THE NEXT MORNING WAS PRETTY hectic. I woke up late, thinking it was still summer, and had Mom yelling into my room that school was starting today and that I was running late.
“Justin!” I shouted as soon as Mom’s car was out on the road. I heard a pop and Justin was at my door. “Could you start making some cereal for me? The first day of school is usually the worst. You have to look good, you have to be on your best behavior for the teachers, you get tired easily…” I started counting on my fingers.
“Alright, alright. I got it. I’ll go make you some Cheerios,” He said, walking away. I heard a distinctly annoyed sigh.
“Thanks!” I shouted after him, pulling out some clothes. I took a shower, washed my face, and changed into my favorite outfit. It was a black and red plaid skirt that landed mid-thigh, but it had leggings that went to my mid-calf inside it, so I wasn’t going to get yelled at for wearing it. My shirt looked like a red version of anime school uniforms for girls, but my tie was short and black. I brushed out my long red-brown hair and put in my regular contacts. I figured today was a good day to go with my natural brown, no matter how muddy it looked.
I walked out of my room, relieved to see a bowl of Cheerios on the table and a cat drinking milk out of bowl.
“Thanks,” I told the cat, scratching behind his ears. He started purring loudly, and I wondered if cat’s purred on purpose or if it was just automatic. I’ll have to ask Justin. After school, though.
I ate my Cheerios quickly and left the house, knowing Justin would lock the door. I ran to the bus stop with my black backpack bouncing, glad we didn’t start orchestra practice until the second day of school. I got to the bus stop right when the bus arrived. I got on and walked to the back of the bus. Since it was the first day of school and my stop – which was only me – was the first, I got to pick any chair I wanted. Which of course would be only mine, since no one wanted to sit next to the insane girl.
Which apparently was true this year, too. By the time we got to school, every seat had at least two people in it except the back row, which had only one person – me. I didn’t really mind anymore, it was just kind of annoying. Why do they think I’m insane? I haven’t exactly done anything! Oh, well. At least I won’t be bothered this year.
I was the last person off the bus, which was fine. I took out my schedule and groaned. First period was math. I hated math. I was good in elementary school, but now they’ve decided to make things more difficult by making it more letters than numbers. I love words and all, but not when they’re mixed with numbers.
I walked to Mr. McMath’s room, wondering if he changed his last name to make it funny. When I walked in I noticed I was the first one there, which was never a good thing. Great, I’m going to be insane and a teacher’s pet. Life’s just peachy. I thought sarcastically. I took a seat in the back corner, avoiding the teacher’s look. I took out the first Harry Potter book, ready to re-read the series for the millionth time, when the teacher said something.
“Ms. Falcone?”
“Yes, Mr. McMath?” I replied, not looking up and trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
“You don’t read in my class.”
“Even if school hasn’t started yet?” I asked, still not looking up at him. I gave up on the whole ‘be good’ thing if a teacher told me I wasn’t allowed to read in their class. And this year was a new record.
“Yes, Ms. Falcone, even if school hasn’t started yet. Because, as you can see, you are in my room. And what I say is law in my room. Do you understand?” He asked, his voice steely and authoritative.
“Yes, sir.” I sighed, put my bookmark at ‘Mr. and Mrs. Dursley’, disappointed that I didn’t even get to read the first paragraph. I put the book back in my bag and took out a piece of paper. I began to draw, but I didn’t know what I was drawing until I was done. I hadn’t drawn some random anime person, I had drawn Justin. A chibi version of Justin, and he was holding Felix. Which was definitely impossible.
“Is that your boyfriend holding your cat?” Someone asked. Someone who wasn’t making me feel like I had done something wrong.
“Uh… no. It’s just a friend. It’s his cat.” Not really a lie. I think.
“Oh, cool. Mind if I sit next to you?” She asked, taking a seat anyway. She had black hair to her shoulders, and her tips were bright red. Her eyes were silver, so I assumed she needed contacts. Her skin was orange-brown. Asian!
“Uh, sure. I’m Juliana Falcone. Nice to meet you?” I said, but it sounded more like a question than a statement.
“Haha, why do you sound so nervous? It’s as if you’re expecting me to lash out at you.” She laughed a bit, then started staring at me as the class filled up. Suddenly she snapped her fingers. “That’s right! You’re the girl everyone thinks is insane! Eh, don’t worry. They couldn’t really explain why you were insane, so I didn’t listen. Oh, right. My name’s Kaydence Concéption. Kayde for short.”
“Wow, uhm, ok. Hi, Kayde. You do things kind of… backwards,” I said, laughing a little. “But it’s nice to know someone who doesn’t think I’m crazy.”
“Alright, ladies. Quit talking and listen. Class is starting,” Mr. McMath interrupted.
I groaned quietly and listened to the usual beginning of school lecture.
I hadn’t noticed I was asleep until the bell rang and Kayde nudged me. “Get up, period’s over.”
“Wha-?” I said, blinking. I sat straight up when I realized everyone was leaving. “Did I fall asleep?” I asked Kayde. She nodded. “Whoops.” I took out my schedule to see what was next. “Uhg, great. PE. You?”
Kayde took out her schedule. “PE. Coach Whineyard?”
“Yeah, cool,” I grinned, hoping that I might actually have a normal school year. “To PE!” I swung my backpack on and marched out the door. I stopped mid-step and pivoted, my face slightly red. “Uhm… where’s the gym at?” I asked Kayde, grinning sheepishly. She shrugged. “Great. Oh well, they don’t count tardies for the first week, right?” Again, she shrugged. I pouted. “Load of help you are.”
We walked around the school, lost, and found the gym a minute after the bell rang.
“Go get a tardy,” A tall and heavily built woman grunted, glaring down at us. She was leaning against the closed Gym doors, so I assumed she was Coach Whineyard.
“Uh, we didn’t know where the gym was. And it’s only the first day of school,” I said to her. She was a rather intimidating woman.
“I don’t care. Go get a tardy. The bell already rang,” She replied, looking up from the clipboard she was holding.
“Oh…kay…” I said, turning around and walking back out. Kayde followed, sulking. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Most teachers love me as soon as they meet me. That one…”
“Is evil?” I offered. She grinned. “So, where’s the Freshman office at?” She shrugged. “Jeez, are you ever any help?”
“Nope,” She said proudly, grinning.
We started laughing, until we got to the office. “Uhm… we were a minute late to PE... we have Coach Whineyard,” I told the secretary. She was a young brunette and was smacking on some gum. She waved us away. “Uhm… what…?”
“No tardies. Wait. Did you say Coach Whineyard?” She asked us, looking up. We both nodded. “Oh, well, in that case…” She rummaged around in one of the drawers. “Here you go. That woman sends kids down here for tardies even on the first day of school. It’s a tardy pass, but we won’t count it.”
“Oh, ok… thanks,” I said, a little surprised. I took the pass from the smiling brunette.
“Thank you,” Kayde said, taking the pass and smiling back at her. We walked out of the office, me still in a daze. “Jeez, I hope our other teachers aren’t like this,” Kayde groaned.
“Well, so far we’ve got a math teacher whose name is McMath. He already hates me and he does not approve of books. And we’ve got a PE teacher who is… special?” I looked up at Kayde, trying to figure out a better word for her.
She shrugged. “I can’t think of another word that wouldn’t be insulting.” I laughed.
For PE we just sat in the bleachers and ‘listened’ to the coaches telling us the rules. Along with Coach Whineyard there was Coach Falcone. Kayde wasted no time in bugging me about whether we were related.
“No, for the hundredth time, no! We’re not related. Do we even look related?” I pointed to my perfectly straight red brown hair, and then to the coach’s perfectly curly bleach blonde hair. “My family is Irish. Does that look Irish to you?” I gestured to all of the tall, tan, and blonde beauty. She was the complete opposite of my short, pale, and freckled self.
“Uhm… no?” Kayde said, not sounding too sure of herself.
“Exactly,” I replied, nodding. The bell rang and we both stood up, taking out or schedules. “Uhm… Orchestra with Mrs. Cobbe, you?”
She was grinning. “Same. Viola, Violin, Cello, or Bass?” She asked.
“Violin. You?” I replied. “Wait, don’t answer! I’m guessing…” I looked my friend up and down. “Viola?”
She nodded. “Impressive. But to be honest you look more like a cello player.”
“Really? Huh. Well, I was either going to play violin or cello. Viola would’ve been my third choice. I really only went with violin because it was the lightest and cheapest,” I confessed, turning a little red.
“Well, even though I don’t totally agree with the reason you chose the violin, we should get to class, anyway,” Kayde said, leaping down the steps. I took the seat route.
We practically ran to orchestra, not wanting to be late again. Even though it didn’t count today, we were perfectionists.
“Good morning, and thanks for picking orchestra!” A cheery and young woman greeted us when the bell rang. Immediately I felt like throwing up. I wasn’t good with the preppy type. But they were way better than the teachers like Mr. McMath and Coach Whineyard. Aren’t there any normal teachers at this school? I thought to myself.
