The group eventually arrived outside a large black building.
Melanie looked up curiously and cringed when she saw the statues of Black Hat on either side of the entrance.
"Do you like your statues, Black Hat?" asked Bulltrunch.
Black Hat admired the statues, "Could be better. But I suppose these are more apt than what the Medusa device produced."
"Looks just as tacky to me," Melanie quipped.
Black Hat scoffed, "And what would you know about good taste?"
"I'm an artist and a musician," Melanie retorted. "I know some things, like that you don't need images of yourself everywhere just to stroke your ego."
"Don't all things have a tribute to the most important beings in their lives?" asked Black Hat.
"The most important being in your life is you?" asked Melanie with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course!" replied Black Hat.
"Narcissist," Melanie muttered.
"And you're a goody two-shoes!" Black Hat retorted.
"Good!" Melanie exclaimed.
Bulltrunch just cleared her throat. "So, anyway, if you look inside here, we have a wide variety of books ranging from all genres for our younger students to our newly budding adults. And thanks to the Black Hat Organization, we're always getting new releases to enrich our students."
"Oooh," Melanie perked up. "That sounds good."
Black Hat shrugged, "If it'll make you shut up for a while, it'll be more than worth it. Take us inside, Ms. Bulltrunch."
"Yes, sir," Bulltrunch said, leading the group up the stairs and inside the library.
The doors opened to the largest library Melanie had seen in her life. There were bookshelves all over the walls, bookshelves stacked high with books on the floor, and books everywhere else as far as the eye could see.
Melanie's mouth dropped open.
"Impressed?" asked Bulltrunch.
Melanie nodded.
"We have had the library completely renovated, Black Hat," explained Bulltrunch. "In addition to expanding our collections on multiple floors, we've expanded our computer labs, added more study rooms, and added more music practice rooms with pianos!"
"I like it," Melanie muttered out loud without thinking.
"Are the murder cases expanded?" Black Hat asked.
"The what?" Melanie asked.
"Yes, Black Hat, we have added more files to our collection for our students to study," Bulltrunch explained as a few students walked by.
"Does that mean you don't have normal books here? You know, like All Quiet on the Western Front, The Crucible, Brave New World, Candide, the Bible, The Lord of the Rings, Les Misérables, or anything by Jane Austen?" Melanie asked.
"Oh, Black Hat, your grandchild has an extensive reading background for being so young," Bulltrunch said, nervously looking at Black Hat for confirmation on how to react. "I'm surprised she has been raised to be interested in such things."
"Yeah, my parents let me choose what I want to read, so I've read a lot of books," Melanie said happily. "That's one thing they did right at least."
"Well, Melanie, while I'm sure you enjoyed that life, we monitor heavily what our students are reading here," informed Bulltrunch.
"What does that mean?" Melanie asked.
"You'll be hard-pressed to find garbage fairy tales like Lord of the Rings," answered Black Hat.
"What? You don't have a fantasy section? What else do you not have?" inquired Melanie.
"Fantasy still exists with some alterations," Black Hat said vaguely. "But you could read up on warfare."
Melanie pressed, "So, of all the books I just mentioned, are any of them available here?"
Black Hat pondered for a moment, "The Crucible, I believe."
Melanie's eyes flashed in disappointment.
"So, what do you have?" Melanie asked.
"Why don't you go look and see?" suggested Black Hat, nudging Melanie ahead. "Just don't break anything."
"Okay, what will you be doing?" Melanie asked.
"None of your business, dear," Black Hat replied. "Now, go look around. Your principal and I have things to discuss."
"Whatever," Melanie said, wandering into the library.
When they were sure she was far enough away not to listen, Principal Bulltrunch turned to Black Hat and asked, "Would you like to see the re-education chambers in the basement you ordered?"
"I would very much like to," Black Hat replied. "If they're successful, I might even redistribute them to other villains!"
"Right this way..." said Principal Bulltrunch, opening the door to the basement.
Black Hat cackled lowly as he followed her in.
The pair rode an elevator to a massive underground media lab.
