Yes, after a long wait, I have finally updated this fanfiction. I have not forgotten about it. Again I felt like this chapter was just filler, since Tecna was more of an observer than taking action herself. Although I will say I had to make some progress in the TecnaxTimmy friendship. Next chapter you will finally get to meet Elyssa for the first time and find out why I promote her so much. I've stated before in a weekly update that I want to keep her as a background supporting character and not have her take the spotlight away from Tecna.
Winx Club Episode Dialogue (c) Iginio Straffi And Rainbow S.r.l
Chapter Seven: Friends in Need
As I returned to our suite, I saw Stella was reading a gossip magazine, Bloom was studying more about the mythical Dragon who sparked the Sacred Fire, Flora was tending to the plants and Musa was in her room, organizing her CDs according to genre and artist. Instantly Flora looked up from potting new plant seeds.
"Ms Griselda wants to see us in her office immediately." I informed the rest of my roommates, "I have a feeling she's not going to let us off as easily as Ms Faragonda did."
"What punishment could she have in mind?" Flora asked as she placed the empty seed packet in a paper cup to take back to her bedroom later.
"The best way to find out is to face it head on." The read head fire fairy advised us, as her Solarian best friend tossed the magazine she was reading on the coffee table and groaned in irritation white the five of us left for the office of Alfea's head of discipline,
Not even fifteen minutes later, we were all standing in front of Ms Griselda's desk, listening to what she had decided would be our punishment for going out without permission and breaking into the school for witches.
"Your intrusion into Cloud Tower castle was extremely rude, young ladies." She began to lecture us, "You exposed yourselves to great danger, that's the reason why your powers have been revoked. It is sufficient punishment.., for me, however, sufficient is not enough. Now just so you remember this lesson, you will spend the entire day at school, and you will clean the castle from top to bottom." The conclusion she came up with made me wonder how much time she had to think about this, she must really enjoy her job.
"Um, the whole castle?" Flora inquired with a hint of uncertainty to her tone..
"No," Ms Griselda clarified, "just the stairs, corridors, classrooms and bathrooms."
"Oh well, then that's okay." Stella sighed as I noticed Bloom giggle slightly beside her, "I thought it'd be worse, honestly." Ms Griselda continued explaining our task, releasing magic from her hands as it swirled within the air, causing some type of primitive tools appear before us. As I watched them materialize, l gaped at them with wonder. I have never seen such objects in my entire life, what in the Magical Dimension were these things and how were we supposed to use them?
"And since you do not have access to your magic power for the moment, these are your work tools." She continued, taking a long stick with bristles at the end of it and giving it to Stella. My first instinct was to analyze it with my palmtop, just so I gain more knowledge about what these tools were and how to use them.
"What a strange object," I pondered, taking out my palmtop and beginning to enter some search terms, "let's see what my computer says about it." I was about to get the information I needed, when Ms Griselda came up in front of me.
"Oh, and one more thing," She began sternly, pushing my palmtop closed as I moved my hand My away, "no techno gadget allowed!" What, this wasn't good, how was I able to know how to use these primitive tools without my palmtop? I was in more trouble than a computer that had frozen due to too much data input all at once.
"Now that worries me." I admitted softly as Ms Griselda took my palmtop from my hands and putting it behind her back.
"Yeah, it shows," Musa acknowledged sarcastically, "The sad news has obviously upset you."
"Well, by Tecna's standards, she's actually shown too much emotion." Flora continued teasing the me. They had no idea just how much emotion I could show, and the simple fact that if I was to display such emotion at home, I'd be severely punished. These weren't my standards, they were my only option.
"I know, ever since I met your guys, I easily loose control." I felt as though I could admit my faults to the girls and not be shamed for it, however my confession was met with a outburst laughter, "It wasn't a joke, it was a simple observation!" No matter what, I just couldn't win, if I was too logical, people assumed I was half a robot, if I showed just the slightest bit of emotion, I get punished or teased for acting differently than usual. I suppose there was one good thing about living in isolation, no one can make you feel inadequate.
"Young ladies!" Ms Griselda interrupted the girls' laughter, trying to focus our attention back to her.
"Ssh," Flora hushed them, "quiet!" The rest of the girls stopped laughing abruptly and turned back towards Ms. Griselda.
"Tomorrow I'll conduct an inspection," She concluded, "everything better be clean, now go!" So, we all took our cleaning tools and left her office.
The girls and I stood in the hallway with the cleaning supplies, going over who was going to do what, and how we were going to accomplish this enormous task.
"So, where should we start?" Flora asked.
"Why don't we start in the auditorium?" Bloom suggested, "it's the second biggest room we were assigned to clean. Do the biggest areas of the school first."
"What about the divide and conquer algorithm." I pointed out, "Someone could do the main stairs at the same time as someone else does the auditorium."
"You do have a point there, Tecna." Musa agreed.
"Okay, you and Flora can start on the stairs, the rest of us will do the auditorium, since it's the bigger room with more space to cover." Bloom instructed. Flora and I nodded in agreement and dragged our cleaning supplies to the stairs leading from the staff offices down to the main entrance. When we got there, we stood there wondering where we were going to start.
