(outfit the same as last chapter)
After their lesson in the stone circle, the suite mates made their way to lunch. Bloom and Crystal were together waiting in the line for food.
"Bloom. It's alright not to get it the first time. I didn't." Crystal speaks up, trying to make Bloom feel better.
"What are you talking about? You just used the vessel for the first time today." Bloom asks in a confused tone.
"No. You forget that I've lived at Alfea all my life. Headmistress Dowling, she let me use the vessel to practice. I didn't get it until at least my third time. If you want, I can help you?" Crystal offers secretly hoping that Bloom would accept, although she had no idea why.
"No, I think this is something I need to work out by myself. Thanks for offering though, I appreciate it." Bloom says giving Crystal a small smile.
"No problem. I'm always here if you need me." Crystal says smiling back, unaware of the slight redness in her cheeks.
Once both of the girls had gotten their food they made their way over to the table Terra was sitting at.
"Hey Terra." Crystal says sitting down opposite Terra, Bloom following lead.
"Oh, hey!" Terra says enthusiastically.
"How's your dad Terra?" Crystal asks after realising that Bloom wasn't going to say anything.
"He's good! Busy in the greenhouse, like usual. I try to help out when I can."
"I'm glad he's okay." Crystal says before Musa and Aisha sit down at the table.
"So here's what we should do. Maybe we could make a list of emotional triggers-" Aisha says, talking to Bloom.
"Aisha, um, I appreciate what you're doing, but I can figure this out on my own." Bloom explains.
"Um, sure. I just think that you might be in your head about the whole changeling stuff and overthinking." Aisha says continuing on, even though Bloom said she didn't want any help.
"So everyone knows." Bloom says, not wanting people to know that she is a changeling.
"Is that why you freaked out at the vessel? That makes so much more sense because that's gonna be the easiest assignment we'll have, and I'm making it worse. Sorry." Terra rambles out.
"Look, maybe we should just talk about something else." Crystal said, sensing the awkwardness at the table. Luckily, Stella and Sky decided that they would come over to talk to the group.
"So we have a plan to get my ring back." Stella says, setting down a roll of parchment on the table.
"What do we do first?" Crystal asks, wanting to help her friends.
"You're not going to help us, Crystal." Aisha says, making everyone look at her with a quizzical look.
"I'm sorry? I'm trying to help here." Crystal says, confused.
"You could loose control and hurt us." Aisha spits out.
"That could happen with any of us. Why am I any different?" Crystal says, starting to realise what was about to happen.
"You're an ice fairy, you're dangerous." Aisha clarifies.
"Ahh, there it is. I was wondering when somebody was gonna say that, not a surprise that a water fairy is the first one to call me dangerous." Crystal says, almost bursting with anger mixed with a bit of hurt.
"You're not supposed to exist. There's no record of ice fairies of ever existing." Aisha continues.
"What are you some sort of genius or something? You don't know everything Aisha, stop pretending that you do." Crystal sneers before grabbing her bag and standing up. "Seeing as I'm not wanted, I'll leave you all to it. Let me know how it goes." Crystal says angrily glaring at Aisha, before she storms off.
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After Crystal had walked out of the canteen in a rage, she tried to calm herself down knowing that she could lose control. Focusing on her emotions, she doesn't realise that the background noise of the school had disappeared. Eventually, Crystal manages to calm herself down which makes her realise that all the noise is gone and when she looks around there's no one anywhere. Then she hears the voice from her dream.
"Crystal...follow me..." The voice calls out.
This time instead of deciding for herself it felt like she was being guided somewhere by a hidden force. She follows the voice up to the second floor, to a corridor filled with paintings that isn't that far from the courtyard.
"Crystal...the painting..." The voice calls out, sounding slightly annoyed at how long Crystal was taking to look around at the corridor.
"I understand that, but which painting are you talking about? If you haven't noticed this corridor's filled with paintings." Crystal says, obviously confused.
"The lake..." The voice says, making Crystal look at all of the paintings to see if any of them contain a lake.
One painting catches her eye and makes her freeze. It was a painting she had never seen before; a lake slowly freezing. Crystal makes her way over to the painting and realises that there seems to be a draft coming from behind the painting.
'It must be a secret door!' Crystal thought as she reached out to move it.
Unfortunately, just as she was about to make contact with the door she was interrupted by a familiar voice. When she was interrupted the background noise of Alfea came back and the mysterious voice disappeared. Crystal looks over in the direction of the voice to see her dad.
