The Diary of Fitz Vacker

2. The Search

He told me everything about the Black Swan, Prentice, Quinlin, and Project Moonlark. I learned that they had the DNA of the girl, and she'd be 9 in human years, and 10 by our standards. We count age by our inception date, not our birth date. Maybe, if we found her, she'd be friends with Biana since she'd be a huge mystery to the elven world, and our family would be the ones to find her, and Biana is the same age as the girl Because of our indefinite lifespan, we don't celebrate birthdays, either. I would have a hard time remembering that humans don't know about us, special abilities, or anything really. I was so curious about humans that I stole a souvenir from each place I searched for Project Moonlark. I don't know what any of the stuff does, though. I could ask my father, but then I would have to tell him that I stole from the Forbidden Cities while searching for something that breaks more laws than have been written here. A few times, I thought I had her. They had blue eyes, were smarter than all the other humans I had observed, and they were pretty enough to be elves. Every time, I noticed things about them that elves couldn't have. They treated others as if they were better, just because they had enhanced intelligence or better looks. I could always hear their thoughts without even trying, which is only possible around humans. I took Dad's list and saw that Alvar had gotten about half of the girls done. 3 years later, there was about 25% of the list left when I saw the name "Sophie Elizabeth Foster", age 12. There was a newspaper clipping about her, including a picture from what looked like a school picture. She had hair that went just below the shoulders, and her face was bland and embarrassed, as if she didn't want the photo taken. I read the article and I realized that she was in "high school' whatever that is. When I asked my father what that was, he described it as the Elite Levels at Foxfire. He said that because she was only 12, she had to be an extremely smart "human" and she was near an area of recent elvin activity, possibly by the Black Swan, trying to get us to find the girl. He said that I was going to go to San Francisco, a Forbidden City, as soon as Foxfire ended. I was in my 3rd year at Foxfire, and I had my best friend, Keefe Sencen coming over later that day. I told Dad, and he said that he'd distract Keefe long enough that I'd be able to get back in time. At school, Keefe cancelled though, saying that his father, Lord Cassius, and his mother, Lady Gisela wanted him home. His parents have absurd expectations for Keefe. I used to pity him, but since Keefe had manifested as an Empath, shot down any pity I had for him. I was slightly relieved, without me home, I was afraid Biana would get to Keefe. She has an absurd crush on him, which I never realized until Keefe pointed it out. He'd never like her though, I think he sees his mother in her, with Biana's immaculate appearance, and always pretending that everything about her is perfect. Today would be the perfect day to sneak away, Biana would be hanging out with her bratty friend Maruca, Mom and Dad would be at home, but Mom had no idea what was going on and thought I would be at a different friend's house. I took Dad's pathfinder, stashed it inside of my bag, and went to school. I know this is wrong, but I liked being Wonderboy. The boys all wanted to hang out with me, and the girls never annoyed me. The teachers all liked me, thought I was always ahead. Dame Alina, Foxfire's leader, tried to stop my father's wedding with my mother because she was in love with him. She would do whatever she could not to see him, and he'd do the same for her. I got through the school day, met up with Biana, she said she was going home. That worried me, but I already told Dad I would scope out the girl. I went to her school, and found out her class had gone to a museum. I made it seem as if I was in her class and was late, and told the front desk I'd run to the Museum. They told me where it was, and I sprinted, not wanting to draw too much attention to myself. I had changed into human clothes, but someone could still stare at me. I made it to the museum, paid with the human money Dad had given me. I gave him to bills that were green rectangles and had symbols that looked like this "$100". They had human writing on them, but my English reading capabilities only go so far. My English speaking skills, however, I am quite proud of. Both Dad and Alvar say I have a crisp British accent when speaking English, just like them, but I have only been to England once looking for the girl, and I was too nervous to focus on how they spoke. Dad tried to teach me the other languages, but we were all disappointed to find out that English and the Enlightened Language were all that I was capable of holding on to. I went into the museum, but when I paid the man just stared at me and pocketed one of the green papers. He tried to hand me a variety of more green papers that had "$1", "$5", and "$20", with these circular metal things that Dex later told me were called coins. I said "No thanks, Sir", because I didn't need any of the money, Dad had tons of human money, not just the green papers, but the money of England, something called Europe, which I thought England was part of, but dad said that was different. There was also the currency of India, Russia, South Korea, and all of the places Alvar and I had searched. After I entered the museum, I heard the man's thoughts grow suspicious due to the money I had given him. I turned to him and said "Sorry sir, but the money is from the school's field trip. I had to go back to the school and get my class's money. The lady at the office said to give it to you, and you'd know what to do with it." The man's thoughts grew less suspicious, as he processed what I said. I told him I had to find my class, and I walked away, feeling a mix of relief and embarrassment. I told myself that Alvar would never have made the mistake, though I was still confused on what I had done to make the man suspicious. I gave the man the money to get in, just as Dad said I should. I decided that since I smoothed it over, there was no need to worry. I sounded like my father when I said that, which surprised me. Alvar was most like my dad, Biana was just like my mother, and I was a mix of both. I found the girl by looking at the newspaper clipping and then looking around. She was in the back of her group, easily the smallest there. The other kids were around 2 years older than me, making them 4 human years older than her. Both Dad and I had a gut instinct about this girl, I thought we had to be close since we were almost done with the list. To me, I thought Dad was hiding something from me, since he seemed sure this was the girl. Usually, I had a few days to prepare for the girl, but this time, Dad sent me off in less than 24 hours. Biana was getting suspicious, Keefe was coming over less, but that was because his parents were getting worse. She thought I was trying to lose Keefe and get new friends, which, being a Vacker, I could have easily done. She wanted me to keep Keefe, because of her silly little crush. I wanted to keep him, too. He has been my best friend, since our 2nd year. I was a Vacker, but I would miss school all the time to search for the girl, and Keefe was a year younger than everyone else, and had skipped 1st year. Nobody knew what to make of us, and I had been leaning towards Keefe for a while now. We sat together at lunch often, but never really spoke. After the first midterms, his true side showed. He was always laughing, making jokes, and getting into trouble. We became friends really fast after that. Dad tried to nudge me towards him once, but I never really found out why. At the museum, the girl was dressed in neutral clothes, as if trying to hide from everyone. Based on her class's thoughts, they all hated her, but I combed through a few of their minds and found that she never really did anything to deserve that. Her teacher was baffled by her, and didn't like that she was smarter than him. I couldn't hear her thoughts, though. If she was an elf, I should have been able to hear her thoughts if I tried, but I couldn't. Her class started to move, and for some reason, I approached her.