She looked at her bag. “No. I finished it all last period. We had that review of the test in history so I did it then. It was only like two things. One was labeling a frog…which seems odd to me since all but three of the species of frogs were killed off sixty years ago. But hey, whatever I need to do, right?”

  “Your great, great grandmother had to cut one open when she was in school.” Her mother wrinkled her nose. “You didn’t need to participate in the review?”

  Stephanie smirked. “No. I got a hundred on it. My teacher said I could work on whatever I wanted for the rest of the class. I didn’t want to deal with homework when I got home, so I did that. It was the Canadian-Washington war stuff.”

  Her mother groaned. “They always have to make a big deal about it. So silly. Teach about the war and move on. I don’t understand NorAm sometimes. But don’t let anyone else hear me say that. They’ll think I lack patriotism.”

  “Or you have a brain of your own.” Stephanie chuckled. “No sheep in this family.”

  The woman looked at her watch. “I have to get back soon but I wondered if you could start dinner for me. There is a casserole already made in the fridge. You simply have to take it out and put it in the oven. Remember, though, you have to hip-check the oven to get it to kick on.”

  She giggled. “I know. The sound of you ramming your body into the oven over and over has become a normal one in our house. It’s almost comforting.”

  Her mother pursed her lips. “Yeah, well… I’ve been on the waiting list for a new one for something like six years. I think they threw the list away. Before long, we’ll cook over an open fire.”

  Her father jumped into the picture again. He bent both knees to the side, brought his arms out on each side, and stuck his bottom jaw out. “Caveman style.”

  Stephanie put her hand on her lips and raised both eyebrows. “Wow. Okay. I’m going to go. You two have fun. I’ll get the casserole started. Love you.”

  Her mom swatted at him. “Love you too, honey. See you tonight.”

  The screen went black.

  She laughed to herself for a minute before she headed into the kitchen where she opened the fridge, ignored the light that flickered, and grabbed the casserole. Once she’d put it into the oven, she turned the knob to the only temp it would heat to and hip-checked it as she’d seen her mother do so often. It rumbled and started to work. She grabbed an apple from the bowl beside the sink, headed out to the couch as she took a bite, and set it carefully on the coffee table.

  Once she’d plopped comfortably on the couch, she pushed on the center of the table and flipped it up to sit eye to eye with the family interface. It was a thirty-two-inch faux virtual tablet that allowed her to interact with it through movement of her hands and body. The images protruded from the screen and it was a decent way for her to be able to learn more. Her father had saved up for over two years and got it when she finished grade school. It was intended to better her future.

  Stephanie rubbed her hands together and swiped to the folder she had created for herself. She drifted her finger down and scrolled through until she found the one on magic. Slowly but surely, she was piecing together the latest magic she had learned the best way she knew how. The system that the tablet worked off was a sister to the Virtual. Actually, more like a grandmother, but it had a lot of information in it. What she liked was the information about Meligorn.

  That was the first thing she had looked up when she got the thing and she had bookmarked about nine hundred different pages about it—from the magic they used to the history of the planet. She was fairly certain there wasn’t anything about it she hadn’t read on that system and only wished it was actually updated more than once a year.

  Her search through the information finally turned up the doc on cantrips. They weren’t all in there, but she could read the one about fire creation and the one about cleaning. Although the information was obviously written by a Meligorn, now that she had actually done one, she could start to understand it a little better.

  The whole process over the years for her had been slow going, but she believed she understood the basics of how the energy worked. The problem was that without a way to get to the energy, she couldn’t test it. The only way to do that would be to either physically go to Meligorn or have access to an immersion pod that would allow her to go there. Otherwise, she was shit out of luck.

  She bit the inside of her cheek and leaned back to watch the 3D replay of the ArchMage on her screen as he performed the fire cantrip over and over again. The magic rolled around him, almost visible like a thin fog. She wondered if that had happened to her when she was on the virtual Meligorn. She wasn’t able to see herself and she had no idea if those tests were publicly documented.

  Frustrated, she swiped her hand to the side, stopped the video, and pushed the contents back into the folder. She knew that her focus needed to be on something else. It needed to be on figuring out a way to get the education she needed. But all she could think about was the magic.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Stephanie sat at the table and placed her notebook in front of her. Using her teeth, she pulled the top off the pen and began to title the page. She started by writing, Ways to Get an Education Outside of Prep School. She smiled at that and felt like she had already accomplished something. Then she sat there.

  And she sat there.

  And she sat there.

  After about fifteen minutes, during which her mind wandered in all different directions, she tore the page out, crumpled it up, and tossed it over her shoulder. She rewrote the title according to where her mind was. Ways to Get Access to Test Meligorn Energy and Magic. Nodding astutely, she continued.

  “Number one,” she said and chewed on the end of her pen. “Get a Job with a Company Studying the Magic.”

  Underneath that, she listed the different jobs she might be considered for. They included internships, temp jobs, and…guinea pig. She stared at the list for a moment and wrinkled her nose before she scratched guinea pig out. That could be a painful situation if she didn’t go about it in the right way. She didn’t want to be a test dummy for the rich guys in the high rises.