The whole period Mrs. Cobbe talked non-stop. I was relieved when the bell rang. “My butt hurts,” I complained as soon as I walked out the double doors with Kayde.
“My ears hurt,” She whined, mimicking me. I glared at her, and she grinned back. There was a loud growl, and I quickly covered my stomach, bright red. “Only one more period till lunch, Juliana. Think you’ll last?”
“Oh, shut-up,” I muttered, taking out my schedule. “Next I’ve got Technology with Mr. Macintosh. You?”
“Yeah. These teachers have the weirdest names, don’t they?” Kayde replied, laughing a bit as we headed just down the hall for Technology class.
We weren’t the first ones in. There was already a girl sitting down at the desk labeled ‘14 I sat down at ‘13’, which was next to her. Kayde sat down at ‘12’, which was next to me. “Hey,” I said, grinning. Meeting someone who didn’t think me insane had boosted my confidence. She turned to look at me, and I was surprised. One blue, one red eye. I could see the faint blue circle around her eye, though, so I knew they were contacts. “Nice color combo for the contacts. Maybe I should do that.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Huh?”
“Your contacts,” I said again. “They’re cool.”
“Oh, thanks!” She said, straitening her head and grinning. “I’m Ayaka Keiji. Yuki for short, though.”
“Snow?” I asked, my head now tilting to the side. “Cool. I’m Juliana Falcone. And this –“ I gestured to Kayde, my head straightening back out, “is Kaydence Concéption, Kayde.”
“You know Japanese?!” Yuki, clearly astounded, stated. I nodded, a little surprised at this outburst. “That’s so cool!”
“I don’t know much, though…” The bell rang as I was rubbing the back of my head.
“Alright, class. Sit down and shut-up,” Mr. Macintosh told the class in a high pitched voice. A lot of people laughed, not including us three. I personally felt sorry for the guy. He narrowed his eyes at the group of guys that had laughed the loudest. “Is there an issue?”
“Yeah, man, there is. What’s up with your voice?” The group of guys started laughing louder, joined in by a few girls. “You sound like a chipmunk.”
“Chipmunk I may sound like, but I am smarter and more mature than you. The only thing that matters is what you do with you life. And right now I can already tell that you boys are going to go nowhere,” he replied, his squeaky voice sounding intimidating. I was impressed. This teacher really knew how to work with what he was given.
“Dang, man. You’re our teach, right? Aren’t you supposed to make us feel better about ourselves or somethin'?” One of the boys, who was wearing orange plaid boxers, asked, faking hurt.
“I am supposed to be preparing you for real life, Mr. Rodriguez. I am not, however, supposed to be your friend,” He answered.
“Ouch, man. That right there’s cold.” Rodriguez continued to feign hurt and betrayal. His friends laughed, but most people rolled their eyes.
The rest of the period went like the others. Mr. Macintosh, with much interruption, gave his lecture. His wasn’t all boring. I actually thought he was a pretty cool teacher.
The bell rang, and the guys from the group, with their pants down to their knees, walked out of the room in one big group, followed by a few of the girls, giggling and whispering to each other.
“Uhg, I’m going to be sick if I have to sit next to any of them,” Yuki said as we walked out, heading for lunch.
“Agreed,” I responded.
“I second that. I hope we get to pick our seats all year long,” Kayde said.
“That would be awesome,” I agreed, nodding my head.
We walked into the near empty cafeteria. “Awesome! I guess there aren’t very many people in this lunch period!” Yuki said, grinning and punching the air.
I looked over to the lines to make sure. There was only ten people. I grinned. “Wicked! Let’s go pick our table!”
As we walking to a table in the corner, I heard
whispers like ‘Freaks’, ‘Look at those girls! Aren’t they the insane girls?’, ‘Isn’t that the insane chick?’ and so on. I held my head high, and noticed Yuki was, too. I glanced over at Kayde, and she was busy glaring and flipping off people. I started laughing.

“What?” Her face was battling over whether to look angry, annoyed, or surprised.

“What’s up with the finger?” I started laughing a bit more. We got to the table, and I flung my bag off onto a random seat. “Do they really make you that PO’d?”
“Yeah, they do,” She replied, dropping her back across from mine with a little more force than necessary.
“Eh, I’ve learned to just ignore it,” Yuki said, dropping her bag to the right of mine. I couldn’t help by notice that our table had three empty seats.
“So, can I assume you two have had to deal with this a lot?” Kayde and Yuki looked over at me.
“Don’t assume. It makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’. But yeah,” Kayde replied. I nodded, biting back another laugh. Yuki was covering her mouth, trying not to laugh, but she managed to nod. Kayde’s pretty cool.
“Nice statement, I’ll remember that. But it’s pretty cool how we managed to find each other before the end of the first day, eh?” The other two nodded, Yuki still trying to recover, Kayde smirking. “Let’s go get some lunch.” I looked at the sign that was close to our table. “NACHOES!” I shouted, running to the short line like a little kid. Yuki ran behind me, and Kayde, laughing like a maniac, walked.
“Jeez, Juliana. I’m sure the nachos are terrified with that scream of yours,” Yuki commented, laughing.
“Yup!” I replied, grinning proudly. I heard someone mutter ‘insane’, and smacked the guy upside the head impulsively. “Is there seriously anything wrong with liking nachos?” I demanded, all trace of my joking gone.
His eyes darted to Yuki, as if he was terrified she would turn him into a toad, and ran off. I blinked a couple times, putting together what had just happened, since it happened in under a second. Kayde joined us then, watching the guy suspiciously.
“Alright, Yuki. What do people think you are?” I asked, turning to look at her. Please, not a monster. I don’t want to have to fight a friend. One of my only two friends.
“I kinda… made some things happen in middle school…” She replied, looking down and rubbing the back of her neck. She looked ashamed, but I knew she was hiding a grin. I could see the tips of her smile.
“And what were those ‘somethings’?” I asked, trying to hide my curiousity, fear, and suspicion. Instead I sounded a little strangled, but neither friend noticed.
She took a deep breath and looked up. “I can move things with my mind.” Yuki’s grin was gone, replaced by mild fear.
Kayde looked stunned, but she quickly covered it up to look mildly surprised. I, on the other hand, grinned and gave Yuki a huge hug. I felt like ‘squee’ing, but I figured it would attract too much attention, and we did not need any more of that.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Kayde asked, obviously lost, but managing to keep her face composed.
“Uhm… I’ll explain after school-” There’s too many people here… “What bus do you guys ride?”
“I don’t ride a bus,” Kayde replied.
“Me neither,” Yuki added.
Before either could ask anything else, I continued, “Alright, then you’ll just ride mine. Meet me at this table after school today if we don’t have the same seventh period,” I told them, getting my lunch.
We walked back to our tables with our heads held high, ignoring the whispers and not-so-quiet comments.
Kayde say down and gave the finger to the whole cafeteria. “These people make me sick.”
“I know. I’m not really in an eating mood anymore.” Yuki’s stomach growled. She turned red. “Maybe I am…”
“Nice, Yuki.” I laughed a little, beginning to eat.
Our meal was quiet since no one came and bothered us. Looks like they’re too scared to do anything other than whisper and point.
My cell phone buzzed, signaling a text message. I took it out of my pocket, making sure no teachers were around, and saw the name ‘Justin’. “Damn it, Justin,” I muttered, looking at the text. ‘Look outside.’ Shiz, this can’t be good.
I looked outside, and sure enough, there was the black haired, blue-green eyed beauty, standing outside. ‘Go away. I’m at school. I’ll see you when I get home.’ I texted back, not even needing to look at the phone. Instead I glared at him, hoping he would leave.
“Ooh, who’s that?” One girl asked in a squealy voice.
“I don’t know, but I would love to get to know him!” Her friend replied, also squealy. I could almost see the tails on them.
The squealing girls got on my nerves, and I snapped. “He’s my boyfriend, alright?!” I shouted at them, on impulse, again. They all stared at me, and their eyes narrowed. Now I could see teeth bared. “You want me to prove it?” They nodded, eyes narrowing even more. I felt Yuki and Kayde watching me as I waved at Justin to come inside. He grinned and walked in as if he owned the place.
“Hey, couldn’t wait until school was over?” His grin turned into a smirk.
“You came here,” I reminded him.
He shrugged. “So? You’re taking too long.”
“Don’t you have anything else to do?” Besides taking cat naps and annoying me? I silently added.
He thought for a moment. “No.”
“Go home. I’ll continue this after school,” I told him.
He grinned and kissed my cheek. The girls glared at me even more. They thought it was my ‘boyfriend’ saying bye, but I knew he wouldn’t do that. “Watch out. Something isn’t right here,” He whispered. So it was all just an act. He was playing the part of the boyfriend that couldn’t wait to see his girlfriend, knowing I’d play along. Damn this guy is smart.
