Alexandra Brandt - (Not a) Fairy Tale

For the first time in my life, everything was going perfectly.

There I was, sitting on the very edge of my shiny red vinyl seat, gazing in awe and wonderment at the extravagant confection the waiter placed in front of me.

Perfectly round scoops of vanilla-bean ice-cream, a mountain of fresh whipped cream with lashings of chopped nuts, the entire thing lavishly drizzled with hot fudge saucewith those things alone, the sundae would have been pretty close to heaven, but it was the strawberries that pushed it over the edge.

It wasnt just because it was the beginning of berry season in the Skagit Valley, ensuring the most luscious, ripe fruit imaginable (although it helped), or that strawberries were my all-time favorite sweet thing ever (they totally were).

It was the sheer romance of it. Mom always said the strawberry was the most passionate of fruit, and looking at the deep red, juicy slices artfully arranged on the dessert I had to agree. They were even kind of shaped like hearts.

I wondered if Derek had noticed this.

Oh right, because Id almost forgotten the best part of allthe fact that I was going to share this fabulous, romantic dessert with guy. A really cute guy. Because we were on an honest-to-God first date, complete with retro ice-cream parlor (it was even done up in Valentine-y red and white, candy-stripes and curlicues galore)the perfect place for the first romance of my life.

I glanced up at Derek finally, trying to keep the cheesy grin on my face from looking too idiotic. Act casual, right. Looks pretty good, huh?

Mmm. He stared at it absentmindedly, then leaned back and looked at me, chewing on his lip kind of anxiously.

Since I didnt know how to read that at all, I took up my spoon and carved out a perfect first bite.

And promptly choked on it with my dates very next words:

So Cyg, have you ever considered that you might be a fairy?

So much for a perfect, normal date.

Ill be honest, as a pick-up line it kind of fell flat.

As a statement in earnest, which apparently it wasjudging from the way Derek was looking at me across the sundaeit was completely unexpected.

I swallowed hastily and put down my spoon. Afairy. Like, wings, magic, bippity boppity boo? He couldnt possibly have known about my addiction to fairytales, right? Id kept that well away from my school lifeI was weird enough as it was; I didnt need extra mockery fodder.

Besides, Derek Wingfield wasnt one of the mean ones at Rainy Valley High. He was one of the clever, funny, nice ones. Really cute, tooI mentioned that, right?had the whole dark-haired poet-type thing going, without being nerdy about it.

And apparently, despite being a knowledgeable, mature Senior to my less-knowledgeable Junior, he was in deadly earnest about the fairy thing. Seriously, Cyg. I mean, I know I sound like a total dork, but hear me out! I know this guy who does paranormal research, see, andyou think Im crazy.

Well, yeah. But I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. He was the first guy to ever actually ask meme!on a date, so there was no way I was going to ruin it.

All the same, this was not at all how I had envisioned my first date going.

The first part of it had been fun, if nerve-wracking: the movie was one of those crowd-pleasing action flicks with plenty of explosions which gave us something to talk about over dinner, which was pizza so I didnt have to worry about fumbling with silverware while my hands were all sweaty, so bonus points to Derek for that.

The conversation hadnt been too bad, either, and I had been very careful not to mention any of the weird stuff about melike the fairytales, or the fact that I play Dungeons & Dragons with my cousins every weekend.

But seriously, what guy asks his date if she might be a mythological creature? Where the heck did that come from?

At least hed waited until most of the ice-cream parlor patrons were gone for the evening.

I took another spoonful of chocolate-smothered dessert and pretended to savor it while I tried to think of something to say. Just promise me this isnt going to be a clever build up to a really cheesy punch-line and I narrowed my eyes. Is this about my name or something? Cause Ive had enough teasing over that to last a lifetime.

I dont think Cygnet Pemberton is that weird of a name, he said hastily. Cygnets are young swans, did you know that? That cant be all bad, right? Swans are beautiful, and, um, so are you. He turned pretty red at that, but I could feel my face heating up too, only probably worse.

Still, I could stand to hear a bit more about that, and a bit less about fairies.

I sighed and put down my spoon again, dragging my hand through my hair without thinking. I could feel it spring out of its pins immediately, and cursed. So much for all that work to keep my frizzy mane under control. I resisted the urge to race to the bathroom to check the damage. Some things were more important than unruly hair, right?

Like not insulting my perfect date when he was saying perfectly ridiculous things.

I did know that, about the swan thing, I said, trying to stay cool about his little compliment. I took a deep breath, and hurried in. But see, the problem with your theory is that Im most decidedly not a fairy. I have two very human parents and a birth certificate to prove it. I think they would have noticed if I was switched at birth or something, and most importantly, I am pretty sure fairies dont exist.

There, that summed it up pretty well, although everyone knew Mom was incredibly beautiful, in an almost unearthly way. It was kind of depressing, actually.

Okay, but for a moment just pretend fairies do exist.

God, he wasnt going to let this go, was he? I guess there could have been worse subjects to beat to death, but I was beginning to feel embarrassed for the both of us.

And I was tired of that feeling, these days.

Too many weird things had been happening to me this year, at school especially.

Like this last Tuesday, the day Derek asked me out. I mean, that part was beyond awesome, but the rest of the day had been pretty strange.

So Id been wearing a short peasant skirt my mom had given me, a camouflage tank top, and my tall lace-up boots (that didnt even match). I liked the weirdness of the look, but I was pretty sure it missed trendy by a mile.

But the entire day I kept getting compliments right and left, from friends, enemies, and people I didnt even know. Even some creepy College Guys whistled in the mall after school.

And the thing is, I could have sworn I wore basically the same thing only a week before that and got my usual dose of ignoring/casual insults from the popular crowd. My hair was the same frizzy red-gold halo as always, and my very pale legs still knobby at the knees, far as I knew.

I mean, at my best I was pretty odd-looking, with the whiter-than-white skin and the crazy hair, which I supposed were the fault of my Irish granny, and the pale green almond-shaped eyesI had no clue where those came from. So what was with the one day where everyone seemed to think I was gorgeous?

Now that I thought about it, the same thing had happened a few times before, about a month back.