(Disclaimer: I do not own this picture, I only changed the background. Anyway here is what her dress looks like. Enjoy! :-)
(Edited: 1.6 pages · 4,109 words)
Knock Knock Knock.
Nothing.
"Stella!" Bloom called out.
Yep, you guessed it. We were getting ready for our first class of the year but ran into a bit of an issue.
"She's going to be late if she doesn't get up," Flora stated concerned for our new friend. "Stella!" I yelled through her door. Musa stepped forward and turned the knob which surprisingly opened with ease. "For a princess, she's not very bright." She chuckled. We giggled and tip-toed into her room. Stella was soundly laying in her queen-sized bed snuggled in her pink silk sheets.
"Stella, time to get up sweetie," Flora said sweetly as she lightly tapped Stella's arm. Stella made no move to get out of bed. Musa began to become impatient and swiftly grabbed Stella's arm yanking her out of bed and onto the floor with a loud squeal from Stella.
Stella glared at the pigtailed girl before her as the rest of us stifled a laugh. "What was that for?"
"We're late!" Musa replied.
"Statistically, we have only seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds before we're late to our first class." Tecna estimated for the rest of us.
She is good with her numbers.
"Fret not." Stella snapped her fingers and in a glowing bright light, she was transformed out of her pajamas and into her orange skirt and green halter top, smoothing out her hair in the process.
"C'mon Stell," Bloom pulled her along as we ran down the hall.
"It's the first class of the year, a year full of great potential and limitless possibilities. Now for those who haven't met me yet, I am professor Wizgiz. Your teacher of metamorphosis." The leprechaun introduced himself.
I don't know how we did it, but we made it to our first class of the year on time. Bloom, Stella, and I were out of breath though, we tried to hide it the best we could.
"Metamorphosis is the art of changing how you appear and once you master it, you can turn anything like from a rock to a rock star." The professor said. He then demonstrated his metamorphosis skills by transforming into Ms. Griselda, the head of discipline.
"Don't worry, I'm not really the queen of detention, mm-hmm." He said in her voice. That did not comfort us at all.
Everyone seemed to be taken aback. Then everyone started cheering and clapping when she crossed her arms and pouted. "The beauty of magic is that you can always go back to being you." He said, again in her voice then turned back to his leprechaun self.
"For now, we'll start with the basics." He snapped his fingers and mirrors appeared in front of each of us.
"Let us start with a simple exercise. Concentrate, look in the mirror. Look at yourself and think about changing the color of your hair."
I looked in the mirror and closed my eyes and concentrated. I felt my magic surround me and the roots of my hair tingled, tickling me in the process. When the tickling sensation stopped, I opened my eyes again and looked in the hand-held mirror to see my chocolate hair was now a bleach blonde color.
I facepalmed.
Blonde hair is cool and all, but this new hair resembled Princess Diaspro of Quartz. She used to bully me in Junior high and had humiliated me. Almost every day it seemed I could not get a break from her and my parents too have no idea of the two-faced princess they betrothed to my brother.
I got out of my thoughts and changed my hair back to its original color. I looked to see Bloom having a bit of trouble. She closed her eyes and scrunched up her nose while furrowing her eyebrows trying to concentrate. Her fiery red hair moved in waves as if being blown in the wind then went back down with no change to her hair color.
"Don't worry Bloom, if at first you don't succeed. Try again." The professor told her, seeing her put down the mirror in front of her.
* * *
After classes, Bloom, Stella, and I went to my room so we could help Bloom.
"I was the only one who couldn't do it," Bloom says disappointed. "You'll get it, you just have to practice," Stella said a bit tired. "School's just beginning. If you don't get it today, it's not the end of the world." Stella adds.
"Where I come from there's a saying, 'Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today," Bloom replies.
"Where I come from we have no such expression and we're all much more relaxed," Stella says.
"Stella, please?" Bloom begs.
"Oh alright, but remember to concentrate," Stella advised. "Think of a color and imagine your hair starting to change. New color slowly spreading through the root to the tip of your hair." Bloom then ended up with just her bangs sticking straight up. You know, it wasn't such a bad look on her. She looked pretty.
