“Besides, everyone likes you. You’re nice to everybody.”
“So are you.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t get my arm slashed up.”
Lucian shrugged as he and Adrian sat down. They were about to start eating as Calista’s voice rang out, “Gentlemen, please rise; we have a lady in our midst.
Adrian and Lucian stood up. Lucian looked around to see a blushing girl in a stained, pink dress practically run to a table. “Who’s that?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. That’s Kaelen,” Adrian whispered. “His punishment is to be a girl as long as your arm is out of commission. At least, I think that’s what it was.”
Lucian’s response was interrupted by Gelasia’s sweet voice, “Dear, they can’t sit down until you say they can.”
“Let them stand,” Kaelen muttered.
“A lady never does that. You must tell them to have a seat. One punishment is rather enough, wouldn’t you say?”
“Fine. You may have a seat.”
Everyone sat and there was some snickering as a small boy carried a covered tray to Kaelen and then bowed before scampering away.
“Why can’t I get my own food?” he whined.
“A lady does not serve herself but is waited upon. Surely your mother does not serve herself,” Gelasia said.
Kaelen scowled but did not reply.
“He’s a girl?” Lucian asked Adrian.
“Yeah. A lot of the fairies are mad because he’s going to miss out on instruction,” Adrian explained.
“I can understand that, but he deserves it. What he did was cowardly.”
“No arguments here, but still, being a girl would be awful. I suppose he’ll have a greater understanding of his princess than the rest of us will.”
“Probably not. Somehow I don’t think that Kaelen thinks like a girl, no matter what he looks like,” Lucian replied.
As it happened, Lucian was right. The thoughts going through Kaelen’s head were certainly not the ones that a lady would have. Upon sitting down, he heard the whispered jeers of his peers. More than once, Nathan’s loud voice had interrupted his thoughts, “Poor, clumsy Kaelinda.” Of course, Kaelen felt that Nathan had nothing to say on the matter. The witches had bound his feet together with an enchantment. Watching Nathan bunny hop through the line for seconds had been very gratifying; especially when he tripped over his feet landing face-first into his mashed potatoes.
However, now Kaelen sat alone listening to the teasing through grit teeth. His eyes were stinging horribly and despite his best efforts, he couldn’t blink it away.
“Are you going to cry, Kaelinda?” Nathan sneered.
“Don’t call me that,” Kaelen retorted, his voice breaking.
“Oh, poor Kaelinda. All alone with no friends. That’s because you’re ugly, Kaelinda. Even the servants don’t want to be around you,” Nathan continued as the serving boy cleared Kaelen’s place and scurried away. “Poor, ugly Kaelinda. Go back home where you belong.”
Hot tears spilled down Kaelen’s face as he jumped to his feet. “Shut your face!”
Everyone turned and stared as Gelasia scolded, “Kaelen, we do not speak that way. A lady is always soft-spoken.”
“Tell him that.” He ran out the open door and down the hallway to the stairs where he stopped out of breath. The heavy skirts weighed him down and the corset was cutting off his air. He felt completely helpless and alone. Angry and hurt, Kaelen started tearing at his skirt, starting with the row of unsteady stitches he’d patched the skirt with.
“Ruining your only outfit won’t make you feel better,” he heard Adrian say behind him.
“Shut up or I’ll knock you out,” Kaelen retorted.
“Oh please,” Adrian scoffed. “You probably couldn’t even do that as a guy. I’m twice your size. The only reason I wouldn’t flatten you before you tried is because right now you’re a girl. I don’t hit girls ever, even when they deserve it.” When Kaelen made no response Adrian continued, “Besides, I didn’t come out here to make fun of you. I came to offer my friendship.”
“Why?” Kaelen asked suspiciously.
“Because I’m nice. Everyone needs friends; even tough guys who think they’re better than the rest of us.”
“So why would you want to be friends with me?”
Adrian sighed. “Look, I have a twin sister. She’s annoying as all get out, but I protect her because she’s my sister. People are taking advantage of your predicament to get some cheap revenge. So, I’m offering to be your friend to give you some protection because that’s not right.”
“You can’t protect me.”
“Oh yeah? Name one person in this school who messes with me. If you can name one, I’ll take back my offer and you can deal with Nathan and everyone else on your own.”
