Chapter 3- Faerie

  Neo

  I don't fall asleep right away. I've always been a night owl, preferring the te hours of the dark to the early morning sun. The old spring mattress seems filled with extra lumps tonight and while the soft snores of the 7 boys around me usually can lure me off to sleep, tonight it just feels like static or bees attacking my brain.

  I close my eyes with a sigh, remembering Rosa's words to get some sleep. I can't miss another meal on her. She might be my best friend but there's no way she'd forgive me for another mistake like that. Knowing her she'd fly through my window dumping tea on my head and dropping a pastry on my face. The thought makes me grin as I try to calm the racing thoughts bouncing in my head.

  ******

  I wake up with the sun shining in my eyes. I blink against the gre, trying to gather my bearings when the arm clock goes off and the knocking starts at the door. And that's when the usual grumbling begins around me.

  I groan as I pull myself upright, gncing at the clock overtop the scarred maple wood door. 7am. Lovely. At least I'm not te for breakfast.

  I'm the first to get out of bed and head to the showers.

  We all have the routine figured out here. The caregivers, Joe and Helen, get us up at 7 to get ready for school. There are two sets of locker type rooms with showers, one for the boys and the other for the girls. We're on different floors and fortunately enough there's not more boys than there are showers. We all get ready at different times, some in the morning some at night but regardless we're all expected to be out and at the bus stop at 7:40.

  When I'm done showering, I throw on a pair of clean bck trousers and a crisp white long sleeve top. I add a grey sweater for some warmth and smile cheekily at myself in the mirror. I like looking clean, put together. Like I'm smarter and better than I actually am.

  I do grimace at my hair though. It's always a mess in the morning, all flopped down at the front and in the way. It's like my hair naturally grows forward, like it's trying to escape. I've cut it before. But it still comes back. That's what happens when your body can change into anything. The only thing I've found to work is using goril spray on it and pushing it over to the side to keep it out of my face. (Goril sprays this extra strong hair gel stuff. All the werewolves swear by it and it seems to work well enough for me.)

  One of the younger boys, Matt, shoves into me on my way out. We don't say anything. There's no point in arguing. That just creates more of a fight and gets Joe and Helen all pissed.

  I grab my school bag, an old brown leather messenger bag, from the front entryway, and open the door. I don't bother saying goodbye to anyone. No one actually cares. I'm just another paycheck that they can collect on and I'm certainly not friends with any of the orphans here.

  I say orphans like it's a nasty word, like it doesn't apply to me. But the fact is I'm probably more of an orphan than the rest of them.

  It's a short walk to the bus stop for Dempsey. It's farther for Rosa but she's already there when I get there (of course). Her purple eyes frown at me, probably because I'm not wearing a coat.

  I give her a wide grin. "Morning." She rolls her eyes and takes a step towards me but before she can, she slips on a patch of ice and nds on her bottom.

  "Ow!"

  I bite back a ugh and she gres as I hold out a hand to help her up.

  She takes my hand, her pale skin even lighter than mine today. Faeries tend to be all sorts of colors. But Rosa's family has this pinkish-whitish tint to their skin. Like a slightly pink gypsum or a light summer rose. I've seen other fairies here who are blue as the sky and others still who are as green as trees. I'm green, when I turn into one. I don't know if that's by choice or just...natural.

  "Sleep well?" I ask as she straightens out the skirt she's wearing. She always wears the same things for school. Some oddly colored button up shirt with a pattern and a button or two undone, bck leggings, a skirt, and these huge bck ptform boots with rainbows on the bottom. Sometimes I think the school will say something about what she wears but they never do. The dress code is more of a...suggestion.

  "Yes, just fine. What about you? No harassment from your bunkies?"

  "I wouldn't say fine. But no. No trouble."

  Rosa starts talking about the test writers meeting she went to yesterday, going on and on about how Rivers wrote this fantastically deep poem about mushrooms and the circle of life and something else. After a moment or two I start to lose track of the conversation. Rosa just keeps talking cuz that's what she does best. Especially when it comes to people she fancies. Recently she's been obsessed with Rivers, a mermaid with blue-green hair and eyes in the year ahead of us. Rosa is always talking about someone. It usually changes every week, almost like my girlfriends.

