The street lights of Gardenia barely illuminated the dark sidewalks at night. There were only a few people out this late. Some were coming from work, others were celebrating or partying, a few just enjoyed looking up at the night sky with a telescope in the park.
Yet no one seemed to notice the cloaked woman emerging from a nearby alleyway. She moved with a rushed purpose, she couldn't stay too long here, she had to get back home soon or people would notice their absence. As she walked, they glanced at the apartment numbers occasionally. She wondered if he was still living at the same one or had he moved out. It didn't matter as long as she took care of the mistake that brought her here. In one of her hands, she carried a basket that held something that made her more afraid than anyone she had ever fought in her entire life.
She stopped at a small apartment and walked up the stairs leading to the front door. Every step filled her with anxiety and dread, every foot she took made her tremble. She quietly placed the basket down on the welcome mat, causing whatever was inside of it to stir.
"Shhh, please be quiet." The woman's voice quivered and shook. She didn't want to alert the man living on the other side of the door with her presence. She couldn't face him, not here, not like this. 1..2..3 knocks on the door then she fled into the street, into the darkness.
The door swung open, a man with disheveled black hair and dark brown eyes sluggishly looked around then noticed the basket laid in front of him. A gurgling sound came from it and a pair of sleepy blue eyes looked up at him. It was a baby with a tuft of black hair growing on her head.
"Hello there." Andy smiled as he gently picked up the infant bundled in soft blankets, "Where did you come from?"
Among the woven covers was a single piece of folded paper. He opened it, read it, and sighed. The words were beautifully handwritten, yet held such hate and disgust in each letter.
She's yours, you take care of her.
"She couldn't even stay long enough to talk about it, huh?" He mumbled, crumbling up the piece of paper in his fist. The baby girl gurgled in his arms and reached out to him with her little hands. She grabbed on tight to the guitar pick necklace that was around his neck.
"You like my necklace, kid?" He chuckled, "I used to be a rock star."
The baby cooed as she played with the necklace. He smiled as he walked back inside with the baby still in his arms. The man didn't notice the woman watching as he closed the door behind him. She smiled then disappeared in a flash of light. It was better this way she told herself. Her baby would be better off with him than with her. If anyone knew about her, her life would be ruined and she couldn't have that.
~15 Years Later~
Nicole Michaelson felt the overwhelming urge to throw up as she stood at the front entrance of Alfea. Sure, she had been excited to be accepted but when the taxi dropped her off, it became all too real. Alfea was the prestigious academy for fairies, girls from all over the dimension even royalty came here to learn and train their magic. While she hadn't even known she had magic until a few months ago. Turns out causing all the water fountains in her high school was not a thing normal teenagers could do.
Yet here she was with her messy black hair, baggy dark blue hoodie and worn out sneakers.
You have to move. A lone thought pierced through her worries. Being here is a way to connect with her. You've come too far to chicken out now. She forced her legs to move forward, making her first steps towards the illustrious academy. It felt like a castle out of a fairy tale, the pink was okay. It was a soft color, not neon or hot, so it could be worse. As she walked, she glanced at the other arriving freshmen, many of them different in how they looked. Colorful hairstyles and clothes caught her eye, she was pretty sure that some of them had animal like features. She knew Alfea would be different from the small town of Gardenia, California.
"Watch it! You almost ruined my clothes!" Nicole was so entranced by the environment that she didn't notice crashing into someone. The angry girl in question had orange hair pulled into an intricate ponytail with expensive gold jewelry draping her arms and neck in the form of bracelets and a necklace.
"Sorry." She mumbled.
"You should be, do you know who I am?!" The ginger huffed.
"Um no?" She was genuinely confused, she didn't know this girl, was she a celebrity or something?
This earned a bewildered look from her then she laughed, "Yeah, right have you been living under a rock or something?"
"Actually I-"
"I don't want your life story, just move out of the way." She stormed off, deliberately bumping into her shoulder and sending a glare at her for good measure.
"She was pleasant." Nicole grumbled.
"That's an understatement." A girl with dark magenta hair and dark blue eyes grimaced, staring daggers into the back of the girl. "Take my advice, best to stay on her good side, otherwise you'll get burned."
"Thanks, but I think I already made her mad."
"Nah, believe me you'll know when she's angry. I'm Minuet of Melody." Her tone relaxed as well as her face starting to form a smile.
"Nicole of Earth."
"Which suite are you in? Maybe it's near mine."
"Suite…122?" Nicole recalled from the registration info.
"Really?" Her eyes lit up, though her expression remained neutral, "We're suitemates, that's cool."
"Sure if the other girls don't mind the noise." The two girls laughed. After chatting for a while, they ended up in the hallways of Alfea, squeezed into the crowds of arriving freshmen. The halls were confusing and never ending, the long and tiring staircases did not help things.
"This place is a labyrinth!" Nicole exclaimed, out of breath and ready to collapse, "How many rooms does Alfea have!?"
