Chapter 3: Induction
She looked down at her new clothing and fiddled with the tie draped around her chest. The human clothes she had been supplied with felt awkward and nowhere near as comfortable as the ethereal threads of her own world. What was the point of trying to blend in, anyway? She heard (and Mr Payne proved!) that humans looked quite dull, whereas Phantasia so pale as to be glowing in the sunlight, and her hair and eyes weren’t natural in any world! The pointed ears and flawless appearance wouldn’t help either. Somehow Phantasia wasn’t sure the Queen’s excuse – that humans accepted minor differences because of ‘genetic mutations’ – would work for her where she was going.
Mr Payne was taking her to a human school. One he was in charge of, of all things! Phantasia was going to be surrounded by young humans around her age, and would be integrated into the society as if she was just a normal human girl. It wasn’t going to work. She knew it.
I’m not even a normal faerie, so how do they expect me to be a normal human?
For a moment, she expected Mr Payne to answer. When she remembered where she was, she felt somewhat less exposed. “Don’t you think I’m going to stand out a bit?” she asked.
Mr Payne laughed, and ushered down a tiled street. “We have quite a few unusual students. Our school is rather renowned for them, to be honest. You should fit in well!”
Along the way they passed several humans, and Phantasia did her best not to stare at them in awe. Most paid no attention, though one woman did peer at her with narrowed eyes, while her aura fluctuated with crackling resentment. Most people, like her, appeared to be quite young and heading in a similar direction. Some of them acknowledged Mr Payne, though others appeared to be rather more hostile towards him.
“There’s the usual politics you get with young people,” he said as they passed a group dressed all in black and white. Phantasia wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but listened regardless. “Some students are only here to cause trouble. Some just had nowhere else to go. You might get hassle from a few, but all new students do.”
After a short walk, which felt more like a scenic tour of the town at times, they arrived within sight of the school. Sitting on the eastern outskirts of town, away from the built up streets, it was surrounded by green fields and a nearby forest of young trees. The building itself was in a state of disrepair, with some sections fenced off, while others were surrounded in scaffolding. The core section of the school, however, looked new.
Mr Payne stood on the edge of the grounds, smiling. “It’s still a work-in-progress. The, eh-” he paused and ruffled his hair, “-ruling body of the town, if you can call them that, aren’t entirely too keen on us, so we don’t get much funding. On the other hand, we get a lot of support from nature restoration activists and certain ‘friendly organisations’,”
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