Chapter XXII, Part IV

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Shannon found herself standing outside of Headmistress Lea's office with her friends not long after. The only one missing was Ollie, who had been sent to the infirmary to have her ankle looked at. The atmosphere was tense; Shannon felt a little like they were being sent to their deaths.

"What do you think she's going to do?" Jared asked. "Do you think she has the legal power to beat her students? Oh God, if she gets blood on my clothes my mom is going to kill me."

"Maybe she'll just turn us into something," Ginger said. "You know, like frogs or pigs or furniture."

"I hope I don't get turned into a chair," Dexter said. "I don't want to live out my life with people sitting on me."

"Would you even know?" Jared asked. Dexter looked considering.

"She won't turn us into anything. And she won't beat us either," Allison said, but even she sounded doubtful.

"You don't know that," Jared said.

Allison was not able to respond because at that moment the door to Headmistress Lea's office opened. The woman herself stood in the doorway, looking incredibly unimpressed.

"All right, you six," she said, beckoning them in. They followed her into her office, standing in front of her desk. She sat down and got herself settled, then looked up at them expectantly. "Well, let's hear it."

All six of them began speaking at once. Shannon could barely hear her own voice. All of them, it seemed, were too nervous to stop now that they'd started.

"All right, all right!" Lea cried overtop of them, holding her hands up in front of her. "One at a time, hmm?" She looked around at them, her hawkish eyes piercing. Her gaze settled on Shannon. "Miss Malone, why don't you tell me?"

Shannon froze for a moment, looking at Lea in shock. Bizarrely, she noticed for the first time that Wanda and Dinah, Signora Moretti's chickens, were here in Lea's office.

"O-Okay, ma'am," Shannon said. Haltingly, she began relating what she and her friends had done. Lea listened intently, not saying one word. Her gaze never faltered. Shannon wasn't sure she even blinked. Shannon tried to speak as fast as possible, wanting to get the story over and done with. "It was my fault," Shannon said when her tale was done. "I had the idea; I asked them to help me."

"But we didn't have to," Caleb argued immediately. "We decided to go with you. That's not your fault."

"Right," Allison agreed.

"That's nice and all," Shannon said, "but you wouldn't have gone without me. I shouldn't have dragged you guys into this. I don't...I don't really think I belong here."

Shannon's friends looked at her in shock. Shannon couldn't look back at them; she hadn't meant to say that, but she could not deny she thought it true. She looked instead at Headmistress Lea, who looked back at her with a curious expression. For quite some time, no one said anything. Finally, Lea sighed.

"Miss Malone, I think it is safe to say that you most certainly belong here," she said. "You make as many regrettable decisions as the rest of the students."

Jared barked out a surprised laugh. Shannon felt the corners of her lips twitch.

"So you really found the vampires, hmm?" Lea said, looking appraisingly at each of them.

"Yes, ma'am," Shannon confirmed.

"And you killed them?"

"Yes, ma'am."

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