The girls and I had been having a splendid autumn. Cynthia, Hyacinth, Syndony, Synda, and Cindy had taken on the new identities they had prepared and were fitting into school life magnificently. Syndony and Cindy even had dates for the Halloween dance! Sydna got into a little scrape with the giant isopod, but all's well that ends well, as they say.

It was after Halloween when they first got a bit spooked. Cynthia had seen something in town that made her rather nervous, and soon the girls were sneaking out clandestinely at all hours of the night, breaking curfew.

"All sorted," Cynthia told me after arriving back at the dorms early one morning. "There was a scout from an SYG disposal unit lurking about in town."

"I was ready to dispose of HIM," Hyacinth said.

"Yes and it took great discipline to follow orders, dear," Cynthia said. "But a missing scout is as good as a lead, isn't it?"

"It took a bit of work to create a trail for him in another direction," Cindy said. "Needed to lead him a number of hops away."

"I'll be heading to Jakarta in a few weeks," Sydna said.

All the girls sipped their tea solemnly.

Later, Cynthia and I settled down for a cozy chat around a warm cup of tea and I asked her to enlighten me about this "Synthie Business."

"If you mean 'are we robots,' then the answer is no," she said. "We're the same bunch of mischievous girls you've grown to cherish and adore."

My dear old Cynthia.

"It's just that on the inside," she continued, "we've got super-strong bones and replaceable synthetic organs. And field effect generators."

"Oh."

"And it turns out they can deactivate us by flashing certain high-speed frequencies through our 1000-megapixel retinas and take us apart for components."

"Oh my goodness, that's terrible," I exclaimed.

I didn't know what else to say. But I couldn't help but wonder about her parents.

"Turns out they were involved," she said, rather gravely.

I stared at her, a bit confused.

"And we can read minds."

Oh, the last days of summer with my dear chums have been an absolute hoot! First of all, they're getting on like a house on fire with the rest of my classmates. In our spare time, we adore visiting lower campus with its charming gardens and tranquil reflecting pools, not to mention our jaunts into the fields and the woods.

We found ourselves on one of the disused sports fields, and Cynthia, Hyacinth, Syndony, Synda, and Cindy started to get a tad rowdy. Sydna stumbled upon a football and gave it a good boot, sending it flying clear across the field, while Hyacinth darted after it quicker than a flash, leaping quite high into the air to make a spectacular catch.

"There does appear to be something to this 'Synthies' business," remarked Cynthia. "We possess all sorts of talents we'd never been aware of before."

Once Hyacinth snatched the ball mid-flight, she hurled it back over the field with astonishing velocity, and Syndony, using her heat vision, made it go up in flames. When its smoldering remnants hit the ground, Cindy opened her mouth and made some eerie tones at it until it reformed into its original shape, albeit a tad scorched. Sydna ran up and kicked it over the horizon.

"Well, you ladies are a real bunch of surprises!" I declared.

My fondness for my cherished best friends knows no bounds.

My dearest chums from back home have graced our presence! Cynthia, Hyacinth, Syndony, Synda, and Cindy. It's been an age since our last rendezvous, yet we've seamlessly resumed our camaraderie as though no time has passed at all.

It turns out that they were all informed that they were "Synthies," a moniker that the MI6 Junior Cadet Corps term uses for artificially created cadets (officially called Synthetic Young Girls, or SYGs), and that they were they were slated for termination and summoned to some ominous decommissioning establishment. Understandably, all this news was quite a lot to take. Synda, in particular, engaged in a rather spirited altercation with the elite strike force dispatched for their retrieval, resulting in a few unintended casualties. This prompted the collective decision to embark on an international sojourn.

And I'm happy to say they're getting along splendidly! Since they'd be quite a lot to squeeze into my own tiny dorm room, the RA was able to find spare rooms and cobble together a plethora of dining hall vouchers.

So for now, everyone's just settling in, and I'm eagerly anticipating these waning days of summer, during which I shall introduce them to the wonders of our locale.

I've just received word from a few of my old chums back in the MI6 Junior Cadet Corps. Appears there's been a bit of a commotion, and several of them are “are on the lam” as they say. Looks like I'll be playing host to some summer guests on holiday! Cheerio for now.

The grasshoppers here are absolutely splendid. They possess knowledge and share secrets with you, unlike the ones back home. Those enjoy challenging you with riddles, and if you happen to answer them incorrectly, you're in for a spot of trouble. They will give you a good boxing!

I was surprised to find they don’t sell kettles in the school commissary. I didn’t pack mine and just assumed I could pick one up after I arrived.

I love the American ice cream they serve in the canteen here.