Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 2)

“Forget it, Mina. The shirt is a lost cause. It’s not worth salvaging.” Nan grabbed her hand, pulled her out of the chair. Mina sighed, picked up her backpack and followed her friend out into the hall of Kennedy High.

Most of the students had already left for the day, and only those who had detention or were involved in afterschool clubs and sports were on campus. Mina never minded staying late after school. It meant she was able to see Brody and avoid running into despicable Jared.

Mina had once believed Jared was dead, and had felt responsible for his death. A Fae wolf had jumped from a moving van onto Jared’s motorcycle while they were both speeding down a highway. Mina saw them crash and she believed there was no way they could have survived that wreck. She had been devastated and spent days crying over him. Now, since he obviously wasn’t dead, she wished he was. He was rude, obnoxious and a complete jerk.

The day that Jared had appeared in the school lunchroom, miraculously alive, would be forever burned into her memory. For a moment, when he’d surprised her and looked at her with such heat filled and intense eyes, one would have thought it was Mina who had almost died. She’d clutched the table for support and dug her nails into it so she wouldn’t run to him crying and blubbering loudly. He’d seen her slight movement and given just the slightest head shake “no”. He’d continued to stare right into her soul as he moved across the lunchroom to sit at a different table. Jared was rejecting her, to keep up with appearances of being a new student.

Mina’s heart had thudded. She’d heard her blood rushing in her ears as she’d tried to make sense of the intense emotions that had overtaken her at the sight of Jared and his immediate response to her. Excitement, happiness, joy, confusion, hurt, betrayal, sadness, all of those emotions had flushed across her face in a blink of an eye and she’d sat down hard on the chair. Nan had barely noticed as she had droned on and on about the new kid.

She hadn’t been able to take the rejection from the one person who knew who she really was. And obviously Jared still remembered everything that had happened. Why? Why would he do this to her? She’d sat numbly across the room from Jared who knew her but pretended otherwise, and Brody who didn’t remember her and she wished had. The Fates were cruel. Why couldn’t it have been the opposite? Why couldn’t Brody have retained his memories and Jared have forgotten?

Mina had felt awful at her sudden change of thought and covered her face with her hands. It was too much, all too much for a sixteen year old to absorb. It wasn’t until she’d heard Savannah White’s laugh fill the lunchroom that Mina had officially lost it. She’d grabbed her tray and pushed it across the lunch table, then stood up loudly as her chair had flipped over, causing every head to turn her way expectantly. Every head except for Jared’s.

Mina had been angry. Angrier than she’d felt in a while. As a result, she’d turned and pushed another chair out of the way. The chair had moved effortlessly, and magically it changed directions. It skidded into a poor passerby, Steven. He stumbled and dropped his lunch tray of food right into the lap of the one and only Savannah White. Savannah had screamed at Steven and his pile of spaghetti that spilled across her pristine cheerleader uniform. The lunchroom erupted into laughter.

Mina had stood and stared at the domino effect that she had caused and couldn’t believe her luck. She’d looked at the faces of the students. No one had even looked at her or noticed her actions. Savannah’s angry tirade became louder and more hysterical. Mina had glanced one more time toward Jared and he’d purposefully looked down at his tray with a smug grin across his face. His eyes almost couldn’t contain the obvious mischief that lurked there.

That had explained it all. Mina wasn’t sure how she’d known, but Jared was behind the mysteriously moving chair, and the Steven and Savannah spectacle. She’d wondered if it was some kind of peace offering for refusing to acknowledge her. Well, she hadn’t taken it. Mina had turned and walked out the double doors of the lunchroom, leaving the monkey house it had become behind.

That had been over a month ago. Still Jared hadn’t spoken to her. And Brody had just been giving her odd looks. Boy trouble, plus the intense pressure of always trying to be on her guard for the next quest was taking a toll on her nerves. She could feel her younger self starting to slip away to be replaced by a forlorn, lovesick, paranoid loony. Mina felt like she was floating above herself looking down, not actually participating in her life.

“WATCH OUT!” Nan screamed.

Mina felt a strong tug on her green corduroy jacket and she was jerked back onto the curb and into the present. A red convertible, carrying a bunch of screaming teenage girls, whizzed by almost running over her. She looked up in confusion at her surroundings. They were standing outside of Kennedy High School next to the curb across from the parking lot. When had they walked outside? Was she really zoning out into her own thoughts so much that she was losing big chunks of time? She didn’t even remember walking across the school campus.

Nan released her death grip on Mina’s jacket. “Mina, really. Please tell me what is wrong with you?”

The adrenaline of almost getting hit by a car started to overtake her. If Nan hadn’t been right next to her she would’ve been toast. Burnt toast, crispy, not even worth salvaging and where would that leave her family? It would’ve meant that Charlie, her silent younger brother would be the next Grimm to face the Story.

She was not meant to go out like that, not by something as simple as walking into oncoming traffic. How in the world was she going to face another dangerous quest when she couldn’t even keep herself safe? She began to feel dizzy, sick, and nauseous all at once. Her legs became Jell-O and they buckled beneath her. She crumpled to the sidewalk, breathing heavily.

Nan screamed her name and a buzzing noise filled Mina’s ears. She could’ve sworn she heard Claire’s evil laugh echoing around her and heard LoneTree snarling at her.

Another car pulled up next to them and a window rolled down. “What’s going on? What happened?”

The strong voice broke through the echo of Claire's maniacal laugh in her head, but Mina still couldn’t calm her breathing or her heart.

Nan answered, “She was almost hit by a car and I think she’s in shock.”

“Don’t move.” A car door opened, footsteps came around and another door opened. Mina was so dazed she let Nan usher her into the backseat of the car with little resistance.

The feel of cool leather seats brushed against Mina’s face and the smell was oddly familiar, though unrecognizable. Three car doors slammed and the engine roared to life.

“Where to?” the male driver asked.

Mina looked around the backseat of the car, a few textbooks and a black sports bag with the school’s mascot and water polo silhouette in white where the only things littering the floor. She looked up into the rearview mirror and concerned blue eyes met hers. She didn’t need to see the driver’s face to know that she was in the backseat of Brody Carmichael’s car.

“972…” Nan rattled off.

“NO!” Mina yelled out a little too loudly. Nan was giving Brody her home address.

Nan’s head whipped around from the front seat to stare at her wide-eyed. “So you don’t want to go home? I thought you were having some kind of breakdown back there.”

Mina bit her lip and looked down in embarrassment. “I’m okay now. The shock of almost being hit by the car stunned me for a bit. I’m fine…really,” she added lamely.

Nan’s eyebrow rose, firmly stating she didn’t quite believe her. “Whatever.” She opened the car door and stepped out onto the curb. “I guess we won’t need a ride after all.”