Winx Club A Different Way AU: A Dragon Awakens

by RayeWonderland

Bloom, a teen girl from Earth discovers she has magical abilities and enrolls in the Alfea College for Fairies. Along with her newfound friend Stella, a fairy princess, Bloom meets her other flatmates Flora, Musa, and Tecna. Together, they form the Winx Club and fight off the wicked Trix! This is a rewrite and I don't own anything from the Winx Club franchise.

17. Chapter 17: Honor Above All

Summary:

Bloom's life is already upside down since she arrived at the Magix Realm. Her dreams of Daphne, a powerful fairy from the past, become more vivid and unsettling but then she runs into Wizgiz, who accidentally drops a sealed envelope containing the answers to an upcoming test. Bloom and the Winx are torn between taking the test the honorable way or the easy way.

A/N: Hello lovelies,

I am finally back! Okay, so I don't want to go into a longwinded story of where I've been and what's been going on, and why it took close to a year to post chapter 17, super long story short I moved to New York, have been organizing my room and stuff and trying to get my medicine management corrected. Some other crazy stuff happened in between, lol. Lost my TikTok account, and had to start a new one, I've been thinking of new TV shows and stuff to make so I can go into the media business soon because great news: I finally graduated from college with my associate degree! I am still in shock. I finally graduated from college, it took over 7 years, but I finally did it!

Now with all that over with, taken care of and all that jazz I can happily say the story is still going and I am working on chapter 18 which basically means I've started the outline. I can't make huge promises I'll post in quicker times, but I can always promise that this story will continue. I have a crap ton of ideas I want to explore in Winx Club and this insane outside world isn't going to hinder it. Oh, and I'm going to try to avoid posting random updates talking about delays and no chapter, I just feel like that's annoying to get a notification about my story and then it's like "Oh what the hell, it's only an author's note?" lol. Ya'll deserve chapters to read, not short A/N's. Oh and big thanks to my new beta editor: corvid_king! They rock!

Now without further ado,

Chapter 17: Honor Above All

The sun shined bright on a cheery Tuesday morning, the birds were chirping a happy tune, and the air was crisp and sweet with the scent of blooming flowers. Most Alfea students were having fun in their classes, learning about new incantations, new fighting skills or simple tricks. Sadly for one class, they were simply filled with dread - and even though Professor Wizgiz tried to comfort his worried students, they couldn't hold back their displeasure at his announcement.

"Would ye all just relax, yo're actin' like I told ye a celebrity died," Wizgiz said, trying to quiet down his frantic student's mumbling. "It's just a quiz."

"A quiz that you said can make or break our grade!" a tan girl with white hair, named Laurelai exclaimed. "I can't have a make-or-break test! I always fail those!"

"My momma's gonna kill me if I fail!" a girl with neon green hair named Honey exclaimed. She had a similar twang to Tecna's.

"It's on everythin' we studied, I thought at most ye'd be a little annoyed," Wizgiz said while noticing Tecna was biting her nails.

"Oh be real, ain't nobody can retain that much information with the added exams we already done got to deal with!" the ranch girl shouted.

"Exactly, studying for botany class is, like, going to take up half a day," Flora said, slumping in her desk chair. "This isn't good for my chakras."

"All ye have to do is remember what I taught cha, I hope ye were listenin'" Wizgiz tried to reassure, but was met with glares from most the students. "Why can't ye be like Musa? She's perfectly calm."

Everyone moved their eyes to Musa who was fiddling with her pen by having it balance on her index fingers without rolling off. She had a small smile on her face, but was secretly hiding her real feelings about the exam situation. Once she noticed everyone was staring at her she smiled nervously before revealing, "Oh I'm silently freaking out right now. I'm not the best example to use."

"Now look what you done did? You done scared Musa," Tecna scolded, motioning her hand over to the blue haired girl. Although Musa had taken to balancing the tip of her pen on one finger to keep herself calmed. "If'n we fail, can we blame it on yo'?"

"I second that!" Laurelai agreed, raising her hand.

A few girls started speaking up voicing complaints, standing out of their chairs and some demanding the poor professor actually be fired if they fail! The leprechaun had dealt with it before and simply smiled while he went behind his desk. He calmly opened the top drawer and pulled out a small blue whistle with gold etchings curled etched across it. Before the girls could ask him what he was doing or continue complaining, he blew the whistle.

It didn't affect him, but it caused every fairy in the class to cover their ears in annoyance. Wizgiz wasn't sure what the sound was, but it let out a pitch so high and ear grating that only fairies could hear it. It was different from the one he used to wake up Palladium.

Even Bloom, who had been dozing off since the beginning of class, woke up from the sound. She wasn't happy to be awoken by a whistle that only her kind seemed to hear. It was like a dog whistle.

Wizgiz stopped blowing the whistle and said, "Ye' want to keep complaining' or can I finish what I was sayin'."

This made the girls go silent. Some rubbed their ears from the piercing sound the whistle emitted. It was hard for some to describe the sound, but Bloom likened it to nails on a chalkboard while a cat was screaming.

"All righty then, I'll leave it at this: Review yer lessons and just relax," Wizgiz advised. "This an easy test and I know ye all will pass. So drink some water, study, and get some rest tonight. Now any more questions or complaints?"

The girls didn't say anything, now scared he'd blow the whistle again.

Wizgiz clasped his hands together before saying, "Welp I'm pretty sure I've put ya on edge… gotta tell two more classes this exciting news, so that's my day!" The leprechaun rubbed his forehead from the stress he had left to deal with. "All right with that taken care of, I have to go now."

"There's still ten minutes of class!" Tecna said, checking her watch.

"Yes, but I imagine ye want me to leave so ye can continue to fret. I'm happy to give yo' that ten minutes," Wizgiz replied, grabbing his briefcase.

"Aww, thank you!" Musa said, chipperly. She didn't take notice of some of the girls rolling their eyes at her. She was just genuinely happy that at least she could release her feelings of worry before her next class.

Wizgiz left the classroom humming to himself and once he was out the room, it filled with the sounds of worried students rambling their concerns for a test they had to take in another class. Honey raced after him while yelling, "I'll pay you if you let me skip this! I'll pay you!"

"Outta all the professor's I knowed wuz gonna give an exam, Wizgiz wasn't one of 'em!" Tecna said, with many other girls nodding in agreement. "Fry mah hyde, this ain't what I wanted to deal with today!"

"Oh Dragon, I have to study for this, and Mirt-" Flora stammered before covering her mouth quickly so she wouldn't let it slip about pumpkin Mirta. She placed a hand on her heart, lamenting her woes, "I've got a rainbow of responsibilities filling up my cosmic plate right now."

Tecna pinched the bridge of her nose, "It's too early to even decipher why ya done said it like that."

The ranch girl pulled out her phone to view the notes she had taken in Wizgiz's class from the first day class started and rubbed her head in frustration. She tried to quickly study them but was startled as her eyes shifted to a wide-eyed and anxious Laurelai close to her side.

"Can I help ya?" Tecna asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Goodness, your notes are so well written. Looks like you really got all the important details, don't you?" the girl questioned, playfully elbowing the girl on her arm.

"Why thank ya kindly," Tecna said, seeing right through the girl's manipulation. She took a step to the side to avoid further physical contact from the girl. "Now what is it ya really want?"

"I will pay you if you let me borrow those notes," Laurelai bargained. "Name your price! As long as it's under fifty."

"Bless yer heart, but I reckon ya need to step away from me now," Tecna warned, taking a few more cautious steps from the girl, but was met with other students begging her for her notes.

"Please!" one girl begged. "I have a two-hour exam in ancient fairy history, I need your notes!"

"Have none of y'all taken notes?" Tecna questioned her although she realized the answer immediately. She tapped her forehead before saying, "Mine make the most sense."

The ranch girl shook her head, she prided herself on being a studious notetaker, but she never liked being the go-to student for borrowing notes, especially since most of the borrowing involved using her notes to cheat.

