Dawn could not believe what she had read.  How on earth did Ace know what she'd done?  But it seemed that she wasn't the only one appalled by what was written on her paper.  In fact, there was not a single person who didn't look shocked.  She didn't even realize how tightly she was gripping the page until she realized that it was now crumpled.  She took a big deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts.  If her blackmail was this bad, there was no doubt that she was not the only one with a secret worth killing for.  Of course, she would never kill anyone.  That went against everything she stood for.  Her goal as a psychologist was to help keep people happy and healthy, not... dead.  

"Hey, what if we just... all reveal our secrets instead?  That way, nobody has a motive to kill anyone," Evan suggested.  Dawn assumed that his must not have been nearly as bad as hers, then.  

Tommie crossed her arms. "No.  I'm taking this to my grave."

"You very well might be," Dawn heard Amy mutter under her breath.

"Well, how about we all just go do our own things instead?" Jax offered in a valiant attempt to ease the tension. "So then time will run out and we'll just have no choice but to have our secrets revealed?"

Alister seemed to consider for a moment. "...Yeah, I could agree to that."

"As could I," Stratus pitched in.

This solution was a good, logical one, which left Dawn satisfied.  She turned to leave with the others when a sudden thought occurred to her.  She looked back over at where Ace was preparing to leave again.

"Ace?" she called.

The headmaster startled slightly at being addressed, but quickly brushed it off. "Oh I'm sorry, is this an open Q&A time?"

"Doesn't school encourage asking questions and learning answers?" Dawn shot back without missing a beat.

Ace, surprised at the retaliation, took a minute to respond. "...Whatever.  What do you want?"

"How did you get this information on us?" she questioned.

The dragon whistled. "Oh, honey, that's for me to know and for you to not."

Unsatisfied but not wanting to push them, Dawn just spun on her heel and left.  She decided to return to the second floor and take a better look around the library.  Perhaps she could find a good book to lose herself in.  She spent a good few hours studying the collections of books, noticing the largest percentage was of nonfiction and educational books while there were significantly less fiction works.  That was fine, she preferred non-fiction anyway.  She located a rather large psychology book and decided to take that to her room.  She passed Amy on the way back down, who seemed to be heading for the locker rooms.

"How are you doing?" Dawn asked her.

Amy stopped to look at her for a moment. "I mean, now that we've got access to this area, I think I'm gonna be hanging out there most of the time from now on.  Exercise helps me blow off steam."

"Alright."

Dawn returned to her room with the book and settled in for a long night of reading.  She had no idea what time it was when she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and fell asleep.

***

She yawned as she stirred, realizing that her book was still open on the bed in front of her.  Laughing softly at her exhaustion, Dawn got up and went to leave the room to go grab breakfast.  As she walked down the hall, she began to realize how quiet it was.  In fact, it was so quiet that when the fire alarms suddenly began to sound, she nearly jumped a foot in the air.  The sprinklers activated, absolutely drenching her hair.  If it weren't for her coat being waterproof, she would have been thoroughly soaked.

As she made it to the cafeteria, she quickly understood that others weren't as lucky.  Tommie and Alister were both complaining about how wet their respective outfits were, and Stratus was wringing out his ponytail to the best of his ability.  After a few more seconds, the sprinklers finally stopped, and Ace came over the loudspeaker.

"Don't worry!  Everything is under control!  You all just enjoy breakfast," they said.

"The hell was that about?" Evan asked as he entered the room, the rim of his baseball cap dripping with water.

"I didn't do anything!" Jax insisted as he burst out from the kitchen. "Nothing was on fire!"

"Perhaps the fire alarms are faulty," Stratus murmured, his gaze flicking over to the nearest one. "I wonder how old they are."

"Yeah, well, I was planning on going for a swim today anyways," Alister said dryly, running a hand through their soaked brown-and-blonde hair.

"We should all go swimming in our clothes," Evan chimed in with a grin.

"Actually, that doesn't sound like too bad of an idea," Jax said, taking a piece of bacon from his plate and tossing it to his dog, who gobbled it up gratefully.

"Let's go now, before we dry off," Tommie decided.

Everyone who was seated got to their feet, and the group made their way down the long, winding halls to the staircase leading to the second floor.  As they continued down the corridor that opened up to the locker rooms, Dawn pulled out her digital handbook to unlock the girls' door, allowing Tommie and Alister in with her while the boys all went through their own locker room.

"I never actually went in here," Dawn heard Jax say as they all exited out into the pool room. "This place is huge!"

"I know!  It's the perfect place to hang out and just have fun swimming in!" Tommie said enthusiastically.  It was good to see her smiling in the midst of all of the confusion.  Dawn appreciated it.

"You know, I may not go in.  I myself am fairly dry, and... I'm not the biggest fan of water," she admitted.

"Fine, suit yourself.  Have fun on the surface, land-lover!" Evan taunted before jumping into the shallow end.  He went under with a big splash.  

Dawn jumped back to avoid getting wet.  She preferred to stay as dry as possible if she could help it.  In order to do so, she traversed the pool and made her way to the deep end to shield herself from the big splashes everyone was making.  It was much more peaceful over by the deeper water, that was for sure.  

She looked down.

***
(1143 words)

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