After a full week of recording for her album, Cyrielle was finally alone at home. Vincent had filmed what he needed to, and Julie had gone to the office to contact the manufacturers that would produce the CDs, and settle the date for the release on streaming ptforms. Cyrielle could rex.

  She woke up at 9am, very te by her own standards, and stayed in bed for another hour, enjoying the morning sunlight and her soft bnket. When she finally got up, she went to the kitchen and made herself slices of toast that she ate with salted butter.

  ‘Now, that’s what life is supposed to be about !’

  She wouldn’t be able to enjoy this peace for long, but just for today, she wanted to spend an entire day in her pajamas, without even brushing her hair.

  ‘Who cares ? I have ‘fwless skin’ and ‘better hair’, I won’t become ugly if I skip a day of beauty care.’

  [Well, your visuals won’t drop, and you earned a bit of rest.]

  ‘I know, right ?’

  She had somehow gotten close with the system. Since it could converse more freely with her, and was always by her side, it was natural. But it still had some strange moments, unable to freely express what it wanted to say, so discussion tended to be cut short.

  After emptying her gss of orange juice, she washed her hands and entered her atelier. She had the whole day to create whatever she wanted, but first, she had something to settle.

  ‘I said I would set goals for myself. Should I do it ability by ability ?’

  She had so many skills, it would be fun to have a project set up for each of them. She took a piece of paper and started writing a list.

  ‘First, the album for the music category. And… I don’t know… A big concert ? Like at the Arkéa Arena ? No, I will never reach the level to perform there. Let’s write ‘concert in front of a thousand people’. It seems better.’

  She was not very long away from crossing the first line, and that made her happy.

  ‘Then, for ‘home and attire design’... I really want to start my own collection. That would be great. Also, maybe publish a book with my outfit designs ? Then what about doing the same with my interior designs, when I will have collected enough ?’

  In that way, she wrote all the goals she had for each of her abilities. The st ability to write was ‘studying’.

  ‘I don’t know what to do with that… ‘Studying’ is very unique. Oh, maybe I could try to obtain a lot of diplomas ? There are quite a few exams that you can attend as a free candidate, if you worked at least a year in the same domain. Yes, let’s do this, it will make my mom happy !’

  And so, her list of goals was made.

  -Make an album

  -Concert in front of a thousand people

  -Make a collection

  -Fashion book

  -Home decor book

  -Makeup lookbook

  -Model for a runway

  -Win a rosette in horse jumping

  -Having 5 diplomas

  Cyrielle stretched delightedly, folded the paper, and hid it under her keyboard.

  ‘Now, where do I start ?’

  The preparation for her album was done, so she didn’t need to worry about it.

  ‘For the books I want to publish… I should buy a scanner printer. I’ll text that to Julie. Then, I should finish my stage outfits for the concert, and prepare the tracklist.’

  Cyrielle was very happy with herself, and took the garment she was working on to the living room. She sat comfortably on the sofa, and turned on the TV to watch something while she was sewing the buttons. The show featured a familiar man, a former actor turned TV host that she had met earlier this year.

  “Welcome to ‘Meeting of a star’, today I am joined by Mademoiselle Cyrielle, the queen of issues that nobody can ignore. Good morning, Mademoiselle Cyrielle.”

  She silently watched the show, cringing a little bit inside.

  ‘It’s different from seeing me in a picture, it’s so embarrassing !’

  Despite her shame, the Cyrielle on TV did pretty well. She was elegant, her voice was nice, and she was absolutely fantastic when she sang with the guitar. Then, came the unexpected announcement.

  “Well, it was meant to be a surprise, but in fact I am currently working on my first album. I have already composed a few songs that you will be able to hear at the World Music Day concert.”

  Cyrielle nodded while listening to the show.

  ‘Yes, I think I was pretty natural. I guess the Internet will go wild again, right ?’

  She sighed and turned her phone to silent mode. It was her resting day, she didn’t want to answer anyone. As soon as her segment with Bernard Leroux ended, she changed the channel, trying to find something she liked. She ended up in the middle of a film noir, with a simplistic plot but neat artistic direction. It followed a cssic trope with a detective investigating the murder of a rich dude, and the widow falling in love with him. It wasn’t until the end credit rolled that she suddenly realized an important fact.

  ‘Wait… It was in english ?’

  She hadn’t even noticed. To her ear, every dialogue felt so natural that there was no way she would think it was a foreign nguage.

  ‘Did I become fluent in english ?’

  No, it was way more than that. Not only did she understand the nguage, it didn’t feel foreign at all. She was like a native english speaker. To confirm her theory, she searched on her phone for foreign websites. She could understand as naturally as if it was french. She tried to read the articles out loud, and her thick accent was gone.

  ‘Crazy, that’s crazy… I won’t be angry at you again, Path.’