The first area they walked through was normal enough until they reached a keypad on a wall. As soon as Principal Bulltrunch pressed the buttons on the keycode, a secret door opened, leading to another media lab.
This one was dark and foreboding. On either side of the hallway were rooms with chairs with straps sitting in front of a blank wall with an overhead projector.
"This facility was finished a few weeks ago, but we won't have students using this place until the new semester begins," Principal Bulltrunch explained. "Luckily, we've had many other subjects here for testing with wonderful results. I'm sure our more... 'troubleless' students will succeed at this rate."
Black Hat manifested his cane, grinning ear to ear. "I do like the atmosphere."
"I figured you would, sir," said Bulltrunch. "We modeled the rooms after the ones in Dr. Flug's lab. These rooms have everything we need to help re-educate children like your grandniece."
Black Hat sighed, "As I'm sure you've figured, she'll be more difficult than the rest."
"I know," Bulltrunch replied. "She can tamper with technology telepathically and she's brave to the point of recklessly harming herself, right?"
"Very foolishly reckless," Black Hat lamented.
"And super powerful with all the gifts of a Reaper?" Bulltrunch asked excitedly.
Black Hat gave her a pointed look, "My point is, unless this new operation is exceptionally effective, don't try to force her into it half-mindedly."
"I understand, sir," Bulltrunch said. "We will use this operation only when necessary, but I assure you that this new setup is highly effective."
"For your sake, I hope so," Black Hat warned. "I don't like when people make false promises to me."
"I understand, sir, but hopefully with her new medication, the doctor's counseling, and your firm hand, it won't be necessary," assured Bulltrunch.
"Indeed," agreed Black Hat.
"Now, if you're satisfied with what you've seen, we should gather your grand-niece and continue our tour," Principal Bulltrunch said.
Bulltrunch saw the area around her turn dark with multiple eyes surrounding them.
Soon enough, the pair were both back in the library. The principal looked around in surprise while Black Hat walked away to find Melanie.
Meanwhile, Melanie had found a practice room with a piano to be alone.
She had wandered around for a while and found, to her disappointment, that the library didn't have the variety of books that she was used to. It seemed the students were not allowed to read certain materials. It was so stupid.
Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, Melanie had noticed a few students whispering and gesturing in her direction. She ignored them at first while checking out piano books, but that number quickly grew. Soon, a crowd of students looked like they were about to approach her.
The last thing Melanie wanted was attention, so she turned invisible and headed for the stairs. On the next floor, she found a private practice room with a piano in it and shut herself in. Fortunately, there weren't many people on the second floor, so she wasn't bothered.
Melanie sat on the ground and tried remembering the grounding techniques her therapist and Lucy told her about.
This was her worst nightmare. She had become a celebrity for being Black Hat's apprentice in only 24 hours and was getting the kind of attention she never wanted. The worst part was that this was only the beginning. She would be getting much more attention from now on. That was just more people she would have to perform for. She couldn't do it. It wasn't fair!
"Don't panic," a still small voice reminded her.
Melanie nodded and focused on her grounding techniques.
She needed to find five things she could see. She saw her shoes, her shorts, her library book, her piano book, and the piano.
She then focused on four things she could touch. Melanie rubbed her hands on her skin, her denim shorts, her tank top, and her hair.
Three things she could hear. Melanie listened and heard herself breathing. There were no other noises outside the air conditioning and the occasional footsteps of a passing student, so that had to do.
Two things she could taste. Melanie could still taste the coffee she had earlier and the water she had drank. She wondered, Did the last one even count? Never mind that, focus.
Breathe. That's it. Just breathe. Melanie took deep breaths. She breathed in and out until she could feel the stress leaving her body.
Once she took some deep breaths, Melanie got to her feet and decided to start playing the piano with the book she had picked out. It was a book of Debussy's pieces. She had played his pieces before, but that book was still at home. Melanie set up the book, uncovered the piano, and started playing.
Debussy's music was beautiful, calming, and magical to Melanie's ears. Playing it was enough to temporarily transport Melanie's mind to another place and almost make her forget the horrible life she now had to live.
That music eventually relaxed her so much that she found it hard to keep her eyes open.
