Hello! This is a fanfiction of Star Split by Kathryn Lasky. It was written for Elsin in the Worldbuilding Exchange and originally posted on AO3.

"I received a scholarship to the Palmyra Tennis Elite camp this summer," Lisa announced, holding up the letter she had received. She waved her hand in a circle ending in a thumbs up to signal how excited she was about it, but spoke quietly because they were in homeroom.

Her friends reacted mostly silently. Kyle flipped one hand out into a fist facing himself, indicating he'd had full confidence that Lisa would be admitted with a scholarship. The others gave thumbs up and similar gestures to show their support and how happy they were for her.

"Will you be able to go? Can you afford it?" Kyle tilted his head in concern, waving his hand away from his body, signaling his support.

"I have to ask," Lisa answered. She mirrored his hand, since she hoped she would be allowed to go and thought it was a possibility. "My day camp last year was pretty cheap, so I think we can do it. What are your plans for the summer?"

Kyle crossed his arms in front of him, since he didn't have any interesting plans. "No climbing camp for me this year, as much fun as it was last year. I'm going to work at my parents' shop as a mechanic. There's always plenty to do with the Prima and the outdoorsy folk here."

Rose nodded, moving one hand side to side. "My aunt asked me to work more hours at the ice cream shop this summer."

Their other friends hadn't found work yet, and Jon wasn't sure if he'd be able to find a job when he was only fourteen, since no one in his family was able to hire him.

"My parents won't be happy losing me at the dress shop this summer," Lisa said, her hands showing her worry. "I've already been helping on the weekends, and summers are a busy time for them too. Surely none of Genhants at camp will be working, but perhaps I can find some time to go and help out."

Kyle echoed his worry for Lisa. "I don't know if the Genhants would approve of that." Lisa could only shrug in response, as no words came to mind.

It was the end of homeroom after that. The friends had to focus on their lectures and weren't able to talk again until noon, when morning classes let out. They ate their lunches outside, since the weather was finally getting warm enough. As they finished their meals, the conversation turned to their classes.

"Which program do you expect to sign up for next year?"

In the relative privacy of the corner of the soccer field, Kyle was more talkative. "I'm signing up for auto mechanics. I've liked the classes this year, I can work at my parents' shop, and I can go for train mechanics after graduation." He twisted his hand back and forth to indicate his uncertainty about the last part. Lisa understood, tapping her head twice; his parents would expect him to work at their shop and take over, so he wouldn't go for further study unless one of his siblings chose the same training program.

Jon was less certain. "I liked my trial programs well enough, but none stood out to me. I think I'll pick nursing, since it's easy to find work. Rose?"

"I haven't liked any of my trials." She brought both hands down in front of her. "Nursing is so much responsibility. Sewing drives me insane and there's fewer jobs—sorry, Lisa. Cosmetology was alright, so I guess I'll do that. I really don't want to switch to a new program and have to catch up. If I get stuck working at the ice cream shop or something, I won't need any technical education. I'd like to go to college, but…" She trailed off, gesturing her frustration.

College was only accessible for a handful of Originals. Since they didn't have genetic profiles, nothing was considered to be in their core educational plans. Lisa liked getting to choose her own classes instead of having them mostly assigned before she was born, and her sewing and design training program was part of the public school system, but it put the more prestigious programs out of reach. Those were all aimed at Genhants and charged higher costs based on how far it was from a kid's gen pro, effectively blocking Originals out. Even if Rose was able to gain admission to college with the trimmed back education at the Original schools, it would be nearly impossible to get one of the rare scholarships that would allow her to attend at the regular price she'd pay with a gen pro to reference.

Lisa tapped her head again in understanding and sympathy. Rose quite possibly wouldn't be able to pay for college even with a scholarship, and if she ended up with no college degree and no career training, her job options would be relatively limited. "I wish I could continue the mechanics trial for another year to learn more. It's too bad we have to specialize so early."

The others indicated their sympathy and varying levels of agreement, flicking their heads gently. "I'm still signing up for as many academics as I can," added Rose, "even if I'm in cosmetology. I can handle being busy."

Kyle checked his watch. "Time to go. Come on, Lisa." Both of them rose, packing their stuff away, to walk to their mechanics class. They waved at Rose and Jon, telling them to have fun in their nursing class.

There was no tennis practice that day, so Lisa walked directly to her parents' shop after school. The bell rang as she entered, but the front room was empty. "Hello?"

