Disclaimer: Alas, in this lengthy pause, I have not gained the rights to Artemis Fowl. Or managed to hunt down Her Royal Annoyance, Opal Koboi. Claimer: Quinn, Noami and Randolph still belong to me, though, so keep your dirty paws away from them!
Thank you CieloCrimisi and LiteralDay for reviewing that awful 'prologue'! I plan to sort it out once school has settled down, not to mention write more. You're both fantastic! (You're doughnuts are on their way now. :) )
Quinn Murphy owned neither spectacular wealth nor beauty, and when people discovered that her best friend was the spectacularly wealthy and beautiful Naomi Jessica Cuddihy they had a hard time believing it. They seemed opposite in almost every way, had different opinions on almost everything. The two girls were often likened to the polar sides of a magnet, which was perhaps why they were so close. After all, a magnet could not be a magnet without both a north and a south.
They, at first, did not get along at all. The teenagers, then seven, were in completely different situations: Quinn lived in an orphanage and went to the closest school, where most of the students had futures behind bars; and Naomi lived as the elite class, in one of the largest townhouses in the most expensive area and went to a girls' boarding school in preparation for being a rich man's wife.
The first meeting was quite by accident. Naomi was home for the holidays and, fed up of her nanny bossing her around, had gone for a walk around the local park. Quinn was shirking her chores (again) and was hiding in her favourite tree. And then somehow (neither girl to this day can agree upon how it happened) they both ended up at the bottom of the well. There was water up to their ankles and mud everywhere. So, seven-year-old Naomi was livid and blamed it all on Quinn, who claimed that Naomi had tripped and taken them both down.
It took about twenty minutes for the nanny to realise that Naomi wasn't in her room and for the staff to realise that Quinn wasn't washing the dishes, and another ten minutes to find them. In the half hour it took, the girls had got bored of arguing and so were found sitting in the mud and water, playing a game with a piece of string Quinn had in her pocket.
Everyone expected them to forget about each other, but against all odds, the girls had embraced their differences with open arms. Eight years later, Quinn still went to Naomi's as often as was possible.
And thus, our story begins.
Shuffling her deck of cards for the hundredth time, Quinn tried to ignore the infernal racket that was going on behind her. According to Naomi, X-Factor was one of the best shows ever created. Quinn wondered what the appeal of watching people who couldn't sing and judges making their dreams come crashing down around their ears was, but no matter how many times Naomi explained it to her, she just didn't get it.
"Can you at least turn it down?" she asked irritably. "I can't concentrate over here."
"Oh please." Naomi rolled her eyes. "Solitaire is all about the luck of the cards; it's got nothing to do with skill."
"Shows how much you know," Quinn scoffed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Solitaire isn't just about which cards turn up - it's all about strategy. You have to look for all the possibilities and be able to predict what's coming next. You need to be able to remember the order of the cards in the pile. (In Vegas, it's called card counting and illegal.) So if you distract me, you could potentially ruin the game for me because I'll have missed a vital move." Quinn waited for a response, and when she got none looked over her shoulder. Naomi was watching TV again. "You're impossible!" she exclaimed exasperatedly. Naomi glanced over and giggled.
"I know." The not-so-witty rejoinder was followed by a pillow that hit Quinn smack on the face.
"Challenge accepted!" Grabbing the pillow, Quinn jumped to her feet and rushed her friend. Shrieking with laughter, the girls battled it out. It was never clear who had the upper hand, and it wasn't now.
Suddenly, Naomi slipped off the bed and landed with a loud thump. Quinn continued to laugh, expecting the other girl to just jump right back up and whack her extra hard. But no joyful sound or feather pillow came. Her laughter petered out as she looked over the side of the bed.
She saw Naomi curled up on the carpeted floor, her face taut in pain.
"Oh god, are you okay?" Quinn dropped her pillow and jumped down to aid her friend. Who promptly flung herself into Quinn's stomach, successfully pinned her to the bed, and crushed her pillow into her face for three seconds.
