Free How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier Page A

I’d answered al the questions but had barely made word- count. I fel into bed bone- tired, brain-tired, fairy- tired, and sister- guilty.
    Microseconds later my alarm went off: six a.m. I pried my eyes open with my fingers; they were glued shut with sleep. If the gunk in the corners of my eyes was bad fairy aura, then I was in for a vastly horrendous day. I roled out of bed and into the shower before I realized I hadn’t taken my pajamas off. I’d worked off three demerits last night at public service.
    It was not enough.

CHAPTER 13
Steffi
    Days walking: 63
    Demerits: 5
    Conversations with Steffi: 7
    Doos clothing acquired: 0
    Game suspensions: 1
    Public service hours: 3
    Hours spent enduring Fiorenze
    Stupid-Name’s company: 2.75
    S teffi was outside, sitting on my front steps, bouncing coins off the back of his hand as if they were jacks. I shut the front door behind me, my heart beating ridiculously fast. He pocketed the coins and stood up.
    “Heya, Charlie. Okay if I walk to school with you?”
    “Sure. Is something up? Where’s Fiorenze?”
    “Oh,” he said, looking almost embarrassed, “we sort of broke up.”

    “Realy?” I asked, having to dig my fingernails into my palms to keep from screaming with joy.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “How about that?” I said, trying to think of something less torpid to say. I was smiling so big my cheeks were beginning to hurt, but Steffi was here, at my house.
    “Shouldn’t we get going?”
    I looked at my watch. I was running late. “Yup. Sorry. Didn’t get a lot of sleep.” I wondered why he hadn’t rung the doorbel to hurry me up.
    Steffi slipped his backpack over both arms, jumped down the steps, and did three forward handsprings, then two backward, before landing on his feet with a big grin.
    “Show- off,” I said, cartwheeling across the lawn.
    We smacked palms. Steffi shook out his arms. “That felt briliant.”
    I grinned. It did. “Run to school?”
    “You’re on,” he said, taking off.
    I caught up with him at the lights. “Took your time,” he said.
    “Yeah, yeah. I’m not awake yet.” I brought my foot up behind me to stretch out my quads. Steffi did the same.
    “You know what I like best about school?” Steffi asked.
    “There’s something you like about school?” I asked, switching legs. “I thought it was al too weird for you.”
    “I love that everyone’s into sports, that no one even talks about loving it ‘cause it’s too obvious. It’s the air we breathe.” He took in a deep breath.”At my old school there weren’t that many sports types.”
    I hadn’t realized he’d gone to a mixed school. In New Avalon mixed schools were only for the untalented. The light changed and we bolted across the street. His legs were longer than mine—whose aren’t?—but my fasttwitch muscles are not too shabby. I passed him in the middle of the block.
    “Hey!” he shouted. “It’s not a race!”
    “Yes it is,” I shouted over my shoulder and sped up. This time it was him catching me at the light.
    “You’re fast,” he said, breathing hard. We both were. I felt a trickle of sweat run down my back.
    “Yup.”
    “Wanna keep pace the rest of the way?” he asked. “That way we could, you know, talk.”
    I grinned. The light changed and we jogged across together.
    “It’s hard to believe that al those things are realy against the rules.”
    “You mean the infractions list?”
    “Yeah,” Steffi said. “Why does the school need to be so crazy strict?”

    “Because it’s a sports school, Steffi. Sports are al about rules. If you can’t folow rules, you can’t play sports. Discipline is the most important thing an athlete can learn, no matter what sport they play.”
    “Wow,” Steffi said. “Do they make you learn that by heart?”
    “Huh?” I said. Why did he always say such weird things? “No.
    It’s just true. I like rules. They’re why sports make sense. You don’t have to guess what you’re supposed to do, you just