"It's not hard to use a broom, want me to show you how?" Flora's kind offer to assist me in a new learning experience was tempting, however I was not one to appear simple minded in the face of a new challenge. I was willing to prove to Flora, and everyone else that I didn't necessarily need my electronics to figure things out, although it was a personal preference. I expected this to be one of the challenges of being out in the Magical Dimension on my own.
"Nah, I'm sure I can figure out how to use these primitive implements." I insisted, lifting up a large container, looking inside to observe it.
"Are you sure?" Flora pressed.
"Of course." I reassured her, placing the container on my head like some sort of helmet, it wasn't
that effective, but I suppose it had to be used for something.
"Are you really, really sure you don't need any... help?" She continued to press, at this point something told me that she knew more about these objects than I did, but I was determined, I had to figure it out myself, I'm not about to look stupid in front of someone who barely even knew me for more than a month or so.
"I can handle the situation, Flora, don't worry." I insisted firmly, taking the long stick and feeling the bristles with my fingers, then I flipped it so that the bristles were facing upwards, and moved it around to get the dust off, "See."
"Indeed I see." Flora replied with an amused smile on her face, she watched me use the tool closely. I continued to swing the broom back and forth against the picture frame, suddenly it fell to the ground and the glass smashed by my feet, maybe Flora was right all along.
"I think I might have done something wrong." I admitted, of course this was stating the obvious, but this was very humiliating by my standards, I hated being wrong.
"Now would you like me to help you?" Flora asked me in her sweet voice, in Ms. Griselda's office she was the only one who didn't laugh when I admitted my faults, and she didn't laugh now at my failed attempt at using the broom.
"All right, Flora, I give up." I sighed in defeat, "I guess I'm not as smart as I make myself out to be." I stepped cautiously out of the way of the broken glass and sat on a safe spot on the stairs, tossing the container that I had on my head aside.
"Tecna, you love to learn new things, right?" She inquired, placing her hand on my shoulder as I looked up at her.
"Yes, it's my favourite pastime." I told her, and she just continued to smile at me with reassurance.
"Sometimes, a part of learning new things is knowing when to ask for help, no one is ever able to figure everything out by themselves." The fairy of nature advised me, and I took her words into consideration for a few minutes. Then she took the broom and began to to demonstrate the proper way to use it, making a sweeping motion, moving the broken frame pieces in a pile.
"I'm going to go find a dust pan for this, you sweep the rest of the stairs until I get back, and then I'll show you more." She told me.
"Are you sure you think I can do this on my own?" I asked her with a hint of uncertainty.
"Well, you did watch how I used the broom, right?" Flora asked me.
"Yes, I observed it very thoroughly." I answered.
"You love to learn new things, and I have total faith in you." She reassured me with another smile as she left to find a dust pan. I had the broom in my hand, and did the precise motions that I saw Flora do just moments ago, sweeping all of the dirt I found into the pile with the frame pieces, then I proceeded to sweep my first staircase. I did the same thing that I did on the top of the main staircase where Flora and I had started, sweeping the dust from each stair in a small pile, then pushing it down towards the bottom of the stairs to add to the big pile. After a while I got quite far by the time Flora returned, she looked impressed by my work.
"It's looking great, Tecna," She told me with sincere encouragement, "not bad at all for your first try, and alone for that matter."
"Do you really think so?" I asked in surprise. I suppose learning something new didn't necessarily mean I had to do it alone.
"I really mean it, now I'll show you how to use the dust pan," Flora replied, setting the dust pan beside the ever growing pile of dirt, and I handed her the broom, "Just sweep the pile right into the pan. Now you try." She passed me back the broom, and I followed her instructions and continued to push the rest of the pile in the dust pan.
"Did I do it right?" I asked her.
"You did it right, Tecna." Flora reassured me, making sure all the dirt was on the pan, "I'll just put this in the garbage while you continue with those stairs, and then I'll do the ones on the other side. Then we can do the ones going downstairs together."
"That sounds like a good plan." I agreed. Once Flora came back, she had a small trash can with her. I had finished most of the stairs by the time she returned, and there was a new pile at the bottom which she was glad to pick up. She the broom from me and insisted that I take a break while she did the second set of stairs. I wasn't sure if I should, what if Ms Griselda caught us while Flora was hard at work sweeping the staircase and I wasn't doing anything? Although it only took her approximately ten minutes to sweep the opposite set of stairs.
"Okay, Tecna, now we can work on the third staircase together." She told me kindly, "Bloom and the others are already done sweeping the auditorium, she let me borrow hers." She
"Are you sure they're not just slacking off?" I asked her.
"Bloom and Musa sure aren't, but I don't know about our Solarian friend." Flora giggled slightly.
"That's our Stella." I thought, beginning to laugh along with her. She proceeded to sweep the top half of the main staircase as I swept the bottom half, and we met in the middle. She pushed our dirt pile in the dust pan and dumped our final pile in the trash bin.
