Faire Exchange: Chapter 12

Halley faces a moral quandary.

Welcome to the latest installment in my fantasy serial! This chapter is for paid subscribers only. New to the story?

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Halley was surprised the fifth graders didn't say much. When Halley sat down, the only one who even spoke was the Chinese girl, but Lady Rina didn't seem to mind, so Halley didn't mind, either. Naturally, the rest would know that with someone as important as Lady Rina around, you needed to watch what you said. If you didn't, you could expect an nice shock right up the spine.

It served the fifth graders right, anyway. The third graders had to share this lunch period and recess with them. First grade and kindergarten were together in their own lunch and recess, and second had theirs with fourth. That meant the third graders had to deal with the biggest kids in school getting all the bowls of Jell-O and all the jump-ropes and balls, and if you wanted the swings or the monkey bars, you'd better hope a fifth grader didn't chase you off. That blonde over there with the ponytail, Paul Walters' sister, never let Halley stay on the swings.

So it was with extra dismay that on the way out to the playground with Rina, she spotted Paul Walters himself on the grass behind her.

Halley twirled around. "What do you want, Paul?"

Paul rattled to a stop. "I—uh—just wanted to try and say hi to the new elf girl."

"Excuse you." Halley held her arms akimbo, just like Mr. Khouri did when someone misbehaved. "She's a Wyrdnin. And Lady Rina doesn't have to speak to a gross little weiner like you."

"I am not a weiner."

"Oh yes you are. Lady Rina, doesn't he look just like a weiner?"

"Now hang on." Rina touched Halley's shoulder and stepped between her and Paul. "What was your name again?"

He stuck his hands behind his back and stared at his shoes. "Paul. Paul Walters. My sister Zoe's in fifth like you, but I don't know if you're in the same class."

"I think I remember. I had gym with her yesterday."

"She was really mad about that."

"She annoyed me. Most of them do." Rina twisted her head around. "I wonder where Nadia went."

"Zoe's mean and stupid. I wish you'd play a trick on her."

Rina stroked her chin. "Hm. Halley, I think we could use someone like Paul. I'd like him to perform a little task for me, to prove his worth."

"Like what?" Halley said.

Rina pulled up a handful of grass. Her hand glowed, and the grass twisted and wrapped and stiffened into a pair of scissors. "Take this, cut off her ponytail, and bring it to me."

"Right now?"

"At your earliest convenience. But if you can, I would certainly like it now. Then you can spend as much time with me and Halley as you like. Does that sound good, Halley?"

Halley kept her eyes on Paul. On one hand, he was still a gross weiner who peed on the bathroom floor with the door open in front of everybody during kindergarten. On the other hand, this would serve Zoe right for all the times she made Halley and her friends get off the swing because they weren't as big as the fifth graders.

Zoe was out in the field next to the playground with her friends, kicking a soccer ball around, her ponytail a golden whip around her head. If Paul could pull this off… "Go for it," Halley said.

"Okay!" And Paul rushed off. About halfway to his sister, he slowed down—you're not supposed to run with scissors—and slid them into a pocket, then paced slowly toward her. Halley and Rina pretended not to watch, but they still had their eyes glued.

Zoe stopped playing to say hi to Paul. He spoke to Zoe a moment, and Zoe spoke back. At one point they both glanced over at Lady Rina. She suspected something.

But Paul shook his head. Zoe must have been asking if he'd been hanging around with Lady Rina. And Paul must have lied.

Suddenly Halley felt a small, gross something in her stomach. Daddy had always told her never to lie. Was it right to lie to be Lady Rina's friend?

Paul said something else and pointed in the distance.

Zoe turned around.

Paul pulled out the grass scissors with one hand, wrapped his other around her ponytail.

A few snips, and the ponytail popped off in his hand.

Zoe's friends jumped back and gasped and threw their hands up over their mouths. Paul backed up to a yard away. Zoe's eyes became perfect circles as she felt around on the back of her head. What was left of her hair had already fallen into the world's worst pageboy cut.

She turned saw her ponytail in her brother's hand, and screamed, "YOU LITTLE MONSTER!"

Paul ran, and she ran after him, still screaming, and clawing in the air for him. "You are so fudging dead!" Only she didn't say "fudging."

Lady Rina held out a glowing hand. Paul dashed past her, still holding the scissors and the hair. But just as Zoe lunged toward the three of them, an array of red and blue beams lit up and crisscrossed like a chain link fence in front of Lady Rina.

Zoe stopped. No one could tell if those magic lasers would hurt, and Zoe didn't look like she wanted to try.

"Oh no, I'm not letting you near my new friend," Rina said through the laser fence, "not after he's passed the test."

"What do you want with him?" Zoe growled.

"Me? Why, Paul's the one who approached me. It's not my fault I'm popular with children. Paul, bring it here." Lady Rina held out her hand, and Paul laid the scissors and ponytail in her palm. The scissors she tossed aside as ordinary grass. "Very good job, Paul."

Zoe stared at the hair in Rina's hand. "What're you doing with that?"

"Hm. Come to think of it, I haven't decided. I could use it to control you, or perhaps build a homunculus shaped like you. I could use it to make a love potion and give it to someone you hate. Or a hate potion and give it to someone you love."

Zoe stepped back. "But… why me?"

Halley saw a drop of sweat trail down Zoe's cheek, and suddenly had that gross feeling again. She would have hated to have what Lady Rina was saying happen to her. Lady Rina wouldn't actually do all that, would she? She was just trying to scare Zoe, right?

Were they really doing the right thing?

"Like I told your brother, you annoyed me." Her hands began to glow again. "Perhaps I could…" She pressed them together, bundling the ponytail into her palms.

Zoe backed away. Halley almost wanted to run, too. If Rina wasn't careful, she might seriously hurt somebody.

"…do this!" Lady Rina threw her hands apart, and a tiny yellow bird flew out, fluttered high up and far away.

Zoe could only watch in disbelief. "My hair…"

Halley started laughing. All that worry for nothing! Lady Rina really was cool!

"All right, Halley and Paul," Lady Rina said, "what would you like to do now?"

"The swings!" Halley squealed. "The swings!"

"Yeah!" Paul said.

"Then to the swings we shall go." Lady Rina let the magic lasers dissipate. "So long, Zoe."

Halley and Paul and Lady Rina turned their backs on Zoe, who at first was speechless.

Then she yelled, "Just wait'll I tell Mom and Dad on you!"

Paul stuck his tongue out at his big sister.

At this rate, Lady Rina was going to have her own third-grade army, with Halley as her ever-loyal general.

The fifth graders on the swings jumped off as soon as the Wyrdnin and her companions walked up. While Halley and Paul swung, Lady Rina used her magic to throw them higher up than they'd ever gone, even to the point where they were upside down. Lady Rina suspended them there, as if an endless momentum were still fixing them to their seats.

Halley looked out at the upside down sky, with the sun below her feet, in the same direction the bird made from Zoe's hair had flown.

She hadn't told Daddy much about Lady Rina, just that she'd made friends with a fifth-grade exchange student. He'd seen about the Faerie exchange on the computer and put two and two together, but didn't ask much beyond that. He was just proud of his little girl for befriending a new kid from another world.

Halley wondered what he'd think of what they were doing now.