Keir lifted his hands. "Then not asking." But he glanced over at me. "Want me to walk you back, or are you going somewhere else?"
"She's going to meet Liam at the atrium," Bracken said. "He'll take it from there."
"Ok," Keir said, gesturing to our coats. "I'll walk you back if you want, or stay the hell out of your way if you don't."
I groaned. "It's just my dads making me get birth control. Not a big deal."
Keir ducked his head and chuckled. "Gotcha."
He didn't say anything else until we made it outside. Then he looked back. "It's not that bad."
"What?" I asked, unsure what he was talking about this time.
"The first checkup for birth control," he said. "It's more like an allergy test, along with general health."
"Get a few updates from your girlfriends?" I joked as we walked.
From the air above, Jack cawed and rattled like he was laughing. Keir just pointed up, clearly indicating him.
"That. Rain, magical birth control works for both. My parents made me get on it back when I was in eleventh grade."
Yep, my feet stalled out. "What?" I demanded. "Guys can..." My mouth was completely flopped open. "No way!"
"Humans are overly fertile," he said, pitching his voice to sound like he was mimicking his parents. "This school has humans and half-humans, so you are not going to take a risk, young man. We would love grandchildren in a few centuries, but you are much too young to be worrying about raising a child of your own!"
"Oh my god, they sound like most of my fosters," I said around a laugh. "Ok, yeah. Now I feel a lot better about this. I was expecting the whole legs up, poking around inside me thing."
"Magic is useful like that," Keir assured me right as we reached the doors to the main building.
Pulling one open, he waved me in first, then stepped back so Jack could do his swoop and dive thing, rushing through the door much too fast. I still held up an arm to catch him once he was inside, then shifted him to my shoulder.
But Liam was there, waiting. He gave us a slow clap. "I see you're getting used to having Jack around, hm?"
"Yeah, kinda," I admitted. "I think it's mostly because no one else flinches anymore, so it makes it easier."
"And we like him," Keir added. "Ok, she's all yours, Liam. See you tomorrow, Rain?"
"Yep!" I agreed before hurrying over to join my dad. "So, I don't even know where the nurse's office is."
"In themain administrative area," he said, turning me that way. "And this won't be bad. I asked a few of the teachers. Tag says it's much nicer than the human version."
"Keir kinda said the same on the way over. Why didn't you mention guys get birth control too?"
He just laughed. "I didn't think of it! Not like I can get your zez pregnant, and I am definitely not doing anything like that with a woman!"
"Ok, good point," I relented.
He led me into the glass room off the main hallway and past his own little office. Then back some more. There, tucked out of sight from the glass at the front, was a solid wood door with the word "Nurse" on a plaque about eye level. He knocked.
A moment later, a woman opened the door. I wanted to say a young one, but something about her had that timeless look, similar to Ms. Rhodes. She offered Liam a smile, then moved back and nodded at me.
"Rain le Fae, right?" she asked, not waiting for an answer. "I'm Robin Rivers, the school nurse."
I'd seen her around, but I'd always assumed she was one of the teachers. Clearly, Silver Oaks had an entire self-sufficient community going on here. A counselor, a nurse, the cooks, and teachers?
Ok, it made sense. If they didn't want the rest of the world to know about them, they needed the least amount of outside people coming in as possible. If they hired fae and faelings for everything they could, then there was nothing to hide. That meant students screwing up wouldn't ruin the secret part.
"I have no clue what this is going to be like," I warned her. "Kinda human."
