Hi, that is the english version of my other fic "sfide e guai".
I will keep translating it, if I get any feedback on it...

I did not own winx club, nor its characters.


In hindsight I should have known that this challenge would have bring trouble.

I mean, how can finish well a challenge started as "Let's dress as girls and see who can spend more time with the Winx without them understand who we are"?

And no, Sky, the fact that we are studying disguising technique does not justify it.

And no, Timmy, define it as "a sociological experiment aimed to determine which stereotypes on the sex are true" will not make the girls more charitable when they will find out that they have been deceived. But then, again, none of you are engaged with Stella, who is a viper in a good day and a bit more poisonous in a bad one.

We gave ourselves five days time, nearly one each, not to make them suspicious. No one knows when the others will have a go, only that from now to the end of the week, we all will have to try disguise us as girls. I envy Nabu that, not being in the city, will be saved from all this.

My plan is to get it out of my mind as soon as possible, before the girls start to understand to be surrounded by disguised specialists.

That's why I'm here today, with the painful shoes and a skirt that let in the air where the air should not access. And let's not forget the wig ... I could swear to have more hair in my mouth than on my head.

Miserable is the word that I would use to describe myself.

The girls are sitting at a table in a bar, resting before go back to their shopping, and I just have to move from behind the bush I'm hiding behind and approach them. That's turned out to be harder than expected…

When I'm about to move, here a person approaches them. Person? A goddess. She is beautiful, and when she starts talking I have to give everything to not drooling.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where is the shopping centre?"

Stella began a long dissertation on how to get to two different shopping centres, and how one is better than the other, except for that little shop in the second one, that has always so cute stuff, made by an emerging stylist ...

The girl responds with a joke about her poor sense of direction, that today she already got lost twice to go from the train station to the metro, which are in the same building but on two different floors. She blushes, embarrassed by her own clumsiness, and with one hand she smooths the skirt of the light,aquamarine dress she is wearing. And no, I'm not looking at the length of the skirt, high over the knee, or as the lightweight fabric let glimpse of her shapely thighs. I got engaged, so I'm not fixing her legs. But I'm human, and I cannot help but admire how the dress color enhances the purple of her eyes.

And then the blush on his cheekbones intensifies, and looking down she asks "Could you lead me there?"

Bloom is the first to jump up and say that yes, there is no problem, that they were going there anyway. Count on Bloom to take any pups or stray that passes next to her!

And then they start, the six Winx and the beautiful stranger, and I follow them from nearby.

Chatting amicably as they walk, and so I find out that the beautiful stranger came to Magix recently, and that her only friend here is out of town for a while, and so it felt a little bit alone and was thinking that shopping would lifts her spirits, but it only remind her more how strongly she misses her friend, who usually assumes the honor to lead her around so that her will not get lost! The story is easy going, but there is a fragility in her face when she turns to answer Laila that yes, she knows other people here, but sometimes she's not sure she belong to the group, that she get herself completely integrated.

And to this the girls suggest her to join them throughout the afternoon, and a part of me wonders if the girl just manipulated them in doing what she wanted, but that fragility no, cannot be faked. And all this seems innocent enough, and in any case I'm following them and if things should go south, I could certainly help.

I almost forgot my mission today, and than a clumsily disguised Timmy makes his appearance. The wig is crooked, the make-up asymmetrical and of the wrong color, and dress emphasizes all the wrong things as the absence of breast and the width of the shoulders.

Needless to say, the poor Timmy is put to flight in few minutes ...

The stranger raises a perfectly shaped eyebrow and said "I'm not sure of what just happened ..."

The girls laugh and comment that Timmy probably has just lost some kind of bet. Apparently Sky was in the same situation this morning, but managed to appear convincing for a little more time, at least till the moment he opened his mouth.

She laughs, and that makes her long magenta hair dance around her cheeks in soft waves.

I wonder if they are silky to the touch as they appear. Brandon, no, you're engaged!

They end up in the emerging stylist shop, and the guy falls in love with beautiful stranger. I see it in his eyes. And no, I can not be jealous, I must not, I should not ... The type introduce himself with a bow and kiss her hand, and with this he earns a chuckle and the name of the red haired girl. And my eternal hatred. Ok, yes, I am jealous. I do not know her, I do not know who her is, but the fragility that she showed before moved something in me. He must have moved something in Musa as well, because the music fairy puts protectively her arm around the waist of Rika, (who is the nickname for Erica but that was the name of her grandmother), and drags her away from the designer.

Rika thanks her, and adds something else that I can not hear form the distance, but makes Musa laugh. The two begin to snoop around at the clothes as they continue to chat and wait for Stella to finish trying the mountain of clothes she brought with her into the dressing room. Musa passes Rika a black dress with something that from here looks like small pink and magenta flowers, and pushes her to the mirror behind which I'm hiding.

I pretend to be inspecting the clothes close to me, but I still keep an eye on them, and so I assist to the swirl of emotions that dances on Rika's face when she looks in the mirror: In a first moment her eyes widen in surprise, as if she wasn't expecting her image, and a moment later one corner of her mouth lifts in an half smile. And then, like a flash, a thought cross her mind, and she frowns, and her eyes fill of sadness, and the fragility that struck me first come back on her expression. But soon she takes a deep breath and looks away, and her face hardens into something different, and this sudden force that she's projecting now is even more intriguing for me than the previous fragility.

And then her eyes meet mine, and there is like a recognition in her eyes. She turns and whispers something in Musa's ear, who turns to look at me and bursts out a laugh. How is it even possible that I lasted less than Timmy? And how did Rika discover me?

Before I can give voice to these questions, an explosion shakes the mall. Three witches flying in the building from the hole they have just created in the ceiling, and they point to the magic shop in front of me.

The Winx transform and start to attack them, and I engage fight with the goblins that accompany them. Or at least I try. I'm actually just stumbling in my shoes and at the end I fall, and as a goblin approaches to finish me, a purplish saber stabs it. And Rika, wielding the sword, apostrophe me with her melodious voice "Brandon, we don't have all day, can you walk?" Her voice is melodious, but also a bit lower than what it was a few minutes ago.

And then it strikes me: violet eyes, the hardness in the face in an effort not to show weakness, the purplish saber... Rika just won the challenge, and has cheated me too.

Rika is Riven.