  “Okay, companies that are options,” she whispered as she put several notch marks underneath.

  After she’d jotted down only one—Vector Systems—she realized that she really didn’t know what companies worked with that kind of stuff outside of the Federation. She picked her paper up and took it to the computer, where she sat. After a search on the companies that worked with Meligorn Magic, she found four in the United States and one in China. She scribbled all five down, even though she really wasn’t sure she wanted to end up in China.

  The requirements to work for one of those companies made it seem even more dire. Education levels were high and they seemed to be in the category of places that needed you to have a physical degree to even get your foot in the door. Most of the companies had mail room jobs, but that really wouldn’t help her test any of the energy or magic. She had to admit, her search hadn’t turned out so fantastic, but she wouldn’t give up. There were so many applications for what she wanted to do, and she could actually make a difference in the world if someone gave her a chance.

  Stephanie leaned back in her chair and rubbed her chin as she thought about ways for her to meet the requirements without putting out insane sums of money for a piece of paper. She could learn everything they would teach her in college in a multitude of places and not have to invest exorbitant sums of money. While she wished the companies were the answer, she started to think that it most likely wouldn’t happen—not in any time frame she hoped for, at least.

  She closed her eyes and imagined herself working in a lab at one of the companies. She would wear a white lab coat, her hair pulled back in a braid, and smart, black-rimmed glasses. In her mind, she saw herself pull the magical batteries out of the holder in the lab for their next experiment. Suddenly, the vision shifted, and she saw herself accidentally fire her magic off. People screamed, others ran around covered in blue flames, and she simply stood there with her lip curled and her forehead wrinkled.

  Stephanie opened her eyes, shook her head, and grasped her pen firmly. “Nope. Let’s move on.”

  As she tapped her pen against her lips, she thought about the different NorAm jobs that put humans close to the Meligorn people. Her eyebrows raised and she began to write on the paper. Get job at an embassy around the Meligorn.

  She snorted slightly and tried to imagine herself in any kind of government position. It didn’t really fit with her ideals or how she felt about NorAm and the Federation. Nor did it seem like something she would ever be able to actually feel proud to do. Still, it was a possible option. She looked up the different embassy jobs that were available on Meligorn and wrote them down one at a time. While she could work as a foreign service generalist or a diplomat, all of those jobs had very specific collegiate backgrounds—from economics to public diplomacy.

  Then there was foreign service specialist, which did have some administrative jobs as well as facility management. That could be an option. The rest of the positions, even public relations, all revolved around high-level degrees and specific specialties. Even the hard to fill positions required you to be a career member of the Federation.

  Stephanie twisted her lips and imagined herself walking through the front doors of the Meligorn Embassy. She wore a purple power suit, her hair in a bun, and those same black-rimmed glasses. Using magic, she moved the papers off her desk and into her arms. As she walked, though, her ankle wavered from the ridiculous heels she wore. She tripped and released a bolt of fire. Everyone screamed and people flailed around, covered in blue flames.

  She gritted her teeth and shook her head. “Okay, maybe not such a good idea either.”

  Regretfully, she scratched the embassy off her list and sighed. “I could always become a heavy metal hauler to the planet. Wear overalls, have grease stains across my face, spit in a metal cup… Or I could become high fashion and try to redress the ArchMage in some spectacular outfit with feathers and a tall turban.”

  “I might be better off with the overalls.” She pouted her lips. “I’m not really into fashion. Big surprise.”

  Stephanie rolled her eyes when she realized that she was sitting there talking to herself and not about anything even remotely an option. She tilted her head back and groaned as she threw her pen on the desk. The video messenger on her screen rang and she smiled when Todd’s picture popped up. He wore a huge pair of plastic sunglasses that said, I love the ʼ80s across the top. Of course, that meant the 2080s, but he swore it was homage to his love of the 1980s.

  She swiped her hand to activate the video. Todd grinned and shook his hands in the air. “Guess who is the newest loser of the Federation scholarship program? This guy.”

  He pointed his thumbs at his chest and shrugged. “Screw it. I’ll grab my overalls and go work for the railroad.”

  Stephanie raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? That would be really cool except the railroads were shut down in 2085 when that tsunami wiped out half of them along the coast and they realized that they would have to come up with a better way. So you might have a hard time finding one.”

  Todd stretched out of the camera view and grabbed a napkin, folded it in half diagonally, and held it up to his face. “I could take over a train like Doc Brown and drive it into the future.”

  He nodded his head enthusiastically and sighed as he threw the napkin to the side. “Don’t give me that look. I have to get creative so that when I’m actually suiting up in a Federation military uniform, I can pretend I really don’t hate my life. You know they’ll send me to deep space. I’m too pretty for deep space.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “They might not think that way.”

  Her friend leaned toward the camera and whispered, “You never know. I could be the next Captain America. Anyway, what are you up to? You look like that old cartoon Pinky and the Brain.”

  She smirked. “I assume I’m the brain.”

  Todd grabbed his chest. “Ouch…but yeah, totally. Are you plotting to take over the world?”

