Suspended
"Stella," Farragonda said, smiling. She knew one of Bloom's friends would crack sooner or later.
"Miss Farragonda," Vanessa said, opening the door behind her."Bloom told you about us in her letters. Though I think some of your punishments were a bit excessive but not unwarranted."
"I'm Mike, Bloom's father," Mike said, introducing himself to the Headmistress.
"Hello Miss F," Bloom said in a bright voice, trying to suppress her nerves. "We have a lot to discuss."
Miss Farragonda had to suppress a smile and yet so was a little uneasy. Rarely had any students given her so much trouble and yet she could detect some smugness on the part of Bloom and Stella. Vanessa lead everyone inside to the small living dining room. Farragonda waved her hand; nobody flinched as the table disappeared and six chairs appeared arranged in a circle. Everyone sat down except for Stella, who remained standing, eyes flicking between the two professors.
"You aren't expelled Stella," Griselda said.
Stella took her seat gingerly watching as the headmistress of Alfea decided not to mince words.
"Why did you leave Alfea?" Farragonda asked Bloom. "You weren't expelled."
"Miss F. Please tell me why first who I am and what is the Dragon fire?" Bloom said, answering Farragonda's question with a question, "No beating around the bush."
Farragonda was a bit thrown off. "Pardon me?"
"Tell me my background. Those witches attacked me again, They are after a thing called the Dragon fire. I need to know."
Farragonda sighed and silenced Griselda with a stern look. "Okay..."
The full story was told in about fifteen minutes. Farragonda held nothing back or her suspicions. Domino destroyed, Oritel and Marion lost, the Dragonfire's whereabouts, and how she came to her conclusions about Bloom. Bloom was astounded by the end of it and was rendered speechless, her mind swirling.
"So this Domino, which was destroyed is where she is from" Mike summarized. "And this Dragon fire is super powerful."
Bloom had lots more questions. But at least she had the answers she had been seeking for the last nine months.
"I answered your questions. Now, why did you leave Bloom?"
Every eye in the room turned towards Bloom. She couldn't look anyone in the eyes and kept her gaze resolutely on the carpet.. "I screwed up. I ruined the Day of the Royals, became the laughing stock of Magix and I got all my friends in trouble. I felt I didn't deserve to be there anymore."
Farragonda could see how much guilt was weighing on Bloom's conscience. She was already punishing herself for her stupid decision. But Griselda jumped in before Farragonda could say anything."You are aware you were already on academic probation? Another major break of the rules like leaving campus without permission should merit expulsion."
"Special circumstances should be brought into consideration. Especially that those three witches are after her. If they catch her and extract the power you possess Bloom it would be horrible. I feel you should come back to Alfea," Farragonda said. "The best I can do to protect you is to teach you to use your powers. Griselda, we don't have a choice. If those witches get hold of the Dragonfire it would result in great danger to all worlds."
Griselda gave Farragonda a disappointed look.
"Headmistress," Mike said. "Forgive me and my lack of knowledge of how magic works but they've already gotten into the school numerous times. How will Bloom be any safer where they know exactly where she is?"
"I'd like to stay here on Earth," Bloom said. "I'm safer here."
Griselda and Farragonda exchanged silent looks.
"We'll put more charms on the school to keep the witches out," Griselda answered Mike. "Besides, here on Earth if they find you there is no guarantee that we can help you."
"Exact whereabouts," Bloom said. "Earth is a big planet with seven billion inhabitants. As long as they don't know where I am I should be fine. I don't want to go back to Alfea."
Farragonda mulled for a minute or two. "I see several objections to your plan Bloom."
Vanessa looked Mike in the eyes and nodded.
"We have an idea," Mike chimed in. "Could she stay here at home and finish the school year here? I think that would be fitting punishment for what she has done."
Farragonda was impressed with Bloom's adopted parents but she shook her head. "Learning magic can be dangerous. It needs to be under the supervision of an instructors in a special facility like Alfea. Things can happen. Especially on a non-magical world like Earth."
"Then have Bloom study the theory and come to school one day a week to practice," Vanessa suggested. "Or perhaps limit her magical use to a single room or something?"
Miss Griselda gave Farragonda a piercing look. Bloom held her breath as Farragonda pondered over their proposal.
"Griselda, would the current magical restriction of 50% be sufficient for Bloom to finish her exams."
Griselda was taken aback. "It would but Headmistress but I protest."
"An adequate punishment will be enforced. Answer the question."
"Yes, it should," Griselda answered. "But..."
"Here is Bloom's punishment," Farragonda said with a sense of finality. "She will be suspended from school grounds. She is only allowed to do magic in a single location where we can track it and provide assistance should an incident arise. Any violation of these restrictions will result in immediate expulsion."
