Fae In The City, Chapter 1

“Why don't you just do the world a favor and jump off the Golden Gate like your mother did?” Chelsea said, laughing.

Erin, the brunt of Chelsea's wicked attack, covered her mouth in shock, her eyes suddenly wet.

Diana stood next to Chelsea, feeling guilty by association, and once again hating having the locker next to Chelsea's. The whole scene froze in Diana's mind: everyone getting dressed after PE class, the locker room echoing the ringing sound of Chelsea's evil laugh, the misery in the new girl's face. Erin wasn't completely dressed yet, so she couldn't run away to cry someplace else. Everyone would see her tears.

Diana stared at Chelsea's open locker, a crisp and clean school uniform hanging inside, and thought about all the other vicious things Chelsea had said since the beginning of tenth grade. But nothing Chelsea had said to Diana could compare to the evil that had just come from the blond Princess of Lanebrook Preparatory Academy's vicious little mouth. Directed at an innocent new girl, still reeling from her mother's suicide.

Diana felt rage sweep through her body like a wildfire, pooling in her hands and behind her eyes. She clenched her fists to keep from throwing a punch. She had to do something. Anything. She closed her eyes on the world, a silent prayer for a way to save the new girl from following her mother off the Golden Gate.

Then she remembered Chelsea's reaction to the frog dissection in biology class. The wild, scared look on her face when the frogs had come out. She imagined a frog attacking Chelsea, and wished it could be that easy. Something tickled in Diana's mind, and she opened her eyes. Movement caught her eye on the bench next to her, and she looked down.

In the heartbeat of time that had passed since she'd closed her eyes, a large frog had appeared.

Diana stared in shock for a second, wondering if wishing it had made it so; but she dismissed the thought as insane. She scooped up the frog, and without thinking, tossed it into Chelsea's locker.

It landed on her uniform, and let out a large croaking sound. Something oozed from it.

Chelsea turned, her eyes widening at the frog. “Ew! Shoo!”

The frog jumped. Diana watched in amazement as it made a perfect arc through the air, landing squarely on Chelsea's face.

Chelsea screamed. She batted at her face and screamed again. The whole locker room descended on them. She fought to grab the frog, but it hopped around her head, leaving some kind of goo behind as it moved. She screamed again, grabbing, missing, feeling the frog on her back and screaming again.

One of Chelsea's clique of debutante friends rushed in to swat at the frog, and after several minutes of screaming and hopping and twirling, the frog jumped over the row of lockers and disappeared.

The sound of a hundred girls laughing had Chelsea shaking with fury. Chelsea looked over at Diana, and saw Diana's defiant smile. She stepped into Diana's personal bubble and the two girls stared each other down.

“How did that frog get in my locker?” Chelsea said, tilting her head. “Hmm?”

Diana's smile faded as she heard a girl behind her say “I saw her put it in there.”

Diana turned to see her accuser, and saw that Coach Lewis had arrived and was standing next to Lisbeth, the girl who'd spoken. Diana rolled her eyes. Isn't it so cute that Lisbeth is being so helpful, pointing at me? Not.

The look on Coach Lewis' face said she'd heard everything she needed to hear, and she launched into drill sergeant mode.

Diana looked back at the new girl, Erin, ignoring the tirade coming from Coach Lewis and Chelsea. They had all kinds of things to say, but none of it mattered. Diana locked eyes with Erin, and mouthed “Are you okay?”

Erin nodded, smiling, and mouthed back a silent “thank you.”

Something in the universe shifted, and Diana knew that Erin would be okay. Erin wouldn't follow her mother over the Golden Gate, because Diana had proved that someone cared. Diana smiled, getting dressed for the perp-walk that was being promised by a grown-up and the sixteen-year-old embodiment of evil.

The sun felt good on Diana's face, streaming in through the Assistant Dean's window. She played with her long black-brown hair and wondered if she should curl it, as she tuned out the Assistant Dean trying to talk Chelsea down from hysterics.

Chelsea's tantrum settled, and she finally addressed the man behind the desk in a calm voice. “Daddy...”

“Don't call me that here. I told you.”

“You need to expel Diana for this. Bringing a frog on campus and assaulting a fellow student with it is unacceptable behavior for a student at Lanebrook.”