"Ask somebody else ya coyotes," Tecna said, stuffing her phone into her pocket. "I'll be the only one usin' these notes!"

The girls groaned.

"I have notes!" Musa exclaimed, holding up a pastel-colored notebook. "They're not as perfect as my bestie Techy, but they are helpful! There's some doodles in it, but it is pretty easy to follow. Oh there's also glitter so watch out for that!"

Musa shook the notebook to remove any excess glitter she had added to her book. She didn't want a boring notebook to take her class notes in, so she sometimes went a little overboard with glitter and cool stickers, but she understood what she wrote, and she wasn't one to avoid helping others.

Laurelai rolled her eyes before insultingly saying, "We don't need little kids notebooks!" She quickly bit her lip fearfully when she was met with a terrifying glare by Tecna. "I mean… uh… sure, let me take a peek."

Musa's smile grew, unaware of Tecna scaring the girl. As Musa showed off her glitter covered, endearingly detailed notes, Flora was meditating on her desk to bring her chi down, and Tecna looked over her notes, the noise started to dial down and as it did, a new sound emerged.

"Does anyone hear that?" Flora asked with her eyes still closed. "It's not just me, right?"

Once the flower girl pointed out the sounds of what came off as soft snores, the girls started looking around, but soon their eyes landed on one student, resting their head on their desk. Bloom, who was bent over her desk, a thin strip of drool falling from her mouth. Over the last couple of days, she hadn't focused on doing her hair, so it looked more like a frizzy bush compared to her usual rebellious curls. Even her black gothic make-up wasn't done in the typical way she did it, so her skin looked more sickly pale than gothic pale, her lips were missing her dark magenta lipstick, and she messily applied her eyeliner. It had been a long few days of little resting to say the least.

"Oh, gooey gumdrops not again," Musa said scurrying over to the girl and poking her on the top of her head. "Bloom? Bloom?"

Girls began to snicker as Musa tapped the girl's head to wake her up, but the redhead only made some tired groans.

"Bloomie, sleeping time is over, wake up and enjoy the morning-" Musa sweetly said, until she was cut off by Bloom grabbing her arm and gripping it tightly. Everyone tensed up at the goth girl's reaction.

"If you disturb my sleep, there will be consequences," she grumbled before quickly releasing the chipper girl's arm. Musa stood there unsure of what to do for a second, but shrugged and tried poking her head again to wake her up, but Tecna quickly pulled her away.

"I wouldn't tamper with that landmine, honey," she advised.

The ringing of the bell slowly approached with only three minutes left, leaving the girls of Wizgiz's class little time to study what they could for that period before having to panic themselves with different courses that had similar nerve-racking exams.

The students of the metamorphosis class were so focused on their concerns they hadn't heard the heavy steps of the approaching faculty member, but it wasn't Wizgiz to reassure them he was joking. It was their worst enemy, Deputy Headmistress Griselda, entered the room and whistled loudly to get everyone's attention on her.

"And now things done got worser than a beehive in a thunderstorm," Tecna said dryly.

Griselda's jaw clenched at the unintentional insult thrown her way before saying, "Can someone explain to me why there's a girl crying in the hallway?"

Musa snuck over to the still slumbering Bloom to hide her from the strict deputy headmistress. "Exam-based stressors, that's all there is."

Griselda sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Why must you students wear yourselves ragged over tests, it's a thing you have to- What's that sound?"

"Nothing," Musa said, holding her arms out slightly to keep Bloom hidden.

"Bloom's tuckered out," Flora absent-mindedly admitted while still meditating.

Tecna sighed, shaking her head. Flora continually showed she wasn't the best at keeping secrets.

"What?!" Griselda said. She nearly dropped her clipboard after hearing such news. Her eyes immediately shifted to Musa who kept Bloom hidden. Once the girl smiled at her nervously the DH stomped over to the girl and simply moved her finger to the side signaling the chipper girl to move. Bloom rested on her desk; arms folded on top of each other as she laid her head there. Griselda checked her watch, put her pinched fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle that startled the slumbering fairy awake.

Bloom groaned. "Would you guys knock it off with the whistling?"

She rubbed the gunk out her eyes, ignoring the snickering from her classmates before turning to see Griselda standing next to her. She could hear the impatient tapping foot from the Deputy Headmistress blue flats, but what else was new? "Oh Jeanie it's you. Thanks for waking me up, I might've missed the bell."

Jeanie sucked on her bottom lip, resisting the urge to scream. She yanked the redhead by her arm and pulled her from her seat. "Ge-"

"Get my stuff and follow you to Faragonda's office," Bloom said, completing the angry woman's order. "You got any coffee on you?"

"Grab your stuff and march!" Griselda ordered, annoyed.

"Yes, ma'am, Deputy Headmistress!" Bloom said, giving the woman a mock salute before grabbing her messenger bag and marching out of the room as if she was a British soldier. Even though she was tired, she still couldn't resist messing with the woman.

Her classmates stifled their giggles as an irritated Deputy Headmistress walked behind her while grumbling under her breath about early retirement.

…

"I knew we should've dealt with her the first day she caused trouble!" Griselda ranted about Bloom, pointing at the redhead.

The redhead in trouble stared blankly into the cup of coffee Faragonda had provided her as she sat in the Headmistress's office. She and Faragonda remained silent as the furious Griselda gave an angry speech about how Bloom wasn't showing her professors respect, but as Faragonda listened to the words her Deputy Headmistress was shouting, she realized it leaned more towards Griselda feeling like the Earth girl wasn't showing her 'proper' respect.

Faragonda just stared at the woman with a warm smile, waiting for her turn to speak while Bloom stayed focused on the coffee swishing around slightly in the cup from Griselda moving around.

She wasn't focused on listening to the irate woman. She couldn't stop thinking about Daphne, the Dragon Flame, and who she was now that she knew she was adopted. Honestly, classes were the farthest thing from her mind right now. While she did enjoy attending Alfea, she wanted to know more about her powers and what history they had.

Where did they come from?

What does Daphne mean to her?

Where are her birth parents?

Are Mike and Vanessa trustworthy people? Obviously, she loved them, but why would they keep this huge secret from her for sixteen years?

And most importantly, when was Griselda going to stop talking?

"I mean that is so disrespectful for Miss. Mason to just use her desk as some bed and slumbering away when exams are right around the corner! I work hard- I mean WE work hard and do our best, yet rambunctious kids still treat school as if it doesn't matter." Griselda could only pretend that this monologue wasn't mainly about her before slipping up. "As if they can gallivant around with their friends! I- WE deserve to be treated with dignity and professionalism, and I won't stand for it any longer!"

Faragonda took a long sip from her teacup as the fiery Deputy Headmistress took a pause to collect herself. The elderly woman was ready to speak, but she could see from her deputy's pacing across her office that she wasn't finished yet.

"We live in a realm that requires a system of rules that need to be followed by the people who issue those rules! Without proper structure and rules, society will crumble and fall, and the anarchists will win!" As she shouted this part, she slapped her fist against her palm for emphasis. "No magic will protect us then, not even the Company of Light! So I implore you, Headmistress Faragonda, punish this ne'er-do-well accordingly!"

Again Griselda pointed sternly at Bloom, who was still looking down at her coffee cup, unfazed by all the ranting and raving. Faragonda wasn't fazed much either as she opened the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a small digital clock, checking the time.

"Wow, twenty minutes, that's a new record," she said, having kept track of the time that passed since the woman started ranting. Griselda's jaw clenched in shock once she realized what her boss was doing. "Only one pause in between as well. That's impressive. I haven't seen you get that antsy since Stella blew up the potions lab."

Griselda stamped her foot on the ground. "I told you to stop timing my complaints!"

"Rants," Faragonda said, giggling. "Although when you weren't focusing on the lack of respect you receive, which, you receive proper respect."

