Elemental Thief

Chapter 14

"Did she change her mind?" Meera asked the moment she opened her door about half an hour later and saw Ridley standing there.

"Who?" Ridley asked.

"You know, the person who was supposed to help us last night. The person you said turned out to be a gigantic coward."

"Um ... I'm not sure." Ridley walked past Meera. "I sent her a message this morning pleading with her. I figured I'd wait until the end of the day to see if it made any difference." She walked into the kitchen and stopped at the sight of the commpad, laptop, notepaper and pens on the kitchen table. "What's going on here? Wait, are you doing schoolwork already?"

"Yes!" Meera hurried to the table with a panicked look on her face. "Didn't you see the net-mail from Wallace?"

"Uh ... no?"

"Apparently we were supposed to read every book on the prescribed list during summer break. I thought we only had to read these two." Meera held up her commpad and showed Ridley two book covers. "So obviously I read those, but I've barely started on the others."

"Well, you're not alone." Ridley picked up the notebook and examined the list of book titles Meera had written down. Only the top two titles had a tick next to them. "I'm pretty sure everyone else thought we only had to read these first two on the list."

"Anyway, so I've started reading this one—" Meera pointed to the third title on the list "—but I can barely concentrate thinking about what Shen must be going through right now."

Ridley's eyes moved to the fourth title. "Okay, I can start reading one of the others while you carry on with the one you've started. Then we can summarize for each other." She knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate well either wondering what was going on with the video she'd posted, but she'd already decided to ignore it until the story made it onto the news.

"Ugh, I know this is super weird for me to say," Meera said, staring dismally at her commpad, "but I don't want to be reading right now. We were supposed to meet Shen at the indoor wall this afternoon. I was even kinda looking forward to it. I can't believe things can change so drastically in just a few days."

Ridley put the notepad down. "We can still go if you want."

Meera rolled her eyes. "I wasn't looking forward to it that much. You know it's more your thing than mine. I only started 'cause you guys were making me feel left out."

Ridley couldn't help laughing. "Yes, I know." The indoor sports center had begun as a community project to keep kids from the city's poorer districts off the street and out of trouble. Shen loved climbing from the start and continued going, even after many of his friends lost interest. When Ridley started at Wallace and was so unhappy to discover all her old friends still ignoring her, Shen convinced her to give indoor climbing a go. She was surprised to find that she enjoyed it. She liked relying on her own body's strength and not her magic, and it gave her something to work toward. At first it was all about climbing a little higher every time. Then, once she'd mastered climbing all the way to the top, it became about climbing faster. Beating her own best time. Beating Shen—something she hadn't managed to achieve yet, though she assured herself it would happen.

These days, Shen was a volunteer instructor at the sports center. All the younger kids loved him. They must be so confused, Ridley thought, seeing Shen's face on social feeds and on the news updates that streamed across the city's public screens. Seeing him accused of murder. I'll get you out of that jail, she promised him. She had to do it as much for those kids as for herself, Meera, and Shen's family.

"So yeah, let's try the reading thing," Meera said with a sigh. "It has to be done. I'll try harder to focus and not think about Shen too much."

They sat on the couch, Meera reading her commpad and Ridley reading the one title that Meera had an actual paper copy of, mainly so she could put her commscreen aside and resist the urge to scroll through the social feeds. The minutes ticked slowly by, and no one messaged Ridley or Meera to ask if they'd seen the video. Meera's siblings didn't say anything about it. Ridley's dad didn't call her.