ALT 99 ways to get ex-spelled without committing murder

ALT The Pitch Anarchocommunist, OCD-ridden Posey Peabody has been drafted into the American Army Academy for Powerful Witches. By entry stats she's the Winner--First Rank of her class. All is well as can be until Amelia Appleton takes her Rank with reckless, dangerous, wrong magic. And then Appleton doesn't get expelled. Competitive streak activated, Posey and Appleton engage in reckless, rule-breaking acts of magic and mischief. While trading First Rank between each other, Posey realizes that Appleton might not be such a weirdo after all. In fact, she's annoyingly pretty. That said, Appleton's got her eye on that government position through all this, and Posey would rather die than work for the fascists in charge. Posey's intention is to truly get expelled. She wants to be the first one to do it. Meanwhile, an underground betting ring rises up, classmates betting on whether or not Posey will have to kill someone to get expelled. Posey hopes it's not true, but whether or not she finds out

ALT FIRST LINE SNIPPET Somewhere behind the stage, Headmaster Josephus Crimble is puking his guts out. I remind myself that it's okay if I start to count and stop myself after the limit, so long as I don't make it to ten. If you make it to ten, the limit goes down by one, Posey. Don't forget. I started at five hundred. Drifting through the rest of the day in this half-there state, I sit with my feelings locked tight in a jar of my own design. Ґ1l preserve my emotions like lemons, until they're laden with salt and mellowed in their sourness. That feeling, or lack thereof, feels warm as home to me, and my deep yearning for Nukeville ebbs into a soft ache that gently rubs my heart into a smoother, steadier rhythm. There will be no need for counting when there's no feeling to (dis)regulate.