Roomies: Part Two

      "So what do you think about this question from my math homework. 'How long does it take from the time the Giant Egg is laid in Tyrannia until it is baked into an omelette and completely eaten? Solve by making the time "x"...' Blah blah blah! Don't you think that's a bad question? It really all depends on the number of Neopets who visit the Giant Omelette each day and how much they usually eat on a day to day basis... oh, you don't care? Sorry," Jesc would sigh, disappointed, yet not defeated, and then would twirl her faerie pen in her hand and jot down the answer. It was always correct and Jhudora soon realized that Jesc was very smart and was good at almost everything.

      Trying to escape her, Jhudora would then head to the small kitchen to eat something. There was always tchea fruit and ummagines on the table, but she soon longed for something else after just a few days.

      After her second week cooped up in the room (except for her secret nightly flights that shook took outside on dark evenings while Jesc was asleep), she woke up early one morning as Jesc was leaving the dorm to go to class. "Wait!" Jhudora screeched after her. "I'm coming with you."

      Jesc was delighted. With little flutter of wings that lifted her feet off the floor and twinkled the wind chimes on her ceiling, she smiled and said, "Great! Let's hurry now! My first class is gym!" Then, grabbing Jhudora's arm, she pulled her out through the door and down the spiral staircase which was full of bustling faeries carrying notebooks, papers and pens. Jesc's things, however, were cleverly floating over her head.

      "Hey!" a white blond air faerie called. Her hair was very light and cut short and she was carrying a large load of books. "We're not allowed to use magic on the staircases!" Jesc just kept walking and Jhudora glared at her as she walked by.

      Once they were off the staircase, Jesc took a left. The gymnasium was on the complete opposite of the castle from the main entrance, so it was directly between the fire and air faerie towers. As they walked down the long, circular corridor that made up the entire school, Jhudora saw many different types of faeries. They all winced when they saw her except for the dark faeries who looked at her with admiration.

      Finally they reached the double wooden doors that led into the gym. Jesc gave Jhudora a smile and used a blast of wind to open the doors.

      The gymnasium was huge with glossy wooden floors that wouldn't give you splinters and tall ceilings with magic lights that wouldn't break if you flew into them in a game. The walls were stone like the rest of the castle; however, they were painted white and gave the room a clean, fresh, energizing look. However, Jhudora had seen this all before and instead was interested in the faeries in the room. Besides Jesc, there were eleven other faeries. Two were air, two were fire, two were earth, two were water, two were light and one was dark. However, there was one other dark faerie in the room and that was the gym teacher, Mrs. Sre. Jhudora smiled. Mrs. Sre had been her favorite teacher and was the only dark faerie teacher in the school. She was nice to all the pupils, especially dark faeries, and only disliked students who refused to play in gym class with excuses like, "Sorry, Mrs. Sre, but I can't play Fireball today because of a... a freak accident! Yeah, in math class last period. Um...well I hurt my... uh... hand! Yeah my hand, when I was taking a test... and I really can't play..." At those times, Mrs. Sre would threaten to call the healing water faerie nurse to check the injury out, but the "injured" faerie would "miraculously" recover and play Fireball rather grudgingly for the rest of the gym period.

      When Jhudora walked in, the students pointed at her in fear and froze. Mrs. Sre looked up to see what was the matter, but when she saw Jhudora, she just smiled. "Hey, Jhudora!" she called. "Long time no see! How are you?"

      "Okay I guess," Jhudora mumbled, "Seeing as I'm living here for two more weeks. My cloud caught fire..."

      "Ahhhh..." Mrs. Sre said, smiling and fixing her Fireball cap on her head. "So you're the 'insufficient faerie' that Mrs. Pierce told us about in the Faculty room," She winked and Jhudora was happy that someone besides her disliked the fire faerie professor. Then Mrs. Sre pointed to the bleachers where Jhudora sat to watch the class.

