The Phoenix Creation 🆕⭐⭐⭐⭐ (on Amazon)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Alya The Phoenix

If she was on trial, Alya would agree that she was a good liar, when she really applied herself to it. She didn't relish it, not at all, but if she needed to call upon a straight face and good eye contact to save a lot of hassle, or hurting someone else's feelings, then she could.

That old saying; the truth shall set you free, would often ring in her ears for several hours after she'd told a lie as if her own psyche was admonishing her, but she'd soon dismiss it as twenty-first-century nonsense. Her grandpa had taught her that saying. Ironically it was he who was encouraging her to lie. Seb Berkeley had a lot to answer for, making his only granddaughter lie to her parents and everyone else, and then encouraging her best friend Hanuel to do the same. Ah, Poppy, he was always up to some mischief or other.

Alya looked up, her thoughts interrupted by Hanuel's hand movement as he turned the page. Alya hadn't seemed to notice until the early afternoon that Hanuel wasn't his usual self. The short monorail ride to the pool had gone as usual, with all of their classmates in high spirits, talking, shouting or laughing loudly, the imminent school holidays almost certainly contributing to the rising hysteria.

Alya and Hanuel sat further down the carriage; not to be antisocial, but more because the venue they were heading to was linked to the secret they kept, and it was as if distancing themselves physically from their classmates could also keep their secret hidden from them.

Alya glanced at Hanuel who was leafing his way quickly through a novel. He looked up just as Alya's thoughts about their secret caused her to smile to herself. Hanuel locked his light brown eyes on her, instinctively aware of what she was thinking about and nowhere near as amused as she.

The smile on her face diminished as Hanuel returned to reading and Alya gazed out of the window, as they went from suburb to suburb, crossing the South-East District of Continent One.

Something is wrong thought Alya. Hanuel was never usually this quiet with her. They'd been best friends ever since they were seven, although it might have been sooner if she had been allowed to go to school at the normal entry age. As it was, her first day at school was when she turned seven, because up until then she'd spent most of her life in and out of the hospital with severe and repetitive pneumonia, among other things. Thankfully she had been a studious child, with devoted grandparents who home-schooled her until she grew out of her mysterious illness and joined Hanuel and a bunch of others, most of whom were at the other end of the carriage just now.

'The next stop is South-East Swimming Pool,' said the overhead automated voice.

The monorail closed in towards the platform smoothly, and Hanuel and Alya, and several of their classmates alighted. There was a slight breeze that Alya acknowledged with her nose, her eyes automatically scanning the sky, noting that the weather had changed already since she'd left the house for school this morning. The class giggled and jostled ahead, excited by the prospect of seeing each other semi-naked probably, thought Alya wryly. Paris King seemed to wear bikinis that shrank every time she went in the water. She was pretty anyway with gorgeous, long, blonde hair, and a perfect pout, so there was no need to show off, but she did, every week, probably because she knew that it drove Lancelot and Berlin mad. No doubt the two boys would be fighting over her again by the end of the lesson.

Alya glanced at Hanuel, and as if reading her thoughts he rolled his eyes, as they watched their classmates flirt shamelessly.

'Wire on Saturday?' said Alya mischievously. She needed something to look forward to, so it seemed the right moment to ask.