"I'm sorry? Could you say that again?" Crystal asks sheepishly, making Mr Silva laugh.
"I said, what are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be spending time with your friends?" Mr Silva asked.
"Well, I had an argument with one of my suite mates. About my powers. I thought it probably be better if I left and cooled down." Crystal explained, looking down at the ground.
"Cooled down? With the paintings?" Mr Silva asked in an amused tone.
"Obviously." Crystal replies sarcastically.
"Come on kiddo. Let's go have a little chat, yeah?" Mr silva asked, causing Crystal to nod and follow him.
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"What happened?" Mr Silva starts as soon as the pair start walking outside.
"Well, obviously this morning we all had to use the vessel. Doing that meant that showed my powers to everyone. Aisha didn't like that." Crystal explained, spitting Aisha's name out as if it were poison. Crystal knew that it would take her a while to forgive Aisha, but she was starting to realise that Aisha might be right about her.
"What did she do?" Mr Silva asks seeing that Crystal was going to deep into her thoughts, something that happens often.
"She just said that I was dangerous just because I was an ice fairy." Crystal said, leaving out the part about her saying that Crystal was not supposed to exist. "I probably got too defensive. But, what she said...well, we both know it's kind of true."
"No. That happened before we knew what powers you had, you hadn't practiced. It was an accident." Mr Silva reassured her.
"Still, what happened could have killed you." Crystal said sadly, she didn't want to imagine what life would be like if Mr Silva was dead.
"But, it didn't. Look at me, I still here aren't I?" Mr Silva said, making Crystal look up with tears in her eyes. Seeing the tears, Mr Silva got up and wrapped her in a hug. Crystal didn't waste anytime before latching onto him. "It's okay, Crys. Everything is going to be okay." Mr Silva said, stroking Crystal's hair.
"What if the rest of my suite mates hate me now?" Crystal says, wiping her tears away.
"Kid, two of your suite mates are two of your best friends. Terra has seen what you are and she still loves you, the same with Stella. Even if the rest of them hate you, those two never will."
"Thanks. I should probably get back. Talk later?" Crystal said stepping away from the embrace, knowing that he had to leave to talk to Miss Dowling about something.
"Yeah, of course. Love you, kiddo." Mr Silva called out as Crystal started to leave.
"Love you, dad." Crystal said weakly, before starting to walk back to the suite.
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On her way back to the suite she bumped into Musa who was just wondering around.
"Hey Musa. Where's everyone else?" Crystal asked, walking through the corridors with Musa.
"No clue." Musa says before remembering what happened at lunch earlier. "I'm sorry about what happened earlier with Aisha."
"Thanks. I probably overreacted a bit if I'm being honest." Crystal said with a small laugh.
"No, Aisha shouldn't have said that. But, just so you know I think your power is awesome." Musa says, nudging Crystal with her elbow.
"My power? No way, your power is so much cooler." Crystal says as they reach the suite.
"Yeah right, try feeling everyone's feelings." Musa scoffs.
"At least you have an escape." Crystal says sadly, while walking into the suite.
On her way in, Crystal ran into Stella who was on her way out. Seeing that her best friend had fallen to the floor, Stella helped pull Crystal up.
"Sorry about that Stella." Crystal says, once she was back on her two feet. Musa walked away seeing that their conversation was over for the moment.
"You ended up on the floor, why are you saying sorry?" Stella asked, making Crystal shrug.
"Where you off to anyway?" Crystal asked curiously.
"Just going for a walk." Stella replied.
"Don't be too late." Crystal said, moving past her friend. She didn't manage to get too far as Stella had grabbed hold of her wrist.
"About what Aisha said earlier. We do want your help, promise." Stella said with a reassuring smile.
"Aisha obviously doesn't want me there. She expressed that very clearly."
"Don't even get me started on what she said. I had a right go at her after you left."
"I bet you did." Crystal said amused. "But, I'm not going."
"Yes you are. I'm not taking no for an answer. If Aisha doesn't like it, then I don't care." Stella said before walking out of the suite, not even giving Crystal a chance to answer. Crystal rolled her eyes at her overdramatic friend, before walking into her room.
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A/N:
What's up with Aisha?
What do you think is behind the painting?
What did you think of the little moment between Crystal and Mr Silva?
Don't forget to vote and comment.