The Girl with an Owl

Chapter 31

"Your punishment will be learning what hard work and dedication are. How to take responsibility for your actions instead of blaming others. You will have to clean the oceans." Bob said.
"But father, our oceans are pristine. They will have nothing to do." Orla said.
"Oh, my dear child, I didn't say OUR oceans." He said.

That made Orla very pleased, and she could barely control the giggle that threatened to come out because she already seemed to have an idea what her father meant exactly.
Everyone knew that the oceans on Ajana's Earth, the human oceans, were the dirtiest in existence and Orla had a feeling those were the ones her father had in mind.
"Kieran and Ajana would have their hands full trying to clean up THOSE oceans." Orla thought satisfied with their punishment.

To anyone else, it mightn't have sounded cruel, but Orla knew her father well enough to understand that was the farthest he would go to subtly exhaust and cause pain to the offenders.
Punishment for speaking ill of Orla was always severe and swift which made Orla very happy. She was overjoyed to see that her dear daddy still stood true in his belief of having a perfect little daughter.

"Ajana, you and Kieran will be cleaning the oceans of your precious Earth," Bob said.
Kieran didn't seem to understand the severity of the situation since he hadn't reacted in any way while everything was planned out for them.
Ajana was able to finally comprehend how severe their punishment truly was.
She could still clearly remember how dirty the oceans back home could be.

There was plastic floating all around and other remnants of human carelessness that were innumerable.
From the littered beaches to the poisoned seas, she had no idea what would be more difficult to clean up.
At least she found some comfort in the fact that they would be helping her home world to become a better, cleaner world.
Soon enough her dreams were crushed by the principal.

"Of course, all of these will be just magical representations of the real situation and not the actual Earth.
Even I wouldn't be as cruel as that. I would never send anyone to that filthy and vile little world.
Besides, we don't want to disturb the natural balance of things there, do we now?" He said.

While saying all those bad things about Ajana's world, he maintained eye contact with her as if daring her to contradict him.
He wanted her to know that he despised her and the world she came from even more than the elves, but he couldn't say that, so he was satisfied with only saying that much about the subject.

Ajana couldn't really understand why that man whom she barely knew would set out to make her existence more difficult.
There was something about Orla and her father that she was missing, and she had no idea what it could be.
For the time being, Ajana's focus was on what they would have to clean up and how awful it could be.

She had seen in her time many ways people polluted the environment, beer cans were thrown haphazardly on the beach as well as cigarette buds but also so many more things that were even more disgusting.
One time, she even saw pieces of diapers as well as some unmentionables that she wasn't even sure how she would even begin to explain floating around in the water.

With nothing but a sneering comment, Bob dismissed them with the warning that they would start the next day after school and that if they didn't show up there would be dire consequences.
It was obvious to Ajana that those consequences would be far worse for Kieran because no matter how much they hated humans the elves seemed, for the time being, to be more popular scapegoats for everything that went wrong... anywhere in all the existing worlds.

When they were safely away from the principal's office, Ajana could see a genuine smile, a small one, but still a smile, forming on Kieran's face.
"You didn't need to do that, you know? But I am so glad you did.
The expression on her face, when her powers hit the shield was worth any punishment, just to see that mean girl scared." Kieran said.
Ajana was surprised by his comment since that wasn't exactly how she saw the situation.

"Do you really think she was scared? I thought she was just surprised." She said.
"Trust me, I know fear and that was most definitely fear. You see, people like her, the bullies, are in their essence cowards.
They choose people who they deem weak or unable to defend themselves and attack.
That is why she was so scared, she didn't expect you to defend yourself, and she especially didn't expect you to defend me. Also, the amount of power you displayed was intimidating, she couldn't understand how someone new to magic could do it."Kieran said.

"I wanted to ask you about that. Why didn't you defend yourself? Is there something in the deal you made that is preventing you to do so?"Ajana asked.
She was pretty sure that it was an invasion of his privacy, but she needed to know and decided it would be okay to take advantage of his good mood.
His face turned into a mask of indifference but there was pain coming through the cracks in his mask.
It was obvious that he tried to play down his emotions but that he was deeply hurt and angry about the rules of the deal he had to make.

"Yes, there are many stipulations to my deal, but one of the most prominent ones is no magic use outside school work." He said.
"Not even to defend yourself?" She asked.
"No exceptions." He said grimly.
"That's not fair." Ajana murmured quietly.

"I don't think it is in their rule books to be fair to elves. Usually, it's not a problem but you saved me out there.
I was about to throw that obnoxious girl to the sky and that would have led not only to my expulsion but to a possible war, to my failure in getting help. It would just cause a lot more trouble. So, thank you. And I deeply apologize for being rude to you before. You are definitely different from what I expected." Kieran said.

"From a human?" She asked.
"From someone who goes to this school." He answered.
After saying that, he started moving away from him without saying anything else.

"See you tomorrow. Why yes, of course, have a nice day. You too, Ajana."Ajana mumbled under her voice.
Before she had the chance to do or say anything else, Bluebells came running towards her.

"Wow, did you really get in trouble on your second day of school?! You must be much tougher than I thought!" He said cheerfully.
"I didn't do anything wrong. I was just trying to protect Kieran." She said.
"The broody-elf-guy?" He asked.
"Yes. Why didn't you tell me Orla was the principal's daughter?" She said changing the subject.

"Believe it or not I forgot. I never spent much time with her father, so I even managed to forget his name. Contrary to what you may think, just because I grew up here doesn't mean I know everything." Bluebells said.
Ajana had a feeling that he wasn't being completely honest, but didn't insist on it since she trusted him enough to let that go.

"I have detention from tomorrow." She said instead.
"Ouch, that's too bad. I wanted to show you around, to show you some of my favorite places, but I guess there will be time for that later." Bluebells said.
"Yeah, I guess so, if your friend Orla doesn't get me in even more trouble," Ajana said.

Although it was obvious she was petty, Bluebells didn't respond in any way to her comment. He was smart enough to know when he shouldn't respond.

"Well, anyway I have to go. My friends are waiting for me to go to the flying range. See you tomorrow?" Bluebells said.
"Yes, see you. Have fun." Ajana said trying to make it up to the happy little guy for being so snappy.

As she started towards the place where she met Wallace the last time she tried to think of what she would say, what explanation she would give for failing the test, for getting into trouble.
"Will he be disappointed in me? Will he be sad?"Ajana thought.