Do you remember your childhood? You know, the time when things were simpler and you could be wild and free without anyone judging you? I clearly remember mine. When I was little, I was so interested in fairytales. Fairytales were a huge part of my life. But my favorite mythical creature of all time was a fairy. Most girls would like mermaids or unicorns or-hey-maybe even fairies, but I considered myself at that time to be a die-hard fairy fan. I used to buy all the fairy related books at the bookstore and get nothing else. There was a time in my life when my bedroom was covered with fairy lights, fairy posters, fairy everything! The kids at school used to make fun of me for liking fairies, saying they were "for babies." I got sent to the principal's office for hitting them in the mouth. They were not for babies! I believed that fairies could be strong warriors, just like mermaids which were way more popular than fairies.

But then I grew up and I stopped believing in fairies and got into boy bands and parties, you know, like all teenagers do. Until a while ago, I had forgotten about my fairy phase. A lot happened in my teenage years; I started high school, got a boyfriend, and graduated as valedictorian.

That was what I wish I could say, but in reality, it didn't go out like that all.

I am going to ask you this question, and I want you to answer it completely honestly: What if you learned that everything you thought was a myth was real?

Now, I know what you're thinking: Bloom, you're a crazy person. How can myths be real?

Believe me, I thought the same thing the day it all happened. I was in such a belief and I had to take it all in so quickly! Believe me or not, I don't care; that's not going to stop me from telling my story. You might begin to believe me. You might think I'm just completely crazy, but continue listening to my story. Honestly, I don't care. This story was how my life changed forever. Maybe for the better, maybe for the worst. I have no opinion about it.

Okay, I already hear you yelling, "Bloom! You talk too much! Just get to your story already!" Okay, okay! I'll stop talking. But when I get to a part you don't understand, don't come crying to me.

It all started on one particular day in August. School was going to begin in a week, and fifteen-year-old me was drooling all over my pillow. Light had entered my bedroom, shining on my little bunny, Kiko (I had got him for Christmas when I was seven. I don't actually know where Mom and Dad got him from, because he isn't from the shelter…).

I live in Gardenia, a small town in Pennsylvania, but nonetheless, still a pleasant place to live. Crime is low, restaurants are the best, and the schooling here has great reviews. But there was one problem: it was so boring! Nothing exciting ever happened here. The most exciting thing that happened here was the tornado of '13. And barely any damage happened! For a teenager like me, I thought anywhere else in the world was better than boring, old Gardenia.

I am ugly sleeping, hair in my open mouth, my bed sheets sprawled on the floor, my gaming headset askew on my red hair. Last night, I was quickly doing my English essay since it was due today. But nobody else knew that. I should at least get a B. I was tired at the time; it was midnight! Mrs. Applebee better have pity on me!

I am in a deep sleep, ignoring the soft snoring of my pet, my bedroom door opening, and Mom whispering in my ear, "You're late for school, honey."

I jump out of bed, swearing under my breath, trying to take a shower, pull on some clothes, and put my stuff into my backpack. I cannot believe that my alarm clock didn't go off! The bus has probably already left, and I' m going to have to ask Mom for a ride to work! Once I finish putting on my shirt, I take my phone off the charger, but when I see the calendar, my face goes red.

August 26, 20XX

12:17 PM

It's still summer vaca. Mom lied to me.

"Mom! Really? That was not funny!" All of this wakes up Kiko and he hops sleepily onto my bed.

Mom giggles. "But you got up."

I roll my eyes, kick off my shoes, and pull the covers back over me. "I'm going back to bed. Goodnight."

"Oh no, you don't!" Mom pulls the covers right back off of me and frowns at me. "Why did you go to bed so late last night?"

"I was...uh…" I'm trying to figure out a good lie. I don't like lying, but Mom and Dad said if I continued doing my work last minute, I would get grounded. "I was studying!" It's partially true.

"Studying, huh?" Mom picks up the Overwatch box on the floor. "Is playing a video game studying, Bloom?"

"Technically, it is. You have to learn the controls and the test is the entire game."

"Yeah-huh. And-uh-what is this?" She waves two sheets of paper at me. Oops. It's my essay. I quickly finished it and told myself to grab it off the printer, but I fell asleep before I could do it.

"Is this your essay, Bloom?"

"No!" I say that louder than I want. "It's just some documents I was playing on…"

"Oh, really?" Mom looks at the papers again. "You were playing around with Edgar Allen Poe?"

"...Possibly…?" I say sheepishly.

Mom begins to look angry. "Bloom, I told you what would happen if you procrastinated again!"

"I know, I know."

My mother takes a deep breath, then looks back at me. "I just don't know what we're going to do with you!"

"I'm sorry, Mom. I won't do it again, I promise."

"You're darn right you're not going to do it again, because next summer, you're going to be my personal assistant at the grocery store!"

No! I don't want to help her at the store! It's so boring! I'll have less freedom than I do already!

