Disclaimer: This story is completely original. All characters, settings, and events are spawned from my own mixed up little mind and may not be used, copied, or adapted without my express written permission. Do not steal my story!!!

(( Author's Note: Thank you to beyondrandom for catching a bit of a plot whoopsie I made in this story. :D I -had- it all correct in my head, but then sometime between planning it and writing it I fudged it up a little bit. Thanks again for pointing that out! I appreciate feedback like that, so don't ever be afraid to go "Um, did you make a booboo?" or anything like that. And if you're not comfortable putting up reviews here, you can always email me at kokkei. I love hearing from people. :)

The other issue is the telepathic speech of Theo in Chaps 4 and 5 (or was it 5 and 6? meh) and Abbie in 13. I've kept trying to put symbols on either end, because I don't want to just italicize it, but for whatever reason uploading them makes them disappear. Oh well. Later tonight I'm going to just go through and italicize all of it, at least that way it'll be somewhat clear what Theo/Abbie is saying. Thanks for your willingness to read through the chapters, even when they're confusing! ))

14.

"Oh. My. God!"

"Julie, it's-- it's not--" Toby began, desperately, but the blonde cut her off.

"Where did she go? That other girl -- that... that seal? What did you do with her? Did you... did you kill her?"

Toby's eyes widened. "What?! No! That's not-- It's--"

Julie crossed to the pool, leaning over to stare down at the water. Then she cast about wildly, looking for the woman she'd just seen or the seal or something that would explain what she'd just witnessed. She found nothing, however, then turned on her heel, pointing at Toby with a shaky finger. Toby hoped desperately that Fiz had gone invisible; she didn't want to try explaining a tiny floating man to Julie too.

"You are such a freak! I saw her, I know I saw her! I don't know what you did, or how, but I'm going to tell everyone -- the police, the principal, your mother...! I don't know what's wrong with you but you've gone way too far with this whole princess thing!" Her eyes swept up to Toby's forehead. "Including your... tiara."

Toby slapped her hands over the silver band, cursing the fact she didn't know how to make it disappear, though that might have made things even worse. "Julie, listen to me. It's not what you think. It's ... It's real. She was a Selkie, a seal-fairy, she was just going home..."

"A Seal-fairy?" Julie replied, astonished, and stared at Toby for a moment. Then she shook her head. "This is ridiculous. Give me that stupid thing right now...!"

She stepped forward, yanking one of Toby's hands away from her tiara, then reached up to jerk it off Toby's forehead. Fizzybink appeared in mid-yell -- "NO!"

There was a sudden pulse of light, and the concrete floor underneath their feet cracked. Julie's scream echoed throughout the pool room as thick, green vines shot from the crack, wrapping around her and lifting her off of her feet. Toby stumbled back, looking up and staring in shock as the vines gripped Julie, the thorns ripping her clothes and leaving angry red lines along her skin.

"Fiz!! Do something!!"

More cracks were appearing all over, vines creeping out of the cracks and wrapping around the benches, climbing up the walls and along the floor. Toby got to her feet as Fiz raced up, drawing a sword that was far too tiny to do any good. He swiped, and a clean cut formed along the vines, dropping Julie to the ground.

Toby scrambled to her, yanking at the vines, trying to free the blonde as even more vines began to crack the walls, breaking them and the floor apart.

"Fiz make it stop!!" she cried desperately, getting Julie to her feet as the blonde screeched, "what is going on?!"

"I can't!" Fiz yelled back, slicing at vines with his sharp toothpick, keeping them at bay. "It's the tiara! We can't stop it, we need to get out of here before it encases everything!"

Toby clawed at the tiara, jerking it from her head and throwing it across the room. It disappeared right before it hit the floor, a second later reappearing on Toby's forehead. The brunette felt irritation claw at her stomach as she pulled Julie's arm over her shoulder. "Let's get out of here, then!"

Vines were crawling up the walls, sending cracks racing across the walls and cielings, chunks of concrete raining down around them. Toby could hear students yelling, first in confusion then in growing alarm. She cast about, searchingly. "Fiz! Pull the fire alarm! Now!"

"The what?"

