As soon as Mattel High opened its door, Corinne ran towards the library "Book of Forest Lure." she said to herself "Erasmus."
As soon as she stepped into the library she froze "Whoa. Talk about books." she looked at all the aisles and walls of books "Um... I knew there was a reason I never came in here." she mumbled.
The Librarian, Madame Helene, walked up to her "Can I help you find something?"
"Um... yes. Erasmus."
Helene nodded slightly "He's through the 'do not enter' door." she pointed to a dark corner of the library.
Corinne stared at the spot for a second then shrugged "Oh well. Never stopped me before. Thanks."
Helene smiled as she watched her walk away, then shook her head and went back to work.
Corinne was about to open the door when someone suddenly grabbed her arm and spun her around.
"Hi." It was Annika.
"Hey. What's up?" Corinne released the doorknob and turned to face the princess "Why are you mad?"
"My parents grounded me!" Annika huffed.
Corinne raised an amused eyebrow "Again?"
"Yes!" the princess leaned back against the wall "For sneaking out to ice skate! Is that bad?"
"Well..."
"So now I'm grounded! On my birthday!" she shook her head "And still have to come to school! How do you do it?"
Corinne stared at her blankly "How do I do what?"
"You get sent to detention all the time!"
"Yeah. And generally the room's empty with desks to jump on and over and walls to run up."
"Oh..." Annika scratched her head "I forgot you... um..."
"Weren't a princess?" Corinne smiled as she nodded "Hey. I'm glad I'm not one."
"But aren't you and Louis..."
"Whoa! There is nothing between me and Louis for the thousandth time! So what if I've only talked to him a couple of times? And who cares that I just happen to save his life the other day? It doesn't mean anything!"
Annika smiled "Well... I have to run." then she lowered her voice "My kingdom is having a skating party tonight. I am so going!" then she ran off.
Corinne shook her head "She's asking to get grounded again... to school." with another shake of her head she turned and walked through the 'do not enter' door.
The walls were made of stone, and an eerie light was cast on the damp walls from candles coming from the room.
"I knew libraries were scary." She mumbled as she stepped into the room. She suddenly jumped back as a loud *BANG* sounded around her, followed by a even louder...
"Who goes there?"
"Um... Corinne." she answered, staring at the ginormous shadow on the wall "I was told to talk to you about the Book of Forest Lure."
"The book of Forest Lure!?" The troll shouted, once again banging his hand down on his table.
"Yep."
With a huff, the troll got up from his seat and started walking down a staircase.
Corinne watched as the shadow shrunk... and shrunk... and shrunk till there was a three foot troll standing in front of her.
"Yep." she said "The library is still scarier." she looked down at the troll "Giselle, the fairy queen sent Odette to tell me to get the book because it holds the secrets to the magic crystal while Odette now wears."
"Oh." Erasmus nodded slowly "And how do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Because I wouldn't be in the library otherwise."
"I'm sorry miss. But I need proof. So until then... GO AWAY!"
Corinne huffed "Okay." she quickly left Erasmus's library. She closed the door and spun around, only to run smack dab into Louis, who was carrying a whole pile of books.
"I am so sorry!" She cried as the books smashed to the floor.
"It's okay." Louis chuckled "You know we have got to stop running into each other like this."
She felt her cheeks start burning as she reached for one of the books "You're not kidding."
"By the way. I never thanked you for saving my life the other day." He knelt down to grab some of the books "Seeing what happened to that chandelier... I can only imagine what would have happened to me."
"Well, you wouldn't need about fifty light bulbs replaced." She instantly kicked herself "How stupid was that?!"
Louis just laughed "True. But I don't relish the thought of stitches either."
"Who does?" Corinne looked down at the cover of one of the books "Aviation?"
"Um... yeah." Louis took the book from her, his face reddening slightly.
"I didn't know you were interested in that sort of stuff." She grabbed the last of the books and stood.
"I've always wanted to..." he glanced around nervously "Well."
She smiled and cocked her head "Always wanted to...?"
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye "Fly."
Her eyes widened "Fly?"
"Yeah." he walked over to a nearby table and sat his books down "I know. It's crazy."
"Why is it crazy?" she asked as she followed.
He looked at her curiously "You don't think it's crazy?"
"No! Why would I?"
"Everyone else does." he shrugged and sat down "I mean, everyone says that you can't fly. But I don't see why not. I mean, if a squirrel can fly, why can't a person?"
A smile slowly forced itself across Corinne's face "Because we weren't born that way?"
"I suppose." he tapped his fingers on a book that was under his hands then slowly looked up at her "Would... you like to see what I'm working on?"
"I'd love to." She slid into the seat next to him and watched curiously as he opened a notebook to show an array of drawings and mathematical equations.
