The Pixie

Chapter 1: Ailah "Please, Ailah, please do it for me." Ailah looked at Ethan with squinted eyes. "Are you actually asking me this in the middle of a high school cafeteria? What if someone hears you? We talked about this last night... and the day before... and the day before that. This is my only break, Ethan.” Ethan felt guilty for a moment, but wasn't ready to back down. "You only said maybe... and the first time, you didn’t even say anything. I need your help. I really can't do it." "Can't or won't?" "Both." Ailah sighed and leaned back in her chair. It had been 3 days of incessant asking. She opened her mouth to reply when he stopped her, “Please,” he said. “It’s the PT-SD, the idea of standing up in front of so many people again, makes me sweat and want to start profusely puking. I've already talked to Mr. Kittsman, he won't let me hand in a written report. Something about gaining self confidence or some crap. There's a reason I don’t do these things, I’m sure you remember." Ailah scraped her food across her plate as she listened to Ethan. Since the day they were placed together in the same foster home at 8 and 13, they became inseparable and supported each other through the nightmares their foster family put them through. She remembered one night during a school choir performance, Ethan was petrified to go up and sing with his class and he tried to run back to his classroom to hide. He was forced back on stage and sobbed the entire time. When they got home that night, their foster parents screamed for hours what a failure he was. They locked him in his room and pretended he didn't exist for days after that. Ailah was the one who made sure he was fed and got to school. She was the one who held him while he cried and told him she was proud of him. Another time, they forced him to sign up for the science fair, where students must present to a panel of judges that consisted of teachers, admin, and peers. Ethan tried so hard, he had put so much intricate detail into creating a display of how volcanoes worked, and when he didn’t win, their foster parents told him he would never amount to anything and he might as well just write off the rest of his life. They didn’t talk to him again until he placed 1st in his track and field meet a month later. She looked at Ethan while rubbing her hand back and forth across her shaved head. She knew she was going to give in, after all, Ethan never asked for much. Even when she left and enlisted in the military. She left him there with no other choice, and the guilt ripped through her every time she thought about it. "You should already know I'll do it for you, but I won't do it again for your schoolwork. It's not safe in a place like this. You should know how easily it would be for someone to notice there was something going on. You're supposed to be the one to-" "I know, I know, guard duty. But if you can ace this for me, I’ll only have 3 minor assignments until Christmas and then I can take the rest of the year off to study and shape up. Then it's just final exams and we can get the f**k out of here. I might even be able to do my exams early if the school board approves it. It's basically a win-win." Ailah knew he was right. As proud as she was for him being so intelligent, it was annoying. She scrunched up her nose. "Don't forget there's two new students this week.. Try to make new friends, and hopefully they aren't in your history class for your presentation. that could get complicated, best case scenario." Ethan blanched. "New friends... right... Wait, what’s the point of making new friends if we are leaving in a few months?” Ailah laughed and got up to throw her lunch out. “Your 17, Ethan. High School is shitty but you only experience it once. You deserve to have fun and socialize while you can before life gets real... and hard. ”Yeah... socializing... fun... I'm gonna go, I need to eat before my next class and lunch is almost over. Have fun getting those snooty seniors to participate in PE." She laughed, "Dude, it's like you forget who you're talking to." ************* Ailah made her way to her PE class. Since she started a month ago, she was not only the youngest teacher there, she also hadn't garnered much respect from her students. Not like she tried though, she let them have free range of activities because she'd wanted to go easy on them since school started so they could ease back in from summer vacation. Giving them a transition period would make their lives easier and attitudes more mellow, however she also knew it would serve as the ultimate smack down when they realized how hard she was going to push them. At least for the short time she would be here. She was ex-military, completed 2 tours in her entire 5 years of training and service and she trained hard. She knew she needed the self-discipline and training the military offered to figure herself out and control the things she could do. She was different. Human but... not quite. She was faster than anyone she knew and had immense endurance. It scared her, no one else was like this. As far as she knew, she had never met anyone like her. Ailah realized early on there must be something wrong with her. She'd been forced to leave 5 different foster homes for being a freak and terrifying her foster parents. Her last home before she met Ethan was when she realized she could find out anyone's secrets if she wanted to. Things people didn't even tell their closest friends or partners. She couldn't even count the times she'd been hit or isolated in a room for being a "witch". It really wasn't her first choice to be back in this town, but it was worth it to have her relationship with Ethan thrive again. Ailah could hear the chatter in the gym long before she reached the gym, and as she opened the doors, the gym fell silent as her students stared. Like every day. All they saw was a girl not much older than them with no hair, black baggy sweats and combat boots. "Go change and meet me in the back field! Bring water or you'll wish you had!" Ailah shouted from across the gym. A couple students made their way to the change rooms, but the rest lingered. As she got closer to her class and c****d an eyebrow as multiple students started talking at once. "Why are we going outside? Its getting cold!" "Why can't we play dodge ball or basketball like we did last week?" “What about volleyball?” "Are you even qualified to be a teacher? Aren't you like 16?" She laughed at the last one and looked at the girl who said it. "Christa, aren't you like 16?" Christa tossed her sandy hair over her shoulder. "My birthday was last month. I'm 17 now!" "Oh wow, last month hey? You're practically 18 already!" Christa frowned. She didn’t like that, none of her other teachers talked back to her. "I'm 22... 23 in 2 months." Ailah said, wryly. "You're barely older than us! You can't be qualified." Taylor, Christa’s friend said. A boy, Max, pushed his shaggy hair out of his face and scoffed, “We shouldn’t have to listen to what you’re saying if you’re not qualified to be here.” "How about you meet me in the field for your mandatory Phys. Ed. class, and if you can out run me, I'll tell you what my... qualifications are."