Lifespan of Starlight by Thalia Kalkipsakis Page B

disappointment. He didn’t even listen. ‘So you’re
saying –’
    ‘I’m saying that you need to clear your cache more often. And any reading of the
grid history. Be careful what you get up to. At least until you hear back from the
school.’ He’s leaning really close, frowning at me.
    ‘Okay,’ I manage. There doesn’t seem to be anything else to say. Alistair draws himself
straighter before moving off again. ‘Let me know, Agent X,’ he calls once he’s further
up the hall.
    I watch as he shuffles away. ‘Thanks, Alistair.’
    He has a point, I guess. If Mason and Boc taught me anything about hacking, it’s
that other people can do it, too.
    Mum’s not due for another half an hour, so I leave our grocery box on the bench and
switch the comscreen on. Now that I’m looking, I can see what Alistair was saying.
I’ve been so busy watching Mason and Boc that I haven’t been thinking about anyone
else checking me. Like the school admin, perhaps.
    It’s easy to clear stuff from the front end, but harder to swipe it all completely
from the mainframe. I’m still picking through the back end, manually selecting and
deleting parts of my browsing history, when the corner of the screen pings to show
a new message. Only a few words of the message can be seen in the box, and at first
my eyes just brush over them. ‘… pleased to offer …’
    My focus zaps to the box, which opens at my blink: ‘Congratulations. Your application
has been successful. We are pleased to offer you a place at Karoly High School for
2085.’
    The message goes on to talk about the uniform, booklist and orientation days but
I barely take any of it in. I’m reading it through for the second time when the door
slides open.
    ‘Heya.’ Mum steps into the room.
    I turn to her but no words come. Instead, I dissolve into tears.
----
    Each morning when I wake there’s a moment when I remember. It brings a delicious
lift, reminding me who I am now: a normal teenager enrolled in a real school. It’s
everything I’ve ever dreamed and more.
    Life gets busy after I accept the offer: uniform orders, subject selection, downloading
various apps and education programs.
    I even call Mason, gushing about getting in. ‘Can’t wait until term starts!’ I finish
happily.
    A pause, before he says, ‘That’s great, Scout.’ But that’s all he says.
    ‘What’s wrong?’
    ‘I don’t know. Guess I didn’t expect you to be calling me.’ It’s as if he expected
to never hear from me again.
    I want to reassure him, but I can’t let him think that I’m ready to skip with him
yet. ‘Yeah … I just wanted to tell you I made it.’ I decide to leave it at that.
‘Anyway. Better go.’
    Mum and I go out for dinner to celebrate. The week after, we take Alistair out to
the movies. He’s part of the reason why I’ve made it, even though none of us say
it directly. Without the stuff he taught me, I never would have worked out how to
access the national curriculum lessons online.
    Alistair doesn’t say anything about Relative Time Theory or my browsing history,
but it would have been easy enough for him to check how much I cleared away. During
the ads at the start, Mum and Alistair discuss the peace talks in Egypt while I check
out the other people in the cinema, and it almost feels as if we’re a family of citizens
– grandfather, mother and daughter – every one of us sure of our place and worthy
of our rations.
    The best part about getting into school by far has been the change in Mum. She’s
been busy sorting out the safest route for me to travel to school, drilling me about
our emergency alert plan and working out the best way to have the chip inserted.
She seems younger somehow, her movements lighter. And there’s something in her eyes
that I’ve never really seen before. Hope.
    It’s the best feeling, seeing her like that. Especially since I know that she has
more good stuff coming. Every morning for the past couple of months I’ve been