"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.