And now I'm switching back to Mondays! I think at this rate you can expect updates on either Monday or Saturday. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up this pace, though. School has been throwing things at me faster than I can handle them, so all I have of Chapter Seven is a few paragraphs and some scribbled frustration. Still, I hope you like this!

Oh, and I think I should mention – I did not do ANY of the Spanish translations! That was done by my good friend David, or Planet Cool. I'll include translations of Luisa's dialogue at the end of the chapter. She gets chatty in this one!

Chapter Four
End of the Line

Only a few moments after she had entered, Sissi flew out of the bathroom door, clothes still in hand. The hallway was as long as it was plain, with more than thirty classrooms and still more offices and broom closets spread across either side. The shower line, now all occupied by people with seven o'clock shower times in various states of undress, extended most of the way down of the hall. Sissi bypassed the entire line and ran right to Rooms 415 and 416, which appeared to be laboratory rooms. A large, muscular teacher, whose name tag identified her as the school nurse, stood guard before the door.

Sissi skidded to a halt in front of the woman, dropping her clothes and putting her hands on her knees. "Let me in, let me in!" she managed to pant and yell at the same time.

The nurse's stern facial expression did not change. "End of the line," she said in very broken French.

"No no no no no no no!" she yelled even louder. "My shower time was six o' clock, and it's-" She looked at her watch, and then shoved it in her face. "Six fifty-nine! You have to let me in ahead of them!"

Some of the people at the front of the line laughed and jeered at her, while others grumbled and swore. There was such a cacophony that Sissi couldn't accurately understand any of them.

"Number?" the nurse said.

"Six o' clock! Let me in!"

"She was talking to me, sweetheart," the man at the front of the line said, letting Sissi know why she could hear him so clearly. "411-7."

The nurse waved him ahead to Room 422. Sissi paid the man no heed; the nurse was looking away from Room 424 to assist the rest of the line, and while she was thus distracted, she made a flying leap for the door. The line gave a shout, and before Sissi could move another step, the nurse had her in a vicegrip. "End of the line!" she thundered.

"No!" Sissi thrashed against the woman, but made no headway, as the nurse's arms were about as thick as Sissi's whole body. "What's the big deal? It's just a shower!"

"Yeah, what is the big deal, sweetheart?" The man from the front of the line, for some unfathomable reason, leaned back out the door of Room 422. "It's just a shower."

Most of the first half of the line laughed behind them – all but the few at the very front of the line. They were not only impatient at the delay, but had joined the nurse in trying their hardest not to gawk at the man.

Sissi had no designs of politeness and gawked all she could. The entire right side of the man's body was splattered with scar tissue, and much of the skin on his right arm, right leg, neck, and face was brown, wrinkled, and blistering. A large splash of the scarring ran across his right eye socket, and there were only stitches where the eye should have been. His left eye was intact, but clouded; it was clear he could not see very well out of it.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" The man's good eye was trained on Sissi, and he did not seem to have noticed the rest of his onlookers. "Haven't you ever seen a dead man before?"

Sissi looked every which way, but saw nothing she liked in any direction. Her fear strangled all other motivation, and she was all ready to retort with a comment about the man's scars when the door to Room 424 opened. Sandrine and Luisa stepped out, both soaked through, and looked right at Sissi and the scarred man. Sandrine was wearing a shirt and sweatpants, while Luisa had only a towel on.

"Sissi!" Sandrine ran over next to the restrained girl, who turned away from her. "What's going on?"

"Nothing for anyone that does the right thing," the scarred man jeered. The rest of the line shouted their agreement. "She was cutting in front of us!" "She's holding things up even now!" "This is a school, isn't it? Write her up or summat!"

"And is it your duty to heckle her for it?" Sandrine shot right back. Luisa, who only understood that a strange man had been threatening Sissi, turned right round and launched a torrent of rapid Spanish at him. Clearly not understanding a word, the man calmly put his hands up and backed away into Room 422, closing the door behind him.

That taken care of, Sandrine looked up at the nurse, who was about a foot taller than she was. "We'll take care of her, ma'am." She took Sissi's hand to make the point clear.

