“Are you okay, Norah?” Mr. Bennett asked. “You seem…” Reckless, clumsy, uncoordinated. “Off.” Well, thanks for being nice.
“I’m not feeling well.” I wiped the sweat off my forehead. “Do you think I can sit out for the rest of the class?”
He nodded and took the sword from me. “Sure. Go change.”
I smiled, too wide for someone who was sick, then held my stomach before walking toward the locker room. At least I didn’t have to pull the period card. That was embarrassing, especially with a male teacher. Pulling my hair back, I showered, washing the cover up from my skin. There was no use anymore; the scarf would have to do. The neck of the white shirt I wore for class had a cream colored stain from where my makeup rubbed off.
When I walked back in, most of my classmates were in the locker room, the only person there besides a few stinky pirates—because, showering is so overrated—was Finn. He waited in the same place he did after every class. I wanted to avoid him, to sit elsewhere, but I couldn’t. He’d know something was wrong.
“Nice scarf,” he said with a grim smile.
“Thanks?” I sat beside him, keeping my hand close to where the material covered the marks, praying nothing would show, praying that he’d never know about my night with Wolf. That no one would know about it. Already I wanted to pull my hair out. I was so freaking stressed out over people finding out about what we did when I shouldn’t have been! Who cared anyway? I shouldn’t have been ashamed, but I was. Okay, so I wasn’t ashamed, but more embarrassed for breaking down in front of him. He seemed to catch me at the worst times too. “How’d your call go yesterday?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Finn and I talked a lot, but sharing the suckiness of yesterday didn’t feel right. We were friends and he liked me, but I couldn’t go there about my dad, or April. My stomach clenched.
“He never answered.” I shrugged, playing it off like it didn’t matter.
His brows furrowed and those deep jade eyes stared into mine, as if saw the truth behind my façade. He let out a breath, half whisky, half spearmint. “Sorry, that blows.”
Warmth enclosed over my hand as he took mine in his. The gesture, while small and harmless, might have meant something before, but not anymore. Not since Wolf. God, why did I have to have feelings for him? Not that liking Finn would have been any easier without Pearl in the picture. As smooth as possible, I pulled my hand away, not wanting to give him the wrong idea.
“I’m sure he’ll be here for family day.”
“Family day?” I asked.
He nodded and snaked a pack of gum from his back pocket. He offered me a piece, but I declined, I wasn’t a chewer and gum bored me after ten seconds.
“Once a semester they open the school for our families—mostly parents—to come visit. Or as I know it, the time where my dad comes and give me shit face-to-face.”
I wondered what it was like to have such a sucky parent. Thank God mine never cared about stuff like that. Though I wondered if Dad even knew about family day. Especially since I didn’t and we hadn’t had a chance to talk this week.
“I doubt he knows,” I sighed. I missed him so much, especially his smile and the way his ink stained fingers always had to be occupied. Dad always found a positive in every situation.
The bell rang and Finn stood up, smoothing out his black button up.
“Ready?” Finn asked. Some days he walked me to my next class, it was right beside his. Today was not one of those days.
“You go ahead, I’m meeting Kate.” Lie.
He nodded. The downward twist of his lips didn’t hide his disappointment. Nevertheless, he said his good-byes and slowly sauntered off, probably hoping I’d change my mind. Fat chance!
Dragging myself off the bleachers I meandered toward the door. A group of smelly pirates pushed past me and I held my breath. The hallway was crowded and loud as people walked together, sticking to their cliques. Every school had cliques, but this was different. They were forced. Usually cliques just happened, mostly by clubs, classes or extracurricular, and of course appearance.
The more I looked, the more I noticed how the heroes and the sidekicks weren’t any less attractive than the royals. Some were but not many. As a whole, they all looked the same—nicely dressed, beautiful and probably nicer.
“Norah?” A squeaky voice came from behind.
Wearing a floppy hat the color of a cardinal, was Donny. People mocked his forehead wrinkles and bushy eyebrows, but I thought they were endearing. He was just below four feet tall. Curly black hair poked out from beneath his cap. He was cute in a way that you wanted to pick him up and squeeze him.