Mom leaves my bedroom and walks back down the stairs to the kitchen. Kiko jumps onto my shoulder and I follow Mom down into the kitchen. When I get downstairs, I see Dad grabbing his wallet. He turns to look at me and he smiles. "Ah, it's our lovely flower Blooming!" He laughs at his own joke. I wasn't in the mood to laugh right now.

"Dad, tell Mom I can take care of myself! I don't need to work at the grocery store next summer!"

Dad looks a bit bewildered. "I sense tension…. What's going on?"

Mom places her dishtowel onto the edge of the sink. "Bloom procrastinated on her summer reading essay. Again!"

Dad looks at me.

"I usually get a good grade! I got ninety-six percent last year!"

Dad looks at Mom.

"Wha-Mike!"

Dad looks at me.

"Dad!"

Dad looks at Mom.

"Mike!"

"Dad!"

Dad shakes his head. "You two work it out! I have work to get to!"

I roll my eyes and flop down onto the couch in front of the TV. "C'mon! Why do I have to constantly be in your eye and earshot? The other kids at school can drive themselves places and Lucas Gray has his own place! Why can't I be free to do what I want?"

"Because you're not old enough," says Dad.

"Not old enough? Dad, I am sixteen! I'm going into my Junior year! And I have my driver's license. What's the point in owning a license and not using it?"

"Well…" Mom walks over to me. "Actually, your father and I were talking and… Well, we thought about it and we decided to get you something to ride around in."

My eyes light up. A car? Did they finally get a car? "Really? What is it?"

"It's in the garage waiting for you." Dad winks at me.

I get super excited and run outside to the garage, Kiko barely hanging on. I wonder what kind of car it is. Maybe it's a Corolla or a Chevrolet… I don't care as long as I get to have a car. But when I get there, there's no car. Just an old, red bike with a basket with flowers.

Really? A bike? That's what my parents get me? ...is there a car hiding underneath the bike?

"See? Don't you like it?" Dad asks from inside the kitchen. No, Dad. I absolutely hate it. They know I don't care for the color red and it's a bike. Ughhhhhh! I would love this gift I didn't have my driver's permit! But I can't tell my parents I don't like it. It probably cost a lot.

"Yeah… I love it, thanks." As much as I try to sound happy, it comes out monotone. Dad still stands there, expecting me to start riding it. I go back inside and grab an apple from the basket. I climb onto the bike and open the garage door.

"I'm gonna head to the park," I tell Mom and Dad. "I'll be back later."

"Okay!" Mom replies, looking skeptical. "Be back before five."

I begin pedaling away from my house and down the street. Now that Mom and Dad are out of earshot, I groan to myself. C'mon! My parents must think I am six-years-old. What kind of teenager with a driver's permit wants a bike? If anyone sees me with this bike, my life is over!

When I reach a red light, I hear a voice that makes me cringe. "Bloom!"

I turn my head. Standing in front of her multi-million dollar mansion (she constantly talks about how rich she is, so I think I know how much money her home is: six million, I think?) and looking at me like I was dog crap was Mitzi Cortez. She was the same age as me, but acted like she was six. Her family was the richest people in Gardenia, and she never let me forget it. She wasn't here for most of the summer (thank God!), and I hoped she wouldn't come back until school actually started, but unfortunately, she was back early. Ughhhhhhh! The only thing different about her was her hair. She had gotten the tips dyed yellow. Bleh.

"You're still here?" she asks me, looking at her nails.

"Obviously," I answer. "I'm not magic. I can't be in two places at once."

"Whatever. Oh, look." Mitzi points to my bike. "Looks like your parents finally found something they can afford. Where did they buy it, a landfill?" She laughs cruelly, and I feel my blood boil. Oh, I want to get off the bike and throw it at her face.

"Ugh, whatever. Do you want something?" I'm praying this light changes soon.

"I just wanted to show you what my parents got me." She points to her bright red convertible. "They just bought it for me. I wanted it in black, though."

"Cool," I say, not even trying to sound interested. "See you at school, Mitzi."

"Bye, bye." Mitzi waves shortly. Luckily, the light changes and I head on my way. Kiko attempts to throw a carrot at her, but I stop him.

"Don't do it, Kiko," I say. "If the carrot touches her, it'll go bad."

We continue to drive. Once I get to another stoplight, I pull up next to a large fire truck, the ones Dad drives.

"Hello, there, Bloom!" the driver calls. I look up and see Mr. Charles, one of Dad's fellow firefighters. He's at least two years older than Dad, with a large, brown beard with gray showing in a lot of places.

"Hello, Mr. Charles!" I say.

"Where are you headed?"

"The park."

"Cool. When's school starting again?"

"The first. I'll be starting my Junior year."

"Junior year." Mr. Charles shakes his head in disbelief. "My, how time flies! You promise you'll stay on your grades?"

I nod. Technically, it's not a lie; I'll try to stay on my grades, but I can't promise it.

"Alright. Have a great day, Bloom."

"You, too!"

