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Vivo, Colorado.  7:44am

Andrew trudged steadfastly up the mountainside towards Vivo high school, his shoulders hunched slightly forward under the weight of his tan backpack, his head down.  At first glance, Andrew was very ordinary.  A little too skinny, perhaps, and a bit too geeky.  It appeared he could use a tan.  His dropped head indicated perhaps a lack of self confidence.  His hair was a bit too long, but that was to be expected in a town like Vivo, where everything revolved around skiing and snowboarding and the tourism that the autumn through winter months brought. 

Right now though, it was summer, and there were no tourists, so the population of Vivo had plummeted down to a couple thousand year-round residents of the mountain.  Most of the permanent residents were small-business owners who made their income working long hours during the colder half of the year.  During summer, they kept short hours in their shops and had enough leisure time to get themselves into trouble.  "Idle Hands," Andrew's daddy might say, if Andrew had ever known his daddy, which he hadn't.

If one took a second look at Andrew, though, one might notice some irregularities.  His head wasn't down because he was avoiding eye contact, for one.  Instead, he appeared to be intently watching and listening to his feet.  Second, he was wearing a pair of garish bright pink bunny slippers.  Fur might be considered fabulous in a ski-town, but pink bunny slippers were hardly standard footwear for an adolescent boy, even here.

"Now, you've got to be good today!" Andrew lectured his slippers in a stage whisper, as he turned up the walk to the front of Vivo High School.  "Try not to get me in any more trouble.  People are starting to notice the missing students!"

In turn, Andrew's slippers warped slightly, their shiny, fake plastic eyes turning up towards his face.  Their smiles were cartoonish, which was a good sign.  One made a sort of gutteral purring noise, and the other a series of clicking noises.

"Tic-tic!  Zzzzzzzzgggggtt..."

They seemed to be pretty laid back today.  Perhaps it could even be a good day.  Perhaps...

It was an awkward question.  However, it was also a familiar question.  Andrew got that from everybody in town, at least once.  He absently ran down his ever-expanding mental list of answers to the question, and selected one that seemed like a good fit for a brooding teacher.

"Hey, Mr. G.  I'm protesting fashion-elitism as a basis for social class in the modern educational institution."

#No point in holding back on the geek factor# Andrew mused to himself.  He maintained a brisk pace as he turned towards the teacher, til he was actually walking backwards for a step.  As he spun back to the front, he ran smack dab into __________...

"Oh, gosh, do I have one hanging?"

Andrew's hand went automatically to his nose .  He quickly dropped to his knees, and began to gather up the books and paper that had spread across the hallway, turning it into a patchwork quilt of papers.  He gathered in squares of Shelley and Bierce, Physics 101, and something handscrawled in a flowing script.

"I didn't know you wrote..." he trailed off, noticing that one of the slippers was now enthusiastically chewing on something.

"Raksha! - stop that!" Andrew hissed at his left slipper, surreptitiously dragging a pair of now-mangled spectacles out of the shoe's mouth.

"I'm so sorry.  It looks like your glasses are... um... broken."

Andrew held out the glasses in an offering to Jane, trying his best to conjure up a look that was guilty, but regretful.