Griselda seemed somewhat mollified but still disappointed. She had been hoping she could enforce an expulsion, rarely something she ever got to do."Bloom, return every Friday to demonstrate your studying. Eight am sharp."
"Yes Miss G," Bloom said, relieved. She wiped the sweat that had been beading on her forward away.
"Do you have a spare room?" Farragonda asked.
"We can make one," Mike said.
Griselda and Farragonda stood up.
"Let's begin."
Two hours the Stevens had been left thoroughly bewildered by the enormous amounts of magic Griselda and Farragonda had used on the spare room. What had been an empty area where Vanessa had stored materials for her shop had been magically transformed. Pristine white sparkling walls had replaced the brown paint, the carpet had vanished was replaced with a wood floor similar to a basketball court, the only piece of furniture a school desk against the wall next to a window. In the far left corner of the room was a circle marked out on the floor.
"This will activate every Friday at eight am," Griselda explained, eyeing Bloom with a stern expression. "Do not be late."
"I think our work here is done," Farragonda said. She closed her eyes and two books appeared out of thin air into her hands.. "Each of these has the rest of the lessons for this school year. Study hard and if you do well I'll lift all punishments for the upcoming school year."
Bloom nodded, grateful she had dodged a bullet. "I won't disappoint you Miss F."
"Remember, not a step out of line," Griselda warned Bloom.
"We'll make sure of it," Vanessa said with a smile.
Bloom's parents and the Alfea professors exchanged pleasantries.
"Stella," Griselda boomed as they left through the front door. "If I don't see you back at Alfea in thirty minutes no amount of money or gift will persuade us to take you back again."
Stella frowned as Mike and Vanessa stared at her wide eyed as Bloom laughed.
"What? I had a minor accident in the potion lab," Stella admitted. "But my father paid for all the damages."
Mike swallowed anymore questions he had about Bloom's friends. "We'll leave you two to say goodbye."
Mike and Vanessa left the new magical room, leaving Bloom and Stella alone.
"See you Stella," Bloom said, hugging her friend.
"I've got you girl," Stella said, after breaking the embrace.
The next day….
Bloom wanted to pound her head on the desk for the thousandth time. The compromise they'd struck with Farragonda had sounded good yesterday but doing on her own was proving to be difficult.
"Mom, this is tough," Bloom complained for the umpteenth time.
"Bloom," Vanessa said gently. "It was the best we could do under the circumstances. Why don't you ask Tenca to help you when she visits tonight?"
"But we were planning to go out for pizza and then out on the town," Bloom protested, picking up a Domino's coupon from her desk and showing it to her mother.
"Do it after you get your homework done," Vanessa chided, taking the coupon from Bloom. "I'll have the pizza delivered here for the two of you. Then you can go out on the town over the weekend."
Bloom wanted to blast the desk into a million pieces. She knew she could do it but...she turned her attention back to the Darkness Navigating Spell Professor Wizgiz had assigned her.
Tecna arrived thirty minutes later to find a frustrated Bloom. She knew the look on Bloom's face. "Homework getting you?"
"I had no idea how much work we do in class."
"Come on. This is a simple spell" Tecna said, pulling out her laptop and sitting beside the red-head. "Math is the key. If you add..."
"Just let's get through this without the math?" Bloom requested, prompting Tecna to smirk.
Two hours later all the homework was done and Bloom's brain was thoroughly fried. Both girls settled into two gunny sacks in Bloom's bedroom to rest from their efforts and catch up.
"Good job Bloom," Tecna complimented. "When you put your mind to it you can learn spells quickly."
Bloom laughed before the absence of the rest of the Winx hit her. She lost her train of thought and looked away, something not missed by the analytical Tecna.
"You miss everyone?"
"Yes. It's actually strange not seeing the Trix," Bloom said, looking out her window, watching the occasional car pass by. "On the other hand it's nice not having to worry about them attacking me every two minutes. Have they've been bothering you lately?"
"Farragonda ran into them in Alfea yesterday probably looking for you. Miss G and F apprehended them but somehow they escaped before they could be brought to justice. Miss F used a Maximus Shield spell to create a second barrier to keep them out permanently."
Bloom proudly smiled at her being right. but braced herself emotionally. "Any news about Sky?"
"Just another phone call. Stella blew him off as usual."
"How?"
Tecna pulled out her laptop and put it on her lap. She turned it towards the red-head and played a video of Stella on the phone. "Bloom's room how may I help you?...Bloom is not available at the moment...Sorry Sky or Brandon or whoever you are...click."
Both girls broke into fits of hysterical giggles.
"Stella does know how to get rid of wannabe boyfriends," Bloom commented when they had settled down again.
"That's not all," Tecna said. "We caught them in Alfea last night."
"You what?" Bloom said. "You didn't tell them where I was right?"
