A/N: New chapter, yay! I cant wait until this story starts getting seriously under way : ) .
"Oh my gosh!" Bloom gasped as she looked down at the time on her cellphone. Stella sat up from her spot on the floor.
"What? What happened?"
"Its already nine o'clock!" Bloom exclaimed happily.
"What do you mean 'already', the time hasn't exactly flown by" Stella couldn't help but be a little moody by the whole ordeal.
"Well, no, but it still means we can finish now!" she smiled. "We just have to put this last book back" Bloom pointed down into the boxes.
"Ugh, why bother" Stella waved absent-mindedly as Bloom bent down to pick up the book "Lets just leave 'em and head back now"
"C'mon Stella, you'd think we could finish the one job we actually started" She laughed at her friend, just as she looked down at the book she was now holding. It was then that Bloom noticed what it said on the Librarians hand-written note, specifically what section it went in.
'Forbidden books'
'Off limits to all students!'
Bloom blinked. She hadn't realised there was a forbidden book shelf, even though she'd just spent hours down here. This had been the only book they'd had that needed to go in that section. She wandered down the shelves, checking each ones name, until she came right to the furthest corner of the room. The forbidden book shelf was the one closest to the ground, and Bloom had to get down on her knees to look at it.
"Blooom!" Stella whined impatiently "Hurry up and just put the dumb old book back so we can go!"
Bloom reached out and grabbed another of the books of the 'forbidden' shelf. The first one read "Fairy to Witch: How to make your transition" Blooms eyes widened, that did seem like the kind of book you'd forbid your students to see. She grabbed another, her curiosity growing "A fairies guide to cheating: Never fail a test again!"no doubt the teachers wouldn't want students getting a hold of that. So really these books didn't seem like super powerful spell books full of dark magic, like Bloom had kind of expected, but Alfea wouldn't exactly stock those books in the first place. But still, books like "The bad girls guide to tricks and spells: Special April Fools edition"and" How to hex your ex" were still pretty interesting.
"Ugh, Bloom you've had all day to read these stupid books, why now?" Stella whined even more, stomping over to where Bloom was, hands on hips. She looked down at the books now scattered around where Bloom knelt on the floor and sighed "Were supposed to be putting them back on the shelves not taking them off"
"But Stella, look!" Bloom pointed to the forbidden books sign and Stella gasped excitedly. Probably most excited about the 'off limits to students' part.
"Oh, let me see, let me see!" Bloom laughed at Stella's sudden enthusiasm. Almost immediately one particular book along the shelf caught the Princess of Solaria's eye, and she reached out and grabbed it. It was a pretty small book, but it was bright pink, with red hearts on it. It didn't look like most other spell books, the large ,leather bounded, definitely not hot pink types. This book looked more like a young girls craft project, rather cute though. Bloom paused and stopped flipping through "1001 fun party curses" to look at what Stella had found. She looked at it quizzically.
"Huh, what kind of forbidden book has little love hearts on it?" she joked light heartedly.
Stella grinned, looking almost maniacal "Why ,I'll tell you what kind of forbidden book has love hearts on it, Bloom" her smile stretched from ear to ear " A book of love spells, that's what!". Stella hurriedly flipped through the book "Oh, they have spells for everything in here!" she ran a finger down one of the pages "How to steal a guys heart, how to make someone jealous, how to get rid of romantic rivals, become a better kisser, make him forget his ex and ah HA!" She said triumphantly " They have spells on how to make your romance more exciting!"
Bloom took the book out of her friends hands as Stells promptly began spinning around the room in delight "This is too perfect, exactly what I needed for my trouble with Brandon! Finding this book was fate Bloom, fate! We need to go and check it out right now!"
"Hold on Stella" Bloom said, looking apprehensive "I don't know if we should mess with this kind of thing, do you really think Love and magic go together?"
Stella waved her friends worries off with a flick of her hand "Oh ,don't be such a bore. Of course magic and love go together, when you fall in love it feels like your under a spell, doesn't it?"
