Finding Fae

Monday came faster than I would have liked it to. Dad wanted to check with the office to make sure there was, in fact, no other places for me at the moment. I lost count of how many times my eyes rolled of their own accord while he and Mr. Rhodes talked. When it was all finally over and done with, I was convinced this was some new level of torture as I went from dealing with my dad to dealing with the halls on my way to the first class of the day, Science.

Thursday and Friday, the class was quiet enough, since it was morning. But today, it was pretty close to loud. Most of the noise, I noticed, came from the middle of the room where Victoria and a few of her clones were gathered around a desk, along with just about any other female. Whatever had their attention, I was grateful for, since I was able to get to my desk without getting tripped or being subjected to the not-so-subtle whispers.

“What’s the deal?” I asked Zane, who had already taken his seat and was busy stressing about the homework he didn’t do.

“Another newbie,” he smiled and looked from me to the gaggle of girls, then back to me. “Apparently, he’s a “hottie stud muffin”, but I’m quoting Victoria.”

“Well, seeing as she has a thing for Soul Sucker, I would say her opinion is in question,” I rolled my eyes.

“Do you, by chance, happen to know the answer for problem seven?” he asked, a hint of desperation in his voice.

“Enthalpy,” I said as the teacher came in and got the place settled.

Since Zane and I sat in the back of the class, the only thing I could see of the new guy was light brown hair that was in a neat crew cut. I guessed he was a bit above average in height, but how tall, I had no idea how tall. His shoulders looked pretty firm, as far as I could tell through the light jacket he was wearing. He could very well be a “hottie stud muffin” but I really couldn’t care less. Honestly, he sort of gave me a bad vibe.

It was subtle, but it still felt like looking down an old, deserted hallway in questionable light. There was no obvious reason, but you just wanted to turn around and get the heck out of there as fast as possible. He could look like the very image of Adonis himself, but I very much doubted anything could muscle that instinct to run away. I chalked it up to living with a father that insisted “it wasn’t safe here anymore” every few months before packing up and hitting the road.

The class ended and I handed my notes to Zane, since even he had a hard time reading his own handwriting and he admitted that he was total crap at taking notes.

“It’s going to suck so much when you go to regular classes in a few days,” he sighed, looking at my neat handwriting and clear points on the topic of the day.

“Why go to regular classes?” a silky voice asked and I shuddered. It felt silky, like a spider web. Smooth, but sticky and a deadly trap.

“I’m new too, but the system wouldn’t but me in normal classes, so I’m stuck in advanced until they fix the issues,” I said, hoisting my bag as Zane put my notes away.

“I’ll see you at lunch,” Zane smiled and walked by the new guy, giving me the perfect chance to slip by him as well.

This guy was attractive like one of those models you see posted everywhere with no real clue as to what he was selling, aside from sex appeal for every female from fourteen to twenty-five. He was like a piece of art. I could look and admire all I wanted to, but there was no way I was going to buy it and hang it on my wall.

“A fellow transplant,” he grinned as he followed me out of the class. “When did you get here?”

“Thursday,” I answered flatly as I switched books at my locker and turned towards English.

“I’m Rex,” he said with another smile designed to kill the ladies. Too bad I seemed to be immune.

“Fae. Look, you obviously have an in here with these people that I don’t, so it might make things easier for you if you just stayed away from me,” I said and ducked into class and waved to Blaine and Ben, who looked like they were in the middle of an intense debate about something.

“Thank God, and impartial party,” Blaine rolled his eyes when I sat down.

“Why am I the mediator all of a sudden?” I tilted my head.

“Blaine here thinks we should go to the big party happening at Penny Andrews’s house this weekend,” Ben scoffed. “I think it’s a bad idea.”

“You only say that because Heather is going and you pumped and dumped,” Blaine shot back.

“Okay, I might be a little sheltered, but what does that mean?” I asked, completely clueless.

“Come and go? Plow and ditch?” he tried and I kept shaking my head, getting more and more confused. “Oh you sweet, innocent pixie.”

“What am I missing here?” I asked.

“He banged her, then took off,” he whispered before both he and Ben started laughing at my obvious shock and burning face. If I wasn’t so stunned, I probably would have laughed, too.

“You make it sound horrible,” Ben huffed. “And that’s not the reason I think it’s a bad idea.”

“As a girl, I would have to argue that it is, in fact, terrible,” I smacked his arm. “Shame on you, you vile dog.”

“Put away the drama, that class is for nerds,” Blaine said, earning a glare from Ben, who was in Drama class.

“As for the party, you are asking the wrong person,” I said, cutting off the prickly comment I knew Ben was going to say. “My experience with anything after school is nonexistent.”

“Wait, you’ve never been to a party?” Ben asked and I shook my head. “Damn. Now we have to go.”

“Not happening. My dad has a stick up his butt when it comes to anything involving...everything,” I said and told them about Dad coming up here to talk to Mr. Rhodes about my schedule.