"Now for the mopping." She told me, "It's not that hard, would you like to go fill that bucket with water." So that's what the container was used for, it was to hold water. Given the instructions, I headed toward the nearest bathroom with the bucket in hand, and placed it under the tap.
"How are you doing in here?" Flora asked. After the bucket was full, she helped me carry the full bucket back to the stairs.
"So, here is how you start, just dip the mop in the bucket, take it out, make sure that the extra water is strained out, and put it on the floor. Then move it around so the floor gets wet." She informed me while demonstrating step by step how to use the peculiar object.. It looked pretty simple to do. After her lesson, she gave the mop to me to try.
"This thing is so heavy." I groaned, dunking the mop in the water, then placing it the stairs, though as I began mopping, I fell backwards, spilling the water bucket in the process, "Just great."
"Don't worry about it." Flora assured me as she took the mop from me and helped me up. My clothes were completely soaked from the warm water, "You just go change and I'll clean up the spilled water, then we can start again." After changing into a clean and dry version of my classic casual wear, I met Flora back in the main entrance. She had already mopped some more stairs with the spilled water and filled the bucket again. I was willing to try again, so Flora handed the mop to me. This time, however, I didn't fall under the weight of the wet mop, and was able to continue doing a few more stairs at a time. Within another half hour, we had completed the three sets of stairs in Alfea's main entrance.
"Now that we're done here, let's go see how the other girls are getting along." Flora suggested. She and I walked into the auditorium, where we were surprised to find the place was covered in water, and the three other Winx Club members were either on the floor or on the desk.
"What happened here, a tornado?" Flora gasped.
"A tough battle's just ended, and I won by a landslide." Stella explained victoriously, she was sitting on the desk, and I happened to notice her accessory kit right next to her. Just as Flora was saying, she was the one slacking off.
"Liar!" Bloom laughed as she turned to get off of the soaked floor. I was worried that because the rest of our team was playing when they were supposed to be cleaning, it would cost us any chance of getting our powers back any time soon.
"I won!" Musa protested, sitting up from her position lying on the desk beside Stella.
"What a wreck." Flora thought unhappily, at least I spilled my water while trying to do the job, instead of having a water fight.
"We'll never finish this part." I agreed, suddenly we all heard a very familiar, very unsatisfied voice coming in the room.
"I dare say.., not!" Ms Griselda began, "I'm here to let you know that this evening at the Magix auditorium, there will be a concert which the whole of Alfea will attend."
"Great I love concerts!" Stella cheered, and I had to fight the urge not to palm my face while she completely disregarded the entire point of why Ms Griselda was informing us about this.
"However, you five will have to miss it," Ms Griselda continued, "You haven't finished cleaning yet!"
"Oh no!" Musa exclaimed, I knew this would be disappointing for her.
"Now get back to work!" Ms Griselda ordered, and with that, she left. So, every one of us began cleaning up the water that was on the floor. After we finished the large auditorium, we began with every bathroom in Alfea, we had made great strides in cleaning the school before the rest of Alfea's students and staff had to leave for the concert in Magix.
By the end of the day, we watched out the window as everyone boarded the buses. Ms Griselda was about to board the last bus when she looked back at us through the window, then she continued to walk on board. Once the multiple bus loads of students and staff were out of sight, Bloom turned to the rest of us after watching from the window.
"Well, they've all gone." She sighed.
"I always feel sad when the school is empty." Musa admitted, knowing about the loss of her mother, I could understand that any type of loneliness would make her sad. I asked her once how I could be feeling her sadness when I myself had never experienced it. She explained to me that I was learning empathy, putting myself in someone else's shoes, as she put it.
"Hey, what do you say we ask the boys to join us?" Stella suggested right out of nowhere. First, she makes the majority of our team leg behind for whatever illogical reason, making them start a water fight when they were supposed to be cleaning, and now she wants the Specialists to help us with the rest, so when Ms Griselda finds us with them, our punishment would be increased exponentially.
"Yeah, why not," Flora stated sarcastically, "then when we get caught, we'll be grounded to infinity."
"I think it's a great idea," Bloom admitted, while Flora sighed exasperatedly, "sure, they could The help us with the cleaning."
"But its like cheating, isn't it?" I asked quizzically.
"Mm, mm," Bloom shook her head, "Griselda said no magic, no techno gadget, did not say no flesh and blood."
"Of course!" Stella agreed excitedly, throwing her bucket and broom on the floor, "And when we're done cleaning, we can have a nice party!" Oh Stella, the more you say, the more I want to palm myself in the face.
"It's a wonderful idea!" Musa agreed, at least one positive thing could come out of this, she could still enjoy the party she was looking forward to attending.
"I can't wait!" Bloom shouted excitedly, and once again, Flora and I were out voted as we watched the rest of the girls jump in the air and cheer.
