Fairies and Felicitations (Scholars and Sorcery) by Eleanor Beresford Page B

because you’re used to being the darling little pet of the upper formers, and now we’ve gone up in the school a bit and we’re nearly as old as the top formers, your charms don’t work any more. Your time has come, old girl, and you can’t just bat those long lashes of yours at them and get your own way all the time. That’s why you’ve got your knife into Cecily. She sees right through you.”
    “I bet I could charm Cecily Kettler if I wanted,” Kitty says, her big green-gold eyes narrowing.
    “Don’t even think about it,” I warn her, and she subsides. I’m the only person at Fernleigh Manor who knows for sure that, as well as her ice magic, Kitty has the power to cast Charms and Glamours to influence people to think well of her. It’s her trump card when she gets into scrapes, and being Kitty, she can’t afford to reveal it.
    “Oh, I have other things to think about.” Kitty parts her hands, and I see a glint of green light through her fingers.
    “Do you have a fairy in there? Oh, Kitty, don’t tell me you swiped it from the aviary in the Science classroom. Miss Christie will go wild.” I try to peer between her fingers.
    “No, it’s just a wild one that fluttered onto my shoulder while I was doing my laps. It’s a pretty little thing, isn’t it? Look at its big emerald eyes and those lovely dragonfly wings. Although that’s all there is to it, prettiness.” Kitty stands and opens the window, letting in a blast of cold air that makes the other girls shriek, and releases the little creature. “Nothing of substance.”
    “Are you still on about that?” I am a touch concerned. It’s not like Kitty to brood over something rather than bouncing up again like a rubber ball. “Give it a rest, Kitty-cat.”
    “Yet we love fairies anyway, because they are so pretty,” Kitty goes on, regardless. She plumps down on my bed and twinkles up at me. “You admire Esther for her beauty too, rather than her cricket, don’t you, Anne?”
    “What?”
    “Solid, plain girls like you and Cecily always go a bit soppy over the pretty, glamorous type, dearest. That’s why you put up with the way I treat you, after all. It’s my good looks and charm.”
    “I have absolutely no idea why I put up with you.” I shove her forcefully off my bed and crawl under the covers, my back pointedly turned to her. Solid and plain, indeed.
    “Because you’re my best friend?” she asks, a little plaintively. “Anne, don’t be cross. I was just teasing.”
    I pointedly refuse to answer.
    After a while, I begin to relent. I start to think of how kind and amusing Kitty can be, the way she diverts and comforts me when I have my monthly pains, how much fun she can be, how sweet, how really truly beautiful with her red-gold hair and rose leaf skin…
    “Cut it out!” I hiss, hitting her in the stomach with my pillow from the next cubicle.
    Kitty breaks into unrepentant giggles, and the effects of the Charm diminish as Emily, the dorm monitor, wearily tells us to shut up and go to sleep. Kitty, mean thing that she is, keeps my pillow, and I don’t dare risk Emily’s wrath by getting up to steal it back. I sigh and try to settle my head on the bare mattress, vowing retaliation.
    As we wash in the morning, Kitty starts up as if the conversation had never been interrupted. “Say what you like, Anne, I bet Cecily is completely gone on Esther. For all she is the kind to look down on soppiness and schlooping in other girls.”
    “I don’t say anything about it at all.” I shift uncomfortably, wishing she would drop the subject.
    “I bet there’s a way to get back at her using that.” Kitty ties her fluffy hair back with a green ribbon, admiring its effect. “I just have to think about it a bit and hatch a plan.”
    “There’s nothing to get back at her for!” I snap. “Really, Kitty, you are the end! Just drop it.”
    “Oh, have it your way, Miss Goody Two-Shoes,” Kitty says, and flounces down to breakfast in an