“Girl, you are suffocated in a major way,” Blaine whistled as the teacher stood up and called the class to order before we started dissecting Romeo and Juliet.

I was well versed in most things Shakespeare, so I didn’t need to focus much, which lead me to discover Soul Sucker himself was practically oozing hatred in the farthest reaches of the class. I didn’t even notice he had this class, but now that I knew, it was like I could feel the icy contempt coming off in a sustained manner. I felt sorry for whoever decided to take a dump in his Wheaties this morning and shuddered. I sent a quick prayer to the universe that I didn’t get a trickle down from the higher-than-thou group of Victoria.

English felt like it dragged until the bell finally rang and I practically cheered at the bell, along with everyone else in the class. Ben took off, claiming he missed breakfast this morning and was starving, while Blaine went to his locker to drop off his books while I was still packing my bag.

“You should focus on your own business and keep your eyes to the front,” Malachi said after the rest of the class had filtered out of the room.

“Excuse me?” I looked up

“You heard me just fine,” he said.

“Oh, I have excellent hearing, but I’m wondering what you’re talking about,” I snapped out a little harsher than I intended.

“You dumb act isn’t fooling anyone,” he said then leaned over, trapping me in my desk. “I don’t know where you came from, and I don’t give a damn, but if you don’t go back to whatever hole you crawled out of, you will regret it.”

“If I could be anywhere but here, trust me, I would leave in a second. Sadly, I have no say in the matter, and neither do you, so keep your half-assed threats to yourself before you end up eating them,” I shot back and pushed him away from me so I could leave.

Now, I know I shouldn’t have let my temper get the better of me, but I had a serious problem with any person that thought they could strong arm me around with threats and violence. I knew, beyond a doubt, that, if Sir Soul Sucker decided to ramp up the bullying to actual altercations, I would have no issues mopping the floor with anyone who thought they had the stones. I couldn’t do anything because of Dad’s rules, but that only meant I couldn’t get caught. No witnesses meant my cover was intact. It was an effort I’ve had to resort to a few times before, with Dad none the wiser, of course.

I dropped my bag at the table and went to grab my food. I should have taken Zane’s advice about bringing my lunch a little more seriously, because I ended up with it all down my front. Who in the heck thought beef and macaroni chili was a good idea should have been shot, because that crap burned. At least it was hot, being the start of winter.

Tracy Goodwin, Victoria Clone Number One, and right hand to the B herself snickered an apology that was as fake as her nose was before going to the table she shared with the rest of the Clones. I could feel my skin tingle and sighed. I was going to have a few decent burns from this.

“You are a lot tougher than I thought,” I heard a spidery silk voice say and almost groaned as I started shaking bits of noodle, ground beef, and tomato off. “Not even a flinch and that mess in practically boiling.”

“It’s learned behavior,” I said flatly as the janitor came over with a thick cloth for me to use while he cleaned up the food.

“You should go to the nurse,” Rex frowned.

“I should be homeschooled,” I muttered and made a face as I felt food squishing in my bra.

“Fae! Are you okay?” Zane asked as he came over, looking both furious and concerned. “Oh my chees balls! You look like a lobster from the neck down!”

“Yeah, Tracy bared her acrylic claws again,” I sighed and handed the janitor back his cloth.

“Come on,” he rolled his eyes and took my elbow to help me get through the puddle without slipping on the polished concrete floors.

He and the rest of the guys came with me out of the cafeteria, Nando carrying my bag, since we both had History next. Between the four of them, they managed to replace my clothes with dry ones, albeit insanely over sized in one way or another. I was not going to be setting any fashion trends any time soon, but if it meant I didn’t reek of whatever concoction that was, and didn’t have to keep picking bits of food out from between my boobs, I was game for just about anything.

“You smell like hand soap,” Ben made a face When I came out of the girls room.

“It’s better than before,” Blaine smacked him across the back of his head.

“You need to do something about the shirt,” Zane blushed and looked away.

I looked down and snorted. Nando was the only one that had a spare shirt, so it was a pretty big on me, leaving the collar to sag pretty far down my chest. I started walking down the hall as I fixed the shirt and tied up the bottom to keep it in place a little better and pulled the drawstring on Zane’s sweatpants a little tighter. The heels of the socks were hanging out the back of my shoes, compliments of Blaine. Ben happened to have a couple of sports wraps in his locker, so I used them to make a new bra.

“You guys are probably the greatest things to happen to me my whole life,” I smiled at them as I put my hair back up.

“God, you really had no life before, did you?” Nando gasped, making me laugh.

“I told you it would get worse,” I heard the icy chill of Soul Sucker from behind us and we all stopped and stared. “Leave.”

“You leave,” I glared. “Short of losing a limb, there’s not much you can do that hasn’t already been done before, so your threats are nothing. Get creative or get lost.”

His scowl could have soured milk before he promptly turned and stormed away.

“What a jerk,” Nando shook his head.

“And to think, he could have almost been good looking,” I agreed.