The New Kid

September 21
First Period:

The first week of school was more like the first day. Our scattered schedule had to catch up with itself as we got introduced to our smorgasbord of classes. I’d memorized my class list already.

Grade 6 Homeroom- Ms. Snowfox
English in Arcane Fields- Mr. Archstar
Algebra- Ms. Crane
Biology- Ms. Verdant
US History- Mr. Azure
Japanese- Mr. Takagi
Hiking- Ms. Verdant
Magical Creatures: How Not to Get Eaten- Ms. Snowfox
Battle Tactics- Mr. Sharp
Magical History and Theory- Mrs. Strahn
Treasure Hunting- Mr. Rose

Of the four electives, I only took one each day, and I had no elective at all on Fridays, which ended earlier than other days. Most days had three content classes, though some had longer blocks happening only once or twice each week. Homeroom was the only constant. That’s how Ledoric’s always was, excluding Kindergarten and First Grade where students were offered less options in general.

Treasure Hunting was a class I thought I’d like more. Mr. Rose was an estranged prince from a tiny country in Central Europe. It was somewhere between Slovakia and Slovenia and Moldova. Somewhere near Romania or Hungary. I found myself nearly dropping Treasure Hunting in the first week to take a different elective. I’d thought it would be a theory class like Ms. Snowfox’s, but we were outside in the heat. Hiking, on the other hand, I knew would be in the forest. That would offer much more shade than any of the other P.E. options.

With the introductory week finished, I went into homeroom early. I didn’t have an appetite for any kind of breakfast, or at least, I wasn’t interested. I watched the clock throughout the day. Finally, the classes would stop be small-talk and test dates and vague overviews. The first week was always my least favorite.

Ms. Snowfox arrived to her own class late. This wasn’t unimaginable for her. Everyone knew she was a coffee-addict with a tendency to oversleep. Her white fur was ruffled and scattered like some kind of bedhead, and she slowly looked around as she hopped up onto her desk. She slowly yawned. Finally, she looked back out the door. “Well. This is a first.”

I looked over following her gaze. Some human boy I’d never seen before hobbled into class. He had gelled black hair, a pair of expensive sunglasses, and a some metropolitan, branded watch sparkling around his wrist. Nobody wore suits to class, much less the teachers. His was black, tailored perfection. Students with magic were required to attend Ledoric’s from Kindergarten. I winced, trying to remember who this was. I must have seen him before, and I was straining to understand how I’d forgotten one of my own classmates.

Ms. Snowfox waddled across her desk, “We have a new student,” she said, exasperated, “I haven’t seen it in all my years, either.” She watched the boy for a moment, “Well are you planning to introduce yourself?”

“Yo!” He leaned casually against the back wall, “Terrance Thunder,” he saluted across the room.

“Look at that hair,” Pippa whispered in my ear, her tail swishing below her, “so mine.” I stuck my tongue out at her.

Natasha called out, “So, like, how does he just get to skip everything? He looks a little too tall for Kindergaten.”

Terrance lowered his sunglasses to reveal himself winking, “I only found out I had magic last week. My mom used to be friends with Alto Gray, apparently.” He emphasized Principal Gray’s name as if he was talking about a movie star.

Natasha just scratched her head. “Yeah? My mom’s best friends with the Queen of England.” I’d never heard that one before. Natasha lied like a hobby, and dealt only in fish stories. Even she didn’t know what to think of the newcomer.

Terrance wandered down the aisle. There was open seat in the front that I expected him to take, but instead he walked past all the vacancies in the middle to the very back. He sat down right next to Bruno and quietly elbowed him, “Ever been to Rosario’s?” It was a fancy Italian restaurant in Maple. We’d all been there.

Bruno shot up when he realized Terrance was talking to him. “Not in a while!” He chirped, “I never really eat out anymore.”

“Hey, I can afford it. Why don’t you come with me sometime?”

“I have a student card, too.” Bruno said, “I just don’t really like going out.”

Pippa turned away from his as he continued talking to Bruno. She grumbled to me, “And I thought he was perfect, too.” Her ears folded back against her head.

“You did?” I raised an eyebrow. As the class formally started, the Pledge of Allegiance came on the buzzing loudspeaker. There was the flag hanging just over the door. There was one in every classroom. Ms. Snowfox didn’t heed it, waiting only for he ritual to end. I only mouthed the words, after doing this constantly, they’d lost all meaning.

