“What do her parents do?” Mum asked.
“I don’t know,” Brendan said.
“Have you met them yet?”
“No!”
“Why not?” his dad wondered. “Are they criminals? Murderers? I know! They’re in the Mafia!”
“Dad!” Brendan pleaded.
“Edward, please!” his mother scolded. “We’re just trying to get to know this girl. You hadn’t even mentioned her before, and here she is on our doorstep. What’s with the secrecy?”
“What’s with it? Listen to yourselves. You’re all over me about it. It’s embarrassing!”
Dad put on a mockingly tearful face, dabbing his eyes with a napkin. “Our little boy! He’s all growed up, dear!”
Mum slapped him on the arm. “Stop teasing him, Edward. You’re making him uncomfortable.”
“And what are you doing? It’s like a CIA interrogation! Who are they? Where do they live? What’s their income? Do they have any pets? Communicable diseases? What’s their inoculation history?”
“I’m not that bad,” Mum protested. “I’m just interested. I’m excited. Brendan’s first girlfriend!”
Delia snorted. “If it’s so exciting, I guess I’m free to start going on dates?”
“Sorry.” Dad shook his head. “Not the same thing.”
“It is too,” Delia protested. “Why is it different?”
“You’re a girl,” Dad said, picking up his newspaper. “If any boy touches you, I’m calling the police.”
“It’s so unfair!” Delia shouted. She pushed away from the table and stomped off to the front door. A second later, they heard it slam.
“That’s not very nice, dear,” Mum scolded.
“I was joking!” Dad said. “But not really.”
“Not funny,” Mum insisted, getting up for another cup of coffee.
Behind her back, Dad mouthed, “Oh yes it is!”
Brendan stifled a laugh.
Mum returned to the table. “I thought you were interested in that tomboyish girl with the scooter.”
“What, KIM? No way,” Brendan said.
“I think she likes you,” Dad opined.
“What? How would you know?”
“Does she like Charlie?”
“Oh, I don’t think Kim likes anybody.” Brendan was sure Kim and Charlie would hit it off like a baseball bat and a kneecap.
Brendan was walking along College Street on his way to school when Charlie fell into step beside him.
“What are you doing?” Brendan demanded.
“I’m coming to school with you.”
“No way!”
“I insist. It’ll be an education, if you’ll pardon the pun.”
Brendan protested vociferously until they arrived across the street from the school, then finally gave in. There was no way he could stop her from doing what she wanted to. Maybe he could enlist Greenleaf and Kim to help get rid of her. At least he’d managed to convince her to lose Tweezers while she was at Robertson Davies Academy.
“It’s safer that way,” Brendan insisted. He jerked his head to indicate BLT sitting on his shoulder happily munching on a Cheerio (Honey Nut, one of Brendan’s only concessions to her sweet tooth). “I send BLT off to amuse herself for the day while I’m in school. People wouldn’t take kindly to having a giant fly buzzing around them. And there are no pets allowed.” BLT waved and zipped away toward the park. “And no sweets!” Brendan yelled after the tiny Faerie. She flipped him a rude gesture and darted out of sight.
“If you insist. Tweezers?” she said simply to the animal as they walked up to the main doors. With no further prompting, the furry creature wormed its way under the T-shirt she wore beneath her open leather jacket. As Brendan watched, the lump stopped squirming and melted away, until her shirt flattened out against her skin once more. Charlie pulled down her collar to reveal a tattoo of a ferret on her white shoulder.
“Happy, boss?”
The ferret was taken care of. Brendan was relieved to see that at least. RDA had a strict no-pets policy, and Brendan didn’t need to tangle with Ms. Abernathy. The vice-principal had just returned to active duty after being thrown onto the school roof by Orcadia.^ 39 Fortunately, Ms. Abernathy had no recollection of the incident, but she glared with lingering suspicion at Brendan whenever she passed him in the hall, her neck brace a constant reminder to him of the last time she’d tangled with his relatives.
“Woo hoo!” several boys catcalled from the steps of the school. “Hey, honey! Can we see a little more?”
“You?” Charlie called back good-naturedly, pulling her collar back into place. “You wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like me!”
She marched up the steps and through the double doors with Brendan on her heels. A couple of boys gave Brendan the thumbs-up, and one asked, “Who’s the babe, Brendan?”
Brendan rolled his eyes and didn’t answer. Instead, he followed Charlie through the door. He supposed Charlie was pretty good-looking. He hadn’t really thought about it before. As he watched her walk ahead of him down the hall, he took in her swaying hips in her tattered black jeans. In spite of the intense displeasure of having her invade his life, he couldn’t help but admit she was a babe, indeed.
Dmitri and Harold fell over themselves to offer a seat to Brendan’s “cousin” Charles. Brendan, on the other hand, was greeted with grunts of annoyance. They still had to work on their social studies presentation, and his failure to show up for the meeting at his own house had been a massive inconvenience. None of his apologies made a dent in their disapproval.
Brendan had hoped that his homeroom teacher might voice some objection over Charlie’s presence, but again, no such luck. He was just as charmed by her as everyone else. Not even the fact that she had no school uniform could queer the deal.
“Of course she can sit in on your classes,” Mr. Carey simpered. “I’m sure she’ll be as quiet as a mouse.”
Oh brother, Brendan groaned to himself. Is there anybody she can’t charm?
No sooner had he formed this thought than the door opened and Kim walked in.
She plopped down in her desk. “Morning, fellas. How’s it ha-” As soon as she saw Charlie sitting in the desk next to Brendan, she stopped short. If Kim had hackles they would have been standing up.
“Who is she?” The words were flat but full of menace. If Charlie was intimidated, she didn’t let it show.
“The name is Charles,” Charlie said lightly. “But you can call me Charlie.”
“She’s Brendan’s cousin!” Harold offered.
“She’s from Montreal,” Dmitri added, not to be outdone.
Charlie must have started building a cover story on the fly. Brendan was amazed at how much the two nerdy boys had managed to learn about the new girl in three minutes. Usually, his friends were paralyzed by fear around the opposite sex.
Brendan jumped out of his skin when Kim’s blistering gaze swung onto him and locked there. “Well, Brendan? Is that right? A cousin? I didn’t know you had a cousin.” She spat out the last word like a gob of poison.
“Uh… ” Brendan didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what he could say without making Harold and Dmitri suspicious. Surely she wasn’t angry at him? It wasn’t his fault. He’d like nothing better than to have this girl out of his life. He had hoped that Kim would help him attain that goal. Now, as he watched Kim glare at Charlie, looking her up and down, he realized that she was blaming him for bringing Charlie here.
In the end, Kim swung her backpack, field hockey stick jutting out as always, to the floor and sat down with her back to Brendan. As he fumbled with his book bag he heard Harold whisper to Dmitri, “I guess she doesn’t like having competition in the hottie department.”
“What’s a hottie?” Dmitri asked.
“Quiet, you guys,” Brendan said. Brendan had to believe that there was more to this than cattiness and jealousy. Kim was his guardian and guide in the Faerie world. She wouldn’t take kindly to having another Faerie show up on her turf. From the look on Kim’s face, Charlie was as much a shock to her as she’d been to Brendan. He had to get Kim alone and explain. The starting bell cut into his thoughts.