"It's A Boy"
Note: Roy and Brinna begin school, and their teacher's reputation has already taken on a life of its own. What is Miss Auralea really like, though? And how will Roy and his sister cope with the unfamiliar experience of facing a schoolyard bully? Roy also learns a difficult truth about his wings.
Roy and Brinna appear to be between 5 and 6 here; kindergarten age. Unlike most of my characters, Miss Auralea has a face to go with her name! When I was coming up with her character, the actress Jessica Tandy immediately came to mind. If anyone has seen Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds', where she plays Lydia Brenner, Miss Auralea has the same hairdo and stern expression.
"Chapter 10: A Much Bigger Pond"
Summer in the Fairy Town had been unseasonably hot the year that Roy and the children of his generation were to begin their education. He and Brinna sat in the shade of an enormous poplar tree in Connor's yard, along with Connor and Siobhán, and the children (even prim little Siobhán) had removed their shoes and socks. Roy, not content with this, also shrugged out of his light summer vest. "I don't know why Mother Nature makes it get so hot," he complained, fanning himself with his wings. "And I don't see why we have to wear so many things."
Brinna snorted as she added another flower to the chain she was making. "If you had your way, you'd walk around all day in your smallclothes."
"Would not!" Roy scowled indignantly as his friends giggled at this. "I just wish we could wear lighter stuff, that's all."
Connor shook his bright orange hair out of his eyes; he was in need of a trim, which he would have to get later that evening whether he liked it or not. 'It wouldn't do,' his mother had said, 'to go to school looking like a ragamuffin.'
School...
This was the current topic of discussion, and was a source of great anxiety for the young Fairies. "I heard Miss Auralea is an evil witch who eats naughty children for dinner! Rah!" Connor mock-lunged at the girls, which only had the desired effect on one of them; Brinna merely rolled her eyes and 'tsked' as if such behavior was beneath her.
Siobhán, on the other hand, was quite startled. She squeaked and moved closer to Roy, nearly snapping her flower chain and undoing a half hour's worth of work. Or, rather, she shifted away from Connor, and Roy just happened to be on the other side of her. The future Tooth Fairy glanced uncomfortably at her, but decided to allow this. He scornfully waved a dismissive hand. "Nawww, that's stupid. She woulda been put in prison if she was bad, and besides, there'll be lots of us and one of her."
The mischievous glint left Connor's eyes and he turned pensive. "Nah, you're right. I heard she's really strict, though. And that's for true."
"I'm used to strict," Roy shrugged and plucked a blade of grass. "My dad's strict."
Brinna grinned in a rather preening manner. "Not to me, he isn't."
Ouch. Why did she have to point that out? "That's 'cause you're the baby. And a girl. And because I'm gonna have to take over for Momma someday, so I gotta follow the rules."
"Well, I could be the Tooth Fairy, and you could do something else. It's a girl's job anyway. Everyone says so." Brinna chattered away, unaware of the hurtfulness of her words.
Roy compressed his lips into a thin line, going very red under his tan.
Connor saw his friend growing more and more uncomfortable, and since they were already on the subject of jobs he chimed in. "My dad says when I'm older I'm gonna be a farmer like him and Grandpa Anwell."
Roy was idly plucking blades of grass and tearing them into tiny pieces. "Why do you have to go to school, then? You don't need to read and write for that, do you?"
"Yeah, I do. He has to keep a 'ledgie', or something. It's a book. People send him orders, and he sends 'em out to the market. And I have to learn math." He stuck out his tongue.
"I like math," Siobhán declared as she joined her flower chain into a loop and placed it upon her head. Or, rather, she tried to, but it was too long, and her crown ended up becoming a necklace. She acted as if this had been her intention all along and added, "I've been learning how to do math with an abacus."
"Abby-what?" Roy scratched his head, and as he buried his fingers in his hair he could feel that his scalp was slick with sweat. It really was what his dad liked to call a 'scorcher'!
Siobhán sighed and explained with exaggerated patience. "Ab-a-cus. It has beads on it, and you count them. Like, you have six beads on one side, and if you push three away, then you have three."
"No, you still have six," Roy plucked a dandelion that had gone to seed, and dispersed the fluffy white seeds with a puff of air. "You have three here, and three there."
"No, no, no, you move three away, so they don't matter anymore, and then you still have three!" Siobhán was irritated now. Boys can be so thick sometimes!