"I win," the older girl smirked as she chucked the pillow back with the rest of them and helped her friend into a seated position.
"That was cheating," Quinn accused. Naomi shrugged.
"Well, technically, we never established any rules, so technically, I didn't cheat."
Quinn stared at her incredulously, and then suddenly let out a bark of laughter. Another short laugh followed, and soon she was doubled over, clutching her sides.
"Stop laughing!" Naomi pouted, pushing out her glossy lips and tears pricking at her eyes. This is more like it, Quinn thought.
"Sorry," she said aloud. "I just thought: You've been hanging out with me too much."
Naomi grinned, though it quickly faded. "Well you are my only friend."
"Same to you."
She laughed. "No, I'm serious."
"For once," Quinn muttered, teasing. Her friend continued as if she hadn't spoken.
"I mean, I've got tons of friends at boarding school but the closest lives in Cavan. The only reason I come back every holiday and other-weekend is 'cause of you." She nudged Quinn with a smile on her face. "Besides, don't you go saying I'm your only friend - I know for a fact that you've got some in that school of yours."
"Yeah, but they're all idiots. You're the smartest of all my friends."
Naomi winced melodramatically. "I feel so sorry for you..."
The girls talked for a while longer, while X-Factor changed to another mind-numbing programme, which changed to another. Before too long, a servant came up to tell the Misses Cuddihy and Murphy that supper was ready.
"Ya know," Quinn suggested on the way to the sizable dining hall, "you should really invest in a gong. That would be wicked!"
Naomi just rolled her eyes, and Quinn knew it was because of the gong comment. It hadn't been the first time and it most certainly wouldn't be the last.
Once seated, Quinn looked about the room. The table, in the very centre of the room, could fit fourteen people on plush, ornately carved chairs. The walls were adorned with paintings, and Quinn was sure even one of them could get her through a good university. She couldn't help but be intimidated and awe-inspired whenever she entered this room - or any room, for that matter. She would never be used to these surroundings, she realised, again not for the first time.
Another thing she wasn't used to was the amount of food and number of courses, not to mention the quality. The first time she'd eaten here, she'd gone back to the orphanage and thrown up. Even now, she sometimes felt a bit queasy.
Light chatter bounced across the table between Naomi and her parents while Quinn entertained the youngest Cuddihy. Devin was only three years old and quite the mischief-maker. He loved Quinn purely because she often joined in with his ventures, and even quietly encouraged them.
"Oh, and don't forget: it's your brother's parents' day tomorrow," Mrs Cuddihy said.
"So why do I have to go?" Naomi whined. Parents' day? wondered Quinn, and then remembered. It was a day of the year, near the end of the final term, when parents went to visit their sons at Saint Bartleby's School for Young Gentlemen. Any family members could go, of course, but presumably, the school board had thought parents' day sounded better than family's day. The place was one of the most elite all-boy boarding schools in Ireland, after all.
"To show your brother your support."
"Not to mention to meet potentially cute boys," Quinn added under her breath. Naomi's mouth twitched as she tried not to smile. Cute boys were Naomi's weakness, and Quinn knew it well.
"I don't have a choice, do I?" It was more of a statement than a question.
"No, you do not."
Naomi and Quinn caught each other's eyes. Quinn's widened when she realised what Naomi planned to do, and the older girl beat her to it.
"Can Quinn come?"
Mrs Cuddihy looked at her husband, who didn't even have to think about it. He smiled warmly at Quinn. "Of course she can," he said. "You are practically part of the family."
Quinn smiled back, but it was forced. Naomi's twin brother, Randolph, was stuffy enough as it was; being surrounded by a hundred boys just like him would be insufferable. Naomi was used to it. She'd grown up in a similar environment and was one of the rich. Quinn was just a dirt-poor girl whose parents had died before she could walk. She suspected it was this which made Randolph dislike her as much as he did, and so why adoption had never come up.
"I can't wait." She fought to keep the sarcasm from her voice. Naomi smirked triumphantly to herself before taking another bite of veal.
