“Hey! I'm sitting here!” Teri, who was all of six inches tall, yelled at the enormous butt descending on her.

The woman let out a scream and hurried away, yelling that a doll had come alive. Teri just looked over at the little girl who was staring at her with wide eyed wonder, and said, “Some people just don't pay any attention do they, Michelle?”

“Nnnnooo!” the three year old said, her eyes still as big as saucers staring at the little fairy.

“Now where were we?” she asked, wrapping her fuzzy, pale blue wings around her like a cloak to fight off the cold A/C of the train. “Oh yes. There I was a huge fairy eating cat to one side, and another one just a foot away ready to turn me into a quick meal. My mice warriors were scattered and fleeing for their lives. All I had were my brains, a pencil and some string.”

A voice blared over the PA, telling them that they had two minutes to exit if they wanted to get off in Berlin. A giant woman came rumbling down the aisle. “Michelle, its time to go, this is our stop.”

“But Mommy, I'm listening to a story,” the girl whined.

Before Teri knew what was happening, the girls mother had picked her up and was lifting her high into the air, muttering about not knowing where the doll had come from. “Help! Kidnapping! Help!” she yelled.

“OH MY GOD! IT'S ALIVE!” the mother screamed. She dropped Teri, grabbed her daughter and ran out of the car.

There were only a few people left in her car on the train to Dunwich, some of them pointedly ignored what was going on, others shrank back into their seat. One teenage boy wearing dark glasses, gave her a small smile. She waved at him as she flew down to sit on the windowsill to watch the city of Berlin go by as the train began to move again. She made sure to keep an eye on her luggage, which consisted of a change purse and a roll up jewelry box made for traveling.

After a few minutes, the boy picked up his courage and came over, sitting in the free seat. “Hi,” he said.

“Hello, I'm Teri.”

“Um, I'm Thad. So you're a mutant?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Nope. Totally normal baseline out for a ride.”

He opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, and then shut it again.

“Are you trying to catch flies, or impersonating a fish?” she asked, giggling.

He gave his head a shake and found his voice. “Sorry, I just wasn't expecting to see someone like you here.”

“Where should I be?” she asked.

That stumped him. “Well, um, I don't know. Just most people like you seem to try to, you know hide.”

“Been there, done that, it's boring,” she said, channeling her sometimes friend, often tormentor, and guardian Mouser. “Where are you heading off to?”

“I'm actually going to school. It's pretty exclusive.”

“Cool so am I!”

Thad looked around the car, and saw that the few people remaining were edging farther and farther away from them. “Is it Whateley?” he whispered.

“Yep. You're a mutant to?” she asked just as quietly.

He looked at her wings and small size, the confusion clear on his face. “Yeah, I am. Didn't the MCO give you trouble? They wouldn't leave me alone, I had to make sure the local heroes knew where I was all the time, and could barely leave my house. You don't even look human.”

“Nah. They were a bit of a pain, but I just yelled at them and they didn't bother me again.”

His jaw dropped.

“Nice tonsils.”

“You yelled at the MCO?” he squeaked, like his underwear was five sizes too small.

“Yeah,” she said as if it was no big deal. “The guy hit me with a tennis ball as big as I am, plastered me against a wall with a high velocity volleyball, almost got me crushed on a weight lifting machine, and then he was going to give me the code name Butterfly! He's lucky all I did was grab his nose and yell at him.”

Thad turned white, and slumped down in his seat. “C-can you destroy the world or something?”

“No. Why?”

“The MCO makes mutants disappear if we look at them the wrong way! How did you get away with that?”

She briefly thought about letting him know her guardian was sleeping with the head MCO officer of the Omaha, Nebraska branch, but decided that being seen as a six inch tall badass would probably be better. “Well not everyone has my charm.”

“So... what can you do?”

“Fly, PK field, night vision, regeneration. You?”

He looked at his feet, and mumbled, “I'm a manifestor, I can make any natural liquid.”

