<div class="floatleft">(http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk137/HaibaneR/Mistaken%20Identity/Amber_Beryl_Stonley_Av_09.jpg)</div><strong>Amber Stoneley</strong><br/><br/>Monday, August 25th, late evening<br/><br/>The beach, near the college Campus<br/><br/>Alone.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>It had been a whirlwind. Welcome week was finally over, though, and the first classes had started in earnest today, but Amber was totally excited to be here. She was also glad that Beryl had managed to get in to the same college on a sports scholarship. This was not her first choice of university, but when Beryl had said she wanted to go with her, Amber had revised her choices to make sure she was applying to colleges that her twin sister could get into.<br/><br/>Amber was surprised at her twin's choice, but delighted. College wouldn't be anything like as much fun without Beryl there. And yet, the simple fact that the two of them were on different scholarships meant that Beryl could finally get out from under Amber's shadow and be her own person. That, Amber reckoned, as she lay on the raffia mat she had laid on the soft sand, could only strengthen the bond between them. One thing she never wanted was to overshadow her twin, and it had been a cause of rows between herself and their mother whenever mom had criticised the more sporty Beryl for not being like the academic Amber. "Why can't you be more like your sister?" would always elicit the response from Amber, "Honestly, mom, I try, but she's so much better at sports than me..." Which invariably sparked the row when Mom would turn on Amber and insist she was being deliberately obtuse. She was, of course, but that was the whole point!<br/><br/>Amber dragged her thoughts back to the task at hand, in time to see another orang streak head across the darkening sky. "Gotcha!" She grinned and closed her right eye before tapping the on button on her tablet, which lit to display a black screen with a star map on it. She tapped the location in Aquarius that she had seen the meteorite and turned the tablet back to standby, reopening the eye she had deliberately saved the night vision in. As the sky grew darker she spotted Venus glowing brightly near the horizon. It was a moonless night, or very nearly. the final sliver of the waning moon would not rise for ages. More and more stars came out in the unpoluted sky, away from the city's sodium lights. The campus was a faint glow behind her, but it was not bright enough to obscure... "Oh WOW!" Amber had seen pictures of course, but she had never spent a night in the open outside a city. She had never before seen the Milky Way (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5321/9018585317_ee26eb14fb_z.jpg) in all its glory, spread out across the sky.<br/><br/>She was so fascinated that she totally failed to notice there was someone else on the beach with her.