Kapitel 33: The Prodigious Nim, Part Two

{Melisa} 

Melisa stood among the crowd of students. To everyone else, she probably looked calm. Confident, even.

But beneath her skin, Melisa was going fucking crazy. 

[AAAAAAAAH!] She thought, inhaling and exhaling slowly. [I'm going to... fucking... die!] 

Ever since her 13th birthday, 4 years ago, Melisa had been feeling a growing sense of unease.

It started off light, like a faint tug, a whisper in the back of her mind that she couldn't quite shake.

But as the days passed, that whisper grew louder. More insistent with every woman she laid eyes on until it was a constant, maddening hum.

She knew what it was, of course. Her mother had warned her about this, about the "pull" that all nim felt towards others when they came of age.