Santa Monica

May 2029. Frederick has reigned in his own right for four weeks, and he goes on the sophomore class trip to Los Angeles because he said in October that he would finish at Ellicott with his year, and meant all of it. The city is seven months into mending itself from the earthquake he watched on other people's phones in a history class.

Santa Monica follows him from the rows bought round him on an ordinary flight to a pier swaying on its piles, a run up the stairs of a bluff while every phone screams the same words, a helicopter that cannot take his class, and a gym full of cots where a homeroom teacher calls the roll.