Leena and the Giant

Mom.”

  Like her daughters, Aileen Wallace was a tall woman. Leena had Caitlin had both inherited their hair reddish gold hair from her, although, Mrs. Wallace kept hers cut short in a close bob. Still, she looked a lot like her daughters. If she had put on a pair of jeans instead of the skirt and jacket suits she usually wore, she might have been easily mistaken for their older sister.

  And Leena, of course, had inherited more than just her mother’s looks. She had also inherited the family name. Every eldest daughter in her mother’s family for generations had been given the same first name. It meant something to be an Aileen. Exactly what it meant, her mother had never been willing—or able—to explain. All Leena knew was that along with the name came some kind of hereditary responsibility. Being an Aileen was supposed to make her special—more sensible, more clever, and even more graceful. It hadn’t yet, but her mother never seemed to give up hope. Leena had often felt that if only Caitlin had been born first, everyone would have been much happier.

  Seeing Leena like this must have been a dream come true for Mrs. Wallace. Her eyes widened as she took in her daughter’s transformation. Whatever she had been about to say seemed to have vanished from her mind.

  “Leena, sweetheart,” she said hesitantly. “You look...nice.”

  “She has a date later,” Caitlin said in her mock helpful voice. “With Barry.”

  Their mother’s expression faltered. The faint traces of pleasure that had been stirring in her eyes vanished and she said abruptly, “Not tonight, Leena. I’m afraid I need you this evening.”

  Shooting Caitlin a glare, Leena said as calmly as she could manage, “I’ll stay for the meeting, of course, Mom, but I’ve already promised to meet Barry afterward.” She emphasized the word “promised” slightly, hoping that it would influence her mother, who was very big on keeping promises.

  But apparently, Mrs. Wallace wasn’t particularly worried about her keeping promises to Barry. Pursing her lips, she said, “We’ll discuss this later, Leena, but you know how I feel about that boy. I don’t want you seeing him outside of school.” With a brusque wave of her hand, she dismissed the subject and continued, “Now, I need both of you girls to come up front with me.”

  Mr. Shanachie stomped up to the table just then. He was pretty old—about seventy-five or so—and had a slight hunch, as well as a bad leg. Leena knew he owned a cane, but he didn’t often use it. She found herself wishing that he would.

  “Silly old fool,” she muttered under her breath and then flushed as she realized she’d said it out loud. Next to her, Nessa stifled a giggle.

  Fortunately, no one else seemed to have heard her. Mr. Shanachie scowled up at her mother and said, “Aileen Wallace, I have had enough. Get these kids out of my pub or I’ll—”

  But they never found out what he would do because at just that moment he saw Leena. He stopped midsentence, his jaw snapping shut as he reached up to tug on his mustache.

  Leena’s mother turned to stare down at him with an imperious look. “Angus, I’ve already explained why the children must be allowed to attend this particular meeting. You’ll just have to close the bar for a few hours. You can open up again after the meeting. You really should have done it before everyone began to arrive. It isn’t proper to have the children exposed to all this drunkenness.”

  Around the table, Caitlin’s friends stifled laughter. As far as Leena could see, no one around them was actually drunk. It was still pretty early in the evening for that. She looked at Mr. Shanachie to see what his response to her mother’s rather pompous speech would be. She half expected him to explode in anger and he certainly looked ready to do just that. His face was bright red and he seemed to be holding his breath. Possibly to keep himself from cursing.

  Instead, he glanced at Leena again and then let out the breath he had been holding in an audible huff. “Fine. Two hours. You have two hours and then I expect the whole lot of you to clear out.”

  He stomped away.

  Mrs. Wallace smiled and straightened her jacket. She seemed to have forgotten what she had been saying before. “I’ll talk with you after the meeting, Leena,” she said before sweeping away toward the front of the pub.

  “Guess she doesn’t want us to sit with her after all,” Caitlin said softly as she stood up and came around to stand by Leena. “Sorry about bringing up Barry.”

  Leena took a deep breath as she watched her mother pushing her way to the front of the pub and then let it out slowly. She gave her twin a small smile. “It’s okay. I would have had to tell her sooner or later. She’ll never let me go. I don’t know why. She’s never liked Barry, but recently she seems to be getting really weird about him.”