Diana looked up as the door opened, and then sighed as her parents stepped through. She hadn't wanted to disturb them; but seeing them after so many weeks, she felt like a hole in her heart was suddenly filled. Had she missed them that much? She struggled to calm her racing heart.

“Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, so glad you could make it. Please have a seat.” The Assistant Dean said, motioning them over to the chairs nearest Diana.

“What's this about?” Diana's father said, taking a seat.

The Assistant Dean told them the story of what had happened. “We will need to take disciplinary action. Normally, the student in this case would be expelled.”

Diana squirmed in her seat, hoping her father didn't tear the Assistant Dean apart. Not that he'd literally tear him apart, but he might destroy the man socially. She knew her father. He'd see what the Assistant Dean said as an attack on the family. She could see it in the pinch around her father's eyes. He was always quick to defend her, but she knew that it was because they were so alike. Did she really care if she got expelled? She thought about it. No. She missed home, even with her little brother going through an especially obnoxious phase. Her mother appeared calm and cool, which meant there would be yelling later when they were in private.

Across the room, Chelsea straightened in her seat and glared at Diana. An evil grin threatening to lift the corners of her mouth.

Diana's father steepled his fingers. “In consideration of Diana's exceptional academic record and our considerable donations, I'm sure expulsion is not necessary.”

“It's a case of assault on another student. The rules are quite clear.”

“So expel the frog.” Diana's father said, then patted his daughter's shoulder. “All Diana did was put something on another student's unattended things. That's not assault. Check your legal definitions.”

The Assistant Dean's face turned red, and his teeth ground together. “I'm sure the Dean will not see it that way.”

“I guess it's a good thing my husband plays golf with the Board of Directors then.” Diana's mother said, crossing her legs and sitting back.

Diana couldn't help the smile that tugged at her mouth, as she watched Chelsea's eyes grow wider.

The Assistant Dean also noticed, and the oversight of breaching protocols and allowing Chelsea in the room for a private parent-teacher conference broke through the red haze clouding his vision. “Chelsea, you're dismissed.”

“But Daddy!”

He cringed when he saw John Morgan's eyebrow raise, and stood to escort Chelsea out. She hesitated, so he grabbed her by the arm and led her out, whispering reassurances in the anteroom outside before coming back in and closing the door. He paced over to his desk, and sat. He opened a drawer and pulled out a brochure, tapping it on his desk a few times before passing it to Diana's parents. “I can recommend a suspension, with return to the school contingent upon attending this Workshop for Troubled Teens.”

John Morgan got up and leaned forward, staring down at the Assistant Dean. “I can recommend your replacement for professional misconduct.”

The man behind the desk swallowed, and for the first time since Diana had seen him, he looked scared.

“Daddy, it's okay. I'll go to the workshop.” Diana heard the words come out before she could stop them. She almost cursed herself until she saw relief on the Assistant Dean's face.

He was quick to hide the reaction, pulling out another paper. “Just fill this out for Diana's file, and we're done.”

John Morgan leaned forward again. “Let me be perfectly clear. Nothing goes in her file. We'll take her to this workshop; but there will be no suspension on her record. If a whiff of it ends up in her file, you'll be looking for a new career.”

As Diana walked out to the car with her parents, she looked back at the brick walls and marble columns of Lanebrook, with the pest control people scurrying around looking for frogs.

“If you'd wanted to come home, you could have just asked.” Diana's father said, unlocking the car with the remote. The chirp-chirp sent a squirrel running toward a tree.

Diana's mother sighed as she opened the front passenger door to get in. Once they were all settled in the car, she turned back to Diana and waited until Diana met her gaze. “I'm disappointed in you, young lady. This is your future you're sabotaging. What were you thinking?”

“It wasn't-”

“I expect you to try from now on.” Her mother said, interrupting.

Diana couldn't think of how to explain. The frog had appeared as if she'd willed it into being, and then just disappeared. Just like the time when she was supposed to be watching her baby brother, and he'd crawled out the open window when she wasn't looking. She saw him fall out of the second-story window, and a surge of fear had flowed through her body. Little Bobby's potentially fatal landing on the hard earth was cushioned by a huge pile of leaves that nobody recalled putting there.

But she remembered hoping that there would be one.

Go to Chapter 2