At least not until a timid girl walked into the room, biting her lip.
Eva balked at the sight. No matter how she looked at it, this girl was far younger than any of the others in the room.
“Irene,” Eva said as she stood.
Her voice got Catherine’s attention. The succubus took her sneer off one of the students and turned to the doorway. Her sneer morphed into an almost-smile as she waved Irene over.
“What are you doing here?” Eva said to the approaching girl.
“Catherine said–”
“I invited her here.”
“What?” Eva glanced between a nodding Irene and a very smug Catherine. “Why?”
“All the others get their little pets, why not me?”
Irene blinked. “Pet?”
Ignoring that tangent, Eva asked, “do you even know why you’re here?”
The brown-haired girl shook her head side to side.
“No one has been informed. Not until they sign the contract.”
Eva looked out over the students. Only one person had shown up after Irene. Counting quickly, Eva found that their class had reached thirteen people, including Irene. That should have been everyone. “None of you know why you’re here?” Eva said, raising her voice slightly.
Everyone shook their heads in silence.
“No guesses?”
“We were told to keep quiet about this meeting on the penalty of expulsion,” the mousey girl said. Several of the other students nodded in agreement. “I recognize a few students who have parents of… less than scrupulous backgrounds. So,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “we are here for something less than scrupulous.”
Dropping her voice’s volume once again, Eva turned over to Catherine. “Governor Anderson screened these people based on their parents?”
That fit with how Eva suspected most students got into the ‘underground’ schools. Still, she expected at least one person to have an idea about what the class was for.
“And where is he, anyway? Shouldn’t he and Martina Turner show up for the first class at the very least.”
“I believe the phrase is ‘plausible deniability.'”
“So when–and that is a when and not an if–something goes wrong, they’re going to blame us.”
“Like I said, they’re using you. Us.”
Eva shook her head with a sigh. “Look, Irene, you probably want to leave. Being–”
“And how do you know what I want?”
“You’ve complained about me before. Something about how it is ‘always me’ and I believe the word ‘freak’ was thrown in at some point.” Irene winced, but Eva continued talking. “This is going to be one of those ‘freak’ things.”
Irene took a deep breath and straightened out her back. “Will running and hiding make those things disappear?”
Eva gave a curt shake of her head. “No.”
“Then why shield me from it.” She stuck a finger in Eva’s chest. “You’re not the only one with ‘freak’ things anyway. If this is one of those things, then I want to stay and learn.” Though her eyes were wavering, Irene’s voice came out firm. That firmness washed away as uncertainty surfaced in her expression. “This is a class, right? You’re going to keep us safe, right?”
“Fine,” Eva said, ignoring the last few questions while knocking the girl’s hand away. “Stay. Go take a seat with the others.”
“You know,” Catherine said as Irene walked towards the desks, “I’m not sure if I should take some offense at that conversation. Then again, I am something of a freak.”
Eva rolled her eyes, snatching a stack of papers off the front desk.
“Alright,” she said as she walked up to the students’ desks and started placing the sheets out, “we still cannot tell you what this is about. Not until you’ve signed your name on this paper.
“This is a fae contract. For those who don’t know what that means, consider this a binding magical contract where breaking it results in enslavement to the particular fairy that wrote them up. I suggest you read through it carefully.”
Catherine groaned. “If you’re too lazy for that, it boils down this: You are not allowed to discuss anything that occurs within this classroom with anyone not currently in the classroom. Not unless you want to be a fairy slave for eternity.”
“The contract lasts until you turn eighteen, so it isn’t forever, but if you can’t handle that or think you might accidentally slip to one of your friends or parents, get out now.”
Two students immediately got to their feet.
Before they could start moving towards the door, Eva said, “be aware that just because you didn’t sign this contract does not mean that you won’t be expelled if you talk about this meeting.”
The two nodded and left the classroom without a word.
A silence descended on the assembled students as they read through the papers, much to Catherine’s chagrin. Two more students decided to drop out early after reading the contracts.
The nine students remaining all penned their name on the papers. As soon as they lifted their pens from the paper, the papers vanished with a puff of smoke. The first student let out an alarmed cry, drawing a few chuckles from the rest of the students once they realized what had happened.
