Fairy Bad Day(2)

Emma let her fingers skim the heavy crystal pendant that was hanging around her neck, neatly tucked under her school uniform. Her dad had brought it to her last week as a surprise. It had been one of her mom’s favorites, and he thought she might want to wear it for good luck. He’d been right, and Emma, who still missed her mom every single day, hadn’t taken it off since.

“Emma, he’s ready for you.” A voice shook her from her reverie, and she looked up to see Mrs. Barnes, Principal Kessler’s right-hand woman, standing in front of her. She was about fifty and, as usual, her eyes were covered in purple eye shadow and topped off with a pair of green-framed glasses, which had led to her nickname “Barney.”

Emma nodded and scrambled to her feet.

“Good luck.” Loni reached out and squeezed her hand. “In less than five minutes, all your dreams will come true.”

“And then we can celebrate,” Tyler added in a low voice. “Glen and Garry are organizing a party behind the practice fields. Unless Miss Zodiac thinks the stars might not be in alignment.”

“The stars are perfectly in alignment, thank you very much,” Loni retorted in a prim voice, and Emma grinned. There was something ridiculously reassuring about their bickering that made her feel more relaxed.

“Thanks, guys.” She smoothed down her skirt and walked inside behind Barney. The first time she’d come to Burtonwood, she’d expected it to be some sort of Gothic castle full of turrets and winding corridors, maybe even on a treeless, gloomy hill. But instead it was a sprawling two-story Spanish Mission–style campus just north of San Francisco, complete with a bright orange roof and white stucco walls all perennially covered in piercing purple bougainvillea flowers—no turrets or winding corridors in sight. In fact, if it weren’t for the large stuffed jungler demon in the reception area and the collection of antique slaying weapons on the walls, it could’ve been just about any other high school in America.

Which was probably lucky since, according to the outside world, Burtonwood was just a regular high school that specialized in languages and had a reputation for keeping to itself. Also, thanks to the fact that nearly all civilians were sight-blind and couldn’t see any of the elementals that roamed the Earth, the deception was easier to keep up than most people might think.

Principal Kessler’s office was just off to the left of the entrance, and Emma knocked first before going in. He was sitting behind his desk, his long gray hair pushed back off his tanned face and his thin lips tight, but Emma hardly noticed, as her eyes were drawn, as always, to the photographs hanging behind him.

She immediately honed in on the one of her mom. Apparently they looked alike, with matching green eyes, dark brown hair, and olive skin, but Emma was more excited about the elation that was spread across her mom’s face as a group of Amazon villagers hugged her for slaying the ruchiac dragon that had been hunting in the area for years. Not that the villagers knew it was a ruchiac dragon. According to her mom, they had called it a sun god and thought it had been sent to collect human sacrifices. In fact, there were numerous names for what sight-blind people called elementals—ghosts, yetis, the devil. Still, it didn’t really matter what people thought they were; all that mattered was that the elementals were stopped. And that’s where the slayers came in.

“Emma, I hope you haven’t been waiting too long.”

Only three hours.

“Not really,” she said as she sat down on the other side of the desk and forced herself to stop looking at the photograph.

“Good.” He picked up a clipboard, then knitted his brow and coughed uncomfortably. “First of all, I just want to say that no matter how successful your mother was as a dragon slayer, this decision has been based on the numerous physical and psychological exams you’ve completed during your time at Burtonwood. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” she assured him, since everyone knew that nepotism was a big no-no at Burtonwood. Besides, she really did have the skill, speed, and accuracy to be a dragon slayer. Now all she needed was one small slip of paper and this would become the greatest day of her life. She took one last peek at the photograph of her mom on the wall and then allowed herself a small smile.

“Which is why, after careful consideration . . . ” Principal Kessler continued, and Emma gave him an encouraging nod, “it’s been decided that your designation is with . . . fairies.”

“Thank you so mu—” she started to say, just the way she had rehearsed it for the last seven years, before she suddenly paused and wrinkled her nose. “Um, excuse me?” Okay, so obviously Principal Kessler needed to rehearse his part a little more because for a minute she thought he said fairies.

“Now, before you get upset, just let me say that this wasn’t an easy decision.” He pushed the clipboard away and handed over the results. For a moment Emma just stared at the word in front of her.

Fairies.

She slowly shook her head. This made no sense. No one slayed fairies. Fairies were dumb. . . and small. In fact, she didn’t even know why they were listed as one of the twelve elementals that had come through the Gate of Linaria, since the worst she’d ever seen them do was change the food labels at the supermarket.

Which meant Kessler must be joking.

“I’m not joking,” he suddenly said, as if somehow reading her mind. She carefully folded the slip of paper and put it in her lap before letting her fingers tighten around her mom’s necklace.