Adam chooses black. “Exactly and it does work like that, Admin being still the head of the place, the office staff is still the office staff, school paper and media things is advertising and the classrooms are division heads as well as clubs and teams are like special projects.”

Alex moves first and they start to play and they’re not bad and they’re not slow at first either the first ten of twelve moves are fast and that’s just positioning and April gets the coffee pot and fills us all up and she sits back down to watch too and Adam says.

“So if you two are going to do this we should take a real hard look at things so…” and he has this look on his face like he’s not quite sure that he even thought that he’d be asking us this. “Tell me about your school.”

*And Now…

A day out with Sammy

“Did you buy it?” Samantha asked me. Her face beamed with curiosity. “Yes, I did” I replied proudly.
“Can I see?” she asked me. “Sure.” I answered. I felt a little hesitant. Samantha was my best friend and I shared everything with her. However, this was a big purchase for me and I also felt a little embarrassed.

"How- what- why-" Stephanie stammered as the flame-haired Scottish girl looked at her expectantly.

"I think you might need to sit down," Lauren giggled. "As I said, I've got a car waiting..."

"Umm, okay," Stephanie said, following Lauren to her car in a state of near-shock. "Why- why did you-"

*Before…

“Okay, I’m tired daddy, I’m tired of waiting and hiding and just feeling wrong all of the time while I just literally keep getting worse and worse as I can’t escape this whole damned puberty thing.”

“One thing at a time kiddo and you’re a big girl sure and you’re different sure but I’ve seen a lot more manly women than you right now and you’re just getting started on your journey and things. Now I’m going to assume that in coming out that you have a whole mental list of things that you had dreamed up of what you need to do to transition?”

I nod and stare at him as he holds my eyes with his.

“Dee this is your life and it’s something that I still barely know. If you have ideas, if you have doctors that you want to see things that you have planned to do to transition tell me…I’m your father. It’s your transition it’s your fight not mine but I’m still going to have your back….I’m not going to gatekeep you.”

*And Now…

Judy plans to win a scholarship to Braintree Academy, an exclusive girls school. She will not go if it means leaving her best friend, George, behind.

I grimace as I feel the pressure increase on my back, and grip the armrests of my chair for support whilst my ‘friends’ all whoop and cheer. I force the corners of my lips to turn upwards into a smile, though that smile soon fades when the roar of the jet engine is drowned out by a loud squeak from my right hand side.

“Oh! My! God!” Georgie squeaks, shredding my nerves more and more with every word she says. “This is so awesome!”

Somewhere, past the edge of hope lies a land called...

Bian
(Bee-Onn)
by Erin Halfelven

*Before…

“You call me later tonight, we can like talk?” I say.
“Aren’t you going to be asleep?”
“I’m leaving early for Halifax so not likely and especially after this.”
“Okay.”
I look at her when we break the hug. “You going to be okay?”
She nods and sniffles. “Yeah, hey when you get back maybe you can come up and like hang out and stuff?”
She looks at her mom who is giving her this look and Penny signs something to her and she looks and me and she signs and does that deaf talking thing. “It’s cool with me, we’re all good.” and she does that close her mouth thing and turns the key and tosses it away thing.
I look right at her and say so she can read me better. “Thanks Aunt Maggie.”
She hugs me and Penny does too and they head out right after that since it’s late enough and it’s still like a two hour drive for them to get home and I go and I actually try and help mom with cleaning stuff up and avoiding the he’s gay looks from the gousins that are getting read the riot act from Great Uncle Peter who’s taking keys and going off about drinking and driving.
Soon…soon I’ll be out of here.

*And Now…

“Urgh,” I moan as I wake up from a dreamless sleep, only to grimace as I feel the front of my pyjamas to discover that whilst I may not have had a ‘normal’ dream, I certainly had another type of ‘dream’ during the night. I sigh as I wash my face, before pulling on my school uniform and slinking down the stairs, where my parents are waiting with a wide smile on their face, as are all three of my sisters… And my new baby brother.

“Morning, Ashley!” Dad chuckles in an artificially deep voice, light-heartedly mocking the fact that my own voice has recently deepened a lot.

Chapter 1
The move

Spring break wasn’t as much fun as it could have, that is, should have been. You’d think that when your mother won the lottery for 1.7 million dollars, that you’d be doing something really great on spring break. But no, my sister, Lucy, and I were packing boxes. Mom had this really weird idea. She grew up on the farm and thought there was nothing more wholesome than living on a farm. She sold the house and between her first year's annuity check and the equity in the house, she bought twenty acres with a house and an old fashion barn.

“I’m on the run, nowhere to go. Living where I can.” Those are the thoughts that are running rampant in the head of 7 year old Kyle. Kyle tries to forget what happened to his family, but he cannot out of fear for his life. What does life have in store for Kyle? Will he find the meaning of life? Or will he live in agony for the rest of his life?

Chapter One:

Sydney Moya

© 2016

Synopsis

A man left his home town years ago as a teenager. Now he returns but is very different from the person who left years ago.

The crew of the Vasco da Gama have discovered that Anmar keeps a secret, that Vast, Multidimensional Beings colonized it long before humans on Earth even had written language - and are still doing so. It seems there is a threat to the galaxy and long-term plans have been made to defend it. Some of the audience is naturally skeptical. Then King Keren makes things worse by inviting a long-dead Queen to tell them what is really happening, and the crew learn that everything they thought they knew bears little resemblance to the truth.

Somewhere Else Entirely

by Penny Lane

Epilogue 3 - The Great Plan

*Before…

I finish my lessons and skip ahead with two of the ones that are the most tedious for me and that’s calibrations and drive signatures and because they’re tedious I push myself a little harder because the things I like I tend to learn really fast and see through and I even ask the system for a quiz in each before setting my alarm in my OBC to wake me in plenty of time to catch my shuttle down to the surface.

New Ithaca… I wonder what it’s really like down there instead of the vids and the sim stuff. It’ll be my first of The Zodes that I’ll have set foot on and there’ll be deviants or deviations there right in the populace.

I’m not nervous but it’s still very, very different.

It also makes me wonder about my first contact friend, where are they and what are they doing?

*And Now…

Cleo said, “Astrid he knows who we are?”

“Yes I know. Tinkerbell has gone to watch what he does.”

“Look he is approaching.”