"Well, yeah I guess, but putting a spell on someone to make them love you isn't right"
Stella sighed impatiently " But that's not what I'm going to be doing, is it? All I'm gonna do is use a little tiny spell to spice up my already existing love life!" she gave her sweetest, most innocent, smile to Bloom while holding up her thumb and forefinger only a centimetre apart "A tiny, itty bitty, little spell, that's all!"
Bloom bit her lip. Stella had a point, It's not like they'd be using the book for anything bad anyway, but something still didn't sit right about it with her. I mean, this book had to have been labelled a forbidden book for a reason, right?
"Besides ,Bloom" Stella continued, sensing her friend still needed some convincing "Didn't you say earlier you were having problems with Sky?" she said smoothly.
Bloom paused, you could practically hear the thoughts whirring around her head as she looked at the book, a worried frown on her face. "...Well, I gue-" she started, but Stella didn't even give her a chance to finish.
"Fantastic! So It's decided, this book is getting out of this old library right now!" Bloom blinked as the book was snatched out of her hands and into Stella's arms "Thanks to this little baby we are going to have the best Valentines day ever!" She laughed excitedly as she hurried through the door, heels clicking as she dashed up the stairs.
Bloom looked down at all the books they'd pulled off of the forbidden shelf that now lay scattered on the floor. Almost as many as they'd had to put up as their punishment. "So I guess were not bothering to pick those up, huh" she said to herself, sarcastically, knowing Stella wouldn't hear her half way up the stairs. What a productive few hours that had been. She sighed, oh well, at least she could go back and get some sleep now.
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"Okay, all done!" Stella chirped enthusiastically, as herself and Bloom approached the head librarians desk. She practically slammed the hot pink book down in front of her "And we would like to check this book out please"
Night-time had well and truly fallen and the library was completely deserted by now, the girls and the head Librarian being the only people in there, the only lights coming from small table lamps. The head Librarian just looked at Stella disapprovingly "So, It's taken you girls six hours to sort out forty books?And your proud of that?"
Stella nodded, her smile still in place, cheekily "Yup, longest I've ever spent in a library"
The librarian gave a small huff "I can believe that..." she muttered under her breath. "And what's this about checking something out?" she asked, peering down at the large hot pink book questioningly.
"Yeah, we found it when we were down in that storage room. It was only gathering dust down there anyway, so I don't see why we cant have it" Stella said, haughtily.
A look of recognition suddenly crossed the librarians face as she picked up the book. Her face suddenly turned stern. "This book, this was in the forbidden section wasn't it?" she looked up at Bloom, who was wringing her hands nervously. "Girls, it should be pretty obvious to you that forbidden books are completely off limits to students, and I should tell you that this particular book is-"
before she could finish however, Bloom cut her off " See, I told you Stella!" Bloom said, nudging her friend on the arm "It totally is a bad book! You should listen to me sometimes, I had a bad feeling about it and turns out I was right!"
"Oh, well sorry if I was just curious, you weren't exactly firm in telling me to leave it back there either" Stella huffed, crossing her arms.
The librarian looked up at the girls, slightly annoyed that she'd just been cut off and was now being ignored, until an idea popped into her head.
"Um, actually girls" Bloom and Stella stopped bickering and turned to face the librarian as she spoke " I wasn't going to say this book was bad at all, in fact, quite the opposite. It's spells are quite trustworthy."
Bloom frowned gently "Then why is it forbidden?"
The librarian gave a small giggle "A book of effective love spells in a school filled with teenage girls? Everyone was using it. Girls would get up to all sorts of mischief, making the red fountain boys fall in love with them left right and centre. It got to be a trouble when they cast spells that made, for example, a teacher fall in love with them, which of course is completely inappropriate. See, love magic is a strong magic, and people can easily get hurt by it. You cant just entrust it to anyone, only those girls with good intentions" She looked up seriously at Bloom and Stella "Would you consider yourself those girls?"
