Pale: 6.3 - Verona

Cutting Class – 6.3 | Pale
They walked back from their private discussion spot to the rows of picnic tables and benches, many of them beneath the startling blue canopy, with a few scattered elsewhere for those who wanted to eat in the sun.

Verona squinted, hand shielding her eyes from the light.  “Can we sit in the shade?”

“Nah,” Snowdrop said.  “We’re creatures of the daytime.”

Verona gave Snowdrop a little high five.

“Where?” Avery asked.  “Because that’s a question.”

Verona looked from Snowdrop to the growing crowd of students.

She wasn’t someone who considered herself very in tune with these sorts of things, but it was pretty evident that there were some tensions.  Students could have sat, but they hovered, gathered in huddles and groups.  Mrs. Durocher was pacing through the groups so the students moved apart from one another to give her some extra space, it really did feel like things would have devolved into another incident without them.  Graubard and two other parents were also present.

It was more like a prison yard from the movies, The individual gangs gathering.  The possibility that something could erupt at any moment.  The lone but powerful guard stalking the grounds, giving some warning looks and throwing her weight around.

And at the same time, Bristow sat at the ‘teacher’s table’, looking carefree.

Probably, Verona thought to herself, he liked that Alexander was busy elsewhere and he was left to reign.

“This is like it felt on day one of high school, but worse,” Avery said.  “Everyone has this history and breaking into that is really scary.  Except these people can summon monsters and curse you and stuff.”

“Upside,” Lucy murmured, almost like she was talking to herself, “Is we’re not part of that history, really.”

“We’re a bit a part of it,” Verona pointed out.  “Nicolette, and Zed, and Alexander, and Bristow, and the Aware as part of Bristow.”

“Not the brownies, though,” Snowdrop said.  “And we didn’t mess with that Belanger dweeb.”

“I’m not imagining that we’re not some unique case,” Lucy said.  “And that sort of thing happens all over, and this is what happens after generations.”

The prison yard.  The tension.

“So we stay out of the way,” Avery said, almost fake in how upbeat she sounded.  “Don’t get between two enemies, if we can help it.”

Verona kept one eye on Bristow and his guys.  No Shellie.  Had she left?

They ventured forward, into the groupings of students, navigating the narrow and winding paths that were available, where they weren’t invading any one group’s space or treading too close to Bristow, or too close to Durocher.

“Yadira, hey!” Lucy called out.  She looked back at Avery and Verona, as if to double check.  Too late, really.

Yadira was with Raquel.  Kass was nowhere in sight.  Yadira had changed tops, to a simple tee.  Verona preferred the mad hatter look that Kass had been sporting.

“Hi,” Yadira said, as they walked over.  She looked wary.

“There’s a lot of tension,” Lucy observed.

“Yeah, well… some kids have been throwing casual practices around.  Apparently these things boil up every once in a while.  They did in my first year,” Yadira said.

“This is a regular thing?” Avery asked.

“Every two years, maybe?” Yadira suggested.  She looked at Raquel.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“Your cousin goes here.”

“I don’t really talk to him much.”

“I’d have thought a Musser would be better at the politics angle,” Yadira said.

“I’m fine at politics, thank you.  I’m bad at certain personal interactions, and I won’t go into detail on that.”

“I just-” Lucy cut in.

“I’m not asking you to go into detail, Raquel,” Yadira said.

“I figured,” Lucy said, stepping closer, which got their attention, as Lucy invaded their personal bubble.  Lucy stepped back again.  “Maybe we could chat.  About stuff that isn’t our families and rivalries and stuff.”

It struck Verona that as much as she’d never really had a lot of friends that weren’t Lucy, the same was true for Lucy.

“I’m glad our last mess of a conversation didn’t scare you off,” Yadira said.  “But why us?”

“I dunno,” Lucy floundered.  “Why not?  You were going to tell us about Oni and I know Verona would be interested-”

Verona exaggerated perking up, but that didn’t take a lot of effort when she was already suddenly interested again.

“-and you seemed level-headed, I guess.”

Raquel snorted.  “Yadira, level-headed?  Even Kass would laugh.”

Yadira looked bothered by that statement.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Lucy said.  “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.  Really,” Yadira said.  “Uhh, your familiar, I didn’t catch her name?”

“Snowdrop,” Avery said.  “Not a familiar, exactly.  Boon companion.”

Snowdrop, hands in her pockets, bit her lower lip.

“If you want, Snowdrop, there’s a table of Others around the corner,” Yadira said.

“I’m happy having her stick around.  It wasn’t a problem on the first night,” Avery protested.

“It’s not an obligation.  Just… some find it nice, catching up with other Others, after a day of kids.”

“I haven’t met any,” Snowdrop said.  “And I’m brimming with energy, all set to make friends.”

“Come on,” Avery said, steering Snowdrop.  “Hang out with us then.”

“What’s going on there?” Yadira asked, indicating Snowdrop.

“Special rule of discourse,” Lucy said.

“Ahhh.  Some Oni are like that.”

“Like how?” Verona asked.

“Come, sit… over there.”

“Why not here?” Lucy asked.

“Because most of us kids don’t want to sit where the staff can see or hear.  The senior students and youngest students are the ones who end up sitting there.”

They walked over and settled at a table that was only in partial shade.  Verona made a face, but didn’t complain.  It gave them a bit of privacy, at least, with no students lurking especially nearby.  The staff was in view, but they were pretty far down and off to the side.  Avery, Verona, and Lucy sat on the one side, Snowdrop sitting at the end, flopping forward to rest her upper body and head on the table’s surface.  Raquel and Yadira sat on the other side.

