Chapter 3
Fidget arrived in his living room, where Jinx, who happened to be his roommate, was sitting at a small round table, playing chess by himself. For some reason understandable only to Jinx, he was not winning. Fidget flopped down on the chair opposite him without saying a word, took over the chess pieces that resembled forest pixies, and was defeated in three moves by Jinx’s prairie pixies. It should be noted that Fidget is the grand champion chess player in Lumina, at least, when his mind is in the game.
“You seem preoccupied,” said Jinx but Fidget didn’t respond. After a few minutes of silence, during which he put the board and pieces away, Jinx asked, “So, did our fragile little flower get home safely?”
Fidget snapped out of his deep thoughts instantly. “You know I don’t think that she’s fragile. I just worry about her, that’s all.”
“That’s very sweet of you,” said Jinx, grinning.
“Oh be quiet.”
“That’s a tempting offer, but I refuse.” Jinx walked himself over to a flower patterned sofa and collapsed on it. He grabbed an envelope off of the end table next to him, and tore it open eagerly. “Oh, this is interesting, Fidget … it was addressed to you, I hope you don’t mind.”
Fidget seated himself in a rocking chair, put his feet up on their coffee table, closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath. He knew there was only one party that ever sent him mail during the school months. “What do my parents want now?”
“It’s just two lines, it says, ‘Dearest son, when are you going to ask out that pretty blonde haired pixie that we met last month? Her radical ideas are just delightful.…’ I personally would like to know the answer to that question as well, Fidget.”
“Ugh … what does it really say?”
“They want you to attend the May Ball. They think it would be good for your social development.”
Fidget laughed, though somewhat dejectedly. “Being made fun of by our worthless classmates during the day is bad enough; I don’t think being made fun of on my free time will help my development anymore.”
“True, but this is your perfect chance to ask her out.…”
“Pudding?”
Jinx made a disappointed face before sarcastically saying, “No, I meant Nemesis because everyone knows how fond she is of twitchy little doofuses. OF COURSE PUDDING! Stop being dumb and just ask her out already.”
Fidget turned slightly red before spluttering, “I … try, you know, I just … I … well.…”
“Wuss out?” said Jinx. It was his own small attempt to help Fidget find the right word, while also confronting him with the undeniable truth.
“Yeah. She intimidates me. She’s so smart and nice and pretty. I clam up every time I try. She’s older than me too, that doesn’t help.”
“So she’s a few months older, a lot smarter, and way prettier than you … stop being a wuss and just ask her out.”
“I hope that wasn’t supposed to be a pep talk?” asked Fidget with a laugh.
“Come on, this is a sure thing. You ask, she says yes. It’s as simple as that.”
“How do you know?” asked Fidget, trying to hide his genuine interest.
“How do I know?” asked Jinx in utter disbelief. “Um, she’s always smiling at you.”
Fidget shrugged his shoulders. He had hoped that Jinx’s information would be a little more insightful. “She smiles at everyone.”
“She’s always hugging you.”
“She smiles at and hugs everyone. That’s her personality!”
Jinx continued as though he hadn’t heard a single word Fidget had said, “She’s already met your weirdo parents without running in the opposite direction.”
“They aren’t that weird.…”
“Yes, they are,” Jinx added quickly. Fidget couldn’t really argue; his parents were pretty odd. “She didn’t punch you when you said she smelled bad.”
“Jinx, you know I didn’t say it or mean it like that.”
“She didn’t kick you when you broke her arm.”
“That was an accident.”
“She didn’t put a curse on you when you teleported her into that garbage dumpster.”
Fidget threw his hands up in frustration. “I told the instructor I wasn’t ready to do group teleportation. He didn’t listen, so blame him if you want to blame someone.”
“No need to get defensive, I’m just trying to make a point. You see, these are all good signs. If she doesn’t like you, what is she still doing around you? You know what, Nemesis is right, you are a doofus. Don’t worry though, I can teach you to be something less of a doofus. For starters, we need to put dating in terms that a doofus can understand. You need to think of dating like … like ... football! You see, Pudding hands you the ball all the time and you just keep dropping it, over and over.”
“Do I really?” asked Fidget as he once again assumed his preoccupied look.
“Yes, you really do.”
“Can I pick it back up?”
“It’s best to just fall on it and wait for the next handoff. But know this, you can’t keep fumbling Fidget, or else she’ll hand the ball to someone else. So, ask her out next time.”
“Maybe.”
“Life is too short for maybe and too long for regrets. Do it. I command it.”
“Maybe.”
