This took a bit more time to write, because I didn't want to rush things toooo much with Palladium and Onyx! I think I still did, though XD

It's up to you guys to judge that!

I hope you enjoy :D

Chapter 6: The Ball

Why do we have to wake up so early every day? I get that fairies are morning creatures, but 6AM is just too early. Besides, I'm more of a night owl, so I can't even sleep early. At least their breakfast is good. I follow the girls to the cafeteria and we sit in our usual spot.

"I heard Headmistress Faragonda has some exciting news."

Musa says while grabbing a toast. Exciting news?

"I think I know what it's going to be!"

Stella squeals. It seems that only Bloom and I are clueless about what Faragonda has to announce. While eating and chatting casually, Griselda claps her hands to grab our attention to the front, where the teachers eat.

"Listen up girls! Headmistress Faragonda has an important announcement to make."

Faragonda then gets up and coughs to clear her throat.

"In honour of the new year, and to welcome you all to Alfea, there will be a special event. This is an annual tradition that Alfea shares with Red Fountain. The event in question is a ball celebrating the beginning of the school year."

At the mention of Red Fountain, all of the girls start to squeal and whisper in excitement among themselves. I've seen some of the guys of Red Fountain in Magix before, but I've never talked to them before. Griselda demands order so that Faragonda can finish up what she has to say.

"The dance will be tonight, so there will be no classes today for you to have the time to prepare. I hope you girls have fun and enjoy the ball tonight."

After Faragonda finishes her speech and sits down, the chattering gets louder. That means that the class with Professor Palladium is cancelled for today.

"This is going to be AWESOME!"

Stella seems the most excited about it. After breakfast, all of us regroup at the dorm. We all show off our dresses to each other. Stella's mermaid cut dress is a very sunny-like, with its orange and yellow fabric. Tecna's is a light blue and green modern looking dress that really suits her personality. Flora's pink dress is adorned by green vine patterns. Musa's outfit is made of different shades of red, complete with red headphones, giving her a groovy look. My dress is mostly black and short. The skirt is flared with a black rose made of fabric at the waist. The dress is sleeveless. At the waist is a white corset with black thorn patterns. My black high heel sandals complete the look. As for Bloom…

"Where's your dress, Bloom?"

I ask her, a bit surprised to see her in her usual outfit.

"Well, is it alright if I go like this…?"

She says a bit hesitantly. Of course, Stella jumps at what Bloom just said.

"Are you kidding me? This is the event of the year! You can't go like this! Don't you have a dress?"

"…No, I don't have a dress…"

Wait, no dress at all? Even I have one, and I'm not much of a dress kind of girl. All the fairies and me look at her with bewilderment. There's a short silence that is then broken by none other than the fashion obsessed Stella.

"Alright, girl, you NEED a new dress. We're going out shopping!"

We all then drag Bloom to downtown Magix, in hope of finding something nice in time for the ball. We go from store to store, making her try out every plausibly appealing dress we find. Finally, she tries on a blue one-sleeved dress that looks perfect on her. She then looks at the price tag and gives up on it. After walking around some more, we don't find anything worth it. The fairies and I go our separate way, since it was getting late. Bloom decides to keep looking, though. When we get back to the dorm, we wear our dresses and perfect our makeup for the big night.

Man, I have never put on this much makeup in my whole life… Stella really had fun with it. I have to admit, though: the eyeliner is on point. The fairies are supposed to go decorate the place where the ball will take place. Since I would probably ruin everything with my magic, I was exempted from decoration duty. And now I have nothing to do until the ball starts in a few hours… Stella and the others are already gone to help out. Maybe I should go see how things are going there.

When I enter the ballroom, I'm amazed by how many things are floating around, being carried by fairy magic from place to place. The decorations are rapidly flying to where the fairies bring them and are then attached to different parts of the room. Faragonda, Griselda, and other female teachers are leading the preparations. The male teachers are just standing on the side, trying to stay out of the flying objects' way. Professor Palladium is there too. Maybe I should go say hi. I was actually looking forward to his class. Too bad it's been cancelled for today's event. While deep in my thoughts, I make my way to Professor Palladium.

"Watch out!"

In a reflex, I bring my arm up at the giant flying pink ball and a black beam shoots from my hand and destroys everything in the way, starting with the huge object that was about to hit me. As a result of my defensive action, a lot of the decoration that was in the same direction as my beam got disintegrated. What did I do…? Everyone watches in horror at the mess I did. I then start hearing whispering among the fairies.

"What do we do now…"

"I knew it wasn't a good idea to have an Ankelon here…"

"Dark Ankelon? She's cursed for sure…"

"Why is she even here…"

I lower my head at what I'm hearing. What was I thinking? Did I really think that I'd fit in here? Everywhere is the same. I'll never be able to be accepted as I am. Before I knew it, I was already in one of the many hallways of Alfea. I did hear Stella's voice calling out, but I just ignored it and ran away. Besides, none of the fairies would follow me, because they're going to be way too busy cleaning up after the mess I made. I rest my back on the wall. I can't believe I even made a hole in the ceiling… No wonder they're all angry at me. I'm pretty sure Stella, Flora, Musa, and Tecna are also pretty angry at me. I just ruined their long anticipated annual ball. I'm the worst…

"There you are."

I lift my head towards the source of the voice, surprised that someone actually followed me all the way here. I'm even more surprised that that person is… Professor Palladium.

"Professor Palladium…!"