The nurse nodded, and released Sissi. She went back to her station and began typing something into a laptop that lay there. "Next," she said, in a fairly undisturbed tone.

Sandrine's grip on Sissi's hand became iron, and she marched her several feet down the hallway, with some difficulty. Luisa tried as well as she could to catch up with her, jabbering as she waddled through the hall. "¿Qué estaba haciendo ese hombre? ¿Te dijo algo indecente?"

"Let go of me!" Sissi tried to wrench her hand out of Sandrine's, but couldn't without dropping her clothes, which she did not want to do.

"Si te amenazó, voy a traer al hombre mas grande de toda la escuela, y…"

"We're going back to the room," Sandrine said in her best personal-impersonal tone. "I think your father needs to-"

"NO!" Sissi sat down right in the middle of the hallway, pulling Sandrine down with her. Sandrine stumbled, but was able to kneel down by Sissi without any major injuries. Luisa crouched down next to them, looking both confused and concerned.

"Sissi, what's wrong?" Sandrine sounded concerned, but her tone had a touch of impatience.

"I'm not ever going back to that room," Sissi choked. Tears had appeared at the corners of her eyes. "Never, never. I'll sleep in the hallways. I'll sleep in the showers, forever if I have to."

"Sissi, if there's a problem, we can talk it over with your father, or with Martha." Sandrine tried to touch Sissi's face, but as she froze under her touch, she moved her hand away. "Just tell us what's wrong, so we can help you."

"I'm not ever going back to that room," Sissi repeated. "He…I…it's just…"

"Sissi." Luisa took Sissi's shoulder and pulled her toward herself. "Mírate nada más. Estás tan molesta, no puedes ni mentír bien. Ya sé la verdad. El ojo del diablo no te vá a dejar en paz mientras sus victimas sigan contigo." With one hand on Sissi's shoulder, Luisa struggled to keep her towel up, but her eyes were full of determination. "El ojo del diablo se llevo la cara de él y el alma de ella, y tienes miedo de que se lleve algo tuyo, también. ¡Qué ridículo! Siempre habrán diablos, pero siempre habrán valientes también. Tú eres valiente, pero si no te concentras en luchar contra el ojo del diablo, me vas a decepcionar."

Sissi blinked; her words were all a jumble in her head. "Um, yes?"

Luisa nodded, and gave Sissi a mischievous grin. She turned to Sandrine and summed up all that she had said with, "La niña."

Sandrine's whole face changed at those words. She opened her mouth to speak, but in the short time Sissi had known Sandrine, she knew that whatever she said would be exactly what she had heard a hundred times. "Um," she said, "I'm sorry, I think I'm just…I didn't mean all of that, of course. I think I just need to take a walk. A short walk, alone, and then I'll come right back to the room. You understand me, right, Luisa? Walk? El walko?"

She made a walking motion with her fingers. Luisa caught on and nodded at Sandrine, who looked more confused than convinced. "I don't know…"

"My father would let me," Sissi said. "Go on ahead, go and ask him."

"Well…if you do think it'll help you," Sandrine finally said. "But for God's sake, be decent."

"Of course. I'm okay, I'll be okay." She calmed her face and put on a smile, looking so convincing that Sandrine actually believed her. She gathered her clothes, gave them both one final smile, and set off back for the bathrooms to change.

Once she was out of earshot, Luisa turned to Sandrine. "Esa mujer está escribiendo un reporte." She made a typing motion with her free hand.

"I wouldn't have let her go if she hadn't," Sandrine said. "I don't fix other peoples' children. Oh, we'd better hurry. They're all going to breakfast."

For a second time that day, more than she was ordinarily used to, Sissi was true to her word. She changed into another long, grey T-shirt and jeans in a bathroom stall, stashed her pajamas in a broom closet in order to avoid having to return to her room, and, from there, began to wander. She didn't want to stay on the fourth floor, so she walked the short distance to the north stairs and opened the doors. The stairwell was full of groups and families all heading downstairs, so she went upstairs, becoming the subject of many odd looks.