He grinned, waved, and ran out the door before any teacher had actually realized what happened. I had to explain to the teachers that my ‘boyfriend’ was visiting from a different country for the week, so he didn’t know the rules of the school. I don’t think they bought it, but I didn’t get in trouble.
“What was that about?” Kayde hissed once the teachers left.
I shook my head. “When we get back to my house.”
“Why do we have to wait that long?” Yuki pouted.
I bit my lip, not sure how much to tell. “Well… it’s complicated.”
They were both extremely suspicious now, but the bell rang just then, saving me from further questions.
The rest of the school day was like the beginning, except more annoying, since Kayde and Yuki kept trying to get me to tell them what was going on.
My schedule went like this:
1st. Mr. McMath with Math
2nd. Coach Whineyard with PE
3rd. Mrs. Cobbe with Orchestra
4th. Mr. Macintosh with Technology
LUNCH
5th. Ms. Vanny with Science
6th. Mrs. Quizzle with Language Arts
7th. Mr. Lepercan with Exploring Languages
School didn’t get interesting again until seventh period with Mr. Lepercan. Since Kayde was taking Speech, I only had Yuki with me in this class – but thankfully she had given up on getting me to talk. Kayde got a hot guy teacher, and we were stuck with a short, fat, and ugly old man.
He didn’t seem… right. I had a feeling he was what Justin had warned me about. My suspicions were confirmed when Mr. Lepercan kept me after the bell. I hadn’t done anything wrong during class, so he had no reason to keep me after the bell.
“Stay outside the door. I may need some help,” I whispered to Yuki. She looked a little spooked and surprised, but gave a little nod that the teacher didn’t notice, and walked out.
“Yes, Mr. Lepercan? What’s wrong?” I asked, trying not to sound too innocent or sweet.
“You’re a Faerie. You look just like a Faerie I knew years ago. She really messed up my life,” He spat, shaking with rage. Oh, shiz. I look like my mom. Could he be apart of what happened at The Organization to make her have to get her mind wiped and wings removed? I kept my face from showing any fear, knowing that wouldn’t help me at all.
“I don’t know what that is. Do you mean those little pixie things that fly around granting people’s wishes?” I asked, tilting my head to the side and looking up, pretending to be thinking.
“Don’t pretend to be stupid, girl. I know. I know about everything,” Mr. Lepercan spat. But he didn’t look like Mr. Lepercan anymore. He was getting shorter, which was surprising, and uglier, which was even more surprising.
“Yuki!” I shouted, dropping my façade, knowing I was going to need someone’s help who could actually attack and not just heal.
She ran into the room, looking even more scared than me, and a desk flew at Mr. Lepercan, hitting him in the chest. He fell to the floor, passed out from the sudden impact. I stared at my newest friend, mouth wide.
“W-what just happened? I hadn’t meant to send that desk… at… him…” Yuki collapsed on the floor, unconscious.
I picked her up, glad she was petite, and slung her bag over my other shoulder. My mind was working fiercly, wondering how her insticts were so sharp. But when I took the first step out of the classroom with all the extra weight, everything was thrown from my mind.
Uhg, I think I just lost an inch or so. I carried her to the cafeteria, which luckily wasn’t too far away. “KAYDE!” I shouted, not going into the crowded cafeteria in case I was accused of anything.
“What? What happened?!” She shouted, running towards us. “Uhm… what did happen?” She questioned, stopping short and standing there, blinking.
“I’ll explain once we get home. We’re not taking the bus,” I told my conscious friend, flipping out my phone and getting Justin from my contacts. I called him.
“Hey, what’s up, Juliana?”
“Justin, you total jerk. How long have you had a cell phone?” I nearly screeched.
“Whoa, whoa. Chill out, Juliana! What happened?”
I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming. “I just got attacked by an insane teacher, who knows I’m Faerie. The only person that saved me was my friend, Yuki, who’s a telekinetic Faerie. She’s passed out. My other friend’s freaking out.” Which was partially true. Kayde looked spooked and annoyed at the same time, watching Yuki. “Pick. Us. Up. Now.” I hope he knows how to drive. I looked glanced around quickly, making sure no one heard any of that.
“Right, I’m coming. Hold on. I’ll be there in five minutes,” He said, which was quickly followed by the beep of him hanging up. I let out a sigh of relief, letting frustrations out with that one breath. Justin was coming. It was all better now. Hopefully.
Kayde looked up at me questioningly, and in response I shook my head. “I’ll explain later.” She nodded, understanding, but still a bit annoyed at having to wait.
A few minutes of awkward silence later, Justin arrived. “I want the whole story on the way home, got it?” He asked, giving me a serious and intense stare. I nodded, surprised by this new side of him. “Good. Now help me get your friend in the car.” He noticed Kayde. “Is she one, too?”
“No idea. I didn’t have her in seventh period,” I replied, shrugging, and hoping that wouldn’t complicated things.
“Oh, great. The Organization is not going to be happy if a human knows about this,” Justin complained, carrying my unconscious friend over his shoulder. “Well, come on,” He said, motioning to Kayde and I with his free hand. “Let’s get back home and sort out this mess.”
I explained everything that had happened in that room in the five minutes it took to get back to my house. It wasn’t very much action, but it caused a lot of thinking and wondering. Especially for poor Kayde, who still didn’t get most of this.
“So, basically,” Justin said, carrying the still unconscious Yuki again, “A leprechaun found you, and since you look a lot like his enemy, he figured you were her daughter. So he wanted to take revenge, but you were smart. You took my warning and listened to it. You kept a Faerie near, and called her when needed. You shouted, she ran in, and she unconsciouly sent the desk at him.”
I nodded. “Yeah, pretty much.” Kayde got out of the car, looking pale from thinking so hard. She seemed to be more of the logical type, not for fairy-tales and the unknown. “I think they need a rest, then you can explain this whole mess to them once they’ve woken up.”
He nodded in agreement. “Good idea.”
Once inside, he laid Yuki on the couch, and Kayde flopped onto the chair and passed out. I watched them for a bit, and then went into my room. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
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Justin watched Juliana go into her room, tempted to change into a cat and nap, but he fought the urge. He needed to make sure no harm came to the human and had to keep her mother away if she came home early. And he needed to contact The Organization to tell them what happened. He sighed, knowing it wasn’t going to be easy, or fun.
He opened his communicator, which also acted as a cell phone (and many other things), and contacted the head man directly. “Something major’s happened over here.”
“What is it, Justin?” The man demanded with an aura of power.
“Well… we had a bit of an incident…” He said, reluctant to have to explain.
“Go on.” He was getting agitated.
“A leprechaun. Apparently a leprechaun that wants revenge. And you know how those get. He wants to get back at Juliana for what happened during the incident that her mother was… involved with. Lucky for her she had met another Faerie, and this one has telekinesis. She ran in, and a desk flew into the leprechaun in mid-transformation. You might want to get some of your boys to that school before the custodian finds the unconscious body.”
“Understood. Thank you, Justin,” The man said. The, “Did anything else happen?”
“Well…” How did he know?
“Spit it out, boy!”
“A human knows, sir.”Justin prepared himself for the yelling. He pulled the communicator a bit farther from his ear. He had heard him yell before, and it was loud.
“Kaydence Concéption?”
“How did you know?” He blinked, surprised. I know he has a good information source, but this… This is a little creepy. Normally when a human found out, he would yell, and it would take around a month to sort everything out. But this time he didn’t yell. He didn’t get mad. He even knew her full name.
“She’s the only human child of anyone that works here. They didn’t tell her to protect her. And to protect us.”
“So she’s allowed to know?” He asked a little nervously. Juliana would throw a fit if one of her only two friends had to have her memory erased and she’d never be able to talk to her again. Any contact at all could bring back every single memory.
“I suppose so, yes. But as long as she tells no one.” There was a sigh from the other end.
“Understood. Thank you.” Justin also sighed, relieved. The communicator beeped, signaling the end of transmission.

JUSTIN MADE THE THREE GIRLS some food, a.k.a Easy Mac, so that when they woke up they could eat. He timed it just right, because when the third one was done, Juliana woke up. “Hey there, sleepy head,” He said, grinning. She glared at him and took a one.

“Shut-up,” She replied, running the fingers of her free hand through her messy hair.
“Aw, you’re so adorable with bed head,” He teased, messing her hair up.
She glared some more at him. “Quit it.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I said so.” Her eyes narrowed some more.
“Having a lover’s quarrel?” Someone asked, laughing quietly
“Shut-up, Kayde,” Juliana replied. “He’s not my boyfriend.” She gave Justin one last glare before turning to face her friend.
“So why’s he in your house?” She prodded, grinning.
“You’ll learn that once all three of you have eaten. It’ll be a long night, and I made sure that Juliana’s mom will be… late.” He didn’t go into any details. Kayde shrugged and took her cup of Easy Mac.
Yuki was the last to wake up. She wobbled over to the table, took her Easy Mac, and sat down to eat. She seemed kind of in a trance. “Hey, you alright?” Justin questioned the drowsy girl.
