Daylight Runner Read Online Free

this ball, and we’re going to give it to them. But we can’t do it without money. Internal Climate is our sponsor, and we have to respect their wishes—”
    â€œYou have to kiss their small-minded asses is more like it!” Cleo retorted.
    Khaled’s pale brown face stiffened, and Cleo saw the beginnings of a storm brewing. She didn’t like the man, but he tried hard to win the students’ respect. It was his temper that let him down most of the time.
    â€œI have to go and tell the guys,” she said in a softer voice. “Just out of interest, who’s going to headline it now?”
    â€œIced Breeze,” Khaled supplied.
    â€œAw, man, not those saps—”
    â€œGet to class, Miss Matsumura.” The principal’s tone left little room for argument.
    Cleo angrily shifted the strap of her bag onto her shoulder and headed for her classroom. Freak Soup, her band, was the most popular group in the school, which was why they’d been the obvious choice to headline the end-of-year gig. It was going to be their biggest-ever audience, and they’d been really keyed up for it. She was nearly crying with frustration as she entered the classroom. They had Ms. Kiroa for government. The teacher took one look at Cleo’s face and just waved her to her seat. Everybody knew that she’d been called away by the principal; now everybody could guess why.
    â€œWe were about to have a minute’s silence for the two men who died yesterday,” Ms. Kiroa told her. “By the way, if any of you feel you need to talk about what happened, you’re welcome to come to me after class. So, if you could all stand…”
    Cleo stood with the rest of the class. She breathed in and out slowly, subduing the sobs that wanted to come out. It was so unfair . She couldn’t believe the nerve of those jerks. Well, if they thought her lyrics had been inflammatory before, just wait until she came up with anumber about this…. She’d write stuff that would make their hair stand on end.
    â€œThank you, you can sit down now,” Ms. Kiroa told them. “Sol, take your hood down, please. You know I don’t like you wearing it up in class. So, to recap on last week, why is it necessary for the bulk of us to travel to work or school on the clockwise route and then complete the circle on the homeward journey?”
    Cleo snorted quietly. They’d been learning this since elementary school. Right turns to school and right turns home. Hands went up.
    â€œTo generate the kinetic energy for the Heart Engine, miss.” Ubertino Lamont, one of Freak Soup’s drummers, spoke up as the teacher pointed to him. “To keep the flywheels turning.”
    â€œDuh,” Cleo mumbled.
    â€œAll right, that was an easy one,” Ms. Kiroa said. “And we know that during the working day and early evening, the flywheels are driven by the tram system and by the foot stations. Something most of you can look forward to when you leave school. One hour a day every fourth week. Unless you get to fill some vitally important role, such as a…oh, a teacher , say.”
    She struck a glamorous pose, and some of the students smirked.
    â€œBut who can tell me this?” she went on. “In the fourth year of its operation, the generators were alreadyonline and feeding the city much of its heat, but most of the works were still not connected. That was the year the Heart Engine failed. Can anybody tell me why?”
    There was a hush in the classroom. Few of them had even heard of the event more than two hundred years ago.
    â€œToo much fat in its diet?” Cleo muttered beneath her breath, prompting a chorus of sniggers.
    â€œThe construction workers went on strike,” Ms. Kiroa told them, still trying to ignore the aggrieved young upstart in the second row. Cleo was upset, and she was looking to start a fight with her teacher in order to blow off some steam. Ana