Part 3 of the exclusive extract from The Next Together by Lauren James
University of Nottingham Campus,
England, 2039
Kate poured glycerol into a beaker, measuring out what she would need
for the afternoon’s experiment. She wasn’t really in the mood for labs today,
but it was only her second session of Biology practicals since university
started and she couldn’t miss it. It didn’t help that she was the only person
without a lab partner, so she had to do double the work of the other first-years.
Not that she minded the extra work particularly.
She’d just enjoy having someone to gossip with,
which − judging by the crowd gathered by the ice machine − was all the other
students did.
She was opening up her labbook on her tablet when a
voice from behind her said her name.
“Kate Finchley?” a harried-looking supervisor
asked.
“Yep,” she said, dropping her pen and turning
around.
At the same time, she stuck her hand into her
pocket, fingers catching on a locket she’d stuffed in there last week when it had
annoyed her while she was working in a fume cupboard.
The supervisor gestured to a boy who was standing behind
her. “Here’s your new lab partner; just transferred from Chemistry. You can get
him settled, can’t you?”
Then the supervisor disappeared in a cloud of stress
and steamed-up goggles to deal with another fresher, who had just managed to
drop a beaker of something foul on the floor and then stand in it.
Kate stared at the boy. “Hi,” she said dubiously.
She fished out the locket and put it back on.
He stared back at her, his expression
indecipherable. Then he nodded hello. He was wearing a tweed waistcoat, of all things,
over a ratty band T-shirt. His light brown hair hung over his eyes in a retro
fringe that seemed to be based on something from the late noughties.
She was delighted to note that despite his doubtful
fashion choices he was exactly her type.
To read the next exclusive extract from The Next Together, go to https://lunaslittlelibrary.wordpress.com/
The Next
Together publishes in September 2015 (Walker
Books) and can be pre-ordered now.
About The Next Together
How many
times can you lose the one you love?
For Matthew
and Katherine it is again and again, over and over, century after century.
Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again. Each time their
presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in
love, only to be tragically separated. But why do they keep coming back? How
many times must they die to save the world? What else must they achieve before
they can be left to live and love in peace? Maybe the next together will be
different…
About the author Lauren James
Lauren
James is a scientist by day, writer by early hours of the morning. She graduated
in 2014 with a Masters degree in Natural Sciences from the University of
Nottingham, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. She now lives in the
village of Berkswell, West Midlands. You can find her on Twitter at
@Lauren_E_James, which she mainly uses to fancast actors as her characters and
panics about all of the overly ambitious plans she has for her PhD, or her
website at http://lauren-e-james.tumblr.com.
Thank you so much for sharing, Jim! x
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