Kallie was trying to lightly snap her fingers in her lap, hiding the motion from Jaymin within her skirt. Marcus glanced at her, but Kallie shook her head, telling him to stay quiet.
“We feel great,” Charlie stated.
“Hm.” Jaymin frowned. “Well, I heard there’s a bug going around the prison.”
“None of us have caught it,” Charlie said. “We’re healthy as ever.”
The four of us forced smiles, but I wasn’t sure how long we could hold out the ruse. I felt more ill with every passing second.
Jaymin scribbled something down on her clipboard, stabbing the paper with her pen. “Very well. I suppose that’s good news.”
Didn’t sound like it, from her tone. She placed her clipboard in her lap. “You’ve been skipping shifts at the factory, Charlie. Is the work too difficult for you? Or do you simply have better things to do?”
Charlie’s eyebrow twitched, but Oberi huffed at him to stay calm. “I’m a busy guy.”
“Surely,” Jaymin cooed. “I don’t expect that you had any drive to get a job before you got here, looking at your record for petty theft. It’s sad that you’re still looking to get out of work. But I suppose not all of us are born with the desire to better ourselves.”
“No one would hire me back then, anyway. Most blind people live in poverty due to a failure to obtain employment,” Charlie rattled off. He knew Jaymin would pick on this aspect of his life eventually and already had a comeback planned.
“Remember what we talked about last week, about not making excuses?” Jaymin asked. “I’m sorry to say the Institute can’t correct laziness, though we try.”
Charlie didn’t react to the taunt, thank the ancestors. Jaymin was purposefully trying to get us to flip out, but… why?
Bet it had something to do with the crystal in her pocket.
I knew she was coming for me next, so I steadied myself as Jaymin said, “And your feelings, Ava? Are we experiencing any more… delusions?”
I didn’t dare talk about my emotions, or my bipolar, when we were in therapy. I didn’t want Charlie breaking any more windows.
“I’m doing fine,” I said. “Meds are working, mood is steady. Nothing more to it.”
“What about the voices you hear?”
“They talk. I ignore them. Like most people,” I stated bluntly.
Jaymin cocked her head. “I see you’ve gained some weight. When we met at the start of the semester, you were skin and bones.”
“Yep. I’m happy to say I’m eating three square meals a day, and finishing all of them, all thanks to you and yourincrediblecounseling sessions,” I said sarcastically.
Charlie laughed under his breath, and Jaymin caught it. Her eyes flashed as she added, “Yes, well, watch that waistline. Don’t want to gettoocomfortable with your calories.”
Charlie gasped beside me, and Oberi pawed her hoof against the floor. But I refused to let Jaymin’s goading get to me.
I gave a careless shrug. “Being over or underweight is a temporary state. Being stupid, though— that’s permanent, and not correctable in most people. If that’s not clear enough, I’m referencing someone in this room.”
Kallie and Marcus couldn’t help but let out snickers. Jaymin tightened her grip on her pen as she turned in her seat to look at Kallie. “Professor Mazur notified me that you failed your exam in Flight class last week. Too tired to fly, perhaps?”
“I wasn’t feeling well,” Kallie said. “I flunked because I skipped class to rest… but I’m better today,” Kallie added as I hastily nodded at her.
“Hm. You must be trying magic beyond your capabilities. New abilities, perhaps?” Jaymin asked.
Shit. She was close to figuring out that Kallie had demigod powers. I started to sweat, but Kallie said, “Nah, just working too hard at football practice.”
Jaymin kept prodding. “Isn’t it upsetting to you that you failed?”
“Yeah, but so did your daddy’s condom, and that’s a bigger tragedy,” Kallie replied with a short shrug.
Jaymin’s nose twitched, but she let that one go. Jaymin often ignored Kallie completely, if she could help it. My fae friend was a tough nut to crack, and I figured Jaymin found her too difficult to interrogate. Any attempt to get her to confess to anything just dissolved into an argument between them, wasting our counseling time.
