When Tinker Met Bell

  “Merri’s comin’?” Bellamy was torn between joy and panic. All Harmswood alumni were invited to participate in major school events. Few ever returned to do so. But Merriaurum Grandiflora, oldest of the Larousse children, had always loved the Midwinter Masquerade. She did her best to attend whenever she could. And whenever she did, her penchant for matchmaking usually resulted in chaos.

  Asher wrinkled his nose. “Oops. That might have been a secret. When she shows, try to act surprised, willya?”

  Bellamy should have no trouble with that. “Will do,” she said. “Good luck herding the tourists. I wish you lots of generous tips.” She kissed her brother on the cheek and sent him on his way.

  When she opened the doors to the dining hall, her eyes widened in shock. This hour of the morning on a normal day, the only ones in the dining hall were the early risers, the test-crammers, and whatever sports team had drill runs at the crack of dawn. Today, however, it looked like every boarding student in Harmswood had risen with the sun and come down for breakfast. The locals too: Kai caught Bellamy’s eye and waved her over to the table where she and Finn and Owen were sitting.

  “What in the world is goin’ on? Thank you, Finn.” Bellamy graciously took the stool Kai’s boyfriend offered her. Chairs were not made for people with wings.

  Maya Cordova—who was never up at this hour, never mind out of her house and already at school—slid a tray filled with coffee and pastries into the middle of the table. “Natalie’s video went viral on the Harmswood intranet last night. We’re all eagerly awaiting the appearance of our newly-crowned royalty.”

  Bellamy stood and immediately began fixing all her friends’ coffees to their specifications, as if it was something she did all the time…because it was. It wasn’t an inconvenience—Bellamy enjoyed doing things at which she excelled. Cream and sugar for Kai, mostly cream for Owen, a dash of sugar for Finn. Maya took hers black, but Bellamy gave her a healthy pinch of fairy dust to help make her morning a little less difficult. As she handed each cup to her friends, she watched them all take satisfied sips.

  “Your coffee’s always the best, Bell,” Maya said with her eyes closed.

  “Thanks, sweetie.” Bellamy inhaled the rich aroma of the coffee in her own cup. Not quite the quality of the Bean, but still decent. “He’s going to hate this, you know.”

  “Who, Tinker?” asked Finn.

  “He’s not one for attention,” said Bellamy. “He prefers to fly under the radar.”

  “Why is that?” Owen asked in that lovely, slow English accent, almost as if he cared.

  Finn and Owen, a wolf-shifter and cat-shifter respectively, had only just started school at Harmswood. Both were impossibly handsome, and both were insanely in love with Kai. But while Kai had chosen to give her heart to Finn, Owen still remained glued to her side.

  Some girls had all the luck. Boys only flirted with Bellamy if they wanted fairy dust. Or free coffee.

  “Historically, the only time the kids at this school have noticed Tinker is to make fun of him,” Kai explained to her beaus.

  Until that moment, the potential for mischief hadn’t even occurred to Bellamy. “If these people are all waitin’ around to make Tinker the butt of some awful joke, I swear I’ll…I’ll…” Honestly, she had no idea what she would do.

  She felt a hand touch her arm: Maya. “Have faith, chica. If these fools act up, I’ll curse the lot of them. And you know how we feel about cursing at this table.”

  “You wouldn’t dare do such a thing,” said Kai. “If you cursed anyone, the local coven would strip your powers faster than you could say ‘boo.’”

  “I’d do it for Bellamy,” Maya said without pause. “And so would you. Because she’s family.”

  Bellamy had a huge family—including a dozen brothers and sisters—but Maya’s words still touched her. Her little circle of friends at Harmswood were the family Bellamy had chosen, and therefore very close to her heart. Maya wasn't one for overt displays of affection, especially this early in the morning, but Bellamy gave her a quick hug anyway.

  “While I appreciate y’all offerin’ to perform dastardly deeds on my behalf, I sincerely hope that won’t be necessary.”

  “We’re about to find out,” said Finn. As one, they all turned their heads to the doors of the main entrance.

  Tinker had just walked through them.