The fifth floor looked much the same as the fourth, both in architecture and in setup – families in classrooms and a long shower line in the hallway. This Sissi walked through, keeping her head down. For a split second Sissi considered getting into the shower line, but decided that if everyone already thought she was insane, she may as well be dirty to go with it.

When she reached the other side, she got back into the stairwell. There was no level above the fifth, only custodial access to the roof by way of a stepladder. Sissi was reluctant to use her arms so early in the morning, so she walked down, bypassing the fourth floor without so much as a look.

The third floor was the same as the fourth and fifth. The second also had much the same setup, but with one vital difference – there were no children or families, but only lone adults. More than on any other floor, the people here had injuries visible, whether they were acid splashes like the scarred man – though all less severe than his – or, far more commonly, the small, round pockmarks of laser burns. One man was missing a whole arm. Sissi stared dumb at this scene until a woman asked her if she was lost, whereupon she ran down the stairs to the first floor.

She came out on the opposite side of the building from where she came in, and found herself in a large, spacious hallway full of bulletin boards advertising long-expired school events. There were several posterboard signs taped to the wall in front of her, printed in French and English. One read "GYM, SHOWERS" and pointed left, the other read "FOOD, W.C., LIBRARY, REGISTRY" and pointed right. They were by far the quietest and most still things she could see, as the hallway was full to the brim with children – more children than Sissi had ever seen alone in one place in a long time.

They were of all shapes, sizes, and ages, from stumbling toddlers to teenagers older than her. Most of them were walking to the left, walking to the right, leaning against the walls and talking to each other, or running around at some game or another. Some were sitting on the line of empty mattresses that stretched all the way down the hall to the gym, which was hard to see from that distance. Desperate to walk somewhere, she joined the crowd going to the gym.

She was not sure whether to be relieved or angered that she did not attract any attention in the hall. Most of the kids were as dirty and disheveled as she was; if a boy or girl was perfectly coiffed and assembled, he or she was also wearing the Avenshire uniform. These students, obviously recruited to help, mostly stayed in tight-knit groups, speaking placidly to each other in English as they avoided the French refugees' eyes. But, scattered here and there in the crowd, the aged, smiling Sacred Heart sisters were actually doing work, whether it was carrying babies, comforting crying children, or telling off half-dressed pairs of teenagers for being on the same mattress.

When Sissi reached the door of the gym, she found it would be impossible to venture inside without stepping on someone's mattress, as the room was covered wall-to-wall with them. There was much the same scene inside as there was outside, except far quieter, as most of the people inside were still asleep. Still, Sissi was hypnotized by the movement in the room, and watched for a while. Everyone was with someone else; no one ever seemed to be alone. Even the little red-haired girl by the door, who was just barely stirring, had two or three girls beside her, poking and prodding her further awake. Sissi looked at this girl with disinterest for a second, and then did a double take, just in time for her to open one bleary eye and look right at her.

"Do you need something, dear?" an old woman's voice said suddenly. Sissi whipped around to see one of the sisters smiling next to her.

"Well, no, I, uh…" Sissi looked from the sister back to the girl, who had looked away, and then determinedly back at the sister. "I'm from upstairs. I was just exploring. I'll leave now-"

"Oh, that's quite alright. You're welcome to look around, socialize, anything you want." She pointed down the hall. "Or, if you're looking for something to do, we've got a movie playing down that way right now, and the end doors are open if you want to go outside. And, of course, the cafeteria is in the north wing if you're looking to get breakfast at your time."

"Right, of course! I think I'll go…something. Okay, thank you!" With a giant grin, Sissi walked swiftly away, taking deep breaths to calm herself. The sister waved after her, but she did not bother to see it. All that mattered to her was getting as far away from the gym as possible.

This branch hallway was far emptier than any of the others, and only one door on it was open, leading to the small classroom where the movie was playing. Out of curiosity, Sissi ducked inside, but found herself disappointed. The movie was the most recent Astérix film, a series of which she had never been much of a fan, and she was by far the oldest person of the five in the room. She tolerated the movie for about three minutes before she raced out to the end double doors, which she presumed led outside to the grounds.