“Cool! I'm a little thirsty and ran out of water, could you give me a drink?” she asked holding up a small, half pint plastic bottle.

“You really don't want me to. It's not really pleasant looking,” he told her.

“Oh come on,” she insisted. “I sneezed myself out of my own chest cavity, worked as a rat exterminator over the summer and did childrens parties as a fairy princess, believe me nothing can shock me anymore.”

“Ok, but I warned you,” Thad said. He closed his eyes, and ten seconds later his cheek developed a tiny white headed pimple. It grew, bulging outwards until it was the size of a pencil eraser, the skin was stretched so tightly it was see through, revealing what looked like water inside of it.

The smile slowly dropped from her face, she blinked several times in surprise, then she was flying as quickly as possible to the bathroom, covering her mouth to stop herself from puking. The door handle proved difficult, she had to grab it in both hands, bracing her feet against the door to lever it up and flap her wings pretty hard to get it open.

Not bothering to lock it she flew to the sink and let rip. Once her stomach was no longer trying to exit through her mouth she took a moment to compose herself, and wipe her mouth off. Primly she flew back to her seat, made sure her luggage was still there, sat on the windowsill, and smiled at Thad who was busy wiping water off his face with a well used handkerchief. She noticed his water bottle, which had been almost empty, was full.

“That is a really interesting power,” she said as if nothing had happened. “Where are you from?”

“Wyoming. This is actually the furthest I've ever traveled,” he said, focusing on playing with a strap on his book bag.

“This is the furthest I've ever gone to. But we're almost there, so buck up.”

They began talking about classes, cottages and what they expected to see at their new school, which made the time fly by.

**

The train stopped at Dunwich, grabbing her bags, Teri flew onto Thad's shoulder and held onto his ear, while he grabbed his duffel bag and headed for the door. “So how are you getting to school?” she asked.

“A shuttle bus will pick us up here. Didn't you read about it in the introductory packet?”

“Introductory packet?”

He pulled out a thick book, that must have weighed ten times as much as she did. “Everyone is suppose to get this by special delivery.”

“All Mouser gave me was the acceptance letter, the address and the day I was suppose to be here. I was just going to call a taxi.”

He gave her a look.

“What?”

“You just hopped on a train with no idea what was going to happen once you got here?”

“Yeah.” He kept giving her the look. “Hey I ruled my own kingdom for two weeks. I think I can handle a little trip like this.”

“Y-your own kingdom?”

“Yeah,” she said, daring him to object.

“Ok, ok, how about you come with me to the shuttle and we'll go to the school with everyone else?” he asked.

“Sure,” she agreed, happily. “I need to save my money anyways, I'm not sure when another movie role will come up.”

“You were in a movie?”

“Oh yeah, its a great fantasy adventure. I played a really important role.” She started telling him all about the movie while he walked to the waiting room.

Even for a roomful of mutants, some of whom had horns, thorns, vines, scales and fur, she got attention. She ignored them all easily, having spent the last four months with a cat woman who was loud, crazy and all too often sex crazed. And then there had been the Anime convention she'd gone to in early August to do some modeling with Mouser. A room with a little over a dozen teens was next to nothing for her.

“Oh, good a phone. I'll be right back Thad,” she flew over to the phone and grabbed a hold of it one handed. Her PK field which normally just affected her hands, wrapped itself over the receiver making it seem almost weightless, and holding it steady for her. Dialing Mousers cell she waited impatiently for her guardian to pick it up.

"Hello, Mouser Extermination Agency and Child Entertainer, I'll remove your pest and entertain your kids, how can I help you?" a chirpy voice shouted into the phone trying to be heard over a loud grinding sound.

“Mouser, it's me Teri,” she shouted back. “Did you get an introductory package or something from my school a few days after the acceptance letter.”

“Oh, give me a moment to think Butterfly. Right, right, right. I did get that, I was going to give it to you before you left, so you'd have something to read on the way there,” Mouser said.

