At midday, Sira followed the other students into a big noisy room with rows of long tables. The chaotic noise and crowded space made her head pound. She edged up against the wall. Alise and her friends, including Crista, sat at a table on the far side of the room.
Alise's silver laughter echoed off the walls, and the human girls watched her with adoring faces, mimicking her every move.
Eve sat at a table in the middle with a few of the other girls from the bus. Sira took a step toward them, but Alise looked her way.
In alarm, Sira slouched onto a seat at the nearest table. The scent of unfamiliar food hung heavy on the air. Her mouth watered, and her stomach grumbled until she looked at the things on the tray of the boy who sat next to her. Some kind of pulverized meat that smelled like beef but was all ground up and shaped into a thin circle, flopped on a similarly round bun with one tiny piece of lettuce and some red and yellow goop. The boy, who was rather hefty, picked up this strange assemblage of food with awkward hands and stuffed half of it in his mouth at once.
Sira swallowed her disgust and looked away, losing her appetite.
When Sira looked back a moment later, the boy was still chewing. "Hi," he said with his mouth half-full of food. "My name's Alf. Aren't you going to eat lunch?"
Sira shook her head. She wanted to leave, but through the crowd she could see Alise standing, searching the lunchroom for her. Just then Carla walked into the room. She looked around for the best place to sit, but her eyes locked on Alise's.
A bright plume of power ignited around Alise, and she called out to Carla. "Hey freak, what did you do with Curly?" Alise's power encircled the humans around her, and they all started laughing and jeering at Carla, making fun of her for helping Sira.
Carla lifted her chin and glared at Alise, somehow unaffected by her power. For a moment it looked like Carla would say something dangerous in response to Alise's insults, but then she just laughed. Waving, she went to the front of the room and got in line for the food.
Sira stared down at the table and realized her hands were shaking. For a moment she'd wanted so much to call forth her own power and wrap a shield around Carla to protect her from Alise. But when Sira had called for power it had not come to her. She wished she could blame it on the shoes, but knew that wasn't completely true. She controlled little power on her own yet. Her father said it would come, in time. And DeWheat had told her father that Sira needed to go to school to discover her gift.
Sira shook her head, cursing herself for being so useless.
"Hey." Carla thumped onto the seat beside her and slapped a tray onto the table.
Sira jumped.
"Here." Carla lifted a plate with salad greens and held it out to Sira. "You looked hungry, and I noticed you didn't bring a lunch."
Sira took the plate, sniffing. Everything on it looked and smelled normal: iceberg lettuce, red cabbage, shredded carrots, a few leafs of spinach and a couple of cherry tomatoes. Sira glanced at Alf who had finished his meal, whatever it was called, and stood.
"Hi," Alf said to Carla. He introduced himself and offered a greasy hand to shake. Carla grimaced in disgust. Alf frowned and hurried away.
Sira heaved a sigh of relief and set the salad down on the table. "Thank you, Carla. You're a saving my life." The human words fumbled together on her tongue, and from the look on Carla's face, Sira had gotten it wrong.
The confused look lasted just for a moment then Carla smiled. "You're welcome. How's your day going so far?" She started eating her own salad.
Sira frowned and picked up one of the cherry tomatoes, savoring the juicy flow of life from its firm red skin. "Everyone thinks I'm stupid."
The edges of Carla's lips curled up in a grim smile.
"I'm not!" Sira dropped the tomato before she smashed it with her fingers. "This is all just new to me."
Carla nodded. "I'm new to this school too. Didn't want to move here, but here I am." She took a big bite of salad and chewed in silence for a few moments. After swallowing she spoke in a low voice. "What language do you speak at home? I can tell English is hard for you, but I can't place your accent."
A jolt of fear went through Sira. The humans didn't know about the Aos Si. Her father had warned her to keep their secret. "Um . . . I . . . we . . ." Sira tried to come up with an answer, but nothing came to mind. She shrugged in despair. "I have no word for it. I don't know. It is the language I speak with my father. I don't know what you would call it."
Carla dabbed at her lips with a strange napkin made of paper. "Okay. Where's your father from?"
"We've always lived here."
"Your grandfather?"
Sira shook her head. This conversation was going down paths she didn't want to take. As a distraction she shoved a forkful of lettuce into her mouth. She couldn't tell Carla that the Aos Si had been born onto this land, springing from the soil on the dawn of the first day. They had lived here since the beginning, and the humans had only recently arrived, spreading like bindweed, taking over, choking out all other life.
"Well, it doesn't matter," Carla said after a long silence. "We'll get used to it here. The first day of school is always the hardest." She looked like she didn’t believe her own words.
Sira took another bite.
"Those your papers?" Carla pointed at the stack of papers Sira had accumulated from the classes she'd been to so far. She hadn't read them yet, and didn't understand what they were for.
"I guess so," Sira said.
Carla reached into her purple and pink bag that she'd been wearing over her shoulders and pulled something out. "Here's a folder to put them in." She opened the sparkling purple folder and slipped the papers into a pocket inside. "You'll need a folder and a notebook for each class and a binder to put them all in. Also pens and pencils and a day planner to keep track of your assignments."
A lump rose in Sira's throat. She had no idea how to make all of those things.
"Don't worry," Carla said, pushing the last of her salad around on her plate with her fork. "I ran into Mr. DeWheat in the hall. He gave me some money and asked me to take you shopping after school to get what you need. I'll call my mom and see if she'll let me take the car. Okay?"
"Mr. DeWheat?" It felt strange not calling him His Majesty.
"Yep. He stopped by to make sure you got to class all right."
Sira lifted her head to glance over at the table where Alise had been sitting, but she and her friends were gone. Confusion tugged at her. His Majesty DeWheat had always taken care of her and her father, dealing with the humans and their laws and money. His gift healed them, and his power shielded them. But then he'd fought with her father and made her go to school. She wondered if he was really like Alise, mean and controlling, instead of benevolent and caring. Maybe Sira had just never really felt him for what he truly was. Her father was angry with him, so maybe she should be angry with him too.
But it wasn't right to defy their king. His Majesty had many responsibilities, and despite all that, he'd taken the time to come to the school to make sure Sira was all right. He'd given Carla money to buy the things Sira needed.
"It'll be fun," Carla said. She'd finished the rest of her food while Sira's mind tumbled with doubts.
"What?"
"Shopping. We'll go together. Mr. DeWheat gave me plenty of money." Carla stood and slipped the straps of her bag over her shoulders.
Sira lifted the remaining cherry tomato from her plate. She wanted to put it in her pocket, to keep one tiny spark of life with her, but figured it would just get smashed and make a mess. She put it into her mouth instead and chewed it, letting the cool tomato juice run down her throat.
A bell rang, and Sira jumped. She doubted she'd ever get used to the unharmonious noise.
"Let's go," Carla said. "We've both got science next. At least we have one class together."
"Science?" Sira stumbled to her feet. "Is that safe?"
"What do you mean?" Carla said as a swarm of kids passed around them, heading out the door.
"My father says it will destroy the world." Sira clasped her hands together in front of her.
Carla laughed. "Oh, you mean the whole global warming thing. Well, I think science has the ability to save the world as well as destroy it. We just have to find the right solutions. Come on. And don't forget your folder."
Carla walked off. Sira grabbed the purple folder and followed, moving her feet one reluctant step at a time, feeling torn inside over wanting to learn the human's forbidden magic and the horror of having to do so.