Chapter 11
Mistakes of Decisions

Stella paid a blind eye to Mitzi's bright pink convertible speeding by as she strolled into the small, locally-owned and operated clothing store. Her beautiful, long, blonde locks and sparkling golden orbs of eyes gave no hint as to what uncompassionate schemes her mind continually churned throughout the days. Stella shone with untainted, innocent splendor externally, giving absolutely no reason in the world for the store owner to be suspicious or to have doubts about her intentions, even though she very well should have. The blonde beauty walked up and down the rows of rainbows of clothes with absolute pure confidence.

She smiled sweetly at the clerk behind the counter, and began to make such kindly small talk. Before the woman could even realize what was happening, Stella had her under a trance. She had used hand gesticulations accordingly, as magic would flow freely from her palms, catching the clerk's eye and leaving her entranced and enchanted. Magic-induced hypnotism: it was a sly trick she picked up at Alfea. As she thought about it, she couldn't quite remember the class in which she absorbed it, but all that didn't matter now. She was in the middle of her most intelligent scheme. Stella smirked as she finally completed the magical process, than she began to enact the next part of the plan.

She talked quietly with a beautiful, melancholy tone. She gave the clerk instructions, and before too long the brunette behind the counter was removing money from the cash register and handing it right to the fairy of the sun and the moon. Stella made completely sure that no other person entered the empty store as she stuffed the money into designer purse. When she'd packed every last penny into that pink leather bag, she made her way towards the storefront, grabbing the clothes she deemed attractive on her way. Before making her exit, she paused in the doorway and snapped her fingers, releasing the clerk from her trance. Of course, she made a quick dash out the door before she could even be seen.

No one suspected that a person with the looks of Stella could have done what she had. A blonde with clothes in arms and a stuffed purse was not an uncommon sight. If I keep this up, maybe my stay here in this dinky little town will be a lot better than expected. Hah! And they'll never know. And they think I'm stupid; I figured out a decent way to survive this crisis while they've just been trying to suffer through it. That's what they get for thinking me a dumb blonde. He he he; I'm just absolutely brilliant, and gorgeous, too.

She complimented herself all the way back to the vacant apartment, where she then stowed away her newly-gained treasures.

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Timmy and Riven remained on the same side of town as their perspective apartment. They'd spent the afternoon discussing all the nooks and crannies of their future operation when an inevitable question came about.

Timmy fidgeted a bit on the wooden bench, which faced another row of different decrepit apartment buildings, "Soo… maybe we should figure out what other two or three people will be staying with us."

Riven's lips curled into an almost sinister smile, "Oh, I already know who we're sharing the place with."

His nerdy friend was absolutely startled by this, "What? You've got this all figured out already? No, no… No, we need to work this out together. We need to discuss this."

"No, my friend," Riven slapped Timmy's back, causing his body to forcefully jerk forward under the pressure, "no discussion needed. I've got it figured out. It's done."

"No! Riven! No, you don't get it, I want to discuss this…" Timmy was practically begging.

"It's non-arguable. I've got it, it's done. The list is done. No discussions. Trust me."

"As much as I want to, Riven, I'm a bit fearful of who…"

Riven cut him off, "Just cut it out, man. Just cut it out and don't worry about it."

After a few minutes of silence, Timmy finally piped up again with an enormously meek tone, "So… who is on this list?"

Riven smirked for a minute and put his fingers up to his chin, as if he was deeply contemplating the question, "Well… I was thinking three people, for sure. One person, of course, being Musa."

"No, as if I didn't know that one."

"Ok smart-ass, if you're so sure about the rest of the future apartment-dwellers, than I don't need to tell you."

"No! Riven, I mean, ok, sorry, just, please go on."

"Fine, hmmm… then I was thinking Bloom or Layla, or both…" Riven continued. Timmy's inquiries had become all too tempting for the specialist; he had to toy with his nerdy friend, if only a little bit.

