THERE HAD BEEN four founders of Miss Plazenby's Extremely Exclusive Seminary for Girls and this fact created some curious conversations among the newcomers that evening as they prepared for the strange ritual to come.
'So many finders,' Meresinth said with a laugh. 'Makes you wonder why the place kept getting lost.'
'Because it's so full of losers,' Pirouette said, examining the supplied robes with a grimace. She rummaged in her packed side cabinet and selecting one of the loose fitting garments she began spraying it with something. Everyone stared in awe at the result as the tint of the robe seemed to change before their eyes, becoming richer, deeper and with an added sparkle.
'What?' Pirouette said with a half-smile on her usually disdainful lips. 'Just a little spritz of
Frabrilicious
to spruce up mundane shades. An absolute necessity in lands that are anywhere but Perfecta.' She shrugged the garment on over her head and the fabric positively glowed and sparkled like a totally new thing. It even rustled with a slight musical sound.
'Anyway,' Esper said, shaking her head. 'I believe a founder and a finder are two quite different things.'
'Yes. One creates something and the other steals it, claiming it as their own,' the Meditia girl observed knowingly.
'Finders keepers, founders weepers.'
'They are like starters. Perhaps there had been a number of false starts and everyone had to go back behind the line and wait,' Dolly Bloomen added a sporting perspective to proceedings.
'What are you talking about?'
'The first founder, it says here, was a man,' Esper interceded quickly, referring to the school literature with greater scrutiny. 'Some professor of scientific endeavour apparently and he originally brought boys to the school. Then one day the headmaster disappeared under mysterious circumstances, someone stole the great bell in the tower and the place was abandoned as cursed or something.'
'Excellent! That'll teach them to bring boys to Miss Plazenby's.'
'She wasn't even born then,' Anthera clarified.
'Then the place was purged and purified and it was thought maidens pure of soul would be safe in such an accursed place.'
'Were they?'
'I suppose so, only very few ventured to try their purity. The replacement bell broke into two pieces and the second founder withdrew funding. The last to leave was a pupil with visionary dreams.'
'She returned and founded the school anew?'
'No, she founded an asylum for dream weavers. A lot of sleeping and lie-ins went on there.'
'Sounds really good,' Dolly said.
'The place only became a proper school when a very rich lady decided to invest in it a hundred years ago. Built all the buildings we see today. Replaced the bell and created a prospectus of such intense gentility no ghoul or accursed demon could possibly interfere.'
'The Distinguished Ladies' Seminary,' came a knowing response.
'That's the one.'
'So what happened to it?'
'Too expensive.'
'So it became the Extinguished Ladies' Seminary,' was the inevitable rejoinder from Meresinth.
'Then came Miss Plazenby to rescue the ailing establishment with lots of her own money and a funny gleam in her eye.'
'It'll go the same way as the previous one I reckon.'
'Why?'
'Even more expensive.'