Despite Mithana's hopes for a better day, the little faerie's morning was awful. Her first class had been beginner's spell casting where she had failed to conjure up a ball of darkness. Everyone, even the teacher, had smirked when she had failed to do what many children of her element could do. The only thing that had kept her from crying was knowing that she didn't even try all that hard to complete the task.
Her next class had been flying lessons. She thought that perhaps this would go better as she was an excellent flyer. It had actually gone fairly well until the teacher asked them to get into groups. They instantly began to sort into pairs however; there was an odd number in the class. Of course Mithana had been left out. She didn't even want to think about potions class.
The young faerie was walking dejectedly down the hall toward her locker when she suddenly found herself surrounded by the last people she ever wanted to see. Her older cousin Sirine and her friends laughed when they saw a look of fear cross the little faerie's face.
"Well, well girls now what do we have here?" asked Sirine to her followers. Mithana glared at the older girl. The other faeries just continued laughing while Mithana shivered at the sound.
Mithana watched her cousin warily. Sirine was at least a head taller than her. Her violet hair was cut short in the typical dark faerie fashion. Her purple eyes flashed with malice and Mithana couldn't help but be afraid. Sirine had hurt her more times than she cared to count and she had a nasty feeling that this time would be no different.
"Go away Sirine," muttered the girl. "I haven't done anything." Sirine lashed out, knocking her little cousin off her feet. The other girls in the hall stopped and stared at the faeries.
"You speak when spoken to brat." hissed Sirine.
"Brat? Me?" questioned Mithana as she struggled to keep her face as innocent looking as possible. "If I'm the brat around here, I would hate to find out what you are… cousin." Now she'd done it. She'd dared play the cousin card.
Sirine grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. "You shut up. You and I both know you can't do magic so it would be very easy to put you in your place."
Mithana's mind was racing. She knew what she had to do. Looking over her cousin's shoulder as if to look at something she said loudly
"Oh, hello principle Brianna."
When the five faeries whirled around, their eyes trying to locate the teacher, Mithana did the only thing she could do. She ran.
Lithine, Ariella and Nova were casually talking about their classes during the midmorning break. The girls were discussing some homework their history teacher had given them when the sound of spells being cast and yells sounded throughout the hall they were in. The faeries looked around to see the little dark faerie who had been bullied at dinner the night before run around the corner. Dark spells followed her as she dodged around startled faeries. The five dark faeries who had been the ones who bullied her at dinner ran around the corner after her. They were the ones who had been casting the spells.
The little faerie had almost outrun her tormentors when a ball of darkness hit her square in the back. She tumbled forward with a cry and the five older faeries instantly surrounded her.
Rage welled up in Lithine's chest as she watched the bullies launch several more spells at their victim who was clearly unable to block them. She felt Ariella and Nova stiffen in anger as they too watched the scene. Something snapped inside the light faerie. Before she knew what she was doing, she was pushing her way through the dark faeries to stand by the little faerie's side. She was surprised to see that Ariella and Nova had followed her.
"Stop it!" demanded Lithine to the dark faeries. The older faeries gasped in rage and several even conjured up balls of darkness which they threatened to hurl at her.
"Keep out of this light faerie." snarled the faerie who seemed to be the leader. She spat the words 'light faerie' as if they left a bad taste in her mouth. "This is no business of yours and if you know what's good for you, you'll leave."
Lithine could almost feel the heat radiating off of Nova as the fire faerie's temper flared and she knew Ariella was just as mad. She turned toward the dark faeries and gave them her sweetest smile.
"No I don't think we will. Wait, I have a better idea." The dark faeries glared at her. "Why don't we give you a taste of your own medicine instead?"
Signaled by her words, Ariella and Nova reacted when she did. The dark faeries soon found themselves bombarded by an assortment of light, fire and air spells. Muttering curses, the bullies swiftly made their retreat, but not before giving their attackers a detailed lesson in very colorful vocabulary.
With them gone, the three friends turned toward the little dark faerie, who was sitting on the ground looking at them with a mixture of horror and disbelief.
"Are you okay?" questioned Ariella as she helped the girl to her feet. The girl only stared at her with wide eyes. "Come on. Let's go outside."
"Bubut wwhy," stuttered the little faerie. She was instantly shushed by the persistent air faerie and half led, half dragged outside by her rescuers.
The three faeries led the dark faerie out into the nearest courtyard. When they reached the courtyard, they sat down beneath a large tree which grew in the middle of the lawn. When they looked up, they saw that the little dark faerie was still staring at them.
"Would you please sit down," begged Nova as she looked up ward. "You're hurting my neck."
The faerie seemed to come to her senses. "Why did you do that?" she demanded. Lithine looked up, surprised at the question.
"What do you mean why?" she asked. "It was wrong. No faerie should be able to do that and get away with it."
"Do you even know who those girls were?" asked the faerie.
"What does it matter?" demanded Nova. "It was wrong and nobody else was about to stop it."
"You don't understand," said the girl, her voice soft. "Those girls are as mean as mean gets. Nobody stops them from doing what they want unless they have a death wish. Some of the teachers don't even bother with them anymore."
"Well what did you do to get on their bad side then," asked Ariella. The friends looked at the little faerie expectantly. The dark faerie looked down at the ground at her feet. Sadness filled her voice when she answered them.
"They don't need an excuse to pick on me, but there are plenty of reasons." she replied. "The main one is that I'm Sirine's cousin. Sirine is their leader."
"What?" cried Lithine startled. "It's bad enough that they picked on you in the first place but it's even worse if you're actually related."
"Listen," said the faerie, her voice suddenly stern. "If you three want to live peaceful lives while at this school then stay away from me. Those girls are only a fraction of the people who hate me."
"Who else hates you?" inquired Nova. Sometimes her curiosity got the better of her.
"Just about ever dark faerie in this school hates me," replied the girl nonchalantly. "Wait, scratch that. Just about every dark faerie inexistence hates me."
"Why," asked Ariella puzzled.
"Because I don't…" the girl left her sentence unfinished and continued with a new one. "Why am I even telling you this?"
"Because we asked," replied Nova, her voice calm.
"It's none of your business!" Without another word, the faerie began to stalk back toward the school building.
"Hey!" called Lithine as a question came to her. The dark faerie turned. "What's your name?"
For a second, the light faerie thought she wouldn't answer. Then she heard a name spoken only loud enough for those three to hear.
"Mithana."
Lithine went to her history class feeling a slight bit of pity for the dark faerie. She knew it must be awful to have her sisters hate her. One thing that made her happy was knowing that she had done the right thing by helping the little faerie. She felt wonderful and was abnormally cheerful throughout the class. A thought came to her as she read her assignment from her textbook.
Perhaps she could persuade Nova and Ariella to sit with the girl during dinner tonight. After all it must be awful to sit alone. She never once stopped to remember that she was a light faerie and that the other girl was a dark faerie. For some reason, it didn't seem to matter much anymore.