Chapter Nine
Raging and Rumbling
Only a few hours ago Luella had told Terra that she doubted she was going to come to the Senior Specialist Party, which she guessed was just an excuse to get drunk and dance since fairies were here too, including herself.
She now stood crammed in the middle of people dancing, some tipsy already, holding a cup of- she didn't even know, with Musa and Terra.
Luella brought the plastic cup to her nose, smelling the strong liquid, then crinkling her nose and hesitatingly taking a small sip. She tried not to make a disgusted face and quickly swallowed it, it tasted acidic. "People have awful taste in drinks," Luella commented, letting Musa take the cup from her hands and also bringing it up to her nose, creasing her face as Luella did and placing the cup onto the table stand in front of them.
"What about you Terra?" Musa asked motioning to the tub in her hand as Terra placed them on the table. Musa opened the lid which held brownie bites.
Luella grabbed a piece and went for a bite but as soon as the flavour hit her she quickly grabbed the abandoned cup from the table, spitting it out. Only then, she noticed the herbal smell that must have been covered by the obvious smell of alcohol.
"Terra, do these have-?" Lue half questioned, a suspicious grin growing on her face.
"Yeah," Terra chuckled proudly. "I can be a cool nerd." Luella guessed that she had probably gotten the weed to fill the brownies from another student or maybe even grown it.
"I'm sure they'll taste great to all those rebels out there," Luella joked. "Just not my thing."
A voice came emerging from the crowd, "look who showered their face." Luella recognised it to be the boy Musa had liked: Sam, Lue remembered. "With mum Tupperware, no less."
Terra gave him an unamused look, "what do you want, Sam?"
"I'm getting a drink, relax," He replied then turned to the two girls, Luella and Musa. "It's Musa and Luella, right?"
Luella knew that Musa was probably fluttering on the inside, the pink and purple coloured lights hiding her blush. "That's us, yeah," She said, shaking his hand.
"What reeks?" Sam asked, smelling the earthy scent from the tub.
"There for the party, not for me," Terra explained to her brother as another person appeared.
"I didn't think you'd make it," A boy with dark skin and short hair exclaimed, wearing a red jean jacket.
"No, uh.. well, I just decided to come last minute," Terra responded to him.
Luella raised her eyebrows, knowing that wasn't true because if it was true, Terra wouldn't have asked her at lunch to come.
"Yeah, so last minute," Sam stated sarcastically. "So last minute that she had a few hours to make weed brownies."
"Bye, Sam! I'll talk to you later," Terra said back in the same tone, as he replied with a bye, walking back into the crowd with his drink.
Luella chucked her cup away to the small bin under the table. She turned around to leave, giving the girls a wave. She had only managed to walk a few steps around the crowd of teenagers before she bumped into someone.
She looked up to see Sky who was wearing a white shirt and simple jeans.
"Hey Sky," Luella greeted.
"Luella," he greeted back. "Is that-"
Luella interrupted him, he probably noticed the smell that still lingered in her mouth. "Terra made brownies," she spoke. "Weed brownies."
Sky nodded, "right, okay. Just don't turn into Riven, he vomited in no less than five places last year."
"Hey! I did not eat those on purpose," Luella defended.
Coincidentally, Riven showed up behind the specialist, placing a hand on his shoulder as he chuckled, "looks like the benchmark's been set." He held a metal flask in his hands, offering it to her but Sky pulled it back to Riven.
"She's not drinking and neither am I," Sky claimed which made Luella's shoulders slump, she came to the party perceiving that she'd get drunk, it'd be what kept her sane from overthinking just for this night.
Luella rolled her eyes, "at least a beer?" She queried.
Sky huffed. He was doing almost bad as Luella, and if he wasn't going to drink at a party she didn't know why else he came. He had been doing worse than the starting week when they had arrived at Alfea. "I'll see you around, Lue," he said, wandering off.
"Sky's no fun when it comes to having real fun," Riven stated. "Remind me why your friends with him?"
"I could ask you the same, he's your best friend," Luella retaliated, eyeing his flask. "Vape, now a flask? What else do I need to steal from you?" Luella questioned.
