Author's Note: I'm currently trying to do a chapter a day. We'll see how that goes. :P Especially since I'm also trying to work on my novel at the same time.
Cal's full name, Calente, comes from a book called Wraethu, which I was enamored of when I originally wrote this. I wouldn't have named him that now, but for the sake of continuity, here it is.
Chapter Two
Timmy had anticipated sleeping in, however much that was possible given that it was the last week of school. Unfortunately, rather than hearing his mother's cheerful tones as she welcomed him down to breakfast, he had a rude shock. For a few seconds, he simply sat in bed and considered wishing today wouldn't happen. Nothing good could come of Vicky ordering him down for breakfast.
"You've got to be kidding me," Timmy groaned. "What's so important that they missed my birthday this time?"
"Maybe they'll be back before the concert!" Cosmo suggested, trying to put a positive spin on things.
"Do you really think so?" Timmy asked, seizing upon that as incontrovertible truth. Cosmo and Wanda exchanged another look.
"We have no idea!" Cosmo said and Timmy groaned.
"Get up, twerp, or I'm hauling your sorry butt out of bed myself and you won't like it," she snapped. Timmy gave himself another few seconds to wage an internal struggle combined with a pity party before reluctantly donning his clothes and heading downstairs. To his horror, sitting at the table besides Vicky was Tootie, who was staring morosely into her bowl of cereal. Timmy would've thought Tootie would've been elated to be at his house, especially this early.
A brown cinnamon shaker faced her and she clamped her hand on it to hide it from Timmy. Timmy blinked, taken aback.
"Eat it or don't," Vicky barked. "I don't care. Starve if you want. It's not my problem."
Sensing a possible ally, Timmy turned to Tootie and muttered, "What crawled up her butt and died?"
"She had a date with someone named Victor, but once he saw her Instagram account, it was all over," Tootie said in an undertone, trying to avoid catching Vicky's eye. "She flipped out and almost murdered Doidle. And if she was that pissed with him, think of how she's been treating me."
Oh. Timmy pitied her. Sure, he hated having Vicky around his house, but Tootie lived with her. Plus, after a close scrutiny, he noticed Tootie was sporting a black eye and her arms were bruised, like she'd been in a fight.
"Did Vicky attack you?" he asked, realizing after he said it that it was a stupid question.
"No, I was just really clumsy this morning," Tootie said sarcastically. Her black eye was swollen shut and he winced in sympathy.
Timmy opened his mouth to wish away her injuries, but he thought that probably would've been too obvious. Besides, Cosmo and Wanda were suspiciously missing from breakfast. Then there was the matter of Tootie's cinnamon shaker, which he could've sworn had a face on it before she clasped her hand around it.
"Are you okay?" he whispered.
"No talking at breakfast!" Vicky snapped, slamming her own breakfast down on the table and shoving Timmy out of the way so she could eat it. She'd given the kids cold cereal and made herself an omelet. Yeah, that sounded fair. Timmy rolled his eyes.
Why was Vicky such a bitch? Timmy blinked again at the profanity, though he had to admit it suited Vicky far better than Wanda. He still felt guilty for cursing at Wanda earlier. He loved his faerie godmother and he knew better than that.
The rest of breakfast finished in silence. Timmy darted for the school bus and felt something unusual in his backpack that was banging against his back. He pulled it out: it looked like Cosmo's wand. For the life of him, he couldn't fathom why he'd have that, unless Cosmo had left it lying around in his bag. That sounded weird, even for him. Timmy shrugged, deciding not to pay it much thought. He had a math test today and he was sure he was going to fail. For one thing, he'd spent the entire night playing Crash Nebula.
If only life could be as simple as a video game. Beat the boss, proceed through the levels, and win whatever the achievement was. If life were a video game, he'd design it differently than he had when he was younger. Vicky would be a villain again, but maybe closer to real life.
And maybe he'd really hurt her instead of just chucking pillows at her. He couldn't wish for anything like that, not with Da Rules in place. But what if Da Rules wasn't an issue? Using Cosmo's wand by himself wouldn't constitute a wish. He was sure that if Vicky had access to unlimited power, she would've done everything at her disposal. She definitely wouldn't pass up an opportunity to torment Timmy. Or Tootie, for that matter.
Tootie's physical abuse rankled him in a way he couldn't quite articulate. Before, Vicky's abuse had been purely psychological. Threats, a menacing personality, the works. This had crossed the line.
Besides, if he couldn't punish Wanda or his mother, Vicky was an attractive alternate option.
No, where had that thought come from? Timmy shook his head as if he could dispel those disturbing notions as quickly. They refused to budge. He remembered what he'd said to Cosmo and Wanda a few days ago, about it feeling like someone else was pulling the strings. He felt that way now, too.
Where were Cosmo and Wanda, anyway? What was so important they couldn't be here? Didn't they care? They were his faerie godparents. They were supposed to be with him when he needed them.
True, getting on the bus and going to school weren't exactly magical opportunities, but still. He felt like he was headed for another crappy day. Francis was on the bus, to boot, and he'd somehow found out that it was Timmy's birthday.
Sometimes, Timmy hated his life.
"Happy birthday!" Francis crooned before throwing what felt like a lunch bag of rotten fruit at him. it certainly smelled like it. Timmy groaned, wishing he had his faeries to whisk the fruit away. Where were they?