“Hey, Big D,” I said. He grinned, crimson rushing into his cheeks at the nickname I gave him the day we met in magic class. He sat at the table behind Kate and I.
“I have the book I told you about.” He opened the top of the messenger bag and pulled out a thin book. The cover was weathered and torn, with nothing written on the front. I’d almost forgotten, in all my failing classes, that Donny mentioned he had something that would help.
I took it from him, turning it over in my hands. “Thank you.” I went to open to first page, but he stopped me.
“Not here. Only when you are alone.” He grinned ear to ear. I raised an eyebrow and Donny winked. “Nice scarf by the way.” He chuckled and wandered passed me, getting lost in the mass of people. I stuffed the book in my bag, wondering what the hell would happen when I did open it and why everyone felt the need to comment on the scarf. A girl’s neck couldn’t get cold?
Shaking it off, I spotted Wolf at his locker down the hall. My lips still tingled from kissing him. Dark curls fell over his face. The short sleeve shirt he wore hugged his flexing bicep. Even with clothes on I imagined what everything beneath looked like. Firm and tight, each muscle defined in god-like form. He had to be the sexiest villain ever. Hell, he had to be the sexiest guy I’d ever seen. He even surpassed Channing Tatum, and he was at the top of my hot list.
Frustration mixed with nerves bunched inside of me. I hated myself for feeling this way. Why, God, did I have to be so attracted to someone like him? Someone so wrong, yet so perfect. I wanted to break something or throw myself at him again, I wasn’t sure.
He slammed the small metal door and disappeared. I ran to catch up to him. An argument built in my throat and I found the frustrated part of me winning. Thank God.
“Wolf!”
He froze in place and turned slowly. “What’s up?”
“What’s up is that you gave me quite the souvenir last night.” He furrowed his brows, so I glanced around real fast then flipped the hair back on my left side before showing him the three marks threatening to label me a slut. Wolf wasn’t my boyfriend. It wasn’t like Danielle and James, not that he ever left hickeys, but still, they were a couple. Wolf and I weren’t.
“Oh, shit.”
“Yes, ‘oh shit’ is right.” The fake smile I once wore disappeared.
“Sorry, I guess those animal instincts kicked in.” His dark eyes lowered and he shifted uncomfortably across from me, like he hadn’t a clue what to say.
“It’s not all your fault.” I sighed. “We both got a little heated.”
He grinned. “A little? You were like a wild banshee.”
“Whatever.” I laughed and hit his shoulder.
He laughed too, which felt oddly good. “Keep that thing covered.” He adjusted my scarf. “Wouldn’t want to ruin that perfect image of yours, would we?”
Wolf winked before disappearing back into the crowd. My mind was too confused to digest anything. Despite the way it came crashing down, I had fun. Kissing him was fun, right, real.
It was after eight when I finally made my way back to my dorm. The door creaked as I opened it. Across the room, Danielle stared at herself in the full-length mirror. The tight white dress she wore showed off her wannabe-chest. She slipped her slim feet into a pair of clear, glass stilettos. Out of all the shoes she owned, those seemed
to be her favorite. Sometimes at night she’d sit in the closet and shine them.
“Look at you, in before the sunrise. Were your hood rat friends boring you?”
I dropped my bag on the floor of our room and tightened the scarf. “No. I came for more ammo, you know, to shoot pigeons with. That’s what hood rats do, right?”
Danielle scowled and stopped at the door before leaving. “I left your mail on the table.”
The door slammed shut. I rolled my eyes and let out the breath I’d been holding before grabbing the postcard off the table. The script was neat for a guy, but my dad always had rather fancy handwriting.
France isn’t the same without you. See you next week!
DAD
A smile took over my face. He was coming! I kissed the postcard of the Eiffel Tower and let out a squeal, pouncing on my bed. Thank God. The answers to all my problems were right in front of me. In person he’d know there was something wrong. In person he’d never ever be able to deny me the one thing I’ve wanted since the moment I stepped out of that carriage. A way out. But leaving meant never seeing Wolf again.
