Chapter Two
"A masquerade!"
"I will not show up if it's a masquerade."
"What's wrong with a masquerade?'
"We are not the most coordinated group of fairies, Stell! We'll be standing right next to each other and we'll get lost!"
Flora looked at me from across the table, eyes pleading for me to stop Stella and Musa's bickering.
I shrugged, shaking my head. The idea that I had the ability to stop them was futile in itself.
"We won't get lost. We're the Winx Club, Musa! For Dragon's sake, we stand out whether we like it or not!" Stella suddenly glared at all of us. "And we will stand out."
"Why do you want a masquerade, Stella?" I asked, interrupting the argument. "Your party's already going to make the news."
"I know, Bloom, but it's my party; therefore, I will make sure it goes down in history."
"And a masquerade will make history how?"
"Solaria hasn't had a masquerade ball in over 200 years. If Stella chooses to make her theme masquerade then it will not only be labeled as the most eccentric party of the year, but also one that could have the potential to make history books." Tecna said from her spot by the door of the empty pizzeria we were in.
I nearly spat out my drink. "There hasn't been a masquerade on you planet in 200 years?"
Stella nodded. "It's a tragedy that they're such a rarity." she sighed, almost dreamily. "They're so romantic."
"Yes, because that's what we're all looking for –multiple boyfriends." Layla said, crossing her arms.
"Or, for some, just one." Stella added, waggling her eyebrows at Layla.
The Princess of Tides rolled her eyes. "Stella, I don't need a boyfriend; nor do I want one. I've managed to survive seventeen years without one –the rest shouldn't be that difficult."
"Oh, come on, Layla! Your über-feminist ways are nothing compared to my matchmaker skills. I'm the queen of love! And you, my dear Layla, are in desperate need of a man." A devious smile crossed her face. "Plus, might I add, I am the reason why everyone else here has a boyfriend. I have connections."
"I'm going to laugh when your most prized pairing breaks up and ruins your matchmaker career."
Stella gasped in horror. "Don't even say that! Now you've jinxed Bloom and Sky!"
"My relationship is your greatest triumph?" I asked, curiously.
"Um, yes! You two have lasted the longest –aside from me and Brandon–, and I managed to get you two to meet within 24 hours of knowing you. If that's not a major accomplishment, what is?"
"Can we get the pizza and go, please?" Musa yelled, breaking up the talk about boys. "I'm starving!"
Glancing over at Flora, she gave me a sad half-smile. Both of us knew it was anything but paradise in Musa's love life. We all had thought she and Riven had grown closer since the fight in Realix until she came to Flora one night a few weeks ago, wondering how to handle his attitude.
I can guarantee if you look up the word, you'll find Riven's face plastered across the page with his stupid spiked hair. It wasn't a surprise to anyone that he was a total jerk with an attitude problem, seeing that he always walked around with a sneer on his face. After the past two years of having to put up with him, however, he seemed to get a bit softer. Not much, but just enough to barely be noticed. And all because of Musa.
Ever since that night, though, any slight mention of boys seemed to set the musician off.
"Yes, I clearly remember being bribed to come out with pizza." I agreed. "However, there is no pizza in my hands."
"You all are such babies." Stella complained, walking over to the counter. "You two have feet!"
"Says the girl who claims she can't change the channel because she just got a pedicure." Musa mumbled.
The bell on the door to the pizza parlor rang out, disturbing the peace and quiet. I didn't recognize any of the three girls that walked in. All I could tell was that they definitely weren't from any school on Magix, judging by their burgundy uniform dresses. The one that seemed to act as the head of the group was a tall, skeleton-thin girl with a badly done black dye job that was a stark contrast to her pale skin. She had tried to make up for it with her dark eye makeup, but it wasn't complementing her whatsoever –neither was the drawn-on mole high up on her right cheek.
The three girls approached the counter next to Stella, the one in front giving her the evil eye.
"Why do I get the feeling that we're about to break out into a fight?" Musa asked under her breath.
"Because we've had a fairly decent day, and that's against the natural balance of things."
Just as the chef was about to put the pizza box in Stella's hands, the first girl reached out and grabbed it. Here we go, I thought as I instantly jumped up to stand next to Stella.
