"Welcome girls!" Professor Avalon said as the classroom was filling up with fairies. "How nice to meet you all."
The entire class except Samara said hello as well. The fairy of the Moon was sitting in the last row all the way in the back, staring out of the window. The other Winx had all been excited to meet the new teacher, as he had given them all a flower that morning. Bloom especially seemed to be interested in him, which was why the rest of her dorm was sitting in the front. Honestly Samara had no idea what the big fuss was about. The guy seemed a bit off to her.
"Well now, let's start with an introduction round." Avalon said. "Please stand up and tell me where you are from and what type of power you have."
Samara sighed deeply. One by one the fairies did as they were told. Avalon reacted interested each and every time, sometimes even suggesting a book for the fairy to read to understand more about her power. But when it was Bloom's turn he was practically beaming with enthusiasm.
"The fairy of the Dragon Flame!" He said out loud. "Yes Miss Faragonda told me all about you."
Blooms head turned almost more red than her hair. Samara rolled her eyes.
"Allow me to talk to you after classes, I would love to assist you in understanding your past some more." Avalon said.
"Oh that would be great professor!" Bloom said in a high voice.
After a while it was Samara's turn. She sighed once again, the whole thing screamed kindergarten to her, and stood up.
"Samara of Eraklion, fairy of the Moon." She said in one breath and wanted to sit down again. But Avalon raised his hand and she straightened again.
"Eraklion you say?"
"That's princess of Eraklion to be exact." Stella said.
Samara shot the girl a dark glare.
"I had no idea that Eraklion had any fairies left and even in the Royal Family no less." Avalon said. "You are a rarity indeed miss Samara."
Samara felt her head turn red out of shame and gave a quick nod.
"If you don't mind I would like to speak to you as well some time." Avalon said.
The girl nodded with a small forced smile and sat down again. She didn't say a word for the rest of the class and when it was time for lunch, she was the first to leave. The rest of the Winx were lingering around the professor so by the time they finally came down to eat, Samara was finished.
"Oh what a wonderfull teacher!" Flora said. "I look forward to reading A thousand ways to use nature in potions."
"You already read that book last year, professor Palladium lend it to you remember?" Samara asked.
"Yes but the way Avalon described it makes me want to read it again!" Flora said.
"And his suggestion that I should combine my laptop to my own magic was excellent!" Tecna said.
Samara groaned and decided to just leave them all talking without interfering again. After a while it was time to go to the next class. A heavy feeling suddenly overcame Samara as she stood up. She was so not looking forward to see Palladium again.
"Come on, we should go." She said nontheless.
"But I haven't even finished my lunch yet!" Stella complained as she waved her salmon sandwhich to prove her point.
"That's your own fault, next time just leave the class instead of hovering over the hot professor." Samara bit back.
She wanted to walk away but almost bumped into Griselda.
"Ah there you are." She said. "The headmistress wants to see you and Stella in her office right away."
"But…what about our class?" Samara asked taken by surprise.
"She doesn't want to see the rest of us?" Musa asked.
"No miss Musa, I think I have made myself very clear, now come along you two." Griselda said.
The woman turned around and marched out of the dining hall. Samara shot the others a confused look and she and Stella quickly followed.
"Would you stop munching so loudly miss Stella?" Griselda asked annoyed as they walked through the corridors.
Stella, who was trying to stuff the entire sandwhich in one go, quickly swallowed.
"Sorry…" She muttered.
A big burp followed and despite everything Samara had to laugh.
"Girls please compose yourselves!" Griselda hissed as they had reached the office of Faragonda.
Griselda opened the door and beckoned the girls inside. They were surprised to see Bloom and Layla inside as well.
"Good afternoon girls, Griselda please close the door…"
Palladium tried to hide a yawn for the fifth time already in the past hour as his students walked into the room. He felt terrible, having barely slept all week. But still his heart beat nervously in his chest. His eyes were focussed on the entrance as he waited to see that one fairy come in. But to his surprise she didn't. Tecna, Musa and Flora entered, looking worried. Flora walked straight towards Palladium.
