The three sisters stepped forward and said a few things in the local dialect. Eleven naturally could not understand what they were saying, but she could guess it was some order along the lines of "Move" or "This is our spot."
Kiki tried to confirm what they wanted, but one of them simply shoved Kiki's notebook onto the floor. Everyone fell silent, watching what was happening.
Yet Kiki did not argue with them at all. She jumped down from her chair and left the semi-open classroom without looking back.
The three sisters immediately gathered around the little round table and sat down.
Before long, the teacher arrived with Kiki.
"Who threw Kiki's notebook on the floor?" The teacher picked it up. "Why did you do that?"
"...This is our spot." The leading girl explained haltingly in District 3 Language.
"But she was here first." The teacher's hand came to rest on Kiki's shoulder. "There are no assigned seats during morning reading. Everyone can choose where to sit and who to sit with, right?"
The words were still somewhat complicated for the girls, but they easily understood that the teacher was asking them to give the seats back to Kiki. The three glared at Kiki with disgust, then went to sit elsewhere.
Eleven watched it all happen—and end—with surprise.
Kiki returned to her seat and opened her notebook again. At that moment, she suddenly looked up—and Eleven immediately jerked her gaze away as if she had been burned by a branding iron.
On the drive back, Zoe cranked the car stereo to full volume. The group was absurdly cheerful, singing, clapping, and waving their arms along with the music.
After wreaking havoc at the theater the night before, all five of them had realized that the matter would sooner or