“Kid out in a cage in the little kid playground,” Lucy commented. If someone came along and looked poised to take over, she’d side with that someone. Then Kennet had won, so she’d sided with them. Charles had had the upper hand, so she’d sided with him. The good thing was that she was an opportunist and survivor, not a danger. She wasn’t integrated enough into the world beyond Kennet below to have survived otherwise. The new principal, Lucy knew, had sided with Charles to survive.

The Lunch Kid was absent, and scattered others represented various departments and grade levels. Two others were her peers, brought in and elevated to lieutenant and department heads. Her narrow, rectangular glasses had a scratch on one lens and a bead of blood dried on the corner of the other. She’d worn an adult men’s white button-up shirt over her usual clothing like a lab coat before, and hadn’t changed that much, but wore a tie now too, loose at the neck. The ex-school nurse was now Principal, among the oldest here at sixteen or so. She only really recognized half the staff who’d remained. They’d deflated, disappeared, or run away. With the Vice Principal gone, there were no giant faculty members from the past generation, anymore. Past the display case with made up trophies and accomplishments stuffed in there, there was the door to the staff room. The row of bulletin boards was covered in messages, ranging from some kid looking for a lost ball their dad gave them to bounties on heads. The ones who didn’t were pulled back by shirt collars by their peers. They recognized her, though, and parted ways. More kindergartners had slept on the floor of the kindergarten just inside the front doors, and stirred as she passed. A five year old had been left overnight in a modified part of the play structure, wrapped in chicken wire and other loose materials. Hands in the pockets of her Dog Tag coat, keys, weapon ring, Yalda’s ring, and Dog Tag jangling at her chest at the end of the chain, Lucy passed by the kindergarten playground, fenced in separate from the rest of the playground. The mural was mostly intact, but the area closest to the ground had its own new graffiti, scrawled on in jagged red and black letters. Lucy didn’t go in the entrance she usually did to get into the school, instead walking with the field to her right and the wall of the school to her left. A truck had pulled in by the school, and food was being unloaded by Lunch Kid’s team. Pseudo-warlords wanting to hold their spots, which meant keeping things running and keeping people entertained.

School started late in Kennet below, and the only people up were the controlling interests of the school. She stepped through the loop and into Kennet found, retrieving and pulling on her mask for a bit.Īnother detour a half-block away, and she was in Kennet below. She double-checked, then she pulled her bag back on, and walked between a post and a fence, where a coil of telephone wire hung. Lucy checked the coast was clear, which it wasn’t very, and paused, putting her bag down and pretending to check something while some kids on their way to school walked by. She finished, sent, then dismissed the ‘call ended’ message. The ‘the call has ended’ notification coming down crowded out the text she was typing, making it hard to see more than one line at a time. “I’ll let Verona know so she can plan… she’s sleeping in right now, at least until her daily breakfast with her mom,” Lucy said, talking into the phone even as she typed a text to Verona. “I’ll be talking to people about the sword moot, so maybe hang with Verona?” Just getting close enough to school I’ll be overheard talking on the phone. “Can you put the Avery-relevant stuff at end for me?” “Want us to delay ours? Short council meeting tonight? Or we could put stuff pertinent to you at end? Or… I dunno, Ronnie and I give you a recap?” “I have practice after school, family time, then the Thunder Bay council meet.

I’ll bring Snowdrop for goblin sage stuff.” “Hit the shrines for Enginehead, Borrador, and Lotte first thing.

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