I NEVER THOUGHT I’d have the chance to live in a real, honest-to-goodness dorm.
I’d spent a few weeks in one before ultimately moving home for my undergrad, and Bea and I’d had our own teeny apartment while I was in grad school. Dorm life, with its parties and late-night gossip sessions and impulsive study runs to Taco Bell, seemed like some kind of gauzy fantasy world that only existed on TV.
One could say that Tanaka/Jupiter HQ, with its sprawling, messy found family of inhabitants, was like a dorm, but there were still some key differences. My room at home was sprawling and warm and sunlit and I shared it with the man I loved. My brand-new dorm room, located in the creaky structure known as Mara Dash Hall, on the other hand, was small and cramped, barely large enough for the two twin beds shoved against opposite walls and the minuscule sink stuffed in the corner.
And I shared it with my awesome but occasionally overbearing best friend who’d made it her current life’s mission to decorate the shit out of our temporary cohabitation space.
“What do you think?” Aveda said, gesturing expansively to the wall above her bed. “Too much Heroic Trio? Or just enough?”
She’d tacked up a giant poster of our favorite Hong Kong action movie—The Heroic Trio, starring Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, and Maggie Cheung as superheroines—above her bed. I was pretty sure it was the exact same poster that used to adorn her childhood room. There wasn’t much room for anything else on the limited wall space, but somehow she’d managed to surround the Trio with Morgan College pennants and other memorabilia, so it looked like our girls were all ready to cheer on the school basketball team or something. There were even a couple of Halloween-specific bits, tiny pumpkin decals emblazoned with the Morgan logo.
“It looks great,” I said. “Very collegiate. But let me ask you something: did you and your mom buy out the entire school bookstore or . . . ?” I grinned and nodded at her brand-new Morgan-branded sweatshirt, ponytail holder, and plastic shower slippers, which she was wearing over her socks like some kind of badass Asian Auntie.
“Evelyn, don’t drag me for this, my mom is so excited I’m finally going to college,” Aveda said, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. “And yes, I told her this was an official undercover mission and I won’t actually have a degree when it’s all over, but you know my mom—she only hears what she wants to.”
“I think it’s sweet that she came out here to take you shopping,” I said, sitting down on my own bed and contemplating Aveda’s wall collage, haphazardly lit by the streaks of afternoon sun filtering through the rusty casement window and its half-hearted, paper-thin attempt at a pull-down blind. “You and your mom getting along is kind of adorable.”
“Yes, well.” Aveda shrugged and waved a hand. “Don’t expect it to last, she’s on the baby train now that you’re all knocked up. I might need to throw your baby at her a few times so her thirst for tiny people that are sort of related to her is momentarily quenched.”
“Please don’t throw my baby,” I said, holding up a warning finger. “I haven’t read up on all the baby things I need to, but I’m pretty sure that’s on the ‘no’ list.”
She opened her mouth to retort, but my phone buzzed, cutting off any further argument we might have had about the ethics of baby throwing.
I hit accept on the call and my sister’s face filled the screen.
“Evie!” she shrieked. “Aveda! I can’t believe you guys are going to college!?”
“We’re not actually going to college,” I said with a grin. “We’re going undercover as graduate students so we can get to the bottom of this destructive ghostly business.”
“The two of you undercover?” Bea snorted. “Sounds like a classic Aveda Jupiter scheme—the chance of shenanigans is off the charts.”
“Don’t look at me, this one was all Evie,” Aveda said, waving a hand at me.
“It just came to me when Provost Glennon was going on and on about discretion,” I explained. “She wants us to blend in, and the best way to do that is for us to be part of the student body—we’ll be able to get close to these kids, find out what’s really happening on campus. And I thought being graduate students—and TAs—was the best of both worlds. We’re not scary authority figures, like campus administrators, but we can still give the students kind of a big sister vibe, so hopefully they’ll confide in us more easily.”
“And grad students at Morgan live in the same dorms as undergrads,” Aveda said, gesturing to our closet-like space. “So that allows us to embed ourselves even more.”
“Are you guys actually going to be, um, teaching?” Bea said skeptically. “Are either of you qualified to do that?”
“A little respect, please,” Aveda said, looking down her nose at Bea. “We’re superheroines. We’re qualified to do everything.”
“Not actually true,” I said, giving her a look. “We’ll be assisting and doing our best to stay out of the way of the actual teaching. I’ll be in Pop Culture Studies, Annie will be in Bio. The two students who reported their recent haunting experiences are in those departments, and we figure that will give us an easy way to talk to both of them in more depth than campus security. We’re also hoping being embedded will help us find the students who didn’t report their ghostly encounters—because apparently there have been a lot of these incidents recently, but they’re hard to track without official reports.”
