sounds ringing in my ears. But it wasn’t the hissing that I feared- it was what inevitably came afterwards. The screaming, that was long overdue.
“You don’t even deserve a fairy!” One kid shouted, “what gives you the right to bully the one you’ve got?”
“What an ingrate!”
“What’s wrong with her? Do you think she’s crazy? Or just stupid?”
“She has an ability to mirror her personality, and that’s why her ability sucks so bad.”
“Yeah! Even before the Ceremony, I didn’t like her. She always tried too hard, and it was so annoying! Good thing that she sits in the back, away from us!”
I crouched behind the table, wishing that I didn’t have ears to heard the tirade of angry students that hurled their insults at me. That was the power of mob mentality for you, though. If enough people agree on a subject, the rest of the kids would follow suit. Hypocrites, all of them! None of them understood how horrible it was to get a fairy who didn’t just have a bad ability, but a habit of destroying your stuff and embarrassing you all around! Who would want such a fairy?
I felt the cold, dank tile underneath my exposed knees, since the thread on my leggings had ripped in that area. The smell of hardened cheese, old, soggy bread crumbs, and saccharine sweet fruit enveloped my until I wanted to gag. My heart raced as I attempted to think my way out of the situation. I couldn’t think of anything that could save me, short of a miracle. I would just keep on getting pelted, until I burst.
“Serves you right for telling me to get lost,” Goldenrod said.
I ignored her.
But in the meantime, the students were beginning to threaten me, and the situation had escalated to a point I’d never thought I’d arrive at.
Marco slid down the seats, to the floor, and I was shocked as he sat down besides me.
“Hey, don’t worry. This isn’t completely your fault- although I wouldn’t recommend insulting your fairy in front of this crowd, again. It’s been a weird day for everyone- I mean, if you have to call the Fire Department, you can classify your day under “awful. But it’s going to be better- maybe not tomorrow, but I bet that a week from now, they’ll barely remember anything. They have tiny little brains.”
“You know it. Tiny brains, and huge mouths,” Elise quipped.
“Thanks, guys. But I don’t think this is ever going to get better. At least, it doesn’t seem like it can. Not when
Goldenrod’s around. I need a way to get rid of her before she ruins my whole life.”
If it wasn’t already ruined, that is.
That night, after I came home with Goldenrod on the bus, we walked into my house, now clean, tidy, and decorative. I sighed of relief as I saw that the white walls that my parents had delighted in for hours after they painted. Everything was right, at least in my house.
I slammed my woven, teal book bag down on the shimmering floor, and winced as I heard it crash down. The cheap version of a chandelier that we owned wobbled precariously, chiming in, to make a chorus out of my house. I silenced they blue baubles that hung from the ornamental piece by steadying the bag. I pulled my math book from the heavy bag, and brought it to the high dining room table, as Goldenrod trailed behind. She was too close for comfort.
“Please.” I begged, “just leave me alone! What do you want from me?”
“I want for you to keep me!”
“Well, you’re really helping yourself to achieve that goal, aren’t you? Of course I want to keep you after you almost burned down my house! That makes sense!”
“First off, I didn’t even come close to burning down your house. At most, it would just be your bathroom! What’s the big deal? It was ugly, anyways!”
“That’s it. Can’t you just find a new person to leech on?”
Goldenrod looked wounded for a second, and pointed her little head towards the ground. Her hair was a mop around her head, pointy ears sticking out of the tangles, and her Amber wings began to droop. She looked like a hurt puppy, or maybe a soldier who was coming home from war, like soldiers used to do. In fact, she might as well have been on a black and white film reel, she played her part so well. But I knew that was all an act, just so that I would feel bad for her! That wasn’t going to work, not with me. I was too intelligent for her tricks for her to make me feel any sympathy.
It was all an act, and she was an exemplary actress.
And she was grinning.
That couldn’t be a good sign
“If you have already forgotten, I’m not going anywhere . So, get ready to park until we drop, because I’m staying here for life! And I think I have a little bit of leverage over you, too. See? It’s my lucky day!” She cried.
“Leverage? I don’t keep secrets.” I said, tentatively.
She shrugged, and stared at me for a lengthy amount of time, as if a secret would suddenly pop up from the ground if she waited long enough.
I didn’t have any secrets. Not even one, except for the few that didn’t really matter. Like how River and I had buried a treasure box in the backyard when we were both small, when we were both friends. How I thought that the world was going to end, one year, and locked myself in the basement with three bottles of water. Or how I had seen Dad crying, alone in his room before, talking about taxes and the high rent we had to pay. But no family in the world was happy about those things, and that wasn’t exactly a secret.
Goldenrod had no idea what she was talking about.
