The Completely True Story of Varanda of Callisto
A Season One Prequel
What do you mean, you're not coming?
Princess Varanda Constance Battensfield of Callisto sighed, trying to figure out exactly how to tell Stella that when she said she wasn't coming to Alfea, she meant… well, she meant she wasn't coming to Alfea. The first line of the email nearly stared her down.
She glanced at the letter next to her computer, the acceptance paper for the fairy school. It was a shade of pink that contrasted to the simple cleanness of Randie's chambers- the cream walls, the deep blue carpet, the sleek silver laptop. It seemed so frivolous, just as Stella had become.
Varanda remembered meeting Stella. Or, well, as close to meeting Stella as she ever had gotten. Stell had been fifteen, Randie fourteen, and they were both members on Phantein, a blogging platform that matched members based on interests and powers to form friendships. When Phantein matched the fairy of the shining sun with Randie, the fairy of shooting stars (a romantic way to say that she controlled a bunch of space rocks), the friendship sparked immediately. Both girls were dorky- Stell's profile picture featured a girl with raggedy blonde hair, large glasses, and simple clothes. Randie herself was darker skinned with frizzy black hair and dull hazel eyes. She was tall, and had potential to be a beauty- they both did- but only one ever utilized that potential, and that was entirely the problem.
Stell, after starting at Alfea the year before, had become some sort of beauty queen. It started with the first Metamorphasymbiosis class, when she altered her blonde hair to become a teeny bit more golden, like the sunshine she controlled. Back then, both girls were excited. Maybe they could finally be really awesome, not dorky and weird. Randie, who was the brains to Stell's power, suggested a slight spell alteration to change skin tone so the pale Stell could achieve the perfect tan, and it worked. When Stell emailed about how Prince Sky of Eraklyon was flirting with her, the two girls had to jump up and down as best as they could, virtually.
But then the whole thing began to turn sour. Stell started taking her spelled beauty for granted, and before long she entered the Miss Magix pageant… and actually got to be the runner-up. Stella's roommate, also a member on Phantein started complaining about the blonde on her blog, about how suddenly everything was about color and style. And Stell's Phantein account filled with hipster stuff and the occasional bad design- Stella's interests had shifted from wanting to be a showrunner for a major network to wanting to be a fashion designer. Randie was one second away from unfollowing her old friend when suddenly, Stella got expelled.
Stella got a little better at first, watching television like she used to, reading and writing fanfic, posting humor stuff on her account. Of course, that didn't last long, cause her daddy, King Radius, bought her back into the school, and suddenly Stella's free time was spent getting a better wardrobe together and finding better beauty spells. She hadn't emailed or talked to Randie in ages when suddenly the princess of Callisto got a message about applying to Alfea.
And she did. She didn't think it through, and she did. And she got accepted. And she did decide to attend, at first.
But the more and more she looked at Alfea girls, the more she looked at the website, the more she looked at the alumni she knew, the more she realized that Alfea changed people. Sure, it specialized in the painless and seamless journey from fairy adolescence, the Charmix age, to the adult Enchantix. But it wasn't like there was a trademark on it. She could study at home, just as well.
And so, Randie decided to. And only when she decided to be true to herself did Stell send this email, begging her to reconsider.
She wasn't going to. Randie of Callisto liked being a geek.
Author's Note: This is to my good writerbuddy Akela Victoire, only two days late for her birthday! Sorry it's late. Happy birthday! Know that if you invited me to Alfea, I'd so be there!