A/N: Alright, this was a story request from Data Seeker, who also co-wrote this chapter. So...here it is. And yes, I did lift a scene in this chapter from Confessions of a Grade School Drama Queen.
Disclaimer: Fairly Oddparents copyright Butch Hartman, Federator, Nickelodeon, and Viacom.
Trixie sat on her bed; she gripped her controller firmly in her hands, mashing buttons with more force than usual. On the screen, Sora was cutting down waves of Heartless. Trixie had played this game before. She had played dozens. Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy, she had played more games than most people her age.
But she'd never admit it. She kept it all hidden, in a secret room, one she never let her fair-weather friends know about.
In her room were several other hobbies that few knew she enjoyed. Comic books with everything from the Crimson Chin to Skull Squisher, everything that wasn't so violent that her father forbade her to read. DVDs of shows like Crash Nebula, Maho Mushi, and even the Twilight Zone, all shows no self-respecting popular kid would watch. Movies like Space Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, or The Lord of the Rings, all strictly unpopular garbage. Action figures of everything described above, and posters of the same decorate the room, a clear display of the secret life of Trixie Tang.
She usually reveled in these things, using them to escape the pressures of being the popular girl. But today, even her biggest escape couldn't brighten her. It was all because…of him. The intruder.
Three days ago was when she got the announcement. She and her father were eating dinner when suddenly the elder cleared his throat. "Trixie, there's something I need to talk to you about something." He told his daughter in a low voice. Trixie looked up from her plate of spaghetti and stared at her father. "What's wrong?" She asked curiously, wondering what could be wrong. "Nothing," he assured her kindly, putting down his fork. "Trixie, you know what I always saying: Those who have the most…" "…should give the most, I remember," His daughter finished in a dull voice, her eyes rolled with boredom. "So what do you mean?" "Well, we've always donated a substantial amount of money to charities, but I think it's time we began helping others," he explained, dipping his bread into his sauce. "So, I volunteered for a new charity." "What do they do?" the girl asked indifferently before picking up her cup and taking a sip of her drink. "Well, they take in children who have lost their families and have nowhere else to go," Trixie's father explained carefully. "We try to keep them out of the social services system to stop them from being lost in the system. To put it bluntly…" He took a deep breath before finishing. "Trixie, soon, you'll have a stepbrother." Trixie nearly spat out her drink in shock, but managed to gulp in down before staring at her father with wide eyes. "W-what?" She demanded; her face full of surprise. "His name is Todd," the Tang parent explained lovingly, hoping his daughter would calm down. "He's only seven, and just lost his parents to a drunk driver. He has nowhere else to go. He'll be coming here tomorrow…" "Tomorrow?" his daughter shrieked, standing up in shock. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" She demanded shrilly; her face contorted with rage. "It was kind of last minute," Nigel admitted, unnerved by his daughter's temperament. "But…" "Why does he have to come here at all?" the child continued, pounding the table with her fist in anger. "Can't we support some other family to take care of him?" This request puzzled the bespectacled man. "Why are you so opposed to this?" He asked, disturbed by the fuss his girl was making over an act of kindness. "Because everything's great around here!" She shouted, raising her hand over her head to empathize her words. "Why do we need to bring in someone else here? Why can't we just help in some other way?" "Trixie, the best help you can give anyone is love," Her father told her gently. "Can you try to accept this boy as your brother…" "No! It's stupid!" With that she bolted from the room, filled with anger and sadness. "Trixie, wait!" her father yelled. When he realized she wasn't coming back, he buried his face in his hands, shaking his head.
Trixie was in her room, playing on a controller. She took out her anger on the fictional creatures of darkness, but to no avail. She was angry at everything that had happened.
She scowled as she thought of…the intruder. The boy showed up on time. He had black, messy hair; his eyes had bags under them from lack of sleep since the accident. He wore a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans with bland sneakers. Trixie's lip curled in distaste. His former family was obviously lower-middle class. He had a thin, lanky body about a few inches shorter than that buck-toothed boy that was so infatuated with her. Both boys had something else in common. They seemed to both whisper to inanimate objects. Trixie sighed wearingly. If there was anything good about him, it was he was quiet. He kept to himself mostly; no doubt wounded by his lost parents. But even that wasn't good enough, as he tried to befriend her…as if she wanted that to happen.
She growled as she destroyed another enemy in the game. She hated him. Everything was perfect when it was just her and her father. Why did the new kid have to come and ruin everything? Why did…
"Cool, I didn't know you had all this!" A familiar voice commented a short distant from her.
