by E. D. Baker
“You don’t understand,” Jak said. “I have to start today. I’m a very good student. I study hard and learn quickly.”
“I’m sure you do,” said the headmaster as he slid his hand across his desk and tapped a silvery box. “Miss Throckmorton, please see this young man out. He would like an application for admission.” Taking his hand off the box, Headmaster Serling pointed at the door. “Good day, Mr. Catta.”
“They won’t let me go to school there,” Jak said, throwing himself onto one of the kitchen chairs. “Headmaster Serling said that I had to fill out an application and wait until the next semester starts, and even then they probably won’t have room for me.”
“What? I never heard of such a thing!” Gammi said.
“Here’s the application,” said Jak. He dropped a wadded-up paper on the table. It rolled across and stopped in front of Gammi. She swatted it back and Jak pounced on it without thinking.
Gammi set down the tooth necklace she’d been stringing and turned to Bert. “We’ll have to do something about this.”
Bert rolled his shoulders until they made a cracking sound. “Leave it to me.”
Jak was lying in bed reading when his door creaked open later that night. Bert stuck his head in the room and smiled at Jak. “Put that book down and go to sleep,” he said. “You have to get up early tomorrow for school.”
“You mean you saw him?” Jak said, dropping the book on the floor. “How did you get the headmaster to change his mind?”
“Let’s just say I used a little something that I learned when I lived on the island,” the bear goblin said, smiling a truly frightening smile.
Chapter 13
When Jak reached the school the next morning, he was still wondering how he’d find his classes, but he needn’t have worried. Headmaster Serling met him at the door with a class list and the directions and combination for a locker. “Welcome to Worthington Academy, Jak,” he said with a hesitant smile. While the headmaster told him about his classes and what would be expected of him, Jak noticed that the man kept looking behind him and seemed awfully skittish.
“Are you all right, sir?” Jak finally asked.
Even the question made the headmaster jump. “Don’t I look all right? Because I assure you, I am. Everything is all right and you can tell your uncle Bert that I said so. Everything is great, in fact. Here,” he said, thrusting the list into Jak’s hand. “Have a wonderful day. Don’t hesitate to come see me if you have any questions or concerns.”
“Thank you, sir!” Jak called after the headmaster as the man scurried down the hall.
“Hey, kid! Who are you?” called one of the boys who had watched the whole exchange.
“I’m Jak,” he replied. “I’m new here.”
Jak was already walking down the hall in search of his locker when he heard the boys talking behind him. “Did you see the way Serling was looking at that kid?” said the boy who had spoken to Jak. “His old man must be really loaded. My dad owns a string of banks and Serling doesn’t even say hello to me.”
“Yeah,” said a girl who had joined them. “It’s only the superrich who can afford to be as eccentric as that. Did you see what he was wearing?”
Jak blanched. True, he hadn’t taken as much time making over his clothes as he could have, but he’d thought they were pretty good. Reading the words on the doors, Jak slipped into the first one marked BOYS and locked the door behind him. His clothes were the same style as the khaki pants and blue shirt he’d worn for the meeting the day before—only the colors were different. As someone banged on the locked boys’ room door, Jak thought about what he wanted his clothes to look like. A moment later both the electric blue shirt and metallic green pants became the matte black that he had favored in the goblin world. He even turned a loose thread into a shiny white string, tucking one end in his ear and the other in his pocket, just like the other students he’d seen.
A bell rang, startling Jak and making him look around in dismay. He saw that the other students were going into the classrooms, so he headed for algebra, the first class on his list. The day went by quickly as Jak discovered just how much of the subjects he already knew. French class was the easiest because no one had to teach goblins new languages. Goblins had to hear them only once in order to pick them up. The teacher thought she was being kind when she lent Jak the CD that went with the textbook and told him to listen to the first three chapters. She said that if he needed any help she’d see about getting him a tutor, but he had already learned most of what she had to teach.
