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Rachel, Matt, and Sadde in the City of Angles
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Orientation proceeds without further hiccups, or surprise family members, or attempted suicides. Sarah goes to the track for people with special needs, the same one Mr. Fong, the shopkeeper Jayden was supposed to have robbed, went to. Hollister doesn't return to the regular lessons of Orientation, opting to continue his extra-curricular curriculum instead.

Three days later they are done with it and ready to face the City. Matt gets his new address and instructions to report for work on Monday, and on his way he goes. Rachel...

"So, uh... I found a place that would take you, but... I'll be honest here, it's kind of a dead-end job, you won't be seeing any promotions or raises or anything. It's where the parents without any choices send their kids. Soooo... you could take that, if you want, but my advice? Go work with something else, unrelated to teaching, and go study some more—people don't like going to public libraries but they're safe—really—and then you can go to a university so you can grow into your career."

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Oh well.

She goes back to her place and leaves it on the table.

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She hears thunder in the distance.

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She goes to look out the window.

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Those are indeed some rain clouds!

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She shuts the curtain and goes to sit on her bed and just take a few minutes to breathe.

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it's overwhelming to be right.

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She picks up her phone and tries to find some sort of information on the orphanage online.

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It has a simple website that has no links, only a picture of what clearly used to be a farm, a large number of incredibly happy children, a younger version of Grandma Scarlett and Jeb, and a short blurb. There aren't many other references and they're mostly about this or that person having been adopted from there.

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Well, that's… sort of nonthreatening, she hopes.

 


She passes the time until she gets some information about the job.

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it's time to understand more things.

And her phone vibrates at the same time as she hears this. In fact, the sound seems to come from it.

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She doesn't shiver this time. Quite.

She does, however, grab her phone, pausing the TV show she's watching as she does so.

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An email from Jeb! It has maps!

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Maps. Okay.

She has a brief look where they cover – just, areas outside the city proper, presumably.

… Probably quite far outside the city.

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Indeed, very far. The box truck itself is in the city, but the orphanage is a few hours away.

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Well, she knew what she signed up for. And she does need a job.

She puts her phone away and unpauses the TV show.

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Two days later, before she leaves for work, she hears bells coming from... a corner of her room.

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… Can she get any more information from them? Does the corner look – broken or anything, wrong?

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Nope, it's actually just the corner where she left the teddy bear Grandma Scarlett gave her.

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If she walks closer do they get worse, are they warning her?

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take me with you, the bear... says, for lack of a better verb. i'm your friend.

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She's not sure she trusts it.

Has it got any more to say for itself?

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i'll protect you, it argues. and I'm cute.

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She shudders and moves closer.

Assuming she doesn't get a horrifying feeling of dread… she picks it up.

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Quite the opposite: she feels warm fuzzy happy bells.

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She tries not to be too creeped out by this. The teddy can come with, she decides.

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