Chapter 8: Award Winner

IMANI

Happiness flowed through Imani, warming her skin like the rays of an early summer sun. Her spirit was elevated and her steps felt lighter as she headed for her bedroom door, ready to leave home for work.

She had received a couple of calls and e-mails from different awards committee after she woke up by six AM. The Lasker Award, Rykov Award, Kramer Medical Prize and Nour Award.

She was going to be awarded those awards and she was feeling extremely giddy at the moment.

"Congratulations!" Desmond shouted in Imani's face as she opened the door and stepped out of her room, tossing up a handful of confetti that rained down on her head.

He was in his school uniform. A white button down shirt, dark blue long pants and dark blue blazers. He was also wearing a pair of Kron sneakers and had a backpack strapped to his back.

Imani was wearing a high neck T-shirt, a pair of jeans with a Kron handbag and sneakers since the institute's official dress code was "clothes, please".

Her face went blank as she stared at him, then at the confetti on the floor, then back at him again. She raised a brow.

He had done this for a while after she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine but he stopped a week ago.

'Looks like he's starting this again,' she thought.

"Pick those up," she said monotonously as she walked past him and into the hallway.

"Oh, come on. I'm trying to be nice here," he stated. "Lars!"

The vacuum cleaner down the hallway shone blue after hearing its name and let out a series of beeps before it zoomed past Imani to where it had been called. It whirred when it got to Desmond before it sucked the confetti into itself. It circled Desmond once and let out a beep before it zoomed away again.

"Shouldn't you be on your way to school?" Imani asked her brother as she walked down the stairs with him in tow.

He was a high school senior at Barnes Academy of Science and Technology. The academy started lectures at eight thirty AM and ended by twelve PM. It was currently eight thirty-four AM according to the holographic clock in the foyer.

The crystal chandelier which hung like a cloud above the room's centre illuminated their surroundings. The foyer walls were a grey-blue-green colour and it always reminded Imani of a cloudy sky before a rainstorm. There was a hand knotted silk rug which had a luxurious shine in the middle of the room. A couple of framed pictures were hanging on the wall and vases were on marble topped consoles.

The painting of their parents caught Imani's eyes. Willard and Nia Tallerico. They had been amazing people and even more amazing parents. Imani had followed in both of her parents footsteps to become a scientist while Desmond wanted to become an engineer.

The corner of her lips turned down and she felt a pang of sadness when she remembered that their wedding anniversary would have been in three days if they were still alive.

They had died in an accident on their way back from work four years ago. Their car had driven through vampire territory when the vampires and werewolves were in a fight. They were not the only ones, a lot of people died that day.

"I wanted to congratulate you before I left but it seems I'm not appreciated," he said as he wiped away tears that weren't on his face.

Imani glanced at him when she got to the bottom of the staircase. "It's been more than four months, Des."

"I'm talking about the new awards you're getting," he stated as he stopped next to her and she narrowed her eyes at him.

'How did he know? I only found out this morning,' she thought.

She tilted her head at him and he muttered a 'what?'

"Were you eavesdropping?" she asked and he pressed his lips together before he let out a laugh.

"It was on the morning news, woman."

'Crap,' she thought as her eyes widened. She quickly went over to the window by the front door and looked outside. No reporters or drones were outside yet but they would be there soon.

"Where's Lola?" she asked her brother.

Lola was the one that had been dropping her off at work and picking her up after work for two weeks now. Imani also had a car but it was currently at the service station because it stopped responding to voice control.

"Her boyfriend picked her up. She said you should take her car to work." He muttered absent-mindedly as he texted his best friend, Kyle Bridges, to let him know that he was about to leave for school.

Imani hadn't met Lola's boyfriend before. Lola rarely talked about him and all Imani knew about the man was that his name was Takeda.

"Okay, buy me something to celebrate on your way back from work." He gave the bag on his shoulders a heave before he saluted his sister, "Goodbye."

------

"Mrs. Tallerico, one more question. Just one more question."

Multiple voices kept calling out to get Imani's attention as she hurried into the lobby of the Barnes Institute of Medical Research. The security guards that escorted from her car to the building prevented them from following her into the lobby.

'I really need to take some days off,' she pondered as she glanced at the reporters outside over her shoulder. They were more than the twelve people that were waiting for her outside the institute last night.

The walls of the institute's lobby were painted an ivory colour. Antique gold light fixtures hung from the ceiling and the floors were polished concrete. There were a couple of couches surrounding centre tables next to an electrical fireplace on both sides of the room. A holographic clock was in the middle of the room and there were three televisions in front of the couches.

Imani waved and muttered a 'good morning' at the female receptionists who were standing behind the reception counter. They replied her greeting with a smile as she headed into the hallway on her left.

"Miss Tallerico," one of them called out and she stopped before she turned around. "Mrs. Barnes is around and she wants to see you."

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