Because I've had a bunch of people ask me to post this story since Crystal Hall where it was originally posted is down for the foreseeable future, here is Tink. And for those who've read it already, there is a new opening transformation that isn't as creepy, and in the next chapter is a whole new section of Tink's summer of fun as she meets H1 and goes to an anime convention. It's funny.

Disclaimer:
This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but it's fan fiction so I hope it's forgivable. Also any injuries caused from laughing too hard are your own fault, not mine.

Late May, 2007

“Mom do I really have to go to school today. I really feel like crap,” Teri said, scratching her chest, and trying not to cough up a lung. Everything seemed really far away, and not quite real.

“Yes,” her mom said. “You're father and I both have to get to work, if you want to keep eating.”

“I'm fifteen, I can stay home by myself. Believe me I won't have a party, I'll be lucky if I survive the day,” she pleaded. A coughing fit caused her limp brown hair to fall over her eyes.

“You're just coughing, I'll give you some cough syrup and you'll survive. Now come out here and have some breakfast,” her mom said with absolutely no sympathy.

Trudging to the kitchen, Teri felt an enormous sneeze rising up. Before she could even cover her mouth, it ripped through her throat. It actually felt like she'd been punched in the face, her entire body felt strange, and sticky. There was a thump behind here.

“I think I need a tissue,” she said, looking at her sticky hand that was covered in red.

“AAAAHHHHHH!” her mother screamed turning white.

“It's not that bad, Mom,” Teri said. Then she realized her entire arm was dripping red. “Oh, I think I should go to a hospital.”

Her mother kept screaming, and she heard her dad come running down the stairs. Turning around, she stopped suddenly. Something was wrong, her legs hadn't moved, and everything seemed so much bigger than before. Looking down, she screamed as loudly as her mother.

The floor was far below her, but that wasn't the worst part. She, was far below her. She looked at her plain, but pretty face surrounded by light brown curls. Glassy eyes stared at her, while her tongue hung out of her mouth, purple and swollen. Her nightgown had a hole surrounded by dark red blood, right where her heart was.

Her father took one look at the scene, the obviously dead body of his daughter, a blood covered figure that stood all of six inches tall screeching like a bat, flying over her, and came to an obvious conclusion. Bellowing with rage arms swinging wildly, he charged the monster.

Teri's eardrums hurt from all the noise. Seeing her father who was larger than a giant running at her, looking ready to kill, she somehow flew to the other side of the room a strange pulling sensation all along her back and chest. Not knowing what she was doing she ended up hitting the back of the couch nose first.

A book sailed past her, slamming into the wall hard enough to knock the clock to the ground.

“MOM! DAD! It's me Teri!” she yelled in a squeaky voice, jumping up and taking to the air again as a vase hit the spot she'd been standing in half a second later.

A lamp came within inches of hitting her, the wind of its passage sent her spinning through the air. With no idea how to consciously fly, she hit the ground and bounced along the carpet. It should have hurt, but she didn't even have a bruise. Her father came running, his slippered feet stomping the ground.

She bolted, jumping in enormous leaps helped by pale blue wings that she now saw were attached to her back, heading for the open window. Fingertips larger than her head grazed her feet and then she was in the air, spreading her wings and gliding away. Tiny tears fell to the ground, unnoticed by her father and mother who leaned out the window cursing her.

**

Teri looked at herself in the small pool where she had washed off her own blood. Her butterfly like wings wrapped themselves around her keeping the cool wind off her wet skin. The wings that stretched from her shoulders to her tailbone, weren't really from a butterfly, they felt more like bat wings. She could feel blood pulsing through them, they were covered in pale blue peach fuzz, were warm to the touch and moved bonelessly.

The wings were weird enough that she kind of blocked them out, she could freak out over them later. Instead she focused on her body and face, which at the moment was half hidden by a vast amount of purple hair that with only a bit of effort would make Cousin It jealous.

Her formerly plain round face, was totally different. Gone were her round cheeks, that her boyfriend, Todd liked to kiss, instead her cheeks were almost hollow, her cheekbones and chin pointed with a sharp eagle like nose. Her now oversized eyes, glowed a soft blue that matched her wings. Her skin was a dusky orange, not really a colour she remembered ever seeing on a human. Her breasts were large and very firm. Poking them let her know they were almost pure muscle, more like a birds breast than human, although they kept just enough definition, if she found a boy her size, he'd fall in love with her tits immediately. With her long limbs, compared to her tiny body at least, and fingers that ended in actual claws, she didn't really look human anymore.

Angrily she slapped the water. What had happened to her? She knew about mutants, but they didn't turn into little fairies. And no one in her family was a mutant either. Her thoughts started going back to her body lying dead on the floor. Hastily, almost in a panic she blocked out the image. She was starving, food was more important. Then she needed to find somewhere to stay until she figured out what to do next.

Taking flight was easy enough, she just had to jump really high and let the wind take her, then if she didn't think too much she could glide clumsily through the sky. With no better idea of where to go, she flew to the local GK Grocery Store. Slipping in through an open door on the hot spring day was easy enough, she just ran in behind a worker throwing out some trash and ran behind some shelves before anyone saw her.

She'd never been in the back of the store before, but it was just a matter of walking and ducking to find the produce section. A box of apples was waiting to be put out, jumping up she grabbed the smallest one and ran with under a shelf before anyone noticed. Being small was good for one thing at least. Ripping away the skin she hungrily crunched down on the fruit, eating almost half of it before she was satisfied.

Teri tried to shake her hands clean, but the sticky juice just wouldn't come off. Slinking through the pallets, shelves and boxes, she found some soft toilet paper, ripping open the bag with her claws, it was pretty easy to pull out a roll and drag it back behind a shelf in the produce section. Somehow it wasn't unbalanced despite being bigger than she was.

Wiping herself off as best she could, Teri ripped up a quarter of the roll and made herself a bed. After everything that had happened she was emotionally and physically exhausted. Dimly she heard some workers talking about rats, but sleep overcame her before she could really learn anything.

**

Squeaking woke her up.

The room was flat looking and there was no colour only grey, black or white and blurry, rubbing her eyes she tried to see properly, but it didn't help. The entire building was quiet, except for the sound of something tapping erratically, like claws on cement, and a persistent squeaking that seemed to be coming closer.

Teri huddled in her makeshift bed, shaking with fear. Her sobs turned to a shriek when a rat appeared from the darkness. It jerked back at the noise, twitching its nose. Cautiously it advanced again, the squeaking becoming louder and longer. Between squeaks it gave off little hisses.

“Go away! Shoo!” she screamed at it, which seemed to confuse the animal.

Grabbing the brown apple, she threw it at the rat, hitting it in the head and sending it sprawling. The rat got to its feet and scurried away as fast as it possibly could, leaving Teri crying in relief.

Sleep wasn't about to come back after seeing the rat. She listened carefully for people, she wanted help, but she realized there was no way anyone would help her now, she was a freak of nature, it was best to stay out of sight until she could think of something. After a long wait with no sound, she slipped out of her hiding spot, she needed food, water, and clothes.

Flying awkwardly she found a box of jerky. It wasn't something she'd normally eat, but she knew she couldn't survive off of eating fruit forever. Taking a piece as big as she was, she headed into the shopping part of the store, specifically looking for the small toy section. It was weird walking through the store at night and naked. She kept thinking that someone was watching her, that the police would come and arrest her. Even with her wings covering her, she blushed with shame.

The knock off barbie dolls were higher up where young girls could see them. An easy jump got her on the same shelf. The dolls were a little taller then she was, but their clothes seemed too tight. A careful look for the baggiest clothes possible. Ripping open one doll with a gold dress, she quickly slid on the uncomfortably scratchy material. She tore some stitching sliding it over her waist, and the threads around the shoulders snapped when she put her arms in the sleeves, but it just fit. She left the back open for her wings, which was good since there was no way she was going to close the velcro with her large chest.

Feeling uncomfortable but at least clothed, she began wandering the aisles without much clue what she was looking for. She needed somewhere safer to stay, where she wouldn't be seen by people or attacked by rats again. She needed to find better clothes. She needed somewhere to keep food for the day. Finally she needed to find some way to talk to people that wouldn't get her squashed.

It was close to dawn when she looked up and realized that some of the roof tiles weren't exactly sealed. Flying upwards she found the loosest tile and slid inside. It was dusty, but there was no way anyone would look for her up there.

She spent the next hour stealing dish towels, oven mitts, tissue paper, and packs of ready to eat food, especially granola bars in her new hideaway. By the time the first workers arrived she was sleeping peacefully in an oven mitt sleeping bag, on a pile of clothes.

**

“What in the world is that?” Marcus, the daytime manager of Gering, Nebraska's only GK Grocery Store asked, as he watched the security video. They'd discovered numerous cases of theft that morning, and he'd gone to the tapes expecting to see some idiot teenager taking it to the man by stealing from his job. Instead there was something like a bat flying around taking things apparently at random.

He tried to think of what it could be, when his eyes turned to the newspaper he'd planned on reading during his lunch break. The headline screamed about the murder of a local teenage girl who had something eat its way out of her chest. Having skimmed it, he knew that the monster was small, flew, and was probably very strong having battered its way through the girls rib cage from the inside.

He was dialing the MCO ten seconds later.

“MCO Omaha Office, how can I help you?” a woman asked.

“I think there's a dangerous mutant hiding in my grocery store,” he whispered, eyeing the ceiling warily.

“You think? What has happened?”

“I'm reviewing the security videos from last night, and things have been stolen. Doll clothes, granola bars, some fruit, jerky, dish clothes and oven mitts, I saw them go into the ceiling.”

There was a long pause. “I'm sorry, they flew into your ceiling?”

“YES!” he shouted. “Something grabbed them and up they went. Send your agents here, I think it might be the thing that ripped out a girls heart yesterday!”

“Have you seen anything else?”

“Well no. But you can't be too careful with mutants, they're crazy!”

“Please calm down sir, what is your name?”

“Marcus Kovar.”

Hold please,” the woman said, switching him over to some pop song. After ten minutes the music stopped. “Sorry for making you wait sir. I've talked to my supervisor and he said that the incident you are referring to is not mutant related and is not in our jurisdiction. Please contact your local police to deal with the thefts.”

Marcus could hear laughter in the background as the woman hung up on him. Slamming the phone down he huddled in his chair, expecting some horrible creature to break through the ceiling at any moment and impregnate him before he could blink. When his mouth and other body cavities weren't invaded, he picked up the phone and dialed 911, demanding they send the swat team over immediately to deal with the dangerous mutant.

Twenty minutes later a single police cruiser came rolling leisurely into the parking lot. An older officer strolled inside looking at his notepad. Marcus ran over to him. “This is it?! We have a dangerous situation here!”

“Of course, Mr. Kovak,” the officer said in a bored voice. “I'm certain this is as dangerous as when your dog ran away and you claimed it eaten by your neighbours secret mutant child. The strange lights in your backyard, caused by the mutant witch who lives at the end of the street. When you had a car accident and blamed it on mind control. The-”

“I have video proof this time!”

That got the officers attention. “Alright, lets see it.”

They headed to the office, where Marcus had left the video tape from the ancient surveillance he insisted on using to save money, in the equally old VCR. “Now watch this!” he said pressing play.

The screen stayed blank. The officer sighed and looked over his notes again, as Marcus tried to get the machine working. Finally he ejected the tape, only to discover there was no tape in the machine.

“It was right here!” he cried, as the officer walked out of the office shaking his head. “The mutant must have stolen it!”

“Sure, Marcus. When you have some proof tell us. Now my wife wants me home at a decent hour tonight and I need to pick up some groceries. So if you can find this magical tape before I'm done shopping I'll be happy to watch it.”

The proud manager of GK Grocery Store watched in horror as his last hope walked away, looking at a notepad, asking himself why they needed kale and if it was even food.

**

Teri, wiped her brow from the safety of the ceiling. She gave a silent thank you that the manager was so loud and that they hadn't gone digital. Flying away with the video tape, she wondered what she should do with it.

**

First Week

Teri sat on a small pin cushion in her box apartment, sewing a handkerchief into an open back dress. She never thought the home ec course her mom insisted she take would have ever been useful, but the sewing was proving useful now. The skirts and dresses she was making wouldn't win any awards, or be worn in the light of day, but they were a heck of a lot more comfortable than doll clothes. Holding the needle which was as long as her arm, she artfully threaded it on the first try, and went to work. Her claws were better than scissors at cutting the fabric and thread, which saved her having to learn how to handle scissors as big as she was.

An Ipod she'd stolen earlier played some music for entertainment, it wasn't as good as tv, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Dish clothes lined the cardboard floor, a large pile of them made up her bed in the corner. A couple of small romance novels made up her couch, she was slowly reading them while she waited for the night when she could go and have some fun. A small hole in the box led to her pantry full of candy, dried fruit, jerky, cookies, granola bars and more. The lack of lights didn't matter much, she could see in the dark now, even if it lacked colour.

The only thing she was missing was a bathroom. She had a little raised box with a doll chair inside that she had cut the seat out of, and cardboard taped around the legs to do her business. It was a ways from her apartment, so she didn't worry too much about the smell. Hand sanitizer was kept just outside the outhouse to keep clean.

She hoped the deli staff would clean the sinks properly before they went home. With all the dust just outside her door, keeping clean was a pain, and she liked to take baths every night, but the sink last night had been full of grease. Now she could feel the dust filling her pores despite using a wet wipe to clean herself off.

The PA system went off, telling customers the store was closing. She tried to sit still, the staff would be around for at least another hour cleaning up and things. Marcus the manager, would do a final check making sure all the security cameras were working and with a last nervous look around would flee for the safety of his car. Then she could go out and get stuff done.

Glancing at a watch that acted as her clock, she counted down the minutes.

After a long, excruciating wait it was time. With a whoop of glee, she turned off the Ipod, and ran outside, she went halfway across the floor ceiling before lifting a tile to get out. Flying through the air she went to each of the cameras, pulling out the wires, so she could go about her business in peace. Flying in the fairly still air of the grocery store was easy, and with all the practice she'd gotten into over the last week she was quite proud of her skill, especially since she'd never had a flying lesson in her life.

Teri was about to go looking for a new book to read when she heard clanking and banging from the back of the store. Swooping through the air, she landed on a tall pile of pallets to see what was happening. Five men in coveralls that proclaimed 'Sid's Extermination Company' came in with large boxes.

Over the next two hours, the men surveyed the store looking in all the corners, nooks and crannies, as well as lifting the tiles of the ceiling sending beams of light through the dusty air looking for signs of pests. The youngest one, started getting a little too close to Teri's new home for her comfort.

As he pushed the ladder in place, she crept over to the heavy ladder on silent feet. Just as he was about to put his foot on it, she grabbed one of the four legs and heaved. The ladder went over with a crash, just missing the shelves on either side of it. The others came running over as Teri hid behind some jars of discount peanut butter.

Five minutes later, after a vicious tongue lashing by his boss, and bad jokes from his coworkers the young man was setting up the ladder again. This time he didn't let go of the ladder before climbing up. Not wanting to hurt him, Teri flew up and grabbed a hold of his belt, his flashlight was clipped to his side, in easy reach leaving his hands free to climb up safely. Her claws made short work of the nylon cord holding it on, and she flew away at high speed dragging it behind her.

A minute later cursing could be heard clear across the store.

Teri tried not to laugh too loudly.

Fifteen minutes later the boss was climbing up the ladder, grumbling about incompetence and how hard it was to get good help these days. Teri was already waiting halfway up the ladder making sure her glowing eyes were damped down. As the large bellied man went past, she reached out and slashed his belt in half. His tools slowly started to droop, and then they hit the floor with a resounding crash. As all eyes focused on the tools, Teri flew to the ground.

The exterminators went off to regroup and discuss strategy.

Teri went and set off the fire alarm.

When the fire engines arrived, they found five very wet, confused and angry men. Teri decided that a night at home was called for and went back to her sewing.

**

Second Week

Marcus was eating lunch at the local cafe with his friend Fred, a pet shop manager who's store was just a few doors down from the grocery store.

“I'll tell you Marcus, I ain't never heard of anything like it. Someone broke in last night and stole a cage full of mice, along with enough mouse food and woodchips to last two months. I could understand wanting to steal one of the parrots or something expensive but mice? It doesn't make any sense,” Fred exclaimed utterly baffled.

Marcus just nodded sagely, several things that had confused him that morning suddenly clicked into place, mostly revolving around why his employees and customers had been complaining about animals squeaking all morning.

**

Teri walked before her subjects wearing her best dress, and a skewer she had cut down to be a swagger stick.

“Mice! For too long we have been burdened by the the overbearing weight of humans. Just because they are big, strong, and have thumbs, we of the small persuasion have been forced to hide in the corners of the world living off of their scraps, hiding in their shadows. I say enough is enough! Today is the start of our revolution. Today is the day they will speak about forever in history! It is the day when we say NO MORE! Who is with-” she stopped in shock. “Lucille! Byron! That is hardly appropriate behaviour for the eve of the revolution! Come on stop that! There are kids watching! Don't you have any shame!”

The mice ignored their glorious leader

**

Third Week

Marcus didn't look like his usual well groomed self. There was a bit of a manic look in his eyes as he stared at the ceiling and a his lip twitched randomly, and the thick leather gloves were something he would never wear normally. After the store was closed for the day, he went to his mini van and opened the back, taking two carriers that growled and rocked as he carried them at arms length. The mice that were being controlled by the evil mutant were squeaking horribly, they probably knew death was coming for them.

“Ten exterminators, couldn't do it. The MCO is laughing at me. The police ignore me. I'll show them. I'll save this store, this town! I'll be a HERO! I'LL SHOW THEM ALL NOT TO DOUBT ME!” he shouted.

Placing the two cats he'd been assured were pure, unadulterated evil on the floor, he carefully unlocked the carriers and opened them just a crack. The growling stopped, he saw the glint of ivory white fangs in the shadows, without another glance he ran for his office, cackling with glee.

As he closed the door it sounded like a pack of lions had escaped, a buzz saw like yowl came through the door and the squeaking became louder.

He watched from the video cameras as the cats ran into the ceiling. Tiles fell, a cat fell to the floor, seconds later it was jumping back up, its hissing could be heard over the banging. Marcus tried to follow the fight but it was moving so quickly now tiles, mice and cats were falling all over the store.

Finally there was silence.

Marcus crept out of his office, an insane smile on his face. There was no squeaking, no flying monsters, no laughter. He'd won. HE'D WON!!!!

Then the squeaking started again, louder then a ever. A cat yowled. He heard a tiny voice whoop with glee. Terrified mice dropped on his head.

He had just enough time to jump out of the way before one of the cats came leaping down, it had a pencil in its mouth with strings tied to both ends. A tiny girl on its back, was waving a sparkly pink doll hat in her hand.

“Come back you traitors! Obey your general! Tonight we conquered the cats! TOMORROW THE WORLD!” the evil mutant shouted kicking the cat to make it move faster.

Marcus ran for his life.
**

Week 4

Marcus was at his wits end, no exterminators would answer his call. Head office was furious with him over the damages, thefts and bad publicity. No one would help him. It was time for drastic measures. He opened the phone book and looked up a number he thought he would never call. There it was in black and white, a picture of a female cat person holding a giant mouse, under the words 'Mouser Extermination Agency. When it's too big for normal exterminators it's time to call an imbued. ** I also do childrens parties.'

With a heavy heart he dialed the number.

“Hello, Mouser Extermination Agency and Child Entertainer, I'll remove your pest and entertain your kids, how can I help you?” a chirpy voice practically shouted.

“Um, hello. Is it true you're imbued and not a... a mutant?” Marcus asked.

“I'm 100% mutant gene free. I just look odd thanks to a power gem I got. I even have the MCO card proving it,” she assured him.

“Alright. I need your help. I have a mutant and a cat in the ceiling of my store. I've tried everything but they won't go away and no one is willing to help.” He started to sob. “You've got to help me!”

Her voice became even chirpier if that was possible. “Oh yeah, you're the crazy guy they interviewed on the news two weeks ago. Man, it's about time you called. I can be there tonight, just be ready to sign my contract and I expect to be paid half in advance.”

“DONE! Just get this thing away from me!”

**

Marcus waited nervously after the employees left. He could hear the surviving cat and its new owner prowling the store. The mutant didn't even try to hide herself anymore, she flaunted her powers riding the cat like a horse and wearing a mouse skin dress.

A beat up pickup truck pulled to a stop in front of the store. He rushed out to greet Mouser who was like her hand drawn picture a cat woman, with pitch black fur. If you looked past the ears, cat eyes, fure and tail she was extremely shapely, especially in the skin tight spandex suit she was wearing.

“Marcus, it's a pleasure to meet you!” she squealed. “Where's the pest?”

“Right in there, you can hear it rampaging through my store right now. What do I have to sign?” he asked.

“Just sign this contract agreeing to pay half up front and the rest upon removal of the pest from your store. And this one.” she said holding the papers in the shadows where it was hard to read.

He signed both of them, then stopped. “What was the second one for?”

“Removing all liability for damages and injuries that might occur during the removal of the pest. Don't worry I'm a complete professional,” she assured him.

With a bad feeling growing rapidly stronger, Marcus opened the door and let the Mouser in. Sitting on the bike rack outside his store he began to cry.

**

Teri rode Tigger through her territory. Her subjects had abandoned her, but she was the queen of all she surveyed, at least at night. She munched on a strawberry, letting the juice run down her chin and onto the dress she had specially made from the traitor Lucille. It was the least that little coward deserved after not defending her general from the cats.

Tigger began to yowl, his ears went back.

Jumping from his back, Teri took to the air ready to defend herself. A woman in a skin tight suit and a weird mask walked through the store. They had sent a hero after her? Well she would just have to send her packing like she had sent the exterminators.

Landing on shelf she picked up a can of tomatoes and lobbed it at the invader. It probably wouldn't hurt a superhero but it was merely the opening shot.

Mouser caught it without even looking. “Oh, the pretty butterfly wants to play!” she squealed with delight.

Teri shrieked as the woman jumped towards her, landing on a shelf sending the contents flying. She flew towards the shadows ducking below shelves to stay out of sight. The woman jumped along on all fours, acting as if it was a stroll in the park, even as boxes, cans and bottles fell with every leap.

“Come back pretty butterfly! You're so pretty, I just want to hug you, and kiss you, and pet you, I'll feed you and take good care of you!”

Flying straight up, Teri headed for the safety of the ceiling, breaking the tile with the force of her entrance. The cat woman followed, somehow running on the thin metal beams that held the tile in place.

Teri circled around and flew right at Mouser. Her tiny fists didn't look like much, but they had a lot of muscle behind them, and they were were so small it was like being hit by a very hard, blunt nail. Mouser yowled in pain as she was sent crashing through the tiles, landing on a display of paper towels. That would have been great for Teri, except that the woman managed to catch her and they both landed together.

“Now I've got you my pretty little butterfly,” Mouser shouted.

“No you don't!” Teri shouted, biting a furry finger. The hand opened up and she took off as fast as her tiny wings would take her.

“Ouch! Come back here butterfly!”

Teri finally managed to get out of sight of the exterminator and paused to come up with a strategy. The woman was just one aisle over, and there was no way she could take her in a fight. Looking at the shelf she got a nasty idea. Spitting on her hands she began to lift it.

She heard Mouser scream as the entire shelf started to tip over. There was a huge crash, and hundreds of glass jars shattered. The next shelf over began to fall as well, and the next, and the next, and the next.

Mouser who had managed to jump out of the way and landed beside Teri looked at the mess, and scratched her head. “Man, I'm so glad I had him sign the non-suing agreement.”

“Wow! I didn't think it would do that,” Teri said flying up for a better look.

They both turned to look at each other. Teri gave a little eep and flew away at top speed as Mouser frantically tried to grab her.

They raced all around the store throwing anything they thought would help at each other. Teri sent Mouser flying into the ice cream by coating the floor in cooking oil. And Mouser momentarily went airborne when she trapped Teri in a table clothe and the girl tried to fly away before ripping her way out. Teri was coated in salt, in a desperate attempt to force her out of the air, while Mouser got a face full of crushed chili peppers to the face.

Marcus who was outside, couldn't bear to look at his store, as he kissed his career goodbye.

Teri was getting desperate. She was tired, hungry, and the many small cuts on her hurt like the devil from the salt that covered her. Hiding in the pet food aisle, one of the last ones that wasn't destroyed, she looked around for anything that might help. Her eyes lit up when she saw salvation.

**

Mouser could smell the pest, despite the chili pepper that permeated her fur and nose. This job was her big payday and she was earning every last penny. Stalking on all fours, she had her eyes wide open looking for any trace of the pretty butterfly, it was so close she could practically taste it.

The pretty butterfly appeared right in front of her, it was holding a can of something in its tiny hands. Before she could make out what it was, the butterfly had ripped open the can and splashed her in the face with some kind of powder. As soon as the stuff entered her nose, she began to purr.

Catnip!

With the last second of intelligent thought she caught the pretty butterfly in her hands, then she was lost in a catnip high.

**

“Oooohhhhh pretty butterfly!” the cat woman moaned, rubbing Teri against her face.

“Let me go you filthy creature!' Teri raged.

It did no good, the cat woman had her in an iron grip and was licking her. Teri screamed as the freak of nature began pressing her against its chest and its other hand went between its legs. There was more moaning, but it was far less intelligible.

“Think happy thoughts! Think happy thoughts!” she told herself trying to shut off her senses.

**

Marcus turned around for the first time in hours when the door finally opened. Mouser came strolling out, a very happy grin on her face. She was holding a pale, shaking girl who was about six inches tall, in one hand.

“Please get this maniac away from me! She's crazy! Call the MCO! Call anyone, just get me away from her!” the mutant squeaked.

“Hey buddy!” Mouser said, patting him on the shoulder with her free hand, which felt a little sticky. “I got the pest. I'll be billing your credit card first thing in the morning. And I'm really, really sorry about your store. But that's why you signed the no sue me contract. It's been a REAL pleasure!”

Marcus just nodded, unable to speak. Falling to his knees, he wondered if he would be able to get a job as a bag boy after head office heard what happened.

**

Teri sat awkwardly in the passenger seat of Mousers pickup truck, looking like a little, winged Amazonian warrior doll, who had just fought a vicious battle with an insane chef in a well stocked kitchen. Country music was playing loudly, while Mouser yowled along quite happily.

“Uh, Mouser,” she said as loudly as possible trying to be heard over a brokenhearted cowboy.

The cat woman hit pause, 'What's up my pretty little butterfly?”

Wiping some peanut butter off of her knees, Teri said some of the hardest words for a teenager to say to an adult. “I'm sorry that I beat you up.”

“What, this?!” Mouser said, waving at her torn suit, covered in vegetable oil, pickles, dried pasta and coated in herbs. “This is nothing. A couple of bruises, getting soaked in oil, and coming off of a catnip bender, this was like a normal date for me.” She got a thoughtful look in her golden yellow eyes. “A tame one.”

“Uh...”

The catlike face turned to her, interest in her eyes. “So how old are you?”

“FIFTEEN!”

“When's your birthday?”

“NEXT YEAR!”

“Shucks.”

The music went back on, something Teri was extremely grateful for.

**

“Do you mind washing up in the kitchen sink? I think the shower would be a little too big for you,” Mouser said, stripping out of her costume as soon as the front door was closed revealing a bikini clad models body. Somehow the woman didn't sound tired even after driving for seven hours to get to Omaha.

“Yeah, no problem,” Teri answered looking around the one room apartment. There wasn't any furniture, just lots of pillows, thick rugs and scratching posts. Pictures of Mouser in various poses, several of
them nude but not showing anything except her butt lined the walls. A 40 inch flat screen tv hung from the wall, a small cabinet beneath it had a top of the line dvd player. “Do you have any doll clothes? I kind of left everything back in the grocery store.”

“Sorry. I'll give you a wash cloth you can cut a hole in the middle for your head and wear it like a dress until we go shopping tomorrow,” she looked out the window at the rising sun, “today.”

“Thanks.” Without another word they both went to wash up.

Since she didn't have fur, Teri was finished long before Mouser, and took a bit of time cutting a proper hole in the red washcloth she'd been given. Cleaning her mouse fur dress took longer, but with a healthy dollop of dish soap most of the stains came off. Hanging it up to dry over the faucet, she jumped to the floor and found a small comfy pillow in the corner of the room. Curling up to sleep she didn't hear Mouser come back or feel the hand towel draped over her.

**

They both woke up to giant robots fighting equally large demons as people ran in terror.

Teri instinctively dived for cover under the pillows since her wings were covered up. Mouser just rolled over, stretching every part of her body in ways that would send most people to the hospital. “Oh Mega Rider Space Demons From Outer Space! It's Thursday.”

“That's your alarm clock?” Teri asked, peeking at the tv from the safety of her pillow.

“Yeah! No better way to start the day. Do you want chocolate coated sugar bombs with extra sugar, fish sticks, refried noodles and mice, rat soup, reheated chicken balls, or some chocolate protein bars?”

“Protein bar please,” she replied as she put on her mouse skin dress, not sure how comfortable she'd be eating mouse or rat.

As they ate breakfast in the afternoon, while watching badly translated Japanese cartoons Teri tried to remember what it was like being with people, after four weeks all alone with nothing to do except read once the Ipod ran out of power, she'd gone a bit stir crazy. Finally she worked up the courage to ask what had been on her mind for a while.

“Mouser, what am I going to do?”

Holding up her fingers, Mouser started counting down. “First clothes. Then food. Then powers testing. Then an MID. Then we figure out what next.”

“An MID? Isn't that for mutants?” she asked, recalling the few episodes from Tales of the MCO she'd watched.

“Yeah.”

“So why do I need one?”

“Did you always look like that, butterfly?” Mouser asked, speaking slowly.

Teri blushed. “Well, no not until four weeks ago.”

Nodding sagely, the woman said, “Ergo, you, my pretty little butterfly, are a mutant. Unless you got some pretty stones like I did, that gave you some messed up dreams and changed you into a fairy.”

“Oh. So... what do we do about clothes?”

“Leave that up to aunty Mouser. I have it all under control.”

Teri suddenly became very worried at the Cheshire cat grin that showed off every one of Mousers teeth.

**

Riding on Mousers shoulder, trying to look as doll like as possible, Teri wondered why they were going into a store called Anime Collectors Hut. Posters for cartoons covered the windows blocking out all possible natural light.

Stepping inside, several pale teenage males, dressed in black, turned on them. A girl who was dressed in short shorts, a top that only barely covered her small chest, with cat ears and a tail squealed and ran up to give Mouser a full body hug. Teri took flight with a yelp of fear.

“OH!!! Mouser, you got a fairy! Is she yours?” the girl shrieked.

“That's Butterfly, and she's not anyones, she's a person just like you, Sasha.”

“Actually it's Teri,” she called down from the light fixture. No one paid attention to her, focusing their admiration on her wings, her appearance, and her lack of panties.

“Is she going to model with you?” one of the guys asked, his tongue practically hanging out.

Mouser scratched her chin and twitched her ears in interest. “I don't know, I just met her last night. Right now I'm looking to expand her wardrobe.”

A normal looking man came out from the back of the shop. “Mouser! It's great to see you. I have the photo session already for you on Monday. Your fans will love it. We've already doubled hits on the site with the promise of more.”

“Oh, goody! Thank you Peter! I need a new truck!” Mouser shouted, clapping her hands and jumping up and down, which got admiring smiles and leers since she was in a short sundress. “But for now I need some clothes for my friend. Come on down Butterfly.”

“It's Teri,” she said, flying down, to ooh's, ahh's and the clicking of camera phones.

“Oh wow! She's amazing,” Peter said, leaning in close to get a better look. “I have just the thing.”

He ran to the back of the shop and came back a few minutes later with several boxes. “These aren't the real collectors items, but they're nice clothes, with real cotton, lace, buttons and zippers.”

Teri looked at the dolls inside, they were close to her size, some bigger a few smaller, wearing a weird mix of poofy dresses, skin tight jeans and t-shirts, trench coats, jean jackets, business suits, hot shorts and more. Looking up at the enormous faces around her, suddenly feeling extremely self conscious, Teri said the only thing she could think of. “What the hell?”

“Welcome to Otaku!” Mouser shouted.

**

Mouser, Sasha and Teri were allowed into the back where they would have some privacy, and they got to work seeing what would fit her and what wouldn't. The shirts and coats proved to be a problem because of her wings. Sasha grabbed a tiny sewing kit from her backpack and proceeded to cut slits in the back, hemming the sides. While that was going on, Teri was putting on pants, shorts and even underwear.

