That Summer Feeling
Roisin stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom for far longer than she probably should have. But it was the first day of school in Forks. She wanted to make a good impression. Well, not too much of an impression. But a good one, nonetheless.
She turned slightly, taking in her outfit, starting from her black ballet slippers, up to her skinny jeans and then to the plain, but classic black and white striped shirt. She lifted up her red wavy hair, wondering for a moment if she should wear it up or leave it down. Down, yes. That looked better.
She was happy to note that she looked just like any other normal high school student. Well, for the most part. While her glamour hid what she really was from mortals and such, parts of her true nature still peeked through. It was in the way she always looked tanned even if the sun hadn't been out in days. Or the way that mortals were drawn to her. But really, that was just a fae thing. They were always drawn to fae in one way or another.
"Stop fussing around."
She looked towards her open door, seeing her best friend Mae leaning against the frame, decking out in designer everything - including a pair of Louboutins that she had bought in LA just before they moved up to Forks. Her blonde hair fell past her shoulders in sleek curls. Though her blue eyes were lit up in mischief as she smirked.
"You look fine. Though… bit underdressed in my opinion," Mae said, pushing off the frame and walking into the room, now scrutinizing Roisin's outfit. "What about that dress you got in Paris? Makes so much more of a statement than… this…"
Roisin snorted, taking in Mae's dress that was almost too short to pass the school dress code. And would definitely stand out. You'd think by now she would learn to tone things down, but then again, that was just Mae.
"The point is to blend in," Roisin shot back, now returning to looking in the mirror. "Which this outfit does."
"I thought the point was to have fun," Mae shot back, pouting. The wings that only Roisin and others like them could see fluttered behind Mae in agitation.
"We will have fun. But I'd rather try and stay longer than a couple months before Darraugh finds me again," Riosin replied sensibly. "Stick out too much and we're done."
She shot a look of warning to Mae, who only huffed in response.
"Seriously! I've already apologized for LA!" she shouted, stamping her foot and putting her hands on her hips. Roisin stared at her a bit before smiling and walking over to wrap her arms around her.
"I know. And I couldn't do this without you. Just… let's be a bit more careful this time," Roisin said as Mae hugged her back. Despite her penchant for getting into a bit too much mischief, Riosin could never stay angry with Mae too long.
And it was their nature, after all.
"You're starting to sound more like Sean," Mae said, still pouting, but at least a bit happier.
"Speaking of which, he's probably got breakfast ready," Roisin said, letting go and rushing out of the room. She walked into the great room towards the kitchen.
"You know, for wanting to keep a low profile, you could have chosen a smaller house," Mae chided from behind her. Though Roisin knew she didn't really mean it.
"Seriously? This place was a steal! Just waiting for someone to breathe life into it," Roisin replied with a laugh. "And we all know you can't stand to live in a small house. Think they said something about it being haunted which is why it was so cheap… You should have seen what it was like before I hired the contractors. A beautiful house like this has character and shouldn't sit empty for so long."
Mae snorted as she caught up to Roisin as they walked into the kitchen, finding a tall, dark-haired man at the stove, a towel over his shoulder.
"Mortals… they'll believe anything," Mae said as she moved to sit down at the island.
Sean turned to the island as Roisin sat, a smirk on his face and a frying pan in his hands.
"Sunny side up. Just what my growing girls need," he replied flippantly as he shoveled the eggs onto their two plates, which already had a plethora of fruit. Roisin rolled her eyes but picked up her fork and started eating. "What? I'm playing uncle this time. Need to get into character."
"Uncle? Thought we were going with guardian as usual," Roisin replied, a bit curious.
"When I went in to enroll you guys, the secretary misconstrued that I was your uncle and I failed to correct her," he replied. "As long as no one asks me directly, I'm okay. Even then, I can get around it." He then winked at Riosin. "You forget how much experience I have dealing with this sort of thing."
Roisin chuckled, rolling her eyes.
"So… you ready?" he then asked, putting the pan down and turning to lean against the island on the other side, his dark eyes fixed on Roisin.
"Yes," she said lightly, though she felt her heart pick up slightly.
Truthfully, she wasn't completely sure why she chose Forks. At first when it became apparent that they needed to move yet again, she had opened a map of the U.S. and closed her eyes, putting her finger down on a random spot. But as soon as she opened her eyes and saw she was pointing at Forks, a feeling settled in that they were supposed to be there.