The doors were something of a back exit, having no outside handle, but she was right all the same. Sissi stepped out, blinked her eyes a few times against the sun, and then began walking without aim or destination, all around the school. This day was just as beautiful as the last, though somewhat cloudier, quite cold, and far quieter, now that the caravans were gone. The campus lawns were lush, green, and completely empty bar a large, gnarled oak tree, which Sissi passed twice in her rounds.

Finally, her legs too sore to go on, she sat under the oak tree, head between her knees. She began to hear a pounding in her feet, and knew it would do nothing to ease the pounding in her head. She knew, somewhere, that she was being ridiculous. There must have been thousands of little red-haired girls in France alone, and the possibility that one certain little red-haired girl, especially one from Boulogne-Billancourt, could make it all the way to Dublin was horribly, horribly slim. But it didn't even really matter who it was, because the walk was doing nothing and Dublin was doing nothing and she had done nothing, nothing at all, not even when the demon eye stared her right in the face and everyone around her was begging for mercy…

After a few moments, a loud shout crushed her heavy memories. She looked up to see a gang of boys walking out of the front hall entrance some metres away. They were all about her age, if somewhat older, and all four of them were wearing the Avenshire uniform. They were having some sort of contest under the front awning – they were each trying to jump and grab the top. They were at this for several minutes before one of them, the one jumping, happened to look over at the oak tree. He stopped jumping, gathered his fellows, and said something to them in English. They all replied enthusiastically, and changed their course to head for her. Sissi grumbled and stood up, prepared to flee if she had to – but also to stay if she must.

[Hey,] one of the boys said, leaning on the tree next to her. [Nice weather we're having, huh?]

Sissi blinked, and shuffled defensively. This boy was somewhat cute – scruffy blond hair, nice teeth – but she knew a leer when she saw one.

[Aw, back off, Keagan, you're scarin' her with your ugly face,] a taller, dark-haired boy said. The boy by his side, who could not have been anything but his twin, laughed hoarsely. They had her surrounded on all sides – there was no way she could fight them off if she had to, and no one could hear her scream from outside.

[Well, at least I ain't got two of 'em, like you lot.] Keagan leaned in even closer. [Don't worry, love. We ain't all like them two.] He laughed with much the same laugh as the twins. It was clear to Sissi that he knew she couldn't understand him, so she just glared at him.

[Oi, I saw her first. Let me have a turn.] The final boy, a large, meaty creature, pushed Keagan out of the way. He adopted his leer, and pointed to himself. [Hey, don't be scared, poodle-skirt. I'm Gilligan, and I'm the nice one.]

[Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip,] one of the twins began singing gleefully. [That started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship-]

[Shadap!] Gilligan barked at his friend. [So you can't speak English, is that it, poodle-skirt? Lucky for you, I happen to know some French. Croissant? Fromage? Ooh la la et we surrender?]

The twins laughed uproariously. [Ey, no,] Keagan said. [Maybe she's one of the Spanish ones.]

[Oy,] Gilligan's face lit up. [Fiesta, fiesta, ay caramba!]

The peanut gallery laughed even harder, but Sissi was not amused. She looked Gilligan right in the eye. She couldn't find any way out, physically or verbally, so she held up her right hand and made a gesture all five of them could understand.

[Oooooh!] Keagan and the twins were no longer laughing – they looked impressed. Gilligan just grinned even wider. [Well how about that, a connection is made! I like you, poodle-skirt. You're feisty. Twisted. We need more girls like that around here.] The large boy leaned down to her level and reached for her chin. She slapped him away. [If you're so good with your hands I'd like to see what you can do with your mouth. Oi, Ken, Bradley. Go to the dorms and get me Union Jack.]

[No need, Gill.] One of the twins, whether Ken or Bradley Sissi could not tell, pointed at the awning. [Union Jack's right there.]

