Night School by Mari Mancusi Page A

days. Probably to further differentiate herself from me. The thought makes me a little sad.
    “Not really,” she replies, staring at the blank wall in front of her. “This is pretty much the worst day of my life.”
    “I know it sucks,” I soothe. “But we can get through this. It’s only temporary.”
    “You don’t know that!” she cries angrily. “What if, after all this, Mom and Dad can’t convince the fairies to leave us alone? Then one of us will be stuck becoming a fairy queen!”
    “Yeah, but ... well, that’s not the end of the world, is it?” I ask. “I mean, there’s probably a lot of great perks that come with being a fairy queen. Think about it: riches beyond belief, magical powers, all the nectar you can drink, limitless glitter.” I pause, then giggle. “Not to mention a hot prince named Dew Drip ...”
    “Stop it!” Sunny cries, rolling over to face me. Her eyes are stormy and bloodshot from all the crying. “Don’t you get it? It’s not a joke! It’s my freaking life here!”
    I hold my hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I just thought—”
    She scrambles up and starts pacing the distance between beds. “Sure, it’s not big deal to you. You’re already supernatural six ways from Sunday anyway. And you like it that way, for some unfathomable reason.”
    “Well, yeah.” I shrug. “Though I’d like it better if I had some kind of powers ...”
    She turns to me, staring me down, fury clear on her face. “Well, I don’t. I don’t want to be a vampire. I don’t want to be a slayer. I certainly don’t want to be a fairy queen. I just want to be a human girl and I just want to be left alone.” She shakes her head. “I mean, what’s left, Rayne? Are we going to find out our long-lost cousin was a freaking leprechaun?”
    “Ooh, that’d be cool. Maybe he’d share his pot of gold with us. Or at least his Lucky Charms.”
    Sunny glares at me.
    “Come on, Sun,” I cajole. “You gotta look on the bright side. Glass half full and all that. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? You become fairy queen?”
    “I will never become a fairy queen,” Sunny mutters. “I’ll kill myself first.”
    “Well, you’re already a drama queen .” I shake my head, rising from her bed, defeated. Obviously she’s in no mood to listen to reason. I head over to my own bed and plop down, staring up at the ceiling, annoyed as all hell. From across the room, I hear Sunny pressing keys on her phone, to listen to Magnus’s messages again—this time, sans speakerphone.
    What am I going to do? I know she won’t make good on her threat to kill herself, but at the same time, I feel terrible that she’s so upset. She’s my twin. And as the oldest by seven minutes, I’m supposed to be the one taking care of her. And yet I know, at the end of the day, if the fairies want her as their queen, there’s very little I can do about it.
    I crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head, hugging a pillow to my chest, feeling the tears spring to my eyes. I’ve been working overtime all day to be strong and optimistic for my sister’s sake, but now, alone in bed, reality is starting to sink in big time. If only Jareth were here; he’d know what to do. And even if he didn’t, he’d still take me into his arms and infuse me with the strength to face whatever was coming our way. With him, I feel invincible. Now I just feel kind of defeated.
    Part of me hates admitting this. After all, a kick-ass chick like me shouldn’t be all weepy over a guy. I’m not like my sister. But at the same time, Jareth and I are such a good team. I feel like half of me is missing without him by my side. When did I get all codependent girl? Ugh.
    I wish I wasn’t so messed up when it comes to relationships. I usually blame my dad, but now even that excuse has gone all cloudy on me. Did he really leave to protect us? Did he really miss my last birthday to save my life? Was the birth of Stormy really not that big a