"Uh professor, Stella and Samara had to go to Faragonda's office and I guess Bloom also had to go as we didn't see her at lunch." The fairy of Nature said.
"Alright, thank you for letting me know." Palladium said. "Nothing bad happened I hope?"
"Not that we know of." Flora said worried.
"I'm sure it's nothing, now please find your seat." The elf heard himself reassure the girl.
She nodded and walked away.
"Welcome everyone!" He said loud so everyone could hear him. "As you can see we are not in our usual classroom." "For these lessons we will use this room so we have all the space to practice technical charms."
There were some whispers going around.
"Technical charms will be one of the most important subjects of this year so please pay attention and let me know if you have any questions."
He waited for a moment but no response came.
"For today I thought it would be nice to start with an excersize in pairs." He continued. "It is called the Emotion Energy Sphere."
He walked towards the board and snapped his fingers. Different colors with an emotion appeared.
"In the beginning your energy sphere will be white." He said. "One of you will summon it, then they will pass it on to their partner." "The partner will catch it and the sphere will change color depending on your relationship." "For example if it turns green, that means you are good friends."
He pointed to the green on the board.
"But if it turns red, the two of you are angry with one another."
"Oooh what if it turns gold?" One of the girls said with a snear. "We could uncover a secret romance today!"
All the fairies started to laugh and Palladium smiled as well. He pointed towards the gold on the board.
"I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you Linda, gold means True Love and that is a rarity." "But pink is a good option."
He pointed at the pink with in Love written next to it.
"Now please pair up and decide who will summon the sphere." "I will be walking around to assist in the summoning before we get to the next step so wait until I have helped before moving to the passing of the sphere."
The rest of the class went by quite chaotic and Palladium did not even get the chance to think about Samara.
"No no no miss Crystal do not throw the sphere before you have it under control!"
"You cannot play football with it miss Musa!"
By the end of the class, Bloom Stella and Samara walked in. Palladium walked towards them.
"Ah good to see you, the lesson is almost over but there is room to practise once." He said.
He explained everything to them, trying to avoid Samara's eyes as much as possible. The girl herself seemed to do the same.
"Come on Bloom let's show them how it's done!" Stella said as she grabbed said girls hand and ran towards the others.
"I suppose I'll just practice the summoning of the sphere…" Samara said. "I mean, everyone else seemes pretty out of it."
Indeed the rest of the class was sitting around now showing much energy for anything anymore except for Stella and Bloom, the latter already holding a green energy sphere in her hands. Palladium frowned, he had clearly said to wait with the passing of the sphere until he had checked the summoning but he was simply too tired to say anything about it. The bell rang indicating the end of the lesson and the fairies left.
"Professor?"
The elf turned his attention back to Samara.
"I could practise with you." He said. "This excersize is quite important and might come back later."
Samara nodded a bit slow.
"Okay fine by me." She shrugged.
Palladium smiled and stepped away from her.
"Now hold your hands close to each other and focus on the space between them." He said. "Try to gather all your power in that exact spot."
Samara did as she was told and a small ball of white light appeared.
"Feed some more energy to it."
The sphere grew bigger.
"Excellent, now look at me and slowly push it towards me."
Samara did as she was told and looked up. Palladium could see so much emotion in her eyes that his heart ached for a second. The fairy slowly pushed the sphere out of her hands. It hovered towards Palladium who guided it the last bit towards him. The sphere moved in between his hands. And then, a golden light appeared.
Neither of them said anything and they kept staring at the gold growing stronger and stronger. Palladium looked up to Samara, who stared in shock at the sphere. Then her eyes flew to the board and back to him. Tears filled her eyes.
"No…no…" She whispered.
"Samara I…"
"This is not right…" She said. "Something's wrong with it…" "It has to be."
Palladium shook his head. "I'm afraid that that is impossible." "The sphere shows our true connection…"
"NO!" Samara screamed before she turned and ran out of the room.
Palladium dissolved the sphere and fell on his knees, completely stunned. His heart clenched painfully in his chest.