New Year

Faith was back at Birchmount University and she immediately noticed Trisha and Gwen's attempt to get close to her. She ignored all of their advances. Faith was already counting down the days to the end of the semester. Aside from wanting to change roommates, Faith was also looking forward to the end of the semester because she was excited for the global travellers' competitions.

The basketball team was preparing for a match with a neighbouring university at the end of January and Faith was lucky enough to join their practice sessions. The boys noticed that Faith and Banji were closer than they were the previous semester.

"You guys are like best friends now ay?" Josh interrupted a conversation Faith and Banji were having after a practice session.

"Yeah we happened to run into each other at a festival during the holidays" Banji replied.

"Oh I see. That festival in the capital right?"

" Yeah, Coeur de Cher." Banji affirmed and turned to face Faith and they continued whispering.

Josh wondered what secrets they shared and why they had to speak in whispers. Whispering was a precaution the two took so that non-travellers would not know about travellers.

Their conversations were filled with stories about their travel dormitories and the community of travellers who graduated from the dormitory system. Faith was excited about the community of travellers outside the dormitories. It sounded really vibrant and fun.

"But how do travellers find one another outside the dormitories?" Faith asked Banji.

"You are usually given a couple of T-bands when you are leaving your dormitory. Has no one ever told you about those?"

No one had ever told Faith about T-bands. T-bands were glowing gold wrist bands that travellers wore to find other travellers. They were invisible to the non-traveller's eye. Banji told Faith about T-bands.

" My friend who recently left Pinewood gave me three of the T-bands he was given. It goes against the rules so I did not tell anyone. I brought them with me to my on-campus residence. Since we are far from the eagle eyes of the authorities at the dorms, maybe we can wear one each and go out to try our luck."

Faith was never one to break the rules but she was so excited for the adventures that awaited them. Her face lit up and she started to jump joyfully.

Josh who was secretly observing them from a distance, went up to them to let them know that the other players were leaving the court. Josh walked Faith to her residence building and struck up conversation during the walk.

"You seem to really hit it off with Banji ay?"

" Yeah he is really nice." Faith answered shortly leaving no chance for a follow up question.

Josh was different from normal. He was gloomy.

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When Faith got back to room 210, Trisha and Gwen offered her some left over pizza. Faith decided to give them a chance since she had given them the cold shoulder for a long time.

When Trisha started to talk, Faith realized they had a motive and were not sincere about being close to her.

"Is it true that you are in a relationship with Josh? People argue about whether you are dating Josh or JJ." Trisha asked.

"I am not dating anyone," Faith replied annoyed.

"Don't worry, we will not tell anyone and are not interested in any of them. I was wondering since you are close to the basket ball team, can you set me up with Banji?" Trisha asked.

Faith was upset at the girls but tried to hide it. " I don't know if I could be of help. I will see what I can do." With no intention of actually bringing up the topic with Banji, Faith went to take a shower.

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Banji and Faith left campus one afternoon and went into the city of Birchmount to meet local travellers. Birchmount University was named after the city.

"Should we go in here to grab something to eat before we go traveller hunting? My treat." Banji said to Faith with a smile as they approached a small restaurant.

"Or maybe we could start searching from here. It won't hurt to wear the T-bands now."

So they did. They went into the restaurant, took their seats and placed their order. While waiting for their food, Faith scanned every wrist she could see for a golden glow. Least did she expect to see it on a waitress.

"A traveller" she shouted. Faith was glad to spot a traveller in the city.

"Be careful, we do not want to draw the non travellers' attention to ourselves." Banji warned.

The traveller waitress brought their food to them. Hey, I am Keisha, it is not safe to talk now, plus I am in the middle of my shift. If you want to become friends, come back here when my shift ends at 5pm and we can hang out. Faith and Banji decided to stop the search for travellers and go back to campus after eating since they made plans with Keisha for later.

Keisha was indeed waiting for them in front of the restaurant at 5pm. Before the duo got a chance to even greet her, she started with the questions.

"First things first. What year are you from? Please tell me you are from a further time than me. Most travellers here are from the past. Which Cher dormitory were you guys in? When did you graduate from the system? Do you work or are you in school? When is your death year? I try not to make deep connections with people who are going to die soon. It hurts." Keisha flashed them a smile as a period to her speech.

"Can we answer now?" Banji asked taken aback by her attack of questions. Keisha gave the green light by nodding.

"Maybe we should find somewhere to sit, my legs could give in anytime now." Faith said to the other two.

Keisha led them to her car. Faith and Banji sat in the backseat and Keisha was in the driver's seat. There, the conversation continued.

"To answer your question, I am Faith and I am from 2020 and Banji is from 2022. We didn't..."

