Adagio’s magenta eyes rose briefly over the hunched over backs of the other two ex-sirens. Her brows knit together in a suspicious look before Adagio lowered her face into the safe zone she and the other girls had created by resting their arms on each other’s shoulders. She turned towards Aria. “I don’t know, Aria… What do you think?”

Aria shook her head. “Could be a trap.”

Adagio glanced up slightly before returning her head to the huddle. “You think? She… or he in this case is doing a very good job at looking effeminate if that’s true.”

“Not that kind of trap!” Aria exclaimed in irritation. “The regular kind were we’re tricked into something… You know… we walk out that door and suddenly we get hit with skipping detention! And then bam, more punishment!”

Adagio hummed thoughtfully, ignoring the sound as she considered Aria’s words. “Hmmm…” She turned to Sonata. “Sonata, what do you think?”

Aria sighed. “She doesn’t! Not ever! Why do you even ask?!”

“Hey!” Sonata snapped back. “I happen to have a brilliant idea!”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Here we go.”

Sonata continued, “I say we kill her and hide the body!”

Adagio groaned.

“Told you!” Aria said.

Adagio looked up at Sonata with a tired look on her face. “Sonata, for the last time, we can’t just murder Ms. Cheerilee!”

Sonata gave Adagio a disappointed look. “We never do what I want to do!” she bemoaned.

Adagio furrowed her brow. “You want to get some tacos or ice cream when we finally get out of here, fine, we’ll do it! But every time we huddle up, you always want to kill someone! You never just want a double-decker!”

“Girls!” Cheerilee snapped from the front of the empty classroom. “I’m just a few yards away from you! I can hear everything you say!”

Sonata lifted her head up from the huddle. “That’s what we want you to think!”

Adagio groaned again as she lowered her head, giving it a couple slow, sad shakes.

Sonata grinned. “I’ve always wanted to say that!”

Aria cocked an eyebrow. “Do ya’ think you coulda waited until it actually made sense!”

“That’s what I WANTED you to think!”

Aria narrowed her eyes at Sonata. “I spit in your mouth while you sleep.”

Sonata whimpered.

Adagio raised her head. “Kinky!”

“Seriously, girls!” Cheerilee cried. “I’m waiting on you three! Once you’re out, we can all go home!”

Standing admits the empty desks, the girls broke their huddle and gave each other one more look before turning to face Cheerilee.

“We don’t believe you,” Adagio said. “Also, please lift your skirt if you will.”

“What?! No!” Cheerilee cried. “Girls, I can’t lock up until you’re out of the room! You’re free! Go! Just Go!”

“No way!” Aria said as she leveled an accusatory finger at Cheerilee. “You just want to dump more detention on us!”

Cheerilee grit her teeth. “I can’t give you more detention because you three don’t have any!”

“Ha!” Adagio cried. “I find that hard to believe! We’ve had detention pretty much every day since we started going to school.”

“Yeah!” Aria said. “We musta done something!”

Cheerilee frowned heavily. “If you did something wouldn’t you remember it?!”

The three girl’s eyes widened as they turned and looked at each other, exchanging blank expressions and shrugs.

Sonata turned and raised her hand.

“Sonata, we’re not in class,” Cheerilee said.

“She is trying to trick us!” Aria exclaimed as her index finger once again flew out to stab in the direction of Cheerilee. “Now she wants us to believe we’re not in a classroom!”

Cheerilee smacked a hand against her face. “I mean class isn’t in session!” She removed her hand and looked at Sonata. “You don’t have to wait to be called on, you can just talk!”

Sonata lowered her hand. “I never remember what I’m in detention for!”

Aria nodded. “And I figure someone is gonna nark me out for starting a school fight club sooner or later!”

Adagio scrunched her lips up slightly. “I can get pretty noisy in the throes of passion… I mean, the natural science section of the library isn’t exactly private and biting down on a book will only muffle so much.”

Cheerilee grimaced as her left eye twitch and she examined her hands. “I’m just going to pretend I heard none of that.” She lowered her hands and stared at the girls again. “Look! I’m just as surprised as you, but you’ve all somehow avoided doing anything wrong or at least getting caught doing it! Can you please just go! I’m just as tired of spending an extra hour each day at school as I’m sure you three are.” Cheerilee raised her hands again and stared at them. “Plus I really want to wash my hands now.”

Sonata grinned cheerfully. “You also touched your face!”

Cheerilee sighed. “Make that take a really hot shower.”

The girls looked at each other and exchanged another round of head shakes and shrugs.

“Fine, we’ll go,” Adagio said. “But only on one condition!”

Cheerilee’s shoulders slumped. “Adagio, I promise you I’m a woman!”

Adagio narrowed her eyes. “Prove it!”