"Come on Stella, we're going to be late." Flora groaned.
She, Musa, Tecna, Bloom and Samara were waiting in front of Stella's room.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Stella said as she opened the bedroom door. "It's Sunday, I never rush on Sunday."
"Well today you are, we need to get to the library to meet Griselda." Tecna said.
The six of them left their dorm and reluctantly head to the library. The corridors were deserted. Samara thought it was quite peacefull to walk through the long halls with the morning sunlight shining through the large windows. Unfortunately that feeling completely disappeared as she saw Griselda waiting fort hem.
"Finally, I was just about to come get you." The woman said sternly. "Now to get to the point, I've informed Headmistress Faragonda and she…convinced me to cancel the calls to your parents."
Samara let out a sigh of relief and felt the knot in her stomach, that had been there ever since Griselda announced their punishment, disappear.
"Nontheless, you all will work in and around the school for the entire day." Griselda continued.
"First task, Miss Stella and Miss Musa will be assisting Miss Barbatea in ordening the library." Griselda said while gesturing towards the library doors. "You will do everything Miss Barbatea orders you to do, putting books back in their place, dust the cabinets and all that."
"Ugh a beautiful Sunday and we're stuck in the stuffy dark library all day…" Stella muttered.
Both girls walked through the doors.
"Next, Miss Tecna and Miss Bloom will assist the grounds caretaker in maintaining the schools gardens." "Pulling out weeds and dead flowers etcetera."
"That's not so bad." Bloom said while giving Tecna a wink.
Tecna let out a long groan as she and Bloom started making their way to the gardens.
"Miss Flora and Miss Samara you are on infermary cleaning duty." Griselda said. "Make sure everything is sanitized, beds are made and that there is enough stock of all the supplies." "Off you go, Nurse Ofelia is waiting for you."
Samara and Flora nodded and made their way to the infirmary.
"Could be worse, we could be stuck in the library." Flora said. "At least the infirmary has lots of windows to catch some sunlight."
"I would have rather helped in the library, I hate being outside, having to work in the warm sunlight all day, I get a sunburn by just thinking about it…" Samara said.
Flora laughed. "Seems we both got the less worst situation."
"I bet Tecna will go crazy being busy with nature all day long." Samara said.
"And Stella will drive Musa crazy with her complaining all the time." Flora said with a bit of concern in her tone.
They laughed as they arrived at the infirmary. Nurse Ophelia was already waiting fort hem.
"Hello girls, glad to have some help today." She said.
"Just tell us what to do and we'll do our best." Samara said.
The rest of the day went by fast. They made sure all the beds got new sheets, cleaned the windows, mopped the floor. Flora even made sure each bedside table had a vase of fresh flowers.
At the moment, Flora was standing on top of a ladder, checking the medicine cabinet to see if all the dates were still okay.
"This jar of eucalyptus leaves is almost empty." Flora said as she held the glass jar in her hand. "I'm going to get some new ones from the garden, could you finish checking the cabinet for me please?"
Without waiting for a response, Flora walked out of the infirmary, leaving Samara next to the ladder.
"Uhm…sure…" Samara muttered looking up to the large cabinet.
"Oh there you are dear, make sure to check the top shelf, I don't use those ingredients a lot and I think some might have expired." Nurse Ophelia said. "I'm going to the kitchen to get us something to eat, do you want something?"
Samara had felt her stomach roll around by the idea of having to climb up that ladder.
"Uh no…I'm good." Samara said.
"Well you know what, since you girls have helped me out so good, when you're finished with the cabinet you and your friend can go enjoy the rest of the day." Nurse Ophelia said. "Be carefull though, that ladder has a bad step."
Samara was too occupied by her fear to hear the nurses warning and instead smiled and watched as the nurse left the infirmary. The smile quickly disappeared as she turned back to the ladder.
It's no big deal…
Samara grabbed the edge of the ladder with her hands and slowly put her foot on the first step.
Just keep staring at the cabinet, don't look down.
She took another few steps and decided to just keep going. Before she knew it she was halfway.
Would you look at that, I'm doing it.
She continued her way up but didn't notice the step that was a bit crooked. She put all her weight on it. A crack sounded as the step gave in and Samara felt her foot floating. In her panic, she clutched herself against the ladder which began to move. Just as Samara thought she would fall, the ladder stopped moving.
