Finding Fae

To say that the rest of the week was more the same would be putting it mildly. After the burning fun on Monday, I managed to acquire quite a few more injuries. Busted lips from “falling”, bruised hands and knees from catching myself, a few cuts and scrapes, and I’ve taken to keeping extra clothes in five different lockers, six, if you counted Zane’s gym locker.

Since Monday happened, the four guys turned into sort of long lost siblings. Blaine got detention for three days on Tuesday because he was caught fighting some guy that slammed my hand in my locker. Nando was a basket of surprises when he ended up doctoring my hand instead of the “cut rate hack of a school nurse”, as he put it. He didn’t know that most of the things he did, like the painkillers and antiseptics, didn’t do much. I was, more or less, immune to them. The stronger ones had some effect, but that was all prescriptions you had to go to a doctor for, which I hadn’t been to one since my last dentist check eight years ago. They sort of became body guards, of a sort. I had at least one of them in every class except Algebra and Art at the end of the day. So, they sort of got together Tuesday at lunch and made a type of schedule where, even in the halls between class, one of them would be with me.

I was sitting in Algebra on Friday, long before anyone else filtered in. I had discovered that tripping me on the way to my desk was impossible if I got there before everyone else. It was, thankfully, one of the only classes that I didn’t have the main culprits behind my various bruises and scrapes. No Victoria or her little Clones, no Malachi glaring at me, no Rex trying to befriend me. It was almost peaceful.

That is until today. Why today, I have no idea, but I wasn’t about to ask questions. Especially wherever Malachi was concerned. He walked into the class like he owned the place, which was his usual behavior and I felt the tiny little bubble of happiness burst in my chest. He started talking to the teacher and I sort of shrunk into myself a little bit. If I was smaller I wouldn’t be so noticeable, right? Ha! Wrong.

My luck would have none other than the other source of my misery waltz in. Rex. His eyes immediately found me and I groaned and thumped my head to the desk in front of me as he called my name and the Soul Sucker himself turned. I hated my life right about now.

“Why do you insist on making my life more difficult?” I grumbled as he took the seat to my right.

“How am I managing that?” he asked.

I looked up and glared at him. He knew dang well and good how. Every single time someone saw him talking to me, Victoria and her clones would soon descend on me like the evil little harpies they were and I’d end up with more bruises and scrapes than normal, along with a few nail marks, if they were feeling generous.

“Why don’t you say anything?” Rex asked.

“None of your business,” I grumbled and debated on moving to another seat. I froze when Malachi took the seat to my left, his eyes boring holes into me. “Great. What now? Come to tell me something I already knew again?”

“He’s just intimidated,” Rex commented.

“I don’t need any help from the peanut gallery,” I snapped, feeling my irritation growing as the seconds passed.

“Butt out, Noble,” Malachi said, his glare moving from me for a merciful second but snapping back when an errant eye roll snuck by my defenses. “Something amusing, Young?”

“Amusing? No. Irritating and growing old very quickly? Very much,” I huffed and shoved my things back in my bag.

“Where are you going?” he snapped.

“I’m suddenly not feeling well,” I glared back at him. “Must be the cold heartlessness of my surroundings getting to me.”

I got up and left as the bell rang. I decided to go to the library. It was seldom used and always quiet, thankfully. I wandered the shelves until I came across a section about folklore. I had always been drawn to the whimsical for some reason and smiled to myself as I pulled down a book of tales.

I was reading fascinating stories about fairies and elves and mermaids, among other things when the bell scared the unholy horror out of me. I quickly checked the book out and shoved it into my bag before racing to Art class.

Since the project was over, we were all focusing on portfolio development, since the winter break was coming up and it made no sense to begin another project until we returned. Still unable to find a place to begin, the teacher suggested I just do some doodles until it came to me. I blame the book I had spent the last class reading, but all of the doodles were of small fairies with intricate and amazing wings, pixies with mischievous looks on their faces, elves with delicate features, and many other things that you would find in an anthology of folktales.

“Not bad,” the teacher smiled as she peeked over my shoulder. “For doodles, they are very detailed. I think you should start there. See if you can’t bring one completed, or nearly completed, drawing back on Monday.”

The bell rang, releasing us all from the torture of the day and I gladly put my things away and met Nando outside to classroom. He was the bodyguard for the end of the day, since his class was closer than the others.

“You look like you could use a strong drink,” he chuckled. “Or some powerful muscle relaxers.”

“Can I have both?” I asked and he laughed loudly.