As Jak went from class to class, it occurred to him that any of the blond girls might be the one he had been sent to find. Although he had been given a picture of the girl, drawn by a nymph who had spoken with the goblins who had followed the girl on Halloween, the picture was vague with nothing really distinguishing the girl aside from her blond hair. He tried to picture the girls in his class aiming lightning bolts, but none of them seemed fierce enough to handle it.
Jak went home that night wondering how he’d ever find the girl. It wasn’t going to be as easy as when the headmaster handed him his list of classes; no one was going to give him her name and address. Jak knew he’d just have to watch for something unusual.
The next morning Jak walked in the front door of the academy and noticed a group of girls clustered around a paper attached to the wall. Some were excited and some were crying, so he stuck around, listening for the rumble of thunder in case the girl he was looking for got upset enough to throw lightning bolts. When nothing happened and the girls looked as if they were about to leave, he hurried down the hall to his locker. He was still there when a girl came running around the corner and slammed into him, sending them both sprawling on the floor.
Jak jumped to his feet. When he reached for her backpack, the girl got up without taking her eyes off him. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m not usually this clumsy.”
“Neither am I,” he replied. “I’m Jak, and you are…”
“Tamisin,” she said, gazing at him with eyes that were an amazing shade of turquoise. Hair the color of sunlight and gold framed her heart-shaped face, which he thought was covered with far too much makeup. Although she was about the same height as Jak, she looked fragile enough that a strong wind could carry her away.
“Are you all right?” Jak asked when she just stood there, staring at him.
She looked flustered as if she suddenly realized what she’d been doing. “Sure, uh … yes. But I should be asking you that. I ran into you, remember?”
Jak suddenly felt the need to protect this delicate creature, even if it was only from taking the blame. “I was in your way,” he said.
A bell rang, and Tamisin glanced at the clock. “Darn!” she said. “I’m late!”
Jak turned to look both ways at the now-empty halls. “I guess that means I am, too. I’m not used to the bell system yet. I just started yesterday.”
Tamisin turned away and started down the hall, but she slowed long enough to look back at him and say, “Go to class, unless you want to get into trouble.”
“Too late,” murmured Jak, wishing he had an excuse to stay with her as he watched her disappear into a room.
Chapter 14
Jak wasn’t really sure how he and Jeremy got to be friends. It had happened in gym class when Jak had decided to help the struggling students through the obstacle course. Jeremy had ended up helping, too, even though the gym teacher had been angry at both of them. Suddenly Jak felt comfortable with Jeremy, almost as if they had known each other for years.
They’d gotten in the habit of meeting after Jeremy’s football practice to hang out or go to Mama Mia’s for pizza. Jak had discovered that he loved human food and ate there as often as he could to avoid Gammi’s cooking. She meant well, but even for a goblin her cooking was awful.
The two boys were walking down the street in front of the school late one afternoon when Jak saw Tamisin on the front steps. “Do you know her?” he asked.
&
nbsp; Jeremy followed his friend’s gaze and nodded. “Sure. That’s Tamisin. She’s an underclassman like us. Her brother’s a senior. He’s on the football team. Good guy. I’ll introduce you to him some time.”
“Yeah, okay,” said Jak, still watching Tamisin.
“Oh, I get it! Tam is the one you want to meet. Hold on just a second and I’ll call her over. Hey, Tamisin! Over here!”
Tamisin looked up and waved. She was smiling when she reached the curb and said, “Hi, Jeremy. What’s up?”
Just like the first time he saw her, Tamisin wore her hair loose so that it framed her face. Her hair looked like spun silk that caught the sunlight and seemed to hold it. Jak’s fingers itched to touch it to see if it was as soft and warm as it looked. He missed what Jeremy said, but caught Tamisin saying, “ … ran into each other right after he started here.”
Jak smiled, unaccountably pleased that she remembered.
“You should smile more often,” Tamisin said, smiling in return.
Sure that she knew something he didn’t, he nodded and said, “All right. But why?”