"Looks like I got back right on time." Flora said. "Are you okay?"
Samara let out a sigh of relief as she saw Flora holding the ladder. Slowly she made her way back down.
"You don't look so good, maybe we should wait for nurse Ophelia to come back?" Flora asked. "I saw her in the corridor and told me we could leave as soon as we were done with the cabinet."
Samara nodded, trying to ignore her heart pounding in her chest. She noticed she had a hard time keeping up on her feet.
"The uhm…the top shelf needs to be checked." Samara muttered.
"Leave that to me, I think I saw another ladder in the storage room." Flora said. "Why don't you get some dinner in the dining hall and I'll meet you there?"
Samara nodded and gratefully left the infirmary. But she didn't go to the dining hall, she went straight to the simulation room. As she opened the large double doors, she could already hear the sound of typing.
Palladium turned around as he heard the doors open.
"Samara, what are you doing here?" He asked as the fairy quickly made her way to him. "What's wrong?"
"I need your help." Samara said. "I need to get over my fear of heights."
She felt tears forming in her eyes but tried to dismiss them.
"Alright…" Palladium said as he stood up from his chair. "Why don't you tell me what happened first?"
He guided her to the couch in the corner of the control room. Both of them sat down.
"Well…yesterday me and my friends were…training…and all the others flew up in the air and I…couldn't." Samara said carefully avoiding too much details.
"Okay but what happened just now?" Palladium asked. "And you can't fool me, I can practically feel the panic and fear radiating from you."
Samara sighed. "I went up a ladder and one of the steps broke underneath my foot and I got so scared that I almost fell down."
She waited to hear a laugh or a muffled giggle but it remained silent. After a little while Samara looked to her left. Palladium was staring in front of him with a frown.
"Uhm professor…you don't have to help me if it's a problem…?"
"What…oh no, I'm sorry." Palladium said. "I was just thinking about how to start."
He got up and started to pace around the control room.
"I will have to think this through…" Palladium said. "But for now, I can teach you how to avoid a panic attack."
Samara raised an eyebrow.
"Panic adds only more fear to the situation." Palladium said. "You need to learn how to ground yourself."
He laughed at Samara's confused look. "Stand up and close your eyes."
She did as she was told and listened closely as everything around her went dark. It was quiet around her and an uneasy feeling krept up on her. Subcontiously she started to tap the ground with her left foot. Suddenly she felt something push her from the left side.
Samara let out a yelp and opened her eyes as she fell to the floor. Palladium was standing on her left with his arms stretched.
"You pushed me?" She shrieked. "Why would you do that?"
"To show you how unstable you are." Palladium said. He stretched out his hand and Samara took it.
She noticed how warm his hand was and felt an equal warm feeling in her cheeks.
"That is why you need to ground yourself." Palladium said. "Make sure nothing can push you down."
"Now you try to get me on the floor." He said.
"What, I'm not going to push you!" Samara said.
"Oh please as if you don't feel the need to get back at me for pushing you over." Palladium said with a mischivous glint in his eyes.
He opened a cabinet and took a piece of cloth out of it.
"There we go." He muttered as he tied the cloth in front of his eyes. "Go ahead, do your worst."
Samara smirked. She silently stepped up to him until she was right in front of his nose. She waited a bit longer and then pressed her hands on his chest and pushed with all her weight. The elf didn't move an inch.
"Come on, you can do better than that." He said.
Samara tried several times from different angles but with no succes.
"How do you do that?" Samara sighed.
"Do you see how I'm standing?" Palladium asked.
Samara looked down. Palladiums feet were standing firm on the floor, a bit apart from each other.
"So that's it, just put my feet firmly on the floor?" She asked.
"No that's just the beginning." The elf said. "Put your feet firmly on the floor, close your eyes and mentally ground yourself." "Believe that you are unwavering, whatever tries to knock you down."
Samara put her feet on the floor, a bit apart from each other and closed her eyes. She jolted a bit when she suddenly felt a cloth being wrapped around her head.
"Sorry, should have warned you…" Palladium said.
Samara shivered when she felt Palladiums breath just inches away from her face.
"Now try to ground yourself." He said a bit further away.
