Disclaimer: Why would Jenny Nimmo call herself the forgettable one?
Well on with the story:
A little while later, the bus stopped and Gabriel skipped on. Miffy and Lysander stuck their heads out around the chairs to see who it was at the same time and their heads crashed together.
The girl, Miffy, let out a volley of words fast and furious. Tancred would have grinned at her and made a smart-alec comment but he wasn't completely sure what she'd said. They hadn't been English words but nor had they been in any other language he'd ever heard. Except possibly once, but he couldn't quite place it…
Tancred and the other girl both gave them superior looks and the girl murmured something to her sister, almost smiling at her. Hearing the crash, Gabriel almost ran down to the back of the bus and flopped in the seat in front of the sisters.
"Hey guys!" he chirruped and Tancred and the regal girl sent him cold stares. "Uh, hi. Who are you?"
"What subtlety and digression." The girl gave a small harsh grin. "She is Myfanwy and I am Eluned. We are coming to Bloors. This is our initiation. I do not know nor care who you are. Does that answer any questions you are planning on asking that I will not answer?"
Sensing that Gabriel was too overcome by this to answer, Tancred jumped at the statement.
"What was that for? He hasn't done anything. What's your problem? Jesus, he was trying to be nice."
"Eluned doesn't react well to niceness." Miffy/Myfanwy threw in, a slight smile gracing her features causing them to bloom into a loveliness that made Lysander and Tancred's hearts flip.
"Myfanwy let the guy finish. Let's see what he's got." The smirk Eluned was sporting looked and felt mocking and cruel. Anyone else would have stepped down but Tancred met it with a cold sneer of his own, they memory of Miffy being put aside in favour of this …irritant.
"Oh look Myfanwy. He knows how to play." The girl's –Eluned- voice was mocking and Tancred almost stepped down but couldn't help but rise to her bait. She had him; hook, line and sinker or whatever the phrase is.
Lysander, Gabriel and Myfanwy/Miffy leant away from the pair as they engaged in some sort of staring contest. There was a long silence, until Miffy spoke.
"Ignore Eluned, she just likes to get a rise out of people. She's not that bad when you break through the ice-queen thing. She's …yeah, she's evil but under the layers of rock, there's almost a heart down there. I'd like to know who you are."
"Um. I'm Gabriel, My-Mi-Miva…"He glanced imploringly at her and Lysander was struck with jealousy for a second, before dismissing his feelings.
"Just call me Miffy. Myfanwy's my real name but it's such a mouthful. It's nice to meet you Gabriel." She smiled again, her face crinkling into something that caused Gabe (despite his happy status as unavailable gay) to bush furiously.
"How come he gets a proper greeting and I don't?" Lysander raised an eyebrow at her with a cheeky smile. She blushed endearingly and glanced at her lap.
"Hello Lysander. It's nice to meet you too. Do I really have to put up with your friend-what's his name? - and Eluned battling all holiday?"
"Ah. We really ought to do something about that." He watched his friend blink, growling angrily and Eluned turn her head away with a small, self-satisfied smile. Or maybe he could just leave them to it.
Shaking his hair, Tancred seemed to pull on some sort of mask and threw an idle question at Gabriel.
"Hey Gabe, where's everyone else? I assumed we were going there but we're definitely going to Bloors first." He frowned slightly and Lysander's hand twitched as Miffy turned her eyes on him.
"Everyone?" Her brow furrowed for a second, transforming her face again. "The other endowed, right?"
"Yeah." Gabriel explained calmly. "Us and Them. Me: I can feel emotions and stuff through fabrics; Emma who can fly; Charlie who can hear what's going on in photos; Olivia who can create illusions and Sander and Tanc. But you know their endowments."
"No. We don't." Miffy had paused before answering Gabriel as if she was taking this all in and processing it. It made sense for her to take some time to think about it, there was a sort of wisdom and calm in her that suggested she, while she was bubbly, didn't make rash decisions.
"Oh. I guess I assumed they'd told you." He glanced across at his friends who shrugged.
"You didn't ask." Tancred pointed out, absent-mindedly tugging a lock of straight blonde hair.
"No, I guess I didn't." Lysander watched her face for any sign of emotion. Why hadn't she asked them? It didn't make sense.
"I'll ask then." Eluned's dry voice cut across Lysander's musings. "Do tell us your endowment. Yours is fairly obvious but you hide yours better." There was a slight mockery as she turned her head to look at Lysander, not actually watching his completely though, as her eyes jumped about a lot.
Lysander shrugged, suddenly realising Miffy had distanced herself from everyone again, just as she had earlier before Gabriel had arrived. He took note of this, planning another statue.
"I can contact my ancestors. Oh. And Gabe forgot to mention Billy –he's 9- he can talk to animals and he's a magnet for trouble."
There was a long silence as both the girls withdrew from everyone a little more.
"That must come in useful..." There was another pause as the boys searched for any sign of cold cruelty in her voice. They could hear no sarcasm, no dryness, no shiver to follow her statement. It was almost as if she hadn't finished her sentence. Unnerved, Tancred jumped to fill the silence.
"Yeah it does, it's saved us over and over again! Then there's them: Manfred-hypnotiser; Asa who changes shape at sundown; Zelda, Idith and Inez who are all telekinetic. Humph, Joshua, magnet boy." Under his breath he muttered "Bastard." So Lysander took over as if he hadn't said anything.
"Ummm and there's Dorcas who can bewitch clothing, Hope you don't have to share a dorm with her!" He laughed nervously, with a frown at Tancred who hadn't really recovered from the shock of Joshua and hated the boy with a vengeance. Lysander prayed nothing bad would happen.
Gabriel seemed to understand the need to change the subject and he jumped in with his own frown.
"Hey, you never said. What are your endowments?"
"Does it matter?" Miffy answered but she wasn't smiling and her answer seemed almost weak, as if she expected an opposition. She wasn't disappointed.
"We're elvish." Eluned's voice was scornful this time and the boys lapsed into anther awkward silence, suddenly very cold and slightly afraid of the majestic elf. For that matter what was an elf? Like that thing In Harry Potter?
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