Party!

   Pixies flew back and forth throughout the courtyard. Chasing each other, laughing and playing, talking and chattering away like there was no tomorrow. If they were wearing something special for the event, it wasn’t apparent to the non-pixie eye.

The dance was held outside. Darkness surrounded the school, but it didn’t matter because the courtyard was bright. Giant lights were hung on to the lampposts that usually glow blue. A dance floor was set up in the center of the square. Music played through a radio with a speaker, a collection of the most popular tracks from a karaoke disc.

A banquet table was off to the side that served things like pizza bites, cheese cubes, and fruit slices as appetizers, and turkey and potatoes as the main course. Jim stood by it, helping to serve food and watch over the festivities.

“Come! Come! Have as much as you like!” For a man with an unseen face, hidden behind a pitch black shadow cast by his hood, he was really good at looking as happy and excited as he sounded.

“How did you do this all by yourself?” Emily asked.

“Work and patience. It wasn’t that hard.” Jim insisted. “You all look lovely tonight.”

The three of them said thank you. Emily was in a bright white dress with white pearls all over her; the name of her spirit, Purity, making a lot more sense in conjunction. By her was Alice in a bright pink pastel that twirled like a ballet skirt, her long orange hair in low ponytails almost dared to touch the ground. Right next to Alice was Hao Hao. She wore the pretty overalls that Mae made. They made her feel more comfortable in her own skin than she had felt all the school year so far. Fake flowers made with tissue paper and glue lined the sides of her hair.

“Go! Go now and have fun with your friends.” Jim said.

The three girls bid him farewell and walked along. They came to Mae, Sumi and Cleo. The cat was dressed in a simple blue blouse with a black pleated skirt. Sumi was in a lavender checkered dress. Cute and adorable as her.

Mae wore a bright red dress adorned with gold. Long like a model. Her frame mimicked that of Cleo Patra. Like royalty.

“Mae, you made this?” Alice asked.

“I did.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“You look like a model.” Emily said, amazed.

‘Thank you.”

Gold beads were strung over her head; a strange but effective head dress. Hao Hao asked, “How did you make that?”

“Plastic beads painted gold.” Mae said. “Alice helped me get it looking more convincing.”

“It’s amazing.” Sumi said, reaching to feel them. Mae allowing it.

Alice went shy as she received the compliments, accepting them while looking away. She said, “You two look cute too. We all do.”

Cleo’s whiskers furrowed in what almost looked like irritation. Sumi agreed with her, and before the conversation could continue, they were approached by one of the boys. Daichi wore a beige suit with a white dress shirt. Decorated with a yellow pocket square.

He came up to Emily. “Would you dance with me?” He offered a gloved hand as he asked her.

The other girls (especially Sumi) made googly eyes at Emily. She blushed and turned away from them, clearly trying her best to ignore them. She took Daichi’s hand. She said, “I would very much enjoy that.”

The two of them walked off. Sumi was the first to say, “I’m so jealous.”

Many others agreed, but they were also happy for her. Hao Hao didn’t mind the information one way or another until Sumi asked her, “What about you?”

“Huh?”

“You talk to Kirai a lot.”

Hao Hao looked away. Cleo said, “She talks to all of us a lot.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be shy now. I’m just curious.” Sumi said. Hao Hao didn’t return her gaze, having no desire to have this sort of conversation at all.

Mae came to her defense, “What about you? Did you ever ask Taeyang?”

“I did! He said no.”

And within moments, the group was consoling her. The conversation successfully redirected. Even still, Hao Hao excused herself from the group. To the quiet corner. She needed a minute away from the noise.

Joy was there too. Hao Hao hadn’t spoken to her much. She wasn’t in the gardening club, and despite her friendly enough nature, she didn’t actually seek conversation much. She was really popular amongst the other girls as being one of the prettiest in class. Her light green hair was in pigtails as always, but she did wear a dress colored like a midnight sky.

“Hey there,” she said.

“Hey,” Hao Hao said. Shyness tried to take over her and force her away, but she really had been making progress on that lately. Tonight was a good night. She asked Joy, “Why are you hiding back here?”

“Honestly, this isn’t really my thing. I’ll dance for a little bit, but then I’m going back to my dorms.”

She’d been a bit of a no show a lot lately. They invited her to the gardening club, but she declined. Too busy. “Do you still jog?”

“Everyday.”