The twin raced off to the awning. Sissi tried again to walk away from the boys, but they kept following her all the way around the tree, unwilling to let their game escape. Some seconds later, Ken or Bradley returned, leading another boy in Avenshire dress some steps behind. He was of about average height and handsome-faced, with dark blue eyes and messy hair of the same hue. He was looking around, taking in the scene before him, and looking both confused and displeased.

[Union Jack knows French,] Gilligan explained. Sissi half-understood this, and felt bile rising in her throat. Gilligan left her with the twins by the tree and approached the boy. [Ay, Jack,] he said in a very jovial tone. [Good to see you out and about. It's way too depressing to be in the school anymore, isn't it?]

[Just get to the point, Harvey,] Union Jack said. He had a different accent than the other boys, and his voice was deep and commandeering.

[Right, the point!] Gilligan pointed over at Sissi. [We found poodle-skirt here outside, and we've been trying to make good with her – maybe even invite her to Friday's thing. Thing is, we don't know French, and she doesn't know English. This is where you come in, Union Jack. You need to be our mediator, our saving angel, so as it is.]

Union Jack mouthed [Poodle skirt?] with disbelief. He looked about ready to give a negative reply, but before he could, he caught a good look at Sissi, who looked far more angry than she did scared. His eyebrows flew up, but the rest of his face relaxed. [Go ahead. Just tell me what I need to tell her.]

[Good boy, Jackie.] Gilligan grabbed Union Jack by the arm and dragged him over to Sissi. [Here she is. Ask her name.]

Union Jack turned to Sissi, whose hard face grew harder. "He wants to know your name. What's really going on?"

"None of your business," Sissi spat.

"Funny, that was what I was going to say." Union Jack turned back to Gilligan. [She says it's none of your business.]

Keagan and the twins snorted. Gilligan tried not to look ruffled. [Well, to hell with names. I've got one for poodle-skirt and it works for me. Anyway, tell her I think she's cute, and I think I'd like to see more of her. Tell her about the dance in the dorms on Friday. Tell her I wouldn't mind if she came along.]

Union Jack turned to Sissi. "He says he's a pompous lech who's so lonely and frustrated he has to resort to harassing people to get them to like him."

Sissi cocked an eyebrow. "What's he really saying?"

"There's a dance we're putting on in the dorms on Friday. Nothing fancy, just a grind-fest, but everyone of Avenshire age is invited. He wants you to go with him."

"May as well be what you said. Tell him to go jump in a lake."

Union Jack turned to Gilligan. [She says forget that, she'll meet you under this tree at midnight. Wear something nice.]

Gilligan leered, and everyone laughed. [Tell her the same, if she has anything nice left.]

"I told him to meet you out here at midnight. That's when the sprinklers come on. Or they should, I'm not sure if they turned them off."

"Better you than me when he finds out," Sissi replied. Union Jack was unfazed.

[Oh, hey!] Keagan leaned down next to Union Jack. [Ask her 'bout the creatures. How big were they, really? Did she see someone get blown to bits? What was it like?]

Union Jack's face contorted. "He says he has a horrible, disfiguring rash in certain unspeakable regions and would very much like to be taken to a hospital."

Sissi didn't want to smile, but she couldn't help it, which confused the four boys. Ken or Bradley had an odd look on his face. [Hey, wait a second!] he cut in. [That wasn't anything bout the creatures at all! Something about a hospital or whatever.]

Gilligan's face grew hard. [Have you been messing with us, Jack? I wouldn't put it past you.]

[Did I have to?] Union Jack smirked at them. [You were screwed the second I saw you out here. Remember what Sister Grace said about people who skip their shifts? Ten rosaries, a day in the kitchen, and written apologies, if you forgot, and bloody boring if you ask me. If you hurry back, maybe you'll avoid that and I won't have to tell them you were harassing one of the refugees.]

Looks of horror came over Keagan, Ken, and Bradley's faces, and they ditched Gilligan for the school. Gilligan looked from one grin to the other, his own dissolving into rage. [You're lucky she's here, Union Jack. I'm not violent in front of a lady. But tonight, you're dead.] He made a rude gesture similar to Sissi's, but Union Jack only shrugged. Finally, he too had to run back to the school.

