7 years after
Dakan - now 18
~<>~
"Hey, Kan!" Jason, yells at me from my car as I walk out the school doors.
I wave, signalling I heard him, and head over and climb in the driver's side with him already in shotgun and the other guy, Eric, who currently has his nose buried in a textbook, in the back. Neither of them know about where I come from or what I am, but I've been friends with them since I moved here. Eric's a little shorter than me, with straight dark blond hair and hazel eyes, whereas I have dark brown wavy hair and brown eyes. He's a bookworm, and he helps Jason and me with studying sometimes. Jason transferred from Korea in our sophomore year, and he's in track - seriously, that guy can run.
As I start the car and pull out of the parking lot. Eric's head appears between us and asks, "So, how are classes coming? Last quarter starts tomorrow. You ready for graduation yet?"
Jase ignores him, winks at me, and grins. "I also heard there's a new girl, just enrolled here for the last quarter. She's a senior, but she's only seventeen. Must have skipped a grade or something, I guess."
"D'you know what her name is?" I ask, slightly curious.
"Nah. My lab partner told me about her and said he heard about it from two teachers who were talking in the lounge, but didn't catch her name."
"Seriously? Oh, well. Did you hear where she's from, though? She had to have just moved here if she's joining so late in the year."
"I don't know, man. I heard Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, and a ton of other Western States. The other seniors are all wondering who's enrolling so late, so there are a lot of different theories."
Wyoming...I have a sudden memory of a little girl in the woods and wonder, did her mother ever came back for her, or is she still living with Mom's friend?
"Huh. Oh, well, I guess I'll see her for myself soon enough."
He jabs me with his elbow and smirks. "Maybe she'll catch your interest, since everyone else here is apparently 'not your type'. Come on, you've said that about everyone - what even is your type?"
"I doubt that. I have no idea who she is. And I'm just not interested in them. I have my reasons." I say, my voice tight and my knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. Eric notices my tension and doesn't press the issue.
They aren't my type because they're not S - because I couldn't tell them about me. What I am. I couldn't be with them, because they would never understand. I want someone to understand me, and they couldn't.
~<>~
After I drop Jase, then Eric, I can finally head back home. Mom's making spaghetti tonight, and her sauce is really good.
I pull into the driveway, stop my car, and grab all my stuff out of the trunk. As soon as I'm inside the door, I sling my backpack off and let my wings snap out. They appear on my back in a whoosh of dark feathers, phasing through my t-shirt like they always do, and I breathe a big sigh of relief. ...finally. I can be myself again.
Hiding them all day, every day, isn't easy, but I had to get used to it - and good at it - as soon as I started going to school. There might have been a few questions if an eleven-year-old boy walked into 5th grade with black feathered wings on his back, y'know?
Kicking off my shoes and dropping my bag beside them, I head toward the kitchen and call, "Mom! I'm home, the spaghetti smells great!"
"Hello, dear!" My mom comes out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron, wings hidden - can't have feathers in the food. "Can you help me put the dishes on?"
Once the table's set, the food's on, and we've begun eating, she asks me, "How was school today? How are your classes coming along?"
"Great. They're starting to wind down, what with the last quarter and all. Oh, and Jason said there's a new girl at school. Just moved here, I guess? I didn't see her, though, so I don't know if he's right or not."
I grab a forkfull of noodles, and notice she hasn't said anything.
I look up at her.
Mom has a thoughtful look on her face. "Actually... I know who that might be. You remember Menara Bynai? My friend from Wyoming?"
Menara...Oh, Miss Bynai! The lady that took Syrena in when we left.
"Yeah...I think so? What about her?"
"Well, she just moved here. We've been keeping in touch all these years, and she recently decided to also move to Alameda. Also...Syrena was still living with her. Syrena's birth mother hasn't not come back for her, actually, but she's become well-adjusted to life in this world. She is a faerie like us, but it is still undetermined what kind."