I’d filled Aveda in on what Julie Vũ had said to me after we’d finished our meeting with Provost Glennon—and why I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something extra weird going on at Morgan. I mean, in addition to all the ghost stuff. She’d agreed with me, and we’d decided to do our best to pursue all lines of inquiry. I kept trying to get Julie’s hospital information out of Provost Glennon, but she claimed she couldn’t find Julie’s student intake form and didn’t know what hospital she’d been taken to.
I was determined to track Julie down and talk to her again. Beyond needing information from her, I also just needed to know that she was okay.
Provost Glennon would not block me from that.
“Wait a minute.” Bea shook her head, her wavy purple-blue hair bouncing with disbelief. “Does Aveda actually know anything about Bio?”
“I’m sure I can fake it,” Aveda sniffed, plopping herself next to me with an indignant whump. “I’ve taken out demons of every kind, I can handle a little science-ing.”
“A little science-ing?” Bea hooted, shaking her head even more vehemently. “Are you kidding? Aren’t you supposed to be helping these kids expand their minds or whatever?”
“Oh, their minds will be super freaking expanded,” Aveda said, a determined gleam lighting her eyes. “Once they’ve had Aveda Jupiter as their TA, they’ll never be the same.”
“Oof.” I flopped back against my pillow. “Don’t make that your opening statement, please. Also, remember that undercover means undercover.”
“And what about you, Evie?” Bea demanded, her eyes widening. “You’ll be in Pop Culture Studies—”
“A natural fit, since that was what I studied here,” I said. “So I do have the expertise.”
“Yeah, but won’t that put you in close contact with Richard the Terrible?” Bea said. “Wasn’t he, like, a big muckety-muck in that department?”
“He still is,” I said, keeping my tone neutral. “Actually, I’ll be TA-ing one of his classes.”
“What?!” Bea exploded. “Okay, this is gonna lead to more than shenanigans, it’s gonna be, like . . .” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t even know. Can you handle being around him, Big Sis?”
“Thank you!” Aveda exclaimed, sweeping a hand toward me. “I tried to tell her that I should be the one in Pop Culture Studies, so she doesn’t have to deal with him. Just seeing him again at the reunion brought up a lot of feelings, Evie. I don’t know why you’re insisting on exposing yourself to more of that, during what’s already a very taxing mission. And especially while you’re—”
“Don’t say ‘pregnant,’” I groaned. “I’m very aware. And I’m fine. This is what’s best for the mission. Because I already know I can deal with Richard and all of his blowharding. Whereas Aveda—”
“Would lose her temper the minute he starts going on and on with his gross, sexist lectures and probably kick his ass or at the very least yell at him,” Bea finished, nodding slowly. “I guess I can see the rationale there.”
“Whatever,” Aveda grumbled. “I am extremely professional in all things, including ass-kicking.”
“But please, Evie,” Bea continued, “protect yourself however you can. Don’t get sucked into his disgusting web again.”
“There is a less than zero chance of that,” I said, shuddering.
“And how are y’all hiding the fact that you’re two of the most famous people in the city?” Bea said, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
“Scott gave us glamours,” I said. “Specially-calibrated ones that alter our appearances subtly—just enough so that we’re not recognizable. Like, my hair will be straight, my features will be just a bit different, I won’t have freckles. That kind of thing. He says they should last longer than usual since the magic doesn’t have to work as hard to mask our appearances, so we won’t have to worry about suddenly looking like ourselves again in the middle of class. And we have cover names that start with the same letters as our actual names—so hopefully we’ll remember to answer to them. Meet Eliza Takahashi and Angelica Chin.”
Aveda struck a “ta-da!” pose next to me.
“Goddammit,” Bea growled. “That means I’m ‘and Peggy.’”
“You said it, Tiny Terror,” Aveda said affectionately.
“Anyway,” Bea said, rolling her eyes. “I’m actually calling for business reasons. You asked Nate to compile the research on all the supposed hauntings and ghost stories at Morgan—”
“Yes,” I said, frowning. “I thought he was going to give me that report when he came out here later today. Why is he asking you to do that? Not that I don’t want to hear from you, Bea, I just thought you were busy with your own research.”
Nate and I hadn’t talked much since I’d left HQ . . . god, was that yesterday? It felt like eons ago. Aveda and I had briefed everyone on Team Tanaka/Jupiter about the mission, and I sensed that Nate wasn’t super happy I was staying at Morgan past the weekend. He’d said he wanted to come out and see me before the mission kicked into high gear—I assumed so he could fuss over my blood pressure again.
Bea hesitated, her gaze sliding to the side. “I am busy with my own stuff,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “But I still like to know what’s going on with you guys. And Nate was tied up with some other research, so he asked me to assist.”
“What other research?” I pressed. “We don’t have any outstanding supernatural incidents, so what’s he so busy with?”
