by Gabby Fawkes
I let my gaze span the crowd.
"Because, let's face it, we've been through enough already. We've been lied to, we’ve been blamed, we’ve been controlled, we've been put down and let down. We've been told that we are crazy, that we are bad, that our very existence is wrong. We've been told that we have no future. But I ask you this: when you look around what do you see?"
I let the question hang there for a minute.
“Mothafuckin’ killin’ machines!” shrieked Tamarin, jumping up and pumping both fists in the air.
As everyone cracked up, Owen called, “I see brave comrades.”
Pitiful burnable fools, PV chimed in.
Hulda yelled out something in German that I hoped was along the same affirming lines.
"I see pure potential,” I continued. “I see kids who, despite everything, didn't have their good stamped out and didn’t let their hopes get stamped out either. I see kids who have already defied the odds. Kids who have already done the impossible. Kids who just have to find a way and believe in themselves enough to do it again."
The silence was complete.
"Yes, I'm afraid and you are too. They’re out there looking for me. They want to do to me what they did to Jeremy. They want to put me down. They want to kill my soul. But I won't let them. I will not let them get to me and I will not let them get to you either. And yeah, this isn't just about me and you anymore. We’ve been lied to; the world has been lied to. People need to know what happened. We don't need to tell them now, we just need to survive long enough so that one day we can get out there and we can find our families. And we can show the world the evil, despicable things they did to us. We can make them pay.”
“But how?” Timmy called out, hovering a few feet over his table, a dinner knife in each hand.
“We have to stick together,” I called back, the idea taking shape as I said it. Sticking together, what that meant was… “We have to go and find the rest of our friends – the other students. The ones who didn’t make it. The ones who got ‘transferred’, and are now in some horrible lab somewhere. Now that we have a lead where the lab is and weapons and a base to work out of, we can start working to get them back. I’ll be taking volunteers of 11th years and older.” The table of older years stirred, although it was the displeased murmurings of the younger years that caught my attention.
“But you younger kids have an integral part to play too. Speranță is our home now. And no government agent, no evil son of a bitch is going to tell me whether I have the right to be free, whether I have the right to be myself. I know what I am - I know who I am, and I know that I belong here, and I know that you belong here.” My hand was clenched into a fist, which I raised.
“So you know what? Maybe they’ll find a way around the shielding spell – or maybe they won’t. Either way, we are going to be ready for them. We're going to be so ready that they'll have to come back with three times the support, a hundred times… Until they learn that Speranță cannot be breached, that the kids of the School for the Different were trained for victory.” I smiled.
“But how?” Jenna yelled out.
I grimaced. Of course it was Jenna, ever the optimist.
“How are we supposed to go up against the whole world?” she continued, glare glued on me expectantly.
I swallowed, ripped my attention off her and focused it on the others. Let Jenna have her doubts, I didn’t care about that. It was my friends and the other kids I cared about convincing.
“How?” I said, taking a deep breath. “Think about it, guys. Our whole lives we’ve been trained. Trained to be ruthless killing machines, maybe. That doesn't matter. The training is enough. Let's turn that training around. Let's learn more, here. Let's seal this place, protect it, and strengthen ourselves and protect ourselves and learn how to attack and defend ourselves with our powers and our weapons, so that we can't be beaten. So that we can't be moved – even if they find a way through the shielding spell. Until finally they say, “Those kids… we shouldn't have messed with them. Those kids, we made a mistake.”
Everyone’s faces were strained up to me, but Sammy’s was the best barometer of the crowd. Her eyes were full, hopeful, yet… not convinced. Not entirely. Not yet.
Jeremy stepped forward, his voice booming through the hall.
“I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of running. I'm tired of being hunted like criminals. I’m tired of being blamed for things I had no part in.”
My fist was clenched, and I raised it. “Jeremy’s right – I’m not gonna take it anymore. No. This ends now. The DSA wants us? They can come and get us."
As the younger kids cheered, I was surprised I had more to say.
“What about after that, though?” Stevie asked.
I was surprised at her speaking up. She’d been the only twelfth year who hadn’t come along to the Olympus battle. Something about her in the midst of a shifting, into whatever she was. In any case, I couldn’t just leave her question unanswered – not with it on every other face around me.
“After that,” I said, “there’s going to come a time when we will have to leave, to fight. Maybe Speranță is protected with a shielding spell for now, but the rest of the world isn’t. And I don’t know about you, but even if this is my home, I can’t sit by and watch as the world is destroyed from under us. You’ve heard about and seen the attacks, you know Olympus has fallen. This isn’t over – not by a long shot.”
“But they’re all against us,” Sammy said quietly, although not quiet enough for me not to hear.
“You’re right,” I said. She looked up, clearly surprised I’d heard.
“The magical community has turned its back on us,” I continued, “thinks it has us pegged, but here’s the thing. We are not the monsters they want us to be, the scapegoats they’d like to heap on everything they can’t explain or accept. No. We are the unacknowledged fighters who will keep on fighting, the small pinpricks of hope in the dark. We know the truth, and we know that it is worth fighting for. That good is worth sticking up for. Because we aren’t like them – we haven’t bought into the idea that differences mean that we can’t get along, mean that we have to turn against one another. We haven’t bought that the enemy is anyone other than the one who actually attacked Olympus, has taken over the DSA and is using it to pump out lies.”
