Chapter 9
22222222222
Now that Rosa was gone, the Reds, still led by Mel, decided to turn their full attention on me. With the little white mage gone, they could devote all their energy on tearing me down; and they could see that it would take all the energy they had left over from the dragoons to deal with me.
However, I stayed well within my ever-growing circle of friends and fans, who gave me more complements and words of empowerment than I had ever received in my life for anything else I had ever done. The complements influenced me far more than the jeering of the Reds, and the other girls never got a strong foothold into my emotions. As soon as the school year officially started, I was too busy with my school work to give them much attention: between my studies, cultivating my friendship with Monique and Goza, and letters from my family, Edward, and occasionally Rosa, I had no brain left for the Reds.
When they finally started leaving me alone, I was releaved. But when I realized that they were targeting other people in my place, I got fired up once again. My next confrontation with Mel came in the winter, when a lone black mage wandered into the training yard. It was fairly warn in the training yard and chilly in the halls; the girl meant no harm, but Mel seized the opportunity to engage me.
"Well, well, well, what's this? She sneered at the balck mage. "What do you think you're doing in here? It's a red mage-only area."
"I was cold," the black mage insisted. "It's so warm in here."
"Sucks to be you, then. See how fabulous it is to be a red mage?"
"That's not fair! Anyone's allowed in here," the other girl protested.
"So that's the way you want it? Maybe a taste of Firaga will get your ass moving and keep you warm, huh?" Mel threatened.
The black mage glared at her. "How about Blizzaja to freeze yours?"
I was lifting wieghts nearby, conveniently within earshot of the argument, and decided that it was time to end it.
"Mel, why don't you just shut up and go back to your javelin?" I suggested snarkily. "Not that all the practice in the world would do you any good."
"Stay out of this, Faraxhae; this isn't your battle," Mel snapped back.
"Sweetie, maybe you should just go," I suggested to the black mage. "It's not worth your time or MP."
She nodded defiantly. "Maybe you're right, Anna," she agreed. "After all, we all know that if anyone can deal with this foul-mouthed monster, it's you." She turned and walked back out the door, rendering the whole goggle-eyed population of the room Red. Mel sneered at me and stormed to my side once the black mage was gone.
"Why is it that everyone listens to you all of a sudden?" she demanded. "They used to listen to me! Everyone did what I said as soon as I said it! And then you show up and you're all, what, queen of the school or something? Who the hell do you think you are?"
"Apparently, I'm my father's child," I answered unhelpfully, still focused on my weights. "Darn it, you made me loose count; was that rep seven or eight…?"
"You're not even listening to me!" she screamed, once again coming to her wit's end with my antics. "You're such a bitchy little monster!"
"Oh please. Being called a bitch stopped bothering me months ago. And, for the record, I was listening to you and I gave you a really good answer."
Mel screamed a frustrated battle cry-like scream and stamped her foot on the ground. "Get out of the training yard! I hate you!" she thundered.
"Feh; there are better places to be than letting you scream my ears off," I scoffed, setting the weights down and heading out the door.
After that, I suddenly didn't see as much of Mel as before. Actually, the other Reds picked up a nasty habit of following me around, trying to engage me.
"So, Anna, what are you doing after class today?" one might ask.
"None of your business, but I was going to study for my math test tomorrow," I'd answer.
"Can we come too?"
"What are you gonna wear?"
"Can we bring our boyfriends?"
"You can come study in the western courtyard with us; the dragoon squires are great study partners."
After a few days of this, it occurred to me what they were doing: Mel's reign of terror was officially over since her unsightly temper tantrum in the training yard, and the Reds wanted me to be their new queen bee. Out of curiosity, I wrote to my mother, Edward, and Rosa about it to see what they thought of it. My mother wrote:
It's a marvel that some people can be so shallow and live as long as these girls. You've been fighting against them, haven't you? Can't they see that you aren't anything like them? If anything, you're their enemy! And yet they want you to be their leader? While I'm sure the sentiment is flattering, it only serves to prove how idiotic and superificial they are.
The sentiment wasn't flattering at all; it was disgusting, and it made my flesh crawl. From her letter, Rosa seemed to agree on this point:
Stay away from those nasty Reds, Anna! I've seen it happen to other new girls before: they think the Reds are so glamorous and carefree, and they turn over to their side. I've even seen some girls change their colors to hang out with them. They're just a bunch of dumb bullies, like you said. If you become their queen, what will anything you taught me matter?