"My mom was not kidding when she said this place was complex."
"Your mom went here too?"
"Yeah, she was a star student, one of the best, no pressure or anything" There was a melancholy in her eyes but it soon faded, "What about you?"
"Just my mom, though she didn't talk about it much."
"Bad memories? My mom told me Alfea gets attacked a lot back in the day."
"No, she passed away when I was a baby." She was used to the looks of pity and sympathy whenever she said it.
Minuet inhaled sharply "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn-."
"It's fine, I don't mind, after all how can I miss someone I didn't know, right?" Nicole tried to pass it off as a joke, but Minuet wasn't convinced.
"Just because we never knew them doesn't mean they don't reside in our hearts." Minuet's tone turned serious, then she calmed down "Just something my grandpa told me once."
"Anyway, it looks like this is our suite." Nicole swiftly changed the subject, pointing to the nearby door. She pushed them open, then stopped as she gasped. When Nicole thought about the dorm, she wasn't expecting a five star hotel room. The entrance leads into a common room complete with a couch, a coffee table with several chairs around it, a flat screen tv, and a small kitchen counter. There were four doors that looked as if they were exquisitely chiseled from marble (Nicole wouldn't be surprised if it was actually marble). Beside each of the doors were signs that had a pair of names on them except for one.
"Wow." Minuet whistled, marveling at the common room "The announcements weren't kidding about the remodeling."
"Minnie?! It's been too long!" A tall athletic girl with dark skin and curly brown hair ran up to Min and hugged her tightly.
"Hey, Undine. And it's Minuet, not Minnie." Minuet mumbled, gently pushing her away before her lungs passed out.
"Of course, Minnie." Undine waved off Minuet's exasperated expression and turned in Nicole's direction, "Hello, I'm Crown Princess Undine of Andros, awestruck I know."
"I"m Nicole of Earth. How do you know each other?" She knew that princesses went to Alfea, she didn't expect to be rooming with one. Nicole thought they would get their own private dorm being royalty, but clearly not.
"Our parents were best friends, so we would hang out all the time when we were kids."
"I see."
"I have to show you our room, I've already confiscated half of the closet."
"Oh goodie." Minuet said before being dragged into her shared room with Undine. Nicole decided to hang out on the couch for a little bit just to decompress and to get her bearings. The girl felt out of place, her roommates already knew each other, what if they already have their own friendships and want nothing to do with her? Would it be awkward to just be the odd girl out? Would they be annoyed by her? Hate her for it? Want nothing to do with her for the rest of the ye-
"You're thinking too loud, please be quiet." A snappy voice came out of thin air interrupting her train of thought. The source came from a tall thin lightly tanned girl with dark brown hair and dark green highlights at the end. She wore all black, clashing with the more colorful environment. She didn't even make eye contact, rather she was focused on her book.
"Oh, um, I'm Nico-"
"I know who you are."
"Y-you do?" She suddenly felt the temperature drop several degrees.
"Yes, you're Nicole of Earth. You're my roommate." She held her hand out to Nicole. "I'm Rhea of Linphea."
"Oh…oh!" She realized she had been stupid, "It's very nice to meet you, I hope we get along!"
"Me too, otherwise…I'll have to feed you to Edgar." A small creepy smile started to form on her face.
"Ignore her, she's just being dramatic." A sunny brunette haired girl with amber eyes over thin glasses patted the girl's head. In response, Rhea stuck her tongue out. "I'm Princess Andromeda of Solaria, I've got the single room."
"Nicole of Earth. Should I curtsy? I feel like I should at least bow."
"Nothing like that. I'm just third in line, my older brother is the one getting the throne."
"Oh cool." She said it so nonchalantly as if she was talking about the weather.
"Get ready to move, everyone!" Undine popped her head out of her room with a disgruntled Min behind her, "We have to get to the headmistress' welcome speech before all the good seats are taken."
With Undine leading the way, the five roommates made their way to the auditorium. As headmistress Faragonda spoke of the years to come (and the billion rules that went with it), Nicole couldn't help but feel that this was the beginning of an amazing first year.
Yet there was a lingering thought that everything was about to go horribly wrong.
Andy hadn't stopped thinking about his daughter since she departed for Alfea. Though he supported her through the application process, his stomach was in knots over the whole ordeal So he called Selina to talk for a while. Though it seemed that Nicole was also on her mind as well.
"Are you sure it was wise to send her there?" Selina asked, "What if she finds out the truth?"
Andy sighed, "If she's anything like her mother, which she is, it's most likely she will. Then we'll figure it out together like a family."
"So why lie to her? We both know that the fairy tale you told her is far from the truth."
"I don't want her to resent her magic because of her. It's better this way." Andy's mind wandered to the night he found her, the night she came into his life. Did he regret not telling her truth? Yes, the guilt ate at him whenever he saw her. He did not want to take that smile away from her, even if it meant lying to her face.