“Why didn't you?!”

“Well instead of taking the plane, we had our road trip, so I was going to give it to you when you started to get bored. But then we hit the walking scarecrow, and then the Burgermeister got angry with us, and-”

Teri hung up before she started getting flashbacks of the road trip from hell, and banged her head a few times against the phone. Flying back to Thad, she landed on his shoulder and sat down to sulk.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

“My introductory packet is probably circling overhead in low earth orbit right now. Can I borrow yours?”

Thad blinked several times, stuck a finger in his ear to clean it out, and gave his head a good shake. “Did you say it's in low earth orbit?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean it's in space.”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Don't want to talk about it.”

“But why is it in space? HOW did it get into space?”

She grabbed his nostrils, her blue eyes glowed brightly. “If I was old enough to drink, I'd be at the bottom of a bottle of vodka trying to forget the last twenty four hours. If you want to keep your nose intact, give me your introductory packet.”

Not daring to look away from the very scary fairy, Thad reached into his bag and pulled out the introductory packet for her.

“Good boy,” she said, patting his nose. Taking the packet she flew up to a convenient ledge and began reading.

**

Teri skimmed through the introductory packet, with a bit of a sinking sensation in her stomach. Near the front of the book, under GSD, it asked students with severe GSD to contact the school for alternate means of getting there.

She looked at her tiny body, her boneless, fuzzy wings, and her abnormally muscular yet shapely breasts, and decided that she probably did qualify as being a GSD case. Probably a severe one. Shrugging she pushed the thought aside, it was probably nothing, she had made it there relatively intact after all.

Flipping through the rules and regulations, she got a good idea of what was and was not acceptable, as well as the fact that she had to wear a school uniform. Playing with her long purple hair, she wondered where she would find a uniform in her size, and if they would let her wear shorts underneath. Another thing she didn't like was the flags, not being allowed out on certain days, it sounded like a prison. Pulling out a piece of mechanical pencil lead wrapped up in a bit of cloth to keep her hands clean, she began doodling a song bird costume with holes in its back for wings.

She heard a lot of people moving around down below. Putting the book off to the side, she saw that there were at least twenty or thirty students now, and they were grabbing their bags. A well dressed Asian woman was raising her hands to bring some order to everything.

Flying down to land on Thad's shoulder, she gave him back his packet with a big thank you, then shut up to hear what was being said.

“Everyone please wait your turn, once your name is called please get onto the bus in an orderly fashion. If you name is not called out come and speak with me after everyone else is on board,” the woman said.

Thad was one of the first ones called, forcing her to sit on the back of a chair while she waited. With nothing better to do, since her name probably wasn't on the list, she looked at the students getting on board. There was a girl wearing a big hoodie with a face like a frog, a blind girl with a kitten on her shoulder, a guy who looked like Arnold, she wondered how he was young enough to go to high school, and more.

When the last student was getting on the bus, her name still hadn't been called. The woman looked around, and didn't see her. So grabbing her things Teri flew over to her. “Excuse me! You missed me.”

“I'm sorry, you are?”

“Teri Mouser,” she said using the name she'd put on the form.

“You're guardian said that you would be coming by alternate means.”

Teri sighed. “I'm sorry, there were several problems, including a lost introductory packet, so here I am!”

“I see,” the woman said, looking around nervously. “Come on lets get on the bus quickly and we'll get everything sorted out.”

Flying on board, she saw that almost every seat was taken. With no better choice, she flew to the back of the bus and sat on the last seat available, which had a pink backpack covering most of it. There was still plenty of space, so she just sat down and smiled at the pretty girl beside her.

“What the hell are you?” asked the girl, pushing whitish blue hair out of her ocean blue eyes.

“Wonderful. Magnificent. Awesomely beautiful,” she said. “And you are?”

“Serena.”

“OH! Like Sailor Moon! Do you have moon beam powers?” Teri asked, jumping onto the girls arm.

