Josette looks around the dorm, the new boarding students are going to be arriving later today after the orientation they'll receive in the auditorium from the teachers and Principal Madison. She's going to miss having Professor Druid living next door but she's going to be the senior dorm monitor now, Professor Druid is moving back into her apartment now that Josette's starting high school.

 

Professor Druid had told her that a pair of identical twins would be moving in next door, they'd be sharing the duties of dorm monitor with her. All the older girls know that she is in charge of the dorm, but those students coming in today will be causing trouble until they either realize that ignoring her orders just means demerits and lectures from the teachers for them or they end up being asked to leave the school as troublemakers. There's always one in every new class coming in that thinks they're so much better than anybody else and refuse to believe that rules apply to them. After a few demerits and having to spend an entire weekend in a classroom working on assignments that the teacher gives them they usually realize that they aren't as special as they think they are and settle down to obey the rules like everybody else.

 

A knock on the door has Josette getting up, finding one of the older girls outside. "Professor Druid is bringing the new girls to the dorm."

 

"Thanks, I was just. . ."

 

"Wandering the stratosphere?" That's what the school's astronomy teacher always says when he found somebody not paying attention in his classes.

 

"Yeah." she brushes hair out of her eyes. Shutting the door she walks to the front of the building for Professor Druid and the new girls to arrive. Besides the set of identical twins that are with an older woman who looks like an older version of them, there seven other girls, one an exotic looking redhead with golden skin who has a man standing next to her.

 

"Welcome to your new dorm girls, this is Josette Takahawa, she is your dorm monitor, she's been the junior monitor under me for over a year, she will be the senior monitor starting this semester. Anna and Abby Covington will be taking over the other dorm monitor room and be working with her.

 

"What, how come they get the dorm monitor position and I do not?" the exotic looking redhead complains in lightly accented English. The man next to her angrily hisses something in another language at her.

 

She quietly apologizes.

 

"As for why the twins got the second dorm monitor room and that position," Druid says, "They have a brother who also starts school this semester. The Dorm monitor rooms have outside doors so he can come visit them in their room without calling somebody to escort him to their room."

 

"Boys are not allowed in the girls dorm?" The man who had talked to the girl asks. Like her, he speaks perfect english with a slight accent. They share some features, though the girls tawny skin makes finding them difficult. He's not old enough to be her father Josette thinks, so he has to be an older brother. . .and from the coldness he seems to have towards her, she'd think they're only half-siblings.

 

"Only if they have a sister in the dorm, like the twins." Druid nods at the girls and their mother. "And then, only in their sister's room. If you'll leave your baggage here in the entry, we'll start our tour after you girls choose your rooms. Anna, Abby, your room is the one on the right at the end of the hallway, Josette's is right next door. Once the tour is over and the girls are settled, I'll go over your duties with you. But if you have any questions, ask Josette. Meanwhile, each of you go into the storeroom on your left and get two sets of sheets, two blankets, and two sets of towels." Each girl does so and they walk back out into the entry of the dorm.

 

"We have three rooms left on the first floor right now, all of you other girls will be on the second floor. We do not have an elevator, so you're going to going up and down these stairs at least ten times a day." Josette tells the girls. "Please know though, the second floor is currently empty so that if you do go up there, you have room to spread out and not have to share a bathroom with the other dorm room. If the door is open, the room is empty."

 

The girl looks like she's going to say something but the man next to her hisses again and she quiets. "Fatima will take one of the first floor rooms, I want her to have some supervision."

 

"I'll take a first floor room." a dark haired young woman in plain clothes says. She's got what looks like all her belongings with her, unlike most of the others she has nobody with her. She probably does have all of her belongings with her Druid thinks sadly. One of the other girls volunteers to take the last first floor room, Druid sees she has a limp when she walks and they gather their belongings and take them to their new rooms as the other girls head upstairs to select their rooms.

 

"Do not shut your doors, they take key cards you will be getting after you have selected your rooms." Josette calls up the stairs, just select your rooms, put your bedding and towels down on the bed and come back down here."

 

"Josette, can you handle everything while I go get the key card device?" Druid asks. Josette nods. Walking back to her room, she opens the door and reaches onto the wall for the clipboard, coming back out to where the others are waiting. "Put your names and dorm numbers on this clipboard I'm passing around, Abby Anna, your room number is DM2."

 

The girls nod in thanks and all the new students fill out the information. "Now, I will only say this once. Yes, I may be young, but I've been the dorm monitor for a while now. Do NOT even think about giving me grief when I tell you that you need to be in this dorm by nine o'clock EXACTLY or you WILL be getting a demerit. Don't give me shit about my watch must be fast or anything else, the three of us," she waves her finger at herself and the twins. "Our word is LAW in this dorm, if we say you're late, you're late. We have stacks of demerit forms, you get a copy, we get a copy, and the office gets a copy. So the teachers know you have a demerit and why you have it. Three demerits and you get detention the following weekend, and Ladies, you will not like detention. We will be delivering you to the cafeteria for breakfast, a teacher will be picking you up after you've eaten and you will be spending the entire day in a classroom working on a stack of assignments they will be giving you. These may be assignments you were supposed to do but didn't turn in or they may be assignments the teacher gives you just because they're sadistic, evil, hateful people."

 

"You forgot master tormenters." Druid says dryly from the doorway. She's got a large box in her hands and it's beginning to slip. Automatically Abby 'reaches' for it, grabbing it before it can slip and fall to the floor. It wobbles a little but she puts it on the table by Druid before releasing her breath.

 

"Abigail Anne Covington," her mother snaps.

 

"I saw it slipping, Mom." Abby says.

 

"Yes, and thank you for grabbing it for me, that was very good work." Druid claps Abby gently on the shoulder and the girl smiles at her. "Girls, come over and get your key cards for your rooms and your mailbox keys. Once you have your keys and are sure they work, you can take your belongings to your new rooms. You were saying Josette?"

 

"I was saying that if you have detention you will find yourself working on a stack of assignments about as high as your arm is long." The students shudder. "The teacher will take you to lunch, then bring you back to their classroom and you'll be working on assignments until dinner. That's when we pick you up and bring you back to the dorm. The next morning you'll repeat the whole thing. Oh, and if you have any assignments that you didn't get done by the time your detention is finished? You're going to be bringing them back to your room and working on them in your spare time so you can have them turned in by the end of the week. Because if you don't, you'll have detention again the next weekend. So tell me, is pissing me off being late getting back to the dorm really worth it?"

 

"We take your safety very seriously Ladies, I agree do not be late getting back to the dorm. The only excuse to be late getting back is if you have a job or an evening class, we will already know about it and we'll let you in the building."

 

"Do you have evening classes?" Abby and Anna's mother asks.

 

"Starting your sophomore year, you're allowed to choose your own classes. Most of the teachers who live on campus hold class sessions nights and weekends so you can set your own schedule." Druid says. "Also starting your sophomore year boarding students can apply for part time jobs if your grades are high enough. And you will need to keep your grades up to keep your jobs."

 

The new students nod.

 

"Now line up and I'll key the blank cards to your locks. Josette, will you go get your master key to make sure the new keys work? Abby, Anna, you'll be getting one as well."

 

"Josette, you said something about escorting us to breakfast and picking us up after dinner if we have a detention? Don't we all eat at the same time?" Susan asks.

 

"No, the dining hall is open for three hours during breakfast, lunch, and dinner so students and teachers can come in and eat when they have free time. Only when the school is on lockdown do all the students eat at the same time."

 

"Lockdown?" the man with the slight accent asks.

 

"Usually because of the weather, this area gets some awful winter storms because we're so close to the coast." Druid says. "If we lose power classes are cancelled. At that time the dorm monitors will bring the students through the tunnels that link the buildings on the school to the dining hall for their meals and back to the dorm. Every once in a while though, we get a threat against the school because mutants still aren't widely accepted. The government is very invested in our safety though and they usually have the person in custody within a day."

 

"What are the hours for the dining room?"

 

"Breakfast is seven to ten, lunch is noon to three, and dinner is five to eight." Druid says as Josette comes back with her master key. Once everybody has made sure their new keys work Druid has them take their belongings to their rooms and come back for the tour. The girls mother follows her daughters into the dorm room, looking around. "This is nice girls, I'm glad the school arranged for you to get this position when we enrolled you and your brother. I don't like any of you being alone, but. . ."

 

"This is an excellent school, our attending here will help us get into any university we want." the girls say. "And our grades here will help us get scholarships to help pay for college. Nobody ever gets offered scholarships back home, no matter how good their grades are."

 

"I know, I just wish the three of you didn't have to pay for all your schooling yourself." She says sadly. She follows them out of the room, joining the others for the tour. She and her husband will have to leave shortly, they have work in the morning and they still need to pick up their younger children from their grandparents.

 

Alice Covington walks out of the dorm with the girls to find her husband and son walking down the sidewalk towards them. Their dad hugs the girls and Alice hugs her son before they are walked out to the car by their children, who watch them drive out of the parking lot before they head back to their dorms.

 

Susan looks at the pile of boxes lined up on the other bed in her room, she'd better start with her books and unpack at least one clean change of clothes for classes tomorrow. All the new students had purchased their school supplies today after the school orientation so she doesn't have to go searching through boxes for them, instead all she has to do is open the bags and start putting everything away in the desk. Thankfully it's not one of those cheap student desks you see in chain stores, it's a solid wood desk with plenty of drawers and shelves overhead for her books. The new laptop she'd purchased is settled in the middle of the desk, boxes of programs she needs for her classes are piled next to it to install after she unpacks.

 

It takes an hour but her clothes are all settled in the dresser or hung in the closet and she shoves the suitcase in the back of the closet before settling on the bed with the folder she'd been told to pick up by Professor Druid during the dorm tour. Most of the dorm rules make sense, keep your room clean, laundry goes down the chute by breakfast on the day your floor is due to change your sheets and towels, students must be in their rooms by eleven, eleven-thirty Friday and Saturday nights. Sighing she leans back on the bed, she might actually be safe here.

 

"Any thoughts on the new students? Any you think that will cause trouble?"

 

"Not offhand, Josette gave the new girls her 'I may be young but don't piss me off' lecture about not being late getting back to the dorm while I was gone." Druid says at the meeting of the teachers after the new students have either left or settled in their rooms to unpack. "I thought Fatima might cause some problems but her brother quickly yanked the wind from her sails, I don't like the way he treats her but that might be expected in their country."

 

"I think it's because her mother used the pregnancy to try to blackmail the King, and the fact that she is illegitimate. From what he said, she is a spoiled little brat who ignored the stigma of being illegitmate and tried to get everything she wanted because of who her father was, now that Faroud is on the throne, he's keeping her firmly in line."

 

"Does Susan James have any family? I noticed that she was the only one who didn't have any family with her during orientation."

 

"Not that I know of," Jolt sighs. "She's the one who contacted the school requesting an information packet and she took greyhound into Boston, being picked up the shuttle driver this morning. I don't even think that James is her real last name, she didn't fill out any of her background in the application."

 

"What's her mutation?" one of the other teachers asks.

 

"Precognition."

 

"Does she have a scholarship loan?"

 

"No, because she would have had to put her real information on the application." Jolt says. "The government is going to be creating a new identity for her in that name, complete with birth certificate, social security number, and she'll be opening a bank account with her new information."

 

"Do we think she's a runaway?"

 

Jolt slowly nods. "Yes, I think she is. And I think she left home for the reason most young mutants end up on the streets, their family can't. . .or won't accept them." Quickly changing the subject, "What do we think of the Covingtons?"

 

"A very close, very loving family." Druid says. "Which is rather nice to see. Their parents didn't want to leave them so early but they had to head right back home to pick up the younger children, make dinner, and get ready for work in the morning. Abby used her telekinesis in the dorm when I got back, grabbing the box with the key card maker before I could drop it. Her mom started to yell, but when Abby said it was going to fall and I thanked her for catching it before it could she started praising her daughter instead."

 

Josette taps on the door to the twins room and invites them over to her room to see if they have any questions for her.

 

"How. . .how old are you?" Anna asks.

 

"I wondered when somebody would ask. I'm thirteen, I have a summer birthday and got early admittance to my school in California since I could already read and write at a first grade level instead of having to wait a year. I also skipped kindergarten." She pets the cat lying next to her on the bed.

 

"You've been here a while?"

 

"Yeah, my mutation became active unexpectedly. I don't have any family and Principal Madison offered me a spot here at the school. I'm starting my freshman year just like you guys."

 

"Can we ask why you don't. . ."

 

"Have a regular room? I'm claustrophobic, remember the freeway that collapsed during the earthquake in California a couple years ago?"

 

Both girls nod. "My mom and I were caught in it, we were trapped in our car for a couple days before we were rescued. Since then, I have a little," Josette holds her fingers a couple inches apart, "problem with dark enclosed spaces."

 

"Your mom?"

 

"Didn't survive the accident. Professor Druid and Principal Madison came to the hospital and offered me a place here. When they told me I could keep Samhein here," she scratches under the chin of the cat next to her, he offers a rumbling purr to his charge. "It cemented the deal. Now, any questions about the job? It's pretty much making sure the kids are in the dorm at nine, shooing everybody to their room by eleven and if they don't want to go, turn the switch for the lights off in the common rooms and hallway off on them, they'll head to bed rather than sit in a cold dark room, and look into any problems the girls might have. There's usually one who has a problem with another student about something, sometimes its warranted: Loud music, a smell coming from the room. Sometimes it's just petty stuff because while we are mutants, we're also teenage girls." Anna and Abby nod.

 

"Like I said before, our word is law. . .but sometimes there will be a girl who won't like our decision and will try to go over our heads. If a teacher comes to you with a complaint from a student, tell them exactly why you decided what you did. If the decision was sound, they'll back you up one hundred and ten percent."

 

"Is there some complaints we don't get involved in?"