"No of course not," Tecna said. "Here's the full story…"
Thursday, April 16th
2:00 A.M. Alfea
"Why are we doing this?" Brandon asked as the two boys crept through the halls of Alfea. Both of them had ditched their Red Fountain capes and uniforms and were now only wearing dark outfits designed for night missions.
"I need to see if Bloom is here," Sky said. His efforts to reach her had been frustrated thus far by Stella. But he hadn't seen her or Tecna on the Winx Club's most recent outing in Magix City leaving him to wonder if she was even attending Alfea. He felt a twinge of guilt about the way he had treated her lately, knowing it was in some way his fault she and her friends had ruined the Day of the Royals.
"No, you need to see if Bloom is here," Brandon corrected. "I only came along because you pulled rank as 'His Royal Highness."
"It'll be quick and easy," Sky insisted.
The duo finally reached the top of the staircase that lead to where the Winx's quarters were. Slowly pushing open the pink and gold door at the top, Brandon pushed a small device in through the crack in the door. A small drone flew through the air emitting invisible lasers through the walls scanning all the rooms for any signs of movement.
"Nothing. Everyone's asleep," Brandon whispered when nothing appeared on his data pad.
The two crept into the dorm quietly moving through the common room that was filled with recliners, desks, and couches until they reached the sleeping quarters.
"Which one is Bloom's?" Brandon quietly asked. Let this be quick.
"I don't know," Sky conceded. "I heard her say it was the one on the right over the phone once. Let's begin with those."
They slowly opened the first door only to see the outline of a single bed and clothes scattered all over the floor.
"Stella's room," Brandon said. He felt a sense of loss, wanting to curse out the prince for ruining any chance he had had with her.
They quietly closed the door, missing that Stella was tossing and turning in her sleep. The Sun fairy rose from her restless slumber but she froze, feeling a strange sensation as if she was being watched. After a brief second or two she shook her head then her eyes widened as she felt the call of nature. Stella pushed her blanket off of her, pulled a robe over her skimpy nightgown and began to put on her slippers.
Outside, Sky and Brandon had moved to the dorm across the hall. They peeked inside seeing the outlines of various plants, one occupied bed, and against the far wall...
"Bloom's not here," Sky concluded, seeing the empty bed. "She must've been expelled or suspended or something."
"Now that we know let's get out of here. You owe me.…" Brandon began.
"FREEZUS!," a voice behind them bellowed.
Both boys had no time to react. Brandon was stuck mid-stride in the process of turning around to leave, a shocked expression plastered all over his face. Sky's hand was still attached to Flora's dormitory door, his face still peering through a small crack into the room.
"Nightlight."
The entire dorm lit up as Stella moved to where the boys were frozen in place. Her face darkened when she saw who it was.
"Sky, Brandon, what a surprise," she said angrily. "Looking for Bloom I take it?"
By now the dormitory was a ruckus of activity. Woken up by the racket Tecna and Musa all arrived out of their dorms. Flora found her door resisting her when she tried to open it. Putting all her weight into it she yanked the door open.
"Eek," she screamed as a statue fell into the room, face up. "Sky!
"Well, well, well," Musa said angrily, as the boys' eyes darted from one girl to the next. "This is crossing the line creeps."
"Sneaking into our dormitory, beyond the red line," Flora raged, something which the other girls had never seen before. "As if getting all of us on academic probation and concealing their identities wasn't bad enough."
"What do we do with them?" Tecna suddenly asked, changing the mood in the room. "We're already in trouble with the headmistress. If we try anything too bad we too might get into trouble."
"Turn them in," Musa said. "Like I care how much trouble we get in."
"Wrap them in plant vines?" Flora suggested. "Then have the plants transport them back to Red Fountain?"
"No we can't just let them go. We…" Stella began.
"Stella, what is it?" Tecna asked nervously, seeing the cogs in Stella's head whirring at an alarming speed.
"I'll get them out of here," Stella said with an evil grin. "But not quite."
"How will you do that?" Tecna asked.
"I can teleport," Stella reminded the others. "We'll be in and out before anyone knows we're gone. But we'll have our fun with them before we do."
"You're risky," Musa observed. "But what fun are you talking about? Nothing too extreme. You got it?"
"Okay," Stella gave in, hands held in front of her in surrender. None of the girls noticed how large the boys' eyes had become while the girls had been debating their fates. "We'll just glam them up a little."
The Winx Club giggled and looked at the boys with identical evil grins. Brandon and Sky gulped silently.
Two hours later...
Sky and Brandon flew their red bikes back toward Red Fountain, bereft of their uniforms. Luckily they had hid the bikes in the Black Forest before sneaking into Alfea. Both of them knew Stella would've destroyed them had she found them when she transported them outside. No matter what they had tried they couldn't get the make-up or scanty outfits the Winx had magicked onto them off leaving them with no option but to head back to Red Fountain to find a solution to to their shared problem.