Once the light changes, I'm back on my journey. As I pass houses and see people, I realize I know more people than I think. In fact, I think I basically know everyone here. Mrs. Mason, Rodney, that old cat lady…

That's definitely why I want to leave. It's so boring around here. Nothing ever happens! I just want something to happen to me! Something big! Something that'll change my life forever!

It takes me a while to finally arrive at the park, but once I do, I can finally relax my legs, because I am tired! It's not easy going through the entire town only riding a bike.
I climb off of my bike and go into the shady part of the park. The place is kind of a forest, but not a forest. It has a dirt path that joggers run on. Kids play around the place and their parents just stay behind, looking at Facebook.

I let Kiko out of the basket, grab an apple, and sit down underneath a tree.

"Hey, Bloom!"

I look around, trying to see who called my name. Standing there close by my tree is my ex-boyfriend, Andy.

I know, I broke up with him, but I sort of regret it, because Andy is cute. He has rich, dark hair and bright blue eyes. He's tall and fair and he has a handsome smile. We were a great couple during our Sophomore year, but we broke up, because his sister is Mitzi herself, and it was hard being together with her trying to ruin everything.

"Oh, hi, Andy!" I say, standing up.

"We're back just in time," he says. "Our trip was fun. I have pictures if you would like to see them."

"I knew you guys came back," I responded. "I saw Mitzi on the way here."

"Oh. That's unfortunate." He chuckles a little. He looks around for a moment. "Where's Kiko? I haven't seen him in a while."

"Oh, he's playing around somewhere." I gesture outwards.

"Cool. He's a very odd bunny." Andy places his hands in his back pockets. "Well, I should be on my way. Mitzi's starting to blow up my phone." She is. I can hear his phone buzzing like crazy.

"Alright. See ya, Andy!" I say, watching him walk away. He waves back.

Sometimes I wish I was still his girlfriend, because he's a really sweet guy and likes making people angry and doesn't like conflict. But Mitzi has to come in and ruin everything.

I sit back down underneath the tree and take a bite out of my apple. Before I could even get comfortable, Kiko comes running out of the forest, looking completely terrified. Once he reached me, he flopped down onto his face, but got back up rather quickly and began frantically squeaking and tugging at my pant leg.

"What is it, Kiko?" I ask. I could get no exact answer out of him. He just continued explaining it to me in his weird bunny language and pointing towards the distance. I assume someone's messing with him, so I grab a stick lying next to me. Kiko's been harassed before, and I don't let many people get too close to my bunny, so someone's gonna lose an eye!

I follow Kiko into a clearing into the forest, ready to start swinging when instead of seeing normal people, I see something very unexpected.

Two people were obviously fighting, but not just any type of fighting. One was a girl who was actually really pretty. She had long, golden hair put into two pigtails which were held up by a tight, gray band. She's wearing a gold, sparkly top with a see-through yellow piece down her stomach, and golden knee-high boots. And the weirdest part was that she wore gray see-through wings which sparkled. She also held a scepter which had a bright light coming from the middle of the circle of the scepter. Her opponent (well, opponents) were strange, red creatures which had sharp teeth and seemed to be unfriendly. I originally thought they were cosplaying until I realized how real the creatures were and the fact that the girl had dried blood on her outfit and looked kind of beat-up.

The creatures were jumping on her and she hit them left and right. They seemed to want to grab her scepter. "Ortu Solis!" she cries, and amazingly, a beam of light shoots out of her hand, hitting the creatures and making them fly all the way into the air and out of sight.

"Oh my…" I sigh. I've never seen anything like this! How was she doing that? What the heck am I witnessing?

One of the creatures (I assume they're ghouls) is thrown back into the darkness, but is caught by something and crushed. A figure steps into the light and he's even uglier than his ghouls. He's yellow and hairy and fat and tall and wore ugly overalls. But at the same time, he was pretty menacing. "Ghouls!" he snarls. "Stop lying there and get her scepter!"

"You can try," says the girl coolly. "You've tried seven times to get my Crystal, and how many times have you succeeded?"

The ogre-looking thing becomes angry and rams into her. She screams in pain and gets thrown all the way across the field.

Ouch. That's gotta hurt.

The fairy spits out blood and notices her scepter is out of her hands and lying close by. When she tries to get it, the ogre yells, "Ghouls! Stop her!" Quickly, the ghouls grab the fairy, holding her down so she can't move. One of the ghouls grabs her scepter.

"Hey! I'm not done—" But before she can finish her sentence, one of the ghouls places their grimy hands over her mouth.

Crap. I don't know if I'm imagining things or if this is actually real. I want to help, but I can see the size of the ogre and I don't feel like being sent to the hospital. But I have to do something or else the ogre will win, and the fairy might die!

The ogre snatches the scepter out of the ghoul's hands and laughs maniacally. "Finally, the Light Crystal is mine!"

"Hey, let her go!"

For a moment, I thought that was someone else out there. Someone risking their life to help a stranger. Until I realize that someone is me, and I'm standing out there, trying to protect the poor girl. I pray that I don't die. I have things I have to do today.