      "Alright, faeries! Friday ended Fireball season and now that it's getting colder, there aren't many sports that we can play. So, today we are starting with magical battles. Three at a time you will be flying in the air. Various spells and objects will be up there and all you have to do is avoid being hit as you fly up to the ceiling, ring the silver bell, and fly over the finish line. You are allowed to dodge and use your magic wands, but you may NOT use any potions and you can't touch the ground or else you will receive a low mark. Understand?"

      The faeries nodded and Mrs. Sre grabbed the three air faeries and lined them up first on the far side of the gym. The finish line was on the other side and the bell was in the center on the ceiling.

      The air faeries readied themselves. Jesc was in the middle. Beside her were two other faeries. One was the faerie who had the short light blond hair that they had met on the staircase. The other faerie was short and a bit chubby. Jhudora wasn't sure if she would even get off the ground.

      Mrs. Sre ushered the other faeries behind the finish line and placed a force field around them so that they wouldn't get hit. Jhudora was about to do the same on the bleachers, but soon remembered that she didn't have a wand. Looking around, she quickly found a button on the bleachers, pressed it, and a plastic shield folded over her. Once everyone was safe, Mrs. Sre pulled out a silver whistle that hung on a purple ribbon around her neck and blew it and the faeries were in the air.

      The three faeries hovered, waiting. The short faerie grew tired almost instantly and was struggling to stay aloft. The other was fidgeting in the air, but Jesc was calm.

      Suddenly, the ceiling opened up and spells and balls and paper and pencils and books and everything that you could imagine was flying through the air. They objects had been bewitched so that they would fly and attack the faeries and they did just that. The short faerie didn't stand a chance and was instantly hit with a large book, some pencils, and a spell that caused her to freeze. So, she went rigid in the air and fell to the ground where she laid as still as stone, not because of the spell, but mainly because of fright of the zooming objects.

      The other faerie was using a small force field. Since she was moving, however, her energy was being quickly spent and she couldn't protect her backside. As she approached the bell, she reached out with her hand and was struck with a spell that took control of her wings and caused her to do aerial acrobatics and flips until it wore off and dropped her on the floor.

      Jesc, however, was really good. She flew quickly and swerved away from many of the objects. Then, she used a few spells to blast the objects away with wind. As she grew close to the bell, however, a hardcover book entitled "War of the Fire" was coming right at her face. With a blast of air, she blew it out of her way where it struck the bell, causing it to ring. Mrs. Sre gave her a thumbs up to tell her that she was successful and she quickly flew over the finish line before anything could strike her.

      "Great job, Jesc!" Mrs. Sre said clapping. "A+! A+!" She then turned to the other faeries and whispered them their grades. The short faerie fainted while the blond one turned green. Jesc acted politely and didn't gloat and spent the rest of the class in silence with a hidden smile on her face.

      Jhudora, however, believed that Jesc should have gloated. In the end, she was the only one to successfully complete the task. At the end of class, however, Mrs. Sre felt bad that no one else completed it (although an earth faerie and the dark faerie did manage to ring the bell) and raised everyone's grade and gave Jesc ten points of extra credit. Then, with the ring of the school bell, everyone filed out to their next class.

      "I never knew that you were so good at flying," Jhudora told Jesc as they left the gym and headed left.

      Jesc smiled. This was the first time that Jhudora actually began a conversation with her. With a shrug she said, "I'm an air faerie. What did you expect?"

      They soon reached the next classroom which was one of the three doors between the earth faerie and fire faerie towers. "This is my Help Out Neopia Class," Jesc said. "It's my elective for this year!"

      Jhudora hadn't taken Help Out Neopia. Her favorite elective when she had been in school was Dark Detecting with the fire faerie teacher Mrs. Fiur. They got to use magic to solve strange and dangerous mysteries and at the end of the class, they each had a chance to trade new spells that they were working on with each other. Jhudora chose that elective every time and was the only class besides gym that she missed when she was expelled.

