“I’ll see you after class,” Professor Manatubay said to me. “As for the rest of you, the exercise is complete. Gather your things and prepare to be dismissed.”
Minutes later, once everyone had left the room, the professor approached me. Before he could say anything, I said, “I didn’t know about Lucas’s parents.”
“Maybe you didn’t; maybe you did,” he said, infuriating me further. “However, it doesn’t matter. Your role as ruler of the Court of Sirena includes knowing everything about everyone and navigating a minefield of possible blunders gracefully.”
“I just got here,” I said. It wasn’t fair. I was always expected to adjust to new places, new people, new rules.
“Yes, you did,” he said. “And now that you’re here, whathaveyou done?”
I didn’t answer him. He was being hard on me, and to say I didn’t appreciate it was an understatement. I had enough on my plate already, learning about this place, adjusting to their rules, trying to prove myself worthy of the throne. I’d done a lot, as far as I was concerned.
“You’re dismissed,” he said. “Think about what I’ve said.”
I got up and left the room without another word. Yeah, I’d think about what he said.I think it’s ridiculous.
My other classes were, thankfully, uneventful. No one seemed to know what happened that morning, but it was only a matter of time before I became the academy’s main villain. The new girl, who thinks she’s just going to waltz in and claim the throne, decided to take a shot at poor orphaned Lucas. Great. That would help my already precarious social standing. Gossip like that was too juicy, and the situation so easy and satisfying to judge. One more example of how ethereal teenage beings weren’t all that different from their human counterparts.
I was relieved when it was finally time for lunch. The best thing about BANA was the cafeteria. We sat at formal, round tables, and there was no line for food. Instead, all the dishes magically appeared, steaming hot and delicious, as soon as we sat down. Today was grill day—chicken inasal, pork barbecue, with heaps of garlic rice and vinegary achara. My mouth watered.
As soon as we started eating, I expected Nix to ask me about what happened. Instead, she said, “What do you say, after school, we go explore the city?”
I wanted to, for sure. I needed to forget about the unpleasantness this morning that I had caused. I would never hurt anyone deliberately. The only question was how to get there without anentourage following me around. “Not sure how I’d get away,” I told her.
“Easy. Tell them we’re staying after to study, and to pick you up later. Once they’re gone, we’ll walk into town and get back in time for them to pick you up.”
I couldn’t see why not. And more than anything, it felt good to think about doing something normal. “Okay,” I agreed with a shrug.
“Yay!” Nix clapped her hands. “I’ve been dying to check out some of the new boutiques. You won’t believe the stuff they have here. Makes Rodeo Drive look like a discount mart.”
Nix gushed about every shop she’d been to in the main Market District, in the downtown district of Biringan, and how much better everything was than at home, especially the food. “If you think this is good,” she said, motioning to the stew and halo-halo I was drooling over, “wait until you try the food in town. I’ll bring you to the lumpia vendor, oh my god. To die for.”
An hour later, having done exactly as she’d advised, we were on our way to town in a hired carriage. I wasn’t even bothered by the ongoing coronation activity that surrounded us. I was too giddy with freedom and the promise of friendship, something I’d been without for such a long time. I even forgot the entire drama with Lucas. Along the way, Nix told me all about the different places she’d explored on her own before I arrived in Biringan. Her excitement was contagious. “And we have to stop at Doña Ximena’s, you will notbelievethe cloaks she makes. She also has the best shoes. For jewelry, we have to go to Kumikinang. The owner is also half-human, like us.”
Up ahead, around a bend in the road that led into the hills, arow of buildings emerged before the entire town opened up in front of us. I don’t know what I was expecting—a medieval-style village, maybe—but it was better and stranger, in every way, than I could have imagined. Like the palace, the buildings were all cut out of the surrounding stone. Except they weren’t glittery like the geode surface of the castle. They were grittier, rougher, gray and brown and black streaked with white. The shop fronts had huge windows and smooth wood doors in a variety of shapes—no plain rectangles here. The doors had unique iron handles, too. In the shop windows, the displays moved around, featuring a parade of wares sort of like a commercial. There were carts selling food, with smoke rising from them, and a mix of savory and sweet scents filled the air. People walked in and out of the buildings, in long coats almost like the ones we wore to school, and there were also more fairies like the ones I’d seen the other day. But then I noticed more creatures, like a kapre with sharp fangs and large, leathery wings. He didn’t look friendly. There were also a few encantos in partial animal transformation. A feline pilipit and a wolf of some kind. I’d heard there were shape-shifters but, so far, hadn’t actually met any.
Nix laughed. “Your mouth is hanging open,” she said.
I shut it. “Sorry.”
“Anyway, where do you want to go first?”
I couldn’t possibly choose. “Up to you.”
“I was hoping you’d say that!” She grabbed my hand and dragged me faster along the road. A carriage rumbled by. The man driving raised his hat to us. I waved with my free hand.
“Don’t do that!” Nix reprimanded me. “He’ll think you’re flagging him down.”
She pulled me toward a shoe store. In the window, boots in different heights—with no heel and high heels and everything in between, and even toe styles from square to round to pointy—swirled around.
When we walked inside, I was shocked. Instead of shelves full of shoes, there were only two pairs on display: plain black boots and a pair of flats. I didn’t see a salesperson anywhere.
“Watch this.” Nix walked over to a full-length mirror. “Come here,” she said.
I went and looked in the mirror. I saw our reflections staring back.
“Now grab whichever footwear you need and bring them here.”
I didn’t need (or like) either one, but I grabbed the flats and went back to the mirror.
