“What? You’re Mr. Ankil’s replacement?” The idea made my stomach somersault for all kinds of reasons—not the least of which was how utterly uncool it was to have your mom for one of your teachers.

“That’s right.”

“You’re not exactly liked around here, Mom, so why would the administration suddenly want to hire you?” I was worried there might be a pattern here, given the whole chaperoning bit.

Moira hesitated a moment before answering. “They didn’t have a choice. I’m here at the behest of the Magi Senate.”

I laughed out loud.

My mother scowled. “I’m serious.”

“What about your practice?”

She tapped her foot. “I’m going on sabbatical.”

“Typical. Always running out, aren’t you?”

Mom didn’t say anything, just marched to the door without a word. Seemed I’d hit a nerve.

I wondered if she’d been telling the truth. Given my suspicions about her, I decided it wasn’t good either way. Ulterior motive was my mother’s middle name.

Dr. Hendershaw came in a few minutes later and slammed the book she was carrying down on the desk. The computer gave a little frightened squeak. “Two weeks of detention and a month of Saturday school.”

I squeaked, too, sitting up straighter in my chair. I knew my punishment was going to be bad, but how was I ever going to get anything done with that much detention? And Saturday school? Shoot me now, please.

“That’s what I would give you,” said Hendershaw, “if I had my way.”

I blinked, not understanding.

“As it is, the senate has insisted you receive no obvious punishment in order to protect you from repercussions. The official story being spread among the students is that Coach Fritz tripped over his shoelaces and that the emergency lockdown sequence went off due to a coincidental malfunction in the programming.” She paused long enough to take a deep breath. “Consider yourself lucky that you are a dream-seer.”

I knew better than to say anything.

“However. Since I cannot give you a conventional punishment, I have decided on an unconventional one.”

Uh-oh.

Hendershaw pointed a short, pudgy finger at me. “Next Saturday night, while the rest of the student body is asleep or at a minimum confined to their dormitories for curfew, you will report to Ms. Hardwick.”

“Ms. Hardwick the head janitor? Ms. Hardwick the hag?” I fought back the urge to smile. There weren’t many schools where you could say something like that about a staff member and not get in trouble for it. It was true, after all.

An evil grin spread across Dr. Hendershaw’s face, her toady eyes gleeful behind her glasses. “Precisely.”

I shifted in my seat and braced for the worst. “What am I going to be doing?”

“Toilets.”

I groaned, catching her drift at once.

Hendershaw’s grin widened. “Oh, yes, I think that will do perfectly. You will be cleaning all the toilets in this building, the gymnasium, and every other building the students don’t have access to in the middle of the night. That way no one will see you being punished, but you will receive the full benefit nonetheless. Oh, and you will of course be prohibited from using magic to complete the task.”

Shocker.

Hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel, I asked, “Is there some kind of time limit? Because there’s no way I can do that much cleaning in one night by hand.”

“You’ll start at midnight and work until dawn as Ms. Hardwick prefers not to venture out in sunlight. You will continue with this Saturday duty until you have managed to clean all the toilets. So there’ll be no reason to slack off.”

I gritted my teeth. “Isn’t there some kind of child labor law against this sort of thing?”

“Oh, I think not. Not here.”

“Right.” I crossed my arms and leaned back, doing my best not to say anything snotty—well, snottier.

“I think that’s quite enough attitude from you.” Hendershaw pointed a finger at me again. “Consider this your warning, Miss Everhart. You are on permanent academic probation. If you put so much as a toe out of line, if you so much as back talk a single teacher, including your own mother, I will give you all the punishment you so rightly deserve regardless of the senate’s wishes. Are we clear?”

“Oh, yeah. Crystal.”

“Good. Now get out of my office.”

I stood and bolted for the door. It seemed at least half of Hendershaw’s anger wasn’t because of me at all, but rather at my mother. I was just an easier target. I guess this meant my mother hadn’t been lying about being appointed to the teaching post by the senate.

I hurried past the secretary and into the hallway beyond. To my surprise, and unexpected delight, Paul was waiting for me. He greeted me with a quick kiss that left me thinking of blissful possibilities.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded, meaning it. With him here, that was.

“Come on.” Paul took my hand as we started walking. “Tell me what’s going on? I heard you hit Coach Fritz with a stumbler spell.”

So much for the shoelace story.

“How’d you manage it?”

I debated for a moment the wisdom of telling this boy I hardly knew the truth about me and Nightmares. But he was a halfkind, too. If anybody wouldn’t judge me for being different, it was him. Or maybe I was just a sucker for cute boys who liked to hold my hand and kiss me in public places.