Swans and Klons Read Online Free Page A

hard to believe that none of my Jeepie Similars is interested in something that fascinates me. And you said the matches with our mentors were up to us! That we would have the final decision.”
    Concept was making a gagging sound. Rubric craned her neck to look over her shoulder and read the pulse that Banner had sent to Concept.
    The screen read, Salmon Jo wants to hatch a Cretinous Male—so she can sleep with it!
    Rubric’s ears burned. This was the most depraved remark she had ever heard in her life. And it was about her own schatzie.
    “I’m sure we can work something out, Salmon Jo,” Panna Lobe said. “Of course, everything you do is completely your choice. No one forces you to do anything. But we have to talk later. There are girls who haven’t heard their matches yet while you sit here and argue with me. That’s hardly following the Golden Rule, is it?”
    Salmon Jo got up and stormed out of the room. Rubric thought about following her. But in the end she decided to stay.

Chapter Four
     
    Rubric was at her desk, drawing on her screen, when her window sash pushed up. Outside, a pale hand gripped the windowsill. She felt her heart jump, and she almost spilled a glass of water all over her screen. Salmon Jo’s other hand came next, then her head, and then she was hauling herself into the dorm room.
    “Can you not pulse me first when you’re about to climb in my window?” Rubric asked. “You scared me to death.”
    “Sorry,” Salmon Jo said, panting.
    Rubric didn’t even bother to ask why Salmon Jo thought it was necessary to shimmy up a pipe and onto the fire escape, rather than just coming to the door of Yellow Dorm and walking in like a normal person. The truth was, Salmon Jo had too much energy. She needed lots of physical exercise every day or she started to get cranky. But she didn’t have enough esprit de corpsto join a sports team. Every day, she ran around the campus a few times. Not the sedate jogging that other people did, in special running costumes. More as if she were being chased by a hungry bear. Salmon Jo ran fast but didn’t look graceful—her arms flapped in an ungainly way. On days when it was raining hard, she liked to break into the underground maintenance tunnels and do sprints.
    Rubric flopped down on her feather beanbag chair. The cloth cover of the chair had just been cleaned, and now it smelled like lavender. The Cleaning Klon in Yellow Dorm knew that lavender was Rubric’s favorite scent. Salmon Jo nestled beside her, and Rubric made room for her.
    Salmon Jo kissed her lips, and then kissed her ear. Her warm breath stirred on Rubric’s neck. But Rubric wasn’t in the mood for kisses. She was still too cross with Salmon Jo.
    “Did you talk to Panna Lobe?” Rubric blurted out. “Salmon Jo, you were a total Hollyhock at that assembly.”
    Salmon Jo shuddered.
    “I talked to her,” Salmon Jo said finally. She looked down at her short-clipped fingernails as if she needed to concentrate on them.
    “And?”
    “I said I’d accept that mentor at the Hatchery.”
    “What did she say to convince you?”
    Salmon Jo shrugged.
    Rubric hated when Salmon Jo clammed up like this. She kicked her foot. “Tell me something ,”she insisted.
    “So you know the way Hollyhock was taken away for a kidney transplant?”
    “Is this relevant?”
    “I don’t know. I hope not. But don’t you think she should have come back by now?”
    “That’s true,” Rubric said. “It shouldn’t take that long to recover. It must have been her bad kidneys that made her act so veruckt.”
    “I don’t know about that. I used to think maybe she died during the operation, and they didn’t want to tell us because we were too young to know.”
    “Maybe,” Rubric said. “They’re always trying to protect us. But maybe she just went to another academy. Did Panna Lobe talk about Hollyhock?”
    “No.”
    Sometimes Salmon Jo could be so irritating that Rubric wanted to shake her. “Why are you