Quinn was walking through some grass. It didn't sound like much, nor did it look like much, but Quinn felt attached to this grass. As if it were important to her somehow. It stretched to above her waist and tickled her legs. Looking down, she saw she was wearing a shimmering knee-length dress. After another moment, she realised the dress was also gold.
She looked up again, taking in her surroundings. To her right was a wall that looked centuries old and seemed to stretch on forever. In front and behind her was more grass, dotted with the occasional flash of colour. The red brick wall, the lush green of the grass, and the vibrant flowers started to fade, however, when she looked to the left. There was a wide expanse of field, but in the distance, there was a slight figure. A boy.
Quinn...
A voice called to her urgently. It was a boy's voice. Maybe it was his. Quinn started to move towards him, compelled by the boy's urgency and her own curiosity.
Quinn...!
The voice was more pressing now, louder. The girl pushed herself to run, though it felt like she was running through treacle. It seemed the closer she got to the figure, the darker the world got. A wind picked up, getting rougher and rougher. It whipped Quinn's hair across her face until the only colour she could see above the grayscale was her own copper-red hair. The voice was shouting now, panicking.
And then the world disappeared, and Quinn was falling...
... Suddenly to wake up in her bed. Or rather, a bed in the guest bedroom.
"QUINN!" The boy's voice turned into Naomi's, and Quinn's eyes snapped open. Her chest hurt and her legs burned as if she really had just been running and fallen back into her body.
"Oh good, you're awake." Naomi's tone turned cheerful. Quinn turned her eyes on her best friend and glared at her.
"You are evil," she intoned tiredly, her dream and bodily aches quickly fading from her thoughts and memory.
"I know. Now get up! We've got boys to evaluate today..."
With a sigh, Quinn pushed herself up out from beneath the thick blanket. She wasn't looking forward to this visit: she would be stuck following Naomi's brother around all day and any boys she did meet would take on the holier than thou attitude.
As the car pulled up to the school, Quinn could barely stifle a gasp. She'd never seen a building so grand! The school itself was three separate buildings, the largest being also the oldest. It had three floors, with vines climbing up the crumbling brick, impressive windows and an even more impressive set of front doors. Quinn guessed they were made of oak. The other two buildings looked more recent, though they were a decade old at least. They were decorated with terracotta tile and vines had yet to make it past the ground floor windows. Clean paths joined all the buildings together and shrubbery bordered the buildings and the walls. The garden was even so big that Quinn couldn't see all of it. She'd heard the gardens were beautifully cared for, and of what she could see it was true. She eagerly hoped it was also true that there was an even more beautiful flower garden somewhere near the back of the grounds.
"I can't believe I didn't wanna come," she breathed. Naomi looked at her friend, at the school, and then back to her friend.
"Yeah, I guess it's pretty extraordinary." She shrugged.
Quinn, too astounded to argue, continued to gape. The chauffeur dropped them off outside the front of the school and then immediately carried on to keep the line moving. They made their way up the steps with Quinn trailing behind, absorbing as much as she could from her rapidly elevating height.
The entrance hall was even grander than the outside: the entire thing looked like it ought to be in an antique shop. Or a national park. Quinn wondered whether they were preserving how the original building had looked. She hoped so; the girl had always loved old buildings. She only wished she got to see them more in real life.
"What is she doing here?" a snobby complaint came. Quinn followed the noise and saw, of course, the brown-haired, brown-eyed twin of her best friend.
"I came to see your lovely school, Randy," she said brightly, revelling in his wince. "Ya know, I think I should have come long ago - it's beautiful."
"Randolph, my boy, there you are!" Mr Cuddihy slapped a hand on his son's back. "Good to see you."
"And you, Father, Mother." He gave her a reluctant hug, the one sons give their mothers in front of their friends. "Naomi." The twins smiled genuinely at each other. Watching them, Quinn realised that Randolph might be jealous of her. Before she had come along, Randolph had been Naomi's best friend and, more importantly, her confidant.