  He stared apprehensively at the sea of faces that greeted him. They all stared back. Hubble Hobson snuck out from behind Tinker’s looming form and stood proudly before his best friend.

  “Harmswood, your prince has arrived!” Hubble’s voice echoed across the entire dining hall.

  There was a moment of silence, and then…cheers. Every sports team, every cheerleader, every member of a band or a club whistled and cried out for Tinker. The popular witches resignedly gave golf claps. Even the teachers applauded. It was like nothing Bellamy had ever seen before.

  Tinker stood tall and, in a most un-Tinker-like manner, threw his arms up in a triumphant vee. Kids from all over the dining hall began to approach Tinker to shake his hand or pat him on the back.

  “Is that what all the fuss was about?” Owen turned back to the table with a yawn. “I think your boy’s going to be just fine.”

  “He’s not mine,” Bellamy muttered instinctively.

  “Looks like he belongs to everyone at Harmswood today,” said Maya. “Jealous much?”

  Bellamy bit into a blueberry muffin. “Drink your coffee and stop bein’ ridiculous.”

  “Come on, Bell.” Kai chose the orange date scone and split it with Finn. “You’ve been Tinker’s sun and moon and starlit sky since the day he got to this school. Having to share him with the world isn’t going to bother you at all?”

  Bellamy shrugged. “If he’s happy, I’m happy.”

  Maya smirked. “That is such a Bellamy answer.”

  “You’re welcome very much.” Bellamy smirked right back. “Besides, no matter what happened last night, he’s still my Physics lab partner. No giant crown is gonna take that away. Oh! That reminds me.” She reached inside the magic pocket her mother had sewn into all her dresses and extracted the four pieces of hammered tin she’d rescued from the floor of the cafe during clean up. “These fell off his ceremonial thingamabob last night.”

  The four bits looked sort of like nickels that had been flattened with a ball-peen hammer. They were all a bit formless, though one of them was vaguely heart-shaped. Each had a hole at one end where, presumably, they had been fastened onto the headdress. All of the holes had been ripped through.

  “I was hopin’ you might see what you could do to fix them,” she said to Kai. Kai Xanthopulos was a Greek Fury. In addition to telepathy (which Kai found easier with animal-shifters) and vengeance (which she’d only used once), one of Kai’s paranormal attributes was the ability to conduct massive amounts of heat.

  Kai picked up the heart-shaped sliver of tin and examined it. “I haven’t tried metalworking yet,” she admitted, “but these seem light enough…hold on.” She pinched the torn side of the hole between her thumb and forefinger, held it for a moment, and then rubbed back and forth quickly.

  “There,” she said with a smile. She held up the now-solid piece, one end still slightly orange from heat, and blew on it. She dropped it in Bellamy’s hand before going to work on the other three. It was still warm.

  “Thanks,” she said to Kai. “I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” Something as historical and significant as the Mantle that marked a boy Heir to the Goblin Throne should be kept as intact as possible. Which she said to Tinker, in so many words, when he plopped down on the stool beside her in the Physics lab later that afternoon. She waited for him to thank her profusely and smile at her with great enthusiasm.

  Instead he said, “Just throw them away.”

  “I’m sorry?” Bellamy asked over her outstretched hand. She couldn’t have heard him correctly.

  “Trust me,” said Tinker. “That thing’s a big enough hun
k of junk already. No one even noticed they were gone.”

  Bellamy slipped the metal bits back into her secret pocket. She had noticed. But Bellamy often noticed little things that didn’t matter to other people. Clouds that looked like dragons. Rain, drawing its path down a window pane. The way snow lingered in the air instead of falling straight to the ground.

  A lanky goblin boy who could solve algebraic calculations without even looking at his paper.

  Bellamy had always been drawn to people and things that were otherwise out-of-the-ordinary. She supposed it was because she knew what it was like to be treated as “different.” Kai—Bellamy’s first and best friend—had been the one to step up and intercede when Bellamy was but a tiny fairy girl and all the other kids wanted to touch her, or pull at her golden hair, or rub up against her wings for “lucky dust.” They told her she was “just like a doll.” Her schoolmates were too young to realize that they were treating her like a thing instead of a person.