Samara took a deep breath and focussed.
Nothing can knock you down…
She waited for something to happen. The darkness felt suffocating and she could feel her balance starting to waver. When several minutes had gone by she felt the urge to move her foot. Just a bit to feel the floor underneath her.
Just as she was about to move her foot, she felt a push at exactly that side. She gasped as she was forced to take a few steps to maintain her balance and not fall over again.
"You lost focus." Palladium said. "What were you thinking about?"
Samara pulled the cloth from her head. "I…wanted to move my foot to be sure there was still ground under it…" Her voice got weaker as the sentence left her lips.
"You lost confidence in yourself." Palladium said understandingly. "You needed validation."
Samara sighed.
"I think it's best if we leave it like this for now, try to practise this excersize whenever you can and if you think you've got it under control we can move forward." Palladium said. "How about that?"
"Sounds good to me." Samara said. "Thank you professor." She added quickly.
"No problem, now I don't know about you but I am starving." The professor said. "I'm going to get some dinner."
"Oh no, I was supposed to meet Flora for dinner!" Samara said suddenly remembering her promise.
Both of them walked out of the simulation room and headed towards the dining hall. Samara saw her friends and said goodbye to Palladium.
"Where were you, I've been looking for you all over." Flora said.
"I'm sorry, I ran into professor Palladium and we started talking about last week's lesson." Samara lied.
She looked around and noticed one of her friends was missing.
"Where's Bloom?"
"She went out with Brandon." Musa said.
Stella shot Samara a nasty look but didn't say anything, biting in her sandwich instead. Samara sat down and made a sandwich of her own.
"So how was detention for everyone?" Samara asked.
"It was horrible." Tecna said. "I'm still getting dirt out of my hair."
"Barbatea had us dust off every bookshelf in the entire library." Musa sighed.
"At least it's over." Samara said.
They all finished dinner in silence and afterwards made their way back to their dorm.
Musa fell on the couch and groaned.
"Same…" Tecna sighed as she pushed Musa's feet out of the way and sat down herself.
Stella disappeared into her room and Samara and Flora sat down on the table.
"Did you speak to Daisy about your walk?" Samara asked.
"I did and she understood." Flora said. "We rescheduled for next Sunday."
Samara was just about to reply when the door of their dorm opened. A flash of red hair crossed the livingroom and disappeared into Flora and Bloom's shared room.
"Oh no…" Samara groaned as she stood up.
She hurried into the room with Flora close behind her. The redhaired fairy was on top of her bed, sobbing into her pillows.
"Bloom, are you alright?" Flora asked.
She cautiously sat down on the bed as well. Samara was unsure about what to do and decided to lean on the wall a bit further away from the bed and keep quiet.
"What happened?"
"He…he lied to me." Bloom sobbed.
"Who, Brandon?"
"His name is not Brandon…" Bloom said through thick tears.
"His name is prince Sky of Eraklion." A voice suddenly sounded behind them.
Stella stood in the doorway.
"But of course you already knew that, didn't you Samara?" She asked casting a dark look towards the fairy of the Moon.
Bloom finally raised her head from her pillows and shot Samara a confused look.
"You knew about this?" She asked.
Samara felt her head turn red. "Well I…I did know about the identity swap, but only because Sky wanted to feel normal for a change."
"Is this normal to him?" Stella asked. "To lie to us this whole time, this whole relationship?"
Her voice got louder by each word.
"How could I know you would get into a relationship with them?" Samara defended herself, feeling anger boiling inside of her. "When I noticed how serious things were getting I made the boys tell you the truth."
"You could have told us right away." Bloom said. "Instead of keeping your mouth shut and let us walk around like idiots telling everyone how great our boyfriends were!"
"It wasn't up to me, I gave them a chance to come clean themselves." Samara said. "It's not me you should be angry at!"
"Oh really because it damn well feels that way!" Stella said.
Samara marched out of the room, out of the dorm and even out of the school. A cold breeze ran through her hair as she walked to one of the benches in the corner of the schoolyard. Her arms showed goosebumps but she didn't care. She had to get out of there. The bench feld cold and a little wet as she sat down and put her feet up, hugging her knees with her hands.
"Curse those boys and their stupid plan…" She whispered.