Fairy Bad Day(7)

“Yeah, including any fairies,” a voice rang out from behind them, and Emma spun around to see Glen Lewis.

“Did you miss that part in your handbook where it tells you that you’re actually supposed to kill them?” his twin brother, Garry, added, like part two of a bad comedy act.

“Just ignore them,” Loni advised as they both came to a halt in front of the large bronze statue of Sir Francis Edgar Hilary Mackay, who stood guarding the entrance of the cafeteria. Loni automatically reached up on tiptoes to touch Sir Francis’s forehead. “You know what ogre slayers are like. Idiots.”

“I know.” Emma sighed as she followed her friend in pressing two fingers onto the cold metal face of their founding father. She had no idea where the forehead-touching-forgood-luck tradition came from, but with the way her week was shaping up, she didn’t want to take any chances.

“After all,” Loni said as she brushed past the twins and walked through to the cafeteria entrance, “you might not be slaying a lot of fairies right now, but you’re stopping them from causing trouble. You should be proud, not embarrassed.”

“I agree. You should let everyone know how great you are.” Garry Lewis gave the statue a quick high five and followed them through, before raising his hands with a flourish. “In fact, allow me to do the honors. Ladies and gentlemen, can I please introduce Miss Emma Jones, the one-eyed, foodcourt-destroying, fairy-slayer extraordinaire.”

Well, so much for hoping that no one had heard about what happened, and as the entire cafeteria burst out laughing, Emma futilely pushed forward her straight brown bangs to try to hide her eye patch. If she had been smart, she would’ve remembered to leave her long hair loose, but out of habit she had hastily tied it back into a low ponytail when she’d gotten dressed. Something she was now regretting.

“Look,” Brenda Vance, an anally retentive demon slayer from Emma’s year, called out. “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Oh, wait, it’s a fairy. Quick, let me blow it up.”

The laughter increased and Emma tried to concentrate on her breathing. The worst thing was that she couldn’t even blame them because it was true. After all, who had ever heard of a fairy slayer? It was stupid.

“Demon slayers are even bigger idiots than ogre slayers.” Loni bristled in annoyance as they both picked up orange trays and joined the line for their first meal of the day. “Just ignore the—” Loni continued, just as a voice called out from somewhere behind them.

“Yo, Curtis—nice job, man.”

“Three kills in one night? You rock,” another person added, and Emma spun around to see the lanky figure of Curtis Green standing at the cafeteria entrance propped up on crutches, his left leg covered in a fresh blue plaster cast. As the clapping continued, he raised an arm and shot the room in general a lopsided grin before he swung his way toward the back of the food line.

Right where they were standing.

Emma watched in horror as he joined them, the final confirmation she was having a bad morning.

“Hey, Jones. What happened to you?” he asked as he came to a halt and leaned forward on his crutches, studying her eye patch with interest. The top half of him was in a regular white shirt, blazer, and a tie (perfectly knotted, she might add, which didn’t improve her opinion of him), but his gray trousers had been replaced by a pair of faded track pants that were slit up the side to accommodate his cast.

“Like you don’t know,” Emma snapped as she inched away from him. He might be only fifteen, but at six feet, with broad shoulders and blond curls that fell this way and that across his chocolate-brown eyes, Curtis Green took up far too much space. There should be a law against it.

“Fine.” He shrugged as he awkwardly reached into his backpack and started to pull out a yellow folder. “The thing is, we really need to start—”

“Oh, hey, Curtis.” Loni suddenly stepped in between them and pointed over to the long table where most of the sophomores were sitting. “I think Tyler wants you. Why don’t I grab you something to eat and you can go and see him.”

“Um, okay,” he said slowly, for a moment looking surprised before making his way through the cafeteria over to where Tyler was sitting. The minute he was gone, Emma spun around and stared at her friend in shock.

“Excuse me, but did you just offer to get Curtis Green his breakfast?” she demanded. “You do remember that he’s my self-declared archenemy, don’t you?”

“He has a broken leg,” Loni defended as they shuffled forward in the line. “Besides, he had to deal with the embarrassment of getting caught in a fence while trying to fight a group of rogue dragons on his Saturday patrol. It isn’t exactly the stuff comic book legends are made of. I thought he might be feeling bad.”

Emma glanced over to where Curtis was now the center of attention and tried to bite back her bitterness. “Yeah, he looks like he’s really suffering. Though I’m sure his pain has been eased by the fact that he took down three dragons before he passed out. What do I have? Nothing but mockery and a sore eye.”

“It’s not that bad,” Loni insisted as she nudged Emma forward.

“In five weeks I haven’t managed to slay one fairy. How is that not bad? And I really don’t think Saturday’s disaster has done me any favors.”

“Emma, it’s just breakfast,” Loni defended as they finally reached the front of the line. “It’s not a big deal.”