And, finally, Edward wrote sounding very concerned:
My love, I haven't known you for very long, but I know you enough to know that you don't belong with that trash. The Anna Faraxhae that I'm familiar with would probably turn around and slap them all across the face, maybe even with a Fira spell thrown in for emphasis. On account of your superior brains, heart, and staggering beauty, you deserve to be the queen of something far better—perhaps a whole kingdom, if the idea suits you?
The Anna Faraxhae that he knew had become a litle too savvy with the rules to use anything bigger than Fire, on pain of detentions. His idea that I could be the queen of an entire kingdom was at first outlandish—it made me laugh, when I first read it. In due time, I would change my mind.
But the overall concensus was that the Reds were plastic, stupid, and so far beneath me that they weren't worth my time.
However, with all the things that had happened and the several letters home—not just by my hand, but by headmistress Tiffany's whenever Mel and I wound up in her office—why hadn't Daddy stormed back to Baron, brushing past Liam and the other Summoners in Mist and even Mist herself in order to bring me back kicking and screaming to Kaipo? Once again, I wrote to my mother to ask her.
Everything that we've gotten from Sparrow's Wing Academy, I've censored before I let your father anywhere near it. Heaven help Mona Tiffany if your father found out that she gave you detention, and don't even get me started on Mel and her mouth. Your father would kill them both first, and then drag you back here and lock you in the basement, she wrote back.
Good old Mama. She could always make things work out right for me and everyone else. As long as I had her, I was relatively safe—safer even than with my overly protective father, who would, indeed, lock me in the basement if he thought that it would keep people from insulting his precious proginy.
The rest of that winter went by uneventfully, actually comfortably, minus the Reds and their sudden and unwanted interest in me. After a while, they finally got the hint and began to leave me alone. But, to my surprise, when I looked around at them, they seemed a little more like me. Their make-up wasn't so heavy, and actually looked coordinated and, dare I say it, nice. They also seemed to be wearing their skirts longer, their shirts cut higher, and were acting more pleasant to the rest of us as well.
So perhaps I did some kind of good for them, even though I didn't really mean to. I've sometimes wondered what would have happened to me and to them if I had taken advantage of this and became their queen after all. Considering things that happened to me the way they happened, I think that it's been better for everyone that I stayed out of their group.
A good and happy deal of that winter was spent in coorespondence with Edward. He had been adamant about his early letters, insisting that we didn't know each other very well and should fix that by writing to each other; we wrote letters back and forth at least once a day, and we learned all sorts of things about each other. Edward was all about his music, a focused and dedicated student of the unusual magic that he and his teacher practiced, though he was still too unpracticed to use it very well. Bard magic, he explained, could be used to fight off monsters, and Maestro Roland did this very well with his own harp.
Frankly, I'm not suited for battle anyway, he wrote once. I'm terrified of monsters; usually, I run and hide with Shika and the twins on the rare chance that we get attacked and leave the fighting to the professionals. The grils are itching for a day when they can stand and fight back too, but monsters scare me. I wish that I could conqure that fear, but I don't know how.
I didn't blame him for being afraid of monsters. They were frightening varments, to be sure; the fear was simply rational, even for someone as old as Edward.
I'd really like to change that fear, even if it's due, he had insisted. By now, certainly I'm strong enough to beat something on my own. Someone as bold and brave as you deserves a man who can stand and fight off his own monsters, don't you think? If I can't do it myself, how could anyone expect me to take care of a wife or children?
Even if he had his fears, he was very mature about them. He seemed to be standing on an unseen wall, right on the edge of being a man, but he wasn't sure how to cross that barier yet. He was determined to cross it himself, without anyone holding his hand or watching his back for monsters, but right now it still daunted him. And if he thought that I had already crossed the barier into adulthood, with my quick temper and deep-rooted morals, he was wrong. I felt that he was closer to crossing it than I. I had grown wise enough to hold my tongue and stay my hand and spells, but I was enjoying the noncommitment of youth far too much to grow up completely yet.
Truly, I wouldn't completely grow up until it was pretty much too late for it to matter. As for Edward, his journey into real manhood wouldn't begin until after my death.
He really seemed to like how flippantly bold I was, especially when he compared me to himself: I was all fire and attitude, but he was passive and mild like a brook of cool water. But, for all my attitude, I was grounded and solid in what I held to be true. He himself hadn't been too interested in religion before he met me—before, he didn't have one at all. But our letters suddenly inspired him to go and look into it. I don't know if he ever really understood any of it during my life, but he did the favor of being educated for me and my family. On occasion, he even came to us with a very good question that even Daddy had to meditate on for a while. Mama and I were very proud of him, but Daddy never knew what to make of it.