She posed in front of an ornate silver hand mirror getting a really good look at her body for the first time. The curves were nice, her butt was perfectly proportioned and she was stacked for the first time in her life. If only she wasn't the size of a hand.

A bra was impossible, even though some of the dolls had actual working bras for some bizarre reason they couldn't be modified for her wings. Fortunately her breasts were almost solid muscle so there wouldn't be any jiggling, and she was so small no one would be able to see if she was cold or not without a magnifying glass.

Out of fifteen dolls, she got two pairs of pants, three dresses, hot pink short shorts, a skirt, four shirts and two jackets, a jean jacket and a trench coat, along with six pairs of panties. She managed to get two cloth slippers which weren't perfect but would help keep her feet clean.

“These are awesome!” she said, admiring the brown bell bottom trousers she had on.

“Yes they are. And it only comes to nine hundred dollars! That's a real deal,” Mouser told her.

She fell on her butt. “N-n-nine hundred dollars! I don't have any money!”

“Well we can't give them back, they're out of the box, and they've been cut up. I could give you a loan, but I'm not sure what you can do to pay me back.”

The room was windowless, the only way out was closed as well, keeping her from her first idea of running like hell. Sasha seemed to realize her concern.

“I know what you can do,” the girl said. “You can model with Mouser. You'll be so awesome, all her fans will love you!”

“Modeling?” Teri squeaked.

Mouser picked them both up in a group hug. “That is an awesome idea! You'll even have a bit of money left over at the end of the month!”

Five minutes later, Teri was officially a model and set up for a shoot on Monday with the largest American anime fan website.

**

The next stop was lunch, or supper for most other people. Mouser took her to a restaurant she went to all the time, and while Teri got a lot of odd looks, the patrons were used to Mouser and didn't panic when they saw her.

“You know, Butterfly, you'd be great working childrens parties. We could get you a little princess outfit, and you could be the fairy princess. We'll be the best entertainers in the city, in the state!” Mouser shouted, knocking her glass of milk over as she threw her hands wide.

“I don't think so. And it's Teri.”

“Come on, you need a job.”

“I'm fifteen, I need to go back to school,” Teri said.

“You'll be stepped on your first day back, Butterfly,” the woman insisted. “Go get a GED like I did and lets start making cash!”

Teri felt her chin start to quiver, her eyes got big and watery. “B-b-but I want to go to school!” she cried, the tears pouring out like rain.

“Hey, stop that. You don't have to cry! Look we have ice cream! Please stop crying! How can someone so small be so loud?! OK! OK! OK! I'll see about getting you back to school! Just PLEASE stop crying!”

Sniffing, she looked up at her temporary caregiver with big puppy dog eyes. “You promise?”

“Promise. Just no more tears!”

“OK!” Teri said, grabbing the tiny desert spoon and digging into the pile of chocolate ice cream that was as big as she was.

Mouser sighed, realizing she'd been had. “Hey Butterfly, got a question for ya. Where do you put all of that food you eat?”

**

“Where are we going now?” Teri asked.

“Well the MCO is closed for the night, so we're going to see about getting you some schooling. You're probably SOL for finishing the term this year, even if we could get your old grades and stuff, but I know some people we can talk to about how to go to school after the summer,” Mouser said.

“And who are these guys?” carefully not thinking about her old life.

“The Lincoln Freedom Squad! We're on a first name basis,” she said proudly.

Teri sank down in her seat, hiding her face in her hair. She knew all about the C-list Freedom Squad. They did a lot of anti-bullying stuff, made appearances at charities and special events, and the last time they'd fought a super villain, they'd ended up in the hospital for weeks. The fight had lasted all of five minutes and the video could be seen all over the net, under the title curb stomp, embarrassing, how not to be a hero and other less flattering names. It seemed very appropriate that Mouser would know them.

“We're here!'

They got out of the truck and entered a plain two story office building that proudly proclaimed itself as the headquarters of the LFS.

Mouser went right on in, with Teri flying behind, Glow Worm the leader of the LFS stopped smiling and let out a long suffering sigh when he saw them. “Mouser, if this is about your last application to join, the answer is still no.”

“I'm not here about that Glowy, I've got a friend who has some problems. This is Butterfly, a new mutant and she needs to go to finish her education, before she's willing to become my partner,” Mouser explained.

“My name is Teri, and what's this about being partners?” Teri tried to say.

“Oh, that's different. Hello Butterfly, when did you manifest and how old are you?” GW asked.

“Actually I'm Teri, not butterfly. And I manifested about four weeks ago, I turned fifteen last month.”

He typed some stuff into his computer. “Alright, how did you manage to meet up with Mouser?”

“I was living in a grocery store, since my parents think I died and I'm an evil monster because I sneezed myself out of my own chest. They finally hired Mouser to remove me last night, and after we kind of broke the store she caught me and decided I could live with her for a while,” she explained.

His eyes went wide. “Sneezed out of your chest?”

“Yeah, I was feeling sick, coughing and sneezing a lot, and then I had a huge sneeze and it felt like I'd gotten punched in the face. Next thing I knew, Mom was screaming, I was looking down at my dead body, and I was covered in blood and bits of bone. It was kind of messy.”

His cheeks bulged out like he was trying not to throw up. Finally he gave up, bent under the desk and noisily vomited up his supper into a waste basket. His head still down, Glow Worm groped along the top of the desk for some tissue, a minute or two later, looking pale but calm, he reappeared. “Ok, Butterfly, that is definitely a new one. Do you have any ID?”

“No. I had to fly away in a hurry when my parents tried to squash me, I didn't have time to get anything, not even clothes. It was a little embarrassing.”

“Uh huh. Are the poltergeist of Gering, GK?”

She blinked surprised that her story had gotten out. “I guess so. I didn't really have tv or anything to listen to, but I'm from Gering and I was in a GK Grocery Store.”

“We offered to go in and take a look, but the manager screamed 'MUTANTS!' and slammed the phone down,” GW said with a chuckle. “Alright, since you're fifteen, with no ID, and manifested, you need an MID. And if you have somewhere to stay for the summer we can send you off to Whateley for school in September.”

“Whateley?” Mouser and I both asked at the same time.

He nodded. “It's a highschool for mutants. They'll train you in your powers, give you a great education and help set you up with everything you need to survive.”

“How come I never heard about the school?!” Mouser whined.

“Because you got your rocks two years ago, after graduating college. You aren't exactly the student they're looking for,” the hero explained slowly.

“Humph! Mutants get all the luck!”

Glow Worm rubbed his temples, clearly fighting a headache. “Anyways, Butterfly, you get your MID as soon as possible, and then you can come back here we'll help you fill out your forms and send them off. Considering your situation, I think they'll accept you as a scholarship student so it won't cost you fortune.”

“Thanks.” Teri looked over at Mouser who was clearly off in her own little world and had wandered away to look longingly at the door that said 'employees only', muttering angrily to herself. “Um, could I possibly stay with you guys for the summer?”

He looked at Mouser as well, and whispered, “No, Butterfly. Sorry, but she'd probably come around even more often if we did that. You're free to visit without her though.”

“Thanks anyways,” she sighed.

**

The next morning they woke up early, for them, just before noon. After a quick breakfast of chocolate covered sugar bombs, they went to the MCO office.

The small building didn't look like much, even with the bullet proof glass doors. Mouser walked right in and smiled a big toothy grin at the man behind the desk. “HI! Is Mr. Hill working today?”

“Yes, Mouser. He's in and he's free. Would you like me to send him out, or do you want to go to his office?” the man said with a weary voice.

“Well, since I have a friend who needs to get tested and an MID, can he come out here?”

A minute later, an older man in a good suit, with a big smile on his face came out. “Mouser, if it isn't my favourite non mutant,” he said, with a touch too much emphasis on non mutant. “What would you like to talk about today?”

“My friend Butterfly, here,” she waved at Teri who was sitting on her shoulder wearing short shorts, slippers and a t-shirt, “needs an MID. Can you get your people doing that, while we... talk?” she asked, licking her small muzzle with a long and very flexible tongue.

“Certainly!” Mr. Hill practically shouted. Turning to the man at the desk, “Jones, get David up here, we need some power testing, and an MID for Butterfly. I want this done properly and with no mistakes. While thats going on, I'll be in my office discussing things with Mouser. It's always good to have some information on mutants from our eyes on the ground. So if anything that isn't a code red comes up tell Murphy to deal with it.”

“Of course sir.”

Teri was told to wait, while the two adults headed off to... 'talk'.

Ten minutes later, a bored looking man came out and looked around the room. “Um, Jones, where is the mutant?” he asked.

“I'm right here,” Teri said, flying up to him.

“Uh, right. Why do I get the strange ones?” he asked the air. “Come with me please Butterfly.”

“It's Teri,” she said as quickly as possible, but unfortunately she only spoke to his backside. Sighing, she followed along.

They came to a large gymnasium like room. David sat down at a computer and started working. “What can you do?”

“I can fly. I seem to be really strong, I heal quickly, and I can see in the dark,” she said.

“Ok, lets see how fast you can fly.”

She did a few loops around the room, and was told she could fly at about 40 miles an hour.

Next up was weightlifting. She was too small to reach the metal bar lying down, or even standing up. David ran around the building for ten minutes grabbing phone books, training manuals and magazines until she could actually reach the bar. Then she started lifting it. At first she couldn't move it enough to actually register, David did somethings and the two inches she could move the thing was caught by the computer. A bit of pumping later and she reached four hundred pounds.

David upped the weight to 401 pounds.

The bar came down, squashing Teri, so only her wings, and legs could be seen. David hit the emergency off switch, and the bar was pushed away. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!” Teri yelled, rubbing her breasts which seemed a little flatter then they had been a minute ago.

Some quick testing, showed that she had a PK field focused on her hands only, which could hold up to four hundred pounds but no more. It also spread out to cover up to three feet of anything she was holding.

The next test went almost as well.

“NO WAY! SCREW OFF! GO TO HELL!” Teri yelled.

“But we need to see how your regeneration works,” David complained, holding a device with blades as long as Teri's arm.

“How about I grab a sword and see how you like being cut with that thing. No way, no how!” she stated in no uncertain terms holding a pencil up like a pole arm to keep him back.

They compromised, getting a magnifying glass and the finest needle they had. David muttered about how poor the findings would be, Teri screamed as something just a little smaller than her pinky finger was jabbed into her arm so hard it hit the bone. It was healed up ten minutes later.

Devisor and gadgeteering went much better.

“I'm not touching that stuff.”

David took two ibuprofen before asking the obvious question. “Why not?”

“I have one pair of shorts and four shirts, and I'm nine hundred bucks in the hole,” she said. “Do you know how hard it is to get grease out of clothing. If I touch any of that, I'll probably have to get up to my armpits in it, and my clothes will be ruined. Not touching it and you can't make me.”

“So you really don't want to make a machine or anything?”

“No. If you want me to make some clothes, I can. I had to make my own dresses, but this junk, not a chance.”

“Ok, Devisor and gadgeteer are a zero. Good to know.”

**

David watched the strange little girl running on the treadmill, then looked at the tennis ball in his hand. He felt almost bad about the next test, she probably didn't have any danger sense, and it didn't seem very fair to drop something almost as big as she was on top of her.

He rubbed his sore head, his day had started off really, really well.

David dropped the ball on her head.

The next five minutes of listening to her yell at him as she picked her self up from the floor made his head hurt more, but it was totally worth it.

**

Teri stood in the strange room looking at the bare walls. “Uh David, what's going on?”

“Just an agility test, you may want to start flying now,” he said through the intercom.

She took the air. “Why”

He didn't answer, instead a volleyball whipped by so quickly she was sent tumbling through the air by the draft. The next three minutes became a dangerous ballet of zooming balls, and a cursing fairy who zipped around the room barely avoiding the dangerous projectiles. She almost made it to the four minute mark, when a ball caught her in the back.

She and the ball hit the wall. The ball fell while she seemed permanently attached spread eagle to the wall for several seconds, before she slowly peeled off and thanks to her spread wings floated to the floor.

When the door finally opened, releasing her, she looked David straight in the eye, “I HATE YOU!”

**

After the battery of tests was done, Teri and David went to a machine where the MID was going to be printed. “Ok, Butterfly, do you have a costume to protect your identity?”

She looked at her tiny body and large wings. “Does it really make a difference if people can see my face?”

He had the decency to blush. “No I guess not. Please stand right there while I take your picture.”

This caused some problems as the camera wouldn't go down far enough to take her picture and it couldn't be tilted. Finally she stood in his hand while he held her at the proper level.

“Ok, now for your codename,” he said mostly to himself. “Butterfly.”

She jumped him. Holding him by the nostrils, her feet planted firmly on his chin, she glared at him from less than an inch away. “MY NAME IS NOT BUTTERFLY! If I need a codename, lets go with Tink. It's a hell of a lot better.”

“Ok. Pleash let 'o of m'.”

She flew to his shoulder and watched carefully as he typed in her code name. Satisfied, she patted his ear and flew back to her chair to wait while the machine did its thing.

It was finally done, and David handed her the MID, which was as big as her body. “Um, where am I suppose to carry this?”

“That's your problem, not mine. But you should keep it on you at all times, and you definitely need it if you want to travel by plane.” He smiled cheerfully, “Have a great day.”

She watched as he did a jig out of the room.

Mouser came out a few minutes later, fixing her dress, and looking very happy as she fixed her makeup. “All done Butterfly?”

“Yeah. Can you keep this in your purse until I figure out some way to hold it,” she asked handing over her MID.

“Sure thing. Now lets take off, I need food and I feel like a cigarette.”

**

Jones watched the mutant and the cat girl leave. His boss was there was well watching the woman with a tired grin on his face.

“Sir, I know its' not my place, but aren't you fraternizing with the enemy?”

“She's not a mutant. It's perfectly acceptable,” he said sternly. “And once you go cat you don't go back.”

Well I was going to do a bit where Teri went to a anime convention, and met up with an H1 mob but the humour seemed a little too rough and mean spirited for the story. So to heck with it, I'm keeping to like it was originally done. Enjoy.

Disclaimer:
"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but it's fan fiction so I hope it's forgivable."

It was the middle of summer and the production crew of Little Movies, was looking over their options for their first online film, Fantasy Gamers.

“Special effects are killing us, practically all our budget is going into making the monsters that look like cardboard cutouts, or crappy monsters from the '60's,” Tim said.

“Can we get a bit more money with some more endorsements?” Sarah asked looking over the budget.

Tim shook his head. “Not a chance. We're lucky we got as much as we did.”

“What is the worst scene for us?” the Paul asked.

“The goblins are no problem. We have enough green make up for all of them. The necromancer... works, but I don't want to see what happens once we get all the energy flashing around. Unicorn, skeletons, and orcs could use some work, but I think we can manage it. The flying monkey scene is the killer, everything we've got makes Wizard of Oz look like cutting edge graphics,” Tim complained.

Sarah threw the budget down in frustration. “Can we just cut the scene?”

“No way,” Paul insisted. “As the director I say we NEED that scene to really show the heroes what they're up against. We have to have it and it has to look good.”

“Do they need to be monkeys?” Arthur asked, looking up from his laptop.

“Well no,” Paul admitted. “But they need to be monstrous and they have to fly.”

Arthur flipped the laptop around, showing photo's of a small fairy wearing a mouse skin posing with a cat woman. “Can we make them a horde of blood thirsty fairies?”

“She's real?” Sarah asked.

“Oh yeah. She's done a bunch of photo shoots since the middle of May for anime and fantasy websites, and I saw her at an anime convention two weeks ago,” Arthur explained.

“Wait, wait, wait. You want us to use a mutant?” Tim asked. “The actors union will hate us.”

Arthur shrugged. “Have we signed a contract with them? Are we planning on using them in the future? I thought this was all about forging a new way to make movies in the digital age. We are on the cutting edge and not letting anything stop us. Who cares what some stuck up bigots say? I don't. They want to blacklist us, great, lets us it. Lets tell H1 what we're doing so that they spread our films name all around the country. We'll have people clicking on our site and going to Youtube, watching our movie just to see why people are calling us the devils. You can't buy that type of publicity.”

They thought about his proposal for a minute. They knew Arthur's sister was a mutant, so it wasn't exactly an unbiased reason to use a mutant, but it made sense.

“Screw it,” Paul said, “let's do it. Can we find any other ugly mutants who can be movie monsters?”

**

Teri looked around the movie set nervously. She thought she'd been prepared for it but this seemed at least an order of magnitude greater. She wasn't getting paid nearly as much for her work either, only two hundred bucks for two days worth of work, but meals were free, and she could use it in her portfolio.

Amazingly she found she liked being in front of the camera. People stared at her, but it was for a good reason, not because she was so strange looking, or a GSD case as Glow Worm explained to her. And the compliments she got from fans outweighed the negative ones from bigots.

Mouser was with her of course, acting as her guardian and agent. But mostly the woman just wanted to see what a movie set was like, and if she could score with any handsome actors or beautiful actresses.

The director walked up, he looked young, despite his rapidly thinning brown hair. “Alright, Butterfly, I love the mouse dresses you brought, they're perfect for the scene. Now you are a bloodthirsty, evil fairy, who wants to stab the hero and his companions with your poison spear. You HATE them. You WANT them to DIE! Can you do that?”

“Yeah sure,” she said.

“Great. Now remember when you don't actually want to hit them, just make it look good, and try not to get hit by their swords. You're a regenerator right?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Great! Let's get to work!”

She looked at her fake spear made out of balsa wood and modeling clay, then the prop weapons the other actors had, which were real metal, or hard plastic. “Wings don't fail me now,” she whispered.

Flying into position, she waited for her moment. The director made sure everything was in place, once satisfied he yelled action.

She flew down her mouth open in a silent yell, her spear in front of her. Dodging past the swinging swords like they'd done in the hour of rehearsals earlier, she struck with her spear, making sure the hero had enough time to dodge. The other actors were flinching and swinging their swords as if there was a horde of fairies attacking them.

A dulled blade came within an inch of striking her face, and she veered straight up. Spinning in midair, she dived back down, trying to look as blood thirsty as possible. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the director smiling, as the love interest screamed in pain and fell to the ground clutching her arm, which broke a blood bag coating her arm in red liquid.

The second of inattention proved her undoing and a sword caught her in the side. She went flying, as the director yelled to keep going.

Landing in some bushes, she laid on her back, “I'm alright,” she gasped. “I'm alright.”

**

“That was excellent work, Butterfly!” the director said, as she took a drink from her thimble of water.

“I hope so, my ribs still hurt. And my names Teri,” she said.

The director kept talking. “So now we need some close ups of you. Like you are now, and with make up.”

Teri listened as he explained what she had to do. She wondered if she should have demanded danger pay.

**

She glared at the camera, with her blood smeared face. Her white mouse dress was covered in easily
cleaned grease and dirt, and she was holding a spear that was three times as long as she was this time.

“Action!” the director shouted.

Screaming loudly, she flew through the air, with the green screen at her back, swinging her spear and jabbing at imaginary enemies. This went on for three minutes, when a foam hammer hit her in the back sending her to a padded mat on the ground.

**

“Action!”

Her skin and hair were pitch black, they simply made her roll around in some black makeup, naked, and then had her put on her dress. She did her flying routine using a long, wicked looking plastic dagger from a toy set.

She flinched when the flat of a sword, padded on the side where the camera couldn't see it, caught her in the face.

“You flinched too soon, Butterfly! Get back in position.”

“Ow!”

**

“Action!”

With a blue hand print on her face, Teri screamed evil sounding gibberish at the camera, spinning like a top through the air with a small axe. She made sure not to look at the large hand that swatted her off screen, into the waiting pillow held by an assistant.

At least that was the plan. He hit her a little too soon, and she went flying into a table covered in drinks for the crew.

Spitting out a mix of lemonade, herbal tea, soda and water, she laid there trying to ignore the pain. It wasn't too bad actually, it only hurt when she breathed. “There has to be a better way to make a living.”

**

“Great work Butterfly. You're going to make Fantasy Gamers famous. And we'll keep you in mind for our next movie, Fantasy Gamers: The Return!” the director raved.

“Yeah. I'll definitely think about it,” Teri said from her car seat. She was clutching her little coin purse which was clipped to a little bracelet on her wrist, and held her MID, bank card and the check for two hundred dollars. She had definitely earned the cash after everything she had done. Even with regeneration she felt battered. “Let me know when the films released, I'll make sure all my friends watch it.”

With a final good bye, Mouser put the truck into gear and took off. “That was so much fun!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was interesting. I just wish they didn't ask me to die twenty times.”

“Well that didn't look like fun, but behind the scenes was definitely where the fun was,” Mouser began to purr, probably remembering the after work party.

Teri edged away from the woman a little. Laying down on the seat she went to sleep, she deserved it after the beating she'd taken.

**

“Wake up Butterfly! Time to work!” Mouser said.

“What?” Teri asked still half asleep in the car seat.

The woman gave her a toothy grin. “While you were asleep I got a call, apparently there is a huge rat problem and only I, meaning we, can take care of it. Don't worry I packed your uniform and weapons when we left.”

Bowing her head in resignation, Teri went to the back seat and unlocked the little box under the seat. Putting her coin purse and clothes on one side of the box, she put on the specially made padded suit that had a weave of metal wires on the outside, with an aluminum backpack attached to protect her wings, a tiny helmet, and short spear just a bit longer than her arm.

Jumping to the window, Mouser put Teri in her shoulder and walked towards the old decrepit house that looked perfect for a horror movie. “We're killing rats here?”

“Yep. They're paying us double for a rush job.”

“I need a raise.”

“Hey,” Mouser protested, “I'm getting you all those modeling jobs. You're lucky I'm not charging you room and board.”

“Isn't this child labour? I thought that was against the law,” Teri complained.

“Just think of it as helping pad out your resume. What other teenage girl can say she was a model, an actress, a child entertainer and an exterminator? Now big smile for the client, and remember if the rat looks healthy, try not to mangle it too much. I want to make my special goulash this week.”

“Yeah. I think I'll just order pizza and Chinese food for the next few days.”

The door was opened by an old man as they stepped onto the porch. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I wouldn't have called, except that the rats have started to nibble at my collection of antique books.”

“We're happy to help, sir. If you can show us to where you've seen them, we can get started right away, as soon as you sign these papers,” Mouser said.

A few minutes later they were in the library, which was immaculate compared to the rest of the old house. Teri saw the rat hole immediately. With a sigh she jumped down and got on with her job of flushing out the rat, while Mouser set up traps, and spread her scent around the house. When most rats got a whiff of her odour, they usually hightailed it away from large cat. Teri was mostly there to show a couple of trapped rats, or carcasses to the home owner so they thought they were getting their moneys worth.

“Here rat. Here rat, rat, rat,” she called out softly, looking around with her night vision. She really couldn't wait to enter Whateley so she'd never have to think about being an exterminator ever again.

There was scratching from up ahead. Holding her spear in front of her, she edged forward, scuffling her feet so that the thing would hear her. Rats were territorial, and while they wouldn't usually fight to the death, if she could get it posturing, she could take it out with a quick stab to the heart.

The rat came towards her. It was large, but not the largest one she'd ever seen. Then she saw its human like face and hands. “Oh boy!”

The rat thing ran towards her, she took off running, following the string she'd been unrolling as she went along.

**

Mouser was looking around the library, putting a few traps beside the gnawed books, and looking for less obvious holes. There were some really strange statues and pictures that looked ancient, and made her eyes water a bit. When she looked really closely at them, she saw strange rat like things, mushroom like insects, fish men and more, that almost seemed to be moving whenever she blinked. Her stomach rumbled, “I need to pick up some tuna fish on the way home.” An obscenely ugly, eldritch tentacled statue stroked her arm only to become motionless when she looked at it. “And calamari would be nice to. I wonder what breaded rat and calamari would taste like?”

As she admired the decor, wondering how anyone could concentrate with so many things that reminded her of food, her ears twitched. She stopped breathing and listened intently. The sound of high pitched screaming and cursing came from the wall. Frowning, Mouser decided she had to talk to her young ward about what was appropriate language while on a job.

Going to the hole, she waited claws at the ready. Butterfly came out at a dead run that would have impressed an Olympic runner, right on her tail was the ugliest rat she'd ever seen. With a smooth, easy gesture, she caught the thing, snapped its spine and was about ready to dig in for a snack, when she saw its face.

“Wow, this thing is more messed up then the frog monster I dealt with last year. Great job Butterfly. Did you hear any others while you were in there?” she asked.

“No!” the girl squeaked. “I think I need the bathroom. And a shower. And some clean armour.”

She sniffed the air. “Woof, what have you been eating, girl? Don't worry I have some wet wipes and a bottle of water in the truck.”

They walked into the living room where the old man was reading a book with a lot of weird squiggles in it. She thought it might be Greek. “Mr. Winkler, we got the problem rat. I've set up some traps around your books in case it has any partners, but I couldn't smell any more, and my partner didn't see anything except this one in the wall.”

“Y-y-you killed it?” the man said, staring at the rat with tears in his eyes.

“Yeah, you said we could. If you wanted us to capture it alive, we could have but it was a lot easier this way.”

“You were able to see it and stay sane?”

“Well my partner got a little freaked, but she wears mouse fur dresses that she makes herself and she's fast on her feet. As for me, well, if I got scared by a little rat, I'd have to hand in my whiskers.”

“No gibbering, unnatural feelings, a need to fill the void in your soul with darkness? Nothing?” he asked almost desperately.

“Well my partner voided something, which is why she's not sitting on my shoulder, but she'll be fine. And I'm feeling a need to fill the void in my stomach, those pictures of yours made me hungry. I'd have eaten already but this rat doesn't look healthy,” she admitted.

“Can we please go now? I really want to change my pants!” Butterfly shouted.

“Just a moment sir.” Mouser bent down and took the backpack off of her assistants back, so she could fly into the truck. “You know where the wet wipes are, I left the window rolled down a little for you. Now let me finish discussing things please.”

Turning back to the client, she gave him her best grin. “So, I'll just drop by in a week if the traps don't catch any rats to pick them up. If you have any further problems don't hesitate to phone, repeat customers get a discount. Do you want to keep the rat, or shall I? I'm thinking of having it mounted.”

“I'll keep him. He... he deserves it,” the man said, he started to cry softly when he took the rat from her.

“I understand completely. If you want I can give you a good recipe for rat goulash, its an old family recipe,” she offered.

The old man didn't seem to hear her, he was too busy cooing over the rat. Shrugging her shoulders, she let herself out without another word, since they'd already been paid.

“Well Butterfly,” she said once they were back on the road, “that went really well. I think you deserve a party.”

“Really!”

“Yep. I got a call while you were playing actress, we have a six year old girls birthday party tomorrow. They're paying top dollar for-” she slammed on the brakes, and jumped out before the car had stopped moving. “HEY! What did I say about flying out of a moving vehicle!”

**

Teri looked at the crowd of children who were looking at her and Mouser with awe, their hands already twitching ready to grab her and feel her hair, play with her wings and throw her in the air to see her fly.

Smoothing her ornate pink princess dress, trying her hardest to smile, she whispered in Mousers ear, “I really hate you right now.”

Mouser did a little dance, making the bells of her jester costume jingle to keep her answer from being overheard. “Just keep smiling and think of the money.”

Taking flight she headed over to the birthday girl, alighting on her shoulder and giving the astonished girl a kiss on the cheek. “Happy Birthday!”

She never saw the boy who grabbed her from behind and threw her high into the air.

**

Teri closed her suitcase, which was actually a jewelry roll that her clothes fit into almost perfectly. A small MP3 player was crammed into one of the compartments, and while it was longer then she was, it was easy enough to move. Her coin purse was attached to her wrist as usual. She'd said goodbye to Glow Worm and the LFS the day before at a little party, and now she was ready to head off to school.

It felt strange leaving the place she had called home for the last three months. Even if Mouser could be insane and infuriating, she had been a big help. The crazy woman had helped her get a fair amount of spending money for school, and making her so busy she didn't have time to worry or get sad. She wasn't sure if she should strangle the woman or hug her.

“So are you ready to go?” Mouser asked.

“Yep. I want to thank you for everything you've done. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't caught me,” Teri said, looking at her feet, fighting to hold back the tears.

“Aw! How sweet!” Mouser swept her up in a hug, “I'll miss you to! But I'll be there for Parents Day! And we don't have to say good bye yet, Butterfly.”

Teri tried to push herself up, so she could breathe. Finally she could talk without a mouthful of fur. “What? The plane leaves in five hours, we need to get going.”

“Didn't I tell you? The plane said you could only go if you traveled in a carrier like a cat because of your size. I won't let anyone treat you like that. I'm going to drive you to Boston, you can get on the train there!”

“WHAT!”

“It will only take about a day of driving to get there. And you were going to stay at a hotel in Boston overnight before getting on the train anyways, so we can get there on time. It will be easy.”

Teri grabbed Mouser by the throat.

“Silly Butterfly, you can't strangle me, your hands are way too sm-!”

**

They stopped on the outskirts of Lincoln to fill up on gas and snacks. Mouser wasn't saying much, and headed straight for the slushee machine to help ease the swelling on her throat. Teri, waited in the truck while the attendant filled it up and washed the windows.

She hopped to the dashboard, to get a better look at the worker, he seemed a little old to be doing the job. He walked right past her at first, and took the pump out. She jumped onto the open window and waved at him. “Hi Marcus. Do you remember me? I'm really sorry about what happened at the grocery store. I didn't mean to cause any problems.”

“It's, it's, it's you!” he stammered, turning white

“Yeah. I hope you're doing ok,” she said.

At that moment, Mouser came out. She saw Marcus and ran over waving the bag of snacks and drinks at him. “Marcus! I'm so happy to see you! How have you been?!”

He didn't answer, instead he screamed, wet his pants and ran away far faster than seemed possible.

“Was it something I said?” Mouser asked, watching him go.

“Is he a mutant? I don't think normal people can run that fast,” Teri asked, amazed at how easily Marcus dodged around cars, while still screaming.

**

They pulled into the Boston train station barely on time the next morning. The formerly blue pick up truck was black with burns and soot, the side mirrors were hastily taped back on, the windshield was cracked, and black smoke rose from the engine, a couple of empty parachute bags were still strapped to the roof.

“We made it alive. That has to count for something,” Mouser said, scratching a patch of burned fur.

“I thought we agreed to never talk about it,” Teri said, stripping out of her torn, oily and smoke stained clothes now that they had safely arrived.

“I said I was sorry!”

“Don't say anything. I just want to get to the train safely and give you a hug for all the help you gave me, BEFORE this road trip.” She put her damaged clothes on the seat, and slipped on a pair of tight shorts with a pretty blue dress going on top of them. “Please burn these clothes when you get the chance,” she said.

“Sure thing. Now lets get you on the train.”

“Yes, lets,” she said, combing the knots out of her hair. “And remember, only speak when spoken to, and not everyone likes your sense of humour.”

“Yes, yes. And you remember anything you can walk away from is a win.”

Teri grabbed her things and flew out the window, circling patiently while Mouser locked the truck up, which took longer then normal when the door threatened to fall off. Landing on the furry shoulder they made their way through the station, flashing her ticket and ignoring the onlookers. Mouser went all the way to the train with her. It was already boarding, but they had another minute or two.

Teri gave the cat woman a hug. “Try to make it back home safely, please. I really do want to see you on parents day.”

“Don't worry,” Mouser said, starting to sob, “I've still got five or six lives. You take care of yourself and don't let them push you around just because your small.”

“I won't.”

With a final hug she flew onto the train much to the shock and surprise of her fellow passengers.

“Hey! I'm sitting here!” Teri, who was all of six inches tall, yelled at the enormous butt descending on her.

The woman let out a scream and hurried away, yelling that a doll had come alive. Teri just looked over at the little girl who was staring at her with wide eyed wonder, and said, “Some people just don't pay any attention do they, Michelle?”

“Nnnnooo!” the three year old said, her eyes still as big as saucers staring at the little fairy.

“Now where were we?” she asked, wrapping her fuzzy, pale blue wings around her like a cloak to fight off the cold A/C of the train. “Oh yes. There I was a huge fairy eating cat to one side, and another one just a foot away ready to turn me into a quick meal. My mice warriors were scattered and fleeing for their lives. All I had were my brains, a pencil and some string.”

A voice blared over the PA, telling them that they had two minutes to exit if they wanted to get off in Berlin. A giant woman came rumbling down the aisle. “Michelle, its time to go, this is our stop.”

“But Mommy, I'm listening to a story,” the girl whined.

