"My mom's a Critical Care nurse," Julia said. "You try telling her I'm not going to take Honors classes," Julia said. "She'll call my grandma..."
"Your grandmother is a nurse too?"
"No, she was a pharmacist and put my mother through college. She used to call to quiz me on questions that weren't even on the test."
"That's cool," Amber said. More students started to drift in. Amber turned to find a seat, and discovered all the ones near Sarah were already taken, so she found a nearby available one. Sarah didn't even seem to notice, and was on her phone, texting.
On the other side of the school, Karyn sat in her own homeroom, distracted. When she'd woken up this morning, she'd felt something was missing. It was the first day of school, and she felt like she had no plans. Karyn wasn't aware they'd blurred her memories of Jon over the last two years, reattributing activities with him to other characters. The net result left her feeling like she needed to do something new...which was exactly the feeling the programmers had tried to create in her. But they'd left it to her, and some other influences how her new need to do something new would manifest.
She listened to the homeroom teacher cover some business, and then the public address system coming to life to announce to the school that the first period of the modified schedule would start in 10 minutes. Karyn picked up her bag and headed through the hall. "Hey, Karyn," a female voice said. "Did you have a nice summer?" The voice belonged to Rebecca Hart.
"Yeah, how about you?" Karyn asked.
"I went to this drama camp...it was SO amazing," she said, excitedly.
"Glad to hear it," Karyn said. "I can't be late to my first class. See you later, Becca," Karyn said. She'd known Becca for a long time, but the other girl always was so...perky. Sometimes, it made Karyn want to...well, make an excuse and leave.