 

"Yes, petty stuff between students who share a bathroom, either they get used to each other or they work it out themselves. We don't allow students to change rooms unless there is a real problem with another student. That's why we tell them to take their time making sure they have the room they want. The walls have some good soundproofing but there's still complaints about somebody snoring. Unless it's something medically dangerous like sleep apnea, we don't get involved in their private sleeping habits."

 

The twins nod. "The girls can study in their own rooms, the library, and when the weather is decent outside, but not the common rooms. Otherwise there'd be too many fights with somebody trying to study while somebody else is trying to watch a movie."

 

"What is the clipboard by the door for?"

 

"It's where we keep the list of students and dorm numbers, the school usually has one fire drill a semester, our jobs is to get all of them gathered outside by the picnic table, we use the list to check off the names." Both girls nod. "I'll run some copies of the list off at the office tomorrow, your copy of the master key is also kept by the door. That way, it's handy if case a new student locks themself out of their room and we can grab both of them if the fire drill happens in the middle of the night."

 

A quick rat a tat tat on the door has Josette sighing.

 

"Yes?" she asks the older girl who is standing outside the door.

 

"There's been somebody else in my bathroom."

 

"Yes, you knew you would eventually have to share a bathroom, the first floor would be full with this years new students."

 

"I don't like it."

 

"That's too bad, you knew it would eventually happen. And don't even think of locking her door from your side when you're not in there, you will be getting a demerit for it. Did she make a mess in there?"

 

"No," the girl says grudgingly, "I just don't like having somebody else in there. What if she moves my things or makes a mess?"

 

"If she does you can ask her to clean up after herself or not to move your belongings, but don't borrow trouble before it happens."

 

The girl huffs and storms off, slamming Josette's door behind her.

 

"Stupid bint," she says quietly, first grabbing a notebook, checking the time and filling out the report on the incident. "She's one of them that will go over your head and complain to a teacher." The twins nod. "Spoiled little brat, she's had problems with every other student in the school with her attitude. Some of the girls lock the connecting door to the bathroom if there's nobody on the other side, you're not supposed to unless you're actually in the bathroom. Professor Druid had to go through the rooms and unlock bathroom doors while students were off last week because they locked them before they left. These are the demerit forms," she shows off the contents of an envelope by the door. "White goes to the student, yellow is our copy, and pink goes to the office. Make sure you have a couple with you when you lock the doors, that way you don't have to go looking for one after you let them stew for a few minutes before letting them in."

 

"What's to keep somebody from opening one of the side doors."

 

"They're controlled by the master switch that locks the front door," Josette smirks. "If you open them from the inside, a very loud alarm blares through the entire building. I threatened to give everybody detention the only time it's happened so far, they gave up the culprits immediately. You do that, the person who tried to sneak in gets detention and the girl they talked into doing it for them gets a demerit."

 

"Josette?" a familiar voice says as the door opens.

 

"She whined already?" Josette asks Druid when she comes into the room.

 

"Yes, you told her that she knew she'd eventually have to share a bathroom, right?"

 

Josette nods. "I also asked her if the other girl had made a mess. She said no, but she didn't like having somebody in there because they might make a mess or they might move her things. I told her not to borrow trouble and not to lock the connecting door unless she was in the bathroom. She's just a whiny bitch who thinks Daddy's money will make everybody bow down and kiss her ass."

 

Druid's lips twitch. "You can also give her this, her first demerit of the semester for slamming my door when she didn't get her own way." Josette fills it out, ripping off the back copy and handing it over to Druid. Druid grins and she walks away.

 

"The professor will give her the demerit and a scathing lecture without raising her voice." Josette grins. "Kennedy is from new money, her mother gave her whatever she wanted growing up so thinks she's better than everybody else, her father finally had enough of her attitude problems after they divorced and sent her here because the teachers don't care if you're rich or poor, they treat you all the same. She's been on academic probation for the last couple semesters, her father donated money to have the dining hall renovated to keep her in school when she failed most of her classes last year. She's going to have to repeat her entire year."

 

"My father redid the whole dining hall." a voice yells.

 

"Yes, some of us have to rely on Daddy's money to stay in school." Another voice says. "while most of us are here on the basis of our grades."

 

 

"Ohhhh, cat fight ahead." Josette cackles. "Let the Professor handle it."

 

"Girls," Druid says, raising her voice a little. Even the new girls know what that means and Kennedy shuts up. "I wouldn't be too proud of your father's contribution Kennedy, like Sarah said, it's the only thing that allowed you to return to school this year. Now, I have your schedule here, since you're on academic probation you'll have regular tutoring sessions scheduled after class and on weekends. And I also have your first demerit for slamming Josette's door because you didn't get your own way when you complained. Will everybody please come out, I have an announcement?"

 

All the girls, both those who just arrived at the school today and those who are returning students come out of their rooms and the girls on the second floor come down the stairs. "For the first time since the school started, the first floor is full. This means you ALL," she stares at Kennedy who finally has to look away. "Will be sharing a bathroom. Do not start conflicts with the student on the other side of the bathroom unless something has happened. Clean up after yourself, there's two shelves and two towel racks for a reason, use the set on your side of the bathroom. Keep the bathrooms tidy and don't go messing through the other girls belongings unless you've asked first. Don't lock the other bathroom door unless you're in there, if I find out girls are locking out the other student because they don't want to share their bathroom, they'll be getting demerits. You know the rules girls, yet I had to go through the dorm and unlock five doors so students who stayed over could use their own bathrooms. Don't go through the connecting doors into the other room unless you've been invited." Kennedy had been about ready to complain again, Druid's look makes her pipe down again.

 

"Since we've got new girls, we're all going to be heading to dinner tonight at six o'clock, that should give those of you still unpacking time to finish. . ." instead of whine, Druid's unspoken words are clear nonetheless. As is the look she levels at Kennedy. The new girls are looked in on, Druid apologizing to the girl that shared Kennedy's bathroom. Like everybody had figured, Kennedy had had a tantrum at just the thought of having to share anything and the girl hadn't done anything other than open one set of towels and put her belongings on the shelf, not that there'd be room for her belongings with all the crap Kennedy has the sink. Kennedy whimpers but Druid is firm and tells her to clear all her cosmetics and other stuff out of the bathroom, only leaving what she needs in there.

 

"But I need it all." she whines.

 

"This is considered a common area, and you know the rules about keeping common areas clean. Keep the basics on your shelf and bring the other stuff in with you in a basket from your bedroom. Remove it now or it goes in the garbage."

 

"You little Bitch, this is all your fault." Kennedy snarls and throws a punch, only to hit the solid wood of the door as the other girl vanishes. "Did you see what she did?" She whines.

 

"Yes, used her power to get away from you because you tried to attack her. Which just earned you an automatic detention and a trip to the Principal's office while your father is called."

 

"My hand, my hand, look what that bitch did to my hand."

 

"She didn't do a damn thing to your hand." Druid drags her out of the bathroom, not at all surprised to see all the girls gathered outside the door. "Josette, please take your camera and take a picture of the sink and Kennedy's stuff scattered around it, then take a picture of the bathroom door where Kennedy tried to put her fist through the door for the record." Druid drags Kennedy off, the other girl still whining.

 

Josette comes into the room with a digital camera. "Are you okay?" she asks the shaken student.

 

"Y. . .yeah, I just thought that when I got here I'd . . ."

 

"You'd finally be safe." Susan says, coming into the bathroom and wrapping an arm around her. "Yeah, me too. There's always little minded people out there who think they're better than anybody else who don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. You're just lucky that you have a talent that can get you out of danger." She walks her through the bathroom door and Josette takes a picture of the large dent in it when its shut. "Who needs all this shit?" Abby asks, picking up each bottle of fancy cosmetics, perfume, or skin care products with two fingers and puts it in an empty box in Kennedy's room.

 

"Especially a teenager?" Josette shakes her head, contrasting Kennedy's skin care routine to her own, soap and warm water.

 

"Probably has a mother like you see on those reality shows who are determined to live their lives through their children, determined that her daughter will look young and beautiful forever, no matter what." Susan says sourly. "What's going to become of her?"

 

"Hopefully the school will finally expel her, but I doubt it. There is a room for troublemakers somewhere on the grounds, usually it's for those with dangerous powers who won't control them. From what I understand, it's a plain room with a cot a sink, and a toilet. The school will place her there until she's calmed down, since she's caused so many problems with other students. . .and this isn't the first time she's tried attacking another student, the school psychologist will be working with her, She won't be let out until the doctor says she's no longer a danger to others." Josette says.

 

"There's a whole suitcase of this shit in her bedroom too." Anna calls from where she'd been putting the box away in Kennedy's room. Josette blinks but takes a picture of the open bag filled with beauty products. "How much of this stuff does she need?"

 

"Her daddy's a miwwionaire," Josette says sarcastically. "however much she wanted." She looks at the clock. "Everybody head outside, I'll take you all to dinner."

 

Ten minutes later all the new girls are heading down the sidewalk to the cafeteria. Joyce is waiting for them and talks quietly with Josette, she hands over the camera before the girls fill their trays and settle down to eat.

 

Anna, Abby, and Josette take the clipboard out with them at eight forty-five, finding all the girls on the second floor in their rooms and most of the girls on the first floor either in their rooms or the first floor lounge. Exactly at nine Josette locks the doors when the last of the girls runs in when she sees Josette approaching the door.

 

"You barely made it." Josette says.

 

"I know, I had to go to the store, the teachers are letting me pick up two more classes this semester." she holds up the bag. "They weren't sure if I could handle it, so they waited until the last second to let me. I'm going to be taking classes two nights a week, Monday and Wednesday."

 

Josette makes a note on the clipboard. "Congratulations."

 

"Pick up classes?" Anna asks as they walk back to their rooms. One of the new girls from the second floor is waiting by the door. "Lock yourself out?"

 

"Yeah, I came down to drop a letter in the mail slot and got back upstairs before I realised I didn't have my key." Josette grins and goes upstairs with her, letting the twins in her room.

 

"You know that the school selects first year students classes, right?" she says when she comes back.

 

The girls nod. When they'd went to the school the woman behind the counter had had bags of books already filled for them, they'd just had to pick out supplies and hand over their receipts, the woman had handed over the bags with their names on them. Principal Madison says this makes it easier for new students to get their books and head to their dorms without waiting in line too long.

 

"The limit for first year students is six classes per semester, all required classes. After your first year, if you can prove your grades are good enough, you can select up to eight classes per semester, six required classes and two electives."

 

"And night classes?"

 

"After your first year, when students select their classes they can also select what time they want to take them. A lot of the teachers offer classes at night or on weekends."

 

A knock on the door has Druid coming in, handing over Josette's camera before she takes a seat at the table.

 

"As you probably guessed, Kennedy is on lockdown in the secured room for the next few weeks, her father has had enough of her attitude problems. He was appalled when he saw the pictures of her bathroom here at the school and the bag of beauty products she'd brought with her, checking her credit card statements he found out she's spent ten thousand dollars on that sort of stuff in the last six months."

 

The girls shake their heads. "The school psychologist is going to be working with a psychiatrist her father is bringing in from Boston. Meanwhile, she's going to be working on her assignments when she's in the hole, in the morning an envelope will be slid through the meal slot with the days assignments. Hopefully Kennedy will use this time to work on her schoolwork while the doctors are working on her problems. It is unlikely though that she will be returning to the dorm or the school, even if the doctors find her 'cured', her father has had quite enough of her attitude. He'll be coming to the school tomorrow to apologize to the student Kennedy attacked and pay for the door if it can't be fixed."

 

"Professor Druid, that's a solid wood door with a pretty good dent in it, how can it be fixed?" Anna asks.

 

"One of the new students in the boys dorm has a gift for manipulating wood, the school's maintenance people will be removing the door tomorrow while you're all in classes so Kennedy's father can examine it and he'll look at it. Meanwhile the door will be locked on the other side until the door can be fixed or replaced."

 

Anna looks over at Josette's desk and blinks. "How many classes are you taking?"

 

Josette ducks her head. "The full eight, because of my mutation I'm allowed to take the six offered to first year students and two electives."

 

"Josette absorbs knowledge, she can touch any book and instantly download it into her mind." Professor Druid says. She picks up one of Josette's texts. She opens it to a page in front of the girls. "Josette, your history text, page 210."

 

"It's a picture of an old whaling ship, the chapter is about how lighting changed from hand dipped candles to whale oil and kerosene lamps, then finally electric lights." She tells them what's on the next page and Professor Druid follows her along on the page.

 

"That is. . .wow!" Anna says. "What are you doing still attending school?"

 

"I'm 13, I could get a GED but what would I do with it? I'm too young to get a full time job or afford my own apartment. No, it's better that I stay in school and actually learn what I already know. And speaking of jobs, any chance of me getting a part-time job? We already know that my grades aren't going to suffer."

 

"That depends, how do you feel about working in the school's laundry at night after dinner? We have a senior who currently washes sheets and towels for the dorms. Right now it's only a couple of nights a week but with students moving onto the second floors, it's going to be four nights a week starting next fall. He's going to be graduating at the end of next semester, if you're interested you can start next semester so he has time to show you how everything is done before he leaves."

 

"Yes," Josette says firmly.

 

"You'll start next semester then, six to eleven. Make sure to work your schedule out so the twins don't have to handle lockdown all by themselves all the time."

 

"It's. . .what two nights a week?"

 

"Yes, currently Monday the girls send down their laundry, when we get more girls on the second floor next year they'll send down their laundry Tuesdays. Wednesdays the boys send down their laundry. When we get more boys on the second floor, they'll send their laundry down Thursdays."

 

"You two take Tuesday and Thursday nights off, I'm at work Monday and Wednesday so you handle it by yourselves those two nights, and we handle it together the other three nights?"

 

"Sounds good to me, by the end of the first semester the girls should realize that all three of you mean business and realize that by acting up, all they're doing is hurting themselves." Druid says slowly. "Next year when the job goes to a full four nights, the older girls will warn the newer girls not to act up, especially if you give the 'I may be small but I'm in charge, piss me off at your peril' lecture you gave the newbies earlier today."