Verona kept watching Bristow, thinking of the conversation.  From what Yadira’s group had said after class, they seemed to be fans of Bristow, and possible targets of Alexander.

She saw Ted raise his head, looking over, and followed his gaze.  At the side of the building, two women had emerged.  One of them had fine wire threaded in and out of her skin, harp-like arrangements of string worked through the wire down one arm, designs burned into skin and surrounded with tattoo work, and dangling charms hooked into flesh or other piercings, that included bells and glittering ornaments.  Her hair was long, more of a mane than anything else, and it looked like she’d emptied a can of silver spray paint into it, making it stiff and prone to sticking up.

She walked with a slouch, and even though her eyes were light blue, they looked dark, like a storm was simmering.  She wore a black t-shirt with cuts in it, and a stick figure on the front in silver glitter, which Verona liked.  The other part, which she put less in the ‘like’ bucket, was only what she could make out from a distance, a braided black leather belt threaded through belt loops… where the loops were extended loops in her jeans that could reach up an inch, and a matching set of slits in her skin that the belt could disappear into and emerge from, for her very slow slung jeans.

Avery indicated the pair of women.

“Point out anything you see,” Lucy said.  “We have to stay on our toes, remember?”

Yadira twisted around.  “Oh, them?  I wouldn’t worry much.  They’re with Bristow.”

“No idea.  Which one’s Shellie?” Yadira asked.

“The decorated one,” Lucy said.

Shellie turned to glance at them, scratched at her head with fingernails that had silver nail-like decorations sticking out of them, then settled in at the bench.

Verona looked at the woman, who was… it was weird.  She was pretty, feature-wise, figure-wise, but dull.  Dull, light brown, jaw-length hair with a wave to it, dull skin, muted dark green shirt and black shorts.  She looked lost in thought as she exchanged words with Shellie.

Then she looked out at the students, including some of the older girls, and her expression changed for a moment.  There were lines around her eyes, including pronounced ones running from the inside corners of her eyes along her nose, accented by the way the shade from the canopy hit her face.  She looked at students who weren’t even facing her direction with contempt, with anger, maybe even hate.

Verona hadn’t seen much hate in her life.  Not like that.

“Who is she?” Verona asked, leaning forward.

“Part of Bristow’s group,” Raquel said.  “I don’t know much else.”

“I have a guess,” Lucy said.

The woman circled around the table, and sat next to Bristow.

Kevin Noone, with the gelled up hair and the startling green eyes put an arm around her shoulders.  She smiled at him, then dropped the smile like a lead weight as she looked out over the crowd again, her expression the same as before.

“Kevin’s girlfriend?” Verona asked.

“Looks like,” Lucy said, seeming satisfied.

“You guys have the dirt,” Yadira said, leaning forward.  “You know we’re not supposed to show off any major practice around them, right?  Some students are annoyed by that.”

“Figured,” Verona said.  Shellie and Kevin’s girlfriend were talking.  Kevin and Bristow chatted, and Ted remained pretty quiet, looking off in the direction, toward tree and mountain in the distance.

“Want to share?” Yadira asked.

“Trade info for info?” Lucy tried.

“What do you want to know?  Oni stuff?”

“Yes,” Verona said, giving Yadira her full attention.

Lucy put her hand in Verona’s face.  “Yes, but really, we can research that on our own.  There’s other stuff we could learn.”

“We were just at the library, Verona.  There have to be books on it there.” Avery reminded her.

“We were catching up on class and stuff,” Verona protested.  “Not that.”

“You still could’ve taken out books on Oni.”

“If I took out books on everything I was interested in, the library would be mostly empty.”

“I- fair,” Avery conceded.

“What’s your deal, then?” Yadira asked, “What’s their deal, with Bristow?”

“You said you liked Bristow,” Lucy said.  “But you don’t know who he surrounds himself with?”

“I’ve seen some of them.  He’s come over for dinner a few times.  The one time I really remember him, he brought three of the students from the school he was setting up,” Yadira said.  “You know what the Aware are, right?”

“So there were these three kids that came with him, right?  Roberto.  I can’t remember his last name, started with F.  F for ‘F this guy’.”

“Or you could just remember their names without tricks,” Raquel said.  “I’ve had to remember tons.”

“Yeah yeah, fancy Mussers, high society, blah blah…”

“I didn’t say any of that.  You did.”

“Anyway, both of the boys were from juvie.  Bristow has the connections, the person running the facility tips him off, right?  And all three have their gimmick.  They don’t practice, but they’re weird.  Roberto, he’s like this calculating error in the karmic calculations of the universe.  The more he’s an asshole, the better off he is, karmically.  He steals a car, cops come, he bails, turns out the house he left the car at is this kid he doesn’t like, who doesn’t know what’s going on, says the wrong thing, is wearing the wrong color shirt, and the kid gets in trouble instead.  Acts like a jerk, gets the girl.”

“Including you?” Avery asked.

“I was like, half his age, and not really.  But I can remember the confident bad boy thing working for him, so… maybe.  But he also locked me in a closet.”

“So it’s almost the opposite of karma?” Lucy asked.

“Karma’s not exactly about being nice and getting rewarded for nice.  It’s about keeping the systems running smoothly.  But that’s a whole tangent I don’t want to get into.  Point is, for him, it’s about being the jerk.  He lies, gets reward money, picks a fight, the kid he punched gets in trouble.”

“I already don’t like him,” Lucy said.

“Give him a hug, win him over with the power of friendship,” Snowdrop mumbled, face buried in her folded arms, and pulled her hand out to hit the table with the pointy end of her rusty fork, “like my goblin friends taught me.”

