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    Fae School: Fairy Life Vol. 1
    Fae School: Fairy Life Vol. 1
    Fae School: Fairy Life Vol. 1
    Ebook303 pages3 hours

    Fae School: Fairy Life Vol. 1

    By Charles G. Dyer

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    About this ebook

    A terrible accident turns young Kerry into an orphan. Alone in the world, she is placed in her nasty uncle's care. He and his family make her life even more miserable until the lawyer arranges a change of guardianship.
    The lawyer reveals that her deceased parents had kept life-changing secrets from her.
    She is a fairy, but the only way to change into her true self is to go to a Fae school and undergo a transformation ritual.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCharles G. Dyer
    Release dateSep 21, 2015
    ISBN9781310788598
    Fae School: Fairy Life Vol. 1
    Author

    Charles G. Dyer

    Charles Dyer is a consulting engineer, former senior lecturer and former technical magazine editor. He creates 3D models to help with visualisation and realism in his writing.

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      Book preview

      Fae School - Charles G. Dyer

      Fae School

      Fairy Life Vol. 1

      CHARLES G. DYER

      Copyright © 2015 Charles G. Dyer

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN: 9781310788598

      Smashwords Edition

      License

      Thank you for purchasing this book. Names, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. It remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to purchase their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

      It would be greatly appreciated if you could post a review on the site where you purchased this book.

      CONTENTS

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter Nineteen

      Chapter Twenty

      Chapter Twenty One

      Chapter_Twenty_Two

      Chapter_Twenty_Three

      Chapter_Twenty_Four

      Chapter_Twenty_Five

      Chapter_Twenty_Six

      About The Author

      Pronunciation Guide

      Note: ch as in loch

      Chapter One

      She knelt on her bed and drew back the drapes. The view through the dirty window mirrored her feelings.

      She saw a sad pale grey sky of a hue akin to a corpse's pallor against which was silhouetted a dark greyish-brown horizon in a shade reminiscent of sun-baked cow pies. Against this gloomy background were the greyish-white desiccated finger bones of the city skyscrapers poking through a thin layer of early morning mist. At the edge of the cityscape, greyish-green spearheads of trees punctuated the dismal panorama.

      What others might have seen as a beautiful fairyland, she saw as an ugly reflection of her dispirited mood. The weather was predicted to clear, but her blue funk was not.

      For Kerry Kelly, numb existence was a perpetual torment. After more than a fortnight, she still could not believe the tragedy that had befallen her.

      Just after she graduated from junior school, Kerry's life was turned upside down and helplessly out of control. She wandered around in a miserable daze. She was scarcely aware of the beautiful Texan summer vacation weather.

      Her parents were both killed outright in a dreadful accident. An eighteen-wheeler semi-trailer truck hauling massive precast concrete beams jack-knifed in front of their car on the freeway. The truck driver walked away from the wreck without a scratch. It took hours before the Kelly's bodies could be recovered.

      Kerry had been so looking forward to the summer vacation. She was not going to the summer camp that she would have preferred. Her parents had told her that they had very important secrets to show and tell her. Secrets that she needed to know before going to high school and before she matured any more than she had already.

      The only relatives Kerry had were an aunt, uncle and cousin that she had met once. She quickly dismissed any notions of asking what those secrets might have been once she met her relations.

      They were all mean and nasty to her. It was made quite clear that she was merely living with them under the terms of her parents' wills. They refused to have her dog, regardless of her pleas.

      Uncle Arthur was her late mother's brother, but they had fallen out many years ago. He secretly fancied himself as suitable material for the role of a bandit in a cowboy movie. To that end, he always wore a black Stetson, long sideburns and a bushy moustache.

      Kerry had inherited crooked teeth from her mother. That unfortunate feature was the only family resemblance she could see in Uncle Arthur, but it did nothing to endear him to her. She was very pleased that her mother had suggested that she get braces to straighten them. She still had to wear them for another year and visit the orthodontist every month for adjustments.

      Aunt Grace certainly did not live up to her name. She was gauche and grossly overweight with piggy eyes and a frizzy mop of mousy-blonde hair. Her thoroughly unpleasant personality was made all the worse by her high-pitched whining voice.

      Jack Sprat and his wife, was the first thing that came to mind when Kerry first saw them.

      Both adults were the worst kinds of skinflints except when it came to their daughter. Cousin Louisa hardly needed to ask for anything and it was hers. The thirteen year old girl was well on the way to becoming the spitting image of her mother.

      Kerry's first reaction to Louisa was also based on a nursery rhyme. This little piggy stayed home, she thought and had to bite her tongue.

      By default, Uncle Arthur was appointed the guardian of Kerry. Her late father's lawyer administered the estate and for that she was grateful.

