“And now, my dears,” she said again, sounding as if we were all at a grand tea party, “it's time for you to be introduced to your buddies. They are three of my graduates, three of whom I am very, very proud. They have earned the right to assist me.”
The girls beamed with joy at her compliments and gazed at her adoringly. I didn't know why yet, but it made my nerve endings sizzle to see the way they all looked up to her. I had the feeling she could ask one or all of them to open their wrists, and they would instantly obey.
As Dr. Foreman continued, she looked at them with a mother's pride. “I call them your buddies because they are here to give you the benefit of their experience. They will be in charge of your daily life, your daily development, and since they have experienced my school firsthand, they have real insight into what goes on in a new girl's mind. Depend on them, listen to them, and most of all, obey them.”
She turned back to us. “Even though they are your buddies, you are to treat them as respectfully and obediently as you would me. In order to establish that, and to help you understand how far they have grown and what they have become now, you are to address them only as m 'lady, for that is truly who they are, ladies.”
Teal couldn't help a guffaw, her laughter spurting out of her lips like something she was unable to keep from coming up. It was like a small explosion.
“If you don't tighten your lips this instant,” Dr. Foreman snarled at her, “you'll be starting at a minus fifteen with the Ice Room as your initiation to my school.”
Teal's smile evaporated.
After a long silence, Dr. Foreman stepped to the side and introduced M'Lady One, who was the young woman who had escorted me off the plane. She stepped forward and waited, still at attention. M'Lady Two, who stepped up beside her, was a far more attractive woman with light brown hair, a perfect nose, and a farmore feminine mouth. She wasn't as tall, perhaps only five feet five, but because of her firm military posture, she didn't look much shorter. She had a nice figure, well proportioned, that couldn't be disguised even in the blah uniform.
M'Lady Three was the stoutest and shortest. I thought she was barely five feet tall. She had shoulders like a football player and hard, sharply cut facial features. Her dark eyes were too far apart and her short, dull brown hair was trimmed farther back on her forehead than that of the other two. When she opened her mouth, I saw she had crooked teeth, especially on the bottom.
“A new student does nothing without permission until she is told she may do so,” M'Lady One recited.
M'Lady Two continued, “That means even going to the bathroom. A new student does not speak unless given permission to do so.”
M'Lady Three picked up immediately when M'Lady Two stopped. She had the deepest, coarsest voice. “A new student learns that in the real world nothing comes to you because it's supposed to come to you. You earn everything; you are entitled to nothing. This is reality. Therefore, we will have reality checks periodically to determine whether or not you have earned what you want, what you have.”
“This means everything,” they all recited. They spoke like some chorus that had performed these speeches many, many times, all speaking without much emotion, except for the underlying and continuous threat.
“A new student knows that complaints earn demerits. Cheating, laziness, slacking off, any of that earns demerits,” M'Lady Two said.
“And demerits put you in the Ice Room,” they all chorused.
“Thank you, m'ladies,” Dr. Foreman said. They looked at her as if they were desperate for approval, then they stepped back.
I raised my hand and she looked at me so long, I thought she was going to simply ignore it. Finally, she asked me what I wanted.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” I said.
The three buddies smiled simultaneously as if they were of one face.
“After all this, that is what you ask? Have you heard nothing?”
“But I need to go,” I cried, now unashamed to admit it.
“Your needs are no longer what is of primary importance. We are now going to think first of the group's needs.”
“But. . .”
“You're here because you are selfish, and that will be the first demon we will destroy. I promise you that,” Dr. Foreman said. “Now then, I have one more request of you all that you must fulfill before we can go any further.”
She turned to the buddies and each stepped forward, M'Lady One coming to me, M'Lady Two going to Robin, and M'Lady Three to Teal. They handed each of us a small composition notebook and a pen.
“What is this?” Teal muttered. “Homework, already?”
“That's a demerit,” Dr. Foreman said, pointing at her with a long, thin finger. “You didn't have permission to speak. One more and you're in the Ice Room.”
Teal looked away. I could see, however, that she was fighting back tears, tears of rage and fear.
“Now then,” Dr. Foreman said, "as a second part of your orientation, I want each of you to write her story. Tell me everything you can about yourself, what you remember as a child, where you lived, the friends you had or thought you had, the teachers you remember. I am very interested in how you see yourself, what you expect you will eventually do with your life. I want the notebooks filled with details, exact details of every thing you remember as important to you. I am particularly interested in your fears, so I want you to give lots of thought to that. All of us, including me, have something we fear. It's natural or, perhaps, it's something we have inherited or developed because of who we are, where we have lived, whom
