So here's the next rewritten chapter! This one hasn't changed that much but there's some little extra information so please read, thanks!
The next morning Musa lifted her heavy backpack onto her shoulders and exited her bedroom. She crept along the corridors and tiptoed down the stairs and she successfully reached the entrance hall without disturbing anyone. She cast a spell on the doors so that they swung open and she went outside into the cold, early morning mist and quietly closed the doors behind her. "Well... here I go," she muttered under her breath. She ran down the stone steps and out through the gates of the mansion into the street. "The taste of freedom..." she muttered again. She walked peacefully along for about half an hour listening to all the sounds of her realm- the songbirds tweeting the latest tunes, the cars driving past with music blasting out the open windows and the quiet, peaceful sounds of voices as people sang whilst they did their morning chores. It all became so much noisier as she reached downtown; each individual shop had its own music playing and there were already buskers in the streets singing, rapping and playing various instruments. She walked through the streets, a few people recognised her and said 'good morning' but nobody suspected a thing. After about ten minutes of wandering and half-hearted window shopping, she thought she saw some people that looked like her friends. "Nah, they're all in their own realms. I'm probably just hallucinating cos I'm hungry," she thought. She sat down on a bench and opened her bag and took out a chocolate bar and began to eat. The five friend-resembling figures were getting closer and closer.
"Hi, Musa!" Flora giggled.
Musa looked up in shock and saw her five best friends looking down at her. "What are you guys doing here?!" she exclaimed with happiness.
"We came as a surprise!" Stella smiled.
"We want to buy our dresses from your realm, so they're more fitting for your princess ball," said Bloom. "Plus Stella wants to check out the Harmonic Nebulan fashions."
"Of course," Stella nodded. "I already own everything worth having from Solaria."
"The boys have stayed back in our realms and aren't coming until the actual day of the ball," Layla explained to Musa. She hoped that they didn't notice her face fall at the thought that she still wouldn't be seeing Riven until Saturday.
"But they're all definitely coming?" she questioned.
"Obviously!" Stella seemed to be in a hyper mood as always when it involved shopping or boyfriends. "Do you think our boyfriends would miss the chance to dance with us girls, and do you think Riven would miss your princess ball? For God's sake Musa! He came to mine!"
Musa smiled. Now she knew for definite that she would be seeing Riven on Saturday.
"So are we just gonna sit here and watch Musa think boring thoughts about Riven all day or are we gonna go spend, spend, spend?!" Stella asked, raring to go.
"Calm down Stella! Musa's the only one of us who knows the way around this place, and so we have to wait for her," Flora laughed.
"Sorry," Musa apologised, "I'm just lost in my own little world!" She stood up. "Come on- there's a boutique this way!"
Musa lead them back through the streets of the Harmonic Nebula past band merchandise shops and record stores until they came to a small boutique with three beautiful dresses in the window. The one on the left was green and the one on the right was yellow and the one in between was a huge, white wedding dress that Stella couldn't stop staring at.
"Come on Stella!" whined Bloom, taking hold of Stella's arm. "I thought you wanted to get a Solarian style wedding dress!"
"I know! I'm just exploring my options! I could always have more than one..." Bloom managed to drag Stella away from the window and into the shop with the other four, and found that she herself couldn't stop staring at the wonderful dresses on display. They were all organised into rows of different colours, and then the wedding dresses took up a whole rail at the back.
"Oh do I have to get a dress from Solaria?" Stella moaned.
"If you want to please your parents, yes," Bloom replied.
"Yeah, well you'd be lucky to get the dress you want in your size," explained Musa, "It's the only dress shop in the whole kingdom."
"Wow! The people that work here must be like... zillionaires or something!"
"Well done Stella," chuckled Tecna. "I finally found out that you can do a bit of maths after three years of you apparently not being able to."
Layla and Musa giggled along with her. "Where did you get this sudden burst of humour, Tec?" Musa asked in between laughs.
"After three years with you and Stella, I kinda picked it up."
