Full synopsis:
In a world where the existence of savants is well-known public knowledge, all savants are famous - whether they have a normal job or not, they are famous simply for what they are. It's a glamorous lifestyle, one with many benefits, and nearly all savants love the attention.
Non-savants, just ordinary humans, adore the savants and practically worship them. They're constantly wanting new exclusive news about who's got what power, who's dating who, who's wearing what, who's going to which event... And they also love to hear the action stories of savants fights, no matter how dangerous they may be.
Lottie Rose Lovelle loves her life. Being a savant, actress and model, she is highly well known and has a better life than she could ever ask for. She's a cheery, happy girl, and has the exact same kind of people in her life. That is, until she meets Victor Benedict.
Victor is boring, glum and depressive. He doesn't know how to have fun, nor does he intend on trying to. Lottie would usually avoid people like him but he is unavoidable: the two have a connection, one that she has never and will never have with anybody else.
With the pressure of the whole world watching them and the pressure of their demanding jobs, can they ever find a way to be together without any complications? Or will they crumble, destined to never get a real chance together?
Chapter one
"Look at earth from outer space
Everyone must find a place
Give me time and give me space
Give me real; don't give me fake"
Politik - Coldplay
"Welcome back after that short break. We at S! News are now at the biggest event of the year for savants! Savants from all over the world have travelled to be here, to be reunited with old friends and meet new ones. And who knows, maybe they'll meet their soulfinder, their one true soulmate, here tonight?" Luna Wilson, a busty blonde TV presenter said into the camera before looking down the red carpet as a new limo pulled up and the fans held back by the barricade and security started screaming in excitement. As the next pair of celebrity savants stepped out of the limousine, Luna's face lit up. "And next up to arrive on the red carpet here in London are the superstar model best friends, Finley Devlin and Lottie Rose Lovelle! As you all know, Finley and Lottie met a few years ago when they did a photoshoot for Vivienne Westwood's 2010 collection and have been friends ever since! Both models and both absolutely gorgeous, they sure would make one amazing couple... It's a shame Finley's gay!"
The camera turned to get close-ups of the two as they got closer and posed for the photographers, letting the viewers get a better look at their outfits. Finley was wearing a simple grey Armani suit with a dark red tie, his dark blonde hair slicked back into a neat style. Lottie's dress was very revealing and that's what was in fashion lately: women wearing dresses that revealed a lot, but weren't too slutty. There was a fine line and Luna had already seen a few that had got it a bit wrong, but Lottie definitely wasn't one of them.
The dress was dark red in colour - the same colour as Finley's tie, clearly they had coordinated - and was floor-length with long sleeves of lace. The dress was backless as well as having a long V cut in the front, showing the edge of Lottie's D-cup breasts and the top of her flat stomach. At 6"4, Lottie was a tall young lady - all models were required to be tall though, of course - and one of her long legs were revealed in the long slit going up the left side of her dress that stopped right at the top of her thigh. She was wearing flat black sandals that had small silver studs and dark eye make-up. Even without wearing high heels, she was a little taller than Finley. Her dark brown hair was in loose curls to the middle of her back.
"Well folks," Luna said into her microphone over the sound of the fans screaming at the numerous savants walking the carpet. "I think I can predict who the sexiest and best dressed woman will be in the critics' opinion! Finley, Lottie! Over here!"
Winona, a publicist who represented both Lottie and Finley, heard Luna and recognised her from S! News, the worldwide best news channel for savants. She ushered the two of them over to Luna and stood back, out of the way, whilst the pair posed for a few more photographs before turning their attention to Luna.
"Finley, Lottie! Good evening," Luna grinned, fully aware of the cameras that were trained on their faces.
"Luna, it's so lovely to see you again," Lottie replied with a smile.
"Thank you! Now, I have to say that you two look absolutely fabulous, as per usual. Lottie, that dress is just astounding. I don't know what I was expecting from you, but it wasn't this! Amazing. Who's the designer?"