 

"And since there won't be any sheets sent down the first week of classes, you can all handle lockdown. After a week, everybody should be used to having to be in the building by nine. The locked panel by the front door can lock all three doors at once, there's cameras over each door to see if anybody is coming that direction. If somebody's late and doesn't have an excuse, wait a couple of minutes and see if they're coming, you can spend that time filling out demerit forms." Druid's eyes sparkle. "But only wait about three minutes, any longer and make them ring the bell at the front of the building and have to be allowed in. Since you've already checked the building, you know who's late."

 

"And those who are at work or have late classes?"

 

"Know to come to the front door to be let in. Classes are out at nine, only a few students, usually older ones have nighttime jobs and they get in at eleven. You'll have flashlights so they can get to their rooms, the only lights on will be those small lights like you see in movie theaters on the floor by the seats. Unless there's a fire alarm, the lights are connected to it so it goes off, they come on so you can see to get out of the building."

 

At quarter to eleven the girls go through the first and second floors sending the others off to their rooms. The lights go off at eleven and the three girls head to their rooms for the night. Josette sets her alarm clock for quarter after six, not that she won't be up before the alarm goes off. As usual, she's asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow.

 

The next morning Josette is awake by six o'clock, sitting up and stretching before turning off the alarm. Samhein stretches on the bed and shows his sharp teeth, purring as she scratches under his chin before getting up and walking into the bathroom, pulling off her nightgown and settling under the cold water for a quick shower to wake her up. Wrapping a towel around herself, she pulls a comb through her hair, drying it with the towel that goes over the shower rod before walking into the bedroom.

 

Shaking her head at the dwindling contents of her closet and dresser, she reminds herself to do laundry after class. There shouldn't be too many students needing to do laundry, those who had stayed over during the week between summer and fall classes would have done it while they were off while the new students would have brought clean laundry with them. Looking at the clock, she sees six-thirty coming up and grabs her key card before walking out to the front door and unlocking the doors for the night, flipping the switch for the first and second floor common areas at the same time before locking the access door with a sharp click. Opening the door just a bit, Josette smiles at the crisp air of an autumn morning as the other dorm monitor room opens and Anna blearily looks out, sees Josette at the door, nods, and shuts it again.

 

Grinning she heads back to her room, pausing when one of the rooms of the new girls opens and Susan looks out at her. "Good morning, I see I'm not the only early riser."

 

Susan yawns. "I'll give you the morning part, but its not good until I get some caffeine in me and I know the school doesn't allow students caffeine."

 

Josette chuckles. "'Officially' the school doesn't offer caffeine, but that doesn't mean you can't take the shuttle into town and get your caffeine of choice."

 

"Really?"

 

"Yup, there's usually a run to the stores during midterms and finals weeks when students are pulling all-nighters."

 

"Then why doesn't the school offer caffeine pop or for those older students coffee?"

 

"Because we're teenagers and our minds are overruled by our hormones. Caffeine makes most of us hyper, add that to tenuous at best control of mutations, some of which are dangerous. . ."

 

Susan nods. "Yeah, I can see somebody getting hurt. So they're not banning caffeine but covering themselves by not offering it. If we want it, we have to pay for it ourselves."

 

"Exactly."

 

"What's breakfast like? A continental breakfast like you see offered at hotels or real food?"

 

"Real food, bacon. scrambled eggs, waffles, pancakes, you name it. The school is big on giving the students a good start to the day and eating breakfast is part of it. If they offer a good breakfast, there's a chance students will actually eat it instead of grabbing something and running to class or skipping it entirely."

 

Susan nods, looks at her watch, and shuts her door allowing Josette to head back to her room. Checking her bag of supplies for her two morning classes, eight to ten and ten fifteen to twelve fifteen, she grabs a light jacket and listens to the racket ouside as students wake up and get ready for the first day of classes. A tap on the door has Josette opening it and seeing Anna and Abby on the other side.

 

"Do we need to alternate meals so that somebody's here?"

 

"Nope, the girls are on their own until after school. If they get locked out and we're not here, they can go to the office and have Joyce open their door after she checks the clipboard to make sure its really her room she wants opened."

 

Anna and Abby nod, that had been a concern of theirs. "That's why the clipboard is always kept by the door?"

 

"Yep," Josette takes her copy of the dorm room sheet off hers. "That reminds me, I gotta run make copies of this before breakfast." The twins let themselves out and Josette uses the outside door to go outside, walking first to the office and running a couple dozen copies of the form off before sticking them in her school bag and heading for the dining hall now that it was officially open for breakfast, filling her tray with her first meal before taking her usual spot. Anna and Abby come in a few minutes later with most of the early risers and she waves them to her table when they look around for a seat. They walk over and she wipes her hands, reaching into her bag and handing over half of the copies.

 

"Do we keep this all school year?"

 

"Yeah, seniors can choose to graduate at the end of winter semester or go on for another semester and pick up their diplomas at the end of the summer semester. We only have four girls who are seniors." Josette points out their names on the list. "When they move out their rooms will be open for the summer semester if they aren't staying on. The school has a cleaning crew that comes in once a week and cleans rooms that aren't used, they'll clean those and get them ready for new students in the fall. When that happens, we can either get a new dorm sheet from the office and copy everything over or white out the names and room numbers and reuse them next year. That's why I only make two or three copies at a time."

 

"Can boys and girls share tables?" Abby asks.

 

"Yeah," Josette follows her gaze and sees a boy that resembles them at the buffet line. "Your brother?"

 

"Yeah, do you mind if we invite him over?"

 

"Go ahead."

 

"Alan!" she raises her voice and waves an arm. The boy looks over and she points at an empty chair at their table. Nodding he finishes filling his tray and walks over. He puts down his tray and then hugs his sisters and Josette can tell the family is close. He sits down and Josette excuses herself, Anna, Abby, and Alan are worried until she walks back over to the buffet and fills her tray again.

 

The four trade schedules, they have history tomorrow morning, science tomorrow afternoon, and English this afternoon but while they all have the same classes, Alan blinking as he sees Josette's extra two Friday morning and afternoon, except for those three they're at different times.

 

"Is that because there's about twice as many day students as there are boarding students?" Alan asks.

 

"Yeah, the teachers have a class limit size of about sixteen students so they can give them individual attention, so they spread out the first year students among two or three classes. First year students are also the only ones who have the same class the same time period all year, that makes it easier to go from one section to the next." First year students classes also used the same texts for the entire year. Starting the second year, most classes had their own texts since they tended to branch out after the basics.

 

"Do we have one final or two?"

 

"Technically four. One for each semester and one that covers *everything* at the end of the school year. And midterms."

 

Alan whimpers. "The teachers also assign projects due at the end of the semester, some teachers assign individual assignments but some of the others will put students together for their project. Usually since the students are already working together, they study together too. There's also tutors if you need the help. And the teacher will hand out practice exams at the beginning of the semester so you get an idea of what will be on the final."

 

Alan relaxes a little, then blinks stunned as Josette proceeds to wolf down her second tray and go back for thirds.

 

"Where do you pack it all?" he asks. His sisters glare at him but Josette just cackles.

 

"Mutant metabolisms are always stuck on high, that's why the meals are set up buffet style. With many new mutations, you can lose weight without knowing it. The school physician will get on you if you're not eating enough and start losing weight. I have trouble keeping weight on anyway, its either stuff myself or take those nutrition drinks you see advertised on tv."

 

"And sometimes stuffing yourself isn't enough," Druid says as she comes over to the table. "All new students have an appointment their first week for a complete physical so our doctor knows about any recurring health problems and he can get a baseline for your weight. If we think you're not eating enough or there's some other problems, we will be sending you to the doctor. We had a couple of the students who were binging and purging, that's why we have a school psychologist too."

 

"Flaming Jackass!" Josette murmurs. The others at the table look at her but Druid just sighs and pats her shoulder. "He and Josette have had some . . .'differences', he thinks Josette is in need of medication or intensive counseling after the accident and should be in a psychiatric hospital, Josette thinks differently. He called in a psychiatrist to declare Josette a danger to herself when she refused, the doctor agreed with Josette and said that she was handling everything just fine on her own. He offered to talk to her if she needed it but suggested she find some online support groups that she could join to talk to somebody who had an idea what she was going through."

 

"I take it the school psychologist didn't like that?" Alan snickers.

 

"Whined like a baby until he had another student to destr. . .err deal with." Josette grins.

 

"He is a good man, he's just a little set in his ways and feels that students with . . .special needs should be. . . "

 

"Locked away and medicated until they can't think anymore." Josette snorts. She pats Druid's hand on her shoulder. "If you need somebody to talk to, Professor Druid will listen and not judge you." The professor hands over the appointments for physicals to the twins and Alan, going to the other tables and telling the new students the same thing. Josette finishes off the third tray of food, covers her mouth with a napkin after daintily burping and puts the tray on the conveyer belt heading back to the kitchen to be washed. Looking at the clock she checks her schedule and heads for her first class, the others checking their watches and doing the same. Josette settles in a corner spot so she has the whole room around her and pulls her intro to algebra and workbook from the bag. This was one of the few classes where her gift didn't give her an advantage and she was expecting a challenge. Truth be told, she was looking forward to it.

 

 

The mathematics teacher nods as he comes into the room, he'd expected Josette to be the first one to arrive. Opening his briefcase, he pulls out the teaching copies of the books and looks up as one of the office runners, an older student working in the office, arrives with the syllabuses and other material he'd had copied for the first day of classes.

 

"Josette, be a dear and put a set at each seat?" he asks. "We have a full class this period." he turns to the whiteboard and begins writing things out as Josette grabs half the first set of papers and starts putting them out, starting at the back for one set and the front for the other, sitting back down and 'reading' both sets of material. The other new students come straggling in, most of them clutching their copy of the school map in one hand and their schedules in the other. The books in front of Josette, and the words written on the whiteboard reassure them they're in the right place and the seats quickly fill. When the last person straggles in, Professor Eppes shuts the door and stands in front of his desk.

 

"Good morning students, my name is Professor Charles Eppes, I usually teach at Calsci, the California Institute of Science, in Los Angeles, but I'm taking a couple years off to write a textbook. when I was asked to cover this class for a friend, I jumped at the chance to warp students into loving math." Some of the students chuckle. "I'm afraid though that your usual math teacher will be returning next fall so I've only got one year to warp you to the dark side."

 

"come to the dark side, we have chocolate." one of the students snickers from the back of the room.

 

"mmmm chocolate." Somebody else says in a good Homer Simpson impression. Charlie chuckles and starts talking about algebra. The first class passes quickly and before the end he has given a short quiz to see where each student is and dismisses the class after they're handed up.

 

Josette checks her schedule and heads for the first floor for her language class. Students had the option to decide which foreign language they wanted but they had to take one their first year. If they chose to continue the course after their first year was their choice but they had to sign up for either Spanish, French, or Italian. Josette already knew Japanese, anybody who expected an oriental from her last name would be confused when they saw the obviously not Josette, but it wasn't offered. Spanish would have been offered at her old school her next year but the earthquake had happened and she'd chosen French instead. At least this year, she thought she'd sign up for Italian next year.

 

Her next class seems to last forever, and she's not the only student making a break for it when they're dismissed. Heading for the dining hall she settles at her usual table after filling her tray. The girls settle across from her, by the glazed looks on their faces they could have only had one teacher.

 

"Government?" She asks just to make sure.

 

"Yeah, who is Professor Zeigler?"

 

"Used to work with President Bartlett in the white house. Knows his stuff, but he crams a lot of information in his classes." Josette says. "That's why you have three books and handouts." The girls shudder and begin to eat. "Food is good, a lot better than normal school food."

 

"The principal hired away the entire kitchen crew from a restaurant that was going under. They have full reign on the kitchen and menu choices, the local government board for school meals tried to come in and cause trouble but all our meals meet their standards. . .as lax as they are, so they went away empty handed."

 

"Josette, Kennedy's father will be arriving at one with Dr. Samson." Druid says, coming over to the table. "They're going to look in on her through the door and then go to her room. They should be done in the dorm by one thirty at the latest, then going to see Kennedy."

 

"I'll be waiting for them." Josette says, looking at the clock. She's got another half hour before she has to head back to the dorm, time enough for a second and third trip to the buffet line. The lunch crew usually has a couple different selections for meals so unless it was something she absolutely loved and wanted seconds of, she filled her tray with a different main course every trip.

 

It's about five after one when the tap on the door brings her up from her desk and over to the door. Opening it she smiles as she's pulled into the arms of Dr. Leonard Samson. "How are you doing, Josette?"

 

"Taking it one day at a time Doc, just like you told me." Josette says, grabbing the clipboard and master key from by the door as she nods at Kennedy's father. "Mr. Buchanan."

 

"Sorry to meet you again under these circumstances." He says, shaking her hand. They walk to Kennedy's room, her father shaking his head at the box of cosmetics and other 'stuff' that the girls had taken from the bathroom and then the suitcase full of more 'stuff'. Josette taps on the bathroom door and asks if the other student is in there, then unlocks the door and shows Doc Samson, the school's psychologist and Kennedy's father the large dent in the door.

 

"Why would she have hit a door?" the school psychologist sneers.

 

"Because that's where the other girl's head was dumbass," Josette snorts. "If she didn't have a mutation that allowed her to get out of the way, Kennedy would have killed her." A tap on the door across the room shuts him up and Druid comes in with Becka, the girl who lives in the other room. The door shuts behind them and the school psychologist whimpers when he sees that Josette was telling the truth about where Kennedy had struck the door.

 

"Miss Jamieson, please allow me to apologize for my daughter's actions. She is a spoiled selfish little brat thanks to her mother giving her whatever she wanted. She was supposed," he turns to the school psychologist, scowling. "to be receiving counseling to deal with her attitude problem, why wasn't she?"

