The first few class periods are long and tedious, definitely surpassing Felicia's expectations. She finds herself both intrigued yet bored stiff at the same time. It is all stuff she has heard before. Grammar, mathematics, science, history, geography, most of which she already knows through her painstaking and intensive magical studies at home over her sixteen years of life.
But none compares to what high school brings to its students the most: social interaction. There is nothing more important while also more deadly for a teenager than human connection.
News of Felicia's unique arrival has spread throughout the entire school by the end of the first hour. It becomes apparent that she's hereby the talk of the town, or classrooms for that matter. While walking in the hallways in between classes, she keeps getting elongated stares from her peers and even some staff and faculty, all whispering behind their hands an eruption of rumors about her.
Some say she comes from a foreign country because of her appearance, mostly her long silvery white hair, and her beauty could compare to that of a princess.
Some think her parents milked their way to getting her into the school through their highly influential finances.
Some imagine her with a pocketknife or a pistol and a whole posse of thugs backing her up because she could secretly be part of a gang and that's why she behaves oh so rudely to her professors.
She doesn't mind it. In fact, she is eating up all the attention. Being put on a pedestal has never felt so omnipotent. Her big toothy grin could not and would not fade from her face, and she strolled confidently straight down the center of the hallways until a particular scene catches the corner of her eye.
Three pretty blonde girls are near Daisy by her locker, and to Felicia, they appear to be having a conversation. But Daisy is clutching her books close to her chest, and she is trying to avoid eye contact. Then one of the blondes smacks Daisy's books out of her arms, and the other two start laughing as though it's the funniest thing they've ever seen.
Felicia stops in her tracks and watches this unusual scene unfolding.
As Daisy scurries to gather her books off the floor, the blondes proceed to pull on her braided pigtails, and one of them says, "You're hair is so ugly. I can't believe you actually wear it like that."
Another one then grabs Daisy's chin and forces her to look in a certain direction across the hall. "Oh look, your crush is looking at you now." She says.
Daisy tries to shake her head out of the blonde's grip, but it's a futile effort.
That's when the realization comes to Felicia. This must be what bullying is, she thinks inside her mind. Her facial expression changes to an angry but determined look because she isn't going to stand for this.
Without anybody looking, Felicia digs into her bookbag in search of something. Reynardo is awoken from his nap inside the bag and asks in a whisper, "Hey, what's going on, Mistress?"
"Shush. Do you see my wand? Hand it to me quick," Felicia demands.
Reynardo finds his mistress's wand, grabs it in his mouth, and gives it to her. "Don't do anything stupid with it." He says.
"Oh, I won't." Felicia says in an assuring tone.
As she pulls her wand out of her bag, it looks too long to have fit in there in the first place. It's like a white wooden walking cane with a falcon-shaped handle at the top that looks like it's about to take flight and has sapphire gems for eyes.
Now holding her wand in one hand, she points the falcon tip at the blonde girls and starts chanting an incantation. "Through the rain, through the sunshine, be delicate as a blooming flower. Sing out, sing out, may Lady Karma smile upon thee. I smite thee with Forked Lightning!" and as she recites these words, her clothes and long hair begin to flow around as though the wind is blowing on them with enough force to make it look graceful and beautiful yet also dominant.
Felicia then taps the bottom tip of her wand on the floor, and a streak of blue lightning cracks in between the floor tiles, leading a path toward the blondes who are still harassing Daisy and laughing at the poor girl. Once it reaches them, the lightning surges upward and sends waves of static electricity through the blondes' bodies, shocking them to the extent that it newly electrocutes them. They drop Daisy from their grasp, having held her by the collar of her shirt. Soon the blue sparks die down, leaving the three blonde girls scorched and smoking—skin and school uniforms. Their hairs are standing on end up to the ceiling and spiking outward.
Everyone else in the hallway notices this. A few of them become scared by the sight, but most are amused by the blondes' new looks and begin giggling and pointing fingers at them.
Reynardo peeks his head through the opening in his mistress's bookbag and sees what she has done. "Oh, by the Gods' good graces! What was that for, Mistress?!" He inquires angrily but at a whispered volume.
"Just teaching those bullies a lesson," Felicia replies, all proud of herself. "One they won't soon forget, too."
"You…You did this?" one of the blonde girls asks Felicia, having heard her talking to whatever's rustling around in her bag. "How?!"
"Um, magic?" Felicia replies without hesitation. "Duh." She also makes a silly face by sticking her tongue out and crossing her eyes, like that of a dunce trying to comprehend something really complicated.
Reynardo slaps his face with his little front paw from inside the bookbag.
The three of them begin to close in on Felicia. One of them swipes at her wand, but Felicia jumps back out of reach, zigzagging backwards and grinning proudly.
"Magic, huh?" another one of the blondes says sarcastically at first, but then her rage explodes. "That doesn't make any sense! That was literal lightning that struck us, and you know it!" Then she gets an awfully sinister idea, "You know what? I bet we're still conductible and can pass the shocks onto you. Let's get her, girls!"
The blonde girls start to charge at Felicia, with sparks of electricity still surging through them, ready to pass the flow to the arrogant new girl.
"Go ahead and try it!" Felicia exclaims confidently. "I'll just bounce whatever tricks you try right back at chya!"
All of a sudden, Daisy stands up, runs past the three bullies, rushes over to Felicia, grabs her by the hand that isn't holding her wand, and drags her down the hallway. "Come with me!" she says.
