Princess

I

Rubeus Ferro dialed a number on his cell phone and waited as it rang. He considered hanging up a dozen times in the space of a few seconds. He wanted to. He certainly would have if she was anyone else. The man whom he was calling finally picked up.

"I've got another one for you," Rubeus said right away.

The man on the other end of the phone frowned into it. "Term starts in three days, Rube. We can't take another student now."

"You want this one," Rubeus promised. As he said it, he glanced toward where she sat at his desk; by the looks of it, she was alphabetizing his office now. She had already alphabetized his library. He could now find nothing.

"What can he do?" The man, Chief, asked. As Chief spoke, he peered out one of his office windows and watched as a taxi pulled up outside the gates of the camp.

"She," Rubeus corrected. "I don't think you would believe me if I told you. Just find room for her and I'll stick her on a plane tonight. Trust me, she's a good one."

"You expect me to take a new student three days before term starts without knowing anything about her?" Chief asked.

"That sounds about right," Rubeus confirmed on the other end. "I've sent you some of your best kids. She's going to be better than they were. Trust me on this."

Chief paused to think about it. The truth was that Rubeus had spent his entire career within the child services department finding kids to send to Chief's camp. Most of his best kids had come from Rubeus.

"Send her," Chief finally decided. "I'll stick her in an empty room above the great hall. But Rubeus, at least give me something."

Rubeus stepped away from his office so that she wouldn't hear him. "She was picked up while hitchhiking in your neck of the woods over a year ago. The guys that found her reported that she was barefoot and covered in dirt. They drove across state borders and took her with them where she was picked up by social services. She's been going from home to home and from detention center to group home for the last few months. She-"

Chief interrupted him. "This girl sounds like a lost kid. I don't take lost kids; I take kids who have killed someone."

"I'll get back to you on that last part," Rubeus promised. "What I'm trying to say is that she is a mystery. A ghost. She didn't exist a year ago. There are no records from any part of her life before. She doesn't even have a real name. She's a girl with fucked up history, and that is your second favorite thing in a kid."

"Second favorite?" Chief repeated.

"Well, I know you prefer kids who kick your ass first," Rubeus replied in the way that only old friends like him were allowed to talk to Chief. Everyone knew that Chief's second favorite kid had nearly killed him before he brought her to the camp.

Chief ignored the jab. "You're not giving me any good reason why she should be here."

"You're getting more stubborn in your old age is what I think. She took down every doctor who tried to touch her. This girl knows how to break bones. I bet she can do a lot more than that. Wait until you see her, okay? I think you'll know what I'm talking about when you do." Rubeus' voice took on that tone like he had to go. "And don't tell your new mystery guy about her."

"S? Why?" Chief asked, suddenly gruff.

Mr. SS was one of Chief's newest people to join the camp. Chief had gotten his fair share of shit from colleagues who disapproved of taking on people whose real names he did not know. Chief didn't bother telling them that he did know the real name of Mr. SS. He just wasn't about to share it on request from the man himself.