The fae were always big on fate and destiny - her own parents had told her since she could remember that she was meant to be a queen, though she had never taken much stock in it since her older brother Darraugh was next in line. But as she started looking into the small town, she felt more and more that there was a reason for them to be here. She still didn't understand why, but figured maybe they would figure it out in time. Or maybe it was nothing.
She was, after all, only here to fight her so-called destiny.
"I don't understand why we have to go to high school again," she heard Mae complain. "Couldn't you have chosen a university? Those parties are so much more fun."
Roisin sighed and looked over at her best friend as she continued complaining. She most definitely was a bit more whiney this time, but hopefully Mae would start to settle into their new home. Roisin missed the days when they didn't have to move so much, but they had been jumping around for the better part of a 100 years now, so had thankfully gotten a good system in place. Though that was thanks in large part to Sean.
Roisin and Mae had met the solitary fae shortly after they left the Summer Court while wandering around London. He hadn't known who they were but had quickly recognized that Roisin was royalty. Still, he felt bad for their lack of knowledge in surviving in the mortal world and took them under his wing all the same, quickly becoming a mentor and then older brother to Roisin. Which she was eternally grateful for, especially considering her own had turned into a rather large douche. It was as though once he had turned 150, he changed from a kind, warm fae that was often her partner in crime to an overserious monarch-in-the-making who cared only about duty. She couldn't blame him completely, knowing the pressure that was on him, but he still hadn't stood up for her when it counted. No, he had taken their parents' side.
"I am NOT changing!" Mae screeched, snapping Roisin out of her reverie. She looked over at her best friend, seeing her eyes blazing and her normally cherubic face distorted in rage.
"Mae… we've been over this. It's a small town. That dress is going to get too much attention," Sean said with a sigh.
"Maybe I want attention?" Mae shot back, jutting her chin in the air. "And who are you to tell me what to do, Shadow fae?"
Roisin huffed and rolled her eyes. Every argument, Mae just had to bring that up. Though thankfully Sean was long used to it, his expression not changing save for a slightly flaring of his nostrils.
"How many times do I have to tell you, this isn't the Summer Court, little one," Sean replied, fighting off a smirk. Riosin groaned as Mae bellowed in anger. She then turned to Roisin.
"You're going to let him get away with that?!" she shouted, pointing at him. Roisin sighed and shook her head. Some things would never change, it seemed. Like Mae wanting her to boss everyone around.
"He makes a point, Mae. We are trying to keep things low-key," Roisin said cautiously. It only seemed to inflame the fae even more as she hopped off her stool and stomped.
"You're supposed to be on MY SIDE!" Mae shouted as she stormed out of the kitchen, likely going upstairs to her room to begrudgingly change.
"You know Mae. By the time you guys get to school, she'll be back to her usual, fluttery self," Sean said casually, reaching for Mae's plate.
"I'm sorry she keeps doing that," Roisin apologized. Sean shot her a smile.
"You act as though she's the first court fae to try and insult me," he said with a chuckle.
"But you're not like that anymore. And we're not court fae anymore," Roisin pushed. Sean stopped and stared at her a moment before sighing and turning to start on the dishes.
"I'm not ashamed, Roisin. I was Shadow Court for a long time. Born into it," he said. "It doesn't bother me." Roisin didn't say anything, just sat wondering what she could say to make this better. Sean glanced at her and chuckled. "Go. You need to get your things and then check on Mae, otherwise you will be late. Have a fun day at school. I'm fine."
Roisin pushed up from her stool and nodded, turning and leaving the kitchen. As soon as she reached her room and bent down to pick up her backpack, she felt the flutter of excitement settle into her stomach again.
This was a new start in a new town. She wasn't about to let anything ruin that.
OOOO
"Hmm, looks like this dump isn't a total bust," Mae said, already smiling and waving flippantly at a few of the mortal boys mingling outside the high school as they walked through the parking lot.
She was dressed in a far more subdued loose gray smock dress and black tights, though refused to give up the Loubitons.
"Told you," Roisin breathed, already taking note of the attention they were getting. While yes, the point was to blend in, she still expected a bit of attention as small towns didn't usually get a ton of new students.