Stella didn't even need to think about her answer "Of course we are, miss. You can trust us" she said, beaming as she grabbed the book back, clutching it to her chest like she'd wanted it for years. The librarian then turned to Bloom.
"And you, Bloom?"
Bloom slowly nodded "Yeah, what Stella said" she really didn't intend to use the book anyway, despite what she'd just been told about it being trustworthy.
With that, the librarian nodded "Well, I shouldn't really be doing this, but you girls seem like I can trust you with it" she said, smiling. "Just don't tell anyone I gave it to you alright, the teachers might get the wrong idea and then we'd both get into trouble" she then looked Bloom straight in the eye again "Don't make me regret this decision girls"
Bloom nodded more decisively this time " No, we wont, we promise!". The two girls headed towards the doors of the library to leave, Stella practically skipping as she went. Then Bloom quickly turned back around "Oh, we forgot to thank you Miss...Miss?"
"Miss Paige" The librarian said gently, smiling.
"Oh, right" Bloom looked awkward as she realised she had gone all this time without knowing the Head librarians name.
"Thank you Miss Paige!" Both Stella and Bloom chorused as they shut the large library doors behind them, waving goodbye. As soon as the doors had clicked shut, Miss Paige's smile turned from sweet to sly. The portly librarian may have been sweet, but she didn't like cheeky girls who slacked off and played her for a fool all afternoon.
"Those silly girls are going to get what's coming to them with that book.."
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"Stella, I don't want you mentioning the book straight away with the girls when we get back,okay?
"What? Why?" Stella said, indignantly as she and Bloom were walking down the corridor. "They'd flip out when I tell them!"
"Exactly!" Bloom tried to explain "I told you about that bad feeling I had, It's still there"
Stella rolled her eyes "Even though Miss Paige said it was totally safe and trustworthy?"
"Ugh, I know what she said" Bloom argued "But even if your hell-bent on getting mixed up in all this love magic, you don't have to drag the rest of us along with it"
"And what if they want to be dragged into it?" Stella argued back. "Your just being way too negative about the whole thing if you ask me"
They reached the door to their room, where they both stopped. "Seriously Stella, just listen to me on this one" Stella stopped and met Bloom's gaze, both girls stood there for a minute, a battle of wills. Stella gave in first.
"Ugh, fine! I wont tell them!" she said this less than happily " But you still cant stop me from using it for myself" she stuck out her tongue immaturely and Bloom couldn't help but laugh.
"Guess who's back everybody!" Stella shouted gleefully as she and Bloom stepped into their room.
"Took you long enough!" Musa said, sprawled on the floor, flipping through a music magazine. Layla was next to her, painting her toes and Tecna was sitting on the one seat sofa with her laptop propped up next to her.
"We were considering sending out a search party" Layla laughed as Bloom and Stella walked over to them.
"What did Griselda make you do that took all this time?" Tecna asked.
"Ugh, manual labour is what she made us do!" Stella pulled a face of disgust "We've been in the library this whole time, sorting through dusty old books"
"We would have been done a whole lot sooner too, if someone could keep there mouth shut" Bloom chided at her friend, as the other girls just looked confused and faced Stella.
Stella flipped her hair "I only said Griselda was being so harsh because she'd never had a valentine before in her life. She majorly overreacted to it" she looked proud as she said it, as the Layla, Musa and Tecna cracked up, and Bloom couldn't help but smile a little.
Bloom then looked around the room "Hey, guys...where's Flora?"
The girls didn't say anything, they all just pointed simultaneously to a big pink lump that lay across the sofa. It was Flora, lying on her stomach under her big, thick, blanket. "She's been moping under there for the past few hours" Musa said ,casually.
A muffled voice could be heard fro under the blanket "I'm not moping, I'm just...just.."
"Taking your fencing classes under there?" Tecna smirked.
"...Okay, fine, I'm moping"
Bloom sat down on the sofa next to Flora's head, putting a comforting hand on top of the blanket and rubbing Flora's back. "Why, what happened?" She asked worriedly.