Before Teri knew what was happening, the girls mother had picked her up and was lifting her high into the air, muttering about not knowing where the doll had come from. “Help! Kidnapping! Help!” she yelled.

“OH MY GOD! IT'S ALIVE!” the mother screamed. She dropped Teri, grabbed her daughter and ran out of the car.

There were only a few people left in her car on the train to Dunwich, some of them pointedly ignored what was going on, others shrank back into their seat. One teenage boy wearing dark glasses, gave her a small smile. She waved at him as she flew down to sit on the windowsill to watch the city of Berlin go by as the train began to move again. She made sure to keep an eye on her luggage, which consisted of a change purse and a roll up jewelry box made for traveling.

After a few minutes, the boy picked up his courage and came over, sitting in the free seat. “Hi,” he said.

“Hello, I'm Teri.”

“Um, I'm Thad. So you're a mutant?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Nope. Totally normal baseline out for a ride.”

He opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, and then shut it again.

“Are you trying to catch flies, or impersonating a fish?” she asked, giggling.

He gave his head a shake and found his voice. “Sorry, I just wasn't expecting to see someone like you here.”

“Where should I be?” she asked.

That stumped him. “Well, um, I don't know. Just most people like you seem to try to, you know hide.”

“Been there, done that, it's boring,” she said, channeling her sometimes friend, often tormentor, and guardian Mouser. “Where are you heading off to?”

“I'm actually going to school. It's pretty exclusive.”

“Cool so am I!”

Thad looked around the car, and saw that the few people remaining were edging farther and farther away from them. “Is it Whateley?” he whispered.

“Yep. You're a mutant to?” she asked just as quietly.

He looked at her wings and small size, the confusion clear on his face. “Yeah, I am. Didn't the MCO give you trouble? They wouldn't leave me alone, I had to make sure the local heroes knew where I was all the time, and could barely leave my house. You don't even look human.”

“Nah. They were a bit of a pain, but I just yelled at them and they didn't bother me again.”

His jaw dropped.

“Nice tonsils.”

“You yelled at the MCO?” he squeaked, like his underwear was five sizes too small.

“Yeah,” she said as if it was no big deal. “The guy hit me with a tennis ball as big as I am, plastered me against a wall with a high velocity volleyball, almost got me crushed on a weight lifting machine, and then he was going to give me the code name Butterfly! He's lucky all I did was grab his nose and yell at him.”

Thad turned white, and slumped down in his seat. “C-can you destroy the world or something?”

“No. Why?”

“The MCO makes mutants disappear if we look at them the wrong way! How did you get away with that?”

She briefly thought about letting him know her guardian was sleeping with the head MCO officer of the Omaha, Nebraska branch, but decided that being seen as a six inch tall badass would probably be better. “Well not everyone has my charm.”

“So... what can you do?”

“Fly, PK field, night vision, regeneration. You?”

He looked at his feet, and mumbled, “I'm a manifestor, I can make any natural liquid.”

“Cool! I'm a little thirsty and ran out of water, could you give me a drink?” she asked holding up a small, half pint plastic bottle.

“You really don't want me to. It's not really pleasant looking,” he told her.

“Oh come on,” she insisted. “I sneezed myself out of my own chest cavity, worked as a rat exterminator over the summer and did childrens parties as a fairy princess, believe me nothing can shock me anymore.”

“Ok, but I warned you,” Thad said. He closed his eyes, and ten seconds later his cheek developed a tiny white headed pimple. It grew, bulging outwards until it was the size of a pencil eraser, the skin was stretched so tightly it was see through, revealing what looked like water inside of it.

The smile slowly dropped from her face, she blinked several times in surprise, then she was flying as quickly as possible to the bathroom, covering her mouth to stop herself from puking. The door handle proved difficult, she had to grab it in both hands, bracing her feet against the door to lever it up and flap her wings pretty hard to get it open.

Not bothering to lock it she flew to the sink and let rip. Once her stomach was no longer trying to exit through her mouth she took a moment to compose herself, and wipe her mouth off. Primly she flew back to her seat, made sure her luggage was still there, sat on the windowsill, and smiled at Thad who was busy wiping water off his face with a well used handkerchief. She noticed his water bottle, which had been almost empty, was full.

“That is a really interesting power,” she said as if nothing had happened. “Where are you from?”

“Wyoming. This is actually the furthest I've ever traveled,” he said, focusing on playing with a strap on his book bag.

“This is the furthest I've ever gone to. But we're almost there, so buck up.”

They began talking about classes, cottages and what they expected to see at their new school, which made the time fly by.

**

The train stopped at Dunwich, grabbing her bags, Teri flew onto Thad's shoulder and held onto his ear, while he grabbed his duffel bag and headed for the door. “So how are you getting to school?” she asked.

“A shuttle bus will pick us up here. Didn't you read about it in the introductory packet?”

“Introductory packet?”

He pulled out a thick book, that must have weighed ten times as much as she did. “Everyone is suppose to get this by special delivery.”

“All Mouser gave me was the acceptance letter, the address and the day I was suppose to be here. I was just going to call a taxi.”

He gave her a look.

“What?”

“You just hopped on a train with no idea what was going to happen once you got here?”

“Yeah.” He kept giving her the look. “Hey I ruled my own kingdom for two weeks. I think I can handle a little trip like this.”

“Y-your own kingdom?”

“Yeah,” she said, daring him to object.

“Ok, ok, how about you come with me to the shuttle and we'll go to the school with everyone else?” he asked.

“Sure,” she agreed, happily. “I need to save my money anyways, I'm not sure when another movie role will come up.”

“You were in a movie?”

“Oh yeah, its a great fantasy adventure. I played a really important role.” She started telling him all about the movie while he walked to the waiting room.

Even for a roomful of mutants, some of whom had horns, thorns, vines, scales and fur, she got attention. She ignored them all easily, having spent the last four months with a cat woman who was loud, crazy and all too often sex crazed. And then there had been the Anime convention she'd gone to in early August to do some modeling with Mouser. A room with a little over a dozen teens was next to nothing for her.

“Oh, good a phone. I'll be right back Thad,” she flew over to the phone and grabbed a hold of it one handed. Her PK field which normally just affected her hands, wrapped itself over the receiver making it seem almost weightless, and holding it steady for her. Dialing Mousers cell she waited impatiently for her guardian to pick it up.

"Hello, Mouser Extermination Agency and Child Entertainer, I'll remove your pest and entertain your kids, how can I help you?" a chirpy voice shouted into the phone trying to be heard over a loud grinding sound.

“Mouser, it's me Teri,” she shouted back. “Did you get an introductory package or something from my school a few days after the acceptance letter.”

“Oh, give me a moment to think Butterfly. Right, right, right. I did get that, I was going to give it to you before you left, so you'd have something to read on the way there,” Mouser said.

“Why didn't you?!”

“Well instead of taking the plane, we had our road trip, so I was going to give it to you when you started to get bored. But then we hit the walking scarecrow, and then the Burgermeister got angry with us, and-”

Teri hung up before she started getting flashbacks of the road trip from hell, and banged her head a few times against the phone. Flying back to Thad, she landed on his shoulder and sat down to sulk.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

“My introductory packet is probably circling overhead in low earth orbit right now. Can I borrow yours?”

Thad blinked several times, stuck a finger in his ear to clean it out, and gave his head a good shake. “Did you say it's in low earth orbit?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean it's in space.”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Don't want to talk about it.”

“But why is it in space? HOW did it get into space?”

She grabbed his nostrils, her blue eyes glowed brightly. “If I was old enough to drink, I'd be at the bottom of a bottle of vodka trying to forget the last twenty four hours. If you want to keep your nose intact, give me your introductory packet.”

Not daring to look away from the very scary fairy, Thad reached into his bag and pulled out the introductory packet for her.

“Good boy,” she said, patting his nose. Taking the packet she flew up to a convenient ledge and began reading.

**

Teri skimmed through the introductory packet, with a bit of a sinking sensation in her stomach. Near the front of the book, under GSD, it asked students with severe GSD to contact the school for alternate means of getting there.

She looked at her tiny body, her boneless, fuzzy wings, and her abnormally muscular yet shapely breasts, and decided that she probably did qualify as being a GSD case. Probably a severe one. Shrugging she pushed the thought aside, it was probably nothing, she had made it there relatively intact after all.

Flipping through the rules and regulations, she got a good idea of what was and was not acceptable, as well as the fact that she had to wear a school uniform. Playing with her long purple hair, she wondered where she would find a uniform in her size, and if they would let her wear shorts underneath. Another thing she didn't like was the flags, not being allowed out on certain days, it sounded like a prison. Pulling out a piece of mechanical pencil lead wrapped up in a bit of cloth to keep her hands clean, she began doodling a song bird costume with holes in its back for wings.

She heard a lot of people moving around down below. Putting the book off to the side, she saw that there were at least twenty or thirty students now, and they were grabbing their bags. A well dressed Asian woman was raising her hands to bring some order to everything.

Flying down to land on Thad's shoulder, she gave him back his packet with a big thank you, then shut up to hear what was being said.

“Everyone please wait your turn, once your name is called please get onto the bus in an orderly fashion. If you name is not called out come and speak with me after everyone else is on board,” the woman said.

Thad was one of the first ones called, forcing her to sit on the back of a chair while she waited. With nothing better to do, since her name probably wasn't on the list, she looked at the students getting on board. There was a girl wearing a big hoodie with a face like a frog, a blind girl with a kitten on her shoulder, a guy who looked like Arnold, she wondered how he was young enough to go to high school, and more.

When the last student was getting on the bus, her name still hadn't been called. The woman looked around, and didn't see her. So grabbing her things Teri flew over to her. “Excuse me! You missed me.”

“I'm sorry, you are?”

“Teri Mouser,” she said using the name she'd put on the form.

“You're guardian said that you would be coming by alternate means.”

Teri sighed. “I'm sorry, there were several problems, including a lost introductory packet, so here I am!”

“I see,” the woman said, looking around nervously. “Come on lets get on the bus quickly and we'll get everything sorted out.”

Flying on board, she saw that almost every seat was taken. With no better choice, she flew to the back of the bus and sat on the last seat available, which had a pink backpack covering most of it. There was still plenty of space, so she just sat down and smiled at the pretty girl beside her.

“What the hell are you?” asked the girl, pushing whitish blue hair out of her ocean blue eyes.

“Wonderful. Magnificent. Awesomely beautiful,” she said. “And you are?”

“Serena.”

“OH! Like Sailor Moon! Do you have moon beam powers?” Teri asked, jumping onto the girls arm.

“NO! I'm a water avatar. Now get... get off me,” Serena said, trying to shake her off.

She slid off and sat down with a pout. “Shoot. That would be so cool if you had a moon avatar.” Teri started smiling again. “It's pretty neat how they call the dorms cottages, I'm in Whitman, what cottage are you in?”

“Obviously your a Whitman girl. I'm in Dickinson,” the girl said primly.

Smiling even more broadly, “It's awesome that we'll have roommates. I never had a roommate before, except for my guardian Mouser, she's half cat. I'd be worried if I were you. Your roommate will probably want to borrow your clothes all the time, and your hairbrush, and maybe even your toothbrush,” she shuddered. “Now me I don't have to worry about any of that. Most people would have trouble even finding my toothbrush, much less using it.”

“Could you please shut up?” Serena asked. “I'm getting a headache.”

“What classes do you want to take. I just saw in the introductory packet that they have flying class. I'm a really good flyer already, I had to do a lot of it for my acting career, but I'm going to take it anyways, practice makes perfect after all. Can you fly? I know water doesn't fly normally, but maybe you could be jet propelled if you tried.”

“What?”

“I'm trying to decide if I want to take survival or martial arts. I'm already good at surviving, I've done it for fifteen years already without failing once, so that would be an easy class. But martial arts sounds really useful. I could win a fight without having to drop a shelf on someones head or grabbing their noses and flying really high into the sky and dropping them.”

“Please shut up.”

“Hey do you think they have any boys my size? I had a boyfriend when I was big like you, but now that I'm all svelte and nicely packaged, most guys are just a little too big for me. Do you know any cute guys with a little friend? I'd owe you if you can help me get a boyfriend. I really can't handle a big guy, I don't think there's enough yoga in the world for me to do the really fun stuff.”

Teri kept up the non-stop chatter for the entire bus ride, as Serena gave the impression that her brain was leaking out through her ears. When they finally came to a stop at Whateley, Teri's new best friend ran down the aisle, knocking down anyone who got in her way.

“Bye Serena, I'll find you tonight for supper, OK?” Teri shouted after her. “I really liked her,” she said to herself.

She waited until the bus was almost empty and flew out over the heads of the last few students. Two men wearing uniforms with the words security written on them were standing beside the bus. The Asian woman, Teri hadn't caught the name of, was also there, looking for her apparently.

“Ms. Mouser, would you please go with security, there are some things they'd like to know about your trip to Boston,” the woman said.

“Do I have to?” she whined. “I'd really like to forget everything about it. And if this is about losing the intro packet, I'm really sorry, but its probably burning up in the atmosphere right now.”

That got a strange look from everyone. Fortunately the woman seemed to take it in stride. “Don't worry you're not in trouble, but there are some things that need to be discussed.”

Sigh. “Lead the way.”

**

“IT WAS ALL MOUSER'S FAULT! If she hadn't made that joke about the fish we could have walked away with no problems!” Teri shouted, after finishing her story.

The chief of security, who had introduced himself as Delarose, rubbed his head clearly confused and suffering a headache. A picture from a spy satellite showing a jet propelled pickup truck, with several parachutes strapped to the top, flying out of a burning flying saucer, was on his computer screen.

“Ms. Mouser, do you or your guardian understand that it is not safe to be a mutant? And these displays are dangerous for not only you, but this school and its students?” he asked.

“I didn't want to do it. I told her to keep driving. But do you know how hard it is to get her to do something, anything, sensible?”

“Uh huh. And how do you explain this?” he asked.

A security video started playing, showing Teri wearing a mouse dress, riding a cat, chasing a teenager through a grocery store.

“Well, um... I was trying to sleep and he was making too much noise,” she said, biting her lip and playing with her wings. “I was in a really weird place at the time!”

“Right. And this?” Another picture came up, of her and Mouser at the back of an H1 rally flashing peace signs as an H burned in the background.

“Mouser said it would be fun, and look cool on her Myspace page.”

He rolled his eyes, seemingly unconvinced by her well thought out and articulate answer. “I was informed you don't have an introductory packet, your house mother has a copy for you when you get to your cottage. I want you to read it very closely, especially the rules and regulations while off campus and on red flag days. We won't hold you responsible for actions that are largely the fault of your guardian and done before you arrived on campus, but if you do make a spectacle of yourself or this school to people who are not in the know, you will be punished appropriately. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. As long as you follow the rules, you'll have a good time at Whateley and you won't see me very much.” He stood up and showed her the door. “We have a guide from your cottage waiting outside to show you around the campus. Sorry you missed the regular tour but this was deemed important enough that we needed to clear it up quickly.”

“No problem. It makes me feel special having my own personal tour guide.”

Outside a pretty deer like girl was waiting, wearing a brown dress that matched her soft looking fur. “Hi, Butterfly is it? I'm Psydoe.”

“Actually it's Te-”

There was shouting from the lobby, someone was shouting about a brawl and that they needed Doyles ASAP for an eye injury. They both jumped to the side as security guards charged out from their offices, strapping on guns that were larger than Teri.

“Wow! Does that happen often here?” she asked.

“Only a few times a month usually. Have you eaten lunch yet? We can get your ID and a meal in Crystal Hall the first stop,” Psydoe said, as they walked outside, her hooves tapping gently on the tiled floor.

“Food is good. I need a lot with all the flying I do.”

**

After being shown around campus and seeing a wide variety of students who made an anime convention look normal, Teri was finally able to see her cottage. The house mother Ms. Savage was waiting for her with an introduction packet in her hands.

“Hello Butterfly,” the woman said.

Teri slapped her face, would she ever leave that nickname behind. “It's Teri, or Tink. Not Butterfly,” she said.

“Oh I'm sorry, your file said you liked that name. Teri, we have a special room set up for you and your roommate. If you'll come with me, I'll introduce you to your roommate and show you the special additions to help you out,” Ms. Savage said.

Teri thanked Psydoe and followed the house mother up to the second floor. At the end of the hall was her room. The door looked different from the rest, as there was a tiny shelf with a door just her size at about chest level for a regular person.

“We thought this would make things easier for you. We understand you can open regular doors, so this is the only one that's been modified, I hope that won't be a problem.”

“It's great.”

Stepping inside, it looked like a dorm room from TV, two beds, desks, nightstands, wardrobes and dressers. Her roommate was already all set up if the messy bed was any indication.

“We've given you some small furniture that is more appropriate for your size on top of your dresser and desk. I'm not sure what they will do about your laptop, but we have left enough space for you to use the full size model if you need to.”

Teri flew to the dresser where a chair, desk, wardrobe and dresser sat on the top all made in her size. The desk had a similar arrangement. Both had small LED lights that while not exactly desk lamps to her, were much more manageable than a full size light.

“Thanks! This is great. Have you had other tiny people at the school?” she asked.

“None of them as small as you. But we try to make things easier for our students, within reason,” Ms. Savage told her. “You can add pictures, furniture that is your size, and other things that won't damage the room. You are expected to keep this room tidy, and your clothes can be washed in the basement laundry room. Your clothes can be washed by machine can't they?”

“Most of them. A few I need to get dry cleaned.”

“If I may, where did you get such nice clothes in your size?”

“Anime dolls from Japan and people who make custom doll clothes using all normal materials. They're expensive, but my modeling jobs help pay for them, and when I model clothes for companies and websites they usually let me keep the clothes,” she explained.

“You're a model?”

She nodded. “You wouldn't believe how popular a fairy girl can be online. Mouser got me really good contracts so I get a small flat fee, clothes and if its a website, a share of the advertising profits. And I played a horde of evil fairies in a movie, that should come out in January online.”

“Have you thought about joining Venus Inc?”

“What's that?”

“It's the schools modeling club. They help you find agents, control your image, and get contracts. Several students have gone onto careers in modeling with their help,” Ms. Savage said enthusiastically.

“I'll check it out. But I'm not sure if I'll have enough time, with school work, finding a job for my scholarship, and friends, how much time do I really have?”

Ms. Savage smiled more broadly. “If you are a member of Venus Inc, that actually counts as your after school job. You do have to work at it, and the hours can occasionally be bad, but if you keep it reasonable and under control there shouldn't be any problems.”

“Cool!”

They chatted a bit more, Ms. Savage explained the house rules, and gave a short tour of the cottage, and then there was nothing to do but relax for the few hours before supper was served in Crystal Hall. From the delicious if small late lunch she'd had with Psydoe there, Teri couldn't wait for supper.

She read through the introduction package for over an hour when she remembered she had to make a phone call.

Taking a quick trip to the row of phones downstairs, she made a quick call to Glow Worm back in Lincoln Nebraska, letting him and the rest of the Lincoln Freedom Squad she'd made it alright, as well as her cottage and room number so they could ship a present she'd bought for herself to her. With her limited space for carrying things she hadn't wanted to risk breaking such an expensive toy that would be very helpful for taking notes.

Flying back to her room, the door was open. Smiling she put on a burst of speed to meet her roommate.

“Aw dammit!” she and Serena shouted at the same time.

“You're my roommate?!” they said in stereo.

“I thought you were in Dickinson?”

“There was a mistake,” she said in a resigned voice. “I got told I was suppose to be here after doing the whole tour with Dickinson. Then I got here and I was told this was the last room available.”

She flew to the girls shoulder and patted her on the back. “Ouch, that sucks. Well at least I won't be able to borrow most of your stuff. And I did say I'd find you for supper. Want to join me?”

“I guess so. Just don't talk about anime, or boyfriends, or that weird mole on your back, I heard enough of that on the bus.”

“Sure thing.”

They headed out the door and were at the stairs when a cat girl with big ears, and golden brown fur came walking up the stairs talking with a girl who's skin looked like outer space, right down to stars and galaxies.

“Kitty!” Teri screamed, body checking the girl and rubbing her face in the soft fur.

“Did someone lose a familiar?” the cat asked, trying to crane her head back far enough to see the thing hanging from her neck.

“Oh your fur feels even softer then Mousers'. I'm Teri, a freshman here. What's your name?” she asked, not letting go of the girl.

Cat girl picked Teri off by the back of her shirt, holding her up like a strange new animal. “Miyet. My roommate and I need to go see our dorm now Teri. It was... interesting meeting you.” Putting Teri down on the banister, Miyet practically ran up the stairs.

“I like her,” Teri said to Serena, who was hiding her head in her hands.

**

They reached Crystal Hall which was full of people half of whom were staring around in wonder, and the rest talking with old and new friends. Getting in line, they had a wide selection of fast and easy comfort foods, hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, pizza, and sub sandwiches. Teri got quite a few looks when she took a burger as big as she was, along with a small pile of sweet potato fries. Serena got the same, in almost the exact same proportions.

“Do you see a free table?” Serena asked.

Teri flew up and saw Thad sitting off in a corner with another boy. “Follow me!” she shouted down to her roommate.

They made their way through the crowd, Teri having a much easier time of it than Serena. Finally they reached the Thad's table, he was sitting with a boy who's hair was made of leaves and his skin looked like smooth white birch bark. “Hi Thad! Can we sit with you guys?” she asked.

“Um, uh, yeah, sure,” he answered, looking at her nervously.

“Thanks. This is my roommate Serena. Serena, this is Thad.” Placing her tray on the table, she slipped off her shoes and sat on the edge of the tray, nibbling on a fry almost as long as she was.

“Hi Serena,” Thad said a lot more comfortably. “This is my roommate, Sap.”

Sap nodded at Serena, blushing and seemingly unable to speak.

“What can you do, Serena?” Thad asked.

“I'm a water avatar. I have really great reflexes, and I can move my body around like I have water for bones, and breath water. I'm also a great swimmer,” she said proudly. “What about you two?”

“Cool. I can make any type of natural liquid.”

“We DON'T need to see it done!” Teri exclaimed, earning a confused look from Serena.

Sap finally found his tongue. “I can control plants. Speeding them up, slowing them down, make sure they're healthy or kill them, nothing too impressive.” He took a seed from his pocket, and in a few seconds he had a rose in full bloom.

“That's interesting,” Serena said, not taking the flower. “Teri you never told me your powers.”

“PK field, regeneration, flying, and night vision,” she said, grabbing another fry.

They talked about their impressions of the school, favourable; classes, cool; and rooms, neat.

As they were leaving, Teri took to the air and a young girl in a floor length cape over top of normal street clothes looked up in surprise. “Ok, who let the hobgoblin in here?” she asked.

Teri looked around to see what the girl was talking about, when something zapped her, sending her tumbling to the floor. She laid there for a moment trying to remember what breathing was. Some people were yelling angrily. Getting to her feet, she jumped into the air and got between Serena and the witch.

“What the hell was that about?!” she yelled.

“You're... you're not a hobgoblin?” the girl asked dumbly.

“Do I look like a hobgoblin!”

The girl nodded, her eyes going from Teri's eyes to her chest and back again, repeatedly.

Looking down, Teri saw that the front of her dress was gone. And since she couldn't find a bra that worked with her wings to save her life, her stacked chest was there for everyone to see. With a little eep of embarrassment, she grabbed witchy's shirt yanked it off and wrapped herself in it, leaving the girl standing there in a lacy pink bra, her cape, and a black skirt.

Witch girl jumped her, trying to get her shirt back, and the fight was on.

Serena got in the way of one of witch girls friends who was moving in to help, flattening and stretching her limbs to wrap the girl up. Thad rubbed his hands together coating the floor in something slippery, that sent the girls three other friends tumbling to the ground.

And Sap threw the remains of his pizza at witchy, missing her completely and hitting another table.

The resulting food fight was one of the largest first day food fights on record.

**

Teri sat in front of Chief Delarose for the second time that day. This time she was wearing pizza stained skin tight shorts, and a wash cloth with a hole cut in it for a makeshift dress. Her hair was a mess of food and grease.

“What did I tell you about following the rules?” Delarose asked.

“She shot me! And destroyed my dress! That was literally one of a kind.”

His look let her know what he thought of that excuse. “And you couldn't go to security with a complaint, you had to rip her shirt off?”

“I was there practically naked, I panicked. Come on, she at least had a bra on, I can't even wear one with these wings of mine.”

“Uh huh. And why did you leave Lamia hanging by her bra from the light fixture with one stocking in her mouth and the other tying her hands together?”

“It seemed like the best way to end the fight. She kept casting spells and stuff, and tackling me. It was better than trying to knock her out, that's dangerous with my strength,” she said innocently.

“Detention for a week at Hawthorne,” he said. “It would be longer, but you were provoked.”

“What will I be doing there?” she asked.

“Whatever Mrs. Cantrell, the house mother decides. I hope you like scrubbing.”

“With this hair,” she pointed at her hair which hung down to her waist, “not really.”

**

She took a long bath once she got back to Whitman, filling a basin she'd bought during the tour, with hot water and bubbles, and placing it in an out of the way corner of the shower area, since having a shower was right out. Some of the girls seemed jealous as she relaxed in what to her was a massive tub.

Cleaned up and ready to hit the hay, she jumped onto her pillow and pulled a silk scarf over herself for a blanket. She looked over at Serena was sitting on her bed writing in her diary.

“Thanks for helping out Serena. Sorry about annoying you on the bus.”

“No problem, I wasn't exactly polite. Just please don't get into another fight, my parents are mad enough at how much they're paying me to be here. If I get detention or worse I'll never hear the end of it,” she groaned.

“I'll try my best, but no promises.”

Disclaimer:
"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but it's fan fiction so I hope it's forgivable."

Also, when I first posted this chapter on Crystal Hall, I was asked why it was a Red Flag day with all the students arriving. In canon when Tennyo arrived, she mentioned how it was a red flag during orientation, so I'm going with it. It also makes some jokes possible.

Ms. Hastings came to her office promptly at 8:55am, passing Teri with a polite good morning. At 9am, she opened her door again and came out to greet Teri personally.

“Good morning, Ms. Mouser, or would you rather I call you Butterfly?” she asked, with a smile that would have men and a fair number of woman falling all over themselves.

Teri didn't notice the smile, she was too busy slamming her head against the padded arm of the chair. “How did she do it?!” she finally half screamed.

“Who and what?” the beautiful student counselor asked, utterly confused.

“Mouser! How did she somehow get that stupid nickname she gave me, into the freaking student records?”

“Oh dear,” Ms. Hastings said, turning as red as her hair. “It said on your application that you wanted to be called Butterfly, but there were problems with the MID, so you're in the process of trying to change it. Mouser is your guardian, right?”

“I'm going to kill her!” Teri said, stomping the chair as hard as she could.

The counselor took a moment to regain her composure by straightening her red blazer and skirt. “Would you like a few minutes in private to calm down?” she asked.

Taking a deep breath, Teri shook her head. “No thanks. I should have known she'd do something like that. By the end of the week, there will probably be a giant cake delivered to my cottage covered in butterflies asking everyone to call me that.”

“She'd actually do that?”

“Oh yeah. Ever since she caught me in the grocery store, she only calls me Butterfly and got EVERYONE calling me that. I think it's her idea of a joke, or she just can't get the idea that I'm a pretty butterfly out of her stupid cat brain,” she fumed.

Obviously deciding discretion was called for, Ms. Hastings motioned to her office. “Shall we go in and get your classes organized?”

Once again taking a deep calming breath, Teri flew through the door. “Ok, that's a good idea. Mustn't think about cats being run over, eaten by dogs or being declawed. And you can call me Teri.”

They both sat down, Teri sitting on the desk, and looked at the monitor which was placed so it could easily be read by a student and Ms. Hastings. It was currently showing her academic records, with a lot of question marks beside them.

“We have a problem with your transcripts, which is why I asked you to come in first thing,” Ms. Hastings said.

“What's the problem? They're right there,” Teri said, it being her turn to be confused.

“Well, the problem is, you were declared legally dead. Whateley has dealt with situations such as this before, when parents don't want to admit they have a mutant child, but in your case they actually have the body. That is a new twist on things.”

Teri nodded, she'd watched her own funeral from a safe distance away. “So you don't know if I'm me.”

“Correct. Which is why you were able to fill out the forms with the surname of your unofficial guardian. This isn't an insurmountable problem, but it requires a morning of hard work on your part.” Ms. Hastings pulled out a stack of papers. “I have some placement tests for you to take, and depending on how well you do, will determine your classes.”

“HURRAY! Let the torture begin!” Teri said gleefully. Reaching into her change purse, that was like a suitcase for her, which held her student card, MID, spare cash, and a few little supplies she might need, including a change of clothes after the previous days wardrobe malfunction, she took out a piece of lead wrapped in cloth, and a cut off pencil eraser.

“I see you came prepared,” the counselor said approvingly.

“I need to carry this big thing around everywhere just for my ID, might as well put a few more things into it. I have the room and it's not like it weights a lot.”

The woman didn't quite seem to know what to say to that, since the change purse would have fit easily into her hand. She led Teri to a small side room where she could do her tests in private, and let her get to work.

Taking off her shoes, Teri stepped onto the first paper, English. That went fairly well, some of the questions left her grasping at straws though, like, ‘Name three of the Canterbury Tales and describe the essence of each tale in one sentence.’ She had thought the Canterbury Tales were just one long story. The essays were another problem. With her writing, a half page essay would take all day. After a quick discussion she and Ms. Hastings agreed to make it three good size paragraphs.

When that was done, Ms. Hastings handed her the history test, and pulled out a pen to start marking the English. Then the counselor really looked at the papers, and blanched, the writing was so small it was unreadable to her eyes. Excusing herself, the woman went off to look for a magnifying glass, or possibly a microscope.

The history part was no problem. She'd never been at the top of the class, but she did ok. Math was a toss up. The first part was easy, the trig and calculus wasn't impossible, but she did a lot of erasing and crossing out. The last two pages were impossible, and she just handed it over with an apology.

Then it was time for languages. Teri had taken a single term of Spanish, which she hadn't finished but was listed on her transcripts, and was learning Japanese thanks to all her anime watching which wasn't recorded. She struggled through Spanish verbs, tenses and grammar, actually starting to sweat and was ready to collapse when it was done.

Science was last. Like the math, the first part was relatively easy, although physics was well beyond her, she did ok with the biology and chemistry. Taking one look at the advanced science, left her head spinning.

Finally everything was done and it was well into lunch. Despite suffering eyestrain from reading with a magnifying glass, Ms. Hastings was able to finish marking everything within fifteen minutes of Teri. “Well Teri, you've forgotten several things during your time away from school,” the woman chided, “but you're doing fairly well in every subject, and should catch up quickly. Your transcripts say you nearly finished your freshman year, but because you will be learning about your powers, and the higher standards Whateley has compared to most other schools, you have been registered as a freshman and will take several freshman classes.”

“Hurray!”

“Your enthusiasm fills me with glee,” Ms. Hastings deadpanned. “We'll have you in Calculus I, English II, Spanish I, Powers Theory 1, Flying I, and I think Survival I would be best for you.”

She frowned. “Do I have to take Spanish? I started learning Japanese over the summer, and I think its a lot better.”

Ms. Hastings raised her eyebrow in question.

“I've been doing a lot of modeling for anime websites, and I've picked up some of the writing. And Mouser started teaching me, she said short videos showing me speaking Japanese while in costume would double the amount of money I could make.”

“Well, you're in luck. There has been a growing number of students asking for Japanese language class, so it is available. You'll be with students ranging from freshmen to seniors, but don't feel intimidated, most of them are beginners. Are the rest of the classes agreeable?”

“I'd like to take Martial Arts instead of Survival. I can't hide myself, and I can just fly away if someone comes after me, I want to learn how to fight!” She mimed a couple of punches.

That brought a look of disbelief from Ms. Hastings. “Are you sure?”

“Definitely!”

Ms. Hastings tapped her pen against her chin. “I'll have to ask Sensei Ito, he's in charge of the class, and I'm not sure if your size will allow it, but if he agrees you can try it out.”

“Great,” she said, thinking of how much fun it would be to throw some people around. “Is there anything else?”

“Well, your flying class is only twice a week, Saturday at 10am, and Wednesday at sixth period. Your Powers Theory has a lab, but that is only twice a week, so we need one or two more full time classes. Because of your size I'm not sure what would be best.” The counselor frowned for the first time that morning. “Normally I'd recommend home economics, but I don't know how you could work around hot ovens and stoves. Costume Class could be useful, however you are very noticeable, so there isn't much clothing can do for you, and I believe armour will be problem.”

