Karla had danced this dance before. After spending the last few days dreaming about her parents, she knew to pack up Kayla and Warren and head to the island this weekend. She'd also invited Cora and Nyles to come along, but neither had seen the appeal of visiting her insane island to meet more adults. Well, that wasn't entirely true; Cora was ( Read more... )

The weather was still behaving itself, so the sun was beaming down brightly (which might not be appreciated by those who overindulged last night), the humidity wasn't unbearable, and the mosquitoes were keeping to themselves ( Read more... )

The weather was being kind - perhaps unnaturally so. There was a large gap in the clouds right above Fandom island, sending sunlight streaming down even as the sun made its way towards the horizon ( Read more... )

When Tara got to Fandom Friday night, it had been with plans of a quiet weekend dancing in her head. When she woke up, it was two days later, she was in the park, she was damp from rain, and all she had to show for it was a bunch of strange dreams about being a house. The island's sense of humor sort of sucked ( Read more... )

Sure, there'd just been an event a couple weeks ago at homecoming, but uh, that hadn't gone exactly as planned. So tonight the community center had been decorated in reds and oranges and yellows, several pumpkins had been repurposed from Halloween to serve as decorations, hay bales (don't ask) and there was a large (glittery) sign reading

STUDENT ( Read more... )

Ender had expected some sense of nostalgia when he opened up the shop that morning - for the very last time. And he did, but it was nothing acute, no deep longing in the pit of his stomach: more like the tingle at the edge of a bruise, knowing it was the first sign of healing some terrible damage.

"You seem happy," Jane observed. "Finally done ( Read more... )

Ben was back for his last shift at his job and was making the most of his time (and his last paycheck) by putting together a small mountain pile of electronics that he was going to take with him when he left ( Read more... )

So this was Tara's last shift in the Magic Box ever. She'd planned to spend it cleaning and reminiscing, but the Pine Sol-and-memories routine came to an abrupt halt when she read an email she'd gotten from housing at UC-Sunnydale that said the dorms' no-pets policy would not make an exception, even for what Tara assured them, with only a tiny bit ( Read more... )

Karla had been patrolling this morning and, Mother Night, was it such a rush. The ability to do as she pleased--so long as she was obeying the rules, of course!--when she pleased and where she pleased was practically intoxicating. She'd been skulking and hiding for so long, hoarding her Craft like a miser, Bah! What kind of life was what? She ( Read more... )

Every time Tara came into the shop, she expected the worst. It operated in a grey zone -- as long as almost nothing was on display except worthless plastic amulets and smelly incense, most of the time Umbridge and her goons let it be.

But that was only most of the time. There'd been a couple bad days over the last few years ( Read more... )