Chapter Sixteen: Trevor

Before anyone could say more and without warning, the wall to the right of Evie began to shimmer. Already jumpy, Evie gasped loudly and stepped away from it. It looked like it had turned to liquid. Trevor stepped through, his head swivelling in search of something. As soon as he noticed Evie standing there with her mouth hanging half open he rushed toward her with brisk, purposeful strides.

Trevor grabbed one of Evie’s arms and quickly glanced around as if unsure whether to speak in front of the others. He must have decided he could, because he whispered, “I need to speak with you.” At that particular moment with her nerves frazzled and her patience quite exhausted, Trevor’s entry may just have been the most unwelcome thing that could have happened.

She snapped, “If you need someone to talk to I suggest you go back to that awful boy you abandoned us for when we got here. You obviously decided that you don’t need friends like us.”
It clearly wasn’t the response he expected because he struggled for words for a few seconds before saying, “Listen, Evie, we should really speak privately. We need to find Bridget, too. But if you will just…”

She cut him off in sheer fury, “Find Bridget?! You know I really don’t think she wants to talk to you. Actually I am surprised you think she’s worthy of your breath. After all, you wouldn’t have shed a tear if you had killed her with your lousy prank.”

This time Trevor looked clearly stunned. He stepped back and shook his head. “You do not understand. I was just…I mean. Evie, You have got to listen to me!”

“You had your chance, Trevor. Too many chances actually! I would have given up on your lousy, pathetic butt the first time I met you. But Bridget insisted we keep trying. You’ll never know how bad you’ve hurt her. She’s a great person and you’re not worthy to wash her clothes. I don’t care who your parents are. So, no, Trevor, I will not listen to you again. I won’t give you another chance to hurt Bridget. Get out of here. Crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of and leave us alone!” By the end of that torrent Evie panted in red hot anger and her hands ached from the fists she had been clenching at her sides.

Trevor had backed up more with each blow. He stood with half of his back absorbed by the wall which had become liquid again as soon as he touched it. His demeanor changed too. He had gone from open desperation to pure fury that rivalled Evie’s current feelings. His hands clenched tightly as if in imitation of hers and every muscle in his body seemed to be flexed. Almost as an afterthought, Evie noticed his eyes brimmed with unshed tears. His fury overshadowed whatever sadness he felt, though. He threw his arms into the air and screamed, “FINE!” as he turned and disappeared through the wall.

Evie simply stared at the wall becoming solid. It took a few minutes for her to notice anything but the sound of the blood pumping in her ears. When she did, she heard a slow, deliberate clap coming from Devin. He still sat casually with his feet up. He looked as relaxed as ever. His lips curved in a small, contented smile, though, and he continued clapping his hands. He nodded in approval when Evie glanced over at him. Janis, Jenelle and Phineas stared as if stunned. They seemed much more shocked by her outburst than they had been when Devin lit the room on fire. No one knew what to say or do next.

Devin swung his legs down with a slight, dry laugh and said, “I only wish Vincent had been here to see it.” He added in a quieter tone, “Bravo, Evie. You can be in my group anytime.” Evie colored. She felt embarrassment creeping up when she thought about loosing control of herself in front of near strangers. For some strange reason, she felt even more embarrassed by this boy’s apparent approval.

The others managed to overcome their shock. Janis, at least, decided the best course action. She pretended like the whole interruption never happened. She pulled a folder out of the bag she carried and started reading from one of the papers inside, “Your group is crossing though the forest north of the spritested. You notice that it is particularly cold…”