Teri pulled out a small sheet of paper listing some of the classes she was interested in, and thought she could handle. Learning to shoot would be cool, but out of the question. “I want business accounting. I need to start keeping track of my money from modeling. And I do want Costume Class.”

“Very well. I guess the Costume Class will help if you want to get into a career in fashion.”

“Yeah, and I have to custom order my clothes. Knowing all the terms and things will help.” She read over her list again. “You're to help me get a student job right?”

“Yes, Teri. What are you interested in?”

“I was told Venus Inc, is a club and a job. I want to do that.”

The woman suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Yes, I suppose that would interest you. I'm not sure how easily you could join however. I don't recall them ever letting in a member with GSD as severe as yours.”

“What! I have ten thousand Facebook fans for my modeling stuff, and I've starred in a movie. They're just scared of the competition if they don't let me in!” she said, slamming her fist into her hand.

“Please calm down,” Ms. Hastings said, motioning for her to sit down. “I said it wouldn't be easy, not that it was impossible. With your portfolio, they'll definitely have to consider you.”

“Humph, you've got that right.” Her stomach growled loudly. “Thank you for everything, Ms. Hastings, but I think its time for lunch.”

The counselor rubbed her own stomach. “Past time, in fact. I'll send you your class schedule as soon as I hear back from Martial Arts, and I'll contact Venus with your request this afternoon. Have a nice day, Teri. And please remember its a red flag day, you have to use the tunnels.”

She stiffened at hearing that. It was a beautiful day outside, there was no way she was going to stay inside some dusty old tunnels. Instead of heading downstairs Teri headed for the roof.

**

Ms. Carson was talking to a group of government officials who had never been to Whateley before and needed a tour to learn what was what, at least a portion of it. She smiled politely at the officials, and smiled nicely at the new students who were out enjoying the fresh air, or moving their luggage to their cottages, sometimes alone, sometimes with other students, and a few times with parents looking around nervously.

As she was explaining, vaguely, about the security measures they had in place, one of the officials stopped dead, and pointed at a tree. “What on earth is that?”

Ms. Carson looked at the tree, and saw what looked like a fairy, covered in pigeon feathers. Slightly bloody pigeon feathers.

“Tweet! Tweet!” the pigeon fairy said, looking around nervously.

Pulling out her phone, she pretended to dial a number, while glaring at the girl. Projecting her voice just so, she said, “Ms. Mouser, your pet bird has escaped. Please collect it IMMEDIATELY and go to administration AT ONCE. I will talk to you shortly.”

The pigeon fairy, turned white. “Tweet, tweet!” it said, and flew away so fast it lost several feathers.

**

Teri sat in the chair, for once refusing the desk, hoping she would be lost in the dark leather. There were still a few feathers stuck in her clothes and hair, but she'd gotten rid of most of them, and had her wings folded protectively over her body.

“Sit on the desk where you can see me, Ms. Mouser,” the Headmistress said.

She jumped up, and then looked at her feet, rubbing her legs together to get rid of some grey down.

“What were you thinking? Where you even thinking?” Headmistress Carson asked.

“I needed the sun. I'm solar powered and was running out of energy!”

That received the withering glare it deserved. “According to security reports, you've already talked to Chief Delarose twice, once for your actions on the way to Whateley, and then for fighting. If you are attempting to set a new record for number of times you can go to security, you're definitely a runner up. Are you proud of yourself?”

She bit her tongue before she said something stupid, and simply shook her head.

What followed was an epic tongue lashing, explaining what could happen to someone like her if she upset the wrong people, how it could affect the school destroying the secrecy which helped keep it and the students safe, and examples of what happened to mutants who weren't careful in extremely gory details. When Teri finally left a half hour later, she was weak kneed, woozy, ready to throw up, and had an extra two weeks of detention at Hawthorne.

Flying back to Whitman, through the tunnels, she decided that Costume Class was the most important class of the term. She needed a better bird costume.

**

That evening after having supper with Serena, Thad and Sap, Teri headed to Hawthorne to begin her first evening of detention. It was still a red flag day, so she had to go through the tunnels, and she got lost twice. But she made it to the Hawthorne stairway with a few minutes to spare. Flying up to the common room, a large jet black skinned person who looked like he could take a hit from a truck and laugh looked up from a table where several people were playing cards.

“Hi, are you a new Thornie?” he asked, in a voice that could possibly be friendly.

“No, I'm here for detention,” Teri replied, refusing to be intimidated.

“Detention!” a guy in the middle of a strange machine that looked like a baby's walker said in amazement. “It hasn't even been two days, what the heck did you do?!”

“Nothing much,” she said, fluttering in the air.

There was a laugh from behind her. “This student is the one who helped start the food fight yesterday after someone mistook her for a hobgoblin. And a few hours ago was caught by Headmistress Carson herself, pretending to be a bird while it was a red flag day.”

That announcement had a bunch of kids give her a cheer. Not sure what to make of it all, Teri turned to see a large black woman in some kind of hover chair. “Hi, I guess you're Mrs. Cantrell?”

“Yes I am, it's nice to see someone being prompt for their detention, and properly dressed,” the house mother said, taking in the nomex coveralls that Teri was wearing.

Teri just shrugged, the coveralls had been part of a modelling shoot showing off some clothes a woman could make for dolls, based off of an engineer from a sci-fi anime. It seemed as good a time to wear them as any. “So what do you need me to do?”

“What can she do? She's two inches tall!” a girl said behind her back.

“Hey, I'm six inches tall!”

“Tink,” Ms. Cantrel said, using her code name, “can you hand a mop?”

She nodded. “I've mopped kitchen floors before.”

“Good, you can mop the floors to start with, with everyone moving around the last few days, they need a good scrubbing. Mal, can you show Tink where the supplies are?”

A boy who looked like he was maybe twelve years old, with shiny, pale green skin and old clothes that were thread bare and well worn came over, he smelled faintly of rot. “Come on,” he said enthusiastically.

They were walking down a hall, when a girl with short black hair done up almost like spikes, a heart shaped face, and a body to kill for stepped out of a room, taking off a pair of rubber boots and gloves. She had a sad smile on her face.

Mal stopped dead in his tracks. “Watch out for that girl,” he said.

The girl in question looked at Mal. “Do I know you?”

“No, but I know you. You're a Goodkind, why the hell are you even here?”

Giving a resigned sigh, her hand resting on her belt, she answered, “I'm visiting my cousin and some friends. Now, if you'll step aside, I want to talk to Fire Forge.”

“My friends told me you're a freak, half boy and half girl. That just matches the sick fucks that make up your family,” Mal snarled.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Teri said, flying between the two before blood started to fly. “I'm new here, so who is she and why is she so bad?”

“That's Ayla Goodkind-” Mal started.

“THE Ayla Goodkind?! You're serious! Absolutely serious, that it's her!” she shouted grabbing Mal by the collar which disintegrated in her hands.

“Yeah-”

“Oh MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” She spun around and grabbed the girl shoulder. “Did you know you're Ayla Goodkind! Oh my god!”

She suddenly stopped, scratching her head in confusion. “Wait a minute. I don't know anything about any Ayla Goodkind.” Smoothing out the ruffled shirt, she smiled apologetically at the girl. “Sorry about that, I got a little excited. Ok, Mal now that that's out of the way, where's the mop?”

Flying onwards, pushing Mal in front and leaving a confused Ayla behind them, she and Mal finally reached the supply closet. Mal pointed out where everything was and then stormed back downstairs.

With the help of her PK field, she was able to fill the bucket and get the cleaner in without too much trouble. Then she started mopping the floor. She couldn't rid of the worst marks, since she was so light really scrubbing at it was a lesson in futility, but the floor was relatively clean without taking too long. Although she got several odd looks and stares as she flew along the hallway pushing a mop.

Emptying the bucket was the hardest part. She had to grab it by the handle, fly to the edge of the drain, and catch the wheels on the side as she flew forwards, without flying up. She splashed herself and the floor several times trying to empty the bucket, and was cursing by the time it was done. Turning, wiping the disgusting water from her face, she saw a man standing behind her.

“That type of language isn't appropriate for school,” the well dressed man said.

Spitting out some water, she just nodded.

“I'm Louis, or Fubar if you prefer. Now you get the fun job of cleaning my pool.”

“You have your personal pool? That is so unfair!” she cried.

“Just wait until you see it and then tell me if it's unfair or not,” he said, leading her downstairs.

In the basement was a large tank encrusted with snot and looking about as pleasant to swim in as a septic tank.

“I'm not jealous anymore. Why would anyone want to swim in that?” she asked.

“I don't swim in it, I live in it,” Louis replied. A large animal in the pool moved towards the edge and a big wad of snot suddenly flew from its head, through the water and into the air to land back in the water where it floated on the surface. “That's my real body. This is just a psychic construct.”

“COOL!” Teri shouted, and flew through his chest.

Fubar gave her a strange look. “You're the first student who has ever tried that in the first meeting. And without a second or even first thought.”

“I've never flown through anyone before, I wanted to know what it was like.” She looked at piles of snot building up along the edges of the tank. “I'm guessing that I get to pick all of that stuff up. Right?”

“Yes. It's a side affect of my GSD. Let me show you the shovel,” he said happily.

All of the gloves and boots meant to keep her clean were useless, being so much larger then she was. Grabbing the snow shovel in a bear hug, Teri flew over the tank, pushing the snot balls in front of her, until they formed a disgusting mat right at the edge. Grabbing the snot can, she put it on its side just inches from the water edge, using rubber boots to keep it from rolling.

Flying to the far edge of the pool, she flew inches from the dark water, right at the snot wads. When the shovel impacted them, it shook her so badly her chest nearly touched the water, but the ugly balls hit the edge of the pool and with a gross squelching sound flipped into the container, most of it anyways. She got more balls into position and repeated the process several times. By the time she was done she'd had to change the snot can and the bags inside four or five times.

Putting the shovel away, she was wet, exhausted, filthy and wanting a bath, possibly with boiling water.

Fubar gave her a look of approval as she dragged the last snot barrel back into place. Then she grabbed a fine mesh net, and again skimmed the pool, hugging the dirty handle to her body. Eventually the tank wasn't pristine, but it was ok. She landed on a table and laid on her back, trying to catch her breath.

“Good job, Tink. Now you just have to do the outside to,” Fubar said cheerfully.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she groaned, barely able to lift her head up.

He chuckled to let her know he was. “You did nicely for your first day of detention. Be sure to come back tomorrow on time, we've got lots more work for you. And if you ever want to talk come by for a visit.”

Waving weakly, she flew back to Whitman.

**

“Wow, what happened to you Teri?” Serena asked, as Teri stumbled up the stairs. There was music playing and the sound of girls talking and laughing from the common room.

“Mopped a cottage, then cleaned a pool full of snot. I'm going to peel off my skin now and burn it,” she said. Serena gave her a sympathetic look and headed back to the party after a few words of sympathy.

Stripping out of her clothes, she threw them in the basin. Wrapping herself in her wings, dragging her basin and small bag of toiletries, she made her way to the bathroom.

Filling the basin with hot soapy water, she got most of the snot off the coveralls, and put them off to the side. Washing the basin thoroughly, she filled it up again went to her little corner and scrubbed every part of her body until her skin was red. Her hair was harder, and since she couldn't use a hair dryer properly, she was forced to dry it out as best she could. First squeezing the water out, blotting it with a washcloth, wrapping it in a washcloth while she went back to her room and got ready for bed, then combing it, repeatedly, with a leave in conditioner and finally putting it into a braid.

Finally ready for bed, she climbed onto her pillow and collapsed.

**

The next morning, she and Serena got up at about the same time, and headed off for breakfast. On the way out Ms. Savage handed Teri her class schedule. Martial Arts was right before lunch, along with a note saying she needed to purchase a gi. Once again Teri wondered where the heck she was suppose to get a uniform or anything else in her size.

It was still a red flag day, parents could be seen dropping their children off outside, but the day was so beautiful Teri couldn't bear the thought of staying inside all day.

“I'm going outside,” she said.

Serena gave her a look. “Do you want to get into even more trouble?”

“It will be easy, trust me. Just open the bottom pouch of your book bag a little,” she said.

“How is hiding in my book bag better than going through the tunnels?”

“I just need my head sticking out. It'll be fine.”

Looking around to make sure no one was looking, Serena opened the pouch enough for her to get in and stand up. Putting the bag on her back, the not so willing accomplice muttered, “If we get caught, I'm saying you hopped in without me knowing it.”

“I'll take all the blame. Don't worry.”

Somehow they made it to Crystal Hall without getting caught. Grabbing a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon they sat down to eat, after looking around to see if anyone they knew was around.

“You missed a great party last night,” Serena said.

“I heard you guys in the bathroom. How are the girls in our dorm? I haven't really had a chance to meet many of them.”

“Pretty nice mostly. Most of the ones who have GSD seem kind of shy, not like you. There were these two girls Grace and Charlie, who kept trying to get everyone to show off our powers,” she said.

“Grace... She's the frog girl?”

“Yeah, she bent a metal bar into a pretzel. And then Charlie melted it over a metal garbage can. I wish I could do something like that,” Serena said, looking at her hands.

“You can tie yourself into knots, that has to count for something.” Serena looked at her skeptically. Grinning Teri said, “Hey at least your boyfriend will be really happy.”

The resulting blush was bright enough to light up Crystal Hall.

“MOMMY look it's a fairy!” a childlike yell filled Crystal Hall.

Teri wasn't sure what to do. She knew she was on thin ice for the fight and ignoring the red flag the day before, but the rule book had said that it was fine for GSD students to eat in Crystal Hall despite the possibility of visitors being there. The question was should she ignore them or not?

The sound of running feet and the look of shock on Serena's face decided her. Spinning around, with a big grin on her face, she was about to do her usual 'I'm so happy to see you' routine she'd learned at kids parties, when she stopped dead. Coming towards the table was a pure white Sasquatch in a pink dress with her long shaggy hair in pig tails, dragging two regular sized parents behind her as they desperately tried to get her to stop.

“Oh, she's so pretty! Just like a butterfly!” the enormous little girl shouted.

Teri, who had been forced to learn how to project her voice like a stage actor to simply be heard in a regular conversation, screamed loudly enough to be heard throughout Crystal Hall. Leaping into the air she headed as fast as her wings would take her for the doors, slamming into them hands first and barely slowing. Sasquatch girl, was right on her tail, leaving a trail of overturned chairs, tables and students.

A group of parents and kids who were about to enter Crystal Hall, screamed a little as a fairy flew past, missing several of them by mere inches. As they tried to catch their breath, a big hairy beast yelling at the fairy to stop, sent them flying into the bushes.

Teri saw some security guards ahead of her, flying straight at them she grabbed the largest one so hard he spun around, becoming a human shield for her. “Shoot it! Shoot it!” Teri screamed.

They never had a chance.

Sasquatch girl pushed them out of the way before they could react reaching for Teri with a hand that could palm a basketball. Reacting purely on instinct, Teri threw the security guard at the girl, kicking off of him at the same time for more speed and took to the air.

Normally she could go about fifty feet high comfortably, then the winds started to get a bit too strong and she began losing control. So at fifty feet she stopped and looked back down, expecting to see Sasquatch girl crying.

Instead all she saw was a pair of massive hands encircling her, as the girl squealed with joy.

They landed safely from the jump, Teri cushioned by the hands, and the girl simply bending her knees with the force of the impact. The hand opened a little, and Teri felt a finger rubbing her hair, and a sweet little girls voice. “Oh, just what I always wanted, my own little fairy butterfly! I'll call you Georgina, and I'll hug you, and pet you and squeeze you, and pat you, and pet you, and rub you and love you!'

Teri gave up trying to move, the grip was like solid iron. Instead she watched as security and the girls' parents came towards them, slowly, very slowly, excruciatingly slowly. Finally it was too much. “WILL YOU GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE AND RESCUE ME!”

**

Ms. Carson and Chief Delarose were both looking at Teri as she sat on an eraser on a desk trying to get the wrinkles out of her clothes.

“Don't you even think about blaming this one on me!” she snapped at them.

“So did you get into trouble for this morning?” Thad asked, as they sat beside a big window in the library enjoying a bit of peace and quiet, his eyes looked almost exactly like the brilliant sun shining on them.

“Nah,” Teri answered, waving away the thought. “They mostly wanted to know what happened, and that I was alright. India on the other hand is in big trouble.”

He looked at her incredulously. “Her name is India?”

“Yep. But she'll always be Sasquatch Girl in my heart,” she put a hand to her chest and looked longingly upwards for a second. “She's confined to her cottage for a while, and has to write out a full page apology to me and every student she pushed out of the way. Apparently they thought she had her strength and stuff under control, but seeing how pretty I am made her forget she doesn't have the body of a seven year old little girl anymore.”

“What cottage is she in?”

“Hawtho- Dammit!” she yelled.

“What's wrong?”

She hid her face in her hands. “I have to go to Hawthorne after lunch for my second day of detention. I'm going to be seeing her everyday for three weeks. I'm doomed!”

“What if you go ask security to change your detention?” Thad suggested.

She flew up and kissed his forehead. “You're a genius! Come on!”

“Wait, why do I need to come?” he asked, as she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the tunnel entrance.

They reached security and walked right up to the front desk. She remembered the officer there from the other day. “Hi Mr. Harris. Um, can... can I talk to Chief Delarose about something really important?”

He gave her and Thad a cautious once over. “He's rather busy right now dealing with the problem from this morning, Ms. Mouser. Maybe I can help.”

“Well, you see, um... Thad you explain!” she said, jumping behind him.

“Um, right,” Thad said, his voice cracking. “Teri was saying that the girl this morning, India? Uh anyways, she's in Hawthorne where she... Teri I mean, is doing her detention. So, well Teri is wondering if she could not do her detention.”

“Not, not do my detention, just not do it at Hawthorne!” Teri shouted over his shoulder.

Harris, shook his head. “I'm sorry but I can't switch your detention assignment. But I'll tell Ms. Cantrel about your concern. Don't worry, she'll make sure if you see India that there will be someone there to keep anything like this morning from happening. And if something does happen or you don't feel safe after trying it today, Chief Delarose will get you something a bit more appropriate.”

“Ok,” she said, draping herself over Thad's shoulder in defeat. “Thanks anyways.”

“Where to now?” Thad asked as they walked away.

“Anywhere,” she said into his shirt. “I'm going to be crushed to death by a hairy seven year old kid this afternoon.”

Picking her off his shoulder by her feet he held her up to his face. “What happened to the girl who yelled at the MCO? Who pretended to be a pigeon in front of the Headmistress? Who hung a person who was like fifty times your own size from her bra in Crystal Hall?”

“She was attacked by a Sasquatch, and now has to get ready for round two,” Teri replied swaying in the wind.

He gave her a good shake. “With that attitude you're doomed. You just have to be clever about it and you can keep her off your back.”

“Oh yeah? What would you do against a hundred foot tall giant who can run as fast as you and jump as high as you can fly?”

“I don't know. Find something to get it's attention away from me, I guess.”

There was some nasty laughter. “Oh, is the little baby talking to his dolly because he misses his mommy.”

Teri turned around still upside down. “Sorry nope, I don't have any dolls. And I think you need glasses, I'm obviously a girl.”

“Oh, crap,” Thad whispered, looking at the very strong looking teenager in front of them. “Hey Legbreaker, I've heard about you, you're a PDP. You're like one of the coolest kids in Twain.”

The boy smiled a little. “Flattery will get you pretty far. Tell you what. Throw your friend away and I won't beat you up.”

Teri looked at Thad, who looked like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Very quietly, Thad said, “Uh, Legbreaker, that might not be such a good idea.”

“PDP, that means you have a forcefield right?” Teri asked.

Punching the wall hard enough to leave a crack in it, Legbreaker took a step forward, an evil smile on his face. “Yeah, there's not a thing you can do to hurt me. So you're not going to throw her away? I guess I'll get to pound two idiots today than.”

He took another step, raising his foot high to really stomp the ground. Teri moved into action, slipping out of Thad's hand, she grabbed the bullies shoe, coming in from the side to put him off balance. He started to spin and she went with it, her PK field grabbing the boy and making him seem almost weightless to her. This did nothing for his actual mass however. With just one spin she was thrown off her feet still flapping her wings, and the began flying down the hallway, just like an out of control top.

With Teri in the very center, Legbreaker hit the walls of the tunnel, trying to grab something, anything to stop the spinning, leaving head size dents in the stone. Then the vomiting started.

Teri was finally able to let go, staggered a few steps, and then fell to her knees throwing up. Legbreaker, was on his belly, gagging and spitting, clutching the floor and moaning for it to stop moving.

Thad ran over, grabbed Teri and took off.

“Whee! Stop the world! I want to get off!” Teri shouted.

“I am so dead later,” Thad gasped, not slowing down in the slightest.

**

Teri flew into Hawthorne, carrying a plastic bag. She, Thad and Serena had went shopping at the school store earlier getting school supplies, things for their room, and for Teri a few survival items.

Louis was waiting for her. “Teri, how are you doing?” he asked.

“Pretty good. Um is India around?”

“Don't worry she's in the common room, with Slab and a few others, she won't go near you and if she tries we can keep her from overreacting,” he assured her.

Biting her lip, Teri said, “Actually, I kind of want to see her. But yeah, keep the big guys around her, just in case.”

“If you're sure, I think that would be good for both of you. Follow me.” Louis walked up the stairs, leading her to the common room.

India was sitting hunched over a table, the big black guy from the day before was talking to a bone white girl with metallic silver hair and a lot of tattoos. A few people she saw briefly the day before were there as well, one girl wearing a sweater was sitting beside India, pointing something out to her.

“India,” Louis said, “there is someone here who wants to talk to you.”

The enormous girl turned around, her eyes were red probably from crying. When she saw Teri her bottom lip started to quiver. “I'M SORRY!” she shouted, causing Teri to fly behind Louis. “I just saw you and you were so cute, I just wanted to give you a big hug.”

Peeking out of Louis' chest, Teri watched the big girl for any sign of a hugging. When the girl didn't do anything except play with the hem of her dress, she flew towards her. “Ok then. I don't mind hugging, but you have to at least ask first, and not hold me for like twenty minutes. And if you REALLY want to hug me and can't control yourself, I got you this. You can hug it as much as you like,” Teri said holding out the bag.

Gingerly, India took the bag and looked inside. She grinned, showing off teeth that were almost as large as Teri. “Oh, she's so nice,” India said, pulling a large stuffed butterfly from the bag. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“India aren't you forgetting something?” the big guy asked.

“Oh yeah, sorry Slab.” India turned to grab a piece of paper from the table.” I have to give you this, the principal said it was part of my punishment. Frostbite helped me. I'm really, really, really, really sorry.”

Teri took the paper which was covered in childish printing. It was a full page apology and basically begging for forgiveness. Looking at the sad, tear filled eyes of the hairy, little girl who was like a hundred feet tall compared to her, Teri felt her heart melt. “Awww, I forgive you!” flying up to kiss the girls pudgy nose.

India squealed with joy, and reached out to give Teri a hug, stopped and then squeezed the butterfly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Alright India, you still have a lot more apologies to write, and Teri still needs to work for her detention,” Louis said.

“Ok,” India and Teri both said, with a groan.

“So am I cleaning your pool again?” Teri asked. “Because I seriously think that's cruel and unusual punishment for someone my size.”

“Don't worry, no more pool cleaning unless you do something really bad,” he said, with a chuckle. “We're actually hoping you could help out some of the residents, with settling in. Once classes start tomorrow we'll most likely have you helping out some of the students who need help in English and math, as well as a few classes you might share with them.”

Whispering a prayer of thanks to whoever was listening, she followed Louis to a door with the name Dr. Heavy written on it. Someone had taped a piece of paper in between the two words, with 'NOT', written on it. In black marker.

Teri knocked on the door. A boy shouted for her to wait, and a minute later the door opened, also the gravity seemed to disappeared. This was bad, because she'd been flying and with the sudden disappearance of gravity her wings sent her flying into the ceiling.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” she cried, standing upside down, rubbing her head.

A boy who looked to be all of eight years old, but with an adult size head, grabbed the top of the door frame and looked at her. “Hey Fubar, you found someone smaller than me!”

“Dr. Heavy, this is Teri, she'll be helping you get everything organized in your new room,” Louis said.

“Hi,” she said, still rubbing her head. “What happened to the gravity?”

The boy did a backwards somersault, grabbing a rope that hung from the ceiling of his room. “It's my power, I stop gravity around me. It's pretty cool, and this term they gave me a little jet pack so I can fly around the tunnels and buildings, I can even go to class now.”

Carefully, Teri flew into the room, grabbing another rope to stop herself. Lying on her back in midair, with her hands behind her head, she grinned at him. “This is a lot easier than flying around all the time. Are you really a doctor?”

“Yeah, I got my doctorate in computer science when I turned fourteen, just before manifesting.”

“Wow, I'm still struggling with high school. So what exactly do you need?”

“I need to unpack my bags, but I can't really get a lot done when everything keeps floating away,” he said pointing at the clothes and things that were floating all over the room.

“It's all clean?” she asked, eyeing the underwear nervously.

“Yeah.”

“Cool.” With that, she started going around the room, quickly learning how to control herself with her wings, and bouncing off of different things in a controlled fashion. They talked a bit as she worked. He told her how he used to give off 8g's of force, and that was how he got his name, until a girl from Poe, reversed it. He called it the best day of his life.

She told him about her own manifestation, which had him turning green for some reason. And then they started showing off what they could do in 0g. After ten minutes of twisting, turning, and bouncing off of everything in the room, Louis popped up. “Teri, it's time to get to work in another room.”

“By Heavy, keep working on your triple backflip, you almost have it,” she said, flying to the door. “Ok, Louis what next?”

She spent the rest of the two hours helping a girl called Jello, who could barely work up the energy to do much more then watch a video on her laptop, and point at where her clothes and stuff were suppose to go to. Followed by mopping the floors again, and finally fetching supper from Crystal Hall for India, and a few other Thornies who couldn't leave.

Then she was finally released and after a quick shower under the faucet at Whitman, and a fast supper alone, Teri was able to sit in the common room with fabric and sewing supplies.

“Whatcha doing?” a girl with paper for skin that was covered in strange symbols, and long ink black hair asked.

“Sewing myself a gi, for martial arts. They don't have any in my size,” Teri answered, using a claw to cut some fabric. Grabbing a two inch piece of thick thread with marks placed regularly along it, she measured the thick cotton again, and marked it with the nub of a charcoal pencil, and cut it again.

“You could just go to Cecelia, and save yourself all this trouble,” the girl said.

“Who?”

She seemed amazed that Teri didn't know who she was talking about. “Cecilia, she has a clothes shop in Dunwich. She can make clothes for anyone in a few hours. No one told you?”

“No. So thanks for letting me know, I'll try to see her this week. I'm Teri.”

“Page. That's my code name. I never thought I'd have a code name like a superhero,' she said, her cheeks became black, like someone had coated them in ink.

“My code name is Tink. I don't use it much, I don't really see the point,” she said, spreading her wings.

Page nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, that would be hard to hide. You're really good at sewing, how can you do it so quickly?”

“I don't have any trouble with the thread and needle being too small,” she explained. “So it's really easy for me. And I had to make my own clothes for a while.”

“That's neat. My mom tried to make me learn how to sew, but I kept poking my fingers and finally gave up.”

“What are your powers?” Teri asked.

“I'm a psychic and a low level wizard. I can read minds and emotions. But don't worry I know how to stop it, and I wouldn't dream of using it on people,” Page hastened to add.

Teri stopped sewing the pant leg, and eyed the girl. “That is... COOL! What am I thinking right now?”

“A-are you sure you want me to read your mind? Most people freak out when they learn what I can do.”

“Yeah, go for it.”

Page took a deep breath and closed her eye. Her skin became pure white, and than words appeared on her face and arms. Teri flew up to get a better look at them. She started singing what she saw, “This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my-”

“Ok, enough! I don't want that song stuck in my head all night,” Page shouted. The words on her skin coalesced back into the mix of symbols and patterns.

Teri fell back to the cushion. “That was so cool! I could read what I was thinking!”

“Yeah, that makes using my power really, really awkward,” the girl moaned.

“Can you control what your skin shows?”

Page nodded. “A little, but its pretty hard.”

“Oh man you can make it look like you have really bad ass tattoos. Or embarrass someone by pretending your reading their mind, and writing down some really embarrassing stuff, like he's worried about his tiny penis, or a girl is still sore from a wild night with her boyfriend,” Teri said, thinking of all the things she would do with that.

“I couldn't do that!”

“Fine, fine. What classes are you taking?”

**

It was lights out by the time Teri finished her gi. She'd have gotten it done faster but she'd talked to a bunch of different girls, while sewing and cutting.

The gi wasn't great, the edges were barely hemmed, one leg was shorter than the other, it was a little loose in the top, and the holes for her wings were a bit too wide. But it would do until she could make a better one, or get to Cecilia. It wasn't like someone would look at her closely enough to notice the problems, they'd need a magnifying glass.

Heading off for bed, she wondered what her first day of classes would bring.

**

The campus was a lot more crowded and full of amazing sights, that had freshmen looking around in awe as they headed to the Schuster Hall auditorium for the opening day assembly. Teri was flying over the crowd, trying out do a cloud boy who was changing his body into steadily stranger things, as she did aerial gymnastics. They were joined by a boy and girl who looked like twins, and began flying circles around them. This got a lot of other students who could fly, or at least jump joining in, showing off what they could do.

The bell rang informing them it was time for the fun to end. With a wave to her fellow fliers, Teri flew to where her fellow cottage mates and landed on Serena's shoulder.

“I don't think that's the school uniform,” Serena said, looking at the mouse dress Teri was wearing.

“It's my uniform, and a part of my fairy heritage. Both of which are perfectly acceptable according to the student handbook,” she said, smoothing the black fur.

Page reached out to stroke the fur dress. “Is that real fur?”

“Yep. My dad taught me how to tan leather, so I made a few dresses out of mouse skin after I manifested, since I didn't want to wear dish clothes or doll clothes all the time.”

“I thought a costume had to hide your face.”

Teri put her braided hair through a hole in the dress as she pulled up her hood made from the mouse head, which covered her upper face. Some hastily sewn on loops of strings to hidden buttons on her shoulders, kept it in place and she was able to peer out of the eye holes, which gave her a mouse like appearance. “How's this?”

“Disturbing,” Serena said.

“Excellent!”

They filed in, Whitman was the second of the cottages, so they were near the front. Teri waved at a few of the kids from Hawthorne, as her cottage found their seats. Seeing that there was no way to see the stage, and not being interested in the speech, she pulled out a small piece of cloth she'd folded and stitched together to make a pillow.

“What are you doing?” Page asked.

“Catching up on my sleep. You height advantaged people have to look awake, not a problem for me. Can you make sure no one sits on me?” she asked.

“No. If I have to suffer through this, so do you,” Serena said, giving her a light poke in the ribs.

“Hey that's not fair, this is like the one advantage I have over you guys, and you won't let me abuse it for all it's worth?”

Serena glared at her. “I don't think I've seen you walk more than five feet since I met you. You're always getting rides in backpacks and shoulders.”

“Five feet for you is like five miles for me. Look at my tiny little legs! And it's not like I weigh much more than a pencil case,” Teri said.

“You're staying awake, Teri. I have a bottle of water, and I'm not afraid to use it,” Page said, pulling out a bottle that was big enough to hold Teri inside.

“Fine. But I don't have to pay attention,” she insisted.

“No problem, we won't either.”

The speech finally started, and within the first minute Teri had fallen asleep. No one poked her or tried to drown her.

**

After the assembly, they filed out for their classes. Teri flew to her locker to grab her child size backpack she'd stashed there the day before. Throwing her change purse inside, she headed for the first class of the day, Japanese.

Able to fly over the crowd, even with her backpack hanging down, she made it to class with plenty of time to spare. Strangely, as she was going along, she saw an Asian girl wearing a vest covered in gadgets, who couldn't be older then eleven or possibly twelve, walking through the crowd, and a lot of much bigger kids were getting out of her way.

Wondering why the kid would get be walked around so carefully, while other much bigger students were struggling to move at more than a snails pace, she found a seat at the front of the class. Putting her shoes on the side of the desk, she struggled to pull out her notebook, flipping it to the part she'd marked for Japanese. To save space, considering her small writing, each class was going to be written down in the book. A single book would probably cover her for the term.

More students filed in, including the Asian girl. The girl scanned the room, and zeroed in Teri, with a squeal of excitement. “Hi, you're sssooo cute. I'm Generator, what's your name?”

Standing up, she did a little twirl in the air and curtsied. “Thank you, I'm Teri.”