“Only if he gave me an excuse,” Lucy said.

“But he was in juvie,” Verona pointed out.  “How?”

“More on that in a second.  Other boy, Seb, was also from juvie, but his whole deal was that anyone who he spent a lot of time around would lose it.”

“Going insane?” Verona asked.

“Emotionally.  Center of a personal soap opera.  Drama, heightened emotions, love triangles, jealousy, rivalries, addictions…”

“Pregnancies?” Raquel asked.

“Probably.  The more he paid attention to someone, the more they got swept up in his thing.  Which included his parents.  He ended up an orphan early on.”

“Kind of ran into someone like that,” Lucy said.  “Wasn’t that straightforward, though.”

Yadira nodded.  “He got into a lot of trouble, legally.  And so he went to Juvie.  Roberto ended up his nemesis.  Then Bristow comes in and pulls some strings politically and they’re out.  Bristow keeps them from killing each other, picks up kid number three, a girl.  Miss popularity.  Which, you know, kind of says it all.  Trendsetter, parents and teachers love her, the girls want to be her, the boys want her.  She realized something was off, I don’t know how or why, and she freaked, shaved her head in an effort to break the pattern.  Half the kids in her grade shaved their heads in solidarity.  Right?”

“And of course, a certain school founder hears about it and collects her,” Verona said, glancing at the table.

“Funny you say ‘collects’,” Raquel said.  “It’s not something he advertises a lot, that he’s a Collector.  Why do you know so much about him?”

“We ran into some of his people,” Lucy said.  “You were saying, Yadira?  Kids shaved their heads.”

“What do you imagine it was like, those three in my house, at my dining room table, my prim and proper aunt, uncle, and cousins sitting there?”

“Chaos?” Avery asked.

“They were, if I’m remembering right, really, really well behaved.  Roberto locked me in a closet and made me eat a centipede he caught and kept in his pocket, Seb might have been why my dad drank too much, and Angie, the girl, asked to be excused and went outside to smoke instead of having dessert, and I heard her crying, but mostly they were on their best behavior.  Probably better than I was,” Yadira said.  “Because of him.”

Verona looked again at Bristow and his entourage.  She blinked a few times as she spotted Melody, who had been part of the fight in the hallway with the curse girl.  Twisting around, she saw that Alexander and Raymond were doing their part to guide and handle students, keeping the student groups who didn’t get along separated.

More prison guards in the yard.  Only a few tables had settled, and the politics of which group sat next to which group seemed to leave some unwilling to actually settle.  Instead, huddles intensified.

That it was necessary enough to require Raymond, Alexander, and Mrs. Durocher was a good clue there was something up.

“Their lives were in shambles.  Roberto fell in love with Angie and tried to be better for her, and ended up in kid jail.  A lot of the time, these weird cases will pop up where Aware will cause a ton of problems, including problems for themselves, and because they face problems when it comes to actually doing stuff… this is a whole complicated concept-”

“The Aware run into resistance if they try to climb the rungs and become a politician or make a billion dollars with their talents,” Lucy said.

“Yeahhh,” Yadira said.  “So you know that much.  But not even top rung stuff.  Even like… if Roberto became a car salesman and he used his asshole power to become the top seller at the biggest car dealership in his city, wherever he is, that’d draw too much attention.  So he becomes the top seller at a place where there’s enough other crap going on people don’t pay him a lot of attention, and he doesn’t make that much money.  So a lot of Aware will find themselves in similar places on the social ladder, and in the same neighborhood in a town or whatever, and then they crash into one another.  And they may not survive those crashes.”

Verona counted on three fingers.  “Roberto meeting Angie and nearly losing everything, then running into…”

“Seb.  Yep.  Bristow is a good Samaritan, saving them.  And he’s really good at managing that chaos.  Making them work together instead of against one another.”

“He’s a huge, huge dork,” Raquel said.  “Serious logorrhea, distracted, and I don’t know what’s up with his personal style.  But there’s serious brain in there.  I mean, Mrs. Durocher and Mr. Sunshine considered him more or less on their level and they aren’t exactly small potatoes.”

“He still lost that school he was setting up, right?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah.  But you know why?”

“Tanner went with Alexander instead.”

“Dick move on Mr. Belanger’s part, yeah,” Yadira said.  “Apparently Bristow set up the school, but managing that many Aware takes time and attention.  So he arranged it so Tanner could tip him off about the big incidents and keep an eye on things.  Tanner gets scooped up, Bristow can’t give the school the attention it needs without losing everything else… and he loses more than half the students in the aftermath.  People like Angie drift off, and they don’t always survive long.  Pretty sure Angie died.”

“Died?” Avery asked, surprised.

“Pretty sure.  My parents were evasive about what happened to her, but from what I picked up, she wound up struggling to make it on that weird level Aware end up, just barely a part of society, and an Other got her.  Seb ran into another Aware and it ended in a four-way shootout.”

“Aware are common, then?” Verona asked.

“Nah.  But like I said, they find each other.  It’s a small world, when you’re out on the fringes.  Tell me, who are the people with him today?”

“I don’t think we have to keep it secret, but if this ends up getting used against him, it could blow back on us.”

“Nah, you’re okay.  Raquel and I like Bristow.”

“Okay,” Lucy said.  “Ted Havens.  Got caught in some time loop.  Relived his life a bunch.  To fight some massive monster.  Ended the loop, walked out with a few centuries of life experience.”

“Hmm,” Yadira made a sound.  “He has that vibe.  You see it with some Others.  Wise, old.”

“Kevin Noone.  Evil eye.  Kind of sketchy, from the info we got.”

