Just an update

The rewrite for Oraphan Cycle continues. I'm fairly pleased with the overall change in temperament I'm doing, though some of the individual changes need more going over to get where I want to be. I'm about 1/3 through my first sweep, and after that I expect to do one more and then small fixing here and there. Nobody else is, so I guess I'll give myself some encouragement: Keep up the good work me!

In other news, here's just a little BTBBN for you; not a whole lot happening here, just finishing off the chapter and onto a new one...when Jacob gets to Camp!



BTBBN, ch3 Continues...

Jacob’s head hurt where it was tapping against the window from the bus rocking back and forth as it trundled along the highway. He didn’t even remember moving to the window side of the seat. But that wasn’t what had disturbed his sleep, anyway; he’d been ignoring that for awhile, forcing himself into a doze over and over again. What had woken him was the tugging at his shoes. His eyes half opened and he half saw Ozzie sitting on the floor beside his feet; it looked like he was sniffing at Jacob’s shoe laces.
“What’re you doing?” asked Jacob groggily.
“Nothing! What?” Ozzie moved so quickly to the seat that Jacob wondered if he hadn’t been there all along.
“What’re you doing?” he asked again, the speaking part of his brain lagging behind the sleeping part, which was trying to get elsewhere. “Were you sniffing my shoes?”
“No. I’m sleeping.”
“Huh?”
“Snore,” snored Ozzie. It wasn’t convincing, but Jacob didn’t care and fell back to sleep.

It all seemed very real at the time, and yet sometime between falling asleep and waking, Jacob had dreamily fostered the hope that he would awake to find himself back in school, three weeks left, and never a mention of a mysterious summer camp. Never had he been so glad to be in Mr. Malachi’s English class; it didn’t even bother him that he was teaching Hungarian math techniques, had a magic wand, and kept using it to make gummy bears come out of a kid’s nose. Strangest of all was that Jacob felt really hungry, and kept having to resist eating the nosey gummy bears because it was really gross.
It still all made sense in the dream, though, and so Jacob felt disappointed surprise as he found himself looking out through the grey morning light over acres of government subsidized corn and some other crops which he couldn’t recognize because it wasn’t corn. Jacob looked around the bus. The bus driver’s capped head bobbed up and down; the hair sprouting from beneath his hat was short and coarse and mostly gray. Ozzie was sprawled languorously beside him, and Jacob had no idea how he remained upright in that position. He was snoring peacefully, much more convincingly then last night; Jacob felt pretty sure that Ozzie had been fiddling with his feet, even though he had been far from certain the night before.
There was the girl decked out in goth gear the few rows back, staring away from the window, seemingly at nothing, but definitely not at Jacob. Somehow or other, her hair was still perfectly straight and shimmery in the ironic pink braids she wore. He could see a few more heads of hair peaking up from behind seats, sleepy legs dangling beneath. Then he became aware of that distinct school bus smell: dust and cold, sweaty Naugahyde.
Jacob looked around the bus, daring to stand up, partially hoping and partially fearing that his movement would disturb Ozzie. He was bored and wanted somebody to talk to, but he didn’t think he’d want to talk to Ozzie. The movement caught the attention of goth girl, and their eyes met briefly, at which point she quickly turned away to stare outside with a smug aloofness. There really weren’t that many kids on the bus. Jacob did a quick count; there were only seven he saw, though maybe a few were curled up sleeping.
He sat back down, making the seat bounce a little. Ozzie didn’t budge. Just in the few moments that Jacob had been standing, the fake leather seat had gotten cold again. Sitting on it sent chilly goose bumps all over his skin; he very subtly tried to get closer to Ozzie for warmth, but it was no use. The way the kid was sitting was bizarre, almost like he was standing slantwise, and somehow Jacob couldn’t figure out how he was supposed to even get any closer to him. He curled back up on the seat, hugging his knees to himself for warmth and feeling very hungry. He stared out the window until he fell asleep again.