WIP Wednesday

Some more of NaNo '10 for you :)



“Now, Lyddie, you have an appointment on the third; I’ve already written you an excuse card, so just hand this in to-”

“Wait,” I say. “I can’t leave early on the third. I’ve got a class.”

“You need to go to this meeting,” Aunt Kaye says shortly, still trying to hand me the card.

“Is it an appointment or is it a meeting?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, a meeting implies a general gathering at which people discuss something in an open forum while eating cookies. An appointment implies a nice couch and a psychologist.”

“Lyddie-”

“I’m serious, I can’t go.”

“You have to. Here.” She finally gets the packet into my hands. “Just read this over. It will tell you everything you need to know.”

“Then why do I have to go see the guy? Is he going to read it to me? Because I’ve been doing my own reading for quite some time now.”

“No, he’ll just explain things to you; the finer details.”

“I don’t need the finer details, Aunt Kelly. At the risk of sounding like a real teenager, my life is over and that’s all there is to it. I’d rather not add missing this class to my list of Reasons Why My Life Sucks Right Now.”

“Lyddie-”

“No, I can’t. I-”

“Lyddie, listen to me!” Something in my aunt’s voice stops my tirade. “You need to do this. The job you’re going to undertake may seem simple, but it’s not. There are a lot of intricacies that you don’t understand yet – Dr. Philips will explain those to you as well.”

I look at the pages in my hand. Admittedly, I don’t know much about this whole lantern thing, and I don’t want to screw it up. “Fine,” I sigh. “I’ll go. But if he tries to shrink me, I’m out of there.”