String of Hearts

"Hello, dearies, please flip to page sixty four in your textbooks," the teacher, who introduces herself as Mrs. Q announced. "I know it's the first day of school, but --" her serene face folded into a mask of pure and untarnished anger at nothing in particular -- "DEAL WITH IT!" 

She didn't know the class. And anger wasn't her "thing" either. The truth was, she'd a been a "test tube human" in a project to clone people, illegally. Well, that hadn't worked, and now she was suffering from severe schizophrenia. 

But nobody knew that. And exploding into an angry madwoman doesn't make for a good first impression, now, does it. Then the question is, exactly how did she get hired in the first place? 

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"What happened back there?" asked Kai. "Someone said Mrs. Q suddenly developed anger management problems!" 

"Eh," said Sadie, "I guess that's about right." 

"I'll say," Izzy mumbled. Laughing, the trio hurried toward the cafeteria because they hoped the chocolate cupcakes weren't all gone. 

One thing about the school -- it wasn't a classic, even though it had been around about, hm, two centuries. The cafeteria was completely modern, and hadn't been touched since the building's construction. But high crystal-dome ceilings and sleek metal furnishings -- did the people of the 1800s really like that stuff? And exactly how was it built with the limited technology of the time? But people didn't think like that. All they thought about was how breathtaking it looked, flooded with natural light, oh my! That is, until they learned how it was built...