"Or else."

"Or else what?" asks the ogre, not looking in the least bit scared.

Oops. Didn't think that through.

The ogre does a shooing motion with his hand and says simply, "Ghouls, attack."

I become quite scared and in fear, hold my hand out in front of me. "Stay back!" I close my eyes as well, preparing for the pain I was going to have to face.

…

Wait, nothing happened. I thought…? I open my eyes. Around me is a large, red, hot bubble, protecting me from the ghouls. The ghouls who had tried to attack are lying close by, obviously in pain. How did I do that? Was that the girl's doing? No, I quickly realize, because she's still tied down. So… Did I…?

The ogre looks confused and furious. "How did she…?"

Believe me, ogre, I have the same question as you. I don't have magic. There must be some mistakes! But I'm also pretty thankful, for who knows what they could've done to me?

Kiko, standing on a tree stump, sees what the damage is and looks prideful. He does a funny jig and taunts the ghouls, but doesn't notice one creeping up behind him. Once he does, he turns white (literally. I don't know how he did that. But I also don't know how I just friggin' did magic!) and faints. Luckily, I noticed and attacked the ghoul with my stick, killing it. I was quite proud of myself. I thought I was gonna die, but look at me! I was doing things I thought I could never do before. I wonder if I could do the whole magic thing again…

But my feeling of elation is short-lived, and suddenly, I feel myself roughly grabbed and leaving the ground. I scream. It was the ogre. He had grabbed me without me knowing and now was planning on killing me. Crap.

"You shouldn't have done that," the ogre growls. "Now, you're gonna die!"

I squirm, trying to escape from my grip. Suddenly, I feel a strange, tingling feeling in my body, and before I even know it, a blast of light (magic?) hits the ogre, shooting him all the way into the forest, dropping me in the process. I did it again! How did I do that, though? This is crazy!

"You okay?"

I look up. Standing there is the fairy, her hands on her hips and an impressive look on her face. "I've never seen anything like that before! Kudos to you." She prances over to her scepter as the ogre was limping back. "I got my scepter back. I suggest you run."

The ogre, acknowledging the fact that he has been defeated, does some weird spell by clapping his hands together, creating a wispy-like tornado around him. It's obviously a teleportation spell, because as the ghouls enter, they disappear. They all run towards the spell, but one of them stays behind and tears a piece of my pants before I can kick him away. Great. They can probably track me or something.

After all the ghouls disappear, the ogre finishes his spell and disappears as well. Finally, the battle is over.

"That took a lot out of me, I'm glad that's over," the fairy says, approaching me. She's holding her side. She looks beaten up, with bruises and scratches and blood all over her. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Bloom," I answer, still in shock. "Bloom Peters."

"Cool name. I'm Stella." As she says it, she begins to sway and eventually faint. I notice as she does so, she changes form. Her fairy form disappears, replacing it with a more civilian form.

"Oh, crap," I say. Kiko hops over to me. "She must've gotten more injured than we thought, Kiko." I think for a moment. "The hospital's too far away for us to carry her all the way. We'll go home." We drag her onto the bike (somehow) and begin driving home, me still digesting what has happened.

Knut slowly walked forward in the dark room. The teleportation spell had taken him here, and it was the witches' way of communicating with him. The witches. They scared Knut more than anything. They were cruel and mean and would take extreme measures to get what they wanted. They yelled at him for basically everything, and Knut hated them. He didn't tell them his thoughts, though. They had tremendous amounts of power and could kill him at any given moment. But they didn't because he was their helper. He did all of their dirty work while they sat back and plotted.

Yeah, right. Lazy—

"Knut! There you are!"

Knut almost jumped two feet in the air. The voice was cruel and harsh, obviously one of the witches.

Three glowing eyes surrounded Knut, looking at him. They were the witches who called themselves the Trix. They consisted of Darcy, Stormy, and Icy.

Darcy was the oldest sister, and rather powerful. She was the witch of darkness and could do spells that could really mess up your mind. She was mean and didn't care who she hurt using her powers. She was arguably the most powerful of the girls.

Stormy was the middle sister and the witch of weather. She had the power of things like lightning and tornadoes and prided herself on those powers. She wasn't the smartest and certainly not the greatest with fighting, but still scary. She was menacing when she was angry, but she wasn't the smartest of the three. She believed in brawn over brains.

And finally, there was Icy, the youngest and the worst of the three. She had the power of ice, so she wasn't the strongest at all, but she was the most menacing. She was ruthless and would take any means necessary to get what she wanted. She plotted most of the time and even scared both of her older sisters from time to time. It was her idea for Knut to fight Stella to get the Light Crystal.

"You failed...again." Icy sighed. She wasn't surprised.

"I'm sorry, your highness'," Knut stammered. "I was about to g-get the Crystal, but then some Earthling girl came in and—and—oh! She had some weird powers and knocked my ghouls left and right!"

"An Earthling girl?" Stormy asked, confused.

