Hey guys! How's it going? Hopefully better now that you see I've updated. Early, even!
Crowd- Whaaaaaaa?
Now, I shall respond to my wonderful reviewers!
Evil meeting bob: Hi! Um. Okay. And NEVER!
girlonfire: She's definitely good looking, but not really my type. Not that I have a type. I just see a girl I find attractive and lose the ability to function as a human being. Anyway. Men are totally clueless. Blech. How are you going to find my username when I don't even know my freaking username? Yeah you can totally call me Carrot! Though in my head I pronounce it A-dot-fan rather than A Fan. You fool! Your knife has really struck my banana peel armor! With my amazing acting skills, I collapse on the ground and roll over onto my back, faking death. As you lean over me to check if I'm still alive, I draw my banana sword and stab. "Victory!" I shout, before running off to eat banana bread. bUT NOT BECAUSE WE'RE GAY! NO NOT BECAUSE WE'RE GAY! There's actually a great animatic called "Sincerely Gay." Check it out. But yes the original song is great! It's wonderful on stage. No, I haven't seen it. I watched a bootleg. And Peggy!
Mallowmelt: I feel called out. As far as we know, everyone except Fintan was exiled and Fintan was only allowed to stay because the council liked him. Sophie didn't get banished because she had a good lawyer. ANGST. ANGST. ANGST. GAYNGST. IT'S A THING. Thanks!
Fitzphieistrash: Idk I feel like the doctors would be really specific and then write it on the birth certificates. Do elves have birth certificates?
MarellaIsTheBest: AHHHHHHHH NO PROBLEM WRITING IS LITERALLY THE ONLY HEALTHY COPING MECHANISM I HAVE ANYWAY SKSDJFDSKF. And ahh yes! That's debatably the best part of the chapter. Eheheheheehehehee. It is contagious! O.O Yes protective Tam! And AHH YES IT IS! This year went by so slow yet somehow so fast? ? ? ? I do not understand ? ? ? ? AKDSFJADSKFJDSAK THANK YOU!
Enjoy!
By the time Marella wakes up, Linh is no longer in her bed or even in the bedroom. Apparently Linh is one of those early rising weirdos, Marella decides, groaning and stretching. She would very much like to go back to sleep, but several things make that impossible, like the astonishingly loud birds outside and the blinding sunlight seeping through the window (at least she doesn't have to deal with that while in her cave) and the delicious smell wafting from downstairs. Plus, the pain in her throbbing head. That's a little distracting from relaxation.
Even though she can't fall in sleep, Marella lays in her bed for a little while longer. Hey, the waking up process is long! She needs time to not move at all and basically just be a lazy lump! Eventually, though, she realizes that if she stays in bed for too much longer, she'll be late for Exillium, and that is not something she cares to experience.
Linh, evidently, shares the same thought. She knocks lightly on the door- Marella knows it's her even before she opens the door, considering Tam's knocks sound like he's trying to break it down- and then enters the room. Her long black hair hangs down to her waist, straight and neat as ever- Marella doesn't even want to imagine how messed up her own is right now. She's wearing the bottom half of the Exillium, but not the chained vest, hood, or mask- she has a lavender tank top on instead. A warm smile brightens her face. Marella was half asleep thirty seconds ago, but seeing Linh makes her feel very, very awake.
"Hey," Linh says softly, tapping Marella's shoulder. "Wake up."
Marella tries her best to ignore the little sparks of electricity that shoot through her every time Linh's fingers make contact. "Um. Hi. Yes. Awake. I'm."
That is, if not the most stupid thing she's ever said, very close.
Thankfully, Linh doesn't make fun of her for that. She's too nice- one of the many wonderful things about this Hydrokinetic. "We have breakfast downstairs. It's this human thing called cinnamon rolls- they're super good."
"Human?" Wow, Marella is acting stupid. In her defense, she's tired, and Linh is looking very very pretty, and Marella is very very gay.
But from what Marella knows of humans, they're even worse than elves. Awful to each other, animals, and even their planet. The one they depend on for survival. In related news, humans aren't very smart either.
But hey, if they have good food...
"I'll be downstairs soon," mumbles Marella. "Just lemme get changed."
Linh nods and exits the room, leaving Marella to shake her head and cringe as she reflects on how idiotic she was that entire conversation. Um. Hi. Yes. Awake. I'm. Even if Linh is too nice to vocalize these thoughts, she must think Marella is an absolute moron. Groaning, Marella rises from the bed and stretches again. Everything is sore. Not as bad as yesterday, but still sore.
She catches a glance of herself in the mirror and instantly regrets it. Her hair is an absolute disaster. The less said about it, the better- but did Linh really see her looking that ugly? Now Marella wants to sink into a hole even more. After about thirty seconds of that not working, she just sighs and starts brushing it out, yelping aloud on some of the more stubborn knots.
