Close to the Covert Rains **Book One**

Chapter 3 (Wednesday)

Verspri groaned, rolling out of bed. "What gym teacher makes you run laps on the first day of class?" he muttered to himself, stiffly walking to his door. He swung it open, and stared open-mouthed at Kwayo blocking the way, doing push-ups.

"What on earth are you doing?" Verspri asked. "Aren't you sore enough?"

Kwayo didn't respond, only going up and down in repeated motions. Verspri shook his head, stepping around him so he could leave the dorm and head to the bathroom.

Upon returning, shivering slightly from the lack of warm water in the shower, he found Kwayo's door shut, so he wandered into the living room where Teremki sat, again reading a book. "What time is it?"

Teremki looked up at him. "Do you not have a clock? Or a phone?"

Verspri shook his head. "I didn't think about packing that."

"Oh. Well, it's like seven thirty," he went back to his book, leaving Verspri in silence.

Verspri stood there, shuffling side to side, then left, heading outside to the teleporter. He sighed and tapped the icon for the cafeteria, then stepped through, hobbling up the sidewalk to the building. Strangely, the volume inside the cafeteria felt muted, and the colors and smells had diminished.

At the cereal counter, he filled a bowl with "Choco Puffs" and doused them with milk. Searching around for a place to sit, he slid down at a table across from two boys he recognized from power and gym the day before. He smiled, "hi guys--"

"Yeah, yeah, hey Verspri. Nice to meet you too," one of them said. He had sharp blue eyes and dark shaggy hair, and Verspri couldn't help but stare at his twitching eyelid. Then the boy yelped, jumping halfway from his seat, "Ow, Isaac!" he rubbed at his side. "That's not nice."

"What's not nice is you interrupting a polite greeting!" Isaac, the blond one, shot back.

"It's not my fault! I was busy speed-thinking through all the cereal flavor combinations! He interrupted me first!"

Isaac rolled his eyes. "Razón, no one cares how many ways you could combine two cereals in a bowl, okay?" he turned to Verspri. "Hi, I'm Isaac. It's nice to meet you. We're next door to each other, aren't we?"

"I think so. Are you in dorm number four?"

Razón broke in. "Yeah, we are. That means you're with Kwayo and Teremki, which sounds so lame. They're both weirdos."

Isaac stuck his tongue out. "Actually, if anyone's the weirdo, it's you."

"Nuh-uh. You're the wacko who makes opera music every morning."

"That is totally not true. Opera music has to be sung, and it's like the lamest--"

Isaac and Razón devolved into a full-blown shouting match and Verspri glanced around self-consciously. Slowly, he stirred his mostly-full bowl of soggifying cereal. He wasn't that hungry for chocolate cereal anymore.

He slid from the bench, dumping the cereal in a trash bin and grabbing some cold french toast on his way back to the teleporter.

***

Verspri checked his schedule again, then eyed the much larger seventh and eighth graders looming around him. He gulped, palms sweating. He folded the schedule into his pocket, searching around for a familiar, calming face. Besides Teremki--he stood at the back of the room, innocently tossing wickedly sharp knives into the air, and that made Verspri sweat more than the presence of his towering classmates. Would Verspri have to juggle knives before the class period ended?

The bell rang, and right on cue a small woman walked into the room, silencing chatter in her wake. At the head of the class, she turned to face them, ordering everyone to take a seat on the ground so she could give out instructions. Verspri sat; these "elective" classes didn't take roll, only the ones required for each grade. So maybe he wouldn't have to come to this class full of people who looked ready to beat him up...