***

　 　The two angel girls found the dean of students in the ladies’ locker room, reaching into her locker to grab a pair of crocheting needles and two balls of multicolored yarn. She was surprised to see them.

　　“Hello, dean Sing. How are you?” Merrily asked, putting on her best cute face and tapping her saddle shoes on the ground gently.

　　“Hello, miss Massman. I’m doing fine. Out of class early?” dean Sing responded with her own question. She placed the yarn and needles into a canvas tote bag and hung it on her shoulder.

　　“There wasn’t any math today ‘cause Mr. Branch wasn’t there, so I came with Chelsea to visit Caspio, but I got bored.”

　 　“Mr. Branch wasn’t there? I’ll have to have a word with him...” dean Sing’s lip curled as she glanced up at the clock on the locker room wall. “I see you’ve become friends with miss Trudy. Did you know that Mr. Branch is her daddy?”

　　Merrily looked at Trudy. “Does that mean she doesn’t hafta do homework?”

　 　Dean Sing laughed, which was incredibly abnormal for her. She leaned down and put her hands on her knees to address three-and-a-quarter-feet-tall Merrily. “She'll get homework next week when she's introduced to the rest of the students!” With one hand she tapped Trudy on the nose. “For now she's going to go through a few adoption procedures to assure that she can be with her dad.”

　　 “Oh...where are you going?” Merrily asked the dean, grabbing her hand and refusing to let go. Trudy ran over to the dean’s opposite side and stared up at her with large puppy dog eyes. They were going to get that card even if it took all the cuteness they could muster.

　　“I was just heading to the cafeteria to fetch a snack. You two can come along if you want. I won’t be long. I still have to go through some of your grades. You are keeping your grades up, aren’t you, Merrily? Education is very important.”

　　“Yes, dean Sing.”

　 　A burning sensation started up in Trudy’s head again. She tried to focus but couldn’t. She reached into dean Sing’s coat pocket as quickly as possible and pulled out a plastic card with a black line across the back. Dean Sing didn’t notice, and she and Merrily kept on walking toward the hospital cafeteria.

　　“Miss Massman, are you alright?" Trudy heard dean Sing ask Merrily as she departed from them on her way out of the hospital. "Your hands are warm.”

　　“It’s hot outside, me and Trudy were playing out there,” Merrily lied. Trudy picked up the pain in Merrily’s voice, but dean Sing accepted her fib as the truth.

　 　Trudy darted through the hospital’s front doors with the card key and ran outside to the gate, where she slipped the card through the swiper, which caused the gate to lower into the ground. Outside of the wall, she could see two glowing yellow eyes staring at her from the bush across the street and could not break eye contact. She ran onto the street and over to the guardrail, where she could see that the drop over the rail had to be at least one hundred feet. The figure before her was floating in mid-air, golden eyes locked onto hers. The very glance of this mysterious person made her feel sick. She gripped the rail, a dizziness coming over her, and her knees began to wobble.

　　“Trudy!”

　　Two small arms wrapped around Trudy’s waist, pulling her back inside the gate. “Trudy, what are you doing?! You coulda got hurt!”

　　“I wanted to play,” Trudy murmured, tears streaming down her face. Each word came out of her mouth involuntarily; she could not think properly due to her sudden fever and excess of excitement.

　　Caspio LeBlanc, the albino boy Trudy had spent Saturday night scribbling with, was staring out through the gate, an intense glare on his white face. He had a large baseball cap on to cover his head, which had recently been shaved to even out the length. “I had a nightmare. I knew they were coming. I didn’t know if I could trust you, okay? I thought I was the only one who could see them.” He reached out his arm and began to fan off Trudy’s freshly scorched ear feathers. “You’re lucky you didn’t get hurt worse.”

　　Trudy looked back through the gates. The glowing-eyed figure with the balloons was gone.

　 　“I scared him,” Caspio said proudly. “C’mon, we gotta get back in. I don’t think they’ve ever seen me run like that. They’ll be out here any minute.”