Expectations

Sara tapped her foot while waiting in the lobby of the restaurant. She was going out for drinks with her best friend, Phoebe, to celebrate the two of them getting into law school. The two of them had grown up together, and both had bonded about having younger brothers who they loved to complain about. As they had gotten older, they had matured a bit, but had grown close enough that their bond only got stronger. They both attended the same college, and when Phoebe said she was thinking about law school, Sara was elated, because she had the same plan. They had roomed together, and while there were a few squabbles that come with living together, they'd both been happy with their situation.

Neither Sara nor Phoebe were that active in the dating scheme, Phoebe only having one boyfriend before and Sara having two, none of which lasted longer than a month or two. Sara didn't mind though, it gave her more time to focus on her studies and eventual career, and she had all of the camaraderie that she needed with her roommate. She rarely felt unfulfilled, but when she did, always found something to do to pass the time, whether that be working on a big project or picking up a new hobby, like the piano.

~~

Phoebe checked her watch. 6:01. Dang it, she was late. Phoebe's family was consistently late, but her and her brother Turner were always upset by this growing up, which led the both of them to usually be time-sensitive. She cursed herself for staying after her final class to talk to the professor when she knew she made plans with her best friend in a few hours.

"Sorry, sorry I'm late!" Phoebe said as she found where Sara was sitting in the restaurant.

"Nah, it's okay, it's only two minutes," Sara said nonchalantly. "Plus, today's a celebration, a chance for you to unwind for once!"

"I know, I know, I just feel bad," Phoebe said, frazzled.

"Seriously," Sara said, calming her down. "Relax. I wasn't waiting long, I was a little late too."

That wasn't entirely the truth, Sara had gotten there probably 15 seconds after 6, but it was mainly just to calm Phoebe down. This is traditionally how the two of them functioned; Phoebe keeping Sara on track and being a little uptight about everything, and Sara calming Phoebe down but being a little lazy about everything. They really functioned exactly like a married couple, except without the desire to have sex with one another.

"If you say so," Phoebe relented, her blood pressure coming back down again.

Sara excused herself to go to the bathroom for a second to wash her hands. As she opened the door, she thought that Phoebe may have gotten her a bit worked up a bit, because she started to get a small headache. That was just the precursor, her suddenly falling over on the tiled floor.

"Please welcome...Sara!" Kendra said as Sara walked down the path.

Turner looked visibly relieved when he saw Sara exit the door, and not his sister Phoebe. His sister being here would've been the last straw. Well, the last straw came a while ago, but that would've been too much for him to handle.

"Our sources say that Sara was your first childhood crush when she came over to spend time with your sister, so naturally, here she is!" Kendra continued.

That was true. Turner had always fantasized about Sara, since she spent a lot of afternoons with Phoebe since she lived out in the boondocks, whereas Phoebe lived a short walk away from the town limits. However, Becca looked over at Turner with a raised eyebrow when she heard Kendra say that.

"Is that so?" Becca said, more curious than angry.

"I-I mean, yeah," Turner answered. "It was like when I was 12, though, never when I was with you."

"Just curious," Becca finished.

"Curious or a little suspicious of your 'lover'?" Paige asked rhetorically, antagonizing Becca with the over-the-top air quotes.

"Uh...hi, what is this?" Sara said as she got within earshot of the lounge, stopping another bickering match.

"Ah, hello, Sara," Kendra then introduced herself and the rest of the crew sitting around. "I assume you read the paper in there?"

Sara nodded nervously.

"Perfect!" If Kendra noticed Sara's nerves, she either didn't pick up on it or didn't care. "We'll re-explain everything when everyone's here, but for now, you can take a seat right there next to Abby."

"It's Abigail," Abigail grumbled, holding her towel closer to her body. "You don't get to call me Abby."

"So...you're the harem master?" Sara said, focusing her attention on Turner.

"That's what they tell me," he resigned. "It wasn't my choice to be here, just like it wasn't yours or any of these other gals'. Apparently we're in some sort of alternate dimension or otherworldly realm or something like that though, so we're stuck."

Kendra had assumed that if she brought Phoebe here, then Turner would be inconsolable. But Sara? He wasn't as close or emotionally attached to Sara. Heck, he probably still found her attractive, so this wasn't entirely a bad thing for him.

"Always having to fix his mistakes," Kathryn said under her breath.

She had a bit of a lucky break, being offered to help train the new employees even though she herself wasn't that well-versed in the field. She did work with a team of people, the youngest there, but still felt that it was a bit strange that she had been given that responsibility. It came with better pay though, so it was worth it. Plus, she got to work with some great people.

One of those people was Turner, whose work she had been looking over earlier that day, highlighting mistakes and disparities to discuss with him tomorrow. He was a real go-getter, similar to her, and as was common, he had lots of flawed methods, but she knew that her and the rest of the training team would help him get up to speed on everything.

