Fairy Bad Day

chapter FOUR

Emma ignored the snickers as she hurried out of the cafeteria. She reached Sir Francis, and after giving him another quick touch on the forehead, she went back along the cool terra-cotta tiles that paved the external corridor that flanked the quad. It was too much. First she had to suffer public humiliation, and now, now, she was supposed to be shown how to slay a dragon by Curtis Green?

Oh, she didn’t think so.

As for the idea of taking him out and attempting to show him how to kill a fairy? No, no, and no. Anger churned in her stomach as she hurried through the main entrance of Burtonwood and turned left. As she went, the eyes of the people in the numerous photographs that graced the walls seemed to watch her. They were of all the graduates who had gone on to do great things in the slaying world, her mom being one of them, and ever since Emma had been a small child, this corridor had been one of her favorite parts of the academy. It made her feel connected to her past and excited about her future, but right now as she raced toward Kessler’s office, all she felt was betrayed.

Well, it was going to stop here. Principal Kessler had been a friend of her mom’s, and she would just have to keep talking to him until he finally understood why the whole fairy thing wasn’t going to work. She was a dragon slayer. She was.

Once she reached his door, she paused for a moment to catch her breath. There was no answer when she knocked and so she knocked again, this time harder, but still there was no answer, and she was just wondering if she should poke her head in when the next door swung open and Mrs. Barnes appeared, her purple eye shadow making her look like she’d gone three rounds with a baritong demon.

“Emma, he’s not in there.”

“Oh.” Frustration started to sting at her lip, and she had to bite it to stop from betraying her feelings. “Will he back before first period?”

The secretary took off her green glasses and shook her head. “I don’t think so. Some people from the Department have been here since seven. He’s still holed up with them now.”

“Really?” For a moment Emma was distracted since the Department of Paranormal Containment was where most of the Burtonwood students would end up working once they graduated. It hadn’t always been the case, but about fifty years ago the Department had realized the Academy slayers, with their sight and power, could kill the elementals better than any of their own agents, and so they’d started recruiting them. This meant after years of slayers just doing their job because of duty, they suddenly found they were getting a paycheck as well. Not surprisingly, sight-gifted parents were suddenly a lot happier to send their children to Burtonwood and the various other academies across the world. Sir Francis would’ve been proud. “What are they doing here?”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.” Mrs. Barnes shook her head. “By the way, I heard about what happened to your eye on Saturday. Are you feeling any better?”

“I’m fine.” Emma self-consciously touched the patch and wondered if there was anyone who didn’t know about the explosion.

“Good, and you’ll be pleased to know that you haven’t been penalized for forgetting to hand back your pass-out, but I will need to get it from you now.”

Emma sighed as she followed Mrs. Barnes back into the office and fished around in her school bag for the bulletshaped piece of plastic that let her in and out of the school gate for her Saturday patrol. Sophomores got to spend ten field hours a week off campus slaying, and it went up to fifteen by the time they were juniors and twenty for seniors. However, the only way in and out was with a constantly changing security code that was embedded in the pass, and while no one could see cameras anywhere, Mrs. Barnes always seemed to know if someone tried to buck the system.

Emma handed the small pass back just as the bell rang, and so she reluctantly made her way back down the half-empty corridor toward her first class of the day. Math. As if she hadn’t suffered enough. Thankfully, her teacher wasn’t there yet and Emma quickly slipped into the seat Loni had saved her.

“Well?” her friend demanded as Emma pulled out her math books. “What did he say?”

“He’s in a secret meeting with some Department guys, but Barney wouldn’t say what it was about. Probably telling them to make sure I get a desk job when I finally graduate.” She made a face as she started to fiddle with her brown ponytail, which was hanging over her left shoulder.

“Stop it. First of all, you’re not that important,” Loni said in a stern voice. “And besides, you’re breaking new ground. No one else has ever really tried to slay fairies before.”

“Yes, that’s because they’re not worth slaying,” Emma muttered.

“Hey, Em,” Tyler said, leaning over Loni. “The explosion sucks, but don’t let it get you down.” He gave Emma a pat on the hand, which would’ve been comforting if he hadn’t been wearing a pair of thickly spiked, flame-resistant gloves that he used when he was hunting salamanders.

“Ouch.” She whipped her hand away.

“Sorry.” Tyler shot her apologetic glance. “Someone bet me that I couldn’t wear these bad boys all day. I forgot they were on.”

“Just like you will no doubt forget your brain one day, Tyler Owens.” Loni shook her head in disapproval. “My mom warned me what would happen if I became friends with a Leo, but would I listen?”

“Well you didn’t complain when I helped you pass your tracking test the other day,” Tyler reminded her, but before they could continue bickering, their math teacher walked into the room.

“As you know, there are twelve elementals. Three air, three fire, three earth, and three water,” she said as she approached her desk. For a moment Emma wondered if it was a history lesson since learning about the elementals was fourth-grade stuff. “But it doesn’t stop there. Take, for instance, demons. They might only be considered as one elemental group, but there are at least a hundred and five known subraces. So what if you were working on the Department’s logistics team and had to decide how many agents you needed to send to clean up a newly hatched phoenix nest, two battling ogre tribes, and a problem on the East Coast with some krakens? How would you figure it out?”

Everyone except Tyler, who loved numbers, immediately started to groan as Professor Edwards held up a bunch of papers, which meant they were about to have a pop quiz. This day was just getting worse by the hour.