  [I recall you already said that a few times.]

  ‘Can’t you just take it ?’

  She pouted a bit, but eventually watched another movie and finished sewing the buttons. She went back to her atelier, and looked at the stage outfits dispyed on white mannequins.

  ‘It’s looking good. There is a 15 minute break in the middle of the concert, right ? It should be enough to get changed.’

  Cyrielle took her makeup tools and a piece of paper, and prepared her lookbook for the concert.

  ‘Since the outfit is bck, a lighter eyelid would be better… Which color of blush ? Oh, that would be perfect for the lips.’

  She easily finished this task, and now, only three hours after having finished her breakfast…

  ‘I’m bored. I thought resting at home and focusing on my projects would be fun, but I am so used to running around that my life feels empty when I rest.’

  She looked around her. It wasn’t that she had nothing to do, she had a whole list of projects to work on, but staying at home and being free felt foreign.

  ‘What should I do, now ?’

  [You could start working on your collection, organize the designs you want to include in a book, search for a horse jumping competition you can enter, study for the diplomas you want to obtain, work on your abilities…]

  ‘I know all that ! That’s not the problem !’

  [Or you can call a friend and spend the day with them.]

  ‘... I hadn’t thought of that.’

  Whenever she had a day off in Bordeaux, she would spend it with Julie, going to a tea house or a coffee shop. It was the one activity that made her feel like she was really resting.

  But there was one problem.

  ‘Julie is working.’

  [Is she your only friend ?]

  A few months ago, she would have replied ‘yes’, with the exception of Marius which she wasn’t really close to, but now she had other people around her.

  ‘Thanks, Path.’

  She felt the emotions of the system, satisfaction and a warm fuzzy feeling. Ignoring it, she took out her phone.

  [Me : Are you working today ?]

  The answer came immediately.

  [Coline Fntier : No, I’m completely free ! Why ?]

  [Me : It’s 1pm, did you eat ?]

  [Coline Fntier : No again, I was watching a series on Neytlix. But why ???]

  [Me : If you bring some pastries, we can eat brunch. Here’s the address [Link].]

  [Coline Fntier : I’m coming right now !!!! Don’t change your mind !!!!]

  Cyrielle giggled softly.

  ‘She is so extra.’

  At the same time, a blonde model was running around her apartment, clothes in hand.

  ‘I can’t believe Cyri asked me to come to her house ! I’m so happy !’

  Much like Cyrielle, she was still in her pajamas with a greasy face. She jumped in the shower, washing up in less than five minutes, then did her skincare with one hand while using the hairdryer with the other. It didn’t take her more than 20 minutes to look like her perfect self. Coline ran out the door, locking her apartment as quickly as she could, and jumped in the elevator.

  She didn’t forget to go to a bakery while hiding her face, and in less than an hour since she received the first text, she was rigging Cyrielle’s doorbell. As soon as she saw her, Coline jumped in her arms.

  “You didn’t change your mind, right ?”

  Cyrielle, dressed in her usual high waisted pants and white shirt, smiled elegantly and patted Coline’s head.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  When they entered the apartment, Coline was immediately surprised by the smell.

  “Did you cook ?”

  “Not really. I thought about the brunch suddenly, so I needed to make do with what I had.”

  On the table were pieces of freshly toasted bread, salted butter, apricot and strawberry jam, and various fruit juices. There were also scrambled eggs, ham, and coffee was brewing while an assortment of teas was dispyed on the kitchen counter. Coline ughed.

  “I can tell that you’re usually only at home for breakfast. How is it possible to have that much ?”

  Cyrielle shrugged. She didn’t care much about dinner, since she would sleep soon after anyway, and lunch was usually eaten on the road or at the office. Her favorite meal, and the only one she really ate at home, was breakfast.

  She pointed to Coline’s paper bag.

  “Are those pastries ? That’s a lot.”

  “You told me to bring some !”

  They had fun together while eating, talking about anything but work. What they liked, their favorite animals, if they were the type to sleep a lot…

  “I really haven't had much time off recently… I wanted to go horse riding today, but I have a photoshoot tomorrow, and my manager told me that he would be really angry if I had body aches again !”

  Cyrielle smiled and handed her a paper towel, since she had jam on her nose.

  “I’m sure he won’t be happy either, since you are eating a lot of sugar.”

  “I know, right ! Dieting is so stupid… But I have to do it, because if I take a kilo between the fitting and the photoshoot, the clothes won’t fit me anymore… It’s annoying.”

  “You talk as if you don’t like your job.”

  Coline ughed.

  “You’re right, I shouldn’t do that. It was my dream to be a model. And you, what is your dream ?”

  Cyrielle paused for a second, looking at her splendid apartment. It was surely the happiest she had been in years, but…

  “My dream was to draw. I wanted to be an illustrator.”

  She had almost forgotten.