Evie listened as closely as she could manage. Her mind kept wandering, despite her best efforts. What had Trevor wanted? Why, if he hated them as much as he seemed to, had he acted so hurt by Evie getting angry with him? She couldn’t help picturing his teary eyes in her mind. She tried to fix Bridget’s determined stare on her face and think about how he had hurt her. Despite her best efforts, slowly, as the moments passed, she started feeling bad about what she had said.
Janis read the rest of the scenario to the group and they began brainstorming about what they each could do to overcome the obstacles it presented. Evie didn’t have much to add. Besides feeling quite distracted, she felt insecure about her opinions since she didn’t know very much It wasn’t that long ago when she left the only village she’d ever lived in. She had never heard of the things these people could do and she really didn’t know how to use their talents. As for her own, she wasn’t even sure what her talents were, if she had any. Whenever the others tried to include her in their plans, Phineas would talk about what the probabilities were that she could do this or that. Perhaps they all knew she wasn’t talented, because they accepted Phineas’ evaluations and moved on.

After what felt like hours of brainstorming Janis looked around, obviously confused. “I don’t understand,” she said while she stared over at the wall Trevor came through.. “Class should be long over by now. I have no idea why Master Oilreid hasn’t come to check on our progress.”
Evie looked over at the same wall and asked, “’Does he usually come?”

Jenelle answered, “He doesn’t usually start with small groups at all. After the opening joke he lectures us for a while and then breaks us up into groups. Then he spends about ten minutes with each group. We certainly don’t spend this much time in class. Perhaps he’s forgotten about us?”

The last sentence sounded like a question directed at her sister. Janis just shrugged in answer.
Devin, on the other hand, slapped his hands down on the top of his desk and announced, “Well, it has been fun. But I have to go see a guy about a dragon. I will talk to you ladies later.”
Surprisingly, he nodded directly at Evie and said, “I wish you the best of luck in the fight, Evie. It is always nice to find another warrior.” They made eye contact for an instant before he added to everyone, “You too, Phineas. Say hello to the geeks for me.” He swung his leg over his chair back and strutted right through the wall. What was that all about?

Janis followed him to the wall and stuck her head out. It looked rather disconcerting. Her body stayed in the room with Evie and it appeared as solid as everything else. That made it seem as if her headless neck rested against the side of the wall, with ripples moving out from it in the liquefied divider. When she pulled it back in she said with another shrug. “Everyone else is gone. I suppose we were silly to wait so long.” Her eyebrows turned down in irritation and she added, “It was awfully thoughtful of everyone to tell us everything wasn’t working the same as usual.”

The kids all gathered up their things and started heading through the wall. The library looked completely abandoned. Once they had walked through they were in the large room once again and Evie could see into all the smaller classrooms as if there were no walls at all. It occurred to her that was a great way for a teacher to keep an eye on everyone. He could see them even though they felt secluded. There were no students there now, though. She followed Janis, Jenelle and Phineas out of the room into the next and then outside. Janis turned to her as if to offer directions or help, but Evie started going another way. She felt embarrassed about her insecurity and she didn’t want to be anyone’s project. Instead Janis waved warmly and said, “We’ll see you later, Evie. It was nice meeting you!” The other two waved as well.

As she watched her new friends disappear into the trees, she was struck by the realization that she had no idea what to do next. Until now there had always been people leading her around. With a shrug, she headed off toward Mabel’s house, hoping that was where Bridget would go when she got finished wherever she was.

Halfway there, however, she found herself heading in a different direction. She concluded that something had to be going on. For some reason Trevor had desperately wanted to talk to her. Oh, how she wished she had listened! She tried to think about what could have been so important to the boy. Had he somehow discovered who was spying in the spritested? No. He probably wouldn’t care if he did know. And why would he want to tell her? If it hadn’t been impossible, she might have suspected him. He was such a snob! What could it be? Why would he come to her no matter what upset him?

With her thoughts so busy, she didn’t even see Jayson coming until she had bumped right into him. The little man bounced backward and fluttered his wings faster in irritation. When he saw it was Evie, however, he smiled warmly in welcome. “Hello, young lady! It’s nice to see you, but I must be going. I’m on an important errand.”

He had flown past her before she could answer, “Have you seen Trevor anywhere? I really need to find him.”