When Timmy went to sit down, his best friends left the seat, presumably because Timmy reeked now. Timmy sighed, glancing around. Even Tootie wasn't going near him, although she was preoccupied with whispering to a small brown bag now. Timmy raised his eyebrows. She was almost acting as if she had a faerie of her own, but he knew that was impossible. Fairy World had skipped her over so many times, there was no way they'd have remedied their mistake and shown compassion at last. He had to be imagining things.
Speaking of which, he thought he saw his parents' car pass them on the highway. That also made no sense, because Timmy's parents' jobs were in the city and Dimmsdale Elementary was on the outskirts of town. That was, unless his parents weren't going to work at all and were playing hooky. The idea that they could do this and still leave him with Vicky for breakfast incensed him.
He didn't know why Tootie had been at breakfast, but it didn't matter. As far as he was concerned, the more pressing issue was that he'd been abandoned on his birthday. That ought to be illegal. Didn't his parents love him? Why did they never listen to his numerous warnings about Vicky and then, on the worst day possible, sic her on him? What was wrong with them?
The more he thought about it, the darker his thoughts became. His hand brushed against Cosmo's wand in his bag and he fumed, unaware of the malicious magic gathering around him. His fellow students were aware of something, never mind what, because they likewise sidled away. Timmy ignored them.
He was so angry and Cosmo and Wanda weren't here, damn it. It felt like both his parents and his godparents had abandoned him when he needed them the most. Anger built until it felt like his head might explode from it.
"Anger leads to fear and fear leads to darkness..."
It was toward darkness Timmy was headed, though he didn't know it yet. He was about to, however. He could hardly breathe without feeling the heavy, oppressive weight of black magic surrounding him. Some part of him, some part he had yet to name but which had named himself, exulted in it. It was more than ready to make its first move-and with an audience, how could Lorenzo resist?
Timmy couldn't know that, however. All he could know was that he was angrier than he'd ever been in his life and he needed to take it out on someone. Someone needed to hurt the way he was, which was a thought normally antithetical to his being. For all that Timmy put up with a lot of crap, he wasn't normally a nasty person. This time, however, he felt differently. Someone would pay.
And if Cosmo and Wanda were out of reach, then perhaps another, more worthy candidate might reveal itself. Perhaps a foolish candidate who had driven right past the school bus in an ill-timed bid for an early breakfast before attending a conference that would take all day. They weren't playing hooky, per se, but soon enough, their intentions wouldn't matter anyway.
"I wish Timmy's stink would go away," Tootie said in an undertone to Cal, her new faerie godfather. His full name was Calente, which came from an infamous fantasy novel. He'd chosen it himself, after his birth name had proven unsatisfactory. Tootie hadn't asked for the full story, figuring he'd give it to her in time if she earned it. If she didn't, well, then she had no one to blame but herself.
Besides, she was just too happy to have a faerie to begin with. The way Cal had explained it, with Vicky so volatile, Fairy World was afraid to give Tootie a faerie in case the wrong person got their hands on him. Since Vicky had teamed up with Crocker in the past, Fairy World was worried this could happen again. It had taken fervent pleading on Cal's behalf for Fairy World to relent and allow him to take on Tootie.
Cal eradicated Timmy's smell, though he frowned in the boy's direction.
"What is it?" she asked. She felt something off about her beloved crush as well, although she wasn't sure what. Then again, she also wasn't sure whether her feelings could be attributed to lack of sleep. Vicky had kept her up last night watching an obnoxious TV show loudly and, of course, without their parents around to even attempt to protest, Vicky reigned supreme.
Tootie's parents had been MIA for the last six months. Ever since Vicky turned eighteen, they'd basically handed over the reins to her and told her to raise Tootie. They'd then paid her a substantial amount of money and fled the state. Tootie had no idea where they were now, as they'd left no forwarding address. It was after her parents had fled that Cal had appeared, right when Tootie's life had gone from abysmal to catastrophically bad. And right when Vicky had stopped caring whether other people could see her physically abusing her sibling. People were too afraid of Vicky to apprehend her, even though it was clear someone needed to intervene.
"I wish my injuries were gone," she added in an undertone to Cal. Cal nodded, granting the wish.
"He's surrounded by anti-faerie energy," Cal observed and Tootie frowned.
"How is that even possible?" she asked, hugging her lunchbox to her chest. In the past, the lunchbox had been covered with Timmy stickers and pictures. After Vicky had threatened Timmy with bodily harm if Tootie kept pursuing him, Tootie had reluctantly changed her lunchbox to one with faeries on it. She'd always liked the mythology surrounding faeries, although it didn't seem to match reality.
"I don't know," Cal said. "I also don't see Cosmo and Wanda anywhere nearby."
"That's weird," she said. "They're almost constantly with him."
"I know," Cal said in an undertone. Tootie was unpopular enough that no one remarked upon her speaking to inanimate objects because no one cared. "I don't like this, Tootie."
"Me neither," she said, frowning back and hugging herself. "What do you think is going on?"
"I don't know," he said. "But someone had better get to the bottom of it before something bad happens."
"Like what?"
"Anti-faeries aren't bound by Da Rules," he reminded her. "And some anti-faeries, ones who by all definitions belong in Abra-Catraz, have been known to exploit that."
"So…?" Tootie said, uncertain where Cal was going with this.
"So we need to be careful," he said. "Just in case."
"In case of what?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Complete and utter disaster."