Sky shivered as the too small yellow crop top and flowery pink shorts (that barely covered his rear end) that Flora and Tecna had outfitted him provided absolutely no protection against the chilly wind. Brandon was fuming; his crush had claimed him as her personal prize and with Musa's eager assistance had pulled out her make-up. Purple eyeliner now graced his eyelids, his hair was dyed a bright pink, blush covered his cheeks and bright red lipstick had nearly made him gag when he saw his reflection in a river while they were heading back to the bikes.
To complete the outfit, Stella had given up one of her signature green bikini tops while Musa had replaced his pants with one of her red bottoms. Neither one of the boys said anything to each other until Red Fountain finally hove into view and the two drove up into the courtyard in front of the school.
"I'm never doing that again," Brandon fumed at Sky as they parked their vehicles and took off their helmets.
"I didn't know we'd get caught," Sky protested.
"Let's just get inside and get changed."
The boys had barely taken one step when a noise startled them.
"So where have you boys been?" Saladin's voice came out of the darkness. "You're beds where empty when we came to wake you for night exercises."
The surrounding darkness melted away as light flooded the area. Saladin and four other Red Fountain boys on night duty saw the two in all of their feminine glory and lost it. Saladin ignored the laughter and fixed the two with a furious expression.
"Sneaking into Alfea I see, most unbecoming of Red Fountain students and a prince," Saladin scolded. "Your punishment will be to clean Red Fountain's stadium tomorrow-without changing. Perhaps that'll teach you never to try anything like that again."
All the blood drained Brandon and Sky's faces. They were going to be the laughing stock of Red Fountain in the morning. A hundred feet above them Stella smiled as she flew away back towards Alfea. She had quite the story to tell everyone.
Bloom laughed until she her tummy heart and tears were leaking out of her eyes. Then she turned serious. "Did you find anything about the power I wield? And thank Stella for me. She knows how to get rid of wannabe boyfriends."
"She has plenty of experience at that," Tecna said, remembering the many tales Stella had told of her past boyfriends. "Now about that Dragon fire. Nothing beyond what Farragonda told you. It's one of the most powerful forces in the Magix Universe. My calculations indicate it can even create life."
"Life?"
"A crude imitation of life. The monsters it would create would be linked to the caster. Knock out the caster you knock out the monsters."
"Sounds fun. Wait, that's what I think Daphne was trying to warn me about. Maybe that's why the Trix want it."
"Do you still see her in your dreams?"
"No. I think Earth's distance might be blocking it or something. I can finally sleep though the night at least. "
Bloom looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I wonder what the Trix is up to."
"Well considering how they aren't on Earth yet, I think you pulled it off quite well. We should keep it that way if your hunch about them is true."
"I wish I could see them," Bloom said with an evil grin, flicking some stray strands of hair away from her face. "Probably twiddling their thumbs in some abandoned warehouse blasting everything into smithereens."
Both girls laughed before digging into a recently delivered pizza. Suddenly Tecna lit up like a light bulb. She pulled out her laptop and began typing at top speed.
"I think we can keep it that way. I need...I think...it's going to be great. So good!"
Bloom could only smile.
Abandoned warehouse, Magix City
The windows on an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Magix City lit up the surrounding darkness like a fireworks show.
"Where is she?" Icey yelled, blasting an already smashed ruined desk with ice.
"She pulled it on us," Stormy admitted, sitting on a heavily rusted chair, projecting a shield around herself to stop Icey's ice outbreaks.
"I want to freeze her to hell," Icey yelled, unleashing more ice.
Darcy was deep in thought. "What if we don't use the Dragonfire. At least, at first."
This attracted the other two's attention.
Icey snorted. "Without the Dragonfire we can't recall the Army of Decay. What's the point if we don't have it?"
"What if we needed just enough to say, attack Alfea," Darcy chimed in. "Then Bloom will come running to save her precious friends. Then we'll get the Dragonfire and complete our conquest."
The gears in Icey's head were churning and an evil smile was cracking over her face as Darcy's idea took hold. "Sisters. It's time to call our ancestors."
All three witches smiled and laughed.
"We need to pay a visit to the crypts of Cloud Tower," Icey said. "And we'll soon meet our dear parents."
Same time, Earth
The moon was shining high in the sky over Gardenia as Tecna and Bloom made their way home.
"Don't worry. Tomorrow all of us are coming to stay over the weekend," Tecna reassured Bloom
"Okay," Bloom said, still wishing she was at Alfea.
"That means there is no point in me returning to Alfea," Tecna said. "If it's okay with your parents."