      As they walked into the small classroom, Jhudora saw twenty desks lined up in rows. There were only five faeries taking the class, Jesc, two earth faeries and two water faeries, and the earth faerie teacher, Miss Nell. Miss Nell was a young faerie who hadn't taught Jhudora, however, she was very pretty and welcomed Jhudora hospitably with a cup of tea.

      Jesc took one of the seats in front and Jhudora sipped her tea from the corner of the room where she stood. Miss Nell then began the class.

      "Before I begin," she said kindly, "I would like to introduce you to Jhudora. This is the faerie who is staying with Jesc for the remainder of the month. She will be joining us today! How about a round of applause for her..." She began clapping, but only Jesc joined in. Everyone else just stared at her and moved their hands silently.

      "O-kay. Anyway..." Miss Nell said continuing. "Today we are going to work on our community service projects..." and that was what they did. They pulled out pencils and pads of paper to take notes and each of them signed up for multiple projects to help Neopia. By the end of the class, Jesc had signed up for every project including Serving Soup (working to help the Soup Faerie make and hand out soup to poor Neopians), Flourishing Flowers (planting flowers to brighten up neogardens and neohomes) and Attacking Attics (cleaning up their own dusty attics, auctioning off the items that they don't need and giving the money they made to the Money Tree). Jhudora had to stifle her laughter at these ideas for she believed that they were all rubbish and as she left the classroom, she couldn't help but mutter a simple spell (one that she could use without her wand) to cause all the sign up sheets to fall on the floor.

      Once they were back in the hallway, they headed back to their tower because Jesc had a free period. She did her homework (which was researching the Soup Faerie and writing an essay about how she was a role model and helped out Neopia) and then headed out to lunch with Jhudora.

      Lunch for the students at the school took place outside. Jhudora (who had been locked up inside for lunch for the past two weeks), happily went out in the fresh air. However, her attitude soon changed when she saw the lunch line.

      The process for lunch was a very ingenious idea that was almost like another class for the faeries. All that they received for lunch was a tray with a dish, a napkin and eating utensils. With a wave of their wands, the faeries then had to create their own meals. This normally would have been really easy for Jhudora but her wand was nothing but ashen remains that were in her pocket.

      Jesc realized this dilemma and after conjuring a Meat Feast Omelette for herself, she asked Jhudora what she wanted and made her some food. They then ate in silence, the cool breeze whistling the air. Magical shields kept the winter cold out of the courtyard for lunch and they had an enjoyable meal. When the bell rang, the trays disappeared, but Jesc began to look sulky as she gathered up her things.

      "What's wrong now?" Jhudora asked. She wasn't exactly concerned; she was more annoyed. Jesc was usually vibrant and upbeat and being downcast seemed almost unnatural and unreal.

      "Nothing..." Jesc muttered, trying to sound nonchalant; however, Jhudora could tell that she was lying. However, she shrugged and followed Jesc back into the hallway.

      As soon as they got inside, Jesc checked the time. "Five minutes..." she muttered and grabbed Jhudora's arm. Before she knew it, Jhudora was zooming down the hallway to a room between the dark and light faerie towers. A black plate above the open door read "Mrs. Pierce" and the notorious teacher was inside of the room, organizing papers. However, once she looked up and saw Jesc running down the hall to come to class, she smirked, waved her wand and the door closed abruptly in front of Jesc's face, locking her out of the classroom with Jhudora at her side and her books floating over her head.

      Jhudora then realized why Jesc had been acting weird. It was because her next class was Proper Uses of Magical Abilities with Mrs. Pierce. But what surprised Jhudora was how Mrs. Pierce had treated Jesc, slamming the door to make her late for class. In fact, the only other time that she had ever seen Mrs. Pierce act like that was to her when she herself had been at the school.