That was one thing about Nando. He often spoke quietly, but when something got him, good or bad, he tended to get very loud, very fast. His mirth was always infectious and his wrath... I don’t think I’ve ever seen him angry before. Not like the others, anyhow. Blaine was kind of a “act first, question later” guy and Zane was typically backing up his brother. Ben, on the other hand, was kind of a loose cannon. He was unpredictable and was easily distracted by a pretty face.

“So, Pix, we were talking-,” Zane said as he and his brother caught up with us.

“Never a good sign,” I smiled.

“-and since you’ve never been to a party, we decided we should take you to one,” he finished, giving me a grin.

“This weekend, remember?” Blaine said, putting his arm around my shoulders and Zane smacked him off me.

“Good luck convincing the Warden,” I rolled my eyes. “Dad’s not going to let me do anything that would be considered “normal” so long as I’m breathing.”

“Ben’s already on it,” Zane beamed with pride and I paled.

Don’t make friends.

“Please tell me you didn’t send him to talk to the Warden alone,” Blaine pinched the bridge of his nose. “Unsupervised?”

“Oh,” Zane said, seeing the problem we all did. “We should probably hurry.”

“You think?” I rolled my eyes and practically ran for the parking lot, sending prayers to every god and higher being I could think of that Ben had been distracted.

Every one of them went unanswered when I made it outside and I flinched, seeing Dad standing beside the Jeep while Ben spoke. Not many people could read my dad, but I knew the subtleties of his expressions. He was not amused, nor was he too happy.

“Kill me,” I muttered as I started my final march towards the pair.

I was about halfway when Dad looked at me over Ben’s head and I flinched a little. He was mad. I was in the process of wishing to be eaten by the earth when I suddenly found myself face first on the asphalt and the back of my head throbbed.

“Hey!” Blaine yelled and I heard the start of a fight, not doubting for a second Zane was right next to his brother.

“You’re bleeding again,” Nando said quietly as he helped me roll over and sit up. He dug in his bag and produced a handful of tissues, a bottle of water, and some band aids. “Your chin looks gnarly and your nose is bleeding.”

Ben ran past us to join the brawl as Nando handed a tissue for under my nose and wet another to clean the bits of gravel from my chin. He put a few bandages on my face and handed me another tissue for under my nose as he moved to my knees, which had also bee scraped in my fall.

“Could you please stop them before they get expelled?” I huffed as the sound of fighting got louder.

“And put myself between them and their goal?” he scoffed and helped me stand. “I value my life, thanks. They’ll be fine.”

“You okay, cupcake?” Dad asked and I felt Nando’s hand tighten on my upper arm.

“Does it matter?” I asked and marched to the Jeep and got in. “Tell them thanks for me, okay?”

“Sure,” Nando nodded as my dad got in and started the engine as parents started breaking up the fray before the school got involved officially.

We drove for a while before Dad broke the silence in an unexpected way.

“I guess you’ve found your people,” he said, sounding a little... sad? Resigned, for sure.

“They’re my brothers,” I said looking out the window.

“I see that,” he said and then the silence returned.

We got to the house and he sighed again as he cut the engine and we sat in the cab for a while.

“I’m not moving again,” I said.

“I didn’t think you would,” he said and I looked over to see him rubbing his temples. “Not now, anyhow.”

“So, what’s next?” I asked, making sure my nose had stopped bleeding.

“We get ready,” he answered. “I’ve told you it’s dangerous for us to stay in one place for long, but I’ve never told you why. I still won’t, but I will say that it’s because some people are looking for us. More importantly, they are looking for you.”

“Why? Do you owe a bookie or something?” I snorted.

“No. It’s because your mother and I made a lot of people very angry right after you were born,” he shook his head. “Let’s get you patched up and I’ll start dinner.”

That was all that was said about it. No matter how I pushed, Dad didn’t say anything else. He either changed the subject or just ignored it until I gave up and went to bed, knowing I would have a long day tomorrow. Dad was a lot of things, but merciful when I was injured wasn’t one of them. He still expected me to participate in whatever activity he had planned for the weekends, unless I had broken bones. I almost wish I did, just to have a break.

That night, I heard a dog barking and looked out of my window, rubbing sleep from my eyes. I still blame that book for what I saw next. The dog, which looked like a some sort of hound, came trotting through the overgrown woods into my overgrown back yard. He looked around then, stood on his hind legs. I blinked, and in that space of time, the dog was gone and Zane stood in it’s place, naked as the day he was born.

“No way,” I whispered and his head shot up to look at my window. I jumped back, hiding behind the wall. I don’t know why. It’s not like I was seeing things the right way. Right?

After a moment, I looked back outside and saw... nothing. No Zane, no dog, nothing but empty yard that looked like a jungle. I shook my head and went back to bed. I had to have been half asleep still. There’s no way I saw what I thought I saw. Such things didn’t exist.