Trixie jumped up, her controller flying out of her hand as she turned around to see her so called brother looking around her hidden room. "Why didn't you tell me you had all this?" he asked in amazement, his eyes surviving the surroundings.
If she heard the question, she didn't acknowledge it. "How did you find this room?!" she shrieked so loud that Todd felt like his eardrums were going to pop.
Todd rubbed his sour ears before answering. "Well, I heard the game being played, and…" He started to explain in a sullen voice.
"Out!" the popular girl demanded, pushing the smaller child none-too-gently out of the room. She pushed him through the doorway, causing him to fall to the floor. "And if you tell anyone about this," She threatened menacingly, her hands trembled with rage. "I'll make sure your life is miserable!" With that, she slammed the door in his face.
Todd stared blankly at the closed door for a minute. Then he sighed and got to his feet. He began trudging back to his room, just a few doors down. He enter and looked around. At the moment, it was simple, sparsely decorated. There simply had not been time to decorate yet. Just a bed, a television, and computer.
As he shut the door, he continued thinking. Why did Trixie hate him? His new father treated him like his own child, why couldn't his newfound sister accept him? "I don't get it," he admitted out loud. He glanced at his watch. "Why doesn't she like me?" He asked sadly.
At that point, something happened that was not normal, that if it happened to any adult they'd probably check themselves into an asylum.
The watch sprouted eyes and a mouth and began to speak. "Well, maybe what we just saw will give us a clue," it said in a soft girly voice. Then, with a poof of smoke, the watch disappeared from his wrist and reappeared in front of him as another being entirely.
She looked like a human, except she was the size of a child. She had purple hair that stopped at her shoulders, with matching eyes and a warm smile on her face. She wore a purple shirt with black stretch pants. And the most unusual of all, a golden crown floating above her head and the wings on her back.
Her name was Krystal. Her profession was a fairly godparent.
"Maybe whatever caused her to hide all those things is related," the fairy suggested kindly.
"Yeah, it sure seemed strange that she liked all that stuff," he said in wonder. "She told me she hated it," the boy noted, sitting down on his bed. "I wish I knew why she hid that stuff." He wished out loud.
"No problem," Krystal said in a chipper tone. With that, she waved her wand (it was black with a golden star tip, the standard). In a poof of smoke, a movie screen appeared in front of him, and a projector behind him. As the projector hummed to life, Todd saw a scene played before him.
"TRIXIE ELIZABETH TANG!" Trixie's eyes shot wide open and her blood froze. That was her mother's voice, and she was shouting. She rarely shouted. It was improper. Only when she was extremely angry did she resort to such things. What if she… Trixie's thoughts were suddenly cut off by her door being kicked open, followed by her mother storming in with a furious look on her face. Almost immediately afterward her father ran in, looking quite alarmed. "Rebecca, dear, what is it?" The enraged woman turned to her husband. "I'll show you what's wrong," she said, turning back to her daughter. "What is this?" she demanded holding up one of Trixie's comics. She was holding it by its corner by her fingernails, as if it was a putrid object. The young girl's face was one of absolute horror. She opened her mouth to say something, but found that she couldn't even gather the nerve to say anything. "I'll tell you what it is," he mother continued when she realized she wasn't going to get an answer. "It's filthy. It's vulgar. It's. Not. Proper!" There was a long silence before Mr. Tang spoke. "Honey, it's just a comic book." Rebecca gave her husband a shocked look. "Just a comic book? Nigel, don't you realize our daughter has actually purchased a low class form of entertainment? It's not proper. It's immature!" "But Trixie's only seven," Nigel countered. "She has every right to be immature." Rebecca couldn't believe what she was hearing. "But she's a Tang! She must be proper at all times!" "Mother, please…" Trixie began, but she was cut off. Rebecca did something neither her daughter or her husband expected. She slapped her. Trixie fell to the ground, tears forming in her eyes and her cheek throbbing in pain. When she dared look up, she saw her mother's cold and angry glare. "Do not call me that, you wretched girl!" She then turned to her still shocked husband. "Nigel, we must disown her immediately!" Trixie's mind filled with fear, while Nigel's shock deepened. "Disown?" he asked incredulously. "Yes. We cannot risk having ties to such an crude child. Throw her out immediately!" "No," Nigel replied. It was Rebecca's turn to be shocked. "What?" "I'm not going to throw her out just because you don't like what she does in her spare time." Still shocked, Rebecca managed to say the next sentence clearly. "Nigel, either she goes or I go. Which is it going to be?" "You go," Nigel said without hesitation. "I'll call my lawyer. We'll be divorced by tomorrow morning." Rebecca stared at her former husband with utter shock. Then, her face tightened with rage as she turned to the small girl she had bore seven years earlier. "You…you did this!" she screamed, lunging at her. Fortunately, her bodyguard happened to be right outside the door. When he heard what was happening, he immediately burst in and grabbed the former Mrs. Tang by the shoulder and pulled her away from his charge. He then placed himself firmly between Trixie and her enraged mother. "Move," Rebecca demanded. "You work for me!" "Not anymore," the bodyguard said bluntly, glaring at her former boss. Nervously, she turned to her ex-husband, who was glaring even more ferociously. Backing down from the glares, she left the room in a rage. Trixie continued crying, feeling guilty for what just happened.