Jinx sighed, stared at Fidget for a few seconds, and then decided to change the subject. “So, that was pretty wild stuff today.”
“No kidding! How do you suppose that sea creature got so close to the coast without the lighthouse notifying us? When I was standing there, they signaled all clear to Pudding … not even ten minutes after we were attacked. You’d think they would have said that a dangerous monster was on the loose twenty feet from where we were standing.”
“Hmmmm, you’re right,” said Jinx. “The lighthouse should have seen something that large breach the pixie barrier, especially since they were keeping an extra lookout on that area for Pudding’s test run.”
“Not only that, but that creature went right after the submarine like it knew exactly what it wanted. Why would it do that? For that matter, why take the submarine? The magical reinforcements that Pudding gave the metal probably made that thing angry since it couldn’t smash the sub to bits, but to steal it! That doesn’t sound like any sea creature attack I’ve ever heard of.”
Jinx dropped his voice to a whisper, “Maybe somebody didn’t want us to make the maiden voyage today.”
“There are some strange coincidences involved, but do you really think someone would purposefully sabotage us?” asked Fidget.
“I’m just saying it’s possible, though I don’t know who would want to put a stop to Pudding’s moment of fame … we aren’t even sure if the submarine works.”
“It did sink fast,” said Fidget, in a worried undertone. He stood up and began to pace around while his mind turned to the past for a few moments. “The only people who openly oppose Pudding’s inventions are the instructors and the magitorium’s councilors. They don’t really like her interest in science, but they could always just confiscate her inventions if they really wanted to.”
“That’s true.” Jinx began to drum his fingers on the end table, “Who else could it be then?”
Fidget narrowed his eyes as his thoughts suddenly struck upon something that he found completely obvious. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before now. “Who else knew about the test run, and would have a problem with Pudding succeeding?” he asked, in an accusing tone.
“You’re not thinking … no … not Nemesis?”
“You have to admit that it’s a possibility.”
“I doubt she is that jealous of Pudding,” said Jinx.
“Nemesis is jealous of anything that takes attention away from Nemesis. At any rate, someone planned this out, and whoever was working in the lighthouse was in on it. I was supposed to visit my parents after the submarine’s trial run; they were interested in knowing whe
ther it worked or not. I’m going to get that visit over with right now. I’m sure I’ll be gone all day, so let’s go see the harbormaster tomorrow. Maybe we can get something out of him.”
“All right, that sounds like a plan. Oh, hey,” said Jinx trying to make it sound like he had just remembered something important, “did you prepare for the telekinesis practical?”
“No.”
“Dang, I was hoping you could show me how to do some of it.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.”
Fidget and Jinx separated, going to their bedrooms on opposite sides of the living room. Fidget grabbed a few items from his dresser, and then headed out into the city. Since he wasn’t born in Lumina, he never had a chance to get bored of its environment, and so, he always got a kick out of walking through the city, rather than just teleporting to the area he needed.
Immediately upon stepping out onto the smooth, stone paved streets of the university district, Fidget looked around at all of the old buildings. The architecture closely resembled what humans would someday call the gothic style, but that was only true of this district; it is possible to walk around and see much older and much newer designs, depending upon which direction you go.
Lumina, like many pixie cities, is an interesting mix of several different time periods. Since pixies live so long, and get set in their ways, many of the older generations never move on to newer things. So, upon his walk, Fidget encountered streets filled with pixies that had on everything from blue jeans and tank tops, to togas.
Although this area of the world was colonized by pixies only a hundred years earlier, Fidget encountered older and older architectural designs as he neared the center of the city. This always seemed to impress him greatly. It was really only due to the fact that very old pixies looking to get away from encroaching humans were the original colonists. Little did they know that humans would colonize a small island just north of Lumina within a few decades.
After the initial colony was setup, younger generations quickly jumped at the chance to take part in the formation of a new pixie city. That is why Lumina’s architecture and entire culture seems to get newer and newer the farther away you get from the town center.
Fidget eventually came to a large pavilion with several tall stone arches placed at regular intervals. He read the pixie symbols on each arch, until at last he came upon one that had “Bermuda” written on it. As he waited under that particular arch, he turned his gaze upon a large, fancy dormitory that was situated near the magitorium’s chambers. This was a dormitory that only the pixie children with the richest parents could afford.
“Yeah, we’ll talk to the harbormaster tomorrow,” said Fidget aloud, but to himself, “and I’ll keep an eye on Nemesis.”
Fidget touched the arch, causing a massive burst of light to encompass the entire area. When it died out, he had teleported to his home town in the Bermuda Triangle.