Sleeping Jenny by Aubrie Dionne Read Free Book Online Page A

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    The futuristic shower looked like a torture machine, so I decided to fool with that when I got home. Enough new things for one morning. I kicked off my PJs and slid on a pair of clean, futuristic undies and the tunic. The fabric felt soft and light on my body, instantly regulating my skin temperature. The tunic was more comfortable than it looked. Smoothing out my hair, I decided I looked presentable enough.
    Pell waited for me in the living room, typing on a miniscreen. Looking over her shoulder, I saw a bunch of trapezoids with algebra. Super. What would I have to do today? Rocket science?
    I sighed, anxiety creeping up my legs, giving me that bubbly-nervous feeling in my stomach. What did it matter? These weren’t my friends at my school. Okay, so it was my school, but no one that I knew still went there. Who cared what these futuristic teens thought of me?
    An alarm went off on Pell’s miniscreen, and she shut the lid and looked up at me. “Time to go.”
    We walked to the front door panel and Len gave Pell a kiss on the cheek. “Show them how much you’ve been studying over the summer.”
    â€œI will.” Pell beamed and grabbed her lunch container.
    Len turned to me. “Your parents would be proud of you.” She squeezed my shoulder and handed me a lunch container and a miniscreen. It was strange to have Len make me breakfast and see me off to school. Mom always rose at the crack of dawn and left before I’d even gotten up. In a way, I missed Mom’s workaholic lifestyle. All this attention made me feel like I was five years old again.
    Pell pressed the door panel and the particles dissolved to a chaotic corridor with kids of all ages rushing to school and men and women commuting to work. Pell took my hand and led me through the crowd to a dock where a hoverbus picked us up.
    We sat beside a businesswoman clicking on her miniscreen and talking to an input device in her ear.
    â€œYour stop comes after mine.” Pell instructed me with her little legs dangling and kicking the seat in front of us. “Watch the screen for Ridgewood Prep. Exit fifty-seven.”
    She plugged her ear device into her miniscreen and typed away, her little fingers flying over the keypad so fast they blurred. I gazed out the window at the metropolis sprawling out before us, a sea of skyscrapers so close you could jump from one to the next. Hover-cars sped in zigzags across the sky, and a dense cloud of smog made the sun seem hazy and distant. As we rounded a corner between two high-rises, a crystal-topped skyscraper with vines and leaves growing underneath the glass came into view.
    â€œThat’s a greenhouse.” Pell nudged my arm and pointed to a series of buildings on the right. “My stop’s the next one.”
    The screen by the driver flashed Elementary Academy of New England . The hoverbus stopped and Pell jumped out of her seat. “Good luck today, sillybot.” She pecked my cheek with a kiss and jogged down the aisle.
    As much as I joked about her being my bodyguard earlier, when the hoverbus took off again, I missed her. It was the first time I was completely alone in this new world.

CHAPTER TEN
    The Hotter Chad
    I stepped off the hoverbus onto a platform full of perfect-looking high-school models. It was like someone had thrown me into a movie with actors all in their twenties playing well-developed and self-assured teens.
    No one had a zit. No one.
    Where was the geek squad with the thick glasses? The band nerds with their saxophones and flutes strapped to their backs? The tall, gangly kids with braces?
    Ridgewood Prep had turned into Buffy meets Gossip Girl .
    I remembered Len saying it was the best school in New England. Even when I went to it hundreds of years ago, the price tag was staggering enough to think twice. I couldn’t imagine what it was today. I was looking at all of the richest kids in New England. Did they have bioengineered features,