The Fairy Queen

Chapter 2

Soon after dropping Jessie off at the nearby Meadowville Middle school, the older Adam-Gallen siblings pull into the parking lot of their high school. The school is an old building covered in fresh light blue paint. Streamers and banners hand on the building arch, trailing all the way to the inner part of the school. It was summer so the sun was already rearing its head.

The chirping cicadas were especially loud in the summer down in the countryside, but the noise got bearable inside the school. Lukas alighted, waved to his sister and put his headphones on. Meryl watched him go inside before taking her own bag, locking the car and going into the building.

People out in the country were enthusiastic about sports too so their school had a football field where competitions with schools from neighboring towns were held. Basketball too made headway in their school, but the population was much too small and dim for any other sports.

Sports were frightening to Meryl. Anything that involved a moving ball, over energetic boys and noise, she avoided it like a plague. She couldn’t avoid all of it though, some of her friends were especially involved in football. Her best friend Coraline was enthusiastic about designing the poster and her other best friend, Gus, was a linebacker.

“Meryllllll!” An inhuman screech came from the ends of the hall and a short overly energetic creature jumped on her.

“Coraline! Get off me!”

“You’re late! You’re late! You’re late!”

“Stop bouncing and repeating yourself. I’m not late.”

“We agreed to meet earlier. Why are you just coming now?!”

Meryl suddenly recalled a text from the night before from Coraline, which she ignored because of how ridiculous the message was.

“I slept by 2am. Why should I get to school by 5?”

“You were writing your dream journal again?” A tall boy asks.

“Morning Gus. Yeah, I was. You wanna read it?”

“Hmm? I thought it was private. I mean, you wouldn’t let Coral read it.”

“Oh. That’s because she kept trying to read it while I was writing. It’s annoying so I banned her from reading it.”

“Well, I totally want to read it. It’s just, I’m getting too anxious with the upcoming game and well, if I’m off my game, cap would kill me.”

Both Meryl and Coraline rolled their eyes.

“Boys.”

“Hey! What do you mean?”

“There’s no need to patronize me if you’re not going to read it. I don’t need your excuse, Gus. You’re a poor reader.”

“No, I’m not! I really want to read it.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to read it... once it goes on sale and I become bestseller in the city.”

“You’ll give me one for free? Ah, you’re such a nice person.”

“Keep dreaming.” Meryl snorts and turns to face the other person.

“So, Coral, what exactly am I late for?”

Coraline straightens up and smirks, her mole curving up with her lips. Her skin was showing signs of sunburn which bothered Gus who always forced her to wear sunscreen. She was the shortest in the group, rounding off at 5’4. Meryl was 5’10 and Gus was 6’2.

Coraline had long brunette hair that was tied in a bun and her sapphire eyes always sparkled when she talked to her friends. She wore a white shirt and plaid green and yellow skirt with a 2 inch black heel shoe.

“You were supposed to help me set up before Sheila came. Now she’s taken over and they’re changing almost everything!” Her voice increased in pitch as she spoke but Meryl was too bothered about what she said than the noise.

“What?! What do you mean by changing everything?”

“She changed the decorations we put up last time. It actually looks better. City girls are really the best,” Gus said, nodding.

He was an attractive tall guy who rated second on the most attractive boys in the high school poll. It also meant he was in line for prom king. He wore a short sleeved red top, baggy grey pants complete with brown sandals. He also wore a light blue cap that was a school football merch.

“I really hate country guys! Just because a girl is from the city, you automatically think she’s better than us!” Meryl poked his chest to emphasize her point. He raises his hands in surrender.

“I speak nothing but the truth.” Of course he did nothing but surrender. He was very competitive and always fought to be right.

“There’s no use talking to a muscle-brained i***t like you. Let’s go, Coral.”

“Yes ma’am!”

The three walked to the school gymnasium which was being prepped for the prom. The basketball finals were set to take place in another school and the football finals in a much larger field in another town closer to the city. The committee for the prom decided to set it up early so they could get a few days off before the actual day.

Meryl walked into the gymnasium and gasped. The decorations which she had painstakingly put up a few days prior were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they were replaced with much shinier ornaments, streamers and disco lights shaped as chandeliers.

It looked much better than what she put up before but the effort and brainstorming that went into setting up her low budget yet stunning decoration made her unable to accept the sight before her. She marched right up to the redhead that was busy directing volunteers in the gym.

“Shelia, what is this?”

“Oh, morning Meryl. What are you talking about?”

Even her ‘city’ accent was annoying.

“The decoration. We spent a lot of time on those and you just take them down without asking us. It’s not fair to any of us, Sheila.”

“I thought it could be better, so I made it better. I asked the principal, and she was fine with it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with asking the principal. However, what of us that spent the last few days working our assess off to fix this place?”

“… I’m sorry. It was insensitive for me to take it down without asking you. The head of the committee agreed so I thought it was fine. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“Whatever. Do what you like. I quit.”

“Aw come on Meryl, don’t be like that. I was just trying to make our prom much more fabulous.”

“That’s not a problem. Just apologize to the other volunteers and we’re good. Since you’re going to make it ‘fabulous’, I’m clearly not needed here. I’ll help Coral with the football preparations.”

“Okay. Well, I’m a bit busy so I can’t talk right now. See you later.”

Despite her apology, Meryl wasn’t satisfied still. It wasn’t that Meryl hated Sheila. She honestly wasn’t a bad person. She just had no concept of boundaries.

“It must be pretty bad if you’re volunteering to help with the football team,” Warren, the football captain said over Meryl’s shoulder. She didn’t even notice the tall blonde quarterback till he spoke. He was the type that could erase his presence if he wanted too. He was quite skilled using this in playing and had the highest chance of being admitted into a sports college scholarship.

“Well, it’s not like I have anything else to do here. Her ideas are obviously going to be better than mine.”

“Is that jealousy I hear?”

“Shut up. What are you doing here by the way?”

“The guys wouldn’t stop talking about how awesome the gym is so I came to check it out. We’ll be counting on you, Meryl.”

“Urgh, buzz off. I have enough headaches as it is.”

“Just water bottles. Please.”

“Fine. Anything more than that and I’ll curse you guys to lose the match.”