As Susan spoke, Daisy unlocked her door, remembering just in time that she’d been doing some yoga earlier and had yet to put her robe away. Faced with the possibility of Susan seeing this, Daisy felt a sudden stab of pain in the middle of her forehead.

“I suppose this means I’ll have to go back to keeping the kitchen clean on my own,” Daisy managed, bringing her fingers up to massage the growing ache in her third eye.

“Not if you give me your magic soporific cookie recipe.”

Share only with those you trust, Jasper’s voice intoned inside her head. Surely Daisy could trust Susan. She was one of Daisy’s best friends.

But when she opened her mouth to suggest she come to the next meeting of the Yogic Brethren of Zoise, the words that formed were not the ones she intended to say.

“Some things should only be shared with those who wish to walk the path.”

Even Daisy was taken aback at how flat and strange her intonation was, but after a second, Susan seemed to shrug it off.

“Fair point. It’s not like I’m going to do any baking, is it?” She patted Daisy on the arm. “Make sure you bake double the number in your next batch.”

“Of course!” Daisy nodded a little too fervently, but in her beatific state, Susan didn’t seem to notice, drifting contentedly back to her room. Unsettled, Daisy hurried through the door and, dropping her bag on the floor, immediately assumed Listening Pose and pressed the buds of her earphones into her ears, starting the calming cycle of the latest Zounds of Zoise.

9
VERIFICATION

Esther had been talking nonstop for the last hour.

English students.

During their conversation, Susan had successfully completed a practice paper, read an article on gestational diabetes and compared it with notes she’d taken from Mrs. Doherty, watched the last fifteen minutes of the My Little Brony documentary she’d started watching the previous night, and posted a cathartic rant under the angrier of her Reddit pseudonyms in response to an accusation of so-called reverse racism.

Esther, it seemed, hadn’t even managed to finish her cup of tea.

A paper airplane cruised lazily over Susan’s shoulder and landed on her keyboard.

Pay me attention.

“I am paying you attention,” Susan said without looking up.

“Then what have I been talking about?”

In response, Susan held up her phone and played back the last ten seconds of the voice memo.

“You’d really like her. I really like her. I’m not sure whether she likes me. I’m going to need independent verification. So how about it?”