"Well, this is just really unusual," blustered the principal, an older woman with graying hair.

"The paperwork is all in order, is it not?" Lily asked mildly.

"Well—"

"Our registration was submitted on schedule. Jennifer is here on time and eager to attend classes. She tested into this grade successfully. I simply don't see the issue."

"Your registration details didn't check out, and you registered in August to put her straight into the eighth grade," the woman said exasperatedly.

"It's a non-resident application for a homeschooled student from out of state," Lily pointed out. "I'm not surprised it doesn't quite fit your usual protocol. However, her standardized scores were above average and she has all the necessary qualifications to attend. If you still aren't certain, please phone your superintendent and mention our case. She's currently awaiting your call."

"She's what?" The principal was clearly flummoxed. Natalie felt a tiny burst of glee, but she had to hold it in. She was supposed to be the perfect attentive new student. She distracted herself by flicking around the cord to the blinds behind the woman—anything to keep herself from fidgeting in her seat. The principal started to dial and Natalie flicked the cord a little too hard, smacking it audibly against the wall.

Lily nudged her foot. She let it fall slack and switched to one of her new tricks, murmuring the proper spell under her breath as quietly as she could.

It took Lily a few seconds to notice the change. Natalie's fingernails were shifting through every color of the rainbow in a perfect dissolve. She smiled innocently. Lily seemed too astonished to tell her off. They hadn't seen that particular spell before, and it was outside Natalie's affinity. She'd come up with it on her own, spending the day staring at a rainbow while sitting up in a tree with Percy and thinking about something Hailey Winscombe had described on the forum. It had taken her a while to connect it with the rainbow colors and how they were just a reflection of her own eye, but she'd gotten it eventually.

The first time she'd done it, Percy tried to peck at her fingernail, thinking she was infected somehow before she managed to calm him down.

The principal was still busy on the phone, so Lily took Natalie's hand and brushed her finger against the shifting nail. Lily clearly expected it to change as she blocked the line of sight. She thought it was a light spell—just an illusion like Cinza's. Natalie smiled even wider. She was better than that.

Natalie abruptly released the spell as the principal dropped the phone back on the receiver. The old woman put her fingers to her temples and closed her eyes. "I don't know who you people are, but I guess I have no choice."

"Thank you," said Lily gently. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. If it's any consolation, I promise you that really, all we wish is for Jennifer to receive a normal education."

"Is there anything I can do to help that along?" she asked reluctantly.

Natalie wondered what sort of pressure Kendra had on the poor principal, even without her real name to lean back on. She knew it had something to do with money. Kendra and Lily were always working, and they made frequent trips out into the city for important meetings. Natalie wasn't sure what they did exactly, but she knew they were powerful people.

She was still getting used to them without red hair though. Kendra and Lily with brown hair was just weird. They looked too pale for it. It matched Natalie's hair, but it wasn't totally convincing. Not to Natalie at least. She wished she could have changed her hair to red instead. That would have been so much more fun, but everyone insisted that she never get involved in any kind of ritual. Permanent hair color changes—the kind that didn't keep pulling at your magic—could only be done with a ritual, and Natalie wasn't allowed to do those, according to Rachel.

"I'm sure Jennifer will be fine as a typical pupil," Lily replied. "I assume you have some sort of program to assist transferring students? Enrolling her in that system would probably be for the best."

"There's something in place, yes. I'll make sure she gets a good guide." The principal turned slightly to face Natalie. "Welcome to the Seattle public school system, Miss Heshire."

Truthfully, Natalie did want to attend school. She was going crazy cooped up in the Laushire's new house. She could go out to the forest whenever she liked, but she missed having at least a couple friends to talk to. The Laushire twins were always so busy, whichever of them stayed home each day—and when they weren't, they were getting on Natalie's case about something. The only people she really talked to anymore were Hailey and Alden, but she never actually got to see them. It was just text, and people always talked different when they were writing stuff on a forum. It didn't ever quite sound like it was actually them on the other side.

She left the principal's office with her new school schedule in hand, said goodbye to Lily and walked to the first classroom on her list. They'd already visited the school once when they were scouting out which to attend, and Natalie remembered the layout well enough to find her room. Or so she'd thought.