"Excuse you!' Stella yelled, putting her hands on her hips. "That's ours!"
The girl held her nose high in the air, believing she was superior to us. "Possession is nine-tenths of the law." she replied, her voice light and edgy.
"Good," I said, glaring at her. "Then my fireball is going to take possession of nine-tenths of your face."
"Bloom!" Flora warned from behind me.
Stella leaned over the counter to look for the chef. "Whatever. Hey, chef guy, when's the next one going to come out?"
"Twenty minutes!"
"You won't mind waiting." the girl said, smirking.
"No, you won't mind waiting!" Stella snapped, grabbing and pulling the pizza box towards her.
The tug sent both girls flying across the room, pizza toppings getting all over their designer dresses. Despite how horrified each of them was, they shot to their feet with a stain removal spell to save their clothes.
"Vanishus!"
"Stainus Removus!"
"Ugh, what are you?" the girl asked, her nose turned up in disgust. "Alfea fairies?"
"Yeah!" Stella exclaimed, angrily. "What are you?"
Over-dramatically spinning around, she snapped her fingers high in the air. "Betas."
Her two friends started to do a horribly basic dance routine behind her, their smirks matching hers. "Tick, tock! Tick, tock! Betas, rule! Betas, rock!"
I had to bite my lip to stifle the laughter that was about to spill out of my throat. Catching Musa out of the corner of my eye, I saw that she had to turn around o hide how red her face was getting.
"Where's Beta?" Stella asked with a laugh. "In the realm of Cutesy?"
"At least we're not from the realm of Dork!" she spat, rage in her eyes.
Her friends snapped their fingers. "Snap, snap!"
Musa buried her face in her hands to keep from laughing out loud.
"Anyway," Flora said, stepping a little in front of Stella, "what are you girls doing in Magix? I know the Beta Academy is a good distance from here. You must've traveled so far for something important."
"Chimera's having a Princess Ball." one of the groupies spoke up in her nasally voice, nodding towards the lead girl.
"Oh, really? It's a small world after all then, isn't it, Bloom?"
Looking up at her, I furrowed my brow. "What?"
She subtly jerked her head towards the Beta girls, silently asking for my help.
"Right!" I chirped, jumping to Flora's aide with a wide, fake smile. "Stella's having a Princess Ball, too! Isn't that right, Stell?"
Her brown eyes glared at the wall on the other side of the room, refusing to acknowledge that I'd spoken to her.
"Stella."
She glared up at the ceiling, clearly annoyed with me. "Yes, Bloom, I am having a Princess Ball, too." Malice and sarcasm dripped off every word.
"We're dress shopping." the nasally one added.
"Cool, so are we!" Flora said, holding her hands together. "We have so much in common. It's so nice to meet other fairies from a different magic school."
Chimera's lip curled, her brow furrowed in detest. "What are you made of? Gumdrops and sugar plum pie?"
"Whoa, hold up!" Musa exclaimed, intervening at last. "You can say whatever you want to about Stella, but don't diss my girl, Flo!"
"Yeah!" Stella agreed, stepping forward, as well. "Aside from the comment about me, though."
"What are you going to do about it?" Chimera dared, getting in Stella's face.
There was definitely something between them that wasn't being said. I glanced over at Tecna and saw her giving me the same confused look, noticing the intensity.
"You know what?" I interrupted, hearing Stella growl. "I think it's time that we head to the mall, now."
"Good idea." Flora said, nodding in agreement.
"I'm not done here, yet!" Stella shouted, the tension between Chimera and her thickening by the minute.
"Let's go get that dress, Stell!" I said, beginning to drag the princess outside. She was too distracted by her fury to put up a decent fight, allowing me to easily get her to the door.
Just as I was about to get her out the door, she snapped back into reality with a smug grin on her face. "By the way, while you're shopping, that pre-teen meets Goth look is very becoming on you. You should really stick with it."
"Stella!" I snapped, slapping her shoulder.
Tecna suddenly spun around, snapping her fingers. "Snap!"
"Tecna, I swear to God!"
"Good one, Tec!" Stella said, smirking as we shoved her out the door.