"Sorry I doubted you," Mae said, looping her arm through Roisin's and grinning at her. "But you know what we need to do to solidify our ranking in this school?" She waggled her eyebrows.
"No, Mae. Not yet," Roisin said with a chuckle. Mae pouted and fluttered her eyelashes.
"Please? For me?" she begged.
"We'll see. Probably should meet people before we go planning a party," Roisin replied.
"Oh, that'll be easy," Mae said, already looking around.
"Hi! You guys must be the new kids," a girl with long, wavy dark hair said a bit too enthusiastically as she hopped in front of the two fae, bringing them to a halt. She was rather normal by mortal standards, but Roisin could see warmth in her brown eyes and immediately felt like she was going to like her. "I'm Tara. I was told to show you around."
Mae glanced at Roisin and then looked around at the other kids, already set on ignoring the poor mortal girl. Probably because she didn't like her outfit or something ridiculous like that.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Roisin and this is Mae," she said politely.
"Well, hello there," Mae crooned. Roisin glanced over, noticing that a few football players had already made their way over to them. She had to chuckle. Seemed her best friend was wasting no time. "What's your name?"
"Josh. And this is Mark and Alex."
"I'm Mae and this is Roisin."
Already they were falling under Mae's spell, a matching set of goofy grins coming over their faces. While all fae held a certain allure to humans, Summer fae tended to enjoy it more than some of the other courts. And Mae certainly was your typical Summer fae - angry one second, flirting the next, and never taking anything seriously.
Roisin, on the other hand, knew to temper herself.
"Mae, we should get our schedules," Roisin said. As amusing as it was to watch Mae at times, they did need to try and get to class on time.
"Right, Ro. Any of you able to show us to the office?" Mae asked, tossing her curls over her shoulder.
"Oh, that's what I-"
"Yea, this way," Josh said, already leading Mae towards the school building. Roisin offered Tara an apologetic smile and made a mental note to try and talk to her if they ended up in the same class at some point.
"So, what fun is there to have around Forks?" Roisin heard Mae ask.
"Oh, there's plenty…"
OOOO
Roisin supposed the first half of the day went smoothly. Mae nearly threw another fit in the office when she saw they weren't in every class together, and though Roisin was tempted to give in and charm the secretary into changing their schedules around, she stood her ground. After 100 years of near-constant togetherness, it was time they tried to branch out on their own a bit.
Granted, nearly every class they did have together, Mae was causing small disruptions. One class she caused the whiteboard marker to keep falling off the teacher's desk and roll across the floor. In another, she made the teacher "accidentally" write "ass" on the board instead of "class" much to the enjoyment of the other students. Roisin had given her warning looks, but it still didn't seem to deter her.
Now during lunch, Roisin was doing her best to make friends with everyone, while Mae had easily zeroed in on the popular crowd. Their table had filled up quickly with an eclectic mix - Mae flirted with Josh, while simultaneously ingratiating herself with the so-called Queen Bee of the school, Carly, and her two friends. Roisin kept an eye on her, though was chatting about the school newspaper with Tara and her two friends, Trey and Megan, thinking she might like to join.
"Wait, seriously? You're at the old McLaren house?" Carly asked loudly, her eyes wide as she leaned towards Mae. "Isn't that place haunted?"
"Oh my god, people will believe anything," Mae said, rolling her eyes, though she smirked as she glanced at Roisin. "We fixed it up. You should come by and see it sometime. Got our own private theater room and everything."
Roisin sighed and looked down at her salad, knowing exactly what Mae was doing. She had hoped to get a bit more settled in at Forks before the increasingly troublesome fae started into any real shenanigans. Though Roisin was determined that this time around, she would not let things get out of control.
They did not need another LA situation.
"We should talk to Sean first," Roisin said, glancing at Mae cautiously.
"Oh, please, you know as well as I do that he'll be okay with it," Mae said, chuckling.
"Who's that?" Josh asked, immediately frowning. Mae smiled at him as she leaned closer and patted his arm.
"Don't worry about him, doll," she replied, winking at him. The football player relaxed.
"You know, I've always thought you could host some killer parties out there," Carly said after glancing at her friends. Once again, Mae glanced at Roisin, a small smile on her face letting her know that this was completely her doing. "You should totally have one. Oo! And we can come early and help. Maybe even stay over afterwards."