Though it didn't escape her notice that he hadn't actually greeted her.
Mr and Mrs Cuddihy, the latter especially, squeezed as many details as they could out of Randolph, while Naomi evaluated every boy she saw and Quinn trailed behind and looked at her surroundings. For a while now, she'd been toying with the idea of becoming an architect.
And it was while she was studying the stair banisters that she saw him. His paler-than-pale skin resembled a vampire's, and it contrasted greatly with his neat, raven black hair. His limbs were thin and lean, his jaw strong, and his profile handsome. When he turned, the breath caught in Quinn's throat. His eyes were unlike anything she'd ever seen: a hard deep blue, the colour of the sky just before the last light of the day fell beyond the horizon.
"Who is he?" she asked no one in particular, with bated breath.
"Who is who?" Naomi countered. She looked around excitedly for this boy. Quinn was very picky about the male appearance so anyone to capture her breath so must be very handsome indeed. But then she remembered the kind of guys that Quinn usually dated, and frowned. "Quinn," she said warningly.
"Yeah?" She looked at her friend, disappointed that the mysterious boy had gone when she had barely had a glance.
"No."
Quinn pouted.
"I'm not that bad at picking guys," she protested.
"Oh please." Naomi waved a hand in the air. "I'll give it to you that every guy you've liked since puberty kicked in has been hotter than the sun, but their personalities have left little to be desired. In fact, I've noticed the more infatuated you are, the more dangerous they are."
Quinn's pout deepened.
"Trevor was a sweetie," she pointed out, referring to her last boyfriend.
"Once you got past the honeymoon phase you were constantly complaining about how boring he was. 'I need someone who knows how to have fun,' you said."
"Fine, whatever, I'll forget him," Quinn relented grumpily.
The girls walked after Naomi's family for a few moments before Naomi asked: "You will draw him for me later, won't you?"
Quinn laughed loudly. Of course, her friend would still want a visual.
"Sure," she agreed, and then clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laugh. The richies were staring.
At two o' clock, there was an hour left of Parents' Day. Plus a three-hour journey back to Kilkenny. And Quinn really needed the bathroom.
"Is there a single girl's bathroom anywhere in this school?" she muttered to Naomi.
Unfortunately, Randolph overheard. "There are plenty of bushes on the grounds," he sneered.
"Quiet, Randy," Quinn snapped.
"Try asking one of the teachers," Naomi inserted before an argument could break out in one of the most prestigious schools in the country.
"Which ones are they?"
"The ones in cheap knock-offs." Randolph rolled his eyes. Quinn looked at him angrily.
"Don't you have a teach to kiss up to or something?"
Randolph glared at her for a moment, and then stalked off to catch up with his parents.
"He's gonna kill you one day, if you don't watch yourself," Naomi commented very un-sarcastically. Quinn glanced at her, and then remembered her predicament.
"Whatever. Let him try. But need pee. Now. Or sooner."
Naomi laughed her tinkling laugh, causing many of the nearby boys to look at her. And then to keep on looking as they saw how beautiful she was. However, she had already evaluated all males in the vicinity and deemed them not worthy.
She looked around the room. "There," she said to Quinn, pointing to a man in a suit that looked as though it had spent a week floating in starch. "I think he's one of the Science teachers."
Quinn nodded before weaving her way through the families. "Excuse me."
The man looked at her. Now that she was closer, she could also see that his hair was thinning around his temples.
"Is there a bathroom I could use? I'm sorry, but there's such a long journey home I doubt I'll make it."
"You'll have to use one in a teacher's lounge," he said, trying to act bored but obviously reluctant to part with the information. He quickly reeled off the directions and, because she didn't want to seem like a moron, Quinn nodded and set off down the corridor.
Somehow, as she was nearing bursting point, she realised she was in the dormitories. (And it's worth pointing out that this was an entirely different building.) Groaning with effort, Quinn leant against a wall. She could knock on one of the doors, on the off chance that there was a boy in there and ask to use his bathroom (they had to have personal ones here, didn't they?) but that seemed very unlikely.
