Chapter One: A Green Invitation
We need to talk, today. Meet me after school in the greenhouse.
- Fleur
What was it about Fleur Chevalier that made her stand out in school? Better yet, why did she slip a note in my locker through the slit? It's not like she could have gotten the locker wrong. Mine had the swastika drawn on with permanent marker by someone, probably a bully over five years ago. Not to count, the locker number above the handle. She was literally a fashion idol and I was an unrecognisable nerd of middle school. She was head cheerleader and I'm not even the dungeon master for my dungeons and dragons group. I walked into the cafeteria for lunch none the wiser.
I grabbed my tray, collected my food and went to the geek's table. Alice looked at me.
"What's up? You look like you're under the effects of an exhaustion spell," her strawberry blonde hair falling in curly locks over her scrutinizing green eyes. As our resident death domain cleric and healer, she was one of those people who looked on the dark side of life before brighter. She claimed that being a B negative made her an eternal pessimist. I just considered her as a literal soothsayer, of the present.
"You know, you never did cleanse me of my last ailment," she grinned.
"Maybe you need to look after yourself for once. Instead of fighting three skeletal archers by yourself." We were leaning over the table, staring each other in the eyes daring our opponent to break first. Paul laughed into his chips. Melanie followed soon after. Alice broke and I yes-ed in a victory.
"How can you guys not be dating?" Melanie inquired, moving a strand of loose black hair behind her acne scared face. It was almost impossible to not notice her and Paul holding hands between them.
"He's way too tall and too stringy." Alice immediately replied. "He'd be broken in a second." Paul made a face that looked like 'ouch'. Alice readjusted her shirt to cover some lame tattoo of a Chinese character. She claimed it meant hope long lasting but who was I to judge?
"Thanks," I replied as I swooped over the table and took one of the boa buns from her plate. She grabbed a sandwich from mine. The mutual plate share of Brooklyn High. Now that I thought about it, why did Alice stick with us? If she put more effort into straightening her hair, cutting her nails and wore more makeup I could definitely see her with the popular kids or at least with one of the jocks. Why was she here?
"Again, what's up?" I looked to Alice, a piece of lettuce from the sandwich caught in the corner of her lips. Paul put down his sandwich and let go of Melanie's hand.
"Is this one of your physic powers Alice because you honestly can scare us sometimes." She sighed, placing the BLT down.
"Life just seems to follow a pattern here Paul; Morning Class 1, Class 2, Lunch, Afternoon Class 1, Class 2 Break, Final Class and out. Every day the same bullshit but occasionally, you can tell when something changes." She turned away from the couple and back to me. "So, what happened?" I told them my day.
"Even if that note is true," Alice began with a mouthful of bun and beef. "You shouldn't go," She'd recovered first from the news about the note. Melanie nodded in agreement.
"If that is true, more than likely she wants something." I looked at her. She must have thought I looked upset. "Not that you aren't attractive," she yelped. "It's just that we are the bottom of the social ladder. She has nothing to gain from us."
"Maybe she wants someone with personality and not just abs, like the dudes on the football team." I smiled.
"We literally had the winter dance three weeks ago. She was with Shamus Loudwater, no competition here." Alice thought over what I'd said.
"Yeah, can't really compete unless it is video games. If you are like a level three, he's like a level thirty."
"Ummm, the fifth edition only goes up to level twenty." Alice looked up at Paul's remark.
"Yeah, he's unable to be the same."
"Aren't we distracting from the point here?" We all looked to Melanie, her loose strand of hair back over her nose. "We are advising on whether he should or shouldn't go see Fleur. I say no."
"I second it," Paul remarked. Always as supportive to Melanie, in my mind, I counted his vote as bias and as such invalid. Alice shrugged.
"I say do it, only if you feel safe." She poked at the pitiful serve of salad she had been given on her tray before losing her appetite.
Did I or didn't I? That was the question. As the siren rang we quickly rushed off. Melanie and Paul headed off for their dance classes. Alice and I however headed off for biological science studies. I walked in with Alice, just as the siren went again. Fleur was talking with her friends near a table at the back. For a second, a single moment, her eyes broke off from her friends to me. In that one moment our eyes locked, call is psychic or something else, but I now knew that note was meant for me. She broke contact and laughed at her friends joke.