Lottie answered, "The designer is Karla Benedict, the dress is from her new collection which hasn't been released yet. Even though we've never met, Mrs Benedict personally sent me the dress for tonight and left a lovely note saying she thought it would suit me perfectly. And how could I not wear it? Karla Benedict is practically the Fashion Queen!"
"Oh my, a Karla Benedict dress!" Luna gushed. 'Fashion Queen' was definitely the best phrase to describe the savant designer with; her dresses were always worn by the biggest celebrities and were always ahead of other designers. It was a dream of Luna's to own at least one Karla Benedict dress but unfortunately Karla's cheapest dress cost £10,000 and the others a lot more than that, and Luna could not afford that. "Does this mean that Mrs Benedict will finally choose you two to model for her new collection? We all know that she always personally chooses the models and you two have never been chosen."
"Well Luna," Finley spoke. "You know we would love to model together for Karla, but unfortunately it hasn't happened yet. As far as we know, she hasn't chosen her models for this collection yet... But who knows? Fingers crossed we'll finally get our turn."
"Well I hope you do! Finley, as this a savant event and you're not a savant, how does it feel to be here today?"
"I'm here to accompany Lottie, she hates going to events on her own," Finley laughed, his beautiful features and his bright green eyes simply lighting up as he did so. "Of course it's a privilege to be one of the few ordinary folk that get to be here today, I'm very grateful and excited."
Winona came over then, motioning for the interview to end so the two could walk the rest of the way down the red carpet and into the building. They quickly said goodbye to Luna, who thanked them for talking to her, and posed for a few last photos before following Winona into the biggest party of the year.
The Benedict family were very well-known all over the world and not just because they were savants. Karla Benedict was the best fashion designer around for years and Saul Benedict was a highly successful film director. Will and Zed Benedict were both actors, having starred in quite a few films, some of them being their father's films; Uriel Benedict was a singer and songwriter, having released four albums that all reached number one in charts all around the world; Xavier Benedict was a world-class skier, having competed in many competitions and won, as well as being predicted to be in the next Winter Olympics; Yves Benedict was well-known for creating security programs for Apple Inc. and had been given an award last year for 'genius of the year'. Trace and Victor Benedict were the only two with ordinary jobs - Trace being a policeman and Victor being an FBI Agent - but they were still just as famous as their parents and brothers. The whole family had even been in their own TV show: Keeping Up With The Benedicts, which many people were hoping got a second series.
Victor accepted the fame and was used to it. After all, he had been in the public eye since before he was even born, when his mum was still pregnant with him. Once upon a time, an FBI Agent wouldn't be famous like he was, their identity would be hidden and their job not popular enough to bring him fame. But that had changed about sixty-five years ago when the knowledge of savants was made public knowledge, and Victor hated that. Just because he was used to the fame, it didn't mean he enjoyed it; he knew it was unavoidable though, and he had to admit that sometimes he did enjoy being recognised in the streets. Sometimes.
There were some perks to this though, like this event. Well, Victor wasn't enjoying himself there but at least nearly everybody else was. It was at this same event a certain amount of years ago that his parents met and realized they were soulfinders - that was what many people did here every year: asked around for people their age and tried and tried to find their soulfinder. Nobody got annoyed by the constant questioning because they all understood the need to find their better half. There were other people simply enjoying themselves, meeting people from other parts of the world or meeting up with old friends. Victor liked the whole idea and concept of the event, but he was never one to enjoy parties and although his mother told him to try and see if his soulfinder was here, he didn't want to - what if he got his hopes up, only to be disappointed at not finding her? He wouldn't be able to emotionally cope with that, he knew he wouldn't, not tonight anyway. There had been a lot going on at work for him recently and another thing added to the pile of things that suck would weigh heavily on him.
Beside him at their table - everybody had a reserved seat at one of the tables for the meal later on but more than half of the people were mingling on the dance floor and smiling for photos for one of the event's private photographers - sat two of his younger brothers, Xav and Zed, who were looking out at the crowd and discussing which girls they thought were hot. Blocking their conversation out of his mind, Victor looked around the large hall, wondering when would be an appropriate time to leave.
