Mannequin

September 25
First Period:

Terrance marched into homeroom seven minutes late. He’d traded the sunglasses for a black baseball cap with a yellow lightning bolt decal. He turned it around backward as he walked to his seat beside Bruno, “To monster slayers!” He mimed a toast.

Ms. Snowfox raised her voice before Bruno could respond, “Ah yes, a case study for my class. Mr. Rose found it very amusing, I assure you.” She looked around, “Not everyone is so lucky, not even around their own friends.”

“Luck is a power,” Terrance gave a thumbs up.

“It’s a crutch,” Ms. Snowfox shook her head, “one we avoid making necessary. The ends do not justify the means.”

He slumped down over his desk and said something under his breath. Ms. Snowfox silently watched him for a moment longer before continuing with the discussion we’d been having before he entered. Homeroom existed for whatever announcements the school needed to make. Sometimes a television would be wheeled in to watch some important news. Otherwise, we were allowed to work on homework, projects, or even our own things. Ms. Snowfox sometimes would have a game like the icebreakers or something else, and she liked to talk about teambuilding when she had the chance. She went on a rant once about how trust falls were pointless because they only made sense for humans.

Pippa was still struggling on the same series of boss fights in her Pokemon Ruby game. If she couldn’t walk through a wall, she’d try walking more forcefully. Ms. Snowfox made her turn the game’s volume off in class, but didn't stop her from playing altogether. She stopped for a moment when Phoenix passed her a note from behind. Pippa made a face at it, then showed it to me.

Pass this around the whole class.

You’re all INVITED this SATURDAY at 6PM:

19 4th St. Maple, California 93920

Monster Slaying Celebration. Cake. Party things. The Chosen One.

Generously,

Terry Thunder

“His ZIP code?” I looked at it, “Doesn’t he know we live in the same town?”

“He’s inviting everyone in class, Teeny,” Pippa pretended to gag, “everyone.”

I nodded slowly, holding bubbles in my cheeks. I sputtered, “Terrance is going to be expecting me there. I should make an appearance.”

Pippa jerked upward, her tail flicking back and forth below her, “I mean… ya don’t h-hafta!”

“Whatever,” I pretended to smirk, “you don’t go to the circus for the tents. You go for the clowns.”

“Really?” Pippa asked excitedly, “I mean… I mean… I could too, I’ll go, then!”

“Oh, no, I wasn’t saying. Sure.”

“Your sister wouldn’t want ya to go alone,” she glanced off, “especially given…”

I nudged the note toward the next person in our group of desks, “There’s no way he can decorate anything seriously just tomorrow morning. It’ll just be a get-together, Pippa. Maybe he’ll order some food or something.”

“Your sister hates Terrance,” Pippa whispered, “okay well, she couldn’t care less about him. But, he doesn’t stick with the right crowd.”

“He’s not a gangster or anything.”

“He’s not one of us, Teeny.” Pippa insisted, “and his friend is… Ya know these aren’t your sorts.”

I looked away, “Pippa, you don’t even know what happened yesterday.”

“Mr. Rose forced you to go with them!” She insisted, “Terrance was telling everyone in fifth period, but we all knew Mr. Rose forced you.”

“I didn’t fight him on it.”

“What?” Pippa poked me with her claw, “Why? And, Bruno was there too!”

“He helped me. Without him, Terrance might have died.”

She scoffed, “So? You can’t just let him do whatever. I mean, how’d ya know what he wanted to do at all?”

“It was just classwork.”

“He’ll be at this party and ya know it.”

“Okay?” I threw my arms up, “It’s just a get-together.”

“Well, if ya want to go get gobbled up again, go on and do it. Just tell Mina I warned ya.” Pippa snorted, “You wanna bet how mad she’ll be?”

“I don’t want that!” I leaned forward, burying my head in my knees. “I… I… No… Livid, she’ll be livid. I know. I know.”

“But if ya want to go to the party,” Pippa ran one finger across the back of my head, softly ruffling my hair, “I’ll go with ya. Have ya been to a party before?”

“You were at my birthday party in February.”

“Okay but like, your mom was there. And, ya know, the cupcakes she got were not nearly enough for everyone. Bianca liked them, though,” she smiled widely, “your mom invited a teacher to your birthday party.”

“Ms. Snowfox told me she goes to every party she gets invited to,” I said.

“Well, yeah,” Pippa nodded, “party animal, literally. Okay, so, Terrance is ordering the food. Alice, if it’s just In-N-Out and KFC, what are you going to eat?”

“I could just take some bits of lettuce or tomatoes other people don’t finish.”

