Sam's POV

Its official, I decided, Will is either the bravest man I have ever met or the stupidest. On second thought, both, definitely both. After all, not many young heroes are confident AND foolish enough to saunter over to a group of witches in the middle of our annual back to school gala, ask one to dance, and then lead her onto the floor before she could, you know, answer. The girl's… pretty, I suppose. Maybe even more than pretty, though striking is perhaps the better term. She looked angelic; an odd juxtaposition for a witch, with her blonde ringlet curls and clear blue eyes conflicting with her fire engine red lipstick and black mascara that made her eyes look even brighter under the floating rainbow lights of the party. Her curvy, if slightly pale-skinned, form was tucked neatly into a bright red top under a black corset, and a light-wash denim skirt. On second thought, the top itself was rather unusual. As a rule, witches don't like bright colors and anyone could see that she was the only witch at the party wearing anything brighter than… Oh, about navy blue. I returned my mind to the present to see that Will had failed in convincing the blonde to dance with him, but was now none the less escorting her, a touch forcefully, over to where my friends and I were standing.

A short word on the matter. I have five close friends. We have been as thick as thieves since we were children. Our parents were all close friends during school and had always made a point of keeping in contact. I'm Sam, Prince of Solaria. I'm the rebel. My two best friends would be Will, the inveterate playboy who was leading the Blonde our way, and Eric, the fun loving, but overly responsible (read: goody-two-shoes), Prince of Eraklyon. Tanner and Aaron, the other two parts of our quintet, were MIA for the moment.

"Hey guys, meet Kali. Kali this is Sam and Eric." That's Will for you, smiley and confident as ever. The blonde, Kali her name was, looked… less than amused.

"Pleasure." She said shortly. Her voice was mid-ranged, but dusky and sweet. I raised an eyebrow at Will while he carefully avoided Eric's disapproving stare. 'Sigh' There was a boy who never could stay out of trouble. Will had turned back to her and started flirting, a bit outrageously, telling stories, always managing to turn it around into some kind of boast or compliment for the- for Kali's benefit.

"You know I think there's something wrong with my eyes. I can't seem to take them off you," he said cheekily.

"I have a problem with mine too. I just can't see you getting anywhere with me," she retorted without a break.

"Well that is a problem isn't it? Your eyes not seeing things that are there," he replied with a laughing false innocence.

"As bad as yours seeing things that aren't," she snarked back. Now, just saying, I'm pretty sure point he was only flirting with her at this point so he could hear her sarcastic comebacks.

"On the topic of eyes, do you have a map? I've gotten rather lost in yours." He said while leaning towards her keeping his chocolate brown eyes locked with her baby blues.

Still without the slightest pause or blush, she replied "Sorry, No map, but it's fine by me if you get lost." I couldn't help it. I tried. I really did, but I started laughing and Kali perked up and smiled at me while Will mock-glared and returned to flirting.

He had just finished describing an incident involving the five of us and a whole horde of angry ghouls (Funny, I cannot seem to recall ever pissing off a ghoul much less a whole horde of them…) when he turned and with his best, most charming smile asked "So Beautiful, care to dance?"

She gave him a look halfway between amused and exasperated that suddenly shifted into a syrupy sweet smile before replying, "I'd rather not, but" turning to me and asking in an overly cheerful, albeit obviously fake, tone of voice, "would you care to dance?" I laughed before taking her hand and overdramatically replying,

"I'd just love, too." I led her gracefully on to the dance floor, but not before looking back at Will to see him looking rather playfully insulted. He saw me looking back and sent me a mock-glare that I just smirked at before turning to dance with Kali. Her eyes were still laughing as she said,

"Thanks, for playing along it was too good of a chance to turn up you see…" I laughed along with her and said,

"Don't mention it. Will could use the ego-deflating… most days really." She smiled again and I decided that she was definitely more than pretty and probably better than striking too, but I shook my head slightly returning to the matter at hand. "So as Will told you, my name's Sam, I'm from Solaria. You?" I questioned.

"Whisperia." She responded easily and I blinked, a bit surprised. I probably shouldn't have been shocked though, Whisperia is known for producing powerful witches. Or to be more accurate, for producing powerful dark magic. Whisperia, quite simply, wasn't a very nice place. She seemed to expect my reaction though, as she rolled her eyes and responded, "Yeah, my home does have… quite the reputation doesn't it." She gave a fake little laugh "I suppose yours does too though. Our realms are only, you know, exact opposites." I decided that right about then would be a great time to change the subject.

