Chapter 14, A Word From the Crow: Parakara sat in class painting a vase of flowers the teacher had on display. Or at least tried to. Instead of a vase of flowers it ended up being a bunch of island flowers. Parakara thought it still looked pretty. Serenie T. was at her desk painting a vase she sculpted at home. She was painting the vase black with blue indigo flowers. Parakara rests her head on the desk after she was done painting the island flowers. The lighting in the school still bothered her. A small black bird tapped on the class window. Parakara looked at it. The last time she saw a crow was when she was living back in Twilight Town. The bird continued to tap. It wanted to come in. Parakara looked around, Serenie T. was too into decorating her vase to notice. Parakara looked at the other students. They were all painting the vase on display. The bird kept tapping and Parakara felt uneasy. She looked at the teacher and students again. Even though they weren't paying attention to her, Parakara felt like someone was going to notice and tell on her if she got up. The paratroopa then got an idea. She pulled her arms inside her shell and got out her wand.
"Fool the eye, trick the ear; Make them sense what is not here." Parakara said quietly. She gets up from her seat. The class nor the teacher looked up. Nervous, Parakara pushed her chair down. The class kept painting. Parakara couldn't believe it worked! She put her chair back before going to the window and opening it. She held out her arm. The bird perched on it.
"I have something important to tell you, caw." The bird said.
"What is it?"
"Your uncle is in danger, caw."
"Right now?" She asked worried.
"No, caw."
"What kind of danger will he be in?" She questioned further.
"The kind that hurts you badly, caw. He won't survive. Caw, caw." The bird said.
"How do I stop it?" Parakara asked. The bird then gave her a cryptic message.
"Follow your heart, caw. Your heart tells you to protect them. Don't fight the force trying to stop it." With that the bird flapped off. Parakara stared at the bird as it flew off into the sky. Her scales became a lighter shade of yellow. She didn't want to lose her uncle.
"Parakara? What are you doing out of your seat? Are you okay? You look pale...do you need a trashcan?" Serenie T. asked her in a worried tone. The spell wore off.
"Oh. I-I-I'm okay." She stammered. The teacher looked at her in a disquiet manner.
"You still look very sick...I'm sending you to the nurse just in case."
"No, ma'am I'm fine."
"Better to be safe than sorry. Your painting looks done anyway. You did a beautiful job."
"Thank you miss." Parakara goes to the nurse's office. It takes her quite long to find the right room. She walked in not believing what she saw. A female toad with a white mushroom hat with mint green hearts. Braided blonde twin tails and hazel eyes. The toad was laying on one of the bed. She was covered in bandages. Parakara was shocked to see her like this.
"What happened to you?"
"My so called "friends" thought it be funny to attack me."
"That's not funny at all." The girl seemed indifferent by the response.
"Yeah, well, nice to know there's someone who doesn't think so. They beat me pretty badly. My mom called the school. Guess what they did? Nothing. Because it happened outside the school."
"Of course." Parakara thought to herself. "I don't get why anyone would beat somebody up." She said.
"It had something to do with revenge against me. Someone had spread a rumor that I cheated on my now ex boyfriend with Kooprina's on and off boyfriend. I'm sure it was my ex who started it. Probably some other girls."
"That's just stupid. It doesn't excuse any of this. They should be ashamed." The toad smiled a little at the paratroopa's words.
"Yes…they should." She said. "But don't worry. I'll get even. One way or another I'll show them all that I'm better off alone. I'm stronger alone. They should learn from their mistakes."
"And they will." Parakara said. "Say...have we met before?"
"Not sure...we might have."
"We were reading the board about the Star Gala. Correct?"
"Kara?" The toad asked smiling a little.
"That's me." Parakara smiled back.
"Do you remember me?" The toad asked.
"Ariel...Toadariel...Toaderiel!" Parakara said, the toad smiled even more.
"You remembered me!" She exclaimed.
"You were the first one to talk to me when I first moved here!" Parakara said. "I wanted to talk to you more when I saw you during my first week of school, but you was always hanging around Katrina and her pack. Didn't want to stir up any trouble between you."
"Don't worry about that. The trouble already happened...I've been wanting to stop being friends with them. But I was so scared of being alone and being mercilessly bullied by them. It's easier to get through school if you're friends with the popular girls."
"Well...we may not be popular, but I promise my friends and I won't hurt you...you can join us if you ever get lonely." Parakara said. Toaderiel grinned and hugged her new friend. Parakara hugged her back. "Glad you're not dead." The paratroopa added.
"Me too Kara. Me too." Toaderiel says hugging tighter. Parakara looked at her.
"Do you need anything?" She asked her.
"Actually…there is. I was planning on going to the Star Gala with Katrina and them. But...that's obviously not happening now. You want to come with me?" She asked. Parakara smiled more. She felt like she'd be more comfortable if she went with a friend.
