Classes were held in a large, imposing building at the apex of the monorail’s track, before the train began the curving descent around the business district and back down to the residential homes. But when students of a particular year were scheduled to visit a working environment, we stayed on the train past the classroom and, instead, exited at the office building where our Teacher would meet us. So when the train left the platform in front of the classroom, twenty-six students remained behind, every one of them my age. They were paired with their Others, and many sat facing another pair of friends, the same way Brin and I sat opposite Kyer and Lyra.
Lyra stared out the window at the gray, steely waters beyond the edges of the Colony. From the monorail, the view of the ocean was expansi
