Chapter Four
Breakfast the next morning was an exciting event. All over the room, fairies were swapping stories about dancing with this guy or kissing that guy, rehashing the previous night's events over their bowls of cereal and plates of eggs and bacon.
On my right, Lola was telling a couple of girls from our Magical Theory class about the specialist she'd kissed last night – a sophomore transfer named Jake. Mel and Aqua were having a discussion about the music selection, and Ivy, Dee, and Miriam were up at the buffet table getting more food.
One thing I really liked about Alfea was the enormous breakfast buffets on the weekends. Any style of eggs, pancakes, waffles, French toast, muffins and bagels, three kinds of sausage, bacon, and lots of fresh fruit… mmm, heaven.
"So Alyssa, are you excited to see your parents today?" Ivy asked, sliding into her seat on my left. She broke off a piece of her blueberry muffin and nibbled on it.
Although Alfea students weren't typically allowed out of Magix during the semester except on breaks, Miss Faragonda had made an exception for me this semester, considering my history with my parents. If I cleared it with her and didn't abuse the freedom, I was allowed to portal back to Sparx for a few weekends of my choosing. This weekend just so happened to be one of those choice weekends – except the choice hadn't exactly been mine, it had been my mom's. I was all too happy to oblige, though, seeing as there was nothing major planned yet for the weekend. Also, after the events of last night, it would be good to spend a few days away from Magix and digest things.
"You bet I am," I replied, stabbing a piece of cantaloupe with my fork. "I'll make sure I bring back lots of little presents to share with the dorm."
"Awesome," Mel said, swallowing the last of her juice.
"What about you guys? Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?"
"Mel and I are going to a concert in Magix tonight," Aqua said.
"That sounds like fun." I looked down at my plate, noticing that it was empty. "I'll be right back – I need more food."
I took my plate up to the buffet and started picking out more food. After getting some more fruit, I walked down to the end of the buffet with the pastries. There were a bunch of older girls clustered around that end, but through them I spotted my favorite chocolate-chip muffin. There was only one left. Quickly, I reached for it, but someone else got there at exactly the same time.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Here, you can have it." My blood boiled at the sound of her voice – oh so familiar. Sure enough, I looked up to see Alexa standing in front of me, my muffin in her hands.
"No, it's okay. You can take it," I insisted, grabbing a croissant instead.
"Oh my goodness, Alyssa! I thought you seemed familiar. How could I miss that bright red hair of yours?" Alexa laughed. She looked just as beautiful and stylish as she had last night. Her long black hair fell down her back, sleek and straight; her blue eyes were accentuated with a touch of eyeliner and mascara, and there was a hint of pale lip gloss on her red lips. She wore a dark navy blue sleeveless top and a faded denim miniskirt with a frayed hem. A silver necklace with an A pendant hung above the straight neckline of her top. "Did you have fun last night?"
"Yeah," I said, adding a raspberry scone to my plate. I'd have had a better time if you hadn't been hanging all over my boyfriend in that tight, slutty dress that left absolutely nothing to the imagination, I thought. In fact, I'd have had an even better time if you didn't exist, or at least weren't so beautiful and didn't have a shared past with Ryan.
"Me too. Alfea is so much better than Beta Academy," Alexa chirped, peeling the wrapper off the chocolate-chip muffin that had gotten me into this conversation with the girl I hated most at Alfea.
"Well, I've never been to Beta, so I can't say for sure, but Alfea is pretty great. So you like Alfea so far?" I asked Alexa, more to be polite than anything.
"Definitely."
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask why she'd left Beta, but at the last second I realized it could come off too bitchy. Instead, I said, "Um, nice necklace."
Her hands flew up to her neck and clasped around the A pendant, swinging it back and forth across the chain. "It's my favorite. Ryan gave it to me." I had to literally bite my tongue not to say anything mean, breaking off a piece of the scone and stuffing it in my mouth so I couldn't speak.
Alexa's eyes ran up and down my body, as if giving me a once-over. They narrowed slightly as they returned to my face, and I wondered why. Since I was just going to visit my parents, I'd dressed simply – jeans, a blue V-neck tee, and sandals. What was Alexa getting upset about?
