Schooldaze: Do You Believe In Faeries?

Posted on Sun Feb 1, 2015 @ 4:19pm by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & erie'Riov Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian

1,460 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Education Centre, Deck 157
Timeline: MD02 09:00

ON

Miss Carson was five minutes late already.

Eviess was bored already. Argellian had gone off to sit with his friends - again. Maybe I'll sneak out and try and catch the fairy. she knew how now, and didn't need the rainbow princess to help her.

She picked up a wax crayon and pulled it across a piece of paper letting her mind wander as she drew nothing in particular.

~Oh, crap! First day on the job and already I'm late!~ Amanda Lanos thought, giving herself an internal butt chewing. Sure, she'd not been supposed to be teaching this class, in fact, she'd come here to work for Monteros Enterprises since she'd not been able to find teaching work, but with Miss Carson tearing her ACL and needing several weeks to recover she'd found herself pressed into service at about five this morning... How did those military types say it? Five hundred zero or something? Either way, that was no excuse for being late. She nearly slid into the classroom as she entered, her waist length brown hair still a wet mess, and she completely unprepared, but she was finally there, "Good morning, everybody! I'm Miss Lanos, and I'm going to be your teacher for the next few weeks while Miss Carson's knee gets better." She said with a smile, hoping nobody noticed that she was coming in both very late and very blind, "So, shall we get to know each other?"

"My name is Amanda Lanos, and I'm originally from Helicon, Greece." She began, writing 'Helicon, Greece' on the electronic board with her stylus, "I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for college where I played soccer for four years." She turned and observed the class, all of the kids had some varying measure of shock at Miss Carson's absence and disinterest in this woman's biography and it showed, "So, who wants to tell me about themselves first?" She scanned the room for hands, even a Florida election official could've done that count easily: zero, ~Crap! Gonna have to pick someone....~ She scanned the room for a few seconds before her eyes fell on a pretty little Romulan girl coloring and looking bored, "How about you?" She asked, "Tell me about yourself."

Eviess turned her green eyes on the stranger, "I'm Eviess. My mummy is the Captain," she said having been taught always to reply to a question.

In the current age of modern medicine, it wasn't often that someone needed a "sick day." So when Miss Carson was suddenly replaced by this... damp woman, Gwen was noticeably taken aback.

If there was one thing the little ginger-haired girl was, it was a judge of people. And the substitute was very obviously out of her element. Gwen wasn't the sort to torment a sub, but she knew exactly who in the class fit that bill. As Miss Lanos picked Eviess out of the mob of disinterested youngsters, Gwen shot a sidelong glance at her Andorian nemesis.

Cerenne was looking innocent, but when Eviess finished, she put her hand up and said casually, "I'm a high functioning sociopath, and if you annoy me I shall kill you, skin you, and eat you. If you don't annoy me too badly, I'll do it in that order."

If not for Cerenne's gang of hangers-on giggling at the attempt at humor, it would have been possible to hear a pin drop. Gwen's jaw nearly hit the floor. It was obvious that Cerenne was trying to get a rise out of Miss Lanos, and Gwen suspected that it had worked.

"Obviously you're not that high functioning, sweetheart." Miss Lanos laughed, "Or you wouldn't have announced your plans to a potential victim." With that she moved on, turning back to Eviess, "That's a pretty name, Eviess. So, your Mummy is the captain, that's nice. But what about you? What do you like to do?"

Eviess' lips narrowed, Why me?. She glanced at Gwen and Cerenne hoping that her eyes expressed how much she loathed being picked out as the new teacher's pet.

"Reading, drawing ... and hunting," she said.

"Hunting?" Amanda paused, she had no problem with hunting but she was curious as to what the little Romulan girl could be hunting on a space station, "What do you hunt?"

"Fairies."

It was a blunt statement with full conviction behind it - Eviess might be exceptionally advanced for a four year old but she was still a four year old. Without considering what anyone might think Eviess continued, "Yesterday me and the Rainbow Princess from the promenade caught one picking mushrooms from a tree. He said he wasn't a fairy, but that's exactly what a fairy would say. I think she's one too because she said he wasn't one either. I *know* that he was."

"Okay." Amanda replied, the little girl was definitely fully convinced that she had, in fact, been fairy hunting the day prior, "Well, hopefully soon you'll know for sure and can tell us all about it." ~She's got a great imagination! She should be fun.~

With that she turned to a cute little ginger girl, "And what about you?" She began, "Tell me about you."

Suddenly finding herself in the hot seat, Gwen got out of her chair and stood at what her parents called parade rest. "My name is Gwendolyn Wyman, but everyone calls me Gwen. My daddy is the chief engineer and my mommy is the engineer's mate. They say that's not a joke, then they laugh, but I don't get it. Aaaaand... I'm seven years old... and I grew up at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards... aaaaand... I don't know what else to say."

She could have said that her godfather is a Zarnac, but she figured Miss Lanos wouldn't know what that is. Nobody ever knew, so she gave up tossing out that tidbit a long time ago.

Just in earshot Argellian groaned. His sister had been on and on and on and on and on about this stupid fairy hunt all evening. Even after they were put to bed by the nanny it was still fairy this, rainbow that, princess this - BLERGHH!

"She's stupid," he said to his friends to put that distance between them. They might be of the same age and similar intelligence, but Argellian was already proving to be the better diplomat. Didn't she get that *everyone* was going to laugh at her?

With the subsitute teachers attention on Gwen, Cerenne leaned over and flicked Eviess' pointed ear. "Hey, Squirt. you got any unicorns I could ride?" Cerenne's two cronies sniggered. "Or is it just you who farts fairy dust?"

Eviess' hand snapped back just a little too late to avoid Cerenne's. She bit her lip against the pain.

"Only virgins can ride unicorns," she retorted, "I looked it up. Are you a virgin?"

Cerenne gave Eviess a pitying look. "Whod want to be one of them. Bet you are though." she considered the puzzle set before her. "Doesn't matter, I'll make it let me ride it."

"Like it would let you near it."

"We'd have fun. If you kept one it would die of boredom, big baby and her fairy hunts!" Cerenne sniggered again.

"Yeah, you're so tough. We're all very impressed," Eviess replied, "My story is true, I bet all you did yesterday was pick your nose 'cause no one wants to play with you."

"Pah, I had a friend over." Cerenne muttered back. "I don't have to get my mummy to order people to play with me."

Eviess shrugged, "My brother has an imaginary friend too, yours probably knows his," she was leaving today as soon as she could sneak out.

Miss, Miss Lanos," she dredged up the new teacher's name, "May I be excused for a few mintues?"

"She's off to hunt a fairy again!" Cerenne said loudly to the whole class. Most of them laughed loudly.

Eviess flushed, she didn't want to be here anyway. "Is that what you call going to the loo?" she asked.

"Of course, Eviess." Amanda answered sweetly, instantly feeling bad for the poor little girl, causing her to turn to the others and say, "And the rest of you don't make fun of her, please. Just because we've never seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You've got to remember, it's only been a few centuries since warp drive made space exploration a reality and before then if you asked one of your ancestors on your home world they'd tell you that none of the rest of us existed."

A wicked little smile crossed Eviess' lips as she turned her back and left the classroom. She would show them! She would show them all!

 

RSS Feed