by CN Thornton
When we entered the dining hall, we went straight to the buffet and grabbed our plates—I filled mine with the usual fruits, vegetables and nuts while Silas settled on his meat selection. It seemed he was trying pheasant for the first time this evening.
"I'll meet you at the table," Silas said. I watched him turn and head for the table that was slowly beginning to fill with our housemates dressed in their green uniforms.
"Okay, I'll just be a minute," I called back to him. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled at me.
I had overheard another girl mentioning that they had dragon-fruit sesame agar-agar moon cakes, and I was dying to try one. I had tried dragon-fruit agar—my father had made it once when I was little, and I'd liked it so much he'd made it again every full moon.
I reached out for one of the pink cakes and set it on my tray. Then I turned to head towards the Tamarack table and gasped, my heart palpitating as I saw Dean standing in front of me, blocking my path.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, Neenah," he said, placing his hand on my shoulder.
"You didn't. I was just shocked for a moment." He side-stepped out of my way and I continued my path to the Tamarack table.
"So, white-walker... what is it like basically being school royalty?" he asked me.
I scoffed, shaking my head at his comment. "There is nothing special about being a white-walker. If anything, I will have to work twice as hard and have a higher chance at failing."
I glanced over at him just in time to see him roll his eyes. I stopped at my table and set my tray down beside Silas before I turned to face Dean.
"How are you settling in at Zephyr House?" I asked him.
He shrugged. "It's alright." He paused and glanced over his shoulder at the Zephyr table. "I hate the color purple and my roommates are really weird. Are your roommates weird?"
I slowly shook my head and said, "They are really decent."
"Is that just a nice way to say they're crazy as hell?"
I tilted my head to the side, eyeing him.
Silas stood up from our table. "Actually, she was being modest because she didn't want to make you feel bad about your predicament. Her roommates are amazing!" Silas stuck out his hand. "The name is Silas Dimperio."
Dean looked down at Silas's hand and then glanced at me. Finally, he took Silas's hand and shook it, slowly, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Dean. The name is Dean," he said before letting his hand fall back to his side.
Dean and Silas held each other's gaze for another minute before I cleared my throat.
"Our house mother Carol just sat down; we should start eating." I pulled Silas to our seats. "It was nice seeing you, Dean."
I glanced over my shoulder as we sat, watching Dean take a seat at his table. Then I began eating. Once I finished my dinner, I moved on to the dessert—my dragon-fruit sesame agar-agar moon cake.
I took a small bite of the agar cake and gasped. "Oh my goodness! Silas, this is amazing!" I exclaimed, taking another bite.
He stuck his fork into the edge of my cake and took a piece. I watched him put the fork to his mouth, and when his eyes widened, I grinned.
"Amazing, isn't it!"
He leaned forward. "I'm just going to confiscate this," he said as he took the cake from my tray.
"Hey now." I chuckled, reaching for my cake. "Silas, get your own!"
He shoved the cake into his mouth and gave me a goofy grin. "Have some," he said as he leaned towards me with his opened mouth.
I put my hands up in front of myself and leaned away. "No thank you," I laughed. "I'll just get my—" My sentence was cut off as Carol rose to her feet and the rest of the table followed.
I groaned as I stood to dump my tray. That rule was beginning to suck. I was on my way back to Tamarack House when Silas came jogging over to me.
"Here." He held out a small parcel wrapped in napkins.
I took it from him and asked, "What is it?"
"I felt bad about the cake, so I sneaked a couple for you," he said as I unwrapped it.
Sure enough, a couple cakes sat in the center of the napkin. I quickly broke off a piece and shoved it into my mouth, groaning as the flavor overwhelmed my taste-buds. "You are amazing!" I said, throwing my arm over his shoulder.
"Naaw, just an ordinary person doing things for his friend."
I finished eating the rest of the first cake, then broke the second in half and gave it to him. "Now we both had two." I smiled as we passed through the gate to Tamarack House.
Instead of going inside, we walked around to the back yard and glanced at the large open space.
"Just imagine, tomorrow this space will be filled with the entire school enjoying our idea for a party," I said.
"I'm looking forward to the food and the giant toadstool trampoline. I'm going to jump on that thing until there's nothing left but roots."
I laughed. "Violent much?"
"Hey now, just because I like to have a great time at the expense of over-sized mushrooms doesn't make me a violent person. I just like having fun. Life back home wasn't so fun, so I have to make up for it."
"Where is home?" I asked as we took a seat on the raised flower bed near the back door.
"The city of Freycrest."
"Is that in Washington?"
He shook his head. "It's not even in America. It's in Valland, which is in the country of Bedlam."
"Bedlam?"
"Yeah, it's a country located in the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America." He cleared his throat. "Enough about me; where are you from?"
"Washington. My father and I lived in North Bend since I was born."
"What was it like? You know, growing up in your family?" he asked.
I shrugged. "It was just my father and me. My mother died when I was born." I frowned as I pushed the thought from my mind. "My dad was great, though."