"I like your necklace," she said, and then I remembered Ryan's gold heart necklace lying against my collarbone – I hadn't taken it off since he put it on me yesterday (not counting my shower, of course). So that's what she was upset about. But why?
Seeing an opportunity to get back at her, I said, "Thanks. Ryan gave it to me last night."
She shot me a smile that looked just a little too sweet to be genuine. "Well, I'd better get back to my friends. Nice talking to you, Alyssa."
"You too. Have a good weekend."
Alexa smiled, but the look in her eyes was anything but friendly.
"Sweetheart! It's so good to see you! I miss you so much when you're at Alfea."
"I miss you too, Mom," I said, squeezing her in a tight hug and breathing in the scent of her perfume. It still felt a little surreal – living in the palace, having a real family, spending time with my mom.
After a moment, Mom let go and held me at arms length. "You just keep getting taller and prettier, I swear." I laughed. "It's true!" she insisted.
"Bloom, why didn't you tell me Alyssa was coming home this weekend?" Dad came up behind Mom and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against his chest in a sort of backwards hug.
"I thought I'd surprise you," she said, twisting her body so she was facing him. I averted my eyes as she reached up to give him a kiss.
"Do you guys really have to make out in front of me all the time?"
Mom laughed. "Sorry, honey. It's easier when you're at Alfea. I'm still having a hard time adjusting to the fact that I have a fifteen-year-old daughter."
"You mean an almost-sixteen-year-old daughter," I reminded her. "My birthday's coming up soon."
"Don't remind me," Dad groaned, releasing his hold on Mom. "I'll let you two catch up; just make sure you're back for dinner so I can see my daughter too."
"As you wish," Mom giggled, leaning in to kiss him again.
"Hello? I'm still here, you know!"
"Fine, fine, I'm leaving," Dad said. "I know when I'm not welcome." He kissed me on the forehead. "Welcome home, Alyssa. I'll see you later."
"You have got to tell me your secret," I said to Mom once Dad was out of earshot. "How did you make him act all… normal?"
She laughed. "Well, I'd tell you, but somehow I don't think you'd actually want to hear…"
"Ew! No!" I squealed. "You're right – I think I'd rather not."
Mom laughed. "So how are you, honey?"
"Alright…" I hesitated, wondering how much I should say about Ryan and Alexa. Even though we'd spent the summer together as a family, I was still kind of having a hard time adjusting to having a mom. For so long it had just been me and Dad – and he's not the best person to talk to about… anything, really. So I'd gotten used to keeping everything inside. Even with my friends at Alfea, it still felt like there was a wall between us, as far as talking about the heavy stuff.
"Is something wrong, sweetheart?"
At the last minute, I decided to refrain from saying anything about Alexa. Maybe it would turn out to be nothing after all – maybe Ryan would talk to her and she would back off for real.
Yeah right, a tiny voice in the back of my head said. And maybe Lola will donate all her clothes to charity and start wearing thrift-store finds. From the way Alexa was acting, both last night and this morning, it was clear she had no intentions of just letting me have Ryan without a fight. Still, I didn't want to bother my mom about it just yet.
"Nothing's wrong. I'm just a little tired. Last night was the back to school dance with Red Fountain."
Mom's eyes lit up, and a mischievous smile danced across her face. "Ooh. Lemme guess – you saw Ryan?" My cheeks flushed bright red; as much our relationship wasn't typical of mother-daughter pairs our ages, it's still weird talking in-depth about your boyfriend with your mom.
As I debated what to tell her about, her eyes zeroed in on something. "Wow," she remarked, reaching out towards the V-neck of my shirt. "I haven't seen this in almost twenty years." I was confused, until her fingers brushed my necklace. (That would make two times I forgot I was wearing it. Damn, I really need to start being a better girlfriend.)
"Ryan gave this to me last night," I offered by way of explanation, not sure what she meant by the thing about twenty years.
