Of Delicate Pieces Read Online Free PDF Page B

heroines.
    Skye had replied by saying, “The walls are tired.”
    With all the whispering, they didn’t seem that tired to Alex.
    The interaction with Sigorny nearly made them late, and each table was too packed for them to sit together. A group of girls beckoned Kaleb to their group, but there was barely enough room for even him to fit, and he seemed to be looking for someone else.
    Alex took a step closer to Chase. If their group was forced to split, she wanted to stay with him. He squeezed her hand, and his voice knocked on the door of her mind:
    We’ll sit on the floor if there isn’t room somewhere else .
    A redhead popped up. Skye flicked her finger in a few directions, and kids left her table to join other groups. She waved Alex over to her multigenerational table. Gabe cursed in a low voice, and Chase flattened his lips in distaste, but Skye, who was a Legacy herself, already tugged Kaleb’s arm, pulling him down onto the bench. He looked pleased.
    “Hello, Alex,” Tess Darwin greeted her stiffly. “Chase.”
    Gabe plopped down opposite them. Linton Darwin opened his mouth to speak, but thankfully Professor Duvall breezed past them down the aisle. Linton’s words were lost, as were everyone else’s. Duvall held two smoking vials in her bony hands, and the puffs of purple smog stole their voices.
    Madame Paleo stood at the front of the gathering hall. When she smiled, her nose widened, taking up most of her face. “Good evening, newburies. Tomorrow we will introduce several new workshops, so please remember to select your desired sessions. This evening’s gathering will be a bit unconventional: an introduction to the new workshops led by another guest from the Dual Towers at Broderick Square. She can only be with us for a few minutes as her line of work has been rather trafficable these days, but she’s been kind enough to find the time to teach the workshops and to greet you this evening.” Her outstretched hand revealed a nearly translucent woman. “Please welcome Dr. Massin.”
    The woman quavered like poor television reception.
    Alex felt motion sick. “What’s wrong with her?”
    “She’s boring,” Kaleb replied.
    “Maybe she’s been dead a long time,” Chase guessed.
    Funny, she didn’t slouch like the walls.
    “Or she’s boring,” Kaleb repeated a bit louder, curling his disinterested body over the table and resting his cheek on his fist. A table of girls giggled at him, and he winked to them in reply. “I could think of a much better way to pass the time.”
    He glanced at Skye to see her reaction, but she continued to face the front.
    The wispy woman blinked through thick glasses, adjusted her fuzzy Muppet-blue sweater, and greeted them in an echo of a voice as nasally tight as the hair spiraled atop her head. “I’m honored to have been chosen as the sociology representative this session, and I’m pleased that my area of expertise is being taken so seriously, especially after last year’s incidents.”
    Alex’s angst rose higher with each person turning to find her in the crowd, and embarrassingly enough, her attire transformed. A loose-fitting sheer blouse slouched over her tank, and her hair twisted in a side braid with a wave of bangs to frame her face.
    Chase elbowed her. “Nice shirt.”
    She shushed him.
    “Sociology.” Dr. Massin sang the word like a hymn, and Kaleb groaned loudly. “It is necessary in order to understand the society in which we live.”
    Alex’s mind rummaged through its contents. Images danced like the flashing pages of a flipbook, each pertaining to the topic of sociology. Her tenth grade English teacher. The name Karl Marx. Opening a dictionary and seeing: denoting social or society. French, from Latin, socius . A history show and Mr. Lasalle watching from a leather recliner. The pictures continued as her memory attempted to sort through them, to make sense of them.
    Somewhere in the back of her mind, underneath the swishing of flipping pages,