TAKE TWO, kotlc

Chapter 10- Braelynn

The most surprising thing about the entire third day at Foxfire that Braelynn noticed was two things:

How quiet Arella was, and how much her and her twin sister got along.

Usually, the two were bickering about everything from clothes to school subjects and were in an ever-constant race to one-up each other in some way. She'd never seen Arella so quiet and so solemn- in fact, she was pretty sure she'd never seen Arella take notes in her life.

"What's up?" she asked, licking the DNA pad to her locker and waiting for it to swing open before stuffing her heavy textbooks inside.

"Nothing." Arella's smile was so forced, Braelynn suspected that she could smear it off with her palm.

"Do you want to tell me why you're inspecting your locker like it holds the secrets of the universe?" Braelynn leaned over to peer inside. "There's nothing in there. If you lost something-"

"I didn't... I mean..." Arella hesitated and finally reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Look, this is super-"

"Aw, is that your mommy's little note?" somebody cooed from behind her, and Braelynn felt her fists clench as Stina's snobby daughter pranced over to them and attempted to steal the piece of paper. "Let me guess: Arelly Dearie, I know your forgot your lunchy-wunchy at home so I asked Magnate Brontey-Wontey to give it to you?"

"Back off," Arella grumbled, snatching the piece of paper back and hurriedly taping it to the wall of her locker before closing it.

She harrumphed and gave one last fake, sweet little smile before skipping back over to her crowd of wannabes.

Even though Stina had turned out to be surprisingly nice, her daughter had obviously taken after her grandparents. She was every bit as snobby and stuck up as Stina had been when Aunty Sophie had attended Foxfire, Braelynn thought with something between a sigh and a snarl.

"Now can you tell me?" Braelynn asked, glancing at Arella's closed locker.

"Oralia.... found this. In her locker." She passed her the note and Braelynn's eyes skimmed the single sentence so quickly, she had to reread it.

Legacies don't last forever.

"What does that mean? And why's there..." Braelynn gulped. "A Neverseen eye?"

"We have no idea," Arella warned. "And you don't have to be a part of it if you don't want to."

"I'm in," Braelynn said instantly. "This is exciting! I've always wondered what it would be like if we got to be the heroes like Mom and Dad are always telling us about-"

"See, that's what I've been trying to tell Oralia!" Arella said, feeling exasperated at her older sister. "But she keeps insisting that-"

"This isn't a game," Oralia finished from behind them. "Exactly."

"I say we go find them!" Arella cheered and then hushed herself when a few people shot them odd glances. "I say we go make our own legacies and find them ourselves!"

"That's not what your supposed to do!" Oralia argued. "Your supposed to tell the adults so that they can handle it-"

Arella mocked a loud snoring. 

"This isn't about your reputation," Oralia snapped, scowling at how naive her sister was acting.

"And this isn't about the rules! Mom broke so many rules trying to save the Elvin world-"

"This isn't about trying to save the Elvin world-"

"Guys, shut up and actually think for once!" Braelynn shouted at both of them, sighing when they both stopped bickering and settled for glaring at each other.

"Just- just don't do anything stupid, okay?" Oralia begged with Arella.

Arella smiled at her and the lie was filled with so much bitter hatefulness that the untruthfullness was almost easy to overlook.  "Of course I won't."