2(NOTE I am perfectly aware that Sue uses weird words, and will inform you now that she is supposed to.)
Part 1
The girl turned, but no one was following her.
She turned again two minutes later, but again saw no one.
She could have sworn she heard footsteps behind her, but when she turned, no one was there.
She got, finally, to the only bus stop on Independence Rd, where the bus had not yet arrived.
"These pins are naught but a nuisance" she said, pulling one out of her brown curls and re-securing it.
"Sue" someone called out.
She turned quickly, two more pins popping out of her hair.
A girl with orange tresses pulled back in a ponytail came towards her.
"Pins giving you trouble again?" She was grinning from ear to ear.
Sue frowned at her, re-securing her thick brown hair once more.
There was a honk from a car horn. The bus had arrived.
"Bill!" The bus driver smiled as the girls raced up the stairs and another pin popped out of Sue's hair.
Bill just laughed.
Sue rolled her eyes.
They sat down in the back of the bus. The 10 minute trip to school seemed to take hours.
Anne, as usual, chattered away, but Sue was unusually quiet.
Anne didn't notice.
"I suppose Jo will be worrying about nothing but that English test. Don't you think?"
"What? Oh, yes, in all probability. I personally imagine it will be exceedingly unproblematic."
"Yeah, yeah, I imagine it will be 'exceedingly unproblematic' as well." She joked, and received another frown from Sue.
"I can't believe it! I forgot all about the English test today! Oh no, it's going to be so hard! The teacher even said so! I'm going to get, like, a C on it! My parents will ground me forever!"
"I do not assume you may possibly endeavor to be more tranquil?"
"Yep. Sue imagines the test will be exceedingly unproblematic."
"Huh?"
Anne laughed.
"That means calm down, and Sue thinks the test will be very easy."
Jo went wild again. "Easy for you to say! You're actually good at all that stuff!"
"No, we just listen and pay attention to the teacher."
Jo just shook her head and looked at her watch. "They're letting us in now."
At lunch, Anne and Sue both got notes from their mothers.
They were identical.
"Don't ride the bus home. Go to Josephine's. I'll pick you up 6 o'clock tomorrow."
"I can't accept it as true! We are required to run the mile AGAIN!"
Anne looked up. "But didn't we already run the mile this week?"
"Precisely!"
Anne sighed. "And on a Friday, too!"
"Ha!" Jo whooped. "We didn't run the mile at all this week!"
"Lucky!"
Sue was limping slightly. She had sprained her ankle while running.
She stopped suddenly.
"Sue?"
"What is it?"
She looked up. "Zilch. I merely believed I saw... Sorry, By no means be concerned."
It began to rain.
"Run!" Jo shouted, laughing.
They ran into the woods, the trees at least would keep some of the heavy drops off them.
Anne stopped, gazing in awe in front of her.
Jo saw it too, and stared.
Sue, following last with her limp, whispered, "Genuinely? Be it, if truth be told, authentic?"
The faerie.
The magnificent creature bathed in shimmering orange light flitted around the bushes, then flapped its wings and fluttered away.
Jo fumbled with the keys and unlocked the door.
Once inside, Anne could not contain her excitement any longer.
"I knew it!" she cried. "I knew it!"
"Knew what?"
"I knew it!" she said again, then dropped her voice to a confidential whisper. "But we cannot discuss it here," she gestured towards the windows. "Someone might hear."
In Jo's room she locked the door and refused to speak until they pulled down the shades.
"Okay, listen. I did some research once, about your house, and it was said by many sources to be the meeting place of faeries." Sue opened her mouth to say something. "No, no, don't interrupt. There is sufficient evidence. People have disappeared and never been found, though the neighbors said they never left." She shuddered. "What's today's date?"
"April 13th"
Anne glanced at the calendar. "Every one of the disappearances happened on the thirteenth of a month, a Friday, and a full moon."
Sue gasped. "Today!"
"I think it's a load of codswallop." Jo said and pulled up the shades.
And found a magnitude of faeries staring at her.
Anne smiled at the look of surprise on Jo's face.
Sue looked absolutely terrified. "But where did they all go? What happened to them?"
"No one knows. Some people managed to jot down a few hasty notes before they left about the faeries, and that," she motioned towards the window, "is exactly what they looked like. But of course, they didn't know the moment they saw the faeries where they were going, so they couldn't write it down." She sighed.
There was a silence. Then Sue spoke up again.
"These people... the ones who disappeared... were they... well... adults?" She seemed to have trouble getting the words out.
"No. They were all children."