      Even before the funeral, the ghastly relatives were sniping at her and complaining about having to put up with her and accommodate her in their home. She knew that Uncle Arthur was being paid a substantial monthly stipend for her maintenance. Nevertheless, he complained about every cent that he had to spend on her.

      Kerry almost felt sorry for him because he was a yes-man to both his wife and his daughter. However, she hated him as much as she hated them because he vented his spleen on her. She was a convenient scapegoat, and as such, she was something of a luxury for the wimp of a man.

      None of them expressed the slightest concern over the deaths of her parents. Kerry had not heard a single utterance of condolences. Of her three remaining relatives, Uncle Arthur was the least abusive, but he too had shown no grief at the loss of his sister.

      Their house in Galveston was on the opposite side of Houston to her home in Hunters Creek Village. Well, that was no longer home. The executors had already auctioned off the contents, and the house was soon to be sold too.

      Not only did Kerry mourn the loss of her parents, her dog and her home, but also her friends. Being so far away, none of them cared to visit, and she had no means of visiting them. Besides which, most of them had gone away for the summer vacation. Many were going to upstate high schools.

      The text messages of sympathy soon dwindled to the occasional, How are you KK? or some equally terse and impersonal phrase that was often abbreviated to something almost indecipherable.

      Kerry had not even looked at her Facebook page since the accident. She was actually quite upset with her erstwhile friends for not responding with more supportive emails. She regarded the whole situation as too personal to publish to the world.

      The allowance Uncle Arthur saw fit to give her was a pittance. Retail therapy was out of the question. Appeals to his sense of justice and fairness were useless.

      ***

      It was a typical weekday that was heralded for Kerry by loud thumping on her bedroom door and a shrieked command. Get up, you lazy good-for-nothing.

      Kerry pulled the covers over her head and mumbled, Go away.

      Aunt Grace squealed through the door, What did you say, you ungrateful slut?

      Nothing… I didn't say anything. Kerry changed into a pair of jeans and a Tee shirt.

      Her bedroom was tiny and the cupboards were full of Louisa's cast-offs. Even if she wanted to borrow a few things she could not because they were all at least two sizes too big for her. Kerry had to rifle through her suitcases and a couple of boxes of belongings to find her clothes.

      By way of a morning greeting, Uncle Arthur snapped, You look like a tramp. Brush your hair!

      Kerry fished a scrunchie from her jeans pocket and tied her long hair in a ponytail. She actually could never make up her mind about her hair colour. Sometimes she thought of it as light brown and other times, dark blonde.

      For a change, callous Cousin Louisa ignored Kerry at breakfast. She wanted new clothes.

      As she spoke, Louisa compounded her ugliness. A build-up of bubbles of spittle in the corners of her mouth often spewed flecks in all directions. Ma, she whined. "We have to go to the mall. I simply have to have a few new outfits. We don't have to take that awful orphan with us, do we?"

      True as it was, the nasty label stung and tears welled up in Kerry's eyes. She thought, Blubber bubble! Yeah, that's the perfect name for her.

      Aunt Grace talked as though Kerry was not present. "Of course not, Louisa dear. She doesn't need anything. Uncle Conor left her a fortune, and I got nothing. We…"

      Kerry quietly left the house without finishing her breakfast or waiting to hear any more. There was a shopping centre across the road and more shops west and south of that. When she tired of looking in the windows or wandering up and down the store aisles she crossed the Seawall Boulevard.

      The sky was streaked with clouds so thin that they seemed powdery blue rather than grey or white. In contrast, the calm sea nearly matched the asphalt of the road while the sidewalks were more like tanned skin than concrete.

      Just off the sidewalk, there was a strange-looking modern sculpture on several posts that leaned over at odd angles. On top of the supports were white angular shapes that might have been symbolic of sails, but Kerry was not impressed. On either side of this inexplicable monstrosity were two raised rectangular gardens covered with grass and about a dozen palm trees each. She had to walk a hundred metres east of this installation to find steps down the seawall to the beach.

      Sometimes she lolled about on the beach. Other times she walked out along the rocky breakwater. She only ever did that if there were no people about. The breakwater was a favourite spot for fishermen so she seldom ventured out on it.

      It was about a month into her summer vacation, and she had been living with her reluctant guardians for ten days. The only excursions she had had with her relatives had been to her parents' funeral and to the lawyer's office for the reading of the wills.

      She was getting desperate. The constant sniping and complete lack of sympathy were wearing her down. On top of that was the dreadful realisation that her loving parents were never to be seen again. I'm alone in the world.

      Safely ensconced on the privacy of the beach, Kerry decided to phone her father's lawyer. She explained at length how she was being treated.

      The lawyer said, Y'all know that much of what you've said are the usual symptoms of grief. Being lonely, frustrated, misunderstood and angry are all to be expected.

      "Shit! Kerry yelled. Uh, sorry Mr Maclean, but did you hear a word I said? It's got nothing to do with grief. These darned relatives of mine are the problem."

