Chapter Fifteen: Curtis Returns
Bea had barely slept at all the last night of break. She kept going back and forth in her head trying to make up her mind about what to do the following morning. All The drama about the Zephyrs was so far removed from her mind that it almost didn't even exist anymore. Curtis, and his fate, rested a little back in her thoughts. At the forefront was Catherine. Bea was trying desperately to decide if she should just do as she had done every other morning since they started prep school. Should she hop on the gold line and take the exit by the school and then walk over to meet up with Catherine at her house so that the two could share a few moments walking back to school together in conversation? Or should she assume that the cold reception she had received the last time she had seen her friend was to continue until Catherine decided to let things be and talk with her again? Bea got angry every time she thought it through. Why did she have to wait for Catherine to decide how things were going to be? Bea hadn't done anything wrong. Catherine was the one who had kept things from her. But no matter how angry she got she knew that more than anything else she just wanted to talk with her so she was willing to let some of her anger be stuffed out of the way until they could be around each other like before. Bea decided to let her desire to right things with her friend despite Catherine's mood drive her actions that morning. She left a little earlier than usual. A strange series of dreams that night having shown her that this was the right way to handle things. In her dreams she had chosen to meet up with her friend at her house only to find that her friend had gone on before her, leaving her to walk back to school alone. Bea was determined to not let that happen and so she surprised her mother when she grabbed a bubble for the pod and said her goodbyes.
Bea was hoping to use the time in the pod to get her thoughts together, but the ride was nowhere near long enough and Bea found herself facing the school as she exited the pod. She turned to her right and started the quick walk to Catherine's. Even though the Royce's home was close, Bea felt that she had literally taken two steps and arrived at the front door. Bea was surprised to see the front door open so quickly, as though someone had been waiting for her appearance. Catherine walked out and practically ran to Bea. She grabbed Bea's hands as she caught her breath and started speaking so fast that it was all Bea could do to follow.
"I am so sorry. I was an idiot. Oh, Bea can you ever forgive me? I know I should have told you about Steven. I was just so nervous and well I wasn't really sure how things were going to work out, if they were even going to work out, you know? And I didn't want to make you mad all for nothing if things didn't work out. But now I know I should have just talked to you about it from the start because I did really miss talking to you about it. I'm so happy Curtis is Curtis, you know, because he was wonderful during all of that. But, oh, Curtis, I'm sorry about that too. I was really mad at him and instead I just sort dumped it all on you and that was wrong, but I was so scared and I am still so worried. He's not home yet and we haven't heard anything. They just said when we went in to see the Ancients that they would need to make a major evaluation since he had been taken in before. And my mother cried, and that freaked me out, because she never cries . . ." And slowly Catherine's own tears took over and she stood there still clutching at Bea's hands, crying.
Bea stared at her friend for a moment. She felt every single bit of anger that she had been holding in little pockets of her mind slowly disappear. It just didn't matter and Bea felt a little ashamed for spending so much time planning how she was going to yell at her friend for all the wrongs of the past week. Seeing Catherine's frame shake as she sobbed and tears fell to her feet standing in the grass in front of her house seemed to wash it all away. Bea gave her friend's hands a big squeeze and then pulled her into a hug.
"It's OK. I'm sorry too."
The two girls walked side-by-side to school and found time between classes and over lunch to catch each other up on things. It wasn't until the girls were sitting down for lunch that Catherine turned to Bea and asked, "Well, tell me about Johnathan."
Bea hadn't even really been thinking of him at all. At that moment she happened to catch a glimpse of him as he was heading off with his friends to eat lunch on their favorite bench and was surprised to catch him staring in her direction. Bea felt her face go red as she smiled at her friend, "Yeah, that's nothing."
"What do you mean, Bea? You're blushing, that's not nothing," insisted Catherine.
Bea sighed. She didn't know what to think about Johnathan. She had liked him well enough before the solstice. She had thought he was a nice guy, better than most at least. But then she found out that he had pulled her over the fire on a dare and any nice thoughts for him seemed to have popped like a balloon. Bea had told Catherine about the solstice and how she had heard Johnathan talking with his friends about the dare. But for some reason Catherine kept holding on to the fact that he had whispered to her before pulling her over the fire that she looked pretty. Bea almost regretted sharing that bit of the story with her friend.
