The Dazzling Heights

She grabbed her tablet from where it lay on the floor and idly checked her messages. There were a few new ones to her school account: an announcement about tryouts for the school play, and a reminder that homeroom started at eight a.m. sharp. Her eyes caught on a message from Professor Radimajdi. Rylin opened it, curious, only to flush with anger when she saw the contents.

She’d gotten a C– on her first holography homework, a sunset vid that she’d taken from a lower-floor observation deck last week.

What the hell, she thought in outrage, tapping angrily down to read the director’s comments. Hadn’t he said that he liked sunset vids, that his own Oscar-winning film had featured one?

Rylin, this video is very soft and pretty—as well as trite, boring, and uninspired. I have to say, I’m disappointed. Next time, show me how you see the world, not what you think I want to see.

Rylin leaned back, incensed and more than a little confused. What right did he have to feel disappointment in her, anyway?

She wasn’t sure why she was so angry, except that this was her first grade from Berkeley and it sucked. But what had she really expected? She was a seventeen-year-old high school dropout who, through some miracle of fate, had ended up at the most expensive, most academically challenging school in the country. Of course she wouldn’t succeed there. She’d been stupid to think otherwise.

Rylin pushed back the covers. She felt shivery and anxious, and suddenly stuffy with cabin fever. What the hell was wrong with her? She shouldn’t be home alone, looking at grades on a Friday night. The old Rylin would have been out right now. Well, it wasn’t too late to salvage the evening.

Are you out? she sent to Lux, who replied instantly.

Yes!! We’re at the public pool on 80. Come!

That sounded strange to Rylin, but she didn’t even question it, just peeled off her T-shirt and pajama pants to change into a bikini. She dropped a shoe and paused, hoping she hadn’t woken Chrissa; but she heard nothing except the steady rise and fall of her sister’s breath, the quiet rustling of her blankets as she shifted to one side. Rylin stood a moment just watching her sleep. A fierce wave of protectiveness rose up in her. Then she pulled a dress on over her swimsuit and slipped into sandals.

On her way out the door, her gaze caught on the gleaming silver vid-cam, sitting on her desk like some kind of ominous, watchful eye. Without another thought, she tossed the camera into her bag and headed out the front door.

Rylin had been to the public pool before. She used to come with Chrissa and her mom many years ago, when she and her sister wore matching swimsuits, and competed to hold their breath underwater the longest; and she’d come dozens of times with Lux, on summer afternoons, to fight for a spot on the deck and catch the slanting afternoon rays of the sun. But she hadn’t seen anything like the pool now, at midnight, taken over by an illegal rave.

Teenagers were pressed close together inside, all wearing various combinations of swimsuits and denim. It smelled of chlorine and sweat and potshots. Someone had turned off the pool lights to keep them from getting caught; but moonlight streamed in from the windows, dancing across the shadowed forms that splashed through the water like sleek dark seals. An electric beat pulsed through the space. Rylin could make out the silhouettes of a few couples on the outdoor patio.

She peeled off her maxi dress and tossed it in a corner; but as she set down her bag, the vid-cam clunked against the ground. Rylin found herself reaching for it. It felt warm in her palm. She lifted it up and it floated lazily overhead, following as if pulled by an invisible tether.

Tying her hair up in a loose ponytail, Rylin climbed the ladder that led to the suspended diving board. She’d heard there was a fancy half-grav one at the Berkeley indoor pool, so that the diving team could better practice their triple flips, but this had always been just fine for her. She raised her arms overhead and dove in headfirst, her thin body slicing through the water like a knife.

It was so nice underwater, dark and cool and blissfully quiet. Rylin stayed under as long as she could, until each capillary in her lungs was stretching for air, before kicking up to the surface. She gasped a little in delight and started toward the shallow end.

“Myers. It’s been too long.”

“Great to see you, as always, V,” Rylin snapped in reply. V was leaning back with his arms behind his head, on an inflatable raft shaped like something vaguely inappropriate. He was a friend of Rylin’s ex-boyfriend, Hiral, and she’d despised him ever since Hiral had forced her to sell V his drugs.

“I hope you’re enjoying my little shindig,” V drawled.

“Breaking into a public space, wreaking havoc; I should have known you were behind all this.” She tried to keep moving through the crowds of people, but V slid off his float to block her path.

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Though I guess this is far from what you’re used to now, at your new highlier school,” he replied. “What are you doing down here, anyway, when you could be at a party up there?”

Rylin found her footing on the bottom of the pool and managed to rise up on tiptoe, looking V squarely in the eyes. “I actually think of most of these people as my friends. Present company excluded, of course.”

“I’m glad to hear that you think of me at all.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

V glanced at her curiously. “Hiral’s trial is coming up in a few weeks,” he said, his tone deceptively matter-of-fact. “Are you going?”

“I don’t know.” Rylin fought the wave of emotion that rose up at the mention of Hiral. He’d been home on bail for a month now, but she hadn’t seen him—things between them hadn’t exactly ended on great terms, after he found out she’d hooked up with Cord. That was how the leg of their kitchen table had ended up broken. Among other things.

“Guess it depends on whether or not you’re going,” she finished, but her heart wasn’t in it. V didn’t bother challenging her.

The glow-lights above the pool changed color, from a lambent neon green to an eerie yellow. V glanced up, watching them shift, and his eyes caught on the vid-cam still floating cheerfully along after Rylin. “I see you have a new toy,” he remarked—and in a sudden, shocking movement, lurched forward to grab the cam, dunking it all the way underwater.

“What the hell?” Rylin cried out, attracting a few stares in their direction. V laughed at her reaction. He opened his palm and the vid-cam floated back up, as easy as ever.

“These things are waterproof. No one told you that?” he said lazily.

Rylin was done being baited by him. “Have you seen Lux? I’m looking for her.”

“She’s off with Reed Hopkins.” What? Rylin thought, trying to hide the surprise that lit up her face at that statement, but V didn’t miss it; he never missed anything. “Ah,” he said smugly. “You didn’t know about that, did you?”

“Rylin!” As if on cue, Lux splashed over and pulled Rylin into a hug. Her hair was a dark blond again, which was always Rylin’s favorite among Lux’s kaleidoscope of constantly changing shades. It was almost her natural color; which made her seem younger, smoothed out the sharp angles of her nose and her pointed chin. “Isn’t this incredible? V did a great job,” Lux exclaimed, turning to V, but he’d already disappeared.

“You aren’t worried about getting caught?”

“That new school is a bad influence on you,” Lux teased. “When have you, of all people, worried about getting caught?”

“When did you start hooking up with Reed?”

Lux grew quiet, chastened. “I was going to tell you. It’s really new, and I’m just … still figuring it out.”

Rylin smiled, though she felt sad that her best friend was keeping things from her. Then again, she hadn’t exactly been around much since she’d started at Berkeley; or even before that, when she was working for Cord. And she herself had been keeping something from Lux—she’d never told her about her secret relationship with Cord. “If you’re happy, then I’m happy for you,” Rylin said, because she was, and she really missed her friend right now. “Where is Reed, anyway?”