Terrance stood up, something almost nobody did. He folded his sunglasses and carefully folded them on his desk. He put his left hand over his stomach and watched the flag like a fireworks show as he belted out the words. By the end, everyone was looking at him blankly. For a heartbeat, silence. Terrance sat down against a mess of uncomfortable giggling. As he slipped his sunglasses back on, he nodded, “My eyes are up here.” He pointed at the flag.

Bianca lay flat over her paws, covering them with fur like a loaf of bread, “Wow.”

“Impressive, right?” Terrance rested his cheek on his knuckles.

“Well, yes.” Bianca agreed after a beat, “That was certainly an impression.”

“All in a day’s work, Teach.”

Lunch:

I’ve never seen Mina as strictly confused as she was around Terrance. Mr. Archstar, alone, seemed to dislike him more. Terrance did the same thing in English in Arcane Fields. Somehow, he must not have been told about the kind of class it was, for he announced openly that he took it thinking the class would be an Easy A. He sunk into a swooning euphoria when he was told how long our lunch period was. At his old school, it was less than an hour.

I flew off campus to Winter Wonderland. The ice cream parlor was much closer to school than the Maple Mall was, and I still wasn’t so hungry. I hovered over the glass, studying the twenty exotic flavors, although I already knew I was going to order a single scoop of vanilla. I didn’t get a cone, nor any toppings.

I wasn’t halfway finished when Terrance barged in. He slammed the flimsy glass door open. A group of elementary school students followed him, and he held the door open for them with his foot, “Come in, come in! Take your pick! All courtesy of the Chosen One.”

I snorted as I watched him. The twenty-something clerk, a non-magical part-timer, quietly shook his head. Even someone who had only ever seen magic in proximity couldn’t quite comprehend the sight before him. The clerk muttered, “Poeseur,” and Terrance didn’t even notice.

He waited carefully for each of the younger students to order something extravagant, and he started counting paper bills, his own money, to pay for it. I finally flew up to him, “Just use your Student Card. It’s faster.”

Terrance slid two hundred and twenty dollars onto the counter, “This is just the tip,” he slid his student card forward after.

“What is that, a hundred percent?” I looked at the banana splits and triple cones and general excess in the hands of Terrance’s new followers.

“I dunno,” he shrugged.

The clerk fingered through it with a big smile on his face, “Thank you!”

“I’m always happy to help someone in need,” Terrance saluted. The clerk nodded awkwardly. He wasn’t exactly in need, but I was sure he was happy to get a bonus. “Wanna eat with me?”

“You seem to have a pretty large group, already,” I glanced over to the younger kids. They were all in second grade. There were three humans and two beastfolk. I’d met them in passing during previous years, but I didn’t know them by name.

“They’re fans,” he waved dismissively, “you want an autograph, too?”

I flew back to my table, shaking my head. He followed after me, and forcibly sat down next to me, “I wasn’t kidding,” he smirked, “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“No. Thank you,” I muttered, “I know your name already.”

“Well that’s different!” He leaned down, trying to make his eyes level with mine, but just squishing his cheek sideways into the table. His breath washed over me, as his lips opened up and down beside me, “An autograph is like a collector’s piece.”

My wings spread out widely behind me, and I quickly fell back away from his wide, flapping jaws, his broad, white teeth. The tiny drops of saliva splashing out onto the table. “I go to the same school as you,” I felt the words barely escape my throat. My shoulders were pinched back, trembling.

Terrance watched me with widening eyes, “Yo, what’d I do?” He raised his head up and looked down at my half-finished ice cream. Not even a spoonful for him, “You gonna finish that?”

I glanced at the bowl carelessly, slowly catching my breath. “Didn’t you order your own?”

He stood up rapidly and ran across the room. Terrance laughed as he strutted back and sat back down beside me, “Thank you!” He shook his head, “I got totally distracted, and just left it up at the counter. Why do you have so little?”

“I can’t eat as much as a human.”

He thought about it for a second, “Man, I thought fairies weren’t even real until like a week ago.”

“Most fairies aren’t even magical. There are some in congress.”

