MORE THAN CAPABLE | Riven

10

Chapter Ten
Rising

Musa and Luella made their way up the flight of stairs that lead to Miss Dowlings assistants office, Callum, who had also gone missing the day of the party.

Lue was lucky that the next day was the weekend, or she surely would have overslept after staying up so late.

Silva was doing better again and was back to himself. He carried on teaching lessons for specialists and was back to the strong fighter Luella looked up to.

The ice fairy wore a short red blouse while the mind fairy wore a knitted purple sweater and shorts. They continued to talk about Sam, who Musa had informed they had kissed and were on romantic terms, Lue was happy for her.

Then they entered the office, where Bloom and Aisha were already talking and eating their breakfast. Files and stationary covered the desks and shelves, crowding the space in the red-coloured room. Aisha was now taking place from Callum, to earn credibility points for school but mostly because Bloom had pleased her too.

Bloom had told her that she had a vision not long ago of a mysterious woman saying to find her, and now the fire fairy wouldn't stop searching for answers, also knowing that she was a changeling.

"Is Bloom still pretending she's not upset by the gossip?" Musa asked, detecting Bloom's emotions as she and Luella found a place to sit with their packed meals. The school had now found out that Bloom was a changeling, giving her glares when she walked past hallways. Luella wondered what they would say if they found out she was the only ice fairy.

Luella didn't see a reason to ignore Bloom too, she hadn't done anything to be treated that way. Nor was she dangerous.

"Still pretending you're not dating your roommate's brother?" Bloom rhetorically questioned back as Terra entered the room, leaving Musa unable to reply.

"Who's pretending what?" Terra asked, wearing a green vest and jumper. "Apart from Stella pretending she's not dreading being outshined by her mum all day." That had reminded Luella, the queen of Solaria, Stella's mother, that was coming to Alfea to hold an important speech which Lue guessed was about the Burned Ones since rumours had been passed around Alfea.

"You could enjoy that a little less," Luella chuckled at Terra, knowing she wasn't fond of Stella. None of the Suites was, especially after Luella found out she blinded her best friend.

The earth fairy laughed back, "could I? We'll have to see in the assembly."

Then a silence came between the Suite for a moment, the girls biting into their breakfast; Luella's consisting of mixed fruits, oats and natural yoghurt. She wiped a drop from her face as Bloom broke the silence, "you guys don't have to do this. You don't have to rearrange your breakfast plans just to... sit with me like I'm some loser mess," she spoke awkwardly laughing after as the girls eyed each other. "I'm fine. I'm gonna go, uh, finish my poison paper before the assembly. So, see you later," she said, waltzing out of the office.

"For the record," Musa said, her eyes glowing. "She's not fine." And for a second, Luella saw Musa's eyes splinter to Terras.

It reminded Luella of the video she saw, that Bloom had shown her the morning after the party. It was from Beatrix's story, where she, Riven and the dark-skinned boy she had seen at the party, Dane, she had come to know. They had mocked Terra, and Luella felt horrible for Terra even if the trio were high.

She hadn't talked to the earth fairy about it, partially because she didn't want to embarrass Terra about it more.

After the suite had finished eating, all the girls stood up from their places, throwing their rubbish on the way out before walking down the steps to the cafeteria. The girls were left chatting amongst each other as they made it to the main hall, where the assembly was meant to be held.