 

The psychologist makes gobbling noises. "My. my sessions with her. . ." his voice trails off as everybody gives him disgusted looks at two of the school's maintenance come in behind them and start removing the door, taking it outside to place on sawhorses where a boy is waiting. He places his hand on the dent, slowly smoothing it out with his powers until the dent vanishes. The men return it to the bathroom, this time on the other side so Becka doesn't have to look at it.

 

"How many clothes does one girl need?" Kennedy's father scowls as he looks at the full drawers, stuffed closet, and full suitcases. "Well, first things first, everything that's not unpacked yet gets taken out of here. If my daughter returns, she'll have do deal with only having seven or eight changes of clothes. Professor Druid, does your dorm have some sort of storage area that's secure?"

 

"Yes sir."

 

"Then once we check these suitcases to make sure there's just clothes in them, you can put them in there for the time being. Then we'll start going through the closet and dresser, leaving her with just a few changes of clothes. If my daughter does return to the school, and with her problems that's going to be a major 'if', she's going to learn that my money isn't going to be around anymore."

 

"Mr. Buchanan, do you mind if one of the women from the office comes to take my place? I have classes in about fifteen minutes. And you girls should be heading off too." she looks at the clock. "Josette, Becka, what classes do you have?"

 

"I have your science class, Professor Druid."

 

"Then you can walk to class with me." Druid pats her on the shoulder. "Josette?"

 

"English with Professor Fletcher." A tap on the door heralds the arrival of Joyce with Principal Madison standing behind her. A handful of envelopes are in her hand and she grins as she hands Josette one and then looks at Becka. "Becka Jamieson?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"Your weekly allowance from your scholarship loan." she hands her an envelope with her name on it. "I'll put these others in their mailbox slots and then take over for you, Katrina."

 

Josette heads to her room, pulling her book bag from the table and shoving the envelope in a zippered pocket inside the bag before heading back down the hall. If she hurries, she can check the board for the shuttle into town before she gets to class. Josette signs up for a spot, she grins when she sees Susan's name already wrote down, and hurries to class. She's still five minutes early and settles in a corner seat, the other students coming in and taking seats around her. Susan looks at her and she nods, taking the seat at the two person table next to her while the twins settle at the table in front of them.

 

"Hello everyone, this is English One. I'm your teacher, Jessica Fletcher. Before anybody asks, yes I am the author JB Fletcher." She smiles as she hands out papers at the front of each row of tables. "I'm handing out your course syllabus for the year, when you look it over you'll see its broken into individual semesters. I'm also handing out a list of topics, the rows that you're seated in are going to be your workmates for a project due at the end of the semester, you can arrange your tables into groups and go over the list of topics to decide which one you want to work on."

 

"How are we going to do this?" Anna asks, looking first at the boys in front of them and then at the girls behind her.

 

"Anna, Abby, turn your table sideways with your chairs on the outside. Alan," she recognizes the twins brother, "turn yours so it's next to the girls, the boys in front, turn yours around and push it up next to the others." A few minutes later has the tables turned into a rectangle and papers handed around.

 

"Anybody have a preference on topics?" Susan asks. "Why don't we introduce ourselves to the others? I'm Susan James, I'm fourteen and I'm a precog."

 

"I'm Josette Takahawa, I'm 13, and my gift is knowledge transference." The others except the twins look at her. "I can touch any book and instantly know anything in it. Because of this, the teachers are allowing me to take the full eight classes offered to students each semester. I have a computer and a photography class on Fridays."

 

"So we're going to have to work on the paper after school and on the weekends." One of the boys says. "Yes, but I can't make it today, I'm heading into town after class to get some food and other supplies. I'm also the girls dorm monitor with the twins."

 

"I'm signed up for the shuttle into town also." Susan says. Anna and Abby look at each other. "One of us should get some groceries, I didn't know the dorm monitor room had a kitchenette."

 

"There's only two people signed up so far, so there's room. I don't know if anybody else has a scholarship loan too, but if you do check your mail when you get out of class, Joyce was putting the allowance envelopes into the boxes when I was getting ready to head to class."

 

"Allowances?" Alan asks.

 

"Yeah, while classes are in session, students who have scholarship loans get twenty dollars a week for expenses. . .and of course you can put your purchases on your card if you have to. Boarding students get their money Monday, day students get their money Tuesdays."

 

"My name is Alan Covington, the twins are my younger sisters. I'll be turning seventeen in October." the others look at him. "I lost the cutoff date for starting school, and I think Josette won hers?"

 

"Yeah, and I skipped kindergarten since I was already reading and writing at a first grade level."

 

"Well, you're just a little bookworm, aren't you?" One of the other boys grins. Josette nods. "And my school didn't have the classes I needed to transfer schools straight from the eighth grade. The school sent me a list of what classes I needed and the books to study, I passed the test a year later."

 

"And we saw what we needed to do, so we studied with Alan and we all passed the test together." Anna says. "Oh sorry, I'm Anna Covington and this is my twin Abby, I'm a telepath and my sister's a telekinetic. We're fourteen."

 

"And I can open subspace pockets to put things into." Alan finishes.

 

"My name is David Sanders, I'm fourteen and I can create tesseracts. I'm one of the dorm monitors for the boys."

 

"We're Michael Addison and Alexander Jackson, we're the other dorm monitors. I can mold metal. . .Alexander has similar powers over wood. We're fourteen too."

 

"You're the one that worked on the door earlier, right?" Josette asks Alexander.

 

Alexander nods. "You did a good job, You'd have had to known the dent was there to see it. They were going to move the door to the other room so Becka didn't have to see it when I left."

 

"What happened?"

 

"Spoiled little biotch didn't like the idea of having to share a bathroom even though she knew she'd have to eventually. But then her daddy's rich so she thought she was better than everybody. When Professor Druid told her to clean her belongings out from around the sink so the other girl could use it too, she snapped and threw a punch. Since her mutation is strength, she nearly put her fist though the door. The other girl has a vanishing mutation, otherwise it would have been her head instead of the door. This isn't the first time she's attacked another student, hopefully she's not allowed to come back this time."

 

A cough from the front of the room has them turning their attention back to the list of topics, finally they settle on one and start assigning topics to research after classes. Once they've written out what the topic is and what each student would be doing, they hand it over to Professor Fletcher and after looking at the clock she assigns homework and sends everybody off. Josette drops her bookbag on the table, pulling the envelope with her allowance out of the bookbag and pulling her wallet from the locked drawer of the desk. A knock on the door has her looking up, opening it she finds Anna and Susan outside.

 

"A little nervous about catching the shuttle?" Josette grins as she pulls a light jacket on and leads the way to the administration building.

 

"A little, I read the rules for the shuttle, just get on and tell the driver where we want to go?"

 

"Yeah, if you're getting something besides groceries I'd hit the superstore, it's got a grocery section and everything else you'd find under one roof. We only have one hour weekdays, if you want to go a couple of places the weekend is the time to do it."

 

"The superstore is good, Abby and I have been making a list of what we wanted in the way of groceries when we realized we had a kitchen." Anna pulls out a list. "You? Susan?"

 

"I want some food, I can't get anything that won't fit in my dorm refrigerator or microwave but I can get some groceries. . .and caffeine."

 

Josette chuckles. "Yeah, I gotta get some food too, and a cheap tracfone from electronics. My case worker told me that I have to have a way for them to get hold of me. Leaving a message with the office isn't good enough for them."

 

Anna looks at her. "Maybe I'd better look at phones too then, our Mom is going to want to talk to us."

 

They get on the shuttle, the driver nodding when they tell him where they're going and get off ten minutes later, grabbing carts and heading first to electronics so Josette can get a phone and card for it, Josette grabbing a couple of dvds and throwing them in the cart before they head to the grocery section, filling their carts and checking out. The shuttle pulls up just as they walk out of the store, and the driver nods. "Thanks for being prompt girls," he gets out of the van and opens the back door, the girls pile their bags in and an employee takes their carts as they get in the van.

 

It's another ten minutes back to the school and Josette suggests taking everything to her dorm room to sort out. Between the four of them, Abby had been waiting for her sister to return, they get everything into Josette's dorm room and start looking into bags and deciding who it belongs to. The bag containing the phone, phone card, and dvds is put on Josette's desk while the cat food and kitty litter is put in the closet and they check the receipts when they can't figure out who brought what from the bags contents.

 

Soon everything is sorted out and Abby helps Susan carry her bags down the hall to her room while Anna carries her and Abby's bags to their room, putting the stuff that needs refrigeration away first. Abby opens the door and walks in, taking the bags of canned food from the table and starts filling cupboards before putting the bags away in each other. "Did the store have a place for these?" Abby asks her sister.

 

"Yeah, there was a box by the door as we walked in." Anna looks at the clock and drops into a seat at the table. "Wanna go eat in a half-hour?"

 

Abby looks at the clock too. . .and nods. "Yeah, that will give me time to get a couple more questions done in my government homework."

 

Anna moans but reaches for her own school bag. Meanwhile Josette grabs her laundry bag, hurrying across the campus to the laundry building past the boys dorm. As she'd thought, the building is empty except for the student covering the room and she starts sorting out her wash into two machines, sliding her card through the slot on the supplies machines before starting them running. An hour later she folds the last of her laundry and heads for the cafeteria, dropping her laundry bag on the floor by her usual chair and filling her tray with her first meal of the night.

 

"See, I told you we weren't the only ones eating late." Josette looks over as Anna and Abby come into the dining hall. She points to a her table and they nod. "We were working on homework and lost track of time." Anna says when they bring their trays to the table.

 

"I was doing laundry." Josette points down at the bag next to her. "Ahhh," they nod. After Josette finishes off her third meal of the night, they put their trays on the conveyor belt and grab snacks for later in the room off the main dining hall. Josette puts everything away before checking the clock and filling Samhein's food and water dishes and turns to her algebra homework at her desk. It's finished when a tap on the inside dorm room brings her head up.

 

"Josette, it's Dr. Samson and Druid."

 

She grins and tells them to come in.

 

"We missed you earlier." Leonard says, looking around.

 

"I had to go into town and get some groceries, when I got everything put away I ran and did laundry." Josette puts down her pencil.

 

"Homework?" Druid grins.

 

"Algebra," Josette pushes up her glasses and rubs the bridge of her nose, then looks at the clock. "What's up?"

 

"I wanted to let you know what the final decision was about Kennedy." Josette waves them to her table, turning her chair around so she can look at them. "A cell phone?" Druid asks, looking in the open bag.

 

"My caseworker demanded I get one so they can contact me, leaving a message with the school office isn't good enough it seems."

 

Druid says something uncomplimentary under her breath. Josette cackles. "Oh Dr. Samson, can I get the name of a good opthamalogist in Boston from you? I need an eye exam and new glasses, but the optician at the local superstore isn't comfortable treating me without a guardian, he wants me to see a specialist."

 

"And you need a medical reference?"

 

Josette nods. "Headaches?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"How old are your glasses?"

 

"Over three years, I had an eye exam and new prescription before the earthquake. And Massachusetts doesn't cover dental or optical."

 

Druid shakes her head, getting up and taking Josette's glasses off her face before she starts rubbing her neck, shoulders, and face.

 

"You were talking about Kennedy?"

 

"Yes, when we went to the secure room, we'd found she had ripped up her assignments for the days and scattered them around the room, then threw herself at the door when we opened the viewing window on the door, threatening all of us because we 'dared' to take somebody else's side in the matter. Don't we know she's Kennedy Buchanan? We're supposed to do whatever she wants because she's . . ."

 

"A spoiled little bitch who got everything she wanted because Mommy says she's 'special'." Josette says sarcastically. "When somebody tells her no or makes her do something she doesn't want to do, she attacks?"

 

"Indeed, she was quite irate when we made her pick up all the schoolwork she'd ripped up." Dr. Samson's lips twitch. "We will be conducting intensive counseling sessions for the next two weeks. If it doesn't look like she's making any progress her father has agreed to send her to a treatment facility for a more structured therapy."

 

"So what classes did you have today?" Druid asks.

 

"Algebra with Professor Eppes and then French before lunch. I've got you in the afternoon tomorrow after history and government."

 

"What classes are you taking as your electives?" Leonard asks.

 

"A computer class and a photography class." She grins. "Next semester I might pick something more intense, this time I wanted something a little more fun."

 

"Good for you." Leonard says as they get ready to leave Josette's room. Josette opens one eye as the door shuts, looks at the time, and reaches for the bag. The dvds are opened and looked at to make sure they're all there before cutting away the plastic clamshell to open the packaging on the phone. Reading the quick start instructions, she inserts the battery in the phone and plugs it in to charge for 24 hours before pushing to her feet and heading to the door, grabbing her clipboard. Anna and Abby's door opens and Anna comes out, their clipboard in her hand. "You take the left side, I'll take the right, then we'll check upstairs?"

 

Anna nods. It takes ten minutes to see there's a couple of students missing besides the one that has a night class and Anna calls her sister to bring a couple demerit forms and stand by one of the hallway doors as she stands by the other and Josette covers the front door. The doors are locked at nine with three students still outside, Josette calmly filling out the demerit slips while they wait. The two girls shamefacedly come up to the front door and Josette unlocks it for them, handing over the top copy of the demerit forms as they pass her.

 

"Do you have an excuse, ladies?"

 

The one on the left looks like she's going to say something but the one on the right hisses at her. She glares at her and tells her to shut it. "Tammy didn't think you'd actually do it, she talked me into staying out after the doors were locked."

 

"Well now you know that I meant what I said when I said curfew was nine o'clock exactly, don't you?"

 

"Yes Ma'am." the one girl says, glaring at her friend. "She's just a kid mouthing off, she won't really do it." she says sarcastically. "You and your big fat mouth." They head upstairs, Josette shaking her head. "There's always one who doesn't listen." They walk back to their rooms. "I'll take the yellow copies and put them in a file until the end of the semester, that way we have a copy of the demerit in case a student complains that they shouldn't be in detention." The girls nod. "Pink copies go to Joyce in the office, she keeps them in a book. . .again until the end of the semester after putting a note in the students file about the demerit. We also can get new forms from her when we start running low."

