I would like to say that I will put both Sokeefe and Sophitz in here, but there won't be any Sodex. They're cousins (by adoption) and it would be too weird for me to try and write a ship between them.
BookNerd726: Perryling will make her appearance!
SophitzAwesome: I'm so sorry! I meant to put Elaine in the last chapter but before I knew it I hit 'post chapter' and realized about ten minutes afterwards that Elaine wasn't in there! I will put her in this chapter, though. Um… Elaine is going to be an orphan in here, because I don't know how to make them meet any way else.
I ended up finding myself stuck in a swirly tree. Hey! I was desperate to run away from Bronte, and desperate times call for desperate measures… and I must've been pretty desperate. Or panicked. I do odd things when I'm in panic. Like one time, at the airport, I started to cry because of stress. And the fact that everyone was sardine packed and I couldn't really go anywhere if I needed to run. (True story. It happened to me over spring break… I really panicked.) I quickly looked around, and realized that I was hopelessly lost… somewhere in Fitz's and Biana's back yard. Wow. That is something I never thought I'd say, ever. I quickly scrambled down the tree trunk, nearly slipping on one of the curly branches. I looked down to see how much farther I had to go… and found myself even higher up than when I began. I panicked – yet again – and scrambled down even faster. I found myself even higher up. I decided to try climbing up the tree, and I was relieved to start going down. After a couple of minutes, I looked down and saw a couple of amused faces staring at me.
"What're you doing up there, Mimi?" I scowled down at Tam. "It's Miette! Tam, get it right!" He waved my words away. I broke off the branch beside my head and threw it at him as hard as I could. My hand slipped from the tree and I squealed, scrabbling for my hold. I clutched the tree as hard as I could, my heart thudding wildly in my chest as I suppressed the urge to throw up. I had a major fear of heights. I slowly inched my way up (the tree works opposites. When I go up, I really actually go down and if I go down then I go farther up the tree, if you hadn't figured it out already). When I reached the ground, I shakily lowered onto my hands and knees, kissing the ground. "I love you so much…" I muttered, grabbing a rock and hugging it close. "I will never leave you again." I looked at the rock with a serious face as I said that.
I looked at my strange acquaintances, who were laughing. My shadow flickered angrily. Immediately Tam was on hyper-alert. He stared at me evenly. Not with hostility, not with friendliness, but with a guarded calmness. He walked over and grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. "Look, Mila–" "Miette!" "–You have to finish your speech to the Councilors and prove you're worthy to go to Foxfire." I glared at Tam with everything I had. "You mean I'm trying to prove I'm worthy enough… to go to a mushroom?" Tam's ears turned red. "It's a school, dummy!" I glared at him some more. Then I yanked my arm out of his hand and stomped off. They followed, and next thing I knew I was back in front of Councilor Bronte. He looked at me disdainfully.
"So we have another human brat to take care of. What can you do exactly, miscreant?" I leaped to my feet. "I'll show you what I can do!" I snapped my fingers and my shadow – thankfully – obeyed. It leaped towards my outstretched hand and bounced back, sending a cold wave of pure black at Bronte. Frost started to form around his nose, and his breath puffed out in chilly clouds. The room was dark and gloomy, and it was icy with the cold that came with darkness. I loved the stunned look on Bronte's face. I loved the cold more, though. Whilst I may be wary of the dark, and I may not exactly like manipulating darkness, I did enjoy the satisfaction of wintry landscapes. When it was cold, you could make snowmen and have snowball fights from behind your snow forts, and then when you got too cold or too numb, you go inside and have a nice warm cup of tea. I grinned. I had wanted the power of ice control when I saw the movie Frozen, because I loved winter so much. But alas, I got stuck with a bunch of dark stuff and rogue shadows. Very disappointing. But back to the situation at hand.
Bronte shivered slightly, his pointy ears wiggling as he shook. "You… get rid of this. Now." I willed my shadow to get rid of all the shade and cold. It – if it could – snickered at me. How dare it! Mocking me like that… I quickly realized that everyone was now staring at me. I gave a – hopefully – confident smile and tried again. Nothing happened, and I realized how embarrassing this was. My cheeks turned red, and I stifled the oncoming torrent of tears. I tried again… and nothing happened. I felt the humiliated feeling I had felt so often at school welling up inside me and my hands started to shake. I prepared to try again when all the shadow stuff faded away and it warmed to room temperature. I stiff felt mortified though. I tried to smile, but failed miserably. A Councilor with brown hair spoke up. "I am Councilor Terik, and I think that that was a wonderful display. You have much potential, although it seems that you don't like it that much. You are… modest, to say the least." I was stunned. This guy just said my display was wonderful. I had failed, I didn't even know how all the dimness left; I didn't do any of it except bring the whole load of black in. Terik smiled. "I vote she stays." A princess-y councilor with bright blue eyes and soft blonde ringlets gave me a thumbs-up. "I second Terik's vote." A councilor who was pursing her lips and smoothing her caramel-ish hair in a mirror sighed. "I suppose I will say she can come." I frowned at the Caramel Councilor. A dark-skinned councilor snorted.