"Fine, fine," Roy raised his hands placatingly and conceded, disappointed that she hadn't gotten his joke. He supposed it wasn't a very good joke anyway. "You're right, there's three." Why do girls get so mad sometimes?
Mollified, Siobhán fluttered up to sit in the branches of the tree. The other children followed, and Brinna placed her flower crown on top of Connor's head. The crown fell down a bit to sit at a rakish angle, and after they all had a good laugh at expense he decided to own it and leave it there. The crown belonged to him now.
"I wish we didn't have to go," Siobhán sighed. "Why can't we stay like this forever? I like playing."
Roy quite agreed. "Yeah. Grown-ups don't have any fun." He cleared his throat and lowered his young voice to a passable (if high-pitched) imitation of his father's growly voice. "Ahem. 'Dear, have you seen my slippers?'" He fluttered his wings and replied to himself in a falsetto, "'Have you looked under the bed?' 'Oh, here they are. Gah! That blasted cat! There's a hairball in there!' And that's how much fun they have."
During this whole demonstration, he paced back and forth on a thick branch as he acted out the parts, curling his bare toes on the rough bark to help keep his balance; for his father, he threw back his shoulders and swung his arms in what he thought was a very manly swagger, and for his mother he put a bit of a wiggle into his walk with one hand on his hip. His friends and his sister nearly laughed themselves out of the tree, but their wings saved the day. Before they could resume their talk, however, they heard the grown-ups calling from the house.
"Roy! Brinna! Time to go home!" came Fergus's booming voice, prompting a collective groan from the quartet.
"That's our Dad," Roy sighed.
"Siobhán! Time to go!"
"And that's mine." Siobhán called back, "Coming, Daddy! I gotta go, bye!" She fluttered out of the tree and floated across the yard on delicate pink wings.
"Connor! Come inside, you need a bath and a haircut before dinner!"
Connor sighed and called back, "Coming, Dad! Looks like I gotta go, too." He gave his undersized red wings a buzz before rising up out of the branches and zipping towards his house, dodging imaginary foes and executing a graceful barrel roll before landing near his friend and the grown-ups.
The siblings looked at the house in the distance and then at each other, and they considered disobeying their father and staying there for a minute or two longer. It was cool up there, shaded as they were among the leaves, and they didn't want that day, as hot as it had been, to end. This was their last day of freedom, after all.
"Roy! Brinna! I can see you! Get out of that tree this instant; it's time to go home! I need to have dinner ready when your mother wakes!"
Roy and Brinna each heaved a dejected sigh and left the tree to gather up their socks and Roy's vest. They spotted Connor's black and white striped socks along with Siobhán's pink and purple ones, and they doubled back to get those as well. Connor's shoes lay in the grass, having been casually kicked off; Siobhán's shoes sat neatly against the trunk, her socks carefully rolled up and tucked inside to keep them from becoming dirty. Roy and Brinna gathered up their friends' discarded belongings and unhurriedly joined the small group that stood at the front door of Connor's tree house.
Fergus folded his arms and tapped his foot as his miscreant children came in for a landing. "I know you heard me calling you."
"Sorry, Daddy..."
"Sorry, Dad. It's hot, and..."
"Never mind." Fergus lost some of his forbidding demeanor and herded them closer to the house.
Roy and Brinna relaxed, seeing that they weren't in trouble. Not really.
Their fathers were all discussing the boring things that adults seemed to think were so very important, and Connor had already gone inside. Siobhán's father had picked her up and was holding her while conversation droned on, and she looked appropriately bored.
"And the currant wine is nearly ready to be sold at the market, but I'll put some aside for you," Connor's father, John, was saying.
Fergus shook his head. "Thank you, but I don't drink."
Siobhan's father, whose name was Michael, also looked uncomfortable. "No, you must let me pay for it."
"Bah, we have a surplus this year, it's no hardship for me to share with my friends."
"And it is no hardship for me to pay for it."
Siobhán rolled her eyes and looked down at Roy and Brinna. All three of them sighed, as if to say 'there they go again!'.
"Well..." John rubbed his chin, his bright orange stubble rasping as he considered the matter. "I suppose we could barter. A fox got into my henhouse the other day and did quite a bit of damage. I've still got six hens, but no rooster. How about a cask of wine in exchange for a rooster and three hens?"