“NO! I'm a water avatar. Now get... get off me,” Serena said, trying to shake her off.

She slid off and sat down with a pout. “Shoot. That would be so cool if you had a moon avatar.” Teri started smiling again. “It's pretty neat how they call the dorms cottages, I'm in Whitman, what cottage are you in?”

“Obviously your a Whitman girl. I'm in Dickinson,” the girl said primly.

Smiling even more broadly, “It's awesome that we'll have roommates. I never had a roommate before, except for my guardian Mouser, she's half cat. I'd be worried if I were you. Your roommate will probably want to borrow your clothes all the time, and your hairbrush, and maybe even your toothbrush,” she shuddered. “Now me I don't have to worry about any of that. Most people would have trouble even finding my toothbrush, much less using it.”

“Could you please shut up?” Serena asked. “I'm getting a headache.”

“What classes do you want to take. I just saw in the introductory packet that they have flying class. I'm a really good flyer already, I had to do a lot of it for my acting career, but I'm going to take it anyways, practice makes perfect after all. Can you fly? I know water doesn't fly normally, but maybe you could be jet propelled if you tried.”

“What?”

“I'm trying to decide if I want to take survival or martial arts. I'm already good at surviving, I've done it for fifteen years already without failing once, so that would be an easy class. But martial arts sounds really useful. I could win a fight without having to drop a shelf on someones head or grabbing their noses and flying really high into the sky and dropping them.”

“Please shut up.”

“Hey do you think they have any boys my size? I had a boyfriend when I was big like you, but now that I'm all svelte and nicely packaged, most guys are just a little too big for me. Do you know any cute guys with a little friend? I'd owe you if you can help me get a boyfriend. I really can't handle a big guy, I don't think there's enough yoga in the world for me to do the really fun stuff.”

Teri kept up the non-stop chatter for the entire bus ride, as Serena gave the impression that her brain was leaking out through her ears. When they finally came to a stop at Whateley, Teri's new best friend ran down the aisle, knocking down anyone who got in her way.

“Bye Serena, I'll find you tonight for supper, OK?” Teri shouted after her. “I really liked her,” she said to herself.

She waited until the bus was almost empty and flew out over the heads of the last few students. Two men wearing uniforms with the words security written on them were standing beside the bus. The Asian woman, Teri hadn't caught the name of, was also there, looking for her apparently.

“Ms. Mouser, would you please go with security, there are some things they'd like to know about your trip to Boston,” the woman said.

“Do I have to?” she whined. “I'd really like to forget everything about it. And if this is about losing the intro packet, I'm really sorry, but its probably burning up in the atmosphere right now.”

That got a strange look from everyone. Fortunately the woman seemed to take it in stride. “Don't worry you're not in trouble, but there are some things that need to be discussed.”

Sigh. “Lead the way.”

**

“IT WAS ALL MOUSER'S FAULT! If she hadn't made that joke about the fish we could have walked away with no problems!” Teri shouted, after finishing her story.

The chief of security, who had introduced himself as Delarose, rubbed his head clearly confused and suffering a headache. A picture from a spy satellite showing a jet propelled pickup truck, with several parachutes strapped to the top, flying out of a burning flying saucer, was on his computer screen.

“Ms. Mouser, do you or your guardian understand that it is not safe to be a mutant? And these displays are dangerous for not only you, but this school and its students?” he asked.

“I didn't want to do it. I told her to keep driving. But do you know how hard it is to get her to do something, anything, sensible?”

“Uh huh. And how do you explain this?” he asked.

A security video started playing, showing Teri wearing a mouse dress, riding a cat, chasing a teenager through a grocery store.

“Well, um... I was trying to sleep and he was making too much noise,” she said, biting her lip and playing with her wings. “I was in a really weird place at the time!”

“Right. And this?” Another picture came up, of her and Mouser at the back of an H1 rally flashing peace signs as an H burned in the background.

“Mouser said it would be fun, and look cool on her Myspace page.”

