Sophia Jackson
Stories
11
Chapters
5,834
Words
1.6 M
Comments
0
Reading
5 d, 14 h
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****** ****** Pandora Anthropodrome February 23, 2037 09:17 PM ****** ****** “I ran away from the Royal Ascot party,” Lute said casually. “For some reason, I left my homework behind and took two puddings with me instead.” Once again, Alden had no idea what to say. The remains of the trail mix was spread on the table between them. They’d eaten out all the dark chocolate and nuts, and now there were a bunch of raisins left. “The sticky toffee ones covered in all that gold leaf,” Lute added.…-
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110 “Hazel’s your aunt?” said Alden, selecting a few of his favorite things out of a bag of trail mix. It was only the two of them in the apartment since Lexi was spending the night with his family and Haoyu was still hanging out with his mom. They’d had the driver drop them off at a grocery store near campus, and they’d bought snacks. Alden was just picking at his. He was too full of wevvi to really enjoy it. “Yeah,” said Lute, prying the foil lid off a second cup of flan.…
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109 The trip back toward Apex was so silent it made Alden’s skin crawl. When he’d first returned to the SUV, Lute had said, “I don’t want to talk about it,” before Alden had begun to develop a decent question. Then he’d told the driver to take them to campus without even asking if it was all right. Of course, it was all right. Alden would have decided to head back himself most likely. Interfering with Manon to help people had sounded difficult but worth a try. Interfering with her and…
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108 The dead silent driver, who Alden was trying hard not to think of as “the Mob driver,” picked them up in the parking garage in a slightly different SUV with equally tinted windows. “Where are we going?” Lute asked Alden as he buckled his seat. “I assumed you were going back to campus,” said Alden. “And I thought I’d catch a bus from there down to F.” “What kind of backup would I be from that far away? I’ll ride with you. Let’s use the secret car like it’s a proper…
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107 “Wordchains are the original form of magic, according to the Palace of Unbreaking. I would take that with an ocean full of salt, because the Palace’s stance is always that wordchains are better than everything else and you might be an actual demon if you disagree.” Lute was sitting sideways in the green velvet chair, stretching his fingers one by one. Behind him, the light panel on the wall was flickering slightly behind its shade, as if the privacy booth really was a train car and a…
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106 At North of North that morning, Alden had a plyometrics session with Bobby and the guy who’d been analyzing how his movement trait stressed his body. They’d roped off a section of the building’s marble-floored foyer just for him because they wanted to watch him on different types of “ground,” and they hadn’t tried marble yet. He was doing his best not to feel self-conscious while he jumped up and down on progressively higher boxes. Regular jumping. Magic jumping. Higher, Alden. Faster,…
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105 The white hallway was endless and empty, but he ran and ran. Sometimes he felt his heart pounding in his chest, and he heard his footsteps echoing around him. At other times, the sounds went flat in his ears, and the world felt less than real. There was just a blur and a sense of motion and a need to get away. Whenever he stopped running, the door was in front of him again. No sign was on it this time. This is a dream, thought Alden. It has to be. He willed himself to wake up. He drove his…
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104 Alden got back to the dorms at eight PM. His feet were nearly numb from walking around in his cold, wet shoes for hours, and his messenger bag was stuffed full of paper airplanes. Stuart had liked the activity. I just never know with that guy. “Paper shaping” was an art form on the Triplanets as well, which Alden probably should have guessed. If you had more than thirty billion people with fingers and access to paper, someone was going to come up with the idea of folding it creatively. But…
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103 Alden was constantly reminding himself to be careful of cultural differences and, more importantly, personality differences when he spoke to the son of the Primary. For example…if, when you were sleepy and focused on not biting your own tongue, you said, “We can talk all day tomorrow,” Stu of House Art’h did not hear, “We can talk lots.” He heard, “Call me at the crack of dawn and stay on the line with me until one of us needs sleep.” Alden was in his boxers, kneeling on his…
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102 “Were you expecting the competition for the showers to be the highest drama part of gym class?” Alden asked Haoyu as the two of them headed down a broad avenue toward North of North gym. It was a ten minute walk from the MPE building, right on the edge of campus, and apparently, they had both had the same idea when they discovered they were going to have to wait for their turns anyway. Haoyu was gulping from a water bottle. “I’m glad my group was getting along well. I think the one with…
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