"If that's your way of asking for some you could have just said so," Riven expressed.
Luella surveyed the party for her friends but instead caught her guard on a bear pong table, "it's not. I'm under Sky's orders, for now," she said, walking beyond him and to the table filled with another duo. "Beer pong?" She questioned the two girls standing next to the table, who Lue distinguished to be friendly and competitive.
She looked at Riven and grinned, signalling for him to come over. She was ready to get head-over-heels drunk.
-
It had been an hour and forty-five minutes. Luella had drunk quite too many cups of beer after playing with Riven, and together they won a fair amount of games. It was safe to say that Luella was now drunk, not full overloaded tipsy, but enough to know that she didn't think about the words coming out of her mouth.
Luella squinted her eyes, aiming at the last cup on the table as Riven watched intensively in adrenaline. She let go, bouncing the ping pong ball. To her hopes, the plastic ball splashed inside the cup, letting her cheer in laughter.
"How the fuck did you get good at this?" Riven exclaimed.
Luella leaned on the table, taking a cup from their side of the table. "I have no idea," she replied, dragging the word 'no' out.
She looked at him in the eyes as she took a sip but that only compelled Riven to slowly grip the cup away from her - even he knew what too much was.
"What a party pooper," she muttered, exaggerating an eye roll.
"Sky," Riven called out to the boy who was approaching, Bloom behind him. "This one is the one to beat," he said, gesturing to Luella as the other players of their match left in defeat.
"Hey redhead," Lue welcomed.
Bloom smiled, "don't call me that again," she said playfully which made Luella pout.
"Come to play?" Another voice turned up, Aisha appearing from the crowd.
Lue clasped her hands in excitement, "boys against girls," she announced.
"Well, your drunk," Aisha observed.
"Mmm, I can feel it in my veins," Luella uttered to herself. "Just one more game."
By the middle of the game, the girls were winning so far, probably because it was three against two. Aisha then threw the ball which landed in the cup, Sky drinking up commenting that Bloom made the bear hot.
Luella hadn't even realised it, but her friends were taking her shots for her.
Then it was the opposite team's turn, Riven aimed as Bloom whispered to Aisha to bounce it out using her magic while Luella muttered to them that it was a good idea.
Luella watched the cup bubble and then saw the ping pong ball land in it, but only a second later, it flew out carrying the rest of the cups with them, splashing at Riven and Sky.
It caught the people's attention, turning to them.
"The fuck?" Riven exclaimed, his shirt now covered with a bear.
Luella didn't notice the embarrassed look on Aisha's face because her mind was fuzzing as she grew more tired. "Sorry, honestly," The water fairy apologised. "Sorry, I'm gonna get some paper towels," she said, bowing her head and walking off.
"Yeah, because paper towels fix everything," Lue laughed with Bloom as they began to slowly tidy and stack the cups.
"You feeling a little more relaxed?" Bloom asked Sky as he helped the girls.
"Well, certainly drunker," He replied.
Riven patted Sky's back, "so much for not drinking tonight. But this one's a bit more fun than Stella," Riven said, referring to Bloom. "Can't forget Luella either," he also pointed out, putting his arm over her shoulder.
"Although... reminds me of Ricki."
"Who's Ricki?" Luella asked in curiosity.
Sky's face stiffened as his playful face turned serious, "Riv, don't," he pleased.
Riven then ignored him then turned to the two girls, "you guys live with Stella and you don't know what happened to her last roommate?"
"We don't," Bloom stated, replying for both her and Luella. "But I'm sure we would love to."
"See, Ricki was Stella's best mate till she flirted a little bit too much with Sky here," he explained, pointing at Sky.
"Riv, I would never-"
"Oh, of course not." The specialist interrupted. "but that didn't matter to Stella, and she showed everyone what a legit psycho she was."
Bloom looked between the two boys in confusion as Luella watched it play out. "What's that supposed to mean?" The fire fairy questioned.
"See. Stella used her magic to blind Ricki. On purpose," He spilt. "She blinded her best mate."
