The quiet that settled over the apartment after his parents left was a new kind of quiet. It was not the empty, lonely silence of before, nor the tense, anxious quiet of the war with Silas. It was a calm, peaceful, and deeply comfortable quiet. It was the sound of home.
Life settled into a new, easy rhythm. The third issue of 'The Aviary', featuring Yuna's haunting portrait of her father, was another massive success, cementing the magazine's status as a permanent, respected institution at Northgate High. The club meetings were no longer councils of war; they were just… club meetings. Creative, chaotic, and full of a new, relaxed energy.
Jake and Ruby were a fixture, their quiet, nerdy romance a stable, gravitational center for the group. They would spend their lunch breaks sharing a pair of headphones, listening to historical podcasts, their heads bent close together.