She poked me, “That’s sad for so many reasons.”

“What?” I asked.

“You’re not a sad puppy, Teeny,” she looked up to the front of the room, “Ms. Snowfox… Bianca! Can I get your opinion on something? Bianca!”

Ms. Snowfox walked the edge of her desk, “Pippa, I heard you the first time.”

“What should she wear to a party?” Pippa put her fingers around my dress as if I was wearing doll clothes. “There’s a Victoria’s Secret in the mall, right?”

Ms. Snowfox hopped from her desk onto ours, her paws landing gracefully in front of Pippa. She nudged Pippa with her snout, “No. Not anything like that.”

“I thought they have stuff for fairies, too.”

“Yeah, not that I would know that or anything.” Ms. Snowfox scanned me up and down, “That’s not her style, Pippa.”

“My mom made all of my dresses,” I said quietly, “they’re fine.”

Pippa guffawed, “Yes your mom made them! They’re adorable, like super super cute, Alice. But, this is a party.”

“Yes, well, she has a point,” Ms. Snowfox nodded, “Representative Sparrowbane’s style is a bit… 1970s schoolgirl. Now in congress, at speeches, there’s a reason a fairy would want to go for that look. Because of humans, and well. Alice, it’s very doll-like in the best way possible. It’s not a bad thing!”

“Ya look like a toy, Teeny,” Pippa tilted her head side to side, “good with me, cause it’s precious, but not at a party.”

“Why not?”

Pippa leaned closer to me, observing every little detail of what I was wearing, “This pattern, all red with black seeds. It’s a strawberry, Teeny.” Ms. Snowfox tapped Pippa with her paw, trying to get her to stop. Pippa kept going, “It screams: eat me up, I’m a delicious little snack that can’t wait to be in your tummy.”

I pinched the hem of my dress in my hands. This didn’t matter- it did. Now, it did. My eyes hung between Pippa and Ms. Snowfox, “I can try something else,” I muttered. I didn’t want to.

Ms. Snowfox stepped over to me, “It’s easy to fly in a T-Shirt, and they’re really breathable. You can get one at the mall that has some movie or TV show on it,” she visualized, “and then torn jeans and combat boots.”

Pippa winced, “Bianca?”

“I remember my first pair of torn jeans,” Bianca whistled, “it was before I could shapeshift, and my mom saw them. Whew, her mug was not pretty. Luckily, I learned how to turn myself into a fox a few months later, and I never went back.”

“Didn’t your mom have to leave when you were in sixth grade?” Pippa asked.

“Oh, no. She was the nurse here before Nurse Var, so she got to stay in Maple. She would have still been here when you guys were in Kindergarten, but that’s a long time ago.”

“I remember her!” I thought back. She was a sweet woman, and she was tremendously tall for a fairy. She always had candy in her office. Even thinking about her, I couldn’t recall her face, or what she wore, or even the color of her wings, “Why’d she leave?”

“Mom?” Ms. Snowfox asked, “I was about to go into my junior year, and she said it was best for me to get some space to myself. She thought I was a slacker, and I didn’t really get along with her all that well, back then. I forced myself to be the valedictorian just to see the look on her face.”

“Did she turn into an animal, too?” Pippa asked.

“Heck no,” Ms. Snowfox shook her head, “betraying your heritage… Making your grandparents sad… Your father is rolling in his grave… I heard it all, so I legally changed my surname to something other than hers.”

“What’s wrong with being a fox?” I asked.

“You were scared of me the first time you saw me, weren’t you?” She bared her teeth, “Foxes are big, they’re predators. Only a delinquent would ever do something like me.”

Pippa raised her hand slowly as if she expected Ms. Snowfox to call on her. She didn’t finish lifting her hand up before talking, “Bianca… Bianca… But, didn’t ya lose the ability to fly?”

A flash of white light surrounded Ms. Snowfox, and when it dissipated, she was fluttering there, in her true form. She wasn’t much taller than Mina. Her short, silver-blonde hair was strewn about like she’d just gotten out of bed. She exhaled slowly, then yawned, “Ugh. Now I’m stuck like this for a couple hours. It always takes so many Dames to go back and forth.”

“Adorable!” Pippa ran her fingers along the delicate edges of Ms. Snowfox’s wings. “Don’t you sleep like this though?”

“Of course not!” Her wings twitched behind her, “I only ever make myself look like this at family gatherings and staff meetings.”

“Okay, so I like ya fluffy,” Pippa admitted, “but this is on another level. I wanna just keep you, Bianca!”

