Sophia Jackson
Stories
11
Chapters
5,834
Words
1.6 M
Comments
0
Reading
5 d, 14 h
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121 **** Alden Thorn had learned a valuable life lesson tonight—a single moment of honesty could transform a manageable party into a gauntlet of social suffering. And that social suffering was exponentially worse when it involved Velras. “I’ve said, I’ve always said, that girl is going to snap and kill someone one day,” a lady who Alden thought was Roman’s mother told him, leaning so close that the edge of her stole trailed through the lime ginger ale he was carrying. “You were lucky…-
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120 ***** “Alden…what in Apex did you just pull out of your bag?” Lute asked, blinking at the object in Alden’s hand as the four roommates approached the alleyway where Benjamin Velra’s birthday party was being held. It was six o’clock in the evening, and they were in an Apex neighborhood Alden had never been to before. It was known for its nightlife, according to the others, but it was too early for there to be much evidence of that. “It’s a present.” Alden held up a box covered in…
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* 119 The gleaming tip of a slender chain whip inched through the air, approaching its victim with a quiet, lethal grace. “Gently,” Lexi Roberts mumbled, staring at the marshmallow on the concrete floor a couple of meters away. “Calmly.” “Lexi? You’re not jogging this morning?” Writher wrapped around the marshmallow and sliced it in half, filling the apartment with a burnt sugar smell and making Haoyu Zhang-Demir smile sheepishly from where he stood by a leather armchair. “Sorry.…
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118 By the time Alden finished cleaning up after himself, he was the last student left in the gym except for Maricel, who was talking animatedly to Fragment about what she’d seen the other Ground Shapers doing at Earthbox. He headed toward the locker room, wondering how he was going to haul his exhausted body to North of North and if the recovery sauna was going to be powerful enough to save him. The sound of his own name made his hand pause just before he pushed on the door. He nudged it open a…
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117 In gym, they were assigned to new groups. The groupings were more varied than the previous week’s, but other than a deliberate mixing of classes and ranks in each set of ten students, Alden couldn’t tell if there was any reason behind it. His group had three S’s, six A’s, and him. Maricel, Jeffy, and a very quiet Strength Brute named Lucille were their S’s. Njeri the Water Shaper, Reinhard the Bow Meister, Everly, Astrid, Haoyu, and Lexi were their A’s. This is a significantly more…
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116 The rooftop-to-rooftop coaster in F-city was part sightseeing experience, part thrill ride, part ode to magical engineering. It was also very popular. Even though they bought tickets the second Alden expressed an interest, they still ended up with time slots staggered over the course of two hours. People rode the coaster in pairs, and before they left the apartment, Lute tried to establish elaborate social plans to ensure that he could ride with Emilija without it seeming ‘unnatural.’ “Don’t…
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115 [First of all, this is not my fault, Boe. I sent my warnings out to the boater members, then I went to follow up with Laura. I aborted because It was nearly four in the morning, and Alden had just gotten in bed. He couldn’t decide if there was a point in trying to sleep once you were this far into the next day, but going through the motions seemed like the responsible thing to do. He read over the message, then he added, [I don’t think they recognized me at Laura’s, so even if they know…
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114 Lute lay on the sofa—a distressed leather chesterfield Alden Thorn had been very easily talked into buying during their dorm decoration shopping spree—and stared up at the copper-painted antler light fixture. Haoyu was telling Alden animatedly about all the traditions surrounding the graduation pins. He was of the opinion that shock from the eighth grade student body had rendered Lute’s reveal day less joyful than it should have been. Lute hadn’t minded at the time. It had felt right to him,…
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“Lute? Lute, are you all right? LUTE VELRA.” Lute realized he was in class. He was standing up at his desk. His pen was clenched in his hand. He was breathing hard. Every face was looking at him in confusion. The chemistry teacher, Mrs. Sharma, had a frown line between her brows as she examined him. “I…” said Lute. “Are you all right?” she asked again. “I feel sick,” he blurted. “I need to leave. My head hurts. And my stomach.” Should he say that more things hurt? He really…
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112 “So,” said Alden spitting toothpaste into the sink while Lute brushed at the one beside him, “when did it happen?” Lute looked at him in the mirrored medicine cabinet. “When did what happen?” “What do you think, man? You can’t tell me all about your childhood and then leave out the big magical stuff.” “I wasn’t going to.” He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. “What was being selected like for you, though?” “I was in the bathroom at school, looking at an…
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