Magix is one of the most popular tourist cities of the Magic Dimension, always bustling with people –and today was no exception. Tourists and natives alike milled about the sidewalks, some even dared the streets, passing around us as we stood outside the only mall that Stella would buy her 'dream dress' at.
"I call not helping you buy a dress." I announced, already turning to walk away.
"Ditto." Musa chimed, following me. "If you need us, we'll be at the music store and getting another pizza somewhere else."
"Dear God, you know me so well."
A firm grip on my arm jerked me back to an unsatisfied Stella. "Bloom, you are going to help me with this; and you will like it."
My shoulders slumped and I groaned like a five year old. "But I want to get pizza with Musa! I was promised pizza, dammit!"
"I thought you wanted to get your hair spelled." Flora piped up curiously, looking over at Musa.
The musician paused, her countenance blank. "Oh yeah. Sorry, B."
"I thought we had something special." I sighed, disappointed. "Flo?" I spun towards the brunette fairy, hopeful.
She smiled, meekly. "I was going to meet up with Helia for a while."
My face fell. If there was one thing I despised more than shopping with Stella, it was being a third wheel with Flora on one of her 'dates' with Helia. "Tec?"
"Sorry. I'm going to a video game tournament to study the enhancements on Timmy's new game."
". . . Layla?"
"I'm going surfing."
I hung my head in defeat. "You're killin' me Smalls."
All of the girls stared at each other, clearly not comprehending my reference.
"Forget it, it's an Earth thing!" I explained, not bothering to fight back as Stella grabbed my wrist and started dragging me toward the doors of the mall.
"We love you!" Musa called after us. Lucky for her, she ran off before I had the chance to chase after her.
I tore out of Stella's grip and frowned. Glaring at the blonde, I crossed my arm unhappily. "I hope you're happy with yourself."
Laughing, she threw an arm around my shoulder. "I promise we'll go get another pizza later. But right now, we have more important things to take care of!"
I had never endured a mall as mind-numbing as the one we went in. I was certain I would have nightmares about it for weeks after we left. Seventy floors, each a different store with different selections. Being a third wheel on one of Flora's dates was quickly turning into a better option after the fifth floor.
"I am so done with this." I murmured as we ascended to the next floor.
"Oh, please. We've barely scratched the surface." Stella reprimanded, strolling onto yet another platform.
My eyes widened. "But this is the fifteenth floor . . ."
"Don't be such a baby. Remember, you're going to have to try on dresses, too." The same bright light enveloped her for a few moments, leaving her in . . .
"Whoa! What?" I shouted in protest, not expecting that statement to fly out of her mouth.
"Too sparkly?" she inquired, picking up the pink skirt.
"I'm not talking about the dress! Why do I need a dress? I have plenty of dresses!"
Stella put her hands on her hips, narrowing her gaze while her newly done ponytail swished behind her. "Bloom, you will not go to my Princess Ball wearing some thirty dollar dress you picked up at a JCPenney's on Earth that you've worn five times to other events."
I matched her glare, plopping down in the nearest chair I could find. ". . . That's cheating. You know I don't have anything else."
A triumphant smirk lit up her face. "You're just lazy. I know how you are."
"Um, no, it's called recycling," I defended. "And, last I checked, that was a good thing."
"Not in fashion, my dear! Which is why you will get up here and try some on."
"Ew, no."
She glared at me, trying to put every ounce of intensity she could into it.
"You find your dress first!" I told her, desperate to find an out. "It's your ball; you finding a dress is the most important thing right now."
"My best friend has to look hot, too!" She paused, thinking over her statement for a moment. "Well, not as hot as me . . . but very close to it!"
I couldn't not roll my eyes. "Will you just focus on you so this can go by faster? Pizza is calling my name and I have half a mind to run away!"
"Okay, okay! Calm down, Miss Anger Management Issues!"
Going back to trying on what seemed like hundreds of designer dresses, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, searching for Tecna's number. Pressing on the text box, I rapidly typed out my message: Are you too busy to run a search on what's up between Chimera and Stella?
I got a reply not two minutes later: I started running a scan of the web the moment we left the pizza shop.
And that's why I love Tecna.
