Faire Exchange: Chapter 14

Gregg seeks some brotherly advice.

Previously:

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He sat at his keyboard, in his bedroom, twiddling through a D-major scale. If only it were easier to ignore her than Martin suggested. Even when Rina wasn't around, Gregg couldn't stop thinking about her. He only had second and fourth period with her, but when she made that skeleton model laugh during Science class, how could he not pay attention?

But mostly he couldn't stop thinking about what Nadia had said that morning. Gregg trusted her more than just about anybody, even Jeremy and Martin. Ever since the two of them nailed that duet in third grade, even picking up phrases the other missed, he'd known Nadia was someone he could count on, someone who had her head screwed on straight. So if she thought Rina had some saving grace, he believed her.

Yet even he could tell he mostly wanted Nadia to be right, just because Rina was so pretty.

He wished so much he could have Rina here, in his room, where he could show her his books, his comics, his drawings (though she might snatch one of them) and play some music for her. Nadia had said Rina played some instruments—Faerie instruments. Maybe she could bring one and they could play some songs together. Nobody else had to know. It would just be their secret.

He closed his eyes and puckered his lips, imagining Rina's divine face in front of him, her hair brushing on his cheeks.

If only she could be as beautiful on the inside.

He thundered out a low F minor. Was he insane? Up until yesterday, he'd hardly cared about girls at all. Now he wanted to spend his whole life with one.

And yet, the fact that he barely knew her was his deepest hope, that there was some hidden kindness to justify his feelings. But if he admitted how he felt, what would his friends do? Or his classmates? Or Rina?

How do you like someone so unlikeable?

The door to Gregg's room swung open. His brother Danny let himself in and leaned on the doorframe. "Hey, just thought I'd let you know we're out of chips."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks. Good to know." Gregg didn't care for that flavor anyway. He appreciated having something else to think about.

"Just didn't want you to gripe later. You okay, man? You seem down."

"No! I'm fine. Just fine. Just got a lot to think about, is all."

"Okay. Well, I gotta get my homework started."

"Sure." Gregg idly read a line of Bach as Danny went to the next room over. His finger hovered over a high A.

Danny had had a girlfriend before. He'd had two girlfriends, one when he was in seventh, the other in September, right when he started ninth. He'd broken up with them. If anybody knew about liking girls they hated, it was Danny!

Gregg had to take a moment to figure out how to phrase everything the right way. The wrong way, and Danny was going to crack some stupid joke.

Either way, he was Gregg's best hope. Mom and Dad wouldn't understand. They'd flip at the idea of Gregg having a girlfriend and get way ahead of themselves. His friends wouldn't understand, either—especially not them.

Danny had his door shut, and an old Metallica song rumbling behind it. Gregg had to pound his fist and yell before it went silent.

"What?"

"Can I come in?" Gregg said.

"Yeah, sure."

Danny was sitting at his computer, an open textbook on his desk in front of him. "This better be good, dork," he said, swiveling his chair.

"I, well, hope so," Gregg said. "I wanted to ask you something. About girls."

Danny smirked, then broke into a laugh. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it."

"Knew what?" Sweat began to crawl down Gregg's back.

"Nadia, right? C'mon, you're friends already, you're halfway there. Just give her something nice, like a flower or some candy."

"What? No! Not Nadia!" Gregg shut the door behind him. "You know that new exchange student at my school?"

"One of those elves. Or, what is it, Weirdkin? Wyrdnin?" Danny raised his eyebrows. "Is she pretty?"

"You have no idea," Gregg said. "I… really… like her." The bottle had finally opened after twisting the cap at full strength. He'd finally told somebody.

"You told her yet?"

"No! You're literally the first person! I just… I don't know what to do."

"And you want your big brother's advice, huh? Well, sit down, and I will impart my wisdom."

Gregg sat on the foot of Danny's bed.

"Look," Danny said, "girls aren't that complicated, and they aren't some other species. They're no different from you or me."

"But she's completely different from you or me," Gregg said. "She's a Wyrdnin."

"Okay, granted. But she's still a girl, and I can't imagine she's that different."

Maybe Danny wouldn't be much of a help after all. "She insists on being called 'Lady Rina.'"

"Okay." Danny wriggled his fingers. "So she's a little weird. My point still stands. All you gotta do is talk to her, let her know you think she seems cool, and ask if she wants to hang out sometime. That's all any girl wants, is for you to show some confidence, and show her she's got your attention. Trust me, Gregg, I know this from experience."

