Meet Your Roommate

Just then, the door to your room opens and a guy your age walks in wheeling a suitcase behind him, followed by his parents, you assume, carrying boxes.

"Hey, I'm Mike," he says, and you two shake hands. You offer to help him carry his stuff in from his family's car, and it's not until after he's had his tearful goodbye scene and has started unpacking that the two of you get to talking.

"So where are you from?" Mike asks.

"You've probably never heard of it," you say, and tell him the name of your hometown. "It's about two hours from here."

He grins and says, "Yeah, you're right -- I haven't heard of it. Don't watch the farm report." He points to something behind you and asks, "Is that your school yearbook?"

You say, "Uh, yeah," and hand it to him. He flips through and remarks, "Wow, not too many 'enhanced' girls. I don't think I see any."

True, you realize -- Stacey got her magic boob job near the end of the year, after the yearbook was at the printer. Mike rummages through a box and pulls out a yearbook of his own. "I'm from Winnetka, Illinois," he says. "It's north of Chicago, right on the lake."

He flips through it and starts pointing out the highlights to you. "This is Maggie West -- she got those boobs for her 16th birthday....Angela Pettit -- she showed up at the beginning of junior year with her eyes that color, and they're practically hypnotizing in person....Kim Wu -- she was cursed by someone a couple years ago, and the most visible effect is that hair, but she's grown to like being a natural pink-head..."

He turns to a group picture of the cheerleading team, and you gasp and hold out your hand. You can't help but notice the two members who are about a foot taller than everyone else and sporting golden skin, golden hair, translucent wings, and giant spherical breasts that are very apparent as their uniforms cling to them -- "V-Valkyries!" you stutter. "There were Fae at your high school?"

"Yeah, sure," says Mike. "In addition to Melania and Gyletta here, we had a few fairies and elves, a couple of pixies, a brownie, and a satyr."

"No shit," you say.

"Yeah," he says. He starts leafing through the yearbook, and you ask, "So did you ever..." You don't quite know how to phrase it -- you just met the guy, and you've heard that sometimes human-Fae relationships can get weird (okay, maybe more than just sometimes). But he just snaps the yearbook shut and puts it down on his desk, grins again, and starts rummaging through another box. "Let me show you something, if I can find it."