Timmy's heart just sunk, but then it found hope once again. "Just one. Um, I'm not too fond of either of them…" he fibbed.

"Ok then, Bloom." That should make the little prince squirm. "Now who else? Hmmm…" At this point, it was apparent that any other guys were not even in the possible pool.

"Riven! Please just let me pick one person! This was partially my idea, you know."

"Maybe I should just drop you and invite a couple more women." Riven scoffed. Despite a complete lack of emotion on the outside, he was affected by his friend's pained expression, and quickly revised his previous statement, "Alright, you can have your geeky girlfriend. But keep the couple crap to a minimum, ok?"

Timmy almost blasted back with a cheap shot about him and Musa, but decided not to push his luck, "Deal."

As the sun fell over Gardenia, the decision was finalized. Bloom, Musa, and Tecna would be invited to live in a separate apartment with the two specialists. Now it was only a matter of them accepting… well, that and affording it.

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Sky's eyes were blinded by the multi-colored lights; his ears booming with house music; his mind trying to make sense of all the moving shapes on the dance floor. Brandon, on the other hand, took it in stride and walked right into the moving crowd with Sarah arm in arm.

"What is this?" Sky turned to Mitzi.

She snorted, "Haven't you ever seen a club before? Ha ha, this is the club. It's the bomb! It's Club Rave!"

Sky nodded and before too long Mitzi had dragged him onto the dance floor. The repeating beats soon forced his feet to move. The other people around him were enough persuasion to finally get him to dance. After a time, Sky even began to experience something he hadn't planned on feeling that night: he was beginning to have fun.

Meanwhile, after a short period of dancing, Brandon had situated himself in a booth next to Sarah, whose eyes just followed Sky as they had for most of the night. It only took a short while for Brandon to have his fourth wine in hand, and at that point he was beginning to slur his speech and flirt shamelessly with Mitzi's friend. He said things he normally wouldn't, and particularly exaggerated several others, and all the while Sarah was disconnected from the conversation, nearly drooling over the blonde that Mitzi was dancing with.

As the night progressed, more alcohol began to circulate, and the effects became quite apparent. Brandon's drunken conversations were becoming harder and harder to understand and Sky was acting quite strange himself. He danced with random individuals, started flirting, and would even throw various items that he found. Mitzi and Sarah had reunited, but neither so much as took a sip of any drink available to them. Instead, they were only focused on their two handsome guests: watching them closely, leading them to believe that they were interested, dancing and kissing them to prove it…

It may have been the alcohol, but it also may have been the specialists themselves who didn't pick up on several hushed conversations between the two women, nor did any doubts about their motives come about. Their ignorance was the key for the night to take a rather dramatic turn; all the drunken dances and careless conversations were just the beginning.

It was midnight when Sarah received a sharp pinch from Mitzi. The two men and two women were seated at a booth and had been laughing and talking for quite awhile. Mitzi made sure that Sarah and she were sitting in between Brandon and Sky, Mitzi next to Brandon, Sarah next to Sky. This slight pinch underneath the table was Sarah's signal, causing her to remove her bright pink cell phone from the pocket in her skirt. She smirked as she clicked the video button and turned to Mitzi and Brandon.

"Say cheese!" she squealed.

As Brandon and Mitzi were posing for a supposed picture, Mitzi took things into her own hands (as according to plan) and began to kiss Brandon passionately. After a moment of pure confusion, an intoxicated Brandon played along. Sarah continued to record the seemingly oblivious couple on the phone.

Brandon's mind was flowing with pieces of thoughts; memories of Stella, thoughts of her and that Kolin… Mitzi, that Kolin again, Mitzi, what if Stella finds out, Mitzi is a good kisser, Stella, what would she think, but she loves that Kolin, why is he better than me? This isn't wrong, why can't I have fun? This isn't wrong… this isn't wrong…

It took a few minutes of romance between Mitzi and Brandon before something in Sky's brain finally clicked. He had to get out of there, this was leading to no good. He started to slowly shuffle his way out of the booth when a thin hand grabbed his arm.