Everyone turned to stare. The blonde councilor grinned. "What was so funny, Emery?" Emery's lips twitched. "I don't think that Alina would approve…" Caramel Councilor snapped away from the mirror. "What would I not approve of?" She snarled. Alarm bells went off in my head and my back stiffened. Her voice turned sickeningly sweet. "Emery," She purred. "Tell me." I screeched – rather loudly – and shoved my hands over my ears. The way she talked… it made me want to scream all my secrets to the world. Alina snarled at me, stomping over to stick one rather dangerously sharp manicured nail at me. "What are you going on about? Stop that right now!" I tightened my hands over my ears. Don't listen to her, danger, danger, don't listen, something's not right… You know that voice in your head that warns you when something bad is about to happen? I should've listened to it. You see, I really hate when people touch me. All the germs on their hands, the uncertainty of when the hands might've last seen a sink and soap… well, this Alina grabbed my face. And if there is anything that I hate more than being touched by dirty hands, it's aforementioned dirty hands touching my face. (So true guys. I don't like being touched. That's why I don't hug people. I'll pat them on the back, but that's about it.)
"Ewww! Get your hands off of me!" The blonde councilor and Keefe both looked like they were going to be sick. Disgust bubbled up into my stomach, and all I could think about were all the germs that were probably all over my face. "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, EW!" I lunged away from Alina as fast as I could, shouting 'ew' over and over again. Alina scowled. "What is wrong with you? I take back my vote. I don't need an insane child in a school as nice as Foxfire." I froze. Insane? Me?! I laughed. And I laughed. And I laughed. I pressed my hands to my ribs and laughed some more. "Insane? You want to talk insane?" Alina glared at me. "All right little brat. Lay it out. Talk insane."
I grinned. "You think I'm insane? I am standing in a room full of people who think that they're Elves. Elves! Now you tell me, who exactly is insane here? Elves don't exist! They're part of stories made up to tell children before bed! They're slaves to an old fat guy in red and make toys for kids! They aren't real!"
Everyone stopped. Tam's ears were redder than I'd ever seen them. Granted that was only once (now twice), but it was something. He walked quickly over and ushered me out the door. I was glad he didn't try to grab my arm. After we got outside of the room, he pulled me aside and pointed at his shadow. It darted off. I backed away from him, instantly alert. Tam flicked his silver bangs out of his eyes. "Look, Misha–" "Miette." "–you can't be saying stuff like that. We are Elves. You are not human. You are Elf. Like we are. Ok?" I looked at him. He looked at me seriously. I backed away some more, suddenly wondering where his shadow is. As if reading my mind, he said, "My shadow is making sure no one is eavesdropping."
I gave myself a moment to really look at Tam. I mean really look at Tam. He was taller than me, and he wasn't exactly buff. He was lean and his hair was fairly long. Tam smirked. "Checking me out?" I rolled my eyes. He was pretty cute. "You wish." He stepped closer. "Oh, I do wish." I backed up, my face flaming. He laughed. "I was teasing. I don't wish," He looked at me closely. "Yeah, I don't wish."
My face flamed again. "How dare you? What are you suggesting? Am I fat? Y'know, I don't care." I muttered, glancing at my stomach. I couldn't help but pinch myself, though. Tam smacked my hand away. "You aren't fat. So stop that." He turned away, but paused before he went back into the room. "You really do need to accept the fact that you're an Elf. And you need to know that those pillows hurt." He disappeared into the living room. I followed. Sophie was sitting beside Fitz, who was talking to her animatedly. Keefe was sitting by himself, and Biana and Linh were painting nails. The Councilors were arguing with each other quietly, and who I later found out were Alden, Della, Edaline, and Grady, were having some sort of purple-y blue swirled drink.
Alina glared at me distastefully. "The human brat is back." Oralie smiled at me, even though she looked bothered by Alina's rude remark. Emery sighed, before speaking. "It appears that we are at a tie for you to go to Foxfire. Anybody can switch. Either that or we need a tiebreaker." Nobody seemed to want to switch sides. Nobody wanted to be a tiebreaker either. Then… "I'm changing sides." A Councilor spoke fluently. I froze. Where would I go if I didn't get into Foxfire? Emery looked a bit disappointed. "Miette… you'll be attending Exilium. You will be living with the other orphaned children at one of the buildings on the outskirts of Atlantis." I decided not to ask questions about Atlantis. "Your uniform will be delivered by tomorrow evening, and you will start school the day after that. Tam and Linh will take you to the orphanage. You can stay with them until we clear up another room." Tam looked irritated. "So no one here wants her?" I looked at Tam. He was… bothered. By what, I didn't have the faintest idea. Tam held out his hand. "I suppose you'll be staying at the orphanage with us and a couple of other kids." I was curious about the other kids. But I didn't question him. I did question his outstretched hand though. He sighed.