They turned to face Stella only to find that she had ran off to look at the wedding dresses.
"Come on Stella, we're here to find a dress for Musa's princess ball!" Layla said as she began to flick through the rows of green dresses.
"Do you think we should join them in dress hunting?" asked Tecna and Musa nodded.
They spent a long time admiring the handy-work of the shop owners, and tried on several dresses each until they all found the perfect one. "Guys have you seen this dress?!" Stella exclaimed, strutting out the dressing room wearing a long sparkling pastel pink dress. She twirled around and they watched as the dress spun with her. "I cannot leave it!"
"What about the other six you couldn't leave?" Layla laughed, admiring the navy blue dress she was wearing herself in the mirror.
"Well I'm buying them too! But this is the one for Musa's princess ball!"
Stella yanked one of her many credit cards out of her pocket, picked up her huge pile of dress and marcched over to the till with the dress. "All these in a size eight please!" she said to the assistant. The assistant smiled. "You're in luck, Princess Stella. Not many have a figure as perfect as yours so thankfully we still have your size in stock."
"You know me?" Stella asked, surprised.
"Sure, I used to work in a dress shop in Solaria."
"Oh my God! You're Gemma, aren't you? You made that gorgeous dress I wore to my high school prom... that dance was a disaster but at least I looked fabulous!"
"Yes, you maxed out your credit card with the matching purse too." Gemma laughed.
"Yeah she does that!" Bloom joined in.
"Well I won't this time!" Stella objected. "Now I've graduated Daddy's let me have unlimited access to all the royal funds, and soon I'll be Queen so you know!"
"Good to hear," Gemma laughed and handed Stella six dress cards with 'Spella McCartney' written in a fancy, cursive font across them.
Stella gave Gemma her credit card in return and she swiped it to take the money off. "You've spent $520000, but since you've bought so much I'll let you have it for $500000. The Shopper's over there, I'm sure you know what to do," Gemma said, pointing to a machine against the wall that looked like a photo booth.
"Thank you, darling!" Stella said, taking back her credit card and she walked over to the Shopper. She put each dress card into a slot and walked inside the Shopper. She emerged around ten seconds later with several huge bags that had the shop's logo on each side.
"Tadaa!" she burst out, "I have officially bought the dresses! Woohoo!"
"Yeah Stella and they're all gorgeous, but we still need to find our dresses," Flora reminded her.
"Great!" Stella said. "Now I've got plenty of time to make sure you all choose the right dress!"
The Winx Club proceeded to choose their perfect dresses for Musa's princess ball. Bloom picked a silk halter-neck dress that shimmered all the colours of the sea with a slit almost all the way up of one leg, showing her pale thigh.
"You're going to need to learn a fake tanning spell, Bloom!" Stella said, glaring at Bloom's pale skin.
"No way!" Bloom laughed. "I'd look like a tangerine with my hair!"
Flora picked out a lilac tube top dress with a gorgeous, ruffle lace skirt, as well as some pink pearl bracelets. "I love pearls because they're one hundred percent natural," she explained.
"Not to mention one hundred percent gorgeous!" Stella agreed.
Layla bought the navy dress which glittered like the night sky and had a black lace underskirt, as well as a cream coloured feather boa to soften the look. "You look like a Goddess in that, Layla!" Stella complimented. "Now you just need this!" She handed Layla a diamond necklace.
"Stella! I can't afford this!" Layla said.
"Layla, darling, you're the princess of Tides. Of course you can afford it! Just because I give you better diamonds than Nabu!"
It wasn't worth arguing with Stella when it came to fashion, so Layla gave in and bought the necklace.
Tecna was happy to find a futuristic floor-length gown that changed colours between various shades of purple and green whenever she walked. She also bought some purple gloves. "The best thing is that the fabric is fireproof!" she said happily, to which Stella rolled her eyes.
