amuse herself for the day while I’m in school. People wouldn’t take kindly to having a giant fly buzzing around them. And there are no pets allowed.” BLT waved and zipped away toward the park. “And no sweets!” Brendan yelled after the tiny Faerie. She flipped him a rude gesture and darted out of sight.
“If you insist. Tweezers?” she said simply to the animal as they walked up to the main doors. With no further prompting, the furry creature wormed its way under the T-shirt she wore beneath her open leather jacket. As Brendan watched, the lump stopped squirming and melted away, until her shirt flattened out against her skin once more. Charlie pulled down her collar to reveal a tattoo of a ferret on her white shoulder.
“Happy, boss?”
The ferret was taken care of. Brendan was relieved to see that at least. RDA had a strict no-pets policy, and Brendan didn’t need to tangle with Ms. Abernathy. The vice-principal had just returned to active duty after being thrown onto the school roof by Orcadia.^ 39 Fortunately, Ms. Abernathy had no recollection of the incident, but she glared with lingering suspicion at Brendan whenever she passed him in the hall, her neck brace a constant reminder to him of the last time she’d tangled with his relatives.
“Woo hoo!” several boys catcalled from the steps of the school. “Hey, honey! Can we see a little more?”
“You?” Charlie called back good-naturedly, pulling her collar back into place. “You wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like me!”
She marched up the steps and through the double doors with Brendan on her heels. A couple of boys gave Brendan the thumbs-up, and one asked, “Who’s the babe, Brendan?”
Brendan rolled his eyes and didn’t answer. Instead, he followed Charlie through the door. He supposed Charlie was pretty good-looking. He hadn’t really thought about it before. As he watched her walk ahead of him down the hall, he took in her swaying hips in her tattered black jeans. In spite of the intense displeasure of having her invade his life, he couldn’t help but admit she was a babe, indeed.
Dmitri and Harold fell over themselves to offer a seat to Brendan’s “cousin” Charles. Brendan, on the other hand, was greeted with grunts of annoyance. They still had to work on their social studies presentation, and his failure to show up for the meeting at his own house had been a massive inconvenience. None of his apologies made a dent in their disapproval.
Brendan had hoped that his homeroom teacher might voice some objection over Charlie’s presence, but again, no such luck. He was just as charmed by her as everyone else. Not even the fact that she had no school uniform could queer the deal.
“Of course she can sit in on your classes,” Mr. Carey simpered. “I’m sure she’ll be as quiet as a mouse.”
Oh brother, Brendan groaned to himself. Is there anybody she can’t charm?
No sooner had he formed this thought than the door opened and Kim walked in.
She plopped down in her desk. “Morning, fellas. How’s it ha-” As soon as she saw Charlie sitting in the desk next to Brendan, she stopped short. If Kim had hackles they would have been standing up.
“Who is she?” The words were flat but full of menace. If Charlie was intimidated, she didn’t let it show.
“The name is Charles,” Charlie said lightly. “But you can call me Charlie.”
“She’s Brendan’s cousin!” Harold offered.
“She’s from Montreal,” Dmitri added, not to be outdone.
Charlie must have started building a cover story on the fly. Brendan was amazed at how much the two nerdy boys had managed to learn about the new girl in three minutes. Usually, his friends were paralyzed by fear around the opposite sex.
Brendan jumped out of his skin when Kim’s blistering gaze swung onto him and locked there. “Well, Brendan? Is that right? A cousin? I didn’t know you had a cousin.” She spat out the last word like a gob of poison.
“Uh… ” Brendan didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what he could say without making Harold and Dmitri suspicious. Surely she wasn’t angry at him? It wasn’t his fault. He’d like nothing better than to have this girl out of his life. He had hoped that Kim would help him attain that goal. Now, as he watched Kim glare at Charlie, looking her up and down, he realized that she was blaming him for bringing Charlie here.
In the end, Kim swung her backpack, field hockey stick jutting out as always, to the floor and sat down with her back to Brendan. As he fumbled with his book bag he heard Harold whisper to Dmitri, “I guess she doesn’t like having competition in the hottie department.”
“What’s a hottie?” Dmitri asked.
“Quiet, you guys,” Brendan said. Brendan had to believe that there was more to this than cattiness and jealousy. Kim was his guardian and guide in the Faerie world. She wouldn’t take kindly to having another Faerie show up on her turf. From the look on Kim’s face, Charlie was as much a shock to her as she’d been to Brendan. He had to get Kim alone and explain. The starting bell cut into his thoughts.
He didn’t have a chance to talk to Kim that morning in spite of his best efforts to corner her. She gave him the cold shoulder throughout the morning, sitting far away in French and history and not responding to his repeated balled-up messages thrown at her desk. A couple of times, when she wasn’t aware he was watching, he saw her staring daggers at Charlie.
For her part, Charlie was ultra-charming. In every class she introduced herself to the teachers and explained why she was sitting in. Brendan was amazed that no one challenged her. She was irresistible. He was especially surprised when she managed to get past Mr. Hutchingson, the cantankerous algebra teacher. He didn’t exactly welcome her with open arms, but he didn’t say no to her either.
When he and Charlie left algebra, they almost ran into Chester Dallaire. The bigger boy was standing by the side of the door, fiddling with his binder. Chester looked up as Brendan approached, his brown eyes widening slightly.
Brendan decided to break the ice. “Hi, Chester.”
“Hey,” Chester mumbled.
“How’s your mum?”
“Fine.” Chester turned his gaze on Charlie, and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly. Brendan put it down to being so close to the force of nature that was Charlie. Every boy seemed drawn to her.
“This is my cousin, Charlie. She’s visiting from Montreal.”
Chester just stared at Charlie with a strange expression, halfway between fear and wonder.
Charlie laughed and held out her hand. “I won’t bite. Nice to meet you, Chester.”
Chester looked at the offered hand for a moment before gingerly shaking it.
“I’ve gotta go,” the big boy stammered and spun away, barely missing a collision with another book-laden student in his eagerness to escape.
“Wow.” Brendan laughed. “You’ve got a way with guys.”
Charlie pouted prettily. “It’s a gift!”
Lunchtime found Brendan in the cafeteria at his customary table with Harold, Dmitri, and Charlie. She scarfed down a mound of french fries smothered in gravy and bemoaned the fact that there was no cheese curd to make a proper poutine.^ 40
“This school is supposed to be a centre of civilized learning, non?” Charlie said. “And no cheese curd for the poutine? It’s disgraceful.”
“I could go find you some,” Harold offered.
“Me, too,” Dmitri chimed in. “What’s a cheese curd?”
“Just cool it, guys.” Brendan shook his head. “It’s like you’ve never seen a girl before.”
“Shoot! Mr. Greenleaf told me he wanted to see you,” Harold suddenly broke in. “I totally forgot.”
“When?” Brendan asked.
“Like, right now. I ran into him in the hall between classes. He wanted you to come by during lunch. It slipped my mind.”
Brendan arched an eyebrow. “I wonder why.” Harold and Dmitri had been practically sitting in Charlie’s lap all lunch hour. Harold shrugged as if to say, Can you blame me? He’d been sketching Charlie surreptitiously from the moment she sat down. Brendan rolled his eyes and stood up.
“Come on, Charlie,” he said. “Let’s go.”
“But I ’aven’t finished eating!” she protested.
“Yeah, she hasn’t finished eating,” Harold and Dmitri said at the same time.
“You guys are pathetic,” Brendan observed. To Charlie he said, “Bring it with.”
Harold and Charlie watched Brendan leave with this beautiful new creature. As soon as they were out of
