CHAPTER 71The front door let out a deep, familiar groan of protest as Lila shouldered it open and stepped across the threshold into the Hawthorne home. The entrance stretched out in front of her, tiny but neat, a true reflection of her father's practical principles and workmanlike pride.She scuffed her trainers against the bristly welcome mat, releasing the grit and debris that had gathered throughout the day on their rubber soles. The regular shucking noises resonated hollowly along the front hall, as Lila went about her daily practice of making herself at home.Her backpack thudded on the floor with a muffled whump, spreading its contents in a tangled sprawl of notebooks, textbooks and stray pens. She'd worry about resolving that issue later; for now, the enticing draw of escape into the digital ether called with its siren song of consequence-free distraction.Lila retrieved her smartphone from the chaos, flicking her thumb across the lockscreen in a single practiced flick. The sc

CHAPTER 73Mia studied a stack of printouts and sketchy diagrams, her brow wrinkled with concentration. Lila's fingers flew across the screen of her laptop with fluid ease, signing a complicated stream of gestures interspersed by brief bursts of typing. Dylan watched the spectacle with a genuine sense of pleasure and satisfaction. Just a short time ago, this ragged company was on the verge of implosion, split between petty power battles and pointless outbursts of ideological grandstanding. However, once their focus moved to actual, concrete goals in pursuit of the Scholsemann Sustainability Scholarship, a perceptible rebirth of synergy emerged.Dylan felt the same explosive spark that had first attracted them together rekindle as he assessed his co-conspirators' single-minded focus on the mission at hand. He cleared his throat, the gravelly rasp cutting through the charged silence like a tuning fork vibration. "Alright, people - I think it's time we regroup and see what kind of big-