The Empress' New Clothes

see Ari’s buttocks lifting in

groin

growl

vile stench

-gonna-kill-you-for-this” look. Kyra absently noted that nothing about Geris’s frown looked serene. She could only hope that Mrs. Blissful didn’t catch her best friend’s slip. Otherwise she’d probably make them do some sort of weird extra credit project. Like move into Mister Rogers Neighborhood indefinitely.
Mrs. Blissful closed her eyes and breathed in through her nostrils and out of her mouth. She raised a balmy hand into the air and let it meander back and forth in a gentle swaying motion. “Let us breeeeathe. Let us find the peeeeeace.”
The paying retreaters followed the instructor’s lead, albeit a bit skeptically. They closed their eyes, breathed, and tried like hell to find the peace.
Kyra’s group consisted of she and Geris, plus four others. Next to Geris sat Fred, the fifty-year-old CEO extraordinaire whose physician ordered him to The Smiling Faces and Peaceful Hearts Meditation Retreat after his last triple-bypass. Mrs. Blissful had denied him the use of his portable fax and cell phone, but Fred had already been caught breaking her rules a time or two under the guise of “making sure they still worked”. So far Fred hadn’t found the peace.

of

Zor’s muscles grew taut with a surge of primal territorialism.