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Ten. Tight and Churning
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Cecilia walks through the loud hallway, arms clutching books to her chest. She had swallowed herself in a large trench coat that day, it was ochre velvet and was soft against her short soft green dress. Her green scarf and slouchy shoulder bag matched with her dress. She wore her black high boots and her hair was thrown back in a mess of a bun, with her baby hairs against her forehead.
"Listen up, space-fillers!" Principal Perry's voice in the mornings is like nails on a chalk board. It makes Cecilia wince a little as she moves closer towards her friends. "This is an emergency preparedness week. An emergency drill can happen at any time. So when the alarm sounds, you must evacuate the building in an orderly fashion—like cattle, if cattle had acne . . . And braces . . . And a future filling up my gas tank." She laughs at herself then walks away.
"Oh, man!" Adam turns over his shoulder to his siblings and friends and he groans. "I wish I had Bree's super speed! Because you do not want to be stuck walking behind cows in an emergency, trust me on that."
Chase gapes at his brother, he scoffs. "You would trade your super-strength for Bree's super-speed? Man, if I had your strength, I'd just run out of the building juggling those cows."
"Yeah, and if I had your super-intelligence, I'd have walked away from this conversation thirty seconds ago." Cecilia smiles at Bree's words, nodding gently.
"Hey, you know what would be awesome? If you guys took out your bionic chips and switched your abilities." Leo looks between his siblings with a beam. Cecilia's hip sways into Leo's harshly.
"Yeah, no." Cecilia jumps to a quick answer, shaking her head a little. "Bad bad idea, I don't think—"
"Why can't we?" Chase carries on, eyes a little wide as he shares looks with his siblings. He avoids Cecilia's glare.