Timmy's Point of View
I hadn't seen Tecna since we were looking for the escaped troll in Black Mud Swamp, in fact, I haven't gotten in contact with her after that. Though, the way she abruptly stopped walking in the middle of the swamp, standing there with her hand in her pocket made me worry, it was almost as if she was recharging herself, though I should never say that, I knew nothing about her and making such assumptions was just wrong. Despite being apart for a while, I couldn't take my mind off her, there had to be a reason why I was assigned to protect her, and not keeping any contact with her means I'm obviously not doing my job. I was sitting at my computer desk, while Sky and Brandon were doing homework, when suddenly Sky's cellphone rang.
"Hey Stella." He began after answering the call, "Yeah, of course I'd like to come over... The other guys? I'm not sure."
"I'm up for it!" Brandon shouted from his place on his bed, covered in books and papers, "I'd love to see Bloom again."
"Brandon's in." Sky told Stella over the phone, then turned towards me, "Timmy, want to go to a party the girls are having while everyone else is at that concert in Magix?" It would be a good opportunity to talk to Tecna again, or at least make sure she was okay. There had to be a way I could know when she was in danger and not appear as a stalker, or even just plain creepy. I didn't want to go around following her, but I needed to do my job as best I could at the same time. My strategy was to become friends with her over time, that way I'll have more chances to be around her and go on more missions with her.
"Sure, why not." I admitted optimistically after a moment of thought, just then I heard footsteps coming into our room. Why wasn't I not surprised, it was Riven.
"That's a first," he laughed hysterically, "Usually you're too much of a wuss to set foot at any social gathering. What happened, someone end up spiking your coffee this morning?"
"Dude, give the guy some credit, he's opening up for once," Sky encouraged me proudly, "Kudos man." I just chuckled slightly and thanked him before we all got ready to leave for Alfea. Riven snickered behind me, saying he was only coming along just so he could continue to humiliate me the way he did at the dance, I swear he thought that was his life's purpose. Twenty minutes after leaving Red Fountain, Brandon pulled over for a moment to text Stella back, letting her know that we'd be there in about five minutes. As the guys and I approached the school for fairies, we saw the blonde princess of Solaria waving us over.
"You guys sure didn't waste any time, it's great to see you!" She greeted Sky enthusiastically, practically throwing herself on him as struggled to get off his hover bike.
"Hey, you know us, when it comes to partying, the Specialists take matters very seriously." Brandon joked, and she just responded with a giggle. I just smiled innocently with his statement, while Riven just shrugged in disagreement. After getting off our hover bikes, we followed Stella inside the school, when I saw her, Tecna, standing with the rest of her friends.
"Hey Bloom!" Brandon greeted her warmly and received a smile from the red head in return. Of course Stella was already draped around Sky's arm, and Riven was keeping his distance and took his position leaning against a wall. Being in a room full of girls, I began to get a little nervous, I had nothing else to occupy my thoughts but trying to talk to Tecna, and I remembered the last time that happened, I ended up with piss drenched pants. At least when we were in Black Mud Swamp, I had an objective, a mission to achieve, and that was to find the troll. Although we didn't find it, it kept me focused enough not to turn into the usual nervous wreck that I've always been around women. The more I thought about it, the more I think General Tyler purposely assigned me to Tecna's case because he knew she was a technology fairy, and a very beautiful one at that. He knew how chicken I was around women and just being assigned to one so intimidatingly amazing guarantees I'd screw up big time. I was so deep in thought that when she turned to look at me, it took me by surprise. A moment later she slowly walked up to me. Oh Great Dragon, she's going to talk to me, I just hoped that Brandon brought me a back up pair of pants. I got so flustered, I started fiddling with a pen from my pocket.
"Hi... Timmy." Tecna began shyly, and I looked up in her direction, she was even more stunning than I remembered, even the picture General Tyler gave me for a reference didn't do justice to seeing her face to face.
"Hi Te... Tecna." I stuttered nervously, damn it, I could not even get a word out of my mouth. I could see Riven eyeing me from the corner of the room, just waiting for me to embarrass myself in front of her, then I suddenly thought of something, "I just bought a brand new simulation game and, um.., if you want I can lend it to you to try out. I.., um.., remembered you love doing that kind of thing." Obviously Timmy, you're such a moron!
"Sure, what's the game about?" Tecna inquired, she genuinely sounded intrigued, that was a good sign.
"It's just one of those classic shooter games, you use laser attacks against your opponents in a battlefield." I explained, I was getting a little more confident the more I started talking about the game. Maybe technology was the key, that was what I could talk to her about without embarrassing myself or getting flustered.
"Interesting, though I don't know when I'll see you again after this." She said slowly, that was true, it could be another few weeks before we ever met up.
"There's no hurry, I guess, I'm sure I'll get a chance to give it to you." I reassured her. This conversation was going better than I fought it would, I turned in Riven's direction and gave him a cocky smirk for a brief second, and his response was a derisive laugh under his breath. Well at least I didn't leave with wet pants. Suddenly I saw Flora in the corner of my eye, coming to greet us.
