A Day in Another's Shoes: Part One

     "Four-eyed freak," muttered a Fire faerie, sitting two rows behind the Water faerie.

     "That is correct," the teacher said. "You may sit down, Miss Undula."

     "My pleasure," the Water faerie said as she sat down and turned her head around to glare at the Fire faerie who had uttered that remark. Of course... It was Ignicia. It would always be Ignicia.

     "Teacher's pet... No, teacher's faerie," the Fire faerie named Ignicia whispered as several faeries around her giggled.

     Undula sighed and tried to block that out of her mind. However, the part of her that wanted revenge for all the times her archenemy humiliated her awakened as Ignicia started to utter more mean things.

     It was illogical. She was the cleverest faerie in their class, and best at everything except for spell casting, Ignicia's number one subject. She knew that she looked beautiful with her soft, blue-greenish hair and large sapphire eyes. Teachers often praised her for her wisdom. So why, why wasn't she popular and admired like she should be?

     All because of that stupid fire faerie. On the first day of school, she had teased Undula. The enmity between them had only grown worse and worse as the years went by, and now, in their fifth year, they were famous because of the rivalry.

     The Water faerie gritted her teeth. She was not going to lose to an insolent, stupid Fire faerie like that! She was already unpopular enough with the other water faeries, since they disliked that she read books and studied instead of learning how to heal and brew healing potions.

     "People like Nereid and Kayla can go and brew their potions," Undula thought, "So why do they need me?" But she had to admit that potion-making was very useful sometimes.

     A small, evil grin crept upon the faerie's face as she took out a bottle and rolled it towards Ignicia. After a few words from Undula, the bottle stopped, the cork flew out and the content was spilled on the Fire faerie's shoes.

     "What the..." Ignicia burst out when she found her feet all wet and icky-feeling. She threw a quick look at the Water faerie, who looked back with the innocent eyes of a model student.

     "I'll give you a model student," the Fire faerie thought bitterly as she drew her wand. Without giving the idea that had just popped in her head some further thought, she started casting a spell.

     "Excuse me," a voice said. Ignicia froze and tried to put away her wand, but it was too late. "I hope that Math class is not so complicated so you have to use your wand, Miss Ignicia."

     "O-of course not," the Fire faerie mumbled as she returned to doing those equations. Fortunately she had managed to finish casting the spell when the teacher came by, so...

     Ignicia smiled malevolently as she observed the poor Water faerie trying to find out what was burning her tail so horribly.

     "Please put down your pencils and books," the Earth faerie teacher said. "I'd like to inform you that we have a special, themed day coming up here in school. There will be special projects, presentations and other festivities around this day. Just so you know."

     "Is that all?" a Light faerie asked.

     "That's it," Miss Acacia said. "You're dismissed."

     The pupils exited the classroom, some excited and others acting like their normal selves. The Earth faerie rolled when she saw Ignicia and Undula fighting in the doorway, neither wanting to be the last one to get out of the classroom.

     "Please," the teacher scoffed as she walked towards the two fighting faeries.

     "You'll pay for that!" Undula cried as she stomped on the Fire faerie's left foot, shoved her aside and ran into the hallway, leaving a trail of water behind her.

     "Uh-oh," Ignicia said out loud. She took a look at the angry Earth faerie. "Thanks for the lesson, Miss Acacia," the Fire faerie said quickly before she took off at full speed.

     "Those two..." the teacher shook her head as she waved her wand and made the floor clean again. She closed the door behind her and walked down the familiar hallway, ready to lean on the soft sofa in the Staff Room.

     Miss Acacia opened the door and found that no one was in there. Surprised, she stepped inside and closed the door. The Staff Room was the teachers' haven, a place protected from the curious eyes of students. If any of them saw how it was in there, then... She shook her head as she scanned the room again, hoping to find company.

     A great gust of wind blasted the windows open as a beautiful Air faerie entered the room on a cloud.

     "Too late," the Earth faerie muttered as she sat down on the best sofa in the room. The other teacher shook her head and sat down on her cloud instead.

