Sun, Sept 13th, late at night My room? I didn’t do much for the rest of the day; I caught up on my homework and wrote notes on the past week for Hull, which kept me busy into the evening.  Joel was quiet and kept to himself, and I decided not to bug him.  I tried blowing off some steam before bed playing video games, but I hadn’t gotten anything new in a while – I’d been too busy with exam prep in the second half of the summer – and none of my existing ones grabbed me. 

Sun, Sept 13th, a little before noon The Imperial Pantheon “This must have been built after the newcomers arrived,” I said. “Yes, it was built to celebrate victory in the Wizards’ War,” said Yali. “The architect was one of the newcomers, Stuart Dowd.  He also designed the Union Senate building, and the glass upper levels of the old Central Station.  They’re considered masterpieces of the era.” “He seems to have liked borrowing from the classics of our world,” I said. We were standing in front of a huge and oddly familiar building; I’d seen the original during the year I’d taken seventh grade for the first time.

Sun, Sept 13th, just before 8 AM Our apartment A knock on my bedroom door woke me up.  I looked at my alarm clock, and yelled out “C’mon, let me sleep!” I was about to try to get back to sleep when Joel said from outside the door, “Ms. Yali’s here, they want to start lessons early.  Do you want in or not?” “Fine, fine,” I said. “Do I have time to shower at least?” “Probably,” Joel said. Then he yelled downstairs “does Mark have time to shower?” I couldn’t hear the response through the door, but Joel passed it on.

Interlude Saturday, Sept 12th, early evening Shopping gallery, Riverside Terminal On Friday, the student council received the printed copies of this year’s school directory and were going to be distributing them through homerooms on Monday.  Elise had helped herself to an extra and then left a message with Magnus Trading to let them know she had it. She was not surprised on Saturday when Brinna Jekanis caught up to her as she left work, just as she’d done a couple of weeks prior.  Brinna, once again, suggested going into the lunch counter.

Friday, Sept 11th, 6th period Honors world history classroom. The next day, Dormer drove us back to the school.  There were now ID checks getting onto campus, and a few more security guards around, but nothing else seemed to have changed.  My bike was right where I’d left it.  At physics, everyone was able to switch lab partners without problems.  Things started to go back to normal. After the world history class, I went up to talk to Ms. Calliot.  “Do you have an outline for your paper, Mark?” “Kind of.” I grimaced and handed her the page and a half of notes I had.

Thursday, Sept 10th, during 2nd period Physics room Thursday had started well.  Joel had soccer, and I’d wanted to bike, so we made our way to school separately. I had a free first period, so I’d come in a little late.  Going by my mailbox before physics, there was a mostly completed form for our booth.  I’d called to tell Hull about the problem on Tuesday night, and whoever he’d gone on to get in touch with had taken care of it quickly. In physics, as Kai had expected the prior week, Dr.

The student council room. Elise had been trying to study and hadn’t wanted to get involved when Neil had clearly made up his mind about the two students.  After they left, though, she was curious about his reasoning.  While they’d been working together the past few weeks, she hadn’t known him the prior year and wasn’t sure what to make of him. “What was the big deal with letting them have a booth?” she asked. “They’re probably just doing it to get out of doing something with their classroom,” said Neil.

Classroom 2-C, End of classes As it turned out, the swimming classes offered for PE – mostly for lower schoolers and first-years – did not fit his class schedule at all, soccer aside. The department assistant said they’d get back to him.  In the meanwhile, he’d been telling Jack and Kai about it. “It doesn’t sound so bad,” said Jack.  “We didn’t get a lot of new members. It shouldn’t hurt your place on the team if you are still serious about it.” Joel shrugged.  “How about you, Mark?  Kai was saying you checked out fencing with him.”

Tuesday, Sept 8th, just before first period The pool On Monday, when I checked my folder, there was a note from the PE Department.  Joel had one, too. They both said the same thing – our swim tests were now scheduled for Tuesday morning, and that a note had already been sent to the teachers where we would be missing class.  The rest of the school day was uneventful. Looking in the student handbook, I was pleased to see there was no longer a requirement to wear uniform swimsuits. There…

Sun, Sept 6th, a little after 10am Our apartment. It was my first morning to sleep in since coming to a new world, and I’d taken advantage of it. I was stepping out of my room and was going to see if there was any leftover breakfast, when I heard voices downstairs. I stuck my head downstairs and saw that it was Dormer and the mage from the foreign ministry, Ms. Yali, both talking to Joel. He, in turn, had a lot of small pieces of paper, small amulets, and glowing balls over his clothes.

Pt. II, Ch. 37: “I did not like how he was looking at me.” Interlude North of the Bridge, City of Feldaren Saturday Evening Alvar Leto had been in Feldaren for three weeks and was nothing but disappointed.  He’d heard great things about the city from older friends in his father’s court, and over the time he’d been here, had discovered that he was too young for every one of them.  At home, gambling and other entertainments were illegal, but if your silver or your banknotes were good, nobody cared if you were 15, or for that matter whether you were a baron’s son or a cobbler’s. 

Saturday, Sept 5th, 12:15pm (after 4th period) Arts Center Main Hall The main hall wasn’t crowded – it seemed like the students who had chosen to attend were mostly just first-years.  Our former tour guide – and the student council vice president – had ended up as the presenter, and they were going through sports clubs first.  It was mostly some very bland introductions – typically, someone coming up in gym clothes or a team uniform, and a lot like the one person we knew- “Hi, I’m Amy, and I’m here to tell you about the girls’ Track and Field club. 