Musa had taken the longest to choose her dress- she wanted something really special and memorable for her princess ball. The girls were getting close to giving up when at last she found the perfect dress hidden amongst the others. It was tight fitted and made from ruby red silk, it fanned out from the knee like a mermaid's tail. It was simple, but beautiful, and Musa knew that she looked gorgeous.
"Hell I don't know what Riven's going to think!" Stella said. "I'd do you in that dress!"
"Stella!" Musa hissed and they all laughed.
After four hours in the shop all the girls had bought their dresses and they went back outside to find the sun shining down on them. "Guess these jeans were a mistake," Musa said, holding her hand above her eyes to block out the sun.
"It's obviously because I'm here!" Stella smiled, and Musa rolled her eyes at Layla, who smirked. "Anyway all this shopping has made me hungry! Where do we eat around here? All I can see is boring old music stores!" Stella whined.
"There's an awesome pizzeria a few blocks away," Musa said. "And we can eat outside by this cute fountain."
"Perfect!" they all said and followed Musa to the pizza restaurant. They ordered a huge twenty inch pepperoni pizza between them, with a small section of peppers for Flora, who was a vegetarian.
"We all look fabulous in our dresses! I'd say even better than at the last dance!" Stella said as she took a bite of the cheesy pizza. "Mmmmmm!"
"You would Stella" joked Layla.
"No, seriously. I think that we all really do look great. I hope Brandon doesn't get too jealous when all these rock stars are looking at me!"
"Awww thanks, Stella," smiled Bloom.
"Yeah, normally we think your compliments are a bit... fake," Musa admitted.
"But we can see you definitely mean it this time" Flora assured her by putting a hand on her shoulder, just in case another argument between Musa and Stella started.
Musa spent the rest of the day showing her friends around The Harmonic Nebula. She showed them all the best record stores, where Bloom was amazed that they sold music from Earth.
"I can't believe they have the Arctic Monkeys here!" Bloom said, clutching a vinyl album. "They're this great indie band from Earth, I can't believe they sell their music in another realm!"
"Yeah you can get literally everything here!" Musa laughed. "All my favourite bands are from Earth, there's something so much better about making music about real feelings opposed to magic and potion induced love."
She also showed them around the clothing stores, which consisted of mostly cool but casual clothes and band merchandise. Stella fell in love with a Bring Me The Horizon t-shirt, although she had no idea who they were, and was amazed that it was only $20.
"Um Stella, I really don't think you'd like that band!" Musa and Bloom laughed, as they were the only two who knew who they were.
"I don't care! This design is cute!" she said as she paid for it. "Besides, a girl can never own too many t-shirts!"
When they returned later that evening, everyone was amazed at the size of Musa's mansion. Tecna, Flora, Bloom and Layla thought it was huge and Stella thought it was tiny. "How many dressing rooms do you have?" Stella asked.
"None!" Musa laughed. "We use all our spare rooms for musical equipment."
"Ew," Stella replied.
Inside, Musa introduced her friends to Annie and they talked for a while until she had to go back to making preparations for the ball.
"Your Dad received a message from Princess Stella yesterday saying that you were all coming," Annie said, winking at Stella. "You'll all be eating with him tonight."
"Oh my God, we're eating with your Dad?" asked Layla. "He's like, the biggest rock star in the universe!"
"Don't worry Layla, he's cool," Musa laughed as she lead her friends to the dining room. They walked in to find Musa's Dad sitting at the head of the table, leaning back in his chair. Musa stifled a laugh as he was obviously trying to impress her friends- he was wearing a tiger striped tank top, tight pants and a bandana.
"Hello girls- lovely to meet you all- welcome to the Harmonic Nebula. I'm Ho-Boe. You might know me from that band, you know the really famous one?"
None of the girls said anything. Meeting a rock star was almost as nerve-wrecking as meeting royalty. Musa laughed and said "Come on guys, take a seat. My Dad's only messing."
They all took a seat at the table.
"Now I've ordered something extra special tonight," Ho-Boe said and clicked his fingers and an enormous amount of food appeared on the table- everything from Chinese to Indian to more pizza.
