Chatoyant College Book 7: Upon What Soil

Chapter 7: Curious

Monday, October 27

Before Corrie left for her run in the morning, she deliberately moved her sticker from "happy" to "curious." She would check on it every time she came back to the room to see if it had moved of its own accord. And it was true, at least: she was curious about the poster. She still didn't really believe Annie's weird dreams were related (and who wouldn't have weird dreams, anyway, on this campus?) but that was no reason not to try to figure out the truth.

After her run, it was still on "curious." She even double-checked after her shower, and it was still there. Then she and her friends went to breakfast and she mostly forgot about it.

In class, Professor Lal collected the rough drafts of their essays. "I'll have these returned to you by Wednesday with notes," she told them, "and you'll have until Monday to finish your final drafts. Hopefully, you have all written decent enough rough drafts that you won't have much work to do to complete them. Also, on Friday, there will be a quiz on everything we have learned so far in the semester, but of course, those of you who have been conscientious enough to read the syllabus already knew that."

Corrie glanced nervously at Dawn, but she was just nodding. Apparently, she had been conscientious enough to read the syllabus. After a moment Dawn must have noticed Corrie's gaze, because she turned and whispered, "Don't worry! It's just multiple choice." Corrie relaxed a little after that.

"Now," Professor Lal was saying, "if you'll all take out the reading on dark mirror scrying—yes, Roe?"

Corrie looked at Roe. She'd had her hand up, but quickly put it down, looking nervous. "Uh, you asked me to let the class know any time I had a vision that wasn't just about me."

"Indeed." Professor Lal sat down at her desk, setting the papers down in a careful pile to her left. "I take it you've had one? Please, describe it to the class."

"It was, uh, pretty brief, but there were other people in it. I didn't recognize them for the most part, though I think Tricia was there." Roe twisted in her seat to look at Tricia, a tall girl with short, dark hair who sat a couple of rows behind them. Tricia raised her eyebrows but otherwise seemed unperturbed. "I think she was sitting behind a table with some stuff on it. There were a lot of tables—I'm pretty sure we were in the administration building, and something on one of the tables exploded, but it was just glitter. That's all, I think."

"Very interesting," said Professor Lal, folding her hands. "You do not remember any markers of the time or date of the vision?"

Roe started to shake her head, then paused. "It was definitely during the day. I remember that there was sunlight coming in the windows."

"Very interesting," Professor Lal said again. "Well, Tricia, as the only recognizable person in this vision, do you think it refers to anything that you already know about?"

Corrie realized that she was still watching Tricia carefully, but the other girl didn't seem to mind. She smiled slightly, showing just a sliver of teeth. "Actually, yes, it makes a lot of sense. Except for the thing exploding in glitter—I don't know what that's all about. But there is a craft fair planned for Saturday, and it's taking place in the administration building. We just started putting up flyers this morning."

"Well, that was relatively easy," said Professor Lal. "Tricia, I trust you will warn your compatriots in this fair that someone's craft is likely to explode in glitter."

Tricia smiled a little more. "I wouldn't be surprised if that was somebody's plan, but yeah, I'll warn everybody. Should be interesting. And I hope everybody will come see what there is for sale."

"I guess I have to," Roe said with a laugh.

"Thank you for sharing that, Roe," Professor Lal said. "Now, as the information has no real bearing on this class, please do take out the reading on dark mirror scrying."

As Corrie pulled the photocopied article out of her backpack, she took a last glance back at Tricia and wondered how long this craft fair had been planned. Why hadn't she known about it? Edie could be selling knitted items, or, more usefully, they could be selling the steel bracelets. They wouldn't even have had to tell anyone what they were for. She wasn't upset about it, though—probably because, when she thought about it, Edie probably wouldn't have wanted to sell stuff at a craft fair anyway.

After class, she was surprised that no one else wanted to talk to Tricia about the craft fair, but that was okay. "Is it too late to get tables at this fair?" she asked.

Tricia raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Sorry. We've been planning this for a while. There will probably be another one in the spring if this goes well, though."

"Cool. Well, I guess I'll see you there." Corrie waved as she and Tricia parted ways.