All For Not

Page 47

"Nevermore was created as a safe haven for our children to learn and to grow, no matter who or what they are. I realize most of you have heard about the unfortunate incident involving one of our students. But I'm happy to report that Eugene is on the mend and is expected to make a full recovery. So let's focus on the positive and make this Parents' Weekend our very best yet."

"There they are. Oh, how we missed those accusing eyes and youthful sneers." I walked over after finally setting my eyes on the group of gothic family members, "how are you, my little rain cloud?" Wednesday was the first to be spoken to as usual and her unimpressed words had caught them red handed, "I thought Thing was filling you in on my every move. I uncovered your feeble subterfuge almost immediately."

"So, how's the little fella doing? Does he still have all his fingers?" She sighed, "relax. I haven't snapped any of his digits. Yet." A smile lit up his face at her words, "so tell us everything."

"Since you've abandoned me here, I've been hunted, haunted... and the target of an attempted murder." The reaction was of course expected, "ah, Nevermore. I love you so." But when they turned to me and Wednesday looked away into the opposite direction as I ground my teeth pausing before letting them hear the incoming words fall from my lips, "Principal Weems would like a word with you both about us."

That simple sentence had brought us upstairs to her office, Wednesday the first to be pushed into the headlights before it was my turn.

"All right. Let's get down to the matter at hand, shall we?" I watched Weems sit down before us at the large desk as I walked into the room slowly, "unfortunately, Morella's assimilation has been interrupted a few times, she is a wonderful student and has seemed to make quite a few friends since coming to Nevermore but there have been some incidents I'm afraid." My parents both stiffened before leaning forward at the way the words left the woman, my mother almost immediately going to talk first but was stopped in her tracks by the blonde woman who reached into a desk drawer, "both incidents, caused by this."

I watched with a frozen body as she pulled my amulet from her desk and tossed it onto the desktop. They looked at the necklace for less than a second before whipping towards me, "you took it off? Morella..." I backed up a step looking down at the floor at the stern voice of my mother, "no, she didn't," I watched as the gothic woman turned towards my principal, "one of these incidents, the most recent was at the Rave'N," my parents stiffened and I watched cautiously as their body language changed and my mother sat back down her hands shaking as the gripped the armrests of her chair, "as you both know there was a paint, situation, from a few of the town folks children that night. In the aftermath I will admit I thought it was your daughters but in my leaving to find Wednesday and the real culprits I accidentally caught onto her necklace and it snapped from her neck."

"And to my surprise, your daughter had not only collapsed while warning me and the other students present to run but it came to my attention that the necklace I had pulled from her was completely filled with archaic magic... Which has led me to believe that it not only had been placed on her to tame her but had been forced onto her whether knowing or unknowing that it would corrupt her fire..."

"What are you getting at?" Weems had turned from my father to snarl at my mother with her expression, "not only have you put Jericho, plus the students and faculty of Nevermore in danger but your own daughter as well, had you even bothered to look into her kind and certain effects maybe-'' Suddenly she was cut off in the middle of her stern speech, "are you telling us how to raise our own child?" The blue eyed woman sighed heavily before standing up and bracing her hands against the table, "I am telling you, that you put her and everyone else here in danger including your other daughter. A phoenix is able to incinerate people with just a touch Morticia, a bound phoenix is as strong as an atomic bomb, if she weren't still just a child..."

"Your little trinket could have caused everything and everyone in this school and Jericho to be completely destroyed, turned to ashes." A hand gripped at my wrist and the blaze inside me dampened, "we didn't know, I am so sorry my little ghilotină I had no idea, you know I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you my darling," I swallowed, cooling down as I gave him a nod, "if I didn't personally know you two, I would have acted and gotten in contact with a foster family or even taken her under my own tutelage."

My parents froze and suddenly it became sobering in the room as they looked to her for more words, "you think you can raise my daughter better than I can?" My father reached out with his hand to calm the woman, "Tish please, my love..."

"The matter of the fact is neither of you know how to care for a phoenix properly if your using archaic magic, forbidden binding spells to keep her under control," a scoff and a rebuttal, "and you think you know how to, we tried the best we could after they died, we have done everything to keep our child safe!"

"Not safe enough! You could have come to me and asked me Morticia! You knew I was best friends with her father ever since I was a child, I know almost every single thing about her kind and if you had just asked I would have offered my help for the sake of her well being and my friend!"

I froze, my eyes darting to meet the ones that avoided my own across from me as the room went silent and my mother finally relented, "you knew him? You said there was no one else but you and father who had met him..." My eyes drifted to catch only the hair of my mother as my father gripped onto me, stunted in his words, "you lied to me." I stood watching her head not turn to even glance at me as my father spoke up, "Tish you didn't, please tell me you didn't keep this from her," no words were spoken and my father slumped letting me go as he stared down his wife in sadness, "I see... Uhm Morella, why don't you wait in the hall while we continue," I didn't say anything, simply turning on my heel and leaving the room quietly.