Ms. Snowfox ignored her, walking over to me instead, “And this is why we go to certain, extreme measures.”
“Come back!” Pippa demanded, her tail swishing back and forth below her, “Biancaaaa!” She whined.

“Pippa, stop,” I said, “we’re trying to have a conversation.” She frowned at me, and her ears folded back against her head. She flopped across the desk defiantly.

Ms. Snowfox knelt down beside me, “You don’t like the idea of combat boots, do you? We could do platforms.”

“What’s the point of platforms while flying?” I asked.

“Pure style, Alice,” She said, “Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t wear clothes as a robot because he had to. He did because it was goddamn awesome. Robots don’t even have anything to cover up!”

“What about flip-flops?” I asked.

“If you can keep glasses on while flying, fine,” Ms. Snowfox said, “I could see you in a kind of beach or tropical style.”

“Do they even make swimsuits for fairies?” Pippa asked, “I’ve never seen one.”

“No,” Ms. Snowfox frowned, “absolutely not. Ask Mr. Sharp about surface tension if you ever take physics. Another reason why I hate this form.”

“You like swimming?” I asked.

“We live on the beach! The ocean is right outside that wall!” Ms. Snowfox pointed, “You have to have been jealous once when you heard your friends were all going swimming.”

“She says there’s fish in the water,” Pippa pointed at me.

“God, I never thought like you,” Ms. Snowfox laughed to herself, “I would go play in the forest, and I’d get as close as I could to every big creature I could find. I’ve never even broken a bone.”

“Weren’t you scared?”

“Hell yeah. That was the point,” She sat down beside me, “My friends would see a frog, and they’d laugh. Bianca, what’s the problem? They didn’t have half the fun in the forest, as I did. And, when we found things that were really huge, huge for them. They all ran away, and I got to see amazing things they didn’t because they never learned to love fear. I got stuck in a spiderweb once, and I had to use my magic to break free at the last second. I walked home, and my mom saw all the web stuck in my hair. I think she scolded me, but I was just in complete bliss.”

I sighed, “I can’t do that.”

“Yeah,” Ms. Snowfox smiled to herself, “I was a little too lucky. Nothing ever went really wrong for me. I was a senior when I realized how bad things could really get, and even then, I didn’t get hurt.”

“What happened?” Pippa asked.

“I heard someone yelling out in the woods. A kid. I happened to be wandering nearby, so I ran through the underbrush until I broke through and found someone just outside Maple Park. There was something like a large dog slashing at him with wide, grimy claws. He barely held it off himself as it tried to bite his neck. I got there just in time, and I scared the thing away with my magic. It wasn’t quite the spring yet, and Bruno Stafford was lying there in the cold. Blood ran down his side where he’d been scratched by its teeth. I brought Nurse Var to him, myself, but she didn’t believe me when I said what had attacked him. She thought it was just a wolf,” Ms. Snowfox said shamefully, “I was an attention seeker, so it’s the kind of fish story I’d have told to try and get extra credit or something. And when she said I was wrong, I just listened blindly and didn’t ask anyone else. That’s when I learned how bad things can really be.”

I held my breath, “Oh.”

“I was a senior. It was one of two things that made me decide overnight to become a teacher here. I hated it here, and staying here was something that never would have crossed my mind,” She gritted her teeth, “but if they’re going to do everything wrong here, someone has to try and do one thing right.”

Pippa rolled her eyes, “It’s Bruno. Serves him right.”

“Pippa, stop…” I said.

“You of all people!” Pippa protested.

Ms. Snowfox sighed, “You’re both allowed to be angry. But, put it in the right place. Nurse Var failed. Principal Gray failed. I failed.”

“I’m sorry,” my hand shook uncontrollably, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get into this kind of thing. I shouldn’t have brought up…”

“Alice,” Ms. Snowfox grabbed my wrist. She held it tightly, “I didn’t have to say any of that if I didn’t want to.” The bell rang. She pinched her lower lip, “Why don’t you both come to my office at lunch. We’ll talk more about the party, then.”

Lunch:

I got to Ms. Snowfox’s office before Pippa did. The door was left slightly open. Four cans of various energy drinks were tipped over of her desk. She was back in her fox form, curled up on the furniture and snoring loudly. I landed beside her, “Ms. Snowfox…” I said softly.

Her head slowly lifted up. Her paws reached out toward me, stretching slightly. “Mmm. Morning, Alice…”

“It’s almost noon.”

“That’s morning,” she yawned, “I was dreaming.”

I put my hand on one of the energy drinks, “Are these good?”

“What you don’t want to hear about my dream?” She picked herself up, “And no, they taste like metallic slime. Caffeine raises blood pressure.”

