EXAMEN

LAURA

“And then she just left,” Lizzy said. “I hope she's feeling better. Doctor Clarke has some pills for headaches, right?”

“Probably,” Laura said. As usual, Lizzy had grabbed her after she finished her class. Technically both Lizzy's normal history and Laura's advanced class ended at the same time, but Lizzy's professor tended to drone on, so Laura usually got out a little earlier.

“She also left her bag and sword behind,” Lizzy said, probably not even aware that Laura had responded. “Derek is taking care of that. Was there somewhere you wanted to go for dinner?”

“The DC is fine.” The Dining Commons might not be the highest quality food, but it was free. Well, included in tuition. Laura's dad was paying for it, but money was tight, so anything extra she had to pay for myself. And she hadn't taken a consulting gig since she came back to South Central.

“Don't be silly,” Lizzy said with a pout. “Aren't these the End Times? Isn't this when you pig out on pizza and ice cream?”

Laura raised an eyebrow. Lizzy had been conspicuously avoiding the subject of the screamers for as long as possible, especially regarding her ability to hear them. Laura hadn't asked what her power was, and she wouldn't be surprised if Lizzy didn't know. Obviously, she wasn't to know about the rest of the Paladins, either. Regardless, there were some comments Laura just couldn't let slide.

“If the end is coming, you need to do everything you can to stop it,” Laura said. “If nothing else, too much junk food will slow me down when I need to run.”

Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Your metabolism can handle it.” She grinned. “C'mon, a new place opened up down the street. Shouldn't we celebrate my test?”

“Oh yeah, you got the results back,” Laura said. “What'd you get?”

Lizzy stood proudly. “Ninety-three percent!”

Laura shook her head. “When we study together, you can't remember any of it. How do you keep passing tests? Are you seducing your teachers?”

She looked genuinely horrified. “No! Of course not! It's just...” She paused, as if considering her words, then shrugged. “In an emergency, the brain can do some incredible things, you know?”

Well, Lizzy was proof of that. Laura considered the possibility that her power had something to do with memory, but quickly discarded it. She had been like this for as long as Laura had known her. When it came down to the wire, something strange happened, and her brain dredged up old memories with uncanny accuracy. That was probably the only way she had survived past childhood. She was too ditzy and nice to pay enough attention to anything.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Hey, you heard about that drop pod, right?”

Lizzy always switched topics too fast to keep up. It took a moment for Laura to remember what she was talking about. “The... Chinese one, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah, that's it. Butler did an interview on it.”

Laura frowned. “I must have missed that. What did he say?”

“Nothing important. A bunch about how the USP is trying to choke the independents by buying back the station.”

Laura shook her head and sighed. “What's your point, Lizzy?”

She leaned forward eagerly. “What did Adam say about it?”

Laura threw up her hands. “Why would you care what he said? You've never cared about politics before, or what your friends think about politics.”

“Yeah, yeah, but he's the one who found it! Organized a recovery and everything. Very heroic, don't you think?”

Laura frowned. She honestly wouldn't have thought that he had it in him. It was becoming increasingly clear that he was some flavor of psychopath, but you could say that about a lot of people in Domina. The fact that he rescued someone for no reason other than because he could was probably a good sign. Well, she didn't know enough details to be certain that was exactly what happened, but she made a mental note to look into it.

“Do you think we should go get Derek and the rest?”

Laura blinked. “What?”

“For the pizza, silly.”

Oh, they were back on that? “I don't think so. They're very busy with homework.” And preparing for the next screamer attack. There hadn't been one in four days, so another was due soon. “Honestly, I'm tired too. I'm not really in the mood for anything.”

Lizzy pouted. She seemed to think it was cute, but it just looked silly. “Why are you always like this? First you just want to eat at the crappy DC, then not even there! C'mon, a bunch of people said the new place was good. I'll even pay, how does that sound?”

Laura sighed. There was no reasoning with her like this. If she didn't give in, Lizzy would just drag her there anyway. “Fine,” she muttered. “Pizza it is.”

Lizzy grabbed her arm and started dragging her down the sidewalk. “Yay! Ooh, can we stop for ice cream after?”

She rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

Lizzy ate most of the large pizza they were supposed to share by herself, then did the same with the triple-scoop ice cream cup they got after. She also didn't pay for either.

Laura was pretty sure that if she wasn't so goddamned nice to everyone, somebody would have shot her in the face when she was a kid just to save the hassle of dealing with her.