Stella and I were still on the same floor of the mall an hour later, going through dress after dress after dress. I was slumped down in my chair, giving Stella a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down with each gown she tried on.
After yet another flash of bright light, she was standing in a strappy, crimson-colored, silk and sheer dress that had large crystal circles down the center that held the open front together, with a headband to match.
Stella's eyes widened as she looked in the mirror. "This is it!" she instantly screamed, twirling around on the platform. "This is the dress!"
I raised an eyebrow, my eyes catching the exposed-ness of the dress. "Not to be a letdown or anything, but isn't that a little too . . . I don't know, out there? I've never been to a Princess Ball, but I'm pretty sure that's not –"
Glancing down at the fabric, she shook her head in disappointment. "Bloom, I swear, you're such a virgin to fashion. It makes me sad."
"Can we just buy the dress and leave, please?" I asked, feeling my muscles strain from trying not to set my jaw.
"Hold up, hotshot!" she said, bringing up a hologram of a keypad. "We have to find out where it is."
"You're wearing it!"
"Oh, Bloom, you're so adorably naïve. Don't you remember what I said on the way here? They way these stores are set up, you can try on any dress from any designer. And this one, according to the chart here–" She gasped audibly, bringing a hand to her heart.
"What is it?" I asked, stepping only close enough to reach the edge of the platform.
"There's only one!" she replied, continuing to be horrified. If it were me, I would've been more horrified by the price. I guess that's one of the perks of being filthy rich. "And it's at the boutique a few blocks down!" Leaping off the platform, she grabbed my arm and began dragging me back through the store.
"Can't we slow down?" I asked, trying not to stumble down the stairs. "How are you even going this fast in heels?"
"We'll go get you a dress later!" Stella shouted, completely ignoring my request. "But I have to get this dress before someone else steals it!"
"Stella, no one is going to buy your dress!"
That was the second thing I regretted saying that day.
Not one second after the words left my mouth, we ran past a flash of bright red. Stella screeched to a halt in the middle of the aisle, turning around at a deadly slow pace. Following her gaze, my eyes almost popped out of my head as I saw the girl wearing Stella's dress.
Chimera.
"Kill me now," I muttered, beginning to try and get Stella's attention again. "Just leave it alone, Stella. If you want to beat her to getting the dress, we have to leave. As in, leave the mall. Like, now."
Stepping past me, she stormed over to Chimera, eyes aflame. "What do you think you're doing wearing my Princess Ball dress?"
"You mean my Princess Ball dress." she corrected, smirking at Stella.
"She's just trying to rile you up, Stel." I muttered in Stella's ear. "Don't let her get to you. This is what she wants. Let's just go."
"Well, there's only one like it, and it's going to be mine!"
The spell on both of them faded, leaving the girls in their normal clothes once again. Chimera stepped off the platform, stopping when she was beside Stella. "Oh, your shoe's untied."
Stella stared down at her shoes, confused. "What? No, it's not."
Chimera suddenly shoved Stella forwards, causing her to fall down on the nearest platform. Just as I was about to run over, one of the girls from her posse shoved me over to the other side, making me fall onto the other platform.
"Barrier Lockdown!" Chimera shouted, snapping her fingers towards us.
Standing up to go after her, the platforms we were on we haywire, surrounding with a translucent green barrier meant to keep us inside it Stella went to kick the wall, but her feet were immediately forced back to the ground, freezing her.
"Later, Alfea wannabes!" she bade before stalking off with her friends flanking her.
"I cannot believe I fell for that!" Stella exclaimed, continuing to struggle with moving. "All of my shoes have an anti-untie spell on them!"
"Stella, you idiot!" I yelled, glaring at her. "You don't even have shoe laces! You're wearing sandals!"
Glancing back down at her shoes, she made a tiny noise of surprise. "Oh, well would you look at that . . ."
Rolling my eyes, I reached up and ran my hands through my hair. "Stella, one of these days, I'm going to just–"
"You can move!"
Puzzled by what she said, I furrowed my brow. "What?"
"You can move!" Stella said. "You're not supposed to be able to move!"
Curiously looked around at the barrier surrounding me, my curiosity grew. I could sense it was a powerful spell, but my Dragon Fire could've easily deflected it. If the spell had no effect on me, what all could I do to it?