"Back here," her mother called.

Lisa slipped into the back room. "I got a scholarship to the Genhant tennis camp!"

"That's wonderful." Her mother used one hand to show how happy she was for Lisa. "Do you want to go?"

"Of course!" She hesitated, though, showing her worry with her hands. "It's still expensive, though."

"Let's have a look at the papers. This one's a residential camp, right?" Lisa nodded. She pulled out the information and they read through the paperwork together.

"I hate to lose your help at the shop this summer, since you're picking things up so quickly," her mother concluded. Lisa nodded again, signing a quick apology. "Could you help after school on the days you don't have tennis, in addition to Saturdays? And see if you can come back on Saturdays over the summer? You're almost ready to meet with customers, if you remember to talk only with words and not hands for Genhants." Both of them rolled their eyes at that. Genhants were so loud. Lisa supposed that was what happened when they used words to express everything.

"I can come here on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then. Starting next week?" Her mother tapped her head in confirmation. The bell at the front door rang, and her mother gestured at her to be quiet and waved goodbye. She had to help the customer, and if it was a wealthy Genhant, they probably wouldn't want to hear Lisa and her mother chatting in the back. Lisa pointed to her tennis racket and imitated serving, to let her mother know that she was going to practice her serves for awhile. She waved goodbye and slipped out the back door.

The last weeks of school passed quickly for Lisa. Between attending school, studying for finals, tennis practice, and helping with some of the simpler sewing tasks at the shop, she was always busy. Before she knew it, she had packed a bag of clothes and was getting on a city bus bound for the outskirts of the city. The camp was almost two miles from the nearest bus stop, so they had a van pick up the campers. Lisa thought she might have to walk that distance when she went home on Saturdays.

She introduced herself to the girl sitting next to her in the van. "Hi. I'm Lisa."

"I'm Heather. Have you been playing tennis for long?"

She nodded. "Hasn't everyone? I had to submit a whole bunch of information about how long I'd been playing when I applied."

Heather gave her a strange look. "Tennis is in my gen pro, so I just signed up."

Lisa blushed, bringing her hands up to gesture her embarrassment. "It's… not in my gen pro. I had to apply for a scholarship to reduce the cost to regular rates, so maybe that's why I had to send in so much information."

The girl in front of them turned around. "Are you an Original?"

"Yes, I am," Lisa admitted, "but I'm sure I'm as good at tennis as anyone here."

"No amount of practice could make up for the forty-eighth chromosome." The girl turned to Heather. "I'm Marilyn. I've been playing tennis since I was six."

Lisa felt quite offended by this, but didn't know what to say to such an obvious dismissal. Marilyn looked a couple years younger than Lisa, but hardly let her get a word in for the rest of the bus ride, and Heather seemed happy to talk only to Marilyn and not include her. At first, Lisa gestured her responses and thoughts, as if she was talking to her friends at school, but she stopped when Marilyn asked what she could possibly be trying to say. She looked at the scenery out the window and studied the route from the bus stop to the camp for the rest of the trip.

Things looked up when they arrived and settled into the cabins for camp. Marilyn wasn't in her cabin, since they were separated by age, and Heather and the other girls there allowed Lisa to join in their conversation. "Don't mind Marilyn," Ava said as she carefully folded a bright green sweater. "She goes to my school and she's like that all the time. It's the absolute worst part of Tennis Club, in my opinion."

It quickly became clear that Lisa couldn't relate very much to their experiences at school. She said which career tracks she had tried out when the others compared what subjects they specialized in. "You get to try things out and pick what you want to study?" Ava asked. Lisa explained that she had to pick a specialty for the next three years, and she was going to study sewing and design. "That sounds so intimidating! I can't imagine having to pick myself. I've always known I'm going to study something with history or government."

Lisa gave Ava a funny look. "You don't get any choice? What if you don't like it? My parents expect me to work at their shop, but they would let me do something else if I really wanted to."

Heather answered, "I've been in advanced math classes for years. How could I not like it when it's in my genes? What if I had to pick what to study on my own and I picked something that I was bad at?"

"My parents and the school planned out my educational plan years ago," Ava added. She gave Lisa a gentle push. "I get to pick which specialization I want to try in another year! I'm leaning towards the recent history of the Bio Union, but maybe I should focus on Originals in history." The other girls giggled.

