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"I hope you’re able to bring that grade up," he says, kissingtheatrically as she holds her door open forno anxiety I think of what Lex toldI was in bed, getting ready for sleep

Ms Harlan doesn’t ask about the university student, though Strangely, there is nothing accusatory or suspicious about the way she sits across frolass bottle on her desk, filled with a old; it was a rare treat in ars are terrible for the teeth Ms Harlan uncorks the bottle and spoons a bit of it into old sinks to the bottoent today," she says, her glassesbriefly as she takes a sip frorandold in her cabinet for the hard tiirl"

"Ti sincere, because it’s only after I’ve already said the words that I realize I don’t mean them

"Did you know that at the end of the war about the stress of the pending cold worries the bramble flies, causes a chemical reaction"

"I don’t knowwhen they feel threatened, and that their stings leave a nasty welt" This isn’t everything I also know that they feature prominently in my ; she encounters the with plants as she does

"The veno elixirs," Ms Harlanmy throat, and war for the inevitable To be asked what I saw Maybe she even knows, somehow, that I saw the university student myself, that I know his name is Quince, and because Amy knew hiroup But Ms Harlan is not asor as suspicious as usual today She only smiles at me in a sad way and says, "Your family must love you very much"

It wasn’t a question, but I feel oddly compelled to say, "Yes"

"And your betrothed, Basil Cowl"

It worries me that she has taken the time to learn his full na I finishat me, Ms Harlan scribbles on a piece of paper and then slides it across the desk "You should be going back to class now," she says

The rest of the day is as foggy as theoff h under the table Thomas coaxes Pen to nibble some of her apple Her eyes are sunken, the lids mapped by tiny purple veins She’s the most spirited person I know, and as vivacious as she is most days, that’s how dark she is other days I believe her broken spirit has s over the city than the university student’s death alone She loves Internment more than anyone I’ve ever met, and when it’sso myself to open my mouth The entire cafeteria is quiet

I can still taste the sweetgold, but it has gone sour on ue

The boys try to strike up a conversation Basil says there have been a lot of clouds, and Thomas says this is always the case in the short season It has round than with us

I think of the white, frozen dust that falls froreen and new the world must be when the sun ods that don’t speak to us We accept gods that would place us in a world filled with injustices and do nothing as we struggle It’s easier than accepting that there’s nothing out there at all, and that, in our darkest ible Gods," Daphne Leander, Year Ten

AFTER CLASS, THOMAS HAS SOMEHOW persuaded Pen to come home with him "I suppose I’ anyway," she sighs, letting hiotten off the train

Basil and I walk to , make our way past the patrolman who is there to hold open the door now that anotherto my apartment

"Mymy key into the doorknob We never used to bother with locks before Daphne’s ry"

Only, there is no dinner waiting for me in the kitchen The stove is cold My ht, and with the sun nearly set, the apartment is full of shadows

Basil catcheson the table "Maybe she just isn’t feeling well," he says