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what happened?”
    Lips pinched, Miss Mifflin grabbed Aisi’s test booklet from the principle’s desk and opened it violently, almost ripping the cover page off. “Miss Turay, your test booklet is ruined beyond our computer’s capacity for correcting. Someone,” she said, her nostrils flaring, “has taken a red marker to your book and filled in the circles you have not filled in.” She frowned suddenly, cocking her head to the side. “Well, that’s odd…” Her voice trailed off as Mr. Jensen took it from her hands. “I thought it was red.”
    “I thought it was red when I saw it, too, Benita.” He scratched the side of his head, perplexed. “It looks more rust colored now.”
    Mrs. Preston grabbed it, examining the booklet. “The point is, Mr. Turay, that I think Aisi might be able to just take another booklet and refill the circles she already filled in, but we still don’t know how someone was able to get hold of her booklet during a proctored test in a highly controlled environment. We collected the exams during the bathroom breaks, and both Mr. Jensen and Miss Mifflin had the exams in their control at all times. Aisi, did you at any time let your exam booklet out of your control?”
    Aisi shook her head fiercely. “No, I didn’t!” She blinked back tears starting to pool in her eyes.
    Her father trembled angrily. “Can you explain how this happened, Mrs. Preston? How is this possible?”
    Mrs. Preston leaned back in her large, burgundy leather chair, sighing deeply. “I wish I knew, Billy. If Aisi says she didn’t let anyone touch her exam, and our test proctors had control of the exams at all times, the only logical explanation is that Aisi sabotaged her own test. If we find that someone was able to get her exam and fill in the rest of the circles, we could pursue that. Until we find another culprit, we have to assume Aisi did it on purpose.”
    “You just said I could start with a fresh booklet!” Aisi howled, outraged. “They were watching me the whole time. They gave me the pencils. How could I have done this?”
    Miss Mifflin eyed her sharply. She thrust the test booklet toward her and placed her hands squarely on the principal’s desk, staring Aisi down. “Please do. Tell me how you could have done this with me watching?” She leaned back with a final grunt of anger and strode up and down in the narrow office, hands still clasped firmly behind her back. As Miss Mifflin paced, she leaned forward aggressively. “I don’t like arrogant young people making light of my tests and disrespecting the sanctity of the exam.”
    Aisi’s heart continued to pound as she opened the exam to the first page. Her name and all her personal information appeared exactly as she had written it a few hours before. It was the usual, boring, pre-test drill. Name, age, date of birth, blah blah blah. Everything was as she wrote it. She turned the page while the others in the room continued to argue over how much of a vandal she was. When she saw what appeared on the other pages, she gasped.
    The red marks that looked rusty to Mr. Jensen were fading to a textured, crusty brown before her eyes. It almost looked like a scab. She touched it lightly with her fingernail. A little bit scraped off, but as she lifted it with her long pinky nail to try to remove some more, she realized that the brownish dots were not all filled in. She held the booklet back to examine it, and she closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she noticed her father watching her closely, and his eyes too fell on the words forming before her on the page. She felt sure he couldn’t possibly understand the words swimming together as she looked, but she could see it clearly.
    Aisi didn’t know where she learned Latin, but it came to her from the first moment she could see a demon and recognized she had power over it. She always fought so hard to control her fear, not to let it feed on her feelings. As she saw the words turn from brown to