The Brilliant Light of Amber Sunrise Read Online Free Page A

having achieved all A to Cs in my mock final exams.
    Jacob was SparkNotes clever at best.
    â€œBut you’re just so gifted and inspirational. I want to be you when I grow up, Frankie,” he said, perhaps not wholly seriously.
    â€œFine,” I said, and picked up my pace so he was forced to do a skip every third step to keep up with me.

    After first registration we had General Studies. School had given us our own laptops. They were supposed to be forschoolwork only, but Chris jigged mine about so that I could download music. The plus side being that I had the most extensive music collection of anyone my age, possibly ever. The downside being that it had contracted most major viruses and one or two minor ones, and would perform elaborate and spontaneous emergency reboots halfway through whatever masterpiece I was working on.
    The computer warmed up slowly and told me that it was under serious threat and danger. I swore at it and pressed the small orange X at the top right hand of the screen.
    We were supposed to be researching the importance of local government, for a PowerPoint presentation at the end of the week. No one really was, though. Beside me Jacob was watching videos of cats falling off things. And at the other side Gemma Carr was Googling “Period Two Months Late Cystitis?” with a frantic look in her eyes.
    With my screen still open I checked my Homework Diary—or Personal Planner, as we were supposed to call them, even though they were just Homework Diaries with sticky labels on the front—to see what delights I’d missed out on the previous night.
    It told me that I was analyzing three children’s stories for English Language using the framework provided for tomorrow’s lesson, and planning the Othello lunchtime discussion group, which I ran in an attempt to seem like a rounded individual. I had done neither, and just as I wasabout to start I began feeling funny again. Not sick as such, but hazy, like I’d suddenly just woken up there and then, in the middle of a school day, and didn’t quite know how to conduct myself. My eyes became more blurry and I could feel my head pounding, so I pushed my chair back and rested my forehead on the desk.

    I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep because when I woke up everyone had left and Miss Spence was standing over me looking concerned.
    â€œYou were dead to the world,” she said.
    â€œUgh,” I said, and stood up quicker than I should have. I felt dizzy and queasy and had to sit back down again.
    â€œIs everything okay, Francis?”
    â€œYes, Miss,” I said, collecting my things.
    â€œAnd things are okay at home?”
    â€œYes. Sorry I fell asleep. It wasn’t a comment on the quality of the teaching or anything like that.”
    â€œThat’s fine. If you ever do need to talk, Francis, you know my door is always open.”
    I didn’t quite know how to respond to this, so I just nodded and left, feeling stupid.

    I sat with Jacob in the dinner hall but didn’t eat anything because my head was still pounding and even the thought of food was turning my stomach.
    â€œShall we head off in a minute?” he asked as a commotion started at the far end of the room.
    â€œSuppose,” I said, going to collect my bag. “I don’t think I’m going to make it tonight though. I still feel rough.”
    Before Jacob could say anything, two freshman girls started shoving each other beside the serving hatch.
    â€œI told you to leave him alone!” the prettier girl, Rameela, shouted in the blond girl’s face while trying to claw out clumps of her hair.
    The other girl yelled back as Rameela slammed her to the floor and started dragging her in a horizontal line by her hair. Rameela started to kick out at her but found herself being dragged down too. Soon they just became a blurry mass of fists and flying locks of hair as they writhed on the floor, hammering punches