chapter 2 -- sway through the crowd

Leaning against the wall outside of the damned lecture hall, Ellie Thomas tapped her phone's favorites list. Third only to her uncles' two cell numbers was Lydia Chen, her protective yet adorable DNZ "big sister". For what seemed like the thousandth time in seven weeks, Ellie tapped Lydia's number, restlessly fiddling with the sparkly red fox decal on her pink and "millennium-blue" phone case ("baby-blue" thought Ellie, always) and rolling her eyes at her own stereotypical sorority-girl qualities until the click! of the call connecting interrupted her reverie.

"LIT-LLL-LE!" answered Lydia, as if she were trying to make her drawn-out greeting sound like all-caps, personified. Ellie giggled, used to this. Strong personalities like the DNZ sisters were such a welcome change from the silent, brooding types that filled her required theory and repertoire classes. She made a mental note to convince some sisters to take the more fun and approachable music department offerings next semester before Lydia finally finished her exaggerated salutation, causing Ellie to laugh out loud.

"Did you just snort?" said Lydia. To her, everything was both a laughing matter and a serious matter, making laughter a doubly serious matter.

"Well yeah, big, you said my name for like ten minutes!" Ellie retorted, still giggling.

"That's no excuse!" Lydia fired back, lovingly. "But seriously, what's up, little? I'm starting to think you don't call me at exactly 1:15pm just because it's lunch time. It's only October, and I've literally been trained to wait 'til 1:20 before making lunch plans without you on Tuesdays and Thursdays!"

Definitely shouldn't put it past a scientist to notice a pattern... thought Ellie. And nothing I come up with quickly is gonna get past this particular scientist! Here goes...

"Actually big, I guess that's what I wanted to talk about. The Deli at 2:00?"

"Finally, she spills the deets! About time, seriously! Already in my calendar, little. See ya then! -click."

Sputtering at her big's decisiveness, Ellie began to notice a graceful attention resting on her.

Ohhh, no no no... In horror, the color drained from Ellie's face. Damn, that was a short call. They must have heard everything!

It was very unfortunate, Ellie thought, that Dannie California (a name they'd chosen for themselves to suit their personality) was Will's one, close, and very cunning friend, as well as one of their classmates in Greek History.

Paused in the act of waltzing down the steps outside the lecture hall, one hand draped along the railing, her adversary stared directly into her eyes with a polite, yet ever-so-slightly condescending, grin.

How do they move like that?? Ellie wondered frantically.

As Dannie looked her up and down, Ellie thought this would be a great moment for some deus ex machina. After a few pounding heartbeats, which she figured Dannie could probably hear, they said:

"Sounds like your big found an interesting pattern...?"

Closing her eyes so she didn't have to see that gloating face as her stomach dropped past her feet and descended far beneath her, into the earth, Ellie replied:

"I guess so. I have no clue what it's about."

Ellie had sometimes seen Dannie at parties with probably every human being in the house hanging off of one or the other of their beautiful, long and glitter-dusted arms at some point during the night. Without a hint of shame, Dannie -- when not distracted by their completely sincere yet utterly wasted efforts to get Will to talk to anyone at the party at all -- would explain, loudly enough for Ellie to hear them completely by accident from another room, OVER the music, that, "glitter was the best way to attract maximum attention in the dim party lighting."

But to her considerable frustration and dismay, she never saw Will without Dannie nearby. She might have been brave enough to make a move on Will, but not if it meant dealing with both him and Dannie at once.

Dannie, somewhere beyond her eyelids, was letting her squirm. As expected.

Ellie had already known Dannie from her theater electives, one of which Will had taken. She was certain that Dannie was as intelligent about real human drama as they were about portraying humans -- or fairies, or anything! thought Ellie, with jealousy -- in theater.

She was horribly embarrassed, but not the least bit surprised, when Dannie finished toying with her, laughed, and said:

"Here's a clue then: it seems like you're always standing here blushing, holding your phone, when Will's taken up most of the class time talking!" before floating down the rest of the steps to the sidewalk with inhuman fluidity.

Ellie's eyes snapped wide open as her worst nightmare seemed to flippantly conclude its opening act. Thoughts racing, she asked herself, What could I POSSIBLY do if Will found out what I was REALLY thinking?