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They had sent a neat little note around to all the parents, but not a consent form. Please be aware that this term, the senior school will be taking Sexual Health education, it had read. (Ms. Lindy had refused to make it a consent form. "It's illegal, for the love of everything," she'd said, quite crossly for Ms. Lindy. "Let the parents think they can un-consent to it and I'll have a billion forms telling me they don't want Little Precious learning about condoms.") This unit will continue on the entire term and focus on self-identity, health and relationships, family and safe sex.

This unit is compulsory.

"Bwa ha," she'd said gleefully, typing it out. "Now I have them."

"You can be really creepy, Mum," said her youngest son, listening to his iPod.

In fact, Casca was in the room that day -- he was sitting in the back, face already in his big clawed hands. She'd offered to even let him sit out of the class for his own sanity. "No," he said, "everyone will know I'm not there." Why this was a reason for him actually being there she had no idea, but his ways were mysterious ways and he was acutely aware of being embarrassed. "Just please don't call on me for any questions, okay."

She'd pinned up a few posters to the board: Planned Pregnancy. Youthline. Rainbow Youth. No desks, and she'd cleared out the tables -- she'd brought in the squashy sofa from the back and the rest of it was bean bags.

The sea of faces looked up at her, not any of them aglow with happy anticipation at getting to learn all of this. That was pretty much to be expected. Ms. Lindy swung her braid back and jangled her bracelets. "Look, I know this is an embarrassing topic," she said to the assembled throng. "So let's get out the embarrassment first thing, okay? I don't want all of you tittering the moment anyone says the word p***s -- that means you, Jace Darnell -- and this class is about acknowledging that you guys are adults, with sex drives and questions, so this class is going to be a reasoned discussion rather than a class."

Deadly silence.

"Remember, this is pass or fail," she warned them. "If I think you haven't contributed anything over this unit, you are going to have to take it again, so please -- if you want the marks, open your mouth! All right? Awesome? Bitchin'."

It felt slightly weird for a small, rainbowheaded woman who had a huge bellbottom skirt and a peace ornament necklace to say bitchin'. Deadly silence still remained, except a pensive sigh from her son in the back at the rank humiliation.

Lindy wrote up on the whiteboard --

WHAT IS SEX?

"Discuss, please!" she said. "Just call out, 'hands up' is ridiculous."

From the back, on the squashy couch, Wisp Darnell started to get the hysterical giggles.

This was hell. It was a simple thought, compounded by the fact that the only entertainment Antony was likely to get out of this class was to sit next to Chris on the couch. He looked quite comfortable there, unlike the big black skinned male next to him. And he took a few glances over at Chris to fight his laughter at how purple the teen was.

What the hell kind of question was that? Chris felt his cheeks heat as he looked down at his ginormous hands rather than answer the question. Not that he didn't know what sex was, of course. He wasn't an idiot. But--

But it sure as hell wasn't going to be him that answered it. He looked over at Antony, his gold eyes narrowing as he hissed. "You're so smart, you answer her." Unfortunately his two voices carried, even in a hiss.

"I'm sure there's people more able to answer than I am," Antony said prudishly, just to piss him off.

"What about the spiritual aspect?" Manny asked from her rather uncomfortable bean bag. Her leg was hurting in the soft thing and it was making her a little cross. "Momma always said that sex was when the orisha mounts the iyawó," she offered, "Do all people think that?" She was rather comfortable with the discussion, it was much more frank and less graphic than the one she had had with her mother and half the congregation a few days before.

"I think it's spiritual, too," Chris said abruptly. Then he stopped, feeling like an idiot.

"I think it's not just the physical," Antony said, lacing his fingers together on his stomach as he leaned back. "There's a lot more to it, words, actions, movements. Sex is as much of a mental exercise as it is physical."

"I absolutely agree with the man in the back," spoke up Jace Darnell, who Ms. Lindy had been a bit surprised that she hadn't spoken up earlier. She was sitting away from her (still giggling) sister, hunched on a bean bag. "For instance, let me get this straight, it's completely spiritual if a guy you know is all 'oh by the way I love you haha' and you guys reach gay sex fourth base in his bedroom and then he's all whoops I'm going off to college bye. I think that's mental and s**t."

Lindy felt the class slipping away from her.

"I'm glad you brought up cultural definitions, Manuela," she said, struggling on manfully. "The definition of sex is different to a lot of religions and households. The definition of virgin once was simply a woman who hadn't had a baby. Not everyone has the same definition at all. Jace, what would you call the part of sex that you just talked about?"

"Being an enormous a*****e whose hair smells like Herbal Essences," said Jacoba.

Lindy wrote down: sex hurts.

"Wait," said Wisp plaintively, having subsided from her giggles. She'd given a big blue eyed I dunno shrug to Ophelia, being equally bemused. Also Jace was doing what she called Jace's Words Words Words, none of which made any sense to her, and when she tried to gesture to her sulking sibling Jace didn't turn around. "I'm way confused."

The teacher turned back. "That's pretty normal," she said. "What I'm trying to show you here is -- sex isn't just one thing, it's not a bunch of definitions. It's medical, it's spiritual. Sex is love. Sex is also a mess. It's about your feelings, your relationships, different definitions. What sex might be to one person is totally different to the next person."

Antony looked at Jace, wondering if she hadn't spoken to Irelia lately, because something seemed to have gotten lost in translation. Because he was pretty sure the other girl had promised to cut something off if he touched Jace again. And, he thought, getting a bit irritated, Jace herself had told him A) that she loved Irelia and planned on marrying her sometime, and B) to go off and date Delilah.

"Sometimes," he said calmly, or at least in an attempt at calm, "College is necessary for making a living." Which was vague and worthy of being slapped for--

He jerked as Chris's tail whacked him upside the head hard (for him, not for Chris.) It knocked him forward and almost out for a moment, but it had been done so quickly no one should have seen it.

"And it's not just for procreation, though that can be a result of it," Rory finally chimed into the whole talk of sex. Well, judging by something weird that was going on with Jace and Antony, little hits here and there (not counting Chris' slap to Antony, which she ignored).

So it was also a religious thing? Chris was religious. She'd have to look more into that. This class was going to be useful! On some level. Maybe in getting Chris less shy, at least?

"Ummmm," said Wisp, who hated being in the dark or admitting she was stupid, "kind of." It was making kind of sense, but there was a lot going on.

"Awesome," the teacher was saying, "procreation." Underneath this on the board she wrote: babies. "When a man and a woman have sex, there's the possibility that the woman will get pregnant. However, you don't have to have sex to get pregnant, and that's why we have birth control. Can I get some forms of birth control listed, guys?"