“What about the girl with him?”

“His victim, maybe.  I’m not sure what happens when a person gets hit by the Evil Eye a lot but doesn’t die or whatever.”

“I can think of a few things,” Raquel said, twisting around to look over at the other table.  “Vestige.  Lost something essential?  Like a hollow shell without the filling, or you lose a bit of soul and something else takes its place and plugs into the stuff the soul would.”

“Doesn’t really have that look to me,” Yadira said.

“She looks a little flat.  Not chestwise, but…” Raquel observed.

Yadira gave her another look.  “Mmm, yeah.  Flat in other ways.  Kind of.”

Raquel looked interested now.  “If you push at someone hard enough, they can get knocked out of the place they’re meant to hold in life.  Equal and opposite reaction?”

“What’s the type of eye?” Yadira asked, looking back in their direction.

“Jealousy, I guess?” Lucy said.  “Brings people down.”

“She doesn’t give me anti-jealousy or anti-ruin vibes.”

“Established pattern?” Raquel suggested.  “He used his eye on her a lot?”

Raquel looked at Yadira.  “Maybe it’s like Ray was saying in the Realms class today…”

“The what huh?” Avery asked.

Raquel’s eyebrows went up.  “Oh, you missed that one.  Uhhh, so like, the biggest, most serious Others, including Incarnations, gods, great spirits, and whatever.  They have a weight to them.  He had this visual demonstration.  Put something heavy down on a sheet of fabric, and it creates this dip.  I might be explaining this badly.”

“Finish explaining and we can tell you if it’s a bad explanation,” Lucy said.

Yadira jumped in.  “Big things, metaphysically, can create their own realms, just by being.”

“Like gravity?” Avery asked.

“More like the world’s a plastic bed,” Raquel said, “and you sit on it and it makes a dip, and if you pour water onto the bed it’ll settle in around your butt where the dip is.”

“You’re really bad at explaining things,” Yadira said.

“It works,” Lucy said.  “Does this tie to this woman?”

Yadira nodded.  “Push enough times, hard enough, with enough power, maybe there’s a crater that forms.  Or a depression.  Could be she’s surrounded by bad mojo and so there’s a buildup around her.”

“Or she’s something like a designated victim for the universe, because the universe knows there’s a precedent for being crummy to her, or-”

“What if she’s not a sad little victim?” Verona asked.

Verona glanced at the table, and Shellie was looking at them.  She looked away.  “She was glaring at people.  What if there’s someone in there, being treated like shit, looking for a way out without having all the resources, and flailing for answers?”

“There’s possibilities for that too.  Like, if something’s meant to happen or if someone’s supposed to be somewhere, and you keep putting it off… it gets more intense.  So she could become some personification of backlash.  Or something.”

Verona thought about the passing mention of Matthew and Edith and the Doom.  The fighting off of the Doom, the way it had come back bigger and stronger.  He’d eventually had to bind it in himself.

“I guess without knowing more, we can’t know what she does.  Maybe she doesn’t do anything,” Yadira said.  “Or maybe she’s mostly Other.”

“Who’s the one with silver hair?” Raquel asked.

“Shellie Alitzer.  Bright-eyed.”

“Scary,” Raquel said.  “I was thinking goblin related, but it’s too pretty for that.  Bright-eyed makes sense.”

“It’s all silver,” Avery noted.  “Silver paint, silver wire running down her arm…”

Raquel’s eyes flashed.  “Silver studs beneath her skin, silver belt buckle, silver nails sticking out of her nailbeds.”

“Did you read up on Faerie?” Verona asked Avery.  “Weaknesses and strengths?”

Verona looked at Lucy, who shook her head as well.

“Silver’s a solid anti-Faerie measure,” Yadira said.  “Most courts are opposed by silver in some fashion.  Except Winter.  If you raise silver against Winter, you’re as good as finished.  That’s the gamble.  It makes sense, as default wear for a Bright Eyed.  I wonder if she changes it out depending on the Faerie she’s up against.”

“Freaky,” Raquel murmured.  “Goes back to what we were saying about the kids at your family’s dinner table, Yadira.”

Yadira nodded, then saw that the three of them and even Snowdrop were watching her.  She explained, “He has her under his thumb, and Bright Eyed are… pretty notorious for how hard they are to keep under thumbs.”

“Bright Eyed are common lingo?” Verona asked.  “Common issues?  I’m weirded out that this is a bigger deal than the centuries or millenia-old guy.”

“One of you’s got a Faerie thing, right?” Raquel asked.  “It was in the student guide.”

“Kind of.  Bit of a misrepresentation or guess,” Lucy said.  “Why?”

“I don’t know anyone or any family that deals with the Faerie in any serious capacity who hasn’t heard of or had to deal with the Bright Eyed.  You’d be the first.”

“Again, bit of a misrepresentation.”

“But not totally wrong.  We have had to deal with them,” Verona noted.

“Mm,” Lucy grunted  She scratched at her nose, and for a second, her finger was over her lips.

Which wasn’t lost on Yadira and Raquel.

“What’s this?” Yadira asked.  “What’s the secret?  Spill.  I shared a lot.”

“Or be karmically uneven!” Raquel said, in a spooky voice, her fingers waving.

“We met Shellie’s brother,” Avery said.  “And we contacted Shellie as part of that.”

“Helping out Bristow?” Yadira asked.

Avery made a face, looking at Lucy and Verona.

“It’s complicated,” Verona said.

“Not helping out Bristow?” Yadira asked, in a completely different tone of voice.  “Are you pumping us for information on him?  Are you against him?”