Louis watched her reaction as she scanned the pictures "You don't get it, do you?"
"Are you kidding?!" She pointed to one of the equations "Why wouldn't heat work? I mean..."
The Prince's eyes widened as she ran trough his whole plan that was simply written out in math and algebra.
"You know..." she cocked her head "It could work." when she looked over at him, his face was completely amused "What?"
"As many times as you land in detention, how do you know all that?"
Her face suddenly flushed and she stood up "I have to go. Bye." Then she took off running
"Hey! Wait!" Louis called after her, but she was already gone "She runs fast."
"Need to get Odette here." she thought, trying to distract herself, then an idea hit her "Ro."
"Corinne!" Her friends called as she ran past.
"Can't talk! On a mission! See ya later!" she called to them. A few minutes later she found Ro leaning against her locker reading one of the text books "Hey. Can you do something for me?"
Ro smiled "Sure. What do you need?"
"Could you call one of your animal friends and ask them to go to the enchanted forest and tell Odette to meet me here after dark?"
"That's a strange request." Ro said slowly "But sure."
"Thank you!"
Well, that night, Corinne managed to stay unnoticed in the school till everyone left. Then when Odette showed up, she deactivated the alarm and let her in.
"How do you know how to do that?" Odette asked.
Corinne shrugged "When you follow the head of security around, you learn stuff."
"Why do you follow the head of security around?"
"To learn stuff."
They walked through the empty halls towards the library.
Odette shivered "It's scary in here."
"Mm-hm." Corinne nodded "But I promise you, the library's worse."
After they had made it to Eramus's office and explained everything, the search for the book started. All night long they searched the shelves but couldn't find it.
When the sunlight started filtering in through the windows, Odette turned back into a swan.
Erasmus stared at her in awe.
Odette sighed "You better go, Corinne. But I'm going to keep looking for that book if it takes all day!"
Corinne stifled a yawn "Hopefully nobody tries anything. I am too tired to act rationally." she sent them a small wave then left them to their searching.
Well, as it turns out, Corinne wasn't the only one falling asleep at her desk. Genevieve was also having a hard time staying awake.
After school, during program rehearsals Corinne walked over to her "What's up?"
Genevieve yawned "Sorry. I was up all night dancing!"
"Dancing?" Corinne shook her head "I was up all night looking for a book," then her attention was drawn to the cafeteria windows.
Prince Daniel was looking at something in the sky.
As soon as she saw the bird she recognized it. Rothbart.
"Oh no." Corinne jumped up from her seat just as Daniel grabbed his bow and arrow, leapt on his horse and rode away "Odette probably went back by now!" she ran towards the exit and straight for the secret wall to the enchanted forest. As she feared, it was open.
She ran across the log and took off for the lake. But suddenly stopped when she saw Odette, with Rothbart right behind her "I knew he was doing that!" she took off running again.
Rothbart broke away from Odette and flew off in another direction.
But, unfortunately, Daniel had already spotted the swan.
"Don't!" Corinne shouted as she ran, fully intending to tackle the prince if she had to.
But Daniel lowered the arrow and just watched.
That's when Corinne noticed that the sun was already setting.
Odette flew to the ground and landed just as she changed back into a human.
Daniel cocked his head confused and walked over to her "Who are you?"
Corinne shook her head "Honestly?"
"What are you doing here?" Odette gasped, then she curtsied "Your Highness."
That confused the Prince even more "You know me?"
"My name is Odette. We... go to the same school." the girl blushed slightly "And I'm from the village."
Corinne shook her head, then her attention was drawn to two figures moving off to the left. She walked closer and saw Elina and Linden flying along the river "How did they get here?"
Corinne glanced back at Daniel and Odette who were walking away, then went to follow Elina.
"Are you kidding?" Linden was saying as he and Elina landed on the ground "You're the most talented fairy here!"
Elina blushed "Thanks Linden. You're very kind."
Then they leaned closer... and... a frog jumped out of the river and started limping.
The two fairies walked over to it to find out what was wrong.
Linden, who was an Oriad, told Elina that an evil fairy from the bogs had cursed it.
"Laverna." Elina said with a nod.
"According to the frog," Linden continued "Only an undoing spell can break the curse." he straightened up "But we haven't learned any undoing spells."
Elina thought a second "Maybe I have." then she said a strange enchantment, and the frog began to glow.
Corinne got a strange feeling that this was not supposed to happen.
It was a few seconds later that the frog transformed into a fairy. A fairy that she had seen many times in the history books.
Elina gasped "Laverna!"
(Thanks for you help Turquisea, Guest and Mariolka! This story was almost doomed to end without an ending! I appreciate everyone being so patient with me! Thank all off everything! Laterz!)