Chatoyant College

Monday, September 8

Dawn didn't bother setting an alarm on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays anymore. She thought she might have been able to train herself to ignore Naomi's alarm, but why bother when she could just use it? Besides, that way she had time to wake up a little more before magic class--and that was one that she wanted to be fully alert for, even if they were still on the theory portion.

After breakfast, she and Corrie joined Roe in their regular corner of the classroom. "Good morning!" Corrie said to the other girl, chipper as always. "Did you sign up for any clubs?"

Dawn grinned. "Well, I wanted to let you guys know that if you're interested when you finish with the yearbooks, there's some old class pictures in the basement, where the records are. I haven't had a chance to look at them but maybe you'll see something. I've got to get back to work."

"See you later."

After a few minutes, Edie shut her book and stood up. "He's not in this one." She went back to the shelves, replaced her 1959 yearbook next to 1958's, and picked up 1960's. "I wonder if he's in this?"

Corrie shrugged, looking up from the 1965 yearbook she was still looking through. "He might be. It occurred to me that he might look different, too."

Edie looked down at the cover of the yearbook. "You're right. Actually, now that I think about it, it's weird that Professor Lal and Ever looked the same in other yearbooks. You'd think they'd be more likely to get caught."

Corrie felt quite cheerful as they left the club sign-up event. She was really looking forward to meeting with the new clubs she had signed up for. Okay, so she'd signed up for more clubs than she would probably be able to actually go to--she doubted she'd really have time for Young Democrats or the yearbook, and she wasn't that enthusiastic about them anyway--but at least she could hear about them from the emails they would send out. She and Edie went to get lunch and met Annie, Roe, and Talia in the dining hall. "Have you gone to the club sign-up thing yet?" Corrie asked them.

"Professor! I've got it! I've got it!"

Lal jumped at the sound of her door flying open and someone shouting, her pen skidding across the paper she was writing. She turned quickly to the doorway to see one of her favorite students standing there, smiling triumphantly. She put a hand to her throat. "Miss Gravette! You startled me!"

"Come on, sign up," Corrie urged Edie, poking her with the pen. "You can at least go to the first meeting and see if you like it. It can't be that bad, Lorelei and I will both be there!"

"Well, okay." Edie took the pen and started to write. "It's not like you're going to let me stay home when you go to the meeting, anyway."

"This is true," Corrie agreed. Edie passed the pen to Dawn and she signed up, too.

"First meeting is ten PM on Wednesday," Lorelei said. "We'll send you an email. I'll probably remind you since I'll see you around!"

Sunday, September 7

Rico opened the door mere moments after Dawn knocked. She grinned and gave him a quick kiss. "You were waiting for me."

He laughed. "Well, sure. It's not like you took that long to get here."

"Something else is still bothering me," Annie said. "Why are we trying to keep this a secret? Wouldn't it be better to tell everyone that there are faeries on campus?"

"I think there's a reason that they keep it secret," said Dawn.

"Yeah, but it's an evil reason. I mean--" Annie stopped, blushing slightly, then gathered her thoughts. They went inside and she lowered her voice. "The ones in the woods obviously don't want people to know about them, because they're kidnapping people. So wouldn't we all be safer if everyone knew and could protect themselves?"

Dawn shrugged, crouching down to look at the grass like Edie had. "I think it's too late to worry about that. The faeries already know about us, and it's worth it to get the protection of the clovers."

"Yeah... I guess you're right." Annie followed suit, stepping a little way away from the statue to find a good patch of clover.

"Wait, I'm confused," said Roe. "The clovers protect us?"

"Well, they let us see the truth, I guess," said Corrie, who was sitting in the grass and parting the patch of clover with her hand. "It's the protection of knowledge."