"Let's start cleaning the main entrance." Flora called out. What was she talking about, I wasn't told anything about cleaning, and I had a feeling that Sky wasn't informed either.
"Cleaning?" I asked with confusion, we all stood stunned when Flora mentioned we had to clean.
"Yeah, didn't Stella ask you guys to help us clean before the party?" Bloom asked us, and we continued to look dumbfounded, and the expression on Riven's face turned to anger.
"Well,... I may have skipped over the part about cleaning." Stella admitted shamefully.
"What?" the girls in complete unison.
"Do you really think you'd go to a party if you knew cleaning was going to be involved?" The Solarian princess asked her friends, "I sure wouldn't."
"I don't know about Riven and Timmy, but Sky and I would've came anyway." Brandon admitted happily with a sincere smile.
"Thanks Brandon." Bloom gushed.
"Well, now that you know the truth, I wouldn't be surprised if you wanted to go back to Red Fountain." Flora replied sadly, picking up the cleaning supplies.
"Well, since we are still going to have the party afterward, we might as well stay for the work." Sky told her kindly. Brandon and I nodded in agreement while Riven continued to lean against the wall in discontent. The girls grabbed a mop as Musa instructed us on how to use them, Sky and Brandon, coming from royal society, had people to clean their rooms for them. I had electronic gadgets and devices to do that for me when I was growing up, so I suppose mopping was a new thing for all of us.
"It's not hard, just do it like this," She began, "soak down, rise, and dry. And then woo!" Musa looked like she was trying to make this look fun as she showed us, and I must admit, it did look like she was enjoying herself. There was a little stereo in the corner of the room which the girls were playing music from as they cleaned, and the music continued to play while she mopped.
"Uh... wasn't this supposed to be a party?" Riven questioned, I guess he was buried so deep in his own thoughts that he missed what Stella had said about not telling us that they had to clean the rest of the room before they could party.
"It will start as soon as wer finished cleaning." Bloom told them, "Here." Then she tossed Brandon a mop.
"Heads up!" Then she threw Sky a mop as well, and since they have excellent reflexes, they caught the mops successfully. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't so lucky, it almost slipped from my grasp, but I managed to get it, laughing nervously. Bloom tossed Riven a mop of his own, but he just didn't care to catch it, or take it from the floor when it landed.
"We'll work better with some music on!" Flora added cheerfully, walking over to the little stereo. turning up the music that was playing.
"And all together now, soak, rinse, dry!" Musa instructed, continuing to mop the floor and dance at the same time.
"Soak, rinse, dry!" Bloom, Brandon, Sky and Stella began turning the instructions that Musa gave us into a song, and started mopping with her, "Soak, rinse, dry!" Flora and Tecna joined into the dancing. I could hear them both laughing slightly. I joined them, standing beside Tecna, attempting to twirl my mop with one hand like a baton, I seen her in the corner of my eye, doing the exact same thing.
"Feel the rhythm, work to the beat!" Musa encouraged everyone as we twirled our mops around in our grasp. She taught us how to do this as soap flung all over the place. I saw Tecna look back at me, an impressed expression on her face. I was actually doing well twirling my mop, usually I was the uncoordinated one, but somehow I managed not to drop it a single time. Riven was still leaning against the wall, watching with disinterest and boredom, when he mouthed something, and knowing him, I could assume he just swore. We resumed twirling our mops for a few more moments mopping the floor once again. Even Kiko, Bloom's rabbit, was joining in the cleaning, he was twirling a small brush, but as he stopped, it slipped out of his paws and flew into the air, hitting Lady, who had been quiet and obedient as we cleaned, that is until she was hit on the head with the brush.
"Soak, rinse...!" We sang once again as we mopped and some of us were laughing happily. Kiko casually moved away from the pile of bubbles innocently whistling, and Lady didn't even go chasing after him, just ignoring him, "Dry!"
Tecna's Point of View
After we finally finished cleaning Alfea, the girls and I took the guys up to our dorm for the party. Musa found access to the school's sound studio, where she had control over the speakers, blasting music throughout Alfea. In our room, everyone was laughing, dancing and having a good time. I got myself a cup of soda and sat down on the couch in the common room, when Timmy began to sit down beside me, still looking like his confidence was broken.
"Hi again..." He chuckled shyly, "so, are there any new projects you're working on?"
"No, not at the moment, I'm more preoccupied with classes lately. My main objective is to learn more about how to use my powers as effectively as I can, truth be told, I never got to use them too much on Zenith." I suddenly confessed, and surprised myself. Why did I just openly admit that I don't use my magic while living at home? It didn't tell him much, that was for sure, but what else was I willing to spill out unconsciously.
"What have you learned so far? I know it's still pretty early in the school year, but you got to be into it by now." He continued, he didn't even take notice of the fact that I said I didn't use my magic on Zenith, that was good, but I really have to be more careful. What came over me?