 

"Do we need to keep an eye on Tammy?"

 

"Yeah, she seems to be pushing the limits, I won't be surprised if she gets the 'honor' of the first detention of the semester for ignoring my warnings to be in the dorm by nine p.m. If she does, she's going to get a nice little lecture from Principal Madison about missing curfew. Personally, I'd make her stay outside all night. That way she'd make damn sure she's inside when she's supposed to be. Though she keeps this shit up, I'm calling in Professor Druid and Principal Madison to be here the third night she comes in late."

 

A half-hour or so earlier after Dr. Samson and Druid had left Josette's room.

 

"She seems to be doing well?" Druid asks.

 

"She seems to be doing very well." Leonard says, looking back at Josette's room. "I would like all my patients to recover as well as Josette has."

 

"Then you don't believe the nonsense Kennedy has been spouting about how Josette is out to get her?"

 

"No, it's obvious both Kennedy and your school psychologist are trying to put the blame onto somebody else for their failure to make any progress." Leonard smiles. "The school psychologist also has a problem with Josette, or rather her refusal to follow the route he would have taken with her recovery. Entirely unprofessional and I've told him so."

 

 

The next morning finds Anna handing over two demerit forms to Joyce in the office.

 

"Two of them?" she shakes her head. "Tammy," Anne points at one of the forms. "Didn't believe that Josette would actually lock the doors at nine like she said she would. She talked the other girl into staying out after curfew."

 

Joyce shakes her head. "We always get one who don't want to obey the rules." She puts the demerit forms in a binder as Anna heads for breakfast. Josette's in her usual spot and Anna fills her tray and takes what's quickly becoming her spot at the table as the others arrive at the buffet line. Alexander and Michael come in from the direction of the boys dorm and Josette waves them to two of the free spots at the table, they nod and fill their trays before setting down. David looks over at the table and takes the last spot, they all start eating before turning their attention back to their class schedules. They all have history this morning and science after lunch.Josette tells them history is another class where they'll be assigned a group project, but Professor Druid assigns individual projects in her classes. Since they already know each other they decide to sit together in History and work on their project together. Michael and Alan have government with Josette and all three students have full to bursting book bags. Thankfully their history class is in the same building as their government class so they don't have to go far.

 

They move their seats around into a group when they walk into the room, pulling out their books and supplies for class when the teacher arrives. He starts handing out papers when the last student sits down and everybody goes over the syllabus for class, paper due at the end of the semester on one of the topics listed, and he passes out a sample final before they open their books and he starts lecturing on the first chapter, they end up having to read the chapter and answer the questions at the end of each section as homework with a quiz for the next class before they're dismissed.

 

Michael, Josette, and Alan put their bags over their shoulders and walk down the stairs to the first floor, setting down as the others straggle into the room over the next ten minutes. Professor Zeigler comes in pushing a cart filled with stacks of papers that he hands out before he starts lecturing. The class makes a mad dash for the door, Josette just chuckles and takes her time putting her books away before walking to the girls dorm. She puts her schoolbooks on the table and fills the bag for her afternoon class before checking the mailbox and walking to the cafeteria for lunch. The others are at the table and wave to her when she walks in, she nods and starts filling her tray before setting down.

 

"So you survived Government?" Abby asks her brother, grinning.

 

"I swear I've never seen so many students moving for the door at the same time." Alan shakes his head. "It didn't seem to bother him."

 

"Nope, Professor Zeigler is a real teacher, a room full of teenagers running when he releases them from class doesn't bother him in the least after dealing with politicians. He's proud of the fact that our first year government class is tougher than some university level classes." Josette agrees.

 

"Is everybody taking Spanish as their language class?"

 

"Nope, I'm taking French, the class is only half-full so the teacher has time to work individually with the students. The library has a whole selection of language courses on tape and computer, I might check them out and then sign up for the class later."

 

Alan shakes his head as Josette inhales her food and goes up for her second meal, but she sees she's not the only one who's doing the same thing. Professor Zeigler nods at her from the head table and she grins at him.

 

"You tormenting the students again, Toby?" Principal Madison chuckles.

 

"First year students, they always think that Government is an easy class." he smiles. "I get them coming back the following years though, even though they swear they never will their first class."

 

"So how was your year off to teach the university class former President Bartlett asked you to handle?"

 

"God, what are they teaching these kids nowadays? I had one of the students complain to the administration that the class was 'hard', the administration called me in and started talking about how some students were complaining and while they were happy to have me as a guest teacher for the year, I really should stick with the syllabus the other teacher used. I told them that was the syllabus the other teacher used, the next class I showed the students the syllabus for my government class and told them fourteen year olds took this class. And these were supposed to be graduate students. I'm glad that I'm home."

 

"We're glad to have you back too Toby." Druid says. "Now any chance of him returning the favor and teaching one of the advanced classes for us?"

 

"That depends on how much he pisses off Mrs. Bartlett by being bored since he left office." Toby snickers. "Well I'm off for my first second year class, lets see how much my students missed when I was gone."

 

The other teachers chuckles and shake their heads as Toby walks off. "Josette looks like she's making some friends." They watch as she fills her tray again and settles down to eat as the others put their trays away. "Josette looks like she stopped at the dorm before coming to lunch." Principal Madison says. "Yeah, she said she had history and government this morning, and her bag isn't straining at the seams with books. Does anybody know who she has after lunch?"

 

"Me." Druid says. Josette looks at the clock and finishes her third tray of food, putting it on the conveyer belt before heading to the dorm to brush her teeth before class. Heading to class, she finds the others settled in a group with a spot left for her, smiling in thanks she settles at the table when Professor Druid comes in and shuts the door.

 

"Welcome to your first year science class students, as everybody knows from orientation I'm Professor Druid. This is science 101, one of the few classes that you have to take every year along with English and Math. This year will be a general guideline to science, the school offers specialized classes starting your sophomore year." She hands out the syllabus and guidelines for projects. "You've all been assigned projects due at the end of the semester in other classes, I'm doing the same thing. For those of you who haven't been assigned individual projects, the guidelines for the papers are in front of you. They're similar to group projects but you won't have to put all the information together in one paper. On the other hand, you also are responsible for the entire project so if you don't do your work, there's nobody to bail you out. Starting your sophomore year you are responsible for coming up with a topic for your project due at the end of the semester, this year I will be assigning topics. Please come up to the fishbowl on my desk and pull out a slip, on the slip is the topic you'll be writing your paper on."

 

The class comes up one by one and takes their assignment, Druid writing each one down in her course book before they go back to their seat. She then starts lecturing, going over part of the first chapter before the class ends. Homework is to finish reading the rest of the chapter and answering the questions at the end of the chapter for Thursday. Everybody heads to the library after class and half of them walk upstairs to look online for information while the others settle their bags at a table and start looking at books. Josette's gift to touch the books and find the information they need saves them some work and they have information for each of the three papers they've been assigned by the time they leave the library at six to go to dinner.

 

Dropping their bags at 'their' table, which magically seems to be empty, they swipe their meal cards and start filling their trays. Settling at the table, they start talking about how to work up the outline for their projects due at the end of the month. After everybody's eaten, they split up, Josette booting up her desktop computer when they get back to the dorm and starting on her homework, printing it out when she's finished and stapling the sheets together for class Thursday. Putting her math and language books in her bag for tomorrow morning she looks at the time and cleans the litter box before throwing the dirty litter, and her garbage from the kitchen and bathroom, in the dumpster down the sidewalk.

 

Checking the phone she sees its finished charging and sets up a tracfone account online, putting in the number from the phone card and sending her caseworker an e-mail with her new phone number before putting the phone in her purse before checking the time and walking out to make sure the girls are in for the night.

 

Once again Tammy seems to be deliberately ignoring Josette's instructions to be in before nine o'clock, Josette stands at the door filling out the demerit form as she storms in the dorm, ripping up the demerit when Josette hands it to her.

 

"Congratulations, you just got the first detention of the semester," Josette hands the third demerit form, with the word DETENTION written in all capital letters across the top. "for tearing up the demerit form. I'm sure Principal Madison and Professor Druid will love lecturing you all day Friday for your attitude." Tammy tears up the third form and heads up the door, the sound of a door slamming behind her making Josette sigh.

 

"Stupid little brat." Josette says under her breath as the girls walk down the hall to the dorm monitor rooms. "Always one who thinks the rules can't possibly apply to them."

 

"Oh not again!" Joyce complains when Josette brings the demerit forms to the office the next morning. "I'll tell Principal Madison, he'll call her in for a talk before classes today."

 

Tammy is smirking at Josette across the cafeteria, until Principal Madison and Professor Druid stand on either side of her, glaring down at her. "My office, NOW!" Principal Madison says and Tammy gulps, realizing that she might have bit off more than she could chew by acting like a spoiled little brat.

 

"Stupid twit." Josette mutters as she's led out of the room. "Attention all first year students, please report to the auditorium at twelve-thirty for a special announcement. It will only be twenty minutes, you'll be able to come to lunch afterwards." Professor Druid announces before she turns to the teachers. "Will you announce it at your classes for students who aren't here?" The teachers nod and she walks out of the dining hall.

 

"Any idea what's going on?" David asks Josette.

 

"Yeah, Principal Madison and Professor Druid are going to be laying down the law about listening to us dorm monitors when we say they have to be in the dorm by nine o'clock. Old Tammy is in a world of hurt and I'm afraid all the first year students are going to get blamed for her bad behavior. The teachers are not amused by her behavior and we all might be losing some privileges for it."

 

"What kind of privileges?"

 

"Not being allowed to catch the shuttle into town for at least two weeks unless its something like a doctor appointment. Being escorted to classes, the cafeteria for meals, and back to the dorms after dinner. Not being allowed to go to the library or bookstore. Worst case, being allowed to leave our rooms for meals and classes, but otherwise we're in our rooms 24/7 for up to a month."

 

Everybody shudders.

 

"Has that happened before?"

 

"Yes, last year as a matter of fact. The idea is that by punishing the whole grade, the student causing the bad behavior is supposed to see how their bad behavior affects their peers. It's some of our school psychologist's mumbo jumbo new age crap about how to punish unruly students without actually punishing them. All it does is make everybody in their year turn against them because they keep pulling their shit."

 

"Kennedy?" Susan asks.

 

"Yep," Josette says. "She thought she was so damn special and started walking around like the head rooster at the henhouse, when I gave her a demerit for being late after the first day students got off lockdown and everybody started yelling at her, she snapped and turned against me. Unfortunately for little Miss 'I'm so special because my Daddy's rich' her strength didn't do a damn bit of good when it came up against my mixed martial arts fighting skills."

 

"Wipe the floor up with her?"

 

"Oh yes, and everybody was laughing at her because I'm not exactly muscle woman here."

 

"I didn't know you were a mixed martial artist, don't most of them have years of training?" Susan asks.

 

Josette looks at them and nods. "I didn't tell you the entire truth the other night. For those that don't know, I'm claustrophobic. My mother and I were trapped in our car during the freeway collapse in the Pasadena earthquake a couple years ago. My mutation emerged because of the trauma, that's why Druid had the other dorm monitor room until I started school, her own mutation emerged due to trauma too, in her case fire. She was able to help with the nightmares I had the first few months I was here."

 

Everybody nods. "I told the twins that my mother died in the accident. She did. . .but she didn't. When my mutation emerged, during the accident. . . I. . .I absorbed everything from my mother, her memories, her martial arts skills. . . everything. My mother was in a persistent vegetative state after the accident, she died over a year later in a nursing home, she never recovered." Josette finds herself being hugged on all sides by the girls, and when they release her, the boys. "For a while I was terrified to touch anybody because I thought it might happen again, but something happened and I realized that whatever had happened, it wasn't my fault."

 

"What happened?"

 

"Everybody knows that Principal Madison has the gift to absorb and throw electricity, right?"

 

The others nod. "Unlike a lot of mutants, he's not immune to his own powers. If he absorbs too big of a jolt, it will stop his heart. He got a large jolt last summer and the doctor was knocked unconscious in the same accident. I . . .I had to absorb the doctor's knowledge to use the defibrillator to shock Principal Madison's heart into beating again. He and the school doctor was sent to the hospital in Boston, Principal Madison has a pacemaker now to jolt his heart back into beating if it stops, the school doctor recovered with nothing more than one hell of a headache and fancy new hairdo to cover the five stitches in his scalp and I finally believed what everybody had been telling me, that it wasn't my fault."

 

"Should we be worried?" Professor Eppes asks Professor Fletcher quietly as he sees all the students embracing at Josette's table.

 

"She just told the others about her mother's death, they're comforting her, that's all. They're too young to be thinking about sex, at least not yet."

 

Tammy whimpers as all the students in her class, both boys and girls glare at her as she's led to the auditorium. After leaving the dining hall, she'd been taken back to the dorm where the demerits she'd ripped up the night before were still lying on the floor and told to pick it up and put it in the garbage by Professor Druid. Then she'd been taken to Principal Madison's office, where she was lectured by him, all the more effective by the fact he'd never raised his voice once, then he'd called her parents. And they definitely had raised their voices, telling her how disappointed they were she couldn't follow the rules for three days, she'd been warned there was a curfew and learning she'd deliberately ignored the rules had made her father swear for ten minutes, Tammy shrinking in her chair when he railed about having a stupid fool for a daughter.

 

Her whimpered explanation that 'but she's only a kid' had gotten her yelled at again, her father telling her that no matter how young the other student was, if she was in the position to have authority over her, she should damn well listen to the student.

 

When her father had learned about her weekend-long detention, he'd laughed as his daughter whimpered. Josette had told her what would happen but she had figured the girl was just trying to scare them. Then she thinks she's finally being allow to escape, only to find the rest of her freshman class waiting on her when she's led to the auditorium. '

 

"As everybody has no doubt heard by now, one of your yearmates decided that she knew better than the dorm monitors and deliberately stayed out after curfew two nights in a row. When receiving a demerit, she ripped up the form and threw it on the floor, thus getting her third demerit and detention for this weekend. To further hammer in the fact that this behavior is not acceptable, all of you will be confined to your dorms until Saturday. You will be escorted to your classes. the dining hall, and you will not be allowed to leave your rooms without the permission of the security guards who will be patrolling the dorms."