"Hmm...I only have one rooster at the moment, but he's fathered many chicks. At least one of them is bound to be a rooster. How about one hen and a dozen chicks?"
"You've got yourself a deal!"
Fergus was silent during this exchange, looking as bored as the children. Of course John wasn't going to give away his wine for free, because it wasn't socially acceptable to say yes to the offer. A counter offer had to be made, one that benefited both parties, and a lot of people seemed to really enjoy these exchanges. Not Fergus. He could never understand why people couldn't just be up front about what they were really offering, or about what they wanted.
Now that Brandel was gone and his children were safe, Fergus had resumed his work as a tanner (although on a very part-time basis), and he had little doubt that he would be expected to donate the leather to make bridles and whatnot for the plow horses. The farmer had recently been complaining about the state of them, and had been heavily hinting that it would soon be time to acquire new gear. If Fergus were to accept the wine, he would have had to make such an offer, which would mean going to the man he sold his leather to and requesting a special project...and, consequently, having to pay extra to have it done to John's specifications.
This was all well and good, not wrong in and of itself, but the back-and-forth social dance just made Fergus want to scream sometimes. It wasn't as if Fergus's family was hurting for money, but he didn't like acknowledging this fact, and it was the principal of the thing. So many unwritten social rules that everyone just seemed to know, but that he hadn't been aware of until he had made some kind of embarrassing blunder. Now he knew the rules, but he simply had no interest in playing the game.
And, more importantly, Fergus had been telling the truth when he said that he didn't drink. It made no sense to him to do the whole 'barter dance' for a cask of wine that would just sit in their basement and gather a coating of dust. He remained silent out of politeness until the exchange was over, then cleared his throat. "I really should get these two home. School starts in the morning, and they'll need to be ready."
"Oh. All right, then." John looked mildly put out, but he smiled at the children. "Well, this is exciting! You be sure and get plenty of sleep, you two. Busy day tomorrow!"
Siobhán waved goodbye, which Brinna and Roy returned; Brinna with enthusiasm, and Roy with the awkwardness of a boy who didn't really like girls yet but thought that this one was all right, and who didn't want to be rude because his father was watching.
This was really it. Their childhoods, once so carefree, would now be filled with words and numbers and Oberon knew what else, and it would all be taught by the meanest schoolmarm in the history of schoolmarms, if Connor was right. And Connor's family was distantly related to Miss Auralea's, or so old Mr. Anwell claimed, so why wouldn't he be right?
Connor was just trying to scare us.
Roy watched with great interest as his father washed, chopped, and added a medley of vegetables to a large pot of what he called 'summer's-end stew'. While his sister chattered on about their day with Connor and Siobhán and their father absently gave the occasional 'uh-huh', he was just taking in everything that his father was doing. It's too hot for stew, though...We should have cake instead! Cake is yummy! And it doesn't make you all hot when you eat it...
"Oh...Roy, I forgot the bay leaves." Fergus said, his way of 'asking' his son to go and get them for him.
The child didn't mind. He enjoyed helping his father, and he found that he enjoyed the whole cooking process as well. Especially when it came time to eat it! Well...except for lima beans and stewie-pewie tomatoes. "Here ya go, Dad. I got 'em real fast this time!"
"Ah, very good." Fergus gave an almost-smile, one that reached his eyes but didn't quite touch his mouth, but Roy saw it all the same. "Thanks, son."
Ever since that day when the Bad Man was no longer a threat, his father had grown even more distant than ever. It had been a little while now since Roy had called him 'Daddy', although Brinna still did so.
If Fergus noticed this, he gave no outward sign. After adding three bay leaves to the bubbling pot, he settled himself down on a nearby stool and mopped his forehead with a sleeve. "Whew...It's a real scorcher today."
An evil witch...
Eats naughty children...
Connor was full of beans! Lima beans, to be precise. Still...
Still...
"Um...Dad?"
Fergus grunted in response, reaching up from his seat to take a wooden spoon and give their dinner a stir. His mind seemed to be elsewhere.
"Do we have to go to school tomorrow? I mean...I'm just gonna be doing a lot of flying, right? And Brinna can just go get married and not have to work."
"Eww, not me!" Brinna gave a full-body shiver of disgust at the idea. "You go get married, and I'll be the Tooth Fairy!"
