Mom used to tell us stories about October on the Old Planet. Like clockwork, the autumn breeze would billow across the valley, tugging leaves from their branches and filling the yard with ember orange and gold. She’d gather them into piles for her siblings to launch into, the foliage crunching and crackling beneath…
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September 3rd. The first day of school. A prime opportunity for battle.
I clutch Elsie’s right arm and glare at Insecurity, who holds her left arm.
It’s another one of those days I wish Elsie could see us and our battles. Knowing how much power she has over us would help her defeat those lingering self-worth issues, which would deal Insecurity a crippling blow.
In Vermont, we call the spring thaw Mud Season, a time of year that gives new meaning to the word battleground, for it’s necessary to battle the ground simply to walk. Either you struggle while the muck sucks at your shoes and even skirts if they aren’t hitched up a bit, or you tumble when it’s too slick, which causes the unwary much irritation.
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When I was a kid, teleworking and remote learning didn’t exist. If the snow fell hard and fierce, we got a snow day. Meaning, no work for the grown-ups, no school for the kids. Heavenly bliss! That’s why, in 1983, I caused one of the biggest blizzards in New York City history.
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Jadoni never smiled during the first half of the school year.
During the second half, she might consider it—if the students had earned it. But good student relationships begin with a healthy fear of their teacher.
Students don’t obey teachers who always smile at them.
And this particular group had a reputation.
Scamander was a dorm for science majors, and I fit right in. It smelled like boys who got good enough grades that their mothers didn’t mind cleaning up after them in high school. Odors of mildew and sweat added a sickening aftertaste to every bite of Top Ramen I shoveled into my face hole.
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It smelled like apricot. Actually, more like an apricot that had been left on the counter for a month, and then shoved in the corner of the fruit drawer, where ethylene gas had rotted a month’s worth of produce.
Dr. Daniel Leslie stood in the science building at Blaylock University after receiving…
Since graduating high school, I’d acquired the ability to identify poisons—without dying, important detail—saved the head of the council, learned about mystical evil Knights threatening our kingdom, been killed—poison again, I’m not immune—and rescued my true love on multiple occasions. You’d think that’d be enough to ask of any eighteen-year-old.
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Jon ducked into Mrs. Winslow’s English class just before the bell. The red paint had been scrubbed from the door, leaving behind just a few stubborn smudges. Jon willed himself not to look, but he couldn’t avoid a glance or two. It wasn’t every day that a guy committed the perfect crime.
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Haddie always loved summer. No sums, no figures, just sun rays and ocean waves.
But it seemed some people couldn’t relax, even if their lives depended on it.
A fifty-foot watery monster stood in front of her at the beach. Inside its liquid chest sat a boy, the root of all her problems—
Being inconspicuous is difficult with a dragon in your pocket.
The text came while I was studying for biology, but when Kitty McDowell sends a cryptic message asking for help, am I going to say no? Of course not.
I stare up at Sterling Hall. Most of its windows are still lit,
John sighed contentedly as he sat down on his favorite bench at the very end of the pier, as far from the bustling high-street as he could get. It was 3:00 in the afternoon, a cold wind blew hard off the bay, and there wasn’t a single soul in sight—just the way
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