 

"What about the dorm monitors?" somebody asks.

 

"We're in the same damn boat as the rest of you, thanks to Tammy being a spoiled little brat." Josette snorts. "Security will be securing the dorm and shutting off the lights because Tammy decided I was just a kid and deliberately stayed out after curfew to try to show us who's the boss."

 

Everybody glares at the girl on the stage, Tammy trying to hide behind Druid until Principal Madison says something. "Okay everybody, security will be escorting you to the dining hall. You'll be allowed to return to your dorms for ten minutes to get your books for your afternoon classes. Josette, I know you have classes Friday, you'll be escorted to your classes after breakfast and lunch."

 

Everybody scowls at Tammy as they walk to the dining hall, the dining hall is quiet as the students glare at Tammy who ducks her head and slowly eats.

 

"Guys, our school e-mails are our first and last names at the school name dot edu. We won't be able to talk with each other outside of class until Sunday, but we can e-mail each other about our assignments."

 

The others nod. "And go to the snack bar before security escorts you to the dorms if you haven't had a chance to catch the shuttle into town. You can fill a bag with stuff to eat in your room."

 

"Thank you."

 

"This ain't my first rodeo living through a situation like this." Josette sighs. "And it could be worse, it's only three days." she looks at all the other tables angrily glaring at Tammy or hissing at her if they're sitting at the same table. "I just hope that stupid bitch learns her lesson from this, some of the other girls look like they're ready to rip into her."

 

The others take her information to heart, heading to the snack bar after lunch and filling a bag before returning to the table. They're escorted to their rooms, Josette quickly putting her bag of snacks in a cabinet so Samhein doesn't investigate it and grabs her English book and homework, walking into the hallway and joining Susan and the twins to be walked to English. Their homework is handed in, a quiz passed out, and homework assigned again before the students are walked to the dorms.

 

Tammy stares at the wall when she's put in her room, what the hell had she thought she was doing when she decided to show Josette who was boss by staying out after curfew. Her yearmates hate her now, and she can hear the other girls laughing on the bottom floor as they loudly talk about the stupid newbie. And while the other girls would be getting out of this in three days, she still had detention to look forward to this weekend.

 

Abby and Anna settle at the table and desk in their dorm room, starting on homework until a knock on the door tells them that they're being taken to the dining hall for dinner. Settling at the table, they see all the other students are ignoring Tammy and from the quiet way she's eating she realizes how badly she's alienated the other students.

 

"David, Michael, why don't you go tell the other boys about the snack bar? Anna, you and I tell the girls about it and if they need any feminine supplies for that time of the month to ask the security guards to take them to the bookstore? Nobody should need any school supplies this early in the term but if they do, they can ask to be escorted to the bookstore."

 

The four split up, Anna going to one table and Josette the second filled with first year girls.

 

"Girls, don't forget to get some snacks in the snack bar if you haven't had a chance to get into town to go shopping yet. There's bags you can fill and if you need any stuff for that time of the month, tell the security guards and they'll escort you to the bookstore."

 

"Josette?" Tammy timidly asks.

 

"Yes Tammy,"

 

"The school takes our security very strongly don't they?"

 

"Oh yes, Mutants still aren't widely accepted in the world, a lot of our students have been rescued from bad situations. The school wants us inside the dorms by nine unless you have a job or a night time class, so that if there's trouble they know where everybody is and they can quickly get us to safety if needed. Having you deciding that 'I don't have to obey the rules' makes them go looking for you and then somebody can get hurt."

 

"I. .. I never thought about that." Tammy says quietly. "I just figured you were trying to be a bully and make us do what you wanted."

 

"Did you have a curfew at home?"

 

"Yes," Tammy finally admits.

 

"Why?"

 

"Because we lived in a rough neighborhood and my family. . . wanted me safe."

 

"Same thing here. You've had your only warning from the school, get over your attitude problems. I've been a Dorm Monitor for three years now, ever since I arrived at the school. There's rules for a reason and I don't like new girls thinking they can do whatever they want because they might be bigger than me. Ask any of the older girls what happened to Kennedy when she tried, they'll tell you the entire story in graphic detail."

 

Josette walks away from the table, walking over to the table Anna had left to make sure Becka's dealing with the situation okay and walks back to the table, seeing Professor Druid smiling at her.

 

All the students walk to the snack bar, filling bags and coming back to the tables so they can be escorted back to their dorms. Back in the dorm, Susan begins putting things away in the refrigerator and the containers she'd purchased at the superstore Monday before settling at her desk and picking up her schoolbooks, getting a head start on her assignments for next week. Putting down the book, she opens the bag and pulls out a salad, ripping open a packet of dressing and drizzing it over the salad, adding croutons and picking up a plastic fork.

 

"Josette, this is probably a dumb question but. . ." Anna says, tapping on the slightly open door. Josette looks up from where she's sitting at the table. "Ahhhh, we do save labels." Anna says, seeing the piles on the table in front of Josette and the scissors in her hand.

 

"Yes we do, there's a box in the office for each type and I check the labels cut off cans here in the dorm. There's a notice on the bulletin board but not many people read all the notices."

 

"We always saved them back home, the state didn't pay much per student at our old school."

 

"They don't here, I think it's not quite 1900 a year per student spread over the three semesters." Josette says. "And they keep whining about their precious budget and threatening to cut the schools more."

 

"Yeah, that sounds familiar." Abby snorts. "Then whine about how the schools aren't educating students the way they want."

 

"And their pet projects get fatter and fatter while everything else suffers."

 

"Schools, the roads, medical coverage for people who can't afford it. . ." Abby shakes her head. "I'll give Joyce the labels we've been saving from our food then. Otherwise we'd have been taking them home for Mom to drop in the box at the store."

 

"Split them?" Josette says. "That way you're helping out both schools." The twins nod in satisfaction.

 

Josette ducks into the office after class the next day, handing the labels over.

 

"Thank you Josette."

 

"My bag was getting full so I grabbed the recycling bin and worked on it." She looks at the signup board.

 

"Do you need a ride? There's room for one more student."

 

"No, I'm good."

 

"Guys, do any of you need something at the store?" David asks, tapping Alexander and Michael on the shoulder as they walk to dinner. He waves Alan over.

 

"The shuttle doesn't run this late."

 

"I don't plan on taking the shuttle." David chuckles. "I know where the cameras don't cover all the parking lot at the megastore."

 

"Really?" Michael purrs.

 

"Yeah."

 

"Isn't sneaking out without telling against the school rules?"

 

"Yeah, but it's fun." David chuckles. "This weekend so we have a couple hours. Too late tonight, unless we hurried we wouldn't be back in time to lock the dorm up."

 

The semester passes quickly, the group of new friends settling into a pattern of working on their papers and studying after classes and Saturdays at the library. A couple of weeks before the midterms Josette settles at the table one morning to find visitors sitting at the front table.

 

"Anybody know who the guests are?" The others shake their heads.

 

"Who is the young woman with the the white streak in her hair?" Charles Xavier asks, his attention drawn to her when she entered the room.

 

"Josette Takahawa, one of the dorm monitors for the girls dorm along with the twins who are sitting at the table with her."

 

"What is her mutation?"

 

"Knowledge absorption, she can touch a book and download a copy into her mental library."

 

Xavier shakes his head, while an unusual mutation. . .similar to Rogue's it would be useless in a combat situation.

 

"Why is she here instead of at a normal high school?"

 

"Josette has been here since she was ten years old, she lost her mother in the Pasadena earthquake and never knew her father. Her mutation was activated due to the trauma of being trapped in the car, rather than going into the overcrowded foster care system in California she chose to come to our school. She transferred to the local school to finish the sixth grade, but was withdrawn from losing her mother. The school didn't have the classes necessary to engage her so she was tutored here until she could officially enroll in our school."

 

"She'll have to enroll in the local school when I shut down the school."

 

"Politely, no. Bluntly, fuck you. You aren't doing anything to our school or our students."

 

"Young man, I am the . . ."

 

"Annoying asshole who thinks he can do no wrong since he's the 'authority' on mutants. You are not turning any of my students into soldiers for your cause. Just your wanting to take some of my students but not other proves your lofty goals of mutants and normals existing in peace is pure propaganda."

 

"You're not training these children in the best use of their powers."

 

"No, I'm letting the children *be* children."

 

"This school will be closed."

 

"No, it will not."

 

Charles Xavier had contacted the government agent he deals with later that morning and had been laughed at. *Laughed at*! He'd tried claiming they weren't teaching the children properly and been shot down, the classes were more than they'd get at his school. He'd tried promising that the students would be trained in their abilities, something the school's not doing. When he'd been asked if *all* the students would be trained in their powers, his silence had been met with a snort and a 'nice try Xavier, the students are staying right where they are.'

 

"I will be coming back in a couple of months, and we *will* be talking about shutting your school down." Professor Xavier warns Principal Madison before the car comes for him.

 

"*You* can talk until you're blue in the face, it's not going to happen."

 

Josette wrinkles her nose at the shrimp on the buffet line a couple nights later. She grabs Anna. "The shrimp smells off, don't get any." She looks at her. "Grew up in California eating sushi. I know what seafood is supposed to smell like." Anna nods, passing that along to Abby and Alan, they grab the others in line and tell them not to eat the shrimp. They nod, with all the other selections nobody will go hungry.

 

Frantic hammering on doors has Josette, Anna, and Abby coming out of their rooms.

 

"Please let me in, I need to . . ."

 

"Go to the second or third floor bathrooms." Josette yells from the hallway. "If the others are as sick as you, you're *all* going to be on the toilets for a while." Anna sends out a mental call with the same instructions and the other girls start heading upstairs.

 

"Abby, I don't know if any of the bathrooms upstairs have supplies, grab a couple big packages of toilet paper and put two or three rolls in each bathroom."

 

"You handle the second and third floors, I'll grab the rooms down here."

 

Josette opens her door and grabs her phone. The twins look at her down the hall. "Principal Madison? Yeah, we've got a problem here. Most of the students are sick. I think it's the shrimp that was on the buffet line at lunch, the twins and I didn't have any." Susan opens her door as does Becka and Fatima. "The three of you didn't have the shrimp?"

 

"No, I don't like fish." Becka says. "Too many foster homes and fishsticks instead of real dinners."

 

"We do not get much seafood where I lived, it's not something I'm accustomed to eating." Fatima says.

 

"Go open windows in various rooms to help air out the dorm, it's going to *stink* the way the others are sick." Anna says. Josette nods as she listens to Principal Madison on her phone. "Yeah, I'll keep you updated. But I can tell you one thing, figure on cancelling classes tomorrow. Because if the girls are this sick, the boys probably are too."

 

"Thankfully it's Thursday, everybody *should* be feeling better by Monday." Susan says, coming out of a room.

 

"We hope." Josette says. She looks at the time and stands by the door as the twins make sure everybody's accounted for. The dorm is locked up and Josette shakes her head at the dwindling supply of toilet paper. "And we're probably go through the rest of this before it's over."

 

"Yeah, and pass out the rid-x tablets when everybody's feeling better, otherwise the tank's going to have to be pumped."

 

"Air fresheners." Abby grabs a double armful and starts passing them out.

 

Principal Madison sighs as he puts down the phone. It starts ringing the second it leaves his hand and he looks up at the ceiling in a 'you just *had* to do it, didn't you' and picks it up.

 

"Hello?" After getting off the phone with David he closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose before he sighs and looks up the list of numbers to call. "Everybody, I've got you on a conference call so I only have to say this once. No school tomorrow, most of the students are sick. Josette *thinks* it might be the shrimp that was served at lunch, it seems to be the one thing all the students who are ill had in common and Josette says she, the twins, Susan, and a couple other girls who aren't sick didn't eat it. I'm going to be talking to the kitchen after this call is over and find out where it came from and calling the authorities if there's any left to see if it *is* what is making everybody sick."

 

His next call is to the kitchen. The head cook immediately grabs the container of shrimp and puts it aside. "Yes, we've got some left, we were planning on offering it again tomorrow. . .Yes, I'll call the health department myself." She hangs up, everybody looking at her and she dials a number. "This is Jennica Sanford at The Hanford institute for exceptional children. We have a possible food poisoning case." She's transferred. "Yes, this is . . .Yes, I have the original container and the container the prepared food was put out in." She listens to the voice on the other end, then calls Principal Madison back.

 

"Okay everybody, you know the drill. Stop what you're doing and go sit in the dining room until somebody comes out to investigate everything."

 

"What is it?"

 

"Looks like the shrimp's bad. Nobody here ate it, right?" Shaking heads has her sighing. "Good. Because except for a handful of students everybody's on the toilet in their dorms. Principal Madison has already cancelled classes tomorrow." The students working at the kitchen grab their school bags and settle at a table to work at her orders.

 

"Ahhh Jennica." Principal Madison says as a investigative team comes into the kitchen.

 

"There's the shrimp we fixed up today and the rest of it." The head of the crew nods at her and she heads out into the dining room.

 

"Are those students?" One of the men asks, looking at the group sitting at a table with books.

 

"Yes, working in the kitchen in one of the work-study positions available." Principal Madison says.

 

"I told them to sit there, I figured you'd want to talk to them."

 

"Are they involved in the cooking process?"

 

"No, they just put the food out and clean up afterwards. They wipe down the tables and wash the kitchen towels, uniforms, and tablecloths downstairs."

 

"How often do you get supplies of food?"

 

"Every two months, we just got a new batch of food a couple weeks ago." Jennica pulls up the computer records. "Here's who we got the shrimp from."

 

"Did you order anything else from him?"

