Page 13 of Legacy Elite

"Yes."

"And I don't get to be in it."

"Not yet."

I put the cup down harder than I mean to.

Because this is the part that's getting to me, and it isn't the bear and it isn't the size and it isn't even the word. It's that since I shifted, every single person has been discussing me like I'm a historical event. Nobody is asking me what I want, and I would really like a hot drink that isn't tea.

"The specimen presents a jurisdictional—" Faris begins.

"Jessica," Jon says.

Not sharply. He doesn't even look up from his notes.

Faris stops.

"Jessica," she says, "presents a jurisdictional problem."

Falken moves us on, because that's his job.

"There's also the matter of next year's housing."

"My housing?"

"Under normal circumstances, you'd return after summer and move into second-year housing with the rest of your cohort." He pauses. "That won't be happening."

"Why not?"

His look says I cannot possibly be serious.

"Right."

"We'll make other arrangements before you return."

"What kind of arrangements?"

"We haven't figured that out yet, but it will be more secure."

"Define secure. Because in my experience 'secure' means a room with one door and someone outside it, and I would like to state now, on the record, that I am not doing that."

"Nobody is discussing confinement."

"Where are my friends?"

Falken pauses. "Your—"

"The other five. Torres, Sophia, Freya, Declan, Renzo." I count them off on the table. "Where do they go?"

"We'll discuss arrangements."

"That's not an answer."

"It isn't," Falken agrees. "It's what I have this morning."

"Jessica." Jon turns toward me. "Nobody is trying to isolate you."

"That," I say, "is what people say immediately before isolating someone."