He liked the way her hair rippled when she shrugged. “You’ll make more friends that way,” she replied.
A cat meowed and Jak glanced across the street. Cats had been following him everywhere he went, just like they had that Halloween. He liked cats, of course. He couldn’t help but like them; everyone in the Cattawampus clan did. It was just that they tended to get underfoot at the most inopportune times.
Jak turned away from the cat when he heard Jeremy talking to someone else. Two girls had arrived while he’d been distracted. One of them was looking at Jeremy, but the other was staring at Jak as if he were a piece of pizza and she hadn’t eaten for three days. “You’re the new boy, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said and turned back to Jeremy. Catching his friend’s eye, he jerked his head at Tamisin.
“So, Tamisin,” Jeremy began. “You busy? Jak and I are headed over to—”
The cat Jak had seen across the street had crossed over to his side. Purring loudly, it rammed its head into the back of Jak’s knee, almost knocking him off balance. “Don’t do that!” Jak said, trying to push the cat away with his foot.
He forgot all about the animal when he heard the new girl say Tamisin’s name. “… Why are you here so late?” the girl asked, smirking. “Were you getting extra help today or was it detention?”
Startled, Jak turned to Tamisin. If they had detention here, did they have a pit as well? He couldn’t imagine someone as frail looking as the girl with hair like sunshine at the bottom of a hole that sunlight never reached.
“I had dance practice and—,” said Tamisin, but then the girl interrupted her.
“I can’t imagine why you’re wasting your time talking to her, Jak. You’re new here, so I guess you haven’t heard about Tamisin. She’s a freak—everybody knows it. I bet you’ve never seen ears like hers. Here,” the girl said as she handed her books to her friend. “Look at this!”
Jak was surprised when the girl reached out and pushed Tamisin’s hair behind her ear. “Have you ever seen anything like that?” the girl said, looking pleased with herself.
Jak didn’t know what to say. Tamisin’s ears were narrow and pointed, just like those of certain fey back home. From the way the other girl was talking, ears like that couldn’t be normal in the human world. Instead of thinking Tamisin looked freakish, however, Jak thought her ears were beautiful.
“Give it a rest, Kendra,” Jeremy told the girl. “Nobody cares what her ears look like.”
A second cat had joined the first, and now both animals were rubbing against Jak’s ankles. He was trying to shoo them off when another girl joined them.
“That’s Heather,” Jeremy told Jak.
“Hey,” said Jak.
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said, her voice sounding odd. Jak wondered if she was sick.
Tamisin must have thought so, too, because she took a close look at the girl and asked her if she was all right.
Heather rubbed her eyes and mentioned something about a cat. When she noticed the two cats rubbing against Jak’s legs, she backed away as if he had the goblin plague or something. Self-conscious now, Jak tried to get away from the cats, but they followed him, still purring. “I told you to stop that!” he said.
Heather sneezed and a moment later Tamisin was hustling her away, talking about taking her home.
The next few weeks were confusing for Jak. He suspected that Tamisin was the girl he was meant to take back with him, but that was based solely on her ears; she never did or said anything unusual, and the weather seemed to be normal when she was around. If she was the girl, being able to control lightning meant that she was a creature of power, human or not, and as such he couldn’t treat her like a normal person.
On the weekends Jak explored the end of town where the school was located. He found the lightning-blasted tree the goblins had told him about and the street where they had first seen the girl. Then, one day he came across a forest. It was tiny compared with anything in the land of the fey, but it was pretty and there was a stream leading to a small waterfall.
As time passed, Gammi became more insistent that Jak do something and do it soon. “Time’s a-wasting and Targin won’t take kindly to a delay. The Gate has already opened once since we’ve been here. Who knows when it’ll open again? If you’re sure Tamisin is the one we’re looking for, invite her over the next time the Gate opens. We’ll find a way to get her through.”
