Children of Power: Shells to Bells
an excerpt

The first day of school had been mostly subsumed in a rush of running away, getting caught, and not killing her brother.

On their second day of school, the staff had attacked them. According to the computer, everyone had died, which meant that the staff won and the students were subject to lectures for the rest of the day. All things considered, it had been an interesting start to the school year.

In the days that followed, though, the lectures had increased and the excitement had diminished. Hope had taken a perverse pleasure in knowing that her brother, who was only there to spy on her and claimed he wouldn’t leave until she did, was suffering along with her. She could be bored out of her mind as long as she had company in the meantime.

And she did: until he failed to show up for classes their first day back from the mid-year break.

“He’s withdrawn,” KERI informed her when she asked. “I have no further information on his whereabouts.”

That was ridiculous on almost every level. “He hasn’t withdrawn,” she said. She couldn’t decide which was stranger: arguing with an artificial intelligence, or arguing with an AI’s twelve-year-old avatar. “He would have told me.

“And even if he had,” Hope added, “you always know where he is, and since I’m his sister I don’t think the confidentiality protocols apply. So why isn’t he back?”

“As I recall, you weren’t so cavalier about confidentiality when Kae was attempting to determine your location,” KERI told her. “He’s withdrawn. I have no further information on his whereabouts.”

“You’re lying to me,” Hope snapped.

“He’s withdrawn,” the campus AI repeated calmly. “I have no further information--”

“Fine.” Hope was done listening. “I’ll call my parents, then. He’d better not be in trouble.”

There were places in the galaxies where mentioning her parents would have gotten her anything she wanted. In fact, there was a vast majority of places in the galaxies where the mentioning itself was unnecessary: her identity as their only daughter was so well known that she rarely had to bother. The reminder here was superfluous too, but for different reasons.

Everyone was famous at Smith Valley. It was the whole reason they came. Peers, public interaction, and protection for the heirs of galactic government.
She was just another well-known face here, just another student pretending to be anonymous while the rest of the universe went on without her for as long as it could.

Apparently, “as long as it could” wasn’t as long for Kae as it was for her.