The day, Oka, Kalei, Iris, and I were feeling pretty defeated, exhausted from returning back to a normal state from Feral Flu. Dr. Diast requested to meet with all of us, but I was too tired to even feel anxious about it. Also tributing to our feeling of defeat: the humiliating es we had to wear around our necks.

  “Heard you guys got darted,” Kalei said. “That is so cool.”

  “Yeah, I’m very tired still from it,” Oka said. “I’m not sure the words ing are out in the right order. Because tired.”

  “The spot on my back where I got darted really hurts,” I said.

  “I got tranq darted too and you don’t see me pining,” Iris said.

  “Yeah, you leapt over Naomi before she could block our door and they got you like in midair…hold on…” Kalei said, a sour look f on her face. Or at least, as much of a sour look as I could see with the e c half her face.

  “I know that look,” Dr. Diast said. “Here, one sec.”

  Dr. Diast handed her a bucket. I tried to look away as Kalei had a hag cough, spitting a hairball up into the bucket.

  “Yeah, that’ll happen,” Dr. Diast said. “There’s a remedy for it if that keeps up.”

  “Cool…” Kalei said. “Alright, Diast, just yell at us already so we get this over with.”

  Diast checked us ain, giving us each a st dose of the good tasting pink medie.

  “Well, I’m simultaneously impressed with your craftiness while also being incredibly frustrated that you went this route for the Fang Fair,” Diast said. “But I ’t bme you too much, I did the same thing when I was ye.”

  “Wait, what?” I said, feeling whipsh from intense guilt to this news. “You gave yourself Feral Flu too?”

  “Uh huh,” Diast said. “But it wasn’t to get out of the Fang Fair, there was someone I liked that had Feral Flu so I got it to try a locked in with them, because my school locked up all the Feral Flu i in the infirmary. That’s probably TMI, right?”

  “So wait, are we off the hook then?” Kalei asked.

  “Actually, I think it’d be fitting for you three to get the same punishment I got back then when my advisor found out.” Diast said.

  * * *

  I felt a bit grossed out by my fellow students as I picked up anlob of food and chucked it in a trash bag. I didn’t think a sce fair could create this much garbage, but we were tasked with ing it all up as our punishment. Most of the dispys at the Fang Fair were left there. I assumed the really good ones were already taken away, as we were directed to throw everythi in the garbage. It was hard to make sure we had gottehing with the es on our necks still. At least we had gloves and spray bottles with a pleasant-smelling er in them.

  “So, this is going well,” Kalei said. She tried to scoop up a piece of garbage with her e and fling it int. “Not demoralizing at all ing up all this garbage.”

  “Holy, I’m more depressed I lost the tail,” Oka said. “But at least Zeta still has hers.”

  Oka tried to yank at my tail again, but I dodged her.

  “I guess I still get a stress tail too someday,” Oka said wistfully.

  “Pig up all this garbage is definitely stressi,” I said. “I’m really hoping this food isn’t chewed. Why is there so much food on the ground? What’s wrong with people here?”

  “I’d say this isn’t fair, but—” Kalei said before hag again. “That this isn’t fair, but—” She held up a finger a hag as we picked up some more trash.

  “I’m sure she’ll get to whatever she’s sayiually,” Oka said. “I’m gd we didn’t get furballs at least.”

  “Why’d frigging Laenie and Aira have to do this lemonade project?” Iris asked, desperately trying to scrub away at a card table. “How’d they get so much lemouto this table? And why is it so sticky? Lemonade isn’t normally this sticky, right?”

  “ we just throw out the tables?” Oka asked.

  “No, the tables are the only thing they said not to throw out.” I said. “I am surprised everyone is cool with having their projects tossed out, though.”

  “Would you really want to keep ours?” Kalei asked. “Now imagine what everyone else thinks about their proj—"

  As Kalei started another hag fit, Oka tried to find our project.

  “Alright, I give up on this table,” Iris said.

  “Aw, it’s gone already,” Oka said. “I wao see if we got a ribbon.”

  “I wonder who got rid of it,” I said.

  “Probably Diast, for how mad she was at how bad our work was.” Kalei said.

  “Oh, Maia just texted me,” Iris said, looking at her phone. “Apparently things got a bit weird after one of the groups actally went to the void. Someone did an experiment mixing an exploding power with a pile of food and it got very messy."

  “Yeah, we noticed the messiness,” Oka said.

  “That makes me feel slightly better about all the food on the ground,” I said. “At least it wasn’t all just garbage dropped here.”

  “That makes me feel slightly worse,” Kalei said. “We missed a food explosion!”

  “Hey, silver lining here gang,” Iris said. “At least we’re over the Feral Flu enough to not wanna eat any of this rancid foht?”

  I shuddered to think of what it would have been like if I had beehis food at peak huhe night before. We all silently got back to ing.

  “Hey wait, did Diast even say we actually skipped the thing?” I said.

  “What do you mean?” Iris asked.

  “Like did we get away with not having to do the whole Fang Fair speech?” I said.

  “I think she said we’re going to have to write a make-up paper, but we won’t have to redo the speech.” Oka said. “But I’m still a bit dazed from, well, everything from yesterday. And the akes it kind of hard to hear.”

  “Well, terrific!” I said. “Not that you’re dazed or the e thing, that we just have to write a paper. I handle a paper.”

  “Well, I ’t,” Iris said. “I’m just gon Feral Flu again to get out of that.”

  “I…don’t think that’ll work twice.” Oka said. “Maybe we all just work together.”

  “Yeah because us w together worked so well st time.” Kalei said. “I vote Feral Flu again.”

  “You guys have fun with that,” I said as Iris and Kalei immediately wandered off to a er we hadn’t ed yet to presumably plot how to use Feral Flu to get out of paper writing. “I’d rather up than gh all that again.”

  “But you’d rather gh all that than do the full Fang Fair presentatiht?” Oka asked. I could tell there was a bit more she was askihere, a silent “You don’t regret it, do you?” regarding our adventure around the school grounds and in our dorm room.

  “Definitely.” I said. “I’d do all that again.”

  “Alright, good,” Oka said, smiling softly as she picked up garbage.

  “ime, how about without the Feral Flu, though?” I asked.

  “Deal.” Oka said.