"Psst," I heard a harsh whisper in my ear. I swatted irritably at the source. "Cathy! Wake up!" There was a definite feminine hint to the voice.
"Mom, I won't go to school because I have been having a really weird dream and I am lying next to an extremely attractive boy and you just woke me up!" I mumbled with my eyes shut.
"Cathy, it's me, Michelle."
My eyes snapped open. "Oh dear God. What have I done?" I looked over to see Chad blushing. Looking back determinedly at Michelle I nodded to show that I was awake.
"They may have a cure for your curse."
"Really?" I jumped up ecstatically.
"Well… at least… Cyrillianna and Chelmak are back on this planet." Michelle whispered her aunt and uncle's names.
"How do you know?" Chad asked.
"They're downstairs raving about their link leaving Earth furiously to Father." Michelle said, eyes wide in worry. "He told us we had to leave. He thinks I may have been the link and they might try to kidnap me and take me back."
"Link? Come on, I don't understand." I shook my head, brain feeling slightly foggy.
"A link is someone or thing that allows for someone from another dimension to stay in a different dimension." Michelle explained quickly.
"That explains a lot." Chad said softly.
"It does?"
"Well," Chad was red again, as we both looked at him, "it would explain why Michelle was supposed to stay on Earth."
"No it doesn't," I remembered, "because they taught Michelle how to leave."
"My father didn't want me to leave yet because… well, he said it was so that I wouldn't be ostracized if I hadn't any magic because of my mother's lack thereof."
"You can't be the link then," I realized, speaking slowly. Then I smiled. "Good, we can go down there and get my curse lifted." I hopped to my feet.
"No!" Chad and Michelle chimed.
"Okay, you win. Why though?" I stepped back.
"Do you honestly think that they'd lift the curse?" Chad spluttered.
"They would just use you against your will!" Michelle whispered loudly.
There was a "pop" of two arriving fairies.
The three of us let out triplet cries of fear.
But it was just Limab and the girl who had made fun of him the day before.
"Tricella said she had an idea to help you," Limab said.
"I can try to break your curse," Tricella said, dark eyes shining happily.
"Oh! Anything!" I nearly clapped my hands together but the fairies put their fingers to their lips. "Oh, anything!" I repeated quietly.
"Listen," my ears perked up, "break your curse of obedience." Tricella said, beaming at her own cleverness.
"Will that seriously work?" Chad looked skeptically at Tricella.
But I was whirling off into my own little world. I remembered absolutely everything that I had done since I had gotten the curse, ranging from the stop sign to calling every advertisement company that had ever told me to call them. I recalled the time that in second grade we played goofy name-calling games and a boy had told me I had to kiss him, and I chased after him, pinned him down and kissed him for about ten minutes before he told me to stop.
Then, it was like something shattered inside of me.
"Hoo-hah! It worked!" I practically squealed with delight, but remembered the need to be silent.
"Sit down, Cathy," Michelle tried.
"No," and I didn't. I did a little dance instead.
"Be cursed, Cathy." Limab attempted, unable to believe that it had been so simple.
"No thank you."
"Sit now."
"No!" I continued my jig.
Chad gaped. "How could it have worked like that? When it was so much more difficult for… people in the stories?"
"Nobody had the fabulous Tricella to help them." Tricella smiled dreamily.
"You really are my hero after all." I beamed and ran forward to hug her.
"You two have to get away, though. To the capitol preferably, to spread news of this cure." Limab said, clearing his throat.
"Whatever it takes!" I punched my hand.
"We're going to transport you three back to where Master Cedric found you." Limab said, throwing sparkling glitter over the three of them.
"Not…."
It was too late to protest, for the three of us were back in the forest, lying face down in the dirt, dizzy and disoriented.
"Mm, breakfast." I said. "Hehe! I'm not cursed! BRILLIANT!"
Chad and Michelle grinned at me, Chad looking a little more mystified than Michelle.
"So, we should start heading for the capitol." Michelle looked at the sky as though judging the hour. "We don't have all daylight hours ahead of us."
"Michelle, when did you become so… brave?" I asked, staring at my once fearful friend.
"It's just… you know… being somewhere I belong." Michelle shrugged, turning away momentarily. "I wasn't supposed to use magic on Earth, and I really couldn't. Father helped me fine-tune my skills last night. I'm certainly nothing phenomenal but I'm better than I was." Michelle gushed. Her light eyes filled with tears of joy. "Cathy, I belong on Kyrria. It's home."
I nodded and thought of my home back on Earth, realizing I wasn't there. I didn't miss it at all. Kyrria, though I'd spent a single day on it, was much more fun. And curse-free. Besides, we were about to save Kyrria from a couple of curse-mongers.
"So, we should head to the capitol." I clapped my hands together.
"Um… wait…." Chad said, blushing.
"What?" Michelle and I looked at Chad curiously.
