her bookbag and pulled out an envelope.
“These are the results of your karyotype. They’re a little… unusual. My professor was very interested but unfortunately your blood sample was accidentally soaked in strong acid. Unfortunate,” she said with a slight smile. “I got some stuff off the Internet and put it in there about your type. Don’t read a lot into it, although it maybe helps explain how you turned out to be who you are. As a witch, I mean. Anyway, see you later, okay?” she asked, kissing me quickly. I nodded, clutching the envelope, and watched her walk away.
We were still a bit awkward, but I felt better. Grabbing my stuff, I hightailed it to Programming, getting in early enough to have time to open the envelope.
Declan, generally speaking, most people have 46 chromosomes. You have 47. In your case, instead of having one X chromosome from your mother and one Y chromosome from your father, you ended up with XYY, or in other words, two Y’s from your father.
It’s rare… about 1 in every thousand people… but not really a big deal. I printed out some stuff about it and some of the things it can cause. I don’t think you have any of those except you fit the general genotype of tall and slender. XYY Syndrome is the least detrimental of the abnormal karyotypes. XXX, XXY or X syndromes all produce disabilities, some quite severe. You don’t suffer from any mental retardation other than what’s basically normal, in my experience, for all males. LOL (there I used those stupid letters). The Syndrome may explain your extraordinary power. Super mom X and double dad Y. You should maybe tell your aunt and get her opinion. I’m not going to tell anyone. It’s your information to do with what you want.
Again, I have no excuses for my failure to act, but it will not happen again.
Love, Caeco.
On the pages behind it were some Wikipedia article stuff on XYY Syndrome, and I glanced through them quickly as class started. The professor lectured without looking for any class participation, which was awesome because between what I had just learned about myself and the exhaustion I had been feeling, I was pretty much out of it. All I could think about was the accident of birth that made me the way I was and what I might have been—or more to the point, not been—if I wasn’t as freaky as I was.
My magical strength was part of who I was. What would I be without that?
Chapter 22
Somehow, I got through my classes, picked up the notes I had missed on Friday, and even got a head start on my homework at lunchtime.
When I got back to Arcane, the place was buzzing. Apparently, both the Control class with Jenks and the Explorations class were meeting together at the regular time down in the basement. Speculation ran rampant as to why and from all the looks and stares I was getting, my name figured prominent in most of the theories.
I ate with our regular gang, a pad of paper next to my food to answer the torrent of questions.
“So your mom is famous… er, was famous?” T.J. asked almost as we sat.
Among witches I guess.
“And somebody murdered her?” he asked bluntly. I just stared at him, deadpan.
“Idiot,” Ashley said, eyes furious. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
“What? Just asking,” he said unconvincingly.
“Let me guess—both your parents are alive?” she asked.
“Well… yeah. So what?” he came back.
“So for those of us who have only one, or even none, it makes a huge difference. Then to have you quizzing Declan about his mom’s passing… that’s not your business. Step off,” she said.
He shut up and took a bite of food, face bright red. T.J. was one of those kids who used his social awkwardness as a tool, not really ever embarrassed about his lack of grace. But I suspected that Ashley’s opinion carried a much heavier weight than any of ours.
“I lost my mom about the same age. Car accident. It was… really, really rough,” Ashley said to me. “I don’t know what I would have done without my dad.”
“Declan’s aunt is a really strong person and so is her partner, Darci,” Caeco said.
T.J.’s head snapped up at the word partner, but Ashley, Caeco, and even his roommate Justin were glaring at him, which headed off any unfortunate comments. Just as well, because I was ready to dump his dinner in his lap if