The two girls looked at them in shock, their eyes widening. That was way up and over horrible, Luella thought. That was cruel - obnoxious. How could she even think about doing that?
"That- that can't be true," Bloom stuttered.
"Yeah," Sky looked at Riven in betrayal. "That's the story," he confirmed as Riven went off, his arms gliding off Luella's shoulder giving a chill through her spine, and Bloom said she was going to go find Aisha.
"Sky..." Luella started.
"Don't, Lue"
"...I'm sorry that happened," Luella said sincerely, now snapping into a sad phase. She didn't even feel hurt that Sky didn't tell her, and instead went in to hug him. After a second, she released and let out a big huff, "I'm wiped, and going to bed."
Luella and Sky walked past the people, fewer than there were when she first came in, and they walked together back to her suite. The sky was now pitch black, nearly around one, Luella thought.
"You know," Sky said as they walked through the building. "Riven's a good friend, but sometimes he's impulsive."
Lue thought she nodded, but to Sky, she was looking ahead. It was hard to tell what she doing.
As Luella almost tripped on her loose lace, replying, "yeah, well, he's a bit... I don't know." She didn't know what she thought of him like it had been easy to establish with Sky. As Sky said, he was impulsive and went against the rules. Yet Luella didn't have the urge to rat him out.
Sky's phone buzzed but he ignored it. "That's funny because he said the same thing about you," Sky said.
"You mean when I said I don't-" Luella got interrupted when her phone began to buzz too. So she grabbed it out of her pocket and looked at who was overloading her with messages.
Luella gasped as Sky peered over, "The Burned One," Sky said as a wave of relief rushed over the duo. "They've killed it."
Sky took Luella's hand to help her not fall over as they rushed out the direction they came from, pushing the doors wide open and sprinting to the specialist's field where Luella saw her father sitting down on a platform in the distance, looking out.
They slowed their pace and Sky let go of her hand as they approached her father. "How do you feel?" Sky asked while they sat next to him.
But Luella frowned. He didn't look any better than she had last seen him. In fact, he looked worse. His infected veins were turning black, crawling on his neck and his eyes were still their abnormal colour. Silva didn't feel any better than he looked.
"You said they killed it," Luella said referring to the text she had gotten from him only a few minutes ago. A tear came from her eye, which she could have held in if she wasn't drunk.
"They did," Saul responded.
The sky looked at him in disbelief, "then why are your wounds not healed?" He asked.
"The one they killed mustn't have been the one that attacked me," Saul said. "There is more than one of those creatures out there."
The two teenagers wanted anything more except for him to die, they looked at him in hope and misery.
"So the Battalion will keep looking-" Sky tried to argue with him but Silva interfered.
"It's too late, It's over."
More tears rolled down her cheeks as Sky infuriated himself with anger. "You told me that the last time I saw you," Luella exclaimed in a wobbly voice. "You can't just keep handing me all of these worries, especially after you told me I was the only ice fairy in existence, and expect me to carry it!"
Her best friend looked over at her, more truth flooding him. He wanted to go back to when everything was okay, even if it did include sarcastic insults with his friends, drama in his love life and battling all day. The sky turned back to what he saw as a father figure. "And the one thing you told me about my father was that he died fighting and now your just going to sit here and take it?" He said imprudently.
He stood up and angrily stalked away as Silva tried to persuade him to come back. "Sky-"
"Fuck that!" He shouted, not looking back.
Luella watched him run off, then wander closer to her dad. She placed her head onto his shoulder, hugging his arm. "It's okay, dad. It's okay," she said in reassurance.
It only reminded her of the time she found him laying in the puddle of his blood.
-
Luella left her dad, promising she'd be back and that he'd be better.
She had figured out where Sky had gone after receiving Bloom's text from the Winx Suite group chat. 'Emergency. Burned One. Stone Circle,' it had read. The sky had gone after the Burned One and stumbled across Bloom while he was at it.
So now Luella trampled outside the barrier, walking across the dark forest, the crunch of sticks and twigs following her. Luella tried to hold herself from falling, using the thick limbs of trees as guidance. Luckily, she felt better than she did when she was walking to her dorm with Sky.
