"Stop fiddling with it," Grim said for the third time that morning. He and Parker were still adjusting to the uniforms Crowley dropped off as they headed towards the dining hall. Or rather, Parker was. Where Grim accepted his collar with not a little pride, Parker couldn't stop pulling at the messy knot that was supposed to be her tie. Between that and adjusting the hat she still used to hide her hair, she was a fidgeting mess.

Parker frowned, "I don't usually wear ties."

Grim raised his head to the air, "Its an embarrassment really. My underling shouldn't be so unkempt, y'know?"

"Underling?"

"Hurry up, human. I'm hungry." Grim sauntered ahead into the dining room. Parker's frown became a scowl as she wondered how much trouble she'd be in if Grim were made into a nice pair of mittens. Not much, she hoped, because if she had to endure being looked down on by a talking cat-

"Parker!" Ace's voice cut into her thoughts. She spotted him at a secluded table where Deuce was already eating his own breakfast. No one else sat with them, but students were claiming seats every second. She hurried over, hoping to have at least a few minutes of privacy before someone else populated the table.

"Hey," She settled into the seat across from them while Grim hopped next to her.

"Did Headmaster give you a schedule?" Deuce asked.

Parker reached into the pocket of her blazer and pulled it out. Ace wasted no time in snatching it up so that he and Deuce could have a better look. They went through the list of courses one by one, listing off professors and subjects like Magic History and Animal Languages.

When Parker first saw her classes, she'd laughed herself hoarse until Headmaster Crowley asked what was the matter. Her laughter faded fast once she realized the class titles were indeed serious.

Deuce handed her back the schedule, "These shouldn't be too bad. If we sit in the back it won't be hard to blend in."

Alright, she shrugged. If he said so. Parker tilted the bill of her hat further over her eyes, then dropped her hand when she caught sight of Ace's and Deuce's faces, "What?"

Ace gestured to her cap, "Is that really how you plan on wearing that?"

That was the last thing she expected to hear. What was wrong with her hat?

"It hides my face," she said.

Ace's lips curled into a smirk, "Your face isn't the problem."

"He's right," Deuce gestured in front of his own forehead to indicate the bill of her hat, "It looks like you're hiding something."

"I am."

Ace sighed, "First rule of disguise: you gotta look natural. Hold on."

The red head sat beside her and spun the hat so the bill covered the nape of her neck, "There."

"Really?" Parker said, "I look stupid."

"You look like you don't care," Ace corrected, giving her a quick once over. His eyes landed on the mess she'd managed to make of her tie, "What the hell?"

Parker's hand found the knot without needing to look. After being harassed about it all morning, it had become a tender point, "I don't… know how to tie a tie, alright?"

"Disgrace," Grim said around a mouthful of tuna, "a complete disgrace."

The thought of cat-fur mittens resurfaced in Parker's mind, "I can drop out of school right now."

That was enough to shut Grim up. For now, at least. There wasn't a doubt in her mind he'd find other things to bother her about.

"Here," Ace's expression shifted as he worked the tie into a simple Windsor knot, careful not to tighten it too high on her neck. When he finished, her tie was a perfect imitation of his own- passable, but not too fancy.

"Much better," Deuce handed back her schedule which she tucked back into her blazer. She hated to admit it, but the adjustments from Ace did leave her less self-conscious than before. Her cap, silly as it was, felt more secure over her pinned braids. That alone loosened the rock-hard tension in her shoulders.

"Thanks," Parker said, and she meant it, "Anything else I should know?"

"Just stick with us," Ace said, "you'll be fine."

From the start, Parker knew Magical History was going to be trouble. While she and Ace managed to find seats in the back, the danger here wasn't with the other students. Instead it lay in the older man poised at the front of the room. He watched down the length of his nose as the students settled into their seats. Professor Trein, unless the name printed on Parker's schedule was wrong. When the class was ready, he greeted them with all the warmth and humor of an icicle.

Not five minutes in, Professor Trein's lecture added weight to Ace's eyelids. Grim didn't last very long either as he curled up in Parker's lap and began purring softly. Even Parker found she had trouble paying attention. It was a shame, really. His lecture was on the discovery of magic crystals, and after handling one in person she found she wanted to know more. She tried to focus his words rather than his voice, but aside from a brief mention of the Dwarf Mines, grasping anything else was like trying to get a firm grip on water. Her attention wandered to the dust particles that danced in the rays of sunlight that streamed through the arched windows.

"You!"

