Chapter 5
Fairies & Field Trips
A week had already gone by and Valerie found it challenging teaching a group on teenage fairies. It wasn't as easy as teaching human teenagers or kids but she liked a challenge. The students just continued to think she was odd. Valerie was fully use to being referred to odd by what she wore and even how she acted. Often when she turned her back, they were playing around with their own sources of magic in her classes & whispering how strange she is. As much as it was fasinating to watch, she often had to kindly tell them to stop but they were welcome to do it outside class. Valerie had caught up with Daphne who would often sit with her during meal times to chat about how everythings going. "How are your classes going Valerie?" Daphne asked and Valerie replied with a bright smile "Oh Daphne, its going fantastic but i think it's time that they need a little push into the deep end!". "Oh what do you mean by that?" she asked Valerie in confuston ", Valerie placed her hand on Daphne's shoulder while continuing to smile "Oh! Showing some human experience!" Valerie replied with a giggle.
Monday came again and Valerie decided to keep her outfit choice low key and explorish. She wore a white blouse, with a brown vest, brown trousers and boots. Valerie placed her hair into her traditional bun so her dangly earrings could show. They were the shaped as transparent humans "there perfect back to my professor image then my teacher image but the dresses will make a reappearance at some point right Goldie?" she asked Goldie who was sitting on the end of the bed in their room. "Come Goldie, your coming to class too as promised!" Valerie told the monkey who was very excited to be joining in Valerie's class. As she walked to her classroom everyone pointed and noticed Goldie on her shoulder. Goldie was very happy to say hello to everyone, he had meet everyone during his first week including getting to know Head Mistress Faragonda who gave permission for Valerie to bring Goldie into class. The whole school now knew Goldie!. The arrived to the classroom and with a happy "Good Morning Class" Valerie greeted the class. The fairies would then reply with a low "Good Morning Professor!". Over the weekend Valerie had spent a long time plotting and planning her lesson plans, including doing some programming on Bike and doing a few rides here and there exporling Magix (local town in the area). She was going to stand by what she said to Daphne the other day and decided that she was ready to give the class a real human experience. During her first week of teaching she was trying to teach the class about the Earth and a lot of the questions from the students where about humans. They were more interested in them then studying about how the Earth started. As Valerie walked towards her desk, she turned to face the class "Now then ladies, as you all know last week we were discussing what you knew about the Earth, as you know the Earth is inhabited with various animals, plants and humans" Valerie said as she addressed the class. She could see the fairies just looking at her nodding "but how did the humans become what there are today?" Valerie asked the class. Roxy then raised her hand "Professor, but weren't we just studying about the Earth last week?" she asked the Professor. Just then the students spotted that their Professor's earrings started to light up "Yes your quite right Roxy but let's recap about that another time!" Valerie answered to the girl. Valerie then walked towards one of the windows and opened it to let some air in while Goldie jumped off Valerie's shoulder and sat on the window sill "Haaaaa feel that lovely fresh air!". The students continued to look at her blankly "Last week i noticed that you were asking a lot of questions about myself and other non magical beings humans" Valerie addressed the class as she walked back and stood behind her desk. "Ah Professor! Goldie is escaping through the window!" a student called out, "Oh that worry he will be back, he is just retrieving something for me from my motorcycle!" Valerie explained hoping to really grab the students attention. Valerie then began continue "What if you could really receive the real human experience?", the class saw that their Professor was talking no notice of the glow bug that flew through the open window. They all just start their in amazement as it looked like it knew what it was doing it was flying towards Valerie. Then Valerie took out her hand as it placed itself on the palm of her hand. Valerie winked at it, little did the class know it was Bike that had been shrunk down by Goldie who was driving it taking the form of a glow bug. "Excuse me Professor? Are we going to be studying Human Evolution?" Roxy then asked the Professor, Valerie turned to face her class with a smile and simply addressed the class "Why don't we see for ourselves?".
Suddenly without warning the classroom began to change almost like it was melting into a new setting. The setting began to have rocks, trees, a rivers and caves appear even sounds of water flowing could be heard. The class was looking around completely confused and amazed about what just happened. Goldie had appeared with them and bike who was still in Valerie's hand had now changed form and now was stricking a form of a moth. She whispered to both of them "Maybe a little too early but this will do!", Goldie rolled his tiny eyes at her giving her the impression that we all make mistakes. "Ahhhhhhh our clothes have changed!", "Yeah what happened to our clothes!", "What am i wearing & why am i hairy?" Valerie heard from the voices of her class as she looked up. Before Valerie could explain what they were all now clothed in including herself in a leopard skinned loincloth, she noticed that the fairies were attempting to change them back to their normal outfits. "Its like we are wearing fur!" Clarice said while holding her hands up to perform a spell. "Your quite right Clarice, it is fur we are all now wearing loincloths, welcome to the prehistoric time on Earth!" Valerie announced "and sorry ladies there was no magic back then so all fairy magic has been blocked!". All the fairies glupped even Roxy who was spotting a loincloth dress made from a lion with barefeet. They were all in different types of animal skins, handmade cavewomen jewellery and striking barefeet "Professor! How did we get here and what have you turned us into?" Clarice angerly asked Valerie. Valerie really was having enough of Clarice, she really didn't apperiate her attitude not just now but in all the classes she has taught so far at Alfea. So she just ignored her but also didn't want to reveal the real cause of how they got here (not just yet). "Clarice, i think we have become Cavewomen!" Roxy informed Clarice and the rest of the class who all looked scared and nervous. One girl asked how they get back to Alfea. "Class, you are all now normal human beings in other words Cavewomen, this is where humans started to really form after the cell stage, the mammal stage and the primate/gorilla stage 1,000's and 1,000's of years ago!", Valerie then went on to explain that this is todays topic, "How to live like cavemen or cavewomen". She always thought that the best thing to do was to right jump right in! Why not when you have a magic motorbike to help you out. It was just like the days when she use to operate the Magic School Bus! "I cannot connect to my Winx, I cannot transform ethier!" a frizzy oranged haired girl then shouted, Valerie answered back "Alice, isn't it? There is no need, today we are to live, breath and work as cavewomen and explore their nature without the use of magic". Alice's appearance (apart from her bear loincloth dress that she as now wearing) reminded Valerie so much of her when she was young. Valerie allowed for the fairies to wander around in groups to explore and instructed them to think like a cavewomen "Take Changes, Make Mistakes & Get Messy" she shouted her favourite saying.