Lisa felt distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of Originals as a group to be studied by Genhants, but didn't know how to say so. "We're not—" she broke off, brushing her hands together in the way to show that she didn't like the idea.

The other girls stared at her. "What does—" Ava clumsily imitated Lisa's motions, "—mean?"

Lisa remembered that Genhants didn't use gestures the same way that Originals did. "It means," she said, pausing, "I'm uncomfortable with the idea. We studied famous Originals in history class. My friend Rose wants to study history, but she probably can't go to college for it, and you want to study us yourself." Lisa clasped her hands behind her back to stop herself from gesturing. "She has so much context and she could do a great job, but they'll let you write books about it instead."

The other girls sat in uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before they started talking again. Heather moved them briskly to other topics about their hobbies and plans, but Lisa felt more distant from them and listened quietly. They talked louder and faster than she was really comfortable with anyway.

Lisa spent most of her free time at camp reading or sitting with her cabin mates, but she listened more than she spoke. They didn't like how she talked and sometimes forgot to say what she thought out loud, gesturing or tilting her head when she agreed with something. Heather especially made rude comments about it when she thought Lisa wouldn't hear. In return, Lisa didn't particularly like how they talked over each other and bounced around all the time.

She proved her skill at tennis in the first week. She wasn't the best at returning the ball, but she held her own and her serve was better than anyone's besides the instructors' serves. Lisa hadn't learned all the same drills and picked them up quickly. Marilyn didn't bother her too much after Lisa just barely beat her in a difficult singles match.

Lisa learned that there were only two other scholarship students, both in other groups. She ate lunch with them some days, and it was a relief to communicate in the same way as them. Both of them seemed to get along with the Genhant kids in their groups a little better than Lisa. They didn't have anyone like Marilyn or Heather in their groups speaking against them.

She was able to return to the city on Saturdays, though it meant missing some of the extra outings that the other campers went on. She rode in the van into the city twice when the counselors took trips there. The girls at camp didn't seem to miss her. Lisa liked seeing her family once a week and eating lunch and an early dinner with them before taking the bus and the long walk back to camp.

Her parents finally allowed her to stay and listen when they spoke with customers and take notes for them. She spent less time working in the back room on customers' clothes, but she continued doing some small pieces of work.

Before she knew it, Palmyra Tennis Elite camp was more than half over.

"Lisa? Don't you sew?"

It was evening, and Lisa was curled up reading on her bed. "Yeah, why?"

"My sweater ripped yesterday. It was my grandmother's and my mom will be furious if it's ruined. Can you take a look?"

Lisa sighed and went to Ava's bed to see how bad it was. It was her bright green sweater, and it had to have gotten caught on something sharp to have a two-inch-long L-shaped tear on one side. "You'll be able to tell that it ripped, but it's easy enough to fix."

"Can you do it for me?"

"Do you have thread that matches the sweater?"

Ava's face fell. "No."

"That's fine," Lisa assured her. "We'll just have to buy some, since I don't have anything near that color. Want to come into the city with me this weekend?"

"Okay. You go in on Saturdays, right?" Lisa had gotten used to Ava's speech enough to catch her moment of hesitation that wouldn't have meant anything from an Original, but probably meant that Ava didn't really want to go but would do it anyway.

That weekend, the two girls both caught a ride back to Palmyra in one of the camp vans. Ava seemed surprised to be simply let out where the counselors had errands to run and asked Lisa how they'd get back. Lisa flicked her head in surprise. "I take the bus to the town and walk back to camp."

"Lisa, that has to be over a mile!" Lisa nodded. "You walk that every weekend?"

She shrugged. "It's not that far. Come on, let's get the yarn before I have to help at the shop." Lisa led Ava to the shop that she preferred and they went in. She waved to the girl working at the counter, who was going into her last year of school. There was only one other customer in the store, a younger girl that Lisa recognized from school. She was pretty sure Vivian was part of the rock climbing club at school.

Lisa led Ava to the fine yarn she favored for fixing the sweater and waited while Ava picked out the best color to use. At the checkout, she silently put the yarn on the counter. The older girl appeared to recognize Lisa, since she tilted her head in question. Lisa gave her a thumbs up and nodded, indicating they had found what they needed. Ava seemed a bit confused by the exchange, but didn't question it as she paid.