  But Kai had put a stop to all that. She had forced the other children to introduce themselves to Bellamy properly. Taught them manners. Taught them to ask Bellamy for fairy dust instead of trying to just take it themselves. One of the reasons Bellamy had joined the cheer squad—apart from the singular opportunity to encourage folks to openly share their love for something—was so that Kai and Maya didn’t have to be her bodyguards all the time. Once the squad got to know her, they—and whatever team they were cheering for—often acted as Bellamy’s protection from outsiders.

  Bellamy took it upon herself to dole out hugs and happiness. People were bound to find excuses to touch her—being in control of the situation seemed the best solution and put everyone at ease.

  Still, Bellamy had wished many times to be naturally grotesque in appearance. To be someone that no one wanted to touch. She had been wishing that very thing while staring out the window in class one day, when the teacher had suddenly announced a new student.

  When Bellamy first laid eyes on Tinker, she thought he was the most amazingly wonderful thing she'd ever seen in her life. It was as if fate had stepped through that door and given her the answer to her prayers.

  And Tinker seemed to like her, too—genuinely like her as a person, not just a fairy. He wasn’t even supposed to like her as a fairy. And he couldn’t touch her, even if he wanted to. If he touched her, his goblin skin would break out in a rash. If he got too close, her dust would trigger a sneezing fit. They’d become friends not because of her magical fairy powers, but in spite of them.

  Their friendship was everything Bellamy ever wanted.

  Bellamy stared at Tinker while he extracted his Physics book from his bag. She examined the curve of his neck. The cluster of warts behind his large ear. His shaggy dark green hair, short at the nape but long enough in the front to fall dashingly over his eyes.

  She wished that she could give him a giant hug without sending him to the nurse.

  Had she taken their special bond for granted all these years? Tinker was a wonderful person. He deserved to be adored by everyone. But Maya had been right. This sudden popularity of his did bother Bellamy, and she had no idea why.

  “I’m a horrible friend,” she said quietly, as Professor Hagar began his lecture on reflection and refraction.

  “Yes, I’ve always thought that about you,” Tinker whispered back. Then he gave her that smirk—the one that meant he thought she was being ridiculous.

  Professor Hagar paused to give Bellamy and Tinker a different sort of smirk. They both straightened in their seats and pretended to give him their full attention.

  I didn’t even ask how you are today, Bellamy wrote in her notebook. Are you overflowing with happiness about your wonderful new position? She slid the book over to where Tinker could see it.

  After a cursory glance, he quickly wrote, No. His eyes stayed glued to Professor Hagar.

  Bellamy didn’t have to write anything after that. She only had to stare at Tinker long enough for him to see the expression on her face. He knew better than to leave her hanging with no information.

  It wasn’t supposed to be me, he added.

  “I don’t understand,” Bellamy blurted aloud.

  “Can I help you, Miss Larousse?” Professor Hagar asked.

  Bellamy pointed to the acute angles her teacher had drawn on the board. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t understand that last part of what you said.” It was only sort of a lie.

  As soon as Professor Hagar turned back to the board, Tinker grabbed the notebook and started scribbling furiously upon it. Bellamy tried to pay attention to the Physics lesson while Tinker wrote.

  “Concave instead of convex,” Bellamy repeated back to Professor Hagar. “Thank you, sir. I think I have it now.”

  Tinker followed up Bellamy’s comment with a question of his own. “So would spells act the same way through those lenses as light does?”

  Professor Hagar lit up. “That’s a very good question, Mr. Tinkerton. In fact, that is the point of this lesson. As you’ll see…”

  Tinker winked at Bellamy and slid the notebook back over to her while Professor Hagar was distracted. He had written a lot.

  The Goblin Prince is supposed to be a boy named Quin Merchero. Maybe something happened to him? I don’t know. Retcher and his crew just gave me the Mantle and left. But they’ll be back.

  The Goblin King rules over the goblins. Protects them. He’s in charge of finding new Lost Boys, adding them to the goblin horde, and stopping anyone who tries to steal them back. (No one ever has in my lifetime, but there are stories.) A prince doesn’t need to be good at math or science. He doesn’t get sent to school. It’s not supposed to be me. Leaving Harmswood makes me the opposite of happy.

