Chapter 2 - Off-beat Ideas

Bloom sat at her vanity table, her hands clasped and tucked beneath her chin, elbows resting lightly on the smooth white surface. She faced the mirror, but she wasn't gazing at her reflection. Rather, her blue eyes were fixed on something that wasn't quite as tangible as the mirror. She took a small breath, then focused on her reflection. "They want to go to Earth with me." she said to her mirror-image. "My extremely royal, magically inclined, behind-the-times parents want to stay with me and my adoptive parents on Earth…" She turned from her reflection and looked at Kiko, who was sitting on his rabbit bed gnawing away at the stub of a carrot. "Should I be worried? Should I be elated? Should I discourage the idea?"

Kiko's ears perked the slightest, but other than that there was no change in his behavior. Silence continued to ensue and Bloom gave up on catching her rabbit's attention. Kiko just continued feasting on his vegetable and she buried her head in arms on the vanity. "Thanks, Kiko. You're the greatest of confidants…"

Suddenly, an obnoxiously loud "You're the One" resounded from beyond her physical enclosure. Bloom warily glanced up from her arms and stared at her cell phone. The screen was lit up with a picture of her best friend, Stella. Bloom quickly snatched the phone and pressed the answer button. A hologram of a blonde girl brushing out her hair appeared. "Hello? Stella?"

"Bloom! I got your text. Give me the 411." Stella viciously dragged the hair brush through her hair and let out a hearty curse against snarls. "And do it quick! Brandon will be here in a half-hour and I'm not even remotely presentable!"

Bloom nodded as she took in the vision of Stella's bathrobe and lack of make-up. It was most certainly a sight to behold. "I see that. Well, it's an emergency… kind-of." Before Stella could chastise her for bothering her with a kind-of emergency, Bloom quickly added, "My parents just approached me with this off-beat idea. I have no idea what could've prompted them to propose it either! Plus, I don't know how to answer…"

"Answer? If you don't like it just say no!" Stella rolled her eyes in notable exasperation. " I understand that you're not exactly used to your parents and they're not used to you. But you altogether need to learn how to say no to one another."

"Yeah and you're much better saying no to your parents." Bloom said sarcastically. "They're my parents Stella! I can't just go saying no to them when they're supposed to be making decisions to better benefit me!"

Stella sniffed, "Touché. Even so, they're so out of the loop on your life that they're bound to make mistakes. Eighteen years without you and they can't just come back and claim to know what's best for you. Your saying no is therefore justified, depending on what it is you're saying no to of course." She sighed, "So what'd they do now? Did they attempt to push another arranged marriage on to you just because it would better benefit Domino?"

"No…" Bloom answered slowly.

"Did they decide to send you off to some straight-laced finishing school because you're not quite living up to their expectations as a princess?" Stella spoke with a slight growl as she tried to pull the brush through a nasty looking knot. Bloom assumed the growl was for her hair struggle, but wondered if the growl wasn't also intended as an expression for Stella's own experiences.

"Well… no"

Stella's brown eyes got very wide and she made a face, morphing her beautiful features into a look of horror. "They didn't suggest having you placed in Beta, did they?"

"NO! My mother would never…" Bloom began.

"Then what could your parents have possibly suggested that's got you so wound-up you insisted on having me call you?" Stella stopped then as some idea came to her. She abandoned her brushing attempts and leaned forward toward her camera, her face dominating the entire holographic scene. "They didn't tell you to stop hanging out with the Winx Club did they?" With the wild look in her brown eyes, the hairbrush hanging in her unruly blonde hair, and her mouth wide open, Stella looked like a mad woman. "Well?" she implored, demanding Bloom's response.

Bloom let out a laugh, "Seriously, Stella? My being a part of the Winx is probably one of the few things my parents really approve of. We've done so much good for the magical universe that it looks good for me to be with you girls. And they see you girls as being a relatively good influence on me."

"Relatively? Who makes up that relatively?" Stella's eyes narrowed and she pointed her hairbrush at the camera threateningly. "I better be one of those good influences!"

"Look, my parents want to spend a whole two weeks hanging out with me." Bloom stated, trying to divert the conversation.

"What's so bad about that?" Stella asked then, suddenly looking bored now that Bloom's situation no longer included her. "What do they want to do with you for a 'whole two weeks'? Attend balls and galas? Play croquet and go horseback riding? Attend dress fittings and tea parties? Dinner parties and family brunches?" Stella returned to her brushing. "I'd love for my parents to get on good terms and spend time with me, even if it's for a boring game of croquet."

