Quickening | Spooky Pregnant School: The

“What is the square root of a nursery rhyme?” Question 2: “If you have three shadows, but only one mother, which shadow carries the scissors?” Question 3 (Practical): “Make the thing inside you kick in perfect 4/4 time. On the off-beat, whisper the name of the girl who will not survive delivery week.”

When The Quickening ends, you are wheeled to the “Delivery Wing.” The doors have no handles. The walls are lined with wet, red velvet. spooky pregnant school: the quickening

You will be sitting in Remedial Latin. You will feel a tiny, sharp kick against your lower ribs. You will gasp. The girl next to you—her belly a perfect, taut globe—will not look up. She knows what that kick means: “What is the square root of a nursery rhyme

Term 1 is for (dull, silent, theoretical). Term 2 is for Gestation of Habit (the halls grow warmer; you crave chalk dust and raw liver). But Term 3? Term 3 is The Quickening . What is The Quickening? In mundane medicine, it is simply when the mother first feels fetal movement. At St. Agatha’s, it is when the curriculum begins to move inside you . You will be sitting in Remedial Latin

In the final week, the students become hollow. Their skin goes translucent, like onion paper. You can see what has been growing in there: not a child, but a with your own name on it, dated the day you were born.

You will file into the basement auditorium. The lights are the color of a bruise. You will lie on a gurney. A cold, stethoscope-like device—too long, too flexible—will be inserted into your navel.

There is no failing. Only premature dilation . Graduation is not a ceremony. It is a cough .