"Do you think it's such a good idea to go there first? We could go to Ayortha first. Word travels faster if we travel a longer distance." Chad said.
Michelle pondered this.
"Ayortha?" I asked. "Is that another planet? And if so, why do you know about it?"
Michelle stared at Chad. "How did you know about Ayortha?"
"There was a map on the stairwell." Chad explained. "I just thought Ayortha was a cool name."
"Oh." Michelle and I chimed quietly.
"I don't remember that map."
"Well, you probably saw things I don't remember." Chad shrugged.
"Our instructions were to go to Kyrria's capitol, and besides, none of us speaks Ayorthaian. Unless Chad picked that language up on the way around the fairy school." Michelle looked pointedly at Chad, as though wanting him to spill something.
"They speak their own language?" Chad asked in a half-hearted voice. "Oh well."
Michelle continued to gaze skeptically at Chad but began walking.
"How do you know which way it is?" I asked.
"Oh, I just do. I can sense it." Michelle explained, shrugging.
"Oh bully, we're depending on your senses." I teased, feeling extremely light-hearted. During the trip, Michelle and Chad were silent, but our silence was punctuated about twice a minute by me exclaiming "Guess what? I'm not cursed! Hah! I don't have to obey you! That's right! I'm FREE!" It got old after the first hour went by and Chad mumbled something about wishing he could command me to shut up. For that, I whacked him over the head. I think we were energetic because I saw immediately that he intended to chase me for that, so I ran away.
He chased me into the forest, shouting at me.
"I'm going to wring your neck!"
"You think!" I shouted over my shoulder.
"Then I'm going to beat you into a pulp!" He shouted.
"Your plans sound like fun, but you'll have to catch me first!" I teased.
I heard him gaining on me, so I sped up.
"AHH!" He cried out in a war-like shout as he got closer.
"AGH!" I screamed as he sprung up in the air and pinned me down.
"I have caught you, madam." He said, sitting on my butt and holding my arms as I struggled to escape, laughing all the while.
"So it seems." I collapsed into the ground, my face getting shoved into the dirt again. I made mumble-y noises just so he could wonder what I was saying.
"Was that a 'Char, you win, I will worship you from now on and never question your abilities again?'" Chad teased.
I lifted my head up. "Not quite." I gave a final jerk and wrenched myself out of his grip. "Haha! I win! Uh-oh."
Chad had gotten to his feet and was grinning manically. I turned to run again, but he grabbed me from behind and lifted me off of the ground. We were both breathing heavily, laughing and exhausted. He started tickling me.
"Okay, you win! You win!" He let me go. I turned to look at him and I grinned uncontrollably. "Do I have dirt on my face?"
"Yeah," he smiled broadly.
I wiped it on my sleeve. "Gone?"
"Still there."
I tried again to rid myself of the dirt.
"You're missing a spot." He pointed underneath his left eye. I wiped under mine. "No, I'm your mirror, wipe under your right."
"You're my mirror? When did I turn into a boy?" I joked, wiping under the other.
"You're still… oh, come here." He strode over and wiped away with his hand. I froze as he touched my face and stared up at him. Beautiful boys don't touch your face everyday, after all. This would be a moment remembered in Weird Girl history. If only I had a scribe nearby. "There." He smiled. "All better."
I almost forgot to respond. Then I nodded. "Good."
He began to drop his hand, but mine shot up reflexively, then I stopped, slapping myself mentally. Hopefully he hadn't noticed that treacherous little movement.
"Wait, there's some I missed," he said quietly. He pointed to the corner of his mouth. I didn't move to get it, still in a stupor due to his near proximity. "I'll get it." He reached slowly up towards my mouth and he touched it, not the corner though.
Oh my God he's going to kiss me! What will I do? Will I kiss back or will he think I'm a slut? Will it be a good kiss? It's going to be my first kiss! He's so sexy. Why would this fellow want a girl like me? A girl who's merely dorky. Lalalala…I like that play. Oh my gosh, he's GOING TO KISS ME! ME! ME! Haha! Oh no! What will I do? WHAT WILL I DO! Why can't I think? I think I've frozen in place. I'm stuck here. Oh dear, time has frozen, and….
His thumb trailed over to my jaw and he began to bend over to move his face closer to mine. My heart thudded and I felt my knees shaking.
"Cathy! Chad! Where are you?" Michelle called out. Chad turned around to look and a pinecone fell on my head. Yeah, just add insult to injury, you stupid conifer.
"Should we meet up with her then?" Chad said, looking back to me and stepping away, turning bright red.
"Yeah, but… yeah, I guess so." BUT WE DIDN'T KISS YET! WAHHH!
He touched my shoulder. I automatically reached up to grab his hand, but he had withdrawn it and begun to walk away. Touching the spot gingerly, I followed him to find Michelle.
