Tag: The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers

The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 6

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Chapter 6: Into the Fire

Because of the security system, the teleporter couldn’t carry Ivy and Bean all the way to Pink’s base in the space elevator’s counterweight. Instead, it deposited them in her secondary headquarters at geostationary orbit. There, in the midst of the central control room, with the Earth filling the vast window before them, they floated, weightless. The elevator’s black nanocarbon ribbon stretched away to the globe and disappeared into the swirling white foam of the thunderstorm raging below. Occasionally, flashes of lightning were visible in the clouds.

Bean held Ivy in her arms while Ivy sobbed.

They were both soaked from the rain. Water danced around them in the air, round and clear like marbles. Bean always thought weightless liquids looked like Jell-O.

Nestled against Bean’s chest, Ivy’s frizzy red hair bounced and waved, occasionally casting off more of the round globs of water. In one hand, Ivy clutched half of the ruined leather case of her grimoire. Its rescued parchment pages, most of them smeared and unreadable, swirled around in the air, blown hither and thither by the stations’ ventilation system.

“I’ll never be a real witch now,” Ivy cried. Tears poured from her eyes and floated away. “That Fancy Nancy is awful!” Continue reading “The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 6”

Notes on Page Overhauls

You’ll have to excuse the multi-posting for today. I wrote a new chapter for The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, but also revised the previous chapters and split them in two. So.

You might notice a new tab in the menu on the upper right, labeled “Fiction.” This page now accumulates all the fiction posted to the site. The next steps are to create “Essay” and “Review” pages that work similarly.

EDIT: The “Essays” and “Reviews” pages are added. They are a work in progress.

The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 4

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Chapter 4: Fire in the Hole

Soon, they were all seated around the table, all except Cam, who once again sat apart from the others at a computer bank. She no longer needed an awkward headset: now she talked to the computer simply by using her mind.

“How are you doing, Cam?” Mouse asked as she lapped her tea.

“Good,” Cam said as she sat with her eyes closed and her fingers to her temples. “I’ve memorized about a gigabyte from your database.”

“Stop there for today,” said Finally as she scratched herself. “If you take too much at once, you can damage your brain. You need to sleep a good eight hours before you do that again.”

Cam nodded once and joined the others at the table, dropping heavily into a chair. She snatched up a large stack of Mouse’s toast and heaped butter onto the first slice. “I am starving.”

Finally nodded and smiled. “Your brain is going to consume a lot of calories now. All of you will require a lot of calories. So eat up.” She inclined her head toward the computers. “Speaking of which, the matter transmutation system has a large recipe database, so order anything you like.”

Judy Moody lifted an eyebrow. “Really? Anything? Then I want a bowl of Mood Flakes.” Continue reading “The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 4”

The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 3

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Chapter 3: Train Wreck

In the dark, nine-year-old Nancy Clancy awoke with a start, sat bolt upright, and instantly smacked her head on something hard. With a stifled groan, she fell back down onto a thin but soft mattress.

This was the third time since the living nightmare began that she’d awakened in a strange place. It was becoming a habit.

Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the dim light. She lay in a tiny compartment only a little longer than she was tall, and the ceiling was only a couple of feet overhead. A low, droning hum came from below the floor, and the room vibrated ever so slightly. Her ruined dress was gone, and in its place, she wore a baggy set of pajamas decorated with images of bowling balls and pins.

Someone next to her snored, flopped over, and threw an arm across her chest.

She yelped, sat up, and slammed her head into the ceiling again. Squeezing her eyes shut and sucking her breath between her teeth, she rubbed her forehead.

The sleeping figure snorted once, sat up herself, and likewise banged her head.

“Yowch!” she shouted.

It was Judy Moody’s voice. Continue reading “The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 3”

Author’s Notes on ‘The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers’

I just can’t keep away from fan fiction, I guess.

One of my current jobs puts me in close proximity to a lot of children’s literature, and because I’m busy working two jobs and finishing a degree, I don’t have a lot of time for recreational reading, so it’s a lot easier for me to pick up a chapterbook, which any adult can read in half an hour or less, than to read something more involved. For those of you not in the know, a chapterbook is an illustrated novelette for kids who have graduated from picture books but aren’t quite ready to go full novel.

Never go full novel.

Thus, I have been exploring kid lit. For whatever reason, a lot of books for transitional readers are basically character studies of young girls, some of them surprisingly skillful in execution. Naturally, my first thought on reading these stories is that some of these characters would make great magical girls. Continue reading “Author’s Notes on ‘The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers’”