"It must've been awesome to do whatever you wanted, go wherever you wanted and be friends with whoever you wanted," he said, his voice full of angst.
I gave him a look as I shook my head. "Yeah, it didn't happen like that. My father and I rarely left our home, and when we did it was because we needed to. Other than that, the only friends I had were kids of my father's friends from work."
"So you're telling me that your father worked and you just stayed home? You're saying you just stayed put and never wandered?"
I slowly nodded. "Was I not supposed to?"
He placed his hands on my shoulders and shook me a little as he said, "Of course not! You're supposed to get out and live a little! Believe me, I know what it's like to have your life lived for you, with every single detail planned out from your day of birth. It sucks, Neenah."
"I just wanted to make my father happy, that's all," I said in a small voice.
Whatever bit of pep he had left inside him slowly dissipated as he slumped over. "I know. But you have a choice. You don't have to live your life to please others, and it frustrates me that you chose to."
He stood up and offered me his hand. I stared at it, not moving, and he wiggled his fingers.
"Come on, take it. Let's go be reckless." Every fiber in my body told me not to take his hand, that being reckless would make my father upset... But I knew he was right. If I wanted to be happy, I couldn't live my life trying to please everyone else. It was like fire and water—only one could exist. Only one could thrive. And I wanted it to be my happiness.
I slowly reached out my hand and laced my fingers through his. And in that instant, I finally felt a chance. A chance to be happy. A chance for possibility. And more importantly, a chance to truly live the way I wanted to. To be the person I wanted to be.
CHAPTER THREE
The next morning, I woke to the sounds of my roommates getting ready for their classes. I waited for them to leave the room before I sat up. The clock in the corner read 6:50, 10 minutes before breakfast.
Gathering myself to my feet, I hurriedly changed into my uniform. “Florence, Quinn, wake up
.” I called to them.
They groaned and then Quinn opened her eyes. “What is it? We don’t have class today,” Quinn said.
“Breakfast—it starts in 9 minutes,” I replied, and the two jumped to their feet. “I’m going to go see if Silas is awake.” I headed to our bedroom door.
Florence shot me a warning look that I understood immediately. Girls and boys were not allowed on each other’s floors. But what the prefects didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, right?
I made it to the stairs and climbed them quietly, making sure no one else was up there. After waiting for a few seconds, I started down the hall, checking the names on each plaque outside the rooms. The third room on the right was Silas’s.
I entered, shutting the door behind me and then crossing over to the beds. There, Silas was still asleep.
“Hey,” I called to him. He didn’t budge. I sat down on the edge of his bed and shook him. “Wake up, Silas!” I hissed loudly.
He stirred for a moment before his eyes fluttered open. Then he jumped back, with a yelp.
“What the hell are you doing in here!” he half-shouted.
I smiled at him and said, “Well, good morning to you, too.” I stood up and moved to the window. “It’s 7:00 right now, so if you want to eat, you need to get up.”
I heard him shuffling for a few minutes and when I finally turned around, he had his white slacks on but his chest was bare.
“Oh.” I blushed and turned my head away. “I should go.” I bit my lip nervously as I crossed to the door.
“Um, I’ll see you downstairs in a minute,” I heard him say just as the door closed behind me.
I made my way downstairs to the main floor. Seconds later, I was met by Quinn and her sister Florence. Half a minute later, Silas joined us and we began the walk to the dining hall.
When we sat down and started eating, we only had ten minutes before Carol was finished. Luckily, the four of us ate fast instead of taking our time.
As everyone headed off to their first classes of the day, Silas, Quinn, Florence and I made our way back to the house to work on the set-up for tonight’s party. We had 8 hours to get everything in order.
“There you are!” Asherah exclaimed as we entered through the front doors of the house.
I stopped in my tracks, my eyes wide from shock at her sudden appearance.
Asherah placed her hands on my shoulders, squeezing a little too tight for comfort.
“We went to breakfast,” I said in a small voice.
“We have a lot to do today. No time for silly things like eating. I need someone to run to Sunsweet and gather the food we ordered, and someone else to go to the Tamarack Forest to gather the items we need to construct everything.”
I opened my mouth to offer to go to the forest with Quinn, but Florence stepped forward and cut me off.
“Quinn and I will go to the forest and gather the items. You’ve written a list of what we need, right, Neenah?” She looked at me expectantly.
I nodded slowly. “To the last detail.”
Asherah clasped her hands together. “Great, you just need to gather everything, then; I have a few volunteers to pull it all together.”
“But we can do it ourselves. It is our idea, after all,” Silas said.
Asherah put her hands on her hips. “Do you know how to wield your powers?” Silas slowly shook his head. “Exactly. So, it’s settled. Quinn and Florence will tackle the forest, and you and Neenah will go to Sunsweet to pick up the food.” She then made a shooing motion with her hands, turned and walked off.
Silas made his way upstairs, talking about getting a few things before we left, and Quinn mentioned grabbing her bag to carry stuff in. This left me and Florence with each other’s company. She whistled a cheery tune as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. Then she looked at me and gave me a cheeky grin.