“Hmm…?” Was her response. She blinked up at him, then back down at her food, inhaling deeply. Perhaps she thinks it’s coffee.
“Oh, right! I haven’t introduced you guys yet!” Juliana exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “Justin, this is Kayde and Yuki.” She pointed to each girl when she said their name. “Kayde and Yuki, this is Justin.” She pointed to him.
“Hello,” He said, grinning at the two girls.
“Hello, Justin,” Kayde replied, a forkful of macaroni in her hand.
“Mhmmm…” Was Yuki’s response.
Juliana nudged Yuki in the ribs. She jumped up, her different colored eyes widening.
“Hmm, what?” Yuki said, fully awake now. Justin laughed a bit. “What’s so funny, Justin?” She snapped, blue and red eye narrowing.
“Oh, nothing, Yuki. It just seems as though you remember things without needing to think. Or be awake,” He responded, chuckling a bit more.
“So, are you going to explain everything now?” Kayde asked, tossing her cup into the trashcan – and missing. She didn’t get up to throw it away.
“Kayde. Put it in the trashcan,” Juliana said, finishing hers. She tossed her cup and made it.
“Explain what?” Yuki asked, confused. She hadn’t touched her food yet.
“Everything that’s going on. Eat up. Tonight is going to be long and full of information.” Juliana nudged Kayde, and she got up, muttered something, and tossed her Easy Mac cup into the trashcan. She sat down again and gave Juliana a nudge. She responded with a glare. “Alright, alright, you two. No need to fight.”
Juliana turned her glare to Justin. “Fine.”
“You going to eat that?” Kayde asked Yuki. The blue and red eyed girl took a giant bite out of her cup in response.
Juliana held her glare. “What?” He teased. “Can’t keep your eyes off me?” Justin smirked when she narrowed her eyes. “Aw, aren’t you just adorable?”
“Shut-up, Justin. You’re a total pain in the butt,” She replied, still glaring.
“Wow, feisty, aren’t we?” He continued, his smirk widening.
“Alright, you two can continue your… whatever this is… later. We still have things to discuss,” Kayde interrupted. Yuki, eating her Mac slower and with smaller bites, nodded in agreement.
“Right, right. Sorry. It’s just so fun to mess with her. She has very interesting reactions,” He told her, shrugging. “So, on to business.” Yuki tossed her emptied cup into the trash, doing a little jig when she got it in. “I think I’ll take questions first. So I don’t waste my time with an hour or so of talking, during which you guys would be bored and possibly confused. Yuki, I think you should go first, since you probably have the most.”
“Thanks. Uhm… what happened in that classroom? To me, I mean.”
“Well, you’re a Faerie, for one. So that explains quite a bit. And Faeries have powers. Yours is obviously telekinesis. Aka, the ability to move things with your mind. You may have at most two more powers. The most powers a Faerie has ever been proven to have is three, which is usually only ever present in the pure bloods” He glanced to Juliana. “Most have the basic power of healing.” With that he grabbed the nearest sharp thing, which ended up being pair of scissors, and stabbed Yuki’s hand.
She gasped and did the same thing as Juliana, which was to smack him. Then she proceeded to watch as barely any blood escaped before the wound began to heal itself. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Juliana look at the white scar on her plam, tracing a finger over it absently. He felt a twinge of guilt for having to cut them, but shook it off, knowing it had to be done. Yuki watched as her wound became a white dot, a little more visible than Juliana’s was.
“Looks like you have that power, too. You may or may not have a third power, but you most likely won’t. If you did, you’d most likely have wings – which only pure bloods have – and again, you don’t,” He explained. Kayde looked as though Justin was giving them the secret to immortality, she was so intrigued.
“Oh, ok. I got it. So what was up with the whole fainting thing?” Yuki questioned. She catches on quickly, Justin thought to himself, impressed.
“Since you’re so new to the whole ‘using the energy you were born with’ thing, you don’t have very much. It’s like running or walking. It’s your magic/energy stamina. The more you use it, the better your stamina. And when you use it all up, you pass out to regain it. All you have to do to replenish your energy is sleep.”
“So why was I only passed out for a little?”
“Juliana told me that in middle school, you used to move things with your mind. So you’ve already increased it a bit, though why you never passed out af-“
“Oh, no, I did, but I just never mention that part.”
Justin sighed. “That’s a bit of an important part…” Yuki smiled sheepishly. “So you still have barely enough energy to not pass out. But be careful to not use it until after you’ve slept, otherwise you’re out again.”
“Alright, cool. Thanks,” She said, over her embarrassment.
“Mhmm, sure. Oh, right. One major thing all three of you need to know. You can’t tell anyone anyone. Ever. Understand? Otherwise it’s bye-bye memories and bye-bye powers,” He told the trio, deadly serious. This wasn’t something to joke about.
“Justin, you haven’t told them what you are,” Juliana pointed out, nudging him with a slight smirk.
“Thanks for reminding me.” Justin’s thoughts focused on becoming Felix, and with a faint pop he did. He jumped onto Juliana’s lap and started purring. It was kind of an automatic thing, but it was possible to purr on purpose when he wanted to. Usually hea just kept it on auto.
“Whoa! Is he your cat?” Yuki asked, staring at the kitten. Justin meowed. He wasn’t able to talk in cat form. No shapeshifter could speak any language but the language of that species.
“That’s freaking amazing!” Kayde said, also staring at him. He raised a paw up and batted at a stray piece of her hair. Sometimes instict, even the kitten one, kicked in. She laughed and tucked it behind her ear. “He’s so cute.” She rubbed my back, and he twisted around and nibbled on her. He didn’t like having his back touched. Juliana only.
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“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” I told my two friends, absently rubbing an ear. Even though he’s a real guy, I can still treat him like my cat, can’t I? “He’s a shapeshifter, but the only thing he can change to is my cat, Felix.”
“Wait, isn’t his name Justin?” Yuki asked, rubbing his other ear. He purred louder.
“They have different names for their different forms. I don’t know why,” I replied, shrugging. “And in case you two haven’t noticed, his fur is the exact same as his hair, and his eyes the same.” He looked up at me and meowed, blinking. I wondered if he could understand what I was saying… There was so much I wanted to know about shapeshifters and the world I ‘belong’ to.
“Oh, you’re right!” They said together, and quickly burst out laughing. I tossed the cat into the air. There was a pop, and Justin was standing up, fixing his standing-up hair.
“Don’t do that again,” He told me, slightly paler than normal, one hand going through his black and silver hair.
I shrugged again, repressing the urge to squeal at how hot he looked just then. “Why not?”
“Because it scares me.” He turned a slight red, looking away while he admitted that.
“Aren’t you a cat? Shouldn’t you land on all fours? Or better yet, change back to human?”
“I could, but it still scares me.”
The other two were still laughing over… whatever they were laughing about before. I had no idea if they noticed Justin was back to himself or not.
“Can you understand us when we talk?” I asked him, tilting my head to the side like I did when I was genuinely curious. He was completely back to normal, taking his seat once more.
“Yes, I can. I can understand any language as long as I can change to that species. And yes, that does mean I can speak and understand any human language. But no, I cannot speak any language that does not belong to the species.” He answered all my questions without me having to ask. I wondered if he knew me that well or if it was just because they were common questions. “Alright, you two, if you’re done laughing, it’s Kayde’s turn to ask a question,” He said to the two girls that were still cackling.
“Ok, sorry.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm her giggles. “Am I a Faerie?” Kayde still looked red in the face and her eyes looked moist.
“No, but your parents are. They also work for The Organization. But for your own safety, and the safety of The Organization, they never told you. Normally, humans aren’t supposed to know, but you’re an exception, seeing as you would’ve found out eventually,” He replied, and I could see a bit of sympathy in his eyes. “I honestly think it’s a bit sad that you were never told, seeing as you’re… fifteen?”
“Yeah, I’m fifteen. But it’s cool with me. I never really see them often anyway.” She shrugged it off, as if it didn’t matter her parents were never around. “Another question: How old are you really?”
“That’s a bit… complicated,” He admitted, smiling sheepishly.
“So you’re saying that even you don’t know how the whole aging thing works with shapeshifters?”
“Basically.”
“Huh. Okay. I’m done.”
“Alright, then. Juliana,” He said, turning to look at me. “Any questions?”
“Not any right now. Sorry to disappoint.”
“Well then, does anyone else have questions?”
“I do!” Yuki said in a sing-song voice. Oh, crap. I don’t think I’m going to like this question. “Does that mean that you and Juliana have cuddled?” I turned deep crimson, but Justin grinned hugely. Yuki gasped and Kayde rolled her eyes. At least she didn’t believe this load of crap. “You have?” She squealed.
“What happens when he’s a cat does not count!” I nearly shouted, feeling my face heat up even more.
“Says you,” Justin put in, smirking now. I knew that if it could, my face would be even redder, but I’m sure I had already reached maximum blush.
