Tuesday morning brought the hilarious sight of Katia and Hadley trudging into the dining hall red-eyed and still in their pajamas. Kellen's payback for the glitter mess in his room was alarms on several cellphones hidden in their dorm. He had them rigged to go off at one hour intervals, playing the intro of the Circle of Life, on a loop, at full volume. I could imagine their dorm neighbors had suffered as well.

To further the enjoyment he got out of the prank, Katia had sullied her squeaky clean reputation by falling asleep in class later in the day.

-.-

It was early evening when we saw Katia and Hadley again, as they barged into Kellen & Jackson's room. Per usual, Jess and I, on the floor in front of the couch, weren't acknowledged.

"Thanks for your thank you card, Kellen. I see you enjoyed my birthday present so much you didn't even keep it."

"Katia. To what do I owe this visit?"

"As you know, we got detention for falling asleep in class. You might like to know that we had a new History teacher. He threw chalk at Sarah Wilkins for asking what pages we should read—which was none, if you were wondering. He clearly knows nothing about History. And, who gives detentions for coughing and falling asleep?"

"Mr. Kramer has also been replaced. Detention was two hours of watching a gorilla in an ill-fitting suit pretend he likes books." Leave it to Hadley to make the bad fit sound like the worst part of that sentence. Horror of horrors! A man in a badly tailored suit!

"What?"

"Kellen, you sound less in possession of your wits than I did this morning and I had no sleep." In other words, what's your excuse? Jess and I hid smiles behind our hands.

"Forgive me, Katia, but I fail to see where the point to your ramblings is. I must inform you, therefore, that I express less than a spot of regard for monkeys, nor am I inclined to feel vexation for an imbecile who partook in the digestion of chalk. Please, thusly, deliver your revelation via the most linear trajectory."

Thankfully my giggle was covered by Katia's increasingly annoyed tone. "Honestly! You're such a dramatic little Queen! Mr. Benson, Mrs. Balikowski and Mr. Kramer have been replaced by hulking baboons who look like they belong in a zoo or an MMA fight."

"Why didn't you just say that to start with?" Kellen asked. "I wonder why?"

"Because I was trying to tell you that these people aren't teache—"

"I meant, I wonder why our teachers are being replaced."

"As much your lovely sibling rivalry banter brightens my day, can we just drop it? We need to figure out if any more of these Neanderthals are popping up, and where our teachers are going." Jackson cut in as the voice of reason.

"Right. Hads," Kellen used her nickname as if he had a right to. "Text hijINKs. All students be on the lookout for replacements—report each one to Elite immediately." 

-.-

Constant spying on the teachers eventually resulted in some information. Mr. Theodore and Ms. Stratakos were the next to leave shortly after their mid-morning classes the following day. They said nothing out of the ordinary to their students, assigned homework as usual and during lunch hour, got into cabs from town. As if they had never been there in the first place, their afternoon classes were taught by muscular mercenaries who used their names. 

After two days, there were few adults we knew or trusted left. Even the kitchen staff had been replaced, though thankfully those stand-ins actually knew how to cook. The same couldn't be said of the teachers, if you could call them that.

By that point, detentions, like the one Katia had gotten for falling asleep, had become commonplace. All day long we watched students get detentions for the stupidest things. Joseph Solieman had been given another detention for coughing in class. Felicia Hong was given a yellow slip for not having her shoelaces done up. Kevin Rutherford dared to mention that we'd already done a unit in class, and Ashley Knight and Catherine Greer had tried to stop him from raising his hand. All three got detention. 

-.-

"Jess? You expecting anyone?" I asked without removing my eyes from my homework. 

"I need to talk to you! Jess? Nicole?" It wasn't a voice I recognized, and though she looked unsure, Jess opened the door. "I don't know what to do!" a Hellhound junior, by the name of Michelle vaulted into our room.

Taking on a stance I'm sure looked a bit intimidating, I asked, "About what?"

"Look, I know I'm not even on your side, but all of our Elite are busy. You two were the only two I could find. My roommate came back from detention and she's acting all weird."