"Great, see what I end up with," Bloom replies. "Bloom, your not paying attention. You're not concentrating enough."
"Well at least something happened and that's progress," I say and Stella starts laughing. "Oh, stop laughing."
"Why should she? Look at this I'm ridiculous."
"That's not true. All you need is a little practice." I say encouraging her. "You know, I've never had such a rough day."
"The first day is always like that," Stella tells her. "Girls, can I ask you something?" I nod at Bloom's question. "Why are you here at Alfea?"
"Because I want to become a real fairy. Successful, beautiful, powerful, and universally admired." Stella walked in front of us giving her signature poses.
Then she cleared her throat as we stared at her. "Of course I also want to do good things like making people happy and bringing back together strange lovers. Starting with my parents." Stella huffs her last sentence.
"I want to become a real fairy too. But, I'm here primarily because I really love to learn." I said, earning a pillow in my face. "Ugh! That is such a nerdy answer!" Stella says while laughing.
"What about you Bloom?" I ask, shaking off Stella's comment. "That's the problem, I have no idea what I'm doing here." She replies and looks out to the night sky through the window.
* * *
The next morning we were in the dining hall, eating breakfast. Bloom nor Flora was in sight.
"Where could they be?" I asked curiously.
Musa, Tecna, and Stella shrugged their shoulders, not knowing a clue. I looked down at my hot tea and bowl of cinnamon oatmeal as I contemplated how the day was going to go. There was small talk going around about a dance that would be held tonight in honor of the new year.
As I looked towards the left entryway, Flora and Bloom were sneaking their way towards us without any of the teachers spotting them. They immediately took their seats with us as I caught a glimpse of Ms. Griselda giving them the evil eye.
"It's about time, what took you guys so long?" Stella asks.
"My fault, I overslept," Bloom replies. I was about to ask how her homework was going until we all heard someone tapping on their teacup.
"Young ladies, your attention please." Ms. Faragonda said. We all turned our attention to her.
"As this is a tradition for all of the Magix schools, our back-to-school gala will take place tomorrow night and our special guests will be the buys from Red Fountain for Heroics and Bravery. We hope you'll be warm and friendly hostesses and make them feel right at home." Ms. Faragonda announced.
Ms. Griselda then clapped her hands sharply. "But not too friendly. Chaperones will be there and love spells and crush potions are forbidden!"
"But dancing is encouraged and the boys will bring surprise gifts for all so I'm sure you'll have a lovely time." Ms. Faragonda cut in. "I remember my first dance at Alfea, I met my husband there. Well, anyway it will be an evening full of enchantment." She finished.
We were dismissed from breakfast and given the day off to prepare ourselves for the dance. It was nice to be given a whole day to get ready with no classes that would interrupt the process. Though, not everyone thought so.
"Classes are canceled, and this is just our second day," Tecna says a bit annoyed. "What do we have to do for the party?" Bloom asks. "Easy Bloom, just get ready to have a Ball," Stella replies.
We get to our dorm and we changed into our dresses for the dance. "And of course, I prefer not to go unnoticed." Stella holds the dress in front of her. "Well, what do you think?"
Her dress was really beautiful. "It's gorgeous," Bloom replies.
"Mind you, it wasn't cheap but, look at it. It was calling me from the shop window. Buy me, buy me please." She imitated.
"Of course you answered its plea. How very noble of you." Musa says. "Well, I'm bound to make an impression," Stella replies. "Aha, I hear the guys from Red Fountain are really cute," Flora says out of the blue.
Wow! Here I thought she was the goody-two-shoes out of us all. "Guys? As if I care about that." Tecna scoffed.
What did she have against guys?
"Then why are you dressed like an absolute diva?" I asked. "That's beside the point, you attend a ceremony, you dress accordingly." She replied. "Yeah sure," Stella says with disbelief.
"Ummm.....sorry but, do you think they'll let me in dressed like this?" Bloom says gesturing to her jeans and crop top. "Oh, Bloom," I said feeling sorry for her.
