Me, My Elf & I (32 page)

“Who?” I’m completely lost as usual.

“It makes perfect sense,” says Mercedes. “Who else could it be?”

“This is brilliant.” Ari stands up. “We mustn’t waste this opportunity, girls! Come on.”

Mercedes follows Ari across the courtyard. I pick up my bag and tag along behind them, calling out, “Where are we going?” Ari walks smack dab into the center of the courtyard and plops himself down at Bella’s empty table.

“Awesome,” says Mercedes, slipping into a seat beside him.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Hey Zeph, did I tell you that my band has a gig on Saturday?” Ari asks me as casually as can be.

I drop into the seat across from him. “Are we really going to sit here?”

“The show’s at South Paw on Fifth Avenue. All ages night. Think you can come?” he says.

I’m flummoxed and don’t answer. Then I feel a tap on my back. I look over my shoulder, afraid of who it might be, but standing behind me is Kenji. “Hey Zephyr,” he says. I turn all the way around in my seat. “I heard you were sick so I drew this manga for you.” He pulls a notebook out of a graffitied messenger bag strapped across his chest. The cover of the notebook has an amazing drawing of a tall girl in the middle of a forest. She has long blond hair and giant eyes and she wears a long green tunic with a quiver of arrows on her back.

“Check it out!” Mercedes says. “That’s totally you!”

“No way,” I say, but now that she says it, I think she’s right. “Is it really supposed to be me?” I ask Kenji.

He shrugs. “Sort of. I guess I based it on you. And well, you said you’d never seen manga before so I thought maybe you might like it.” He hands the notebook to me.

“Wow!” I say, flipping through the pages. The cartoon me has all sorts of adventures being chased through the forest by vampire girls. “This is the coolest thing anyone has ever given me.” I look up when I say this and see Timber standing on the other side of the table, staring at me, but he’s not smiling. My heart revs and a surge of excitement then panic goes through my body.

“What’s that?” he asks, squinting at the notebook in my hand.

Ari and Mercedes look at each other, trying not to lose it.

“Kenji made it,” I say, but I’m flustered. “Do you know each other?”

“What’s up, man?” Kenji nods to Timber.

“Hey,” Timber says back, but not in a friendly way.

At that moment, the fairy queen, Jilly, who seems to have lost her wings, stops by our table. “Hey Zephyr,” she says. “Why didn’t you do that ELPH shoot?”

“Um . . . ,” I say, looking from Timber to Kenji, then Ari to Mercedes.

“She was sick,” Ari answers for me.

“Where are Rienna and Darby?” Mercedes asks her.

“Don’t talk to me about those skanks,” Jilly says. “We’re totally not friends anymore.”

I try to catch Timber’s eye to make sure he’s not mad at me, but then Kenji says, “Speak of the devil.” He points to the side of the courtyard and everyone turns to see Chelsea, Rienna, and Darby walk through the door.

“Are they hanging out?” Mercedes asks.

“Who cares?” says Jilly. “They deserve one another.”

“Is it just my imagination,” Ari asks, “or are they dressed alike?”

When he says this, I notice that all three of them are wearing tight tunic tops, short skirts, and knee-high boots.

“Guess somebody took her role as the ELPH a little bit too seriously,” jokes Kenji, and everyone but Timber and I laugh.

“Oh, oh, oh!” Mercedes smacks our arms. “This is going to get good. Check it out.” She points in the opposite direction and we all turn to see Tara and Zoe coming through the other set of doors. Jilly, Darby, and Kenji take a step away from the table, but Timber stays his ground.

“Let the games begin,” says Ari, rubbing his hands together.

Mercedes stands up and moves back. “Does this thing have video on it?” she asks, fiddling with Ari’s BlackBerry.

“I got you covered.” Kenji pulls out his phone and aims it toward Ari.

Tara and Zoe scurry toward the table with angry looks on their faces. From the other direction, Chelsea, Rienna, and Darby march through the middle of the courtyard, which has become a lot more crowded since we first got here. I have the urge to sink down and hide under the table, but everything happens so fast. Ari climbs up on his chair, then steps onto the top of the table. “Hear ye! Hear ye, BAPAHS! I have an announcement to make,” he shouts.

All faces turn toward Ari. He waits another second, until Tara and Zoe are on one side of the table and Chelsea, Rienna, and Darby flank the other side. Timber is in the middle, looking as confused as everyone. The courtyard is nearly quiet, but Ari cups his hands over his mouth and shouts, “Chelsea Wheeler is the BellaHater! I repeat, Chelsea Wheeler is the BellaHater!” A small buzz ripples through the crowd, then it turns to laughter, shouts, and jeers as Ari climbs down and moves back.