"Look, are you coming to Atlantis or not?" I hesitated. Then I mentally shook myself. I had been kidnapped, told I was an Elf, had a pillow fight with a guy I barely knew, and had been told I was going to an orphanage to live with aforementioned guy and his sister. "Wait. I have a human friend, her name is Perryling, and I want her to come. I don't care if she's human, I will refuse to stay here unless she gets to come too. She is one of my best friends and I will run away if she can't come."
Alina looked downright furious. "No! No more selfish little girls!" I narrowed my eyes. "Then I run away and find my way home." Emery cleared his throat. "Actually, we already sent a report… as far as the world is concerned, you died in a car accident." My world spun. "Do… do what now?"
"We needed you to disappear, or something. So… we made it seem like you died in a car accident." I choked back a sob. I had a cat at my apartment, I had classes to attend, I… I had family. Emery patted my shoulder. "I… I can't… I'm a… I'm an orphan… everyone… I'm dead…" I felt the tears streak down my face. I took off my glasses and wiped away my tears, but with every tear I wiped away two replaced them. I wrapped my arms around myself and took Tam's outstretched hand. He lifted his pathfinder and we light-leaped away.
The orphanage was a very nice building. But that didn't numb the fact that I was now going to stay there. That I… that I had no family. (Guys, I do have my family. A lovely mom, dad, and brother. And lots, and lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Like two aunts on my dad's side, two uncles on my dad's side, one uncle on my mom's side, and lots of cousins and some of their kids. I have a huge family. Not to mention two dogs in my family, plus like four of my aunt's dogs, two dogs with my dad's parents, a cat with my dad's parents, and I don't know if there are any chickens left. Yes, my dad's parents had chickens. But I think they all either got eaten or sold)
My heart thudded as Linh showed me her and her brother's room. "Hey, Miette, think of it like an eternal slumber party! The party never stops!" I held nothing in my hands. No clothes, no personal belongings. I dropped onto my new bed and felt a little better. It was the softest, coziest bed that I had ever sat on. No way did I feel any better though. I pulled my phone from my pocket. No signal. I felt tears drip down my cheeks. I just wanted to see someone – anyone – who wasn't an elf. I wanted my stuffed animals too. I wanted to see my friend Perryling and bring her here. Then she'd get to see all of the cool things here and being here without friends would be less unbearable. I'd have a friend! I could already picture her reaction. Brown eyes flashing, shaking her head, grumbling, "And why have you not brought me here before?" And then I would nudge her until she smiled and joked about not seeing midgets in tights and pointy bell shoes. And then I would tell her that they were behind on the toys this year and Christmas might be cancelled, and then we would burst out laughing. I gave a small smile. Another girl entered the room. She was fidgeting with a cool-looking little gadget. Every once in a while it would flash and a few wires would spark. "Oh hi you must be new here! I'm Elaine, it's so nice to meet you! Most of us orphans don't have our parents because they were part of Neverseen and were Exiled, or died in the war with Neverseen. You'll see quite a few of us here." Elaine's shoulders sagged. "I didn't know mine were part of Neverseen. Sometimes I'm allowed to visit, but most of the time the Councilors think that we don't need any more influence from former Neverseen members." I looked at her for a moment. "I am Miette. I don't have any family because they think I died in a car crash. The Councilors did that to them." Elaine covered her mouth. "Oh Miette!" I shrugged. It didn't matter. What's done is done, and I couldn't change that.
Councilor Emery entered. "Miette, in order to guarantee that you will not run away or do anything rash, we have invited your human friend to stay." He nodded and in came Perryling. "Oh Perryling! I was worried they wouldn't let you come." She looked around, glaring at Tam when her eyes rested on him. "That kid got one of your punches, didn't he? I guess that means that you don't like each other?" Perryling pointed to the bruise under his eye. I glanced at Tam before shaking my head. "He's cool. I guess." She grinned. "It's so cool here. How'd you find it?"
I glanced at Tam. "I didn't. He kidnapped me."
I hope I got Perryling's and Elaine's personalities right! I realize I haven't updated in a while… I have been quite busy with my schoolwork… I have tons of homework. AND I had benchmarks for science and social studies, and a state exam for reading. I'm in algebra, so I'm going to be taking an end of course exam in about a month, and also in about a month I'll have social studies and science state exams. I need to study for the math, especially quadratic formulas since they are super confusing for me. And I had overdramatic friends so… that's why I haven't updated recently.
