1.5 In Her Element

Tired of burning everything she cooks, Sage decided to try something that bakes instead.

Success!

Although she should really wear gloves before pulling things out of the oven…

Eh, worth it.

A contributing factor to Sage’s chipper mood this morning is her impending promotion; Ms. Lin has been thoroughly impressed with the work she’s been doing back stage and has hinted at more responsibilities being entrusted to her. She hopes today is that day.

Ever since she was old enough to hold an instrument, Sage has dreamed of being onstage, conducting an orchestra. Their violin bows would move fluidly and gracefully over their strings as the wind percussion instruments would titter along, all precise components of one glorious melody. Her hometown had their own orchestra, and for a while she did consider becoming their conductor. But in the end, it made more sense to come to Riverview, even from an objective perspective; Riverview’s classical branch is small and one could even say on the verge of dying without many classically trained musicians. With her here to guide them, they could perhaps survive and maybe even thrive.

But one step at a time. First, she needs to get off backstage.

The ride to work seems to take longer than usual, although how much of that is due to Sage’s excitement is anyone’s guess.

No promotion yet, but she did get a raise. It’s a start!

At least now buying her own guitar is looking more and more likely.

With her raise came some assigned reading. As soon as she got home, Sage cracked open the book. It’s not the most interesting piece of literature she’s ever read, but she ensures that she understands the contents of each chapter by re-reading some of the denser paragraphs. Ms. Lin didn’t say she had to memorize the passages, but Sage wants to show she not only read the book, but understood it too.

It was a bit after midnight when she finally put the book away- thank the Watcher- and her phone began to ring.

She stiffened instinctively. Could it be…that person calling?

She checked the caller ID. Relief flooded through her body; It’s just Mr. Ivanov.

“Good evening, Mr. Ivanov. And no, I will not call you Yuri,” she preemptively shut down his attempt at fraternization.

Yuri Ivanov sighed heavily. Even though Walter bragged that he got the uppity Ms. Silverly to call him by his first name like everyone else, she had kept firm to her “workplace etiquette” while in the theatre. Yuri wasn’t one to push someone to become friends with him, but he really wished Sage would just call him by his name.

“…I assume this is a work call?” she said testily after a moment of silence.

“Shirley wanted me to ask you if you took care of the lighting problem.”

Feeling more in her element, Sage’s tone lost its edge and became the cool and professional one her co-workers were familiar with, “Oh, yes, this morning. It turned out to be a problem with the bulbs, not the program…” Sage and Yuri discussed the problem a little more. Yuri would be the one onstage the next day and thus the one who would benefit or suffer from the quality of the stage lighting. Once he was satisfied that the problem had indeed been taken care of, Sage wished him a good night and hung up.

Sage was out like a light by the time her head hit the pillow, just how she preferred to sleep.

AN: Another short chapter! I swear it picks up, but for now Sage doesn’t have a lot of non-working time.