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Poppy wondered why it was there, and feeling a touch nervous in case it had anything to do with her being so late, she hurried up the steps. She was actually relieved to see Deirdre Lambert rushing through the door just ahead of her. It was a nice feeling not to have to walk in alone. “What do you think is going on?” Poppy panted. “Did you see that van with the Scrubs license plates? I wonder why it’s here. Do you think it’s really from Scrubs Prison?”
    “Don’t you know anything?” Deirdre sneered. “Fourth years always get the Scrubs talk in May.”
    “What’s that?”
    “You’re so dumb,” Deirdre said, rolling her eyes at Poppy. “It’s like, you know, the ‘big speech’ we all get,” she whispered, lowering her voice and making quotation marks in the air with her fingers. “Some of the guards from Scrubs come all the way over here, just to talk to us. Tell us what it’s really like in there.” Deirdre picked at a corner of peeling purple nail polish. “It’s meant to scare the pants off us so that we’ll stay good, not abuse our powers.”
    “Oh, my goodness,” Poppy murmured, shifting the lemon squares under one arm and nervously pulling up her socks. “That must be what Miss Corns arranged for this morning.”
    “Well, you’d better hurry then.”
    “Did it work?” Poppy couldn’t help asking as she watched the older girl saunter off down the corridor. “I mean, scare the pants off you?”
    Deirdre stopped and turned around. “Yeah, it worked all right. It was horrible, really horrible. We’re not allowed to talk about it, but I’ll tell you this,” Deirdre said. “It gave me nightmares for months afterward.”

    Poppy was undeniably nervous about entering her magical management class. She tapped lightly on the door and crept inside.
    “You’re late,” Miss Corns said, glancing at the clock.
    “I’m sorry, Miss Corns.”
    “Well, sit down quickly, please. I was just saying that we have some special guests visiting to talk with you all today. What you are about to hear is not to be discussed with any of the other students. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Miss Corns,” the girls chanted.
    “If any of you ignore this order, there will be swift and severe penalties. Am I clear?”
    Before the girls could answer again, a loud knocking sounded on the door. It was immediately flung open, and a man dressed in a black guard’s uniform marched in, followed by two other similarly clad men carrying an empty iron cage. There were no smiles or cheerful greetings as the cage was slammed onto the floor. The first guard shook Miss Corns firmly by the hand, and then he turned and addressed the girls. “Any of you know what this is?” he said.
    “It’s a cage,” Megan Roberts answered.
    “That is correct. Does anyone know what it’s for?”
    “Keeping wild animals in?” Fanny Freeman whispered.
    “Close,” the guard replied. He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the word EVIL on the blackboard. “That cage is what you’ll get carted off to Scrubs in if you misbehave. And some of our witches, like this one here,” he continued, thrusting out a large, glossy photograph of a bald-headed woman, “never ever leave their cages.” The witch’s eyes were so wild and angry that Poppy actually pushed back her chair, scraping the legs across the floor.
    “Calm down. It’s only a photograph,” the guard reminded them, propping the picture up on the blackboard next to the word EVIL . “She can’t hurt you.”
    “Oh, but it’s awful,” Fanny Freeman wailed softly. She traced a sickle moon in the air with her finger. This was a sign the girls made whenever they saw or heard something distressing.
    “Take a really good look at a very, very wicked witch,” the guard said. “If you’re ever tempted to dabble in black magic or misuse your powers, then I can promise you right now, that is how you’re going to end up. Locked away forever.”
    “No!” Megan Roberts