MEGAN. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. JUST IN TIME FOR CHOIR.

Every face in the room turned and looked at Megan, including the teacher’s. This wasn’t entirely unusual for Megan, but in this case the focus gave her pause—it had too much weight to it. It wasn’t just people needing a moment to take her in, like normal.

“Whoakay,” said the instructor, a middle aged man with dark, salty hair and a mostly white beard that seemed stark against his skin. Megan thought it made him look old, but maybe without it he’d be worse off. “Well, hard time imagining someone with more hair than that could still be coming, so you must be Megan.”

“Pardon?” Megan asked, her heart suddenly hammering.

“I’ve been asked to send you to the counselor's office,” the instructor said. “Mst. Beth Mishra is having a difficult time, I understand, and has requested your presence, if that is okay with you.”

Megan closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “Of course. I’ll go see what she needs.”

“Thank you,” he replied. “I’m afraid I will not be able to delay the beginning of class, but I imagine you will be able to catch up on our syllabus, such as it is. Good luck.”

Megan nodded, and turned right back around and hustled downstairs, outside, and over to the other building on the north side of campus, which contained the kitchen and dining hall and the administration and staff offices, as well as other miscellaneous things like the teacher’s lounge and the nurse and councilor’s offices.

It was a blessing to be able to walk through the campus without people staring at her. She wished she could go home, but she didn’t want to disappoint Angie and the boys, since they had the same lunch as her. She’d just have to grin and bear it.

She could hear Beth’s sobbing through the counselor office’s door. Standing outside appeared to be a counselor. “Oh, I hope you’re Megan,” he said. She nodded, and with evident relief, he said, “That’s good. She’s been utterly inconsolable, and not at all responsive to me or her other friend. It’s been difficult to get anything out of her, other than that she feels like she absolutely has to talk to you."

“Sure,” Megan said, her voice faint. “That makes sense. I’ll go see what’s going on.”

The counselor gave her a concerned frown, but let her pass and open the door. Megan took a deep breath and opened the door, the cold metal of the handle under her palm felt bright, piercing through the emotional haze she felt.

Inside, Katier sat next to Beth, who was dressed in gym clothes and flopped on a couch with her torso angled away from Katier and her face buried in her arms. Katier looked up with tremendous relief. “She won’t talk to me, Megan,” she said. “She just sobs harder when I try to—”

“Go away Katier!” Beth said, not looking up, with only one sob between “away” and “Katier.” “I can’t with you right now. I just can’t!”

“Sure,” Katier said, sounding like she might cry herself. “I’ll go. Thank you Megan.”

Megan nodded, stiffly, not looking at Katier. She couldn’t with Katier herself right then. Katier scampered by and closed the door behind her.

“Megaaaan!” Beth wailed, then launched herself off the couch, ending up kneeling at Megan’s feet, clutching the skirt of Megan’s dress in her hands. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry Megan, I didn’t know what to do, it was so awful and everyone was so blase about it and, and Katie, Katie Kay was scary when I asked her what was going on! After that I really didn’t know what to do it was impossible I’m so so so sor-or-ry!!!” and then she buried her face in Megan’s skirt.

Megan sighed. This wasn’t what Beth would be saying if she knew from the beginning. Megan put one hand on the base of Beth’s neck as a sort of hug, and used the other to stroke the distraught girl’s magnificent cloud of hair. “When did you—” find out, was going to be the question, but Megan cut herself off, realizing exactly when she’d found out: at Ardath’s birthday party the previous January. Beth had acted weird and anxious ever since then, while nervously laughing off any suggestions that that was the case or that anything might be wrong.

“You found out this year?” Megan asked. “At Ardath’s party?”

Beth’s sobbing was slowing, and she nodded into Megan’s skirt. She said, “Bog started talking about it, and I guess that group didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to hear about ‘the Exiles.’ I figured out it was Evan and them pretty quick.”

A tiny little corner of Megan’s mind found it interesting that she said Evan rather than Angie.

Beth continued. “I went to find Kay and she… scared me. Said if I ruined things for her and you—that’s how she put it, ‘Megan and me,’—that she and Lauren and everyone would never forgive me. I was so confused!” She sobbed for a little bit, shaking her head. “I couldn’t believe that they’d all do that! That the whole school went along with them and kept it from us! I didn’t know how to deal with it! I couldn’t even bring myself to ask Lauren and Nisha.”

Megan was silent, not knowing what to say. Like, yeah. If Lauren had kept it together, Megan would still not quite believe it, but she’d never seen Lauren fall apart like that, not ever. Beth said, “I just didn’t know what to do!”

Megan suppressed a sigh, finally kneeling and giving Beth a proper hug. “I don’t blame you, Bethie. I understand. That must have been very hard. It makes sense why you’ve seemed so upset this year now. If our roles had been reversed, I don’t know if I’d have been able to do anything either. I forgive you, dear.”

Beth sagged with relief. “Thank you, Megan. I wouldn’t… If you were mad at me I don’t know what I’d do. Die, I think.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“You wouldn’t die, Beth,” Megan said. “Right now what we should do is get to choir. Do you think you’ll be okay?”

Beth nodded, gave Megan a tentative smile through her snotty face. Then her eyes widened. “Oh no, Megan, I ruined your dress!”

Yes, that certainly was the case. Megan did her best to clean up in the bathroom before they went back to choir.

ANGIE. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS.

