I got a phone call from Stel randomly, and her frantic, out of breath voice freaked me out immediately. I was just sitting by myself in the cafeteria and started jogging away to nowhere in particur just from how panicked she sounded.

  "Stel? What's wrong? Are you OK? What's happening?"

  "Zeta, get a pass to get out of school like within an hour," Stel said. "I'm ing to get you."

  "OK, but what's happening? Are you safe?"

  Stel paused, which was one of the worst phone call moments of my life as I raced through all the possible doom-filled sarios that I could e up with in three seds.

  "There's a sale going on in Lil' Haven that is literally unbelievable."

  "...that's it?" I asked.

  "Yes!" Stel screamed. "We knock out all our Safe Silver shopping at ond actually have moo spare!"

  Stel always took Safe Silver very seriously, to the point that she'd usually have to dig herself out of debt for a month afterwards into the new year. So this sale must be pretty incredible to get her this excited. I did want to get something for Oka and Kalei.

  "What's Lil' Haven?" I asked.

  "I'll expin ter," Stel said. "I'm gon the entrance so get permission from Dr. Diast or whoever like, now."

  This sale must be really incredible to get Stel to actually drive over.

  "OK, I'll...check with..." I said as Stel hung up the phone.

  I tried to find Dr. Diast, but she wasn't in her office.

  "Why are you prang about, student?" I whirled to see Principal Peam looming over me.

  "Oh, I was just looking for Dr. Diast," I said.

  Peam asked me to follow him and he lead me to his office.

  I cautiously stepped ih Peam. I looked around his office for a bit. I realized that he must get as excited as Stel did about Safe Silver, as his office was already decorated with tinsel and trees. It looked super nice, even if it was a few months early. I was mildly ed that he had a poster of himself hanging on the wall with rge obnoxious text reading “I DON’T MAKE THE RULES, I JUST LOVE THEM (AND COOKING!)” While I tried to decipher what that meant, he gave me a big smile.

  I didn’t know what exactly he wanted from me. By his body nguage it didn’t seem like I was in trouble.

  “Like the poster? I made it myself.” Peam said.

  The snarky side of me thought “Wow, I never would have guessed that you were the oo make a poster of yourself,” while my voice created some sound that expressed approval. I didn’t want him to expel me based on hating his creepy poster of his sched-up face (For some reason poster him was making the expression of someohat just tasted fire saud rubbed it all over their body).

  “But you’re not here just to admire my poster, are you?” Peam said.

  He chuckled for a few beats lohan normal. I assumed that meant he was finally ready to tell me why he brought me into his office.

  "You asked me here, though," I said.

  “I try to meet with all my students,” Peam expined. “Even in this new pce, that’s still a goal. I don’t care if my secretary says, ‘that’s not feasible’. I don’t have to do what she says, I’m not married to her anymore.”

  I looked at the picture on his desk, of a younger Peam at a school I immediately reized.

  “You went to Staverius?” I asked.

  “I did, yep. Passed everything. Graduated. Isn’t that what school’s all about?” He said.

  “That’s where my sister went.” I said.

  “Good sy favorite school. Until Rising Shards opened of course. Hopefully I make Rising Shards your favorite. Your sister still in LE?”

  “Yep," I said. "I was actually looking for Dr. Diast to see if I could get a day pass because my sister wants to go Safe Silver shopping."

  “Is she….siiiiiingle?” Peam said.

  “I don’t know, Mr. Peam.” I said.

  “Sorry sorry, that’s inappropriate.”

  "Hey, so you get me a day pass then?" I asked. "Stel will be here pretty soon, I think."

  Peam drummed on the desk and then revealed that he was wearing glittery silver suspenders as he shem, getting glitter all over his desk.

  “Now, Miss Faleur. Zeta Faleur,” Peam said. He hmm’d for a few minutes, rog bad forth on his chair.

  “First of all, I gotta give you the spiel I give all the kids when I meet em. My Peips?." Peam said trademark out loud. "My first tip. Nothing’s impossible. When I told my mother I wao run a school, she just said ‘But Penty, how you run a school! You know they have public bathrooms!’ Well, look where I am now, mom."

  I nodded.

  “You got your allowance for Safe Silver all set?” Peam asked.

  “Yeah, and I’ve been saving the weekly money since before I even started here.” I said. Was he about to offer me money? "And my sister will probably help, too."

  “Good, excellent. I like that. Now the rules are that first years have to have a pretty good reason to get a day pass. Buuuuuuuuuut.”

  Peam opened a drawer and spped a card in front of me down in front of me.

  “Here’s my idea. You do a single favor for me, I give you this day pass and you go have a ime with your sister today.”

  “Wow, thank you. What do you need from me?”

  “Your sister’s phone number.” Peam said befhing really hard at his own joke. “I’m kidding, please don’t tell Mr. Soleri. I would be out of here faster than you spell Safe Silver. He really wants a bump up to vice principal, I think. It’s because he worked for sre bigwigs or something like that. He’s got that sed in and syndrome. I feel for him, I really do. I have to watch him like a hawk though, or he’s go all my breakfast sausages again. What was I saying?”

  “You wanted me to do a favor for you.”

  “Oh. Okay how about this. Just keep being you. That’d be enough.”

  Peam slid the pass over to me.

  “Happy Safe Silver, Miss Faleur.” He said.