“We are very emphatically not wanting to be on one side or the other,” Lucy said.  “We’ve discussed it.  We want to be neutral as possible, but to do that, we have to know what’s going on.”

“Okay, now I’m bothered.  What’s your deal?” Yadira asked.  “Who are you guys?  What’s the arrangement?  Who sponsored you into the school?  And who’s your patron, since Mr. Belanger said you’re wild practitioners.  And I had to go look that up.  I know they’re powerful, because there have been a few times you guys showed off some casual power.  Not Mrs. Durocher power, obviously, but power like I know Raquel’s cousin has, or like the Vanderwerfs.”

Verona exchanged looks with Lucy and Avery.

“It me,” Snowdrop mumbled, face buried in her arm, other hand raised.  “I’m the all powerful sponsor.”

“Somehow I don’t believe that.”

“I’m a top tier Other.  Very menacing.  Apex, like my shirt says.”

Verona saw Lucy’s expression.  Saw the exhaustion.

In virtually every conversation to date, rescuing Avery, dealing with the Aware, and facing down the Kennet Others when they’d gotten paranoid, it had been Lucy front and center.

“I’ll take point on this,” Verona said, quiet.

Lucy looked at her, then shrugged.

“Yeah?” Verona asked Avery.

Verona cleared her throat.  “We awoke together.”

“Explaining why you’re so coordinated.  Groups that awaken together rise and fall together.”

“We can’t tell you about the patronage, because of deals, but if it’s not on the up-and-up, I don’t think it’s the sort of not-up-and-up that people at this school need to worry about.”

“I’ve been trying to pin down where you’re at, in terms of know-how,” Yadira said.  “Which is a huge tell that disappears once you get some book learning here.  Or run-ins with people like Mr. Bristow and his Aware.�

“Faerie stuff but apparently you don’t like the label, Finder stuff but you haven’t protested the label, they didn’t freak about the goblin stuff the Tedds pulled in dollmaking,” Raquel said.

“Feeling a bit paranoid now, with you guys reading this much into us,” Lucy said.

“My working guess is you found a trapped practitioner,” Raquel ventured.

“Interesting,” Yadira said.

“Maybe we should bail,” Lucy said.

“Was I close to the mark?” Raquel asked.

“If you bail, you lose out,” Yadira said.  “We shared.”

“So did we,” Lucy said.

“I think Bristow did the same thing, on the phone,” Verona told Lucy.  “Talked a lot, took over the conversation.  Then claimed a victory because the conversation was his, unbalanced in his favor.  Kind of.”

And these two are in Bristow’s circle.

“Trapped practitioner,” Raquel guessed.  “Some powerful guy gets stuck in his demesnes or in some pocket realm.  Maybe the Paths, since you have some link to the far realms, and maybe you found a way there as a group.  You’d meet the guy, you awaken together, he could summons the occasional Other he’s bound himself, like the Faerie, to teach and hand out power.  The goblins that Snowdrop here mentioned, maybe.”

“We do not intend to confirm nor deny,” Verona said.  She remembered she’d just said she would take point.  If they took over the conversation, would that make her gainsaid?  “What I can tell you is that we have not been at this for long, but I think we’ve done pretty well.  We have way more power and tricks to tap into than we’ve showed off.  Several people have tried to find out what we’d rather keep secret.  We handled them.”

“Handled,” Verona said, letting the emotion drop out her expression and posture.  Then, as if to squeeze out a bit more of that emotion and sell it a bit, or because that deadness of emotion was linked so closely to the idea, she thought of early that morning.  Twelve hours and change ago.  Leaving her dad.

Except it kind of didn’t work.  Like, instead of being dead and cold she felt the emotion of that moment catch her off guard, and she ended up looking sad.

Lucy straightened.  Avery stood from her seat, while Snowdrop looked up to smile, showing off her teeth.

Not that it mattered what either of those two were doing.  Yadira and Raquel didn’t look away from Verona.

Someone in the distance laughed.  It ended the moment.

“Is that a threat?” Yadira asked,

“Only if you keep digging at what we’d rather keep secret,” Verona said.

“We’d rather get along,” Avery said.  “We’re here to learn.  It’d be nice to have people to hang out with, instead of enemies to deal with.”

“To handle,” Verona murmured, barely audible, intending it for Avery, but the other girls paid attention.

“There’s a thing brewing in this school right now,” Lucy said, indicating the rest of the students, some of whom still hadn’t found seats.  “We’re not taking sides, but I guess if you end up telling people what you know about us-”

“Which wouldn’t be the friendliest thing, when the alternative is keeping it to yourselves and we keep having chats like this one,” Avery interjected.

“-You might have an enemy on another front,” Verona finished.  “Press, if we find you’re still digging for our private stuff, and you’d definitely have opposition.”

Yadira nodded, glancing at Raquel, who wasn’t saying or doing anything, just observing.

“Dinner’s served,” Avery said.

Lucy stood.  Verona remained sitting until their side of the table was vacated, Snowdrop rising to join Avery.

“I enjoyed chatting,” Verona said.  “It’s nice to learn stuff and hang out.  It’d be nice to do it again.”

Yadira nodded again, silent.

There were still some clusters of students who were lingering, and they had to walk around them on their way to the serving table, where the senior students had wheeled out the carts to line them up along the path.

“Wasn’t sure what to expect there,” Lucy said.  “I definitely didn’t expect that approach.”

“If we’re coy, they seem to get curious.  We can’t really negotiate,” Verona said.  “I wanted to make it so it’s not always you standing up there and putting on the brave face.”

“I wouldn’t call that a brave face,” Avery said.

