Dawn led the way back to the three-person dorm room she was now sharing with Edie and Corrie. She couldn’t help grinning a little as she and her friends climbed the stairs and then she unlocked the door to the corner room. Sure, it would have been nice to have a single room that she could have Rico in at any time, but she could always find ways to spend time with Rico. The fact that she was sharing space with her two closest friends was more important.
Besides, she knew she could count on them to both be cleaner and communicate better than her roommate last year, Naomi.
She went to her desk and turned on her computer while the others followed her in. Rico sat down on her bed. Corrie dug out her computer while Edie turned hers on as well. Annie and Roe hovered over Edie.
Dawn was the first one into her email. “There it is,” she said, a little surprised. The newest email in her inbox was from the administration, and the subject line read “Mandatory Protection Class This Saturday.”
She double-clicked to open it and read silently, Rico peering over her shoulder.
Returning students,
Welcome back. As you know, at the end of the previous academic year, certain beings living and working on the Chatoyant College campus revealed themselves. Not only are some of our professors and students faeries, the killer who was roaming campus during the spring semester was a faerie as well, and faeries have been living near campus since before the college was founded.
Due to the dangers that are now known to be present, the school was not reopened until an agreement could be reached to educate the students on their options for protecting themselves.
Therefore, please report to a special class this Saturday. This class is mandatory for all students.
Saturday, August 26
9:00 AM
Hannam Hall (see attached map)
Please arrive promptly in the lobby. You will find classroom assignments posted there. The classes will take place in classrooms in Hannam Hall, where magic classes are customarily held.
Again, this class takes place August 26 at 9 AM, and is mandatory.
Dawn opened the attachment just to make sure they hadn’t changed anything weird over the summer, but the magic building was marked exactly where she remembered, a narrow rectangular building nearly in the center of campus. She had forgotten that it was called Hannam Hall; no one used that name.
She looked up to see if everyone else had finished reading the email. Rico raised his eyebrows at her and shrugged. She smiled. “I guess Belinda was right.”
He laughed and squeezed her shoulder. “This will be interesting.”
“You’ve got that right,” Corrie said. “Unless, of course, it’s really boring, because we already know everything they have to teach.”
“I’ll certainly be paying attention,” Edie said. “I want to be sure we do know everything, if that’s possible.”
“They must have given the freshmen more information about what to expect,” Annie said. “I guess they assumed everyone was here at the assembly last year, but what if people had already left?”
“I’m sure they’ll find out what’s going on at the class,” Corrie said. “But I doubt very many people left campus early last semester and decided to still come back for this semester.”
“That’s true,” Dawn said. “I wonder if the faerie students will be at the class. They don’t have to learn, right?”
“We’ll find that out on Saturday too,” Roe said. “I wonder why Link didn’t mention this class to me.”
“Maybe he didn’t know,” Corrie said. “What exactly is he doing in the administration? It might have nothing to do with classes.”
“No, he’s in the finance office,” Roe said. “But you’d still think he would have heard about this special class. Presumably Troy has to take it, too.”
“Well, it will be interesting to see,” Dawn said, closing her email program. There wasn’t anything else to look at; her library scheduling email hadn’t come yet. “But we can’t do anything else about it today, so why don’t we get some lunch or something?”
“Lunch sounds great,” Edie said. “I hope they still have good cooks.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point.” Corrie shoved her chair back from her desk and stood up. “We’d better go investigate and make sure the dining hall is the same as always.”
Laughing, they gathered themselves up and left the room.
Clare K. R. Miller 