The Pixie

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Ailah

The Cheshire grin on Ailah's face sent a shiver down the students spines.

Still, Max, the jock, was unfazed. "I know I can out run you," he says puffing out his chest with confidence. Ailah glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Well, times-a-ticking, hurry up and change and I’ll see you out there."

Turning, she heads straight for the doors leading to the back field. Not ten minutes later, Ailah's class have gathered outside.

"Alright, kids, let's get a move on, everyone ready?" She blew her whistle and everyone took off.

Within forty-five minutes, most of the students had given up. Ailah was amused, she forgot how stubborn teenagers were, always so desperate to prove they knew better. More capable. She had watched as more students dropped like flies and laying on the field catching their breath, some clutching their stomachs. “They really need to learn not to go so hard from the start,” she thought. It was now just her and four other students, Max, Taylor, and two students she realized she hadn't met yet. Ailah could tell Taylor was about to reach her limit, and watched her slow to a stop, out of breath. Max's breathing had become ragged. He knew he couldn't hold out much longer but his ego urged him forward, not ready to admit he was wrong.

The two other students though, had only just broken a sweat, and she was impressed. Ailah herself wasn't even phased, an hour run was nothing, she could handle anything the rigorous military training could throw at her, and she was almost always the last man standing.

"Oi, Max! you doing alright there, bud?" Max tried to glare at her, but the tiredness won out. "I'm... not even... tired yet."

Ailah chuckled. "Good, we could probably run 5 more laps before class is over! Come on, let's race!" She could tell by looking at Max that he was done, but she couldn't help but be impressed by how long he held out. Suddenly Max fell. Ailah and the two students she hadn't met yet stopped and went back to check on him.

"You alright, Max?"

"Yeah I'm fine," he snapped. "I just tripped."

Max wasn't used to being shown up, especially not by an unqualified teacher. "Do you want to get up and keep going? I can keep going all day if you want to."

At this, Max visibly paled. His lungs and throat burned from pushing himself too far. He knew he couldn't, and this made him angry. "This was f*****g stupid, why would you do this to us?"

Ailah met Max's glare with a smile and held out a hand to help him up. "You're the one who told me you could out-run me, you did this to yourself. An important lesson you need to learn is to know when you've reached the healthy limit of pushing yourself." She glanced at the new students. "Help your classmate up and let's regroup with the rest of the class."

Ailah blew her whistle again and everyone slowly made their way towards her. When they had gathered, she paused for a moment and looked over her students. Some were sitting, some were stretching and others leaning against each other. She noticed the two new students standing together off to the side. She stood there, feet apart, hands behind her back when she spoke.

"My name is Ailah Hart, though, you already know that,” winking at Christa, she continues, “I am almost twenty-three years old, I retired from the military less than five months ago. When I moved back to town, the school needed a temporary replacement, I needed a job and 8 credits to finalize the diploma I never finished." By now every student was looking at her and listening, and she was relieved to finally see a lack of ignorance from her students. "The school worked something out, here I am. By the time I'm done teaching here, I hope I am able to teach you something about keeping yourselves healthy. Push yourself to the limit, get to know yourself and your body, but don’t..." Ailah looked pointedly at Max and Taylor, "kill yourself because you're arrogant." Both students looked to the ground shamefully.

"One last thing, do not judge a book by it’s cover, and do not assume anyone owes you anything. Ever. Now go shower, we all stink." As all the students turned to head back to the showers, Ailah walked over to the new students. "You two! Hi! You're the new students that were expected this week?" Both students smiled politely and nodded.

"Yes! I'm Lily and this is Lexie," the blonde haired girl introduced herself and her friend.

"Nice to meet you, you already know my name. I’m really impressed that you were able to keep up with me today, and you were barely winded! Have you two done anything like endurance training?”

Lexie and Lily shared a glance and both looked uncomfortable.

“Yeah, uh, our family likes to keep us... active. We do lots of, working out.”

Ailah watched Lily shift from foot to foot and could tell they didn’t want to talk about this. “Family? Are you two sisters or cousins?”

Lexie giggled awkwardly, “No... I guess we see ourselves as one family since both of ours... spend so much time together I guess?”

Ailah didn’t understand why they were being so weird. It wasn’t like she had asked them for their life story.

“Alright, well, you two have about 15 minutes to wash up before the bell rings for your last class. Better get a move on. Nice to meet you and see you tomorrow!” The two girls looked relieved to be dismissed and ran off after a hurried, “See you tomorrow!”