"I don't know. I really don't think it is anything. Beside there are so many more important things to be thinking about now." Bea said with much finality in her voice.
This was true, the teachers were being unnecessarily strict with everyone, trying to force the reality of school upon them after the nice summer vacation. Now that students had made their declarations the only topic that teachers chose to focus on was how incredibly important it would be now for everyone to do their very best. Classes remained the same, but an extra class was added at the end of the day. Students would break off into groups of similar declarations and were assigned a teacher who would be helping them prepare for their exams. Bea was sad to hear that the teacher assigned to the group of fliers was Ms. Hill. She felt as though she had really been seeing enough of Ms. Hill as it was, what with flying practice. But apparently she was the best one for the job of helping out those fairies who wanted to be fliers. Bea didn't necessarily envy Catherine though. Catherine had finally made the decision to work in the magic preparation department that worked with the fliers. A team of highly trained specialist was responsible for putting together the fairy dust that was used to make the special dreams that the dream fairies gave to the humans. Catherine could have really chosen to do anything after prep school, but Bea was so happy when she had made the choice that would mean that the two girls could be together during training. Catherine was not happy though about her extra class as she was stuck with Mr. Wahlstrom and Mrs. Ironwood, who would alternate day-to-day helping those students who would be pursuing magic-based careers. Bea wished she had Mr. Butterfield, but he was helping those students who would become bird partners.
Bea still had flying practice every day as well as this extra class with Ms. Hill. Bea had expected to find that Veronica would be relentless with her snide remarks; however, Veronica seemed to be incredibly focused on everything that Ms. Hill said in their extra class. Bea felt almost guilty for not having the same passion and tried to focus herself as well. On the field during practice was a slightly different story. Veronica seemed to believe that taunting and harassing her fellow fliers was a part of being better and it didn't help when Laura or herself would have a terrible run of the course and Veronica would yell out how pitiful they were and Ms. Hill would simply agree. Though Veronica's bullying was annoying, Bea found it easier to block her out on the field. When she was flying there was nothing but the air and how it felt different when she adjusted her form.
With their busy schedule the days and weeks slipped by so quickly that the seasons had changed and passed before Bea realized. While the summer solstice seemed like a distant memory it also felt like it all just happened yesterday and she was surprised to find that it was suddenly the end of the year. The winter solstice also passed in a blur as Bea had been so busy with extra work during the break. The only way Bea really knew that it was a break was by the presence of her brother in her house again. Steven had normally not come home for th
e winter break before. He had seemed proud to be on his own and didn't want to come back. But now, apparently Catherine was excuse enough to return. Bea found him still annoying, but had to admit that she did see him in a new light now that she knew how much he meant to her best friend. When he had headed back to training, Bea had done her best to sooth her sad friend and get them back on track for all the studying they had ahead of them. This seemed to get Catherine's attention, though with a slightly sad aura about her. But then Monday, after their first day back to school, with only a few days left in December, Bea and Catherine were both given a huge surprise. They were leaving from school and Bea was getting ready to say goodbye and turn towards the field for flying practice, when they saw him. It was Curtis! He was far away, standing in the field of nothingness that led to the Edge. He waved at them and Catherine gave a huge squeal. Bea hadn't even processed what she had seen before Catherine had leapt into the air and was flying as fast as she could towards her brother. Bea let her wings out as well and started flying too. She caught up with her friend in no time and put her arm through her friend's to help her along a little faster.
"Curtis!" Catherine screamed as she dropped down to the ground and pulled him into a huge hug.
Curtis smiled and tried to pull his sister off of him. "Let's get out of here, talk somewhere private."
He started walking towards the Edge when suddenly Catherine stopped.
"Where are you going?" Catherine asked with a definite trace of fear in her voice.
Curtis gave a weak smile. "To the Edge, silly. I want to talk to you guys privately."
"But that's not private. They're watching us." Catherine's face had turned red with anger.
Curtis shook his head as though trying to gather patience. He took his sister's hands in his own and said, "They might know we are there, but they can't hear us. I want some time to talk with just you two, without people staring. Someone from school is going to see us soon, so let's get a move on."