As she descended deeper into the vast forest, she spotted them: Bloom and Sky. She made her way through the magnificent trees and quickly walked to where they were standing guard. But she didn't have time to speak because she spotted it, the Burned One, above them. Now more visible in the shadows than ever, and more clearer when she had first seen one when Bloom got attacked by one when she went to the first world.
It had the shape of a human body, only that its hands and legs were pointed and its dark skin rotted with a disturbing substance which clung to it. It reared horribly as it was ready to pounce.
But then, Luella emerged as she shouted, "watch out!" And without thinking and though she was intoxicated with drinks, Luella attacked it as it let out a deathly and venomous howl.
Though describing it as what it was, it felt magical. It was the most magic Luella had ever created and it felt amazing, like unlocking a part of herself. Weirdly, she drowned in relief.
Large amounts of Ice beamed from her hands, damaging the repulsive creature.
Then another shout came from the opposite side of Luella, taking the Burned Ones' attention from her. "Close your eyes!"
Luella did as she was told, shutting her eyes from the blinding light that appeared and blinded the Burned One. The ice fairy then knew it was Stella.
As Luella cautiously but quickly made her way around the Burned One to her group of friends, flames engulfed Bloom's hands sending the menacing beast stumbling which was also backed by a wave of water from Aisha sending smoke into the air.
Luella gave a short-lasted smile to her friends as she was amazed by what she had done.
She looked back at the Burned One, to see Sky stride toward it, plunging his sword to its chest, twisting it and pulling it back out which sent it to the ground.
The group of girls, and Sky, carefully took a few steps closer to it until Musa looked at it, muffled screams like blurred radio sound filling her ears as she said, "wait, I don't think it's-"
But before she could finish, the Burned One made it off the ground, ready to attack the girls in front of them. The Suite toppled back, its brutal face staining their minds.
Then a shrieking scream came from the Burned One, Luella turned around to see the Headmistress standing on a rock, her eyes glowing a misty white; killing the Burned One fully.
"No, it wasn't dead," Miss Dowling said. "But it is now."
-
Luella came rushing into the greenhouse in anticipation that if she and her friends had killed the right Burned One, she didn't have a clue how many there were out there.
As she opened the doors to the greenhouse, Sky was beside her, she saw her dad get up from his seat and point at the two. But Luella couldn't help but sigh in relief, his wounds were nearly gone and his eyes were back if it's the original colour.
"The both of you are idiots," Silva scolded them.
"I know-"
"Stupid, impulsive, reckless idiots."
"I know - but is it better?" Sky asked Silva. "Professor Harvey?"
Professor Harvey sat on the bench cleaning his hands and stacking the bandages away he had used for Saul's wounds. He smiled up at the two.
"Don't smile at them," Silva said as the best friends pulled him into a long hug, which he returned.
As they all pulled away, Luella's dad had now given back the smile. He had told them how proud he was, and how Sky's dad would have been proud of him. Silva said for them to go get rest, turning around and walking back to Professor Harvey.
Then he stopped for a second, "Don't think you won't have consequences for getting drunk either."
Luella busted a groan, walking out from the greenhouse, and back to the main building where her friends awaited her, saying goodbye to Sky.
She found the girls waiting and sitting on a pile of stairs in the dim light.
"How is he, Silva?" Aisha asked as Lue sat down next to them.
"He's doing great," Luella smiled before a strut of heals cut in, the headmistress walking over to the Suite with a serious face.
"That the lot of you and Headmaster Silva is still alive does not change how thoughtless you were," Miss Dowling spoke in a critical voice. "We'll discuss consequences in the morning," she said, walking off again.
Aisha whispered as soon as Miss Dowling was out of sight, "Is she, like, detention pissed off or expulsion pissed off?"
"I'm going with the first one," Musa replied, not harmed by the headmistress's words. "but only because of the tiny bit of pride I also felt in there."
The girls nodded with ease.
❆
Thank you for reading!
Do you like the friendship between Sky and Luella? I wanted to make them close :)