Saturday, Sept 5th School Having to get up for our first day of Saturday classes had me grumpy, although yes, I’m often grumpy in the morning.  When Joel and I got to the lab room, most people had already paired up and picked lab stations.  Jack and his partner were off on their own, while Kai, Amy and two other girls had staked out three stations between them.  The two other girls were quite different; one was quite ordinary in a school where “ordinary” tended to clean up better than at home, and she had the silver pin of a scholarship student, hers in the form of a rose.

Thursday, Sept 3rd School and then our apartment The bike ride to school in the morning had gone well; it was a long but straight shot on the boulevard to school, and unlike my ride into the city back home, I didn’t have to go over any bridges.  There was a covered bike rack next to the sports center; it was almost full since I arrived late during my free period.  Amazingly, many of the bikes weren’t locked up at all, and those that were had locks that wouldn’t have lasted long in New York – there wasn’t a U-lock among them. 

Interlude Thursday, Sept 3rd Surrat-Efrel Boulevard streetcar About 6:30 Violet was nervous.  OK, very nervous.  She had gotten out of tennis practice and changed, but Tess turned out to be stuck with student council work until late, and Violet had felt brave enough to try coming home alone. There had been a fair number of Queen Sara students who got on with her, but as the streetcar had gone along most of them filtered out, the car was now mostly adults and a few students from other schools.  Two boys who’d come on recently kept…

Weds, Sept 2 Upper School Main Building I was wearing my glasses again and had decided to learn more about side effects before letting someone else use magic on me.  I had woken up in the middle of the night, mostly with just the usual need to go to the bathroom, but also with a headache.  When I came back to bed, I wanted to read a little before going back to sleep, but the spell must have been in a halfway state of wearing off - my eyes were too blurry to read, but not yet back to a normal level where my glasses were comfortable.

Interlude Jordi’s Market, Riverside terminal Just after 7pm Elise was ready to leave work and still in her work clothes.  At this hour, it was better to take the train home in the casual and unflattering uniform of a convenience store employee than a girl’s school uniform. As she left the shop, a woman walked up to her; she was an adult, but not a whole lot older.  She was wearing office clothes, like a great many of the commuters who had come into the store during her evening shift.  “Miss Shevariet?” asked the woman.

Our apartment Before dinner We talked with Jack and Kai and Amy for a while, then headed out; most people had already headed for the streetcar except for a few die-hards who already had club activities. We’d hadn’t gotten any written homework yet, but both English and our main Social Studies course had assigned reading.  I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing, but the English text we started with was a thick compilation of short stories.  Mr. Kirill had given us two to read and said to be ready to talk about them. 

Upper school main building, cafeteria Lunch break It had been a good morning so far; only two classes before lunch because of the assembly, Kirill’s English literature class and then math.  Of the people who had introduced themselves during homeroom, Amy had gone off to some track team thing, but Jack and Kai had joined us in the cafeteria. Both were very skeptical of our choice to get the hot lunch, and I could see why; the stewed beef’s merits began and ended with being cheap and a generous serving. Even better, it was free for scholarship students. 

Upper School Main Building, Classroom 2-C It had been a bit of a rush to get our schedules and get to our homeroom; Dean Jerdew sent one of his assistants with us to show us the way.  Confusingly, the room numbers in the main building weren’t by floor, but by class year; I don’t think either of us would have remembered without help that the second-year floor was the top floor of one of the two high school buildings. We’d seen the classrooms empty in the spring.  Now there were students going into all of them; ours looked a little more than half full when we arrived. 

Interlude Upper School Main Building, Classroom 2-C The first day of the new year; most of the class had arrived already and were around their seats talking about their summer break.  Jack and Kai were discussing the latest rumor. “I hear we're getting a couple of new students,” said Jack. “Girls?” asked Kai. “With our luck, not just guys but ones who are going to get all the girls.” Just then Amy Lee startled Jack with a pat on both shoulders. After he settled down, she borrowed the desk next to him and told them "Neither girls nor any particular risk of getting all of them from what I hear."

Commodore 64, fall 1983 - I remember the exact date, but it's not relevant here beyond that it was for my birthday. Probably half the computer geeks of my generation started on the 64. 😀 I don’t know exactly how my parents paid, but it was after one of the big price drops — we’d been talking over the summer about a Timex-Sinclair 2000 (a US-market licensed re-badge of the ZX81 for our friends from outside the US) but the price had dropped enough that I got the 64 instead.

Queen Sara Memorial Academy, Arts Center Main Hall 8:00 AM The main hall was practically a building in itself, at one end of the Arts Center that the upper and lower schools shared.  We were on time with the main group of students from the train but hadn’t come early enough to get prime seats.  The seats normally might have bothered Joel; my own habit was always to take an aisle as far back as possible, and with all the close seats taken he didn’t object. A few minutes later, there was a quick audio check by a couple of students. 

Tues, Sept 1, 1992 (Terran common era) 2472 (Old Imperial year) Feldaren, Union of the Etciv Eastern suburb of South Riverside A townhouse, my bedroom, 6:30 AM My alarm went off at an uncomfortably early hour, and I woke to light already coming in through insufficiently dark curtains.  I still wasn’t used to a new bed, in a new house, a new city, in a new world.  With a roommate, rather than my family -- who were two train rides and a universe hop away. My things were still in boxes, but I’d set out the school uniform the night before, and my laptop and textbooks sat out on the otherwise bare desk.