Hands in her pockets, Ailah made her way back into the school in hopes to catch Ethan to let him know she was leaving for the day. Some days she was extremely happy that she only taught 3 classes a day, others she feared she would die of boredom.

Ailah’s mind was racing wondering how she was going to pull off doing Ethan’s presentation for him. She needed to make sure she was inconspicuous and students or other staff would leave her alone. It was lucky that she didn’t have a class to teach during his presentation, or this would make everything so much harder.

Soon, she was jogging up the stairs when she saw a big burly man jogging down the stairs heading in the direction she came from. Ailah did a double take as her breath caught in her throat and couldn’t help but look at the man as he passed her.

It was an odd feeling for her. There’s almost no time while one is enlisted for more than just a one-off. Even then, Ailah wasn’t one to indulge much. Sure, she scratched the itch a few times, but never had she thought any man or woman was as beautiful as this man moving down the stairs. As she passed him, she was caught up in a smell of freshly fallen rain and cut grass that sent shivers down her spine.

“Eyes straight, sergeant. Keep moving,” Ailah told herself as she kept moving and tried to shake the smell of the man. “No distractions. We are getting out of here.”

Ailah moved faster to avoid running into the students that were starting to cram into the hallways. She stood outside of Ethan’s class and waited.

When the bell was about to ring to give the five minute warning for class starting, she started getting antsy and looked around wondering what was taking him so long. After a minute, she noticed him halfway down the hallway talking to Lexie, one of the new students in her PE class. She smiled as she watched Ethan laugh at something she said and couldn’t help but notice how at ease he looked.

“I guess I was right about making a new friend,” she thought to herself. “He needs this, before we leave. But maybe he will decide to stay...”

As Ethan and Lexie walked up to the class, Lexie looked at Ailah confused, wondering why she was standing in front of the class Ethan had with her.

“Oh, hey, Ailah, I almost didn’t see you there. You’re so short.”

Ailah glared at Ethan. “You’re lucky that it’s illegal for a teacher to punch a student in the throat, Ethan Davids. Or I would. Right now.”

Ethan feigned hurt, grasping his chest and gasping. “Ailah, I can’t even believe you! You would punch your own brother?”

“I would do it in a heartbeat, especially when you have s**t spewing from your mouth.”

Ethan laughed. “You’re like an angry little brownie who needs to be fed. What’s up? You need something?”

“I just wanted to let you know I was heading out for the day and I’ll meet you at home. I might be there when you get home, I might not. I’m feeling restless so I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Wait, you two are siblings?” Lexie interjected.

Ailah looked at Lexie, almost forgetting she was still standing there. “Yeah, basically.”

“What does basically mean?”

Ailah had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, trying to remember that people were just curious beings. Most people can’t help but wonder or ask.

“We grew up in the system together... See ya at home, Ethan. Make sure your homework gets done.”

“Yes, mom.”

This time she really did roll her eyes. Just as she started to walk away, the second bell rang and the hallways were clear aside from a few stragglers. Any student that hadn’t encountered her in the hallways after class started before, tried to keep their heads down and keep Ailah from noticing them, probably hoping to not get detention for being late. But she really didn’t care. She didn’t agree punishment was suited for being late, especially when it was such a large and crowded school. Most of the time, being late couldn’t be helped.

Ailah contemplated going to the gym to work out the restless feeling she had, or going for a run, but she felt like wandering the community forest a few blocks away from the school. On the way, she passed her favourite little cafe that doubled as a small library. She had already spent most of her afternoons here since coming back, reading and eating croissants. It was easy for her to delve into a wonderful fantasy novel, or learning about different places in the world she wanted to visit. She wanted nothing more than to find somewhere foreign to her to settle down and live an uneventful life. Maybe do some work in climate change.

Ailah could smell the freshly baked croissants that they made everyday and she couldn’t resist going in to get one.

It was a quiet place, considering how much business they got. It was busy with people waiting or sitting around, so it was normal to often catch the eye of someone or turn around and bump into someone. But today, as soon as she walked into the cafe, she immediately felt like someone was watching her every move. The atmosphere felt so intense.

As Ailah waited in line, she slowly scanned the room, but she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until she was given her still warm croissants and she turned around to walk out that she was met with the most intense stare she had ever been given.

And for the second time that day, Ailah found it hard to breathe.