He rolled his eyes, seemingly unconvinced by her well thought out and articulate answer. “I was informed you don't have an introductory packet, your house mother has a copy for you when you get to your cottage. I want you to read it very closely, especially the rules and regulations while off campus and on red flag days. We won't hold you responsible for actions that are largely the fault of your guardian and done before you arrived on campus, but if you do make a spectacle of yourself or this school to people who are not in the know, you will be punished appropriately. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. As long as you follow the rules, you'll have a good time at Whateley and you won't see me very much.” He stood up and showed her the door. “We have a guide from your cottage waiting outside to show you around the campus. Sorry you missed the regular tour but this was deemed important enough that we needed to clear it up quickly.”

“No problem. It makes me feel special having my own personal tour guide.”

Outside a pretty deer like girl was waiting, wearing a brown dress that matched her soft looking fur. “Hi, Butterfly is it? I'm Psydoe.”

“Actually it's Te-”

There was shouting from the lobby, someone was shouting about a brawl and that they needed Doyles ASAP for an eye injury. They both jumped to the side as security guards charged out from their offices, strapping on guns that were larger than Teri.

“Wow! Does that happen often here?” she asked.

“Only a few times a month usually. Have you eaten lunch yet? We can get your ID and a meal in Crystal Hall the first stop,” Psydoe said, as they walked outside, her hooves tapping gently on the tiled floor.

“Food is good. I need a lot with all the flying I do.”

**

After being shown around campus and seeing a wide variety of students who made an anime convention look normal, Teri was finally able to see her cottage. The house mother Ms. Savage was waiting for her with an introduction packet in her hands.

“Hello Butterfly,” the woman said.

Teri slapped her face, would she ever leave that nickname behind. “It's Teri, or Tink. Not Butterfly,” she said.

“Oh I'm sorry, your file said you liked that name. Teri, we have a special room set up for you and your roommate. If you'll come with me, I'll introduce you to your roommate and show you the special additions to help you out,” Ms. Savage said.

Teri thanked Psydoe and followed the house mother up to the second floor. At the end of the hall was her room. The door looked different from the rest, as there was a tiny shelf with a door just her size at about chest level for a regular person.

“We thought this would make things easier for you. We understand you can open regular doors, so this is the only one that's been modified, I hope that won't be a problem.”

“It's great.”

Stepping inside, it looked like a dorm room from TV, two beds, desks, nightstands, wardrobes and dressers. Her roommate was already all set up if the messy bed was any indication.

“We've given you some small furniture that is more appropriate for your size on top of your dresser and desk. I'm not sure what they will do about your laptop, but we have left enough space for you to use the full size model if you need to.”

Teri flew to the dresser where a chair, desk, wardrobe and dresser sat on the top all made in her size. The desk had a similar arrangement. Both had small LED lights that while not exactly desk lamps to her, were much more manageable than a full size light.

“Thanks! This is great. Have you had other tiny people at the school?” she asked.

“None of them as small as you. But we try to make things easier for our students, within reason,” Ms. Savage told her. “You can add pictures, furniture that is your size, and other things that won't damage the room. You are expected to keep this room tidy, and your clothes can be washed in the basement laundry room. Your clothes can be washed by machine can't they?”

“Most of them. A few I need to get dry cleaned.”

“If I may, where did you get such nice clothes in your size?”

“Anime dolls from Japan and people who make custom doll clothes using all normal materials. They're expensive, but my modeling jobs help pay for them, and when I model clothes for companies and websites they usually let me keep the clothes,” she explained.

“You're a model?”

She nodded. “You wouldn't believe how popular a fairy girl can be online. Mouser got me really good contracts so I get a small flat fee, clothes and if its a website, a share of the advertising profits. And I played a horde of evil fairies in a movie, that should come out in January online.”

“Have you thought about joining Venus Inc?”

“What's that?”

“It's the schools modeling club. They help you find agents, control your image, and get contracts. Several students have gone onto careers in modeling with their help,” Ms. Savage said enthusiastically.