"Yeah! One of my ghouls took a piece of the girl's clothing!" At that moment, a ghoul arrived, holding the piece of clothing in its mouth. Knut had poor eyesight, so when he tried to grab it, he accidentally slapped the ghoul.

"Ugh. Knut, where are your glasses?" Icy asked.

Knut felt down his clothes and felt something lumpy in his left pocket. He pulled out his glasses and smiled. "Here they are!"

"THEN, PUT THEM ON, YOU DOLT!" Stormy yelled, scaring Knut who hastily put on his glasses.

"A near-sighted ogre. How ridiculous," Darcy sneered.

"If only he wore his glasses, he would be more helpful," Icy replied.

"Are you two seriously defending him?" Stormy asked incredulously.

"Enough talk," Icy snapped abruptly. "Knut, where is the troll?"

Knut had almost forgotten about him! He snapped his fingers and a troll appeared beside him. Trolls were one of the most unpleasant creatures in all of the Magic Dimension. The troll was very tall, but shorter than a giant, and he had dark blue skin and ugly green eyes. He had warts up and down his arms and legs, and only wore brown, thin undergarments. On top of its head was an ugly mop of black hair, and the troll smelled unpleasant.

"He's right here, your majesties," Knut explained. "We'll go find the girls!"

"And how, pray tell, will you be able to do it?" Darcy drawled.

"One of my ghouls took a piece of clothing from the Earthling girl! We can use it for a tracking spell! Where the Earthling girl is, Stella won't be too far behind!"

"Alright, then," Icy said. "Go find the girls."

"And this time," Stormy began.

"Don't let us down!" the witches commanded in unison.

My parents didn't take it well that I had allowed an unconscious girl into our home. I tried to explain to them what happened, but they looked at me like I was crazy.

"Alright, Bloom," Dad says. "Tell me again."

"Ugh! Is it that hard to understand?" I groan. "I was in the park and I saw the girl, Stella, fighting off an ogre with magic powers and the ogre seemed to want her crystal or whatever. And then, I come in and I do some weird magic voodoo crap and blast the ogre and his minions away! There! You got it?" I rambled throughout the entire thing. Mostly because I was tired of Dad asking me to tell him the story over and over again.

"Bloom, are you sure you didn't hit your head while you were there?"

"Wha-" I looked at my dad with surprise. He didn't believe me? "Are you saying I'm lying, because I'm not honestly!"

"Well, even if you aren't lying," Dad replies, walking over to the house phone, "we can't just keep her here. We're going to have to call an ambulance."

"No, wait... . Don't do that…"

I turn my head. Stella, lying on our couch, has woken up, and looked panicked. She must not like doctors that much.

"Oh, she's come to," Mom says. "How do you feel, dear?"

"Me? Oh, I'm fine. Just took a quick nap. Using all that energy really takes it out of a gal." She slowly stands up, stretches, then sits back down. I notice she's wearing something different. Her dress is quite long, and it was a loud gold color. The dress went to the ground, and there was an opening for her legs where I saw pretty heels. She looked like royalty.

"What's your name?" Mom asks.

"Stella. Isn't it a pretty one?"

Mom nods. "Should we call your parents, Stella?"

For some reason, Stella laughs at that. "Call my parents? I've checked Earth's connection. If a Zenithian came here, they would die of disappointment. And anyway, it's impossible to call my parents from here. I'm from the Magic Dimension, you know. Solaria's my home planet. I'm the princess there, so I'm kinda a big deal, but you should know that already. I mean, your daughter has magic, so she has to come from the Magic Dimension, but I don't feel any positive or negative energy coming from the two of you. I wonder why…"

Wow. Stella talks a lot. And at least she saw me do magic, so I definitely know I'm not crazy. But why don't my parents have magic if I do? Isn't magic a genetic thing?

Mom seems intrigued by Stella's talking, but Dad just goes over to our house phone saying, "A different dimension? Magic? Fairies? I'm starting to think you hit your head too hard, Stella. I'm calling the hospital. She probably has brain damage."

Stella takes offense to that. She bites her lip, suddenly gets an idea, then points her finger towards the house phone. A strange glow comes from her index finger, and suddenly, the house phone is now a piece of cabbage and carrot which Kiko immediately runs to.

"See? I just did real magic for you. You can't say you don't believe me now." Stella crosses her arms and pouts.

"Yeah, Dad. You're just in denial." I sit down next to Stella on the arm rest on the couch.

Stella turns to me. "You were amazing out there, Bloom! Totally awesome! I've never seen magic like that come from a person like you. I mean, no offense, but I thought all Earthlings were useless when it came to magic. Are you sure you're not from the Magic Dimension?"

I shake my head. "My home has always been here. Believe me; I'm just as confused as you."

"Hm. Well, one thing's for sure. You're most definitely a fairy."

I choke on my own saliva at that. "A fairy? Me? Huh? How do you know I'm a fairy?"