 

"No. He's not one of our normal suppliers." Jennica says. Principal Madison looks at the screen and nods. "I don't recognize the name and I'm the one who normally deals with the orders."

 

Jennica nods. "It was an impulse order, we got a flyer and it looked to be a good bargain."

 

"Hi, I'm Dr. Miles McCabe. Can I join you?" Miles asks, coming over to the table. The students look over at him and mark their books. "You all attend school here?"

 

"Yeah, it's a work-study position."

 

"What are your duties?"

 

"Putting out the containers of food on the line, replacing them with new ones when they're empty. Bringing out pitchers of milk to the tables. When the dining room closes, we take off the tablecloths, wipe them down and start washing everything up as the cooks go over their meal plans and start cooking if we have the breakfast or lunch shift."

 

"You make up your meal plans ahead of time?"

 

"Yes, they're posted on the school server a week ahead of time.

 

"Do you only offer one main dish?"

 

"No we usually have three main dishes plus assorted sides. Not including desserts."

 

After talking to the employees everybody starts going over the building top to bottom as Principal Madison has the students punch out and escorts them to their dorms with somebody from the health department. The

 

"Did you get the records?" Steve asks Frank when he returns.

 

"Yeah, plus the list of students and employees, just looking at it I can see that the numbers match. so nobody spiked the food then didn't eat."

 

"And it's too great a possibility of accidentally dosing yourself."

 

The kitchen is cleaned up later that night and early the next morning the morning crew arrives to start working on breakfast. They take the news with mixed results, some sighs, some cursing, and some shaking of heads. Since they have people that need to be fed they're allowed to start working, somebody watching them and putting out the food as the dining room opens.

 

A handful of students start trickling in, filling trays and sitting down to eat. One young girl is waved up to the front table, talking quietly with Principal Madison who nods at what she has to say.

 

"I'll have somebody take one of the trucks into Boston and stock up."

 

The other teachers in the room look at him. "We're going to be running low on toilet paper. Josette and the girls were opening the big packages and putting three or four rolls in every room."

 

"Air fresheners. I noticed every window in the buildings were open." Principal Madison nods.

 

"How is everybody handling the bathroom situation?"

 

"Some students are up on the second and third floors. Luckily we have enough bathrooms for everyone."

 

"We might have to have the tanks pumped."

 

"Yeah, Josette already said they'd have to be using a lot of rid-x after everybody is back in classes."

 

Josette's dropped off in town by the shuttle, walking a number of places before she stops at a yard sale. A recliner catches her eye and she haggles the price down before calling the school and requesting a truck come pick it up. She's dropped off in the parking lot behind the dorm and between her and the girls they get everything inside.

 

"That is *ugly*."

 

"Yes, but I can toss a cover over it." Josette chuckles. "How is everything here?"

 

"We've taken more toilet paper up to the bathrooms and the scuttlebutt is that the shrimp *were* bad, but the health department is still testing them. The kitchen itself came out clean. If you see stuff out of place here, it's because our kitchens were investigated too."

 

"Good thing I cleaned the litter box and took out the garbage this morning then." Josette smirks as she starts putting everything away.

 

"Have you ever taken the shuttle into Boston?" Abby asks.

 

"All day? Yes, usually when I needed to break down and get clothes. I usually ended up taking in a movie. I've also spent days wandering museums. I gotta go in in a couple of weeks for an eye exam and probably new glasses, the vision center at the superstore doesn't like the idea of treating me without parental permission, he's passing the buck onto somebody else."

 

"Shouldn't your social worker be taking care of something like that."

 

"Please," Josette snorts. "I get a letter once a year saying I need to requalify and that's it. And don't get me started on that harridan we have here."

 

The twins nod as Josette puts the last of her purchases away and they head to lunch. She's waved to the front table. "School is closed Monday too but they hope to have classes starting again Tuesday. They're going to be putting up a week's worth of assignments on the bulletin board this afternoon." The others nod.

 

That afternoon Josette grabs a notebook and joins the other students writing down their assignments before heading back to their rooms. The rest of the weekend is busy with working on school assignments.

 

Monday morning Josette slides into her usual seat at the dining room, looking over at the others.

 

"Did anybody else get their assignments finished?"

 

"Yeah, and I don't know about you but I don't *want* to be in the dorm."

 

"Nope, they've all got toilet paper and I'm spending the day in Boston. Officially it's visiting the Boston library to do research for a paper. Unofficially it's a vacation day since the paper isn't going to be assigned until next semester." Josette says, her lips twitching. "You . . ." Various teachers tap shoulders and papers are handed over. The students look at them, then the adults and grin. "Should be getting the news now. A few of the teachers are coming with us to pay for stuff. We're leaving after breakfast and not due back until after dinner."

The first stop is the Boston library since that is the reason they're all in Boston. The students listen to Professors Fletcher and Druid then head various directions in the library, the teachers counting copies and paying for them.

 

"Josette, come with me." Professor Druid says as they pull up outside a shoe store. Josette looks at her.

 

"Can I help you?"

 

"Yes, Josette needs a good pair of shoes, she's going to be doing a lot of walking." Josette looks at her again. "The school pays for shoes for the student currently working in the laundry. Right now it's a pair every two years, with the laundry going four nights next year, I'd say a pair every year for you. You'll be glad for them."

 

A half-hour later the bag containing the shoes gets put on the shuttle and they head to the mall, Professor Druid buying Josette a couple packages of nice thick socks. "And when these wear out let us know so we can buy you more."

 

Back at the dorm Josette puts the socks and shoes in her closet until her job starts before she starts opening the other bags, putting everything away. They'd eaten lunch and dinner in Boston and had locked the dorm up when they got home. The rest of the rooms are quiet and they settle in Josette's room to talk for a few minutes before bed.

 

"How are we handling classes?" Alan asks the next morning.

 

"Principal Madison's going to be making an announcement in a few minutes. The classes that only have one student are cancelled for the rest of the week. . .that will give the students time to get their assignments finished. The classes with a handful of students. . .individual attention depending on how many students are there."

 

"Which means the teachers are going to be cramming to make up this lost week." Susan sighs.

 

"Yep."

 

"Okay, winter?"

 

"Cold, you'll want to put something up against your doors to block the air coming down the hallway from the front of the dorm. More than a few students have the small ceramic heaters they plug in for a few hours to help warm their rooms. The furnace is locked on sixty-four degrees to save propane." The others around them nod. "Our rooms are just as bad for all we have a second vent because the air comes straight down the hall to our room, that's why we have the fireplaces and the wind guard on the bottom of the doors." Abby sighs as Anna nods. "The bookstores will start bringing out door blockers and ceramic heaters after Thanksgiving, they've also got the heaters at the stores in town."

 

"Have the teachers started talking about the fundraisers yet?" Somebody asks from the next table.

 

"No, but the Christmas cookies and present wrapping events should start coming soon." The others look at them. "Each year raises money for their senior trip. Every year they have giftwrapping weekends here where people can have their gifts wrapped and after Thanksgiving they'll start making and selling Christmas cookies. During the summer we'll have car wash weekends."

 

"Senior trip?"

 

"Two weeks, two cities. The money goes for hotel rooms, meals at the hotel, and tickets, you'll be responsible for anything else." Susan makes a mental note she'll have to start putting money away for that too. "Bad news and worse news. You're going to have questions to answer for each stop." Various faces fall and Principal Madison snickers at the front table. "Josette's telling everybody about the senior trip, especially the questions you have to answer at each attraction." The other teachers snigger.

 

"Worse news?"

 

"The trip is the second and third week in April, you'll be coming home to take your last finals.  And packing up your rooms to go home."

 

"Yep, that's worse news."

 

Josette tosses longer, warmer socks in her cart when she goes to the store a couple days later for supplies. Anna looks at her. "Warmer socks for winter, unless you're wearing boots all the time. Half the time I did wear a pair of old boots inside to keep my feet warm. After it starts snowing you'll probably want to start taking the tunnels to class, it's warmer. We'll probably have an announcement after Thanksgiving."

 

"Can we use the tunnels to get to classes?"

 

"Yeah, your card will unlock the door to the stairs in the classrooms and the library. After the first time I land on my ass thanks to snow or ice I usually take the tunnel. During bad weather Principal Madison will make an announcement to use the tunnels, that gives maintenance time to clear the paths after its stopped snowing."

 

"Laundry?" Anna asks with a smirk.

 

"They've got a door for the carts of laundry, they'll add that door to my card before I start my job."

 

"Makes sense, I've never seen them moving carts of laundry."

 

Josette sighs as a crack of thunder is followed seconds later by the loss of power and wedges something in the door before going out into the hallway. The door of the twins room opens and she grabs it to keep it from closing. "Put something in the door, without power you won't be able to get back in." Abby nods and grabs the clipboard to keep it open as she and Anna come out.

 

"What's the rules for a power outage?"

 

"Everybody, listen up." Josette bellows. Anna broadcasts what she's saying to the second-floor girls. "Put something in your doors when you go out, otherwise you might not be able to get back into your rooms. Grab extra blankets from the supply closet if you need them and be thankful it's not winter yet."

 

"What happened?"

 

"Lightning probably hit something, the twins and I have emergency weather radios so we'll catch the news at the top of the hour."

 

"Doesn't the school have backup generators?" One of their classmates asks.

 

"Only in the buildings that have been renovated recently, the health center and the dining hall. We're officially on lockdown once the electricity went off. We'll be escorting everybody to dinner at five just like we did the first night." The older students nod.

 

"Classes?"

 

"If the electricity's not on by morning classes are cancelled, the day students will have a number to call to find out if there's classes." Josette says. "That won't get you out of schoolwork, if it's more than a day the teachers put assignments up on the bulletin boards at the front of the dorms. It's your job to see what you've been assigned and get to work. Anything assigned will be due the day classes start again."

 

"The day students too?"

 

"Yep, their assignments are on the same number they call to see if there's school."

 

"Be glad it's not winter yet, the dorm gets damn cold without any heat." One of the older students says as maintenance comes around the front of the dorm with a cart filled with bottled water.

 

"Everybody, grab a case of bottled water and take them to your room." Abby says as Josette helps pull the cart into the front of the dorm. "Any news?"

 

"Lightning strike hit a pole. The resulting sparks started a wildfire and as dry as it's been this summer the firefighters are having a hard time getting it under control."

 

"And they'll have to do that before anybody comes out to put up the new poles and fix the lines." Josette sighs.

 

"Yep."

 

"And the lines going down caused an overload?"

 

"Yep. We're just the poor schmucks hit by it. We're on the very edge of the area by the reports, A good chunk of the state is dark."

 

"Well shit, I was going to go grocery shopping tomorrow." Josette sighs. The maintenance man chuckles and heads off with the cart to go to the boys dorm.

 

"Did you hear anything?" The girls ask coming back into the hallway.

 

"Yeah, lightning strike hit a pole. That caused an overload that took out a good chunk of the state, we're on the very edge of the outage according to maintenance. The worse part is that the sparks started a wildfire and as dry as it is, they're having a hard time fighting it."

 

"And they'll have to get it contained and out before the power company can come in and replace the pole." One of the older students sighs. "Plus the longer it takes to fight, the possibility of more damage." The others look at her. "My Dad works for the power company where we live, I grew up at the station and learned quite a bit just listening to the conversations around me."

 

Josette whistles shrilly a couple hours later and everybody follows her and the twins through the tunnels to the dining hall, filling their trays and settling in their usual seats as the boys arrive from the other direction.

 

"You hear about the fire?" David asks when he sits down. Josette nods. "They tell people to be careful with their campfires and whatnot, some moron always whines. This will show them why you're supposed to watch your fire. I lived through a lot of wildfires in California."

 

"And no matter how bad the fires were, people never learned to keep an eye on their fires and it happened again?"

 

"Yep." Josette says. "I didn't live in the area of the wildfires, but I saw the devastation on the news." Principal Madison stands up and everybody turns to look at him.

 

"Okay everybody, I'm sure that we've all heard about the accident. We don't know how long it will be until the electricity comes back on. For those who haven't heard the news, lightning hit a utility pole, taking it out. We're on the very edge of the area that lost power thanks to overloads. Unfortunately either the lightning or the downed lines sparked a wildfire that has to be contained before a new pole goes in and the lines fixed. Your assignments will be on the dorm bulletin boards"

 

Josette checks the bulletin board when they come back from breakfast the next morning, the older students look at her. "Not yet." They head to their rooms.

 

"How do we handle the toilets?" somebody asks.

 

"If the pipes are empty, pour a couple of bottles of water in the tank. That's one of the reasons we get a case of water a day. And be glad it's warm enough to open windows. In the winter we'd be filling pails with snow and putting them by the fireplaces to melt for water to flush the toilets."

 

"Furnace?"

 

"If the furnace is on when the power goes out you should still be getting some heat coming out of it but the blowers won't kick on." One of the other students calls.

 

"Yep."

 

At lunch the assignments are on the bulletin board and the students write down their classes and start working until dinner. Flashlights had been handed out before they left for dinner the night before and are turned on again.

 

A couple days later everybody sighs when the power goes back on. The sound of flushing toilets has Josette and the twins sniggering.

 

Josette is waved to the front table at dinner and handed a couple pieces of paper. She asks something and Principal Madison nods.

 

"Guys, the teachers are going to ask you to pick up my assignments for me for the classes we have together in a couple days, I'm going to be in Boston seeing the eye doctor for my new glasses."

 

"Is anybody signing up for the Boston trips?"

 

"I might after Thanksgiving to see the decorations that will start coming up and maybe take in a movie. Be warned though. . .the shuttles will start filling up rapidly."

 

"How does the school handle Thanksgiving?" Somebody asks a couple tables over.

 

"Brunch at eleven with dinner in the late afternoon."

 

"Christmas?"

 

"Each building has its own decorations. The day after Thanksgiving trees will be brought up and put in the front of the dorms. The outside of all the buildings will be decorated and a tree put up in the common areas where possible."

 

"The rest of the dorm?"