Pulling something from a pocket, Generator pressed a button and three elf like fairies appeared. “Hi,” they said.

“OH! I'm not alone anymore!” Teri said, giving them a hug group hug. “Are you being enslaved by this horrible child?” she asked glaring at Generator.

“Yeah!” the blonde one cried. “I'm Trixie, and I've been locked up forced to server her since she kidnapped me.”

“She kidnapped me to! Right from my magic tree! She makes me wash her underwear! BY HAND!” the redheaded fairy cried.

“And we're kept in her pocket until she needs us! Do you know how boring that is?” the third one asked.

Generator began pressing buttons on her bracer. “Stupid AI. Definitely need to reprogram it later.”

“Don't worry sisters, I'll protect you. Just stick with me, and we'll overthrow our giant oppressors!” Flying to Generators desk she landed on the book bag, so she was eye to nose with the girl. “You've got a pretty nice set up here, using fairy slave labour, Generator. But things are going to change starting now. You can start washing your own underwear.”

There was a little cheer from behind her.

“No more shoving these poor, innocent little creatures in your pocket. They need fresh air and sun.”

“And ice cream!”

“And money! We've been wearing the same clothes all year”

Teri nodded. “Right, ice cream and money to.” She started muttering to herself, making numbers in the air. “Let's see, fairy minimum wage is fifty dollars an hour. Room and board is... You owe these fairies one million dollars. And of course my fee as their negotiator is 50% of the outcome, so that will be 1.5 million dollars payable by the end of the month.”

“HA!” Generator laughed. “Fairies don't exist, so I don't have to pay you anything. Nice try though.”

“Do I have to get the dwarf police and centaur lawyers after you? You won't like them when they're angry.”

“Bring them on! My roommate will eat them for breakfast.”

“She'd better bring a big appetite then. And a lot of water, I don't go down easily!” Teri paused. “Wait that doesn't sound right.”

There was a cough from the front of the room. “Maybe you can discuss this labour dispute after class,” the teacher, a handsome Japanese man said.

With a little eep, Teri jumped back to her desk, where she and her three fairy friends sat down on her book.

The teacher, Professor Shizuki, took attendance, and went over what would be expected in class, before going over some basic characters and words. Teri wrote everything down, with the help of the three fairies who corrected her characters. Brunhilda, the brunette fairy, whispered that Generator had been studying Chinese all last term, so they'd been programmed to know it as well.

At the end of class, the freshmen were given their school laptops. Teri could just fit it into her backpack, and unlike the others, hers had a little booklet taped to the shell, saying that it was voice activated so she wouldn't have to type on it.

As they got ready to leave class, the three fairies gave Teri a hug and jumped back into Generators pocket. “It was really nice meeting you Teri,” Generator said.

“I liked meeting you to. I was afraid this class would be boring.”

“So what class do you have next?”

“Powers Theory,” she said.

Generator rolled her eyes. “I hope you have coffee. Dr. Quintain can put anyone to sleep.”

“Hurray! I didn't get enough sleep during the assembly. Glad I brought my pillow. What class do you have?”

“Martial Arts. If you want to defend yourself, you have to take Sensei Ito's class.”

“I have that in third period. I have a gi and everything made up.”

They realized the classroom was empty when the warning bell rang. “Crap, gotta go! Bye Generator, see you tomorrow!”

By flying at top speed she made it to class just in time, the only seat left was right in the front row. That suited Teri fine, and she quickly pulled everything out, and was ready to go when Dr. Quintain started talking. Within the first minute she felt her eyelids drooping, to the monotone recitation of the book.

Looking around in a desperate bid to stay awake, Teri saw a few girls she knew from Whitman, Thad's roommate Sap sitting with a group of boys who ranged from looking baseline, to having see through skin, to being covered in rusty metal. There was a girl sitting off by herself, who seemed to be weaving and bobbing as she sat in her chair. Her hand wrote in her book, while her head rested on her wrist, two feet away. A group of baseline students who looked like high class models sat in the corner, eyeing the obvious GSD students warily.

Bored of staring at the students, she began doodling in her notebook. Even if the teacher saw her doodling, he couldn't say anything, he wouldn't be able to make out what she was writing.

**

Martial Arts, started off well. Emphasis on started.

She got a lot of odd looks in the change room, when she came in with her tiny cloth bag holding her gi and underclothes, she got even more looks than the blind girl and her kitten.

“Hey Teri, I didn't know you were in martial arts,” a frog girl from Whitman said.

“Hi Grace. Yeah I'm here, I need to learn how to fight properly,” she said miming some small punches.

“Teri, these are my friends Caroline and Taylor,” Grace said, pointing at the blind girl and a girl with a perfect body and long brown hair. “You guys, this is the crazy fairy I told you about, Teri.”

“Wow, I never saw anyone as small as you before. How do you think with such a small brain?” Taylor asked, leaning in close.

She stuck her tongue out at the girl. “Hey I'm pretty smart, so don't be making fun of my size.”

Caroline put her hand on the girls shoulder. “Taylor, remember people aren't your devises or machines. She may hang you from a light by your bra.”

“OOOHHH, you're that girl. Really sorry about that,” Taylor said, backing away a little. “I just meant that the brain can only go so small before it starts losing functions. It's a miracle you can ta- er, that you're as smart as you are.”

“I'm just awesome,” she said humbly. She quickly changed out of her clothes, putting a tank top on under her gi.

The four of them walked out and found most of the students already lined up along the edge of the mat. Some were standing, some were sitting on their butts, and a few were sitting on their knees. Caroline got on her knees, placing her white baton and kitten in front of her, while Grace crouched down more like a frog, and Taylor sprawled on the floor. Teri knelt down, beside the blind girl so she could be close to the kitten.

They made idle talk about their classes and cottages. Taylor and Caroline were roommates in Dickinson, and seemed to be pretty close. Teri warned them about how boring Powers Theory was, since they had it in the afternoon. And Grace told her about Costume Shop, since she'd had it in the second period.

The talk was getting interesting when a tiny Asian old Asian man came walking in followed by a tall black woman. Teri suddenly felt self conscious about her poorly made gi, as the old man looked over the students with what looked like passive contempt, noting every flaw he saw.

The black woman gave a brief introduction, introducing Ito Sensei, and herself Tolman Sensei , listing the rules of the class, and what was expected, and how skill trumped training. Then the little old man started talking, and things got really interesting when he picked out a girl who looked like an amazon warrior capable of taking out India. Caroline smirked when the girl got to the center of the mat, Teri really wanted to know how the girl knew what was going on.

“I am completely human but trained. You, Brianna, are superhuman, but untrained. You are a level five exemplar with skin capable of resisting high caliber bullets, and strength and agility well above anything a human can hope to achieve,” Ito explained. “I wish to fight you, to demonstrate what proper training can accomplish.

Brianna smiled, slamming her fist into her palm so hard it made Teri wince just listening to it. “Alright, sensei,” she growled.

“If either of us can restrain the other, or place our opponent in the capture cage we have won the fight.” He held out his hand a staff slammed into his hand. He spent another minute explaining the rules about bowing, where to stand at the beginning, and that 'hajime', meant begin.

They took their positions and bowed, then Tolman shouted hajime and the fight was on.

Brianna went on the offensive, swinging wildly but quickly. The way her muscles bulged, she was throwing everything she had into the punches. Not that it did any good. Ito moved almost casually out of the way of the blows, quickly backing up yet seeming utterly calm and relaxed.

The exemplar gave a scream of rage and her fists became a blur, for all of a second.

The staff went between her legs, right at the knees. Using her own right leg as a fulcrum, the staff slammed into her left leg hard enough to make half the class wince in sympathy. Her knew gave way, and she fell on butt.

She bounded to her feet, trying to do a spin kick. Ito raised his staff, letting her hit it with her inner thigh. The wood snapped in half, but Brianna fell flat on her face, much to Caroline's apparent delight, if Teri could judge by her laughter.

Ito backed away from the furious girl. He was sweating and looking nervous, taking his eyes off of Brianna for a second to wipe his brow. She saw the opening and charged him screaming. Some of the students screamed and covered their eyes expecting to see blood.

Teri leaned forward and saw Ito duck and dodge under Brianna's arms. She slammed into the door of the capture cage, bending double halfway in the cage. Ito grabbed her legs and flipped her in one easy motion, closing the door behind her.

“Do you yield, Brianna?” he asked, showing no sign of worry or tiredness.

“Fuck you! You cheated!” she screamed, grabbing the door trying to rip it off its hinges. The door rattled a little but didn't budge.

“Of course I cheated. I made you angry, and embarrassed so you would stop thinking,” he told her. Turning to the rest of the class. “In this class you will all learn how to cheat, use the environment, your enemies mistakes, tricks and your training to survive, because your enemies will be doing the very same. Now Brianna are you ready to concede?”

She glared at the Sensei, but nodded. He let her out of the cage and she stalked back to her place.

The class was split into two groups, Teri joined the side that had no training, which was most of the class. Ito Sensei first watched and instructed the trained group of four students, while Tolman showed Teri and the rest some basic moves and blocks.

“This is no good,” Ito Sensei said when he watched Teri go through the motions.

“What?” she said surprised, she had thought she'd been doing pretty well.

“Sensei. Call me sensei or soke.”

“What, Sensei?”

“When you fight, do you stand on the ground or fly?” he asked.

“I usually fly.”

He nodded. “Fly in front of me, brace yourself and use the block you were just practicing.”

Not sure what to expect, Teri did as she was asked. Ito hit her with an open palm right at her block, she went flying backwards out of control. “You're too small for this move. Anyone with any strength can knock you back.”

“I just wasn't ready!” Teri said.

“No you are too small. You must learn to use that to your advantage,” Ito said.

“I'm NOT too small!”

He looked at her carefully. “Tolman Sensei, come here.”

She came quickly. “Yes, Soke?”

“I'm going to demonstrate a basic arm lock Teri, watch closely.” Ito showed Teri how to grab the opponent and slowly went through the movements twice. Teri flew around watching every action. After the second time, he said, “Now lock my arm.”

Teri grabbed his arm, as copying the hold as closely as possible with her six inch arm span. Ito waited patiently as she failed to do anything that could possibly stop him from moving. When she hadn't given up after two full minutes, he flicked his arm like he was throwing a card. Teri flew across the room, cursing and screaming, and hit the wall with a solid thud.

Staggering to her feet, Ito walked over and looked down at her impassively. “You want to learn, which is good. But you have to learn your own style. One that relies on speed, deception, and some basic strength. Watch how the others are moving and think how you can move.”

Ignoring the snickers from some of the students, Teri flew around the class, watching, learning and thinking, but by the end of it, she hadn't come up with any good ideas.

Tink headed off for lunch after martial arts, not bothering with a shower since she hadn't done enough to work up a sweat. At Crystal Hall she met up with Page, Serena and a few other Whitman girls. They were all talking about their classes, which ranged from the common history, English and science; to the weird, magic, esper and quantum physics; to the holy cow they teach that at school! Which included firearms training and how to shoot a fire accurately at one hundred feet.

“You're not saying much for once Teri, what's up?” Page asked.

“I have homework for Martial Arts, and I'm trying to think,” she admitted.

“What you have to beat up five kids before tomorrow?” Serena joked.

“Ito, said I can't learn what he's teaching, I have to make my own style, since I'm too small. I've thought of a few things, but tying people up, dragging them into the air and dropping them, dive bombing them with things and people, and slashing them to ribbons with my claws won't help me much against bricks and people with forcefields,” she kicked a chicken nugget across her tray.

“You could use a weapon,” a normal looking girl except for her purple skin and constantly shifting hair said.

She frowned, “Thought of that Adira, but I'm too small to get one that would do any real damage. Being small sucks.”

“What about powders or something. Fly in throw a sack of something like pepper spray and they're blind. You don't need a lot of it.” Serena suggested.

“Thanks you guys, but what seems like a little bit to you is a lot to me,” Teri sighed. “I may not feel it weighing me down, but it's not exactly easy to carry things that are the same size as me.”

“So talk to a devisor and get a bag of holding,” Tracy, a perfectly ordinary girl Teri only really knew by name, said.

“A what?”

“My brother told me that a lot of devisors can make a pocket that's bigger on the inside than on the inside, and you don't feel the weight. A purse could hold ten or fifteen books, a belt pouch can carry a bazooka. If you have the money that would be great for you,” she said.

Teri's tray slid across the table as she jumped at Tracy, who gave a little shriek, landed on her shoulder and started kissing her cheek. “THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! YOU'RE MY NEW BEST FRIEND!”

“You're welcome! Now let go!” Tracy shouted trying to push Teri away.

She let go, blushing. “Sorry, I got excited.”

“Ya think!” Tracy said, wiping her cheek with a napkin.

“So... Tracy, my good, wonderful, amazing, fantastic, excellent friend, do you know any devisors?”

**

Teri flew to Costume Shop, twirling and spinning through the air with a silly grin on her face. After much begging and puppy dog eyes, and a promise to never kiss her again, Tracy had agreed to talk to her brother about who Teri should talk to about getting a bag of holding. And Teri was already thinking about what she wanted.

Entering class, she again took a seat at the front of the class, and noticed that over half of the students there were suffering from GSD. Page came in a few minutes later and down beside Teri. “Hey, have you heard anything about this class?”

“Nope. I forgot to ask a sophomore I met this morning,” Teri said. “So are you going to be designing your superhero costume here?”

“Hah, watch out supervillains or I'll write down your most embarrassing thoughts on my face!” Page said in a loud voice. “It doesn't have quite the right ring to it. What do you want to learn? You already have your wild fairy costume.”

Teri straightened her mouse skin dress. “I'm hoping she'll tell me how to move up to cat skin dresses. And make them bullet proof, with a hundred hidden pockets to hold everything I need in them, and a cape so I can glide down out of the sky striking fear in the hearts of onlookers.”

“You don't need a cape to do that. Believe me, just five minutes talking to you ought to strike fear in most people.”

“HAHAHAHA! I love it!” Teri cackled rubbing her hands together.

Page looked around the room. “See just a minute or two of talking and you already have half the class thinking your nuts.”

An old woman who looked like she should be sleeping in a coffin to save everyone time, came walking in, wearing what seemed to be an old table cloth that had been mutilated to form what could kindly be called a dress by a near sighted bat.

“Good afternoon class, I am Mrs. Ryan,” she said in a cracked and wheezy voice.

Teri wrote down the what was expected in class, afraid that if she didn't the zombie teaching them would eat her brains. Even if her brain was tiny, she was very attached to it and would be quite upset if it disappeared down a maw.

Finally the aging vampire asked the class a question. “Who can tell me why you should wear a costume?”

Teri flew up raising her hand.

“Yes, the butterfly girl.”

“To make a statement,” Teri said as loudly as she could. Then she realized what she'd been called. “HEY! I'm no butterfly! I'm a fairy!”

“I'll be sure to remember that,” Mrs. Ryan said. “Thank you for your answer, that is one reason.”

Other students shouted out more obvious answers, from staying hidden, to freedom of movement, to protection and more. Then she asked for a volunteer who felt they stood out, and wanted to fit in a bit more.

Teri once more flew into the air with her hand raised, actually getting to within a foot of the evil ghost made flesh. In fact up close, she realized that the teacher looked almost exactly like Ms. Bitters from Invader Zim. “Oh! Oh! PICK ME PLEASE!”

“Very well, you will do nicely,” Mrs. Ryan said. “What is your name please?”

“Teri Mouser!”

“Teri, why aren't you wearing a standard school uniform?” she asked.

“This is my costume and a costume of my fairy heritage,” she said.

The teacher eyed her carefully. “As far as I know, and I have studied extensively, there is not and in the course of human history, never has been a fairy culture.”

“We're rather new, but going strong,” Teri said proudly. She noticed that half the class was trying not to laugh, a quarter of the class was laughing, and the rest were staring in amazement.

“...Right. How do you think wearing a skinned mouse makes you fit in?”

Teri cleared her throat preparing to speak loudly enough so that everyone could hear her. “I don't look human and never will. If I try to look normal people will assume I'm a mutant. If I look like this, they'll think I'm a cute fairy or something. Children love the look, and if worst comes to worst, people will call the police, not the MCO.”

“So you're making a statement that you're so different, you could come from a fairy tale and people don't have to worry about you?” she asked.

“Yes!”

Mrs. Ryan turned to the class. “What are some clothes she could wear to try to fit into society safely?”

“She could dress like a policeman,” someone said.

“I have a costume for that,” Teri said.

A girl shouted, “What about looking like a nurse?”

“Got that to.”

“A scientist oufit!”

“I have three.”

A business suit!”

“I have six of those,”

“Teri,” Mrs. Ryan said, “you actually have all of those outfits?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding her head happily.

“Why?”

“I model clothes for dolls, and I get the clothes when we're done. Would you like to see them?” she asked.

“Yes actually, if you could bring some in tomorrow we can discuss how different looks get different reactions.” Turning to the class, “Now, why are those costumes that were mentioned useful for fitting in?”

**

“I can't believe you got away with that,” Page said after class.

“Got away with what?” Teri asked.

“Saying that your dress is part of your culture,” her friend said as if it was obvious.

“Well it is. As long as I'm the only fairy in the world, I make up the culture. I can't help it if I'm all alone in this cruel world.” She glanced at her schedule, “I have Calculus now, what about you?”

“Physics, joy.”

“Have fun. I'll see you at supper,” Teri said flying off.

The rest of the day passed normally, if in a rather boring way. Even detention at Hawthorne was merely helping clean things up. By the time it was lights out, Teri was actually wishing something interesting would happen.

**

Teri flew to the table with a cereal box ripped open at the top and the plastic bag holding the cereal full of milk, there were some glares from people who had wanted the cereal, but she ignored all of them.

“What on earth is that?” Thad asked, while Serena, Page and Sap looked at her in amazement.

“A short time offer of Sugar Coated Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, with extra frosting. The breakfast of champions!” she shouted. Stripping out of her mouse dress, revealing a bathing suit, Teri grabbed a spoon flew to the top of the box and proceeded to eat enough sugar in five minutes to cause a sugar overdose in an entire kindergarten class.

“SOWHO'SUPFORDOINGSOMELAPSBEFORECLASS?ORCLIMBINGCRYSTALHALLANDMOONINGTHETHIRDFLOORELITE?” she asked.

Everyone edged away from the twitching fairy girl, wondering who would be the first target of a super powered hug, kiss or some other bout of insanity, and wondering if an attempt at a fast getaway would make them the focus of Teri's attention.

“Teri, how about you start run- er, flying and we'll catch up to you after breakfast,” Serena suggested, speaking slowly and calmly.

“OKTHATSOUNDSLIKEAREALLYGOODIDEA!!!BYEBYE!!!” and she took off, pulling an impressive 0 to 40 in three seconds. The doors being made of an extremely hard crystal, survived the impact although the metal frames did flex dangerously before returning to their original shape and the hinges smoked for a few seconds afterwards.

“So who's going to give Teri her dress back when she calms down?” Thad asked.

**

Teri flew around the campus like an out of control ping pong ball, following whatever caught her attention. This led to several strange experiences for students and teachers making their way to classes and breakfast.

**

Earth Mother and Eliza Grimes were on there way to Kirby Hall discussing some of the more intriguing new freshmen, when Earth Mother stumbled forward a shocked expression on her face.

“BEHOLD MY NEW JUNGLE KINGDOM!” a squeaky voice shouted from the general area of Earth Mothers' vine covered lower back. “I CLAIM THIS LAND IN THE NAME OF THE FAIRIES!”

Before either woman could get over their shock, the voice shouted again. “OH DOGGIE!!”

There was an eruption of leaves and flowers and a streak of colour could barely be seen flying towards a werewolf looking boy.

“What was that?” Grimes and Earth Mother asked in stereo.

**

Generator was just telling everyone in Team Kimba about how interesting Japanese class was as they went to get breakfast, when something grabbed her shirt spinning her around. It had been moving so fast she hadn't seen it moving until the last second, and before she had stopped spinning her Kitty Compact was flying with the blades out, while the rest of the team ready for action.

“HI GENERATOR!” Teri yelled, not realizing how closely she had come to pain. “DO YOU HAVE YOUR FAIRIES FOR JAPANESE CLASS?! I CAN'T WAIT TO TALK TO- RYOKO!!!!!!” the fairy girl screamed in delight upon seeing Tennyo.

Tennyo fell backwards as she was hugged by a fairy no bigger than her hand, who didn't seem to know how to shut up, as it gushed about how cool her Tenchi Muyo was.

“Jade! What is this thing?!” she finally managed to get out.

Before Jade could say anything, Teri was off and flying, screaming something about pretty flowers.

“Um,” Jade said at once for a loss of words.

**

The Outcasts stopped to watch as a group of freshmen screamed and scattered from something. Jericho discretely tried to zoom in with the spy camera he'd created and attached to his clothes where it wasn't really noticeable.

He saw a bird or something stop in midair, take one look at Razorback and begin to fly towards them like a miniature guided missile. His hand instinctively went to the sonic weapon in case the thing attacked Razor and set him off. There wasn't enough time to do more than that when the fairy stopped just over ten feet away, looked at Jericho's trendy and colourful outfit, screamed in terror and flew straight up still screaming.

'What the hell?' Razorback signed.

“I don't know,” Jericho said.

Eldritch was shaking her head and muttering something about crazy fairies.

***

Chief Delarose sat in his office going over security reports from that night as he drank his herbal tea. There was a knock on his door, and Sam came in. “Chief, we have a lot of strange reports of a talking bird assaulting students and faculty, then fleeing at high speed. No reports of injuries yet.”

“A bird?”

“Well the reports vary, but they all say it is small, has wings, talks and flies at high speeds,” Sam said.

“I think I have an idea of who it is. Just give me a minute,” Delarose said. Picking up his desk phone he hit a button for the PA system. “Tink please come to the security office. I repeat, TINK, please come to the security office immediately.”

“Where was the last reported sighting?” he asked Sam.

“By Dickinson, the student, I'm assuming, was playing with some squirrels feeding them a granola bar she had stolen from a girl.”

There was a shout from the hallway and Sam ducked just in time as a fairy girl wearing a bathing suit, came flying in and splatted against the wall behind Chief Delarose's desk. Delarose gave a long suffering sigh as he heard the girl fall to the ground.

“I'm ok. I'm ok,” Tink said. Jumping onto his desk, she stumbled over the security reports for a few seconds before falling on her back. “Hi Chief, you called me? I came as fast as I could,” she said still lying on her back.

“Ms. Mouser, what are you doing?” he asked.

“Talking to the most interesting people,” she replied.

“Why are you wearing a bathing suit?”

She raised her head high enough to look at her body. “...I don't know.”

Speaking slowly and distinctly, Delarose asked. “Do you remember what you were doing before you started flying around?”

“... Not really. There was milk... and chocolate... and I think sugar... and then things get blurry.”

He rubbed his forehead fighting off a headache. “Since you already have three weeks worth of detention, I don't want to add anymore to it. You're getting your powers tested today, so that we can, hopefully, avoid this happening again in the future. Sam can you please escort Tink to the testing lab.”

The two left, Sam carrying Tink to make sure she didn't fly away if she saw something colourful. As he tried to get back to work on the security reports, his phone rang. Sighing again he picked it up.

“Chief why am I getting calls from several faculty members about being attacked on their way to class?” Carson asked.

He rubbed his forehead again, today was going to be one of those days.

Dr. Hendricks, sat at his computer drinking straight from a bottle of something that was strong enough to strip paint, and had been made that morning by one of the newest devisors to enter the school. He would have been crying, except that there were no tears left in him. Wincing at his cut lip that despite being numbed by the alcohol, still hurt, along with the black eye and numerous bruises that covered his body, he thought about the day. He should have been in bed, he had to work in the morning, but he couldn't. The horror was still too intense.

**

“Dr. Hendricks, I'm sorry but there has been a change in the power testing schedule,” Admiral Everheart said, as she walked into the lab holding a doll in her hand.

“What? Why?” he asked, standing up so quickly he banged his head on the shelf over top his computer.

“This student, Tink, is showing unusual symptoms, irrationality, ADHD, forgetfulness and increased speed after consuming an entire box of a sugary cereal. The Chief decided it was essential to get her tested to avoid a recurrence.” She placed a fairy like girl wearing a bathing suit on an unoccupied desk.

The sight of her reminded him of the file he'd read a week ago when they were planning the testing schedule. “But her powers are relatively straightforward. Her GSD is unique but there is nothing that requires immediate attention. That's why she's scheduled for next week.”

Tink flew over to him, landing on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. “See! I'm perfectly fine, and don't need any of this. The Chief is just being overly protective. Can I go to class now, I really don't want to miss Japanese. And I have a fashion show right after lunch.”

Admiral Everheart gave her a look that would strike fear in seasoned soldiers. “Tink, after your actions this morning, you have at least ten faculty members lodging complaints against the bio devise that escaped containment. Ms. Chulkris was last seen preparing several counter spells if anyone attempted to declare her body their kingdom again. And we have five new training teams of students who have stated their desire to hunt down the crazy bird that attacked them. You need this.”

The tiny mutant looked at her feet and traced circles on Dr. Hendricks shoulder with her toe. “Oh. Sorry.”

Hendricks sighed, thinking how this would interfere with their carefully planned schedule. “Alright, let's get started. Tink we'll begin with a scan of your brain, please come with me.” She followed him to another room, where a devise that looked vaguely like a bare bones MRI sat in the middle of the room. Seeing that the girl was already in a bathing suit, he didn't bother having her strip and put on a gown.

“Lie down on the table with your head on the...” he looked at her small size. “With your body on the pillow. This will take about three minutes, and is completely painless.”

“Ok, Doc,” she said, jumping up onto the scanner.

As he began typing instructions into the terminal, he wondered what the problem was, she seemed obedient enough. After a minute, the screen lit up, Hendricks waited the few seconds it would take to show exactly what her brain activity was like.

“That's odd,” he said.

“What's odd?”

“There's nothing there,” he said punching some keys to increase the magnification.

“Are you saying I'm brainless,” an indignant voice demanded.

He looked up and saw Tink standing on top of the terminal, looking quite peeved. “What are you doing?”

“You said it would take three minutes.”

“Yes, I did. Now what are you doing out of the devise?”

“It's definitely been three minutes, so I got up.”

He looked at the clock. “No it's been just over two minutes. Please get back on the machine.”

Sighing, she flew back to the machine and laid on the pillow. Hendricks began typing in the commands again. Once more the image appeared.

Again there was nothing there.

He looked up and there was Tink, smiling contentedly. “What are you doing now?”

“It's been five minutes since I got into the machine. Are we done yet?” Tink asked.

“No,” he said slowly. “We have to start from the beginning again because you keep leaving the machine. Now please lie down and we can begin again. When I say starting, that is the beginning of the count down. Do you understand?”

“So we have to start all over again?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Lets get this over with,” she said as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

He waited until she was lying down and began typing in the commands. When he was half done, he said loudly and clearly, “Starting.”

The image came onscreen. Rather than having a nice clear picture of her brain, it was a fuzzy bundle of colour. He'd never seen anything like it. With a heavy heart he looked at the devise, Tink was there writhing and bouncing on the bed like she was having a seizure, while singing quietly to herself.

“What are you doing?!” he asked.

“Dancing.”

He took a deep breath before speaking. “Why are you dancing?”

“I'm bored.”

“Do you realize you are suppose to stay still for this?”

“Oh, you didn't tell me. You should be more clear about what to do, Doc,” she said, lying still.

Once again he began typing in the instructions. The image came up, and he started to chuckle, there was nothing there. Without looking up, he asked, “Tink, why did you move off the table?”

From the top of the terminal a high pitched voice said, “Well it's been at least four minutes since you said starting. I thought we were done.”

“Nnnnoooo. We had to start over again, because you were dancing.”

“Why didn't you say so?” she asked.

Silently, he went to his desk, and after a quick search came back with something that would help. “Tink, for this test can you please wrap your wings around yourself, and hold still for thirty seconds?”

**

As Hendricks looked over the brain scan, he had to admit his subject was finally behaving. “Just another minute and we'll be done this part of the test,” he told her.

She mumbled something, unable to speak or move thanks to the strong medical tape that wrapped around her like a cocoon.

**

“Um, this is a problem,” Dr. Hendricks said, looking at the row of needles and the girl.

“What's wrong now?” she asked, scraping at the last of the tape on her wings.

“We need to do a blood test, but the needles are too big.”

Tink looked at him with huge eyes. “Can't we just skip this part?”

He shook his head. “ We really need to do test your blood, not just to know what your blood type is but to learn how your GSD has affected it.”

“Do you need a needle? I could just give myself a cut and let it drip into the bottle, couldn't I?”

“I suppose that would work,” he said uncertainly. Grabbing a scalpel he leaned in to cut her arm.

“OH HELL NO!” she screamed, jumping back. “I'm not letting a giant do any cutting on me, I do the cutting or it doesn't happen!”

“I can't let a student cut herself! What would people say!” he said, shocked at the very idea.

“You let some freakishly tall giant cut your arm and than you can do it to me. Until then, it's not happening. I don't want to be called Lefty for the rest of my life.”

Sighing he gave her the smallest scalpel and held the vial under her arm. Wincing, even before the steel touched her flesh, she cut herself. An almost invisible drop of blood fell into the vial.

“We're going to need more than that,” he said.

“Dammit!” she shouted.

**

They finally had barely enough blood to run the various tests. Pouring the blood into the testing equipment, Hendricks spared a glance at Tink. “How are you doing?”

“I'm... fine. Why... is the... the... the... room... spinning so much?” she asked, lying on her back and looking pale.

“You're a little low on blood.” He put some energy drink into a small cup beside her. “You're a regenerator just take a drink and wait a few minutes.

**

A full physical came next, after giving Tink a few more minutes to recover. That was fine since he had had to find a magnifying glass before he could do the most basic of things. The hardest part had been finding her a gown to wear for the final part of the exam. They'd resorted to using a tissue with a hole ripped in it. A nurse was there to help out and to make sure he acted professionally during the intimate procedure.

And then they ran into a problem.

“NO! NO! NO! NO!” Tink yelled. She was sitting on the highest shelf in the room with her legs crossed and her wings folded around her.

“But it's an essential part of studying how your GSD has affected your body,” Dr. Hendricks said, from down below.

“What part of NO, don't you understand! Those things are bigger than me and you want to stick them where?!”

He looked at the speculum and had to admit she had a point.

**

Finally they were able to begin testing her powers properly.

Dr. Hendricks watched patiently as Tink ran up an 80 degree slope using her her clawed hands and the rough sand paper like soles of her feet. She was running about as fast as a good sprinter, and didn't seem to be anywhere near tiring.

“You're not going to throw a tennis ball at me are you?” she asked.

“Of course not,” he assured her. He pressed a button and a ball made of a special foam, that was the size and consistency of a tennis ball shot out of a specially made ball thrower, that judged the strength and capabilities of a test subject to create a true threat without risking serious injury.

“A tennis ball is far too primitive for Whateley,” he said, as she hit the treadmill face first and went flying to the floor. “I see you have no danger sense.”

He looked up from his console as growling filled the air.

“What are you doing with that ball?” Hendricks asked nervously.

**

“We are now beginning the strength test,” Dr. Hendricks said, wiping a bit of foam from his lips. Taking a sip of ice cold water with lots of ice to get the foam down his throat, and another pain killer for his split lip, sore gums and teeth, he pressed the button which started the weight lifting machine.

“I can't lift more than four hundred pounds, remember.” Tink said, as she started pumping.

“I remember.” He slowly upped the weight until the magnetic weights reached four hundred. Then he went a little higher. She still acted as if it was a light workout. Slowing twisting the knob the weight went up, 403, 404, 405, 406...

“AAAHHHH!!!!!!” she screamed as the weight came crashing down.

“Huh, she can lift four hundred and eight pounds now. Interesting,” he said, writing it down. Looking at the kicking legs, he said, “I'll just be a second, Tink. Have to get these findings down while they're still fresh.”

There was the clang of metal, Hendricks looked up to see Tink glaring at him angrily, slapping the bar in her hands.

“PK field can increase in strength while angry. Wish I'd known that earlier,” he said, backing away from the girl.

**

“If you'll come this way please, Tink we'll start our next test,” Dr. Hendricks said, holding open a thick metal door for the girl.

Tink glared at him, clearly not trusting what was going to happen next. With good reason, as soon as she was inside, Hendricks slammed the door shut and locked it. Limping quickly to the control panel, he pressed a button to begin the agility test, muting the mics in the room so he didn't have to listen to the non-stop swearing.