This summer, you ought to come and meet my family, in Damcyan, Edward suggested late in February. We're in the north now, but we're coming back to the south soon. Our first stop is Mysidia, and then it's a straight shot through Devil's Road to Baron! We may see each other again in as little as a month and a half!
The prospect was so exciting that I began jumping up and down as I read, squealing like a little child and causing my roomates to roll their eyes at me. I spent that whole March willing the days to go by faster and trying not to let my excitement get the better of my school work. Every day when I found a new letter on my desk, I plotted the course that the troupe was taking on a map in one of my textbooks and watched them inch closer and closer to the oddly dragon-shaped island of Mysidia.
(If only we had known how important that island and its shape would be in years to come…)
"What do you think you'll do when he gets here?" Goza asked me.
"Introduce him to you guys, first off," I answered quickly. "He's wanted to meet you since I first told him that I had friends."
"Do you think you'll kiss him?" Monique asked.
"Don't bother me with details like that; I don't know what will happen. What if he decides to kiss me?" I countered. "And besides, I just can't wait to see him. It's been months since we've seen each other, and I've missed him very much. I wonder if he's grown any taller?"
Monique sighed. "It'll be nice to meet another Damcyani. I haven't seen anyone from home in a long time. I wonder if I'll recognize him? I mean, we've been seeing him on stage for a few years now, but never up close. Maybe we went to grade school together… But I think I would remember knowing someone named Guilbert Christian; it's a very unique name."
Damcyan had its own magic academy, so most of the country's mages went to school there instead of traveling all the way to Baron. Monique had the special exception of having beloved family in the city who were willing to pay for her education. Even for mine and Goza's company, she often struck me as a bit lonely because of this. But, as hard as she tried, she couldn't think of anyone she knew sharing Edward's penname.
A few warm days into April, a letter appeared on my desk in the morning before class. I tore it open and read feverishly:
Come to the North courtyard! There's a surprise waiting for you!
Oh, this could only mean one thing! I gathered up my two friends and we dashed down to the courtyard. My heart was beating so loud, I thought everyone could surely hear it; there were few other times my heart beat so hard in my chest. By the time we burst into the courtyard my chest ached and my throat hurt from breathing so hard.
The only other person in the yard was a boy of my own age. He was dressed all in scarlet red, from his red feathered hat to his pants, say for his brown leather boots, well-worn from traveling. His pale blonde hair shone in the sunlight, and when he turned to see us his wonderful eyes sparkled—though without the bright lipstick, I almost didn't recognize my dear Edward. And, indeed, he had gained a few inches since our last meeting. And his smile—my heart nearly broke in twain.
Those next few seconds were a happy, dizzy blur as we flew into each others arms. He caught me and spun me around in the air, laughing as joyously as I. After a few turns, he set me back down and just held me close. The whole world seemed to disolve around me. There was nothing else: just I and him.
"I've missed you so much, Edw—Gui—I, uh…" I stammered. I had almost spoken his real name in front of people I had forgotten were there! Embarassed, I started to laugh nervously.
He laughed understandingly. "I've missed you too." He took a moment to look me over, savoring every second, and caressed my face; it felt like he was casting tiny Thuder spells into my jaw.
"You look beautiful, Anna."
"And you've gotten taller," I commented. Before, he had been right at my eye level. Now, I found myself gazing up into his clear, crystaline, blue eyes. He rested his forhead against mine; and just kept looking at me.
"…May I?" he asked.
"Be my guest."
That first kiss was one of those perfect moments of my life—most of them involved Edward in some way. He put his lips against mine, and it wasn't awkward or stange; the contours of our faces fit together perfectly, like a puzzle, pieces that were made for one another.
Together we formed a pillar of bright red flame—a love that could never burn out. Together, we would withstand not only my father but death itself. We would be indestructable, the blazing fire of our love burning down barriers and forging new friendships wherever it went.
22222222222
Author's Notes…
OMG, I'm back! XD
So, culinary school is pretty rad. Takes up a lot of my time, but it's all going tobe worth it one day. You know, culinary arts is apparently the fifth worst paying degree a college student can go for; the article I read about this in suggests that for a higher-paying job, go for a degree that involves a lot of math courses. Good thing I'm not in culinary for the money. XD
Perhaps a new chapter soon…? I wouldn't count on it, despite how juicey the story is getting. I'll update whenever I get around to it. I've got a lot to do… -.-0