I blinked, “I see. So it’s useful for spellcasting.”

“Don’t. Just, wait until you’re older, Alice.”

“What did you dream about?”

“That’s better,” she arched her back as she stood up, her fluffy tail flicking behind her, “there was this cute little mouse running through the forest, and I was chasing after it. And then, I caught it in my teeth. So savory.”

“How many Dames does it take to transform?”

She thought for a second, “229 Centidames long, 97 tall. I have the dimensions memorized now, haha. It takes way less to go back. Mind if I have a few minutes outside?”

“No, not at all. What do you need?”

“I want to go catch a bunny, or a seagull, or something.”

“Weren’t we going to get clothes?” I asked, “We could just go to a restaurant.”

“Fine,” her belly growled, “go get Pippa so we can go quickly, would you?”

I started flying out, “Yeah, I’ll get her.”

“Wait, wait!” She said, “I’m not done.”

I landed again, “Oh, okay.”

“Do you know why I like hunting? It’s better. I like having a catch and then holding it for a moment before giving it one last bite.” There was a rumor about a student who’d seen her mauling a little rodent near the outskirts of the campus before.

“I don’t really get it, but is it fun?” I tapped my foot against the desk below me. My wings tensed up, ready to take off.

She walked closer to me, her paws moving gingerly one after the other, “It’s delightful. In my true form, all these creatures would be too big, too dangerous. But when I’m bigger, stronger, those things can only squirm. They fight and squeal because somewhere deep down, they know they’re just lunch. You can’t help but want to feel bad for them somehow, but really, you feel tremendous. Powerful.”

“I-I see…” I flew backward, away from here, hovering in the air just away.

“Oh? Is that a scary thing to hear, Alice?”

“I…”

“I’m only talking about myself, you know?” She asked.

“I didn’t think…”

“Please,” Ms. Snowfox’s tail flicked back and forth, “I knew every word of what I was telling you. You’re backing away, almost hiding. I got too excited earlier, there are some things I’d be wrong to not make sure you’re ready to confront.”

“Ms. Snowfox,” I spoke lowly, “I’m ready.”

“Then, stay ready. If I ever have to force you to turn back, I won’t be able to help you again.”

I forced myself to make eye contact, “Ms. Snowfox, I won’t turn back.”

She blinked, “I thought that warning would make you back down. You’re nothing like you were last year. Let’s rip off the band-aid then, what do you think of Bruno?”

“Huh?” I opened my mouth slightly, “Bruno? What do you mean?”

“Oh please, I know you’re a good listener,” She asked, “so tell me, what do you think about him?”

“He cares about other people. He’s always sad. I want to help him, but, that one other thing.”

Ms. Snowfox looked out the window, “Bruno thinks that if he feels guilty enough, then it didn’t really happen. Oh sure, he says it’s his fault, but… What did you say: that one other thing.”

“It’s not other in your scenario.”

“Oh, I wasn’t clear enough?” She said, “Why, the pain, the resurrection, the action, sure he feels bad about that. I mean, who wouldn’t? And this is where I give you the chance to say that I was right, to back out.”

I wanted to know what else she was going to say. But before I could say yes, I heard a nightmare forming in the back of my mind. I covered my face, “Okay, fine. I give up.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, then stopped, “Another day, then. I thought of a whole speech before I fell asleep. It got very clinical.”

“Oh, well, you can say it if you want to,” I looked away, “I don’t want to step on your toes.”

“Don’t worry, Alice, it wasn’t that impressive. It was a bit gross, and I opened some textbook and took a bunch of overly scientific words for various body parts. Uh… Dopamine, chyme, cellular respiration, subconscious, yada yada yada.”

“It’s just a bunch of jargon?” I asked.

“I mean there were other words, but that’s the gist of it.”

“Should I go get Pippa, now?” I asked. The door slammed open. Pippa was breathing heavily, her tail wagging quickly behind her.

She had a squirming mouse in her hand, “I got it! Just like you asked for, Bianca!”

Ms. Snowfox looked up at the clock, “Huh. That was way faster than I expected,” she hopped off her desk, “I was going to have you bring it in during a difficult conversation, and then I was going to brutally devour it. It’s a fat one too, juicy.”

“I’m a cat,” Pippa’s ears twitched, “of course I caught him quickly.”

“Well, let him go, now. We’re getting fast food,” Ms. Snowfox sighed.

Pippa dangled it down over the ground by its tail, “Can’t you keep it somewhere for later? I put all this effort in.”

“No, no. They’re better fresh. Just let it go.”

