"Timothy Zahn - A Coming of Age" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

Hurrying through her breakfast, she went to the Senior's office, bracing herself for the worst.

And was pleasantly surprised. "Ah; Lisa," Gavra smiled as the preteen knocked tentatively at the
open door. "Come inтАФyou're up earlier than I'd expected. I wondered if you'd help me welcome a
new child this morning. She's coming in with her parents about eight."

Relief washed through Lisa. It was still over half an hour before eight, and it could easily cost the
rest of the morning to check a newcomer into the hive, especially if she was as scared as children
often were about leaving their parents. But when she compared the task to the fate she'd been
contemplating, Lisa couldn't help but feel she'd been let off easily. "Sure, I'd be happy to. Main
entrance?"

"Yes," Gavra nodded. "Thanks very muchтАФand sorry about the short notice."

Half an hour wasn't really long enough to do anything worthwhile, but the hive game rooms were
always a good place to kill a little time, so Lisa wandered down to see what was going on there. She
arrived to find a scene of barely controlled pandemonium, with a group of Sevens having taken over
the center of the main gym room for an exuberant game of spinwheel, while some Fives and Sixes
cheered from the sidelines and tried to imitate the intricate motions with their own toys. The two
preteens in chargeтАФTens, by their obvious inexperienceтАФseemed to have conceded the center to the
Sevens and were instead concentrating on making sure the younger kids didn't get run down or
otherwise hurt. They looked so helplessтАФand so relieved that assistance had arrivedтАФthat Lisa
changed her original plans and spent the entire half hour helping to calm the boisterous Sevens and
restore order. Overseeing Saturday morning happy hole is not one of the things I'm going to miss
about the hive, she thought wryly as she hurried through the halls toward the front entrance. She
hoped the new girl's family was late; she'd cut her time a little too closely.

They weren't late, as it happened, but since Gavra was still welcoming them as Lisa arrived, they
apparently hadn't been too far ahead of her. "Ah, here she is," Gavra said as Lisa tried to trot up with
dignity. "This is Lisa Duncan, one of our preteens. Lisa, this is Jessy Larz and her parents."

"Pleased to meet you," Lisa nodded to the adults as she dropped into a crouch to put herself at the
child's eye level. "Hi, Jessy. How are you?"

The little girl didn't answer. Tightening her grip on her mother's hand, she regarded Lisa with wide,
unblinking eyes. "My name's Lisa," the preteen went on cheerfully, ignoring the other's silence. "Is
Jessy short for Jessica?"

"Can you say yes, Jessy?" her mother murmured.

"Uh-huh," Jessy said reluctantly.

"That's a nice name," Lisa said, smiling her best. "And you're a very pretty girl; did you know that?"

"Uh-huh," she said, sounding more confident this time.

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A Coming of Age