She really wants to change into one of the beautiful flannel shirts calling to her from the pile of clothes she has, but sadly, that's not Exillium dress code, so she changes into the uniform and studies herself in the mirror. She looks decent, at least. Kinda pretty. Most elves are. But probably not pretty enough for Linh to stare at her and lose the ability to function as an elf.
Even if Linh was interested in girls. Which there's only a very, very, very small chance of. Because Marella's basically the only gay person she knows of in existence, other than the humans who created the term.
(Okay, so humans have good food and words for people who like the same gender. Plus, cool movies that she's watched with Dex before. So maybe humans aren't altogether terrible.)
With another lengthy sigh, Marella stops lamenting on her pathetic love life and makes her way downstairs. Partially because she wants to arrive at Exillium on time, but also because the cinnamon roll smell is making her mouth water.
And they do not disappoint. She finishes two helpings, and Willa gives her another cup of the medicine, promising that it's a stronger dose than usual so the symptoms won't be too severe when they're at Exillium. Marella gulps it down and takes out her leaping crystal, ready to go, but Tam and Linh take ten minutes having a whispered argument that Marella is far too kind to eavesdrop on.
Okay, fine. She does try. She just can't hear anything.
It's justified! She has a strong suspicion they're talking about her, anyway.
By the time they get to Exillium, they're definitely late. Judging by the boy with his hood down and the rope dangling above him, they probably missed a Dividing. Tam, Linh, and Marella arrived just in time to hear the blue coach proclaim him Right Hemisphere before ordering him to put his hood on.
"What do you mean?" whines the new kid. "It's bad enough your masks force me to hide this gorgeous face from the world, but now you want me to obscure my Hair too!? This is an outrage." His hood remains down. His Hair is definitely good looking, artfully messed up, though Marella isn't that attracted to him, considering she isn't interested in boys. Still, the Hair looks oddly familiar... well, this kid must have gone to Foxfire.
Coach Rohana looks like she wants to throttle him. "You have to wear the hood. Those are the rules."
"Well, screw the rules!" he exclaims.
Marella nudges Linh. Even though the coaches are all distracted by that boy, she keeps her voice in as low a whisper as possible as she says "I kinda like this kid."
Linh tilts her head and mouths Why?
She shrugs. "Because he doesn't like rules?" Linh shrugs too and nods.
Well, I don't like him, Tam shadow whispers. He seems annoying.
"You're annoying," says Linh. "But we keep you around." Marella claps a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. Tam looks very, deeply annoyed.
Eventually, the coaches manage to convince the kid to wear the hood and lessons proceed as usual. Body temperature regulation, which means Marella nearly freezes to death. But she isn't quite complaining, because Linh realizes that it's smart to huddle together for warmth. Marella enjoys that very much, but she's still glad when Coach Rohana announces that it's lunchtime. And they can eat in a normal temperature.
Surprisingly, the new kid approaches them rather than the other way around. "Hi, guys!" he whispers. "Can I sit with you?" He carries two orange fruits that Marella knows to be ridiculously sour.
Before she can tell him that, Tam hisses "You're not supposed to get two."
The boy shrugs. "They never said I couldn't." He glances over his shoulder to make sure none of the coaches are nearby. One would think they'd keep an eye on this boy after he tried so hard to disobey them earlier, but nope. "I'm Keefe."
Marella's mouth forms an O of recognition. She does remember him from Foxfire- even if she didn't know him personally, everyone knew of Keefe Sencen. Perpetrator of the Great Gulon Incident, object of affection for half of the Foxfire's straight female population within acceptable age limits. (The other half belongs to Wonderboy.) "How'd you end up here?" she asks.
Keefe smirks. "That's for me to know and you to never find out."
"It's probably super boring and that's why he doesn't want to tell us," says Tam with an eye roll.
"How dare you!" Keefe gasps, clutching his chest. "It was super epic, Bangs Boy." He reaches out and brushes Tam's wrist. "Besides, you're totally in awe of me- I'm an Empath, I can tell."
"Well, I'm a Shade, and your shadowvapor says you're evil."
"Yeah, 'cause looking this good should be a crime!"
"You're not-"
"My Empathy says otherwise."
Tam's head looks like it's about to explode, so Linh steps in. "Anyway, welcome to Exillium. I'm Linh and this is my brother Tam. And that's Marella."
Everyone falls silent as a coach walks by. Marella barely breathes. For someone who breaks rules so much, she's very afraid of getting caught.
"So anyway, why do you want to sit with us?" Marella asks, biting into what looks like a banana (the deadliest weapon of all) but tastes even sweeter.
