March 2017 – Page 2 – Clare K. R. Miller

Dawn knocked on the door and heard Corrie call, “Come in.” When she entered, she was pleased to see that Corrie and Edie were in, and no one else was visiting them.

As she shut the door behind herself, she remembered the many times that she’d been in here just to talk to the two of them—that either she’d come in while specifically avoiding others, or they’d been hanging out in a larger group and she’d deliberately stayed behind just to have a private conversation with the two of them. There had even been a few times when they had come into her dorm room to have a private conversation with her, when Naomi was out.

Of course, at times she had wanted to talk privately with Corrie without Edie around, or vice versa, but Dawn couldn’t remember any times when she’d wanted to talk to either Corrie or Edie specifically with another friend or group of friends. She hoped they liked her idea. They were her best friends, and a triple with the two of them was the most comfortable living arrangement she could come up with other than single rooms for all of them.

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 12: Chapter 45: So Many Choices” →

The February story, “Etchings,” is available now, exclusively for patrons!

Torra was working, as usual, in the back room, focusing on inserting the gears perfectly so that her new project would work correctly, when she heard voices from the front.

“This is unusual,” said a man’s voice. Torra didn’t know the voice, but she sat up straighter and listened harder—it seemed familiar to her somehow. “Beautiful workmanship.”

“My apprentice,” said Missus Frigta warmly. “A very remarkable young lady. She’s only fourteen, been working for me these two years, but her skills are outstripping mine already.” Torra smiled at Missus Frigta’s praise, though she didn’t believe it.

“A twelve-year-old child, already your apprentice?” The man’s voice, though reedy and hesitant, sent shivers of warmth through Torra. Where had she heard it before? Not in the orphanage, surely, and she had no memories from before it, except–she quashed the thought. She hadn’t met Kandel until they came to the orphanage, so those memories couldn’t be real.

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