And as the conversation was about to go quiet between them, the other two boys came around from the other corner. Taeyang wore a jacket covered in pizza designs, black pants and a white tie. He was dragging Kirai, who wore a black hoodie and was otherwise completely unchanged from his normal appearance.

“Oh my God, you two are so cute together.” Joy said.

Kirai’s thin eyes went wide, “We’re not here together. I wasn’t even going to come… originally.”

“But you are here now.” Taeyang said.

“I’m getting some food, saying hi, and then leaving.”

Taeyang smiled brightly. He walked along without dragging Kirai, deciding that the loner teenager actually planned on staying instead of leaving. Kirai shuffled his feet and looked away from them. He said, quietly, “You both…. Look nice.”

“Aw, did we just get a compliment from Kirai? The Kirai?” Joy asked. The second part was emphasized to make it seem like a huge achievement.

“Don’t, ugh,” Kirai said, “If you make it a big deal, I won’t ever give one again.”

He walked forward towards the party. Joy joined him. Hao Hao decided to stay a minute or two more, to enjoy the break from the noise, and the solitude, a minute more.

Shui came to her and asked, “Having fun?”

“Yes,” She said.

A little overwhelmed, but she was still happy she came. Her friends were good to be around, and they understood when she needed a break. It made her overjoyed to be accepted in a way that she had never felt back home. It was for that reason she supposed that she hadn’t even once thought about calling them, or sending them a letter, or anything like that.

She lowered her head as she thought. Shui came forward to ask about to ask her about what she was thinking, but it didn’t get to ask. The both of them turned their head, caught off guard by the woman at the edge of the lake. Looking over at them with a bored sort of interest. How long had she been there? She looked familiar.

“I think that’s the mermaid you, Alice, and Mae saw when you bought seeds from Oleander. If I’m remembering right, Mae said her name was Sally.” Shui said.

“Right.”

“Should we say hi?”

Hao Hao nodded and walked forward. The loneliness of this section of the courtyard now felt a little scary as she proceeded to the stranger with light footsteps. Trees covered the view of the party beyond. No one could see them here.

“Um. Hi.” Hao Hao said.

“What a surprise. You actually came. I thought you’d be too shy.” She talked as if she knew her, but they’d never actually met.

“Do you come here a lot?”

“Only recently. I’m Sally.”

“…Hao Hao,” She replied, her voice a little bit louder than the last time she introduced herself. Baby steps, she thought. She fumbled with her glasses just to give her hands something to do. They were sweaty.

The woman, Sally, sat with her arms on her head on the ground. Her other half was in the water; a tail that was aquamarine in color. The scales were shaped like teardrops. She had a book open on the ground in front of her, but she didn’t appear to be reading it. It had a spirit illustrated on its pages.

“What is that?” Hao Hao asked. Normally she was shy, but in this instance, her curiosity outweighed her shyness.

“You don’t know what it’s called? I see you talking to them a lot.”

“You do?”

Hao Hao was taken aback. Taeyang knew about her power, but she knew about that. The idea that people could know and she didn’t even know it scared her. Was her ability not in her control? Could anyone see the spirits?

Sally responded, “I have the same ability. My spirit’s name is Flood.” She turned her book towards Hao Hao and explained, “The spirits appearance is similar to that of rain dolls, but I don’t know why. This place never gets rain.”

“Oh.”

Hao Hao had never heard of a rain doll before.

“What is yours named?”

Hao Hao went silent. Shui answered, “I’m Shui!”

“And what does that mean?”

“Water.”

“Interesting. Maybe that’s why we share the same gift.” Sally said, and though she meant about their ability to talk to spirits, she glanced at her tail.

Hao Hao found that this girl wasn’t scary at all. A little strange, but that was all. She asked her, “Do you watch me a lot?”

“Only when your outside.”

So anytime in the garden for sure. Hao Hao asked, “Why?”

“We’re similar,” She said, and her tail flipped in the water, making gentle ripples outward as she explained, “You don’t understand what this all means yet, and I don’t know if I’m comfortable telling you, but… you should be wary of this place. It’s not what it seems.”

“What do you mean?”

“You feel like you belong here. You don’t. You shouldn’t want to belong here. At your age.”

