{"id":7012,"date":"2017-05-25T15:52:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T22:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/?p=7012"},"modified":"2017-05-25T15:52:49","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T22:52:49","slug":"flashback-the-office-of-the-dean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/?p=7012","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: “the Office of the Dean”"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>here is a great snarling wolf between Rhea and the office of Dean nikink,<\/a> which is frankly just plain ironic.<\/p>\n

\u201cUm,\u201d she says to the wolf.<\/p>\n

She holds out her hand for the wolf to sniff. The wolf snaps at her hand. She squeals and draws back.<\/p>\n

\u201cUm,\u201d she says again. \u201cI\u2019m here to file my withdrawal paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wolf doesn\u2019t seem to understand her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t seem to understand me,\u201d Rhea says wisely. \u201cIt\u2019s probably because you\u2019re a wolf and I\u2019m a human.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is total slander. People always say things like this about wolves and it really hurts their feelings. Wolves understand what is going on with all the social rejection just fine.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you an administrator?\u201d Rhea asks, hopelessly.<\/p>\n

The wolf snaps its leash. It attacks.<\/p>\n

If I had to guess where the wolf came from I\u2019d guess that it came from Principal Goethe\u2019s coffee machine. I\u2019d guess that the coffee machine was left on, and the coffee in it boiled down to this thick black gunk, and then came to life and burst into being as a great jittering wolf, a sludge-wolf, an agitated and agitating wolf. It ate various papers from the inbox and grew, becoming bigger and bigger, until at last it was flagged by the Principal for an intervention by the Dean.<\/p>\n

Troublemakers usually are.<\/p>\n

It was sent to Dean nikink\u2019s office, whereupon it would presumably be nikink\u2019d—<\/p>\n

Save, some distant twinge of survival instinct? Perhaps? Guilt? Shame? Maybe simply the instinct there is in a coffee-wolf to stay just a coffee-wolf rather than learning to change? stopped it before the doors, left it to scatter the secretaries and perch on the table but not actually go in for its deaning.<\/p>\n

It was a wolf. It was a terrifying wolf. It wasn\u2019t an administrator at all!<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why it\u2019s fighting there. That\u2019s why Dean nikink comes out to check her missing appointments and discovers a swirl of snarling fur and teeth and claws in the main room instead.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know exactly what she said then. Well, more precisely, I\u2019m not allowed to say. I\u2019m not actually supposed to be hiding behind the curtains in the administrative office all the time spying on people. They keep saying, \u201cThat\u2019s bad!\u201d<\/p>\n

I think personally that it\u2019s morally neutral. But the point is, a wise girl doesn\u2019t quote.<\/p>\n

So I don\u2019t know what the Dean said exactly. But it stopped them. They drew apart. The coffee-wolf cringed in shame, dwindled down, and flew into the Dean\u2019s outstretched coffee-cup. As for Rhea—<\/p>\n

She is panting there. She uncurls herself. She stands up. She brushes herself down. She gives that embarrassed smile that a werewolf girl will give after being caught fighting with a big coffee-wolf but after her wounds and torn clothing have healed.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say what the Dean said then. Probably something like, \u201cYou were here for a withdrawal?\u201d<\/p>\n

But Rhea just shakes her head.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how I can explain this. I don\u2019t even know for sure that I know this. There\u2019s only so much insight that you can get into someone\u2019s head from behind the curtains in the administrative offices of the Lethal Magnet School for Wayward Youth in Brentwood, particularly when you\u2019re trying so very, very desperately not to sneeze.<\/p>\n

But if there\u2019s a reason? If there had to be a reason? I think that was when she realized that even a girl who can\u2019t save the world from vast swarms of scissors is still perfectly able to fight giant wolves.<\/p>\n

Thank you, nikink and the amazing faculty of the Lethal Magnet School!<\/p>\n

We owe this insight and this revelation to you!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

here is a great snarling wolf between Rhea and the office of Dean nikink, which is frankly just plain ironic. \u201cUm,\u201d she says to the wolf. She holds out her hand for the wolf to sniff. The wolf snaps at her hand. She squeals and draws back. \u201cUm,\u201d she says again. \u201cI\u2019m here to file […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"series":[48],"class_list":["post-7012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strange-encounters","series-strange-encounters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Strange-Encounter-Nikink1000-v2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7015,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7012\/revisions\/7015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7012"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=7012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}