Julie lurched away from Toby, grabbing the lever and yanking it down. An ear-splitting screech echoed through the halls, the fire alarm lights flashing as well. Toby couldn't help but smile at Julie, feeling the first sliver of good-will towards the blonde as she pulled Julie's arm over her shoulder again.

"Come on," she said, the zipping fairy prince defending their stumbled exit through the halls. They joined the surprisingly calm mass of students filing out of the building, most of them still thinking that it was just another fire drill. Once they exited the building, however, that relative calm turned into pure chaos. Students were standing on the lawn across the street, staring as vines crept out windows, along walls, bursting out of the roof on their way to slowly and completely encasing the two-story brick building. Teachers, completely flustered and obviously at a loss, tried to get the students to keep moving, to get away from the building being consumed by plants, to stop taking pictures and get to a safe distance.

Toby, Julie in tow and Fairy zipping about her shoulders, made a beeline for the school nurse, Miss Bell. Miss Bell took one look at Julie and let out a gasp, immediately going to assist her. "What hap...pen...ed..."

Toby blinked at her, then followed her gaze to the tiny gold-and-green man now standing on Toby's shoulder. Fiz was looking pretty smug, cleaning his shiny toothpick off with a rather satisfied air. At the silence, he looked up, to find three people all staring at him. "Oh!" he said, then disappeared from sight.

Miss Bell let out a scream, then fell over in a dead faint.

"Sorry," Fiz said, still invisible.

"We really need to work on that," Toby said through gritted teeth, not daring to even look at Julie as she helped the blonde over to the fence that separated the parking lot from the front lawn. Julie sank onto the wooden log gratefully, looking up at Toby. Toby avoided those eyes, instead taking stock of Julie's wounds. Thankfully none of them seemed too serious, though there was one on the side of her stomach that was bleeding rather profusely.

Toby pulled off her sweatshirt, wrapping it around Julie's waist. Pressure preventing passing-out. For once, she was almost glad her mother had made her take that emergency first aid course.

"So... You were serious," Julie said, looking past Toby to the school building. The brunette glanced over her shoulder, flinching at the sight of the vines that were now creeping from every window, wrapping the brick building up in a very vine-y wrapping paper.

"Yeah..." Toby replied.

"And... the mall?"

"Yeah."

"... he really is a dragon? If he was turned human, how can he still breathe fire?" Toby paused at that question, then looked up at Julie. The barest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"I've been told it's because he's 'still a dragon'," Toby replied, dryly. Julie laughed, and Toby did too. Then they paused, lapsing into the awkward silence of not really knowing how far this new companionship extended. Toby finished tying the sweatshirt, then stood up, sitting down on the fence next to Julie.

"It's gone," Julie said suddenly, surprised, her eyes on Toby's forehead.

"Yeah. It was only visible because I'd just touched the Seal-fairy."

"And that," Julie nodded at the school, though Toby knew instantly what she meant, "is because I tried to pull it off?"

"I... I don't know," Toby admitted.

"Yes," said Fiz's voice from somewhere between them. Julie started, but Toby was getting pretty used to it by now. "It's part of the whole Princess thing. If someone or something threatens you -- and your tiara is part of you, now -- the magic inherent in you being a Princess will react to protect you. That's why it was so important that I absorb the fire in the mall. Otherwise, the magic would have gone crazy to protect you, probably destroyed that building, too..."

"Great," Toby muttered. "It's not bad enough that there're trolls out there who're trying to make me disappear forever, or that my house is alive, but now I have to make sure I stay out of danger or risk summoning a giant shrubbery. This is great. Just great. My life is a freakshow and I just destroyed the freaking school building." Her head sank into her hands with a groan.

"Well," Julie said. "I always knew you were a freak."

Toby looked up at her. Julie was smiling at her. Actually smiling, and not in a mean way. Toby laughed softly. "So glad I didn't disappoint."

"Besides, this is great! It's like a snow day, only..." Julie tilted her head at the building, which was no completely encased in vines. Students, teachers, and even passers-by who'd stopped were staring at it, taking pictures and talking up a storm. "Greener."

"Just call me Princess of the Shrubbery," Toby muttered, and this time both Julie and Fiz laughed.