"Should we call you a mermaid?" Corrie asked Troy. "I mean, obviously we're going to actually call you Troy, but should we refer to you as a merman, or a Djanaea, or what?" She'd stumbled a little over the word Troy had given for them, but he didn't correct her, so she must have gotten it close to right.

"Um... I guess if you don't mind saying Djanaea, I would prefer that. And you're not going to be talking about me to too many people, are you?" he asked.

"No, of course not. Now." Corrie leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms. "You never answered my question."

Troy bent his head quickly, looking back at the computer screen. "I just have a couple more paragraphs to read, and then we can finish discussing the paper," he said, a little too loudly.

Corrie could take the hint. "Okay, we'll wait."

"I have a little more to read too," said Annie.

That was not a question Corrie had been expecting. Maybe he didn't really know about the faeries. He must have heard of them--maybe from Link--but maybe he thought they were faeries like in Victorian tales. "Well, we haven't had the best experiences," she began slowly. She looked at Annie and Edie, who both nodded encouragingly at her. She turned back to Troy. "A group of them kidnapped Annie, and one tried to kill Edie. Though I guess it's true that another faerie, Professor Lal, was the one who rescued Edie. But you can understand why it's hard for us to be trusting."

Sunday, September 21

Annie's room was closer to the stairs than Dawn's was, so Corrie knocked on it first. She glanced over at Edie while they waited for Annie. Her friend was smiling too.

Salome opened the door, barely glanced at them, and turned around. "Annie, it's your friends."

"Oh!" said Annie from inside the room. She quickly came to the door. "Hi guys! What's going on?"

"We figured it out!" said Corrie breathlessly.

"Uh... figured what out? Is there something wrong with the project?" Annie asked, her pale blue eyes going wide with confusion.

Edie nodded and smiled sheepishly. "I wanted to see what it would do."

"Good thinking," said Corrie. "I still don't get it, but I think that gave us more information..."

"What just happened?" Roe asked, looking after Link and Troy as they disappeared.

"Um..." Corrie glanced at Talia, not sure how much it was okay to say in front of her.

Corrie stood up. "Annie's not here, actually. I'm Corrie." She stuck out her hand.

Link shook it. "Lincoln. I'm an old family friend." Was it her imagination, or was he unsure about defining himself that way? Troy was hanging back a little, clearly unhappy about his friend meeting his group members. "So you're one of the girls in Troy's academic writing group?"

Corrie nodded. "Me, Annie, and Edie." She gestured to Edie, who was still sitting down, but not looking at her book anymore. Roe and Talia had both sat up.

That afternoon the weather was absolutely beautiful. Apparently the rain they'd had for the last few days had cleared the air, and while there was definitely more than a touch of fall crispness in the erratic breeze, the warmth of the sun and the clear sky more than made up for it. Therefore, Corrie and Edie weren't the only ones who decided they should go outside to read. In fact, Talia and Roe joined them--Talia was in the middle of the first chapter of the book for their club, and it was Roe's turn after her.

Friday, September 19

Corrie was pleased that Troy had agreed to walk with her for a bit. She knew that Annie and Edie had to go to class, and she thought it would be good to have a few minutes to talk alone with Troy. He was clearly getting more comfortable with them, and she thought talking to just one person might make him even more comfortable. "Are you okay?" she asked him, not bothering with any other preliminaries.

"I think so," he said. "I'm just... having a hard time being away from home, I think. And I never made friends easily even there."

She nodded sympathetically. "Where are you from?"