"Awesome!" Stella said and helped herself to a bit of everything. Bloom and Layla had Chinese, Musa and Tecna had Indian whilst Flora stuck to salad. It wasn't long before everyone was talking, and topics of discussion involved Musa as a baby, Ho-Boe's career and crazy experiences and Musa as a rebellious teenager.
"I can't believe you got excluded from high school for dyeing your hair green!" Stella said as they walked to Musa's room later that night. "Why green? Ew. Pink I could understand but green? No."
"Never mind that!" said Bloom. "I can't believe your Dad's been on tour on Earth! Some of my friends went to one of his shows!"
When they reached Musa's room, where they'd all decided to sleep, despite their hectic day they didn't feel like sleeping at all. With some quick spells they made the room comfortable and changed into their pyjamas.
"Having a sleepover like this reminds me of being back in middle school," Stella said, shuddering. "Guys we should play truth or dare!"
All the girls agreed that it would be fun, especially since they'd never actually played it together before, and they all had a lot of questions for each other.
"Now remember," whispered Bloom. "Nothing we hear or say in this room will never be said of or heard of again outside of this room."
"On our graves we swear that we will never tell," they all said in unison.
"Right. Who goes first?" asked Layla.
"I think Musa should go first, since it's her house," Flora suggested.
"Okay then!" Musa smirked and looked at Stella. "Stella. Truth or dare?"
"Ugh! I knew you'd pick me!" Stella complained. "Truth."
"Haha, I wanted you to say that!" Musa laughed.
Stella jokingly slapped herself in the face.
"Alright, out of all the boys, including Nabu, say the order that you like them in starting with the one you like best." Musa said, and was met with "Oooooooh!"s from the others. "And you have to explain why."
"I can't say that! I'm dating Brandon!"
"Too bad you have to now," Layla laughed.
"Alright, fine." Stella took a deep breath. "Well obviously I like Brandon the best- he's so handsome and kind and we're going to be together forever and rule Solaria and live happily ever after. And second... well I like Timmy second best but only because I think he's sweet and it's funny and he's saved our lives countless times on board the ship. Thirdly, and I'm totally gonna regret saying this, but thirdly I like Riven. Even though he's a big grump with a serious attitude problem I think he's actually... quite good looking." She admitted, trying to ignore the stares and open mouths of her five best friends.
"Anyway, fourth I like Sky. No offence Bloom but I think he's weird and he's a bit dorky really and kinda reminds me of a guy from a kid's fairytale or something. Fifth I like Helia. I think he's too quiet and what's up with his hair? And I like Nabu the least just because I don't know him well enough."
"W-O-W" Layla said each letter. All of them were amazed at her confession. "I was expecting it to be like Brandon, Sky, Helia, Nabu, Timmy, Riven!"
"Well I had to tell the truth! If you weren't all my best friends I probably would have said that!" Stella scowled.
"Well at least we know you're telling the truth. You would have never said that as a lie." Flora said, somewhat annoyed that Stella didn't like Helia very much.
"Okay, Stella. Now it's your turn to truth or dare someone." Musa said, still shocked. After all the times Stella gave her grief about Riven? This was crazy.
"Right girls, you better be ready!" Stella exclaimed. "Cos I dare you all to say how far you've gone with your boyfriend!"
"What? You can't do that!" protested Musa.
"Of course I can! I just told you all something that I should never have said aloud!"
"Okay, but only if you say how far you've gone first," said Bloom, surprisingly calmly.
"Okay. Me and Brandon have got up to some lower body activity. Just hands though! I'm not smearing my lipstick putting my mouth anywhere near that thing!"
Musa and Layla laughed. Flora looked offended.
"How about you and Sky, Bloom?" Stella asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
"Just tongues," Bloom replied. "Mouth on mouth, obviously," she added. It was obvious by her tone that this was the truth, and besides, Bloom would never tell a lie to her friends.