“Well, I’ll be in my room if you need me.” she announced, “which I’m
sure you will.”
I watched her as she skipped up one step, and flew the remainder of the way up, into my room. I could hear her voice, singing high pitched scales, all the way from the living room. She trilled all over the place, and it sounded like sand paper. It was going to take a lot to restore my good mood, I knew, as I rubbed my sore temples.
I decided to finally stop procrastinating, and start working. As I did my work, scribbling down answers I didn’t know well, the clock deemed it fit to move very slowly. Theorems. Decimals. Why did we even need to know this if most of us chose our careers based on our abilities?
Oh, wait.
I had a Parking Fairy . That was pretty detrimental to any career, if I was forced to compete with others who had an ability for it.
What could a girl who had nothing, ever become?
I was good at procrastinating, I could very well be a waiter- but I didn’t want to work around food
forever .
I put down my pencil, suddenly, as I heard a loud, fluttering noise from upstairs. Goldenrod!
I took off my shoes, and ran up to check on my mischievous little fairy. I tried to pull on my doorknob, and realized that Goldenrod had locked the door. I took the spare key from underneath the rug, and pulled open the door. I expected to see Goldenrod feasting on my pillow. Instead, I saw her staring out the window, wistfully as anything.
“Goldenrod! What are you doing?”
“When can we meet the neighbors, Barbie and Clive?”
“Why? They kind of...keep to themselves. And why do you know both of their names?”
“That’s a story for another time. And no, not today, they don’t. Look, Barbie’s walking outside! Her hair looks pretty nice...but she looks upset. Like she’s been angry for a long time.”
“How would you know what that looks like?”
Goldenrod didn’t have any time to answer, because, all of sudden, Barbie began to scream, a horrible, bloodcurdling, tortured scream.
“Call the Police! Call the Police! Our fairies have been stolen! Please, someone help us! We don’t have any abilities!” She cried, her blond bob shaking.
Her accent was deep, and lilting, like molasses was rolling across the air she breathed. She wasn’t from around here, and the married couple had only arrived in town three years ago.
Then, Clive rushed out of the house, holding a pair of tiny, empty beds.
“Hyacinth and Aster are gone, Barbie! They were there one minute- but when I went to check that they were okay, both of them were gone! I can’t sing, and you can’t debate! Our careers are over! Our lives are over!” He wailed, in the same accent.
I stormed down the stairs, and went out of the house, ready to see what had happened. Maybe they were exaggerating?
I turned the knob of the door, and ran, shoeless, into the garden. Mud squished between my toes, and I carefully avoided all of the carefully planted flowers that River had grown so lovingly over the years. She’d kill her if a single, pink rose was squashed underfoot.
Barbie was holding a small, penned note, on lined paper, in her hand, which she had crumpled in her fist. Her pale hands were trembling like leaves, and she had began to sob on the ground.
“What happened? What’s that note?” I asked.
“We were baking some stir fry in the kitchen, when- when we heard a loud crash, and a fluttering sound. We went to check on our two fairies, Hyacinth and Aster. But when we got to them, they were gone, and the window was open. We found this note, in each of their beds. Look at it!” She cried, “just look at it!”
She thrust the note into my hand, and I began to scan it.
Barbie and Clive,
How does life feel without an ability? Worthless, useless, doesn’t it? We have your fairies, now- and if you want them back, you’ll need to pay seventeen million dollars. Isn’t it worth it, for your precious fairies?
They won’t be harmed, at least, not yet, but if you don’t pay, you’ll never see Aster and Hyacinth again.
You have twenty-four hours. Your time has started.
I gasped, as I read the letter.
“What are we going to do? We don’t have seventeen million dollars! Where are we going to get it, in just one day? And why did they have to make it an odd number! Odd numbers bother me! And Clive detests lined paper, it just makes him feel uncomfortable for day!
Someone planned this ! This is an act of hatred!” She exclaimed.
“Don’t worry, Barbie, the Police will
totally catch whoever...you know...kidnapped your fairies.” I said, perhaps insensitively.
She burst into tears once more, but there were more pressing matters that I had to take care of, since she was in no state to do it herself.
I dialed the number for the Police, and they recognized that I was a kid. They didn’t take me seriously. But when I told them that it was a serious emergency, and that it wasn’t a prank, they said that they would send a squad car. Althought they sounded dubious at first, they rushed right over. The safety of fairies was taken very seriously in town.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. As far as I knew, nothing like this had ever happened. This was a good area! The only thing to be feared were the copious amounts of bullies in school. But this was something new, something that no one had expected.
Nothing but evil could come from this evil, and nothing good could come from a heinous act like that.
There had been a kidnapping on Chesnut Crest.
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