Parker flinched at Professor Trein's outburst. Ace's eyes cleared of sleep-fog in an instant, even Grim jolted from his place on her lap. To their relief, Professor Trein wasn't looking at them. In the front row, a student sputtered to attention, blinking to refocus his sleep-blurred eyes.

"Am I boring you, Mr. Silver?" Professor Trein crossed his arms.

Parker heard Ace's breath hitch. Despite not being in trouble, she noticed he was pale.

"Apologies, professor," Silver straightened in his chair.

Professor Trein ignored him, "You should be setting a better example for your peers, especially as a member of Diasomnia!"

"Diasomnia?" Parker turned to Ace.

"His dorm," Ace was too focused on the scene before them to look at her, "They're a big deal."

Professor Trein wasn't letting up, "Unless, of course, you already know everything about the origins of magic crystals. Perhaps you can inform the class which was once the largest cache of crystals in Twisted Wonderland."

Parker sensed the class's attention shift onto Silver. Her gut tightened as Silver opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. This was too hard to watch, but no matter how she tried she couldn't ignore it. Of course Trien would ask which cache was once the largest, he'd only mentioned the point once in his lecture. Hell, if she hadn't visited herself, she wouldn't have known either.

The class was whispering now, that same storm breeze from the entrance ceremony. The sound raged in Parker's ears. Panic from that night crawled along the edge of her mind, it played on Silver's face as he stammered and struggled for words.

The Dwarf Mines, she willed the name to come to him, it's the Dwarf Mines! But even in a world dripping with magic, her thoughts went unsent. She wished she could stop this. Do something, say something to end the torture the same way she wished someone would have intervened for her. Parker frowned. Say something… If only she didn't have to blend in.

"Well," Professor Trein finally said after a full minute. Parker's heart sang. It was over. Or so she thought. The professor lifted a brow. "We're all waiting."

Park bit back a groan. She couldn't take it, subtlety be damned. If they were going to spend the rest of class in this agony, she'd rather risk a target on her back. She scarcely remembered to lower the pitch of her voice before saying, "The Dwarf Mines."

Professor Trein's face slackened. The whispers stopped. Ace elbowed her and glared as the professor recovered enough to demand, "Who said that?"

No one spoke. A couple of students in front of Parker turned in her direction. She met their gaze with the smallest shake of her head. Don't. Please. She wasn't sure if her message was heeded out of solidarity or because they didn't want Professor Trein's attention on them either. Whatever the reason, they turned away without a word. Beside her, Ace refused to look up from his desk.

"When I ask a student a question," Professor Trein eyed the class, "I expect that student to answer unless I say otherwise. The next time someone intervenes, both will be punished."

They spent the rest of class in silence. Not once did Ace rest his head on his arms, nor did Grim settle back into Parker's lap. They were the picture of model students. Once they left the room, however, Ace didn't waste a second. He spun on Parker so fast she stumbled back against the corridor wall.

"What was that?" He hissed.

Parker winced, "I know. But, c'mon! He was being a dick."

"He's a professor. Professors are dicks," Ace breathed before he blew and called attention to himself, "What happened to the blending in?"

"Hmph, useless underling," Grim turned his nose up.

Ace shot Grim a look, but didn't answer. Instead he said, "Look, you're a decent, uh, guy, but Deuce and I have a lot riding on this. I might not be willing to risk my life, but I'll help you if it means keeping my spot here. So please, if you can't do it for Crowley, do it for us?"

Parker didn't answer right away. She still found this whole thing to be very stupid. Insane, actually. Yet she couldn't deny the truth in Ace's words. It was like they'd said yesterday: they were stuck. The least she could do was try a little harder.

"Fine," she said, "I'll do my best."

And she did. All in all, she, Ace, Deuce, and Grim found their strategy of avoiding attention worked most of the time. The professors barely gave them a second glance, and the other students gave them even less. That wasn't to say, however, that she didn't have her fair share of hiccups.

In Alchemy, she was unlucky enough to be picked on by Professor Crewel, a much younger instructor than Trein. When she stumbled over the list of poisonous herbs in her textbook's index he scoffed.

"Don't tell me your lack of magic effects your ability to read," Professor Crewel said. A couple of the students snickered. "Once again, from Belladonna. Be a good boy, now."

Once Parker finished the list, she refused to look up from her desk, even as Grim frowned and mumbled, "Well, that was harsh."

