The Fox’s Tale

Fortunately no one said anything in the locker room either, although I felt like some of them were up to something based on their covert whispering.

Ellery waited for me outside of the locker room so we could walk into practice together. We had just about reached the doors of the gym when Matt called out.

“Hey, Ellery? Can we talk to you for a bit before practice?” Matt was shifting from foot to foot, and looked nervous.

Ellery looked at me in confusion and I shook my head. I had no idea what this was about. “Um, okay Matt. What’s going on?”

“We, that is, Lee, Nick, Scott, Grant, and I wanted to do something nice for you after everything you did for us on Friday.”

“Matthew, you didn’t need to do anything. As for what happened Friday, as I understand it, you all did just as much getting me out of that godforsaken school.”

“Yeah but…”

“Ellery, just let us give this to you okay?” Lee shook his head at her. “You’re so stubborn.”

Scott, Nick, and Grant produced a giant white basket crammed full of stuff from behind them. It was lined with royal blue toile fabric and sported a green velvet bow.

When Ellery saw the basket her mouth fell open and for a moment I thought she might cry. She looked from the basket up at the guys with a glint of mischief shining in her eyes.

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you all figured out I’m a Fae, would it?”

“What? No…it has nothing to do with that….” Matt looked away from Ellery’s piercing gaze.

“Can’t we do something nice for you after all you’ve done for us?” asked Scott as he ruffled his own hair.

Ellery turned her attention to Nick and that’s all it took for him to crack.

“It was Lee’s idea!” he yelped, moving behind Lee slightly.

“Shut up, Nick!” barked Lee.

“Please don’t turn us into statues or something Ellery; we just wanted to be nice.” Grant looked like he might throw up.

“Why would I want to turn you into statues? Have you done something to upset me?” Ellery tried to keep a straight face, but failed, bursting into laughter. “Alexander upset me loads and I never did anything to him. We aren’t as petty as legends would have you believe. Well, at least I’m not.”

She looked back down at the basket. “Thank you. This is so sweet and none of the other teams ever did anything like this for me.” Something in the basket caught her eye and her demeanor changed. “Alexander,” she whimpered, pointing at the offending item.

“What? What is it?” I looked where she was pointing and saw a small jar of honey. “Oh hell no.” I pulled it out of the basket and ran into the gym. I handed it over to Coach Murphy. “Hide this will you?”

He did a double take over the jar. “They gave her honey? That’s fucking dangerous.”

I rubbed my lips in remembrance. “Tell me about it.”

He burst into laughter as I jogged back to Ellery. “It’s okay, Elly, it’s gone now; you can breathe.”

Lee was scowling at Matt who asked, “aren’t the Fae supposed to like honey?”

“We do it’s just….well, it makes us do crazy things,” explained Ellery.

“Things you do not want to experience,” I added.

“Yeah, we do not want details of your sex life.” Scott spoke for the group and I scowled at all of them.

“I wasn’t planning on divulging any details.” I turned my attention to the contents of the basket. I saw a box of truffles, a bag of salted caramels, a box of Turkish Delight, a jar of clotted cream, another jar with raspberry jam, a bottle of rose water, a lavender sleep mask, and vanilla scented lotion.

The last item I saw caused me to freak. “Lollipops? Really guys?”

“We thought she should have one for the game against Cumberland.” Lee shrugged when I caught his eye. “It’s like the world’s best fuck you.”

“Wait, we’re playing the team from the lollipop incident?” I gasped.

“Twice. They’re back in our conference.” Nick shrugged.

I looked back at the lollipops. “The same coach?”

Matt nodded. “And his punk ass son. I hate Levi and Derrick Monroe so much. They're both absolute fuckwads.”

“I’m keeping these.” I snatched the bouquet of lollipops out of the basket. “You are not to be trusted.”

“Dude, where can you possibly hide them? You’re living with her!”

“For fuck’s sake Nick, not so loud. That’s not public knowledge.” I looked around to see if anyone else heard, but we’d lucked out.

Ellery made a grasping motion with her right hand and one of the lollipops appeared in it.

“Ellery…” I shook my head at her in warning.

“Cumberland in the first home conference game after winter break and I’ll need to practice. The Monroes need to realize that the way they behave isn't something I will tolerate.” She began to unwrap the lollipop and all of us stiffened.

“Goddess, what have we done?” whispered Scott.

“Princess, you really don’t. Let me have it.” Damn if she didn’t look me dead in the eyes and stick that lollipop in her mouth. She worked it in her mouth with her hand while watching all of us for our reactions before pulling it out with a pop.

“Thank you again for my gift basket. I love it.” She took it out of their hands and walked away swinging the basket in one hand as she returned the lollipop to her mouth. She stopped and looked back over her shoulder, and made another popping sound with the lollipop.

“Are you just going to stand there? You’ve got practice.”