"Alright, that's enough for today, I don't wanna overwork myself, especially with my job getting more difficult," she said after a few more minutes, packing things up at the firm. She commonly worked late, mainly in order to dodge the traffic, but also so she could sleep in an extra hour in the morning.

She walked out to the empty parking garage, most of the other workers having already left promptly at 5. While she twirled her lanyard around her finger and whistled a turn, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket with a phone call. Glancing at it, it was an unknown number, but the area code was from around the area, so maybe it wasn't another Nigerian prince who wanted to transfer his fortune to her or a robot trying to tell her that she needed to renew her car's extended warranty.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Is this Kathryn?" the voice on the other end of the line asked. She couldn't place who it was, but they sounded like they needed something urgently.

"Yes...?" she answered, confused.

"Oh, thank you. You haven't left work, right?"

"Not yet, I was actually walking to my car right now."

"Good, I'll meet you there."

"Who do I have here anyways?"

"Tim, you know, from the third floor?"

"Oh...right, Tim." Tim was another one of the guys who was on the training team with her, although she hadn't had much interaction with him, mainly spending her time and attention with the actual newcomers.

"Hope you're okay with working a long night, there's a lot that we have to go over."

"Is it urgent?" she asked, exasperated. "I don't fancy working until like 11 or something like that."

"Yes it is, but I need to be there in person to discuss it with you."

"Okay, fine. I'll meet you here."

"See you in 15," Tim said while hanging up the line.

That was really weird. Kathryn had no idea what Tim wanted help with, because surely she would've heard something about this if he did, right? Also, how did he get her number? She didn't remember giving it to him, and she couldn't think of any mutual friends between the two of them.

Agh, thinking about this was making her head hurt a bit. She sat in the stairwell of the parking garage that she had started ascending again to get back into the building as her headache grew worse.

"Fuck, where'd I put my ibuprofen?" was her last thought.

"Nice to see that y'all are a bit more relaxed, especially you, Becca," Kendra said.

"I wouldn't say 'relaxed', per se, but I don't hate you as much as I would if you brought Phoebe here," Becca said, her voice still full of malice.

"Well, that's good to hear from you," Kendra responded, ignoring the tone behind Becca's voice. "Anyways, we have our next contestant coming here. Some people have a work wife, and Turner, although he hasn't worked there long, he already has someone who looks like she's going to be just that for him. Please welcome Kathryn!"

The tall, dark haired woman stepped through the doors and made a beeline for Kendra, looking very upset.

"Hello, Kathryn, as you probably assumed, I'm K-" Kendra started.

"You, fucker, are going to bring me back to Washington," Kathryn's face couldn't have gotten any darker if she tried. "I was about to meet with one of my coworkers with something urgent."

"Urgent?" Turner stood up, alarmed. "What is it?"

"I don't know," she said honestly, her face softening as she addressed Turner. "Tim didn't tell me, just told me to meet him there. And you," she looked back at Kendra, "are going to get me back there as soon as possible. I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here, I don't know what you're planning on doing with me or Turner or what these other five gals are here for, but I'm meeting with someone about something probably important in 15 minutes."

"Kathryn, I wish I could, but that would undermine the whole process of random selection that we do in this game," Kendra explained. "If we let you go, then we could just let anyone leave with any random emergency."

"Well fuck your stupid game," Kathryn answered, her voice rising. "I need to go back ASAP. That means 'as soon as possible', in case your lack of common sense affected your language skills."

"Relax, relax," Kendra said. "We already alerted Tim, and he's already called someone else to help him."

"So what, you're just getting rid of my job so I can be on your dumb porn show? Get real."

"Look, you don't need to know all of the details, but we are keeping everything back on Earth running smoothly without you so that when you go back home, you can slot right back into your life. That is, if you even still want to."

Kathryn broke down there. The stress of the evening, mixed with the recent urgent unknown situation that Kathryn likely wouldn't know about until the end of whatever show she was on, and now getting teleported to a different planet...probably a different dimension or universe? It was too much.

Sara immediately jumped up and led Kathryn to the couch, patting the seat next to her.

"Kendra, that's too far," Emma chimed in.

"I don't make the rules," Kendra explained. "There are people above me who are the ones calling the shots for who to bring here. Don't shoot the messenger."

Kendra looked genuinely sullen, but she couldn't really do much about it. As she said, there were people who were telling her what to do. She kept her spirits up though, and introduced the next contestant with a smile returning to her face.

"We only have a few more people left to introduce," Kendra said, with her 'camera voice' obviously back on. "Our next contestant is someone a little farther removed from Turner. A 23-year-old nursing student, please welcome Charlotte!"