Puck Off! (A Teen Fairy Tale)

A Teen Fairy Tale

Sixteen-year-old May Greenwood's life is like anyone else's--hanging out with her best friend Tania, propping up the ego of her famous comic book artist dad, avoiding the man-eating plants growing in the gym--the usual. But she can't shake the feeling that something's not quite right with the world.

Everything changes the day her massive crush, football team vice captain Mac Ramsay, kisses her and, out of nowhere, declares his eternal love.

Is Ramsay's devotion a ploy to get back at Tania for breaking up with school golden boy Ron "The Bear" Ober?

But May's world takes a turn for the strange when a mysterious transfer student that Ramsay's in love with her because of a magic spell. Ron and Tania are really the King and Queen of the fairies, straight out of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and have come to the mortal realm because they're at war. Over May.

Now May, with the help of the love-struck Ramsay, is the only one who can restore order to the fairy courts before her entire school is destroyed in the crossfire.

***Excerpt***

Because of my irritation, I barely let him get the words out before I snapped back. I never thought, at the moment, that chess master Ramsay knew the problem exactly. "In case you haven't noticed, Tania and Ron are fighting. If I start going out with Ron's best friend, she'll be pissed."

The silence stretched out. With each passing heartbeat, I calmed. But why didn’t I just hang up? I knew I should hang up.

With anyone else, I might have.

"What?" I finally asked.

"So." His voice sounded quiet and gentle in my ear. That should have been a big warning that I was slipping neatly into his trap. But I could be an idiot, especially around him. "That's what you're worried about?"

"I don't want my best friend mad at me. Would you?"

He made a thoughtful hmmm sound. "That would be terrible," he agreed. "So that's why you can't go out with me? Because Tania would get mad. I think I understand."

"Yes. Exactly. Right." The hairs on the nape of my neck tricked up, a signal something was wrong with this conversation.

I heard him breathing over the line. Without me controlling them, my own breaths began to line up with his.

I felt his smile through the connection. "So you do like me, then. And you do want to go out with me. If the only problem is Tania."

A sound came out of my throat. It sounded a bit like "Erp."

"Erp," he agreed, actually saying it like it was a word. "Don't be embarrassed, just go out with me."

I'd made mistake number three without knowing. Ramsay had lured me right into it, laying an efficient trap to make me admit the only reason I said no to him was because of Tania's feelings, not my own. Now he knew I liked him. Or at least didn't hate him.

I had to admire him for it, even as it freaked me out, made my cheeks burn.

"Can't," I said, quickly. Lamely. "Too busy."

"May, I don't know what's up with you, but I'm going to convince you," he promised. "You might as well give in, because you don't have a hope of getting away from me."