 

"The hallways will be decorated and if you want to decorate your own room you'll have to buy your own decorations. Nothing too gaudy in the common areas, we've got students who might not celebrate the holiday." At the front room Principal Madison and Professor Druid are nodding. "Those of you who want to attend church services, there will be a list of local services in the office with sign-up sheets. No midnight masses, you still have to be in the dorms by nine even during break." 

 

Josette drops into a seat in her room a couple days later. She'd eaten lunch in Boston after her eye appointment since they wouldn't be back in time and had stopped at the dining hall for a bag of snacks.

 

A knock on her door has her getting up but the door opens before she can reach it and Professor Druid waves her back to her seat.

 

"Eyes dilated?" She sees the plastic sunglasses behind Josette's glasses.

 

"Yes, I can't see a damn thing."

 

She chuckles and puts a folder on the table. "Your assignments the others aren't getting for you. Did you get your new glasses?"

 

"Yes, they were able to make them there in an hour rather than make me come back another time. Of course it was extra."

 

"Of course." Professor Druid snorts. She looks at the bag and Josette waves at it.

 

"Oh these are nice."

 

"Nice and expensive." Josette snorts. "Now I know why Mom started putting money away every time she got paid for new ones."

 

"Did you eat in Boston?"

 

"Yes, since I was gone so long. Did I miss anything?"

 

"Kennedy having an absolute fit when she realized she was being put in a 'nutzoid' place for her attitude problems. She tried blaming you for everything . . .again and her father slapped the lie right off her face. Our former school psychologist had a fit about that and was fired. He was gonna sue until the school's lawyers told him the facts of life and he slunk off with his tail between his legs."

 

"Good, couldn't happen to a nicer pair of assholes." Josette snorts. Anna snickers as she comes into the room with another folder she puts in front of Josette.

 

"Girls, honest opinion here. Tammy?"

 

"A spoiled little brat who got her ass handed to her by you and Principal Madison and then her parents." Josette says automatically. "She's trying to keep her nose clean because her parents laid down the law."

 

"They did, her attitude problem got her put on probation this semester. She thought being away from Mommy and Daddy she could do whatever she wanted. She soon learned otherwise." Professor Druid nods. "I've noticed her wanting to slack off or mouth off but something stops her. . .I think seeing how Kennedy acts and how she's being treated is stopping her." Anna says. "Is she acting up again in classes?"

 

"No, she just got a call from the police back where she lives. It seems there was a . . .an incident in the car. A group drove them off the road trying to make it look like a road rage incident, killed her parents and three siblings and torched the car to try to cover up the evidence but local security cameras caught everything. James is taking her to the bank right now to sign her up for a scholarship loan and deal with packing up their home and putting it in storage for her. The people have been arrested and are looking at life in prison and we sicced the school's lawyers on them."

 

"Why did they do it?" Anna asks quietly.

 

"They were trying to cover something up at his work, he found out and was going to blow the whistle on them."

 

"Fucking crooks, killing five people for . . .what? Stupidity?"

 

"Yes, they're wailing because they'd probably have gotten six months in a club fed type facility, now they're facing hard time for five counts of first-degree murder."

 

"Don't worry, I'm sure their high-priced lawyers will try to claim they're victims of their stupidity and should get off with a slap on the wrist being told not to do it again."

 

"Yes, he's already trying everything in his power to get the charges dismissed and get them rehired. It's not fair they lost their jobs."

 

"No, what wasn't fair was five people losing their lives." A judge snorts a couple weeks later as he throws out the requests to dismiss the charges and have their jobs returned to them. The defendants wail as they're dragged off again to their jail cells.

 

Thanksgiving is quiet, the next day maintenance starting to bring out the decorations. Over the next couple of days everything is put up and a few people put things up in their own rooms.

 

Finals is hectic and Josette hugs Alan, Abby, and Anna as Mr. and Mrs. Covington arrive Wednesday morning from Tennessee to take them home. They're not the only parents picking up students and Josette is busy marking down names as students head off.

 

Professors Druid and Fletcher come back from buying presents for the girls who were staying over, while Professor Ziegler and Eppes had done the same thing for the boys. Principal Madison smiles and opens the door to a room in the administration building where they can wrap the presents and store them until it's time to put them under the tree Christmas eve.

 

"Who were the women with bags and boxes?" Professor Eppes asks.

 

"Workers from various agencies, delivering gifts and food packages to those students who are wards of the state. Maintenance is delivering them after lunch."

 

"When is the church holding their bazaar for underprivileged families?"

 

"Saturday, eight of our students have spots. That's just the students who are boarding and staying at school, who knows how many more have their families attending."

 

"How are the students getting there?"

 

"The shuttle will drop them at the door, take any other students to where they want to go in town, then pick them up when Josette calls."

 

Josette settles at her usual spot at the table, expecting to eat alone until the new semester starts and smiles as Susan comes into the dining hall. Susan grins and waves at her before filling her tray and settling at the table.

 

"You're staying over?"

 

"Nobody to share Christmas with." Susan says. Josette nods. "I'm heading off for a couple of days tomorrow, need to get some money for next semester. Michael, Alexander." She waves at them when they come into the dining hall.

 

"Oh good, I wasn't sure if anybody but us were staying over. David left after breakfast." Michael says, putting down his tray.

 

"With his gift, commuting is a snap." The boys nod. "Not spending Christmas with family?"

 

"We grew in the same orphanage." Alexander says. "The twins and Alan take off? I know they were planning on leaving this morning."

 

"Yeah, after breakfast." Josette says. "There's only seven or eight girls staying over, what about the boys?"

 

"About seven with us." Michael starts counting off names on his fingers. "Thankfully we won't have to worry about them except to lock the doors and turn off the lights, we're going to be busy during break." The girls look at them. "We're artists, the school built us a studio before we enrolled. Now that tests are over, we've been concentrating on our projects for a show. What are you two doing to keep busy?"

 

"I'm heading to the track tomorrow to make enough money for next semester's classes." Susan says. The others look at her. "That's how I can afford to pay for my schooling."

 

"Our shows pay for ours." Michael says. Alexander silently snorts. 'and then some.'

 

"I'm running into town tomorrow to get groceries and other supplies, stocking up now so I don't have to deal with the crowds closer to Christmas." The others shudder and nod. "Other than heading into town Saturday with some of the other students for the bazaar a local church is having for underprivileged kids and their families I don't have any plans."

 

"Ahhh those, money was always tight at the orphanage. The staff tried but that's the only way we got Christmas presents some years."

 

Josette nods. "I'm on the list for paper angels again this year, there's never enough to go around and they usually concentrate on the younger kids."

 

"And the older kids end up with nothing under the tree." Michael says. Alexander nods. "We had a reporter at the orphanage one year doing a story about 'how happy the poor little orphans' are opening their presents. When about eight of us didn't get anything because nobody had chose us and the agency had run out of money, they really had a story."

 

"Everybody pointed fingers at each other but. . ." Michael shrugs.

 

"All the explaining in the world doesn't mean anything when you're the one who doesn't have anything under the tree." Josette says. The boys nod.

                             

The next day Josette catches the morning shuttle into town, heading to the superstore and filling her carts with food, pet food and kitty litter, and a couple of items for herself since it’s Christmas, the driver helping her put everything in the back of the van when she comes out of the store. Putting everything away she settles in the recliner she'd found at a yard sale in town a couple months ago, Samhein jumping into her lap and purring in her ear.

 

After lunch Josette does her laundry, looking over as Michael comes in and starts sorting out two bags, obviously doing his and Alexander's.  She nods and swipes her laundry card after adding detergent and dry bleach to her machines. She settles at the table with a book to wait for the machines to be done, Michael doing the same.

 

"This place is dead."

 

"Everybody that was going home got their laundry done before finals, I waited since I wasn't going anywhere." Michael nods. An hour later they're busy folding laundry and heading back to their dorms. Michael puts the clothes away back at the dorm then heads off to the studio to work on their art.

 

"Get the laundry done?" Alexander asks, looking over his shoulder when the door opens.

 

"Yes, it was dead in there."

 

"Everybody doing laundry before they left for the holiday."

 

"That's what Josette said. Like us she waited because she wasn't going anywhere." They work until they get hungry, with the school closed meals are buffet style and they do their Josette impressions, filling their trays two or three times. Heading back to the dorm they lock it up for the night, checking on the students who are remaining.

 

In the girls dorm Josette is doing the same thing before she settles in her room with a book, petting Samhein when he leaps into her lap.

 

Saturday Josette tells the other students when and where to gather for the ride back to the school and they enter the bazaar. Three hours later the shuttle arrives back at the church and they start putting everything in the van, sorting everything out when they return to the school.

 

Josette puts everything away before heading to the dining hall, filling her tray and looking up with a grin as Susan walks in and fills her tray.

 

"Just get back?"

 

"Yes, thank you god. I hate taking the bus but I paid for the next semester of school and have a little extra money in my account." 'And then some' she silently echoes what Alexander had been thinking a few days earlier.

 

The boys come over.

 

"What happens when you're done whatever it is you're working on?"

 

"We've got a show lined up in a couple months."

 

Principal Madison comes over to the table.

 

"Boys, you're nearly fifteen. Do you want to sign up for the drivers education class this summer?"

 

"Yes please."

 

"Come to the office after the new semester starts and we'll get you all set up."

 

The next few days pass and soon it's Christmas Eve. Josette looks out the back door, Samhein purring in her arms. The next day she opens the presents that she'd put aside from the state before she dresses and unlocks the dorm, finding presents under the tree. After brunch they open the other presents and Josette checks on her dinner preparations since dinner will be late.

 

A couple of days later Josette braves the stores in Boston with the other students who had stayed at the school, getting in a movie before they return to the school.

 

"Did you have a good Christmas with your family dear?" Mrs. Covington asks Josette when she helps the girls carry stuff into their room. Josette's face falls for a moment and she realizes something's wrong.

 

"I'm an orphan Mrs. Covington. My mother died a couple years ago and I never knew my father. I stay at the school over breaks, but Susan, Alexander, and Michael stayed over too."

 

"Oh my dear, you could have come home with us." Alice says firmly. "I know your school does its best but you should be with family at Christmas."

 

"Susan stayed?" Anna asks, looking over from putting her clothes away as Abby brings in the groceries they'd stopped at the store in town for.

 

"Yeah, she didn't have anybody to celebrate Christmas with and headed off for a couple of days to the racetrack so she'd have money for next semester. Michael and Alexander grew up in the same orphanage, they're artists and worked on some stuff over the break."

 

"Josette, you start your job here next week right?"

 

"Yeah, Mondays and Wednesdays. Six to eleven. I'll eat at five those two nights, six the rest of the week."

 

"Josette's working already? she's only 14." Alice asks her daughters when Josette heads back to her room a few minutes later.

 

"13 Mom, she made the cutoff because she was already reading and writing at a first grade level. She also skipped kindergarten."

 

"Why is she working already? I thought your Professor Druid said students were able to get jobs their sophomore years and Josette's in your grade."

 

"She doesn't have anybody to help pay for the scholarship loan we have."

 

"Won't the state pay her way through school? She is a ward of the state, isn't she?"

 

"Yes she is, and no they don't. Josette's room and board is 1200 a month like ours since she's got the other dorm monitor room, but the state only pays 300 dollars a month towards it."

 

"Shit."

 

"School books, food, clothing, other necessities. It adds up. Josette had to buy new glasses a couple months ago, her old glasses were four years old."

 

"The state wouldn't pay for that?" Alice moans.

 

"No, or dental. Our first week of school Josette got a tracfone like ours because her social worker demanded she have a phone. Leaving a message at the office wasn't good enough for them. Not that they've ever contacted Josette."

 

Alice says a few choice phrases that would have had her reaching for the dish soap if it had been any of her kids. "So Josette's making extra money and paying down her loan before she graduates?"

 

"Yes," Professor Druid says as comes up the hallway. "Josette's starting early since her gift will allow her to keep her grades up and the student who's currently handling the laundry is graduating this semester. This will give her time to learn the ropes with him before she has to handle it by herself while he's away on the senior trip and after he graduates. Josette?" She taps on her door. Josette opens the door.

 

"Here's the keys to the machines in the front room. Since you work in the laundry you can do yours for free. . ."

 

"I'll do it while I'm working. That way I don't have to try to find a machine during the busy times."

 

Professor Druid nods. "The key to the supply dispenser. Part of your job is going to be filling that and the emergency closet."

 

"Emergency closet?" Alice asks quietly.

 

"A closet with extra supplies in case the dispenser runs out. It usually does on the weekends when everybody's doing their laundry." Anna says just as quietly.

 

"This is the key to the supply closet. Maintenance will check it weekly, replacing cases of supplies as they're used. Like the supply closet here, there's a sheet of paper on the door to write down what you've removed." Josette nods. "The main bulk of the supplies is down in the basement, bring your card to the office tomorrow morning and we'll add the laundry main door, the door for the back room, and the basement door leading to the tunnels so you can put the boys laundry outside the door and bring the girls in when you come back."

 

Josette nods. "Do I bring the sheets and towels upstairs and put them away?"

 

"Yes. . ."

 

"I'll help you bring everything up, no use making multiple trips up and down the stairs with an armful of stuff, too easy to fall." Abby says.

 

"Thank you Abby, that will help out a lot." Professor Druid says, giving her a grateful look.

 

"Andrew, we're bringing more children back with us when we come back to pick up the kids for their break in April." Alice says firmly as she gets in the car. Her husband looks at her.

 

"Their friends Josette, Susan, Alexander, and Michael stayed over Christmas because they don't have families."

 

Andrew shakes his head. "This is a good school. . .but kids should be home for Christmas."

 

"Exactly. We can sit down and figure out what we need to buy when we get home. Those four for sure. . .their friend David can travel so he might be coming out for a day or so when he's not at his own home."

 

"Figure on five then." His wife nods as they pull out of the parking lot.

 

"Josette has a cat that will be coming along too."