"Helia's what happened" Layla said, painting another toe bright red.
"Oh" Both Bloom and Stella said, instantly understanding. Flora still didn't move from under that blanket.
"So Layla" Stella said, changing subjects " Painting your toes red in preparation for the day of Valentines?" she smiled "Any boys in mind to ask to the dance?"
Layla pulled a face "Ugh, as if" she screwed the top to her nail polish back on "Valentines day is a stupid holiday if you ask me. I mean there shouldn't have to be a day that tells guys to treat their girlfriends romantically, and same goes for girls. You should treat them special everyday!" she huffed.
"Tell that to Riven" Musa laughed humourlessly "He doesn't even manage to treat me special one day a year, let alone all of them" None of the girls looked surprised, Musa and Riven's relationship always seemed on tenterhooks due to Riven's attitude problems "Just last night I called him to organise what time I was going to meet him on Sunday, you know, for the dance" The girls nodded, listening "Wanna' know what he said?" Musa put on her best Riven impersonation "'Meet you for what?'" She even pulled a dumb looking face to complete the mental picture.
"You mean he forgot about the dance!" Stella gasped, finding it shocking that anyone could forget about something as utterly important as a school dance, considering what her priorities in life were.
"Not just the dance, he completely forgot it was even Valentines day!" Musa exclaimed loudly, obviously still angry about the whole thing. "And it's just gonna' be so annoying seeing all the cutesy, lovey-dovey, couples walking around the school with their cards and their roses, holding hands...when I have a boyfriend that would rather stay at red fountain alone than do any of that stuff"
Tecna nodded at what Layla and Musa were saying " I completely agree. I don't know why people get so excited about Valentines day anyway, It's a waste of time if you ask me and it makes people act far sillier and un-logical than usual" she said, matter of factly.
Just then, Stella stood up with hands on her hips, looking determined. "I just cannot stand here while all of you... you...cynics..just sit here and complain about one of the most wonderful, magical and overall brilliant holiday in all of the realms!"
The girls just looked at her, wide eyed, not quite prepared for this sudden outburst. Also, they wondered when Stella learnt the word 'Cynics' and how to use it in a sentence.
Stella continued on, pointing a finger at Layla "You obviously just don't like Valentines day because you don't have a boyfriend!" Layla looked offended and was about to retort, but Stella wasnt anywhere near finished.
"You are just jealous of all the girls who actually have decent, loving boyfriends who treat them special on Valentines day!" Musa's jaw dropped at Stella's harsh words.
Stella then turned on Tecna "You just cant get over being completely frigid when it comes to love!" Tecna just glared coldly at her.
"Flora's just too much of a wimp to ever confess her feelings, even though she's had plentyof opportunities!" They couldn't see her face, but they heard a small whimper of protest from under the blanket that indicated that Flora wasn't happy with what Stella just said.
"And you-" Stella finally turned to Bloom.
"Hey, I didn't even say anything about Valentines day!" Bloom said indigently as Stella's finger pointed straight at her.
"Yes, but your still moping about whatever is going on between you and Sky and not even trying to fix it!" she said, obviously talking about the book.
Stella then shut up, still standing, still looking down at the girls. There were four sets of eyes glaring at her (Another set no doubt trying to glare through a blanket).
"So were you going anywhere with that little speech Stella, or did you just want to diss us all before you went to bed?" Musa said, arms folded and a frown on her face.
"Oh, calm down" Stella said casually "I just want you to realise that we all have problems with our love lives, myself included, and that this is completely unacceptable around the most romantic, love filled, day of the year" she smiled at her friends, who still looked unimpressed. "You'll forgive me for telling the harsh truth once I tell you how you can fix each and every one of your romantic problems" Stella said in a little sing song voice, pulling out the hot pink book from her bag.
A/N: So now the girls have the book at the ready! Next chapter, spells are going to get cast! It all starts from there hahaha. I love getting feedback and hearing what you guys think, so please review if you have time : ) I really appreciate it.