"So this is Alfea..."

I know fairies are often seen by other species as girly and all, but I still wasn't expecting the campus to be so incredibly pink. It has blue as well, but that just made the colour scheme clash. I mean, they're - oh, never mind, enough about that. The point is that I am starting my freshman year at Alfea, the school for gifted fairies.

Who am I, you ask? My name is Eponine and I'm from Solaria. Yeah, yeah, I know, "Oh my goodness, you're from Stella's home planet!" Congratulations, you're still obsessed with the Winx Club despite that they've been dead for over a hundred years. Don't freak out, they died from natural causes, also known as old age.

I walk through the gates and get my name marked off, then make my way to my dorm room. I'm sure I would have gotten lost if it wasn't for the map my brother had forced upon me, having 'edited' it before he returned to school at Red Fountain. He made sure to highlight everything so nothing is unclear to me. He is a very overprotective brother. Heck, he even went as far as getting some of his fairy friends to 'protect me', whatever that means.

Upon stumbling into my room (literally, may I add, damn shoelaces), I am surprised that I like what I see. The walls are a pale yellow, the furniture white and pale shades of pink and blue. Coming from Solaria, I like bright looking things. It comes in the DNA.

There are three beds in the room and I wasn't sure what to think about that. Being a shy person, I try to avoid most social contact, so having roommates is going to freak me out. Alright, I'm not going to lie, I'm starting to figure out why my brother is so protective.

I barely even set my luggage down on the nearest bed when I hear voices outside my door. Whoever they are, they seem to be arguing. The door opens and a strange looking blonde girl falls in, her blonde pigtails covering her face. She screams and waves her stripey-sock covered legs in the air, shrieking, "SOS! SOS!"

The other girl is still in the doorway, her red hair swishing as she walked in and stepped on the blonde's stomach. "Enough, Fern. We have company," she said, glancing at me.

I'm not going to lie, these guys kind of creep me out.

The blonde, who I assume is Fern, gets up and rushes to the yellow bed, which is right near the window. The red head just rolls her eyes and sets her stuff on the blue bed. She gives me a nod and says, "'Sup, you must be Eponine."

I felt my eyes widen. "How did you know that?"

"We're friends of your brother," she says. "My brother goes to Red Fountain with him, so he asked me to find a friend that's studying here as well and look after you." She looks over at Fern. "She was the best I could find. I don't really have friends."

I groan. "I thought Jeremiah would have the decency to get friends around his age to check up on me once and a while, not fairies that would share the same room and classes as me."

"I don't like this any more than you do, honey. Don't get me wrong, you're alright, but if I screw up your beloved brother is going to send me back to my home planet with a catapult," the red head says, jumping on her bed so her back is lying against the pillows.

Even though I know I'm going to regret this, I say, "Don't worry about it. As long as we can all be friends, it's cool."

Fern jumps around on her bed and shrieks, "Sure!"

I look over at the other girl whose face is now almost completely hidden by her magazine. "What about you, uh..."

"Carissa," she says without putting the magazine down, "and sure, if I must join in."

Even though she said that, I can still see her smile when she lowers the magazine a little.


Fern, being the bubbly and energetic girl she is, forced us to explore the campus with her. In my opinion, there isn't much to explore, since all the classrooms were off limits until classes started next week. We go to the gardens and around the perimeter as well as the quadrangle. Eventually, we arrive near the front of the school. Fern runs up to some other students who seem older than us. I start to back away, but Carissa takes my arm and pulls me along.

"Dude, calm down, they're our friends." When I glare at her, she says, "Alright, yes, we know them through your brother, but that doesn't mean they're evil."

The older students look at Carissa and I as we approach them. There are two of them, and I could have sworn that I've seen them in my brother's pictures before. Getting closer, I realize I was right - there was the cheerful-looking tall girl and the tough blonde my brother had pointed out to me only a couple of weeks ago. Their names escape me at this moment.

"Eponine, this is Belladonna," Fern introduces, gesturing to the tall girl, "and this is Ashlyn," she continues, pointing to the blonde.

Well, I didn't have to wait long for their names at least.

Belladonna waves with a grin and says, "I'm a senior, Epi - can I call you Epi? - so if you have any questions about the campus or classes, come to me. I know pretty much everything."

"Alright, step away from the freshmen," Ashlyn says, smirking. "Belladonna thinks she knows everything, but she really doesn't. Even I know more than her, and I'm just a sophomore She's just practicing her boasting for when Kennith comes-"

"Oi!" Belladonna hits Ashlyn in the head making the smaller girl wince. "Kennith has nothing to do with my intelligence."

"Sure, sure." Ashlyn looks behind Carissa and I and her smoke grows wider. "Speaking of boys from Red Fountain..." She gestures behind me and I turn around. Sure enough, there are boys in specialist uniforms riding bikes on their way to the gates. The only one I can see clearly is the brunette in front, who appears to be speeding.

Letting go of my arm, Carissa storms up to the gates, muttering something about her brother. Ashlyn comes up beside me and says, "Don't worry about her, it's just her brother speeding up in front there. She's been getting on his case ever since she could talk. She was going through withdrawal symptoms last year because he started at Red Fountain, doing things while not under her watchful eye."

"So he got into a whole lot of trouble, then?" I ask.

Ashlyn chuckles. "Nah, Carissa asked me to keep an eye on him, so I did. He even called me worse than her at times." She starts running to catch up with Carissa, yelling, "Hey, Connor! Long time no see, dude!"

I ran to catch up with everyone else, who are all speaking with Carissa's brother, who I gather is Connor. As I approach, Connor looks at me. "Hey, you're Eponine, right? Jeremiah's little sister?"

I give a forced smile. "The one and only."

He is about to question me some more when the other riders pull up behind him. The first one to get off is the tallest and he appears breathless as he takes his helmet off. "How is it that you can ride faster safely even better than I can even though I'm a senior," he asks Connor.

Connor shrugs. "I just have more skills than you, Kennith."

As the other boys - three to be exact - stepped off their bikes, I couldn't help but notice one of them, with his blonde hair and bright blue eyes-

Fern nudges me and I snap out of my trance. She whispers, giggling, "You like Beta!"

"No, I don't," I whisper back, then proceed to ignore her while she goes to talk to the smallest biker (who appears to be Beta's older twin brother Alpha) and I focus on Carissa and her conversation with one of the other boys.

"How am I a bad influence on your brother?" he is asking, his forehead creased.

Carissa makes a noise like she is choking and sneezing at the same time. "Oh, come on, Oscar! Don't you dare give me that crap! You were the one that broke the law for speeding back at their home planet, then you got involved with those idiot seniors last year and forced my brother to as well! How about the time you crashed one of Alfea's celebrations and almost got my brother killed from pushing him off a ledge on your way to escape? Get away from me, you brat."

As Carissa walks away, Oscar says, "Yeah, I'm the brat." Nonetheless, I can't help but notice the small look of hurt in his face.

I sigh. This is going to be a louder year than I was expecting.


Just something I decided to write. Many other stories include the Winx's children and all, but I didn't really want to do that, instead going for a time even further away, almost 200 years. This chapter is pretty much just to set the scene and all. Hope you enjoyed! Review! ^_^