I moved into the ill-lit study in advance of my colleague who looked confused and clumsily apologetic for the unintended affront to my contrary gender.  I was myself seething with no mild amount of embarrassment and rage, moving to the furthest chair and sinking into the padded seat, crossing my arms with a sharp exhale. The man who had been speaking with the girl with the expressive eyes who had departed ahead of us had slipped rather gracefully into middle age, yet was beset by the same general greyness as the one who had reprimanded us so strongly.  Had our subsequent capture not been so abrupt with the seizing of my collar, I might not have taken mental stock of the similarities between the two.

It was almost a quality unique to the region, I mused, this additional and apparent aging that people seemed to wear as I noticed on my arrival not within the state but this region in particular. I discerned the same fatigue and weary demeanor on the people we’d passed at the train station. It was a common arrangement of features, those tired eyes and prematurely greying hairs of even the fleeting staff of the transit authority near my prior lodgings.

And yes, I was not thrilled at the notion of being discovered in such a manner. Not that I was ashamed of how I presented myself. I found from a young age amid dealing in my often temporary foster care that I would often need to resign myself to the hand-me-downs a family or institution might accumulate was almost entirely clothing for boys. As a slight girl, it was never hard for me to find the right fit in a suit as I found the frill and pomp of dresses to be at best cumbersome if not entirely impractical. Most of the families I had taken up with found enough of my other behavior to be a bit queer and foreign to not question my choices in mode of dress. Trips to a barber were cheaper as a matter of thrift, and my normally quite boyish features meant my short, straight hair allowed me a passable degree of social camouflage save for the streak of white at my temple. Certainly there was perhaps an extended stay of concern and whispers while institutionalized, but most doctors found me to be rather too sensible to be kept at the cost of the state when I was rather more mature than others of a similar age.

Still, I had grown accustomed to the odd looks and passing comment, but who was this person to point such things out in front of a practical stranger. I forced myself to push back the lingering fear that perhaps this boy Finnegan and I had become something other than passing strangers already. My preference would have been toward utter disassociation, but we were now seemingly lumped together under the same rakish banner, branded as troublemakers to this authority content to call our every deed into question. The younger Armitage ran his hand along the back of his neck before set out a pair of files on his desk before continuing.

“Now, I can assure you, neither of you is in any trouble…” he said, although I felt my back twitch as that of a cat who had grown tired of too much petting. Discreetly, I manipulated one of those savory gumdrops between my lips and tried discreetly to chew it as he spake. “I suppose you’ll have to forgive my uncle. We’ve all had a bit of a long year. Truthfully, I intend to meet all of our students at the start of the year, so if doing so should serve both of our purposes, so be it. Now, I understand from the documents we’ve received from the state seem to exclude your given name. Is this correct, Miss Warren?”

“Miss…” an uttered and exasperated breath spilled forth beside me, which was met with a terse little cough, aided in part by my swallowing of that sweet rather abruptly.

“That is correct. My mother was not in a condition to relate that information to the police at the time she was taken into custody, and my father left presumably with any documents around the same time. I believe they were under the impression he’d had any such files in his possession when he disappeared. Sir, I have never known it, if I might be quite honest. People have generally referred to me by my surname, if at all.”

“A short life touched with no small amount of tragedy. How unfortunate. I dare say you’ll fit right in here,” a statement of which I doubted the voracity from countless previous examples in my personal experience. He continued, “Most of our student body, I’ll wager, are going to feel like outsiders. Such is the case with generally exceptional people. We’ve done our best to make sure we offer a full range of classes for the more academically inclined such as I see you present yourself, whereas we are starting to explore not only more art classes and even physical sport for the more free-willed students like Mr. O’Brien here. I have little doubt we shall be able to slake your excessive curiosity.”