Animal languages also proved to be anything but a joke, especially after the cat she was meant to greet hissed and took a swipe at her eyes with razor-like claws. Upon double checking her pronunciation, Deuce informed her that she'd accidentally called it a rather rude name. No number of meowed apologies could get the cat to "speak" to her for the rest of the hour, much to Grim's amusement.

By the time her fourth class rolled around, Parker's shyness wasn't an act, not when every time she did catch someone's attention it meant she was being insulted. Her now wrinkled schedule crinkled in her hands as she checked where to report. Parker's face lit up when she read the name 'Flying and Magical Sports'.

Sports. Gym. Her next class was gym. Relief washed away the tension further when she realized there was just enough time for her to change at Ramshackle. It looked like Crowley got something right after all.

"Meet us back here," Deuce said, indicating the corridor that led out to the sports fields before leaving to get changed himself. That was where she headed now, dressed in a baggy shirt and sweat pants, and fighting the urge to skip the entire way there. This was her comfort zone; this was her niche. Even back in high school, gym was always the time in her day where she felt most like herself. She got lost in the exercise, let her heart beat in time to her footfalls on the running track, became so engrossed that she was nothing more than pulse and heat and breath. Her worries couldn't catch her when she ran, couldn't drag her while she climbed. It was an escape into her own world, and after falling out of step with the rhythm around her, this was just the thing to bring her back in time.

She caught up with Ace and Deuce while they lingered behind the other gym-bound students. They were out of the castle in seconds, stepping onto low-cut grass so green Parker blinked to help her eyes adjust. Further out, another group of students were throwing around what looked like a glowing Frisbee. A sports club, she guessed.

Parker smiled for the first time since waking up in that coffin. This. Oh, how she missed this. The fields were the one spot at Night Raven that reminded her most of home. Sure, it was missing a few things, the sea breeze, heat, and humidity being among them, but it was the similarities that mattered here.

"Coach Vargas says we're doing flying basics today. You've ridden a broom before, yeah?" Deuce asked as they stepped onto the grass. He said it more than he asked it, really, as if nothing else could be true.

Parker squinted at the sky, "Uh, no. I haven't."

She continued onto the field, not realizing that her companions didn't follow until Ace asked from somewhere behind her, "Not even with a magic friend?"

A magic friend? Parker stopped and turned to him, "I'm from a different world, remember?"

"I mean, yeah," he rubbed at the back of his neck, "but you guys have magic. All worlds have magic."

Now it was Parker who paused. He thought all worlds had magic? For the first time, she considered the possibility that Ace, Deuce, and Grim didn't know any better. Magic was an integral part of this place after all, or so it seemed. Maybe, to them, a world without magic was like a world without trees, or light, or air. The idea that Parker's lack of it was normal must not have crossed their minds. She almost laughed. To her, a world of magic should have been impossible, something you only read about in books. But to them? She wondered if they even had stories of magic-less places at all.

"Not mine," she shrugged.

The three of them didn't speak. It was likely they didn't quite know what to say. Grim was the first to recover, eyes wide as he whispered, "A world without magic… It's a little scary to think about, y'know?"

"Yeah," Deuce agreed, his own gaze far away. Probably considering what a magic-less world would entail. He blinked once to bring himself back into the present, "Right. Well, just listen to what Coach Vargas says."

They joined the rest of the first years by a set of metal bleachers on the side of the running track. Even as they hurried to catch up, Ace wasn't done marveling at what he'd learned.

"Hold on," he said, "you've never seen real magic before?"

Parker shook her head, "Not until I got here."

Ace looked at her as if he'd never seen anyone like her before. Chances are he hadn't, now that Parker thought about it, for even if there were people without magic in this world it wasn't quite the same as meeting someone completely untouched by it. "Oh, wow. Wait, so-"

Ace didn't get to finish his thought. Instead, he turned towards a broad man in a red track jacket as he yelled, "Line up!"

Parker recognized him at once. He was the other teacher form the entrance ceremony, the one who pulled her inside before Crowley could stop him.

"We're not done," Ace mumbled to her as they fell into ranks with the rest of the class.

Coach Vargas stalked up and down the pavement, appraising each student for a second or two before stopping in front of them and smirking. A tiny speck of the happiness in Parker's chest shriveled at that. He didn't even have to speak for her to know what was coming. She didn't know why she was surprised, especially after her track record with her other professors.

"Alright, ladies," Parker frowned as her suspicions were confirmed mere seconds after she formed them, "Warm ups! I want ten jumping jacks, ten push-ups, and fifteen lunges down the field and back," his eyes flicked over to her and he added, "Magic or no, I expect everyone to keep up. Let's move!"