The postcard fell out of my hands as it struck me. The words Danielle spoke my first day here. How had I not realized this before? Dad brought me here and had seen the school, which meant, if by some chance this whole fairytale crap was true, then my dad was a character too. Holy sweet mother of God.
“They’re still staring at us,” Kate whispered across the table at lunch.
“Let ‘em.” I shrugged, sipping my diet soda as if it didn’t bother me, though I could barely steady my leg from jiggling under the table. “They have nothing better to do.”
Icy glares traveled from the royal table to us. A thin smile etched across Danielle’s pretty, porcelain face. I felt uncontrollably anxious today, and it had nothing to do with Dad or Wolf. It was something much more sinister, something to do with the satisfied grin on Danielle’s face. And there was the staring. Everyone was staring…at me. Not that they hadn’t stared before but this was a whole new level of freakiness.
My potions book lay open on the table in front of me instead of a tray full of food. My appetite was completely lost to the nauseating sense of dread I felt. So, I figured studying was better than watching Kate eat while I slipped into paranoid hysteria.
Even though I had my eyes glued to those pages, I might as well have been reading Greek for all the focus I was putting into absorbing a single word of it. I had just read the same paragraph three times and still had no idea what it said.
The pencil fell from my fingertips and I ran my hand through my hair, tugging at the loose braids. “This makes no sense. Why do I need to know the elements of Salamander blood?”
Kate laughed. Today the scar was barely visible through her make-up. There was a ghost of it, a faint outline, but nothing else. If you didn’t know she had a scar there, you probably wouldn’t have seen a thing.
“Salamander blood can be used for strengthening and healing potions.”
I groaned, my shoulders slumping inward.
“Speaking of potions, I have one to solve your problem.” Kate nodded toward my scarf and fished in her bag for a tiny blue vial.
“Will it turn back time?”
“Um, no. But you won’t have to wear scarves anymore.”
“It’s not some crazy elixir that’ll make me a giant or turn my skin green, is it?”
Kate laughed and tucked a golden strand of hair behind her ear. Dangling from her ear was a ruby jewel, one I’d never seen before. The one on the other side was identical.
“You read too many stories. Take it before you go to bed, it might make you drowsy.”
Bed? No. I needed these marks gone now. I popped the top off and took it down with one sip. The bitterness made me cringe, but hopefully it’d work. Scarves irritated me and so did lying.
“I think it’s time you found a boyfriend,” I said. Kate’s smile vanished, her lips pursed together. “What? I’m just saying it might help. So, who’s the lucky guy?”
She swallowed hard, her attention behind me. “Wolf.” My heart sank to my feet. Maybe a boyfriend wasn’t a good idea after all.
“Wolf? You want to date Wolf?” There were rules about dating the same guys as your friends. You didn’t do it.
“No.” Kate groaned, pointing behind me. “Wolf.”
I peered over my shoulder. Wolf was exiting the lunch line. As suspected, his tray was filled to maximum capacity. Two cans of soda weighed down his stained russet pants. His eyes caught mine and his jaw hardened. He made a beeline for the table.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You didn’t hear?” He let out of puff of air. The palm of his hand against the table positioned him closer to me. A little too close, but it’s not like we haven’t been down each other’s throats before. Wolf sighed, running a free hand over his sideburns. “One of the queen’s minions attacked. There’s a rumor you were…” His throat tightened and the ring of red in his iris was more prominent than I’d ever seen. “Doing some suggestive things with a group of guys in the woods last night.”
“I guess they weren’t talking about knitting?”
“Not funny, Norah.”
My heart sank. So that is why everyone was staring. The entire school thought I’d fooled around with guys. Plural. It couldn’t be that bad, right? I mean, lots of girls did that kind of stuff. Well, not have orgies in the woods, but kiss boys.
“I was in my room, alone, all night.”