The sprite paused and slowly turned toward her. “Why are you looking for him?”

Evie sighed and hesitated. She wasn’t sure she really had anything to say. There wasn’t anything she could point to as really wrong. She simply felt like things weren’t right. How could she explain it and force him to take her seriously? In the end she concluded that she needed to talk to someone and Jayson happened to be the only one there. “He came to my class a while ago and seemed like something was really wrong. And then Master Oilreid disappeared and…I don’t know. I’m just sure that something terrible is going on.”

The little man nodded to himself and said, “There isn’t any problem. The boy just misses his mother. Master Oilreid and I have decided that it would be best if we just sent him on to her. There is no reason for you to be concerned about your friend. He is in very safe hands, with the good master’s approval. Oilreid hasn’t gone missing either. He has simply been making the final preparations for Trevor’s trip.” He raised a tiny eyebrow before adding, “I should think you would be pleased. It didn’t seem to me as if you liked the boy.”

Evie was confused, “But his mother has to be at the new school, right: The one we all are headed for eventually? I am sure Master Oilreid said he wouldn’t be sending anyone there until he had the spy problem under control.”

Jayson’s lips tightened and his voice went to an even higher pitch. His irritation with dumb questions made him look tense. “Well, it seems you are quite the clever little fox after all to have figured that out. We thought we’d hidden her location from you kids. The school is well protected by powerful magic. Only those who have been there once already can ever find it. So, unless you fear that Trevor is going to betray his own mother, there really isn’t anything for you to worry about. Anyhow, it is not for you to question the decisions of your elders.”
Evie blinked at something so unsprite-like. She thought the little fairies valued questions. Then another thought struck her. So an enchantment protected this magic place. No wonder Master Oilreid didn’t want to send anyone on until he could be sure who the spy was. He didn’t want anybody to know where it was unless he felt sure of their loyalty. Evie hadn’t thought of it in magic terms before. While she still wrapped her mind around this new information, Jayson fluttered down the path away from her. She had to think this through. She supposed the sprite was telling the truth. Why would he lie? Could it be that Trevor simply wanted to tell her he was leaving? Or maybe he wanted to ask her to come along. No. That was unlikely. He hated her and Bridget. But then…Why had be been so upset? Why had he almost cried over her cruel words? What was really going on here?

Evie sat down at the foot of the nearest tree and ran the whole thing through in her head again. The more she went over it, the more she felt convinced that nothing suspicious could possibly be going on. The pieces all fit together and everything seemed to be logical. But another reason for concern haunted her and she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

She had considered what Master Oilreid told her earlier. If this mysterious forest spirit knew her weaknesses; if she had become a fox to learn a lesson it could only be one thing. The fox knew exactly what to do. The fox didn’t think it through a hundred times the way she always did. The fox trusted its feelings and acted on instinct. And the fox escaped. It was a feeling, an impression, an intuition that told her something wrong endangered Trevor now. She couldn’t ignore that. Surely paying attention to her intuition was the lesson she had been meant to learn when she became a fox.

All her life she doubted herself. She doubted her courage and her intelligence. She doubted her ability with people, she doubted her beauty and her talent. She knew animals didn’t think, but if they did, she felt sure the fox would have had confidence in itself. It had never worried about what would happen if it failed. It knew it wouldn’t. She had to learn to trust herself. She would start by trusting her heart and right now, it knew something was wrong.

And then it hit her like a brick wall. “Quite the clever little fox,” Jayson had said. Master Oilreid told her no one would ask what animal she had turned into. He had said it belonged to her alone. Who had she told? Just Bridget. She told Bridget last night when they walked alone in the forest. She told her right before…Evie gasped. She gazed in the direction Jayson had flown, but it was no use. He could have been anywhere by that time. Then she began to run toward the library as fast as she could force her legs to carry her. She prayed Master Oilreid would be back from wherever he had gone. She had to find him before it was too late.