     "Well, I guess it's just the two of us," Miss Acacia stated after a minute of silence. Suddenly she had this urge to talk, and for once she wanted to be satisfied. "Miss Orkana, do you know the two students Ignicia and Undula?"

     "Of course," the Air faerie replied. "They're very well known for their rivalry."

     "Kind of reminds you of the good old times, doesn't it?" the Earth faerie said with a wistful sigh as she raised her wand.

     "I'm afraid that Undula's ability to cast spells isn't exactly what reminds you of the..." Orkana stopped when she saw the other faerie's face. "You're planning something, aren't you?"

     "Well, well, how'd you know?" Acacia said sarcastically.

     "This will not be pretty," the Air faerie said, raising her wand.

     "And you're not very pretty," the Earth faerie retorted, knowing that Orkana would be upset enough not to do something drastic for the next five minutes. She was also aware that the Air faerie spent at least two hours every day on her look.

     "Hmph!" Orkana frowned indignantly. Then she looked at the paper on the table and shuddered. "Themed day coming up soon..."

     Acacia got up from the comfy sofa and took a look at the paper. She raised her eyebrow. "This might be a very educating experience..."

     "Finders keepers, losers weepers," the Air faerie said, jumping into the now empty sofa.

     "Aww... No fair!" the Earth faerie whined as she picked up the piece of paper. "But... this is a very interesting idea."

     "I heard that the Psychologist wanted this to be a successful, so she invited some lecturers and has a whole day booked and planned for this..." Orkana said, eying the Math teacher.

     "The Psychologist?" Acacia shuddered. "That won't be very pretty..."

     "As odd as I find it, I have to admit that I agree with you for once," the Air faerie declared, grasping her wand and patting her cloud.

     "Hmm... It's perfect!" the Earth faerie exclaimed excitedly. "You'll help me on this, won't you?"

     "What?" Orkana spluttered, spilling the tropic drink she had just teleported from the fridge at home. "Me? Help you?"

     "Of course, Miss Orkana the great Spellcaster," Acacia said sarcastically while bowing. "I admit to your great power, and of course I'll worship you..." she added under her breath, "for a second or so."

     "Cut the drama," the Air faerie said.

     "Well, as I have mentioned before," the Earth Faerie went on, totally ignoring Orkana's latest remark, "There are two troublesome students known as Undula and Ignicia."

     "And?" Orkana asked, somewhat sensing what would come next. She threw a quick look at the paper. "Will you play the psychologist?"

     "I think we can start this theme a little bit early for them," Acacia said.

     "Surely they're not that bad?"

     "Well, we'll have to see, won't we?" the Earth faerie said as she took out a crystal ball. She placed it on the table gently, and mist swirled in the ball.

     "To think that you, the most no-nonsense teacher of all, do this kind of thing..." the Air faerie muttered as she bent closer.

     "I'm afraid that sometimes I just have to give in to my urges," Acacia said as she touched the crystal ball. "Show me Ignicia and Undula..."

     The mist cleared. The two young faeries were standing in a small hallway, and a crowd of faeries had formed behind Ignicia to watch. The two teachers saw how Undula's small body quivered and how her tail twitched.

     Suddenly the Water faerie exploded. "You don't understand me!" she cried out, "All of you! You just don't know! You don't know!" With the last words echoing in the hallway, Undula ran away. Four eyes followed her as she bumped into the gym teacher.

     "Excuse me," the poor Water faerie said, regaining her dignity and walking away. As soon as the teacher had left, Undula resumed her desperate pace as she tried to brush away the tears that came.

     The mists swirled around in the crystal ball, but the two faeries had seen enough.

     "Well, what do you say?" Acacia asked.

     "I believe it would be good for them to start this little theme a bit early," the Air faerie said, secretly clenching her fist under the table. Oh yes, she remembered... The humiliation, burning like that...

     "I'm glad that you're agreeing with me," the Earth faerie said sarcastically as she waved her wand. "But really, it'd be good for them. And add anger management classes to that Water faerie."

     "Let's begin, shall we?" Orkana said. "I can't wait..."

     "Okay!" Acacia said as childishly as she could, knowing that it would annoy the other faerie. "Let's start operation 'A Day in Another's Shoes!'"

To be continued...