The Elf Girl (7 page)

I was glad Dina had a date. It would keep her busy while I searched for Addison. Dina always felt it was her job to hang out with me when I was alone. I knew she meant well, but she only did it because she felt sorry for me. That just made me feel worse. My younger sister felt sorry for me. How lame.

However, tonight was different. Carmen would be there, so Dina let it go this time. I wouldn’t be hanging around Carmen too much, though. She also had a date, and I had no interest in spending time with them. I wanted to find only one person: Addison.

Maybe Stellan as well, if I could….It was tricky to keep my mind off him for very long lately.

The dance was in the school gym. The theme was Medieval Times, and the huge space looked amazing. Carmen was on the decorating committee, so I figured it would be good, but I was still pleasantly surprised. Many students were already dancing when we arrived. I was glad I wasn’t one of the first ones there; no need to draw attention to myself. I had to try to blend in, though I knew it wouldn’t work out the way I planned. I had never blended in one day of my life. In fact, I hadn’t even gotten close, but I would try my best to stay hidden tonight.

“Are you going to be okay, Ramsey?” Dina asked when we walked in.

“Of course, go and have fun,” I told her, anxious to be alone.

“Okay, you try and have fun too!” Dina ran off to join her friends.

I sighed and watched her go. Finally, I could look around. I probably looked odd walking around the dancing students. As far as I could see, I was the only one on the dance floor not dancing. I tried not to pay attention to that.

Looking for Addison turned out to be incredibly difficult. The gym was pitch-dark except for the flashing colored strobe lights from the DJ booth. I really hoped Addison would be here, and part of me worried that I would never find her. Even so, I tried to stay optimistic.

I wanted to call out her name, but the roaring music didn’t give me a chance. I would probably look even more out of place anyway. I decided to leave the gym and look for her in the cafeteria, where they were serving cake and punch.

On the way, I passed Dina making out with her boyfriend.
Yuck
. Oh well, you could only be young once, I guess. If my mother were there, she would probably have had a coronary. I prayed Dina would be careful. She didn’t notice me walk by, and I didn’t say anything. What she did wasn’t any of my business. I had business of my own.

“Hello, Ramsey,” Addison chimed.

Here was another one of those moments when I jumped into the air, literally.

“Holy crap, you scared me!” I cried and turned around. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“Why?” Addison asked.

It took me a moment to speak because I was so transfixed by the girl standing before me. She looked amazing in her gown. Vibrant and full of life, her face shone with confidence, as if she had nothing to hide. I suddenly felt envious of her. She was so different from me, even though we looked so similar. She was the essence of life, while I treated every day as if it were the end of the world.

Her dress was a deep violet with slight, elegant ruffles from the waist to the bottom hem. I drew my eyes up to her face. Her pale hair hid her ears. I finally knew why, or at least I thought I knew why….

“Ramsey? Hello?” Addison looked like she was getting irritated with my lack of response.

“I need to talk to you,” I blurted.

“We
are
talking,” she reminded me.

“I need to talk to you alone, Addison. Please.”

She seemed to understand my urgency and nodded. “Where should we go?” she asked in an almost whisper.

“In five minutes outside by the bench under the willow tree.”

“All right. I’ll be there,” she said.

She hardly made a sound as she left me standing in the cafeteria. I wondered how she was able to be so light on her feet, being so tall.

Our meeting place was secluded enough to talk, which was good, because I needed answers. I had to know the truth so I could move on. Maybe then, I would be able to put aside the accident on the bridge.

The easiest way to the place was by going through the gym and out the front door. I was halfway through when Carmen rushed over to me, a wide smile across her face.

“What have you been up to?” I asked, still in a hurry.

“I’ve been with Jack. He is so amazing!”

Carmen was bouncing with excitement and her eyes were shining. She looked so
happy
. I wondered when I had last felt the same way, probably never. Carmen smoothed down her gown: layers of blue edged with black lace and decorated at the shoulders with roses.

“I’m happy for you, Carmen, really, I am. But I have to go. I’m meeting someone,” I explained quickly.

“Who are you meeting?”

“No one important,” I said too hastily. I had backed myself into a trap by showing just how eager I was to meet Addison. I fought the urge to curse and prayed Carmen would let it go.

She didn’t.

“Who is it?” she asked instead.

“Carmen, I really have to go.” I was trying my best to wiggle my way out of the mess I had created.

“Why won’t you tell me? Is it a guy?”

Ignoring her questions, I shook my head. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later. Have fun with Jack.” I walked away before she could protest, immersing myself in the crowd of dancing students.

I felt bad about keeping secrets from Carmen. She was my best friend, my only true and genuine friend, but I couldn’t say anything about Addison. Not until I could talk with her face to face. I knew I would have to apologize to Carmen later, but now wasn’t the right time.

I knew I was late when I finally reached the spot. Addison was already waiting on the bench. I didn’t know how to start the conversation, so I just sat down and waited for what seemed like hours. I never was a good conversation starter. I wasn’t outgoing in any way, not to mention that I was a bit awkward when talking with others. I didn’t have much experience in the social department, and I blamed it on my low self-esteem and pointy ears. Sometimes I wished I could cut them off, no matter how much I needed them.

The growing silence between us was hard to handle. Finally, she spoke.

“Did you turn to page two hundred and seventy-three?” she asked seriously, her hands clasped over her lap.

I knew what she was referring to; she was the one who left the message. I had no idea how she did it, but she had. I nodded slowly.

“What did you learn?” she asked.

“I learned that I could be…”

“Could be what?”

I decided to lay it all down. “Were you really telling me the truth, Addison? Am I an elf?”

Asking it aloud sounded really dumb. I felt stupid and immature just for uttering the word. The whole situation reminded me of a cheesy television show or kid movie, or like a line from a storybook. This just
couldn’t
be real.