“I'll check it out. But I'm not sure if I'll have enough time, with school work, finding a job for my scholarship, and friends, how much time do I really have?”

Ms. Savage smiled more broadly. “If you are a member of Venus Inc, that actually counts as your after school job. You do have to work at it, and the hours can occasionally be bad, but if you keep it reasonable and under control there shouldn't be any problems.”

“Cool!”

They chatted a bit more, Ms. Savage explained the house rules, and gave a short tour of the cottage, and then there was nothing to do but relax for the few hours before supper was served in Crystal Hall. From the delicious if small late lunch she'd had with Psydoe there, Teri couldn't wait for supper.

She read through the introduction package for over an hour when she remembered she had to make a phone call.

Taking a quick trip to the row of phones downstairs, she made a quick call to Glow Worm back in Lincoln Nebraska, letting him and the rest of the Lincoln Freedom Squad she'd made it alright, as well as her cottage and room number so they could ship a present she'd bought for herself to her. With her limited space for carrying things she hadn't wanted to risk breaking such an expensive toy that would be very helpful for taking notes.

Flying back to her room, the door was open. Smiling she put on a burst of speed to meet her roommate.

“Aw dammit!” she and Serena shouted at the same time.

“You're my roommate?!” they said in stereo.

“I thought you were in Dickinson?”

“There was a mistake,” she said in a resigned voice. “I got told I was suppose to be here after doing the whole tour with Dickinson. Then I got here and I was told this was the last room available.”

She flew to the girls shoulder and patted her on the back. “Ouch, that sucks. Well at least I won't be able to borrow most of your stuff. And I did say I'd find you for supper. Want to join me?”

“I guess so. Just don't talk about anime, or boyfriends, or that weird mole on your back, I heard enough of that on the bus.”

“Sure thing.”

They headed out the door and were at the stairs when a cat girl with big ears, and golden brown fur came walking up the stairs talking with a girl who's skin looked like outer space, right down to stars and galaxies.

“Kitty!” Teri screamed, body checking the girl and rubbing her face in the soft fur.

“Did someone lose a familiar?” the cat asked, trying to crane her head back far enough to see the thing hanging from her neck.

“Oh your fur feels even softer then Mousers'. I'm Teri, a freshman here. What's your name?” she asked, not letting go of the girl.

Cat girl picked Teri off by the back of her shirt, holding her up like a strange new animal. “Miyet. My roommate and I need to go see our dorm now Teri. It was... interesting meeting you.” Putting Teri down on the banister, Miyet practically ran up the stairs.

“I like her,” Teri said to Serena, who was hiding her head in her hands.

**

They reached Crystal Hall which was full of people half of whom were staring around in wonder, and the rest talking with old and new friends. Getting in line, they had a wide selection of fast and easy comfort foods, hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, pizza, and sub sandwiches. Teri got quite a few looks when she took a burger as big as she was, along with a small pile of sweet potato fries. Serena got the same, in almost the exact same proportions.

“Do you see a free table?” Serena asked.

Teri flew up and saw Thad sitting off in a corner with another boy. “Follow me!” she shouted down to her roommate.

They made their way through the crowd, Teri having a much easier time of it than Serena. Finally they reached the Thad's table, he was sitting with a boy who's hair was made of leaves and his skin looked like smooth white birch bark. “Hi Thad! Can we sit with you guys?” she asked.

“Um, uh, yeah, sure,” he answered, looking at her nervously.

“Thanks. This is my roommate Serena. Serena, this is Thad.” Placing her tray on the table, she slipped off her shoes and sat on the edge of the tray, nibbling on a fry almost as long as she was.

“Hi Serena,” Thad said a lot more comfortably. “This is my roommate, Sap.”

Sap nodded at Serena, blushing and seemingly unable to speak.

“What can you do, Serena?” Thad asked.