I was speechless. Syrena was from the same world as us? The flash of light was a portal? Behind our house? Had she moved here with Menara? Would she still recognize me? How much did Miss Bynai actually know about us?
My mind was spinning from the sudden information. This was all too much, especially after seven years. Nobody thought I'd like to know this earlier?
"Did-did Syrena come with her?" I asked, trying not to get my hopes up.
"Yes, she did. That's why I said I might know who the new girl at your school is. Menara said that Syrena would be entering Alameda High for the last quarter and graduating here."
Okay, this is not what I expected the last months of senior year.
I was still curious, though, so, "How much does Miss Bynai know about us? About Syrena?"
Mom shifted in her chair. "Well, uh, she knows pretty much everything."
"Everything??"
She sighed and laid her fork down. "I'll have to tell you sooner or later, I guess." She took a deep breath, and explained, "Menara is an Áptera faerie. She and I monitor portals between this world and Ostara - it's our job. When you said you'd found Syrena in the woods after seeing a bright flash, I knew she'd come through the portal that we were watching at the time. However, that was the last use of that gateway, and it disappeared soon after. We soon found out that a new one had opened in Wisconsin, so I had to move."
I held up a hand. "Wait, so you're telling me that when you said we had to move because your job moved...you meant..."
She nodded.
"Yes. Our system is that I move to the next portal location while she stays behind for a few years to ensure the old one doesn't open again. This time, though, she stayed longer than usual, because Syrena said her mother had sent her. We thought maybe somebody might try to come through from the other side. Nobody did, though, so now she has come here."
"So...you're some sort of portal guardian, Syrena is from the same world as us, Miss Bynai is a faerie, and now she and Syrena are here?"
Mom nods, confirming my question.
Oh. Okay. Well, now I just felt like I was going to fall out of my chair. I managed to resume eating my dinner, but my brain was whirling with newly revealed answers, connections, and more questions.
Foremost amongst all of the muddled mess, though, was one thought:
Syrena was here. In the same school. I could see her again.
~<>~
Syrena
The move went really well. I didn't forget to bring anything, which was good. The drive halfway across the country, though, was a bit tiring. You'd think just sitting in a car wouldn't be so draining, but it is. With Menara, though, it definitely wasn't boring. She's so much fun to talk to and be around. Even though she's kind of my mom, we still sometimes act more like sisters. After all, she's only about twelve years older than me, which would only make her twenty-nine to my seventeen.
Menara Bynai has taken care of me since I was ten years old, after the mother and son that I lived with for the year after I woke up in the woods had to move to a different state. She helped me fit in with the other children, then the other tweens, then the teens. She even taught me how to drive when I turned sixteen. Now it's our turn to move. It's funny, I used to feel a connection to the forest behind their old house, like I couldn't leave it, but now that's gone. I'm not sure why there was a connection, since I have no memories of my life before then, but now I'm ready to begin a new life here. I'm enrolling in a local high school to finish my senior year and graduate, then I'll probably go to a nearby college. For what, I don't know yet. I guess I'll have to figure it out soon, though.
I wonder if Dakan and Ailani still remember me after all this time?
I haven't talked to either of them in years - I don't even know if I could recognize them after all this time. All I know is that they moved to Wisconsin, but I don't know the city. Maybe we'll be living close enough to each other that I can see them again.
I've changed a lot too; I wonder if they would still recognize me?
~<>~
A/N
Hello, person.
Firstly, I want to thank you so much for reading this. Any proof of that (comments and/or votes 😜) is extremely appreciated. I love to hear your feedback, critiques, questions, and just general comments and reactions.
I probably won't have a regular updating schedule, but I'm so excited for you to see this story that's been knocking around in my brain, begging to escape, so I will try to update as often as I can 😁💖
That said, thank you again for reading my work.
Love you peoples.
~Leya 💜
Also, here are Syrena and Dakan's faceclaims:
Syrena
Dakan