With that Curtis had dragged his sister behind him and rushed them towards the Edge. Without even taking a pause he had pulled Catherine through the Edge into the warm, brilliant space. Bea had no choice but to follow, but made a point of placing her bag down where they had entered, checking to make sure that no straps were stuck on the other side. It had been just a few months really since the last time Bea had been inside the Edge; at that time though she had taken no time to enjoy the beauty of the place as she raced around trying to find her friend. It felt more nostalgic this time as she took a deep breath and remembered the excitement she felt when she had come here when she was eight. Catherine had obviously not come since her ordeal in late-April. She looked scared and kept shooting glancing in all directions around her. Curtis pulled both of them together and gave them each a gentle push on their heads to get them to sit down on the fluffy warmth of the Edge.
Bea was so excited to see Curtis and wanted so badly to say so many things to him, but one look at him told her that now was not the time. He had a strange kind of urgency in his features that told her that he needed to be the one to speak first.
"Listen. I am back, obviously. You two, you guys always get so worked up over stuff, Catherine, especially you. I need you to be cool. OK? Don't freak out about stuff. Don't get mad at me for being, for being a little different . . ."
"What do you mean? What did they do to you? What do you mean, different? How did they change you?" Catherine's voice filled the Edge as she rose to her feet.
Bea watched her friends carefully. Curtis's expression was strained as he pushed his sister down and sat in front of her. His eyes were so kind as he looked at the tears streaking down her face. But then suddenly he changed. His eyes hardened and Bea watched as he used all of his strength to clearly put on this act.
"Stop it! You're being silly. THEY didn't do anything, OK? You can't keep talking about the Ancients like that. It's wrong. They were simply doing their job, and they have always been right. I was acting foolishly, selfishly, like a child. That's the thing, Catherine, I was being a kid, and now it is time to grow up. Wasting my time and my magic powers to make those silly wings, it is a bit embarrassing. And I can't have you reacting the way you do when I rightly get punished for what I have done. OK? I need you to stop with the stupid conspiracy theories. I need you to trust me. I need you to let me grow up."
Catherine was staring at her brother. Tears flowed from her eyes as she tried to take in everything Curtis was saying. Bea understood. She could see what Curtis was doing. She could see how he was trying to move on. She was proud of him for taking responsibility for things. But she also saw that he was clearly hiding something, that it was taking all of his resolve to stay strong and say what he was trying to say. And while when she was younger she may have been angered by this secrecy, she saw now that Curtis was only doing it to save her and Catherine pain and confusion.
Catherine clearly saw things differently. A look of disgust took over her expression and she tore her hands away from Curtis' and stood up again. "Grow up, huh?" she spat. "I've told you all along to be careful, and you weren't. They were watching you. I told you they would get you again . . ."
Curtis forced a laugh, rose to his feet and spoke in a voice that Bea felt was a little too cold, "Of course they caught me. That is their job Catherine! Don't you get it? This isn't about the Ancients being evil; it is about me, being stupid. "
Catherine took a step back from Curtis. The two stared at each other and Bea realized that she was maybe really not meant to be present for this entire conversation. The brilliant dancing rainbow lights seemed to be mocking the siblings as they continued their silence. It was becoming unbearable, and Bea was silently counting in her head, counting down to when she would just break the silence and say something, anything.
But she didn't need to, Curtis spoke instead. "Catherine, you understand what I am saying, right? I need you to understand. We are going to leave this place here, and I am going to need to change. I am going to need to grow up and focus on what is important. I need you to not overreact and stop worrying about silly things."
Curtis adjusted his posture just a bit, and as he spoke his words returned to the more soothing, caring voice he saved for his sister. "Will you help me? Besides, I have been gone so long, I am going to need some serious help getting ready for exams," he pleaded.
Bea felt sure that Catherine would soften, seeing the joking side of her brother return. But Catherine was being incredibly stubborn and simply answered, "Yeah, sure, of course."
She turned and went to leave the Edge where Bea had left her bag. In the seconds of her absence, Bea turned to Curtis and gave him a big squeeze. "I am so glad you are back."
Curtis stared at Bea, and she was surprised to see tears sliding down his face. "Yeah, I'm glad to be back too, Bea." He returned her squeeze, but his eyes went back to the spot that his sister had just disappeared into.
The True Stories of Dream Fairies: Bloom Page 15