Fergus snorted and shook his head. He saw no need to point out the fact that Carriers, or female siblings of boys born with small wings, very rarely married due to the fact that they carried the trait in their blood. No, Brinna would have no choice but to join the workforce, and besides, he had no desire to think of either of his children being old enough to marry. Little as they were, he could keep them safe at home. "That's your brother's job, as I've told you many times before. And we'll have no talk of marriage when you haven't even started school. To answer your question, yes you do have to go. All Fairies must have a basic education, and yours begins tomorrow."
"But..." Roy trailed off, knowing that he would get nowhere. Once their father had decided, he had decided. They would go.
"Now, your mother will be up soon. Go upstairs and wash your hands for supper. Scrub your fingernails, and use soap. That means you, Roy."
"Supper for us, breakfast for Momma," Brinna pointed out helpfully.
"Right. Quick, now. I want to see you both back here in ten minutes." Fergus turned his back as if this were a foregone conclusion. Which, of course, it was. His children jogged out of the room to squabble over who had dibs on the fluffiest face towel.
Fergus stood up and arched his back in a spine-popping stretch before tasting the stew to see what it was missing. "Hmm...needs marjoram."
He had almost gotten to like cooking. Almost. At any rate, he was good at it, and it was second nature to him now. But he yearned to be out of the house! It had been good to get back to work, and away from the pressures of fatherhood. And his biggest pressure, it seemed, came from the shadow of his own father. His children could be quite a handful, and he often found himself growing impatient and angry with them. When this happened, he would pull back. And the hurt look his son gave him not too long ago when he told Roy to go back to his own bed after a nightmare instead of hugging him told him that at least one of his children had noticed.
It had hurt his heart to see his little boy hang his head and trudge out of the room, but he hadn't been able to make himself take it back at the time. It wasn't even that he was being stubborn in a 'what I say goes' way, either. It was almost as if he had frozen.
He had shown Roy how to make an acorn-top whistle the next day, and the boy was happy again, but Fergus knew that he had made yet another blunder.
Denying my son a hug when he was scared and really needed one...I really am becoming more like him every day...
But the day that Fergus had sent Roy back to his own bed, Roy and Brinna had been in rare form. Bored and fractious, they had been fighting more than usual, and Fergus had had it up to his earlobes with the incessant cries of 'Roy pinched me!' and 'Brinna stole my hat and won't give it back!' and 'stop copying me!' and 'I'm not touching you!', and he had simply wanted some peace and quiet. That rising irritation...what if he snapped? What if he hurt them?
Which, of course, he never did. He was too controlled for that. He would not engage when he was angry. It was better this way.
Is it, though?
Fergus sighed. Brandel's shadow lingered still. It was cast across his own heart, it seemed.
"Daddy! Roy got soap in my eyes!" Brinna tattled from upstairs.
"I didn't mean to, the soap fell in the bowl and splashed her!"
Fergus closed his eyes and sighed again. "Rinse it out with a little plain water, and it'll be fine. Roy, be more careful."
"Tattletale..."
"Butterfingers..."
Fergus rubbed his aching temples and shut his eyes. "Enough, you two. I mean it."
They obeyed.
Pumpkin, a half-grown cat by now, lay curled up beside Roy's head on his pillow that night. She wouldn't stay there the whole night, of course; there were hunting skills to sharpen, and her sisters were the usual prey, just as she was theirs. None of them ever caused any injury to the others, and the games were great fun! Just a quick cat nap, and then it would be time to really get down to business.
Roy tossed his head on the pillow and murmured softly, a frown pinching his little face as he clutched his blankets to his chin.
The cat awakened at the slight disturbance, and she lifted her head and stared at him. The moon was reflected eerily in her emerald green eyes and she flicked an ear, more curious than concerned. Normally, her little master slept like a log. This was unusual.
"No...no, don't eat me..." Roy whimpered, burying his face in his pillow. This only served to block off his airway, and in his dream the teacher had caught him up in a sack.
"Prrrt?" Pumpkin twitched her tail, then stood up and languidly stretched before giving him a sniff.
"Please, I'll be good..." The child hitched in a sob. "Lemme out! I'll be good, I'll...mmnh..."
"Meow?" Pumpkin licked his salty cheek with her rough pink tongue, and this startled him awake.
"Don't eat...what...huh?"
