Pelliccia (Book1) (2011 Sci-fi Watty Awards Winner)

Chapter 9

"Ah-puh'l" Judy said.

"Apple" Sara repeated. "Come on Judy, I think I can talk now. Can I skip out on speech test?"

"Hold on Sara, I need to test to be sure." She read the next word. "Flip"

"I am going to flip if you don't just pass me."

"Patience Sara."

"Patience," Sara quickly cut in. "OK am I done yet?"

"Very well Sara you pass, You win, You are driving me nuts!" Judy said. "I still can't believe how fast you learned, it takes most of the kids nearly twice as long."

"What can I say I'm a fast learner." Sara smiled.

"So humble too." Judy replied. "OK send Brittany in."

Sara got up and opened the door to the study hall. "Hey Brit, you're up." She called. Brittney got up and walked in to take her test. Sara couldn't believe it, she was talking good as new and it was just over a week since she woke up from her transforming hibernation. Brittney was doing pretty good as well, but there were certain words she couldn't quite pronounce properly yet. For example her P’s still sounded more like F’s so she said "affle" instead of "apple." It was funny, but Sara never laughed, though she really wanted to.

Everyone else laughed at her when she mispronounced words. She had felt like a little kid trying to relearn how to say everything. Nobody liked her there, and she hated it. The only two people that she liked to hang out with was Tony and Josh. Nobody else liked them though, they said they were weird, but wasn't everyone here weird? Tony and Josh definitely had their moments that even made Sara momentarily want to go without friends, but she couldn't do that to them not after all they had done for her.

Sara didn't know what she would have done in that place without Tony and Josh there to make her laugh, and now they were going to escape together. Sara didn't know the plan yet, they wouldn't tell her anything about it until she passed her speech test. Now that she had done that, she was on the hunt. They told her to meet them in the woods outside the study hall when she passed and they would tell her everything she wanted to know.

She walked pass all the other kids that didn't even look up to acknowledge her, and went outside. She went straight to the clump of snow covered trees where she had been hanging out with them. She slipped under the branches being careful not to disturb the snow.

"Did you pass?" Joshua asked curiously.

"YES! Did you have any doubts?" she said.

"Congratulations" Tony and Josh said.

"OK, I'm ready now." Sara said expectantly.

"Ready for what?" Tony asked.

"Don't do this now Tony. Tell me your stinkin' plan!"

"Plan, what are you talking about?" He questioned to annoy her. "Do you know about any plans Josh?"

"Maybe she's asking about the plans for your mighty caribou soup?" Joshua suggested.

"You better tell me your plans of escape. I'm not in the mood for your tom foolery." She said.

"OK fine, you twisted my arm. So where should we start." Tony said. "Well first we are going to stock up on food. We already have done most of that, we have a caribou carcass cut up and ready to go."

"And then?"

"And then, we need to break in the lab and office to steal the hard drives." Joshua said.

Sara looked at Joshua in bewilderment. "What do we need a computer for?"

"Well you don't want to be a cat forever do you." Tony said. "We need to steal the hard drives so we can see what they did to us and find a cure. Maybe if we give it to a doctor or something they can help us."