Senara at School

Hi everyone. This is Bree. Sorry it's been so long since we posted. Things were pretty busy for Blakeney at work, and then she got sick with a bad cold, so no one really had a chance or the motivation to do computer stuff. Blakeney is feeling better now (although still coughing enough to tempt us to spray her with Lysol,) but then we had another difficulty... we lost our blog password and couldn't remember it.

No problem, right? Just click the lost password link, and have it sent? It didn't turn out to be quite that easy, though, because Blakeney has a backup e-mail address set as the default for the blog, so her primary account doesn't get so cluttered with blog related messages - and no one could remember the e-mail password, either! :-P

We finally got it all sorted, though, so we're back in business. :-)

A few news updates to share:

Kaya, Fiona, Marie-Grace, and Cécile found out their casting for their spring ballet stuff. Every spring, their dance school does three performances - a recital that all the students are in, a story ballet for the more mature dancers, and a gala performance where the very best in the school get to dance with some professional dancers who come in from out of province for the event. All four girls got parts in the recital and the story ballet - and Kaya even got cast in the gala! Go her! Kaya will be performing ballet and modern. Those four girls are planning to blog soon about their upcoming dance adventures, so I don't want to steal their thunder by spilling too much, but we're all very excited for them!

Also, we have some werewolf news. Sunday, the 6th of May - the day it was before we hit midnight, which has now come and gone - was the official full moon for the month. Gia transformed into her wolf self then, and Saturday night too. We expect that she will turn tomorrow also, because her general pattern so far seems to be that she turns the day of the maximum full moon, and one day before and after.

But... but... our werewolf hunting for the wolf that bit her was also semi successful. We didn't figure out who it was, and we lost the trail before we figured out where he or she lives (we weren't close enough to even tell if the wolf was male or female,) but we did snap a picture, and comparing it to GiaWolf, we're sure it was the other werewolf.

We took the picture on Tuesday, May 1st.

I know what you're thinking. Not a a full moon. Not even close. Gia wasn't even feeling the itchy twitching yet that tells her it's getting to be time to change, and the other wolf was in full wolf form. So what's going on? Is the other one a different kind of werewolf?

We don't know. It's all just speculation at this point, and even sightings of it are few and far between, so it's hard to figure anything out about that werewolf. It's not like Gia, where we can observe day to day how she adjusts and reacts to things. Speaking of adjusting and reacting, Gia is getting a lot more used to what she is. The shock has worn off. (As, I think, has her initial assumption that werewolves must all be monsters or animals.) This month, she seemed very confident about transforming, and she admitted today that her wolf form is starting to feel as natural as her human one. That's good, I think, since she can't change being a werewolf, so it seems the most healthy for her to accept it rather than fighting it.

There's one other big piece of news, and that's about Senara. Because we're supposed to be teaching her about humanity (which we aren't exactly experts at ourselves, but beggars can't be choosers,) and human kids are required by law in Canada to go to school, we thought it was important for her to try it out if she really wanted to know how we live.

It was just sort of a process of elimination to decide whose class she should join, since we thought it would be easier for her if she was with someone she knew. Senara isn't sure of her exact age because the fair folk don't keep track of those things in the same ways that we do. She looks like she's between fourteen and sixteen or so, though, and that's what the school officials will perceive her as. Fortunately we don't need to worry about paperwork since she isn't staying permanently; we just introduced her as a visiting relative rather than registering her, and that was fine.

Felicity and Josefina go to a French immersion school, and Senara doesn't know French - she's not really here to learn a foreign language, she's here to learn about social stuff, so that school didn't seem like the best place for her because she'd miss so much not understanding what people were saying. Clare is home schooled, which works great for Clare but kind of defeats the purpose of Senara spending time with kids her own age all day. That leaves Kirsten and me as potential company. Kirsten is fiercely competitive and not very patient, so in the name of family harmony we all decided that I would be Senara's escort at school.

So far, it's going well. I think Senara is liking it. It was strange to see her in normal clothes instead of the green robe we're used to, but she wanted to fit in with humans rather than looking like one of the fairy folk. She's quiet at school, and she's made some acquaintances... but she's struggling to make close friends because although she's very interested in other people, she shares almost nothing about herself. Not even with us, and she's living with us, let alone with kids she meets at school. It seems like people aren't quite sure what to make of how tight-lipped she is.

I don't think it's just fear that she'll spill something about her real identity - because we already know she's not human, and she barely tells us more than she tells anyone else. I think there's another secret she doesn't want anyone to know.

We still doesn't know what that secret is. We've gotten two hints, though - one of which is really worrisome.

The first day of school, someone asked Senara how long she's staying. To my surprise, because she's never told us that... she answered. She said, "I'll be gone on Midsummer's Night." Later, I looked up when that would be. I think she means the Summer Solstice, which will be June 20th. I was kind of surprised that she was being that specific. I assumed she didn't know either. Interesting, but I'm not sure what to make of it.

The other thing was the scary thing, and it happened on Friday afternoon at school. Senara and I were partnered up in English class for an essay we were writing about what we want to do when we grow up. I said my career goals - I'd like to be a counselor or a librarian, and a writer too. Senara said that sounded good, but didn't reply with her own, so I asked outright, and she looked at me like I was crazy.

"I'm not going to be around long enough to have career goals," Senara said patiently, like she was talking to a small child.

"Well, yeah, I know you won't be here," I replied, speaking very quietly so the other students wouldn't overhear, but they were all distracted with their own group work. "But you're going to have a... fairy-type career, right? Like dancing or making stone circles or collecting flowers? Or maybe creating mysterious bargains or bestowing horrible curses or eating people, if that's more your speed?"

Senara shook her head. "I'm not going to last that long, Bree. I won't have any kind of career."

Huge alarm bells were ringing in my head. Was this some kind of suicide thing? But no... she sounded regretful and sad about that, like she wished it was different, not like she was depressed and had given up. No, I thought - she must be in danger. Serious danger, if she thinks she's going to die.

I've tried to ask her more about it dozens of times since, but she won't say anything. She's even more clammed up than before. I think she said too much, because she thought I already knew, but it was a total shock to me. Now that I've tipped my hand that I have no idea, she's not talking. We're really worried, but I don't know what to do or how to help.

So... good and bad news. Positive and negative things. Happy and scary. That's life, I guess!

Love,
Bree