Chapter 2: New Beginnings
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My name is Zhee and I’m a fae princess.

I’ve been banished from Faeland, my home, and now I’m in the human world.

“A burger and regular fries please. Add a diet coke with it", sad the customer in front of me. This male human had rainbow-colored hair. Interesting style, I thought.

A smile was plastered on my face and I managed to repeat the order and punched the corresponding buttons for his order. A week ago, I wouldn’t have understood his words. Burger? Fries? DIET coke? What the Hellfire were these things?

Finally, after a couple of hours, it’s the end of my shift and I took off from this place thing called McDonald’s. It was already dark outside but I didn’t mind. My place… no, scratch that… HIS place was just close by. I sighed deeply.

I remembered the first time I stepped foot in this human city. The horrible smells and the dark atmosphere was horrible. I was gagging while Helix just looked at me with disdain. No help from him.

"Get used to it. Quickly." he said to me tonelessly.

I couldn’t believe it’s been a week already and I’m mingling with these humans. I want to puke. Every day. I've had my opinions of humans but they're actually worse in reality. 

Take for example in the morning shift, there are those who just have black coffee. Is that even filling? I remember my breakfast back in Faeland was composed of the scrumptious fruits from the Gardens of Lilliput with honeysuckle nectar, too. But to have only that scalding hot liquid in the morning is beyond me.

(Actually, I tried this coffee thing and it tastes better with milk and sugar, in my opinion.)

Also, there are being called ‘street performers’. Helix told me they get their living from dancing and doing all sorts of things I consider embarrassing. There were also people in the corner of the streets holding out their hands. Their clothes were pitiful to look at. My curiosity was aroused.

“Helix, what are those humans doing?” I couldn’t help but ask the grouchy man walking in front of me.

He stopped (thank goodness, my feet were tired) and snorted at my direction. What? A snort? He’s turning into some kind of animal.

“You don’t say “humans”. You say “people”.” He told me reproachfully.

We stared at each other for a while. Finally, I looked away. I can't wiiiin.

“Fine. What are those people doing?” I batted my eyelashes at him and tried to look prim and proper. I must have looked silly but whatever.

His eyes narrowed at me. “They’re beggars. They’re begging for food or money.”

I stood still and took a deep breath.

Beggars. Begging. Words I do not like. At all. I turned around and looked at the old man holding a tin cup. It’s not cold yet but I presume there are cold nights. I shudder to think what would happen if that was my circumstance.

I do not like begging. Faeland is a prosperous fae kingdom and we didn’t have fae folks the equivalent of beggars there. Sure, there’s hierarchy but in my world, nobody needed to beg. The concept is as strange as “fast food”. How can food be fast? I remember asking Helix that and he just rolled his eyes saying ‘You’ll see’.

I sneezed. I smelled something nasty and realized there’s an open garbage bin just a few blocks from me. My nose is really sensitive much more so in this dirty city. One week. I survived 7 days in the human world. That’s a miracle already.

The house I live in is Helix’s house. It’s not fancy like I thought it would be, at first. But after a week, I guess I should be grateful. There had been a few times I challenged Helix. First few times I ran away but I didn’t know how to open the Gate to Faeland. He’d been on the porch waiting for me with that blasted chuckling of his. The human world is still somewhat scary, so I didn’t run away.

Sadly, Helix realized this too and each time I tried to challenge him, he would threaten me saying he'd throw me out the house. He wasn’t kidding. I know he’d do it, too. With my powers sealed, I have no choice but to tuck in my imaginary wings. Oh, my fae wings--

Knock, knock.

“Helix, I’m home. Open the door.” I began tapping my feet on the wooden porch.

No response. I released a deep sigh.

“Please.”

Voila. The door opened. Helix is insufferable. Very very annoying. I need to break something right about now.

“Pixie, come join me.” His voice wafted from the modest living room. He calls me “pixie” because I’m shorter than he is. I’m just vertically challenged.

I dropped my bag, shed my coat and went into the living room. It was spacious- actually, I’d use ‘bare’ in this case, but it’s all about semantics and positive thinking. So, it’s spacious.

I sat on one of the vacant chairs next to the sofa. Helix looked rather haggard today. I frowned and studied the guy.

His normally awesome hair was in disarray. I could see worry lines on his forehead and his face was in subtle concentration. Uh oh. Did I do something wrong? Did my McDonald's boss rat me out regarding my behavior? (I didn't mean to talk back to the boss, you know!) If so, I’m in a whole lot of trouble. I can’t even think of what Helix will---

“I’m leaving.” He said in his grave tone.

That got my attention.

“Pardon me?” I learned this phrase at work. I’m usually spaced out so I couldn’t concentrate on the orders. Yep. That’s me. Graceful and attentive. Great.

“I have to go. I'll be gone for a while.” He looked at me and I knew he wasn’t kidding.

“Go where?” Okay, I’m being stupid but really? Don’t tell me we’re leaving again…

As if reading my thoughts, he shook his head and said, “You’re staying here.”

I flipped out. In a berserk kind of way.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?” Oh, yes. I’m great with monosyllables. “What do you mean!?” I began my adorable chanting of fae expletives.

“Shut up right now or I’ll Silence you for a month.”

I shut up. The man just had a way with words. He does have the power to silence me…

“Now, listen to me. I have some things I need to do. It’s important. However, you are staying here and you’re going to continue working your part-time shift.”

Right. Of course. What was the purpose of working again? Ah, yes. Because he won’t give me any money: gold, or penny, or whatever it’s called here.

“Zhee. Here.”

I snap out of my thoughts.

He handed me a folder. I opened it and saw a list of papers with pictures of me. I studied my picture. My light brown eyes stared back at me. Actually, the Fae parts of me were smoothened out. My pointy ears were replaced by the sad stumpy ones. My purple eyes were changed to brown to my despair. However, my hair is kept long and braided. I’m not vain, but my hair seems to be very unique in this part of town. People asked me if I “die” my hair. My hair is fine, thank you very much. Only later did Helix explain to me the meaning of dye.

I don’t understand the things I’m looking at. Even though I have learned the English alphabet during the third day of my “survival” training. I learned the alphabet and of course, memorized the words in the dictionary. It took me a few hours but I got it. This thing called “slang” is very confusing though. I have to learn how to talk “street” according to Helix.

Anyway, back to the thing in my hand. I was baffled.

“What’s this?”

Helix was pouring himself a cup of coffee. Just black. No milk or sugar. Blegh.

“Oh, that’s your application to the high school.”, he said without turning around to face me.

“What?” I’m still confused.

“You’re going to school.”

Oh, crap.

I’m Zhee. I’m a fae princess. I was banished from my home a week ago.

And now I’m going to school.

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