"No you don't, Danny. You don't know anything about Rina." And Gregg recited every prank, every petty harm she'd committed since she showed up, and even covered her eating habits and her overall snobbiness. He thought the bottle had opened before. Now it really poured out.

All Danny could do was gawk. "A cockroach?"

Gregg nodded.

"All right, so help me out here," Danny said. "What is it you like about her?"

Gregg clutched the wrinkles in his jeans. "I don't know. That's what I was hoping you could help with."

Danny ran his fingers through his hair. "You want me to help you figure out why you're in love with the new school bully?"

Gregg bounced on the bed. "Yeah, that's it! Exactly!"

"I don't know what to tell you. The way you talk about her, she's got looks, and that's it."

"Well, I was thinking about when you went out with Paulette. I mean, you liked her, and she was a grade-A b—"

"I know what I said." Danny put his hand over his eyes. "Look, I was mad."

"But you liked her, right? What'd you see in her?"

"Well, she was cute, and smart, and funny… it's just, before I asked her out, that's all I knew about her. Then it turned out she'd shout at me when I did anything that didn't involve her, even if it was, like, going to the comic store with you. If I'd known that, I wouldn't have asked her out in the first place."

"Oh. I see."

"If you ask me, Gregg, you're better off forgetting about this girl. It's one thing to act like a spoiled princess, it's another thing to actually be one."

"Right." Gregg rocked his legs back and forth. "But can't shake this feeling that there's something about her… Nadia's been talking to her, and she says Rina isn't always mean. In fact, Rina's downright nice to Nadia."

"Nadia?" Danny started drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. "Man, this would be so much simpler if we were talking about Nadia."

"That's why I didn't ask Mom. She'd assume it was her and start planning the wedding."

"Still… Maybe that's your in. You go out with Rina now, you'll find out the hard way how good or bad she can be. But if she's already friends with Nadia, you can get her to find out more."

"Nadia?"

"Yeah, like find out Rina's good qualities, then when you're ready, you can work with those. Nadia could even help set you two up."

"Well, it's not just that. Like… what would everybody think?"

"Hey, love is love. It doesn't always make sense. If you really like her for who she is, you don't have to care about anybody."

"You really think I should tell Nadia?"

"Bro, I think she'd understand. It's Nadia we're talking about. You'd have to, I dunno, chainsaw a Steinway to get her to hate you. I mean, she's friends with Rina, right? Not like she's got any right to judge."

Gregg stared out into the blackness of the night outside the window. He couldn't find any way out of Danny's logic. If Nadia could accept Rina, she could accept Gregg for being in love with Rina. He could call her up, have the whole plan ready by the time he went to sleep. "Okay, you're right." Gregg hopped off the bed and rushed to the door. "We'll see what she can find out. We'll be detectives for love."

"Don't get too dramatic," Danny said. "The most important thing is to play it cool. That goes for Nadia as much as that princess of yours."

"Right. Thanks a lot, Danny. I mean it."

"Anytime."

Gregg hurried to his room so fast he banged his toe on the foot of his dresser. He jumped one legged for a moment until the pain died down. Why did the smallest body parts have to hurt so much when you hit them?

Gregg snatched his phone from his desk—the small flip phone Mom and Dad let him have rather than a smartphone. He tapped through his contacts until he found Nadia's numbers—both her home phone and her new cell, and he wasn't sure which to call. That was fine. Thinking about it gave him a chance to cool down after that talk with Danny. Right now his heart banged with the rhythm of Danny's Metallica song.

Just before he was about to hit "send," he spotted something on his bed.

A tiny thing in a teal wrapper lay on top of the pillow, with a little tag tied to it on a string. One side of the tag had a few hand-drawn symbols Gregg had never seen before, like letters from a language he didn't know. The other side had a note written in English. It simply said:

For you.

—R.

Gregg shut his phone and tossed it aside. Nadia could wait until tomorrow. Rina was here! She must have teleported in, left the gift, then teleported out.

He peeled off the wrapper. A fleeting thought told him it might explode, but he paid little attention to it.

It was chocolate.

He ate it. Minty chocolate.

He didn't feel any different. So probably not enchanted.

This could only mean one thing.

She'd come here for him.

She'd left this for him.

She was thinking about him.

Rina liked him.