You don't have a dress?" Stella asks. "No problem. There's a solution to everything and in this case, it's called...Shopping!"
With that, we all went to Magix to look at dresses that would suit Bloom. The first dress was with a light pink ruffle at the bottom. Flora and I liked it but, no one else approved. We went to more shops where we found one that was with white outlines. None of us approved of that one either. After more dresses, we finally found Bloom's dress. It's with dark blue outlines also revealing her tummy. "How about this one?" She asked.
I gave her a thumbs up along with the rest of the girls. The light blue that was coloring the dress really made her eyes pop even more. Blue was definitely her color. She looked at the price tag and said, "Too expensive." With that, she went back to the changing room. "I'll pay for it," Stella says while pulling out her credit card.
"No...Stella, you might offend her." Flora says with a hand on Stella's shoulder. We walked out of the store disappointed. "Now what?" asked Bloom.
"well..." I was at a loss for ideas. "It's getting kinda late Bloom," Stella said. "Yeah, we've gotta get back to Alfea," Tecna replied. "You'll be alright?" I asked. "Don't worry, I'll find something," Bloom said. With that, she started running.
The rest of us started to walk back to the bus stop. When we got home, we had a few hours to ourselves. I didn't have to do much to get ready, especially since I hated makeup. I only wear it for special occasions and sadly, this is one. Either way, I only apply minimal makeup so I didn't need a lot of time freshening up.
I spared some of my time listening to music and wondering how tonight was gonna go. My mind drifted to my brother. I couldn't wait to see him but, I have to pretend that Brandon's my brother. I mean I've always thought of Brandon as a second older brother so it shouldn't be too hard....right? I just gotta play it casually. After figuring out how I was gonna pull it off, I took a quick shower.
After drying my hair, I put on my pink and purple dress. Stella then insisted to curl my hair and I gave in.
"Are you ready for tonight?" She asked in a cheery tone.
"Yeah, I'll get to see my brother and dance all night." I smiled at the vanity mirror in front of me so Stella could see. Stella practically squealed.
"Is he hot?"
I nearly choked on my own saliva hearing that. Stella only giggled at my reaction. "I mean he's fair-looking I guess..."
Stella finished with my hair and brought out her makeup case. I tried to decline but you really can't fight Stella on this. First, she applied a moisturizer to my face before adding makeup. Stella added a bit of a light blush on my cheeks and some highlighter that matched my skin tone. Then a light pink glitter eyeshadow and pink lip gloss to top it off.
"Hmm... Something's missing here." Stella studied my face. I didn't understand what I could be missing until she ran back to her hair kit and came back with a pink headband. She placed it perfectly behind my ears and over my head letting my bangs fall in front.
"Viola!"
I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled in satisfaction. "Wow, Stella," I said speechless. She only smiled smugly. "I know."
Stella worked wonders. It was absolutely amazing the sight I saw myself in. "C'mon darling, we gotta bring these Red Fountain boys to their knees."
Before long, the girls and I went down to the ballroom to see all of Alfea and Red Fountain there. We all wore our dresses, ready to party.
Musa made a beeline for the dance floor and I followed suit. There on the far end of the dance floor, I saw my two brothers and decided to say hi.
"Hi Brandon, hi Sky." I greeted. "Hey, little sis," Brandon said. AKA. Fake Sky. He gave me a hug then "Brandon" hugged me next.
"Meet our friends." 'Sky said then gestured to a lanky ginger-haired specialist with red squared glasses. "This here is Timmy."
Timmy gave me a cheeky smile and a short wave saying, "Hey." I smiled back. "I'm Ashlena, Sky's sister."
"Now, I would introduce you to my other squadmate, but he's probably hiding in a dark corner to pass the time." 'Sky' chuckled.
I nodded giggling myself. "You wouldn't happen to know the new earth girl who transferred here, do you?" 'Brandon' asked. I'm guessing he's met Bloom already?
"Um...actually she is one of my suite-mates, but haven't seen her since we went shopping for a dress," I explained.