“That’s just it,” said Jak. “I’m not sure Tamisin is the one. I don’t want to rush things and scare her. If she really can control lightning, she’d be harder to get through if she was frightened.”
“Frightened … Ha!” Gammi said, pulling a live mouse out of a cage by its tail. “I’ll frighten her myself if it means we can get her through the Gate.”
Jak looked away as his grandmother popped the squirming mouse in her mouth and bit down. “I’ll take care of it,” he said.
Although Jak saw Tamisin in the halls at school, it was always from a distance and she usually had a group of friends around her. He listened for any news of her, however, and asked Jeremy about her while trying not to seem too anxious. According to Jeremy, her brother said that all she did lately was dance and that he was sick of hearing the same music over and over again. Then Jak heard that the dance group she was in was going to perform, and he was the first one in line at the school box office.
The night of the performance Jak told Gammi and Bert where he was going.
“Good,” said Gammi. “I have my jewelry-making group coming over tonight. Bert’s going to get me more teeth for necklaces, aren’t you, Bert?”
Gammi had met some old ladies in the park and offered to teach them her favorite crafts. Most of them were too nearsighted to see that she looked a little different, and the others didn’t seem to care.
When the first of Gammi’s friends came to the door, Jak slipped out the back and walked the eleven blocks to school. Since he’d gotten his ticket early, he’d been able to get a good seat up front and center. At first he watched the dances without much interest, disappointed each time Tamisin failed to appear. But when she finally stepped onto the stage, he didn’t recognize her right away. She looked like something from another world—his.
Her beginning steps were tentative, but when the music quickened, her movements became stronger and bolder. As she leaped and twirled, Jak held his breath. She seemed to float across the stage like the dandelion puffs he had chased when he was young.
Jak wasn’t the only one caught up in her dancing. All around him people gasped when a leap carried her farther than they’d expected or when she twirled longer than they thought possible. Her dancing made Jak think of a breeze cooling his face after a good run, or rustling the leaves in the forest around his uncle’s den. It was a calming dance, it was a ferocious dance, and through it all Jak felt closer to home than he had since the da
y he’d left.
The only sound in the auditorium was Tamisin’s music. No one spoke, or coughed or shuffled their feet or got up to get a drink of water, and when it was over and the last note faded away, the room remained silent until it seemed everyone was frozen in place. Then the cheering began as one person after another broke free of the reverie Tamisin’s dancing had created. She looked up from her last position, smiling, then rose to her feet and bowed as gracefully as if she were still performing.
As soon as Tamisin left the stage, Jak got up from his seat. He thought about waiting inside for her, but decided not to when he saw the people milling around, so he went to the parking lot in the back, hoping she would come out that door. He was surprised to see lights twinkling around the school, knowing exactly what they were. “What are fairies doing here?” he wondered. “There must be a Gate open nearby.” Most fey wouldn’t travel to the human side without good cause; those who did never went far from an open Gate since the magic that escaped diminished the farther they traveled from it. Those who went too far were unable to do even the most basic magic, like disguising themselves from curious eyes. To have so many fairies come through at once meant either that multiple Gates had opened, or something truly extraordinary had happened to summon them.
The crowd that had filled the auditorium began streaming into the parking lot. People began pointing at the fairies, calling them “fireflies” and “amazing,” and then something rustled in the branches of the tree behind him, saying, “Psst! Hey, Jak, is that you?”
“Who is that?” Jak asked, peering into the shadows.
There was the scrape of claws on bark and a masked face emerged right above him. “It’s me, Tobi! How ya doin’, Jak? Yer friends were all worried about ya.”
“I was sent home. Didn’t you hear?”
“Yeah, but we thought ya were comin’ back. Then Nihlo told everybody that ya were in big trouble and that his father was real mad at ya and was sendin’ ya away. We knew it couldn’t be over breakin’ Nihlo’s leg. He deserved it. Anyway, when ya didn’t come back, I thought Nihlo might be tellin’ the truth for once, until I talked to yer uncle, that is.”