Before Alfea: Lara
It was quiet. Too quiet.
Lara of Linphea, currently residing on Illusis with her family, wasn't one that enjoyed the calm. She was chaotic and wild at heart, a trait she was sure wasn't genetic- or if it was, she sure hadn't inherited it from her father. Her mother had been dead for years, but Mirta, her stepmother, was as close to a replacement as you could get. Not nearly close enough, really, but Mirta was cool.
Lara turned on some of her metal music, trying to stop the silence that seemed to buzz in her ears. She clicked the stopwatch that was always on her bedtime table as well. It had become a game- how long could the Werewolves of Isis play their wailing, screeching songs before someone came up to her room and politely asked her to tone it down? The record was three and a half minutes.
The song hadn't even reached the chorus when someone quietly opened the door. Lara knew her triplet half-brothers well enough to distinguish them on sight, and both Heketoro and Helios had come to complain about the noise. Half a second later, Raiden joined them.
The triplets all looked like their mother, except for the smooth black hair that Lara had also inherited from their father. But while her skin was darker, her eyes smaller, her features strangely graceful, her brothers had pale skin and always looked slightly astonished. If they could, they all stuck together, too, which gave them the appearance of being scared. She could hardly believe that they were all attending different colleges. Heketoro had a destiny to fulfill, one that could only be accomplished by being a fairy. Helios had a natural flair for magic, and planned to be a wizard, and Raiden had a "brilliant" plan to create a form of magical martial arts that could incapacitate an enemy without making them feel the slightest bit of pain. He felt Red Fountain training was the only way to go.
That led to the reason she was in her room. College.
A year ago, she had begged and pleaded to be allowed to go away to school, specifically to major in Potions and Poisons at Cloudtower. Mirta had bit her lip. Lara's dad had looked shocked (though, to anyone who really knew Lara, it wasn't particularly shocking). The parents had slipped into another room for an hour, and when they returned, they asked her to wait a year and go off to school with her brothers. So she could keep an eye on them.
Of course, they really wanted the responsible triplets to keep an eye on Lara, but what were details?
Now the house was hustle and bustle, applications, and people taking the Supernatural Aptitude Test or the Art and Combat Test, and working to save some extra money. Oh yeah. And Lara not being able to apply to Cloudtower.
"Alfea is a much more stable environment, one we feel you need!" her father said.
"And Lara, honey… they'd chew you up and spit you out at Cloudtower. The girls there are brutal. Besides, you don't want to waste your lovely plant powers on horrible hexes. You should use them to make people happy." That was Mirta, who had spent a semester at Cloudtower herself, but ended up attending Alfea College.
"Lara? LARA?"
Lara looked up. Her brothers were all staring at her- their facial features made them look incredulous. "Oh. Yeah. What do you want?" she asked.
Raiden cleared his throat. "Um. Mom wants you. And Dad says to keep the screeching down. It's starting to curse the neighbors."
"That's not even possible," Lara scoffed. But she switched the stereo off and went downstairs to meet her stepmother.
Mirta was tidying up the living room. Her red hair, in a 50's style bob cut, was frizzy in the first of that year's heat waves. Her black tee shirt and jean shorts were perfect for enjoying the weather. Next to her, Lara felt a little like a bag lady, what with the gothic dress she wore almost touching the floor and all. And that was just the sleeves. It didn't help that Mirta was unnaturally skinny.
The older woman looked up. "Hey, honey," she said. "Did I bother anything? I couldn't ask over all that loud music."
Lara rolled her eyes, but couldn't help a little smile. "No, not really," she admitted. "Just sulking. What do you need?"
"Just some help with supper. Is that okay?"
A side effect of being a plant magica was a love of cooking, of manipulating plants to be amazingly delicious. Lara was good at it even for a plant girl. "No problem," she said.
The pair walked into the kitchen and began putting the food together. "Mirta," Lara asked. "Why did you want to go to Cloud Tower?"
Mirta frowned. "So I could be important. I wanted people to look to me and know I changed the world. I didn't really get my wish, though I know people who did."
"The Winx?" The legendary team of seven were the only fairies (besides Mirta) that Lara ever respected. Despite being all goodness and light, nobody could deny that the Winx were truly great.
The redheaded woman nodded her confirmation. "You know I have a bit of a part in their stories, though not enough that I'll be remembered in them. Nobody will tell the stories of Mirta, the fairy of illusions."
Lara hugged her stepmother. "I will. I know the stories well enough to tell them. Though I do have a hard time believing you were ever punk."
"I'll show you the pictures sometimes, Lara honey," Mirta laughed.
Lara smiled. Mirta was a fairy, despite her first choice of school at age sixteen. She couldn't understand. But that didn't mean she wasn't a great mom.