“You should say that, too! Do shapeshifters feel no embarrassment?”
He shrugged. “No. Not really, anyway.” I blinked, calming down just a little, but not letting it show. He isn’t kidding!
“You are a huge pain in the arse, you know that?” I snapped, glaring, red face more from anger than anything else now.
His smirk went back to his usual grin. “Yep, but that’s why you love me.”
“You wish.”
“Ok, you two can finish this… whatever it is… later. Could we continue?” Kayde asked, getting annoyed.
“Right, sorry,” I said, calming myself and feeling my face go back to its normal pale and freckled self.
“Anyone have any questions?” My friends and I shook our heads, done for now. “Good. It’s one in the morning, and a storm is raging outside. Get some sleep. I’ll wake you guys up when it’s safe to take you home.” He sounded sort of… caring? I shook the thought from my mind, figuring he probably just wanted us to sleep so he could.
I nodded, realizing how tired I was. “Someone else can take my bed. I just want the couch.” I got out of my seat wobbily, got to the couch, and collapsed.
“I call it!” Kayde shouted, running for my room. Is she even tired?
“Guess that means I get the cushy chair.” Yuki practically jumped into our recliner, pulled it back, then was out. I quickly followed suit, closing my eyes and slipping into unconsciousness.
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“Rise and shine!” Justin shouted, standing right over Juliana. She shot up, eyes wide. “It’s three in the morning. Time to take the other two home!”
Juliana glared in response, rubbing her eyes. She leaned forward slightly and smacked the back of his head. Hard. “I’ll wake up the other two.” He grinned, which got his a punch in the shoulder. “Quit that.”
“Whatever you say.” Pop. Felix meowed at her feet and jumped onto the warm couch, walking in a circle before laying down, putting his head on his paws.
“No, bad kitty.” Juliana picked him up (with an annoyed ‘Meup!’) and put him on the floor. “No sleeping until after you’ve taken my friends home. I don’t want you still half-asleep on the way to their houses.” Pop. Justin pouted at her. “Baby.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“You two are so annoyingly loud,” Yuki interrupted, yawning slightly. “I woke up because of you two.”
“Good. Justin’s about to take you and Kayde home,” Juliana told her, going into her own room to wake up Kayde. There was a thump and a really loud curse. “Wake up, Justin’s taking you home.”
“There was no need to push me out of the freaking bed!” Kayde shouted, hair in disarray, stomping out of the room all red. She was thoroughly pissed. Juliana followed her out, barely able to stifle her laughter.
“Everyone get in the car. Juliana, sit in the front. Kayde, sit behind me,” Justin instructed the trio. “I don’t want anyone hitting anyone else.” He gave Kayde and Juliana a look, then walked to the car and got in, turning it on. “Hurry up!” He shouted out the window. The three ran, Juliana getting in the passenger seat, Yuki behind Juliana, and Kayde next to Yuki. “Good.” He nodded in satisfaction before setting off.
The drive to Kayde’s house was hell. She kept changing the directions to her house, and once they ended up following some poor person through the neighborhood, looking like stalkers in their black and tinted window SUV.
But they finally got to her house (after thirty minutes), and she got out, heading inside. Her parents still weren’t home. Justin felt another pang of sympathy for the girl, but pushed it away.
Getting Yuki home was easier and much quicker. She seemed to know where everything was, and how to get to her house instantly. For a moment, he thought she had a GPS in her brain, but then he remembered it was just because she was a Faerie (most are natural trackers). They got her home in five minutes, and Justin didn’t even have to break the speed limit.
The two left got back home quickly and without talking. Justin pulled in, and Juliana got out of the car and walked into the house quietly. He followed, slightly worried.
When he walked in, she was asleep on the couch. Justin smiled softly. She must’ve had a long day. The shapeshifter picked her up and carried her into her room, gently laying her on her bed then covering her with the sheets.
Then he went into the kitchen and called the school.

THE NEXT MORNING I WOKE up in my own bed, which I didn’t remember falling asleep in. All I remembered was getting out of the car and blacking out on the couch. I smiled slightly at the realization. Apparently Justin can be sweet.
I got ready for school, changing into blue skinny jeans and a black graphic shirt. I brushed my hair and put in a black rose clip to keep the hair away from my eyes. I popped in my scarlet contacts, blinking until they were comfortable.
I walked out of my room and noticed two things that were out of place: Justin with a backpack, and Justin eating Cheerios next to another bowl of the delicious breakfast cereal. I didn’t like what that meant. “Justin. You are not going to school with me.” My tone was hard, eyes narrowed, arms crossed.
He didn’t even turn to look at me. “Yes, I am.” His tone was begging to be argued with.
“Says who?” I retorted.
“Says the person in charge of The Organization,” He replied, all playfulness gone.
“Uhg, and let me guess. His word his law,” I stated sarcastically, rolling my eyes. He nodded, finishing off his Cheerios. I groaned and sat down, eating my breakfast, knowing there was no way to get out of this.
A couple minutes later, we were sprinting toward the bus stop, running late. We made it right when the bus got there. I really have to get up earlier… I took a seat in the back, Justin plopping down next to me. His response to my glare was a smirk.
During the bus ride, he kept sliding into me whenever the bus turned, and I’d push him back. He said it was because the seats were slippery. I knew he was doing it to be annoying.
We finally got to school, Justin with a few extra bruises. “There wasn’t any need to punch me,” he whined, rubbing his shoulder and pouting.
“Just shut up,” I grumbled in reply. He kept following me through the hall, and finally I turned, eyes narrowing. “What do you want, Justin?” I hissed.
He replied with a grin, having already recovered from my punches. “Going to class!”
It dawned on me, and my eyes widened. “Oh, no… don’t tell me…”
“What’s Justin doing here?” Kayde interrupted, having to speak a little louder to be heard over all the girls giggling and whispering in the halls.
“Apparently he’s enrolled himself. And has the same schedule as me.” And that means I’ll have to pretend he’s my boyfriend all day. Lovely. I thought sarcastically, trying my best to keep it all off my face.
“Because of yesterday?” That one was directed towards the tall boy.
“Yep,” Justin replied, smiling and walking into our first period, sitting himself down in my chair. Yes, I know it was only the second day of school, but I’m territorial. Once I claim something, it is mine.
“Hey, no. That’s my seat,” I told him, going over to him and putting my hands on my hips, glaring down at him.
“You can still sit here,” He told me, leaning back in my seat. He had a smirk on as he patted his lap. I’m pretty sure there were gasps and growls coming from the girls in the hall.
“Ew, no thanks.” I stuck my tongue out at him before taking the seat in front of him. “I hope your chair slips,” I muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. His response was just a chuckle.
“Does that mean he has every class with you?” One girl butted in, sounding slightly annoyed. I looked up warily to a girl with short and spiky black hair with honey-colored eyes. Contacts. I could see – but very faintly – the little circles. Next to her was an extremely tall boy with mud brown hair that matched his eyes. She leaned down, which wasn’t very hard considering her height. “I know he isn’t your boyfriend,” She hissed at me.
It spooked me a bit, but I wasn’t going to show it. She was probably popular, even though she looked the exact opposite of what most people would consider ‘popular’. But she just gave off this aura of being higher up than you. Or, thinking she was higher than you. “I also know what you are, freak,” She continued, voice still quiet but now venomous. I was used to being called a freak, but nothing could have prepared me for what came next. “You’re a Faerie. Along with your freaky friend with two eye colors. And your ‘boyfriend’ is really your cat.” The surprise must’ve shown, because she smirked in satisfaction.
Justin must’ve thought I was being bullied, because he leaned across his desk. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do. “You won’t tell anyone about this. They wouldn’t believe you. They’d think you were crazy. But you don’t want people to think that, do you?” The girl looked surprised at being read so well, but she covered it up quickly. “If you don’t tell a soul about this, I won’t either. We’ll have a talk at the end of today, in the gym.” He sounded so calm. It was unnerving.
“If you four are done with whatever you are doing, please let me teach,” Mr. McMath said in a way that was telling us ‘if you don’t I could have you kicked out of my class and possibly this school’ without him even needing to say it.
I wasn’t able to pay attention through the rest of the class. I was too busy wondering about how she found out. The bell rang, jolting me out of my daze. Kayde and I sprinted to the gym, not wanting to be ‘late’ again. Justin was ahead of us, since he had gym this period, too. Good thing PE isn’t co-ed, I thought, glad to have finally found something good that had happened.
Right as Kayde and I were heading up the bleachers, the bell rang. We were still just sitting there, doing nothing. Unless having the coaches repeat rules to us was considered something. I looked around, and noticed someone waving at me from across the gym. Someone with black hair streaked with silver. Shiz. Maybe PE is co-ed. I thought, wondering why I didn’t realize the guys there yesterday.
Kayde either hadn’t noticed Justin waving at us, or she just choose to ignore him. “What happened back there?” She questioned, referring to that girl and her… revealing us.
