Grandma sent Pam lacy, nylon panties for her birthday and then again for Christmas.

  “Mom, Grandma sent me nylon panties again,” Pam complained when she opened Grandma’s Christmas present.

  “That’s nice dear. Be sure to send her a nice thank you,” Mom told her.

  “A thank you? But I don’t want nylon panties. I wear cotton, doesn’t she know that?”

  “Grandma grew up when all girls wore nylon panties and appreciated some fancy panties as gifts. Now, put them away and write a thank you note.”

  “I might as well give them to Jimmy. He’s more likely to wear them than I am. I’ll never wear them and I sure won’t wear the other ones that he’s already worn.”

  “I don’t care what you do with them. Give them to Jimmy, throw them away or put them in your drawer; just write a thank you to Grandma.”

  “How can I write a thank you for a present I don’t want without lying?”

  “You just say, ‘Your present arrived today, they’re very pretty. Thank you,’ and sign it.”

  “Oh no, I really do like them. I mean, they’re very pretty and all. I don’t know why Pam doesn’t like them.”

Rule one: Maintain proper hygiene at all times.

Within the confines of Alex's dorm room, the air was saturated with an atmosphere of opulence and refinement. The room, a shared space with Morgan, mirrored a lavish lifestyle marked by the trappings of beauty and sophistication.

I waited next to the airlock. My armor was sealed around my body. I was protected against small gunfire and the vacuum of space. My pistol was strapped to my right leg. I carried my rifle in the low ready. The holo-sight connected directly to the HUD in my helmet. Kitty monitored communications from the bridge and created a fast link between my HUD and weapons. She would make sure nothing came up from around me without alerting me.

One in the Morning, Five Miles from The Ranch:
Alya manages to guide her car onto the shoulder of the road, just as it stops running. She tries to restart it, but all she gets is a clicking sound each time she turns the key. She picks her cell phone up and notices it didn't charged while it was plugged into the power outlet. She listens as the rain starts pounding against the roof of her car.

“Great! What else could go wrong tonight?” As Alya sits there looking out through the windshield into the darkness.

The crowds parted as Nick and I made our way through. The guests - who all belonged to Lenoria's highest echelon - bowed their heads in respect and admiration.

I knew that symbol of respect was probably aimed at Nick and not me but that did little to dampen the impact of the moment.

I was so nervous I ended up clinging tighter to his arm. I dared not look up at him because I feared that would only amplify all I was feeling.

"Ginny, how does it go again?" Emily pretended to ask the other girl "Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas?"

What was her problem? This reminded me of middle school. Looking the way I did back then, I was an easy target. A boy that looked like a girl? The jokes basically wrote themselves.

Middle school taught me to have a thick skin. So whatever Emily here thought she was going to achieve by insulting me, I had bad news for her.

"Your name is Amelia" I repeated to myself as Nick and I descended the airplane steps. I clutched the small purse that held my phone plus a few other 'essentials' with a grip tight enough to turn my fingers blue.

"Your name is Amelia" I repeated again.

Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for Isidora's Hunger Games Capitol-looking outfit. Her designer either really loved frills or really didn't like her.

There was also so much pink it was almost blinding and for some reason known only to her, she'd decided to pair it all with some shade of blue lipstick. She looked more like an art project than a person.

And this person was supposedly the stylist?

“What about,” she said, “we play a game of two truths and a lie. Only we mix it up so you tell, I dunno, four or five lies for every truth, and you don’t tell me whether my guesses are right? That way you get the benefit of unburdening yourself, but I’m no wiser about your secretive employers than I was before.”

Bethlehem

by Erisian

A Light Novelette

The travelers had gathered in Jerusalem’s lower city not far from the hippodrome, the great stone-worked amphitheater built by the king to curry favor with his land’s conquerors in the hopes to placate their need for sport made by the speed of horse and blood of man.

Silver Bell Wish 3
by Peregrine

Copyright © 2023 Peregrine
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Saturday morning, before my shower, I put on Eve’s underwear and I was changed into Eve. It took at a maximum four days between changes. I suppose I had to experiment to find out the minimum time between changes. Robert was awake as I came out of the bathroom.

“Eve?” He said. “I thought you would wait to change closer to when Marc was coming by to pick you up?”

“I figured I should get reuse to this body before I saw him. Everything is so big again.”

“You are so lucky.”

“I am?” I wasn’t sure what he was referring to.

Essie didn’t linger long on the wedding photos, just long enough to tell me a funny story about how her great-uncle had forgotten his best man speech and after stammering for a few moments, had instead — I don’t know what. I wasn’t listening at that point. I was staring at the older man posed with the groom in one of the pictures. He was a good few years younger and less wrinkled, but he was unmistakably the creepy old man from my dreams.

We departed from the station and set a course to the contested zone. After the night of drinking, everyone was tired. I offered to stand watch on the bridge. Gabe invited himself to join me on the bridge. It would make the watch easier on me with someone to talk to.

I showed him to the bridge while the rest of the crew settled in their quarters. I sat in the captain's chair and took command of Shadow Stalker. Gabe grilled me, "How did some greenhorns get roped into running a spec ops mission?"

The month long winter break flew by. Mom spent most of the break trying to make up for lost mother-daughter time with me. Faith ran interference a few times to get me out of it but I really didn’t mind spending more time with Mom. Dad was not quite distant. We still played chess in the evening every now and then. He loved playing against me. And I could still beat him occasionally.

Marc visited a couple weekends and got along great with my parents. He could not sleep over though.

Three years later.

I sat in a lawn chair watching Adya play with a young Fylis cub that was already twice her size. That was the name we'd given to Kira's species. The same one my attacker had belonged to.

We had run into 2 more variants, which was what we called the aggressive fauna that weren't under my control, but they hadn't been part of a dangerous species to begin with so it hadn't been a problem.

“Dammit,” I said again to the girl in the mirror.

I moaned as he pulled me closer. I still don't know what came over me. I wrapped my arms around his neck as his settled around my waist. I didn't want to stop.

If Robert or any of the others were in the bridge, they would have been getting a steamy show but I didn't care. For those few mind-blowing minutes, it was like something inside me had snapped.

"Wait there's really intelligent life down there" I asked still in shock over what I'd just heard.

"It would seem so" Will affirmed.

"But he hasn't seen any yet? Just their homes?" I followed up.

He nodded.

"Could they be extinct?" I asked.

"Possibly. Or they could have simply migrated somewhere else on the planet. We can't possibly know now?" Will answered.