I woke up to the sound of Avery's voice calling me to the door. Once again.

Stumbling sleepily to it, I rubbed my eyes, stretching, as I flung it wide open, cold air blasting my body.

"What now?" I said hoarsely.

"Headmaster Dave says that he needs us all to the office," she told me. "Get dressed. It's an emergency, apparently."

"An emergency at..." I looked towards my alarm clock, where the blazing red numbers said 3:42.

She glanced at it and sighed. "Come on, Liz," she mumbled, plodding away. "I swear, you and Wesley must be related."

"Just as much as you and Aarti are," I shot back.

A shoe shot out of the darkness and smacked me in the thigh.

            🎶

"Hey, Dave," I said, stepping inside the office with Avery following. The rest of the group was there too, and...

"Wait, why are they here?" I asked.

Jackson High students stood along the walls, some sleeping on couches, others slumped in chairs. My eyes widened and I exchanged a look with Avery as I spotted a few wounds.

"Miss Manchester, please heal our harmed guests." Dave motioned towards them, and she rushed over.

"The people who are hurt, please come to me." Avery was swallowed in the group that surrounded her, their breathing haggard and painful.

I stared at them, walking up to my cousin's desk.

"Dave, what happened to them?" I questioned in a low voice.

He beckoned Bella to us and whispered,"I dunno. I asked but none of them wanted to answer. And Headmaster Gray is missing."

"We can't do anything to help them if they can't give info," Bella said quietly. "But we have the empty dorms, that should be enough, right?"

Dave nodded. "We can let them stay. Jackson lets the students rent an apartment within a ten mile radius if they'd rather not stay in the dorms. I'm assuming these are all of the ones who use them. We'll check in with the ones who don't tomorrow."

I looked over at the huddle of distraught looking students, catching the eye of a tiny blonde girl who looked like she wanted to say something. A guy sitting next to her grabbed her hand and mumbled something, and she dropped her gaze quickly and fearfully.

"I don't understand," I mumbled, my brain a mess of confusion and sleepiness.

"Headmaster!" Avery fought her way through the now minuscule clump of injured people and scurried over to us, my attention zeroing in on her.

"Headmaster, we need a Siphon," she whispered.

He choked on his tea. "A Siphon?" He spluttered. "Liz, get me more tea."

I snorted. "In your dreams, Davey boy. Avery, why do you need a Siphon?"

She hesitated, looking at Bella, who nodded.

"Well, their powers seem... depleted," Avery began slowly. "Like they're running on low. I've never seen anyone from Jackson that way. Their bodies couldn't even provide the tiniest of resistance to my healing.  Even though none of the Rules are here, most of Jackson is strong, but it's like I have a bunch of grade Fs."

"Grade F?" Dave echoed. "But Jackson is second to us in the nation. Their report each year has never had even a grade C. They're all B and above. And Brian ranks an A, he's the closest they have to Bella and Michael. They rank...?" He looked at Bella.

"We rank S, last we checked," she supplied. "Jackson has accepted C, D, and F in the past, but like us, they train and teach them so well that by the end of the year, an F has turned into a B. They always finish with B, no matter what their beginning rank was."

Dave stared at his tea for a second, his arms trapped between his desk and body. Then he heaved a big sigh.

"Alright. Bella, have you made contact with a Siphon yet?"

She nodded. "But I haven't gotten around to training it, so I have no way to do anything high level."

"Okay. Okay, okay. Then who was the one you used?"

Bella stared at him. He stared back.

"What?"

"Dave, we only have two Siphons. I thought you said you memorized everyone."

An awkward silence descended, and I could practically hear my cousin's embarrassment rolling around in his head.

I groaned, then looked at the rest of our group. "Hey, Austin."

He glanced at me, standing up and reaching us as he carefully tiptoed around a sleeping student.

"Yeah?"

"Go get Lucy Finch and Luis Rodriguez. Class B-2, grade six."

He saluted me. "Roger that."

As he left, I turned to Dave, who was glaring at me through narrowed eyes.

"And this is why Aunt Val wants me to take over when I'm old enough," I said truimphantly.

"Yeah, yeah. Go get me more tea."