"Flora?"
"Tongues," she said quickly. "In my realm it's traditional to wait until you're married for any of that stuff," she said scornfully and folded her arms.
"Whatever, Flo, this is the twenty-first century!" Stella said. "How about you, Tecna?"
"Me and Timmy experimented with tongues but decided against taking it further for now," Tecna explained. "Our main priority for now is our digitalised wedding."
"Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah boring. What about you, Layla? You and Nabu are getting married soon."
"Erm... a kiss on the cheek..." Layla blushed. After all, she was a newcomer to the whole boyfriend thing.
"God Layla you're boring! And you, Musa?"
Musa knew that she was probably blushing the reddest shade that she had ever blushed. "Tongues..." she drifted off. How would she explain the fact that she had beaten Stella?
"What else?" Stella pushed her on, getting frustrated.
"Errrrr... a bit of lower body activity."
"A bit?!" Stella looked as if she was going to burst.
"With mouths..." Musa confessed.
"Musa! I am never going to get that picture out of my head!" Layla complained.
"You wanted the truth," said Musa, blushing even more.
"What was it like?" Stella asked.
"Urm..." Musa began, but was interrupted by Flora.
"I really don't think we need to know that, right?"
"And you still haven't done it?" Bloom asked.
"No."
"Well what a relief. That would have been an even worse mental image!" Layla asked.
"How big is Riven?" Stella asked.
"Stella!" Flora scorned.
"What? I'm just curious!" Stella said, but Musa wasn't telling.
"That wasn't part of the question," she said.
"Well it looks like our girl Musa is officially at the highest stage," Bloom said, changing the topic. "Whose turn is it now?"
"I was going to say whoever's at the highest stage apart from me but that's Musa and she's just had a turn," Stella explained.
"Just let her have the turn. She deserves it after admitting something like that," Layla laughed.
"Oh, alright. Musa, it's your turn, again."
"Okay. Truth or dare, Tecna?"
"Truth."
They went on playing truth or dare for another hour but there nothing else as personal as Musa's confession came up. The game consisted of mostly truths, but with a few crazy dares on Stella's behalf. They decided to go to sleep around 2am, since it was really late and they were all very tired.
Around 3am, Musa was the only one still awake. She lay in her bed staring into the darkness. Suddenly, she heard a strange buzzing noise. It was coming from Tecna'slaptop. She got up out of bed and was careful not to trip over her sleeping friends as she went to fetch the laptop from the other side of the room. She picked it up and went climbed back into bed. She opened up the laptop, which she found that the inter-realm chat program was open and there was some text on the screen reading: 'Hello who's there?'
Musa typed in: 'It's Musa.'
'Musa! Just who I wanted to talk to! It's me, Riven.'
'Riven! Hi!'
'How are you?'
'Fine now you're here' Musa typed.
'Oooooeerrrrrr ;)'
'Stop it. I've really missed you.'
'I miss you too. I really wanted to come with Bloom and the others, but they said it was only girls allowed.'
'Yeah, we've spent the day shopping and playing truth or dare'
'Sounds, er, great? Listen, I love you, but now I have to go. I've nicked Timmy's laptop and it won't be long until he notices. I've got something for you when I get there *wink wink*'
'Oooooo naughty boy.'
'Bye! xx'
'Bye...'
Riven was gone. Musa proceeded to put the laptop back. She got it back successfully but stood on Stella on the way back to her bed. "Owwww! Musa? What are you doing?" she yawned.
"I was just... checking my E-mail."
"At this hour?"
"Why not?"
"Hey, Musa?" Stella said sleepily. "I'm sorry we didn't bring your presents. The boys are bringing them when they come on Saturday."
"No, no, Stella. It's perfectly fine. You guys are the best present anyone could have ever given me."
Stella smiled and fell straight back to sleep, and Musa decided it was time for her to get some sleep too. She lay down, shut her eyes and fell into a peaceful dream about Riven.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review
xxMazzy