She grins and starts jumping up and down. “I’m already in!”
I stare at her until it’s clear she’s not joking. “Explain.”
“I went down there yesterday with Grandpa while you were getting ready for your mission and asked to speak to Headmistress Sullivan.”
I shake my head. “It was late Friday afternoon. Wasn’t the school already closed?”
“Yes, but I took a chance, and she was still there! I explained everything that happened, and we had a conference call with my old high school’s principal. Everything just fell into place! I start Monday.” Her voice is a little breathless, and excitement is rolling off her in waves.
“But… what about the tuition deposit?” I have no idea how I’m going to pay it, but Bailiwick’s is expensive. Usually, they’d hold off on admission until the financing was nailed down, but if they gave her a uniform, she must have already been admitted.
She squeals. “That’s the best part. It turns out you overpaid my tuition in Nevada and they’ve agreed to send the balance to Bailiwick’s. We won’t owe anything!”
My stomach clenches. I’m happy for Arden, but warning bells are going off in my head. This is one positive coincidence too many to give credit to fate. I sense luck was involved, and a serious amount of it. Overpaid tuition? That’s never happened before. Instantly, I think of Seven. Last night, before things went sour, he’d tipped his hand that he still had feelings for me. He’d apologized and kissed me. Is it possible that he is behind this?
If he is behind it, I hope to hell he doesn’t renege after last night. I’ve never seen him so angry, and I guess I can understand why, now that there’s some distance between me and the situation. Yes, it would be important to anyone in his position to be perceived as competent. I get that he wants the best for his employees, and this puts him in a tight spot where he might be forced to let someone go. But I was right too. Had I withheld that information from Godmother and she found out, I might be in more trouble than I already am. And Seven did need to do something about the bias against pixies in his shop. I don’t regret what I said, but I also understand where Seven was coming from last night. It’s unsettling. Between knowing the truth about his abusive family life and understanding his point of view, I can practically feel my heart making room for him, maybe even expecting the best from him. It was so much easier to just hate him.
“Congratulations,” I say to Arden. “I’m glad you got what you wanted, and I’m proud of you for going after it on your own.”
“This is going to be amazing!” She claps her hands and bounces out of the room.
Gods, I hope she’s right. It scares me to think that she might be bullied for being human or that this might all come apart. I need to talk to Seven, see if he’s behind this. If so, I’ll eat crow if I have to. Arden has been through too much for me not to do everything I can to make this better for her.
I dress and descend to the smell of toast and eggs. My mother is waiting in a silver ball gown that would be at home in a Cinderella movie. My dad sports dark breeches, boots, and a flowing white shirt reminiscent of a fairy-tale prince. They both give me an exaggerated smile when they see me.
“You didn’t have to make me breakfast,” I say, plugging my mouth with a piece of toast.
“Yes, I did,” my mother says, her smile widening. “We just got a shipment in at the store, and we could really use an extra set of hands today.”
Dad clears his throat. “What do you think, sweetheart? Want to take a trip down memory lane and contribute to the family business?”
When he puts it that way, how can I say no?
* * *
An hour later,I’m dressed in my dry-cleaned pink ball gown and designing a display of Dragonfly snow globes at my parents’ gift shop, the Silver Ember. Each glass ball depicts a different street in Wonderland with a pixie stretching her arms toward the sun. When you shake them, purple and silver glitter swirls around her and her wings flap. All of them are inscribed with the Dragonfly Hollow logo and the taglineWhere Magic Lives and Dreams Come True.
Humans buy the weirdest shit.
“Are acorns really lucky?” a man in shorts and a Dragonfly Casino polo asks me. I stop what I’m doing to give him my full attention. The polo he’s wearing isn’t for sale. It’s a gift for VIPs. This guy has money burning up his pockets.
“Very lucky,” I say. I pick one up and hold it between my thumb and forefinger. “This one acorn has all the potential to become a mighty oak tree. It’s concentrated luck. Very powerful.”
“Good. I’m registered for the poker tournament tonight and need all the luck I can get.” He rubs his hands together.
My chest constricts. How I wish I had a poker game to look forward to.
He lifts one of the acorns and turns it in his fingers. “It’s so… common. Do you have them in gold?”
I repress a laugh and flutter my lashes at him. “Sir, there is nothing common about these acorns. Each one is hand selected from our Winter Wood, the luckiest forest in all America. And we at the Silver Ember are very careful to limit the amount that they are handled to preserve the greatest concentration of luck the acorn can hold. Why, the only thing luckier in this entire store is the goldfish, and if you are interested in one of those, I’d be happy to show you. They’re in the back.”
Shifting uneasily, he says, “No, no. They always die on me.”
I hold my smile while inside I judge the man harshly for his inability to keep a goldfish alive.
“How much are they?”
“$25.99 each,” I say. Right now they are. We don’t label the bin for a reason.