"How did they find food & water? What did they use for shelter? How did they communicate? Lets find out!" Valerie told them. She then informed them that this is going to be a project to work on and eventually an oral report in a couple of weeks. The class growned. "Off you go!" Valerie said cheerly, the girls slowly began to walk around "Ewww i stood in mud!" Valerie heard Clarice say "She did say to get messy! Look there is a cave maybe we can use that for shelter!" Roxy then said in response. Valerie was pleased that she saw Roxy taking interested in her lesson, it wasn't long until her follow classmates followed her but reluctantly. Then another girl suggested they make a fire for warmth and that some of them should start looking for firewood then again some of them were reluctant. Valerie assisted along with Goldie with finding the firewood and teaching them how to make spears so they can hunt for food. She explained that Caveman or Caveman use to hunt animals for food some even bigger then an average house dog. Valerie could see some faces turn green, she would've hated to have Roxy heard that as she knew that Roxy was the fairy of animals. Then she instructed another group went to find water and suggested that they hunt for fish. Valerie noticed that suddenly the fairies had some change of heart and were working together. She assisted them when she could see that they were struggling but liked to make sure that sometimes they would figure the problem out themselves. The sun was starting to go down and they were all seated around the fire that Roxy and her group made earlier in the day. They even started to cook the latest catch (being fish) that another group had caught using the spears that Valerie had taught them how to make. Valerie with Goldie beside her then went around the circle and asked each girl what they learnt today and whether they had enjoyed being a Cavewomen. Each fairy nervously told Valerie and the rest of the class what they did today and what they had learnt from their own experience. Valerie was overjoyed that she managed those brains working. They shared and eat the fish for their supper and kept close to the roarring fire "Time to turn in girls, its getting late!" Valerie informed them as she lit a tree branch on fire for light and held it in her right hand. Goldie had now climbed onto Valerie's right shoulder along with bike who was still in moth form was unknowlingly camouflaged into Valerie's loincloth dress on the other. Only Valerie knew it was there. The fairies looked towards the cave that now looked dark and scary now that it was night time. Valerie ignored any of the questions that were asked about getting back to Alfea. "Follow me ladies" she told the girls as she headed into the cave "Single file please!". They all looked at each other nervously but then got spooked when the sound of a rat could be heard.
The Cave was dark and there was a strong smell of mold coming from the walls. They came to the end of the cave and could see that piles of grass & ash that placed on the ground for sleeping on that Valerie told one of the groups to make. "Are we really going to sleep here tonight?", "I want to go home were some of the cries that Valerie heard from the class but she insisted that this was how Cavewomen survived at night to keep warm and to keep safe. "Ladies, please choose a grass bed and keep together to keep warm, we will be sleeping here for the night!" Valerie asked the class. The girls already feeling scared, really didn't want to follow Valerie's instructions. Valerie resured them that they would be safe. All of the class glupped still in fear but reluctantly and all placed themsleves on a patch of grass and ash in the cave. "Don't worry girls, i will not let anything happen to us, i'll tell us a caveman or i mean cavewomen story as we go to sleep" Valerie quickly said to the girls and they giggled. Valerie then began her story. The fairies were so fastinated with her story before they all began to fall fast asleep. Valerie looked around their cave bedroom and smiled as she saw that all the class had fallen asleep "Works everytime! Now then Goldie shall we return to school!" she said quietly to the monkey who was starting to go to sleep beside her. Valerie looked over to Bike (still a hidden moth on her shoulder) and quietly said "Bike do your stuff!". The Bike winked at her and a bright, glittery light appeared around the cave making the campfire that could be seen from the entrance go out! Soon they had all been magically transported back to their classroom and Valerie was back standing behind her desk back in her normal clothing. All the girls were back at their desks in their normal clothes too fast asleep but it wasn't long until they all woke up feeling very disoriented. "What a dream!", "It felt so real!", "Is everything back to normal?" and "How?" were some of the remarks and questions that Valerie heard around the room. It was not long until the frizzy haired girl Alice asked the question "Professor what just happened?", Valerie smiled and her earrings (that were now back to normal now) lit up again "Ladies that was your first Field Trip!"