"Nothing too interesting, I'm learning about creature transformations in Wizgiz's class, understanding the meaning of magic spells in Palladium's class. I haven't gotten much of a chance to transform but they tell me it'll come in time." That wasn't too much of a lie, none of the others transformed too often either, but they had a regular opportunity in battle classes. Something I had to work my way up to. We continued to talk about my technology specific magic classes, since every fairy is eligible to take a few courses that cater to their own individual magic strengthening goals. The conversation lessened over about five or six minutes, and we fell silent before Timmy asked me something completely out of nowhere.
"Don't you want to dance, Tecna?" He asked me, did he want me to dance with him, or was he asking me if I liked to dance in general? I had to be honest, I couldn't humiliate myself in front of him, and I didn't want to embarrass him either.
"No, I don't like to," I admitted shyly, "it makes me feel kind of awkward..."
"Well, that makes two of us," Timmy confessed, "I don't like it either. I feel ridiculous."
"Timmy," we both turned around to see Riven learning against the wall, as usual, "you're ridiculous even when you're not doing anything." I just scoffed at his snide comment, and Timmy hung his head with embarrassment. Just then, Musa danced by, shuffling her feet as she moved, then she twirled in front of Riven and skipped away, maybe she was trying to get his attention after all. I looked back at Timmy who was just shut down, and stared at his hands. I took another drink from my soda and watched the rest of the girls dance and socialize. I noticed that Riven had snuck out to the balcony for some solitude after talking briefly to Brandon. After another fifteen minutes into the party, everyone began conversing in a group.
"It's too bad this party can't go on forever." Bloom had been telling us.
"Maybe not forever, but I was hoping it would go on at least until morning." Sky agreed.
"I guess, as long as we keep the place tidy." Flora replied happily.
"Uh, is that your stomach grumbling?" Stella asked Sky, "You want to eat something?"
"No, but I'm kinda thirsty." Sky admitted as Stella began pouring the Eraklyon Prince some orange juice.
"Your Highness, are you nervous?" She asked him. When Stella asked him this, I could feel the ground shaking below our feet.
"I'm perfectly calm," Sky reassured her, "it's the school that's shaking!"
"An earthquake?" Bloom asked with fear in her voice.
"It's coming from inside!" Flora acknowledged, peaking her head out the door to look down the hallway.
"No, it's from outside," Stella ran out to the balcony as Musa, Riven and Timmy followed. I soon stood up to see what was going on, " Maybe one of our classmates left the TV on too loud, see it stopped." Just then, we all witnessed something fly out of a window opposite to our dorms.
"Or maybe not." Bloom and Flora began shaking nervously, but Riven remained calm, whistling to get the boys' hover-bikes to come up to the balcony. The four boys jumped on their hover-bikes, riding off to the source of the rumbling. The girls and I ran downstairs and met them at their location. I walked toward the wall that the boys were looking at, and observed the cracks and holes that were made in it.
"What kind of creature could do this kind of damage?" Timmy inquired with complete amazement.
"A big, heavy creature." I answered him, feeling the cracks in the wall, there was monster hair hanging from some of them, if only I knew what type of creature the hair belonged to.
"Oh golly, I never would have guessed." Riven replied sarcastically, I turned toward him with irritation deep in my gaze.
"It's two and a half meters tall and weighs close to a ton, its fur is bristly, it has horns and multiple clawed limbs, it also has a musky odour. Now is that better?" I informed the cocky Specialist, who was getting under my skin with every word that came out of his mouth.
"Way to go, Tec!" Stella laughed before the ground shook once more.
"Okay, that was it." Brandon told the guys as we felt the rumbling once again, this time it was much more distinguishable than when we were in the dorms.
"What are we waiting for?" Sky asked, "Let's go!"
"Wait for us!" Bloom called as we headed out, "We're coming too!"
"Come on!" Sky encouraged us to follow them, however, Riven having his usual self-centred attitude, immediately stopped us.
"Stay where you are, little fairies," He ordered sharply, " this isn't a job for you." Musa just stared him squarely in the eye and huffed, but he turned away and followed the rest of the guys.
"Says who!" She shouted, and so we ran back into the school, through the main entrance and down a hallway to see if we could find the creature ourselves. As we continued to wonder the hallways and up the stairs in the school, we couldn't see anything suspicious, that is until we reached the top of another staircase.
"Nothing, maybe it went away." Bloom guessed as we approached another hallway.
"Maybe it was just a wild animal," Flora added, "you know."
"Or one of Prof. Wizgiz's crazy creations." Musa thought.
"I'd say it's a dirty laundry hamper creature." Stella joked, really Stella? A dirty laundry creature? Can't she take this a little more seriously? Whatever this thing was could be vandalizing our school and we were the only ones who could put a stop to it. Just then we finally reached the top of the stairs.
"Let's try this way." Musa suggested, it was so dark right about now that she resorted to feeling the wall to lead her way, when suddenly she bumped into something.
"Hang on a sec." She thought, backing up nervously, "There never use to be a wall in this corridor." A huge, blue monster was standing in the hallway, taking us by surprise. It turned towards us and roared, spitting all over the girls closest to it, especially Stella.