Stella rolls her eyes. "Honestly; Earthlings are so clueless. Listen, Bloom. I'm a fairy myself, so I obviously know a bit about different fairies. And no other species has the kind of magic you have. You look like a fairy - I mean, your skin is practically glowing and your hair is an unnatural color-and you do magic like a fairy… It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that you're a fairy."

I'm surprised. Me? A fairy? This is happening so fast… I don't know how to comprehend this… "But how can I be a fairy? Don't fairies have wings and whatnot?"

"Yeah, they do, but they obviously don't wear them all the time." Stella points to her back. "And besides, fairies aren't born with wings, they earn them. I already gained mine, and I really like them." She sighs. "I wish they were prettier, though."

"I think they're pretty," I say. "I wonder - if I am a fairy - what my fairy form looks like."

"You're fire, so you're probably blue or red, but I think you would look fabulous in blue."

"Uh, girls?"

We turn our heads to my dad, who's still standing there, looking bewildered. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we still have a problem on our hands. What do we do with Stella?"

"Don't worry. I have no intention of staying long. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to be heading out to Alfea College, and I have my own way of leaving, so no need to try to get me comfy."

Dad rubs his temples. "Just… Bring Stella to your room, Bloom."

I nod, understanding how my dad is feeling and go up the stairs to my bedroom, Stella trailing behind. When we get to my room, I internally cringe. When it's just me, I think my bedroom looks fine, but when I have company over, I see all the flaws I didn't see beforehand. All my stuff is still sprawled across the floor, my TV is on sleep mode, and my bed-sheets are strewn this way and that. I was about to apologize… Until I saw Stella's amazed expression.

"This… is your room?" Stella asked.

"Yeah…?" I don't know why she's so excited; it looks like a tornado's been through here.

"I've never been in an Earthling's room before! It's so cute and homely… Not like my room back home. In my room, it's empty and bright and can fit three hoverbike racing stadiums in there. So… Not much to look at."

I choke on my saliva. "'Not much to look at?' Stella, that sounds like it's bigger than my house!"

"It definitely is." She picks up my book on fairies that was lying on the ground. She flipped through the pages and tsked disapprovingly. "That book is inaccurate. They're getting us fairies mixed up with pixies. Earthlings have no idea what real magic and fairies look like."

"I mean, I'm not surprised," I say. "Magic isn't part of Earth. In fact, we've denounced magic as just things in fairy-tales. Believe me, I'm still processing what happened in the park. Is it all a dream, or is this really reality? I don't know whether to be excited or scared."

"Well…" Stella sits on my bed. "The Magic Dimension can be both exciting and dangerous. I mean, I see the same with Earth. I never could imagine a world without magic.

How would you do anything? But I mean…" She walks over to my window and looks up to the stars above. "In my world, magic is a wonderful thing. Something that everyone inherits, and yeah, it can be both scary and exciting, depending on how you use your powers. But you are going to have to embrace your fairy-hood, since you are now part of it, Bloom."

"Yeah, but I don't feel any different," I explain.

"You don't have to feel different. Magic is just there, with you." Stella goes over to my cup full of pencils, pens, and other writing utensils. "And it's not hard to use. Just think about what you want your magic to do, and if you believe hard enough, it just happens!" As an example, she holds out her hands and raises my coloring stuff. With a wave of magic, all of my utensils blend together, making one large pencil. I stare in awe as I watch Stella perform.

She then turns to me. "Now, you try. Try to change it back to its original form."

I take a deep breath and mimic what she did. It doesn't seem to work, though, and the only thing the pencil does is fall to the ground. I sit back on my bed, disappointed. "It's no use. I can't do it. I think my magic's worn off."

"All you need is practice!" Stella says. "And I know just the place!" She conjures up a small card and throws it onto the ground, and it expands. I look at the card. It's showing a beautiful, pink building with a gate the shape of two wings at the front. It's surrounded by beautiful greenery. "This is Alfea College for Fairies, located in the Magix, capital city of the Magic Dimension. It's the school I'm supposed to be going to tomorrow."

"Wow…" I breathe. "It's so…beautiful."

"I know. It's very bright. You wanna see?"

"Um… Stella, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're in the Milky Way Galaxy. I have no idea how to cross dimensions, and that seems pretty complicated if you ask me."

Stella rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard, silly." She walks onto the card. Suddenly, she begins to sink down into it. "All you have to do is stand on it and bam! you're crossing dimensions!"

Her head begins to disappear under the card and I run over to the card and simply stand on it. At first, I can't tell if I'm leaving, but when I look down, I see I've sunk to the point where the card is at my chest. When I finally finish sinking, I see a beautiful sight.

Alfea College is even prettier in person. We're close by a forest and the sun is slowly rising in the distance. The school is close by and it seems unreal. Beautiful turrets and windows and a gorgeous gate which glows since the sun is shining on it. Around us, small butterflies and other supernatural creatures fly by, and I begin to think I'm dreaming.

"Uh, Bloom? You're drooling."

"Oh. Oops." I wipe the slobber off my lower lip. "This is the school you're going to?"