He had to admit she was pretty good, possibly having some exemplar abilities. She dodged most of the balls until he upped the speed and then she was caught between two balls and a third sent her flying into a wall as she dropped.

The test ended and he opened the door.

“Sorry about that, Tink, but I assure you it is a stand- hey what are you doing?!” he shouted as she grabbed him.

**

“Lets see how you like it!” Tink shouted.

She turned on the volleyballs and watched as the doctor tried to dodge them. Taking a bag of microwave popcorn she'd heated up a minute before while listening to Dr. Hendricks hammering on the door, she sat back and watched the show.

**

Sitting with a groan, Dr. Hendricks held the ice pack to his knee and took another pain pill. “Let's do something easier and less painful now.”

“Ok!” Tink said, happily.

Dr. Hendricks took a moment to explain the initial rules of dis chess, and they started playing. She did ok and then five minutes later the rules changed.

“Hey that's cheating!” she said as he took one of her pieces.

“No it's not. It's the rules in phase two,” he told her.

“Really?”

He nodded.

“Ok.” She took a piece and had it hopscotch across the board jumping over three of his pieces. “King me.”

“That's not right!”

“It's the rules for phase 3. Now king me.”

“Phase 3 doesn't start for another three minutes. And it doesn't have a king,” he told her.

She looked at him like he was an idiot for several moments. “How can a chess game not have a king?”

“Well it does have a king, but not that type of king.”

“Not until Phase 3 at least,” she said slowly, like she was speaking to a small and none to bright child.

“Right. No! Even in Phase 3 there isn't a king.”

“But there is a king right there,” Tink said pointing at the king.

“He doesn't count. You have to checkmate him, you can't make him.”

“Not until Phase 3, when that move I made becomes totally legal,” she insisted.

“No, that was an illegal move!”

“Until Phase 3.”

“Whatever, you have to take it back now, because it's not Phase 3 yet.”

“Actually,” she said, dragging the word out as long as possible. “It's now Phase 3.” Tink pointed at the clock which showed it had been just over three minutes. “So king me.”

Dr. Hendricks began to cry.

**

“WHY AREN'T YOU BUILDING SOMETHING?!” Dr. Hendricks yelled at an apparently sleeping Tink.

She opened an eye. “Shush, I did build something and now I'm testing it. It's called a bed. It needs work but its the best I can do with the material.”

“That is not a bed,” he cried, looking at the pipe which was full of carefully braided plastic coated wire and paper she'd grabbed from around the room.

“Maybe not for you, you're way too big, but I'm quite comfortable. You said I had thirty minutes for the test, so I still have ten minutes, and the testing phase is VERY important. I'd appreciate it if you didn't disturb me.”

Hendricks went into a nice quiet room and screamed.

**

“Has it stopped yet?” Hendricks asked, picking himself up from the floor, his face covered in black soot.

“I think so,” Tink answered, peeking out from behind her wings which were also covered in dirty soot.

“Please remember Tink. When you see shiny, glowing crystals, they are NOT marbles, and you MUSTN'T bash them together!”

“Duly noted.”

**

It was the end of the day, and the testing was finally done. Hendricks handed a paper to Tink. “This will be sent to Dr. Quintain, but you should know what's on it. You are a PK 2, with separate fields around your hands and another one around your wings which help you fly. When angry or excited it moves up to PK 3. Esper 1, to account for your night vision, Regenerator 3 on the low side, and severe GSD, since your brain shouldn't work. I'm writing you up a very special diet to avoid anything like today from happening again. STICK TO IT!!!”

Tink smiled at him, hopped up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Ok, thank you! I had a lot of fun today!”

Dr. Hendricks watched as she flew away as if nothing from the last 12 hours had happened. Limping back to his chair, he started to laugh, then the tears came.

He didn't know where the alcohol came from, only that he desperately needed it. Draining the last of it, he got up to find more, only to collapse on the floor whimpering in terror.

On Saturday morning, Teri flew glumly to the table full of Whitman girls, holding her tray of so called breakfast that had been specially made just for her. A mouselike girl she didn't know very well, called Pepper, looked at the unflavoured porridge, buttered toast, a cut up apple, and a small cup of milk, and said, “My grandmother eats that for breakfast.”

“I know. They said I can't have any sugar, or caffeine,” Teri replied in a world weary voice. “No more sweet cereal, chocolate, candy, maple syrup, chocolate, honey, high sugar juice, chocolate, ice cream, soda, chocolate, freeze pops, cake, pie, chocolate, hot chocolate, mocha's, coffee, chocolate, red bull, milk shakes, chocolate, chocolate milk, chocolate milk and red bull, sports drinks, fast food, chocolate, bacon covered chocolate, or chocolate.”

“But you can still have bacon right?” Serena asked, before biting into her bacon and egg sandwich.

“OH RIGHT!!!” Teri flew off and returned a minute later, dodging energy blasts and thrown food from hungry students, carrying a still steaming tray full of freshly cooked bacon. “Now this is a good breakfast!” she said, throwing a small stack of bacon onto her toast.

The girls helped themselves to the bacon bounty, emptying it seconds before a kitchen worker, who was so angry sparks were leaping from his fingers, could sweep in to take it back.

“Where do you put all of that food?” Grace asked, throwing a few pieces of bacon into her frog like mouth.

“They told me yesterday my stomach is super efficient, and about five sizes larger than it should be, so I eat it and it gets converted to sugar and fat in a few seconds. I need all of it to keep flying and work my PK field, so I'll never get fat. Fairy Power for the WIN!”

There were angry grumbles from the non-exemplars and energizers, who were picking at fruit and tiny pieces of food.

As the bacon feast was slowly devoured, and not so slowly in Teri's case, as she ground it up into the porridge and onto her apple, Serena asked, “So what happened yesterday? There were a couple of mobs hunting down birds, while carrying pitchforks and torches, while you were getting tested.”

Teri finished licking the bacon grease from the now empty bowl of bacon porridge, trying to hide a blush. “Well, you see, I kind of, sort of, had a rager incident.”

“A rager incident. But no one died or got beat up,” Page said, looking at her strangely.

“It's not a rager, rager incident. I just became a bit irrational, insanely hyperactive, and had my powers increase to the point that I'm now classified as a speedster while flying. They're thinking of making a new UV armband just for me,” she said, with a silly smile.

That got several strange looks. “Uh, Teri,” Serena said. “That's not something to be proud of.”

“But it means I'm special. Maybe I can get them to make it pink.”

There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence as the girls tried to think of what to say.

“Well will you look at the time, I have do some homework,” Serena said, grabbing a handful of bacon in a napkin and headed for the door with her tray. The rest of the table slowly finished eating and headed off to start their day.

Three little fairies came flying down from the upper floors as Teri put her empty tray on a stack of dirty ones.

“Teri!” they shouted. “Come on up, a friend of ours wants to meet you!”

“Another fairy?!” she exclaimed.

“No,” Brunhilde said, “our friend Fey. She's a member of Venus Inc., and was asked to pass on a message for you, since they heard that we know you.”

“Oh! Maybe they're going to ask me to join!” Grabbing Brunhilda and Trixie by the hands, they flew up to the third floor were a table held a large group of pretty girls and one handsome boy. Teri remembered the girl who looked like Ryoko from a pamphlet on the first day saying the girl was off limits for bullying or fighting, so she was curious why the girl leaned away from her as she flew down to give Generator a hug.

“HI!” she said to everyone, standing on Generators shoulder and holding an ear for balance. “Oh, hi A-Ayla, right?” she said to the girl with short, spiky black hair.

There was a round of hello's. Then the most beautiful redhead Teri had ever seen took over. “Teri, I'm Fey. I'm a-”

Teri landed right in front of her. “Oh you're pretty. Have you ever thought of modeling for cosplay? I know a lot of anime sites that would love to have an elf modeling for them. If you want I can get Mouser to ask some of them and maybe set up a double shoot, the mystic elf and the wild fairy! She'd be able to get us top dollar!”

There was laughter from around the table, and Teri realized she had maybe, possibly jumped the gun.

“I'm a sidhe, not an elf. And that is a generous offer but I'll let my agent deal with modeling contracts,” Fey said, not angrily, but not quite as warmly as she had spoken a moment before.

“Oh,” she replied, drawing a line on the table with her shoe and a small drop of apple juice. “Sorry.”

“I'm with Venus Inc., and we're interested in your portfolio. But there are some concerns about,” the beautiful girl frowned unhappily, “your appearance. So as a group we'd like to talk to you and see if you'll fit in the group. Are you free this afternoon right after lunch?”

She thought for a moment, the only important thing going on that day was her flying class, but she'd been hoping to get into town to see the tailor Cecilia for some clothes. Still that could wait, when opportunity arose she had to jump on it, eviscerate it and cook it up in a goulash, Mouser always said. “I'll be there. What should I wear?”

“Just wear something nice,” Fey said. Then looking at Teri's mouse costume added, “If you have it, something a model would wear.”

“Got it! Thank you so much for this chance, Fey,” she said, flying up to give Fey a hug. Turning back to the table. “Bye! Generator I'll definitely be in class on Monday, see you then!”

With that she flew off to get ready for her flying class.

**

Flying class was held outside Laird Hall, although according to the schedule if it was a yellow or red flag day they'd hold things in Arena 77. Wearing a polyester flight suit that looked remarkably like the uniforms worn in Neon Genesis Evangelion, just hers was done up in pink. It had cost her a pretty penny, but it was worth it.

She saw the cloud boy she'd flown with the day before sitting against the wall in his human body, which was fairly dumpy and pimply. Flying over to him, she landed on his knee. “Hi, I never caught your name when we flew together, I'm Teri.”

“I'm Ralph. Why are you in the class, you're a great flier?” he asked, his voice cracking.

“I need to practice flying higher. A strong wind knocks me for a loop. What about you, I'd think being lighter than air would work great for you.”

He snorted. “Yeah right, I can float and change shape, but wind rips me apart and if I try to move quickly I end up leaving parts of myself all over the sky.”

“Doesn't that hurt?” she asked.

“Nah, I just need to take the time pulling myself back together.” His eyes moved away from her, and his jaw dropped. “Who are those?”

Teri turned and saw two beautiful girls, both blonde haired and blue eyes, the older one had angel wings, the other one looked like a wingless angel. “No idea.” Jumping off of Ralph's knee she looked at the rest of the class, which was made up of twenty five students, twelve of whom had wings, two who had jet packs, and the rest looked land bound, but that didn't mean anything here.

A woman walked up to the class, she was very plain except for her golden snake like eyes. The angel winged girl moved to stand beside her. “Good morning class, and welcome to Flying 1. Here you will be learning how to fly, or if you already know how to fly, how to do it better. My name is Mrs. Cavallo, Angel is my TA.”

She took a moment to look at everyone, her eyes seemed to narrow when they fell on Teri. “This class can be dangerous. We won't be flying high enough to have to contact the FAA, so if you fall you're more likely to hit the ground before we can catch you. Also, after we see how well you can handle flying, we'll begin doing obstacle courses, coordinated flying, stunts and rescue scenarios. We have almost as many injuries as Basic Martial Arts, and that is not something I'm proud of. If you intentionally interfere with another student, you will get a detention. If your interference or blatant stupidity causes another student or yourself to become injured, you will fail. Are there any questions?”

There was silence.

“Alright,” Mrs. Cavallo said. “First lets divide you into groups. Who considers themselves a good flier?”

Teri raised her hand, flying up so that people could actually see her. Fifteen others raised their hands, almost all the students with wings, and one of the jetpack kid. Angel reached into a bag and pulled out a few balls, handing one to everyone who'd raised their hand. Teri noticed she was careful to drop them into the hands of the boys, while placing them into the girls hands.

“Now, you lot will show me what you've got. Spread well out, and press the red button on the snitch, it will fly straight up and begin doing some simple maneuvers. You're job is to catch the snitch within one minute, without crashing,” the teacher instructed.

They spread out giving each other at least fifty feet of space to all sides. As they did that, Mrs. Cavallo transformed, the air around her seemed to solidify, gaining colour and texture. Within seconds a giant rainbowed feathered, winged serpent, easily twenty feet long sat coiled up where the teacher had been. It's giant reptilian eyes looked over them, while a long forked tongue flicked in and out of a mouth that could swallow a child in one bite.

Several of the students did their own transformation. Gaining wings, muscular bodies, glowing auras and more. They waited while Mrs. Cavallo flew into the sky on thirty foot long wings. When she was about a hundred feet up, she roared, “Go!'

Teri hit the snitch and watched as the ball silently rocketed upwards. When it was thirty feet up, it slowed down and began spiraling through the air. She took off after it, ignoring a scream and a muffled explosion to her right and a long drawn out scream that was quickly fading off to the left.

The snitch had stopped moving and was floating quite leisurely above her. Putting on a burst of speed, she tried to catch it only to have it jink to the side. Spinning on a dime, she followed, using every bit of speed she had. They headed for the ground, where the students were watching, gasping and laughing as they watched the performance.

Green grass filled her eyes, the snitch looked like it was going to plow right into it, but at the very last second it seemed to hit an invisible floor and bounced high into the air twice as fast. Teri ducked her head, spun onto her back and jackknifed her body, so she didn't break her neck. Slapping her feet against the grass she jumped to increase her speed, barely keeping up with the thing.

Angel yelled out, “Thirty seconds!”

Simple maneuvers my ass, Teri thought, when the snitch began zigzagging, dropping like a stone and soaring back up.

“Fifty seconds!”

Gritting her teeth, there was no way she was going to let some cheating ball get the best of her. Her wings stiffened, and when the snitch rose into the air, going from twenty feet to a hundred in three seconds, she was less then an inch away from it the entire way. As it slowed to change course, Teri drove her hand into it, shattering the shell.

“STOP!”

Breathing hard, Teri flew to the ground, the snitch surrounding her hand like a glove. She saw jet pack girl working her smoking machine, growling as it snapped and popped at her. Three students were on the ground nursing bruises, four were sitting around triumphantly holding their snitches, three more were flying down with big smiles. The rest were sinking to the ground looking unhappy.

Mrs. Cavallo flew down, her body turning to mist until her human form was standing before them again. “Most of you did quite well,” she said with a smile. “Even some of you who didn't catch the snitch show promise. Those of you who managed to catch a snitch are going to be the leaders of your groups.”

The next two minutes were spent giving each leader three students to help out, all except for Teri, she got four, two of them were students who had gotten hurt trying to catch the snitch, and the other two look terrified.

“Hi, I'm Teri!” she said, while trying to pry the snitch off her hand.

As she rolled on her back, kicking the snitch with her feet, the students introduced themselves. Mr. Awesome, a handsome boy who had a bad goose egg and could manifest bat wings from his arms. Cleo a soft spoken girl who could levitate and do some simple flying. Sue, who had nearly broken her leg trying to get off the ground. And Mitchell, who couldn't stop fidgeting, and said he could fly on a jet of flame.

After being given a few minutes to get to know each other, Mrs. Cavallo got down to business. “Leaders, you are going to help your teammates, and keep an eye on any problems. You don't have to fix a problem, just point it out and let Angel or I know about it, if it doesn't improve. Everyone else, it's in your best interest to help out and listen. You will be graded both independently and as a group, 50/50, and the final exam is a group test.”

Giving them a second to consider that fact, she went back to shouting. “Now lets get into the air, just ten or twenty feet, nice and slow.”

“Come on guys, this is easy!” Teri said flying up.

Mr. Awesome grew his wings, and leapt into the air, going up twenty feet and circling as tightly as possible. Sue jumped nine feet into the air and came back down to earth, stopping just shy of the grass, then flapping her arms like they were wings, she slowly rose to ten feet and was able to stop flapping. Cleo walked up like she was taking the stairs, and stopped at exactly ten feet, sitting down to wait. Mitchell didn't move.

Flying down, Teri landed on his shoulder. “What's wrong Mitch?”

“I don't think this is a good idea. I really didn't want to take this class,” he whispered.

“Why not? It's cool to fly?”

His cheeks turned red. “For you maybe. You have a cool power, I just make flames. And they said I had to take this class.”

“Flames are cool. A girl in my floor can make flames, but she can't fly. Come on it can't be that bad.”

“I really don't want to.”

“Do you want to make us fail?” she asked. “Come on, if you do it, I'll give you a kiss. PLEASE!!!!”

“Fine,” Mitchell muttered.

He squatted down, Tink stayed on his shoulder wondering what would happen next.

Fire erupted from Mitchell's bottom, making him resemble either a space ship taking off or someone who had eaten the hottest chili in the history of the world. Somehow people all over the campus could hear Teri's swearing in terror as they headed into orbit.

**

Serena was working on some math problems when she heard the tiny door open. There was a faint thump as if something had fallen and a faint, unpleasant smell filled the room. Turning to the door, she gasped and jumped to her feet. “Teri, what happened?!”

The fairy looked up, her usually beautiful hair was a mess, her large eyes seemed even larger and mostly pupil, her pink suit was dark and filthy from the waist down.

“I-I-I saw- I saw stars!”

**

Teri looked up at her roommate, her head was still spinning from the magical rocket ride and the high altitude rescue. They'd offered to take her to Doyle, but she wasn't physically hurt, so had just staggered back home.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“about twelve, I was about to go get some lunch,” Serena said.

“ACK! I have to get ready!” She was on her feet instantly, and then flying around the room seemingly at random grabbing clothes, before dropping them, then her wash basin, and putting that down, finally settling on her small bag of toiletries. “Get me the strongest hair blower in the cottage!” she yelled.

“Why?!”

“I have a meeting with Venus Inc., right after lunch. I have to wash up, dry off, fix my hair, wear something nice, and I need it done yesterday!” Without looking back, she flew through the door, leaving a baseball size hole in it.

Flying over the heads of the few girls in the hall, she hit the shower at about forty miles an hour, which was blessedly empty. Turning the water on full blast, her claws shredded the ruined outfit, there was no way she was going to get the stains out, and she didn't want to touch it anymore than she had to.

The next five minutes was a mad dash of soap, shampoo, conditioner and bubbles. The mouse girl, Pepper, was knocked on her butt, as Teri flew out not bothering to dry off. A faint sorry, could barely be heard.

Back in her room, Serena was just coming back holding a hair blower that was large enough and so dangerous looking it would make Dirty Harry jealous. “I got this from Ms. Savage. She said it's for some of the hairier girls. Are you sure about this?” her roommate asked looking at the massive thing uneasily.

“Definitely!” Teri said ignoring her nakedness as she braced herself on her desk.

“Ok, your funeral,” Serena muttered. Raising the potentially lethal weapon, two handed with her legs spread for balance, she hit the switch.

If either girl screamed it couldn't be heard over the small sonic boom. Serena hit the floor, instinctively turning her bones and muscles into water so she bounced and jiggled as she hit, rather than getting bruised.

Teri, pulled herself out of the crater that had once been a wall, falling to her knees, completely dry, she gasped a few times to get her breath back. “When... will the... hurting... stop?”

**

After a few minutes to recover, and give Serena time to tell Ms. Savage they needed a wall repaired, Teri was combing the plaster out of her hair, which was standing on end making her look like a purple hedgehog.

“I'm doomed!” she moaned, looking in the mirror.

“No your not. Just hold still,” Serena said, pulling out some styling gel. While Teri sat there, talented fingers, rubbed the stuff into her hair pulling it straight, and quickly braiding the mess into a stiff braid that could potentially club a person to death, but kept the wild hair under control. “I never thought playing hairdresser for my dolls would come in handy,” she said as Teri admired the look.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Teri shouted.

“Yeah, just remember this when I need some help. And please for the love of god, put some clothes on.”

Looking at the clock there wasn't much time left. She had wanted to put on a fancy princess dress, or a business suit, but there wasn't time to mess with all the buttons and things. As she looked through her closet, a dark gold, backless, high slit Chinese style dress practically leapt out at her. It had a skull pattern in a dark purpley blue, since it was a copy of a dress worn by the Female Emperor Hancock from the anime One Piece, it wasn't her first choice, but desperate times and all.

Throwing it on, along with a pair of tight nylon shorts, she was acceptable. Not her usual fabulous self, but definitely passable. Opening the window she flew out the window and headed for Crystal Hall.

People were leaving the cafeteria, although late students, slow eaters and big eaters were still sitting at the tables. Teri's stomach rumbled as she smelled food, but there wasn't time. Flying up to the third floor she saw Fey and quite a few other girls sitting around the table she'd heard was reserved for Venus Inc.

Stopping on the railing she checked her hair one last time, and smoothed out her skin tight dress. Satisfied, she flew over to the table, a big smile on her face. “Hi, I'm Teri. Thanks so much for seeing me.”

Some of the faces were friendly, Fey was smiling, and she got a small smile from one of the older girls who was a blue eyed, blonde haired beauty, a well tanned girl looked at her strangely, but she was smiling to. Several of the girls who were all beautiful, looked uncertain and a few were scowling.

“Please sit down, Tink,” a girl who had a place of honour at the head of the table said. “I'm Heartbreaker, the head of Venus Inc.”

She set down on the table, tucking her skirt carefully under her as she knelt down as demurely as possible, holding her wings behind her like angel wings. For the first time in a long time she felt nervous with all the eyes on her.

“She can't even us a chair,” someone muttered.

“We've looked over your portfolio, Tink. It's very surprising for such a short time,” Heartbreaker said.

She blushed, “Thank you. I got most of the jobs through my guardian Mouser.”

“Still, we aren't sure if you're quite right for this club. Most of our photos are for companies, organizations, school brochures, and similar things. Anime and fantasy websites are not really something we've looked at.”

Teri nodded in understanding. “I'm flexible. I can do movies, Halloween, Christmas, I'd be great on Valentines day. And I'm great with kids, I've done childrens parties as a fairy princess.”

That got a snort from one girl. “Please. The camera will barely be able to see you. And were are we going to find costumes for you?”

“The clothes are a problem, however, with a bit of planning they aren't a deal breaker. And she has had professional photo's taken of her, so that isn't even worth talking about,” Fey said.

Teri gave her a big smile and a thumbs up, before returning to being prim and proper.

“Her size doesn't matter, but her attitude does,” a black haired model said. “What would people think if we let a hyperactive girl who terrorized half the school yesterday, and got into a fight on her first day into the club? She already has how many days of detention at Hawthorne?”

That got several nods.

Fey gave them all an imperious look. “She has an attitude, but if detention and fights were a reason to deny entry I should have been thrown out last year. And some of us have worse records.”

For some reason, several eyes turned to look at the blonde girl, who blushed and looked at her lap.

“About yesterday, they have me on a diet so that won't happen again,” Teri said.

She was ignored, as the group formed sides, and people started arguing about how a hyperactive, uncontrollable GSD case could be a professional model. Fey and two other girls were arguing for her most strongly, while the blonde, who was called Solange jumped in occasionally. The rest of the group either argued with them or looked very uncomfortable and avoided looking at Teri. Heartbreaker sat silently and listened to the arguments, only speaking up if it got too loud, or someone became too rude.

Teri tried to make herself heard a few times, but no one was listening to her. After two minutes of being ignored, she stood up and shouted, “QUIET!”

There was silence.

With her head held high Teri looked at the entire table. “I didn't think that my wanting to join would be a problem, after all I am already a professional model with a fan club. But if you are so threatened by me,” she glared at the head of the Anti-Teri side, “than I don't want to cause any hard feelings. I'll still model, and be a success, without your help. After all I've been in a movie, can any of you say that?”

She didn't wait for an answer. “So take me off your list, I don't want to be in your group anyways.” With that she blew a big raspberry at the girls and flew away.

Making her way down to the floor, she heard shouting erupt behind her.

**

In the safety of her room, which had a new patch on the door, Teri was making a poster. She looked at it carefully, trying to decide if she had the words just right. It definitely needed some colour, but she knew an artist online who could do that for her.

Glancing at the clock, she realized she had to go to detention, with a sigh she put the marker down and flew away.

When Serena came in later, she saw an odd message on the desk.

Saturday, September 8th

Three little witches sat around the table in Crystal Hall, looking at all the other kids who could cast great magic spells, while they were still stuck making nice tea and struggling to get even the tiniest bit of essence that other kids seemed to pick up just by breathing.
Clover pulled her hat down as a freshman waved his fingers and his tray went sailing across the cafeteria to join the rest of the dirty dishes. “It's a new year and we still can't do anything really cool!” she whined.
“It's all because we don't have essence,” Abra said, taking a savage bite from her salad.
Palantir focused in on some freshmen who were talking excitedly about their classes and sharing the few spells they knew. “Well lets go get some. There are so many new kids here we can get some of their essence to spark ours before they know what we're doing.”
“Yes! We just have to move quickly we can do it!” Clover practically shouted. “We just need to find the best person to take it from.”
Abra looked off into the distance. “The closest we came to getting essence was when we took it from the ghost...”
“We are NOT going after a scary ghost again,” Clover said, hugging her familiar Buttons to her chest.
“No, no, no,” Abra agreed quickly. “But there are magical students here. There's one in my dorm, a fairy girl. She has to be loaded with essence, and she doesn't seem to know anything about magic.”
“Is that the one who started the food fight on the first day? She seems kind of scary,” Palantir said, unthinkingly rubbing her shoulders. Seeing the girl hanging from a light by her bra looked painful.
“She's not that scary Pali. I live on the same floor as her and she doesn't seem to pay a lot of attention to anything. We can trick her easy,” Abra assured her. “She has detention at Hawthorne, and always takes the same way on green flag days.”
**

Teri rushed across the campus to get to her detention. She was suppose to help a spider girl with her English homework and after the crummy way Venus Inc., had acted, she was hoping for something nice and relaxing. So she never noticed the carefully drawn runes hidden in the tall grass until she ran into an invisible wall nose first.
“OW!” she screamed rubbing her face. “Ok, who hardened the air?” A quick check showed she was surrounded on all sides.
She heard some muttering from the nearby bushes. “Hey, help me outta here, I have to get to detention and I don't want to be late.” No one came out.
Tapping her foot, she put her chin in her hand to think of a clever way out of the trap. Her eyes lit up as the answer came to her. She flew straight up keeping her hand touching the side of the invisible wall. At ten feet it started to curve inwards, at fifteen feet she hit the top of the sphere and started heading back down.
“Ok, someone is in a lot of trouble, I'm now late for my detention!” she shouted as she landed on the ground.
Jutting out her chin, Teri began to fly in a circle her wings just touching the side of the trap. She picked up speed. She was not going to stay in this stupid trap any longer, she started going so fast the trees and bushes around her were a blur. Then she hit the wall... and bounced. Refusing to slow down, she hit the other side and bounced backwards, each time she went a bit faster getting more and more frustrated.
**
“She's like a ping pong ball, shouldn't she be slowing down?” Clover asked.
“Don't worry,” Palantir said, “just give her another minute or two and she'll realize she can't escape, then we go and make a deal with her.”
Abra looked at the blur of movement bouncing around the circle. “Yeah, sure. If she's still conscious.”
“One more minute and she'll stop.”
**
Ten minutes later, sweating, suffering a headache and ready to spit nails, Teri finally sank back to the ground. “Great, now my hairs a mess to. And I'm so late!”
Walking to the edge of the circle, she saw a carefully drawn line, kicking it didn't do anything. Neither did grabbing a piece of grass and poking at it. Then she had a eureka moment. Getting down on her hands and knees she started digging, focusing her PK field around her hands into something like a shovel so she could take out big piles of dirt in one go. In less than a minute she was crawling out the other side.
“Great, I'm filthy and late!” she cried, taking to the air and leaving a comet tail of dirt behind her as she flew to Hawthorne as fast as possible.
She never saw the three young teens come out of the bushes, staring at the magic circle.
Clover and Buttons looked at Pali, “Sure, lets wait for her to get annoyed and give up. She'll give us anything to get out.”
“I didn't even know you could dig your way out of a magic circle,” Palantir said.
“Don't worry our next trap will work perfectly,” Abra assured them. “And hey, we can have a sleepover. I don't have a roommate until next Friday.”
They cleaned up the circle and headed back to to Whitman to talk about the next plan.
**
“I swear, I was trapped in a some kind of invisible trap. I didn't want to be late,” Teri said as Ms. Cantrell glared at her. “Look at my clothes and hair, I had to dig my way out of it.”
“Get to work, you know what room you're to go to. And you're making up the time so don't take off at five like you usually would,” the big woman said.
“Sure,” she replied, as she flew off.
The door was open when she reached the students room. Inside was a girl who didn't look that scary from the waist up, but her lower half was all spider, a big one, with a red patch on the back. She was busy writing something while looking in a history book.
“Hi, Emilia right?” Teri asked flying inside.
“Yeah, that's right, Teri. We're in the same costume class,” she said putting her pen down.
“Oh right, I remember seeing you in there. Why do you sit all the way at the back? It must be annoying to look through everyone's head.”
She pointed at her spider butt. “I'd be in the way of everyone else if I was near the front.”
Teri gave a shrug to that. “So what exactly do you need help with? I'm in English II, so I should be able to help you.”
“Composition. Mr. Lord says I need a lot of work on writing essays,” she practically whispered, hiding her face with her hair.
“That's easy to fix. What do you like?” Teri asked, sitting on the desk.
“I like fashion.”
Teri pulled over a piece of paper, and then grabbed a pen for Emilia. “Ok! I like fashion to, I'm a model actually. So let's pick a topic, your favourite fashion brand. First you need an introduction. To do that...”

**
As Teri flew back to Whitman, thinking about having to wash herself for the second time that day, she never noticed the three girls who were trying to watch her while looking like they weren't. If she had noticed them, her week would probably have been much more peaceful.

**
Sunday, September 9th
Whitman Cottage

“Are you sure this is safe?” Abra asked her friends, as they sat in her room in Whitman looking at the equipment for the next trap.

“Sure,” Clover said, playing with the net she and Buttons had borrowed from the grounds keepers earlier. “They use this type of net to keep birds from eating the seeds when they plant flower beds. Tink won't get hurt by it.”

“And we know she can't get hurt by sugar. She just gets a little hyper and silly. So we put the net over her window tonight, put some sugar on her snacks and get her to follow the pretty ball. She gets caught in the net and we take her essence. She won't even know what's happening until we're long gone.” Palantir said. “It will be easy.”

“Alright. Teri should be coming back from detention soon, and Serena is out, so we need do this now if we're going to,” Abra said.

The three little witches, two of whom not so little now that they were fourteen and freshmen, casually walked down the hallway. Since it was a sunny Sunday the dorm was pretty much empty, even the girls who were doing homework were outside taking in the sun at one of the tables, benches or simply sitting on a blanket on the grass.

After knocking on the door to make sure both girls were gone, Abra opened the door using a tiny bit of magic. With the coast clear they slipped inside. Each girl had a small bag of sugar, Abra went to the small dresser opening it up to see a small pile of doll clothes, and lots of snacks all of them sugar free. There was an open bag of trail mix on top. Carefully opening the sugar, she began pouring a little bit in the trail mix when there was a knock on the door.

All of them stopped dead, not even breathing. There was another knock. Abra's nose started to itch, she had to sneeze. She scrunched up her face, fighting the urge as best she could. Finally, just when she was sure she couldn't hold it in any longer, they heard footsteps going down the hall. They gasped in relief, and she scratched her nose. Then she gasped. The bag of sugar was empty.

Looking at the trail mix, she saw everything was covered in sugar. Giving it a couple of shakes, made the sugar less noticeable, but not by much.

“I'm done,” Clover said closing the small mini-fridge. “Let's go.”

Putting the trail mix back, Abra didn't say anything as they made their way out. A little extra sugar wouldn't hurt anything.

Back in Abra's room, they hugged each other for a job well done. But Clover had a question, “Pally, where did you get the sugar? I thought the lunch ladies would yell at you for taking that much.”

“I didn't get it from Crystal Hall, those lunch ladies are scary. I just grabbed some I found lying around, no one was using it,” Pallly replied.

**

The Tunnels

Hazmat looked around his workshop, very confused. He was missing one of his new sugar derivative samples, that if successful would revolutionize energy drinks. He'd worked on it all summer, and after some safety tests, he wanted to show it to Ayla.

“Belphegor, if you've taken it I'm going to... do something very nasty,” he said to himself, stalking off to find the thief.

The Tunnels

Teri flew through the tunnels following the directions written on a sheet of paper. She was smiling and bobbing happily in the air, having had a good day, all of her homework was done, she'd been able to play with India and Dr. Heavy for her detention, and now she was going to meet a devisor to get a bag of holding.

She came to a door, looking at the note she saw that it was the right one, and knocked loudly. A pear shaped boy, with thick glasses, that reeked of science nerd, even without looking at his lab coat opened the door. “You're Tink?” he asked looking at her in fascination.

