug, she smiled and sighed, enjoying the feeling of the one human presence that mattered to her the most in her life for several moments before she spoke again, her voice quiet and gentle.

"It's okay... I'll go to the museum tonight. Even if he wasn't coming over, I'd still go..." Shelly replied, while opening her eyes again. "A chance to learn something new about art won't hurt me. I need to learn more about art anyway, for my classes at school..." 

With a small nod and a slight tightening of her arms, Shelly's mom gave her daughter another hug, letting the moment last just a few more seconds, before she quietly slid off the bed and let go. "Well... don't forget that it starts in a few hours, alright?" she said quietly before slipping out of Shelly's room, making her way back downstairs while leaving the bedroom door open, and leaving her daughter behind with a relieved little smile. She had been worried that her mother would have remained angry at her the rest of the night, and would not have told her that Rossi was coming over. In that kind of situation, both she and her mother would have remained angry at one another for a longer time, meaning a lot more lonely nights. 

With a glance at the clock hanging on one of her light blue painted walls, Shelly sighed and slowly lifted herself off of her bed and gently placed the cup on her desk before turning towards her window. The sun was still high in the sky, though she knew it would set just as it always did throughout the thousands of years that the planet had revolved around it. She was already dressed and prepared to leave for the museum, having dressed herself in the usual casual type of attire she always wore when she went out into the city. She also knew that she needed to head out for the museum soon. After all, it would close eventually, and she didn't want to arrive late only to have to travel back home in the dark all alone.

She sighed. She didn't want to leave so soon, already, but it appeared that she would have to in order to get there before it closed. With a huff, she hurriedly turned and left her room before going down the stairs and entering her living room where her mom was waiting. With another short hug and a wish for her to have fun from her mom, Shelly smiled and grabbed the house key offered to her, before slowly heading toward the front door. She stood in front of it for several moments before she reached it, contemplating trying to put up with Rossi for one night just to spend it at home. All of her friends were busy tonight, as she had discovered through a long series of texts to them all, and even if she could have stayed at their homes for a while into the night, she still would have tried staying home for her mother's sake. Right when she was about to turn around and offer to stay home instead in a heartfelt moment, her mother spoke first with a gentle smile on her lips. 

"Shelly, I'll be alright. Don't worry about it! It's just one night, I'll see you when you get back home. Call me when the museum closes and I'll try to pick you up if you can't get another ride home, okay?" her mother said, to which Shelly froze for a moment, her body still undecided in what to do, before she nodded and waved goodbye while she opened the door and slipped past it into the slightly warm air outside of her home. With a few moments spend closing the door behind her and making sure the key was in pocket of the shorts she was wearing, she checked her person for all that she needed, which wasn't much, before stepping away and making her way along the path from the house. She didn't have a car, or any sort of transportation like others her age did, aside from a hover-bike designed like the bikes people used to use to get around many years ago. 

Quickly deciding that she would take it, instead of arriving at the museum all sweaty, she quietly grabbed it where she had left it last, locked onto the side of their garage where her mother's lone car rested for the night. Lifting herself onto it and activating it with a few presses of the onboard controls, leaving behind her helmet, she grinned as she thought of the possibilities she would develop while observing fresh art and exhibits during the event, before setting off, speeding away on her bike while focusing instead on what she would soon see, instead of her regrets for the night.