A Full House

"This is her right? Hi, I'm Quill. It's nice to meet you." She flashes me a smile and gets ready without any reservations. "Puppeteer and Fallon are prepping the room for inspection." 

Such strange names. Cage nods and continues inside the house. Is this the tour? There seem to be four rooms in this house. The shared bedroom, living room, kitchen, and a locked room I can't see inside. Four beds are lined up against the wall and are being fixed by two other girls.

One of them has a blue furry tail peeking out of their dress, and the other has light green hair, tanned skin, and green long ears. An elf? No, her ears are slightly curved and shorter than an elf's. There's also something poking out of her head. Horns? Curved brown horns? 

On the bed closest to a window is a set of neatly folded clothing. Tiny clothing.

"I'll help you today, but you have to learn how to do it on your own after. Ok?"

I nod and stare at the various layers. What's the point of this clothing anyway?

She helps me shrug off my clothes and get into my 'government-issued gown' with Cage's help. The veil is surprisingly see-through from my point of view. But still…This is so unnecessary. How will we eat?

Cage helps me down from my bed, I'm assuming, as someone rushes in with a checklist. She marks everything down and gives an "All-clear!" From over her shoulder as she left.

The other girls sighed with relief and headed out of the room. Cage picked me up and carried me over to the mess hall to save time.

Inside one of the larger cabins was a great big cafeteria. People socialized and ate with great gusto, or carried things out to eat by themselves.

"We don't have a lot of time, so we'll just buy from the hall. However, in the future, we will cook from home. Understand?"

I nod mutely, and she nods to herself. "Good. Keep this attitude, and we'll have no problems."

"Here. I've got a spot!"

Quill waved at us, and Cage took us to go stand in line with her. The others found a spot within a couple of feet of the entrance to sit. Hot food and the smell of something roasting drew my attention. It really is like a cafeteria. A large wooden table blocked the way to an open kitchen that was hurriedly preparing food.

A younger girl around my new roommate's age took our order. Her bright and uplifting voice called out cheerily."That'll be six meat tickets, four green tickets, and a fruit ticket."

Quill paid the stamps from her passbook, and it vanished into a metal box sitting on the table. The girl busied herself around the kitchen and collected a bunch of plates for the food to be served on. Exactly five wooden plates. Then she served a couple of different servings on each one and handed them to us.

I held a smaller plate above my head and used my legs to hold tight to Cage's neck. She held a plate in each hand and walked briskly to our table. Following behind us was Quill, holding two plates of her own.

Puppet and…what's her name? Fallon took the plates from us, raised their veil, set them in front of themselves, and gobbled them up. Jesus. Am I supposed to do that?

"We got you a fruit cup and a pork salad from the kitchen. Eat quickly."

Cage sets me down on the table so I can reach the food while she eats speedily. I eat slowly while moving my veil out of the way. Due to my smaller portion, I finished before the rest of them, even though I was going at a snail's pace. The lack of cutlery left me with no choice but to use my hands.

In the back of my mind, I heard several admonishments from Anne, Freesia, and hell, even that deadbeat father of mine. Speaking of…

I wondered out loud. "What am I going to do for blood?"

"..."

Cage chews slowly and looks at me. Then she leans over and sniffs my neck. She thinks to herself. "You're a vampire?"

Gross.

I nod. I thought it was kinda obvious. Pointy teeth and the red eyes. Her eyes brighten a bit. "We'll apply for blood or Ichor coupons later. Good job."

I tilt my head. Good job? What did I do? She finishes her plate and notices mine is not quite clean. Without asking, she polishes the bits I left behind on my plate. All together, the unit stands up, throws their plates into a metal box at the end of the table, and grabs their belongings from beside them.

A staff, a book, a child, and a wand.

Once we leave the mess hall's doors, everyone separates. Cage takes me out into the open air and jogs towards one of the open fields that's crowded with boulders. How does everyone else see at night? I have a biological advantage, but every human, dwarf, or otherwise, is just plain unlucky. 

A rather slender woman is standing in the middle of the field and screaming bloody murder at the other witches. What a racket. This is a boot camp from hell. 

"Put your back into it!"

"Why are you so slow?!"

"Move! Ladies move!"

The boulders lift above their heads with seemingly no magical influence. Except I can vaguely see a glimmer surrounding the boulder. A similar one to mine. Cage drops me off a few yards away and backs up. "This is you. Don't die. We need your stamps."

She runs off towards another field, and I'm left to eat her dust. "..."

What the hell?

A shadow looms over me, and I turn around slowly. Hi?

She stands over me at an oppressive height, and I step back. She points to a pile of rubble. "Go lift a rock."

Why? I swallow the question and run over to the pile. My legs wobble, and I grab a pebble. Waving it, I show it to her.

She bristles. "With your mind, fool, and pick a bigger one. Join the line. Don't you dare embarrass me."

I look down at my pebble and back at her. Oh. Oh no. You must be kidding. I look back at the boulders and then at the pebbles. I'll comprise. I pick up a stone the size of my fist and walk over to the line of witches.

I can smell their sweat and tears from here. Is that gonna be me? I sweat a bit just from the nerves, and try to pick up my stone. The tendrils flex and retract as I breathe. Come on. Do it. Just do it so it can be over with.

It's not working.

I threw it up in the air and waited for it to hit me square in the face. I closed my eyes, but the impact never came. Levitating above my head was a rock.

Self-preservation at its finest.

I yawned and licked my lips. I miss his blood. Now that was a good breakfast. Gross to think about, but still. So good…

I kept the rock above my head for a little longer before my legs started getting tired. I can do this sitting down, right?

I squatted a little bit so I could sit criss-cross applesauce on the ground. For the next few hours, this mad woman screeched at us to lift higher, stand up straight, and stop being weaklings.

My legs wobbled, and I panted. This is torture. I'm going to fire everyone involved. Especially Niathe. She knew about this for sure. I just recovered from a fricking coma. Can't a girl get a break?

"Stop making asses of yourself and run! Now!"

The girls broke out into a run, and I gaped at them in horror. No. Not right now. What about a break?

"Move initiate! Wanna spend a night in the caves?! Is that what you want?!" She screamed herself hoarse, and I jolted. Ok fine. Just a little. Then that's it. I broke out into a run. I went as fast as my burning rubber legs would let me, and she walked right behind me, screaming every step of the way.

Dear Diary,

School sucks and I can't believe I died just to go to boarding school like my stepmom always used to hold over my head. This isn't fair, and I am definitely suing.