Psyche's Wings

Chapter 2

A week passed.

Ari did his best to alter my conviction, but I held fast, and at last he agreed to grant my wish: we would visit 'school' that I might see it for myself.

The nearest school was an hour's journey hence. It was still 'summer,' and there were no classes yet, but there were many formalities to observe and rituals to perform before I could attend — like the signing of forms and registrations. And before any of that, there was the shopping.

I needed 'school clothes.'

Riding in the back of Soren's car, with Ari's hand clasped in mine, I shivered with excitement as we neared the edge of town. In the meantime, Ari tried again to change my mind.

"I'm just not sure you understand, Fenn," he said. "It's not like it is in the movies. In real high school, people don't sing and dance in the hallways, and the nerds rarely win. Some people have a good time, I guess, but for a lot of us it's a mean, boring, lonely, restrictive place, and we're glad to escape and forget it as soon as we can."

"I take it your own experience was less than ideal?" Soren remarked.

Ari laughed, but he did not sound amused. "You could say that. I was already a shy little nerd before my parents died between my second and third year. Afterwards, I was a shy little morbidly depressed nerd. Not exactly the kid everyone wanted to sit with at lunch. Did you enjoy high school?" he asked.

"Yes, actually; I suppose I did. I went to a boarding school in France. It was the first time I felt truly free of my father and my heritage. You could say I made the most of it."

"Hmm," Ari mused. "I have a feeling you and I wouldn't have liked each other much, had we met back then."

"Well, technically, that would have been impossible. I don't think you were born yet. I suppose I might have been your teacher, though. I would have liked you then."

"Now you just sound like a creep." Ari rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to me. "The point is, high school isn't a musical. It's a strange place full of strange people you don't know. You'll have a strict schedule, and you'll have to do what you're told, and follow a bunch of rules. Most of all, I can't go with you. You'd be on your own."

"But everyone goes, do they not?" I asked. I'd made a special study of it, and not all the films I'd watched had singing in them.

"More or less," Ari agreed with a gentle smile, "but you're not everyone, Fenn."

"But I wish to be," I whispered, wanting badly for him to understand. "I wish to be like everyone else. And will it not be strange and new for the others, as well? Will we not be learning of the world together?"

He smiled again and gave my fingers a light squeeze. "Let's just see how it goes today, okay? And remember, you can always change your mind."

"That is my ambition," I agreed with great sincerity. "To change my mind, so that I may be less different, and more like everybody else."

Ari looked quite sad at this. But then he reached over to wipe something — a bit of chocolate, probably — from the corner of my mouth, and smiled. "Alright, Fenn," he said. "Whatever you wish."

~ ❀ ~

For most of my life, I had lived as a prisoner. Not of physical bonds, but of fear. I feared people, and places, and things — everything beyond the bounds of my safe, familiar home: my little sanctuary by the sea.

Then I met Ari, and I was much better now, and free. I had been to town several times, and even to the theatre once, though it had taken me several days to recover afterwards.