Judit stood snivelling at the door to the Head's office. She'd managed to avoid crying until she hit the student-free administration block, but couldn't keep it in any longer. All she could think about was Archi.

She tried not to picture that photo, but it was imprinted on her retinas like a brand. Low resolution, a screen-snap zoomed in. One of the kids musta taken it over the shoulders of the police.

They'd found him hanging from a rafter in the changing rooms. It had taken days, apparently. The school didn't do sports—too expensive.

Did it hurt, when they methy'd you? Did you know what was going on, or was it oblivion? She liked to think the latter, but if so, why would Archi do that to himself?

Other kids had been methy'd too, of course. One a year it tended to be. Fear as crowd control. But he was the only one that...The others just walked among them—smiling, wrong.

Judit couldn't bring herself to knock. They must've seen her on the CCTV though, cos someone opened the door. It was a harried looking woman, squat, with hair like a triangle. She radiated stress.

"Judit MaVae?" Triangle scowled. "Come in then."

Judit had spent the rush over concocting an excuse for missing Geography, which was the only possible reason why she could be in trouble.

She began to launch into a sob-broken narrative about a surprise heavy period and a rush to the chemist's, but the woman interrupted her. "She's here," she said into an intercom, then turned to glare angrily at Judit.

A wave of fear washed over Judit, leaving her seasick and struggling to breathe.

Another door opened, and the Head came in. He was short too, his suit creased. He looked different in real life than he did on their screens, delivering his weekly missives on obeying authority. Older, more crumpled.

Judit stood, her eyes fixed on the waxy pouches beneath his eyes. She felt like her stomach was filled with cement. Why wasn't Sannah here? She just wanted Sannah to come, make it all stop. Where was she?

"Miss MaVae." He sounded annoyed. "There's been an administrative error." He glared at Triangle. "We'll have to work around it. Dr. Coale is waiting, so you need to look sharp."

A doctor. It was methy.

Judit's face collapsed. "I haven't done anything. Please–"

"Pull yourself together, young lady," the Head snapped. "I will not have you embarrassing me in front of someone from Sherbourne University."

"It was my period," Judit gulped through her tears. She had to keep talking, show him they didn't need to kill her defiant brain. "I'll never skip again. Please don't methy me."

The Head turned towards the office door, as if worried about something behind it, then back to the sobbing Judit. "Stop that right now. You're not here for behaviour modification, but if you carry on like this in front of Dr. Coale I'm afraid that will be my only option. Do you understand?"

Judit understood enough to know her crying was linked to getting methy'd. She tried to stop. It was really skitting difficult though, and now she was hyperventilating.

"You've been selected for an experiment at Sherbourne University. It's a great honour for somebody like you. There's no need for this ridiculous display," the Head snapped. "Pull yourself together. You will be polite and enthusiastic with Dr. Coale, or there will be consequences. Do you hear?"

Judit nodded, as politely and enthusiastically as she could, gulping her tears into flat tremors. It would be impossible to be less fit than she was now, but she didn't care. She'd lick between the Head's toes if it meant not getting methy'd. He did say she wasn't going to get methy'd, right? As long as she didn't cry.

The Head stared at her for a while, as if checking she wasn't going to start bawling again, then beckoned her through the door he'd emerged from and into his office.

It was much smarter than the reception, with a big desk and windows looking over the front entrance to the school, the one the kids weren't allowed to use. There were two chairs facing the desk and windows, and a man was sitting in one.

He turned towards them as they entered.

"Judit MaVae," he said, his voice like white chocolate. "It's nice to meet you at last. I'm Rama. Dr. Coale."

He had his hand stretched towards her, and Judit realised after a beat too long he wanted her to shake it. Polite and enthusiastic. She took it limply, then sat in the nearest chair and stared at the floor, trying to hide her puffy crying-face.

"Sorry about that," the Head said false-breezily, sitting behind the desk. "Miss MaVae is quite ready, I assure you." He lifted a sheaf of papers and shuffled them.

"Wonderful," the posh guy said. "Are you...alright?"

Judit realised he was addressing her, and with all the effort she could muster, looked up and gave a weak smile. "I'm fine. I just...I have my period." What the skit? It was the excuse, still lurking in her shock-dulled mind.

He seemed to accept it anyway. "It's hard," he said gently, "no matter how prepared you are."

Judit had no skitting idea what he was on about. She felt tears rise again, and fought them back.

"Are you ready to go?" Posho went on. "As ready as you can be?"

"Have you packed, Judit?" the Head interjected, as if he hadn't just sprung this on her.

She shook her head dumbly, and the Head threw Posho a kids, eh? expression.

"You better go and do it then."

"What do I need?" Judit asked meekly. She had no idea what was going on. Methy had filled her head like a blinding light and all this other stuff was only just starting to seep in. Sherbourne? Packing? Experiment?

Experiment. Her fear redoubled.

"Very little." Posho smiled. "The field centre is fully equipped, and when you're in the forest, you'll be living just like the actual Natives. So obviously we'll provide it all."

What on earth was he on about?

"Natives?" Judit echoed weakly.

Posho smiled at her again. He was young and robotically handsome, like someone from an advert. It just made the whole scenario even more unreal. He was an actor, this was a film.

"I know this must be difficult for you. Joining us through a less...orthodox route. But you'll be fully supported."

"I'm interested," the Head interrupted. "It was quite a surprise for us at Birchwood to get a call from Sherbourne." He was totally sucking up. "How did you select Miss. MaVae?"

"By accident, actually. We needed some metadata to check our screener, so ran the Undergraduate Applicants file. It's huge, so useful for checking the speed of analysis. It was just a technical exercise—we didn't expect to get a match. But then...Your sister's applying for Sherbourne, is that right?"

Judit nodded, and the soup of fear and confusion in her mind started to congeal into something solid.

Sannah.

"Yes, well, we checked her on the national health records, and she wasn't a match, but then we ran close family medical histories, and there was data from a recent hospital admission for Judit, and...bingo." Posho looked at Judit like she'd won the lottery.

This is something to do with Sannah.

The solid mass inside Judit was massive and it was on fire. I'll kill her. I'll skitting kill her.

"How wonderful. This is big news for Birchwood. Fantastic publicity–"

The Head was interrupted by a hesitant knock at the door, and Triangle peeped in.

"S...sir," she stammered. "Sorry to interrupt, but there's a girl lurking outside. She's..." she widened her eyes, mouthed the word Exotic.

"It's my sister," Judit said, so forcefully both men looked at her in surprise.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken," Triangle said primly. "She's Exotic."

"It's my sister," Judit repeated, unable to hide the hostility in her voice.

Triangle looked like she was going to argue, then glanced at the Head and thought better of it.

"Well, she can help you pack. Julie?" the Head addressed Triangle. "Escort Miss. MaVae to the dormitory block. Be as quick as you can. Dr. Coale is waiting."