      Internet searches had revealed some interesting possibilities to her. She mentioned the one that had really grabbed her attention. "Can't you arrange for a change of guardianship? Isn't there anything you can do?"

      Hey kid, the money's all tied up with very specific instructions. You really don't want to get social services involved in this, Mr Maclean drawled. Y'all know that from the meeting we had. I was appointed the guardian of the estate. That means that I have no say in how you are…

      Kerry squeezed her phone harder. Yes, but isn't the money my uncle gets supposed to be for my benefit?

      Yeah, but it's all at his discretion. As long as you're properly clothed and housed and fed there ain't a thing can be done about it. The lawyer sighed. On the bright side, things are gonna change for the better when you go to high school. Especially after you turn sixteen.

      That's nearly two years of hell… Kerry frowned. What do you mean? I wasn't paying that much attention when the wills were read.

      He sighed again. OK, I can see you're unhappy and your dad was a friend. Did he or your mother ever tell you about the school or… He hesitated. Uh, or their special abilities?

      No, Kerry drew the word out suspiciously. Does he know something I don't? They were strangely cagey about the school.

      Hmm… The lawyer paused for a long time before continuing. I've probably said too much already. Uh… you'll find out more at school. I'll draw up a petition for the courts for me to be your Guardian of Person as well as the estate. I'll have to discuss this with your uncle, but from what you say, he might be amenable to the idea.

      Yeah, Kerry agreed, especially if you can pay him off. He's a real tightwad, Mr Maclean.

      Bruce Maclean ignored the slighting of her uncle. If he gives his consent, then the change of guardianship should go through quite quickly. Then we can open a High School Checking account for you.

      You mean I'll be able to use the money? she asked.

      Uh huh. Within limits. He yelled something with his hand over the phone. Gotta go. Don't worry, kid. I'll be in touch in a few days. Bye.

      Kerry felt a little better knowing that there was a way around her uncle. Dang, I never got to ask what he meant by special abilities. Now that I think about it, Dad did hint at telling me something when I was a bit older.

      She was relieved that enrolment at her new school had been sorted out earlier in the year. It had always been intended that Kerry should be a boarder at the Dominican Academy of St. Agnes. She wondered why because the school was within walking distance from her parent's home.

      The school was her father's alma mater, and he had been particularly excited and mysterious about it. His unusual behaviour had been accompanied by knowing smiles from her mother. No amount of pleading could get either of them to say anything more than what could be read in the prospectus.

      As the waves rolled in on the Gulf of Mexico, Kerry sat of a rock and absently drew circles in the sand with her foot. She watched a couple of surfers as she mulled over what Bruce Maclean had said.

      Special abilities? she asked the breeze. Mom and Dad were just ordinary people. What the heck is he talking about? How can things get better when I go to school? Oh yeah… I guess not being with dear Aunt and Uncle Sprat, and that awful Cousin Blubber Bubble will be a big improvement.

      The next week was almost a daily repetition of evading her relatives and moping about the various stores in the area or lounging around on the beach. The pain of loss eased a little. The fact that there was some possibility of ridding herself of her unwanted relatives somehow detracted from the loss of her loved ones.

      Most days, Kerry took her laptop with her. Emails from erstwhile friends were few and far between. She whiled away the time reading ebooks or trolling through the Internet in the hopes of finding an easy and acceptable way out of her guardianship.

      It was a full six days before she heard from Bruce Maclean. She almost didn't recognise the ringtone on her phone because it had not rung for so long.

      Hello?

      Hi Kerry? Mr Maclean asked.

      Yeah? Then she recognised his voice. Oh, Mr Maclean. I thought you'd forgotten about me.

      Hmm, sorry about the delay. I had to squeeze all your enquiries in between a heavy work schedule. He drew a noisy breath. Mr Wilcox is a difficult man, but we've come to an equitable solution. Well, not entirely what he deserves, but I think it's a small price to pay for your happiness.

      Gee, I don't care about the money. If I never see any of them again it'd be worth…

      Maclean huffed. Don't be so quick to shun money, kid. It's what makes the world go round and life can be pretty awful without it. Believe me, you can never have enough. Anyway, I've got good news for you. He's agreed to relinquish his guardianship, subject to certain conditions.

      Such as?

      He'll continue to get the basic monthly payment until your eighteenth birthday. He wants no further contact with you at all.

      "It seems unfair that he gets paid anything, but if that's what it takes, I'm OK with it. And, I certainly don't want to keep in touch with any of them."

      OK, he drawled. Problem is that you're still a minor, and as such you can't be left to your own devices. I've discussed your case with my wife and the principal of the Dominican Academy of St. Agnes. Cutting to the chase, this is what I can offer you. My wife will be your Guardian of Person. You'll move in with us until you go to school. You'll be a boarder at school, and here's a thought that you might consider.