"Of course! I don't really like going alone at parties." She said, Toaderiel nodded.
"Great. I'll meet there tomorrow night." Said the toad, Parakara looked around for a sheet of paper and a pen. She grabbed one from the nurse's desk and ripped a sheet of paper out of a notebook. She writes down her phone number then gives it to her. Toadriel ripped a part of the paper and gives Parakara her phone number.
"Here ya go. Call or text me later when you're free." Toaderiel said.
"Okay then...if you don't mind me asking, how bad did they hurt you?"
Toaderiel removed one of her bandages and showed her. The bruise looked terrible. "I also have a few cuts somewhere..." She said. Parakara wasn't sure about internal injuries. If she had any. But she knew her magic is strong enough to heal external injuries. Parakara placed her hands on the girl's bruise.
"Healing light, shining bright, let the toad be free from plight." The bruise on the girl's skin disappeared. Toaderiel was shocked as she removed the rest of the bandages. "I didn't think you would want to go to the Star Gala looking like a mummy toad." Parakara said.
"You healed my wounds, you're my hero." The girl said to her as she hugged her.
"It was nothing really." The two smiled as they continues to talk to each other for a while until the nurse walked in.
"Toaderiel? This is a shocker. What happened to your injuries?" She asked her.
Parakara looked nervous. She forgot to ask her to keep her magic a secret. Toaderiel noticed how scared she looked.
"Oh...um...I guess the medicine helped?"
"The medicine is supposed to help your pain. Not your wounds. Even if that was the case, it wouldn't work that fast." The nurse said. Parakara wondered if she should come clean, or act sick to divert the nurse's attention. Although if she acted sick, the nurse would just bring her attention back to Toderiel after she was done "checking" her. But if she came clean...she thought about what she told Arias. Without a second thought she grabbed a nearby trashcan and coughed in it.
"Oh! Parakara! Are you okay? I'll check your temperature." She took out a thermometer and moved it across her forehead and down to her neck.
"Your temperature is fine...perhaps you had something that didn't agree with you. Though lunch hasn't started yet...maybe you ate something bad this morning?"
"I think so."
"Want some water?"
"Yes."
"Okay dear. Be right back." She left.
"Why didn't you want her to know?" Toaderiel asked.
"If it gets out that I'm half magikoopa the other kids will probably start treating me like I'm their personal genie or something like that. Either that, or they'll bully me for being a hybrid."
"They'll just be jealous because you have wings and can use magic. You're like a fairy! But I do get the genie part though." Parakara smiled at Toderiel's statement. She never saw it that way. Hearing those words made her happy. When the nurse back holding two paper cups of water.
"Here you are darling. Drink this up please."
Parakara sipped the water. The nurse gave the other cup to Toaderiel. The nurse turned to Mr. Spinner when he walked in. The girls decide to leave the nurse's office while she was distracted.
"Thank you so much. I really owe you one." She said.
"It's problem, really." Parakara said. Toaderiel hugged her.
"Hope to see you soon. Especially at the Star Gala." She said to her new friend. She waved goodbye then walks down the hallway. Parakara flew down the opposite direction when someone came running up behind her.
"Hey, Kara!" It was Bobert, he was breathless from his run.
"Hi Bobert! How are you?"
"I heard what happened."
"What happened?"
"You almost got in a fight, didn't you?"
"That thing! Yeah I did. Friend of mine stopped them though."
"Really? Who was she?"
"Gloombarias."
"Wait...the gloomy goomba?" He asked.
"That's her, you know her?"
"I know her, but I don't really talk to her. She scares me a little. She used to say a lot of dark things. She's mostly quiet now." Parakara stared at him for a moment trying to figure out if he was making fun of her or not. "So she talks to you?"
"She does...you shouldn't be afraid of her. She's really nice."
"I'm surprised that you got her to talk to you." He said, Parakara shrugged.
"She sat next to me in math class one morning and I told her "hi", and that was it, I asked her if she wanted to join us."
"Oh, you did?" Bobert looked nervous.
"Yeah, I hope you don't mind it."
"Not at all..." He said laughing nervously. "It means more friends right?"
"Why are you scared of her?"
"Like I said, she's mostly quiet and has a really dark sense of humor."
"She's really sweet though...she's gone through some things."
"Okay...Kara?"
"Yeah?" She asked him.
The Bob-omb gave her something. It was a cute little pink and blue box. The colors were swirled together. The design made her think of cotton candy. It was tied in a glittering silver bow.
"It's cute." Parakara said.
"I made it. Well the box acutally. See ya." He runs away. Parakara opened up the box, and inside was a small plush toy snowman wearing a yellow scarf and blue bucket hat. Parakara smiled placing the gift in her purse before going to class.