"Lies!" Griselda disagreed.

"Yes well, in between your fuming tirade, you did make an excellent point," Faragonda said, turning to Bloom. She stood up slightly at her desk and lifted Bloom's head to face her. "Bloom, I have been receiving many complaints from your professors that you have been less alert during lessons. Is everything all right?"

"Huh?" Bloom said, looking around tensely. "Um, I'm fine."

"Bloom, I know you're being insincere. You're tired eyes give off more than you're trying to hide," Faragonda said. "You've barely even drunk from your cup, which is a dreadful shame. I made sure to get your favorite, triple chocolate coffee, but you've just been staring into it."

"Yes, what are you hiding?" Griselda questioned, giving Bloom a judgmental look.

The redhead rolled her eyes annoyed.

"Hey, Jeanie, not the time," Faragonda scolded with a look that showed she could take care of this issue. "Tell me what ails you and I'll do whatever I can to alleviate things."

Bloom bit down on the bottom of her lip as she looked back down at the coffee. She swished it around lightly before taking a long sip, something she felt she needed to do before explaining her situation.

"I haven't been getting much sleep lately because I've… kind of been…" she paused, trying to find another word instead of revealing that she sleepwalks. "Kind of just been waking up early and thinking."

"Aha, I knew it!" Griselda exclaimed, startling Bloom. Faragonda pinched the bridge of her nose, groaning. "You see, the girl stays up all night and then she falls asleep at her desk in the morning!"

"Why have you been stuck in thought, Bloom?" Faragonda asked, looking directly at the tired girl and not her disruptive deputy.

"Um… well…" Bloom started, reluctant to confess Daphne's presence.

Without another second passing she heard the tranquil voice of the ghost woman tell her, I think you can trust her. She can… help you.

"I've had this voice in my head for the last few months. She's been in my dreams almost every night. It used to be faint, but it's like she's stuck to me. She doesn't want to hurt me or anything, but-" Bloom explained, but was interrupted by a scoffing Griselda.

"I have heard a lot of excuses, but that one takes the cake!"

"Why the hell would I make that up?" Bloom asked, glaring at the woman. "Faragonda, can I please continue with you?"

"Go ahead," Faragonda said, with a nod. She rested her hands on top of each other and leaned closer, intrigued.

"Someone… someone named Daphne is in my mind. She wants me to find… her… but it's just," Bloom's hands begin to shake as Faragonda leaned back in her chair at the mention of Daphne's name. "I don't know how! She keeps appearing in my dreams begging me to find her and it's like I want to help her but I'm just one person! There's already so much going on with me as it is! The witches, my powers, my… my… I'm not even from Earth. My parents aren't even my parents."

Bloom let out a somber sigh before taking a sip from her coffee. Although she hadn't fully revealed everything, what she had said provided enough insight into her plight, especially about being adopted. She still struggled saying that word, 'adopted', but from how she worded it she assumed people could put two and two together.

Griselda's eyes widened and this startling reveal, but she kept quiet once she saw how truly crestfallen Bloom was. Faragonda though, she was hard to read as Bloom looked at her. She was waiting for her to say something even if it meant she might have to leave Alfea.

"What are you going to do with me now?" Bloom asked, tensing up.

"Griselda, can you leave Bloom and I alone for a moment?" Faragonda ordered the Deputy Headmistress. "I'll let you know when you can re-enter."

"Y- Yes Headmistress Faragonda," Griselda said nervously, shifting her feet to leave, she had become slightly embarrassed once Bloom disclosed her issues over the past few weeks. Before leaving she patted Bloom on the shoulder, it was an awkward few pats, but Bloom could feel the woman meant well.

Once she was gone, Faragonda folded her hands together and took a deep breath. Bloom couldn't decipher what she was about to say, but her body tensed nervously at her possible options of what she was about to say. Kicking her out and sending her back home? Getting her locked away in a sanitarium? Separating her from everyone she knew?

"Before I start, can I ask one question?" Faragonda asked. When the redhead nodded, the elderly woman asked pointedly: "How long have you heard her voice?"

"About a few days after coming here. I think the first time I really heard her was on the night of the first dance and then again when the fire happened," Bloom confessed. "She's not a threat or anything, I thought she was for a minute, but luckily, she isn't. She has this soft way of speaking. She wants to be… found, I guess. I don't know if she was… murdered or is trapped somewhere," Bloom took a deep breath, shuttering at the thought that the woman might be gone from this world, but if she was, she still wanted to help her. "Whenever I've seen her in my dreams, it's been this golden woman, shining and sparkling from head to toe. She also wears-"

"A masquerade mask across her eyes," Faragonda said, finishing Bloom's description.

Bloom eyed the woman with suspicion, "How did you know I was going to say that?"

"Because the Daphne you're talking about was the Princess of Domino, the nymph and guardian of the Dragon Flame. She vanished when Domino was removed from the Magic Dimension," Faragonda explained. "And it looks like she's using you as a connection to come back."

Bloom stared at the Headmistress for what felt like a minute before saying, "So there is actually a woman using me as a lifeline from the spirit world or whatever to get back here?"

Faragonda shrugged with a nod. "That's one way to put it."

Bloom nodded while sucking on her bottom lip, unsure of what to say at first, "Cool, cool, cool, so next question: WHY?!" Faragonda attempted to answer, but the redhead wasn't finished yet. "She's been giving me these energy boosts and talking to me and she's also talking to me from some other world? Another world different from this magical world?!"

"Probably," Faragonda said, gaining a shocked look from Bloom. "It's a lot to digest, isn't it?"

"Like a dog eating peanut butter!" Bloom said, nearly dropping her coffee. "God, I sound like Tecna now. Hold up, how and why do you know so much about Daphne?"

Faragonda took a long sip from her cup. A small slurping sound was the only sound as Bloom waited impatiently for an answer.

Oh this is leading to something good. Bloom sarcastically thought with a raised eyebrow.

"So… you remember when you had the mishap in the library with the books flying everywhere?" Faragonda said, innocently.

"Yeah…" Bloom said, confused.

Faragonda ran her finger against the rim of her tea glass while saying with a large amount of hesitance, "Well after I had calmed down that book storm in the library, I skimmed through one of the books you had gotten from the shelf, again after the melee and the contents of the book lead me to believe, well I mean I was somewhat correct, you were looking into Daphne, but it lead me to think you were looking into some… other things and so I kind of… for your own good, mind you-"

"Of course," Bloom said snidely, nodding, but her tone sounded more like she knew Faragonda was about to tell her something bad.

"Thank you and as I said, I… hindered your search by having those books locked away where they couldn't be found," Faragonda said, smiling apprehensively. She hastily opened the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a plate of Bloom's favorite cookies. "Cookie?"

SHE WHAT?! Bloom thought angrily before shouting out, "YOU WHAT?!"

In her anger she let the coffee cup hit the floor as she sprang from her seat. She had so much rage from this betrayal that she could feel her heart racing. Faragonda had come off as such a warm and helpful magical person to Bloom and she couldn't believe she'd try to hinder her search.

"I just- you- that's why I couldn't find anything over the last few weeks!" Bloom realized. "Faragonda, I thought we were cool. I've never been remotely okay with teachers or principals, but I thought you were different!"

"Bloom, calm yourself," Faragonda said, with composure. "You don't have to sit because I can see how miffed you are, but let me explain."

Hear her out, Bloom. Although, if it means anything I comprehend your anger. Daphne advised.

"I'm trying to remain calm, but you need to explain or I'm about to say a whole lot of curse words!" Bloom said, still standing, but crossing her arms.

"I assumed you were looking into things you wouldn't fully understand yet. You had only been here for a month or so and I wasn't sure what you were looking into at the time. I did have some suspicions after the havoc that was caused at Cloud Tower as well," Faragonda clarified. "There's already so much about you that I was questioning. Your Earth status, lack of knowledge on magic, the fact you're a fire elemental. It was a dreadful lot that made me concerned, and I thought with you discovering a lot of new information at the time you'd look into things you weren't ready to know."