“Scary face,” Lucy said.

“I can live with scary face,” Verona decided.  “Can you guys?  Was I way off base?  Because if so, I could try backpedaling it.”

“Don’t,” Lucy said.  “I wish we could talk more with the Others back home, or with Miss.”

“How cool would it be if we could just call her, right here?” Avery asked.

“It’d suck,” Snowdrop said.

“I think there’s no right answers,” Lucy said.  “This is an answer.  Let’s let the rumor mill circulate a bit, see if they talk about us, and we stand up for ourselves.”

“While keeping an eye out for trouble,” Verona said.  “Including whoever strifed us, and made Ray treat you like crap.”

“Ideally,” Lucy said, dropping her voice a bit as they’d gotten closer to people.

They joined the line for the food.

“What is it?” Avery called out.

“Gourmet burgers with bacon and cheese on toasted challah buns, grilled veg on the side,” Nicolette answered.  She was manning the table from the back, putting burgers together on order.

“Is there a vegetarian option?” Avery asked.

“Marinated portobello.”

The strife situation was a tricky one.  All of the Belangers were present, with Chase leaning against the wall behind the table and serving the occasional drink, but mostly just lounging while Nicolette did stuff.

Verona looked the other way, and spotted the eighteen-ish Seth talking up America Tedd, who was… about as old as students got without being senior students.  Verona couldn’t recall her exact age.  She wasn’t sure if she was uncomfortable seeing it because Seth was a bit older and in a position here, or if she was uncomfortable because America Tedd seemed like the kind of girl who’d bite a boy’s tongue off mid-kiss.

Chase wasn’t ruled out, but there were two other Augurs who could pull that kind of Augur trickery.  Tanner was Bristow’s almost-recruit, stolen by Alexander, and was talking with a pretty, twenty-something girl in a shimmery dress.  Vanderwerf?  They were doing some of the walking around that the teaching staff was doing, talking to groups and distracting them from the lingering feuds.  Tanner was pretty good looking, and so, Verona figured, was the Vanderwerf girl.  That helped a bit, probably.

Verona thought of Jeremy and checked her phone.

There was a picture of him, airborne, spread-eagled, and shirtless, about fifteen feet up in the air.  The lighting of the picture made details hard to make out.

A subsequent picture showed Jeremy in a swimsuit, cheering for what might have been his dad, who was midway down the ramp.

A finger darted across her screen.

“No,” Verona gasped.  She turned to face the finger’s source, Avery, who grinned.  Verona looked back to the screen, seeing the heart pop up.  “No!”

Verona looked at Lucy.  “No.”

Verona looked back to Avery, then back at the screen.

She stared at it until Avery had to nudge her to keep her moving with the line.

A message popped up from Jeremy: “Did a test run.  Five seconds of excitement. Rest of summer is really dull here. Hope your having a good time”

“No,” Verona said, to Avery.  She showed her the phone.  “This isn’t what I wanted.”

“It’s-” Avery started to reply.  Verona shoved the phone closer to Avery’s face, until Avery had to duck her head down.  Avery managed to say, “It’s a bit funny.”

“It’s the furthest thing from funny,” Snowdrop said, frowning and shaking her head.

“It is the furthest thing from funny, right now.  He’s messaging me now.  I don’t like this.”

“I give his reply a B,” Lucy said, leaning in.  “Pretty good for how fast it came out.  He’s a good guy.”

“I give it an F because I don’t want it.  He is a good guy-”

“So date him,” Avery said.

“-But no.  Serious no.  Now he’s got his hopes up and that sucks.”

“I mean, he got a like from you.  Can’t blame him,” Lucy said.

“From her, through me.  On a shirtless picture.”

“Why were you browsing shirtless pictures of Jeremy in the first place?” Avery asked.

“I wasn’t browsing shirtless pictures, I was browsing general pictures, in part because I wanted to know what was going on back home without having to check on my dad again, and one picture happened to be shirtless, and then you liked it for me.”

“And in part because you’re interested?” Avery asked.

Verona struggled to find words and was caught between an invective and a hiss, and ended up with an “Ack” sound.

“You seem more freaked about this than the dad scare, or anything else last night.”

Verona flipped around a hundred and eighty degrees to face Lucy.  Dead serious, she said, “This is worse, on a number of levels.”

“I don’t get you, Ronnie,” Lucy said.  “I really don’t.”

“Gimme your phone.  Let me heart a dozen of Wallace’s pictures, and then maybe you’d feel a fraction of what I feel, right now,” Verona said.

“I’m not going to give you my phone.  If you’re going to get revenge, it should be against Avery.

Verona wheeled another a one-eighty to turn on Avery.  Avery, unflinching, gave her a light push, to keep her moving with the line.

“I won’t defend her against you,” Snowdrop said, brandishing her fork.

“I can’t tell if I’d do this again, based on your reaction,” Avery said.  “It’s funny and a bit unsettling.”

“Unsettling is good,” Verona told her, giving Avery her best glare.  “Be unsettled.  Be very unsettled.”

“Burger with bacon, cheese, onion…. ketchup, mustard,” Lucy told Nicolette.

“You guys made it back pretty fast.”

“No comment,” Lucy said.  “Not in earshot of others.”

“I’m supposed to pass on that we haven’t found any leads.”

Lucy nodded.  “Figured we’d have already been told if you did.”

“Pretty much.  Verona.  What do you want?” Nicolette asked.

“Revenge.  Also, can you cut a burger in half?”

“That’s a pain.  We do have sliders.”

Verona judged the slider size, then held up two fingers.  “Just mustard.”

