Page 125 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“So whathaveyou done?” Carly asked.
I’d practiced this question with Liam, but suddenly, every club and after-school activity I’d ever been a part of evaporated from my head. The obvious answer was that I’d spent nearly every night of the summer so far in a parallel world trying to keep save two different realities and fighting monsters.
Carly probably didn’t want that answer.
“I haven’t done anything yet.”
Carly probably didn’t want that answer either, because she fell silent. Jonquil bumped against my ankles, but I suspected she was hoping I would drop a bit of leftover chicken from the fridge shelf.
“I mean, Ihave,” I clarified. “I did clubs and stuff, but that was all listed in my application, so you already know that. I haven’t done anything I care about yet. Nothing that wasn’t to pad a college application. None of that matters. What matters is what I’mgoingto do.”
“Oh?” Carly sounded pleasantly surprised. I dared to come out of the fridge. I leaned against the door and played with the hem of my shirt. “Then what is it you hope to do?”
“I’m going to become the best geophysicist to ever come out of Von Leer University. Not because of my deadbeat, world-renowned geophysicist father, but because volcanoes are cool and over a billion people, including us, are living somewhere that a volcano might wipe them off the face of the planet, and someone needs to monitor them.”
“Good news for you, then,” Carly said. I looked down at Jonquil, and she stared back expectantly. “We have one of the top volcanology tracks in the country, though it sounds like you know that.”
“I do,” I said quietly. I’d practiced so hard with Liam. He would be so disappointed.
“In that case, Miss Warrender, would you be free for an in-person interview?” Carly asked. I stood straight up, nearly kicking Jonquil.
“In-person?” I demanded. I spun around to face Gams’s magnetic calendar she kept on the fridge. “Yes! I mean, yes. Definitely. I could do that.”
“The school year starts in a few months, so earlier is better. How’s—”
“The fifteenth.” I jammed my finger against the calendar. Gams had penciled in the day I was visiting campus with Liam. Maxwell Brenton’s talk was on the evening of the fourteenth. “I can do the morning of the fifteenth. It’s a Friday. I’m going to be over there anyways.”
“The fifteenth it is! How does ten—”
“It works perfect,” I cut her off. “Sorry. And don’t worry. My grandma’s cat is staying home, so I won’t be delayed by any food-related Persian incidents.”
Carly’s laugh was forced, but I didn’t care.
I’d moved on to the next interview. It would’ve been better if she’d told me I’d gotten in then and there, but I couldn’t blame her. After the night I’d had and the interview I’d given, this was absolutely the best I could’ve hoped for.
She hung up, and I fell back against the fridge, running my hands through my tangled hair.
I could breathe again. It had worked out. It had cost me a life in Skalterra, but I’d managed to escape Ciarán, and I’d somewhat passed my interview despite being two minutes late and accusing the school of nepotism.
I unfurled my fingers to look at the new scar on my hand.
It had been worth it. Maybe. I still had one life left, and according to Galahad, we were getting close to the Second Sentinel.
I would survive both Skalterra and my next interview.
I would make sure of it.
Jonquil wove between my feet on the stairs to the shop. I danced around her, and she beat me to the bottom step. She pawed at the door with her tail held high.
“Stop pretending you’re excited for me,” I sighed at her. “You just want my grandmother.”
I opened the door, and Jonquil chirped as she ran out. Gams looked up from where she was sweeping a spotless floor that I was sure she’d been stress-cleaning all morning.
“Well?” She threw the broom across the empty shop in her enthusiasm, and Liam ducked to avoid it at the ice-cream station.
“I got an in—”
“You got in?” Gams squealed.