She forced herself on, concentrating more with every step on trying to keep her bladder from exploding.
"There has to be something around here somewhere..." she groaned. As she turned a corner, she caught sight of one of the students and called out. "Hey! Hey, excuse me!"
The boy turned, and Quinn's breath caught in her throat in a way that was so familiar. It was the boy she had seen earlier. Close up, his eyes were even more fascinating. Though there was something in them that she couldn't put her finger on...
"Yes?" he asked brusquely. Quinn realised what that something was: nothing. His eyes were empty.
"Is there a bathroom around here I can use?" she gasped, deciding to call him out on it later.
The boy sighed. "Follow me," he said. Quinn gratefully trotted after him. "This is my room," he told her as he stopped outside a door. "Don't touch anything."
"Thank you so much!"
The boy didn't say anything.
"Oh." Quinn paused in the doorframe. "And would you terribly mind waiting for me? My sense of direction is..."
"Just hurry up," he interrupted. Without even enough time to smile a thanks at him, Quinn darted into the room.
Artemis sighed irritably to himself. Of course a girl would get lost and waste valuable time. It was bad enough he had to deal with imbeciles for an entire term and Butler not be allowed on the grounds, now he would be forced to entertain a girl. From her accent he surmised that she was from Kilkenny, and though considerably well read for the average teenagers, she was certainly not from money.
While waiting for her, Artemis leant against the opposite wall. Maybe he didn't have as much control over puberty as he thought, although he admittedly hadn't had much opportunity to test himself beyond Minerva. When he had first seen her from a distance of ten metres, her fiery, coppery hair, startlingly bright blue eyes and smooth complexion had caused his chest to constrict, but as she'd drawn closer he picked out her imperfections and quelled the feelings.
He reminded himself of those imperfections when he blinked and a mane of red hair flashed behind his lids. Her teeth were not straight; her eyes too big for the rest of her face; her nose was crooked, as if it had been broken and not set properly; there were scars across her collar.
Satisfied, Artemis nodded. He would be himself once again.
Meanwhile, inside his room, although he didn't know it, Quinn was having a poke around. His room was very clean, cleaner than her own was, though for all she knew it was regulation and there were routine checks. However, the tidiness meant that it was impossible to nosey about successfully without disturbing everything, so with a slightly disappointed sigh, Quinn went back out into the hall.
She smiled at the boy gratefully. "Thank you so much, uh..."
"Artemis Fowl the Second."
"Artemis," Quinn echoed thoughtfully. "Wasn't she the Roman goddess of the hunter and moon?"
"Greek, actually," Artemis corrected her.
"Ah, yes. Diana is the Roman one. I'm always getting those two confused..." She smiled heartily at her saviour and offered a hand. "My name's Quinn Murphy."
Artemis merely nodded. "Where are you meeting your family?"
Quinn's smile tightened and she slowly clenched her hand into a fist. "In the entrance hall," she answered. Artemis started walking and, with an angry exhale, Quinn followed.
"Oh, and they're not my family," she added once she'd caught up with him. "They're my best friend's family." She paused to give her acquaintance time to answer, and when he didn't she rolled her eyes and continued anyway. "Do you know Randolph Cuddihy?" Artemis's lip curled automatically into a sneer, something that Quinn didn't miss. "Yeah, I don't like him either. The arrogant bastard," she muttered to herself.
They walked for a few moments more. Quinn felt the want - no, the need - to talk to him grow stronger, until she couldn't keep her curiosity in. There hadn't been any personal effects in his bedroom and she was wondering about his family. She felt a morbid excitement when she wondered if he were an orphan, too.
"So how come you're not with your family?" she asked him.
For a few moments Quinn thought he wouldn't answer. But then:
"They had to leave early."
When she realised that was all he was going to offer, Quinn grinned, enjoying in the challenge.