The cat backpedaled a bit out of reflex, crouching low and bushing out her tail, but remained on the bed (It was mostly her bed, after all!). Then, seeing that he was himself again, her fur settled back into place and she meowed a second time, her way of demanding an explanation.
"Oh...Pumpkin, it's you." Roy sighed and quickly dried his face, pulling the cat into his arms and cuddling her close, which she tolerated well enough. "I had a bad dream. I was at school, and I got in trouble, and...the teacher..."
Pumpkin squirmed, and when Roy obligingly let her go she moved a short distance away to recover some of her injured dignity with a bath.
"Sorry." Roy scratched her behind the ear, and she rubbed her face against his hand. He sighed and lay back down on his side, giving his wings a light flutter in much the same way that people nervously drummed their fingers. "Just a dream. Say, Pumpkin, what do cats dream about?"
The orange cat regarded him with exaggerated patience, as if to remind him that she couldn't speak the way he could.
"I bet you dream about catching mice. Or beating Apple in a wrestling match. You almost did it one time, remember?"
A slow blink from the cat was his only answer. He was actually pretty close to the mark with that one.
"I wish you could talk to me. I usually know what you mean when you meow, or hiss, or purr, but I wish we could talk. But what would we talk about? I mean...I tell you everything, but you can't tell me anything." Roy felt his eyelids growing heavy again, but he fought it.
Pumpkin's response was to bunt her forehead against his and purr, as if pointing out the lie there.
Roy got the point, and he giggled quietly. "I love you, too."
Pumpkin endured another hug with her usual quiet patience, and when she felt his grip loosen and heard his breathing grow slow and deep, she pulled herself out of his embrace and jumped down to the floor with a soft 'bump'. It was time to get back at Apple for biting her tail that day.
After a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast (which the children barely picked at), it was time for their day to begin. At least, for three of them it was the start of the day. Cori kissed her husband, then hugged her children and said good-night. "You'll like Miss Auralea. She was our teacher when we were little, you know."
"Connor said she's gonna eat us alive," Brinna clasped her hands behind her back and lifted her little chin. "But I didn't believe him."
Roy pointed. "Then uncross your fingers."
Cori just laughed. "Oh, nonsense. Connor was just playing a joke on you. Now, you mind your teacher, and there will be nothing to fear."
"And if we don't?" Brinna asked, then caught her father's eye. "I just wanna know, is all..."
"Since you can't write lines yet, she'll probably make you sit while the other children have their lesson break. And she'll send a note home, which would make me very unhappy." Cori gave them a Significant Look. "But you'll both behave yourselves, won't you?"
"Yes, Momma." Came their dutiful reply.
"Good! Now, come give your momma another hug!" Cori embraced her children, giving them an extra tight squeeze as she fought the urge to get emotional. "Oooh! My babies. You're both getting so big. One day I'll blink, and you'll both be all grown up."
Roy could see that his mother was trying not to cry, and this made him want to cry, but he pasted on a cheesy smile. "Silly Momma, you just blinked five times, and we're still small!"
As he had hoped, his mother chuckled at this.
Fergus glanced up at the position of the sun, taking care not to look directly at it. "Right! Come on, you two, or you'll be late for your first day."
They took off, waving until Cori went inside and shut the door, then turned their eyes towards the West.
Fergus flew at a sedate pace alongside his children, who zipped to and fro in their jittery excitement like a pair of oversized hummingbirds. This is how they should be. Happy to face a new challenge, and with no fear at all.
A slight Fairy woman of late middle age (bordering on old) stood in the center of the glade, sorting through what looked like a large toy box, but the children were disappointed when the only thing she produced from this box was a large slate that floated in the air, seemingly of its own accord. This she directed to the Northern point of the glade with a wiggle of her finger, and it went as obediently as a puppy, bobbing through the air and coming to a stop where everyone would be sure to see it.
The teacher gave her yellow-green wings a satisfied flick, patted her salt-and-pepper hair to make sure that not a single strand had come loose from its tight updo, and resumed her 'treasure hunt' for school supplies. For the time being, she let the children get acquainted and let off some of their nervous energy.
Roy was surprised at how few students there were in their class. He was too young to know about the low Fairy birth rate, or it would have made sense to him that out of the forty-seven students, only eleven were in his age group. The class ranged from as young as he and Brinna to the Fairy equivalent of teenagers, and small cliques had already begun to form. While Roy hung back with Brinna, Connor and Siobhán, he saw that the older students were taking the younger new students under their wings (figuratively) and showing them around the little glade where most of their lessons would take place.