Nicolette served the dish, handed over the plate, and Verona used the tongs to help herself to a heap of grilled vegetables.

“And portobello mushroom?” Nicolette asked.  “Do you mind the buns?”

“Be careful out there.  I think some of the more easygoing practitioners ducked off around the back.  Just don’t leave any trash or dishes back there.”

“Thanks,” Lucy said.  “Good to know, since it looks like our bench got taken.”

Verona looked.  Some of the other girls from their age group had taken up seats.  They were talking all together.

Raquel looked back their way, saw Verona looking, and went momentarily still.

Then she resumed the conversation, sitting sideways so she could keep an eye out.

They walked away from the serving line to make room for the other waiting students.

“We could go reclaim our seats,” Lucy said.

“If I wasn’t as tired as I am right now, I might say yes,” Avery said.  “I probably wouldn’t, though.  I don’t like that kind of confrontation or awkwardness.”

“It’s a bit lonely,” Lucy said.

“It’s not lonely as long as we’ve got each other,” Verona said.  “And can I really complain if I�ve got a a bonus heaping of warm, cozy thoughts of revenge?”

“Isn’t Lucy the dangerous one when it comes to revenge?” Avery asked.

“I’m trying to chill out a bit,” Lucy said.  “I’ll save the revenge and cursing for those who really deserve it, so I don’t worry my mom.”

“Or us,” Verona said.

They walked around the side of the school.  A bunch of students, a lot of them older boys, were running around in the practice field, with lacrosse sticks, whipping a ball around.

Verona bit into a slider.  She closed her eyes, disappearing into the taste.

There was food that came from the supermarket, refrigerated, that hit the grill immediately, one meal right after her dad’s shopping trips, maybe.  Then if there was more, it came out of the freezer, and stuff that had come from the freezer was worse.

This was like… never refrigerated.  Tender and juicy and exploding with flavor to the point her eyes watered a bit.

How was she going to go back to frozen dinners after this?

How was she going to go back after this?

“Corbin!” one of the boys shouted.  “Come on!”

“I want to freaking eat!  Give me a minute!”

“You keep holding us up!”

“Because you won’t let me eat!”

Corbin sat down by Melody, his sister and his near-twin, taking the plate from her and holding it where it almost touched his chin as he bit into his burger.

“Can I take over while he eats?” Avery called out.

“Have you played Lacrosse?” a boy asked.

“Maybe three or four times in gym.”

“You’re a bit small, and if you’re inexperienced too… maybe someone else?  Zachariah?”

Zach was on the sidelines, leaning against a slope.  He shook his head.

He was a bit padded to be an athletic type.  Which Verona could respect, because people who enjoyed exercise were a bit kooky, as far as she was concerned.

“Give Avery a shot!” Lucy called across the field.

Avery handed her partially eaten mushroom burger over to Lucy, giving Verona a warning look, and then almost took off.  Lucy’s hand stopped her.

“At the picnic table, we pitched ourselves as not to be messed with.  This is the time to show off.”

“I’d say no pressure, but… pressure,” Verona said, eyes widening.

“Not a problem,” Avery said.  She ran off, collecting Corbin’s stick on her way onto the field.

Verona reached for Avery’s burger.  Snowdrop caught her arm just in time.  Lucy saw, realized what Verona was doing, and pulled it out of her reach.

“What would you even do?” Lucy asked.

“Nettlewisp, nettlewisp, nettlewisp… I want her to have a gas.  Make this burger taste like dirty-”

“No,” Lucy cut her off.

“I kind of don’t want to see that,” Snowdrop said, gravely.

“What she said,” Verona told Lucy.

“I kind of do though,” Snowdrop decided.

“Did you reply to him?” Lucy asked.

“Don’t change the subject.”

“She needs to eat.  We all do.  Don’t mess with her food.  Did you reply to Jeremy?”

Verona backed off, took an aggressive bite of slider, and looked at her phone.

“He likes you.  He’s got good taste, considering you’re pretty cool, some of the time,” Lucy said.  She thought, then amended.  “A lot of the time.”

“Nah,” Verona said.  She closed the tab and flicked over.

In the flicking, she ended up on her dad’s feed.  Lucy looked over her shoulder to see.

“You never really communicated about him and how it went,” Lucy said.  “Were you angry, that it wasn’t as bad as he made it out to be?”

“Hey!” Corbin called out.  “Avery!”

Avery stopped in her tracks.

Corbin looked back at Lucy and Verona.  “No helping her.”

Avery, still waiting for more input or comments, seemed to decide she was good to go.  She took off again, intercepting the ball a few seconds later.

“She�s fast,” Corbin said.

“Oh yeah,” Lucy said.

“You suck, Avery!” Snowdrop jeered.

Avery gave Snowdrop a wave.

“Her stick handling needs a bit of work,” Lucy said.  “But she’s doing good.”

“Were you angry?” Lucy asked.

“I’m… he was pretty not great,” Verona said, still watching Avery.  “Go, Ave!”

“I don’t know what the right answer was,” Verona said, her eyes on the field, the ball, and the players.

“Is this like… he needed help but was going to recover serious?  Or a possibility he’s not there at the end of the summer serious?”

“Probably more the former.”

“Probably?” Lucy asked.

“I know what the moral, truly ‘right’ answer probably was.  Probably the answer most people would give.  Staying.  Giving up on magic school.  Showing I love him.  But for me, me specifically, I couldn’t.”

Avery intercepted the ball again.  She passed in a way that was more than a bit high, but her teammate sprinted a bit and managed to catch it.

“How’re you handling it?”

“Didn’t start really thinking about it until just now, seeing the picture on his page.”