Once Circe complied with instructions and put away her phone, the rest of the class was quite normal. They didn’t do any icebreakers, thank goodness, though Silberfuchs implied that they would be doing so if and when the entire class attended at once, which was a shame. A long boring discussion of the syllabus and the expected course of the course was followed by applying covers to their textbooks, which was accompanied by a lecture to absolutely not try anything practical out of the texts. After a hundred years packed into fifty minutes, the bell rang.

Pre-Enchanting was going to stink. At least Silberfuchs agreed Angie shouldn’t be there.

After the bell, just after Angie stepped out into the hall, Ardath appeared next to her and said, “So, I feel congratulations are in order. It seems your exile is over, yeah?”

“I don’t see how it survives at this point,” Circe said from Angie’s other side.

“May I help you?” Angie asked calmly.

“Just making conversation,” Ardath said mildly. “If a tenth of the rumors about you are true, you’re a talented, interesting girl, and you just explained a pair of corvid auguries to the new Light Bearer, or so it looked like. That’s gotta mean something.”

“Not to mention you’re friends with Megan O’Sadie again, right?” Circe said. “I’ve never had the pleasure myself,” and here she gave Ardath a sour look, “But I hear she’s quite beloved.”

“Sorry Cassie,” Ardath said, not sounding that sorry.

“It’s Circe,” she said through clenched teeth. “You know it’s Circe.”

“Right, right,” Ardath said. “Circe. Maybe that’s what happened with your invitations….” Circe scowled at him.

“So you want favors in the future, gotcha,” Angie said.

Ardath and Circe leaned forward and exchanged a glance past Angie, then Ardath said, “I wouldn’t put it quite like that. I just want to be on friendly terms with a classmate and someone I’ll probably see in social situations. Especially since our Pre-Enchanting class is so small. Do I understand you almost tested out of this class?” Angie nodded. He smiled smarmily and said, “I hope you’ll be generous in sharing your knowledge.”

“I won’t help you cheat, but I’d be happy to tutor you for the right price,” said Angie. “If you don’t count the history stuff, I know almost everything except the untrue bullshit that’s part of the curriculum already.”

They exchanged another glance. “Untrue bullshit?” Ardath asked.

“An old timey theory regarding charms related to time and movement that long ago proved to make enchanting those sorts of charms more difficult than they are if you assume the theory is not true. But the original theorycrafter’s grandson is the head of the department, so I guess we get taught it.”

“Oh,” Circe said. “Well, then I’ll need all the help I can get. I’ll happily pay your price for tutoring.”

“Five Finches an hour seems reasonable to me,” said Angie, who did not want to tutor these two, and figured they would balk at that price.

“Oh, absolutely,” Circe said without hesitation.

“For sure,” Ardath said. “I’d also happily take you up on the offer if I find myself in need.”

“Wonderful,” Angie said. Shitting rich people. “I don’t know if you noticed—I feel like maybe you did—but I had an intense morning,” she continued. “And my boyfriend is right there. And honestly I don’t have any real reason to like or trust rich, popular kids at this point in my life, so I’d like to stop talking to you until you need tutoring or I decide otherwise, if it’s all the same.” With that, Angie walked over to Ryan, leaving the two popular kids behind.

EVAN. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND.

After the bell rang, Filbert said, “So you guys are probably going to hang out with popular kids all the time now, huh? Friends with Megan again and all…”

“Oh, it seems unlikely,” Evan said as they all collected their stuff. “Maybe some, but I doubt I’m going to be on friendly terms with… really hardly anyone who went to Asphodel anytime soon. At least besides you fools and Merce. It would be any friends Megan makes or has made among the other two schools that we might have to socialize with.”

Marco and Filbert both looked relieved. “Don’t worry boys,” Ryan said. “We won’t abandon you dipshits completely. I need someone besides Evan to crush at the arcade.”

“You’re a cheater,” Evan said.

Ryan clutched his chest. “I’m wounded, sirrah,” he said. “I would never.” He went back to putting his things away.

“How could he even?” Marco asked, frowning.

“Indeed, a pertinent question,” Ryan said.

“Yes, how?” Evan said dryly. “No way that could happen.”

Ryan frowned at him now, but did not respond. Instead he said, “We will be hanging with Megan sometimes, though, that’s true. That bother you boys?”

“Why would it?” Filbert asked. “You could even introduce us.”

“No you couldn’t,” Marco said quickly.

“Why not?” Ryan asked. “Unless she’s changed a lot, she’s very nice.”

“She exiled you for three years,” Marco said. “That’s not very nice.”

“That was all on Lauren Bakili. Megan didn’t actually know about it,” Ryan replied.

Marco and Filbert exchanged a glance. “You’re shitting me,” Filbert said. “She didn’t know?”

“Somehow everyone kept it from her,” Evan said. “Supposedly. But the way she reacted makes me think it’s true, and Megan couldn’t lie worth shit back in the day.” He started walking to the door.

“That’s bonkers,” Filbert said.

“Right?” Evan said. “I don’t understand how that worked, but it did.”

They paused outside the door. Ryan said, “Gonna wait for Angie.”

Evan nodded. “Makes sense. I got PE, so I probably better scooch along and get changed. Say hi for me.”

“We should go too,” Marco said.

“Sayonara,” Ryan replied to them all.

Evan headed off to PE, leaving the tower by the northeast entrance and making the short walk to the Performance building, which included the gyms and locker rooms and facilities for indoor sports, among other things. While many people watched his progress, overall it was many fewer than he was used to, so it was a pleasant change even still.