"So obviously a Cloud Tower student, but what year are you in?" I asked curiously.

"I'm a freshman. You?" she asked copying one of my earlier mannerisms. I smiled

"Sophomore actually, but I remember being a freshman, thrown to the wolves among the upperclassmen." She laughed and I relaxed slightly feeling far less nervous and conspicuous than I had been a moment ago. We talked and danced and laughed for hours and I was rather surprised when I finally removed my gold eyes from her sky blue to find that the moon was much higher in the sky then it had been when I first led her onto the floor. She seemed to realize that too as she extricated herself from my arms and made to excuse herself.

I quickly grabbed her hand before she could walk away. I hadn't thought about it, I don't even really know why I did it, but I didn't want her to go so I said "I wouldn't mind enjoying your company a while longer if you wouldn't mind." She seemed pleased, but slightly curious as if trying to understand what I meant by that (besides the obvious). She smiled and let me keep her hand as I started to lead her away from the dance floor to one of the many ornate benches around the grounds.

Unfortunately, before we could slip away from the party all together I heard a sickly sweet voice purr, "Kali, there you are. I just hate to pull you away from Solaria's little princeling, but I wanted to have a word with you." Kali stiffened and I winced. Damn, I had been hoping to avoid the prince card. Most people either turn into suck-ups or are intimidated, and neither reaction is conducive to making friends… or more than friends. The angular dark-haired girl that had stalked up to us was… pretty in her own way, but she had the appearance of an ice queen. Someone who would happily shut you out and shut you up at any given opportunity.

Kali turned to respond with a mocking sort of cheerfulness in her voice "Oh there you are Lindsey! I'm sorry, was the middle of our conversation interrupting the beginning of yours?" She then turned and stomped away before the flabbergasted girl could reply. She was still holding my hand as we walked over to one of the afore-mentioned benches and sat down. "Sorry about that Princeling. Lindsey's… well." She apologized though I noticed her voice was a tad accusing.

"Right, you're a little annoyed I didn't tell you. Personally I don't see it as a big deal so I tend not to mention it much, but I apologize if I've offended you." I winced and explained quickly. Her accusing glace quickly melted and she shrugged, already over it. We sat down on one of the carefully wrought benches set around the Alfea campus and she pulled her hand from mine. I felt an odd sense of loss at her actions, and brushed my messy brown hair out of my eyes to give my hands something to do. Then, she asked me a question.

"So what's it like being a prince then? Or on a more general subject, what's Solaria like?"

I shifted towards her and responded with a hint of discomfort "Being a prince is… as it is. Like I said, I don't really talk about it much. I mean, it's not like it says anything about me. It just means I have to go to a." I quickly changed the subject, as the second question was more interesting anyway and I responded more cheerfully, "Solaria is beautiful though. As I'm sure you're aware, it's sunny there. All the time. Literally, it never rains, or snows, we don't even get clouds very often. Like you said, we are known for our light magic not that I know all too much about the subject. We have three suns and several moons as well. Farming isn't big on Solaria, we're a little dry for that, but Solaria isn't altogether urban like Zenith, either. It's more like endless suburbia other than the capital which is more like Magix." I explained smoothly. "What's Whisperia like?" I asked in return.

"Nothing like Solaria by the sound of it. Whisperia is very urban, very industrial. We are, as you know, known for dark magic, but it's not as bad as you'd expect. It's… beautiful in its own way. Especially at night and besides it's a fun place to explore." She smiled mischievously before finishing. "I spent most of my childhood sneaking out at night to wander."

I laughed and asked "And how old were you during your nighttime escapades?"

She just gave a sphinxlike smile before quipping, "Wouldn't you like to know." I made to ask her a question when a magically strengthened voice suddenly rang out above the crowd.

"Witches of Cloud Tower, we will now be returning to campus to prepare for the start of classes tomorrow if you would all gather by the gates we will be on our way." Kali stood quickly and walked towards the gates with me following close behind. I stopped her before she could join the crowd of witches.

"Hey, I- Well- I wouldn't mind… having the pleasure of your company again in the future." I managed to get out.

She looked at me, again surprised, but also decidedly pleased as she grinned at me, a touch mischievously and said, "Well, maybe we'll have to go dancing again some time." I smiled and lifted the hand I still held to my lips and holding it there for a long moment, gold eyes meeting blue, before releasing it. She smiled at me one last time before slipping into the crowd. I suddenly felt a bit of paper appear wadded up into my hand that hadn't been there when she had slipped away. I opened it and read 'You might need this if we're going to go dancing again, Princeling. -Kali' along with her phone number. I put the note in my pocket and smiled.