“I don’t know,” Bea said, shrugging as she met my eyes. “Maybe you should ask him? Ooh! Or don’t ask him, maybe he’s working on some kind of awesome surprise party for you! I wonder if there’s still time to order a custom balloon arrangement. Or one of those multi-tier cake samplers Letta’s been experimenting with at her bakery! Oh my god, Evie!” She leaned in close to the screen, her eyes sparking with excitement. “You have to have a cake sampler!”
“I don’t think that’s the case,” I said. “Planning a party is the antithesis of everything Nate is.”
“Then maybe it’s another kind of surprise!” Bea exclaimed, jabbing the air with an index finger. “Ooh. Maybe it’s, like . . . a sexy one.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“I know it’s not that—not at the moment,” I muttered.
Bea cocked her head to the side, frowning. “You know, Big Sis, that man loves you more than anything—”
“I know,” I said, trying to keep the weariness out of my voice. “We’re just having some . . . issues. Anyway. Not important.” I forced myself to paste on a big grin. My customary rictus smile these days. “Anything interesting in the research?”
“Interesting, yes. Useful . . . mmm.” Bea frowned as she picked up an iPad and started swiping through. “I took notes that I’m sending over to you, along with all the relevant documentation. The long and short of it is basically what Provost Glennon told you guys: hauntings and ghost shit have been reported at Morgan since it opened, but it’s only recently that people have gotten hurt. The ghosts usually appear in humanoid form—albeit . . .” She smiled a little and made air-quotes with her fingers. “. . . ‘ghostly’ humanoid form. Hollowed-out pits for eyes, gaping mouths, kind of a blue-white glowing sheen all over. An aura.”
“So basically what Evie encountered in the theater classroom,” Aveda said.
“Right.” Bea nodded. “Although not all of them are like that—it’s a mixed bag of haunting type things. That ghost you saw in the theater was probably Madeleine Morgan, daughter of the school founders—”
“Ah, yes, I remember,” I said, snapping my fingers. “She had a huge fight with them after failing out of school, right?”
“And took off for who knows where or was possibly murdered,” Bea said, pointing a finger at me. “You got it.”
“Wow, that’s dark,” Aveda muttered.
“Here’s what’s interesting,” Bea said. “Prior to these recent incidents, where there’s been minor injuries and damage, the Morgan ghosts didn’t interact with anyone. It was what ghost-hunting circles call ‘passive hauntings’—”
“Ghost-hunting circles?” Aveda shook her head. “Those are a thing? How bizarre to have entire organizations set up for a supernatural evil that doesn’t exist while demons are running around wreaking havoc. I mean, not too much havoc. Since Evie and I always catch them.”
“I don’t think these are so much ‘organizations’ as, like, discussion groups,” Bea said. “Like a book club, only to talk about semi-resurrected dead people. Y’all should actually look into that on campus—there are rumors about an official ghost-hunting type society at Morgan. Some of the research I dredged up involves their documentation, which is of course supposed to be super secret—as is the society itself.”
“Of course,” Aveda said.
“Are we sure ghosts don’t exist, though?” I said. “I mean, it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine, considering all the stuff we’ve dealt with ever since that first demon portal opened up.”
“The ghosts, as described, don’t seem that similar to any of the demons we’ve encountered over the years,” Bea said with a shrug. “That said, it’s not out of the question to go with the theory that they’re somehow related to the energy from the Pussy Queen portal—has Rose’s team finished their scan yet?”
“Their initial findings are inconclusive,” Aveda said. “Although I think it was also harder to take the scans since Provost Glennon wants them to be so discreet. I’m surprised we managed to talk her into involving the police at all. I’m sure Nate will want to do further analyses.”
“Maybe that’s what he’s working on,” Bea said. “I mean, in addition to Evie’s big surprise.”
“Maybe. In any case, we’ll incorporate that data when we get it,” I said, picking up the thread. “In the meantime, it sounds like the logical next step is to try to talk to the students who were involved in the reported incidents—which Aveda and I can do when we start classes tomorrow. But remember . . .” I gave Aveda a meaningful look. “We’re undercover. We can’t just go up to these kids and start asking questions, we need to use finesse.”
“I don’t know why you’re telling me this,” Aveda said, giving me a haughty look. “Finesse is one of my not-so-secret superpowers, and—why are you both laughing?”
“Sorry,” Bea said, suppressing her giggles. “I mean, first of all, I don’t think someone with the nickname ‘Hurricane Annie’ can claim finesse as a special skill. But also, Aveda, I’m just imagining you trying to employ finesse while acting like you know anything about Biology or its related science-y topics.”
“Excuse you,” Aveda said, crossing her arms over her chest. “But I’m totally going to Biology these students until they don’t know anything except cells and organisms and, uh . . . other important Biology things!”
“Oh god,” I muttered. “We are so screwed.”