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A couple of girls across froion

"But aren’t they angry and uncontrollable?" said a delicate brunette, her eyes wide behind her glasses "That’s what Clementine said That they’re animals"

"I don’t see how they can stand it," her friend said, playing with the straw of her soda "Knowing that a ree "Not all Undead take souls at random And besides, any of us could kill someone It’s not like we’re perfect Hu to learn how to kill the Undead That doesn’t bother you?"

There was an aard stillness as everyone gazed at irls froaveaway The rest of theh they had been close with the same friends I’d had at Gottfried "Allison, are you still in touch with Eleanor?" I asked

"She’s different now"

"She’s had a hard time It’s not her fault"

"I never said it was," Allison said, offended "But she’s Undead now, and I’ down her fork, she stood up "You know, I’ at me, she turned to her sister "I’ll see you back at the dors, and I realized that none of theupto look back I paused when I spotted Anya Pinsky sitting by herself in the corner S, I walked over to her table and sat across from her

She looked up from her brisket "Did I say you could sit?" she asked, pronouncing every consonant immaculately Her dark red hair was pulled into a low bun

"Sorry I thought you were alone"

"I a to be friendly"

"I don’t need any friends," she said

"Now I know" Just as Ihall opened, and a tall, ebony-skinneda folder of papers He earing a dark green suit, the kind only a tall person could pull off His hair was graying

A hush fell over the crowd as he stood at the head of the roolasses

"Hello," he said in a French-Caribbean accent, his voice deep yet wavering, as if he were singing the words "As many of you know, I am Headmaster LaGuerre, and I’d like to welcome you all to Lycée St Clé, I could see the back of Clementine’s head near the front Her last name was LaGuerre, too

"You are all Monitors," he said, and smiled "It makes me proud to say those words So families, others are new to our community, but we are all united by our shared talents: the unique ability to sense death, and the prie to seek it out and bury it"

The roo beneath the silence like electricity

"In your time at St Clément, you’ll make new friends, discover new skills, and eventually you’ll specialize in one branch of Monitoring However, most important, you will learn how to control and use your powers The purpose of our calling is to police the Undead, and to put them to rest only when completely necessary All life is precious, even second lives"

I wanted to turn to April’s table, but resisted the urge

"Monitoring is not a safe calling Every day you will be risking your lives for the betterment of humanity" He paused dramatically "In your classes you will hone the three basic Monitoring skills: intuition, sensing the Undead; evaluation, judging the Undead; and execution, putting the Undead to rest But classes aren’t a replacement for real experience You need to learn hoatch after yourselves, and now is the perfect tiates are always open You can coo as you please, and at your own risk

"That said, we do have two rules First, I ask you to keep what you learn at St Clément to yourselves You are not to discuss the existence of Monitors or the Undead to anyone outside of these walls; nor shall you blatantly display your talents to anyone outside this co Should the public find out about the existence of the Undead, they will try to bury theain