"They want to spend a 'whole two weeks'," Bloom mimicked Stella's sardonic tone and threw in air quotes to emphasize her mocking, "with me on Earth, staying with my adoptive parents."

Stella ceased her brushing once more, but this time she gave Bloom the oddest stare. "Your parents want to stay on Earth… with your adoptive parents." She spoke in a small voice, in a tone that was dripping with disbelief.

"That's what my father announced at family brunch this morning!" Bloom answered, giving Stella an I-couldn't-quite-believe-it-either shrug to show her feelings and thoughts.

"Wow… that's just…" Stella pulled the brush from her hair. "Let me get this straight. King Oritel and Queen Miriam, the high rulers of Domino, wish to spend time with you and your adoptive parents, Mike and Vanessa Peters, on Earth?"

"I'm scared how it could end up!" Bloom blurted. "I mean… yeah Mike and Vanessa are good people and Oritel and Miriam have gotten along with them quite fine. But I can't exactly see my parents 'living' in a situation that doesn't include servants, guards, thrones, crowns…"

"Ya, me neither. I'd die if my parents ever considered that." Stella bit her lip in uncertainty. "I don't know what to tell you Bloom. Have you even bothered confronting your parents with your feelings about the ordeal?"

"No, of course not! And how do I confront them Stella? I mean they're trying so hard to… to… make me comfortable? No…" Bloom racked her brain for the proper term to describe her parents' intentions. "Help me fit it? Ummm…"

"Put the pieces back together?" Stella suggested, giving Bloom a look of sympathy. "It always sounded to me like they're trying to get you to conform to the lifestyle they had pre-Ancestrals. In fact, I thought they were using you as some kind of substitute for Daphne." She caught Bloom's expression and rushed to amend herself. "I mean… it's not that they don't love you! But you've got to consider they had a well-trained, amicable Princess Daphne for a daughter before! Suddenly it's eighteen years later and Daphne's dead, leaving them with you… that's not to say you aren't amicable, darling…"

"No. You're right." Bloom cut Stella off. She hugged herself and fought the tears pricking her eyes. "They want a princess. Not a clumsy, unrefined Earth girl who couldn't tell the difference between a scone and a baking powder biscuit if her life depended on it! I'm not what my parents need or want…"

Stella interrupted her. "Obviously you are what they want! They're willing to survive a 'whole two weeks' with you on Earth without the assistance of any staff, the protection of the royal guard, or the cuisine of professional chefs! They want to stay with your adoptive parents, for stars sake! You've got to consider that that's a big thing for them. They're risking their own pride and abandoning their ways to get to know you!" Stella gave Bloom a reassuring smile. "They love you and want you, if not need you… "

Bloom sniffled. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Stella nodded. "The Winx and I would kill for that kind of opportunity with our own parents. But we never really had normal lives beyond the royal life. There isn't some alternative lifestyle we can escape to."

"Oh, Stella…" Bloom covered her mouth as the shame finally sank in. "I sound entirely selfish, don't I?"

"You kidding me? You haven't had your parents for eighteen years. Your realm was put on ice and your royal subjects petrified. You single-handedly managed to defeat several key evils and restore your kingdom to its former glory." Stella shook her head at Bloom. "Jeesh, girl… get off your philanthropic roll and be a bit selfish. You deserve it!"

"Thanks, Stella." Bloom glanced toward her closet. "I suppose I ought to start packing then."

"Oooh! I've got some clothing suggestions!" Stella chirped excitedly. Then a knocking sound interrupted her and Bloom heard a door opening. "AAAAAGGGHHH! Brandon! Get out of here! You can't see me like this! I'm so not ready!"

Bloom quickly jabbed her hang-up button and set her phone down, guiltily. She turned to Kiko, who'd come to rest before her on the vanity. "Oops."

With a piping hot cup of coffee in hand, Vanessa approached Mike at the breakfast table. He was currently engrossed in a sports article on page six of the Gardenia Times. She offered him the mug in her hand as she addressed him. "Mike, honey. There's something I need to tell you."

Mike looked up at her and accepted the cup of coffee. "Thanks. What is it?"