"How come?" An innocent enough question, she reasoned.
"My brothers are very young, and there is a long journey home."
"How old are they? Where do you live?"
"They are two."
"Aw, that's such a cute age! I love little kids. I'm a kinda unofficial, unpaid babysitter back home, but most of the kids are five now and I swear Kyle's got them all believing I'm some kinda pin cushion or piñata or something..."
She kept up the babbling until they reached the ground floor of the dorm building, when she turned to Artemis and said: "Would it be okay if I could meet them sometime?"
He raised an eyebrow. Quinn shrugged as if to say, Hey, I like kids.
"I am afraid not."
"Why?"
After a beat or two, Artemis looked away. "I am sure you can find your way to the entrance hall from here."
"Okay," Quinn agreed, disappointed. Then she reached up and wrapped her arms around the boy's shoulders. He stood for a moment before placing a hand on her back for a brief second. Quinn figured (correctly) that that was the best she would get, so she pulled away, and as she did so gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"See you around, Artemis Fowl the Second," she said sweetly, maybe fluttering her eyelashes a bit more than necessary. Hey, he was really good-looking, what harm could a little flirting do?
As she walked away, she sashayed her hips just a little more than normal. Artemis missed none of these hints and, although the idea amused him more than anything else, it wasn't until he was halfway back to his room that he realised he was touching his cheek.
This is ridiculous, he thought crossly. She's just a girl, and you will never see her again. Not that it would matter even if you did.
Meanwhile, Quinn was scanning the entrance hall for the telltale pink stripe that Naomi had clipped into her hair that morning. She spotted it (and then chided herself for not thinking the obvious) by the antique mirror, and pushed her way through. Naomi saw her reflection and whirled around.
"Quinny, where were you? I've been waiting here for aaaages!"
"Sorry, Nay." Quinn smiled guiltily. "I got a little lost."
Naomi looked at her friend, and recognised the look. She smiled sneakily.
"So who's the guy?"
"What guy?" Quinn asked innocently. Too innocently.
"The one you spent ages wasting time talking with. Although maybe not that much talking..." Naomi winked at Quinn, who laughed. She had barely talked to Artemis for ten minutes, yet she knew that he would never, under any circumstances, do anything remotely close to she was thinking.
"Maybe I'll tell you later," she sort-of promised. Happy with that, Naomi grabbed Quinn's hand and pulled her away to meet up with the remainder of the Cuddihy family. And soon after, as the car pulled away from the school, Quinn looked up at the dormitories and thought of Artemis. She didn't know which way his room was facing, but she closed her eyes and imagined that he was looking out his window, watching her go. With a small smile that she knew Naomi wouldn't miss and wouldn't drop, Quinn felt her lips tingling, and imagined what could have been.
Wow. How long has it been since my last update? I am suuuuper sorry! And I hope this crazy long chapter more than makes up for it ;) haha.
I am afraid, however, that it will be a long time until my next update. Not only do I get massive amounts of homework (A levels are insane - seriously!), but I have other stories that have me wrapped around their metaphorical little fingers. It's quite pathetic, actually, though I hope at least most of you understand what I'm talking about!
What did you think of this chapter? I tried really hard to keep Artemis in character! (Did I succeed? Let me know please!) And I hope you all like Quinn - I'm trying hard to keep her away from the dreaded Sue grounds, too.
I have to admit, I'm not used to writing in third person - most of my stories, one shots, song fics and so on are written in first. I prefer it, mostly because I love how I can convey emotion and not detract from the story, because the prose is only as balanced as the narrator. In third person, there's little justification for missing part of a conversation. Also, as you may have noticed (and in only the first chapter!) that I tend to slip into other characters' points of view for a couple of paragraphs. I can't help it. So I apologise in advance for that!
Please leave me reviews! If you do, I'll give you a sexy picture of Arty surrounded by the fetish of your choice. ;) (I have a Deviant Art - very deviant indeed!) (Also... how do I respond to reviews? Is it possible? *LOLN00B*)