They turn the corner down a different hall, with the three blondes chasing after them. The pursuit continues even after the bell rings for the start of next class. All the other students enter their classrooms, seemingly totally oblivious to the chase ensuing or they just don't care.
As the chase continues, the three blonde girls rush by the janitor's closet that is around the corner, but Felicia and Daisy have already taken it as a hiding spot. Once they cannot hear their footsteps anymore, Daisy lets go of her hold on Felicia's arm and pulls her hand away from Felicia's mouth to keep her quiet. Daisy breathes a sigh of relief with her hand over her heart.
"Jeez, I don't really understand why we had to hide in here," Felicia states in a loud voice, to which Daisy immediately shushes her, and she apologizes and whispers, "Sorry, but still, I could've easily taken those mean pretty girls head-on. They wouldn't have been able to hurt me anyway."
"Have you forgotten that this is your first day of school?" Reynardo suddenly says from inside Felicia's schoolbag while rustling and rummaging around in there, "It's not just that any sort of trouble you get into is going to go down on your permanent record, but your father was never too keen on you coming to the city in the first place, remember?"
"Don't remind me," Felicia tells him, but then she instantly notices the shocked and confused look on Daisy's face as she stares back and forth between Felicia and her schoolbag. Then Felicia says to Reynardo, "Hey, um, I think you just blew your own cover, Reynardo."
That's when Reynardo pokes his head out from the bag flap and asks, "What do you mean?" before looking over at Daisy who is staring right back at him and thus he realizes his mistake. "Oh my! You didn't tell me there was someone else hiding with you, Mistress," he says to Felicia, pointing his fox nose up at her as his front paws rest over the opening of the schoolbag.
Felicia ignores him, she looks back at Daisy and says, "Okay, looks like I've got some explaining to do. You see, Daisy, the truth is…I am a mage with magical powers. I'm sure you've heard of these things like in story books or folktales, but I assure you, they are very real," this whole time she says it, she avoids making eye contact because she swore to her father that she would never reveal her secret identity to anyone at school, and yet here she is blurting it all out, "So yeah. Magic, witches, warlocks, faerie beasts, they all exist, but we have to stay very hidden. We are powerful beings that break the laws of the universe, and fortunately with this modern progressive world, not many people believe in us much less are aware of us.
"But the thing is: I really want to go to school here in the city!" Felicia suddenly grabs Daisy's hands in hers and lifts them up to their chests in a pleading motion. She continues with her eyes shut tight, "I want to make friends! And I want to do things that normal teenage girls do, all while still doing my magic! But I can't do that if anyone finds out what I really am! So please, you can't tell anyone about this! Pretty, pretty please, I'm begging you!"
When Felicia opens her eyes again, she looks into Daisy's eyes and expects to see doubt or anger or both. But instead, she is greeted with a pair of brown eyes filled with wonder and excitement. A tiny smile cracks at Felicia's lips, thinking she has won this girl over with her charm and power, but then Daisy's gaze shifts toward Reynardo who is still peeking out from Felicia's schoolbag and looking back at her.
"It…it's fine. I was just wondering if I could, um…" Daisy stutters as she tries to form the words she wants to say.
"I will do anything for you, as long as you keep my secret," Felicia says. "Just name it!"
"Um, then, could I… could pet your little fairy dog?" Daisy asks nervously yet also enthusiastically.
"Sure!" Felicia replies. "He's so soft, by the way."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Reynardo tries to intervene. But Felicia picks him up out of her bag and holds him like a cat in her arms so that Daisy can get a good look at his whole body, leaving her in awe. Daisy lifts her hands but hesitates to touch Reynardo as he continues, "I'm not sure this is the best idea. Also, Mistress, have you forgotten that only a very select few people in the modern world these days possess the ability to see or communicate with the fae? Has it slipped your mind that this girl is able to do both?!"
"Oh, relax, Reynardo, and enjoy a nice petting," Felicia tells her fae familiar. Then she turns to Daisy and says to her, "He really likes a scratch behind his ears, you know. Makes him go limp and quiet whenever you want him to shut up. Go ahead, don't be shy. It's what you want, right?"
Daisy waits no longer. With her right hand, she begins scratching the spots behind Reynardo's left ear as he says, "Mistress, don't blurt out secrets left and right! Please reconsider—Oh…OOOOOOOHHHH~…" Reynardo gives into temptation, succumbing to the scratching and how good it feels.
"Well?" Felicia asks Daisy as she keeps petting and scratching him now with both hands.
"He really is so soft," Daisy says in bewilderment. "It's like butter meets a fluffy white cloud mixed with a baby chinchilla."
"Thanks," Felicia says, "And by the way, for the record, Reynardo is a fox fae, not a fairy dog. He's also my familiar."
"Your familiar?" Daisy asks.
"It's just the name of what we call the fae beasts that mages make soul contracts with," Felicia clarifies, "Almost like a deal with the Devil, but with less sketchy strings attached."
Just then, the lightbulb in the old lamp fixture begins to shake side to side and flicker violently, leaving the inside of the janitor's closet pitch-black for a minute or so. This scares the two girls and foxlike fae out of their calm moment. The hairs on the backs of their necks stand and chills run down their spines at the same time.
The next thing they know, a shriek of terror comes from a nearby classroom.