Focusing my energy into my hands, I hesitantly reached towards the green wall. Barely an inch away from it, I gently tapped it. The barrier immediately shattered, freeing me from the useless spell.
Leaping off the platform, I turned and ran towards Stella's.
"No, go!"
I came to an abrupt halt. "What?"
"Go after them! Get to the dress before they do!"
"I'm not going to leave you here when I can easily break you out!"
"Go!" Stella demanded. "The spell will fade as soon as they get out of range! Put a hold on the dress until I get there!"
I frowned, reluctant. "What if they get there first?"
"Don't think like that! Honestly, I don't care what you do! Just stop her!"
Giving her a final glance, I dashed off in Chimera's direction. Pushing past a number of people in the store, I tripped over my own feet as I stumbled out the sliding doors. Taking a second to steady myself again, I turned my head just in time to see Chimera and her roadies look back to check if we were following them.
Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw me and cursed loudly, taking off in the other direction.
"Hey!" I yelled, running after them.
In spite of their stupidly high heels, the Beta girls were fast –extremely fast. Due to my late start, I was half a block behind them, failing to gain any speed. I could barely run without heels, so the ones I had on now weren't helping me at all. I wasn't going to catch up to them at this pace.
You could always use less than conventional methods to get to them.
The moment I finished the thought, I shook my head to get rid of it. I didn't need to use magic to win this; I'd be fine.
Stella's words echoed in the deep recesses of my mind, loud and tempting. I don't care what you do! Just stop her!
Suddenly, I didn't want to run anymore. I didn't want to be half a block behind them. I wanted to be half a block in front.
Without any time to think, there was a bright flash before my eyes. The moment it disappeared, I was somewhere else. I was still in Magix City, but . . . on a different street? Looking around at the surrounding signs, my jaw dropped as I recognized the street I'd landed on.
Half a block ahead of Chimera
I didn't have much time to dwell on what happened, catching a glimpse of black hair behind me.
"What the –?" Chimera exclaimed, coming to a stop. "You were
just–"
"What's your deal?" I interrupted. Approaching her, I could see a tiny flicker of fear deep in her eyes.
"My deal? What's your deal?"
"Clearly you have a beef with Stella." I ignored her. "I get it. She gets it. We all get it. But you two just met; there's no way this fight is just over a stupid pizza.
"Now, since I don't like to meddle with other people's affairs unless I absolutely have to," I said, "we're going to settle this with a short and simple solution. So, you're going to stop being a little bitch and I'm going to get Stella's dress, then we're both going to go our separate ways so we never have to look at each other ever again."
I could see the attitude in her expression as she crossed her arms. "And if I don't?"
I sighed, trying to contain the darkness in me that screamed to burn her to a crisp. "If you don't, I'm going to tie all of you up with a fire rope and –"
A terrifyingly cold chill pierced my soul, stunning me into silence. The only time I'd ever felt something this cold was when Icy froze me in a block of ice during freshmen year. A chill that radiated down to every nerve and vein in my body.
Chimera glanced behind her, confused by my sudden quiet demeanor.
And then it shattered.
Every frozen bone and muscle inside me was shed of its icy covering with so much force I was thrown to the sidewalk, gasping for breath as if I'd re-surfaced from being held underwater.
Oblivious to what was causing my odd reaction, Chimera took off, ushering the others to follow her.
"Bloom!"
I remained on the sidewalk, shaking with fear and cold, as Stella appeared, kneeling down beside me. "Are you okay?" she asked, eyes wide with concern. "What did she do to you?"
"It wasn't her." I managed to rasp out, my throat instantly raw.
"Then who was it?" Slinging my arm around her shoulders, she eased me back onto my feet, keeping me from collapsing back onto the pavement.
I shook my head, staring where Chimera and her friends had run off. "I don't know."
We didn't get back to Alfea till dusk, the sun barely giving off any rays. Tecna had sent me a text, reminding us about the eight o'clock curfew, but neither of us truly cared.
Stella had been blatantly upset when we reached the dress shop, finding that Chimera had beaten us there. While she had been throwing her temper tantrum outside, I'd tried asking if the worker was sure that it had been the only dress. What caught my attention more than the lack of stock on the dress was how she'd referred to Chimera as the Princess of Solaria. I wanted to ask about it, but I didn't dare bring it up around Stella –even if she was outside of the building.