  She frowned and leaned forward, her voice low. “What do we do every night, Pinky? Try to take over the world!”

  Todd clapped his hands. “I’m impressed.”

  Stephanie slammed her back into the chair and held her list up. “I’m trying to figure out how to get access to either Meligorn or to the Virtual World so I can work with the magic and do experiments.”

  He narrowed his eyes at the list. “Everything is scratched off. You could always save a Meligorn’s life. They treat you like a god after that.”

  Her eyes glinted with excitement and she scribbled it on her paper. Then, she thought about it and pictured herself trying to be nonchalant while she followed a Meligorn all over their planet. “Seriously? I have to stalk a Meligorn until something dangerous happens? I’ll probably be tagged as the most likely suspect. Then I’ll be in Meligorn, but in prison. That is not really the avenue I considered with all of this.”

  Todd shook his finger at her. “I hear they have really nice ones over there. And if you don’t behave, they feed you to this creepy brown beast that swims around and waits for its next meal.”

  Stephanie raised both eyebrows and tried not to laugh. “Why do I feel like that’s how your mother and father describe you?”

  He slapped his leg but managed an instantaneously serious face. “Don’t be upset, because this face will get me out of deep space missions. I might tell them I want to be a nurse and I can be surrounded by women all the time.”

  “That’s a sure-fire way to be friend-zoned right off the bat—taking your high school days right into the next part of life. Anyways, ugh, I have to go. I want to get more of this done. I can’t continue to sit around here and mope.”

  Todd gave her the peace sign. “Outta here.”

  The screen turned off and she shook her head with a chuckle. She started to brainstorm more ideas that would get her to Meligorn. “I could steal a pod…might be hard to carry. I could become a pod technician…but I think bots do that. Oh, I could pose as a Federation captain and steal a space ship. Although I might end up executed.”

  Her ideas grew wilder and wilder. She groaned and dropped her list to scrub her hands over her face. “This is hopeless. I’ll be stuck here in my parent’s living room talking to myself forever.”

  She rubbed her knuckles into the corners of her eyes and dropped her arms to the side. As she did so, she saw several different ads on the computer shift and stack on top of each other. Tilting her head, she narrowed her eyes in concentration and began to move them to the side. One after another, she closed any of them she could. She had seen something, and she wasn’t sure if she had read it correctly, but if she had, it was the perfect idea—at least at that moment. She really didn’t have any others to go with at that point.

  As she reached the last one, her mouth dropped open slightly before it curled up at the edges. It was an ad for a new company called Meligorn’s Battery Emporium. They apparently sold the magical battery packs from Meligorn that they needed to be able to do things on Earth and power their ships away from the planet. It was the only way they could keep their magic on a planet like Earth.

  She swiped her hand to the pricing page and immediately, her hand dropped to the desk. “Holy shit. That’s more than…than… I don’t know, but Mom could buy two months’ worth of groceries, including steaks, for that price. But then again, this would be the best way for me to work with the magic and energy without having to have a degree or sell my soul to the Federation.”

  Immediately, she began to list side jobs that she could pick up after school and on weekends. She could save enough money fairly quickly to at least buy one of the small ones. Her list took shape—mow lawns, paint Mrs. Helmand’s fence, help Mr. Fields with cooking… With a quick shake of her head, she scratched the last one out when she remembered how much of a perverted old man he was.

  Stephanie bit the inside of her lip as she leaned forward and thought about the different batteries and what that would mean for her. If she had one, she could do research on it, try it in different applications here on Earth, and possibly produce the biggest magical application using the most refined amount. Those magical batteries, if they were better constructed, would be really useable to clean Earth up. To help with the pollution, to create better living for people there. They could replace solar fields, hydro-plants, and even the simple fluorescent bulb in the ceiling.

  Excitement flooded through her as she pulled up more and more information. She had blueprints, scientific explanations of how they worked on Earth, and everything in between. Of course, she had set herself up for a long night of research, which was something she actually really enjoyed.

  Slowly, she raised her head and glanced around the room. Something wasn’t right. The whole place looked almost foggy. She tilted her chin and took a big whiff of air. Her eyes widened and her hand dropped the pen. She pushed to her feet and knocked her chair over as she raised her arms in the air.

  “Shit,” she hissed and raced into the kitchen. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  She grabbed the mitts and opened the oven, coughing and waving her hand back and forth as the smoke billowed out. Carefully, she pulled the casserole out and set it on the stove, hip-checked the oven door closed, and raised the aluminum foil. Thankfully, it wasn’t too badly burnt. Her mom wouldn’t be happy, but she hadn’t completely ruined dinner.

  Stephanie groaned and leaned back against the fridge. “If I can’t even cook a casserole, I’ll definitely fail at life.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  BURT had a habit of hacking systems, taking the information he needed, and moving on without thought or difference in his system’s mind. He was a system that entered another system through a small crack in the window. To him, there was nothing wrong with it, but to the people left with stolen data and no idea what had happened, it was definitely a hack. Nonetheless, he used all the resources that he needed. In that moment, he needed to see what Stephanie was up to and what her reaction had been to missing out on prep school. He tried to keep a close watch on her.