"…Okay." Bloom said, slowly accepting the answer. "So then what, you wanted to keep me in the dark forever? Let me never truly find out what I am? Was this you thinking you were 'protecting' me? Because newsflash, I have NO idea what I am anymore! I've been here for months and only have more questions about myself and so far the people I've come to trust have lied to me. I am sick of being lied to!"

Bloom shouted with such anger that she could feel tears well up in her eyes, but she forced them back. She didn't want Faragonda to see her cry, not after feeling like the elderly woman stabbed her in the back.

Faragonda sighed somberly. "Dearie, I've dealt with… folks who've been up to nefarious things under the guise it was just their curiosity-"

"I'm not that type of person!" Bloom countered before shakingly adding. "I- I- don't know what I am anymore. I just want to figure it out." She clenched her fist together, fighting back the urge to scream again.

Faragonda held her head down in shame. She kept silent, seeming to ponder on the right words to say before admitting in a soft voice, "You are quite right, you're not the type to harm those I care about. I misjudged you over something as minor as research purposes and I thought in some warped way that I was protecting you. I was wrong. I truly am sorry."

Faragonda stood up and gave the girl a hug from Bloom's side. Although the redhead still hated hugs and people coming close to her like this, she let it go and let out a sigh of relief. Relief that Faragonda wasn't going to turn her into some shifty magic cult or send her back home.

"I'm still really mad at you, but thank you for apologizing," Bloom said, patting the woman on her arm. "Few people can even do that."

"I am not a curmudgeon woman, dearie. I thought you knew that," Faragonda said giggling. Bloom shook her head while chuckling as well.

"And I'm sorry for getting coffee on your carpet…" Bloom apologized while quickly adding, "And making you think I was doing some crooked shit."

Faragonda giggled again as she pulled away. "Nothing some club soda can't clean up. As for your research… I may be able to help you. If you'll allow me. I understand you probably want to be left alone, but I can have those books released back to the library and… I might know of something that could get you in contact with Daphne, partially at least."

"Mad or not, I need all the help I can get," Bloom admitted. "Thanks."

"I'll have to make some calls and send some emails to a group I know before I can fully assist you," Faragonda said. "Until then, my best advice for you is to go back to your flat and rest as much as possible".

"I'll try," Bloom said with a shrug. "Not that it makes a difference. Even when sleeping in the middle of the day, the magical nymph manages to interrupt it."

"I know. Nevertheless, if the connection has strengthened, we have options," the headmistress said. "I'll take care of this as much as I can, and since I am a fairy godmother, that promise is rock solid!"

Faragonda playfully elbowed the tired girl who smirked with an eye roll.

"You're still on thin ice, Ms. Godmother," Bloom said.

"Drat," Faragonda said, pouting playfully. "It will take a lot of cookies to win back my trust, won't it?"

"That's a start," Bloom said with a wink. She let out a yawn after that though. "I know this might be a bit of a big ask, but can I skip classes for the day to rest?"

Faragonda patted her on the back. "I can make this one exception for you since you look knackered as it is. Collect some sweets and then try to get some rest. Jeanie will be at your flat later once everything is ready."

"Gotcha," Bloom said, walking over to the desk and stacking seven cookies on top of each other. "I'm really glad Daphne isn't complaining about eating habits at least. I'll go deaf before I give up my chocolate chip cookies."

Bloom chuckled hoarsely. Faragonda shook her head with a smile.

Although the fatigued redhead was still fuming at more secrets being kept from her from people she thought she trusted, she was glad that Faragonda, much like her parents, did finally tell her. It kept the mystery going, but also seemed to shine light on who she might be and who Daphne might be. Hopefully Faragonda will keep to her promise and keep making cookies.

…

Bloom walked down the halls, humming to keep herself awake. Her messenger bag dragged on the ground as the girl was too tired to place the strap around her shoulder. She needed a few hours of sleep to get through the rest of the day. There were new thoughts running through her brain every second, but she tried to put them in the back of her mind until she could lay down and rest. While she kept walking though, she came to a startling realization:

She rested her index finger in the middle of her nose while thinking out loud, "Was I dreaming about this part or is Wizgiz giving us a big exam tomorrow?"

You were in and out of consciousness, but yes that man did mention that. Daphne responded.

"Great!" Bloom said, kicking her foot in frustration. "Pile on the stress, why don't you!"

This new information began to make her seethe as she rounded a corner and walked straight into Wizgiz, who nearly fell to the floor, dropping all the items he was carrying in his arms. Many different colored scrolls, random sized envelopes and a few small books fell to the floor.

"Whoa I am so sorry, I didn't see you there," Bloom said, helping pick up some of the items.

"It's quite all right, I wish I had me satchel for this stuff, but Palladium spilled beet juice on it earlier today. Had to send de bloody t'eng off to be cleaned," Wizgiz said, gathering some scrolls and stuffing them in his pocket. "That satchel belonged to me dad and that man had to have his cup of beet juice next to it!"

"Reminds me of when my mom accidentally got coffee on my messenger bag," Bloom said, showing off a small stain on the messenger bag she had with her. Wizgiz noticed the emblem and chuckled. It was a cat skull and two skeleton bones designed into an X at the bottom. "The stain added to the aesthetic of the bag though."

"Sadly a coffee stain doesn't have the pungent smell of fermented beet juice," Wizgiz said, chuckling again.

After a minute of gathering papers, some written in a language Bloom couldn't even decipher, she asked the old leprechaun, "Is this for the Mirta pumpkin project?"

"Well most of it is, the other is for the test tomorrow," Wizgiz said, struggling to grip all the papers in his arms. "I'm bloody late, I hope I got everything'."

Bloom picked up one last large manila envelope and was about to pass it over to the professor, but he quickly walked past her while mumbling under his breath to make sure he collected everything.

"Uh, about the test tomorrow, what do I have-" Bloom began to ask.

Wizgiz speedily walked past her while calling over his shoulder, "I have to be off, see you for tomorrow's test!"

Bloom looked down at the manila envelope then said, "What about-" He was gone. She sucked on her bottom lip while nodding. "Cool, the question wasn't important anyways… I can see why you and Palladium are friends."

Bloom sighed, covering her face with the envelope. As she pulled it away and read the label, she nearly dropped it. It was labeled, 'Answers'.

She looked around to check if anyone caught her picking up the suspicious envelope and clutching it to her chest like it was Kiko during one of his vaccine shots at the vet.

"Well… there's only one thing to do in this situation," Bloom said to herself. She flipped open the top flap on her messenger bag, stuffed the manila envelope in it, pulled out her phone and headphones and got the music started as she made her way back to her flat.

This was a problem she'd tell her friends about later, but right now she needed a power nap.

…

Flora and Palladium chatted as they finished dipping their tea bags in their respective mugs as Wizgiz stumbled into the room, his arms still full of papers. They sat on stools in the empty classroom Palladium taught in sometimes, but right now they were using it as a space to help turn Mirta back to normal. The two were too busy talking as the leprechaun kept stumbling away from the door so it wouldn't hit him.

"You ever take the used tea bag contents and, like, make stuff with them?" Flora asked, taking the tea bag, and putting it into a small burlap sack for later use. "I like to use mine for cosmetics."

"I actually use mine to make food, like muffins," Palladium said. Saving his tea bag as well.

"That is totally a good idea," Flora agreed with a nod.

As the two chatted, Wizgiz walked over to them, trying to get their attention, but unfortunately, they were enamored in their conversation about the reuse of tea to notice him. The leprechaun made his way over to the two and dropped all his papers before saying, "I didn't need help!"

"Oh hey, you finally made it," Palladium said, with a tad bit of cheeky tone.