Lisa took Ava to her parents' shop after that, since her needles and other tools were all there. After meeting Lisa's parents, Ava sorted through her stuff and checked the receipt. "There's a small discount on here," she told Lisa.

"Oh? Yeah, I buy stuff there regularly."

"I buy stuff at the same stores all the time and they never give me any discounts."

Lisa grinned at Ava. "You're not an Original. They don't know you."

Since Lisa was working for most of the day, Ava left to explore the city, returning in time to join Lisa's family for dinner.

"You're friends at camp?" Lisa's mother asked.

Ava didn't hesitate before confirming it. "Yes, and it's very kind of Lisa to help me out and fix my sweater."

"Using her skills for good," said Lisa's father.

The conversation was louder than usual, with Lisa's parents asking polite questions about camp and Ava's school, and Ava answering enthusiastically. Ava had plenty of questions about what running the shop was like and how what their business entailed, which Lisa's parents were more than willing to explain. Soon, it was time for Lisa and Ava to catch the bus to return. Ava was happy to tell Lisa all about her day in the city on the walk back to camp.

The next day, Ava was excited to tell the other girls all about her day in the city and how she'd met Lisa's family. It seemed that Ava hadn't spent much time with any Originals before, but her interest in learning about them seemed sincere and well-intentioned.

In the evening, she asked Lisa if she could watch her fix the sweater. Lisa was bemused by this, but Ava said that she never learned to sew at school and her parents didn't sew at all. "I hardly get to do anything with my hands like that, since I'm no good at art," she explained. That seemed rather sad to Lisa. The Originals may not have gone into nearly as much depth in science or social studies in school, but Lisa had gotten to try lots of different things. The Genhants seemed so confined by their genes in comparison.

When Lisa finished what was really a fairly simple job, Ava was thrilled. "This is amazing! Look at it!" She insisted on showing it to the other girls in the cabin, who were also impressed. Even Heather had to admit that Lisa had done a good job. "I can't wait to wear it tomorrow and show everyone!" Lisa smiled and couldn't do anything but agree. The repair had gone well and was barely noticeable, even with the bright color.

For the rest of the summer, Ava made more effort to involve Lisa in conversations and activities, and was more likely to talk to Lisa by herself than she ever had been before. Marilyn was as annoying as ever. She had apparently told Ava that she was poor for wearing a mended sweater, and Ava had responded that Marilyn didn't own anything worth repairing. Most of the other kids seemed a little warmer to Lisa after Ava told everyone about what she had done; Heather especially became a bit more accepting after hearing Ava's story and stopped making snide comments.

Finally the last day came. "Promise you'll stay in touch?"

Lisa nodded, showing Ava the paper with her address on it. "I don't think I'll be able to come to camp next summer, though. It was expensive and they almost never give scholarships to the same kids twice."

"If I come back, I'll come to visit you on the weekends," Ava promised. "I'd love to meet your family again. And I have so many questions about your school and everything."

Ava talked about what she expected to study the next year, and Lisa talked a little about the shop until they had to go their separate ways home. "Goodbye!" Ava called.

Lisa simply waved.

Thanks for reading! I did my best to handle sensitive topics appropriately, and I apologize if I did not do so at any point.

Marilyn and Vivian are the only characters from Star Split that appear here, and briefly. I'd hoped to include more, but the only named Original characters were Vivian and her uncle. I set this about a year before Star Split to focus on worldbuilding rather than fallout from the book's events, so Marilyn is about 12 and Vivian is about 11. Lisa is about 14.

My thought, for combining the "Originals don't talk much and use gestures" with "Originals and Genhants don't seem to have any actual communication issues" was that the gestures serve as a shorthand for limited common phrases (e.g. "That's great!"), and that they add nuance or emotion especially if they're talking quietly all the time ("I'm excited about this thing"). Since it was mentioned that when they're sort of upset or don't know what to say, they switch to gestures, I included that, but I don't imagine it has much exact meaning beyond the emotion. I drew very, very loosely from ASL for ideas on how to convey things, but I don't know ASL and they're not using ASL.

I have given most of the Original kids summer jobs because Vivian apparently split her summer between working with her uncle in the palace gardens and rock climbing when she was 12, and she didn't give any indication that this was unusual. This is set at the end of ninth grade and subsequent summer when they're 14–15, so most of the kids are going to work either part-time or over the summer, especially if there's a family business that they're learning and expected to join if they have any interest, as Lisa does.