TCSD Book 1 - The Daughter of Terran Demons

Prologue - The Beginning

Welcome to the prologue, ladies, gentlemen, and other entities. I hope you enjoy it!

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Sitting in my first hour, I yawn and continue with my drawing. It's one of the only things that keeps me awake in the morning. I look up occasionally at Mr. Voit, my Government teacher, who is talking about presidential powers. It's 0830, what else am I supposed to do? My brain is still waking up.

I shake my head a bit and take a sip of my hot cocoa. Though it is spring, and it's been warm most of the week, I have kept up my daily routine. In an entire school year, I haven't missed drinking hot cocoa on any school day. Or eating the same lunch almost every day for the past nine years. But those are stories for later.

You may be wondering, where is this going? Don't worry, it'll pick up in a minute.

Soon enough, the intercom over the school sounds off. "All students, please attend the presentation and school-wide meeting in the Big Gym. Please bring your backpacks and other things with you. Thank you." BEEP!

"Well, that's weird. Come on, guys, let's go see what this is about," Mr. Voit announces. We all stand up, and our assistant teacher (also my 3rd-hour teacher), Mrs. Staal, leads us down the hall.

Ethan throws his backpack over his head and slides his arms through the straps simultaneously. He's waiting for me to grab my stuff.

"What do you think this is about?" I ask, curious to hear my friend's thoughts.

"I think it's either an update on e-Hallpass, or it's some kind of health speech or school betterment speech that never actually goes past the page." He rolls his eyes as we follow our classmates.

"Hardy har har. I heard it might be some new organization from Silicon Valley looking for volunteers or workers." We continue down the hall, and Steven appears near us, shoving into Ethan.

"What's going on?"

"We're trying to figure that out ourselves, dumbass." I roll my eyes and playfully shove him into the lockers with my shoulder, his right side slamming into the painted blue metal. "What are your thoughts?"

"Maybe they're trying to mass murder us or somethin'!"

I smack my forehead. "An actual thought. Not just that."

"Yeah, Steven, stop thinking using..." I tune out the skxawngs behind me and focus on finding some of my other friends.

As we continue down the hall, more of my friends congregate around me, but I keep Ethan and Steve near me. I don't know why, but something tells me I will need them nearby.

"Hey, Michael, what do you think is going on?" I ask the boy to my left.

"Transition therapy for trans teens? Or they're allowing us to use weed in class? Or normalizing weed as anxiety control? Or vape-"

I roll my eyes, cutting him off. "Dude. Real possibilities. This is an American public school in rural, liberal Missouri. Those things are never gonna happen, unfortunately."

Michael thinks for a second. "Military training?"

"This isn't Russia. They're not gonna set bears on us." I ruffle his vibrantly dyed hair. I turn to see Grace fidgeting. "Hey, you okay?" I grab her hands to prevent her from hitting herself.

"Yeah. Anxiety, yanno?" She says, her head tilting sharply to the side. "Ticks are acting up, too- Fuck you!" she flips me off.

"Fuck you!" I say, smiling with all my teeth.