Maybe it
was
Katie playing a nasty joke on me after all. I could see her setting up the whole thing, could imagine it in my mind. It made perfect sense. Kids had been calling me Elf Girl for years. It was just a matter of time before someone played a joke like this, especially with the huge craze over fantasy books and movies these days. Heck, there was always some way to connect what was make-believe to real life. You just had to have the brains to do it. Or, in Katie’s case, the audacity and cold heart to go through with it.

Had I just walked into a trap? It was probable.
Boy, am I gullible
, I thought to myself
.

Then she said the one word that turned everything around.

She said…

“Yes.”

Deep down, I had expected that answer, but it still sent shivers down my spine. She said it with such a fierce seriousness, such a certainty. I knew she was telling the truth. I could
feel
it.

“How?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“How can I be an elf?”

“You just are one,” she said, shrugging.

I bit my tongue to keep from shouting at her. If she didn’t give me more of an explanation, I would hurt her. I could barely contain my confusion and frustration as it was.

“But how? My parents aren’t elves, are they? They don’t look like me or you.”

“What makes you think I’m an elf?”

“I just guessed…”

Addison pulled back her hair to reveal her pointed ears. I sighed with relief.

“You guessed right.”

“Can you answer my questions?”

“That depends on if you are prepared for the answers. This isn’t a simple yes or no thing. This is your life, Ramsey.” Her gaze locked on mine. “Everything will change.”

I took a deep breath before saying, “I need to know what I am. I need to know
who
I am.”

Addison nodded. “Your parents are not elves, and neither is your sister, as you might have guessed.”

“But I read that only two elves can have an elf child.”

“Actually, the correct term is elfen, which is a female elf.
You
are an elfen.”

“Okay, well,” I said, exasperated by the fact that she just interrupted my question only to correct my vocabulary, “I thought only two elves could have an elfen child?”

“That’s right,” she said, pausing and looking at me in the way a teacher would look at a kindergartener who was being informed playtime was over. “Ramsey, you are adopted.”

Surprisingly, I found myself nodding. It actually wasn’t a real shocker, considering my looks and all.

“Your parents found you on their doorstep fourteen years ago with
that
necklace around your neck,” she revealed, pointing her finger.

I placed my hand over my name necklace, the token I always wore, feeling a connection to it as if it were a part of me.

More importantly, I knew now that it wasn’t just a gift from my adoptive parents, but a parting gift from my real parents, who, apparently, were elves. Suddenly the connection I had with it felt stronger, more significant.

“When no one came forward as your parents, they adopted you. They had no idea you were an elfen.”

“They took me in even though I was so weird looking?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Your ears were only slightly pointed then. They grew more as you grew older.”

“How do you know all of this?” I asked, surprised by the fact that she knew so much about me, and I so little about her.

“I knew your parents and your sister.”

“You know Dina?” I inquired.

“No, Ramsey. I knew your elfin parents and sister.”

“Elfin?”

“That’s a term for more than one elf,” she informed me.

“Oh. So I have an elfen sister too?”

“Yes, her name is Zora.”

“What about my parents?”

“Their names were Carlow and Alanna. But they disappeared many years ago, when you were still very young.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, but I know it has something to do with you. Something concerning you made them take you here, and then disappear.”

“So, even as an elfen I am different. Even as an elfen, I’m unique.” I fought back the urge to start crying. Here I thought I would finally feel normal.

“More than you know.”

“Tell me more, Addison.”

“All right, well I don’t know
that
much about you. I was young when everything happened. After you were born, your mother kept you hidden for some unknown reason. I never understood it; no one really has. I was only one at the time, so I am saying only what I heard years later from others. Your sister was my age as well. You weren’t let out of the house very often. No one knew why. I was told later that your parents were protecting you.”

“Protecting me from what?”

“No one knows. All we do know is that it was something important. It was a
secret
. Some secret you had that made your parents want to keep you hidden from everyone, even their closest family and friends.”

“How did I end up here?”

“Elves don’t live in this world, Ramsey. You are one of a few. We have our own world. A Realm, created ages ago for elves to seek refuge from humans. They never accepted our ways in this world. We had to make our own. Your mother and father found they had to take you out of the Elf Realm. Again, no one really knows why, except for the part about your secret. No one outside your family knew what it was, only your parents and Zora.

“Your parents brought you here when you were only a year old. When they returned to the Elf Realm, they wouldn’t say anything about where they left you, but everyone knew. They just didn’t know
why
. Three more years passed, and your parents disappeared. They just left one day and didn’t come back, and Zora was left alone. My mother took her in to live with us. Our house wasn’t very crowded since my father passed, and our families had always been close. Zora told me that she knew why your parents took you to the Human Realm and why they left her behind when they disappeared, but she said she would never tell. It was a secret. She was full of them, secrets, and felt she had to guard them with her life. She knew why you needed protection, what your secret was, why your parents took you to the Human Realm, and why they left. If I asked questions about the situation, she became angry and teary-eyed. She wanted to tell me, but she couldn’t. She had to keep you safe. It was something she believed in, something she fiercely wanted to keep with her, and knowledge she didn’t want getting into the wrong hands.”

I wanted to ask what Addison meant by “the wrong hands,” but refrained. I was still processing the fact that I had a sister, an elfen sister, one who had tried to protect me all my life. I suddenly felt a little gloomy. A sister I had never known did her best to keep me safe, and I had never known.

“So why come now, Addison? Why the sudden interest in me?” I wondered.

“Because Zora is missing, and you are the only one who can find her.”

“How can I help?” I asked, feeling skeptical. “I don’t even know her. I didn’t know she existed until just now. I didn’t know who I was until just now, and actually, I still don’t think I completely understand.”