I’d started pacing, my breath coming out in bursts.
“Here’s the thing, guys. We are an anomaly – kids from different walks of life who not only get by together – but thrive together. Outside there, shifters and witches and Olympians barely have anything to do with each other. They keep to their own kind. That’s why they hate us – they’ve been trained to. Trained to see what’s different as a threat to who and what they are. Trained to believe the lies pumped out by the government, to ignore all the signs that point otherwise.”
I nodded. “So yeah, maybe the world doesn’t deserve our help – probably. But we’re not doing this for them. We’re doing this for us. So that, when this is all over, we’ll always have Speranță as our home, but we’ll have the whole world to discover. And if we fail… well, at least we’ll know we tried. At least we’ll know that we didn’t let the corrupt world corrupt us. At least we fought for good for a world that wouldn’t even fight for itself.”
A quiet of waiting… had I ended on too negative a note – talking about failing?
Talk about failing, everyone looked like they were still deciding how to feel. Axel was staring at me. Persephone and Demi were holding hands tightly. Artemis whispered something in Apollo’s ear.
I took another breath.
“And that’s why we’ll win,” I said.
“The DSA and Ulrulu, whoever’s running things - they think they know us – know what we’re capable of. They think they can scare us into hiding and staying hidden, scare us into believing that we’re as powerless as they want us to be. But we are not the vile monsters they want us to think we are – just how we’re not the power
less victims they need us to be – no, we’ve always had to the power, the truth, the good. We were bred into subjugation, born into suffering – and what did we do with it? We kept hold onto the slightest of hopes, until we broke free. We defied them once – we can do it again. Yes, we will be the ones nobody believed could save the world – but did.”
The silence after I spoke was at first, long, but then, all at once, applause roared around me. I grinned, then started walking back down.
Funny. I couldn't remember a thing I’d said.
As I walked out into the entrance hall, a familiar whooshing sound had me turning around.
It couldn’t be-
“It’s not very easy to get here, you know,” Hermes said crossly.
I just blinked at him. He sighed.
“Hera didn’t want me to come, but…” He shifted uneasily. “But you needed to know. Hera is basically a ‘puppet-ruler’ now. The DSA has completely taken over Olympus. The remaining btsan and gargoyles disappeared as soon as they did, though I’ll bet they have them stashed away somewhere. Saved for when they need them.”
He hovered in front of me, his honey-colored eyes blinking at me almost as furiously as the little wings on his gladiator sandals were fluttering.
“Well?” he said. “Aren’t you going to go tell people?”
I stared at him for a good, long moment. I wasn’t sure how to put the feeling I had into words. That the speech I had just delivered had taken everything out of me.
“I think everyone has had enough bad news for one day,” I finally said.
Hermes hovered there for another moment, though he didn’t argue.
“You can stay if you want,” I said.
“Of course not!” he said stiffly. “I have a duty to my queen. The DSA brutes barely let me out as it is. How would she communicate with her many friends and admirers if I…” He shook his head again, almost as though to convince himself. “No, no, it’s impossible."
And with that, he sped away.
The next few hours were subdued. I mostly kept to myself, just resting. It wasn’t that I felt dejected, exactly, I just felt tired. Too tired to even feel anything properly. Seemed like everyone else was in a similar headspace too. Kian, Demi, Jeremy, and a bunch of the older kids came into my room and we just lay around, not doing much.
The next morning, I was still tired. At least no one was walking around all edgy and terrified anymore, like the walls were going to come crashing down at any moment. Guess my speech had done that. I even saw a few of the younger kids laughing, smiling, and waving at me. But us older ones had more strained smiles, more jolty ‘hey’s’ and waves. We knew all too well what was going to be at stake when we went looking for the other School of the Different kids.
So, we did the only thing we could— we threw a party. ‘The End of the World Party’ was Persephone’s idea. It started out as a joke, I think. But Demi and Kian latched onto it and got things going. Even Axel was gung-ho on it: he apparently (although he wouldn’t admit it) threatened Cruestacio into coming and bartending. So, for the first time since The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles aired in 1938, the Flying Narwhale was closed for the day.
Cruestacio doled out drinks so fast that his hands were practically a blur, stopping only to covertly squeeze the hand of Margoth (his lady-friend whose seaweed flecked hair made me think she was part mermaid) and chase off clearly underage kids who tried asking for alcoholic ‘horny toads’. I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing when I saw six-year-old Tamarin flying off maniacally after a failed attempt.
Yes, the party was in full swing.
Cog and Gully barked and squawked, respectively, back and forth to each other, Maurice hid inside a block of cheese, and Cerebee tried to see if her bark could be heard from even the remotest of passageways (it could). She wasn’t pleased that her newly returned mom – Cerebus – had been forced to stay outside Speranţă for the time being, until we were sure she was as subdued as she seemed. Apparently, the minotaur she’d attacked had disappeared too, but we knew it was only a matter of time before it and the other Pandora’s Box creatures resurfaced.