A few minutes later, she was already hopelessly lost.

It's a two-story building, and all rooms starting with 2-- are on the second floor, right? And 1-- are on the first. So where's room 310?

She wandered down the first hall and found herself circling back to the second in a few minutes, totally bewildered.

The halls were eerily quiet with every door snapped shut and not another student in sight. It reminded her of a set of lonely streets she'd once wandered through, looking for any signs of life to point her in the right direction. Anything to convince her that the world hadn't just vanished, leaving her hopelessly alone.

Natalie stopped and sat down on a bench near a bank of lockers, taking a deep breath. Everything's fine. I'm okay. I'm in school. I'm in a building full of other kids like me. Okay, not even slightly like me, but you get the idea. I am not alone.

She opened her purse and reached inside, feeling the tuft of Gwen's fur and clasping it tight. She'd very reluctantly taken it from her friend, at Gwen's insistence. Gwen, smart and caring creature that she was, had known Natalie would need something to remember her by. She'd shown her the spot to cut where it would affect her the least, and Natalie had sliced away a fair-sized patch of fur.

Natalie asked about her almost every day, but Cinza never replied. Cinza rarely replied to anyone, as far as she knew. She showed up with an update every couple weeks or so, and Josh posted a lot about the progress they were making, but nothing else.

"Uhh, hi?"

Natalie snapped her purse shut in shock. She stood up straight and rigid. Her hand naturally went into a gesture that could produce a burst of fire in an instant if she needed it. One that didn't need her to speak, so it was way faster. She was really good with quick fire spells.

It was just a boy. Her age, probably. He was taller than her, though, and it felt a little intimidating. She wondered how Cinza handled it all the time. At least Natalie probably wasn't done growing, or so they kept telling her. The boy had short brown hair and wide, thin hazel eyes behind rimless glasses that watched her every movement. She could feel his eyes trace down her arm to her trembling hand, and she forced it to stop trembling.

"Hi."

"What's your name?"

"Jenny," Natalie replied. They'd drilled it in a thousand times. Natalie answered as readily to Jennifer or Jenny as she did to her real name. For you, Jenny. To keep you alive, just a little bit.

"I'm Quinn."

"Hi, Quinn."

"Are you new this year?"

Natalie smiled weakly. "How'd you figure it out?"

"Well, you look super lost, and you're in the sixth grade area. You don't look like a sixth grader."

"What's a sixth grader look like?"

"Smarter than a seventh grader looks."

Natalie grinned. "What's a seventh grader look like?"

"Smarter than an eighth grader," Quinn replied without missing a beat. "We're the dumbest on the tree for sure."

Natalie laughed. "Okay, dumb Quinn. If I'm a dumb eighth grader, where's my dumb classroom?"

"What's the room number?"

"310." Natalie held out her schedule. She wondered briefly if that was giving away too much information—but that was the paranoid adults in her life talking. She was at school, exactly where she was supposed to be, and that schedule belonged to Jennifer Heshire, not Natalie Hendricks. She knew what needed to stay secret.

"Ahh, you're going to the dreaded outdoors," said Quinn ominously.

Natalie frowned. "What's so bad about that?" Anything outdoors sounded fantastic to her.

"The portables don't have A/C."

She glanced out the nearest window. "It's like sixty-five degrees today."

"Yeah, but it's gonna be ninety on Friday." He shuddered for effect. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll be stuck out there with you."

"You will?"

"Yeah, I have the same class."

"So why aren't you there now?"

Quinn shrugged. "I was supposed to go to the office for something and I took the long way around."

"Why would you need to go to the office?" He didn't seem like the type to get in trouble—Natalie assumed. She'd never actually been in a real public school, so she was going off what she'd seen on TV or read in books.

"Oh, I'm a guide. They snatch me up to help out new students. Ohhhhh," he added, realization finally dawning on him.

"You must be really good at your job," said Natalie with a smile.

"Or really bad, since I didn't catch on until now." Quinn shrugged. "Well, I'm still supposed to go to the office before I actually start guiding you, so… wanna walk back with me?"