"Yes, we should!" Mae said, giggling and clapping her hands. "It would be the perfect way to introduce ourselves to Forks and get the school year off right." Though she turned to Roisin, silently begging her to agree to the party.
Roisin knew that she could put an end to the idea in a heartbeat if she really wanted to. Perks of being a royal fae meant that she could overpower most other fae - those that weren't royal, anyway. And well, Mae still deferred to her on all decisions even though Roisin had long ago left the royal life. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she kind of wanted to go along with it. Once again, the feeling that there was something to discover came over her. And besides, they only got in trouble last time because the parties got out of hand. Surely if she was watching carefully, everything would be just fine. And it's not like there were any other fae in this area besides them.
Just how much trouble could a bunch of mortal teenagers get into anyway?
"You know, I think you're right. It would be fun," Roisin said, starting to smile. Mae's face lit up as she turned to Carly and Josh, their half of the table immediately starting up plans. Roisin turned back to Tara and the others.
"You guys are going to come too, right?" she asked. Tara, Trey and Megan all smiled and nodded eagerly.
"Yea, we're not about to miss out on a party at the old McLaren place," Tara said with a snort. "That place is almost as famous as the Cullens."
"The who?" Roisin asked.
"Oh my god, they were totes the most popular - er, I mean… Totally gorgeous, but… so weird," Carly said. Tara chuckled.
"Only because none of the guys would look at you," she replied. Carly narrowed her eyes at her across the table then turned to Mae, now pretending as though the other side didn't exist.
"Right, so there was this family that lived here for a few years. Super rich. Super hot. And super mysterious," she explained. "All adopted, but four of them were dating each other. They never hung out with anyone but themselves, until some boring girl from Phoenix-"
"Bella Swan. The police chief's daughter," Tara interjected. Carly huffed and continued.
"Right, Swan. So, Edward-"
"Whom Carly was in love with all throughout freshman year," Tara said, once again interrupting.
"Would you shut up and let me tell the damn story!" Carly shouted, glaring at the other girl.
Roisin glanced at Mae, and saw her thoroughly enjoying the exchange and wondered if this was her doing as well. She always did love a bit of drama. Or well, a lot of drama.
Tara motioned for her to continue.
"Anyway, so Edward starts dating Bella and all, blah, blah. Then they get married - right after they graduate. Which is so weird. Who even does that anymore? She was probably pregnant but we'll never know because they up and moved away without a word," Carly said. "But yea, they were the last outsiders in town. But I can already tell you guys are going to be so much cooler than they ever were."
Tara snorted again, but managed to get her laughter under control. Roisin glanced at her and then looked at Mae.
"Oh, I can guarantee that. For one, we hate seclusion," Mae said, winking at Roisin.
Dear goddess, she seriously hoped this wasn't about to be another LA.
"Right, well, I'm going to get to Physics, I think," Roisin said, already getting ready to leave. Lunch was almost over and she seriously did want to make a good impression on her teachers, even if it didn't really matter in the long run.
"Can't you skip? Carly and I are skipping history," Mae said, pouting. Roisin sighed and fought off the urge to tell her not to do it.
Wasn't it her idea to get Mae to do more things on her own?
"Sorry, I actually like Physics," Roisin said, standing.
"We'll go with you. Got that class next," Tara said as she, Trey and Megan all started packing up their things.
"See you in English," Roisin said, smiling at Mae, though her eyes held a certain warning.
"Sure," Mae said, already turning back to her conversation.
As they started taking their trays over to the dumping station, Roisin clearly heard Carly, even though she was sure the mortal girl had lowered her voice so that she wouldn't.
"Is she always so boring?"
"Oh trust me, just need to get her in the right mood," Mae replied. Roisin rolled her eyes.
Okay, maybe Forks wasn't going to be as easy an adjustment for Mae as she thought it would be.
OOOO
So there you go! We now meet our fae protagonist. Been having fun with this. It's a bit of a mix of influences. A decent amount of Wicked Lovely, some tradition folklore, and a bit of my own imagination. Looking forward to diving into the rest of the story. But again, not posting again until I get at least 10 chapters written, so check back in a few days or at the most a week for another update!
Thanks for reading!