“Yep. You're Mobius I guess. I really need your help,” Teri said.

“How can you think with such a small head?” he asked.

She crossed her arms and gave him her best glare. “Why does every scientist say that? I'm really smart!”

“Sorry, come on in. You want to buy some of my bags right?”

“Yeah. And I have an idea for a weapon I'd like built,” she told him flying into the rather large lab.

“I don't do weapons, but if you tell me about it I can point you to someone who does. How big do you want the bags?”

Tink pulled a piece of paper out of her change purse. She'd drawn it large enough for big people to see it. “I have all of it written down here. It's really small for most people so I think I should be really easy to do.”

He took a few moments to look it over. “My pinky wouldn't fit through the opening of this pocket.”

“My head is as big as your pinky,” she pointed out.

He cocked his head, looking at her again. “Well, you've got me there. The satchel is easy enough to do, the belt is impossible, it's way too small. But a belt with some larger pouches on it could work. And you want the tubes for your... fairy claws coming out of them, it would definitely be easier to make them into pouches that clip onto your belt, that way you can switch the load quickly.”

“So how much?”

“Five thousand for everything. Usually I'd charge three times that, but these are small enough I don't need to spend much on material or time.”

“FIVE THOUSAND! That's ridiculous! Two thousand,” she countered.

“Do you know how many people want my bags? 4800.”

“Hah! I'm not some stupid kid who doesn't know how much something is worth, three thousand.”

They finally agreed on four thousand dollars, half up front.

“So, about the weapon, who can make me my claws and everything?” Teri asked, after they finished transferring the money on the computer.

“For something this small, you'll want to talk to Generator. She's -”

“Oh I know her, we're in Japanese class together!” Teri exclaimed. “She can do this?”

Mobius nodded. “Yeah, her devises are useless to everyone else, but for detail work you won't find anyone better.”

Teri flew up and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for everything, Mobius. I'll be back to to pick up the satchel in a week. Bye bye!”

Mobius didn't respond as Teri flew out the door, he was holding his cheek with a look of shock that a pretty girl would kiss him willingly. Even if she was only six inches tall.

**

That night, Teri went up to the tv room where a bunch of the Whitman girls were watching Shrek 3. Some girls had made up a huge barrel full of popcorn,and there were sugary drinks, candy and chocolate being shared freely. She watched the chocolate being eaten with big puppy dog eyes, but since everyone knew what had happened Friday, no one was willing to give her any. Instead she got a big bowl of popcorn dripping with butter and shared it with her roommate Serena, and her friend Page.

Halfway through the movie, she needed something with a bit of sugar, even if it wasn't a lot. Flying to her room, she grabbed the open bag of trail mix which had raisins, dates, and small pieces of dried fruit in it, which was just enough to satisfy her sugar cravings.

Wanting to get back to the movie, she just reached in and grabbed a raisin to tide herself over for the flight back upstairs. She never noticed the grains of sugar coating it. It touched her tongue and her hyper metabolism went to work.

**

Palintir, waited outside Whitman, floating on her ball of energy, while her friends waited down below. The net was in place and in the darkness it was virtually invisible. They each held a couple of ropes that were tied to the net, so that as soon as the fairy girl flew into it, they could pull it down. All they needed to do was wait for Teri to eat some trail mix and she'd catch the girl's attention.

The tiny door opened, and she saw Teri fly inside. The window was open, so she could hear a drawer open and plastic rustling. There was a high pitched whine, which might have been a squeal of joy.

The little witch made a ball appear just outside the window and made it dance. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Drifting closer to the window she risked looking inside, there was nothing there. Had Teri left the room? Maybe she hadn't grabbed the right bag. She risked a closer look and screamed.

A tiny face appeared out of nowhere, as if it had teleported. It was grinning so widely it looked painful, it had pure black eyes, purple hair was standing on end, and it was vibrating.

It opened it's mouth and another high pitched squeak filled the air. The next thing Palintir knew, she was yanked off her ball and flying through the air hanging onto the rope for dear life, with Clover and Abra screaming in terror along for the ride.

**

Teri felt wonderful.

She finished off the bag of trail mix which was the best food in the whole entire world. NO! The whole entire GALAXY! And now she was floating on a cloud, moving peacefully and slowly. Something bobbed outside the window, it looked like it was in slow motion.

She watched it for what seemed like hours, and then she casually flew over to the window to get a better look. Everything was such pretty, pretty colours. The moon was dancing in front of her. It was pretty to. She wondered why the sun hadn't risen yet, it had had more than enough time to rise. Maybe it was being lazy and wanted to sleep in.

Yeah that made sense.

“Hi moon. Can I play with you?” she asked.

The moon seemed to nod.

“Oh thank you!” she said, flying through the screen not even realizing it was there.

The moon suddenly vanished. “Oh you want to play hide and seek do you?” she asked. “Ok, I'll find you.”

Teri flew off to find the moon. She could hear it laughing, but she couldn't actually see it, there were just some big birds following her.

**

Clover managed to climb up high enough to get her hands around the net itself. Her knuckles were white and it felt like her hair was being ripped out, and she couldn't feel her hands, arms or shoulders anymore, but she was pretty sure she wouldn't fall to her death right away. Ducking her head, she could just barely see Pally and Abra hanging onto the net, through her half closed eyes.

“CAN WE JUMP?” she shouted, hoping to be heard.

“NO! TOO FAST!” one of her friends screamed. She couldn't actually tell who it was.

Maybe if they waited a few more minutes, the fairy would tire out. They could hang on for a little longer, they weren't really doing anything other than going fast. She could hold on, she told herself.

Clover began feeling some hope that they just might survive as they started to slow down. When they stopped, she started to giggle, then laugh in relief. They were at least a hundred feet up in the air, but they'd stopped. Pally was a few feet above her, and Abra was at her feet, they were laughing to.

“We're alive,” Clover said.

She never heard her friends reply as they went from zero to sixty in about five seconds and kept going faster. Then the loop de loops and barrel rolls, started.

**

Teri couldn't find the moon anymore. “Moon! Oh Moon! Where are you?” she called out, zipping around Crystal Hall a few times for fun.

She finally came to a stop in the air. The birds were still following her. She'd never seen birds so persistent before. They were talking to each other a little bit below her.

Maybe, she thought, they were trying to catch the moon. That was why the moon didn't want to play anymore, it was scared of the birds. It made perfect sense. So if she got rid of the birds, the moon would come out to play.

“YES! DON'T WORRY MOON! I'LL SAVE YOU FROM THESE NASTY BIRDS!”

She started flying again, slowly building up speed.

**

“I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!” Abra screamed.

She could see some people flying through the air after them, but anytime anyone came close, Teri did some crazy midair maneuver that sent them flying high into the sky or almost into the ground and the rescuers were left heading in the wrong direction.

And the entire time it sounded like a squirrel was laughing on fast forward.

Someone came flying straight at them. Abra somehow found the strength to bend her arms and clutch the net even harder. As expected Teri did a ninety degree turn and somehow went even faster. Not that it matter to Abra or her friends.

Abra screamed as the net suddenly went slack, she saw Teri flying away, the tiny figure bathed in the light from Crystal Hall, as she, Clover and Pally were left far behind and falling towards the ground. No one was close enough to save them.

Suddenly a big blue ball appeared in the middle of the net. Their fatal fall slowed and a few seconds later they hit the ground painfully but not fatally.

Letting go of the net proved almost impossible, but somehow the three little witches, managed to untangle themselves and stagger away before anyone caught them.

**

The birds had finally gone away, but there were more birds following her now, and the moon was still too scared to come out. Yawning, Teri decided that this game wasn't any fun anymore and it was time to go to bed.

Flying back to her room, she saw two windows, and went through the one that seemed the most stable. There was a loud crash and a scream, but she didn't care. Landing on her bed, it was a lot pointier and less comfortable then she remembered. She was too tired to care, without a care in the world Teri fell asleep.

**

Hive walked into Whitman, with a full security detail behind her. Mrs. Savage met her at the stairs.

“Admiral, I don't believe you need this many men with you. Whatever Teri was doing, she is asleep now. The only damage I've heard about is a hole in the wall, so this can wait until morning,” the house mother said.

“I'm sorry Mrs. Savage, but there are a dozen reports that she was dragging three students behind her. We need to investigate this and see if anyone was hurt as quickly as possible,” Hive said.

They marched up the stairs and went to Teri's room, where a group of girls, including the other occupant of the dorm were looking inside with worried expressions. They got more worried when they saw the armed security team.

Hive walked in first, there was a large hole in the wall about five feet away from the window, and a baseball size hole in the comforter, sheet and mattress. Loud snoring could be heard from the hole. Kneeling beside the bed, she loudly said, “Teri, time to wake up.”

There was some mumbling, followed by louder snoring.

Sighing, she stood up, and projected her voice in the best military fashion. “TERI MOUSER! You're late for class!”

The mattress jumped up and exploded in midair. Plaster fell from the ceiling where a basketball size hole seemed to just appear. A second hole opened up in the ceiling, followed by screaming, and yet another hole was torn in the wall.

Everyone blinked in amazement.

Twenty seconds later, Teri was standing in the window covered in plaster, leaves and dirt. “It's too early for school, Mom. Just let me sleep for another hour.” She fell to the floor, snoring before she hit the ground.

“Let's get her to Doyle. We need to see what her blood sugar level is.” She did a quick scan of her files and found the name of Teri's roommate. “Serena, what did she eat today?”

One of the girls stepped forward. “She had some popcorn, and she said she was going to get some trail mix. But she's had it before, it only has some dried fruit which doesn't affect her.”

Hive looked at the floor and saw a small bag with a few seeds at the bottom. She picked it up carefully and sealed it so they could see if there was sugar in it. Taking Teri in her other hand, she carried the sleeping girl out of the room.

**

The three little witches sat in Abra's room, since they'd asked Mrs. Savage very nicely if they could have a sleepover. They were busy trying to work some feeling back into their arms.

“Let's never do that again,” Clover said.

“Right. For the next plan, NO sugar!” Abra said.

“Don't worry I have a great plan. And just think how much essence she must have to be able to do all of that!” Pally said.

They all leaned in to discuss the plan for tomorrow night.

“I'm telling you, I didn't plan on eating sugar!” Teri said to Chief Delarose. “I've been framed! I had to search for an hour finding snacks that would help keep me filled up and had had the right amount of sugar the doc's recommended.”

“So what were you doing flying around the school with three students hanging from a net behind you, breaking holes in walls and causing mayhem, beyond what you usually do?” he asked.

Her face turned beet red. “I was playing hide and seek with the moon, and trying to get rid of some birds that were flying after me and scaring away the moon.” She scowled at them. “Hey I was drugged, it doesn't have to make sense!”

“Do you know why someone would want to drug you?”

“They're afraid of my great beauty. They want to see me acting silly. The ancient enemy of my people wants to see me killed so his three sons can destroy the world. How the hell should I know!”

He sighed, “Do you know who the three girls flying with you were?”

“No clue. They looked like big talking birds to me. Can I get ready for class now? I need to talk with Generator about somethings and I don't want to miss anymore classes if it's not an emergency,” she asked.

“Fine. We've got your statement, if we find anything we'll let you know. For right now, we're marking it down as a prank that got out of hand. If you notice any other problems please tell security as soon as possible.” With that he left the hospital room so she had some privacy.

Stripping out of the makeshift hospital gown which was actually just a dishcloth with a hole for her head and a slit on the back, Teri quickly got dressed in a business suit that Serena had very nicely brought for her the night before. A quick check out with the nurse on staff, and she was flying off to Whitman to get her school supplies.

**

Chief Delarose got to his office, and was met by Hive.

“Good morning Chief, I've got an analysis of the sugar Teri was given last night, and I've already spoken to the devisor who made it,” she said, without much preamble.

“Devisor sugar?”

“Yes. Hazmat reported to his teacher that a batch of sugar he'd made with an idea of marketing it as an energy enhancer to sports drink companies was stolen from his workstation early Sunday morning. So he's not a suspect.”

Delarose shook his head and thanked whoever was listening that Teri had only decided to go flying rather than following whatever caught her attention. “Any suspects?”

“His first thought was Belphagor, but he's not doing any projects that require sugar, and he has no reason to go after Teri. So we really don't know.”

“What does this sugar do? Will we have more students on sugar highs?”

“It's about twice as potent as regular sugar, and when perfected it won't let the person crash quite as hard. From how Teri went to sleep and wouldn't wake up after her flight, I'm guessing this batch was a work in progress,” she told him.

“Lovely. Go check her room and see if anything else has been dosed with it.”

**

Teri made it to Japanese class with ten minutes to spare, thanks to grabbing a couple of granola bars from Crystal Hall. Generator came in a few minutes later and sat down beside her, bringing out the three fairies.

“Hi Teri. I saw you flying last night, that was pretty cool. I didn't know you could go that fast,” the Japanese girl said.

“I didn't either. The doctors told me I got to about a hundred miles an hour.” She flexed her wings. “I'm definitely feeling it this morning. Can you help me with something? I was told you're the go to girl for making fine detailed things.”

“Sure, what do you need?”

She pulled out her plans for the fairy claws. “I need a hold out for martial arts, and thought this would be a cool idea. See I want to make a larger set of metal claws to go over my hands, and there will be a sprayer that can put out puffs of things like itching powder, stink gas, pepper spray, and things like that. I've already got Mobius working on the pouches to hold everything.”

Generator looked at the plans, while her fairies read over her shoulder. The four of them started talking about what they'd need, how to improve it, and how long it would take. “This is going to be hard. The basic stuff is easy, but getting a pump that small will be a problem. What if we made it into something like a bracer. The pump can be strapped along your forearm, I'll armour it so you have like a little shield, and instead of having it come out the claws, it will be at your wrist.”

“Oooo, armour is good.”

“I could also make you a magic fairy wand. Have the tube attached to the end, acting as a rope so you can't drop it, and the wand is just the pump, made to look pretty.”

Brunhilda the fairy flicked Jade's ear. “You're over thinking things. We can get one of the belt pouches made about twice as big, and put the pump in there. It keeps the actual weapon nice and slim, and we can put more armour around it so it won't be crushed the first time she's hit.”

“Oh, right, that makes things so much easier.”

“So you can do it?” Teri asked.

“Oh yeah, as long as you can get Mobius to make one of the pouches about twice as deep, we're in business. Because everything is so small, all you'll really have to pay for is the pump and time,” Generator began scratching out the details on the paper.

“Hurray!” Teri shouted. “And can I get the fairy wand to?”

“Yep.”

Teri jumped up and began doing a little dance in the air.

“If everyone can please sit down, pull out their homework and stop dancing on the ceiling, class is starting now,” Professor Shizuki said, looking right at Teri, who was dancing upside down on the ceiling with Generator's fairies.

“Sorry, sir!” she squeaked, flying back to her desk.

**

“Are you sure trying to get essence from Teri is safe?” Abra asked her friends at supper.

“Why wouldn't it be? She's dumber than Tansy,” Palantir said. “Do you know what happened today in Powers Lab?”

“No what?”

**

“Students, today we're doing a water walk for all the fliers,” Mrs. Bohn said, pointing at what looked like an escalator with water running down the steps. “You will walk up the escalator which is missing steps, and try to use your flight powers to make it look like you're walking instead of flying. While they're doing that the rest of you join your groups and begin discussing the theories you were suppose to have read over the weekend and find practical applications for them.”

Twelve students went to the front of the class. Tink flew over to her group that she'd been assigned to on Friday.

“Teri, come here. You have to do this to,” the teacher said.

She flew over to Mrs. Bohn. “But I can't do this, I have to flap my wings when I fly. So I can't look like I'm walking.”

“Your powers testing says you have a PK field around your wings which helps you fly. You shouldn't actually need to use your wings except to help with with your movement as you fly. This test is to get you practicing and that is exactly what you need.”

“WHAT! I always need to flap my wings. That test was wrong,” Teri said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Mrs. Bohn gave a small smile. “Than why aren't you flapping your wings now?”

“WHAT!” Teri turned to see her wings were perfectly still and spread out behind her. “AAAHHHH!” she screamed falling to the ground.

“Ow.”

**

Teri took off her shoes and hiked up her skirt before stepping onto the water. The cold water reached her knees, and she had to brace herself to avoid being swept away. Walking as quickly as she could to the edge of the step, she hopped down to the next one, willing her PK field to hold her up, while keeping her wings perfectly still.

She hit the water and kept going.

As she struggled to swim in a skirt suit, a big hand reached in and pulled her out. Spitting water, and wiping her eyes, she looked up at the teacher. “Can I be excused from this experiment? It's hazardous to my health.”

**

“After five tries she still couldn't do it. Mrs. Bohn let her out twenty minutes early to change her clothes,” Palantir finished, trying not to laugh too hard.

Abra took a minute to get her giggling under control. “She's not very smart, but I saw her in Martial Arts right after, and she was scary there.”

“What did she do?” Clover asked.

“Well we were sparring with powers today...”

**

“Teri and Alexander come to the circle,” Ito Sensei said.

“Hurray! My turn!” Teri shouted, flying to the ring her wet hair sticking to the back of her gi. She had seen Alexander throwing balls of water around on the first day, but a little water didn't scare her.

“No powers, first person to go out of the circle, becomes pinned, or submits loses,” the sensei told them.

“Uh, Sensei, do my claws and strength count as powers? I can't turn them off,” Teri asked.

“Do not use your claws offensively, and try not to use your full strength,” he said.

“OK!”

“Sensei, what am I suppose to do to her? I could stomp her by accident and she'd break,” Alexander said.

“She's sturdier than she looks. Try not to step on her too hard,” Sensei told him.

Going to the circle, Teri got into position and bowed. There was a lot of laughter from the audience. Ito yelled “Hajime,” and she was running at the boy.

Alexander didn't seem to know what to do. He got into a defensive stance, but realized she wasn't going to be punching him, then he started swinging back his leg to kick her. Fortunately for Teri, he'd waited too long, with a huge leap she covered the remaining distance between them, landing on his foot and began climbing up his pant leg. The boy screamed, jumping up and down trying to get her out, she grabbed onto his leg hair and kept climbing.

A hand slapped her through the material, but her wings helped pad her so she was only knocked around, and not hurt. She reached the top of his leg and saw a protective cup close beside her.

“Do you surrender?” she shouted.

She was slapped a few more times for her offer of mercy.

Grabbing hold of his gi with her claws, facing his cup, she pushed back as hard as she could and slammed both feet into the hard plastic. When Alexander didn't fall over, she did it a few more times. After the fourth time, there was a little squeak and she felt the boy bend over and start to topple. Forcing her way out through the top of his pants, she jumped away before he fell face first onto the mat.

“I win!” she shouted, as Caroline ran onto the mat, not waiting for the Sensei to stop the match, and waved her hands over the groaning boy.

Slowly Alexander got to his feet, looking at his crotch in amazement.

“Back into position, powers are allowed,” Ito said, his voice sounding a little tight.

Instantly Alexander surrounded himself in water. Teri bowed to him and as soon as the fight started she took to the air.

Jets of water flew at her, forcing her to dodge and weave, as the students behind her screamed at getting soaked. Her opponent was just standing there, sending out ever more and larger balls of water, but she was just a bit too fast for him. Then a huge ball of water hit her from behind, enveloping her. As she struggled to get out, she noticed that all the water that had been hitting the other students had vanished, leaving them just a little damp.

When she tried to swim out, the water bulged in front of her, always keeping her in the center of the bubble, no matter how hard she struggled. Teri slapped the water with one hand like she was tapping out before she drowned.

The water dropped away from her, letting her gasp for breath.

Going back to her spot, Teri glared at the boy. The moment the final fight started she flew straight up, bouncing off the ceiling and hit Alexander's chest as hard as she could. The watery armour surrounded her, but she was going too fast and the PK field pushed it back just enough. Alexander went flying backwards out of the ring with Teri pushing him until they both hit the wall on the other side of the room.

The water oozed away to pool on the ground, as Alexander tried to stay on his feet.

Teri, soaking wet, again, grabbed his hand and shook it. “Good fight. Let's do it again sometime.” Bobbing in the air, she flew back to her seat beside Grace and Insight.

**

“That's not a problem,” Palantir said. “We're not going to fight her or anything.”

“But it looked really painful how Alexander turned white. He couldn't even scream,” Abra said.

“Pally's right, we have a good plan, all we have to do is put it into action,” Clover said, getting a woof of approval from Buttons. “We'll set it up during supper and she'll never know what hit her.”

Abra looked at her friends uncertainly, finally she slowly nodded. “Ok. But if she looks really angry, I'm running for it. And someone else has to do the spell, I'm all out of essence after yesterday.”

**

Teri flying to her detention at Hawthorne, enjoying the peace and quiet after all the excitement of the last few days. Despite the repeated dunkings, which had her hair all frizzy, it had been a pretty good day, and she was suppose to have an easy detention helping Em with her English again, and another kid with some algebra. If only more days could be like that, she liked showing everyone that her small brain was packed with knowledge. Especially after those so called scientists kept asking how she spoke, or thought, or did all kinds of stuff.

She stopped in a small clearing, there was an x on the ground and right beside it was a big shiny red button. Landing beside it, she looked around but couldn't see anything that looked out of the ordinary. The shiny button lit up, becoming all sparkly.

Glancing around, she reached out to touch the button, only to stop a fraction of an inch away. She chewed on her lips looking at the pretty button. She turned to go, but her neck twisted around to look at the button again.

Standing up straighter, crossing her arms across her chest, she walked away from the but-

Spinning around, Teri launched herself at the tantalizing button, jabbing it with one finger.

She looked around, grinning to see what was going to happen. There was some rattling, but not much else. “Is that it?” she moaned.

Suddenly a squirrel jumped out of a tree, bending the branch it was on. A bowling ball rolled down the branch, and fell off the tip, snapping a branch below it. The broken branch was tied to a rope, and it swung through the air, popping a balloon. The bag of sand hanging from the balloon fell behind some bushes, and there was a squeal of unoiled wheels rolling along. A little red wagon came out from the bushes, and fell into a covered hole. There was a loud thump, and what sounded like a spring, and a baseball flew high into the air, coming down on another tree. Something was hit and it sounded like a crank was being wound up, there was a chopping sound and a tree shook. Then the top of a tree fell down towards Teri, only to be stopped when it hit another tree. An iron cage came loose and fell through the leaves, right on top of Teri, who had been standing there watching everything with a look of wide eyed wonder.

“That was CCCOOOOLLLLL!” she said. “Oh have to get going, I can't be late again.” Teri grabbed one of the iron bars and without any real effort, lifted the iron cage off of herself and went flying onto Hawthorne.

**

“Clover,” Pally said, “didn't you say that all fairy creatures are allergic to iron?”

“That's what it says in the stories! And I know Fey can't touch iron,” Clover said.

“Then why did she just lift the heavy iron cage off like it was nothing?”

“I don't know!”

Abra got up from their hiding spot. “Come on, lets get our stuff and plan for tomorrow night.”

Tuesday

Tink carefully thought about what to tell Mrs. Ryan about doing the fashion show. When she'd gone to class on Monday the old woman had told her that they simply didn't have time anymore. But after being refused by Venus Inc., hah, more like Venus Envy, she thought, had decided she was too strange to work with, she had to really do something special to get people interested in her much better fashion club. She'd show them, she'd SHOW THEM ALL!!!!

She rolled up her the poster design for her own fashion club which had come back from the designer, and it looked great. It showed pictures of her and Mouser posing in different costumes, with really cool backgrounds, and her carefully worded pitch done up in really fancy writing. She couldn't wait to post it everywhere, she was already working out the details of having Mouser act as an agent.

Heading downstairs she checked her mailbox and saw that the package she'd been waiting for from Glow Worm was there. Ripping it open, she squealed and hugged her brand new I-phone. Now she could take regular size notes in class with the note taking program.

Best day ever!

Bobbing up and down, she headed off to breakfast.

**

“Ok, iron doesn't work on her. Are we sure she's really a fairy?” Abra asked.

“I'm sure of it, maybe she has some kind of protection,” Clover said.

“Don't worry,” Palantir said, grinning and tapping her fingers together, “I have a cunning plan.”

“Is it a cunning and subtle plan?” Clover asked.

“Yes.”

“Is it as cunning as a cunning fox, who's been appointed by the government to work in the cunning plans department facing other cunning planners in a battle of cunning that will decide the fate of the world?” Abra asked.

The two witches looked worriedly at their friend.

“Well,” Abra said, blushing, “you know that would have to be really, well, um, cunning. Right?”

**

Serena sat down beside Teri in Crystal Hall at suppertime. Strangely rather than being the bubbly source of madness and chatter that she usually was, the fairy girl was hunched down, hidden by her fuzzy blue wings.

“What's wrong?” Serena asked, a little worried since her friend had been so upbeat and cheerful at breakfast.

“Mrs. Ryan didn't listen to me at all” Teri wailed.

“About what?”

“My fashion show for Costume Shop. I had everything planned out, I was well spoken, I showed her some of my pictures and the poster I'd done up and she said no,” she cried.

“It'll be ok. You don't need the class to spread the word about your club, just the posters and word of mouth will be good enough,” Serena said.

“I wanted to show off my clothes all Thursday night, and after it was canceled all weekend, and now I can't.” She covered herself with her wings again.

“Don't worry Teri. It's going to be all right. I'm sure everything will work out.”

The wings opened up a little bit. “You really think so?”

“Definitely.”

Teri jumped on Serena, nuzzling her neck. “Oh thank you for saying that! That makes me feel so much better!”

“Air!” Serena gasped, trying to pry Teri off of her neck. “I can breathe water, but I still need to breathe!”

“Teri, could we have a word with you?” two big GSD kids asked.

Teri jumped off of Serena who gasped for breath, “What's up?”

“Do you have some time, Thuban would like to talk to you?” a kid who looked like Chewbacca's uglier cousin asked.

Smiling the fairy girl asked the most important question of all. “Is he cute?”

“Uh...”

**

Teri looked around the big cave under Twain, at the center of it was a human looking dragon, or maybe a dragon looking human, sitting on a chair made out of coins. He was dressed in a very nice suit, that went well with his gold scales. Shroud stood beside him, she didn't know the girl very well, but she'd seen her and Generator together, apparently they were dead sisters. That sounded really cool to Teri, if Shroud was annoying like some siblings could be, Generator could just not do her thing and get some peace and quiet for a while.

“Hi,” she said.

“Teri, I've heard a lot about you from Generator,” he hissed. “It's too bad you haven't come to any Faction 3 parties, I think you'd fit in well there.”

“Faction 3? Who's Faction 1 and 2?”

“Everyone who doesn't suffer from GSD.”

“Wow, that must make Faction 3 like the smallest group around, since the Lincoln Freedom Squad said there are only a couple thousand mutants in the world, and only a couple of us have GSD.”

Thuban leapt at the opened, “Exactly that's why we have to stick together. And I believe you can be a valuable partner and role model to the students, especially the girls who believe they have to hide themselves and can't compete with the Pretties.”

“Really?” Teri asked, sitting cross legged in the air.

“I understand you want to start a fashion club for GSD students -”

“How did you know that?! I only wrote down a poster for that and kept it in my room! Do you have cameras in the rooms of all the cute girls?” She covered her chest and glared at the dragon. “If I find my image on the internet without my permission I know who to sue! I have lawyers! A lawyer! Ok, an agent, but I'll use her!”

Shroud floated over. “Teri, calm down. No one recorded you. You told Generator, half the freshmen at Whitman, and a couple of the sophomores, and your entire costume shop class today heard about it when you begged Mrs. Ryan to let you do a fashon show.”

“Oh right. Sorry, I forgot. Please continue,” she said, straightening her clothes and hair again.

“Well, where was I,” Thuban said to himself. “I like your idea of a fashion club for GSD students. I've looked some of your work, and I think it's a new market that will help raise the confidence of girls who can't fit into the pretty crowd. If you will work with me, I'll see about getting you access to camera's, editors, photographers, some volunteer models, and if things go well school support. Are you interested?”

“What do you get out of it?” Teri asked.

“I get to see my fellow students blossom, seeing themselves as worthwhile people. It let the baseline world see that we're not freaks and monsters, and opens up a new career path for mutants in entertainment that isn't the porn industry.”

“You won't want a cut of the profits, or want to take over, or anything like that?”

“I don't need the money, if I loan you money for printing, clothes or equipment, I expect to be paid back, but we'll sign a contract each time and it will only be for the exact amount loaned, not a penny more. And as long as you do as good a job for the girls and boys who will be joining as you've done for yourself I won't interfere or withdraw my support. If when you leave Whateley, you plan on making it into an actual modeling agency, I would like to be one of the first backers you consider, but it's not a requirement,” he said, casting a glance at Shroud.

“Let me think about it, and I'll let you know by the end of the week,” she said.

“Certainly. You can come to our Friday night bash, and see what Faction 3 is like, our doors are always open for people like you.”

“Ok, it's a date!” Teri said. “Gotta go, I need to get to detention. Bye bye Shroud, tell Generator I'll be talking to Mobius tomorrow about the pouches please.” And with that she was off.

**

“Is she always like that?” Thuban asked.

“Yes,” Shroud said. “She's smart, but crazy and she has the attention span of a stunned gerbil unless it really amuses her.”

He shook his head. “You really think she can handle a modeling club?”

“I have no idea. But we think she'll be able to get it started, and after that we can help keep her focused, or gently move her off to the side if necessary.”

Thuban pulled her onto his lap. “You really just want to be a model, that's why you're making me put up with the crazy girl, isn't it?”

“Maybe,” she said, scratching under his chin.

“Excuse me, Mr. Thuban,” Teri said from the back of the chair.

“Gah!” he cried, almost throwing Shroud to the ground.

“I got a little lost. How do I get out of here?” Teri asked.

**

“She's with Thuban,” Clover said. “Who's Thuban?”

Being in Whitman, Abra was able to fill in the details thanks to listening to her cottage mates. “He's some bigshot, like Ayla, who wants to get all the GSD kids together. Teri will probably go to Hawthorne through the tunnels, if we hurry we can get everything set up.”

“I don't like the tunnels, they're scary,” Clover said, hugging Buttons.

“They're not bad, and they're great in winter. It's the best part about being in Whitman.”

Palantir grabbed Clovers' hand. “If we want to get our plan ready tonight, we have to get going now. Abra, lead the way!”

**

Teri was almost at Hawthorne when a very strange sight stopped her. A large tar black doll stood in the tunnel. She stopped and flew down to get a closer look.

“Ok, I know this is the part where I'm suppose to say 'Hi, how are you doing?' Then you don't answer me, and I get upset and pick a fight with you, only to get all tangled up in tar so a fox and bear can come along and eat me. I saw the Disney cartoon,” she said, disgusted at such an easy trick. “It's not happening.”

As she flew up and over the tar baby, something that felt a lot like a dogs nose, hit her back and shoved her head first into the sticky mess.

Struggling to get her face clear of the tar, Teri heard chanting, and felt something that wasn't physical grabbing her. For a day that had started off so well, it had really gone downhill.

“YOU'LL NEVER GET MY LUCKY CHARMS!” she shouted, flying as fast and as hard as she could.

**

The three little witches watched the tar baby take to the air, their spell only half done. “Get her!” Palantir shouted.

The escaping, cursing, fairy powered tar baby, wasn't going as fast as usual, so they could at least keep up to her. Clover put Buttons down and waited a second for her familiar to become big enough to ride, while Palantir summoned one of her balls, and they quickly caught up to the Teri.

“HOLD STILL!” Clover shouted, jumping off of Buttons and tackling the sticky mass.

They went down in a heap, the tar covering Clover and effectively gluing them to the floor. Palantir came up and tried to help Clover out, only to be pulled into the mess. Abra who had been struggling to keep up, grabbed an ankle and tried to pull whoever it was out.

Reaching in for a better hold, Abra felt a tiny hand grab her shirt sleeve, and pull herself out.

“Hi,” Abra said nervously, remembering how strong and violent Teri could be from martial arts.

The dirty, sticky fairy smiled and kissed her cheek. “Hi, thanks for helping me. You'd better keep those two in there, they're crazy. Come on we can get to Hawthorne and call security.”

“Uh, you go on ahead, I'll make sure these two vicious students don't escape.”

“Oh you're so brave,” Teri said, giving her another kiss. “Never fear, I won't be long.”

“Please hurry!” Abra said, watching the prey fly away. “Hurry up guys! Security is coming!” she hissed at her friends as soon as Teri was out of sight.