I feel tears sting my eyes. No, I shouldn't cry over this! I wasn't even about to cry when I was alone. I don't know why, but seeing him now makes it harder to contain my tears. He looks at me with soft eyes.

"Don't be so harsh on yourself; it wasn't your fault."

I control my breathing and swallow my tears.

"I should've been more careful…"

Professor Palladium then comes to me and puts a hand on my shoulder, in a comforting way.

"Why don't we go back, Onyx?"

I shake my head.

"They wouldn't want me to go back. No one would care if I never showed up, anyway."

"That's not true. I'm sure your friends would feel sad if you weren't there."

Friends…? Do they still consider me a friend?

"I'd do them more good if I just stayed in my room tonight."

At least this way, there won't be any unwanted accidents. I start moving away from Professor Palladium. He then holds my wrist, preventing me from leaving. Why?

"That's not true, Onyx."

I feel frustration starting to well up inside me. Not against Professor Palladium, but against who I am. Being a Dark Ankelon is what's causing all of these problems. Why me?

"Let me go…! Please…"

Even though I'm angry, I can't yell. I always bottle it in. But… all of my negative emotions are boiling inside of me. The tears that were threatening to come out, are now escaping my eyes and rolling down my cheeks. I lower my head, trying to hide that.

"Onyx…"

Professor Palladium softly breathes. He then hands me a tissue. I don't take it. I'm a bit shaken to really care about a tissue. He then tries to wipe off my tears himself, since I didn't take his tissue. Why is he so nice to me? More tears start falling.

"I can't keep up with all of it."

Professor Palladium says in his usual panicky way. This makes me chuckle a bit. I take the tissue from him and wipe my own tears. good thing the eyeliner Stella used is waterproof, or I'd look like a bigger mess than I do now.

"Do you want more time to calm down?"

"It's alright… I just don't know if I should go back."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll stay with you the whole time. Unless it's inconvenient then of course I'll-"

"I'd like that…"

It's certainly better than standing in a corner. He then smiles bashfully and we head back to the ballroom. When we get there, Stella, Musa, Tecna, and Flora run up to me.

"Onyx! You're back! We were so worried!"

Flora holds my hands and gives me a worried look. They're not angry…?

"I'm sorry about what I did…"

"Oh, it's not your fault. It was merely selfdefense."

Tecna states. I'm so glad… I look at the room and there are no traces left of the disaster I caused. Fairy magic sure is amazing…

"We were about to go check on Bloom, so we'll be right back, Onyx."

I nod at Stella. I wonder if Bloom found her dress. The girls go out of the room and I am left alone with Professor Palladium. The Red Fountain guys are already here. A lot of the girls are already socializing with them.

"See? I told you they cared."

I giggle at Professor Palladium's words.

"Thank you, Professor Palladium."

"You can call me Palladium when we're not in class."

"Alright, Palladium."

I smile at him. He really is a very kind person. For some reason, his cheeks become a subtle shade of pink.

"A-Aren't you going to go talk to the Red Fountain boys? I'm sure you can find someone nice to dance with."

I look at the scene in front of me. To be honest, none of the boys really catch my eye.

"I'm not too interested in that… Besides, I'm not the most social of people. I doubt any of them would want anyone but a fairy anyway."

That's what they were expecting when they came here anyway.

"I'm sure many of them would be honoured to dance with a pretty lady like you."

I blink twice rapidly and look at Palladium. Me? Pretty?

"I'm… pretty?"

Palladium's cheeks become a more pronounced shade of reddish pink.

"A-Anyway, if you don't want to dance with them, I don't mind dancing with you instead, that is if you don't mind dancing with your Professor, of course… You don't have to agree just because I'm your teacher! I'm just saying that if you want-"

"Sure, I'd be honoured."

Palladium pauses a bit and looks at me. He then gulps.

"W-Well, shall we?"

He takes my hand and puts his other around my waist. His movements are very hesitant. Finally in position, we start to slowly sway to the music. This is nice… I feel at ease, even after what happened today. Palladium has been very patient and understanding with me. I wonder why he cares so much. I just hope he'll be like that forever. I really enjoy spending time with him. He's one of the only people who seem to genuinely care about me.

The music stops after a bit and both me and Palladium stop dancing. We then break away from each other and smile while avoiding each other's eyes. I feel a bit shy looking at him in the eyes right now… One of the Red Fountain boys announces something about a present they prepared for the fairies. They then start distributing golden eggs, and a random guy gives me one too, as not to exclude me. I look curiously at the egg. I feel faint magical energy from it. It's a weird feeling, but I brush it off since it's not negative.

"You're going to open it?"

"Yeah, it's just a curious little thing."

I try to open it. When I do, a bunch of golden butterflies made of light escape. It's pretty, but… I was expecting more? Palladium lightly laughs.

"You don't seem impressed."

"You read right through me."

I say while shyly smiling. The music starts again.

"One more round?"

I say to Palladium, hopeful that maybe he'll want to dance with me again.

"My pleasure."

This time he seems more sure of himself. He's still a bit hesitant when he holds me to dance, but not as much as before. We dance a bit longer, until Bloom enters with a two piece blue outfit. When she sees me, I give her a thumbs up and a smile. She smiles back, understanding that I was complimenting her look. She then bumps into a blonde Red Fountain guy. I don't see the rest, since I'm way too busy dancing with Palladium. We are both now not avoiding each other's eyes. For the whole dance we don't take our eyes off each other and it feels… magical.

So please tell me what you think in the reviews, I really love reading and replying to them :D