"Weird, how?" I started to ask but several other kids tumbled into our room. I took quick stock; three freshmen and two sophomores, all Thunderbirds. Through the jumble of them all talking at once, I managed to catch that they were lethargic, bored and lifeless. Or in the extreme case of Alan and Jennifer propped against each other on my couch, completely catatonic.

"Let me guess," Jess said to her brother through her phone. "Problems with the detentionees?" From the panicked look she shot me while no one was looking, I knew her brother and Kellen probably had no idea what to do. 

"Okay... Okay... We're aware something's going on now. Just take them back to their rooms and put them in bed. We'll check on them after dinner, and in the morning."

Michelle and Jess both looked at me as if I'd sprung another head. I ran a hand through my hair with frustration. "What good is being on our couch going to do them? Sleep is probably best for them right now. If it's everyone from detention, then it's got to be something that happened there. Give us a bit to figure this out. For now, let's just hope they sleep it off."

They weren't convinced; why would they be, really? If it were Jess, or someone else I cared about, and Kellen or Jackson told me to see if they slept it off, I'd be livid. The realization that I was now saying things they would, irked me. Jess looked the most put off by my words, but I shoved aside the feeling that gave me, and tried to stay firm in my opinion. 

I helped Alan's younger brother lift him off the couch and offered to help walk him to his room. I gestured at Jess to help with the girl who, though awake, flopped down on the couch as soon as Alan's body was removed.

On my way back to my room, without having Alan to focus my attention on, I could see what was going on in the hallways. Groups of people were mobbed outside the rooms of the Elite. This could not be good.

"Thank God, no one we know had detention today," Jess whispered on meeting me in the hall.

"We know all of them, Jess." I deadpanned, wondering how she could take offense at "sleep it off", but still say that. "We're just not close to them, but that shouldn't make any difference in whether or not we care."

"Says the one who practically threw them all out of our room."

"I wasn't wrong. Rest is the best thing for them. And we need to figure out what's happening."

Out of habit Jess glanced at her phone, and I knew what she was looking for. An update or notification. Something that would tell us all what to do. I took her phone and absentmindedly sent a text, knowing no one else would be in the position to do so for some time.

-.-

"How many came to you?" Kellen asked as soon as we were through his door; it hadn't been easy getting through the small crowd outside his room. Most of the Core were there, all looking varying degrees of frustrated.

"Four," Jess replied quickly as she found a place to sit. As Leon nodded and jotted four more lines on the brainstorm whiteboard, their phones buzzed.

Jackson eyed his phone curiously and read the message aloud, "Rest is strongly advised for those that are affected. Do not panic. Please report ALL casualties to [email protected]."

"Thanks Ladies," Kellen sighed into his hands. Jess caught my eye, a tiny humorless smirk on her lips; the email was one we'd created for class projects. She quietly logged in to the account, and then eyes widened in surprise, she tossed me her phone. The notice had just gone out and already we were at 20 emails.

"Why all?" Someone asked with a sour tone.

"Because," Jess said. "This has nothing to do with Hijinks!"

"If people are getting hurt, it shouldn't matter what side they're on. Besides, it would be easier if we had one list to reference." I said absently as I refreshed and watched the number jump. I'd just given myself more work, but seeing as how my homework load would be lowering with the disappearances of more teachers, I didn't care.

"So, whatever happened, only happened today." Kellen said, after nodding at me. "Katia and Hadley had detention two days ago and they came right here to bitch afterward." 

"We're sure it's not some messed up prank the Hellhounds pulled?"

I rolled my eyes at Dev's question. "They're suffering too, it wasn't them."

"What are we supposed to do? Jess said it herself, this has nothing to do with Hijinks!" Remi huffed. 

"Nicole's right, guys," Kellen sighed. "Whatever is wrong with them, it should matter to all of us. Should we wait to care till it's one of us?"

"Salome's brother and Lark were both hit by it." Camille's voice quivered with worry for her roommate. Well that explained their absences.

"Does anyone know what happened?" Jackson asked, leaning to look at the number of emails on my phone. 

An awkward silence befell us all; we had no answer. Eventually Jess shifted beside me, "Well," she said, "Nicole said something earlier to the kids that came to us. We don't know what to do about this because we weren't there. What if someone is there tomorrow? If the same thing happens, then we'd know."

"So," Kellen mused. "One of us would get detention purposely?"