“You didn’t!” I gasped as she took a step back.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Neenah.”
“You purposely offered to pair with your sister so I would be forced with Silas,” I hissed as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
Florence’s smile grew wider. “You should be thanking me, sweetie. He’s good looking, and very fond of you.”
I narrowed my eyes at her just as the footsteps came up behind me.
“You are so going to pay,” I hissed, low enough that only she could hear me. Then I forced a smile on my face and turned around quickly to face Silas.
“Are you ready to go?” I asked. My voice was overly enthusiastic, and the look on his face told me it hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Um, yeah. Sure. Let’s go get this thing done.” He gave me a half smile.
We started towards the door, Silas pausing briefly to open it and let me through. Then we were on our way to Sunsweet.
Sunsweet was a small town located half a mile from the gates of Endeavour Academy. It was one of the oldest all-faerie communities in the world, it’s population settling just below the five-thousand mark.
Silas said that to the students and faculty at Endeavour, this town was a getaway of sorts. They would visit the restaurants, the pub, the movie theater and even the shopping districts to gather school materials or clothing for school functions.
As we made our way to the food district, Silas began telling me about the faerie community back home in Freycrest. He seemed to be pretty vague about certain details, but I chalked it up to him just not knowing much about it. What he did mention was that, just like every faerie community, the one he grew up in was run by a monarchy.
“So you’re saying there’s more than one Faerie Queen in the world?” I asked as we stopped in front of a lavish bakery that had a storefront display of mouthwatering desserts.
He casually pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. “Yes.” He was silent for a few moments as he read the paper. “It’s like . . .” He paused—I assumed come up with a decent analogy I might easily understand. “Lets use the school, for example. There‘s the headmistress, who oversees her domain, the office, plus the faculty of the school. Then we have the teachers, who oversee their individual classes.” I nodded. “Queen Vera is the headmistress of the faerie community nearest her, and also of the faerie monarchs all across the world.”
That made sense. There was no way Vera could be in several places at once, so she had to have help.
“Who are the other queens?” I asked. “Do you know any?”
Silas took a deep breath and moved to open the door to the dessert shoppe. I was silent as we entered and made our way to the counter.
“Welcome to Honeydew’s Delectables. May I interest you in one of our succulent samples? They’re sure to make your taste buds sing!” a woman with a name tag reading Lily asked. She was beautiful, her prominent facial features clashing with her soft voice.
“Actually, ma’am,” Silas began. “We’re here to pick up an order for Tamarack House.”
“Ah, yes!” she exclaimed, her voice rising a few octaves. “The last of your order just came out of the oven and is currently being boxed.” She disappeared into a back room, leaving me and Silas to ourselves.
“So, about that question,” I started again. “How many queens are there, exactly?”
Silas shrugged. “I’m actually not sure.” He grabbed at the back of his neck. “Maybe one hundred . . . two hundred?”
“Do you know any names?” I pressed, curious for more information.
“I know two, maybe three. Vera, Shoshanna and Veta.” His forehead creased slightly. “I’m not too sure about that last one, though. I only overheard my parents mentioning a queen named Veta.”
“Do you know anything about Queen Shoshanna?”
He grabbed at his neck again. “I know something even better. Did you know—” His sentence was cut short as Lily rejoined us.
“Okay, so I have everything boxed up and ready to go. I assume you don’t have a way to transport the goods, yes?” she
asked us.
I looked at Silas and shook my head. “We were just told to come and pick up the order,” I said.
Lily smiled. “It’s no problem at all, dear. We can loan you one of our push carts to get them back to the school.”
Since we had no other way, we accepted it. The push cart was basically a large metal slab on four wheels with handles at both ends. Even with the order from Honeydew’s, over half the cart was still empty.
“Next place is the Garden of Eden, and then the Taproot,” Silas explained as we made our way across the street with the push cart loaded with boxes of desserts.
The Garden of Eden, a garden-style restaurant that also catered, was conveniently located just across the street from Honeydew’s. The order we picked up took up twice as much room on the push cart as the desserts. Then we made it to our last stop, the Taproot, and the selection of drinks we received took up the remaining space on the push cart. And then we were on our way back to the school.
“You know, I think we should go back to Sunsweet tomorrow. Maybe catch a movie and get some lunch or something,” Silas said as we started down the path that led to the school—me pushing the cart and Silas pulling.
“Sure.” I grinned. “And we can invite Quinn and Florence, too.”
Silas stopped pulling, bringing the cart to a slow crawl before the weight brought it to a stop.
Silas turned around to look at me, a bothered expression on his face.
“What’s wrong, Si?” I asked him.
He inhaled deeply and then slowly let out his breath. “I was hoping it would be just you and me. I know it seems a bit selfish to deny the company of our friends, but I just want to get to know you.”
“He’s very fond of you.” Florence’s words replayed in my mind. I felt my throat tighten. She was right—Silas was fond of me.
“Will you go with me, Neenah?”
I stared at him, uncertain whether or not I should go. What was the worst that could happen? But then I knew, if my father found out . . .