      Jhudora turned and faced Jesc who was pulling and twisting the door knob. She banged on the door a few times and pulled out her wand muttering spells, but it was no use. The door was locked and was going to stay that way. After a few minutes locked in the hallway, the final bell rang and Mrs. Pierce opened the door slowly with an sinister smile on her face. "You're late," she said in a falsely sweet voice. "I guess that means detention with me again, Jesc. Oh well." Then with her wand, she pointed to a desk in the back of the room for Jesc to sit in. Then to Jhudora she whispered, "Nice to see that you finally showed up," and pointed to another desk in the back.

      Glaring at her, the two faeries sat down in the chairs but Jhudora was pleasantly surprised to see Jesc pull out her wand and begin to aim a spell at Mrs. Pierce. However, Jhudora put her hand on Jesc's arm and whispered, "She's not worth it." Jesc sighed and then put away her wand, but she made sure to bewitch the ripe tchea fruit on Mrs. Pierce's desk so that when she would finally eat it, she would start to hiccup uncontrollably. Jesc knew that she would somehow be blamed for it the next morning, but she truly didn't care and spent her time smiling sweetly, imagining Mrs. Pierce taking a huge bite.

      "What are you smiling at?" Mrs. Pierce demanded, seeing the grin.

      "Nothing," Jesc said innocently and Mrs. Pierce began her lesson by taking aim at Jhudora.

      "Well, today we seem to have a visitor. Of course, our faerie visitor, Jhudora, is the total opposite of what you are supposed to be learning about in this classroom. You see, if you use your magic inappropriately, like Jhudora did, you will end up alone, friendless and homeless..."

      "My home was destroyed in a fire!" Jhudora snarled angrily.

      "Well," Mrs. Pierce pointed out to the class, "Even imbeciles know how to put out fires..."

      "I AM NOT AN IMBECILE!" Jhudora shouted, standing up from her chair.

      Mrs. Pierce glared at her coldly. "Jhudora," she said, "I'm going to have to put you in detention if this attitude continues..."

      "IF YOU ARE NOT MY TEACHER ANYMORE," Jhudora screeched, "THEN HOW CAN YOU PUT ME IN DETENTION?!"

      "Oh right..." Mrs. Pierce muttered, but with a triumphant smile she then said, "Your friend Jesc then will pay for your... misdemeanor. Jesc, you now have an extra hour of detention with me today."

      Jhudora was enraged and was about to scream again when she realized that all she was going to do was get Jesc in even more trouble. Although they weren't friends, even Jhudora wasn't that low. Forcing herself back into the seat, Mrs. Pierce smiled wickedly and went on with her lesson. Jhudora, however, didn't listen at all. She was too busy borrowing Jesc's wand and was pretending to put fire to Mrs. Pierce's auburn/grey hair.

     ***

      Jhudora and Jesc hung out in the air faerie dorm room that evening, tired and angry. Jesc had just gone through two hours of detention and Jhudora was just annoyed. They both despised Mrs. Pierce. Still, night was approaching and Jesc had homework to do. Jhudora looked at the work that Mrs. Pierce had given her and helped her with it (she had stolen and copied the answer sheet when Mrs. Pierce hadn't been looking). Then she suddenly had the urge for an early night flight.

      "Jesc, have you ever gone flying at night?" she asked.

      Jesc shook her head. "I used to fly in the darkness at home, but here we are not allowed to leave the dorms at night."

      Jhudora had learned that rule when she was back in the school, but she had never obeyed it. Although the doors to the spiral staircase were locked until morning, she and her friends had realized that the windows weren't. That was how she had been taking her nightly escapes.

      Motioning to Jesc, Jhudora climbed on top of the desk which was in front of the window and threw it open. There was a cold nightly breeze and snow was gently falling, but she needed to fly. Jesc's eyes were wide with excitement and she too climbed onto the desk. Then, with the breath of a strong breeze, they spread their wings and flew into the night air.

To be continued...