"Ooh there is not much time between our years but you are still from further than me. I am from 2016. I was born in 1997. Oops sorry for doing that. I have a bad habit of cutting people off." Keisha interrupted before Faith could land.

"That is okay. Faith reassured her.

"We are not from here, we are just university students here. I am from the Pinewood dormitory in the north of Cher and Faith is from Huckleberry in the capital. We have not graduated from the dormitory system yet." Banji answered hoping they had covered all of the questions Keisha asked earlier.

"You haven't graduated from the dormitory system and you have T-bands? That is impressive. Sounds like you guys would be fun to hang out with. Have you ever been to a travel club?"

"A what?" Banji asked.

"A travel club. It is basically a club for travellers. There you can meet people from as far back as the 1880s up to the 2080s. But you cannot meet people from time periods outside this range because you are only allowed to time travel within a century in the past or the future. They play music from the past and present and there are live performances of songs from the future. You cannot take anything physical with you when you are time travelling so it is not like people from the future can put the songs on a pen drive or CD and bring it here. Even if that was possible, the technology of this generation may not support such storage devices. So travellers from the future who are good at music play and sing the songs from their time live. There is so much to eat and drink there. You can hear so many interesting stories there. The walls of a travel club are usually soundproof so they never attract the attention of non-travellers."

"Sounds fun but how do you find a travel club and are they invisible to non-travellers?" Faith asked.

"The entrance to travel clubs are very unique, a non-traveller would never guess it is an entrance to a building. It could be a wall, an emergency door at a public building or an out of service elevator. Travellers can recognize travel clubs when they are wearing a T-band. The phrase "travel club" is written in a golden glow similar to the glow of T-bands. Once the T-bands sense a travel club nearby, they make the traveller invisible to non-travellers so they can enter the club undetected."

Faith was getting excited at the thought of going to a travel club. "Is there a travel club here in Birchmount?" She asked.

"Yes there is and I can take you there if you guys have nothing to do."

"I have a class at 7pm but I am ready to ditch it for this. Are you busy Banji?" Faith hoped he was not.

"No. Let's go."

Keisha started the car engine.

They arrived. As soon as they got down from the car, Faith and Banji felt a slight fever as they walked towards the travel club.

"If you are feeling feverish, it is probably because it is your first time going invisible. Your fever would be gone when we enter the travel club. You would get used to the transition after two or three times. Non-travellers cannot see us right now. Oh I forgot to tell you, there is a weird dress code here. You cannot reveal too much above your knee. Your thighs, chest and belly area should be covered. There were too many complaints by those from the 1800s and early 1900s about how naked everyone was. They were finding it hard to adjust to the drastic change in environment. So the overseeing world decided to be considerate of them and put this rule in place. I should've told you before we got here. I guess it is because it is winter but you guys are dressed according to the dress code anyway. I love the century rule when it comes to travelling because we can phase out people from a time with totally different values. Just ten years ago, there were people from the 1870s here but now there are aren't. The oldest time period a traveller could be from is the 1880s. We are here." Keisha ended her speech on arrival at the entrance to the travel club.

They were at a chain-link fence off a main road. There was a sign next to the fence that said "Danger, authorized persons only". Across the chain link fence itself, the words "TRAVEL CLUB" were written in a deep golden glow.

Faith and Banji made eye contact. They were very excited and they could each tell the other was as well. They went inside and it was marvellous. The last time Faith was this excited was at Boraland. Faith suddenly remembered Sarah and all her other room 5 friends. She wished she could share this experience with them. She made a mental note to bring Sarah there in September because Sarah was to attend Birchmount university in September that year.

The travel club was filled with so many lights. It had both a vintage and a modern vibe. If modern was the 1980s. There were disco balls everywhere and the place was very spacious.

"Do you guys drink?" Keisha asked as she walked up to the bar to order some soju. Soju was not a local alcoholic drink of Cher. It was not even popular in the Salem continent. It was from the Dunia continent but was very popular in travel clubs across Cher.

Faith and Banji got some soft drinks on Keisha's tab.

"Let's drink and dance away." Keisha said. That would've been nice except Keisha got drunk fast. In perfect Keisha fashion, she got dull and inactive because she was drunk. So the trio stayed at their table. No dancing.

"Let me tell you my story." Keisha was ready to tell her life story before any of the other two even asked.

"Oh wait! I love that song! Haru man neowa naega bla bla itamyeon." Keisha sang along poorly to a song in a foreign language that was being performed live.

"This song was my favourite in my first life. I think it was released a year or two before my death. Those boys from Goryeo are so talented." Keisha said and her forehead crashed on to the table.

Keisha suddenly adjusted into a sitting position a minute later. "Let me tell you my story."