  “She can see that you’re falling for him,” Caitlin said simply. She put both of her hands on her hips and gave her sister a stern look. “You can’t let Mom keep you away from him. He’s the nicest guy in town.”

  Doug and Jeremy both said, “Hey!” at the same time, but Caitlin ignored them.

  “He’s perfect for you. Just take off before she has a chance to make up some phony chore she needs you to do after the meeting. I’ll cover for you.”

  Leena hesitated. She never disobeyed their mother. She was the dutiful daughter, after all. She was an Aileen. She was responsible and did was she was told. But then she remembered looking into the pub’s cracked mirror and seeing her double reflection. She was going to be someone else tonight, right? She didn’t have to be dutiful. Not tonight.

  But her mother would be so furious at her.

  “You know how I feel about that boy,” her mother had said. Leena felt a rush of unfamiliar anger at the memory of how she had said “that boy” as if Barry were some kind of hideous bug.

  Across the pub, Mr. Shanachie was shooing people out the door. “Come on, get out of here! We’re closed for a private event.”

  It was weird how quickly he had changed his mind and given into her mother’s plans. He often seemed to change his mind around Leena. She had noticed it before. He would be arguing with her mother and then she would show up and suddenly he would give in. Why? And did her mother realize it as well? Was that why she made Leena come to all these meetings? Was that why she had come back to talk to her and Caitlin tonight? She certainly hadn’t seemed all that anxious to actually have them sit with her. Maybe that had just been an excuse to talk to them until Mr. Shanachie came over so that Leena could change his mind with whatever strange power she seemed to have over him. Was her mother using her?

  “Okay,” Leena said. “As soon as the meeting is over, I’m sneaking out.”

  Caitlin grinned. “That’s my girl.”

  Leena slid back into the booth and Caitlin returned to her spot next to Jeremy. She watched as Mr. Shanachie herded everyone not on her mother’s list out the door.

  About ten minutes later, only the usual crowd—and their teenagers—were still in the pub and Mr. Shanachie had locked the door. Mrs. Wallace stood up in front of the bar, holding a microphone, and said, “If everyone will turn their attention up here, we’ll get started.”

  Leena’s attention drifted as her mother talked on about why they were all there—as if anyone could possibly have forgotten about strange door that had appeared, as if by magic, in the courtyard of the high school or all the strange things that had been happening since Kira Nichols, Seelie High’s newest student, had opened it.

  Kira was sitting near the front of the pub with her mother, looking extremely uncomfortable. Leena hadn’t met her and she hadn’t been in the courtyard when the freshman had opened the weird door, but she recognized her anyway. A stranger in a small town tended to stick out.

  As she took in Kira’s dirty blond hair and thin, almost sharp features, Leena felt another unexpected surge of anger. Who was this outsider to come into her town and disrupt everything so badly?

  Surprised and embarrassed by the vehemence of her reaction to the other girl, Leena looked away.

  “And now,” her mother was saying, “I h
ave asked Ms. Nichols to take a few minutes and share with us her version of the events that took place up at the high school on Monday afternoon.”

  Leena looked back to the front of the room and saw Kira whispering urgently with her own mother. It was clear that she did not want to get up and talk in front of all these people—most of whom she did not know. Ms. Nichols seemed almost as nervous as her daughter, but she leaned toward Kira and spoke softly in her ear for a few moments before sitting back and smiling encouragingly. Not looking at all happy about it, Kira got up and went to stand next to Mrs. Wallace, who handed her the microphone.

  “Hi...um...I’m Kira,” she began. Then she stopped and stared around the room, her expression beginning to look a little panicky. Her mother got up and came to stand next to her, putting a reassuring hand on her daughter’s back. Kira looked up at her, nodded, and continued speaking. “I guess you know that I’m new here. Monday was my first day at Seelie High. I guess it all started in homeroom.”

  And she went on to talk about the prophecy another freshman girl, Aislin Donaghue, had given. Everyone in town knew about the Donaghue’s. Most of the family were prone to strange fits, during which they uttered nonsensical predictions that only rarely came true. As far as Leena knew, this was the first time any of Aislin’s prophecies had come true.

  It has begun. That