“Is that true?” Timber asks Chelsea. “Are you the BellaHater blogger?”

Chelsea’s face goes from shock to anger to firm denial but she doesn’t say anything.

“What are they talking about?” Tara asks Zoe.

Mercedes hands Zoe Ari’s BlackBerry with the BellaHater homepage displayed. “See for yourself,” she says. The crowd begins to press forward.

“This is awesome.” Kenji keeps his phone trained on the action. But I think it’s terrible and I wish I knew how to stop it.

“Did you really do this?” Zoe asks Chelsea.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Chelsea snaps.

Zoe waves the BlackBerry close to Chelsea. “This! Did you do this?”

Chelsea pushes Zoe’s arm away and snarls, “Get out of my face!”

Timber shakes his head in disbelief. “It was you, wasn’t it?” he asks. “Who else could’ve gotten the pictures and would’ve known so much?”

The crowd of kids moves in closer to the knot around the center table.

“If this is true, Bella’s going to kick your ass,” Tara tells Chelsea.

“Bella isn’t here,” Chelsea says. Then she tosses her books onto the table in front of me. I scoot back quickly and hop out of the chair.

Tara catches Chelsea on the shoulder with the flat of her hand. “You can’t have this table,” she says.

Chelsea steps onto the chair Ari used, then she turns and sits on top of the table, facing Zoe and Tara. “Oh yeah?” she says. “Who’s going to stop me?” Rienna and Darby grab the other two chairs before Zoe and Tara can get them. They plant themselves at Chelsea’s feet.

Zoe gets right up in Chelsea’s face and waves the BlackBerry again. “Bella’s coming back this weekend, and if this is true, then all hell is going to break loose!”

Some kids in the back chant, “Cat fight! Cat fight!” but before anything else can happen, the crowd parts because the pixie is pushing her way through. “Break it up! Break it up!” she yells. She grabs Zoe by the arm and yanks her away from Chelsea, sending Ari’s BlackBerry skidding across the ground.

“Crap!” Ari yells as he scurries after his darling machine.

Ms. Sanchez emerges from the crowd behind the pixie. “Let go of her! That’s not the way we handle students,” Ms. Sanchez yells at the pixie, who has Zoe’s arm in a death grip.

“There better not be a bruise on me,” Zoe shouts, rubbing her upper arm, “or my parents will sue you!”

“Oh really?” the pixie says, standing up to her full height, which isn’t all that tall.

“Yeah, you better apologize to me,” says Zoe.

“Now wait a minute, everyone just calm down,” Ms. Sanchez pleads.

“Well then, Zoe,” the pixie says. “I’m so very sorry . . . that you’re such an IDIOT!” Then she turns on her heel and pushes back through the crowd, which has erupted into cheers.

“We’ll discuss this in a staff meeting, Prunella!” Ms. Sanchez shouts after the pixie.

“
Prunella?
” I whisper to Mercedes. We duck our heads to hide our laughter.

The first bell rings (and I jump, of course). “Everyone get to class,” Ms. Sanchez yells over the noise. “Go on. No late passes. Get out of here.” Groups of kids peel away and filter through the doors, talking excitedly about what just happened. Ms. Sanchez turns to our group in the center of the courtyard. She shakes her head. “I don’t know what’s going on but it better stop right here and right now. Do you all understand me?”

“Yes, Ms. Sanchez,” we say.

She points to Kenji. “You. Erase everything.” He sighs and pushes buttons on his phone. We all hear it beep. Then she turns to Zoe. “You. Come with me. The rest of you get to class.”

 

In the chaos of the courtyard, I lost track of Timber so as I walk to my ensemble, I’m nervous. I realize now how quickly erdlers turn on one another. One minute people are best friends, the next they’re mad at each other, the next they’re making up or breaking up and becoming friends with someone else. I hope that never happens to Ari, Mercedes, and me again, but with Timber, I’m not sure what we were to begin with so I have no idea what we’ll be now that my friends outed Chelsea as the BellaHater.

When I get to class, I see Timber in the front row. There are two open seats beside him. He’s got his head down on the desk, probably trying to block out the noise of everyone discussing what just happened outside. I stop in front of him and tap his shoulder. “Mind if I sit beside you?” I ask, pointing to the chair on his left.