Siobhán's face was red and her eyes were puffy, and Roy knew exactly how she felt. She must have had a nightmare, too.
"Hey, we'll be fine. Look how many kids there are! We'll make so many new friends!" he tried cheering her up, but she merely looked down and shook her head. Oh well. "Here, I'll show you how. You'll see." He went up to another boy to introduce himself.
This boy had dark red hair, normal-sized blue wings, and (although it was impolite to call attention to it) a nose that reminded one of a stoat's. This boy currently had his back to Roy, and was doing something the other boy couldn't see.
"Hi. I'm Roy, what's your name?"
"Aiden, what's it to ya?"
Roy's smile faltered, and he glanced back at his small friend group. His sister smiled and made a motion of encouragement. "I, uh...just wanted to make friends."
Aiden turned to face him finally, a bored expression on his face as he put whatever he had been fiddling with back in his pocket. It seemed to be a wooden disk tied to a string, and that string was a snarled mess from what Roy could tell. He took one look at Roy's small wings and sneered. "I don't make friends with the help."
The help? Well, fine! I don't want to be your friend either! "Well, you're very rude."
"I'm the Mayor's nephew, and I don't have to be polite to a boy with girl wings. Girl-winged boys are servants and trash collectors, so go away!"
Oof! Roy felt that one right in his chest. He buzzed his 'girly' wings and clenched his fists. "My wings are small now, but they're gonna be bigger than yours someday, so you be quiet!"
"No, they won't." Aiden laughed scornfully. "Don't you know anything? Boys like you don't get big wings!"
"...Yes, we do." Roy mumbled, glancing over at Connor, who was looking down at the ground in embarrassment. Wait...Connor knew something that he didn't. Wait...was it true?
Aiden caught on to what had happened and laughed. "You thought your wings would get bigger? You don't know anything! You're so stupid!"
Roy took an involuntary step back before retreating with his proverbial tail between his legs, looking almost as near tears as Siobhán herself did. Why didn't Dad tell me?
Brinna whisked past him before he could even register the fact that she had moved. "Don't you talk to my brother like that! You...you...you ferret-faced little twit!" This was the meanest thing she could think of to say, and while it didn't have the devastating effect she had hoped it would, she had surprised him into silence for the moment. She pointed at Roy without taking her eyes off the target of her rage, drawing herself up with indignant pride. "My brother is the next Tooth Fairy, and he's gonna be great, so you just go away and shut up!"
And as she raised her hand to deliver a hard (for a child) slap, another boy smoothly got between them and put an end to it. This boy, resembling a twelve-year-old human if one overlooked the large black swallowtail wings, stood over the two of them and shook his head. "Fighting isn't allowed here. Aiden, apologize to Tooth Fairy for what you said about his wings. And you..."
"Brinna," the girl folded her arms and glared up at this interloper. She had wanted to hit Aiden, and 'Mr. Frowny-Mc-Bigwings' had spoiled it.
"Brinna. Pretty name. And speaking of names, hitting and name-calling are both out, so you'll stop it if you don't want to get in trouble with Teacher."
Aiden began to walk away, but the older boy stopped him by catching his wing gently between his thumb and forefinger, causing the smaller boy to instinctively freeze.
"Apologize."
"Fine. Sorry." Aiden shrugged free. "Jasper the spoil-sport..."
Jasper let him leave then and turned to the foursome with a look that told them he had seen things like this many times before. "So, this is your first day, huh?"
The four children nodded, and Siobhán gazed up at this beautiful boy with something that resembled hero worship. Roy felt his face darken with shame and humiliation. And...something else. Why did she look at this older boy like that when she only just met him, but she didn't smile at him like that? She was his friend first!
"Don't let him get to you. I can't get into the reasons why, but he's had a hard time lately, and he's gotten a bit of a mean streak." Jasper explained.
Roy nodded and thought to himself, Then I'll never become mean, no matter how bad things get. Because I don't want people to not like me the way I don't like him!
"Anyway, follow me, and I'll show you around."
The teacher finished with her preparations and called for everyone to be seated, which they did with much nervous chatter. The children sat down cross-legged in the soft grass, the younger ones watching the older ones and copying their example, and they all turned their attention to the woman who stood in front of the slate.
