“Where are we going?”
“Why do I have to come with you?”
“Because Flora is on a trip and you can’t stay home alone.”
Skye scowled. Flora was on a trip with her dad. Skye wanted to see her own dad. But she couldn’t tell her mom that because then her mom would be sad, like she always was when Skye asked if she could see Daddy. Sometimes he would come, and sometimes he wouldn’t, but it didn’t seem to make a difference whether Skye asked or not, so she had stopped asking.
The playground would help, but it wasn’t her dad.
When they arrived at the interview site, they met a scruffy-looking man who introduced himself as Lou Howell.
Willow nodded. “I was a member of the Sim Fu division of the national martial arts team, and I’ve been teaching martial arts since I finished high school.”
“You’re probably overqualified to be teaching us, then. Most of the pack just wants to learn some basic technique so they’re not just relying on their claws in fights.”
Willow gave a pained smile. “Still, jobs in this niche are scarce. I’d be happy to train you guys.”
With that, Lou turned to Skye. “Who’s this?”
“My daughter, Skye. I couldn’t find a babysitter, I’m sorry.”
Lou ignored her and looked at Willow. “She’s a wolf, right? If you’re going to be working with the pack, we could help her prepare for her change.”
Willow smiled. “That would be great.”
Skye was less enthused. “Why do I need a pack?” She hadn’t actually turned into a wolf yet - her mom said it would happen around puberty, along with a whole bunch of other scary things - but she didn’t see how a pack would be able to help more than her mom.
“Well, what about a friend? My son is about your age, why don’t the two of you take some time to talk?”
Without further preamble, Skye was sent into another room with a boy who, true enough, looked to be about her own age.
He scowled at her. “Who are you?”
She crossed her arms. “Who are you?”
“I asked first.”
“Skye Doe.”
“Amos Howell.”
They looked at each other for a long moment. Then - “You have a stupid name.”
“You’re named after the sky!”
“It has an e at the end!”
“That’s even more stupid!”
Another long pause. “What are you playing?”
“Floor is lava. Wanna play?”
“How do you play?”
He rolled his eyes. “The floor is lava, stupidhead. You’re on the floor, so you’re dead. I win!”
Skye climbed up on the couch next to him and shoved him. “You’re the stupidhead! It’s not my fault I didn’t know how to play!”
The two of them chased each other around the furniture for the rest of the afternoon. When their parents came to pick them up, they were both asked if they’d made friends. In unison, the two of them chorused, “Yeah!”
-------
After Flora came back from her camping trip, she started high school.
In basic format, high school wasn’t that different from middle school, just in a different building. But Flora and her friends were determined to have an incredible high school experience, and they were willing to devote a lot of effort to that goal.
“So, rules for high school!”
“Are you really making a list?”
“You don’t understand, Nanami! Deviating from the correct path in high school can ruin your entire life!”
Flora had previously been skeptical, but with that sentence, she thought about her parents, and the letter she’d gotten from her father on the camping trip. With that in mind, she nodded. “Elsa’s right. We don’t want to make any mistakes.”
“That’s 2 to 1 for a rule list. So, first rule: we have to make sure we’re in the right extracurriculars. We’re all going to join Chess Club.”
Elsa waited for objections, but there weren’t any. Nanami hated sports and would do anything to avoid them, while Flora enjoyed chess and would take any opportunity to spend time with her friends. “Chess Club, sure. That can be rule number 1.”
“Rule number 2: we study together so we can hold each other accountable.” Once again, there were no objections.
“Rule number 3: we’re honest with each other about our relationships. We tell each other what’s happening with them, and we tell each other if we don’t like someone’s boyfriend.”
Flora raised an eyebrow. “So I can tell you I don’t like Max?”
Elsa frowned. “You don’t like Max?”
“Not really.”
“Why not?”
“He just doesn’t seem reliable.” He was also kind of smarmy.
“Maybe we don’t need that rule.”
“Why not? Boys are the thing that’s most likely to ruin our lives, when you think about it.”
“Do you think Max is ruining my life?”
“Not yet, but he could.”
“That’s true about any boyfriend I could have! Who do you think would be better?”
Flora’s mind drifted to the boy she’d met on the camping trip. “Do you know Wren Grove?”
Nanami rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? You’re coming for Elsa’s boyfriend when you have a crush on that kind of unmotivated slacker?”
Flora looked at Elsa, who looked disappointed. “Nanami’s right. Max has good grades and works hard, no matter what you don’t like about him. Wren Grove is the definition of unreliable.”
Flora sighed, looking down at the table. Dreams were never quite like reality.
Author's Note: Chapter 13 done! I'm working on a finalized timeline for getting the rest of this generation out - I want to close the heir poll around the end of September, and I want it to be open for about two weeks, so I'm going to try to get the rest of the chapters out by September 15th or so. This may or may not happen, but I have most of the rest of the generation written, I just have to finish the last couple of chapters, take pictures, and format. So expect rapid updates for the next week or so, but if you don't have time to keep up with it in real time, don't panic - you'll have a couple weeks while the heir poll is up where I won't be updating and you can catch up on the reading before you vote in the heir poll (I really hope people vote in the heir poll, I think I'm going to host it on boolprop this generation). In the past, I've sometimes done little specials while the heir poll is up, but I haven't had any good ideas for those this generation. If anyone has something they'd like to see in a special, feel free to make suggestions! But if I don't get any suggestions, I probably won't do specials for this generation. Next time: reunions!
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