"Definitely not yet," Karla Benedict replied to his thoughts - this instantly reminded Victor to put his shields back up - as she lowered herself into her seat and Saul sat down next to her, taking her hand into his. Karla was wearing one of her own designs, a demure black dress that flattered her figure and was perfect for somebody of her age. "You're not even trying to enjoy yourself, Victor. Your brothers are," she added. "Apart from Xav and Zed, the others are all out talking to other people."
Victor shook his head to argue with her, simply because he could. "Actually, Yves snuck into the bathroom about twenty minutes ago to work on the new Android App he's developing."
"Well, I'm talk to him about that later," she replied with a short sigh before looking at something behind Victor. "Ah, Lottie Rose Lovelle and Finley Devlin!" She rose to her feet as the two of them got closer to the Benedict's table and gave them both a little hug and kiss on each cheek. "It is so lovely to finally meet the pair of you. Lottie, you look ravishing in that dress, I just knew it would be perfect for you."
Victor looked up at the young woman and completely agreed with his mother: Lottie really did look ravishing. A lot of the other women here looked beautiful too and a few were wearing Karla Benedict dresses, but this was the first person that didn't look as if she were trying too hard. He knew that there was a lot of speculation about which two models his mother would choose to promote her new collection and that these two were the public's favourite choice, but he knew that Karla wouldn't pay attention to their choice. She chose who she personally wanted and liked to make sure they had a clean image in the press before the collection was released. She always chose the models about a week before the photoshoot, cutting it very short indeed, and if the model was already booked or had a busy schedule... Well, they'd simply change it because this was Karla Benedict and a photoshoot for her collection could no doubt make you the most in-demand model around.
Lottie's cheeks blushed a rosy pink and she smiled modestly as she replied. "Why thank you, Mrs Benedict. You look lovely as well. I owe this to you, you're the one who sent me the dress. I love it so much, even if it does show a lot more flesh than I'm used to."
"I don't think anyone's complaining about you showing too much flesh, cupcake," Xavier, always known as the flirter and charmer in the family, said to Lottie which caused her to blush even deeper.
Karla frowned at Xav before turning back to the two models. "I saw the shoot both of you did for OK! Magazine and I have to admit, you have the perfect image together. It's very rare to find two models that fit together so perfectly."
"That's what everybody says," Finley laughed. "We just do our job and it looks great because our smiles at each other are real, not fake. That's our secret."
Karla laughed. "Well, it looks like you're enjoying yourselves here. It's always great to have so many savants in one place- it's the perfect opportunity for soulfinders to meet under the right circumstances. I just wish my son would try and enjoy himself instead of just sitting here miserably."
"Mum," Victor replied in a flat voice. He couldn't believe she would bring it up in front of two complete strangers, it made him seem pathetic and boring. "You can't force me to have fun. Besides, it'd just be weird to go up to a stranger and conversation with them. Who does that?"
"That's a fair point," Lottie said in an English accent, a contrast to the American Benedicts. "Finley was just about to go and talk to a few friends of his and I don't know them so I wasn't that interested to go with him... I was going to head to the bar. You can come with me if you want."
"But you don't even know me-"
"He'd love to," Karla interrupted her son. "Go on, Victor. It's better than sitting here with your parents, isn't it?"
"Fine," he said through clenched teeth before sighing. He stood up and gestured forwards, silently cursing to himself for letting his mother tell him what to do. He was twenty-one years old, for God's sake, why should he let her? But he knew that his father would say he was disrespecting his mum and Karla would embarrass him even more and not give up until he agreed to go, so he knew he'd made the right choice. He forced a smile onto his face as he looked at Lottie and said, "lead the way."
Author's Note -
Hello! If you've gotten this far down the page, I'm going to presume you've just read the chapter above so thank you for taking the time to read my writing! I'm new to writing on here, so please bear with me, I know it's not perfect.
I plan on making my chapters longer by the way, this was simply to introduce the main characters and their lifestyles.
If you can, please leave a review to let me know what you think so far and whether or not you think I need to change something or make any improvements.
I'm not quite sure when I'll next update, it takes me a while to write a chapter and I do have a life, so for now I'll say once a week updates but that may change.