Somehow, Dion (claiming bribery — but I suspected mind compulsion) had arranged for Kian’s favorite band, Alt-J to perform. They were banned from playing their more angsty tunes, which unfortunately eliminated most of their repertoire but they nevertheless rocked out some good songs.
As ‘Left Hand Free’ thrummed through the entrance hall, Kian, Demi, and I danced in a circle and laughed as Jeremy unveiled a disco-dance move we’d never seen before. I was smiling so big it hurt. Here we were.
Maybe things were shit, and the world was going to it – but right here, right now, things were pretty great.
All around us, kids squealed with delight as they danced and showed off wacky moves and rolled on the floor and gobbled Kian’s magical cupcakes (which changed from chocolate to vanilla to strawberry with the tap of a finger).
The bass thrummed so loud it passed through my legs all the way up, through to my chest. My very heart seemed to be thumping along to the cheery, catchy beat.
Apollo was piggybacking Artemis, who had on a shiny turquoise ‘80s disco dress and tall lace-up white boots. Even Jenna was smiling. Sammy had gotten a rainy puddle for some kids to splash in. Timmy was flying everywhere, stealing every unguarded cupcake he could get his hands on. Marley was plopped at the edge, with an entire quadrant of recently rehabilitated chipmunks, squirrels, and swallows munching on seeds she’d provided.
Persephone and Hades were in the corner, even their interaction more relaxed. Aphie, who’d turned up at some point, strutted around, the wet fabric of her butt-length dress now clinging and sticking to her body, scowling at whoever dared glance her way. No one knew why.
Even the ghosts were doing some very out-of-date jigs of their own, as well as scaring any unwary kids who wandered too far away from the action. Mitzi was as cheerfully determined as ever to get someone to try one of her half-translucent stinky shoe-smelling butter tarts (no one had taken her up on that as of yet).
In the middle of the hall was a massive weeping willow it had taken Demi a good hour to grow. Its pink and orange begonia-flecked branches seemed to sway along to the beat too.
Axel came over, armed with cupcakes for me.
“You’re welcome,” he said, popping one half of the chocolate in his mouth, the other half in mine.
“I hate chocolate,” I said, mouth full of it.
“Liar,” he said.
He kissed me. Chocolatey lips tangled, and, on my tiptoes, my heart was almost pressed to his.
“No,” I said, pulling away. “Not now.”
“When?” he said, gaze still on my lips.
“Later,” I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before turning back to dance with my friends. “I’m dancing.”
But just then, an arm hooked around my waist.
“May I?” Axel asked, an irresistibly dashing grin on his face.
“Do I have a choice?” I teased.
His hand closed over mine. “Now that you mention it, no.”
And so we danced together. Or, rather, half the time Axel was able to steer me into a pattern of steps that loosely resembled dancing. The other half I spent stepping all over his feet.
“Seriously, Tala,” Axel said, his brows quirked. “They didn’t have any dancing classes at this school of yours?”
“Guess the DSA didn’t really care if their army of child monsters could dance,” I said with a sigh.
Axel and I tried smiling at each other before his hold around me tightened, pulling me close.
“Hey,” he said quietly, “we’re going to get them. You know that, right?”
“Let’s just dance,” I said, smiling.
Because I didn’t know that, and neither did Axel. But that didn’t mean we shouldn’t try. We had to, and not just to stop the world from dissolving under Ulrulu’s rule, but for ourselves, too. For all the kids and people like
us who had already gone through so much. For the ones who were told they were orphans, that they were insane — that their very existence was wrong. Kids who had never experienced a world outside of being trained as weapons.
Yeah, we had to do something about that.
Axel led me away to the sidelines.
“I mean it,” he continued. “We’re going to get these guys eventually, but you don’t have to fight them now, when we don’t even really know what we’re up against. You’ve done enough already. The DSA are talking out of their asses that they can find you. After that shielding spell the Romamagi did, the DSA aren’t going to be finding this place any time soon. And even if they do, they won’t be able to get in — not in your lifetime, at least.”
I let that sink in for a minute.
God, it was so tempting to just imagine that life could go on like this, just like it was now. Carefree, laughing… happy.
“And Olympus?” I asked quietly.
“You saw what Hera was prepared to do to you and your friends,” Axel said, “You heard what she called you, didn’t you?”
“Course I did,” I said. “She judged and underestimated us, and I’m betting that’s what Ulrulu and whoever’s working for him are doing too.”
I turned around, still in Axel’s arms, staring up into his eyes that were as hard as shards of ice.
“I know I don’t— that we don’t have to do this,” I said. “I choose to. We can’t let the world fall apart around us. Otherwise we’re no better than the magical world that’s shunning us and pretending not to see the truth.”
My fist tightened as I looked out at my friends, at everything we’d created together – everything we stood to lose. “Let them judge us. Let them underestimate us, blame us. Let them be lied to and let them believe the lies. We will keep fighting. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned since leaving the School of the Different, it’s this: our world is worth fighting for, and I want to see it. Maybe I’ll never be able to, but, if there’s even the slightest chance, I want to fight for it.”