Wolf groaned, heaving a sigh. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
He ran into the lunch line, leaving Kate and I alone. I think she muttered, I’m so sorry, Norah. But I wasn’t sure. I heard nothing but my own breathing. Why would someone say such an awful lie? Danielle couldn’t be that threatened by me.
Scanning the faces in the cafeteria, it was clear Wolf was right. People were watching me, stalking me with their eyes, whispering to the person beside them before bursting out in laughter or scowling.
I’d only had a rumor spread about me once, freshman year after I went out on a date with the captain of the lacrosse team. The rumors were worse now. Instead of giving a bad BJ (which I never did to begin with and if I had, it wouldn’t have sucked) I had sex with multiple guys in the woods. Like gang bang type shit. I shuddered at the mental image.
I grabbed my book and hurried toward the exit, my heart racing a million miles per second. The empty hallway lingered before me and I raced toward the dorms. I didn’t care about the stupid potions test. I needed to be alone before tears rushed out of my eyes in front of everyone. Being weak in front of them was what they wanted. Never would I give Danielle or anyone else the sick satisfaction.
Wolf caught up to me and yanked me by my elbow into an empty classroom. Unable to hold them in any longer, tears rushed out of my eyes and drenched my face. This couldn’t be happening. In a few minutes I’d wake up and find it had been one big, messy nightmare. The thought that anyone would do such a horrible thing made me sick.
Wolf’s warm hands held my face tight. His big eyes were so strong, so fearless. “Hey, listen to me, Norah, this will all blow over. When I find the asshole who did this, I swear, I’ll—”
“You’ll do nothing,” I said just as fierce. “One wrong move and you’ll get sent away. I know that, you know that, and whoever started the rumor does too.”
His jaw tightened, flames burned his irises, but my words were true. Someone wasn’t after only me, they wanted to take him down too. I couldn’t let that happen. Not after what I promised him. My hands tightened over his, willing him to calm down, though calm seemed impossible for both of us.
“I can’t sit by and let them get away with this.” His teeth ground together, his mouth barely opened when he spoke.
“They already have.”
Wolf wasn’t one to back down. He fought tooth and nail and who was I to ask him not to? The thought of losing him and him leaving, I didn’t want that. Not one bit.
If I told him that, if I said how I couldn’t stand the thought of losing him, maybe he’d come around. But the words never came. Only fear. Fear of admitting my feelings out loud, especially when I had other plans. Plans that seemed to slip away whenever he was near.
“I’m going back to my room.” I hurried toward the door, stopping as my hand latched into the handle. “Promise you won’t do anything stupid?” Wolf looked away, staring toward the picturesque window looking out upon the gardens. “Promise me, please.”
He stepped toward me, holding the door open. “That’s a promise I can’t make.”
What a stubborn ass.
On my way back towards the West Wing, people stared, laughed and whispered in the ear of the closest person. Some guys sneered and said horrible sexual slurs. I wished I lived in a hole. I turned into the main corridor of the tower. Luckily no one was in the downstairs common area.
I rounded the corner toward the staircase to find Alvin and his friend Mick waiting in the stairwell. Before I could stop him, Alvin yanked the scarf from my neck. “So the rumors are true. One mark for each guy?” His thin arm laced around my waist, backing me up against the stone wall.
Alvin’s hands were like roaches crawling along my body. “Back off, Alvin.”
“What you can handle three guys but we’re too much?” Mick said, pressing me against the wall, his pelvic bone almost touching me. “Come-on, sugar lips, why don’t you show us—”
Before I could blink, Mick was ripped away from me. “You want to die asshole?” Wolf seethed, holding him by the collar. Wolf’s cheeks expanded as he inhaled small puffs of air.
Alvin’s dark eyes widened for a second, but the fear passed sooner than it should have, especially with Wolf so close.
“Charming.” Alvin grinned, not shaken by Wolf’s warning. “I heard about you two. So, tell us, was she a nice screw? A fine ass like that must be.”
Wolf dropped Mick, who then scattered backward like a scared puppy. Red burned Wolf’s cheeks and his eyes were so dark, I couldn’t help but reach back and grab at the railing.
The Forgotten Fairytales Page 12