The words felt odd coming from her. She was older than Hao Hao, yes, but it didn’t look like by much. A few years, maybe? It felt odd to be told something so true. Hao Hao did feel like she belonged here, more so than anywhere else she’d ever been, but what was wrong with that? She wanted to get defensive. She didn’t. She tried, but her words fell short. Whispering below even that which Shui could hear.

Noises were heard from the woods. A distant, far away sound. Hao Hao and the other two all looked up, but couldn’t see anything past the trees across the lakes surface. Perhaps it was too far to see.

“I should go.” Sally said, disappearing into the ocean without another word.

Hao Hao watched her leave. What a strange conversation. She returned to the party but felt too distracted to partake in the festivities.

Jim started putting things away. The students had already turned in for the night, and nearly all the pixies were laid out on the terrace, looking up at the stars and chattering peacefully. Party successful. Their voices sounded like glitter if it made noise as it fell. Jim found their presence light and comforting as he took down the decorations and lights he had put up.

When he finished he came down from the step ladder and looked to the banquet table. Messy from a night of fun, and he decided he could get away with leaving it for one night. Set the leftovers out in the morning for the wildlife to clean up; they’d probably appreciate the free meal. He chuckled to himself as he envisioned the shika standing upright and feasting like people. Absolutely silly. They were dears with large, deadly antlers; they didn’t stand on two feet.

His mother would lose it if she could see the picture in his head though.

As he walked away, a few of the pixies flew up and put a crown of leaves on his head, above his head. He looked up and said, “You didn’t have to do this. I did this for you guys.”

They chattered in glitter talk. He couldn’t quite understand when they spoke all at once like this, but he got the general meaning. He said, “Well, you’re very welcome, and thanks.”

They flew back and settled back down among the other pixies, relaxing back with their crowd. He proceeded to take up and fold the matting he placed down for a makeshift dance floor when there was a scream in the woods. Feminine. Jim looked back to the pixies, thinking he might need to calm them, but it seemed that they hadn’t heard it at all.

Jim stopped what he was doing and went to the dock. He unwound the rope that held it and got in, rowing towards the noise. He hoped it wasn’t a student. This would all be really hard to explain to any of them if it was, though. The shika couldn’t just be casually shaken off of a conversation topic like pixies and Shadow Town could.

Fog started to surround him as he came to the mouth of a river. Steering into it, he followed the heaviness of the fog and the scent of ginger; a shika’s favorite food, and his mother’s choice of perfume too. He shuddered at the thought that she could be here, as unlikely as that was.

Eventually he saw a mermaid swimming towards him. Sally’s aquamarine tail and seaweed green hair are hard to miss even with the darkness of the forest clouding his vision. He said, “Sally! What happened?”

“I’m being chased by them, Jim. They’re scary.”

“You’re not hurt?” Not that they could really ‘hurt’ her necessarily, but they were quite good at striking fear into people.

“No, but they seem like they know what’s going on.”

He sighed. It was an inevitable ever since they saw him bringing in Hao Hao, but he was hoping he had more time than this.

“You can handle them?” Sally asked.

“Yeah, you just stay away from them. Go back to Shadow Town.”

She nodded. Swimming away and leaving him to fend for himself. He rowed a ways forward until he found them. The silhouettes of the deer taking shape amongst the trees as they approached.

“Jim Grim,” they said. Their voices like that of a thousand old men saying his name all at once. Loud and overbearing as they asked, “Where is the girl?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.”

“You’ve been saying that a lot lately.”

“Because it’s true. When have I ever let you down?”

They hummed uncertainly. Jim could be a little bit of a nuisance to them, even on good days. He was too casual. Not as policy adhering as they would like, but he wasn’t about to give in just because they were doubting him.

“I better go after her.” Jim said.

“Wait.”

“What now?”

“What did you do with the girl from before?”

They were talking about Hao Hao. He couldn’t afford to have them poking their heads around any farther than they currently were, and so he said, “I took her where she needed to go.”

“Did you? We didn’t see you go all the way through.”

“We took a pit stop, and then I sent her on,” He lied through his teeth with ease. He’d been lying to them all before all this nonsense too.

“We don’t believe you.”

“Believe me or not, that’s what happened.” When they hummed uncertainly again, Jim added, “You can ask my mom if you really don’t believe me.”

“We might just take you up on that offer.”

They walked away. Hopefully they were joking, because he was in a lot of trouble if they weren’t. Couldn’t afford another run in with them anytime soon. As he rowed back to the school, he did nothing but try to think of a solution to this problem.