"Did he tell you what it means?" Mom walked over to a nearby couch, beckoning me to follow her. I took a seat next to her, wondering what she was getting at here.
"He did say something about 'sentimental value', but then we went to dance and he didn't finish his thought."
"This necklace is a family heirloom of the Eraklyon royal family. It's passed down through the men, who are supposed to give it to the girl they want to be with forever." She reached up and un-did the clasp behind my neck, the chain sliding into her hands and pooling in a tiny puddle on her palm around the pendant.
"What are you doing?" I asked as she fumbled with the side of the pendant, my mind trying to process this new information.
"Trying to find the clasp… aha! There it is." She pressed down on a tiny gold bump sticking out of the side that I hadn't noticed until now, and the heart popped open, revealing a tiny picture inside of two people, a blond boy and a red-haired girl in a tender embrace.
"How did you know… it was a locket? And why did you say you've seen this before?"
Mom stiffened. "Sky gave this to me after graduation. I… gave it back."
I squinted at the picture. The differences weren't immediately obvious, but upon closer inspection, the boy was slightly shorter, his hair lighter, and his face a little more angular than Ryan's. And the girl was slimmer, more wide-eyed, with blue irises instead of gold.
I blinked, as if I thought somehow the picture would change if I kept closing my eyes long enough. Of course, I'd known about their relationship, but with hard, concrete, tangible proof staring me in the face… it was more than a little unnnerving. "Your relationship was deeper than you've made it sound, wasn't it?" I asked.
Mom refused to look me in the eye. "Sky is… a touchy subject for your father, which is why I tried to sugarcoat it a bit. Yes, we were quite close in high school, but that was a long time ago. I broke up with him completely separate from anything to do with your father, and I've never regretted it or wondered 'what if I hadn't?' for a single day. I fully believe that we were not meant to be together, that our romance was just a silly high school fling, but apparently he doesn't, even after Diaspro swooped in like the vulture she is." Mom's tone soured when she mentioned Taylor's mother, and I couldn't help but smile. Seems there was no love lost between that generation either. "I always meant to try and talk to him again, but then we had you, and then the Trix attacked, and now…" She paused. "There really is nothing stopping me now, is there? In fact, it's probably the perfect time to do it."
"That sounds like a good idea, Mom," I said. "He's a mess now, especially after the Taylor-trying-to-kill-me thing and the divorce."
"Mmm-hmm," she nodded. "Poor Sky… he deserves better than that witch. I just wish he'd learn to move on."
"Why are you two talking about Sky?" I jumped at the sound of my dad's voice, which seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere.
"Ryan gave Alyssa the heart locket. I was just telling her about it's meaning."
Like the bit about Ryan and me had just flown right over his head (which was very unusual for my dad), he zeroed in on the part about Mom and Sky. "And now you want to go see him?" he asked, his voice weighted with more than a healthy dose of skepticism.
"Awww. Is someone a little jealous?" She giggled, then grabbed his hand and pulled him down onto the couch, simultaneously leaping up and then landing on his lap. "I promise you, whatever feelings I had for Sky in high school are long gone. Flame is out. I swear. It's just two old friends, catching up."
"If you say so…" he said, although I could tell he didn't believe her. Evidently, so could she, because she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in for a very long, very passionate kiss that had me closing my eyes and squealing in protest.
"Ew! Gross! Get a room, you two!"
"Deal with it," came Dad's reply, before Mom tackled him with another kiss. I rolled my eyes at the display of affection on the couch, then headed upstairs to my room.
Author's Note: So? What do you all think?
Next chapter, we get back to the plot. Well, actually, this chapter and the last were key for setting up important subplots, but next chapter we get back to the main plot. And I promise I have not abandoned this story. Just don't count on super-regular updates (but you're my reviewers. Of course you've learned better than to count on super-regular updates from me).
So review, please, and tell me what you liked. Is Alexa bitchy enough? Too bitchy? Was the explanation for the necklace sweet or cheesy? Do you wish Bloom and Baltor would stop making out all the time? (Sorry, that one's never gonna get old.)
Catch you on the flip side,
- Authoress