It was her eighteenth birthday today. Sabrina Grimm was now a legally able to marry without the consent of her parents. And everyone was well-aware that her parents would not have allowed her to be married before that time, for which she had actually been grateful in the past, particularly when Puck had asked her to set a date for their wedding when they were fifteen. She had used the parent excuse, which had seemed like a good idea at the time since it gave her three more years of relative peace.
Turning eighteen almost made her regret being an ordinary human being. At least in the "not an Everafter" sense. Because that meant that she aged, and the fairy that appeared to be a young man despite being many years old was a very dense sort of person. While she hoped that the day would be good, as people often hope their birthdays will be, she dreaded whatever it was that Puck would do to ruin it for her. And he always managed to get on her nerves.
It started when he stopped her in the hallway on her way to breakfast.
"So, you're eighteen now, correct?" he said.
"Yeah, so?" She immediately regretted leaving an opening for conversation.
"That means your parents can't stop you from doing stuff anymore."
She did not like where this was heading. "Actually, they can if I intend to remain part of the non-ostracized family." If she started doing really stupid things, especially around Basil, who was seven years old and very impressionable, her parents would probably banish her from the house.
"Who cares about that?" he asked. Most people would have assumed that this was some kind of joke, unfortunately, he wasn't joking, and it wasn't really funny in the first place.
"They're my family," she responded. "I care."
This only amused him. "I meant someone who actually matters."
In the past, she would have lost her temper. There likely would have been shouting and the pair of them would have exchanged cruel insults. Perhaps she would have hit him, or, more likely, she would have ended up chasing him around the house threatening him. But she had learned years ago that he thought her angry outbursts were hilarious. It had taken a lot of practice, and sometimes she still slipped up, but she had finally learned to control her temper, which is why she did the only thing that ever seemed to work. She ignored him and started to walk down the stairs.
"Hey, I'm still talking to you," he called after her, but she continued to ignore him. "Don't ignore me! You still have to set a wedding date!"
And it wasn't even nine in the morning.