Chapter 6

What Happened to Emily?

Catherine

I waited for Emily outside of Monsters when her class was over, but she wasn’t there. I figured she had gone off without me and went to study hall. She wasn’t there, either. Worry began to gnaw at me. What the heck did she do? I hoped that she wasn’t avoiding me because of the incident in Weapons.

At last, I found her waiting outside the cafeteria.

“Emily!” I breathed, and ran over to her. I angrily scolded, “Where were you? I was really worried!”

Emily was about to reply, when a look of confusion crossed her face. “I- I can’t remember...” she trailed off.

That scared me. I was not the kind of person who was easily frightened, either. But losing your most recent memories was never good.

“Are you sure?” I asked as she continued to look confused.
“I- oh!” she exclaimed. “I remember! I was watching the advanced fairies and I fainted. Drew walked me up to the nurse.”
“Um... okay, I guess...”

Something’s not right here... why in the world would Drew help Emily to the nurse? Something just isn’t right here...

“Emily, Drew didn’t do anything weird to you, right?”

“Catherine! Why would Drew do anything mean?! She is the nicest, kindest, most--”

“Okay, okay!” I exclaimed, cutting her off. “I get it.”

Yep, something is definitely not right.

I sighed, but didn’t question her more. I looked up at the large clock that could be seen all over the school. 5:50. Ugh, we only had ten minutes to get ready for dinner.
“Hey, Emily, we need to get up to the dorm and get dressed for dinner.”
Emily looked down at what she was already wearing and then replied, “But I already have clothes on...”
I rolled my eyes. I really hoped this foggy thinking would wear off soon, because frankly, this Emily was even more annoying than the normal one, something I didn’t think was possible until now.
“No, I didn’t mean like that, you idiot. I meant that we have to get into our school uniforms for dinner. I have to get into my Dragons uniform, and you have to get into your fairy clothes.” I paused for a second to think about what I just said.
“Wait, did they teach you how to change into you full size fairy form? It’s a lot easier than doing the actual fairy size, but you still have the general fairy look, plus the wings.”

“No, I don’t know how to access any of my fairy powers,” she said haltingly.

“Um... okay, then we will just have to get you in some nicer clothes...” I trailed off as I grabbed her hand and made a run for our dorm room. Once we were in our room, I turned back to the dazed-looking Emily.
“Okay, Emily, let me explain something to you. At Candlewick, dinner is much more organized and formal than the other meals. Not only do the different classes sit with each other, such as me sitting with all the Dragon students, but we also have to be in our class uniforms. Class uniforms usually are what a professional of your subject would wear. Wizards wear traditional robes, dragon-riders wear riding outfits, mythology kids wear the outfit connected to their god or goddess patron’s culture, fairies wear a bigger version of the outfit they wear in fairy form, and so on. However, first years in any class wear school uniforms. Newer fairies that haven’t learned to change just wear school uniforms, too. I have an old one that might fit you. Oh, and most dinners, the heads of the classes, such as Willy and I, sit at the head table with the headmaster. But tonight, since it’s Friday, all of the Deathball players sit up there, which would also include Willy. Oh, and that reminds me, make sure you ask Willy to explain Deathball to you sometime tonight.”
“What? Were you talking to me?” Emily asked after a moment.

This is worse than I thought, I silently worried.

○○○

When we came out from changing, all Jack did was scrutinize Emily silently. However, she didn’t even notice. She just looked tired and confused. We walked down to dinner in silence. Even thick-skulled Willy noticed something up with Emily.
I kept expecting Emily to comment on the unusual garb everyone wore, since she hadn’t been listening to anything I had told her. However, she was still in a mental daze, so nothing seemed to be getting through.

As we walked in, a bunch of fairy kids saw her and smiled, and one that I had met before, Michael Aylwin, waved to her, motioning for her to come sit next to him. When she just stared at him, more confused than ever, a worried look came onto his face and he turned away. I leaned over to Emily.

“Do you know him?” I asked.

She seemed to struggle, as though something was holding her answer back. “No...” she said slowly.

“Go sit by him, I think he wants to meet you,” I said.

“No, I want to sit with Drew,” she replied, walking off.

I think I’ll ask that Michael guy about this... I decided.

“Hey, Michael,” I said when I got to the fairy table. “Have you met Emily?”

He turned around and said, “Oh, um, Catherine, right?” he inquired. Seeing my nod, he answered me, “Yeah, I met her in fairies today. What’s up with her? She didn’t recognize me even though we talked for a good fifteen minutes today.”

I gratefully thought, Oh, good. Maybe I can figure out what’s going on before dinner’s over.

When I talked to Michael about what had happened in class, he furrowed his brow thoughtfully and replied, “She changed. She said she’d never had any contact with fairy magic, so I don’t know how that’s possible. But she was really freaked out when she changed back, and Miss L’Velle had Drew take her to the nurse. And with Drew...” he trailed off, knowing that I would understand what he implied.

We continued to chat about Emily for a while longer. When Headmistress Sorcen rose from her seat to speak to the school, I thanked him for his help, assuring him that I would try to take off the mental block that I was sure Drew had placed. Then I walked away, thinking that one bright spot in the day was that Michael seemed to have a crush on Emily, which made me continue to question the mental stability of the fairy kids. But I still hoped she would feel the same when the mind block was removed, because Michael was a nice guy. Anyways, she needed some excitement in her life.

After the announcements, I sat by Lysander at my table and related to him the day’s events, excluding the mishap in Fairies. Even though he was my friend, I didn’t want to make a huge thing of this mess. Plus, Jack hadn’t said anything when he had seen Emily earlier, which made me doubt myself on the whole Drew theory. Even while I was thinking about it right now, I started to lean more towards the possible answer of Emily just being worn out from all the activities of the day.

Now satisfied that a good night’s sleep would help Emily feel like herself again, I relaxed and enjoyed my dinner. I talked to Lysander and my other friends in Dragons, and felt refreshed and ready for bed. When Emily stood up to go to our dorm, I stood up to grab her before she left the cafeteria. Emily was still confused, and I began to get worried again when she couldn’t remember how to get to our room. I figured that while she didn’t have the greatest memory, she would at least remember where the room was located.

She stayed pretty much silent as we walked up, only speaking to answer questions in one or two words, occasionally not answering at all. The closer we got, the more tired Emily seemed, and the more strained she looked.

“Emily, are you okay?” I asked as we walked into our room. “You’re kind of... wobbly.”

And she was. Emily was swaying back and forth from obvious exhaustion. She was just beginning to respond when she went limp and fell to the floor.

“Jack!” I yelled. “Something’s wrong with Emily!”

At this point, the book was too long for our Google Doc! We moved on to a new one. However, we're not posting the rest of what we wrote, because it was kind of chopped up and confusing. We were in the process of adding and subtracting story bits and got... well, you could say we got discouraged. It seemed too much like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. See my next post for more information!