By the time Emma walked into the cafeteria for dinner that night, she begrudgingly realized that, despite her inability to answer any of the questions (let alone understand what they even meant), the pop quiz was actually the highlight of an otherwise horrible day. Even now people were making explosive noises and giggling as she walked past them. Also, she’d been unsuccessful in her attempts to track down Principal Kessler.

“What are you doing?” Loni demanded in a confused voice as Emma suddenly slid down her chair halfway through eating her fettuccine.

“Hiding,” Emma whispered as from across the room she caught sight of Curtis swinging his way into the cafeteria. The other thing she’d done all day was avoid her new assignment partner. She didn’t care what Loni or anyone else said: there was no way she was working with him. It was a matter of principle. She watched as Brenda raced up to him, but after a brief conversation, the demon slayer went away and Curtis continued to scan the room.

“Yes, but why?” Tyler craned his neck in confusion. “Is there something I should know?”

“She’s in denial,” Loni explained before lowering her voice and mouthing, “about Curtis.”

“Oh, is that all?” Tyler rolled his eyes before leaning across the table and swiping some of Emma’s uneaten dinner. “At least you got someone who knows how to use a sword. I got stuck with Glen Lewis, and tomorrow I have to let him show me how to slay an ogre. Only problem is that he never finishes his sentences because he forgets that Garry isn’t there to do it for him. Trust me, Curtis isn’t so bad.”

Emma kicked him in the shin.

“Ouch,” he protested. “Why did you do that?”

“It’s just, I thought you’d forgotten that Curtis Green is evil,” Emma informed him. “And if you like him so much, then why don’t you go and sit with him?”

“Because he’s leaving the cafeteria,” Tyler pointed out, and Emma let out a sigh of relief as she realized that after standing in the doorway and looking around for five minutes, he had indeed left the cafeteria and disappeared back out into the November evening.

“You know this isn’t going to work, don’t you?” Loni asked rhetorically as she pushed away the rest of her meal and Tyler instantly fell on it with a zeal she and Emma both ignored. “I mean, it’s not like we even go to a regular school where you can miss a few classes. This is Burtonwood, Emma, and that means you can’t run away from him forever.”

“I can while he has his leg in a cast,” Emma reminded her. “Anyway, until I change Kessler’s mind, there’s no way I’m going near Curtis in case he figures out my plan and tries to stop me.”

“You have a plan?” Tyler finished the rest of Loni’s dinner and looked up with interest.

“Well, it was to talk to Kessler, but since I can’t find him, I might have to come up with something else, and when I do, I don’t want Curtis nearby sticking his nose in it.”

“That’s it? Ruby, my five-legged pet cockroach has better plans than that.” Tyler raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything else, Ryan Duncan came up to him and they started talking about some football game that they’d been betting on. Loni and Emma rolled their eyes and both stood up.

“So do you want to go to the gym?” Loni asked, but Emma shook her head and yawned.

“Actually, I might make it an early night.”

“Okay, well, I’ll see you in the morning. And Emma, try to remember that, according to your horoscope, you’re actually supposed to be having a good week.”

“Remind me to take cover when my stars say I’m going to have a bad week.” Emma only just resisted the urge to laugh as she said good night to her friend.

She jogged back toward her dorm. Normally she would’ve stopped and talked to the group of sophomores who were all sitting under an oak tree, but tonight she didn’t bother since they were probably talking about her. Instead, she hurried back to her room and halfheartedly pulled out her homework.

An hour later she decided to call it a night since apparently staring aimlessly at her homework wasn’t enough to get it finished. She was just about to turn off her laptop when her dad pinged her on IM.

She considered answering it for a moment before deciding to just call him in the morning. She’d promised after her accident that she’d update him every day about how she was doing, but she just didn’t feel up to it. Especially since, no matter how much he tried, it was impossible for him to understand what she was going through. Not just about her sore eye or even getting stuck with fairies, but because he was sight-blind.

As a rule sight-gifted people tended to stick together mainly because it was frowned upon to talk about elementals with civilians. However, it wasn’t actually illegal, and so when Emma’s parents had met and fallen in love, there was nothing to stop them from getting married. Plus, her dad had briefly worked at Burtonwood, which had made any explaining her mom had to do a little bit easier.

The other reason that most slayers tended to stick together was that the children of mixed marriages were nearly always sight-blind. In fact, until she turned eight, Emma’s biggest fear was that she would be as well and that all the amazing stories her mom had told her would just be that... stories.

But then it had happened.

On her eighth birthday, her parents had taken her out to the beach. It was April and the spring air had been warm and fresh, and the smell of salt had been dancing in her nostrils before it was suddenly replaced by something else. Something evil. Then, without even knowing why, Emma had dropped to all fours just before a large phoenix went swooping over her, missing her by mere inches.

In a second Emma took it all in: The heavy torrents of wind that gushed up as the creature went past her, its dark red feathers that almost seemed to blaze like fire against the blue spring sky. The small orange eyes that were filled with malice. And most noticeably the large beak, curved and deadly.

A second later her mom appeared with a crossbow in her hands and killed the creature before it could turn and dive a second time. Emma had instantly burst into tears, which her mom had mistaken for fear rather than joy. But how could she be scared when her mom was there to help her? And even better, now that she had the sight, she would be able to go to Burtonwood. It had truly been a perfect day, and together she and her mom spent the next two hours planting a series of tiny electromagnetic wards to stop any more phoenixes from returning to the area.

With that thought she shut her laptop and went to bed. Thinking of her mom just reminded her of how much was at stake. And as she drifted off to sleep, she desperately tried to come up with the perfect Plan C so that she could convince Kessler to change his mind. Her future depended on it.