I was taken into a grayish white room that I recognized as the principal's office. Except there was no principal.

In his place sat a thick man with a bushy brown beard and dark green eyes. He stared at me with his head slightly tilted, like I was a special specimen that he was trying to figure out. The guard placed a hand harshly on my shoulder and pushed me down into a metal chair in front of the man. Bea was already there, sitting reluctantly in a chair next to me, eyes red and looking like she wished she could run out of the room. But neither of us could.

Her hand was bent at an awkward angle that signified what I'd already believed. She'd broken it in her attempt to avoid this.

I hadn't been too afraid of the consequences throughout the entire way here because I'd been so shocked by the sudden turn of events. Now that I was actually given the time to think, a wave of fear drowned me beneath it.

She had broken her hand to escape.

I was about to face the same fate as her.

"You both have been brought here before me...for the same reasons." The man's voice was slow and calculating.

"As I understand," he continued, "you've both shown attempts to conceal your Animuses from the public eye."

I stared in confusion.

Then it hit me what I'd gotten in trouble for.

They wanted our Animuses to be visible to everyone at all times? I'd already experienced backlash for that once, and didn't feel like experiencing it again. But now I was being told I had no choice, but to experience it.

Immediately, corresponding words appeared on my Animus.

The man stared down at it intently, not even trying to hide the way he was reading my thoughts.

"I can tell this idea doesn't seem to be as...attractive to you as it is to others." He leaned closer to me and Bea, his arms pressed against the glass principal's desk, which happened to be the only obstacle separating him from us. "Unfortunately, you don't have a choice."

Bea looked like she wanted to respond. I could see the rebellion in her eyes, how she wished she could argue, but her fear held her back.

"Thank you. In punishment for these disgusting offenses..."

I crossed my fingers, wondering if what I was about to hear would be awful. I expected it to be, after seeing how the guards had handled it. They'd treated the entire experience like we'd participated in a bomb threat and I began wondering if we did, and I was on some drug hallucinating everything.

"...you will spend the next couple of days working here with me in the principal's office to help organize papers. You will stay here afterschool for two hours for the entire week to continue working."

My fingers loosened their death grip on the arms of the chair.

We would be fine. The situation wasn't abnormal. At least not entirely. Bea breaking her hand was an accident. The police were there for protection and were only being overly sensitive. But no matter how hard I attempted to downplay the situation, I knew there was more to it than I was seeing originally.

"And afterwards you will go through the necessary inspections that everyone else in this school will go through." The man's eyes darkened threateningly as he said this. "And by the way, you may address me as Mr. Neilson."

He stood up from his chair and did a waving motion in our direction, indicating he was done talking to us.

But I wasn't done talking with him.

"Wait!" I called out as the officers began trying to pull me up from the chair even though I was completely capable of doing so myself.

Mr. Neilson paused in his action of shuffling through an office drawer.

"Wait."

There was a moment where everything seemed to be suspended in midair. Nothing moved for the briefest second, not even Bea who was still pale with fear and was also being pulled away from her metal chair by officers.

Mr. Neilson made eye contact with me, showing no emotion in his gaze. I didn't expect him to answer. It wasn't like I had any leverage over him. But apparently he wanted to hear what I had to say.

"Yes?"

"What...what do you mean by inspections?" I asked, focusing on the word he had used previously. It didn't make sense, the way he said it. After I finished two hours of afterschool work I'd join the rest of my class in inspections? But wouldn't everyone else already be home since the point of afterschool was that it was afterschool and nobody else would be there?

He considered the question for a moment, looking slightly upwards as he thought. Finally, he replied vaguely, "You'll find out soon enough."

Then the police officers grabbed my arms once again and pulled me out of the room.