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Miles & Breaker

R: Letting Go

R: Letting Go

Sep 07, 2018

My eyes opened, struggling to adjust in the dark. Judging by the sounds outside, it must have been about three o'clock in the morning. Around that time of night, the noises shifted from screeching cars, usually involved in police chases, to the occasional footstep and soft voice. The never-ending rhythm gradually slid from an aggressive, pounding beat to a weary calm. I guess even the city that never sleeps has to get tired sometimes. And after hours of pacing, worrying, and listening, I fit right in.

Something seemed wrong that night. I searched the jungle of sounds for the most familiar: my sister's breathing. When I couldn't find it, I jolted upright in bed, anxiety pulsing through me. But then the memories hit me, a cold pike driven through my heart.

They took my sister away. In the yearly test, she was labeled basic and flown to some obscure low-level school in France. I would have followed her, but my grades didn't merit that. I could fool the test every year, sure, but I couldn't change the records: and my grades were labeled as excellent. And, even if I could manage a basic label, there's no guarantee I would end up anywhere near her. I could get shipped off to another basic school in Nevada or Thailand or anywhere else in the world.

A wave of guilt crushed me, just like the evening before, when she received her test results. I hugged her goodbye, told her to be careful and work hard, and we both cried. Her tear-stained cheeks right beside her huge, forced smile was my most recent memory, and maybe the last one I'd ever have with my sister. And it was all my fault. I tried so hard to study with her, to raise her percentile above basic levels, but I couldn't do it. Her brain just didn't form the needed connections, and that made me a failure, as a tutor and a brother.

See, that's the way it worked back then. The whole world was judged on the physicality of their brains. If you had a lot of neural connections in yours, it showed up on the scan. If you didn't, that showed up too. Percentiles were calculated based on the average of every known human brain. Anyone below the fiftieth percentile of neural connections got sent off to one of the basic schools; anyone between fifty-first and ninety-seventh were automatically enrolled in a local advanced school. And ninety-eighths to the one-hundred were flown away, up to the stations. That was everyone's dream.

Well, except mine. I knew I had enough neural connections to make it to the stations. There was always Amber to look after, though. Our parents definitely weren't going to do it, so that responsibility was all mine.

But now she was gone. My yearly test was only a few hours away, and I was determined to make my senior year count.

I turned over on my side and tried to sleep again.

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Nicole Adrianne

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Miles & Breaker: A Sci-Fi YA Romance Mystery. (Because each of these genres is amazing in its own right, but together they are supercharged.)

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Jada Breaker lives in balance. In a society where merit is awarded solely on intelligence, she is the prodigy. Her home, Station Alpha, houses the world's best and brightest alongside its twenty-three sister stations, orbiting far above the chaos into which our Earth has descended. After 11 years of watching her peers get deported to the off-station remedial education center, however, she can't help but wonder if this life of detachment and superiority is truly utopian after all.

Mysterious forces work in the shadows to keep the world in balance. Sensational figures work in the foreground to keep the world in chaos. Terrorism, media involvement, and political intrigue continue to culminate rapidly, leaving few with time to discover the sources.

Rowan Miles lives in chaos. Though fully aware he is intellectually qualified to live on a station, he has chosen to stay on Earth, thwarting intelligence tests all his life to care for his sister. When she is forced to move, however, Rowan decides it's time for a change of scenery: and he realizes the stations are not what he's been conditioned to expect.

While Rowan works to succeed in his new environment and fit in with his peers, Jada struggles with his presence on her station and discovers some disturbing evidence about an old friend. After Rowan saves her from a bullying incident, Jada grows to trust him, and enlists his help in uncovering the truth about their homes. What they learn forever changes the course of history...enough spoilers. Just read the story!
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9 episodes

R: Letting Go

R: Letting Go

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