Melanie hadn't slept well the night before. Flug didn't make her take a sleeping pill, so she was free to lay awake and ruminate over her thoughts. After not being able to sleep for a while, Melanie started playing various pieces on her electronic piano. That kept her occupied for half the night until she could finally fall asleep.
Finally, the exhausted girl put down the piano cover, folded her arms, and laid down on top of them. Since she had a moment of peace, she might as well rest.
About half an hour later, Black Hat and Prinicpal Bulltrunch tracked her down to the second floor.
"It seems that Melanie wanted to practice the piano," noted Principal Bulltrunch as they passed the other practice rooms. "She is quite devoted to her craft."
"She is," agreed Black Hat. "She was up half the night last night practicing her little electric piano in her room. She was supposed to be asleep. I would have punished Flug for not making sure she took her sleeping pill, but I found her playing pleasant."
"Really? What does she play?" asked Bulltrunch.
"It was a variety of things," answered Black Hat. "I recognized some Beethoven, a bit of Wayne Shorter, and then some of that funk and rock-punk crap that aren't worth my time."
"So, she can play classical and jazz," noted Bulltrunch. "That takes talent."
Before Black Hat could decide how to respond, he and Bulltrunch found the room.
The demon saw his grandchild in the practice room with the piano in front of her. She seemed to have fallen asleep on top of the closed piano. He could tell she had been playing from the music she had set up.
Black Hat smirked as he opened the door and walked into the room. Bulltrunch waited in the hallway.
"Time to wake up, little one," Black Hat dragged a claw against the piano hood, creating a screech.
Melanie instantly shot up and fell off the stool.
Black Hat burst out laughing at her.
"I see you found one of our piano rooms," Bulltrunch said happily. "We have sheet music from all genres, and like the library, it's updated regularly."
Melanie glared at Black Hat, got to her feet, and said, "I see. That's one good thing about this library at least. I wish I could stay longer."
"There'll be time again to daydream later, Melanie," Black Hat said. "We need to get going."
"What are we doing now?" Melanie asked, picking up her bag.
"Touring the rest of the school," Black Hat said. "Now, get moving. We've got more ground to cover before lunch."
Melanie rolled her eyes as Bulltrunch pulled out a tablet from her jacket pocket and asked, "You were practicing the piano, right? Black Hat says you're talented in playing multiple musical genres."
"Yeah, I'm all right," Melanie conceded humbly.
Bulltrunch played the security camera footage from her tablet, playing the footage and audio of Melanie playing Arabesque No. 1 and Clair de Lune.
The group listened to the end.
Then Bulltrunch gushed, "I'd say you're slightly better than all right. Wouldn't you say, Black Hat?"
"She's okay, I suppose," Black Hat said with a shrug. "We should get back to the tour."
"Shall I enroll her in the music program as well?" Principal Bulltrunch asked.
Black Hat uncovered the piano and pressed a few keys. Each time they let out a horrifying noise.
"Wouldn't be useless," the demon said. "Might give her focus."
"Then that settles it," Bulltrunch announced. "You'll be getting piano as part of your curriculum."
"I guess every dark cloud has a silver lining after all," Melanie said before remembering. "Oh, can I borrow this piano book? Oh, and this book over here?"
Melanie held up a book about Black Hat Island's flora and fauna.
"Oh, Melanie, you ought to be doing your summer reading," Bulltrunch said, pulling a book out of her pocket. "You need to read this book."
Melanie took the book and read the title, "Manual for Villains by Black Hat. Do I have to? Can't I get those other books too? Or even instead?"
Black Hat narrowed his eyes. "You will read it in your spare time."
"Do I have to? I'm forced to live with you already," Melanie complained. "Do I really need to read about you too?"
"Yes!" Black Hat snapped.
Melanie scowled and said, "Okay, but can I borrow these other two books too?"
Black Hat rolled his eye, "Fine."
"Thanks," Melanie replied, holding her books close to her chest.
"Alright," Bulltrunch said, clapping her hands together. "First, we'll help Melanie get her books checked out and then we're heading off to the science building!"