'Magic or no'.

What had she done to deserve that?

She jolted into her warm ups as something zinged down every nerve in her body like an electric current. This was gym class, this was hers. Maybe the coach was a meat head, maybe she didn't have magic, but what she did have were jumping jacks and push-ups and lunges.

And she was going to kill it.

By the time warms ups were through, Parker finished alongside both Ace and Deuce. The coach eyed her again, but she couldn't tell whether he was irritated or just observing.

"Take a breather," Coach Vargas instructed. Half the class sat on the ground as the coach snapped a finger and presented a broom, "Today, you're gonna learn how to use this bad boy. I'm sure plenty of you have flown before, but we're sticking to the basics today. We gotta start small if any of you ever hope to reach my level of expertise."

Beside her, Parker caught Deuce rolling his eyes and nearly choked on laughter. She hid it in time to keep the coach from noticing.

She listened through his explanation on proper mounting, take off, and landing techniques, even gaped along with the rest of the class when he demonstrated a double loop fifty feet above their heads. Reality her, then, as she realized that, yeah, she was going to learn to fly! Something like excitement blossomed at the idea of zooming through the air faster than her feet could take her. But alas, that blossom died when Coach Vargas pulled her aside and informed her she wouldn't be flying.

"No magic, no broom. Your pet raccoon can partner with another one of the guys."

"What am I supposed to do, then?" she frowned.

Coach Vargas didn't miss a beat, "Go run laps. I want thirty by the end of class."

Parker ran five laps before she was sure Coach Vargas wasn't watching. He was too caught up in correcting the first years' take offs to pay her any mind. Well, if he didn't care whether she ran, then neither did she.

She kept going, of course, but she let her attention wander from her feet to the others gliding above her head. From where she jogged, she watched Ace and Deuce zip around each other as Grim clutched the end of Deuce's broom for dear life. She laughed. It figured Grim was afraid of heights.

"Hey!" Deuce called down to her. She waved up at him as Ace swooped over to him.

"Let's race," Ace said, "us against you!"

Parker scoffed, "That's not fair! I can't fly."

"Didn't think you'd give up so easily," Deuce smirked in a way that looked nothing like the upright student he made himself out to be.

"Last one to the edge of the field owes Grim lunch!" Ace didn't wait for Parker to object again. He dove forward, dropping until he hovered just above Parker's shoulder, "We'll dismount to make it fair. How's that?"

Deuce landed on her opposite side. A relieved Grim hopped off the end of the broom.

"I'll sit this one out," Grim said, "Wouldn't want to embarrass you guys, y'know?"

Right. Parker smiled despite herself, "Three."

Ace and Deuce held their brooms at the ready.

"Two."

She dug the balls of her feet onto the track for a good grip.

"One!"

They were off! Parker darted ahead as Ace and Deuce sprinted, jumped, and took to the skies once again. Parker looked up at them while she ran. It was no surprise to her when Deuce doubled down on his broom and sped ahead of them both. She laughed as Ace swore at his back, pushing his broom to go faster. Her own footfalls slapped against the track in quicker succession until she was past it and onto the grassy field instead. Above her, Deuce was getting smaller while Ace dove and ascended, swerved left and right to gain on his dorm mate. Parker put on a burst of speed. There was no way she would win, but if she was going to lose she wanted it to be as close as possible.

Deuce was almost to the edge of the field when Parker's foot caught on uneven ground. Someone yowled in pain as she stumbled forward. Her hand flew to her head as she managed to keep from hitting the ground.

"Grim?" Parker searched the grass, convinced she'd stepped on him. Hadn't he said he wasn't running? Strange. That noise she heard was feline. The grass behind her rustled.

Instead of Grim, she found herself looking at a pair of sneakered feet. Her gaze trailed up to a pair of sweatpants and a mustard yellow gym shirt, all belonging to the tallest student she'd encountered so far. A handful of others lounged about a short distance away. They must have been the ones with the frisbee. She'd been too busy staring up at Ace and Deuce to notice she'd run right through their game.

Parker inched back as a growl emitted from the base of the tall student's throat. If that weren't enough, she shivered at the sight of animal ears protruding from his dark hair. He wasn't the first animal-eared student she'd seen that day. In fact, Deuce scolded her in Crewel's class for staring too long at a boy with wolf's ears, but there was something about this student, something in the way he carried himself that framed him as a true and proper threat.