“Apparently someone ‘overheard’ us talking last night,” I replied, turning away from my cat. The full weirdness of this caught up with me, and I had to fight off another headache.
“Or followed us. She must’ve seen Yuki unconscious and decided to follow us and see what was going on. This is the perfect example of curiosity killing the cat, don’t you think?” Kayde laughed a bit, and I got the feeling she was referring to Justin.
“Not at all. She knows about me, Yuki, and Justin. Either she’s getting her memories wiped, or Justin will tell her everything. If he tells her, she must be something special,” I replied, thinking. This was pretty much what Justin had meant the night before, wasn’t it? My head began hurting more, but I brushed it off. Now was not the time for headaches.
“Wow. This whole thing is getting pretty heavy,” She commented, sighing slightly.
“Did you get that from ‘Back to the Future’?” I asked, laughing softly.
She grinned. “Yup.”
“Wow,” I replied, shaking my head in disbelief. “I didn’t think anyone else my age had seen that movie.”
We talked about the trilogy the rest of the period. When the bell rang we got up and headed to the gym’s double doors. “Juliana! Wait! Slow down!” Justin shouted, running behind us.
“Juliana… maybe we should…?” Kayde looked over to me, but I hardened my face and went a bit quicker, heading to the orchestra room.
“No way. If he wants to come to this school with me, he has to keep up with me.” He caught up, and I felt like punching him. “Are you going to be in orchestra, too?” I’m pretty sure I kept the annoyance out of my voice, but I wasn’t too sure.
He made a pained look. “Yeah, I have to be.” It was obvious by his tone that he really didn’t want to play an instrument.
I grinned. “This is going to be an interesting year.” He scowled. “Aw, you look so cute when you’re upset,” I teased, ruffling his black-silver hair. The softness surprised me, but I managed to keep my composure. Of course it’s soft! Since his fur as a cat is soft, why wouldn’t his hair be?
“Alright, you can mess with him later. Let’s just get to class,” Kayde said, smiling a little at us and speeding up. I nodded and went a little faster, Justin right next to me. The smile my friend had sent me kind of freaked me out, it was kind of like ‘I know what you’re thinking’. Even I didn’t know what I was thinking.
Today was the same as yesterday. Mrs. Cobbe just talked the whole time. The bell rang, and the three of us were off to Technology with Mr. Macintosh and Yuki.
I took my seat at 13, Yuki at 12, Kayde at 14, and Justin across from me at 3. Most of the people was spent with the poor man yelling at Rodriguez and his cronies, and he was caught off guard when the lunch bell rang.
My friends and I waited for the crowd to pass before heading off to lunch. I saw Justin trying not to crack up. “It’s not his fault he sounds like he just sucked all the helium out of a balloon,” I told him snappily. Having to deal with those jerks in third period was bad enough, and spending my entire school day plus my home life with this guy sucked. I did not need him making comments on something our teacher couldn’t help.
“Jeez, is him really being at school with us that bad for you?” Yuki inquired, sounding stunned and slightly concerned. Kayde looked just as curious, but I could tell there was a slight smile on her lips. Justin, on the other hand, was just surprised.
“Yes, it is. Because that means I have to pretend he’s my boyfriend for the whole. Entire. Day,” I replied through clenched teeth, squeezing my hands into fists.
“Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad dating me, can it?” He put his arm around my waist, recovering quickly, grinning down at me. I turned red, and he quickly let go, probably thinking I was about to hit him. What he didn’t know was that I was red from embarrassment, not rage. Kayde noticed it, though. She smirked and wiggled her eyebrows, which I glared in response to. Yuki looked from her to me, then at Justin. He shrugged, and she scowled, obviously not getting what had just happened.
We sat down at our table, me on the edge, Justin next to me. Kayde sat across from me, with Yuki next to her. I didn’t expect the black haired girl and brown haired boy to come and sit down with us, but they did. The brunette sat next to Yuki and the black haired girl sat next to Justin. I felt a twinge of jealousy. Why? He isn’t really my boyfriend, I thought, horrified at the thought of liking him. I didn’t want to like him. I didn’t want to like anyone. That kind of stuff was an extra hassle I just didn’t want to deal with.
“Why’re you sitting with us?” I inquired, looking from the girl to her friend, who I had forgotten about until he showed up. I guess I sounded a little too snappy because I got funny looks from my two best friends.
“Why not?” The girl snapped in reply, blue eyes narrowing slightly.
“Because I thought we were ‘freaks’. I thought you didn’t want to be considered a ‘freak’. So, again. Why are you sitting with us?” I didn’t really care if I sounded snappy that time.
She didn’t reply, but the brunette did. His voice was deep, which was a big change from the black haired girl’s voice, which was a bit higher pitched than the normal voice. “There’s nowhere else to sit.” The girl glared at him and probably kicked his leg, because the next thing that came from his mouth was “Ow”.
I knew he was lying; the cafeteria wasn’t even half full. But I played along. “So, what’re your names? I’m Juliana.” I relaxed a bit, deciding it’d be better to not be as… aggressive with this girl. Butting heads wouldn’t get us anywhere.
“I’m Kayde.” She did a slight wave.
“Yuki.” She only nodded her head slightly.
“Justin.” He put his arm around my waist, causing me to glare at him. Seeing my glare, he smirked slightly before letting me go. This guy… uhg! He’s getting more and more annoying! My eyes narrowed further, and he finally released me. Kayde watched with a critical eye, obviously trying to figure something out. Yuki raised an eyebrow, smirking a bit at us two. The brunette watches, probably wondering why Justin was doing that, since he wasn’t my boyfriend. The raven-haired girl also raised an eyebrow, but her glare was piercing.
“I’m Midnight Nitengale, and this is Nathan Roades-Martinez,” The girl, Midnight, told us, still icy cold in tone.
“Nice to meet you,” He told us in his deep voice with a small head bow. I would have felt offended if someone said both my last names, if I had two, but it didn’t look like Nathan cared.
I got up to get my lunch, Justin following, Yuki went to put money into her lunch account, and Kayde went to the snack bar, followed by Midnight and Nathan. I hoped for their sakes they would leave Kayde alone.
After getting food we headed back, Justin still closely following me. It took all my willpower to not turn around and glare at him. We were the first two there, since Yuki had gone to get her lunch. I could’ve taken the middle seat, so I was between Midnight and Justin, but that would raise questions. Questions I didn’t want to answer. Or rather, didn’t know how to answer, since I didn’t even know why I wanted to separate the two.
I was nearly done with my food when Kayde came back from the snack bar, looking ready to kill someone. Either Midnight or Nathan had bugged her, people kept cutting her in line, or it was just a generally slow line. But I knew better than to ask her which it was. When the duo came back, Midnight looked kind of scared, which I couldn’t help but smile about. Maybe that’ll keep her from bugging people too much. Nathan was keeping a stoic face, not showing anything, or speaking. It worried, and frightened, me a little.
Yuki came back, her tray nearly empty. “Here, take my pears. I don’t even know why I got them,” Justin told her, pushing the black plastic bowl that held the pears to her.
“Thanks. My parents didn’t give me much money for lunch,” She explained a little sheepishly, gratefully taking the fruit.
“Hey, it’s no problem,” I said, smiling at her. “I just kind of wish I had saved something for you.” I felt really bad. If I had known she didn’t have much, I would’ve given her something.
“It’s fine, I’m used to it!” The girl responded, smiling. That explains why she’s so skinny.
We all finished lunch about ten minutes before it was actually over. I pulled out my Harry Potter book and began to read. It wasn’t long until I noticed Justin, Midnight, and Nathan watching me. “What?” I demanded, irritated. Midnight and Nathan looked away. Justin continued staring. “Is there something wrong?” I narrowed my eyes at my ‘boyfriend’, getting more irked by the second.
“You read?” His astonishment nearly pushed me over the edge, but I held that back.
“Who doesn’t read?” I replied, voice almost as menacing as Midnight’s. Almost.
“Me.” I stared at him. I just found his major bad point. A bad point I didn’t think he’d possess. He looked like he’d be a reader. Looks can be deceiving.
“Do you want to start reading? I could lend you a book… No, I have a better idea. Come on.” I grabbed his arm and my bag, and he picked up his own, knowing it’d be futile to fight. “Follow me.”
To the sounds of cat calls, I lead him to the library, which wasn’t too far away. I walked in, and breathed in the smell books made when they were all in one place. I don’t know how to describe it, you just… know. “You brought me to the library?” He questioned, his face wrinkling. The rest of the group followed us in, a mixture of emotions on each person’s face.
“Go find a book, or I’ll lend you one of mine,” I threatened. He immediately went to the shelves of books, obviously scared of what I’d give to him. I sat down at a table and took out my Harry Potter book, feeling slightly satisfied. Finally I’ll get to read it again. I’ve been meaning to for months. I only got to page five before Justin was next to me, holding a book. It was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and was thicker than the Harry Potter book in my hand. “So you’re scared of Harry Potter but not The Hunger Games?”
