Fairy Bad Day(10)
Emma sighed as she followed Mrs. Barnes back into the office and fished around in her school bag for the bulletshaped piece of plastic that let her in and out of the school gate for her Saturday patrol. Sophomores got to spend ten field hours a week off campus slaying, and it went up to fifteen by the time they were juniors and twenty for seniors. However, the only way in and out was with a constantly changing security code that was embedded in the pass, and while no one could see cameras anywhere, Mrs. Barnes always seemed to know if someone tried to buck the system.
Emma handed the small pass back just as the bell rang, and so she reluctantly made her way back down the half-empty corridor toward her first class of the day. Math. As if she hadn’t suffered enough. Thankfully, her teacher wasn’t there yet and Emma quickly slipped into the seat Loni had saved her.
“Well?” her friend demanded as Emma pulled out her math books. “What did he say?”
“He’s in a secret meeting with some Department guys, but Barney wouldn’t say what it was about. Probably telling them to make sure I get a desk job when I finally graduate.” She made a face as she started to fiddle with her brown ponytail, which was hanging over her left shoulder.
“Stop it. First of all, you’re not that important,” Loni said in a stern voice. “And besides, you’re breaking new ground. No one else has ever really tried to slay fairies before.”
“Yes, that’s because they’re not worth slaying,” Emma muttered.
“Hey, Em,” Tyler said, leaning over Loni. “The explosion sucks, but don’t let it get you down.” He gave Emma a pat on the hand, which would’ve been comforting if he hadn’t been wearing a pair of thickly spiked, flame-resistant gloves that he used when he was hunting salamanders.
“Ouch.” She whipped her hand away.
“Sorry.” Tyler shot her apologetic glance. “Someone bet me that I couldn’t wear these bad boys all day. I forgot they were on.”
“Just like you will no doubt forget your brain one day, Tyler Owens.” Loni shook her head in disapproval. “My mom warned me what would happen if I became friends with a Leo, but would I listen?”
“Well you didn’t complain when I helped you pass your tracking test the other day,” Tyler reminded her, but before they could continue bickering, their math teacher walked into the room.
“As you know, there are twelve elementals. Three air, three fire, three earth, and three water,” she said as she approached her desk. For a moment Emma wondered if it was a history lesson since learning about the elementals was fourth-grade stuff. “But it doesn’t stop there. Take, for instance, demons. They might only be considered as one elemental group, but there are at least a hundred and five known subraces. So what if you were working on the Department’s logistics team and had to decide how many agents you needed to send to clean up a newly hatched phoenix nest, two battling ogre tribes, and a problem on the East Coast with some krakens? How would you figure it out?”
Everyone except Tyler, who loved numbers, immediately started to groan as Professor Edwards held up a bunch of papers, which meant they were about to have a pop quiz. This day was just getting worse by the hour.
By the time Emma walked into the cafeteria for dinner that night, she begrudgingly realized that, despite her inability to answer any of the questions (let alone understand what they even meant), the pop quiz was actually the highlight of an otherwise horrible day. Even now people were making explosive noises and giggling as she walked past them. Also, she’d been unsuccessful in her attempts to track down Principal Kessler.
“What are you doing?” Loni demanded in a confused voice as Emma suddenly slid down her chair halfway through eating her fettuccine.
“Hiding,” Emma whispered as from across the room she caught sight of Curtis swinging his way into the cafeteria. The other thing she’d done all day was avoid her new assignment partner. She didn’t care what Loni or anyone else said: there was no way she was working with him. It was a matter of principle. She watched as Brenda raced up to him, but after a brief conversation, the demon slayer went away and Curtis continued to scan the room.
“Yes, but why?” Tyler craned his neck in confusion. “Is there something I should know?”
“She’s in denial,” Loni explained before lowering her voice and mouthing, “about Curtis.”
“Oh, is that all?” Tyler rolled his eyes before leaning across the table and swiping some of Emma’s uneaten dinner. “At least you got someone who knows how to use a sword. I got stuck with Glen Lewis, and tomorrow I have to let him show me how to slay an ogre. Only problem is that he never finishes his sentences because he forgets that Garry isn’t there to do it for him. Trust me, Curtis isn’t so bad.”
Emma kicked him in the shin.
“Ouch,” he protested. “Why did you do that?”
“It’s just, I thought you’d forgotten that Curtis Green is evil,” Emma informed him. “And if you like him so much, then why don’t you go and sit with him?”
“Because he’s leaving the cafeteria,” Tyler pointed out, and Emma let out a sigh of relief as she realized that after standing in the doorway and looking around for five minutes, he had indeed left the cafeteria and disappeared back out into the November evening.