4

Disclaimer: I do NOT own W.I.T.C.H.

AJ was furious! She was peeved off! She couldn't believe it! How could someone do that! And to a best friend no less! Right now, AJ was sitting in Biology class just fuming. She was cussing in her head, and was clenching the table so hard that her knuckles were turning white. Then, she started to think back on what had happened earlier that day.

(Flashback)

AJ was feeling great. She had just finished the mile at a personal record time of 5 minutes and 48 seconds. It was amazing, but unfortunately that meant that she would have to wait for everyone else to get down, which could take a while, and since she didn't really know anybody in that class, it was going to be a long boring time.

Whoosh!

The wind blew at AJ's light brown curly ponytail, and she looked up just in time to see Rush rush right past her. She raised up an eyebrow. Rush is pretty fast. I'm guessing that's how she got her name.

After about 21 minutes of really boring waiting, the last runner finally finished the mile. "26:31!" the gym teacher yelled. Yes, we're done! AJ jumped up from where she was sitting on the curb. She stretched her arms over her head and popped her back. Then, AJ started to stroll over to the gym doors until she heard a mean wicked laugh.

"Whoa, did you see Kara? What a slowpoke!" some person AJ didn't recognize, commented. AJ stopped, hid behind some person, and listened.

"Yeah, I know right. I mean 26 minutes and 31 minutes? That's got to be the slowest time ever recorded for the mile ever!" someone else, AJ didn't know, said nastily.

"Kara's such a fatty!" someone laughed. AJ looked a little closer and gasped in shock. It was Rush! She clenched her fists in anger. What the flip! She knew that Rush and Kara were best friends because she saw them walking and talking together like only best friends could do. Her eyes narrowed. What is Rush doing talking about Kara like that? Kara, her best friend? What was wrong for her? There was nothing that got under her skin more than best friends talking about each other badly behind their backs.

"Rush, why do you even hang out with her?"

"Well, duh! To hurt that CeCe girl. I figured stealing her best friend would crush her, and it did." AJ's mouth fell open in shock. What!? Rush only became friends with Kara to hurt CeCe! Wait, CeCe Ridgewood?

It was like one of the people in the group was reading her mind. "CeCe Ridgewood? What did she ever do to you?" Yeah, what did CeCe ever do to you? You, you witch.

"Yeah, CeCe Ridgewood. And are you kidding? She ruined my happiness!" What!? AJ was shocked. Even though she had only met CeCe yesterday, she picked up the vibe that CeCe wasn't the type of person to ruin people's happiness, but she also knew that looks could be deceiving.

"How?"

"She destroyed it! She destroyed my relationship! She drove him away! The boy I loved!" Rush screamed so loudly that some of the surrounding people turned and looked at Rush funny. She turned around and gave them all dirty looks. "Nothing to see here, people. Just mind your own business." The onlooking people just shrugged and went back to talking to friends or whatever they were doing.

So that's why Rush hates CeCe! CeCe ruined Rush's relationship with her love! Hmmmmm... I'll need to ask her about that, later... AJ was about to leave and go somewhere else because it sounded like the conversation was over when…

"Oh, okay... Wait, why Kara? Why not Sam? CeCe and Sam are best friends, too." Good point.

Rush laughed. "That one's easy. It's because Kara was the easiest one to trick."

AJ clenched her fists together. What a b-. But before AJ could finish that thought, something caught her eye. She looked closer and saw that it was a girl running towards the gym. She was wearing a pair of turquoise shorts, a dark blue t-shirt, and a pair of blue tennis shoes, and her short dark brown hair was sort of flying in the wind. It looked like her face was red, but AJ wasn't sure, so she looked even closer. Yep, definitely red, alright... Wait, is she crying? Then, it hit her. The bob styled dark brown hair, the blue clothing, and the possibly coincidental crying right after Rush had said all of those nasty things? That girl running was Kara! And she's crying!

Unfortunately, it took AJ a while to process what had happened, so by the time AJ snapped out of it, Kara was already inside the school. Suddenly, AJ sprinted over to the gym. She ran inside nervously and panicked a little. Kara could be anywhere in this entire school! She smacked her forehead. Of course! It was such an obvious answer! Where do girls go to cry at school? The girls' bathroom! Well, most of the time anyway, and it's my best shot, so I should look in there just in case.

AJ ran outside of the gym and looked around for the nearest girl's bathroom. When she spotted one, she made a mad dash for it, but stopped right in front of the door. I don't want to rush in there a like an angry bull or accidentally hit her with the door if she's behind it. AJ took a big breath and gently pushed the door open. She quickly looked behind the door, but didn't see her, so she continued on to the stall area. As she walked over to the stalls, she listened really carefully and heard the soft sound of shuffling in the first stall.

AJ stopped in front of the first stall and said gently, "Kara, I know you're in there. What's wrong?" Kara didn't answer. AJ sighed. "Kara, it's me AJ. Something's obviously upsetting you. Tell me what it is. Maybe I can help."

"Just go away," Kara whispered really quietly.