“I'm a water avatar. I have really great reflexes, and I can move my body around like I have water for bones, and breath water. I'm also a great swimmer,” she said proudly. “What about you two?”

“Cool. I can make any type of natural liquid.”

“We DON'T need to see it done!” Teri exclaimed, earning a confused look from Serena.

Sap finally found his tongue. “I can control plants. Speeding them up, slowing them down, make sure they're healthy or kill them, nothing too impressive.” He took a seed from his pocket, and in a few seconds he had a rose in full bloom.

“That's interesting,” Serena said, not taking the flower. “Teri you never told me your powers.”

“PK field, regeneration, flying, and night vision,” she said, grabbing another fry.

They talked about their impressions of the school, favourable; classes, cool; and rooms, neat.

As they were leaving, Teri took to the air and a young girl in a floor length cape over top of normal street clothes looked up in surprise. “Ok, who let the hobgoblin in here?” she asked.

Teri looked around to see what the girl was talking about, when something zapped her, sending her tumbling to the floor. She laid there for a moment trying to remember what breathing was. Some people were yelling angrily. Getting to her feet, she jumped into the air and got between Serena and the witch.

“What the hell was that about?!” she yelled.

“You're... you're not a hobgoblin?” the girl asked dumbly.

“Do I look like a hobgoblin!”

The girl nodded, her eyes going from Teri's eyes to her chest and back again, repeatedly.

Looking down, Teri saw that the front of her dress was gone. And since she couldn't find a bra that worked with her wings to save her life, her stacked chest was there for everyone to see. With a little eep of embarrassment, she grabbed witchy's shirt yanked it off and wrapped herself in it, leaving the girl standing there in a lacy pink bra, her cape, and a black skirt.

Witch girl jumped her, trying to get her shirt back, and the fight was on.

Serena got in the way of one of witch girls friends who was moving in to help, flattening and stretching her limbs to wrap the girl up. Thad rubbed his hands together coating the floor in something slippery, that sent the girls three other friends tumbling to the ground.

And Sap threw the remains of his pizza at witchy, missing her completely and hitting another table.

The resulting food fight was one of the largest first day food fights on record.

**

Teri sat in front of Chief Delarose for the second time that day. This time she was wearing pizza stained skin tight shorts, and a wash cloth with a hole cut in it for a makeshift dress. Her hair was a mess of food and grease.

“What did I tell you about following the rules?” Delarose asked.

“She shot me! And destroyed my dress! That was literally one of a kind.”

His look let her know what he thought of that excuse. “And you couldn't go to security with a complaint, you had to rip her shirt off?”

“I was there practically naked, I panicked. Come on, she at least had a bra on, I can't even wear one with these wings of mine.”

“Uh huh. And why did you leave Lamia hanging by her bra from the light fixture with one stocking in her mouth and the other tying her hands together?”

“It seemed like the best way to end the fight. She kept casting spells and stuff, and tackling me. It was better than trying to knock her out, that's dangerous with my strength,” she said innocently.

“Detention for a week at Hawthorne,” he said. “It would be longer, but you were provoked.”

“What will I be doing there?” she asked.

“Whatever Mrs. Cantrell, the house mother decides. I hope you like scrubbing.”

“With this hair,” she pointed at her hair which hung down to her waist, “not really.”

**

She took a long bath once she got back to Whitman, filling a basin she'd bought during the tour, with hot water and bubbles, and placing it in an out of the way corner of the shower area, since having a shower was right out. Some of the girls seemed jealous as she relaxed in what to her was a massive tub.

Cleaned up and ready to hit the hay, she jumped onto her pillow and pulled a silk scarf over herself for a blanket. She looked over at Serena was sitting on her bed writing in her diary.

“Thanks for helping out Serena. Sorry about annoying you on the bus.”

“No problem, I wasn't exactly polite. Just please don't get into another fight, my parents are mad enough at how much they're paying me to be here. If I get detention or worse I'll never hear the end of it,” she groaned.

“I'll try my best, but no promises.”