Suddenly my brother was bumped into. I laughed as Bloom poked her head up. Wow! Speaking of the fairy of distress. "Sorry," Bloom said as my brother turned around to face her. "Bloom, are you okay?" He asked. "Yes, of course." She replied. "I' was looking for you." He admitted, scratching the back of his neck.
Did he seem......nervous?
Woah. What is that all about?
"You were?" Bloom asked with a smile spreading across her face.
"Hey, uh would you like to dance?"
"Yeah, for sure!" She agreed.
Bloom ran off after that and I was yanked away by the wrist, toward the girls. I heard my brother mumble an "Oh-kay..."
"Girls, Yoohoo!" Bloom said to get their attention. "We were starting to worry," Tecna says. "What took you so long?" Flora asked.
"Yeah seriously, what was that about?" I asked her referring to her pulling me across the room.
Bloom took us to an empty hall to discuss her situation. "This is an emergency, the witches are here."
"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Icy, Darcy, and Stormy have cast a spell on the presents from Red Fountain. I heard them talk about something called a snake-rat."
"Snake-rat? Let me consult my database." Tecna said. "Snake-rat, venomous swamp creatures can cause projectile vomiting with one bite, gross."
"Oh thank you Tecna, we get the picture." Stella interrupted. "They're disgusting." I couldn't help but gag.
"Slimy, vicious, and venomous, like the witches. But, what's in it for them?" Stella asked.
"Stella, let me finish, the witches want to provoke a huge panic as a diversion, to get their hands on your ring," Bloom explained.
Those witches are gonna be after us from now on, aren't they?
"That's quite the sneaky plan," Musa says. "We've gotta stop the eggs from being handed out," I stated.
"Uhhh too late, look!" Flora replies pointing out to the middle of the dance floor.
There we saw Timmy and "Prince Sky" bring out a green chest with Red Fountain's symbol on it lavished in gold. "For you ladies, I hope you like them." They opened the chest to reveal golden eggs with orange stripes on them.
"Eggs surprises," Musa muttered enough for us to hear. "Yes, and the surprise is a very cuddly snake-rat," Bloom added sarcastically.
"We need a counterspell and fast," Stella said. "Come on, let's form a circle." We all joined hands. "Repeat after me, what it once was let it be again."
We chanted the words several times then the magic from our joined hands flowed out in waves towards the open chest. The orange stripes on the enchanted eggs formed into diamonds. We saw the eggs being handed out and the room filled with golden butterflies by each fairy who accepted one. They were really pretty. The rest of us sighed with relief. Prince Sky gave an egg to Stella and said, "I hope this egg brings you luck."
Stella accepted the egg. "I guess I'll find out soon enough if it does or not." I then had an idea. "Let me see it." I grabbed the egg and examined it before turning to Flora.
"Flora, are you thinking what I'm thinking by any chance?" I ask. "I am, indeed." She replies.
"And I've studied Professor Palladium's lesson very well."
I hand Flora the egg and say, "It's all yours Flora." I saw "Prince Sky" look at us in confusion as Flora did her thing.
"And now I'll make a little surprise blossom for our three witchy little friends." Flora chanted a spell from teen fairy to hide the ring and replace it with something the witches would despise.
"What did you do to the egg?" Bloom asks. "I'll tell you later. Meanwhile, I want you to run and get changed. It's getting late." Flora replies.
Bloom then went back to her dorm to get changed.
"Yeah, I would like to know too." 'Sky' said. "So, there are these three witches that had broken into the school and had spelled your enchanted egg gifts for us into snake-rats. Anyways we just counter-spelled them and returned the eggs to normal." Stella said.
'Prince Sky' only furrowed his brows in deeper confusion. "I thought only fairies and heroes came to this dance?"
"Yes, well these witches were after my Solarian ring and thought spelling your gifts would be a good distraction." This only made him furrow his brows in deeper confusion. "What's a snake-rat?" He asked.
"Snake rats are venomous swamp creatures that can cause projectile vomiting with one bite," Tecna repeated in her research.
"Wow, good thing you girls were able to di-spell them, huh?" I nodded. "Oh right. These are my suite-mates." I introduced him.