He seemed to grow larger as he leered forward and said, "You've got some nerve stepping on someone's tail."

"Sorry," Parker flinched. A lion's tail swayed back and forth just behind his left leg.

"Say," the hair on Parker's neck stood as he leaned closer. His teeth glinted sharp in the sun. "You're the one from the ceremony, aren't you?"

The air lodged in Parker's throat, "I…"

The lion-man groaned, like he couldn't be bothered to be so… bothered. "So. You don't have magic or sense. I'm gonna have to knock some into you. What a pain."

A gust of wind brushed Parker's cheek as Ace alighted beside her, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Give him a break, yeah? He didn't know any better."

"More reason to teach him," the lion-man's gaze locked back onto Parker. She couldn't choke back the gasp his stare alone knocked from her lungs. It wasn't just the threat that shocked her, though, but that calculated look… she'd seen it somewhere before. If only she weren't so tense, she might remember where.

"Eh, Leona," one of the Frisbee players jogged up to where they stood. He was smaller than the lion-man, Leona, with a set of animal ears of his own. For the life of her, Parker couldn't place what animal they belonged to, "We're waiting for the next play."

Leona growled again. This time the threat was gone, or at least diminished. He spared a glance over to the other Frisbee player, but his eyes were back on Parker before relief properly set in. He didn't move, didn't speak. His face shifted without dropping his snarl. He flickered between her, Ace, and the frisbee player. She and Ace didn't blink. He was a beast sizing up his prey, though another look at those lion ears made Parker take that last thought literally. He straightened, dropped the snarl and stretched.

"Too much work," he grumbled, then sauntered away, but not before turning one last glare in their direction, "Watch yourself, herbivore."

The other frisbee player lingered by them long enough to snicker "What a temper, huh?"

Parker watched them go. Another breeze played over her skin.

"What was that all about?" Deuce dismounted from his broom.

"I don't know," Parker said. She was trying to work that out herself.

"Let's get back," Ace suggested. Deuce and Parker didn't need to be told twice.

"Ok, wait," Ace speared his food a little harder than he meant to, "so back to the no magic thing. How do you do anything?"

The dining hall was much livelier than it had been that morning. Now that everyone was awake and more than a couple classes into their day, the energy spiked. Tired minds were refreshed by food, fresh air, and freedom from the tyranny of their professors. The urge to shed the rigidity of the classroom chafed the students, and so did their need for mindless conversation. Ace, Deuce, Grim, and Parker were no exception.

"What do you mean?" Parker popped open Grim's second can of tuna. She was back to the normal uniform now, though she left the tie undone. It was too much work. Besides, she could always ask one of the guys to help her with it later.

Once again, Ace was interrupted as three strangers approached their table. Two of them looked like older versions of Deuce and Ace, but were just different enough that she knew they couldn't be related. Where Deuce's hair was a black so rich is was almost blue, the other student's looked greener in the light. The one that looked more like Ace scrolled away at his phone while he balanced his tray in his free hand.

"If it isn't the infamous freshmen," the one with the phone smiled as he approached, "break any more chandeliers today?"

"Don't encourage them, Cater," the third student was the smallest of them, with hair a dark cherry red, a contrast from Ace's fire-bright color. Despite his size, there was something about him that seemed… powerful? Authoritarian. Parker wasn't sure what to call it. The one thing she was sure of: he was one of the students on the dais during the entrance ceremony, "Is that the Ramshackle student?"

"Half!" Grim said before anyone could get a word in, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Great Grim and this is my underling, Parker… the human."

"I'm not his underling," Parker frowned. All the same, she placed his can of tuna before him.

Ace gestured over to the other students, "Parker, these are Riddle, Trey and Cater. They're upperclassmen in Heartslabyul Dorm. Riddle's our head."

Parker nodded, "I remember you from the entrance ceremony."

"So do I," Riddle looked her over once, "Your tie's undone."

Well that was blunt. She shrugged, "We just got done with Flying."

"Parker's from a world without magic," Deuce blurted like the knowledge would choke him if he didn't let it out.

Nice, Parker thought. Subtle. Silence stretched among them while the older students processed his outburst. Then, as one, three pairs of eyes locked onto Parker so suddenly she flinched.

"No way!" Cater gawked.

"Um, yeah," she said.

Deuce's counterpart, Trey, adjusted his glasses, "No magic at all? How do you do anything?"

Ace let out a little sound, justified in his own curiosity now that someone else wanted to know the same thing. By the looks of it, they all did. Even Grim cocked his head forward for a better listen.