"Ew, this is totally disgusting!" She shouted, "You are so going to get it!" The Solarian princess stared the beast right in the face, imitating its growl.
"Stella, we have no powers." Flora eminded her nervously.
"Ha ha, nice monster." She chuckled, moving away and back towards us. The monster was not too happy with what Stella did, and began chasing us down the corridor as we screamed. The girls and I ran up yet another flight of stairs, we didn't even stop to look back. I flung open a set of doors as we continued running as fast as we possibly could. However the monster was not too far behind, and he roared once again, stomping his big foot down causing the ground to shake, and we lost our footing and fell to the floor. I fell to my knees, leaning against the wall, hoping that the monster wouldn't trap me. I heard Bloom shriek from not too far away, and was afraid to look around, but I dared. As I looked, the creature was way too close to me for comfort, and with some kind of instinct, I knocked him in the face with my feet as I jumped right on him. Then I landed on the floor, making my escape.
"Look at him, he's struggling and sweaty," Stella taunted the monster as I turned back, "he really stinks, this should help a little." She began spraying the creature with some of her perfume.
"Great Stella!" I shouted, getting out of the way before the creature could get away, "You made him even more angry!" And so we continued to run down hallway after hallway, yelling and screaming. I suddenly saw Musa jump up the wall, building more height, when the creature came, she was about to jump right on his head, but instead, she was right in front of him, and he punched her. She flew across the corridor right in the darkest side, where we couldn't see her at all. Moments later, we were surprised when Riven appeared with Musa in his arms, that meant that the boys were not too far behind him.
"That's it you beast!" He growled fiercely, "You asked for it!" He set Musa down on her feet, and stepped forward as Timmy, Brandon and Sky followed him with their weapons in hand.
"Girls, you can sit back and relax," he told us stubbornly, "we'll put him through the wringer! Now this is my kind of party." Then, Riven swung at the monster with his sword, and when it went to punch him, he moved out of the way.
"Let's take him on together!" Brandon suggested hastily, trying to assist him.
"Just worry about your prince, page boy!" Riven told him rudely as he thrust forward toward the monster.
"Come on guys!" Sky shouted, "Attack!"
"Specialists attack!" Brandon ordered.
"This is my attack!" Riven insisted furiously, but his ego got the best of him, he didn't see the monster's fist, and he punched Riven, causing him to fly through the air and crash through a window. Good luck for us trying to explain that damage to Ms Griselda, never mind the cracks and holes in the wall outside. Suddenly, the creature started beating the rest of the boys, and we couldn't do anything about it.
"We've got to do something!" Bloom insisted with complete fear in her voice.
"The monster is beating them to a pulp!" Flora exclaimed.
"We don't have anything to fight with!" I reminded the girls, I barely noticed that Stella had disappeared, only until she came back with the buckets and mops we used.
"Look what I found." She announced, carrying the cleaning supplies up the hallway.
"Hey, this gives me an idea!" Bloom shouted. Just then, we saw the guys getting thrown against the wall, one by one, and we had to get the creature's attention. We began banging on the buckets as he turned to face us.
"Hey monster!" Bloom shouted.
"We're here!" Stella added as we continued to make noise to distract the creature. He suddenly roared again, and began chasing us once more. Buckets and pots flew in every direction while we ran away from the boys.
"Are you all ready?" Bloom asked all of us as Musa was running beside her.
"You betcha!" Musa answered, and they both grabbed soap containers from the belts on their waists, and squirted in all over the floor. Then we watched as the monster slipped on its stomach and crashed down multiple flights of staircases. We ran down the stairs to see the damage we had done to the monster.
"Ooh, scary ugly!" Flora replied in a quivering voice.
"I almost had him." Riven mumbled irritably, who had managed to find his way back to us.
"What I'd like to know is where could a thing like that come from?" Bloom wondered, suddenly we saw something pop its way out from under the huge monster. It was the duck that Flora had placed in the egg that Icy thought had Stella's Solaria ring in it during the welcome gala. It wobbled on it's feet before it just stumbled backward and sat down.
"That's Pepe, Icy's duck!" Bloom announced, I had no idea they gave it a name, I didn't even think they'd bother caring about it at all.
"He couldn't possibly have gotten here by himself." I told the rest of the group.
"Mommy!" Pepe yawned, curling up in the fur of the monster and falling asleep, I had to admit, it was adorable to see right in front of my eyes.
"I'd say this is a special gift from the Trix R. Us company." Stella joked, not that the situation wasn't as serious as it once was, and we now knew the cause of the vandalism, I didn't mind it.
"Let's go to Faragonda's office," Bloom suggested, "I know that with her crystal ball, she can keep watch over pretty much the whole school." Now that was a bad idea, going into the headmistress's office while she wasn't present was a rule I didn't need to break, sometimes I didn't know why I even followed everyone around like this, but my curiosity got the best of me.
"But that wouldn't be right," Flora protested," we can't go into Faragonda's office if she isn't in there."
"That's true," I agreed, "it's strictly against the rules."
