Descenders: Andromeda

"Would you just shut the fuck up?"

The question, rude as it was, was posed to the empty room as Amber spun on her chair, her blonde locks flying every which way. However, it had not been a rhetoric one.

Ne-ne, so rude to me, dear Amber, a female voice whispered in an amused voice. One would think you do not want me around.

"Of course I don't want you around, you old hag!" Amber gripped the pencil in her hand, chuckles going white from the force. "You just make my life difficult! Why the heck did you choose me, of all people?"

Although Amber could not see the other girl, she got a distinct sense of her shrugging, which only served to infuriate her further.

I do not choose, Amber, the other woman reminded Amber. Fates do it for me.

"Well, they made a shit choice this time around, Andromeda" Amber growled, spinning in her chair again to face her desk and the virtual tsunami of papers strewn across it. The placement exams were starting in less than a week, and Amber did not have time to deal with a spirit of long-dead Greek - sorry, Aethiopian - princess and her test on top of everything else.

They do not make mistakes, Amber, Andromeda warned. No matter what you choose tomorrow, they will spin it to fit into their tapestry of the world.

"So I should just lay down and let them walk all over me? No way in hell, Andromeda," Amber hissed, angrily crossing out an integral equation she was working on moments ago. "I'm not going to live like all of them."

Andromeda sighed softly, and in the next second Amber's crystal blue eyes darkened into royal blue as Andromeda melded her soul close to Amber's. Amber let out a startled gasp and closed her eyes as Andromeda's voice echoed through her body.

You may not have a choice, Amber Mirak.

After that ominous declaration, Amber felt Andromeda retreat to the back of her mind and perch herself there to watch her work. Rolling her eyes, blonde girl returned to her math equations, ready to kick the integrals' ass.

"Amber!"

However, it was not to be. Hissing under her breath, Amber pushed her chair backwards as she stood up, sending it skidding for two feet, and stomped to the doors of her room, stopping at them to lean out.

"Yes?" she shouted, projecting all of the annoyance she felt for the impending exams and Andromeda into her voice.

"No need to be bratty, Amber," her mother scolded her from downstairs. "And it's dinner time."

Amber raised her eyebrows and checked her brass-colored wristwatch, a gift from her mother for the graduation party. It was indeed the time Mirak family usually had dinner, and Amber tossed a guilty look over her shoulder to the messy table and the waiting equations. She would have to finish them later - if she managed to keep her wits until that moment.

Securing her ponytail, Amber slipped into her Darth Vader slippers and floated down the stairs and straight into the living room, slipping fully into the state of mind Andromeda once named 'proper daughter', and Amber had not protested it. In the former princess' defense, compared to her behavior when away from judging eyes, it was the image of a good girl, certain hiccups notwithstanding.

"Finally down," Zara huffed, reclining on the sofa, the work bag sitting near her feet. "Go and eat. We'll talk after."

Amber just shrugged and nodded before walking into the adjacent kitchen, beelining to the fridge. Quickly scanning its content revealed quite a few possibilities for the dinner, and Amber had to stop for a second before picking out the cheese and sour cream.

"Is Dad coming home tonight?" Amber asked idly, putting the goods on the table and searching the cabinets for the utensils and bread.

"He didn't say anything," Zara's voice was tinted with derision as the springs in the sofa creaked with her movement. "Did he say anything to you?"

"Nope," Amber popped the 'P', setting up the table for herself and sitting down. "But he should be here any minute, if he caught the one o'clock train home. Are Inara and Arash still in school?"

"Yes," Zara confirmed. "German classes."

"Oh, the extracurriculars," Amber nodded to herself - they were outside normal schedule, either before or after usual classes. "I forgot."

"Of course you did, you have your own worries!" Zara snorted in derision. "You have the placement exams, so focus on them instead of diddle-dallying as you usually do."

Amber just rolled her eyes at the unsubtle jab and continued eating. She had heard all those comments in so many variations, she was sure her mother could not invent one that would actually hurt her.

The silence lasted for almost five minutes, the only sounds coming from the clanking of utensils and occasional groan of the springs in the sofa as Zara moved around. Amber had finished her meal and was cleaning the dishes when the doors opened without as much as a knock.

"Evening!" came an adult male's voice out of the hallway, and Amber grinned from ear to ear as she placed the last of the plates into the dishwasher.

"Hey, Dad!" Done with the chore, Amber quickly dried off her hands and went to the hallway, where her father Daniel was setting down his backpack and toeing off his shoes.

The man looked a little younger then his ID gave him, mostly because of the infectious smile that rarely left his face when talking to others and strong build he maintained due to his job. The only true sign of his fifty-one years of age was the solidly receding hairline and wrinkles around his eyes.

"Hey, princess," Daniel opened his arms for Amber, who stepped into the embrace and hugged him tightly. "Studies going good?"

"All A-OK," Amber assured him without a shred of guilt. After all, they were going good... when Andromeda was not butting in and reminding her of her birthday.

"Ready for the big 18?" Daniel asked, ruffling her ponytail a bit as she stepped back. "Excited?"

"Suure," Amber said with a charming smile and sarcastic drawl. "Excited to spend half the day writing Math exam."