Had it not been for her accent or her hair, no one could tell she wasn’t from there. ‘Do the lads hit on you?’ He suddenly asked, the words out...before he could help it. She looked at him, her face blank. ‘Which lads?’ ‘In school. Do they?’ She returned to the chair, opened the book on the desk. ‘Would you be jealous if they did?’ Yes, he would. ‘No…’ he lied. ‘I mean, are they decent with you? Do they misbehave?’ ‘No. They think I’m mental and might bite or scratch if they push the wrong. The People's long-term failure to require and enforce an appropriate level of integrity from their leadership was providing them with a very painful short-term lesson now, as is nearly always the case when the consequences of long-term mistakes become apparent.6A had staged a dramatic revelation of the Surveillance Problem very much as already described in 6B-land, with the TV cameras appearing at the baddies' Corvallis base and 6A revealing many of the operation's details, although he hadn't. "Did you?" Mom seriously, that was different," said Darlene. "Times were differentback then." You're right, times have changed but its Christmas and we're bothtrying at least for my granddaughter's sake right?" said Greta sittingdown. "So why don't you and Keithie boy eat your breakfast so you'llhave time to change and be back in time for Christmas brunch?" Be back from where?" asked Darlene, surprised, taking her plate."From visiting your father, dear," said Greta with a soft smile. "Iarranged. I start to read the text messages, standard ‘I didn’t mean to’ and ‘we weren’t trying to hurt you’ along with the ‘I’m still your friend’ and the ever popular ‘I hope you’re okay’. Last thought before crashing out, ‘just don’t try to talk to me’.Next morning went fairly normal, Dad heading out the door to work, Mom making sure I’m okay with wearing ‘work clothes’ to school, my sister living on her phone with the constant harem that online friends gives to her. I however needed to leave early to.