“I’m more scared of the whole series,” he replied, still holding out the book. It was a pretty good series, I had read it a couple months ago, right before deciding to re-read Harry Potter. I’m sure he didn’t know there were two more books after that one.
“Do you not know how to check out a book?” I asked, wondering why he was still there. He grinned, turning pink. “Come on,” I sighed, walking to the desk. “Could I help him check this book out?” I asked the librarian, who was busy with… something. I couldn’t tell what. She glanced to me and nodded. “Cool. Thanks.” I walked to the other side of the desk and took Justin’s book. I got on to the web site for checking out/in books and looked around a bit to get the feel of it. Then I scanned it in under ‘Yvette, Justin’ and handed it back to him, unconsciously making note that he had no middle name. The librarian had been watching, stunned, the whole time. “Thank you,” I repeated, smiling, before walking back to the front of the desk. I swung my backpack onto my back right as the bell went off.
“To Science!” I shouted, walking out of the library and to the main stairs, going up them. I didn’t like her very much. She didn’t really teach. She just kind of… chattered. I was so glad to have a knack for Science. The only person I had in this class was Justin, and since my desk was the only one without two people, he was my lab partner.
Today was just like yesterday. She was talking on and on about one of the experiments her class did last year for the whole period, leaving us with out ears hurting and brains empty. When the bell rang, I stumbled out of my chair, which my backpack strap had gotten tangled around. I fell, but before I hit the floor someone caught me by the waist. Justin. Of course. Just another thing to make my heart speed up. “You’re just falling for me, aren’t you?” He joked, grinning his perfect grin. I scowled, turning red with embarrassment. The mutters from the girls and catcalls from the guys didn’t help with my blush. I struggled out of his grip and swung my backpack on, heading for the next class, keeping my head high and him out of my sight.
I had Mrs. Quizzle next for Language Arts. I had the whole group in this period, including Midnight and Nathan. I didn’t notice I had the class with them yesterday, but that was probably just because they didn’t bug us yesterday. I sat with Justin – who else? – in the back, Kayde with Midnight in the front by the teacher’s desk – I think she knew she had to keep an eye on them – and Yuki with Nathan smack in the middle of the room.
Despite separating our group, I liked Mrs. Quizzle. She was funny, even though she was probably near, or past, retirement. She was old on the outside, but on the inside she was still just a teenager causing havoc. Even though today was still just a lecture day, she was quite lively. And she didn’t like having to go through all of this, either, as she repeated a couple times.
The bell rang, signaling the last period was going to begin in four minutes. The period that was worrying me the most. Justin noticed my face on the way to class – Yuki was stuck trying to get out of the classroom, caught between desks and people. She had told us to go on ahead, she’d catch up with us.
“What’s wrong?” He questioned, sounding worried, but that could’ve just been for the boyfriend-girlfriend façade. Who knew with this guy?
“Nothing,” I replied dully, hoping we had a different teacher, or a sub, today. I had a feeling we wouldn’t, but that was probably just me worrying.
“It’s not ‘nothing’. Tell me what’s wrong. Is it because of what happened yesterday?” He prodded, obviously not going to drop it. I nodded a little reluctantly. Why lie to him when he already knew? “Don’t worry, we’re going to have a sub today. I made sure to pull some strings when I enrolled. They’re currently looking for a new teacher, so until then we’re just going to have subs that don’t know a damn thing.”
I laughed a little, although my stomach was still squirming a bit. That had been really sweet of him. Well, according to my heart. Which needed to shut up. But my brain said it was because the previous teacher knew too much. “That’s good to know. As long as the next teacher doesn’t try killing me,” I joked. He chuckled softly at that, and I felt a bit better.
We walked into the class together, me smiling and him still laughing a bit. “Sit down and shut-up,” The sub demanded. I stopped laughing and took my seat with Justin on the left, eyes wide from the shock. Yuki walked in right when the bell rang. “Tardy,” The sub – a mean-looking old woman with bleached blonde hair – shot at Yuki.
“But –“ The girl protested. Technically, she wasn’t tardy. She was in the door before the bell rang – barely.
“No buts! Tardy!” She turned back to us. As Yuki walked out of the class I noticed her give the sub the finger, and I had to choke back my laughter. “Now, my name’s Mrs. Tcha.” She wrote her name on the board. “I hate all of you, got that? Now just… read or something. Don’t bug me.” She took out a pillow and fell asleep with her head on the desk.
“She’s married?” I muttered to Justin. “I feel so sorry for that poor guy.”
He bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. Yuki walked back in, smirking a little. I guess she won some kind of battle in the office, I thought to myself, smiling slightly. She put the tardy on top of the sub’s head and sat down on my left. “I wonder how many things we could stack on her head…” She wondered aloud, eyes darting over to a group of guys messing around.
A few of the guys got out of their seats, grinning like idiots, and went over to the old woman, picking up papers on their way. One of them counted to three on his fingers, then they all started stacking the papers on her head.
“Was that what you wanted to happen?” I asked my friend, laughing a little.
She grinned a little mischievously. “Maybe…”
I laughed some more. “Nice. It looks like it’s working real well.” The stack of ten or so papers slid off her head. The boys picked it up and started again. “Was it to bug the teacher or keep the dumb ones occupied?” She just gave us a little ‘innocent’ smiling.
“I’m going to guess a little bit of both,” Justin said, laughing. She nodded, putting little devil horns on herself. “You’re an evil genius. I’m so glad you’re on our side. I’d hate to think of what you could do to us otherwise. Especially in our sleep.” The sub snored really loudly, blowing away some of the papers and making a few of the boys jump. My little group and I laughed. It was kind of comforting to not have to worry about being attacked.
We went on like that for the rest of the period, laughing at the guys stacking papers, talking about random things, Justin teasing me. The bell rang, the teacher continued to sleep, and we fought the crowd to get out of the room.
Justin and I caught up with Midnight and Nathan. “You’re coming home with us,” Justin hissed quietly to those two. Yuki came over with Kayde, completing our group. “Let’s go.”
I had the front seat, Yuki and Kayde were in the middle, and Midnight and Nathan were in the back row. I was so glad Justin had an SUV. I didn’t bother asking where he hid it or how it was already at school. I knew he’d probably say it was The Organization’s doing or that he hid it in the garage – where Mom and I never go – and called it here with a high-tech key. Or something like that.
He started the car and drove us to my house, which was probably where we were going to go every day. Whether it was with Midnight and Nathan, I had no idea. We drove to my house in utter silence, and went inside just as quietly.
Something had been eating at me for the past day, and I figured I should confront Justin about it. “Justin? How come Mom didn’t come home until late and left the house early?” I inquired, hoping he hadn’t done anything to her.
“Don’t worry, I just got her promoted. The Organization has lots of connections and strings they can pull,” He replied, his eye glinting a little oddly.
“Oh…kay…” I unlocked the back door and walked into my house. “As long as she doesn’t get hurt. Got that?” I gave him a meaningful look, and he nodded. “Good.” I plopped down on the love seat and watched as the others walked in. Kayde beat Yuki to the cushion chair, and the smaller girl pouted and brought a kitchen chair in. Midnight and Nathan stood awkwardly at the door before going over to my couch and sitting, still looking stiff. Justin came over and plopped beside me on the love seat.
“Explain. Everything,” Midnight commanded Justin. He raised an eyebrow at her, much like a father would. “Please?” She added feebly.
“The whole story is too long. Just ask questions,” He replied. The skin under his eyes were darker and baggy, and I wondered how I had never noticed that. Then I wondered how much sleep he had been getting.
“Ok. What’s the story?” She asked, sounding a bit impatient already.
Justin chuckled softly. “Be more specific, please. But nice try. Actually, I have a question for you. How did you overhear what we were talking about last night and how much did you hear?” He turned completely serious, despite his lack of sleep.
“Well…” She looked kind of uncomfortable. “We kind of… followed you guys home.” She turned red. “I saw you carrying Yuki-“ she nodded her head to said girl, who had a sour look on her face at the memory, “-outside and became curious.”
“So you followed us here?” Kayde questioned, one of her eyebrows going up. “Isn’t that, I dunno, stalking?”
I laughed, along with Yuki and Justin. Yuki nearly fell off her chair, Justin almost burst out laughing, and I fell onto his shoulder. Kayde let a small smile show, but Midnight’s mouth became a thin, white line.
“Oh, cheer up. It was funny,” I told her. She cracked a tight smile, obviously not thinking the same thing as us. Nathan was completely expressionless, showing just how stoic he was.
“Alright, alright. Let’s not be mean to them,” Justin said, although he was still grinning. “So you pretty much know everything about what happened, it seems like,” He said to new duo. “Any questions that weren’t asked last night?”
“Uh, yeah, actually,” Midnight said, looking over at Nathan and turning paler. “What’s wrong with Nathan?” She poked him, but nothing happened. “This happens a lot, but it’s become a lot more frequent… it’s the real reason I followed and confronted you.”