We ended up trudging back to the mall to try and find another dress before the last bus to Alfea took off.
"I'm sorry you didn't get your dream dress."
"It's cool." Stella said, shrugging. "You did what you could. It's not like you asked to have that attack or anything. You certainly did more than what the other girls would have done if they were in your place."
I laughed. "Yeah, if it was Musa, she wouldn't have even left the store."
"I wouldn't have been able to get her in the store! Besides, it's not like I didn't get a dress."
"But it wasn't the dress that you wanted. If that thing would've happened just a few minutes later, I would have been golden." I muttered, pushing my hair back behind my ear.
"Hey," she snapped, her voice becoming stern, "don't beat yourself up over it."
Fiddling with my fingers, nervously, I stared off in the darkness around us. "Could I ask you a favor?"
"Yeah, anything."
"Could you . . . you know, not tell anyone about what happened –to me, at least?"
She looked at me as if I'd grown five heads. "Bloom –"
"Stel, please? I don't know want anyone making a big deal out of this."
"It was a big deal!"
"Was. That's it –it's over now."
She sighed, hesitant. "Fine. I won't say anything. But if something like it happens again, I'm saying something!"
Close enough. If there was one thing I'd learned from being friends with Stella in the past few years, it was that arguing with her was always pointless.
"So, what do you think your surprise is?" I asked her, changing the subject.
Stella gave me a curious look. "What surprise?"
"In that Sungram, your dad said something about having a surprise for you." I elaborated, kicking a rock with the tip of my shoe.
She shrugged, not as exuberant as she was earlier in the day. "Well, Wanda did say it was from the Royal Court," she said. "And the Royal Court includes Dad and Mom . . ."
My head shot up, astounded by her implication. "You think your parents are going to get back together?"
Stella nodded, biting her lip excitedly.
"But I thought your parents couldn't stand each other," I said. "You said it yourself that they can't even walk on the same street without wanting to kill each other."
"I know, it's ridiculous," she agreed. "Is it so bad to hope for it, though?"
A pang of guilt struck me. I'd never noticed just how vulnerable Stella was when discussing her parents. It was common among kids with divorced parents –wishing for them to reunite– but from what I'd heard from Stella, that was a one in a million chance.
Nevertheless, I couldn't bring myself to crush her hopes. Back on Earth, my friend (and ex-boyfriend) Andy had had that same hope. He, however, had been in deeper than Stella. Everyone and everything knew about his dream for his parents to get back together. When his father found out though, he didn't dance around Andy's emotions; crushed them instantly in an argument that I had regrettably been present for. Andy was never the same after that night.
If Stella had that hope, I surely wasn't going to be the one to destroy it.
"No," I told her, averting my eyes back to my feet. "No, it's not."
After a few minutes of walking, we finally reached the dorm. It wasn't a surprise that all the girls were still wide awake, waiting for us.
"So, how did dress shopping go?" Flora asked the moment we walked in.
"Horrible!" Stella shouted, not bothering to sugarcoat it. "That Goth chick Chimera went and stole the dress I was going to buy for my party!"
"First pizzas, now dresses," Musa muttered, pretending to be solemn as she played with her newly lengthened pigtails. "She's escalating."
"But, we didn't come back empty-handed!" I positively reminded Stella, glad that she kept her word to not say anything about what happened during the chase. "And it appeared that Musa didn't either, little Miss Long Hair over there!"
"Musa, it looks so good!" Stella praised, shocked. "You look like a girl now!"
"What don't you tell them about your dress, Stella?" I immediately suggested, catching a glimpse of the fury in the musician's eyes.
She crossed her arms with a huff. "I had to settle for a pink Fairygamo. It's not as fabulous as the other one, but it was nice."
"You spent over five-thousand dollars on it; it better be nice." Taking the time to look around the room, I sensed someone missing. "Where's Layla?"
The other girls looked at each other, wary. "She was . . . called away, in a sense."
"Called away?" Stella asked. "Like on a princess thing?"