Vanessa calmly took a seat next to him. "Well, Bloom's coming home for a couple of weeks…"

"Great! I miss my girl! She's been so busy with the magical what-not I've wondered if she'd completely forgotten her humble beginnings!" Mike chortled at his bland joke and sipped his coffee. He spit the coffee back into the mug, dropping his newspaper to wave at his mouth. "Whew! Burnt my tongue. Coffee's a bit hot isn't it, hon?"

"It's coffee Mike. It's not supposed to be lukewarm or cold. And you always say it's too hot." Vanessa chided him and rolled her eyes. Mike shrugged, blew on his coffee and began to sip again with a bit more caution. "Bloom isn't exactly coming alone either." Vanessa added.

"Oh. Well, does she ever come alone these days? It seems as though she's always dragging some friend from Alfea or Magix with her. I suppose the Winx or Sky plan on joining her and that's fine! If they are staying here with us I'm laying a couple of ground rules, though!" Mike reached across the paper to grab a cookie. "Ten minutes max in the bathroom! No touching my television remote! And no more than one suitcase apiece! Last time was a total pain… and Sky's not allowed to stay with her in her room!"

Vanessa gave him an odd look. "Of course… but it isn't Sky or the Winx." Vanessa took a breath and watched Mike bite into the cookie before she continued, "Oritel and Miriam have decided to join her and they wish to stay with us for two weeks."

Cookie flew across the table as Mike spluttered. He stared at Vanessa with a look of incredulity. "Oritel and Miriam? As in…"

"Yes." Vanessa nodded slowly, glancing warily at the crumbs of cookie lying on the other end of the table. "They want to get to know her better in a setting that she's used to and comfortable with. Where better than here? She was raised here." She took Mike's hand. "Mike, they need our help to get to know Bloom to the fullest. I've always felt sorry for them considering they never did get the chance to raise her like we did! They missed so much of her life and she missed so much of them. And golly Mike, it'll be like we're those counselors off that show 'Reunited' on Lifetime."

"I don't know, Vanessa." Mike pulled away from Vanessa and stood up. He grabbed a rag from the sink and wiped up his mess, then walked to the window, leaning heavily on the counter before him. "This is… I don't know! They aren't used to living in a place like this, and us being here? We could get in the way. The last time Oritel and I talked, well, I could see he envied me for what I have with Bloom. I felt like I was torturing him somehow."

"We can't tell them no, not when they're asking for help with Bloom." Vanessa reached over and took up Mike's coffee cup again, wrapping her fingers around it to take in the warmth. "As her… 'adoptive' parents," Vanessa struggled with the words, "…it's our duty to ensure she's happy and well-adjusted. That duty encompasses her relationship with her parents. I mean she's living with them now. To have her living in a situation that's awkward and emotionally straining without bothering to help would make us terrible parents!"

"Wouldn't that make them terrible parents too?" Mike pointed out. Vanessa threw him a dour look and he raised his hands. "Okay, okay… but you'd think they'd be a bit more prepared to take on a teenage daughter. They raised one before. Why not follow the same technique?"

"Mike, you know as well as I that every child is different. Bloom isn't some cut-out of Daphne. She doesn't respond to the same parenting techniques the same way. And they didn't really get to experience much of Daphne's teenage years. Miriam told me Daphne was mostly raised by nursemaids and etiquette teachers. How do you think Bloom would react to that?" she asked rhetorically. She glanced down at the cup again. "It's good they realized they need to be a bit more hands-on with Bloom, considering she's the only child they have left." Vanessa smiled. "And it's not like they aren't learning about her already. They just need a bit of guidance. They're already picking up on some of her traits. Miriam told me Bloom takes after her father more. She said Daphne was a lot more compliant and well-mannered. Bloom's just stubborn and more likely to challenge authority if it doesn't suit her morality. And you know she usually gets her way."

"That's funny." Mike smirked. "Oritel told me Bloom took after Miriam. Same spiel about stubbornness…"

"I guess we're about to find out just who it is Bloom takes after." Vanessa sipped the coffee from Mike's mug. "They'll be here this afternoon."

"What? This afternoon?" Mike stared at her. "You mean they were coming regardless of my answer?"

Vanessa looked up at him. "I knew you couldn't say no. Not with me to talk you down." She set the cup on the table and made her way to leave the room. "Oh… and I do believe Bloom gets her persuasiveness from me, despite the lack of genetic relation." Vanessa threw Mike a sly smile and left him to stew.