Sissi stared after Gillgan's retreating back, in shock and awe at what had just happened. Union Jack lay back in the grass next to her, laughing his head off. "Look at him run," he said. "He wasn't kidding about killing me, but that's no big deal at all. At least he's not bothering you anymore."

"Laugh all you want, Mr. Hero," Sissi cut in sardonically, standing up on her own. She wasn't hurt, but her pride was. "Just so you know, I'm not some damsel in distress that needs saving all the time. I could have taken them on if I wanted to."

"I'd love to say you're wrong, but I saw you earlier. Not many people could give Harvey Gilligan the bird and live to tell the tale." He stood up to be at her level, but she did not react. "By the way, the other three are named Keagan O'Malley and Ken and Bradley Young. Drop their names to any sister you want and you can exact some nice, institutional revenge."

"I don't like talking to the sisters," Sissi said. "You're their student, you do it."

"Me, reporting delinquents to the sisters?" Union Jack laughed. "I'd be the biggest hypocrite for miles. No, the sisters are nice enough if you're on their good side, but I'm not on their good side."

"I don't think you're on anyone's good side, Union Jack."

Union Jack's eyebrows narrowed. "You know, that's not my name."

"But it sounds like a name, and they were calling you that."

"Think more closely. You know, the Union Jack? The British flag? I'm from the UK, so they call me Union Jack."

"And they aren't?"

Union Jack groaned. "How many times do I have to tell people this? Ireland isn't Britain."

"Yes it is," Sissi said, counting off countries on her fingers. "England, Scotland, that other one, Ireland…"

"Northern Ireland," he said. "You could say that to some people down here and get killed, so be careful. And "that other one" is Wales, which is where I'm from, so be extra careful."

There was an awkward silence. Sissi tried to open her mouth to dissipate it, but Union Jack got there first. "You know, I wasn't lying about the dance on Friday."

Sissi's face grew grim. "Oh?"

"Yeah…" Union Jack's voice lost its enthusiasm. "They're going to go around and tell the rooms tomorrow…just a sort of welcome thing, you know…for you guys. I'm supposed to tell people," he added hastily.

Sissi nodded. "Well, Jack, I appreciate you playing hero for me earlier, but I can't say I'm in the mood to be flirted with, and especially not for dances. So keep walking, go turn your little charms on someone else, and please don't come looking for me. Especially not at the dance, because I'm not going."

Union Jack's voice became defensive. "What's your problem with dances?"

"I've got a lot of problems," Sissi hissed. "And dances are every single one of them."

She turned on her heel and headed for the awning. Union Jack, still miffed, followed after her. "Wait, come back! At least tell me your name!" he called, but it was too late – she had run back inside. With nothing to do for half an hour, he grumbled and returned to his spot by the awning. There, he slowly took a crumpled, scribbled piece of paper out of his pocket, pressed it against the wall, and stared at it with determination.

By the time Sissi returned to Room 404, breakfast had not only been retrieved, but also finished, cleaned up, and nearly forgotten. She narrowly avoided stepping in her own as she walked in, and resisted the temptation to kick it anyway. Martha had returned, and was playing with Hiroki and the Mermond girls, but the Mermond adults were gone. Luisa was catching a nap on her mattress. Takeo was also missing, leaving Akiko to sit by her daughter and brush her hair.

Magali, Lucille, and Céline called enthusiastically to her when she came in, but she paid them no heed. She only followed everyone else's glances to her father, who was sitting on the edge of his mattress, patiently waiting for her to come to him.

"There must have been a long line at the bathroom," he said with disarming calm.

"Mhm," Sissi replied, quickly looking away from him. She sat down on her own mattress and turned her face toward the wall. It was cracked slightly, and a poster explaining Spanish emotion words hung next to the crack. She tried to focus on that for as long as she could.

She heard shuffling behind her. "One of the sisters came in looking for you earlier. Sister Grace, her name was. I told her you'd be back by noon, so she'll be back then to speak to you."

"About what?"

