Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher

and my expression darken. “The Sect is lying.”
Someone to my left made a choking sound of disbelief. “They must
have studied these demons, and for some reason you don’t want us
to–”
    Tu slammed his beefy hand on the desk.
“Enough,” he barked.
    I jumped, snapped my mouth shut.
    Stunned at his own outburst he blustered
around with some papers on his desk, and cleared his throat. “That
is enough on this subject for today.” His voice was quiet,
distracted. “Team up and turn to page sixteen of your textbooks to
discuss and summarize the proposed vampire reproduction. Start.
I’ll be back shortly to check your progress.” He spun on his heel,
avoided looking at me, and left the class.
    Snapped from my single-minded quest for
truth, I flushed at the number of people staring at me. I shot a
look at Alex who was wide eyed, pouty mouth hanging with a
chocolate bar resting on her bottom lip. It was foolish for me to
call such attention to myself, and plain stupid to insult the Sect.
Pulling my hood up, I breathed out, and tried think of a reasonable
explanation for my behavior. Skipping out of class wouldn’t help;
it would confirm any suspicions. Tu was one of the Clerics who had
hunted me this morning. No doubt he was on his way to inform the
others of my weird behavior and the direction of my questions.
Great, talk about staying under the radar.
    A sharp pain on my arm made me yelp. Alex’s
face popped into view. “Damn, Rae. You zoned hard.”
    “What class is next?” I asked. I wondered if
I should consider ditching. If the Clerics thought I was a danger
maybe I needed to leave now. If they found out I was a demon… Wait.
How would they ever know that? Gods, I was becoming
melodramatic.
    “We got Subterfuge,” Alex replied, “but I
might ditch.”
    I eyed her like she’d lost it. Why would she
do that on a whim? Disciples who were caught ditching had to do
bereavement duty. It meant helping the morgue deal with the remains
of any poor misfortunate’s that got taken out by demons who’d
breached the Wall. You helped cremate dead bodies and notified any
next of kin. Most times it was kids who’d stayed out too late, or
had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was the
Clerics duty to protect, and when they failed they made sure they
grieved with the families, and showed them respect. I only
considered it because my life might be on the line.
    The class divided up into little clicks and
Ro came over. He made a silly face at me then grinned. I built
myself up mentally, knowing what was about to come next. Hauling me
up, he wrapped his arms around mine and kissed my cheek. “I missed
you, Rae.” He was several heads taller than me, and my feet lifted
from the floor as he squeezed. Roland, Alex’s on off steady, was
nice. He’d always talk to me if he saw me around the compound even
when he and Alex were on outs. I wouldn’t call him a friend since I
only knew him, and maintained a relationship, because he was
important to Alex.
    And that’s why I let him hug me, didn’t punch
him in the face and said, “You too.” I shifted, a subtle signal for
him to let go, but he remained uncomfortably close. I extracted
myself. “How was it? The assignment, I mean.”
    I was genuinely curious. I hadn’t lived in
the slums before I came to the Academy. I had been tied to the Sect
since birth, and held in orphanages in the upper dwells. I was one
of the lucky ones. Those without parents generally became
panhandlers, beggars prey for any hungry demons that hid behind the
Wall. Plus, I loved the creative atmosphere of the place.
    “A goblin kid hid in a shack close to the
Sect church, a simple catch and release.” He shrugged, shifted on
the spot. “Same old thing. Dirty and cold, but it be my home,
y’know?” He paused and made a clicking noise with his tongue, a
sound one made unconsciously before bringing up a touchy or
dangerous subject. It was a slum dwell habit I knew he’d