Maybe I should tell her about what I heard from Rush and her friends. "But-"

Kara cut her off. "Please, just go away," she said a little louder this time.

AJ decided not to push Kara. Kara would hopefully tell her in her own time. "Okay, okay. I'll go, but just remember that you have a friend." AJ started to walk towards the bathroom door. I hope Kara will be okay. Then, she stopped. What if she doesn't know that the friend I mentioned is me? "Oh, and by the way, that friend is me." AJ smiled, and afterwards, left the bathroom.

(End of Flashback)

"Earth to AJ. Come in AJ. Come in," a voice said happily.

AJ focused her eyes to see Kara in front of her, waving her arms in front of AJ's face. "Huh?" AJ asked still a little out of it.

"You were like spaced out for the past 45 minutes, just staring at that wall over there," CeCe replied, while pointing over to the wall to AJ's left.

"Yeah, I'm surprised Mrs. Vandom didn't notice you spacing out," Sam mentioned.

Then, AJ saw it. Sam, CeCe, and Kara were surrounding her desk, when they were supposed to be in their own assigned seats. "Why are you guys over here? Aren't you guys supposed to be in your assigned seats? Not that I don't want you over here or anything, it's just that, I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Nope. While you were in LaLa Land, Mrs. Vandom put us in groups, and then, her drawer vibrated really loudly like a hyper massage chair. She opened it and dashed out of the class as pale as a ghost. Oh, by the way, our group is you, me, CeCe, and Sam," Kara said quickly, pointing to each corresponding person.

"Hey, what about me?" a very annoyed voice said.

"What about you, Steve?" Sam said narrowing her eyes.

"Well, I'm in the group, too, you know," Stevie said. "And it's Stevie, not Steve, nerd."

"Why you little," Sam started. It looked like she was about to jump out of her seat and drop kick Stevie, but luckily, CeCe was there to hold her back. Whoa, what was that!? AJ could've sworn that she just saw some kind of fire flash in Sam's eyes. AJ shook her head. That's impossible. Besides I'm still sort of out of it. It was probably just my imagination.

"Calm down, Sam," CeCe said quietly. "Don't let Stevie get to you."

"Yeah, don't let glamorous and beautiful me make fun of you. You do that all by yourself." Stevie smirked.

Before Sam could rip Stevie's head off, AJ piped up. "So we're all in a group?"

"Yeah, and we're supposed to be doing workbook pages together," Kara stated.

AJ looked at her watch. "Okay, and we have about 2 minutes to do them. Maybe we should just meet up at someone's house instead."

"You guys can come over to my place," CeCe mentioned, while still trying her best to hold Sam back.

"Sounds like a plan. Is that okay with everyone?" Everybody nodded, including Stevie, surprisingly. "Great! So we'll all meet up after school and walk home with CeCe."

AJ's POV

"So this is your house?" I questioned. It was after school, our group had just arrived at CeCe's house. The house was pretty nice. It was a 2-story tan colored house with a big white porch. It had a 2 car garage and a cement driveway with a basketball hoop. The yard was green and lush, and it had a couple of trees in the front and the lived in a suburban area, so the other houses were reasonably close, but not so much that they were on top of each other.

CeCe smiled "Yeah, it is... So do you want to go inside?" We all nodded. We all walked onto the porch, and CeCe unlocked the door. When she did, something gray and white dashed outside. It was a dog! It's back and ears were dark gray, while its belly, legs, and paws were white. It's tail was mostly gray with a little bit of white in it. It's face was mostly white, except for around its eyes. Around its eyes we're large dark gray circles. And its eyes. Man, they were a cool icy blue. It was beautiful. "That's Topaz. Isn't she just the cutest puppy ever?" CeCe said in a baby voice. "She's 2 years old and is a Siberian Husky."

"Topaz... Is that because of her eyes?" I asked curiously.

"Yup, her eyes are like blue topaz. Plus, she was born in December so yeah... Well, let's go on in." CeCe said and walked inside of the house.

Forget what I said about the outside of house, the inside of it is where it all is. The house had an open floor plan. To the immediate left was a typical staircase heading upstairs. Next to the stairs was a doorway. To the right was what looked like a living room complete with a big white couch, a fireplace, a flatscreen TV, and 2 blue armchairs. Next to the living room was an enormous kitchen with an island in the middle of it with some barstools. There was also a door in the kitchen that I'm guessing leads to the garage. To the left of the kitchen, was the dining room. It had a fancy table with 6 chairs surrounding it.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" CeCe yelled. "With my science group!"

"Hi, honey!" a high pitch voice screamed. Seconds later, a woman came down the stairs, followed by a man . The woman had long curly pale blond hair and cat green eyes, while the man had short dirty blond hair and light sky blue eyes. They both had very fair skin.

"Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad," CeCe happily said. "We're going to go upstairs and work on our homework. Okay?" Wait. These were CeCe's parents? I was confused. I mean not to be judgmental or mean or anything, but CeCe looked nothing like her parents. CeCe had black hair, while her parents had blond hair. CeCe had dark brown eyes, while her parents either had green or blue eyes, and CeCe had a tan olive skin tone, while her parents had fair skin. I looked over at the other girls, and it looked like Stevie was just as confused as I was. We both looked over to Sam, and it looked like she was giving us a "Don't Ask" look. I guess we looked pretty confused because she then mouthed, "I'll tell you later." Kara, on the other hand, looked totally oblivious to the silent conversation.

"Okay, pumpkin. Oh, and I'll bring some snacks for you girls later on," Mrs. Ridgewood replied.

After that, we ran up the stairs. Kara was giggling the whole way up. "Your parents still call you that?" she laughed.

"Yeah, they do," CeCe responded proudly. We all snickered a little at that.

The first thing I noticed when I entered CeCe's room was purple. Purple was everywhere. The walls were light purple. The bed sheets and blankets were various shades of purple. Even, the closet doors were dark purple!

"Whoa, lots of purple..." Stevie mumbled.

"Yeah, it's very, uh, purple," I said nervously.

"Yup, just the way I like it." CeCe smiled.

"Is purple your favorite color?" I asked CeCe.

"Yeah! What gave it away?"

"Maybe everything in this room," Stevie mumbled.

"Anyways, who's up for some homework?" Sam questioned with her hands clasped together excitedly.

All of us groaned except for Sam, who loved homework. We all sprawled out on the floor and got our Biology workbooks out.

"So let's start with question 1..."

"Elyon!" Cornelia cried out happily. She hadn't seen her best friend in what seemed like forever, so she was super excited to see her now. They had just jumped through a fold into the middle of the Meridian castle throne room in the middle of what looked like another Hoogong breeding ground debate.

"The red Hoogongs can't -"

But he was interrupted by a very happy Cornelia. "Elyon!" She then, ran over to the surprised queen and gave her a hug.

"Cornelia! I haven't seen you in forever!" Elyon exclaimed, while dismissing the court from the throne room, so she could talk to her friends privately.

"Hey, Elyon," Will, Irma, Taranee, Matt, and Nigel waved.

"Your Majesty," Caleb said, happy to see the queen of his world.

"Hey, guys," she said going over to give them all hugs, too. "What's up?"

"Well, we have a question..." Taranee started. "Is Phobos still in his cell?"

A puzzled look came across the queen's face. "What?"

"Phobis is still in his cell, right?" Will asked worriedly.

"I - I think so," Elyon said unsure. "Here let me go check." Suddenly, she disappeared in a flash of bright light, while everyone waited patiently. Minutes later, Elyon flashed back in, but this time it looked like she had seen a ghost. She was so pale.

"Elyon, what's wrong?" Cornelia questioned, worried about her best friend.

"It's - It's Phobos! He's gone! And all of the prisoners and guards are unconscious!" Elyon screamed. She was sweating and looked like she was in panic mode.

"Grandma, are you okay?" a high pitched concerned voice asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Emily," Elyon reassured her only granddaughter.

"Are you sure Grandma?" Emily questioned with worry. She walked into at the throne room and looked surprised to see all of those people there. "Uh, did I interrupt something? I think I'll just leave now." She then started towards the exit.

Irma sighed. "I remember when half pint was like 3 feet tall. Now, she's what? 15 years old?"

"Yup, that's right Irma. 15 years old. Man, they grow up so fast." Elyon smiled remembering all of those memories with her. Going out to play in the castle garden. Shopping around the marketplace in the village. Eating icecream on a hot summer day. Elyon sighed. Now, those memories had past, and she had to deal with her evil brother, Phobos.

"Well, let's go investigate the prison for clues," Caleb said.

"Wait, honey. We have to armor up first. Will, if you please," Cornelia nodded her head towards Will.

"My pleasure, Corny," Will responded. With the mention of her nickname, Cornelia frowned. "Guardians unite!"

And 5 different magical balls of light encased each of them and transformed them into their Guardian forms. It was like a cross between a fireworks show, a light show, and a concert. Caleb, Elyon, Matt, and Nigel stared at the transformation in awe. It was just so awesome.

"Quintessence!" Will yelled confidently.

"Water!" Irma said with a smirk.

"Fire!" Taranee screamed with determination.

"Earth!" Cornelia said coolly.

Then, they came down with sad looks on their faces. That was the first time they had transformed since Hay Lin had died, and it didn't feel right. It felt like a piece of them was missing, which there basically was.

"So uh, Matt, are you going to transform?" Nigel asked, trying to break the awkward silence that had developed.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks Nigel," Matt replied and after that, transformed into his Shagon form with big black wings, giant lizard tail, and gold mask.

"Soooooo... Let's go," Caleb suggested while leading the way to the Meridian prison.

"Yeah, let's go," Will said sadly. Slowly one tear made its way down to Will's chin and dropped onto the hard, cold stone of the Meridian throne room.

A/N: Thanks for reading! And thanks to Wynn-J and Featherleaf for reviews! :)