"Uh, yeah. I said that like five minutes ago." Stella ran a finger through her hair. "This school is well known for being the best school for fairies in the entire Magic Dimension. The headmistress, Lady Faragonda, has been alive for more than two hundred years, and she taught famous fairies like Magria the Great, Millo Morta… She's the best." She suddenly gets an idea. "You should go with me! There, you can learn magic, and, even better, you'll have me so you won't have to worry about making friends! How does that sound?"

I frown. I really really want to go to Alfea, but I have a real school that I go to. I don't think my parents would allow it. And, even if they did let me go, what would I tell everyone at school? Am I willing to give up my life on Earth for a new world that I've never lived in?

"I don't know, Stella…" I say. "As much as I want to learn magic, I still have a life here. On Earth."

Stella looks disappointed. "Come on, Bloom, please? What's the point of having magic if you're not gonna use it?"

I sigh. "Alright. I'll sleep on it. Now, how do we get back?"

"Easy. You just jump!" And with that, she jumped up and went straight through the card. I did the exact same thing and found myself back in my bedroom.

Stella and I talked for a couple more minutes. I got to hear about her life in Solaria, her home realm. Her parents are the king and queen, Radius and Luna. She has no siblings and has the power of the sun and the moon. I usually zone out when people talk about themselves, but Stella has a very interesting life. I mean, of course she would. She's a fairy, for God's sake!

Right when she was telling me a funny story about the boy she has a crush on, the entire house begins shaking, and I hear the screams of my mother (and Kiko) from downstairs. From Stella's expression, I can tell that some unwanted visitors have arrived.

We run down the stairs and see Knut, the ghouls, and an ugly, blue ogre standing there. It smells absolutely; if we survive this battle, I'm gonna spray this entire house with Febreeze.

"Where is the princess?" Knut asks menacingly. My parents huddle in the corner.

"Right here, ugly!"

Knut turns his head. Stella, next to me, is looking smug, her hands on her hips, as if she was expecting this. Which she probably was (she's mentioned she's been attacked by that ogre seven times already).

"Sun power!" Stella cries. She takes off her ring, raises it to the sky, and, in a blinding light, transforms into her fairy form. She lifts off the ground using her wings, slowly approaches Knut, then whack! kicks him the face. He stumbles backwards, holding his nose. "Ghouls, troll! GET HER!"

"Bloom," Stella whispers, "we're outnumbered. What should we do?"

Luckily, I'm good at quick thinking. "You take out Knut and the troll. I'll take on his ghouls."

"Smart," Stella replies.

"Follow me, ghouls!" I yell to the ugly, red creatures. Fortunately, their attention switches from Stella to me. They begin following me outside and I stop at the sidewalk. They're staring at me menacingly, and I struggle to figure out what to do.

Wait. Aren't I a fairy?

I hold out my hands, trying to conjure up some magic, but to no avail. But suddenly, a pot turned on its face begins sliding towards us, moving in slow zig-zags. Huh? If that's my magic, that's not really what I was hoping for. I pick up the pot and look underneath it, looking for Kiko, and he was underneath, holding on to the sides for dear life. I drop the pot and turn back to the ghouls who were looking confused and after my booty.

Suddenly, a loud blast of magic snaps my attention, and Knut comes shooting out of the window (breaking it), landing on the ghouls and smushing them. Well, at least that means I don't have to do anything.

Stella comes shooting out of the other window, shards of glass sticking to her exposed skin (ouch), and landing roughly on the ground a couple feet away from me. I ran over to her. "Stella, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she says, brushing the shards off her lap and sitting up. "I've called for backup."

"Backup?"

"The Specialists, duh," she answers. I raise my eyebrow in confusion, but before I can ask, the troll comes sluggishly out of the house, looking menacing and hellbent on killing me and Stella.

"Uh oh," says Stella next to me. "If the boys don't get here soon, we're good as fairy dust."

We both look nervous as the troll inches closer and closer to us. Neither of us had too much strength left to fight, so we were about to get pummeled. Just as he was about to murder us, a long, violet, whip-like chain wraps around the troll's blue, choking it. Stella and I turn our heads. Four boys are standing to our left, decked out in blue and tan outfits, long, blue capes and navy boots as accessories. They sure looked important.

The first one on the far end had flat, ginger hair that stuck up in the back. He wore square-shaped, red glasses pushed up against his nose, pale, bony complexion, and a strangely-shaped gun in his right hand.

Next to the ginger was the one that caught my eye. He was of average height, bright blue eyes, and parted light blond hair that flew backwards in the wind. He held on tightly to a curved, thin, blue sword. Hubbah hubbah.

The next one was the tallest of the bunch, dark violet hair sticking up like a plant (odd), and he had a deep scowl on his face. He was the one with the purple whip wrapped around the troll, making sure it couldn't move.

And the last one was a guy with brown hair swept over his face, looking bored as he leaned on his own sword which was drilled into the ground.

Huh. I didn't expect the Specialists to look like that, but I'm kinda not complaining.