"I am not in the mood right now," Wizgiz said, walking past the two and towards the Mirta pumpkin. "I had to tell about five classes the same bad news, but I don't want to talk about that, so… Flora, don't ask."

Flora calmly sipped her tea before saying, "What are we talking about?"

"Currently, we're dealing with yer pumpkin friend," Wizgiz said. "Faragonda said our extra helper won't be here until next week. So we have to at least try some incantations until they arrive. I brought a few that might work, mostly turning people into animals."

"I have a few I'd like to try as well," Flora said, placing her teacup down on a white coaster that Palladium had brought. "They're mostly for turning non-objects into other non-objects, but like, I think we can try them just in case."

Without saying another word, she casually reached for a pink satchel near her feet and pulled out a small notebook.

"That won't work," Wizgiz said, unfurling a scroll to look over the contents. "Inanimate objects can't be turned into a sentient person. Although I haven't been able to read any aura on her so it's pretty touch and go right now."

Flora looked down at her notebook once she heard about Mirta's lack of aura energy. She didn't know much about the witch, but from what Bloom told her, the girl was rather nice, although most of the girls couldn't believe a nice witch could exist due to their preconceived notions on witches. Flora believed Mirta was a kind person because she put herself in harm's way to protect them.

She said with hope in her voice "I know there's a chance to save her, there has to be."

"You're right, Flora," Palladium agreed, patting the exhausted looking girl on the back. "We shouldn't concern ourselves with the negative possibilities right now. We'll try some of the spells we have and see how far that gets us."

"I'll go last then, since Wizgiz is the professional shape shifter," Flora said, motioning to the leprechaun.

The teachers agreed and began using a few of his scrolls to perform different enchantments on the Mirta pumpkin. Since none of them knew how to dispel dark witch magic with their magic and the assistant Griffin hired wouldn't be coming for another week, the incantations they casted were mostly limited to a few spells read together or mixing together ingredients, some of items that would confuse Bloom, and pouring them in to the open smiling grin carved on Pumpkin Mirta's face, but nothing worked.

After thirty minutes the three sat in defeated silence.

"This feels like I'm goin' on a journey to the only planet where there is no one!" Wizgiz said, slamming his head on the table. He bonked the pumpkin on the top of the gourd in frustration. Flora and Palladium stared at the leprechaun alarmed at his frustration.

"Don't take it out on her," Palladium scolded, scooching the pumpkin away from the angry leprechaun. "Not her fault she's stuck this way. Although I wish we could get some way to check if she imprinted before turning. Just a sign."

"Let me try one last concoction and then I have to like, study," Flora said calmly. She pulled a small mixing bowl out her satchel and combined a suspicious bright pink beetroot, different mystical herbs she had gotten from her mother in a care package, and lastly a pinch of a dust called Dandelion Fluff into the bowl and crushed them together.

After that she added water to the small mixing bowl and drank the contents. She swished them around and could feel the bitterness from the beet, but she swished for another two seconds to make sure the contents worked before spitting them onto Mirta.

Palladium's eyes widened as he leaned back to avoid getting hit. Wizgiz ducked out of the way in time.

"What-" Wizgiz questioned, lifting his head, but before he could ask, the girl shushed him as a vine on the gourd girl started to wiggle slightly. The group was unsure what would happen next, but the wiggling vine made Flora smile. "I guess she's-"

The poor leprechaun's comment abruptly ended when the vine struck him in the eye with such force he toppled to the ground, shocking both Flora and Palladium.

"What the FECK!" Wizgiz cursed.

Palladium covered his mouth in shock at his coworker's use of a swear word in front of a student. "What he was trying to say was that she did imprint, and I think she was mad at Wiz for hitting her… gourd head?" he said, carefully poking it.

"OMD, my swishing spell? Score!" Flora said, cheerfully. When the elf teacher nodded with a smile, the flower girl couldn't contain her excitement. Her type of excitement was still reserved like she usually is, but she did a little fist pump happily. "She imprinted! She's still in there and I knew it! This is amazing!"

"It's a start," Palladium said, focusing on the fact that while it worked, it was only a small step to turning the former witch back to her former human self. "What spell was that?"

"It's a concoction I made a long while back to give life to plants, it varies with each plant, but seeing my witchy pumpkin move her vine means it might've woken her up, a little. Oh, Mirta, if you hear me, I'm sorry for spitting on you, it's just, like a fun way to spread the spell."

The vine rested on Flora's hand, seeming to give a sign she wasn't too mad about it. At least not as mad as when Wizgiz bumped her head.

"Aww, thanks, girl," Flora said giggling. "Um… is Wizgiz okay?"

"You okay?" Palladium asked.

"Fecking give me a minute! Gobshitting pu'pkin!" Wizgiz swore again, standing up and rubbing his jaw. "Fecking shite day!"

Wizgiz sat down, leaning his head against his hands while grumbling more curse words through his thick accent.

"I apologize, he usually doesn't get this angry, but when he does, he swears," Palladium said to Flora as the leprechaun kept to himself. "A lot."

"My flatmate Bloom is the same way," Flora said with a shrug. "Totally heard worse."

The two paid no mind to the frustrated short man as they high fived at the progress they made so far in their transforming results.

…

Tecna prided herself on her note-taking and retentive memory. She was always the first one to finish her assignments, and she never had to worry about forgetting anything. She kept her side of the shared room organized, with everything in an order that she knew. She kept all of her notes in neat, labeled folders in the drawer of her desk and had a digital version of this important written information as well. Just in case she needed to pull out a spell while out.

Many assumed she was a dumb hick because of where she came from, but in reality, her intellect matched many figures she admired throughout history. Although, that didn't aid her in making many friends. Tecna was not very close to anyone except her siblings, but she was content with her own company. It made it easier to study that way.

That's exactly what she was doing after classes. She was on edge, but from what everyone saw, she kept herself neutral and stoic unlike many other Alfea students. Numerous girls begged the magenta haired girl for her notes if they shared a class with her or knew her, but Tecna wasn't helping anyone. She only wanted to study by herself.

She sat in the living room with a small tablet lying on the table that displayed a holographic 3D projection showing many notes and videos she had taken while in her classes. A large mug of warm coffee was a few inches from her notes for when she needed a quick energized sip.

While she kept focus on the projection, Stella trudged into the flat, slamming the door behind her and dropping her purse to the ground. Without saying a single word she continued her trudge to the couch and fell forward, her body bending across it.

"Ya-" Tecna said but Stella let out a long groan of exhaustion and frustration. The rustic girl took a sip from her coffee while nodding. "Tough day, Sundrop?"

"I have to do so much bloody revising!" Stella said, her voice muffled from her face being buried in the cushions.

"Revision'? Ya mean studying'?" Tecna questioned, confused by the word choice.

"You call it studying. Solarians say it correctly," Stella replied, lifting her head so her voice was muffled with her retort.

Tecna snapped her fingers dramatically, "Dang girl, okay… you ain't gotta be givin' me that tone."

"My apologies, but…" Stella stood up, burying her head in her hands. "If I don't pass about eighty-five percent of these tests, I won't move up with you gals. I'll have to repeat the classes again and I swear to the Eternal Dragon that if I have to sit through the same lectures for the third bleeding time, I'm going to turn into the second Mad Queen of Solaria!"

Tecna chuckled, shaking her head. "Eleonora the Blood-Letter was interesting' to read about in primary school," she said, gaining a look from Stella that was a mix of a confused glare. The magenta hair girl blushed a slight pink. "I had lots of free time as a child."

"Right, ignoring your peculiar reading history and bringing it back to what's important: Me! I am talking about my troubles," Stella said, sitting on the couch. "I'm losing my head! Eighty-bleeding-five percent! Why must I be forsaken with such a hefty burden? Not even bleeding fifty? This isn't fair! What happened to halves? What happened to halves?!"

"Half got removed when ya failed HALF them field exams in DuFour's class," Tecna answered.