Kali's POV

He was… handsome, in a roguish kind of way. With his brown hair that he kept absent-mindedly mussing (I don't think he even realized he was doing it.) and his luminescent gold eyes. I had been standing with two of my "friends" Ashley and Rebecca when the other boy had confidently swaggered over. We had been talking (Read: complaining) about the dance and Alfea.

Ashley had said with a tone of total disgust "Ugh. Look at all the pathetic simpering little pixies flirting away with a bunch of hero-wanna-bees. Why are we here again?"

Rebecca had laughed and responded mockingly, "because complaining about pixies is one of our favorite hobbies. So what do you hate the most Kali?"

I had been ignoring them, but I glanced over to answer her question. After all, no reason to be rude even if Ashley and Rebecca annoy me. "Hmmm. Hard question. Probably how they all give us those looks every time we walk by as if we're going to attack them or something. It's ridiculous. Don't they realize we have better things to do? Honestly."

They nodded agreeing before Ashley said, "I think I hate their goody-goody attitudes most. I mean they honestly think that the world is a pretty, perfect little place that they can change if they try. Oh, please. No to mention, that they think their sunshiny personalities make them better than us, but really they're practically helpless in comparison not to mention stupid." She finished laughing.

Rebecca agreed nodding, then she laughed and added, "Witches are just more powerful, but I doubt any of them even know that. They are so naïve. They don't even know what magic is capable of." She paused waiting for a moment thinking, before she continued with barely hidden excitement, her eyes bright, "Maybe we should show them. I'm sure you could come up with something good Kali!"

I looked at her and barely resisted rolling my eyes. I nonetheless responded in a way that was mostly civil, "Why bother? At best, we accomplish something for five minutes… then a teacher fixes it and we get into trouble. That's not impressive; it's just stupid." I didn't mention the fact that I didn't want to prank the fairies, they wouldn't understand. I just don't care about their petty rivalries they had always seemed so pointless to me. It was just one of the many, silly prejudices my mother had tried to drill into my head.

The boy, Will was his name I think, had walked up before the others could reply. He was obviously confident with girls, for good reason I suppose with warm brown eyes that latched onto mine, and golden blonde hair that flipped up above his forehead, though he wasn't really my type. Too charming, too talkative, too fake. He'd given me an, admittedly very cute, smile and asked me to dance, but before I could quip back, he had smoothly pulled me onto the dance floor. We talked; well he talked anyway, trying to convince me to dance. I'm not much of a dancer though so I convinced him to just talk instead and he led me over to meet his friends, Sam and Eric.

Like I said, Sam's handsome, decidedly so, but much quieter than Will. I didn't get the chance to talk to Eric, but he was… noticeable. His hair was that orange color that everyone paradoxically calls red and his eyes were the same bright, bright blue as the sky. I remember Will had at that point started in on the pick-up lines, which I easily shot down. Now, I'm by no means one of those flirty, confident, party girls, but I'm not so sheltered that I don't know what to say in that situation. It wasn't exactly hard, and he didn't seem to take it too bad. I couldn't help laughing when I remembered turning over to Sam and asking him to dance, the look on Will and Eric's faces were great, fake-angry and happily entertained respectively.

The first thing I had noticed was that Sam had definitely done this before, often. He had just absentmindedly led me around the floor occasionally throwing out the little spins and dips that anyone can do, but that few accomplish smoothly. Which is why I suppose Lindsey's little barb had made so much sense when I heard it beyond her just trying to annoy me. A prince would know how to dance now wouldn't he and she does hate me.

The best word I have for the two of us is rivals though that's not quite right. Of the freshmen witches, we were the two most powerful and everyone had their eyes on us. Everyone watching and waiting to see when we would finally face off. One of us would win and become the unofficial leader; one of us would lose and spend the rest of her school career trying to overthrow the other. It's practically tradition at good old CT. Don't you just love the place? Uh, yeah. Not.

I had expected to hate the gala, and to be bored out of mind standing with my "friends". Who were and are vapid idiots only interested in the power and positions they'll get if I beat Lindsey. Instead, I had been rather sad to go, though Sam's last comment had made it a little better. I guess now we wait and see. Will we or won't he?