“Well, why did you want it in the middle of a tough conversation?” I asked.

Ms. Snowfox eyed me, “It was going to be sort of a metaphor or something. I don’t know, this is why I’m not an English teacher.”

“Ooh! Bianca! Bianca!” Pippa chucked the mouse out the door, “I think I get it!”

“Very nice,” Ms. Snowfox said, “you can whisper it to me later.”

I was shocked how may people there were in the Maple Mall. We had to go between crowds as we went. One high schooler looked down at Ms. Snowfox, then to Pippa, “Wow! Is this yours? Can I pet it?”

“I lick people between their jerky sticks,” Ms. Snowfox teased, “fingers. Same thing.”

I recognized him. “Oh, you’re Teddy, right? We met last week.”

“Y-yeah!” He uncomfortably hid his hands in his pockets, “I’ve never seen a talking animal before.”

“Ms. Snowfox,” She held her paw up, “their teacher.”

“I would’ve been fine with just calling you my pet, Bianca,” Pippa scratched the back of her head.

“See what I have to deal with?” She rolled her eyes to Teddy, “Maybe I’ll have to apply to teach at Lincoln High School next year instead of…”

“No! Ms. Snowfox don’t go! Bianca! Please, Bianca!” Pippa begged.

Teddy leaned forward, “I couldn’t imagine wanting any of my teachers that badly. How do I apply for your school?”

“You don’t,” Ms. Snowfox said sadly, “there was attempted research into giving non-magical people magic, but the funding for the project dried up. I was still a kid then.”

“Really?” I asked, “I’ve never heard of that.”

“You haven’t?” Ms. Snowfox’s tail wagged behind her, “That’s a surprise, it can’t have been long before you were born. Its main proponent was a young congresswoman. Representative Sparrowbane, you may have heard of her.”

Teddy twirled his hair, “I’ve seen her on the news before. She kind of looks like you,” he pointed at me.

Pippa snickered, “Crazy, right?”

Ms. Snowfox nodded to him, “Alice is her daughter.”

He nodded, “Oh, cool. I heard the magic school people have some political ties, but I didn’t know it was that close. Can you get your mom to restart that project? I wish I had magic.”

Ms. Snowfox walked over to him, “The first thing I teach my magical students is to be happy with what they can naturally do before worrying about what they can’t naturally do.”

“Thank you, Ms. Snowfox,” he said awkwardly. He wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

“Hah,” Pippa stood triumphantly, “I bet he doesn’t even understand how to convert Dames, anyway.”

“You took until fourth grade to learn your primes,” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, ya took until second grade to…” She stopped herself, “Nevermind.”

“Classy,” Ms. Snowfox turned around, “you guys go here often, where do they sell clothes?”

“Don’t ya come here to shop for clothes?” Pippa scratched her head.

“Why would I do that? I have fur,” Ms. Snowfox looked around, “I only come here for ridiculously greasy food and people watching.”

Teddy followed us, “So, you’re here to look for clothes?”

“She can’t go to a party dressed like a fruit,” Pippa motioned toward me.

“Wait, a party?” He said, “It’s all middle schoolers, right? I shouldn’t.”

“I’m going,” Ms. Snowfox insisted, “I’ll show you the address.”

“Bianca! He goes to Lincoln!” Pippa protested.

“Uh-huh,” She walked around beside Teddy as she gave him exact directions to Terrance’s student apartment, “the more the merrier. Most of our student apartments are two bedroom houses, so only bring a plus one, not all of Lincoln. We need to make sure we don’t run out of space.”

“My dad and I only have a one bedroom,” he said, “apparently rent here isn’t as bad as San Diego.”

“Ya still live with your mom?” Pippa made a face.

“You don’t?” He asked, “Aren’t you like ten?”
“Eleven and a half!” She exclaimed.

“That’s what I said,” Teddy walked along, “so, are all the people at this party going to be magical?”

“Not anymore,” Pippa whimpered.

Teddy didn’t leave us until after we entered a clothing store, then he suddenly had to get back to school before his next class started. Pippa helped carry a bag of everything I’d gotten back to my house. We decided on pink flip-flops, a yellow Hawaiian skirt, a tropical pink shirt with a floral pattern, plastic, yellow star-shaped glasses, and a big, pink hair ribbon. I couldn’t see well with the plastic glasses on, but Pippa assured me they were something special for celebrations.

Ms. Snowfox and Pippa helped me a lot in putting it all together. Trying it on felt nice, but I liked the ribbon the best. It was the only item I’d chosen without their help, and they’d tried to argue that it wouldn’t match. I don’t know why I wanted it, I just did.