Stella bit her bottom lip angrily at being reminded of that, "Yes but-"

"And ya failed a good chunk of Pallidum assignments, so that also affected the haves" Tecna added.

Stella shook angrily, "Yes but-"

"And didn't ya forget the entire formula for that mathamancy quiz?"

"The question was bleeding rhetorical! That means you didn't have to answer it!" Stella exclaimed, slamming the pillow on the couch in frustration.

Tecna tapped her chin in response then shrugged. She always struggled with rhetorical questions and sarcastic tones. "Now I done told ya to remind me of that."

"Knob head," Stella muttered under her breath. She didn't mean to be hostile towards the unaware girl, but the pressure to do well on most of her exams was weighing on her shoulders. "Why did I have to slack off so much? I know a lot was going on, Tecna, I'm just saying this for my woes." The Princess said, immediately finishing the statement before her socially awkward friend could jump in. "I put off attempting to go out and party to revise and it's kind of helping, but I swear some of it isn't going in! And what is the deal with Wizgiz announcing a surprise quiz tomorrow as well, like I don't have enough on my plate!"

"Mm, Wizgiz did say he had a few other classes to reveal the test too, thought ya'd be lucky to not take it," Tecna said. "Bein' an upperclassman to a degree."

"I know right, but he said it's highly important for your courses," Stella said, waving her hand at the excuse Wizgiz had told her. The princess slouched, putting her hands on her head.

Tecna patted Stella's knee in an awkward manner while saying, "There, there."

Stella stared at the girl before saying, "Where's the small girl? She's better at comforting me."

"Musa? She actually has been waitin' for one of ya'll to enter so she could do her thing," Tecna said, ending the projection on her phone. "Sho't stack, it's time!"

She went to the music application on her phone and started an instrumental marching band song on her phone. Stella didn't have enough time to question what was going on before Musa entered the living room by doing three cartwheels into the room and landing on her feet with a grin.

She was wearing a short, pleated peach-colored skirt, a matching-colored crop top with 'Musa' written on it, and pastel-pink knee-high socks. The pom-poms she had were glittering pink.

"Ready? Okay!" Musa eagerly shouted, shaking the pom-poms, causing glitter to fall from them giving the idea she definitely added glitter for an extra shimmering effect.

"Where did she-" Stella questioned.

"Let her do her thang first," Tecna said, putting a hand up. "She been practicin' this since classes ended."

"Thank you, Techy," Musa said. She turned to the side and windmilled her arm in a circle while eagerly shouting: "Leeeeeeeet's be happy!"

She jumped to face the two girls and chanted: "Don't be worried about exams, focus on all the fun you'll have! Alfea is such a fantastic place, let's focus on that! We're going to jump for joy when we're finished with exams! And we're not gonna let anything get us down, and we ain't going to show a… frown! So let's all raise our pom-poms high, and shout with glee! Focus on fun things! Like kitties and puppies and sunshine! Yay!"

With that final line she effortlessly did a split, shocking Stella and making Tecna wince. Musa didn't even show any discomfort as she stayed in the position.

"My glutes couldn't handle that much force," the country girl said, shaking her head.

Musa giggled, "It's all about stretching!" she responded. She managed to adjust her legs and bounced back to her feet. "So, what did you think?"

"I think I need to start stretching better," Stella said, clapping. "Nice, if not weirdly written cheer though. Made me less on edge although I have to ask this: Where did you acquire a cheerleading outfit? And you're going to have to answer this, I am a Princess."

"I'm glad you asked, since Techy never did," Musa said, trying to pout, but it was still smiling.

"I am studying'!" Tecna stated, holding up her phone.

"It's like you didn't even hear my cheer!" Musa scolded, throwing her arms in an exaggerated shrug. "Now to answer Stella's question, I brought it from home."

"Oh you were a cheerleader back in Melody?" Stella asked.

Musa chuckled, with a playful snort before simply responding, "No."

"Then why do you-"

"She made it for moments like this," Tecna quickly supplied in a monotone response. "She showed it to me when we first met."

"Makes sense," Stella accepted with a shrug. "I admire your effervescent energy still staying during this time Musa."

"Yeah, I should be shaking in my shoes, but my Mama used to tell me that it's not the end of the realm if I fail. I just have to keep positive," Musa said, placing her hands on her hips while swaying on her toes. She then adjusted her glasses. "She even told me humming can calm you, doesn't matter about what, just hum." She paused on her swaying and somberly smiled. "Also my Papa is a professor and taught me that these tests aren't that bad… He's- He's a pretty strict teacher so I'm not sure how to take that, but it keeps me from being jittery like a cat during a thunderstorm."

"Nice phrase," Tecna complimented, keeping her eyes on her notes.

Musa eagerly skipped over and sat down, resting her pom-poms on her lap. "I hope Flora gets back soon; I need to try my new cheer with her. I wanted to do one for Bloom, but she put a sign on her door."

Stella leaned forward in her seat to look over at the paper sign hanging on the door. She read aloud: "If you wake me up, I'll unleash my inner demons on you. Don't knock, open the door, or yell. I'm not responsible for what happens if you wake me up. If you wake me up, you will REGRET IT! Thanks for reading, Bloom.' Oh, at least she ended it professionally." The Princess kept to her seat, honoring her friend's written warning. Although she was impressed the girl underlined the last two words and wrote them in all caps. Really adds to the intimidation. "And Flora is still with the professors turning that witch back to normal?"

"Hey, her name is Mirta," Musa reminded.

Stella rolled her eyes. "They're all the same."

"Hey, don't be like that, the girl helped us out," Tecna said, defending Mirta. "Ya had a lot of bad altercations with witches, but ain't all of them nasty."

"Doesn't matter to me, once she's turned back to her witchy form, she'll be back to the school of creeps," Stella snidely said, crossing her arms.

"Why must you be so negative?" Musa said, dramatically throwing her hand on top of her head. She was met with another eye roll from the Princess, but she had a small smile as well. "I do wonder though, can she dream as a pumpkin, are they gourd based? Does she dream of pumpkin desserts? What about pumpkin spice?"

"Don't ruin pumpkin spice for me, love," Stella said, grimacing.

As they kept chatting about Mirta's pumpkin form, Flora entered the room, humming to herself. Making her way to the group she waved and said, "Blessings my friends, I see you're auras aren't out of whack. That's good, but we gotta practice meditation before tomorrow's test."

"Why do ya keep suggestin' that?" Tecna complained, shaking her head.

"It's not my fault you fell asleep last time," Flora said, with a cheeky grin. "That's beside the point, I have wonderful news about Mirta."

"Woooo!" Musa shouted, causing Stella and Tecna to shush her.

"Your shushing leads me to my next question, where's Bloom? She should totally know this fantastic news," Flora said.

"I wouldn't disturb her she-" Before Stella could finish, the door to Bloom's room opened slowly. The redhead shuffled out of the room, carrying Kiko like he was a stuffed animal. "Looks like I summoned her."

Bloom groaned in response. She still had dark circles under her eyes, but her long nap did alleviate some of her insomnia although it didn't remove the dreams with the nymph.

Musa jumped from her seat and bounced over to Bloom while waving her pom-poms in the girl's face, "Yay, you're awake! I have an epic cheer-"

Bloom covered Musa's face to silence the chipper girl. She then said to the girl with a slightly more raspy voice. "Volume needs to be at a three. Did Griselda come by yet?"

"Nah," Musa responded, her face still covered. "She would've dragged you out of here if she had dropped by, that doesn't matter though. How are you feeling?"

Bloom groaned in response as she walked over to the sofa while holding Kiko and stroking his head. His purring relaxed her mind. She sat on the part of the couch where Musa and Stella were sitting.

