Excerpt from Kid Sensation Story

I’m still working on Kid Sensation #10, but I thought I’d share an excerpt from a future Kid Sensation story (and the usual caveats apply):

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“You guys will have to go without me,” I told Smokey and Electra. “I completely forgot that I have a tutoring session with Myshtal today.”

“Tutoring?” Electra repeated with a frown. “What are you tutoring her in?”

“You’ve got it backwards,” Smokey chimed in. “She’s tutoring him.”

“In what?” Electra inquired, plainly interested.

“Caelesian,” I stated.

Electra gave me an odd look. “But you already speak Caelesian.”

“True,” I conceded, “but we’re working on my textual competence rather than my verbal skills.”

“Huh?” muttered Electra.

“He can’t read or write Caelesian,” Smokey explained, grinning. “The great Kid Sensation is functionally illiterate in that regard.”

“Hey,” I shot back in faux anger. “I have low literacy…there’s a difference.”

“Po-tay-to, po-tah-to,” Smokey chuckled.

“I can read and understand simple things,” I argued. “But big words and high-level concepts give me problems.”

“But why do you need to know any of that stuff?” Electra asked. “Are you having a bunch of Caelesian books shipped here or something?”

“No, but I have a hereditary position in the Caelesian government,” I reminded her. “My great-grandfather represents me by proxy, but apparently there are documents I have personally to sign off on every now and then, and I’d like to know what I’m putting my John Hancock on.”

“So,” Electra intoned, “how long is it supposed to take you to get up to speed?”

I shrugged. “Don’t know. But Myshtal says that – given my verbal proficiency – a couple of hours a day will help me get literate in no time.”

“A couple of hours a day?” Electra repeated, sounding skeptical for some reason.

“According to Myshtal,” I stated with a nod.

“Just you and her,” Electra went on, crossing her arms.

“Uh, yeah,” I said.

“One on one,” she added.

“I suppose, although you don’t have to make it sound like a wrestling match,” I told her.

At that moment, Myshtal walked into the room, wearing a sleeveless floral sundress and looking absolutely stunning.

She greeted Smokey and Electra, then focused on me. “Jim, are you ready to start?” I nodded and she then turned to the others, saying, “Did Jim tell you? I’m going to be teaching him Caelesian.”

“He did,” Smokey replied. “And he was just saying how excited he was about it.”

“I don’t know if ‘excited’ is how I described it,” I noted.

Myshtal laughed. “Don’t worry – it’ll be fun.”

“Fun?” I echoed. “Sounds like you’re using that word liberally.”

“But it will be. Our teaching methods are not like yours,” Myshtal insisted. “I can’t wait to show you how we do it on Caeles.”

“I bet you can’t,” Electra uttered sharply, then stalked from the room.