"Well, the Exillium rules say that waywards aren't allowed to get close to one another, and then you guys huddled together like penguins, which was honestly kind of adorable, but also very much not following the rules. And as you might have guessed, I don't like rules, nor people who follow rules. So you guys seem fun."
"We're not," says Tam. "You're going to get us in trouble."
Right after he says it, the red coach calls "You four! No talking!"
"Anyway, nice meeting you," Marella whispers in a voice barely louder than breathing.
You too, Keefe mouths, before biting into lunch. Despite it being sour almost to the point where it's inedible, Keefe seems to like it. Weirdo. He even eats the second one, somehow, finishing just before the waywards are called back to their lessons. That brings more cold, but also more practically hugging Linh, which Marella would say cancels out, until finally, they can leave. Marella takes out her leaping crystal to go back to her cave, but Linh assures her- with Tam's reluctant agreement- that she's welcome at their house.
When she goes into Linh's room to change into that glorious, glorious flannel, she sees her imparter buzzing with a missed call from Dex. She grabs it as she heads downstairs, passing Linh in the same tank top she was wearing that morning and a dark blue pencil skirt, forgetting how to breathe, and finally sitting down in the woods near the house before calling Dex back.
Dex's face appears, sweaty and flushed. "The triplets just chased me around for like an hour," he pants. "Honestly, they're monsters. Anyway, hi, Marella!" His eyes narrow as he looks around. "This isn't your cave."
"Nope. I'm staying with some other waywards for now. But first, you need to answer some questions. Keefe Sencen just showed up at Exillium- what the heck happened!? Give me details! Was it awesome? I can't believe I missed this!"
Dimples showing, Dex nods. "Yeah, it was pretty epic. You remember I told you that there were rumors of a greater gulon incident going around?"
Marella holds her breath in excitement. "Yeah..."
"Well, those rumors turned out to be true-mors!"
"First of all, please don't call them that," says Marella. "Second of all, AHH! That's awesome! What was it like? Tell me everything!"
"Hey, true-mors is a great word," Dex argues, glaring teasingly. His expression morphs back into a wide smile. "It was absolutely amazing. So, he kind of did the same thing as last time, but he added imps, tomples, muskogs... basically all of the smelly and/or chaotic animals. Plus, he covered all of Dame Alina's prized possessions with that smelly selkie skin and they are absolutely destroyed. Rest assured, I did videotape the aftermath, and will send it to you as soon as I figure out how. Shouldn't be long."
Laughing, Marella proclaims that "Awesome!"
"So, now you have to tell me everything. Like, um, where the heck are you?"
"So, remember I told you about Linh?" says Marella, already blushing.
"Ooh! Is this her house?" Barely a second passes between when Marella nods and when Dex continues with "Did you move in? Did you guys get married!? How dare you not invite me to be your best man!"
"I'm literally twelve, Dex, we are not getting married," argues Marella, her face on fire. Not literally, though that would be possible. She's just blushing very hard. Possibly hotter than fire. "Also, that's kind of illegal. Also, she's probably not even interested in girls, and definitely not interested in me."
"Oh, so the main problem with your marriage is that she's not interested in you? But you didn't mention not being interested in her, so does that mean you are? Does Marella have a cruuush?"
"You're as bad as the triplets," mutters Marella.
"But do you?"
"A little bit." From the way Dex whoops and cheers, Marella thinks she might be hearing it firsthand and not through the imparter. If possible, Marella's face reddens further. "It's not even a big crush! I just think she's absolutely gorgeous and super nice and I get butterflies in my stomach every time I see her and I really want to hold her hand... okay, fine, I'm kind of smitten. Happy?"
"Very."
"Okay, but even if I like her, that's not going to happen! Most girls don't like girls like boys do! And I'm a walking disaster who makes a fool of myself every time I see her! And we barely even get to talk at Exillium, that's the rule."
"Marella, she's letting you stay at her house."
"Only for a few days, and that's because I'm sick! Anyway, there is absolutely no chance she likes me, okay? So I'm just going to ignore the crush and hope it disappears."
Dex's smile shifts from teasing to serious. "I wouldn't give up hope."
"Well, I would," Marella mutters, and hangs up.
Awww, Marella, don't be such a pessimist! Says the girl who tried whatever she could to get out of thinking positively yesterday. (It worked!)
Anyway, I have updated early because tomorrow is (sigh) Yom Kippur. No electronics. Also, no food. And no water. So that's going to be great. Hopefully I survive. To anyone else fasting, good luck and drink a ton of water today! Remember to not push yourself past your limits!
But don't worry. It seems like the day is going to go on forever, but it'll probably go by really fast. At least, that's been my experience shofar.
Okay, okay. I'll be repenting for that tomorrow. And for all my cliffhangers. Next update coming Monday as usual.
Please review!