Winx Club - Eternal Spark

Chapter 2: The man on the pictures

"Who is Hagen?" Bloom implored Tecna.

Tecna's pencil slipped on her notebook as she tensed in place. This was now the fourth time Bloom had asked her the question since the class had started...fifteen minutes ago. She turned to face Bloom, visibly annoyed.

"Not now, Bloom!" She whispered in a slightly aggressive tone. "I told you I'd tell you as soon as we're done with class. Now stop shouting his name and focus on the class!"

Bloom frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. If Tecna thought she could ever concentrate on class after the bomb she dropped on them, then she was not as smart as she seemed. The night before, she had brought up Hagen only to back out two seconds later, claiming that they were too tired to discuss it and should go to sleep. As a result, Bloom had spent the entire night searching the Internet for any information on the man, but had found nothing.

The young girl started chewing on her pencil. Seeing as Tecna didn't seem to give in, she sighed in annoyance before glancing at the whiteboard in an attempt to regain her focus on the lesson Professor Palladium was giving, but she couldn't concentrate for more than two seconds, her mind always going back to Hagen. Anyway. She knew Palladium's wacky potions like the back of her hand. It didn't take a genius to mix two liquids in a test tube, even her rabbit could do it. She wasn't really missing out on anything. As Palladium was happily pouring a sparkling greenish liquid into a test tube, he suddenly stopped and started looking at Bloom with a riled expression on his face. He stared at her, his face red as if it was on the verge of explosion. Bloom awkwardly avoided his gaze, feeling a little uneasy with the sudden staring.

He couldn't possibly...

She finally dared to look at him and gave him a puzzled look. The Teacher looked at her disapprovingly before finally getting back to his test tubes. Bloom stared at him with her mouth open. There was no doubting it, Palladium had just read her mind. She wasn't sure how things worked in the Magical Realm, but she was sure that this would have been illegal on Earth.

"I didn't read your mind because I wanted to, Bloom," Palladium harshly interjected without even turning to look at her, making her jump in surprise. "It seems your emotional state is in such turmoil that it has caused a breach in your mental barrier, exposing your thoughts for all to see... I just happened to be the only one capable of hearing it. It's a phenomenon I intend to tell you about in a future lesson."

She was stunned. She curled up in her seat, trying to make herself as small as humanly possible. Never before had she felt such a strong need to disappear as she did at this very moment, and she had been through some very embarrassing situations. She began to sketch in her notebook to calm herself down when she heard laughter coming from the back of the class. She didn't even need to turn around to know that all the other students were laughing at her. They had been since Erendor had made his speech, so it was nothing new. She chose to ignore them and kept her attention on her notebook, whilst Stella, fuming with rage beside her, shot dirty looks at the back of the class every opportunity she got.

When lunchtime finally came, the girls rushed back to their dorm. They had been given special permission to eat lunch in their dorm since they couldn't eat in the cafeteria without someone trying to poison their food with deadly doses of pepper.

They all sat down around the table in the living room and started eating, except for Tecna, who went straight to her room without sparing them a glance. The way her feet stamped on the floor made it clear that she was angry, probably at Bloom's impatience.

Bloom scowled. She had a feeling she wouldn't find out who Hagen was any time soon.

"Palladium is way too much," Aisha said, trying to ease the uneasy tension as she took a bite of her tuna sandwich. "He could have had a word with you alone if he had a problem with you, not in front of the whole class. He knows the other students already hate us."