He looks up, sending a warm tingly ripple across my skin. “Sure,” he says.

As I sit down, Chelsea walks into the room. She pauses in the doorway and scans the seats. Everyone gets quiet. The only open place is right beside me. I glance at Timber, but he’s looking away. I wonder if he still thinks Chelsea is the best of Bella’s friends or that I’m the nicest girl he’s ever met. Then I remember what my mom and dad told me when they grounded me. I look up at Chelsea and despite my urge to scowl at her, I try to think what a good elf would do. A good elf would not perpetuate all the meanness of this morning, so instead of being nasty, I look at Chelsea and I say, “How was the ELPH shoot?” She blinks at me a few times, probably trying to figure out if I’m being sarcastic, so I add, “Did it go okay?”

She walks to the seat beside me and says, “It was great!” Then she mutters, “Sorry you were sick.”

“That’s okay,” I say. “There’ll be other auditions.” And that’s all the niceness I can muster for Chelsea today. I turn my attention to Timber. “You okay?” I ask.

He sits up. “Sure,” he says. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

I shrug, deciding to let this morning in the courtyard fade away. “I’m so glad to be back at school,” I tell him. “I was losing my mind at home. Especially since I couldn’t talk to you.”

“You must’ve been really sick,” he says.

“Yes, but then I was grounded.”

“You?” he asks. “I can’t imagine you ever do anything wrong.”

“Um, well,” I laugh nervously. “I’d explain, but N.W.T.E.” Timber snickers when I use the abbreviation and I’m beginning to think we’ll be okay.

“How long are you grounded?” he asks.

“Until Friday,” I say. “No phone, no computer, no nothing.”

“Can you go to Ari’s gig on Saturday night?” he asks.

“Are you going?” I say. He nods. “Then hopefully I can, too.”

“Cool. You want to go together?” he asks. “Unless you’re going with that other guy, what’s his name? The manga dude?”

“Kenji?” I ask as I lean across my desk and stare straight into Timber’s blue eyes. “No, Timber,” I say. “I’d really like to go with you.”

chapter 17

IT’S SATURDAY AND
Mom and I are in the kitchen, making snacks. Timber, Mercedes, and Ari are all coming over so we can watch an interview my dad did for a show called
Inside Lives
on MTV to dispel rumors that he’s in a cult. This is big stuff, because it’s the first time we get to watch the television my dad finally convinced my mom we should buy so we can seem more normal.

“Dad called,” Mom tells me as she chops up fresh veggies. “He says he’s bringing back a surprise.”

He’s on the way back from Michigan, where he took the MTV camera crew. “I bet he killed a deer and tied it to the top of the van,” I say as I arrange homemade crackers around a mound of goat cheese.

“I could go for some good venison sausage this winter,” she says.

“Mmmmm,” Bramble pipes up from under the kitchen table, where he’s feeding an abandoned baby chipmunk with an eyedropper. “I love sausage. And candy.”

“Candy!” yells Persimmon, who is busy removing every pot and pan she can reach from the cupboards.

“What time are your friends coming?” Mom asks.

“Around six thirty. The interview isn’t on until seven and Ari’s gig doesn’t start until nine.” I glance at the clock. “Wow, it’s already six. I should go get ready.”

“I can finish up in here,” Mom says.

I stick the cheese and crackers in the fridge, then head upstairs to change into a clean tunic and try out the makeup that Lucy from the VH1 studio gave me, just in case it turns out that I’m on a date with Timber. Mercedes has promised to take me shopping for new clothes next weekend. It’s not that I don’t like my tunics anymore. In fact, I love them. But since Chelsea, Rienna, and Darby are now walking around looking like some weird urban version of an elf, sometimes I want another choice. One nice thing about the erdler world is that you can change. One day you might be a fairy and the next day you might be an elf. But I think the trick to changing your look is always knowing who you are on the inside, and that’s not so easy.

As I’m getting dressed, I hear the front door open. “Anybody home?” my dad yells. “I have a surprise!”

I slip on a couple of amulets and run down the stairs to find out what it is, but when I get halfway down, I stop. Standing in the doorway behind my dad is Grandma Fawna.

Mom comes through the dining room, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. When she sees Grandma, she bursts into tears. “Oh, Drake!” she says as she runs to Fawna and wraps her arms around her. Poppy, Bramble, and Persimmon run into the room. They see Grandma and jump up and down, yelling and laughing and hanging on her legs.