      I was going to be a boarder anyway.

      I know, he said. But what I want you to think about is that you might spend the vacations at school too. It's early days yet, and you need to make an informed decision. Once you've been at school for a while and seen what I mean you can decide.

      Kerry's mind was in a whirl. Thank goodness I'm getting out of Galveston. When can I leave here?

      Uh… He flipped through his diary. I've got a court date for Tuesday next. There should be no problem getting the change of guardianship through. So, are you OK with this arrangement?

      Yeah. She bunched her toes together. It sounds great. Thanks a million, Mr Maclean. His wife can only be an improvement of what I've got. I wonder what all this is about with the school?

      Right, Mr Maclean drew the word out. If all goes according to plan, I'll fetch you on Tuesday evening. I'll call you as soon as the court hearing is over. He broke the connection before Kerry had a chance to respond.

      For the first time since her parents had died, she felt the shroud of hopelessness lifting. Still, she could not feel overjoyed at the news. There's still a chance that the courts will turn him down. What if Uncle Arthur changes his mind, or gets greedier than he already is?

      When Kerry finally went home just before supper, she was amazed by the change in Uncle Arthur and Aunt Grace. They were polite, and even Louisa refrained from saying anything nasty.

      Kerry sat down at the kitchen table and studied her relatives. Gee, what did Mr Maclean say to them?

      Would you like more potatoes, Kerry dear? Aunt Grace asked. The fat woman wore an expression Kerry had never seen before.

      Uh, no thanks, Aunt. Is that a smile?

      Uncle Arthur cleared his throat. Kerry, did the lawyer call you today?

      Yeah, she said.

      Good, he rubbed his hands together. Then you know about the new arrangements, right?

      Kerry tilted her head. "Doesn't that depend on what the court says?"

      Well yes, from a legal point of view, but he assured us that even if the judge rejects the application… Uncle Arthur hesitated and looked at Aunt Grace for reassurance.

      Get on with it, Arty, Aunt Grace said through a mouthful of food.

      Uncle Arthur shaved a sliver of fat off his meat. He said we can come to a private settlement. So either way, you'll be going to live with him next week.

      Yay! Louisa pumped the air with her fist.

      Now, now, Louisa my darling. Aunt Grace's piggy eyes narrowed. "Remember what I said. Kerry's a guest in this house, for a short while."

      Kerry thought it best to say nothing, but her heart was doing somersaults of joy. I guess I can stand four more days in this rathole. Surely, Mom knew what her brother was like? Why couldn't they have… She cut the thought short. I guess you can't plan for WHEN you're going to die.

      ~##~

      Chapter Two

      When Tuesday finally came around, Kerry was itching to go. The insincere fawning of Aunt Grace and the strained politeness of Cousin Louisa were almost as unbearable as their nastiness.

      She had spent the last few days avoiding them all as before. With all her things packed, there was no reason to stay in the house a moment longer than the meals.

      Her wanderings took her to the Fort Crockett Seawall Park. It was a disappointment, being a flat open field with a few palm trees, and nowhere to sit other than on the grass.

      Across the Seawall Boulevard from the park was a kiosk that sold snacks and sodas. A few wooden benches and tables with blue and white umbrellas were dotted about. These looked more comfortable than the concrete ones so she sat down and opened her laptop.

      For a long time, she could not think what to do then she decided to see if Bruce Maclean had a Facebook page. Amongst his friends were her mother and father. His wife, Lilith, was mentioned but there was no picture of her and she did not have a page of her own. His timeline revealed almost nothing of his character.

      Huh! Kerry closed the laptop and mumbled. That's odd. He hasn't even got a picture of himself on Facebook and none of his friends have either. Gee, Mom and Dad's pages don't have pictures either. Do they all belong to some sort of faceless club?

      She bought some fries for lunch and had no sooner finished the last one than her phone rang. Hello?

      It's all done, and settled in your favour, Kerry. Bruce Maclean's voice was charged with excitement.

      Wow! That's great. I was afraid the court would say no, she said.

      He ignored her lack of faith in him and said, I've cleared my afternoon. If you like I could fetch you earlier. Say in about two hour's time. Would you like that?

      She pumped the air with her fist. You bet. I've been ready to go for ages. See you soon and thanks again.

      "No sweat. Bye Kerry.'

      By two-thirty, Kerry's possessions were packed in the trunk of Maclean's new silver Honda Civic 1.8i. Uncle Arthur was still at work. Louisa was out and Aunt Grace was busy in the kitchen.

      Out of common courtesy, Kerry stuck her head around the door. I'm going now, Aunt.

      Seeing no need to keep up the pretence of decency anymore, Aunt Grace merely grunted. She then escorted Kerry to the front door to make sure that the girl did not take anything that was not hers.

      Most of the drive to Maclean's home in

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