Kaelen couldn’t think of a single person who picked on Adrian. Even he generally left Adrian alone. In spite of his good-natured personality, Adrian looked intimidating. “What would I have to do?” he asked, wiping the final tears from his face.
Adrian smiled. “Quit picking on Lucian and sit with us at meals and classes. That’s all to start off with.”
Sniffing, Kaelen looked down the hall towards the dining hall. He could hear laughter and cheerful chatting floating towards him. Though he wouldn’t admit it aloud, he wanted to be a part of the fun he was always on the outside of. He turned back to Adrian. “Okay.”
The next morning, Kaelen went to breakfast and hesitated only a moment before sitting down at an empty spot with Adrian and Lucian. He saw a slight look of surprise on Lucian’s face. After he told everyone to sit down, Adrian smiled. “Welcome to our table.”
“Thanks for inviting me,” he replied. He purposely avoided looking at Lucian as the serving boy came with his breakfast.
Lucian wasn’t any happier with the arrangement than Kaelen. In fact, he’d seriously contemplated sitting with Jacobi and George. But the forgiving side of him had made him sit with Adrian. “I still can’t believe you did that,” he whispered as he and Adrian headed toward physical education.
“Come on, he wasn’t that bad,” Adrian said.
“No, but he wasn’t exactly talkative either. I realize it’s probably because he feels some kind of remorse, but it would’ve been nice to have some conversation.”
“Give him some time.”
Their conversation ended as they went into the gymnasium. Achilles was standing at one end, holding a large red ball in his hand. As the last straggler came in, Achilles said in his booming voice, “Alright all, I want four laps around the gym. First stretches.” He blew a whistle that was hanging around his neck.
Adrian and Lucian quickly found their spots. It was awkward for Lucian to stretch with only one arm. So far, Achilles hadn’t said anything to him about stopping and he wasn’t about to give him the idea.
Achilles started instruction. “Alright, boys, today we’ll be playing Poison Ivy.” There were several groans. “Hey, I could make you run laps all hour,” he threatened. When silence took over the gym, he continued, “As always you are avoiding the balls. If you are touched, you have to sit out until you are able to catch a ball and hit someone else with it. Remember we aim for legs not heads. Go!” He threw the red ball in the air as the boys scattered. Halfway down, the red ball turned dark green and split into several dozen smaller balls which zoomed to the ground before zipping towards the boys’ feet.
“This would be a lot easier if the balls weren’t magical,” Adrian puffed as he jumped over a ball heading for his ankles.
“Yeah, well, you make it look easy,” Lucian said as he sat down. He hated Poison Ivy because it never took long for the enchanted balls to take him out. Harder than dodging the balls was catching one. Even if he was able to catch one, there was no guarantee that the ball would hit the right target instead of a wall or the floor or the balls’ favorite trick of pulling a uturn in midair and hitting the thrower again just because it could. Now it was twice as hard to catch one because he could
n’t move his left arm at all.
“Whatever,” Adrian panted. “I’ve just got quick reflexes.”
“You’ve got something.” Lucian lunged sideways at a ball zooming past his right side and caught it between his arm and his chest. As he tried to aim at one of the few survivors, the ball writhed and wriggled in an attempt to be free. Even though Adrian would have been an easy target, Lucian aimed for Nathan, hoping the ball would hit him smack dab in the chest. “Bulls eye!” Free to jump up, Lucian said, as much to his surprise as anyone else’s, “That’s for Kaelen.”
“What on earth are you doing?” Achilles bellowed, shocking everyone. The balls which had been zooming around, suddenly stopped dead in their tracks and quivered in what seemed to be fear. Everyone stared as Achilles walked quickly to where Lucian was standing. “You are not supposed to do any physical activity. I can’t believe you did… and I let you! Tallia’s going to kill me. Tallia. Well, we are just going to march you up to the infirmary right now.”
“But Achilles, I didn’t use my bad arm.”
“I’m not interested in what you didn’t do,” he said, taking his good arm and steering him towards the gym door. “It’s what you did do. The rest of you keep playing.” The balls zipped back to life as Lucian was towed away by Achilles. When they got outside the infirmary door, Achilles stopped and smoothed down his ponytail. He then knocked on the door.
“Achilles, this is an interesting surprise. Lucian, what are you doing back here?” Suddenly Tallia whirled on