{"id":4705,"date":"2017-03-20T08:48:09","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T12:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/?p=4705"},"modified":"2017-03-19T14:07:09","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T18:07:09","slug":"at-the-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/at-the-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"At the Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13\" src=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/j-avatar-e1443983489508.png\" alt=\"by jen\" width=\"81\" height=\"81\" \/>the best-looking guy in the room<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThere! There! Look at that troop of giraffes!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThat\u2019s for drinking only.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>rubbed it over Joan\u2019s arms and legs<\/li>\n<li>we used to be friends a long time ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tune in next time part 163\u00a0<\/strong><b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/tune-in-next-time\/\">Click Here for Earlier Installments<\/a><\/p>\n<p>At the academy, Jason had been a terrible student. He was usually <em>the best-looking guy in the room<\/em> (unless I was there and it was a tie) and he got by on his looks. But now, here he was throwing code phrases at me. What could it mean?<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;There! There! Look at that troop of giraffes!&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0was my cautious reply. I was curious to see whether he had the whole phrasebook memorized, or just the one message that had no sibilants to trigger his lisp.<\/p>\n<p>Relief washed over my twin&#8217;s face. He jerked his head toward a backpack hanging on the coat tree, bobbing his eyebrows meaningfully.<\/p>\n<p>I stepped back out of the tunnel with an extra swivel in my hips to keep Kelly distracted, and opened the pack. Sure enough it held the flask Jason&#8217;s code phrase had promised. Could he possibly be in on the plan with Heinrich and Svetlana? My skimpy outfit had no pockets, so I tucked the flask\u00a0into my waistband.<\/p>\n<p>With a nod of appreciation, I sashayed back to the tunnel and hurried on. There were occasional signs of wild fishermen, but nothing fresh. I breathed a sigh of relief and concentrated on following the map on my palm.<\/p>\n<p>When I reached the\u00a0door that marked the end of my subterranean journey, I pressed my ear against it. I was hoping to hear Tessa, but I was disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>I slid the panel open and crept into the room while its sole inhabitant was distracted at the mirror, applying mascara. She was dressed like Aphrodite.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hello, Joan,&#8221; I said. &#8220;It&#8217;th me, Jathon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Joan narrowly avoided poking herself in the eye with her mascara wand as she jumped to her feet. &#8220;You fool! You know you shouldn&#8217;t be here!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I shrugged and pulled the flask from my waistband, poured some of the liquid into my hand. When Joan saw, her eyes got wide. She spluttered, <em>&#8220;That&#8217;s for drinking only.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I put the flask down and looked at the pale green liquid in my palm, then <em>rubbed it over Joan&#8217;s arms and legs<\/em> while she stared at me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re not Jason!&#8221; she said. &#8220;But I know who you are. <em>We used to be friends a long time ago<\/em>, at the academy. Your name is&#8211;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The room&#8217;s other door crashed open and Jenkins barreled in, yelling, &#8220;Step 5, motherfuckers!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>bonus points for using them in order<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Stichomancy Writing Prompts\" href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/stichomancy-writing-prompts\/\">about stichomancy writing prompts<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/stichomancy-writing-prompt-generator\/\">try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the best-looking guy in the room \u201cThere! There! Look at that troop of giraffes!\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s for drinking only.\u201d rubbed it over Joan\u2019s arms and legs we used to be friends a long time ago Tune in next time part 163\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Click Here for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,4],"tags":[91,341,403],"class_list":["post-4705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stichomancy-prompts","category-writing-prompts","tag-bonus-points","tag-clothes","tag-tune-in-next-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4716,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705\/revisions\/4716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}