"We guess. We were all hanging out on the beach waiting for you two when things got weird." Musa added to Flora's statement, worry replacing her anger.
"Got weird?" I repeated.
"This huge tidal wave," she nodded. "It came out of nowhere; had to be the size of the Council building."
"After we helped everyone get out of the water, though, it just collapsed on itself." Tecna said. "I tried to research any similar anomalies, but nothing came up."
"Then a mermaid showed up."
My eyes widened, surprised. "A mermaid?"
"Yes, Bloom, they exist, too. But, moving on," the musician rolled her eyes. "She was looking for Layla, then said, 'Code Word: Sandbar.'"
"Code Word: Sandbar?" Stella reiterated, shaking her head at the ridiculous name. "What does that mean?"
"Who knows? But the next thing we knew, Layla dove in the water and disappeared with her." Tecna finished. "We haven't received any word from her since."
"She's going to miss the party of the century if she doesn't hurry back!"
I turned my head towards the blonde in disbelief. "That's your number one concern? Not 'I hope she's okay?'"
"Well, yeah, Bloom, I'm worried!" she desperately claimed, realizing how her words sounded. "Let's not fret on it, though. It'll only just bring our moods down." Walking across the room, she glanced out the glass doors that led to the balcony. "Besides, Layla's tough; she can take care of herself."
"However, she does make snap judgments which do tend to lead her into trouble." Tecna pointed out.
"Oh, please, how many of us don't do that?"
"Both Tecna and Flora, I'm pretty sure." I said.
She aimed her finger at both of them, accusingly. "You wait! One of these days, both of you are going to make snap judgments that are going to get you in trouble." Pausing, she smirked, maliciously. "And I'll be there to remind you of this very moment."
Musa raised an eyebrow, but then shook her head. "Alright, well, I have places to be, so I'm going to leave the psycho with all of you."
"You're leaving?" I asked.
"Already sent my bags to my dad's house." she said, nodding and walking to the door. "See you losers later!"
"I better see you at my party Saturday!" Stella screamed after her.
As she closed the door, Musa slung her arm back into the room, middle finger in the air. Stella gasped, insulted, turning away just as Musa finally closed the door.
After an hour more of talking, we all decided it was time to go to bed. None of us really wanted to, considering it would be our last night together in the dorm for a good month or so, but it was inevitable.
Not five seconds after my head hit he pillow, though, my phone went off, vibrating loudly. Quickly picking it up before it could catch Flora's attention, I looked down to see who was texting me.
"Why is Tecna texting me when she's right next door?" I muttered to myself, opening it to look at the message.
Couldn't find anything on Chimera that could link her to Stella. I'll try to look deeper tomorrow.
Sighing, I fell onto the pillows again, setting my phone back on the nightstand. If Tecna couldn't find anything, it was no use in trying anything more. Staring up at the ceiling of the dorm, I felt a sense of dread that I couldn't shake. A sense that we wouldn't need the Realm Wide Web to figure out how Chimera was linked to Stella.
The answer was bound to find us, instead.
Well, this went on a lot longer than I'd originally anticipated. This reached over 5,000 words and it originally wasn't . . . Oh well. WHAT'S DONE IS DONE. (From now on, just know that these chapter could go from 3,000 words to anything above that number.)
As you can see though, there was A LOT of content covered in this chapter, and a lot of description to portray that content -which is why I am a few days late on my promise to get it done on the 12th. I know I said it would be done on the 12th, but I wanted to be completely happy with the chapter and I wanted it to be a chapter that wasn't rushed for all of you, so I came up with this! Don't hate me for my lateness!
I screwed with this part of the episode so much and I am not sorry about it, whatsoever. And before I get reviews that say "BLOOM IS SO OOC OMFG" -yes, that's how she's supposed to be, due to specific plot points that will be revealed further on in the story. If you don't like, that's not my problem.
Anyway, yay! Chapter 2 is done! And now we go on to Chapter 3 where one of my absolute favorite scenes of this whole first book (yes, I did say first book *unsubtle wink*) will make its fabulous debut! Once again, I will see you all again sometime in the next two to three weeks! And if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in a review, or better yet, message me and I will address it as soon as I possibly can!
~Bloom