"About wha-" Mr. Delmas made an odd, strangled noise. "You know very well what I'm talking about. Sissi, come into the hall with me." He waited for a moment. Sissi did not respond. "Come into the hall with me," he repeated.

"You can go, I'll stay here."

"No-" He turned his daughter to face him. "I thought we went over this, Sissi. Nothing in the world gives you the right to make things more difficult for the people who are sacrificing everything to help us-"

"If she's coming back to punish me you don't have to do it for her," Sissi interrupted with a hard look.

Mr. Delmas made another strangled noise, and then, after some thought, a sigh. "No one needs to tell you that you can't attack the school nurse."

"I did not attack her!" Sissi yelled, prompting almost everyone in the room to look at her. Mr. Delmas hushed her and gave an uncertain look to the rest of the room. Sissi continued in a whisper. "She could have crushed me to death– It was just a shower–"

"Yes, it was just a shower. Sissi-" At the sound of his words, Sissi's eyes went wide. She covered her head with her hands and let out a loud, forceful wail. Mr. Delmas was frozen for several seconds, debating the best course of action. Finally, he grabbed Sissi's arms and pulled her hands off of her face. Sissi stopped pretending to cry immediately, too shocked to speak. "Sissi, if you won't listen to anything else I say, please listen to this. No matter how…how things are, we can't lose our heads. Our sanity, our education, problem solving – they're the best things we have. Have you perhaps noticed that the Mermonds and Mr. Ishiyama are not in the room?"

Sissi looked up slowly and nodded. Mr. Delmas went on. "The school has caravans going into Dublin, and they're there now, looking for work. I would be with them, but…" He was interrupted by a loud roar from several floors below. Unable to speak to each other, the room watched in silence as several caravans rumbled off school grounds. "But, I have other responsibilities for today." His face grew hard. "We're never going to get any money for ourselves if we don't move forward, and if I have to stay here and indulge you every time you think you want to act out, then we may as well stay here forever."

Mr. Delmas looked over at the rest of the room. Both Martha and Akiko were giving him odd looks, but he ignored them. "Your breakfast is over there," he said with an air of finality. "I'm sorry if it's cold, but you do need to eat it. Then read a book, or play with the girls. Keep yourself busy. Keep yourself thinking."

He stood up – for him, the case was closed, but words bounced in Sissi's head, unable to find any real mooring. Entirely against her will, Sissi found her gaze drifting to where Akiko sat, still brushing Yumi's hair. Every time the brush went through her shoulder-length hair, her head would jerk back and forth, back and forth, again and again and again. "I'm not going to forget about it," she finally said. She began in a whisper, but her volume slowly began to rise. "Not about home, not about Boulogne-Billancourt, not about Kadic or the auditorium or Belpois or Della Robbia or Ul-"

"Don't insult me!" Mr. Delmas barked, silencing her again. His face had turned red in an instant. At this sound, Martha excused herself from the children and made her way to the Delmas camp. "I haven't forgotten, and I will never, ever forget. But there is a past, and there is a future. We can't think about both at the same time." [Everything is fine, Martha. Though, if you could go tell Sister Grace that my daughter has returned, it would be a great favor to both of us.]

Martha gritted her teeth for a moment, then nodded to Mr. Delmas and left the room. Mr. Delmas looked from the door over to the Mermond camp. "The children don't have anyone to play with anymore," he observed. With that, he left his camp and moved over to the Ishiyama camp, leaving Sissi alone. He stood some feet away from Mrs. Ishiyama, and began speaking to her in low tones.

Intense! Now here are some translations:

"What was that man doing? Did he say anything indecent to you?"

"If he threatened you at all I will find the biggest man in this whole school-"

"Look at you. You're so upset you can't even lie correctly. I know the truth, now. You're not safe from the demon eye as long as his victims are around you." "The demon eye took his face and it took her soul, and you're afraid that the demon eye will take something of yours, as well. This is ridiculous. There will always be demons, but there will also always be fighters. You are a fighter, but if your energy is not put to fighting the demon eye I will be very disappointed in you."

"The girl."

"That woman was typing a report."

Bye!

- Carth