To Roy, the teacher seemed very tall and severe with her hair tightly bound and a stern bend to her mouth, and he withered under her gaze when it passed over him.
Then the stern mouth parted in a kindly smile. The woman spread out her arms and addressed the class. "Well! I see many familiar faces; it's good to see you all again. And, sadly, some of you will be leaving me this year."
There was a murmur of agreement from a few of the eldest students, and Roy thought that they seemed rather sad about this. They wouldn't be sad about that if she was bad, right?
He began to relax a bit.
"I see some new faces as well. I am Miss Auralea. And you might not know it yet, but you have all been given a wonderful gift." She chuckled when the youngest students turned their eyes to the school supply chest, and shook her head. "Oh, no, the gift is not in that box. Nor is it something that you can see or touch. No...the gift is here."
Roy and Brinna exchanged a look when their teacher pointed at her own head and gave it a little tap. They listened, curious to see where she was going with this.
"It is your mind. You see, children, when we come into this world, we are all very much the same. Every one of us started life as a baby, even an old lady like me. Very small, very helpless, and we don't know much of anything yet as babies. Right?" She paused, and nodded when the youngest ones nodded and said 'yes'. "We start out blank, like this slate right here. And we are given a name."
The teacher made a lot of curlicues on the slate with a piece of chalk, and Roy knew that she was writing, but it made no sense to him.
"What does this say, children?"
"Oatmeal?" Connor piped up, causing a ripple of giggles to pass through the glade.
Miss Auralea put her hands on her hips with a playful scowl. "Oatmeal? Well, I never...No, this says 'Miss Auralea'. That's my name. And before long, you will all be able to spell your names too. This I promise, and so much more, for that is the nature of your gift."
"What, reading?" Roy asked, not trying to be rude, but this was getting interesting. How could he have thought that this woman was an evil, child-eating witch? She was nice! She was fun!
The teacher normally didn't tolerate talking out of turn, but for the first day, especially with new students who were young and excited and hadn't learned better yet, she let it slide. "Oh, yes. Why, when you can read, you can open a book and go just about anywhere."
Aiden, who up until now had been teasing a woodlouse with a stick and causing it to roll up into a ball, raised his hand. He had been coached on proper classroom etiquette, unlike some he could name.
"Yes?"
"Not everyone can open a book. Only people with money can have books."
Miss Auralea gave a slight frown. "Yes, it is true that books are expensive. Many of us can't afford them. That is where the library comes in. And you will learn about that later. I have a field trip planned for you, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Ahem...where was I?"
Roy frowned at Aiden, then followed his example and raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Um...you were talking about books taking us places. You mean like our 'maginations?"
This pleased the teacher, who grinned and pointed with the hand that held the chalk. "Right you are! But for today, let us start with introductions and the rules of the classroom."
The rules were simple enough, much to Roy's relief.
Be respectful of your teacher and of each other. Come prepared (which meant remembering your slate and chalk, to be provided at the end of their first day). Raise your hand if you wish to speak. Pay attention, and don't talk while the teacher is talking. Keep your hands and feet to yourselves. Stay seated until you have permission to get up. Do not distract your classmates. Do ask questions when you don't understand something.
"There's no shame in admitting that you don't understand something," she told them emphatically, "But we look very silly when we pretend that we know what we're doing, and then people find out that this isn't true, don't we?"
Brinna raised her hand, and the teacher nodded for her to speak. "Last week, my daddy did that. He tried to fix a hole in his sock so that my momma wouldn't have to, but he doesn't know how to sew, and-and-and he messed it up really bad. So he held it up to show Momma, and she laughed until she cried! He kinda laughed too, but his face got all red! It was so funny!"
"Oh, my goodness!" Miss Auralea laughed with the class and nodded. "Well, bless him, he tried. And that's good! We try, and we fail, and we learn from our mistakes, and we succeed. And that's why you're all here."
Roy fluttered his little purple wings, hardly able to stay still in his excitement. He liked this teacher. He liked school!
I want to learn!
He would worry about why his father hadn't told him the truth about his wings another day.
Note: This chapter is going up much later than I thought it would. It should have been up a week ago, but bronchitis knocked me on my butt. Just the latest in many, many setbacks. But it's good to be writing again! Updates will be very slow, as I work full time now, but I'm still here.