"Yes, but for our own good and that of Alfea, we must solve this mystery." Bloom insisted.
"Very well," I sighed, "but if we get caught, don't say I didn't warn you." And Flora nodded in agreement. So, we wondered back toward the main entrance from outside, and headed up toward the stairs to Ms Faragonda's office. Once we reached the office, Bloom led the way.
"Here we are, this is the moment of truth." She announced quietly as we all walked into the headmistress's office and up to her desk. It felt wrong being here at night, and I just hoped we would not get caught for this, but who was I kidding? When I was with the girls, rules were broken, and we got in a lot of trouble.
"There's someone in here." Riven warned us after scoping the room.
"Ooh, I knew it," Flora asked in a very shaky voice.
"What should we do?" Musa questioned quickly.
"Let's hide." Bloom advised, so we all found some hiding places, when suddenly we saw the Trix enter the room guided by a blinding light.
"This is odd," we heard Icy reply, "the vacuum clearly indicates that the power of the Dragon is hidden in this room, but I don't see anything." I heard Icy talking to her sisters. From my hiding place I noticed Riven sneak from a closet and head towards the lights."
"I guess we'll just have to trash the place and search every nook and cranny until we find what we want." The witch of ice continued.
"We won't let you!" Bloom shouted as Icy turned to her voice and groaned with anger. Bloom jumped from he hiding place, and in minutes, Riven had turned on the lights, the Trix just groaned, looking around to see Riven laughing victoriously.
"What are you doing here?" Icy inquired in complete surprise.
"No," Bloom shot back, "what are you three doing here?"
"That's what I was going to ask you all." And just as expected, there was Ms Faragonda, standing in the threshold of her office door. Now we were going to be in a whole instalment of trouble, "Up until a moment ago I thought this was my office."
"You might not believe us, but we can explain." Bloom began to tell her.
"All right, let's here what you girls have to say." Ms Faragonda answered. Bloom explained everything that happened during the night, and then all of us walked to the quad.
"Well, thanks for everything, Brandon." I heard Bloom tell the blonde squire.
"It was an evening I won't soon forget." He answered her.
"Come here." Sky pulled Stella in for a kiss on the cheek. Timmy and I watched the other two girls gush over their guys, and suddenly he said something.
"A memorable party." He replied simply, I just thought for a moment what he meant by that.
"Yeah, and uh, next time you have a party, don't bother to invite me, all right." Riven told us rudely, and Flora and Musa gasped at his downright arrogance. The boys drove off while we watched and Stella waved to Sky. The creature was being transferred in a bubble, probably to Magix in a high security prison.
"Oh, and Griselda, remind me to send Director Saladin a letter of thanks for the help his students gave us." Ms Faragonda began as she turned to the head of discipline, who was with her the who time and was not too impressed by what happened, "And as for you three witches in training.., I will immediately take the matter up with Director Griffin, your behaviour here this evening is totally unacceptable. Tomorrow morning she will receive from me a formal complaint, I have never seen such total lack of respect. I trust you'll be disciplined accordingly, good bye girls." As she finished her long lecture, she snapped her finger and the witches were sent back to Cloud Tower.
"And now," Ms Griselda began as we all gasped, "it's your turn." I was waiting for this exact moment, we were going to be sent back to our realms. If that was the case, Ms Faragonda would insist on doing something else with me, considering I was in too much danger to return to Zenith.
"There are a few things you should know." Bloom began, "There is a broken window upstairs and a few cracked walls outside here, they were from the monster. Everything else is cleaned."
"I'll be the judge of that, Miss Bloom." Ms Griselda told her roughly.
"Now let's go and discuss this in my office." Ms Faragonda replied, and we began walking upstairs.
We followed Ms Faragonda to her office, and stood in front of her desk. I wanted to wait and find out what was going to happen next, but at the same time I didn't want to know how things would turn out.
"Now, I've looked at the situation as a whole, and so I will not reprimand you." Ms Faragonda began as we let out a few sighs of relief, "This evening's events have shown that you can handle difficult situations intelligently, creatively and without magic, and so, I'll give you back your powers. Your punishment has lasted long enough." What, was I hearing this right, we weren't going to be expelled from Alfea? That familiar surge of magic shooting through me restored my sense of safety and security now that I knew what Ms Faragonda's decision was.
Musa and I sat across from each other in our bedroom that night, I knew that deep down inside, Ms. Faragonda would have to do something else for me, after all her efforts to become my legal guardian, she had too much compassion to throw it all away. I noticed Musa sitting quietly under her comforter, pondering something.
"I've made up my mind," She admitted, looking up at me, "Riven is a complete and total ass, he's not worth my time and he just seems to only think of himself. I've seen that too many times every time we meet."
"I'm not too sure how to respond to that, Musa." I confessed in the dim light of the room, "but I'll support you no matter what decisions you make." She thanked me softly before laying down in her bed, and I soon followed her lead. In a few days it was The Day of the Rose, a day celebrating mothers, to me it was just a day like any other, but I knew for a fact that Musa struggled with it every year.