Alice elbowed me in the arm as a voice called out."Mr Shaller!" I lifted my head up from my textbook to Mr Saymore. He was one of those young teachers that the female students couldn't help falling for. He had a sharp jawline and stubble. Not to mention, he also near constantly wore tight-fitting shirts that showed off his broad shoulders and defined physique. I however, as like the girls admired him but not for his appearance but his passion for science. If the stereotype for nerds was fat and antisocial, this nerd broke the rules.
"Yes, sir?" He smiled down at his laptop by his desk.
"Top mark, as usual, but you need to use the approach entailed by the textbook. Although it is valid in the field, the academic board will mark it as a fail on your final exam." He looked up and we nodded to each other.
"Fleur, since you aren't absorbed in your studies, want me to read your critic aloud or will you come up and discuss privately?"
"I'm fine with you reading it aloud," she replied.
"You did excellent as usual but you need to ascertain your classification chart better. You define a creature by its adaptations rather than general appearance.
"Okay sir," I looked back to her as Mr Saymore called out the next student. She was already looking back at her friends gossiping.
"I honestly wonder how she gets those good grades?" Alice peaked over my shoulder, her hair falling down.
"Bribes a fellow student?' I chuckled at her remark. To be fair, she had been no better till I had become her science partner last year. She was your typical outcast girl. She'd kept to herself and never spoke to anyone. I inquired whether she'd be my lab partner for the year and initially she'd been the worst partner. She didn't contribute, she didn't take notes. After me rushing a three week assignment, three broken test-tubes and a flooded disabled bathroom (seriously don't ask) we'd become inseparable.
As the siren went off, I packed up my lab equipment. As I was putting away my textbook, a pale pair of knuckles rapped against the counter. Alice and I looked up. Fleur was standing in front of our desk. Her white hair falling in curls down her face.
"Can we help you?" Alice asked. Her curls seemed to be more red than strawberry, as if she were angry. Fleur walked off. Making her way for the exit, she seemed unfazed by Alice's reaction.
I walked outside the campus building via the back doors, Alice following closely. Our high school wasn't able to fund excursions, instead, they got anonymous funding to build a greenhouse, one of the largest in town. They gave the goods grown to a local homeless shelter, where it was often made into soup.
"I'll be here. You talk to her, get out and talk to me." She smiled, taking my backpack from me. "I'll look after your stuff, just in case it's a prank."
"Thanks," I replied. I shakingly exhaled and walked to the greenhouse, it's walls steamed up and fogged from the inside.
I walked into the glass building, through the only door, and immediately was hit with a wave of heat and moisture. My red hair quickly becoming damp in the humid environment. I had walked less than a meter in when I hear her. She was behind me, standing in front of the door, now closed behind me.
"So, you came..." Fleur seemed almost to not believe her luck. What else was I going to do?
"What do you want?" She leaned against the door, completely relaxed. Seductive, maybe?
An audible click resonating through the air alluding to her locking the door. We were sealed inside alone.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" She looked up me, her flawless blue eyes appeared to be the same colour as bluebell lamps. She suddenly turned back to the plants.
"I've noticed that your biology scores are exceptional, well beyond our year average." That may be true as I was looking to be a forensic botanist, specialising in entomology, and as such I spent more time than any other subject studying for it.
"So what's this actually about?" She smirked.
"A girl can't catch up with a male classmate?" What was she? I always expected her to be kind and polite. Now she was just acting like she was innocent and oblivious to her actions.
"She can, but I have the feeling you aren't. So why did you give me that letter?"
"You got a letter?" She asked. I was being interrogated, I was cornered in a glass box.
"Why don't you answer my question first?" She paused.
"I sent that letter to you, written in gold-ichor ink. Only certain people can see it. My turn, did you show anyone else?" I though over it, no. I'd told my friends but that wouldn't be a lie.
"No. What do you mean special people?"
"My people, or more specifically, our people." I was hesitant to respond.
"Our people? What do you mean by that?" She smiled.
"The same as your mother. You stole my question. Did she ever tell you?" What was with these questions? She was absolutely freaking me out.
"Tell me what?"
"If you want to know, why not ask your mother?" She stepped aside, the lock unlocking with an audible click, allowing me to leave. I started to make a way for the door. "Realise however, your life will never be the same again."