“I have no idea… Hang on, I’ll be right back.” Gently pushing me back into an upright position, he got off the couch, heading towards my room. He took out a device that was somewhere between the sizes of an iPhone and iPad. His lips formed the word ‘Analysis’, and pointed the camera at the top to Nathan.
“Elf,” Replied a monotone voice, loud enough for all of us to hear.
“Elf? Are you sure? He doesn’t look like an elf. He’s tall!” Justin argued, eyes narrowing at the device.
“Let me continue,” The voice said, slightly irritated. “Elf hybrid. The elves were becoming extinct so they decided to mate with the humans. They are usually taller than the average human, which is odd for elves. This one is going through puberty. These moments happen when he is developing his elvin powers. It happens on and off for anywhere from a month to three years. We are still trying to find what the length deals with.”
“An elf?” Midnight squeaked, looking nearly albino now. “Nathan’s an… elf?”
“That’s what this thing says. And it’s the latest model, so it should be correct,” Justin replied, eyeing Nathan. “Let me talk to The Organization,” He told the device.
“Yes, Justin?” A female appeared on the screen, looking exhasperated. “What is it this time?”
“How come you don’t have a Nathan…” He trailed off. “What’s his middle name?” He hissed at Midnight, coming back over to us.
“Oscar,” She replied.
“How come there’s no Nathan Oscar Roades-Martinez in your system under ‘Elf Hybrid’?” He demanded to the female. Her golden eyes widened in surprise, and one tanned hand went through her striking blue hair, free hand tapping against a keyboard.
“I-I don’t know, sir,” She stammered. Sir? What rank does he have? “I’ve never even heard of the last names.”
“Well add him to the list,” He nearly growled, clicking a button to end the transmission.
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For a second, Justin forgot about the group around him as fury swept over him.
“I-I don’t know, sir,” His secretary, Lillian, stammered. “I’ve never even heard of the last names.”
“Well add him to the list,” He growled, trying to keep himself under control. When his anger subsided, he looked around. All eyes were on him, even Nathan’s. Juliana even looked scared. “Uhm… sorry you had to see that…” He said awkwardly, turning a slight red.
Silence for a moment. “What was that about?” Juliana asked, having managed to recover the fastest. Something in her voice made him pause for a moment, and then he realized it was worry.
“Come here. I’ll explain,” He told her, noticing everyone was still staring. She nodded, and he led her to her own room. “I’m actually a pretty high rank in The Organization. I just don’t work there. My job is to make sure a certain area is safe from harm and keep the humans from finding out about us. I’ve got to call someone, hang on.” Turning back to his communicator, he murmured, “Justin Yvette.” The screen turned from black to electric snow. “Call The Organization’s President.”
An old man’s face appeared, wrinkled by age and wisdom, white hair nearly completely gone. “Yes, Justin?” The President greeted.
“We’ve been found out by a girl named Midnight Nitengale, but there would be a bit of a problem if we wiped her mind.”
“What is it?”
“Her best friend, Nathan Roades-Martinez, is an unregistered Elf Hybrid going through puberty.” Justin was worried about how he would react, but the elder man responded better than he could have hoped.
“Well then. This is getting… difficult. Can I trust you to not screw this up? Can you keep the girl from talking about this?” He demanded.
“Yes. She’s too worried about what people think of her.”
“Good. Make sure it stays that way.” The ‘beep’ and electric snow coming back on showed that the communication was ended. With a small exhale of breath, Justin put his communicator back into his pocket.
“Who was that?” Juliana asked from behind him. He turned, surprised that she had been watching from over his shoulder.
“President Godde. President and founder of The Organization,” He replied.
“Wow. He sounds important. You must have a really high rank or know him really well if he’s on first-name terms with you,” She responded, sounding and looking impressed, but also a bit skeptical.
He chuckled and grinned down at her. “Impressed?” He teased.
She scowled. “No.” Drat.
“Hey, could you two love birds come out of there? It’s weird being in someone’s house if they’re not around!” Kayde shouted, a slight tease to her voice. Good old Kayde. Leave it to her to make Juliana angry. The short redhead’s eyes were narrowed, and her face was completely red. Just like sisters.
“We’re coming, we’re coming! And we’re not together!” Juliana shouted, stomping out of her room. Justin followed her out, grinning. “And quit grinning, Justin! You look stupid.” She’s good. Didn’t even have to turn around.
“So, what happened?” Nathan questioned, looking extremely confused. Justin quickly explained it to him, since he knew more about it than anyone else in the room. “Wait, so you mean to say I’m a tall elf? Don’t you think that’s something Midnight’s more likely to be?” He joked. The group laughed, and Midnight even cracked a genuine smile. Either he was taking it well or he was trying to cover his emotions by being funny.
Justin looked down to his watch. “Ok, everyone, it’s six. Time to go home. When do your parents get home?”
“Seven,” Midnight replied.
“Nine.” Nathan.
“Eleven.” Kayde.
“I dunno. I’m always asleep.” Yuki.
“Well, it looks like I’m taking Midnight home first, then Nathan, Yuki, and Kayde. Into the car.”
We all piled into Justin’s black SUV after he got it from the garage. He couldn’t believe they never knew it was in there. He drove Midnight, who didn’t live very far away, home. Nathan’s house was right next door, so he got out there, too. He remembered where Kayde lived, so the three got there twice as fast as last night – or that morning – and then dropped Yuki off at her place.
By seven thirty, the original duo were back at Juliana’s house.
“Well, today was certainly… interesting,” Juliana commented, getting out of the car and going inside, Justin following. “You hungry?” She asked, continuing to the fridge while Justin sat himself in a chair.
“Yeah.”
“For human or cat food?” She teased.
“Human.” She laughed at his scowl.
“Alright, mister pouty. Easy Mac it is.” She took out a cup of Easy Mac and a pizza pocket. She made the Easy Mac first and put it on the table. “Tomorrow you’re making your own food. I’m sure you did it all the time while we were out.”
“Fine, then you can just make your own breakfast,” Justin replied, blowing on his Mac to cool it off. He glanced up to see Juliana’s mortified face. “Exactly. Fair trade.”
It was her turn to scowl. She made her pizza pocket and sat down across from him to eat. “That was low. You know I don’t wake up early enough to make myself breakfast.”
“I do?” He asked her, feigning innocence.
She laughed and punched his shoulder gently. “Yeah, yeah. Fake innocence all you like. I’m not believing you.”
“Ow…” He moaned, faking hurt this time. He rubbed his shoulder where she hit him, pouting. “That hurt…”
She laughed. “I didn’t punch you that hard.” He pouted for real. Is there any way I can trick her? “You’re not really going to continue trying to get me to believe you, are you?” She questioned, laughing a little more.
Instead of replying, he just ate, pouting up at her every now and then. She wasn’t ever looking at him, she was too busy eating her pizza pocket. How can she understand me so well? It’s only been two days. Justin was still trying to figure out how she knew him so well when he heard her mother’s car coming up the driveway. Quickly, he threw his empty cup into the trashcan and popped into Felix. The cat circled in the chair and then curled up, closing his eyes and starting his purr.
“Hello, Juliana,” Mrs. Falcone said to her daughter as she walked in the back door. “How was school today?”
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I heard Mom’s car coming up the driveway when Justin did. His eyes widened, he tossed his snack cup into the trash, and popped into Felix. He was purring on the chair when Mom walked in. “Hello, Juliana. How was school today?”
Oh, just like every other day. My cat enrolled himself into all my classes, made PE co-ed, the usual. Oh, and I’m a Faerie. So is one of my friends. And the other has Faerie parents. Did you know them when you worked at The Organization? And today I met a girl who stalked us here last night, so she knows everything. And her best friend is an elf hybrid. Did you know they were tall? I didn’t say any of that out loud, though. I couldn’t. “Fine. The teachers just gave us lectures all day.” It wasn’t hard to feign the boredom, because that’s all they really had done. “How come you weren’t home until late last night?” I questioned, acting the part of the worried daughter.
“You wouldn’t believe it. I’ve been promoted!” Mom replied, sounding like a teenage girl who had been asked to a dance. I didn’t know Mom could sound so excited.
“That’s awesome! Congrats, Mom!” I gave her a quick hug, and she squeezed back.
“Thank you, sweetie. I’m sorry I have to leave you alone like this, though…” She really did look worried about me being stuck home alone.
“It’s okay. I’ve got Felix,” I reminded her, smiling and reaching under the table to pet the sleeping cat’s head. And I’ve got a few freak friends at school. I added to myself.
“I wish…” She trailed off, then shook her head. “Never mind. I’m going to go change and then make some dinner.” Mom walked to her room, looking kind of dazed.
Wondering what that was about, I walked over to the chair Felix was sleeping in and picked up the ten pound Bengal-tabby mix and walked to my room. I put him down in the little blue bed he never used. It was inside of a cat play house that he never played with.