Page 34 of Moon Cursed

Setting down her cup, Ash offered me the same polite smile in return. “Thank you for inviting me back, High Priestess, and offering me this opportunity in aiding you in furthering that glorious goal. I too believe we shouldget right to it, so I’ll begin with my first proposed change.

“The trials.”

I cocked a brow. “The trials?” My tone couldn’t have been blander.

“That’s right. It’s come to the council’s attention that you’ve been allowing students to hold full court trials against everyone to whom they have a grievance. This must stop.”

“Must it?”

“Very much so.” Bending down, she reached into her holdall, pulled out a folder, and slid it over to me.

Ash looked just as severe and polished as she did the day before. Her gray suit was pressed, burning away any pesky wrinkles that dared mar her outfit. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun. Her makeup was so understated as to not be noticeable at all, and her tiny kitten heels were spotless and scuff-free.

I felt like a slob next to her, even though I was wearing a perfectly acceptable blue sheath dress and blue Mary Janes.

“Not only is holding full trials incredibly disruptive to the students,” she went on, “leaving them little time to focus on their studies, but there’s also the issue of resentments building among the student body. We want harmony and cooperation to be our mantra, not tit-for-tat retribution. That is why I’m proposing we start the first Corvin Academy Student Honor Board.”

“An honor board?”

“That’s right. Page seven.”

I flipped through fast, but she wasn’t pausing for me.

“The honor board will be made up of eight students—equally alpha, beta, omega, and epsilon. From now on, if there are disputes between students, they will submit their grievances before the honor board.

“If the honor board decides it has merit, they’ll bring the students before them, let them share their case, and then they will hand down the punishment, if they so decide punishment is warranted.” She tipped her head. “Of course, we will determine exactly what punishments they’re allowed to hand down.”

“I... I see,” I replied, scanning the very detailed description of the new honor board that went on for five more pages. “This is—”

“Necessary. We’re putting power back into the students in a fair and honest way that applies to all,” she sliced in. “No one will be able to claim they’re being ganged up on. And the epsilons will stop having to drop everything just so they can arbitrate the outcome of every petty complaint.”

I flipped through, trying to find something to argue against, and coming up short. The honor board she was describing would achieve the same result as the trials. It would make the students feel heard, and it would free up time for my epsilons. Just the other day Melisent mentioned they took a lot of time out of her day.

“This is... good,” I forced out. “Good idea.”

“Of course it is. Now, on to the next point: school meals.” The woman was barreling on and she didn’t care if I was still hanging on for the ride. “You’ve got all the students eating the meals that were once reserved for alphas. Your intentions there are understandable, but not practical.

“It’s putting way too much on the kitchen staff—so much so that triple their salary hasn’t stopped their complaining.”

“Wait, complaining?” I sat up. “Who’s complaining?”

“What does it matter? The issue would need rectifying even if they weren’t.” She tapped the desk, nodding at the papers in my hand. “On page eighteen, I’ve drawn up a new, simple, nutritious menu. Everyone will eat what is on the menu, or they’ll starve. If they want Belgian waffles with glazed strawberries and maple bacon, they can make it at home.”

“That’s reasonable,” I muttered, scanning her menu and once again not finding anything I could argue with. We were sitting in my headmistress’s office with me sitting in the fancy, prominent chair, but for some reason, it felt like our roles were reversed.

“Meals will also be served buffet-style, and rooms will no longer be assigned or chosen by the student,” she said, pausing briefly to sip her tea. “The alpha dorms are the most coveted dorms in the school. They’re unnecessarily extravagant, and I’ve always thought so. Every student wants them, but there aren’t enough alpha rooms for everyone, so a lottery is the only fair way to divvy the rooms up.”

I nodded along. That was another good point. Most of the omegas abandoned their crappy dorms the minute I took over the school, but they couldn’t all move into the alpha dorm because it was seventy percent filled with alphas. They suggested—loudly—that I kick the alphas out so that the rooms could be given out fairly, but the alphas raised holy hell about it. A lottery would be the fairest way.

Ash clapped, flicking my eyes up. “On to classes. This free-for-all, everyone-studies-whatever-they-want nonsense must come to an end, it simply must.”

My eyes narrowed. “This free-for-all nonsense is exactly what the council agreed to support.”

“They were wrong,” she dropped. “The fact is most of the students have been studying and training for their specific tracks since they were four. Now, while the late Headmistress Dagem did champion a back-to-basics curriculum for this year, it was done with the assumption that there would be a separate playing field among wolf types.”

“She assumed wrong.” My voice was as light as a field of daisies. “Not the first mistake the woman made in her short lifetime.”

Ash’s brow twitched—the only crack in her stern, disapproving mask. “You’re misunderstanding me, High Priestess. What I’m trying to say is that the back-to-basics curriculum is not working for a mixed student body, because what constitutes basics vary wildly from alpha to omega.

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