"Girls, this is my brother, Prince Sky."
"Sky, this is Flora, Musa, Tecna, and I'm sure you know Princess Stella," I said with a giggle. 'Prince Sky' gently took Stella's hand in his and bowed placing a kiss on her hand. Stella flushed and we let him guide her to the dance floor.
I headed over to where the drinks were and got some fruit punch. This was refreshing.
"Hey."
I turned around to see my brother, 'Brandon'. Finally, I can talk about what happened earlier. Yeah, I was that annoyingly great sister.
"Does somebody have a little crush on Bloom?" I asked in a singing tone. He blushed a deep beet red. "I haven't yet figured that out. I think I do though, I mean since I met her all I can think about is her." He admitted.
"Could you keep this on the DL for now?" I smiled and nodded in agreement and he smiled back.
"Although, don't think I'm going to let you off so easily. Be ready for what's coming up," I said with a smirk. Once those words left my mouth, Sky's smile faded. I laughed at his expression and he joined in as well. "Do your friends know who you are or you switched there too?"
"Yes, I am Brandon to them." He replied.
"Oh."
That was all I could say.
"Wanna dance?" 'Brandon' asked extending his hand out for me to take. I accepted and we glided through the dance floor.
"So, I guess I owe you an explanation, huh?"
I nodded. "Yes, you do." He took a deep breath and spoke quietly but loud enough for me to hear.
"When I started Red Fountain last year with Brandon, I asked if he could pretend to be me and I would pretend to be him. That way he could have the title of the crown and not me. I just wanted to feel what it would be like to be a regular guy, y'know?"
I did know. That's how I felt. I could feel my brother's insecurity with this whole issue. He wanted to be treated according to who he was as a person not by his rank. "I understand," I replied.
'Brandon' smiled at me and led us into a dance.
The song then came to an end. "Thanks, little sis," Brandon said then pecked me on the cheek. I hugged him and said, "No problem." I then made my way over to the girls who had panicked emotions flying everywhere.
"How's the par-?" I was interrupted by Flora.
"Bloom's in trouble."
"What do you mean?" I asked. Stella then showed me outside the window and the scene taking place was shocking. Bloom was standing in front of the three senior witches with barely any magic. "Well come on, we gotta-"
"Young ladies, it's time to offer our gifts." Ms. Faragonda said. "Come and join the others and Musa will play something for us." We all hesitated.
We can't leave Bloom all alone. Who knows what those witches could do!
We all went outside to find Bloom as soon as we were able to. "Bloom! Thank goodness. Are you okay?" Flora asked. "Yes, I'm still in one piece but, where were you all?" Bloom asked
"We couldn't get away from the headmistress," I explained. "Are you alright?" Tecna asked.
"Well, I did manage to get away."
"How did it go against the witches?" I asked concerned.
"I grew wings!" Bloom exclaimed with excitement overflowing in her voice. "It was really amazing."
"Congratulations!"
"But the problem is they have Stella's ring." The redhead sighed. "I wasn't able to get it back from them."
"They don't have it," Flora reassured. Do you remember the spell of the month?"
Bloom nodded. "I don't think it worked."
"Oh, it worked alright." Musa chuckled.
* * *
The rest of the night was spent on the dance floor. Bloom had also finally graced us with her presence. My goodness, her dress was absolutely beautiful on her. "Brandon" tapped her on the shoulder and reminded her that she owed him a dance which she happily accepted.
I danced alongside Musa almost the whole time. She's a very talented dancer.
"You think you can teach me a few moves?" I asked over the booming music. Musa looked back at me with a grin.
"Funny, I was gonna ask you the same thing." She chuckles then nods to my question. "Yeah, I'll teach you." I returned her smile and we continued dancing throughout a couple more songs.
A flash of light then came out of nowhere and Musa and I looked up to see Tecna with her cellphone in hand snapping a picture of us. I giggle and pulled her in then took her phone to snap a selfie of the three of us. Her phone took really great pictures and the quality of them was just phenomenal. We eventually got a group photo with me and my suit-mates and then enjoyed the rest of our night.
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.