The images went blank. Todd and Krystal stared at the screen in shock; their mouths hung opened. Todd's mind slowly processed this information.
"This could explain it," Krystal said at last, after clearing her throat. "I've seen it before. A child gets rejected early in life, or multiple times. They start expecting it from everyone, so they reject first as a coping mechanism."
Todd nodded mechanically. For the first time since he arrived, he felt sorry for Trixie. Sure, she was snotty, condescending and unsympathetic (namely when he arrived and he had not gotten over the loss of his parents). He wasn't sure what was worse; to lose two loving parents or have a cruel parent who hurts you and then leaves you. Suddenly, his chest hurt terribly.
"Are you alright?" Krystal asked kindly, noticing the change in Todd's pose.
"Yeah," Todd assured her, rubbing his chest to ease the pain.
The pain had first appeared when he learned about his parents' death. It was unbearable; hitting him like a knife. Then Krystal entered his life. She was kind, helpful and could give him almost anything he wanted (except his parents since there was a rule against wishing the dead back to life, due to some incident with another godchild). The pain had eventually ebbed down; leaving only a fading ach that gnawed him, rather then throbbed constantly. The pain subsided and then he considered what he had witnessed. Then he straightened up. He wanted to help his stepsister, even if she didn't deserve it.
"Is there any way we can reverse that?" He asked Krystal hopefully, his dark eyes brimmed with emotion.
"Well, I can't alter someone personality, if that's what you're asking," Krystal told him in a low voice; her hands on her hips. "That's against Da Rules. At least it is now, because of some wish by that Turner boy."
Todd nodded. He had only had Krystal since his parents' death, about three weeks ago, but he was familiar with the name Timmy Turner. He was well known for being at the center of nearly every conflict the magical realms have had over the last two years, including being the brother of the first fairy baby born in thousands of years.
"Well, what if we were to rewind time a bit," He asked hopefully. "Make sure that Trixie has a better childhood? Or is that against the rules too?"
"No, but I wouldn't recommend it," Krystal shook her head. "It leads to problems."
Todd rubbed his chin a moment, and then brightened. "I have an idea."
Kyrstal eyed her godchild in wonder.
A few minutes later, the pair were standing (or in Krystal's case, was around Todd's wrist's) outside the door of Trixie's regular bedroom.
"Are you sure about this?" the purple-haired fairy (disguised as a watch) asked in a doubtful voice.
"Positive," her godchild replied confidently. "This will totally work. Now then, I wish Trixie Tang was a little girl again for the next twenty-four hours and she can't question why."
"If you insist," Krystal answered in a low voice. Her arm sprouted from her side, holding her wand. She waved her wand, and a poof was heard inside the room.
"Let's see what we got," the boy declared excitedly as he reached for the knob to open the door.
He and Krystal went inside. There, standing in the middle of the floor, holding two action figures was a very confused-looking toddler. Her body was small (her head only came to Todd's waist; her black hair came to her shoulders; and she was wearing a smaller version of Trixie's usual attire.
"What happened?" She asked in dazed, childish voice, dropping the action figures in the process. "Why is very so big?" Then she touched her throat, her eyes widen in shock. "And what happened to my perfectly perfect voice?"
"It worked!" Todd exclaimed happily. "With Trixie having another childhood, we'll act nice to her. When she grows up again, she can remember that people won't always reject her."
Krystal frowned, her eyes narrowing. "I don't know," She murmured slowly. "It sounds good, but babysitting a child is hard work. You think you can handle it?"
Todd scowled. "I'm bigger then her," He told her down her Krystal on her wrist. "I think I can handle it. Its not like I'm going to bully her."
"Well," Krystal conceded thoughtfully, turning to look back to the room. "I'll admit, it seems like a good…" Suddenly, she stopped as she noticed something, her eyes widened in horror. "Where'd she go?" She asked in a worried voice. Todd turned, and his eyes widened. Trixie was gone.