"This is a big deal for you guys, isn't it?" she rubbed her arm.

"Do you have cell phones?" Cater whipped his out and lit up the screen, "Magicam?"

Parker was almost offended. She was magic-less, not a neanderthal, "Yeah, we have cell phones. Don't know what Magicam is though."

"Its an app," Trey rolled his eyes, "Cater's addicted."

"No Magicam! Ok, what about…" Cater scrolled through his home screen again, only for Riddle to cut him off.

"If Parker is from another world, he'll need us to show him how to live by our rules," he ignored the groans that arose from the table, "I'm sure you have a thousand questions."

Parker blinked, "Yeah, actually."

"Why don't we trade, then," Riddle suggested, "a question for a question. You've answered, so now it's our turn. What did you want to know?"

What did she want to know? So many things swirled around Parker's head, she was sure it would burst at any moment. She looked around the dining hall, from the tables to the exits, looking for something to tell her where to start. That's when the the tapestries caught her eye. The Great Seven, Ace called them. It was as good a place as any.

"Tell me about the dorms," Parker gestured towards the tapestries, "Ace told me they're based on them. You guys are the Queen of Hearts?"

"That's right," Trey said, "every dorm has its own main value. We're in Heartslabyul. Our value," he leveled a look at both Ace and Deuce, "is upholding the rules."

Neither of the younger Heartslabyul boys met his eye.

"We have seven dorms, obviously," Cater chattered away, unaware or uninterested in the first years' discomfort, "they're Savannaclaw, for tenacity," he indicated the lion's tapestry, "Ignhyde ,for perseverance," next was the blue man with flames for hair, "Pommefiore, for effort and beauty," he pointed out the youngest of the tapestry figures, and by far the most beautiful, "Scarabia, for careful planning," the bearded man with the snake staff followed, "Diasomnia, for elegance," he gestured to the horned, green-skinned witch, "and Octavinelle, for mercy," the last tapestry was of the octopus woman.

"Mercy?" Parker asked. All the other dorm values fell in line with poise and discipline, but mercy? Something about it felt out of place.

"Ah ah!" Ace wagged a finger, "That can be your next question. It's our turn now."

Things went on like this for the rest of the meal. Parker traded questions with the Heartslabyul boys like currency. The older students taught the first years how to navigate Trein and Crewel, they described a sport called Magical Shift which turned out the be what Leona was up to during their flying lesson, and some even told her stories about a place called the Rose Kingdom, the land most of the Heartslabyul students came from. In returned she told them about planes and cars, countries, and even stories about her own life.

"A gap year, huh?" Trey cocked his head.

"Yeah," Parker said, "its usually a break between high school and college. Not everyone takes one, but..." she trailed off, " I did."

"But why?" Ace stuffed a fork-full of rice into his mouth, " School sucks, but better to get it out of the way."

Something in Parker dimmed. She hadn't meant to get this personal, "I just did. That's two extra questions by the way."

Ace made a face, but dropped it.

As the lunch hour ended, Riddle and the upperclassmen parted ways one by one, claiming a class or study session or club meeting. It was time for Parker to do the same.

"Where are you going?" Ace asked as she gathered her things.

"Class," Parker piled Grim's empty tuna cans onto her tray, "Aren't you coming?"

"I don't have class for another half hour," Ace said.

"Then I'm probably with Deuce."

Deuce shook his head, "I've got Study Hour."

"So, we get a break from you guys. Alright!" Grim leapt from the table.

This wasn't a break, Parker thought. A break meant she could rest. How was she supposed to know what to do?

Somehow they'd left the dining hall. Deuce and Ace walked on either side of her, offering up quick reassurances that tangled together in 'keep doing what we've done' and 'sit in the back, keep you mouth shut, and you'll be fine.' She wanted to argue that no, sitting in the back did not guarantee she'd be fine, but her tongue was so dry it wouldn't unstick from the roof of her mouth. She did manage to wonder, though, when exactly she'd come to view both Ace and Deuce as walking security blankets.

"We'll meet you in the courtyard," was the last thing they said before going off in their own directions. The door to her next class loomed before her.

"Oh, c'mon!" Grim pulled at her right pant leg, "you don't need them."

He scampered into the room without looking to see if she followed. She didn't like this. Parker never thought confidence was an issue for her, but ever since waking up in Night Raven's basement, she felt it being tested again and again.

You don't need them.

For once, Parker hoped Grim was right.

Chapter 4