From that point on, it seemed like all anyone could talk about at school was the fact that Conner Hawkins was now dating that girl Lanie Evans, who'd just came in out of nowhere and surprised everyone with her charm and her good looks. Heads in the hallways turned whenever they saw Conner and Lanie walking together. Both Conner and Lanie loved the attention and soaked it in. Neither of them had been particularly famous at school before, so it felt great to be treated like celebrities.

“Lyra you’re scrubbin’ it, not resurfacing it! Goddess be good, move on!” Sophia said from overhead. We were in the servant kitchen, just outside the large dining room; our preceptor felt that it had been neglected in the past few days thanks to the summit preparation, so I, and several other girls, had spent the first part of the morning scrubbing the tops, bottoms, and sides of every single table. After that, we’d moved the tables, mopped and waxed the floors, wiped down the walls, and even dusted the rafters using a set of long ladders that I didn’t even know we had.

Farming was back breaking work. I was often up before the rooster crowed and kept in the field till the sun set and the moon had risen. The delta is flat, flat as a board and there is nothing in the way to block the sun, all the trees had long been cut down to make way for the farmers to plow. The strong rays of the Mississippian sun blistered me by day and the bone cutting wind froze me by night. 

I slipped back into the apartment that had been my sanctuary for these incredible months of change, and suddenly, so very suddenly, wasn’t. Life was just coming at me too quickly.

After the outburst in the presentation hall, work resumed as normal and despite my occasional eavesdropping, I never did find out what the Baron Sycronus wanted, or what could have been so urgent. The most frustrating thing about my new life was the lack of information; no one wanted to talk to me unless it was regarding work around the manse or the grounds. I was well aware that servants had their own information networks, but as the newly minted outcast, I did not have the privilege of that information and spent much of my time in isolation, other than Jen occasionally checking in on me.

“Cleanliness, is a mandate of the Goddess, and a requirement of this fine establishment!” Said the woman at the front of the room. She was well dressed in a white button-down blouse and a light brown skirt, with a black belt to tie it together. She was young with brown hair bound behind her head in a loose bun. I recognized her, but for the life of me I couldn’t place her. We been awakened an hour early; I’d reluctantly dragged myself from my bunk and with Jen’s help, stumbled through my morning routine.

I felt like Mom had suddenly developed X-ray vision and was going to see through my pants at any moment.

Abbotsford, BC

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

“What?” Retorted the big man, turning in his seat to stare at the boy sitting beside him, “You said you needed to get to Alberta to spend time with your girlfriend.”

NOTE: Sorry that this one's a tad shorter than most of the other chapters. I'm kind of figuring out the structure of this story as I go along, and there wasn't really much ground to cover for this chapter. So...enjoy what you've got, I guess.

***

When Wednesday came, Lanie and Rachel both went to the board game club Conner had told them about. It was held in Mrs. Lin's classroom, with about a dozen kids gathered to play board games. The president was a Senior boy named Justin Kathy.

The unseasonably cold wind from the north offered little protection for people like me, who lived on the streets despite it being well into spring. Two blocks away from me, there was a hostel that at least offered a warm shower and some hot food but it didn't open until 6 pm. That was hours away and I’d already been warned off from two places where I’d tried to shelter from the wind.