"I feel a little more rested and by little, I mean Daphne didn't bother me too much in my dreams. She still keeps telling me the same vague crap," the redhead said, resting her head back on the couch. "Can she at least have some variety? When it's daytime she actually talks to me, but during the night it feels like I'm listening to the same song in different places."

"She doesn't want you to forget I'm guessing," Flora suggested. "It's got to help knowing she really wants you to remember to find her."

"Cool, I get the same message ad nauseam, driving me insane so it can kind of help me find a mystical glowing woman who may or may not exist. Fantabulous," Bloom grumbled sarcastically.

"Look on the bright side," Stella said, causing Bloom to shift her eyes towards her while still stroking Kiko. The Princess paused for a few seconds trying to think of something good to say. Her bestie continued staring at her intensely. She snapped her fingers after an awkward pause. "Got it! You have a glowing woman who… likes you… so much that she never stops talking to you."

Bloom's eyes narrowed in frustration.

Stella shrugged, giving up on suggesting anything else.

"I feel like I'm losing my mind," Bloom said.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. My Great Uncle Kenny had a voice in his head. Voices, and he wuz a darn smart man. The top scientist of his time, helped create a pesticide that warded away stink beetles. That man helped save our towns crops. He was a mighty fine man," Tecna said, leaning back on the couch. "Until the voices told him he wuz a bear and he tried attackin' people in the woods wearin' my mammie's fur coat. Shame he did it during huntin' season. My mammy was so mad when they brought back her coat riddled with holes." Tecna slapped her knee, chortling at the last part. "Wild times, am I right?"

The group went silent as Tecna's laugh subsided with a relaxed sigh, seeming unaware of the awkward tension she created. Stella held up a finger about to ask a question, but closed her mouth while shaking her head.

Bloom facepalmed then turned her attention to Flora, "Flora, how was your day?"

"I'm glad you asked," Flora said, happily. "Everything with Mirta is going well, we found out she managed to, like, imprint herself before being transformed."

"Imprint?" Bloom asked.

"Like she retains her consciousness and memory while in the new form, we're not sure how much, but she's there," Flora explained. "Palladium is taking care of her too. So, she's in the best hands."

"That's actually really good to know," Bloom said, smiling.

Flora clapped eagerly, "I knew it would perk you up. You should've seen Wizgiz get smacked by Mirta's vine arm, he said a lot of… colorful words."

The girls laughed, but Bloom sat up straight when she remembered what she found earlier when talking to Wizgiz, "Oh crap, I almost forgot to show you guys this."

She placed Kiko on the spot she was sitting in causing the cat to meow softly in surprise. He meowed again to get his owner's attention, but she went back to her room to get the item. He immediately moved over to the Princess and relaxed himself on her lap, seeming to like her energy just as much as Bloom's. Stella obliged, patting his head.

Bloom came back into the room with the manila envelope and said while holding it up, "I bumped into Wizgiz, he left this behind. I'm pretty sure it has the answers to that big test tomorrow since it's labeled 'answers'."

"What?!" The girls exclaimed simultaneously.

"Uh huh and I'm not sure what to do next-" Bloom said, pausing her talking because she could feel Tecna about to say something.

And the ranch girl did so, "Then why in Sam hill did you take 'em back here? Throw it out!"

"I'm not carrying a disease," Bloom said dryly. "Wizgiz was gone before I could tell him he dropped it and throwing it outside isn't going to fix things. I'd also really appreciate not yelling, I am operating on very little sleep."

"My point still stands," Tecna said.

"Tecna, while angry, is right," Musa agreed. "It would've been better if you'd left the envelope where it was. The temptation to open it is almost too much!"

Tecna nodded. "Damn straight, all ya can do now is give that man that mess back! I ain't about to be gettin' in trouble if they track that back here!"

"Girl, relax," Flora said, coming to Bloom's defense. "Bloomie will just return the envelope tomorrow and explain what happened."

Bloom nodded.

Stella cleared her throat, bringing attention to her. She stood up, placing Kiko on her spot and she went over to Bloom, "Hold your stars everybody, I think this is a golden opportunity. He doesn't know my bestie has this information, and we know how Wizgiz can vanish away before we can ask questions," As she said this, she came closer to Bloom and placed her hands on the girl's shoulder. The exhausted redhead furrowed her brow. "My closest and personal friend only did what she knew was right."

Bloom took a few steps to the side to avoid Stella invading her personal space. "Where are you going with this?"

"I say before we do the good deed of returning the envelope, we examine it right quick, take some notes on questions, you know enough to get a passing grade and then seal it back up. It wouldn't even be cheating, just revising in a more efficient manner," Stella gripped the top of the envelope and tried to snatch it from Bloom's hands, but her bestie wouldn't let go. "No one will suspect a thing."

Bloom scoffed with a smirk, "You're going to suck at handling scandals when you become Queen."

Stella smiled curtly. "I'm simply being tactful about the correct solution; we could even send the results we find to other students."

She tightened her grip on the top of the envelope and attempted to take it from the girl's hands, but Bloom snatched it back while giving her the side-eye look of judgment.

"Oh I get it, that way everyone will have them, and Wizgiz won't be able to connect it back to us," Flora said, unironically.

"Has all that veggie juice liquified part of yer brain?!" Tecna insulted, storming over to the three girls, and snatching the item out of Bloom's hand without the tired girl fighting back. She trusted Tecna more with it than the Princess. "This ain't ours and we ain't no cheaters!"

Stella chuckled in a refined manner. "Cheating is such a strong word, love. We'd only be revising."

Tecna glared at the Princess, clenching her fist. "How is readin' 'some' of the answers not cheatin'?"

"Because I said it's not. It is 'revising'," Stella said gracefully.

"You ain't gonna use fancy words to take away that yer wrong," Tecna said. "It's an unfair advantage!"

"I'm gonna sit down while you guys argue," Bloom said, walking back to her spot on the couch and plopping down as her head leaned back. Stella and Tecna kept bickering while Flora stood in the middle trying to give her say, but to no avail.

Musa scooched over with Kiko now resting on her lap and snapped her fingers to make a small blanket appear in her hand. She gently laid it across her friend's chest.

"Stella ya ain't even in the same class with us how do ya figu'e these are even the same answe's for yers?" Tecna asked.

Stella countered that by reminding her that, "If there's one thing Wizgiz makes sure is the same, it's the test and quizzes. So we wouldn't be sharing them with just your class, but mine as well, thus aiding many people. Now give me the envelope."

Tecna scoffed. "Nice, two classes will be up a creek without a paddle once Wizgiz sees that all the answe's matches!"

"Oh I didn't think about that, Tecna might be right," Flora said, nibbling on a hangnail. "I'm all for sharing, but cheating is super wrong and risky."

"It's not cheating, it's revising," Stella repeated.

"Stop sayin' that to make yerself look better," Tecna countered snapping her fingers. "We need to actually stu – dee! You sneaky snake!"

She bonked Stella on the head with the envelope causing the Princess to groan. She ran her fingers through her hair just in case it got messy from the static of the manila envelope.

"I'm not a serpent. Just doing what is best-"

"My uncle said the same thin' when he had his brother-in-law pull his black tooth fo' free so he could avoid payin' the dentist! Now he wears dentures at fo'ty-five!" Tecna derided.

"Tot- Dude seriously, what is up with your uncles?" Flora asked, changing her first comment to confusion at the ranch girls family history. "That's the meat eater in them."

Tecna bonked Flora on the head in response.

"Girls, can we discuss this later?" Musa said, changing the subject. "Bloom's conked out again, but she found the test answers so she should have the most say. Let her rest and then we talk together as a group."

"Sho't stack is right, and bein' sma't!" Tecna said, shooting a judgmental glare at Stella.

The Princess crossed her eyes annoyed. "Brilliant, let's waste valuable peeking time so she can have a kip."

Tecna shook her head at the spoiled Princess's refusal to actually look through her textbooks and notes and instead taking the worse route for a passing grade.

