Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor Book 2)

I’m supposed to make you call me Conductor Cheery, but if you ask me, that sounds even stupider. So let’s just agree on Miss Cheery, all right?”

Currently the only zest she had was for staring at walls and eating bowls of chicken dumpling soup.

and a young woman stepped out onto the platform, holding a crumpled piece of paper. Coltishly long-legged and tall, she didn’t hunch the way some tall people hunched, so that others wouldn’t be intimidated by them. She stood like a ballet dancer, Morrigan thought—shoulders back, feet slightly turned out.

“Completely over the top?”

“He pinky promises. Blech, revolting.”

Morrigan didn’t like the sound of the Goal-Setting and Achieving Club for Highly Ambitious Youth, which met on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, and all day Sunday. But she thought she could probably get on board with Introverts Utterly Anonymous, which promised no meetings or gatherings of any sort, ever.

“But in the end, I just couldn’t choose between making him drool through the whole thing, speak in a baby voice, or drop his trousers at the end and shout ‘BAZZY WANT POTTY.’” Cadence grinned. “So I went with all three.”

Morrigan was about to ask who this charming Morrigan Crow was and if she’d like to trade places,

If anyone else had talked about her “good heart” and “brave spirit” with a look of such glowing approval, Morrigan might have made gagging noises. But there was something about Miss Cheery that made her want to simply sit quietly and listen closely to every word she said.