  Bellamy read the note three times. Every time it ended with the same conclusion: the goblins were coming back to pull Tinker out of school. But when? And why did it suddenly feel like there was a night-hag sitting on her chest? Bellamy forced herself to take a deep breath and calmly wrote back.

  You can’t leave yet. You still owe me a dance.

  Tinker gave a half-laugh at her note, and shook his head. I’ll do my best, he wrote. To Professor Hagar, he asked, “Does that mean if a witch casts a spell through a magnifying glass, she could kill a person?”

  On any other day, the class would have shifted and groaned at Tinker’s questions. Today, they all laughed and burst out with supporting comments.

  “Don’t let Heather find out about this,” one student called out.

  “I’d be more worried about Maya,” called another.

  “Forget Maya. Just think what Professor Blake could do to you!” This last comment triggered a shouted chorus of random nonsense spell words from the Harry Potter books.

  “Now, now, everyone, calm down,” said Professor Hagar.

  Bellamy put her hand into the air. “Professor Hagar? May I please use the restroom?”

  “Yes, Miss Larousse. Settle down, class. The short answer to Mr. Tinkerton’s question is actually ‘yes.’ The longer answer depends on the exact spell, the curve of the lens, and specific physical principles…”

  Bellamy eased out of the chaotic room and shut the door on Professor Hagar’s sentence. She didn’t need to go to the restroom. She wasn’t sure exactly what she needed at the moment beyond getting out of that room and finding a place to breathe. Or scream.

  Tinker was leaving Harmswood.

  Not here. She couldn’t scream here. Or outside. Someone would hear.

  Her room. She could scream in her room. With everyone in class, no one would be around to worry about her. She would have plenty of time to compose herself before she saw her friends again. Before she saw Tinker again.

  The stabbing pain in her chest made her wince. She launched into the air and sped off toward the girls’ wing as fast as she could.

  “No flying in the hallways, Miss Larousse,” she heard some professor say, but she ignored it. If she didn’t fly away right now, she might very well fall down dead instead.
No one wanted that.

  She burst through the door of her room, slammed it behind her, and then screamed as loud as she could. Louder than she’d ever screamed at a pep rally. She screamed until all the air in her lungs was gone. She took a deep breath and screamed again. Three times. Four. Finally exhausted, she sank down to the floor in a puff of rainbow-colored dust and wept.

  The door clicked open and tiny feet slipped through. Lian Chong, her roommate. A flower fae.

  “Bellamy?” Lian’s voice was as dainty as her step.

  “Shouldn’t you be in class?” Bellamy hiccuped.

  “I was,” she said. “Professor Van Zant saw you in the hallway and was worried, so he sent me up here after you. Bellamy, sweetheart, whatever is the matter? This isn’t like you.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.” It was true. No one ever saw Bellamy Larousse cry, and Bellamy Larousse made sure of that. But Lian was the closest thing she had to a sister right now, so Bellamy told her the truth. “I just found out that Tinker’s goin’ to have to leave school and…I guess it just hit me rather hard.”

  “You guess? Honey, if you could see yourself right now…”

  “…I’d give myself a hug and a cup of coffee?” Bellamy’s laugh turned into a sob. “I can’t even hug him goodbye! How fair is that?” Her eyes filled with so many tears that Lian’s shape blurred before her. “And why am I actin’ like a six-year-old? What is wrong with me?”

  Lian slid to the floor beside Bellamy and handed her a tissue to dry her tears. “You’re upset because he’s one of your best friends and you love him,” she said softly. “And because you never lose people.”

  Bellamy smiled, as if the act of doing so might automatically dry up the tears. It didn’t. “How can I lose something I never had?” she asked her friend. “Everybody keeps referrin’ to him as ‘my’ Tinker. But he’s not ‘my’ anythin’. He doesn’t belong to anyone but himself.”

  “Bellamy, Tinker has been yours since the moment he met you, and the only one who can’t seem to see that is you.” Lian gave an unfairylike snort. “Must be part of the whole ‘love is blind’ thing.”