New Character #2-4: Chad, Amber, Sarah

"Come on, Sarah! We're going to be late!"

Sarah opened the door to her hotel room at the sound of her brother's voice. Chad, four years her age, lowered his hand, which he had earlier used to knock.

"I still don't see why I have to come with you to this", she sighed as she stepped out into the corridor. "It's a law-student-thing."

"It's going to be fun", Amber, Chad's fiancée, said with a smile in her British accented voice. "You'll enjoy it, I promise."

Sarah rolled her eyes, but still followed them to the elevator, all the while trying to straighten her shirt, which had become crumpled while she had lied on the bed re-reading her favourite book. How could she fit in at an event for law students with a crumpled shirt, jeans and a jumper that most would argue was too big for her? She looked nothing like Chad and Amber. Sure, they were not dressed up as if they were going to the world's fanciest dinner-party, but their clothes were sensible and their hairs weren't in a mess. Chad's dark-brown, the same colour as Sarah's, was combed backwards and his beard was trimmed so that he only sported a stylish stubble. Amber's golden blonde curls were pulled back in a pony tail, leaving only a few strands out to frame her face without making the hairstyle look dishevelled. Their shoes were polished and there were no wrinkles on their clothes. No one would look at them and think that they did not belong in a society of well-spoken people with big pay-checks. If Sarah was to earn the same amount of money she could only wish that she, one day, got a position as a professor in literature at a well-known university.

They stepped out into the street outside their hotel, located on Manhattan in New York. They took the subway to NYU near Washington Square Park where the lunch would be held. Representatives from all law schools in the US were to attend it, all of them chosen based on their high grades. Chad and Amber were representatives from the University of Chicago, even though they were not currently studying; both of them had taken a year's leave to focus on their personal lives. Sarah suspected that they were planning their wedding, which of course was meant to be something spectacular, but during their last joint visit home she had found a negative pregnancy test in the bathroom. Figuring out that it belonged to Amber was not exactly a hard thing to do.

"Sarah!" Chad called back, waking her from her daydreams. "Keep up, we don't want to lose you when we head inside!"

Two hours later Sarah let out a silent relieved breath when exiting the NYU building. Just as expected people had swarmed around Chad and Amber but barely glanced at her, unless Chad or Amber introduced her to someone important. She guessed that was their way of trying to include her in what the lawyers were discussing.

"Anyone else feeling a bit hungry?" Amber asked when they aimed towards the subway. "I'd hoped for a better lunch than that."

Sarah smiled slightly and wondered if that could even be called a lunch; there had just been waiters carrying trays of miniature sandwiches walking around the room. How anyone could feel filled up after that was a mystery. Chad seemed to think the same and wrapped his arm around Amber's waist.

"Let's take a walk and see what we find", he suggested.

They steered away from the subway entrance and walked down the closest street. Sarah glanced up at the street sign when they entered it. Wooster Street. For some reason a chill ran down her spine when she read that, but she blamed that on the air.

They stopped in front of several cafés and small restaurants present on the street, but none of them seemed that appealing. They were either too small, too smoky or just not quite perfect for the future lawyers. Sarah felt her stomach growling and decided that she would refuse to leave the entrance of the next food-place they found.

"Look at this!" Amber suddenly called. She had walked ahead of them when Chad had stopped to look at some old books in a stand. She now stood in front of what seemed to be an ordinary apartment complex, but outside the door hung a beautifully painted sign with leaves, fruits and animals, and a bunch of different fairytale allusions.

"The Enchanted Forest Café", Sarah read when she came up to the blonde. "Two floors up."

They looked up as if trying to identify the windows holding the café, but from the ground this was impossible.

"Well", Chad said, "I think I'm too hungry to continue searching. Let's go have a look."