**

“Mrs. Cantrell, I know I'm late, I know I'm filthy, but you would not believe the week I've been having,” Teri said. “And you really need to call security, because there are two vicious students covered in tar in the tunnels.”

**

“Come on, come on, come on!” Abra said, spraying a foam onto her friends and the floor that was guaranteed by the gadgeteer she'd borrowed it from, to clean up anything and be perfectly safe for people.

“You let her get away!” scolded Palantir getting to her feet.

“I didn't want to be hanging from a light by my underwear, thank you very much!” Abra said. “Now let's go, security will be here any second.”

“But we almost had her,” Clover whined.

“Security! Coming! Now! Run away! Run away!” Putting words into action, she hot footed it back to Whitman.

**

Officer Daniels and Green came to the spot where a student had supposedly left two attackers covered in tar watched over by a helpful bystander. But the only thing they found was a clean floor. Sighing at the waste of time, he got on the radio.

“Daniels here, tell Mrs. Cantrell, we didn't find anything. We'll go to Hawthorne to make sure, but I'd say the student had an accident and isn't willing to admit it.”

“Copy that. I'll pass on the word. And it looks like someone is going to be cleaning Fubar's tank tonight.”

**

In the safety of Clover's dorm, after spending an hour cleaning the tar off of themselves, the three little witches went over their battle plan. At least they tried to.

Abra had her arms crossed and had her chin thrust out to show she really meant what she was saying. “Uh uh, I'm not going to try anything against Tink anymore, she's too strong and too smart.”

“But that's exactly why we need to get her essence,” Palantir said. “She's so tough she has to be loaded with it.”

“And after all the work we've done we have to get something out of it.”Clover said.

“Fine, one last time, but this is the very, very, very last try. If it doesn't work we go onto someone else,” Abra stated.

“Deal,” the two girls said.

“Now let us plan for tomorrow night,” Clover said ominously.

**

Serena looked up from her homework when Teri got back. “What happened to you?” she asked the tar covered, soaking wet girl.

“I'm having the strangest week, and I got to clean Fubars tank again. I'm going to go wash myself in bleach,” Teri said numbly. “If you hear sobbing, don't worry it's just me.”

**

Wednesday

Sixth period, Flying Class

“Ok, Mitchell,” Teri said to the jet propelled member of her flying team, “here's the plan. I want you to do one second bursts of your powers every five seconds seconds. That should give you the lift and speed you need to stay in the air without breaking the sound barrier or going into orbit. Can you do that?”

“How will I know when to do a burst?” Mitchell asked nervously as the other students went through their exercises which for some was simply trying to get into the air. The instructor, Mrs. Cavallo was on the other side of the field teaching some of the winged students how to do barrel rolls, while Angel was teaching diving.

“I have that all figured out,” Teri assured him, pulling out something that looked like a metal watch. “I had my friend, Generator make this timer, it gives you a small shock when you have to do it. Just put this on and when you're read to go press the red button on the side.”

Very nervously, he put the watch on and assumed the position that made it look like he was going to the bathroom. She gave him an encouraging smile while standing well back, “You can do it. I believe in you!”

Mitchell activated the watch, and a gout of flame erupted from his pants. He soared into the air, not quite out of control, and not reaching super sonic speeds this time. At five seconds he was just starting to descend when his entire body spasmed. With a scream his rocket powers kicked in and he was heading towards Boston.

Teri watched the boy become a tiny speck and then vanish within seconds, while the teacher got on the phone calling for help. Her group landed beside her, Cleo breathed a big sigh of relief and kissed the ground when she landed, while Sue stayed five feet above the ground flapping her arms like they were wings. Mr. Awesome tried to do a somersault as he landed and ended up flat on his back for his trouble.

“Wow!” Sue said. “When do you think he'll come down?”

“I think he'll be in Boston in about 10 minutes. If they call ahead maybe they can get a really big net or something,” Tink said.

“If he dies, do we lose marks?” Mr. Awesome asked.

“That's not nice!” Cleo said, still hugging the ground.

“Well it's not our fault if he can't control his powers. We're going to fail if he's on our group.”

“He's a nice guy,” Cleo insisted. “He just needs to learn to control his powers better.”

Sue finally managed to get her flying working properly and was sitting cross legged in the air, “Well group leader, what are we going to do about Mitchell?”

Teri sat down on Sue's head to think, stroking her wings. “He needs... he needs... he needs wings!”

**

The tunnels near the workshop were bustling with gadgeteers, devisors, students who liked mechanics, and potential customers. Now that the freshmen had had a chance to get organized and learn the basics, they were arguing and bargaining with each other for what free space was available beyond their assigned work table, and trying to get a bit of extra equipment from the older students. Teri flew above it all, not really interested in it all since she'd been able to get her business done with Mobius fairly quickly.

She stopped in midair when she saw Ayla strolling along like she owned the place. Ayla was the TA of the business accounting class, and while not someone she was looking for, she decided to make the most of the opportunity. “Hi Ayla, can I talk with you for a moment?”

There was a slight pause as the girl looked up, “Yes Teri, how can I help you?”

“In the business accounting class yesterday, I'm having a bit of trouble with the math. Can I come in a bit early on Friday and go over it with you?” she asked.

“Certainly, come fifteen minutes early, if it's a minor problem that should be enough time,” Ayla said. “If that's everything, I need to speak to some people.”

“Yep, that's it. Thank you!”

Having a bit of free time before her detention, she flew around the tunnels, watching the hustle and bustle with interest. She saw a group of girls who looked just like drow, with elfen ears and ink black skin. The girl in the lead looked angry and was ranting about something that didn't make any sense to Teri, something about clones, spontaneous combustion and several things that sounded very unpleasant. She'd have to find them later when they weren't so busy or angry to see if they wanted to join her club, there were at least five websites that would like their pictures.

A pretty Native girl in a leather dress was looking over a car, discussing modifications with another very pretty girl, for some reason quite a few people around the shop were eyeing them, and there were a few quiet snickers. Teri considered going over and asking the girl where she got the dress, because it looked a lot nicer than her mouse skin dresses, but they looked pretty busy, so she kept going.

Still wandering, Teri quickly passed by a black kid with dreadlocks and the worst possible combination of clothes imaginable, that made her eyes water and her stomach churn just looking at the combination of fluorescent pink plaid, with psychedelic zebra stripes, and rainbow coloured glasses that twisted and turned as she looked at them.

And then she smelled something interesting. Alcohol.

She'd had a beer once at a friends party, and her parents drank sometimes, but this stuff smelled better. Following her nose, she saw a boy who was well tanned, an old buttoned up farm shirt, patched jeans, and battered shoes, chewing on a piece of grass, smelling like he'd fallen into a vat of booze, come out of a room with a door more like a bank vault.

Taking a quick look inside before the door closed, she saw a lot of metal tubes, vats, containers and what looked like glass bottles of water.

She'd watched enough tv to have a good idea what the boy was making in there. Still unnoticed she smiled, rubbing her hands together. This could be fun. Quietly she left to continue her exploration.

**

For a change nothing got in her way as she went to detention. It might have helped that she flew out of the tunnel at a random doorway and flew as high as she reasonably could so that nothing ground bound could stop her.

She helped Em with her English, the spider girl was distracted for some reason, but she was catching on. Teri had her do a short essay on 'High School Musical', and it was pretty good, she was at least getting the structure down.

“Hey Em, what's up?” Teri asked when her student looked at the door for the tenth time.

“A friend of mine is doing detention here, and I'm worried about her,” Emilia said, brushing the long bangs out of her eyes.

“Aw, don't worry, detention is easy. If I can do it, anyone can. Now pay attention,” she said, pointing at the paper, “you need to actually name the actors in the show, don't expect us to know who they are.

**

After dealing with some more chores, which wasn't nearly as much fun as getting to act all intelligent with essays and things, Teri got a bit of a break and flew to India's room. The big, seven year old sasquatch squealed with joy when Teri came in.

“Butterfly!” India shouted, reaching for her with a hand big enough to palm and crush a basketball.

“Whoa!” Teri shouted, flying up to the ceiling, which really didn't do that much since the girls head brushed the overhead light. “Where's your real butterfly?” Desperately hoping the extra strong plush butterfly would keep India happy.

The big little girl plopped down on her specially made bed, the very picture of misery. Tears as large as Teri's head appeared at the corner of her eyes. “I was outside with Slab and Mr. Fubar, and talked to a psy-chi-tris, Ms. Markham. Since I was being really good, they said I could have lunch in Crystal Hall and sit beside the fountain. Butterfly was right beside me, and I know I didn't move her, but when we were all done, But- But- Butterfly was gone.”

The tears started flowing, and India threw herself face down on the bed crying loud enough to shake the window. Teri flew down landing on her ear so she could stroke her hair. “Oh, that's terrible. I'll tell you what, I'll look for her, and if I can't find her, I'll ask Ms. Cantrell for permission to take you shopping, and we'll go get you a new one from the store. How does that sound?”

Sniff, “Really?”

“Yeah. And if anyone tries to steal it again, I'll go and beat them up for you. Now can you stop crying, so we can paint some pictures?”

India sat up so quickly, Teri had to grab onto her hair to keep from flying off. “Thank you, Butterfly!”

“Hey, remember I'm not a butterfly!” Teri said.

“Oh my sweet little butterfly is so nice to me! I just want to hug you!” India reached out for Teri, who began flitting around the room to avoid the enormous giant.

“India, no!” Teri shouted, lifting her legs just in time to avoid being grabbed. “We talked about this!”

“Pretty,” the seven year old said, completely focused on the nice fairy in front of her.

“Screw it! Run AWAY!” Teri shouted, circling around the big hairy head and fleeing for the open door. She took a few turns to gain some distance as India tried to follow her, both of them sent Hawthorne residents flying, and she just knew, she was going to get blamed for this. It was how her week had been going so far.

Looking behind her she saw much to her relief that India wasn't following her, although her footsteps could be heard close by. Turning again to look where she was going, all she saw was a girl bending backwards to avoid her.

“Sorry,” she said, stopping for a moment. Teri noticed the girl was bent at the knee's almost at 90 degrees, that and the short black hair. “Oh, bullet time! Nice!” Before she could anything else, the stomping feet of India came up behind her, followed by a squeak of joy. “I'd get out of the way, Trinity!” she shouted, hoping the girl wouldn't be crushed to death.

Flying for all she was worth, she went through an open window in the common room and headed for the roof of the cottage. With the way India could run and jump there was no way she wanted to try to outrun the girl. From the safety of the roof, she watched India run around in circles looking for her, Slab and a few other Hawthorne residents came out trying to herd the girl back into the cottage.

With sasquatch girl distracted, Teri flew down and went to the kitchen window which was out of sight of India. Ms. Cantrell was in there, preparing a meal. Knocking on the window, Teri tried to look innocent.

“What the blazes are you doing out there?” the housemother asked letting her in.

Just as Teri was about to explain, Em ran in. “Mrs. Cantrell, India was chasing Teri again and- oh. Good you got away.”

Mrs. Cantrell rubbed her temples. “Can you go one day without causing a ruckus child?”

“I don't try to cause trouble,” Teri said, sitting on the edge of the sink. “But things keep happening around me. I think I might be a reality warper permanently set on weird.”

Mrs. Cantrell looked at the clock. With some relief she said, “Looks like you're done for the day. Try to keep from blowing up the school or something like that.”

Waving goodbye to Em, Teri flew out the window and once more went as high as she could to avoid trouble.

**

“Her detention will be done in fifteen minutes,” Clover said. “Abra your on.”

Leaving her dorm room, Abra tried to look confident, it wasn't easy but if it worked it would all be worth it. Knocking on Teri and Serena's door, she held the note they'd forged tightly.

“Oh hi, Abracadabra,” Serena said. “What's up?”

She held out the note and fixed her glasses. “Mrs. Savage asked me to give this to you. She said it was important.”

“Thanks,” Serena said, taking the note. A frown appeared. “Why does Carson want to see me? And at this hour?”

“I don't know, I'm just the delivery girl. But you should get over there quick, they don't like waiting.”

With a roll of her eyes, Serena thanked her and headed out, conveniently forgetting to lock the door. As soon as Serena was gone and the coast was clear, Abra ran back to her room, and the three little witches each carrying a big bag ran into the empty room. They had a lot to do and not much time.

**

Reaching Whitman, Teri smiled, nothing weird had happened, and except for having to run away from India, the day had been sane. She was coming to appreciate the sane days more and more, since she'd had so few of them over the last few months.

Opening her little door, she expected to see Serena busy with homework, since this was her designated homework time, but instead of seeing her roommate diligently working, she saw what looked like a dismantled machine strewn around the room. There was a small sign face down in the very center of the mess. For a moment she was tempted to go call Mrs. Savage, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she flew down to the sign.

'This is a trap' it read, and beneath it was a blue print which apparently went with the machine.

Teri scratched her head and sat down trying to figure out what the hell was going on. She was wearing shorts, and as she sat, something stuck to her skin. Looking down, her teeth clenched with barely contained rage, she saw that she was sitting on flypaper. Trying to fly revealed that it was extra strong fly paper, and that her wings were stuck to it as well.

“Someone is going die,” she said.

There was a small 'eep!' from the closet, and three girls wearing masks stepped out, they seemed to be casting a spell. A little dog followed them, it was a wearing a mask as well.

Glaring at the three girls, she undid some buttons, saying, “Yep, slow painful death coming this way,” as she shimmied out of her shoes and shorts, painfully pulling her skin off the flypaper at the same time.

There was a loud tearing sound as she stood up and in only a t-shirt and panties walked across the fly paper. The three girls faltered with their spell and backed away from her. She picked up the small dresser in one hand, and put herself between the door and the girls. “Ok, I'm guessing you're the ones who have made me late for detention twice, cost me one set of clothes, drugged me, and have made my life very interesting. If you want to leave here with all your teeth intact, you will explain what the hell you want!”

“We're sorry! Please don't hit us!” one of the girls said.

“Hey! You're Abra, you live across the hall. And you helped me out yesterday.” Teri thought for a moment. “Oh! Now I get it, you weren't helping me you were trying to capture me, and you're the reason security thinks I'm crazy.” The dresser swung very close to Abra's nose.

“We only wanted to get a bit of essence, so we could spark our own essence and finally get to do some cool spells and stuff. We didn't mean for anything bad to happen. We're REALLY, REALLY sorry, but you must have so much essence, it's not fair. Everyone else can do really neat things, and we've been trying for over a year now and can't do nothing,” Abra gushed, barely pausing for air or punctuation.

“Huh?”

“We just want a bit of essence, not very much at all,” one of Abra's compatriots said.

“Ok, you can have some.”

The three girls looked like they couldn't believe their ears. “Really?”

“Yeah. For one hundred dollars. Each.”

“That's highway robbery!” they cried.

“You have to replace some of my clothes. Essence is apparently very valuable, and after all the crap you've put me through you're getting a bargain. You can give me the money and get the essence, or I'm going to security right now,” Teri threatened.

“That's blackmail!”

“I prefer to call it capitalism. So which is it?” Teri asked.

The three girls huddled together, Teri heard them whining about losing all their birthday and babysitting money, and other things, but they really didn't have much choice. After two minutes, they agreed to pay her.

“Be back here in thirty minutes with the cash, I'm keeping all this stuff in the room in case you try to back out,” Teri told them.

As the girls ran to get the money, Teri turned on her laptop and started doing some homework.

“What happened here?” Serena exclaimed when she came in five minutes later.

“Hi Serena, I figured out why I was having such a weird week,” Teri said. “Don't worry it'll be all picked up soon. Where were you?”

“I was told that I had to see Headmistress Carson, right away. But when I got there, everything was locked up. After wandering around a bit I came back. Figured it wasn't important and I could do it tomorrow.”

Teri got a BIG grin.

“Um Teri,” Serena said, “smiles shouldn't be that big, it's really creepy.”

She ignored her roommate. “Oh this is going to be good.”

**

When the three little witches finally came back, with the money, they found Teri and Serena waiting for them, both were smiling like Cheshire cats.

“We have the money,” Abra said.

“Good,” Teri dragged out the words as if she was savouring the flavour. “But we have a problem.”

“Problem?” Palantir asked, dry washing her hands.

“We now have a note from the headmistress, which wasn't written by her. That's forgery, and that's very bad. Isn't it Serena?”

Serena nodded. “Very bad indeed. Why it's only proper that we hand it over to security and explain who gave it to me.”

“We don't have anymore money. This is all our birthday and babysitting money from the summer,” Clover said.

“Well I guess we could forget about it if we got some services out of it, couldn't we Teri?”

“Oh yes,” the fairy agreed. “I'm thinking washing our clothes, making our beds, tidying this place up. Odd jobs for the rest of the month. That sounds fair, doesn't it?”

“Definitely fair. Much easier than whatever detention Headmistress Carson will give them. Didn't you have to clean Fubars pool twice, the second time because of them.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should tell Headmistress Carson in the morning. Everyone should have to clean Fubar's pool at least once in their life.”

Clover fell to her knees. “We'll clean your room for the rest of the month. Please don't tell Headmistress Carson.”

“Ok. Just remember we want it done well. And some of my clothes need to be hand washed,” Teri told them. “Now, hand over the money and we can do the essence exchange.”

The three little witches surrounded Teri and began chanting. They really concentrated, wanting to pull as much essence as safely possible to make up for all the stuff they had had to put up with. It was going to just be worth it to finally spark their essence.

They felt the essence slowly moving from the fairy into Palantir's ball, and then it shut off.

“What?!” Clover cried. “Where's all the essence?”

“I get this much essence in a day!” Abra cried.

“A hundred bucks for this!” Palantir cried.

Teri watched them argue over the tiny little marble. “Seems like a lot to me.”

“You stopped the spell somehow!” Palantir said. “You cheated us.”

“I did not. I don't even know what essence is.”

“Aren't you a magical fairy like the elves on campus?” Clover asked.

“Nope. Just a beautiful girl who looks like a fairy. Does that matter?” Teri asked.

“Abra, didn't you look at her essence before telling us about her?”

“Well, no,” Abra said, suddenly finding her shoes really interesting. “I just thought that she would have lots of it.”

Serena still smiling leaned back on her bed. “A deals, a deal, girls. Teri did her part, so if you can pick up all of your things, sweep the floor, and get the basket of clothes over there, you have a bit of work to do.”

Teri began counting her money as the three little witches got to work. They'd made the deal they'd stick to it.

As they trooped down to the laundry room, they passed by a girl with paper white skin and what looked like shifting inky black tattoos.

“She's a wizard,” Clover said. “She has to have some essence.”

As they sorted the clothes, they began talking about how they could get some essence from someone who wasn't quite so dangerous.

Good news, anyone who's read Tink over on Crystal Hall, there is new material here. Some of it's been posted already but I added on new parts, so be sure to read this.
And thanks to Elrod who helped me out a bit with Shine, really appreciated.
Finally, this is fanfiction, and Whateley, most characters and the setting was not created by me. I'm just playing in their sandbox.
Enjoy.

Thursday Night, September 14th, 2007

Teri was quietly talking into the special microphone on her computer, writing an English essay while Serena was doing her own homework listening to music that was just barely audible with the headphones, when there was a knock on the door. Hitting a button to stop the mic she watched as Serena jumped up to open the door. Mrs. Savage walked in smiling pleasantly.

“Hello girls, I hope I'm not interrupting anything,” she said.

“Just homework, so please take all the time you want,” Teri answered.

“I don't think so,” the housemother chuckled. “I'm actually here to ask you both for a big favour. We're going to get a new girl in the next week or two, she's a sophomore, so she'd normally be upstairs, but she has had a bad time. Considering your personality and your similar ages, Teri, we think you'd make a good roommate for her. Of course this mean we'll have to separate you two, and Serena you'll have your own dorm until we get a new student.”

“Oh no, I'd have a whole dorm room just to myself, with no snoring roommate! How will I survive!” Serena said, putting a wrist to her forehead in despair.

Teri threw a small pillow at her roommate. “As long as she isn't horribly sarcastic and farts after eating anything spicy I'm in.”

“I don't fart!”

“Hah! I'd have bought a gas mask after chili night if I could find one in my size.”

“Girls,” Mrs. Savage warned. “Teri if you can come with me, I'd like to talk with you about Miriam for a few minutes. And thank you both, I really appreciate this.”

Teri flew alongside Mrs. Savage to the housemothers apartment. Sitting down on the couch, the large former Marine Drill Instructor smiled at the diminutive little troublemaker. “Teri, what I'm going to tell you is confidential, can I trust you not to spread this around?”

Teri gave a salute. “My lips are sealed.”

“Miriam is the girl who manifested on live tv during American Idol, and-”

“Who?”

“You didn't see it? It was all over the news, and stopped the season finale.”

She rolled her eyes in thought. “Um, no. I'm pretty sure I manifested a few days before that, and then there was no tv for a few weeks. That must have been pretty cool.”

“It was rather spectacular,” the housemother admitted. “However, it wasn't an easy manifestation for her, and she is suffering from MATD. She can create light constructs and the light is permanently surrounding her.”

“Oh, she has her own light show! That will save a lot on electricity!”

“Teri, focus,” Mrs. Savage said. “She has not taken the changes well, and has tried to commit suicide several times. She has only recently gotten out of the hospital.”

Teri sat up straighter, and looked more serious than anyone at Whateley had ever seen before. “Is she going to be ok?”

“We don't know. I'm going to keep an extra close eye on her, and she is going to have daily counseling sessions. I hope you'll help, reminding her to come see me every morning and evening if she forgets, and walking with her to the counseling. I've seen you around the other girls, and I think that you can handle the extra challenges better than almost anyone else.”

“Wow, I don't know what to say. I've never had to do anything like this before, but I'll do what I can to make sure she doesn't do anything, like, well, that. But, um...” she looked at her feet, “why me? Most people think I'm nuts.”

Mrs. Savage reached out and patted Teri's leg with one finger. “You're different, but not nuts. I've watched your antics fairly closely and as long as we keep you away from the sugar, I don't think you're any different than most teenagers. You just wear your heart on your sleeve, and sometimes ignore that little voice of reason everyone has. But out of all of my girls, you're the best one to show everyone the love of life no matter what comes your way. I don't want you pushing Miriam, but let her know that her life isn't over.”

“Ok. I won't let you or Miriam down!”

“As long as you try, you never will,” Mrs. Savage assured her.

“This looks like it could be a really tough job, do you think, maybe, possibly, I could get out of detention?” she asked hopefully.

“Let's see when Miriam gets here. Thing are still up in the air, so your detention could be over by the time she arrives. But if it isn't, I'll look into stopping it early.”

“Yay! Happy Dance!” Teri shouted and began dancing on the cushion.

Mrs. Savage picked Teri up by her shirt. “Come on, you have homework to do. If you need any help with Miriam or want to talk about things, remember my door is always open.”

“All right, back to the grindstone,” Teri sighed.

**

Friday, September 15th

Teri flew down the tunnel, giggling quietly. She was carrying a lunch box, and had a small bag with her essentials. Today one of the essentials was a small bottle of green face paint and a tiny green dress.

She reached the door she wanted and knocked on it before flying inside. “Hi Mobius. I brought you some lunch.”

The pear shaped devisor spun his chair around in surprise. “Lunch? Oh it's lunchtime already. Thanks, no ones ever brought me lunch before.”

“You've been really helpful, I thought you deserved a treat, and I recently came into some money,” she told him with a big grin. “I don't know what you like, so I got you a burger and some condiments on the side, fries and three kinds of pop.”

“That's great. And I have your pouches and satchel ready. They were a little harder than I thought they'd be, but after the first one it was clear sailing.” Carefully he pulled out a small envelope and handed it over.

Climbing into it, Teri squealed in delight, as her entire arm disappeared into the satchel, and she shoved her other arm into one of the pouches up to her elbow. Quickly putting the pouches onto her belt, and the satchel around her neck where it wouldn't be battered by her wings, she hopped out of the envelope smiling wide enough to show all of her teeth.

“THEY'RE PERFECT!” she squealed, flying up to kiss his nose. “I'll transfer the rest of the money this afternoon, ok?”

“Yeah sure,” he said, rubbing his nose.

She quickly transferred most of her things into her new satchel. It was a tight fit getting her MID into the opening, and it was totally packed by the time she was done, but it wouldn't usually be that full, so she was quite happy with it.

“Ok, I've got to go. Thanks again. Bye bye!” she said, flying off.

**

“Teri,” Mrs. Ryan said, as she walked around the class looking at the costumes the students were designing on the computer, “why do you have a dead bird in here?”

Teri, who was sitting alone with a large cardinal, as Page and everyone else had decided to sit elsewhere that day looked up at the old teacher. “I'm designing a bird costume, I decided I should see how a bird looks up close. Pretty smart, isn't it?”

“Where exactly did you get the bird? It's not very sanitary using a dead animal like this.”

“It was healthy half an hour ago. And it was really fast, it took me five minutes to catch the thing,” she replied, stretching a wing and mentally making her wings look similar.

“From now on, no dead animals are allowed in class. You can use your computer to get the dimensionss and pictures of song birds.”

Teri nodded happily. “Gotcha. Got a question for you. Can you make Kevra look like feathers?”

**

A green fairy waited by the vault like door, waiting for her chance to strike. She knew her prey was out, but he'd be back soon. She cackled silently, rubbing her hands in anticipation.

Finally the boy appeared, wearing faded blue jeans, a patched up shirt and a straw hat. He typed in a complicated code, and put his eye up to a scanner. The door slowly opened on silent hinges. The fairy flew in just before the door slammed shut, twisting sideways, her hair almost getting caught by the door.

Flying to the top of the tallest shelf, the fairy stifled a giggle, watching the devisor work. He seemed obsessed with his work, putting grain into a small vat, sniffing some sour smelling mush in another, fiddling with a heating system, and generally ignoring the world around him. The fairy started to wonder if he'd ever actually taste the stuff.

Finally he twisted a knob, and pretty amber coloured liquid came out of a small metal vat filling a small glass. She got up into a crouch, her wings spread behind her.

He closed his eyes, sniffing the alcohol, then tipped it back and slowly drank it.

The green fairy dived down, landing silently on some copper tubing just in front of him.

He opened his eyes, giving the glass a thoughtful look. Then he saw her, and his eyes got wide.

“I'm the green fairy!” she said seductively. Raising her hands above her head, sticking her ample chest out, and nearly falling out of her dress, she sang, “The hills are alive, with the sound of music!”

Taking to the air, she flew to the devisor, placing a hand on his nose, leaving a bit of glitter behind. Flying back to the tube, she ran her hands down her body, shaking her booty and breasts. Reaching behind her back, she sprang forward, showering the boy with glitter, causing him to close his eyes.

Flying back to her hiding spot, she watched him blink and stare at his drink in wonder. Looking back at where she had appeared, he slowly held the drink up, shaking his head. "Dayum this is a good batch!"

Shaking his head again he headed for the door, saying something about calling some guy called Easterbrook. She barely made it out before the vault slammed shut. Flying away as fast as she could, Teri waited until she was back in her room before she burst out laughing. This was going to be so much fun.

**

“Hey Clover, how come you can have a dog when no one else can have a pet?” Teri, who was still a little green after a bath, asked her unwilling maid who was currently dusting the furniture.

“Buttons isn't a pet, he's a familiar,” she said, stepping over the dog who was sitting on a cloth and walking along the floor with his front legs to get it clean.

“What's the difference?”

“A familiar is magical, he helps me cast spells and lots of stuff. If he couldn't be near me we'd hate it, and Ms. Grimes said it could lead to bad stuff.” She bent down to kiss the dog on the head. “I couldn't leave you at home, Buttons, no way, no how.”

**

Teri thought about that all through the evening, and well into her detention, where she had to ride herd on India and another little girl called Abby who had become best of friends and were playing with a frisbee just outside Hawthorne. A couple of trees were uprooted by India when she ran through them trying to catch the frisbee, which Abby being a furry catlike eight year old could throw almost anywhere doing tricks that made Teri feel dizzy.

“Is this really such a good idea?” she asked the girl who she still thought of as Trinity, but was apparently called Mac, and was also doing detention in Hawthorne.

“They haven't killed anyone yet.”

“Good enough for me,” Teri said as a tree shattered. “Hey India! Stop hitting so many trees, there are squirrels in them!”

The big sasquatch like girl didn't answer, but she did start looking around a little more.

“Girls,” Louis said, appearing behind them.

“Fubar!” Teri shouted, zipping up to kiss his nose.

He jerked back a little, “Um, I don't think it's proper for you to be kissing me, Teri.”

“Ok, I'll keep flying through you than. It's a fun way to freak out the mundanes.”

He sighed, and ignored her. “Mackenzie, we need some floors mopped. Teri, dusting. Slab can look after the two girls while you're away.”

“Ok!” she shouted, glad that someone else had to do the mopping.

“Yeah, sure,” Mac said, looking very pale.

Heading into the cottage, Mac leaned in close to her. “How did you surprise him?” she asked.

“What?”

“Louis. You actually surprised him, I didn't think that was possible.”

“Oh, that's easy to do,” Teri said. “Just don't think.”

“Don't think?”

“Yeah. He has to read your thoughts to know what you're going to do, so if you don't think about anything, he can't read them. I'm surprised more people don't do.”

“Oh.”

They went off to do their chores, Mac deep in thought and Teri humming happily to herself.

**

Louis popped up behind Teri, “You can go home now, Teri.”

“Thanks, Louis. Can I ask you a question?” she asked.

“Yes, but no you cannot get a pet, and since you don't have any magic you can't get a familiar,” he said.

She gave him her best pout and puppy dog eyes. “Why not?”

“Because pets aren't allowed.”

“What about service animals?” Teri asked.

“If,” he stressed, “you have a service animal, you could keep it. But you don't have one.”

“Shoot, that's not fair,” she said, hitting her fist. “If I wanted to get a service animal, who should I talk to?”

Louis gave her a very big smile. “That's easy, Ms. Hartford. She's in administration.”

“Ok, thanks! Gotta fly, I need to get ready for a party! See you tomorrow!” she shouted and flew out the window.

Teri flew into her room landing on her bed at a run, if she was going to get to the the F3 meeting on time she had to hurry. Diving into her clothes box it took her a moment to realize that there were some changes to the room.

“Huh, who left the rose bush?” she asked the empty room, flying up to look at a tiny, well tended rose bush sitting on her windowsill.

Finally looking on Theresa's side of the room, she noticed that things had changed there as well, far more drastically than her own side. The clothes were darker, the bed had dark curtains around it, and there were none of the regular posters and books lying around.

“Something's wrong here,” she said flying over to her desk where there was a large box with some writing on it. “Break in case of 4th wall,” she read.

Shrugging, she broke open the top of the box and pulled out a large wooden mallet, spinning in the air she hit something and glass fell to the floor. Flying through the hole in reality she picked up a large manuscript, flipping through it quickly she muttered to herself as she read. “Oh, Mount Everest! The Sahara Desert? A beach party! ICE CREAM! Super villain fights! Aw, that's really sad. Wow, Carson can be REALLY scary. Oh yeah, he deserved the anvil to the face. Wow, that's really sweet. Do I really HAVE to do that, couldn't you settle for a simple maiming?”

Teri put the manuscript down, careful to make sure nothing was revealed to possible onlookers, gave a little cough to clear her throat and adjusted her dress. “Hello everyone. I've just found out that the author of my little story has some REALLY big things in store for me. I MEAN REALLY BIG THINGS!” She scowled at something off to the side, sarcasm dripped from her voice. “Really big, like giving me an actual plot and background. That will be new.”

She squeaked and jumped as if something had poked her in the side. “All right, all right. I'm not the one who just started writing without any clue where I was going. And it's not my fault everyone knew I was awesome so you had to keep writing about me, you should have realized that when we first met." She jumped again. "OK! OK! Ahem, anyways, I'm not sure when it will come out, but the second draft is already written along with lots of little bits that will see me through the first year at Whateley, and it's big, and funny, with just a tiny bit of drama to keep things interesting.”

Looking off to the side again, Teri raised an eyebrow in question. “You call that a tiny bit of drama? Sheesh, please keep me out of your high drama writing, I don't think I'd survive.

“Where was I? Oh yes. Don't worry you won't have too wait too long to see me again, I'll still be showing up as usual in his other stories as soon as the author gets off his emotional angsty butt and gets back to work. And I promise to be back here being my awesome fairy self in a few months, hopefully sooner, but we'll see.” She gave a big wave and blew a kiss at the unseen onlookers.

Turning away, Teri pulled the manuscript back out. “Honestly, you're taking a silly noodle incident and making it-”

The room faded to black, as Teri continued berating the author.