“Hello, my dear children.” Her voice was low and husky, and her gaze crept across the room, lingering over every student predatorily. “I am your substitute teacher. Your principal’s guidelines suggest that you should call me Ms. Epistola, but…” She laughed softly. “…I don’t think there’s a need to be so formal, do you? You may call me… Scarlett, if you wish.”

“Wow,” muttered Bree. “That’s… not very professional.”

“Wow,” muttered Vik, and left it at that.

“I am to teach you about marine biology,” Ms. Epistola continued in her sultry tones. “Though it is not my specialty, I will do my absolute best. Now, who can tell me about the main qualities of invertebrates?”

I raised my hand, as did Vik and five or six other students. It was easy stuff.

She glanced around the room for a strangely long time. Then her feline gaze fell on Vik, and I was certain that her eyes flashed with something like triumph. “You, boy—in the back!”

“Invertebrates are mostly found underwater,” said Vik. “They’re heterotrophs, and their main quality is that they have no spine.”

“Very impressive!” said Ms. Epistola. She grinned, her perfect white teeth shining. “Now let’s talk about the difference between saltwater and freshwater animals…”

Ms. Epistola didn’t seem to want to teach, not that most of the boys in class seemed to mind. She was apparently more interested in just asking questions, some of which didn’t even qualify as marine biology. And more than anyone else, she called on Vik. Yes, he was always raising his hand, but so were a few other people. Why him?

“What is the primary characteristic of the mammal?” she asked Vik huskily.

“It’s like Biology 1’s greatest hits,” whispered Bree.

“Except with an evil teacher,” I whispered back.

Bree merely shrugged. “She’s a bit weird, but she’s an adjunct and a sub. She’s probably just not used to teaching this subject.”

Marine Biology dragged to a close, and Vik left with a huge goofy smile on his face.

“Thinking about our creepy substitute teacher?” asked Bree as we headed toward lunch.

Vik frowned. “She didn’t seem creepy to me. She seemed nice.” He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts. “Really nice.”

The rest of the day was almost as slow as Bio, or maybe my mind was racing so quickly that everything else just seemed sluggish. Finally, after an exhausting Algebra 2 class, Bree, Vik and I convened at his locker to collect his ancient book and wait for the hallways to empty. It was times like these, when the building was deserted and the day outside was deep grey, that the school truly felt like an abandoned asylum.