Catterwick Academy wasn't everything the brochures said it would be. In fact, the Uhrmacher twins might have gone so far as to say that it deliberately misrepresented itself. It was beautiful, sure, just like the headmistress Charlotte said it would be, with sprawling gardens, elaborate stone fountains, and it's very own riding stable. The classes were small and intimate, geared toward etiquette and learning. In that respect, the proper young bunny-kin who showed them around had told the truth.

But she had absolutely lied about it being a nice place. And the twins didn't take that well at all.

Kara and Lina didn't blame their father; he was busy with work and traveled far too much. Their grandparents, who had all but raised them after their mother's death, were getting on in their years and thought it best to socialize the girls, though they had both excelled under their attentive direction. In addition to seventy-six years of wisdom and experience, the twins had become skilled artisans and mechanics under their grandparents' affectionate tutelage.

Despite their discontent, they had taken their father's reluctant decision to have them finish their education at the Academy as they did everything--quietly and politely.

At least until Raleigh Uhrmacher's taillights had receded down the long, winding, wisteria-laden drive. Kara and Lina's demur facade lasted all of a day before the twins declared war on the unfortunate Miss Charlotte and her pretentious band of bourgeois debutants.

The initial decision to separate the twins yielded drastic measures. Tea time the following afternoon resulted in a school wide shut down when Kara, not to be taken lightly, sent the entire student body on a nip-trip by spitefully spiking the Madame Grey.

Far from achieving the desired objective, Miss Charlotte countered by banning Kara from all tea related events. Ever. To say the tea-loving cat-kin was devastated would be an appalling understatement.

Lina, feigning disbelief at her sister's actions magnanimously volunteered to stay after classes to dust the chalk boards in an effort to redeem them both.

It wasn't until three and a half grueling hours into their first class the following morning that anyone even entertained the idea that someone had actually rewired the clocks to, quite literally, run backward.

Miss Charlotte, too proud to call the esteemed Mr. Uhrmacher and trouble the widower about his problematic daughters, and outraged at the continued indignation, assigned them both to laundry duty for a month.

What the unfortunate headmistress did not know, could not possibly know, was that their revered grandmother had spent a lifetime manipulating fabric. Over the next two weeks, the girls took their medicine quietly, seeming to settle into life at the Academy.

Their revenge was a quiet one, and subtle. It took almost a full month to take affect. It wasn't until everyone's uniforms had cycled through the laundry that students, teachers, and administration alike realized that their clothes no longer fit.

But the twins had been smart, only taking the skirts in an inch at a time, leading the population to believe that they were all steadily and inexplicably gaining weight.

Their stealthy victory was acknowledged when they returned from their classes one evening to find that all of Lina's belongings had been moved back into Kara's room. Miss Charlotte never mentioned it, and the twins were content with their temporary truce.

For the time being.