“And now that you are thinking about it?”

“Feeling not hungry.”

Dutifully, Verona finished her sliders, then ate the grilled veg.  It took a minute of steady eating before the taste overwhelmed her preoccupation and reminded her of how good this food was.

“I offered before to call my mom and have her check in on him,” Lucy said.  “What do you think?”

Verona gave it a good think.

“Please?  I hate to hassle her, because your mom is great, but…”

“You’re worried?” Lucy asked.

Lucy gave her a one-armed hug.

Verona reached for the plate again, only for Snowdrop to catch her wrist.  Darn.

“Her food’s going to get cold,” Verona noted.

“I don’t think she cares.”

There were a few more exchanges. Avery whooped.

A tug on Verona’s shirt, simultaneous with a tug on Lucy’s, made the two of them look down at Snowdrop, then take her cue, looking back.

It was Ted.  Bristow’s man.

Big, intense, graceful.  Medium length brown hair, a puckered scar up one arm that didn’t look like it had been stitched up at any point before the scar tissue had solidified, tan skin, he was middle-aged-ish but looked simultaneously like one of those older guys who worked out to the point their physiques didn’t match their age, and like a kid far wiser than his years.

“We don’t want trouble,” Zachariah said.

“Nope,” Ted told them.  “No trouble intended.”

He was focused on Lucy and Verona.

“What’s up?” Verona asked.  She reached for her back pocket.

“If I were in your shoes, knowing what I know, I wouldn’t use whatever it is you’re reaching for,” Ted told her, his forehead creased with a line.  “It doesn’t end well.”

Verona returned her hand to its regular position.

“What do you want?” Lucy asked.

“I’m passing on a message.”

“Okay?” Lucy asked.  “Pass it on, then.”

“Lawrence Bristow wants you to know he has no regrets about last night, as of right now.”

Oh.  That.  The little contest between them.

“I didn’t say when he’d regret it,” Verona said.

“I know.  But he’ll keep reminding you.  It’ll count for a little more each time.”

Verona frowned.  “Not quite how it’s intended to work, but-”

“It’s how it works,” Ted said.

Verona shook her head.  She didn’t want to acknowledge it, in case she gave it power.

“Why are you his lackey?” Lucy asked.

“That’s a loaded question.”

“One you’re not going to answer?” Verona asked, taking up Lucy’s slack.

“I can answer,” Ted said, voice soft.  “If I hadn’t come, he would have sent Kevin Noone.  You know who that is.”

“No comment on whether we know or not.”

Forehead still bearing that crease, Ted told them, “Kevin would have hurt you a little, using a glance.  By being here, I can stop that sort of thing.  Lawrence, Kevin, Shellie, and Rae have to be better while I’m here with them.”

“He gets to use you in the meantime,” Lucy said.

“When we talked to Clem, she came up with all kinds of excuse why she had to go back to him.”

Ted smiled for the first time.  “I do like Clem.  Yes.  I’ve seen what you describe happening many times now.”

“I bet you’re strong enough to break this cycle,” Verona said.  “Trying to get out, getting sucked back into his orbit.”

“It’s very possible.  Consider the possibility that I don’t want to,” Ted said.

“Escaping one cycle to find yourself in another?” Verona asked.  “We all have our comfort zones, huh?”

Ted shrugged.  “In our individual ways.  But it isn’t what you’re implying.  Being where I am puts me in the best position to help the most people.”

“You think it does,” Verona said.

“I do think it does.  And it does,” he clarified, with no snark or real reaction to the statement.

“Can you pass on a message?” Lucy asked.

“To Shellie.  Tell her we did our best with Daniel.  He seemed to be in good shape when we sent him off with Clementine.”

“They already talked.  He said as much.  It still took some extensive work for me to talk her down.”

“Talk her down from what?” Lucy asked.

“Aggression.  This is yet another thing that would have been much worse if I hadn’t been present, because I can’t be everywhere and I can’t promise I’ll successfully talk her down every time.  You’re a threat to Daniel’s existence and you’re associated with the Faerie.  Tread very carefully, while she’s near.  Or while Kevin and Rae are near, for that matter, and for very different, more obvious reasons.”

“You’re sticking around?” Lucy asked.

“For part of the week, at least.  Would you like for me to gently express to Shellie that you’re glad all is well with Daniel?  I can do it in a way that won’t see her storming off to attack you.”

“Sure.  Please,” Lucy said.

“Enjoy your game,” he told them, before he strolled off, back the way he’d come.

Verona and Lucy watched him until he was all the way gone, then turned uneasily back to watching Avery run around winging her stick around.  She was doing a half decent job of it, by the reactions.

“I hate feeling weak,” Lucy murmured.

“You’re thinking about the big guy?”

“I hate it.  I hate being on the back foot, I hate second guessing everything.  And you made us out to be strong, which isn’t wrong, but…”

Verona nodded.  She could kind of relate, when she thought of her dad and the uncertainty she’d wrestled with there.  Having a single decisive action like Lucy calling her mom made her feel better.  For this though…

“Do we try and get stronger?” Verona asked, as she finished the thought.  “You got those books.  The major rituals.”

Lucy took a bite out the burger.  It looked too big to finish, so Verona reached for it.  Lucy pulled away, protecting Avery’s burger, until she saw what Verona was doing.  Verona tore what was left in half and took a bite of her half.

“Seems like Implement’s easiest,” Lucy said, watching the game.

Snowdrop held up the fork.  Lucy took it, turned it around in her hands, then handed it back, shaking her head.

“Okay,” Verona told Lucy.  “Need to run it by Avery, but I think it’s a solid starting point.”