Leila

As Corrie was leaving the science building after a long and brain-numbing biology class, she spotted a familiar face in the crowd that was trying to simultaneously enter and leave the building. Paul smiled when he saw her, but immediately started moving away. He wasn’t so close that he was forced to by the spell, so that meant he was actually trying to keep away from her. Good. Trouble with him was the last thing she needed. She kept forgetting to talk to Payton and Elena to get the spell taken off him, but maybe it was better to leave it on for now.

“Edie!” Corrie cried out loud, half in relief and half in anger. She’d just disappeared when they were walking back from dinner, and now she showed up here as if nothing was different? “Where have you been?”

Edie was momentarily dizzy as she stood up, the blood rushing through her head suddenly. But she regained her balance quickly and followed Leila to the tree that her girlfriend led her to. “Are we doing this… whatever we’re doing,” she giggled, “to all the trees?”

Leila shook her head, pulling herself down again, and Edith down with her. “No, only certain trees are being attacked. It affects the whole orchard, of course, but it’s more important to protect them at the source.”

“They’re being attacked? Really? Who would attack trees?”

“My enemies,” Leila said shortly.

Edie realized what time it was as she and her friends were walking back to the dorm from dinner. She was going to be late meeting Leila! She tried to say something, but they were busy talking about the rain (which was, in fact, annoying, but she had a hooded jacket on so at least it wasn’t falling on her hair). And they wanted to get back inside. So she just turned away, peeling off from the group and towards the environmentalist co-op.

She knelt down beside the tree, sowing handfuls of compost into its soil. In her heart, she knew it would not be enough. Even though she had created the compost herself, from her own leaves and berries. Even though she had put her heart and love and tears into it. It was the only thing that could help, and still it would not be enough.

Leila didn’t get them lost, though. It was fully dark by the time they arrived, the stars beginning to appear as the trees thinned out. Dawn felt as much as saw them pass into the safe area of the woods and relaxed her shoulders. By then she and Naomi had joined the group, walking as close to the others as they could so as not to lose them in the darkness. They hadn’t said anything else, only waited and followed in silence.

“Edie!” Corrie cried, and ran a few steps toward her. Dawn and Annie both followed with alacrity. But then they all stopped again when Leila joined Edie in the doorway. It was dark; Dawn couldn’t see what might be behind them.

But she did see something she’d never seen before. Leila had indeed been hiding something with her hair down earlier. It was subtle, but to Dawn’s Sight, obvious: her ears were delicately pointed and, on the edges, tinged with green.

Leila stopped in her tracks, blinked, then smiled widely. Her hair was back up in its usual tight bun, which Edie noted with slight disappointment; she’d thought that Leila looked even more beautiful than usual with her hair down and flowing. “Edith!” Leila exclaimed. She stepped towards her and hugged her, saying, “You know how much I love trees. I was just checking on them. What about you?”

Edie hugged her back, even though she felt self-conscious about it with her family still here. “My friend Zip—she just left—was giving us a tour. She’s part of the Hillel.”

The Hillel group had its meetings (including, as Edie understood it, regular Saturday services) in a small building that it shared with the environmentalist co-op. The co-op was happy enough to keep separate sets of dishes and cooking implements for meat and dairy, and kept out of the kitchen and common room at the prescribed times on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Zip had said that neither the co-op nor the Hillel would have been able to afford to keep its own building, even with the school’s help, so several years ago they had worked together to get a place.

“Are four-leaf clovers the only thing that’s more common here?” Corrie’s mom asked as they all started walking again.

“I think so,” said Corrie. “I was just thinking about that earlier, as a matter of fact. I wonder if there will be weird flowers in the spring.” She kept one eye on the edge of the path as she walked. It made her faintly anxious to be without the one thing that she knew could allow her to see through faerie glamour, especially since Dawn wasn’t there. It probably wasn’t important to look for faeries today, but she wanted a new one nonetheless.