"Where are you going? Don't you want to have a little fun?" Sarah began using her infamous "puppy pout".

"Uh, I, I gotta go." The Prince of Eraklyon was beginning to feel quite nervous. He knew he shouldn't be there.

"You should stay." She massaged his arm as she tried to sound persuasive.

"No, I have to, I have to go. And Brandon is coming too…" Sky freed himself from the booth and pulled Brandon away from Mitzi's hold. The two stumbled towards the door and nearly fell onto the sidewalk on their way out.

Mitzi and Sarah watched with an extreme lack of care. Mitzi then turned to Sarah, "Well, did you get it?"

"You bet I did!" Sarah played back the "footage" on her cell phone.

"Great!" Mitzi snorted, "Now, send it to Bloom, send it to Bloom!"

They both laughed as Sarah sent the video to Bloom's cell phone, they laughed as they walked out of the club, and they laughed as they drove the convertible back to Mitzi's home.

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Stella and Bloom were seated on the small, itty bitty couch in the "living room" of the old apartment. Everyone but Brandon and Sky were home that night and had occupied themselves. The best friends had accomplished passing time by discussing school, boys, and were even bringing up some dirt on a few of their friends when Bloom's phone rang.

"That's strange, you never get any calls." Stella said jokingly.

"It's Sarah's number." Bloom stated with a hint of confusion.

"That witch! Gimme the phone! Gimme the phone! Let me give her a piece of Stella!" Stella made a mad grab for the phone, which was too swift for Bloom to counter.

The blonde flipped the cell phone open, "It's a text message. I wonder what it says…" When she opened the message, a video began to play… a video of her shnookums and Bloom's arch enemy… kissing… kissing passionately! The two fairies watched in horror as Brandon played along with Mitzi's original move. When it was finally over, Stella abruptly stood up from the couch and stormed over to the nearest bedroom. Bloom could hear a loud "Get out!" before a few friends scrambled out of the room. The door slammed, which alarmed most of the inhabitants of the apartment.

Everyone heard a blood-curdling, angry screech from the room as the main door opened, revealing a very drunk Sky and Brandon.

Bloom took it upon herself to storm up to them, "Where the hell have you two been!? Oh, and you!" she yanked Brandon's shirt, "You are in BIG trouble, buddy! Big trouble!"

The fiery redhead dragged Brandon over to the room Stella had taken over, opened the door, and shoved him in.

"Uuhh… Bloom… sweetie, I don't think that was such a good idea, honey." Flora's voice shook with fear. There was a brief moment of silence before the screaming occurred. Stella attacked Brandon with her words as his defenses continued to crumble with each attempted excuse.

Most of the group began to settle in the living room to listen to the argument, but one certain person was missing… that is, until she came out of the second bedroom.

"Uuh, guys? I know that is important, but I, um, I have something to show you." Layla's tone was hushed and nervous. The group got up and followed her into the bedroom where she pointed to a baffling sight…

The closet door had been ripped from its hinges, revealing a load of brand new clothes and several large bags.

"That's not all…" Layla walked over to one of the bags and forced it open, allowing each and every person in the room to see the green bills all folded neatly on top of one another.

"That's… insane… but, who?" Musa asked.

"Yes, no kidding, and how?" Helia also questioned.

Before they could even begin to discuss the matter, though, the main door swung open. There was a brief silence throughout the house before a single, raspy voice could be heard…

"So, anyone want to tell me what in the hell is going on up here? Or am I gonna have to find out for myself?"

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Author's Note: I hope this wasn't too long of a time period between chapters. This one is definitely a longer installment. Thank you to all readers and reviewers! Your feedback is greatly appreciated.


In the future installments: Will Musa and Layla get that dream job? Will Tecna, Musa, and Bloom accept Riven and Timmy's offer of staying with them in the "new" apartment? What will happen between Stella and Brandon? Will the group find out where the money came from?

But first of all, what in the world will the landlord do?