How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier Page B

if they realy could.
    I caught the smel of salt. The smel brought a rush of memories: days surfing, snorkeling, doing laps in the bars, sand castles, beach voleybal. I tried to remember the last time I’d been to the beach.
    Definitely not since I’d started at Sports. That made me a little sad.
    “Can you smel the ocean?” I asked.
    “Yeah, isn’t it fantabulous? When’s the last time we went to the beach?”
    “I was just thinking that! Let’s go next school break. After my fairy’s gone.”
    “That’s the spirit!” Rochele punched me. I winced. She ran up the front steps and rang the bel. The door opened instantly.
    It was Fiorenze. “Hi, Rochele. Hi, Charlie,” she said. “I saw you coming up the drive.”

    We both said hi back. Then we al stood there awkwardly for what felt like hours.
    “Oh,” Fiorenze said at last, “come in.” She opened the door wider, revealing the biggest foyer I’d ever seen. The floor was made of swirling marble. There were two giant curving staircases and the biggest chandelier I’d ever seen.
    “Oh,” Fiorenze said again. “It is kind of big, isn’t it?” She made it sound like that was a realy bad thing.
    “Sure is. You must have like five rooms of your own!”
    “She has two,” said a strange- accented woman, walking toward me and holding out her hand.
    She was pulchritudinous. No, not pulchy exactly, stylish. She was the same height as her daughter. Her skin color was a little darker, with more red. She had the biggest eyes I’d ever seen. Her hair was close cropped, making them look even bigger. And New Avalon is ful of big- eyed pulchies. It was hard to believe she wasn’t an Our.
    But to be an Our requires not just fame—you have to be a proper New Avaloner. She’d only lived here ten years or so. Not long enough to lose her accent. Not that a Fairy Studies professor would ever become famous, not unless they captured a fairy or something.
    “I’m Tamsin,” she said. “You must be Charlotte.”
    I shook her hand and didn’t tel her that I hate being caled Charlotte. I couldn’t quite imagine her caling me Charlie .
    “Helo, Rochele. How are you?”

    “Fine, thanks, Tamsin.” Rochele spoke as if caling her by her first name was perfectly natural. No way could I cal this goddess by her first name.
    “Are you girls hungry? Thirsty?”
    “No, thank you,” Rochele said. I shook my head. I was feeling too awe-ful to speak.
    “Wel, then to business it is. Darling, show Rochele the new additions to the basketbal court. Didn’t you say she’s an A-streamer now?”
    I tried not to think jealous thoughts. Even if I’d made B-stream I couldn’t have replaced Elena; I’m just a little point guard.
    Fiorenze looked down. “Oh, I thought we—”
    “See you later, darling.” She turned to me, swiveling elegantly. I wondered if she’d ever been a dancer. “This way,” she said as if her words were part of the same movement.
    Folowing her, I was convinced that if anyone could get rid of my loathsome fairy, it was Tamsin Burnham-Stone.

CHAPTER 18
Two Fairies
    Days walking: 67
    Demerits: 4
    Conversations with Steffi: 8
    Game suspensions: 1
    Public service hours: 16
    Hours spent enduring Fiorenze
    Stupid- Name’s company: 2.75
    Kidnappings thwarted: 1
    D r. Burnham- Stone led me up the right-hand curving marble staircase and down a long corridor that wasn’t lined with family portraits, though I could imagine them.
    “Have you considered that you might have the fairy you have for a reason?”
    “Um,” I said. To make sure my blood is ful of carbon monoxide?
    Stupid cars.
    “Some people believe that everyone gets the fairy they deserve.

    And that changing your fairy wil create chaos.”
    “I hadn’t heard that,” I said. I did not deserve my fairy! “How do you mean chaos?”
    “I mean what I say,” she said grimly. “Chaos.”
    That wasn’t any answer. “Yes, but what do you mean by chaos?”
    She opened a door and led me into a large