  The bus arrives and some of the other's are already on it. We step on and take our usual seats.

  It's not a long ride to Dempsey but walking in the winter isn't ideal. Rosa's fall not long ago is proof of that. And Illinois isn't known for their road care.

  The bus drops us off at the gates. You'd think something as simple as gates wouldn't keep out the humans but Rosa's theory is that there's some sort of magic on them that can detect whether a human or a creature is walking through. I'm sure she's right. She usually is. It's supposed to keep out the dark creatures, too. But somehow Jax still manages a way in. And maybe I should take that for what it means but I don't. There's no way he's good.

  We get to Eventide Hall where the dining room and the normal human csses are (math, english and the likes). The smell of the cinnamon buns hits you as soon as the doors open and I feel my mouth start watering in anticipation. We load up on buns, juice, and fruit before taking our usual seats. No one sits with us, mainly because I have no girlfriend at the moment and everyone else is terrified of Rosa.

  Now that is a long story.

  "Where's Gretta?" Rosa asks around a mouthful of bun and apple.

  I shrug. "I dunno. We broke up this week."

  Rosa rolls her eyes at that. She accuses me of being too 'flippant' with my dating life. But I never understand her. I mean, I'm just doing what those girls ask me to. It seems rude to say no to them, even if I don't like them all that much. When I tried expining this to Rosa one night she immediately asked,

  "Are you gay? Cuz you don't seem to be sticking with any of the girls that are after you."

  I just shrugged. We were eating tacos on the roof that she had brought from home. "I don't know what I am, Rosa. Chameleon, remember?"

  "Yes your powers but not you Neo!"

  The conversation ended there. I wasn't quite sure how to argue with her. Why was I even called a chameleon in the first pce? Don't they just hide themselves? I'm certainly not hiding anything. Including whether I prefer a bonnie or a bloke.

  Rosa

  Neo can be so odd sometimes. I mean, he is literally every creature that can exist. But I mean, like, odd.

  Neo and I have been best friends since first year when he turned himself into a faerie after being surrounded by them. The others thought it was rude and a joke but I could tell he was terrified. Little 13 year old Neo with suddenly green skin and wings and pnts growing up all around him. I thought it was cool. I mean who else do you see just change like that!

  Anyways, I was the one who spirited him off to an empty cssroom and told him what was going on. I showed him all the faerie stuff I could and told him all about my family! My mom, dad, and baby brother Reggie. The poor thing didn't even say a word, just stared at me the whole time like I was a monkey with three heads.

  I've seen monkeys like that before. But it only had two heads.

  Ever since then, I guess I kinda just hung around. Neo didn't seem to mind. And no one else wanted to be friends with either of us. I was too bold and he was too weird. It worked out in the end! He lets me document his changes and I keep him out of trouble. Mostly.

  Neo's eating his buns in small bites with a knife and a fork. He's always been such a proper guy, manners and all that. Like he's practicing to meet the President. Ha. As if. He couldn't even manage one week with my family. Not after the werewolf incident...

  "Neo, why'd'ya look so blue?" I ask suddenly, changing gears from my usual talk about different writing techniques and their connection to our world.

  He looks up suddenly at that, like he's surprised I noticed. Am I really that oblivious of a friend?

  He frowns and just shakes his head. "It's nothing. It's just..." He pauses frowning more, like if his eyebrows go low enough he'll be able to speak right. "It's Thursday."

  I arch an eyebrow in question.

  He sighs and his fork ctters onto his pte. "Which means Jax isn't here. He's off working on his next pn to torture or kill me or get more powerful than all of us."

  Now both my eyebrows are raised. This again. I swear they need to figure their shit out already. It's driving me mad watching them like this. Especially when I already know everything.

  "Well it's just a day," I say, trying to take his mind off it although I already know he'll be brooding most of the day now, worrying about whether or not Jax is going to come out and attack him.

  As if.