Surviving my Scholarship

Ti Punch

          The sun had set officially by the time we made it home. Jon installed an anklet and I made it tinkle with a twist of my foot.

                "It's pretty," I smiled at Jon and he smirked evilly at me.

                "It's deadly," Pierce grumbled before heading off to his room.

                "Similar to your tracker," he started.

                "Bubo," I corrected.

                "Similar to Bubo, you will have a certain range away from this controller," he held up a small black rectangular device with a small blinking red button. "I set it for 5 feet. If you are out of range, it will punish you. When you are on premises, I will set it to Free Range. That will give you the same barrier as Bubo had. You remember it?"

                I nodded and he smiled at me.

                "Good."

                He turned and headed out the door. I twirled the anklet again enjoying the twinkling sound. How much trouble could you really be?

                There was a small buzzing sound and then a paralyzing shock up my leg.

                "Ow," I screamed out as I turned to leave the room after Jon. "Jon wait!"

                I heard chuckling down the hallway. I had to practically drag my leg down the hallway in a weird jump thing to catch Jon. I watched as he switched it to Free Range and he winked at me.

                "Just wanted to let you know what you were dealing with," Jon informed me before heading back down the hallway.

                "Stupid thing," I grumbled as I turned to head to my room. Pierce grabbed my arm and turned me back around.

                "Oh no, periwinkle," he chuckled. "We are going skating."

                Two sets of shoes dangled from his arm as he led me backwards down the hallway. He stopped at the door long enough for me to turn around and glance out at the snowy wonderland. I couldn't help jumping slightly for glee. I still get to skate.

                As we approached the skating rink, two figures on the ice caught my attention. Mr. and Mrs. Galloway twirled in the middle as they kissed. My stomach lurched slightly.

                "Gross," Pierce grumbled as he turned me away from the scene. "Maybe we can play in the snow, away from that."

                I played in the snow for a bit before smiling down at the pack-ability of it. I started rolling up one giant ball. It took me awhile to get the second ball onto the first. I was really sore from everything. Pierce's one hand on the top helped me finish stabilizing it. He glanced at me in interest before turning and heading over to another patch of snow.  I put the last ball on and ran into the house grabbing a carrot. Of course, they had no coal, since most planets found clean energy to run on. Instead I grabbed two giant buttons and small yucky Wezilanton nuts I had mistakenly eaten before.

                I tipped his hat, that looked more like what the Pope would wear, and curved a scarf around his neck. I was proud of my snowman. He looked almost like the ones they do on Earth. I turned and yelled to Pierce who peeked from a wall of snow. He looked at the thing next to me with confusion before throwing the snow down and heading towards me.