"Sorry we're late," the blond one says. "We had some difficulty with the trip."

"Yeah," the violet-haired one agrees. "F*cking Timmy couldn't get the portal up, the dumb*ss."

"Excuse me," the one called Timmy hisses. "It wasn't entirely my fault. Sky wanted to have a sandwich break before we left!"

"I'm a prince," the brown-haired one says. "Princes cannot go hungry, and you still wouldn't let me eat! Don't expect me to do too much."

"Ah, don't need y'all anyway." The violet one pulls harder on his weapon. "I can deal with him on my own."

"Good luck, Riven." Right at that moment, the troll pulls him forward, causing him to fall onto his back with a painful thud. The blond one laughed. "You're gonna need it."

Riven began fighting off the troll, slashing it with his whip, scars littering the troll's torso. With every hit, the troll began to grow angrier, and he brought a large, blue fist raining down upon Riven, hitting him square in the face, throwing him all the way and Stella and I's feet. A nasty scar appears on his face, blood dripping from his lips. Stella groans and prepares to help fight as well, but Riven stops her before she does. "Don't even think about it, little fairy. Leave it to us Specialists."

The troll is now surrounded by the Specialists, and they inch closer to it. The troll notices it's in danger, and it steps back slowly. Timmy sees this as an opportunity and shoots the ground with his gun, causing a long split in the ground (I wonder how we're going to cover that up). Sky threatens it with his sword. Stella motions for me to put my hands together and thrust outwards, and I do, and suddenly, a bright red, burst of magic shoots out of my hand and hits the troll, making it fall into the split. We win.

It tries to climb back up, but the blond one takes a circular ring thing out and forces it around the troll's neck. Electric sparks form the minute it wraps around its neck, probably to shock it if it tries to attack again. The guys relax, and they pull the troll out. They flank it, making sure it doesn't try anything. Knut behind us notices he's defeated. He grumbles, claps his hands together, and disappears in a cloud of smoke.

"That wasn't too hard," says the blond one. "You sure you're alright, girls?"

"I sure am now," Stella says confidently. "Thanks, boys. You really saved our *sses."

"That's pretty much what we do, princess," Sky replies. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh!" Stella gestures to me. "Boys, this is Bloom. My new fairy friend!"

"Nice to meet you, Bloom." The blond bows. Hubbah hubbah. "I'm Brandon, Prince Sky's squire." He points to the brown-haired one.

"I'm Timmy!" the ginger cries. "The technician for this team! I kinda am pretty important around here." He walks right into a pole, and I stifle my laughter.

Riven rolls his eyes. "And I'm Riven. That's all you need to know."

"He's the team grump," Brandon whispers, but Riven hears him. "Shut up, Brandon," he hisses. "At least I'm not the servant for a prince."

"He does a damn good job, though." Sky thumps Brandon's back. "Don't listen to anything Riven says. We've only known him for a month, and we already he's trouble."

"I can believe it," I say.

A portal appears behind them. Holding tightly to the troll's arms, they begin to walk through. First Timmy, then Riven, until Sky and Brandon were left.

"Bye bye, ladies!" they say in unison. I wave slowly, in awe of what has happened (and also in awe because hot damn!). They disappear into the portal as well.

"Bloom, you're drooling."

Dad cleans the broken glass on the floor, groaning as he looks at the damages. "This'll probably be around five thousand dollars! This is not going to go well... Insurance would be great right now."

"You know, I could help!" Stella cries, holding her hand in the air. "Magic solves everything you know."

Dad holds onto the broom tighter. "Yeah, no thanks. Magic caused this; I don't need for it to ruin anything else."

Stella shrugs. "Okay."

I look down at my pastel red suitcase, heart pounding. I had made my decision. I'm going to go to Alfea to learn about my powers. If I didn't go, it would be stupid. I need to learn how my powers work and why I have them. And Stella would be there to help. There's so much I wanna know and joining the Magic Dimension might be just what I need.

"You sure you wanna do this, Bloom?" Mom asks, laying a hand on my shoulder. "You can always back out."

"I know, but I really wanna do this," I explain. "Wouldn't you?"

She nods, but she looks slightly sad. I would be leaving them to go off to an unknown world. If it were my child, I would be sad, too.

"Well, Stella, how are we supposed to get this Alfalfa place or something?" Dad asks.

Stella rolls her eyes. "Alfea, and I can teleport you guys via my scepter." She takes off her ring, and it transforms into her scepter. "I'm not actually supposed to do this, but hey! what the Magical Regulation Team doesn't know can't hurt them." She swipes the scepter, blasting a wave of magic, and suddenly, we're all flying through bright colors, the world disappearing behind us. It's a magical experience, even better than the card teleportation. Kiko holds onto my back, trying not to fly off somewhere, but this is so much fun!

We land on grassy ground. Stella stands in front of us, looking satisfied. She turns her scepter back into a ring and looks at the lot of us. "Well, we made it!" She gestures outwards. "Welcome, Peters, to the Magic Dimension!"