“No, no!” He said firmly, “That’s just a conspiracy theory.”

“Terrance,” I whispered, “my mother was a representative from California.”

He nodded slowly, his eyes deeper than a faraway galaxy, “Whoa… It’s crazy the lengths they go to try and cover these things up. I almost fell for it. You’re a good one. You’re a good one, what was your name again?”

“Alice.”

“I thought Mr… that teacher with the silver scales… I thought he was calling you Birdsomething.”

“Sparrowbane. That’s my last name.”

“Sparrowbane?” He questioned, “Well Dragonbane would make sense, or Hydrakiller, or Krakenslayer, but Sparrow? The tiny bird?”

I pulled my ice cream closer to myself, “It’s as old of a name as Smith.”

“We can change that,” he hummed to himself, “See, Alice in Wonderland, I’m putting together a team. You know these secrets, crazy stuff about the world. You’re worthy, I think.”

“No. I’m not able to go bowling. I can’t lift the ball.”

“Bowling?” He thought out loud, “There’s that bowling alley in the mall, right? But I meant an actual team. To save the world. It’ll be dangerous, like crazy dangerous. The forces of evil will oppose us at every turn, but good always wins.”

“Sorry, I can’t…”

“Well everyone says that at first,” he nodded, “Luke Skywalker- well that would be me, Bilbo Baggins- also kind of me. But you could be like Sam.”

“It’s Sam and Frodo, not Sam and Bilbo,” I shook my head.

“Wait you’ve watched that? The movies are so long!” He huffed.

“Yeah, of course. The Return of the King won Best Picture,” I thought back, “the books are really better, though. Tolkien’s writing style is absolutely beautiful. The movies changed the ending a bit.”

“Tolkien?” He rolled his eyes, “Lord of the Rings is Steinbeck.”

“Sure,” I looked out the window, “I said the wrong name.”

He followed my eyes, “Hey, don’t be embarrassed. It’s really an easy mistake to make.”

I had another bite of ice cream. I just let it slowly melt on my tongue, “You’re really not from around here, are you?” I finally asked, “You don’t know everything about me. Good, finally somebody.”

“Come on,” he leaned back, “I know everything about you. You wear it on your sleeve. Sure, not everyone can read people like I can, but I can.”

“Oh really?” I asked.

“You keep looking out over the younger kids. Someone might think you were worried, but you deeply long to be one of them, to go back to simpler times. You ordered vanilla ice cream. You see beauty in simple things, basic things like a Picasso.” He nodded, “You go to Ledoric’s, but you’re not big on trivia. You’re just keeping up. You’re deeply courageous and always motivated.”

“I was the top scorer last year,” I whispered, “and every year after second grade. I had trouble that year.”

“Top scorer? How bad are kids here at math?”

I pinched my eyes shut and shook my head. “What?”

“Well, I thought fairies weren’t good at counting. Small brains.”

I fell backward, lying back across the table, “Terrance.”

“Call me Terry,” He adjusted his sunglasses.

“Terry…”

“Yes? No?”

“A sperm whale’s brain is five times the size of a human’s, they’re not smarter,” I went on.

“Aren’t they peanut sized?”

“That’s T-Rexes.”

“Those still exist?” He flinched.

I pressed the palms of my hands down over my eyes. I exhaled. “No.” I ran my fingers through my hair, “Terrance… Terry… Where are you from?”

“Motown.” He said proudly.

“Oh, I’ve never been to Detroit.”

“Detroit?” He winced. His eyes lingered over me, “Modesto. I’m from Modesto.” He leaned forward toward my ear and started whispering as if to tell me a secret, “You know that kid, Bruno?”

“No, never met him.” I said sarcastically.

“He looks at you a lot. I think he has a crush on you.”

“It’s complicated,” I held my hand up to him, “just, don’t go talking about that at school. You’re going to get in trouble.”

“Oh no, the teachers don’t like gossip, I get it.”

“Yeah, that’s why.” I nodded.

“So, you want me to put in a good word for you?” He whistled, “With Bruno?”

I breathed in slowly, “You don’t have to. Really.”

“Fine,” he was crestfallen, “it’s better for you or him to say anyway. I get it. I just want to help, ya know?”

I nodded, “Good intentions are the path to Hell, Terry.”