Meanwhile, inside Bloom's dreams, she found herself in a blue hallway, a single wooden door faced her. Daphne's voice echoed in the background as usual, but the hallway and door were new. A bright line began emitting from the cracks of the door, enticing Bloom to open it, but it was locked.

"Oh you switched it up this time, sweet. I was getting so tired of the old insanity, I appreciate new insanity," Bloom said, sarcasm barely being hidden. "Am I going to have to chase a rabbit to find the key?"

"Is this tone the way you like to converse with others?" Daphne's voice asked, without her appearing.

Bloom shrugged. "It helps me cope in stressful situations."

Daphne hummed, appearing to agree with the girl. "Interesting, but…not enough… time… here… I do… not have long… you… must find… me."

Bloom nodded, placing her hands on her hips then dryly mumbled, "Felt naked for a second without that message."

"Find me… the lake… find me… at the lake!" Daphne said surprised she remembered this part just as much as Bloom was to hear it.

"Wait, what lake?" Bloom questioned.

Suddenly, she felt the world around her start shaking and her body felt like it was pulled back to reality when she was met with Griselda's stern face in front of her.

"Oh God, it turned into a nightmare!" Bloom said, gripping the blanket in her hand. Griselda glared at her in response. "No wait, this is real life… well, the magic world version of real life."

"Yes, and you have a real meeting with Headmistress Faragonda," Griselda said.

"Why?" Tecna said, appearing behind Griselda which startled the faculty member.

"It's none of your business," Griselda replied, snipingly. "Bloom, get up, let's go."

"All right," Bloom said, standing up slowly and following the Deputy Headmistress to Faragonda's office.

Once the door closed, Tecna brows furrowed, and she started pacing.

"Oh sweet beans, she found out!" the rural girl said, voicing her roommates worry.

Although why Bloom was really going to see the elderly fairy godmother was about something far more serious.

…

Bloom entered Faragonda's office, noticing that it was darker in the room as the curtains had been closed. She also saw a small table in the middle of the office with lit candles atop it and two chairs on the sides. Bloom was getting the vibe that Faragonda was about to read her future if there was a crystal ball added.

"Welcome back, Bloom," Faragonda greeted, leading Bloom to the small table. "Did you rest easy?"

"Eh," Bloom mumbled, holding her hand up and tipping it to the side. "Why is there a small table in here?"

"This is connected to the new information I have for you, take a seat," Faragonda said, leading Bloom to one of the empty stools.

The girl sat down cautiously, unsure of what was about to occur next.

"I've recently chatted with a group of highly trained magi who help keep Magix, the planet, in order. They're called the Elder of Magix, which is dreadfully wordy, so we usually just call them the Elders." Faragonda sat down on the stool on the other side of the table. "While conversing with them, we all came to an agreement that I can use my magic to reverse the connection between you and Daphne, that way you can meet her without sleeping."

Bloom's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Quite. I theorized your connection with Daphne has strengthened since you've been here for a while. This strong connection will allow me to use an advanced spell to bring us to Daphne, the unfortunate news is won't be a long connection, but we might get more information from her."

"Let's give it a shot," Bloom said, hopeful. "What do I need to do next?"

"Just close your eyes, relax and let me recite the spell," Faragonda explained. "It's going to sound strange because I'll be speaking in tongues, but I promise it won't hurt you… or possess you."

"That is reassuring at least," Bloom said with a shrug.

"Give me your hands, and we shall begin," Faragonda said, holding out her hands. Bloom did as requested and clasped the women's hands. The elderly woman closed her eyes, which Bloom copied. She became slightly scared at the strange mutterings that started with Faragonda, but she had seen the same thing from her aunts, so it wasn't too strange. The headmistress tightened her grip around Bloom's hands and the redhead could suddenly feel the magic build up in the air.

A weird feeling overcame her, as the flame inside grew, she felt closer to her powers. Her body felt weightless. Air danced around her body and all sense of direction lost.

Finally she opened her eyes, finding herself in a new and unfamiliar place, underwater! She looked down to find her feet planted on the ground of the watery new environment, yet she wasn't drowning. She soon noticed that Faragonda was gone as well.

"Faragonda, what's going on?" Bloom questioned, in a fearful whisper. "Where are you?"

"I'm here in spirit, but not in body," Faragonda said, her voice echoing in the ocean vision. When Bloom scratched her head in confusion, the elderly woman continued, "Don't fret, I'm still here, just not 'physically' here. When this spell is enacted, the caster can't be with the other person physically. Your reaction is typical for new users to projection and spirit teleportation. Probably should've informed you of that before starting this session."

"Nah, it's cool. I'm eerily used to it now," Bloom said, rubbing her forehead. "Okay, so I'm in water, what now?"

She walked across the ocean floor amazed by the strange fish that varied in shape and size. With everything else going on, she hadn't found the time to explore the rest of Magix, but what did this mean for her dreams?

"Not sure," Faragonda answered honestly. "It feels like we're in a deep lake and… I swear I've been here before."

Bloom bit down on her bottom lip, making a horrifying theory. "Is Daphne here?"

"If she is, it doesn't always mean the worst. Trust me, magi can be confusing when trying to connect with people telepathically," Faragonda reassured. "Just keep walking and look out for Daphne. She's around here somewhere."

Bloom kept walking when suddenly a bright light erupted, illuminating the sandy ground beneath her feet, and sending several colorful fish darting away. In front of them stood the glowing figure of Daphne.

In her hands was a chest, and even though it was marked by time underwater, it had a gorgeous shine from the gemstones around it. Once she saw Bloom, a gentle smile appeared on her face. She opened the chest, revealing a beautiful gold tiara inside. She held it towards Bloom.

"Is this for me?" Bloom asked, examining the crown.

Daphne nodded, she placed the shimmering tiara atop Bloom's head and clapped softly.

"It's uh… pretty, matches your… body," Bloom said, trying to make conversation with the blank eyed glowing figure. Her confusion with everything that was happening wasn't fading.

"The Ember Tiara. I think… it belongs to you," the nymph said, sounding unsure herself. "My mind is foggy, but… I see though that… we are linked… the flame continues to burn deep within you and… with that you'll help us find the answer."

Daphne held out her hand after that, inviting Bloom to grasp it.

Bloom looked down at the magical glowing hand, reluctant to touch it at first. This could be her only chance to be able to touch the mystical woman without it being in a dream. She cautiously placed her hand on top of Daphne's, causing a tingle to go across Bloom's body. It felt different this time, the mysterious woman was still a ghost, but Bloom had a stronger connection to the woman now. She couldn't explain why, but she was comforted when Daphne shared the same smile as her.

As Daphne opened her mouth to speak again, everything became smeared, like the colors of a freshly painted picture doused by water. With a strange sensation, Bloom was yanked back and suddenly found herself back in her body again.

"Aww come on!" Bloom exclaimed, releasing her hands from Faragonda's. "What does the ember tiara mean? How are we connected? You can't just leave me on a cliffhanger like that."

Faragonda didn't respond, she simply stood up, breathing heavily. She stumbled, trying to make it back to her desk chair. Bloom quickly raced over to help keep the woman steady as she rested a hand on her desk to give her more support.

"Are you okay?" the young girl asked, concerned.

"I've been doing this for a long time and yet strong incantations like that can drain me," Faragonda explained. "I'm sorry, dearie, I couldn't keep the connection going for much longer or I would've fainted."

"It's fine," Bloom said, leading the woman to her desk chair. She was lying slightly, she wanted to continue talking to Daphne as it might lead her to where this mystical nymph might actually be, but she did reason if it affected Faragonda's energy she couldn't keep the strange teleportation going for longer.

Faragonda took a seat and Bloom sat in one of the empty chairs on the other side of the desk. She patted the top of her head to see if the tiara was still there. Sadly, it had faded when the teleportation ended, "She said the ember tiara belonged to me, but… Does that mean I'm linked to some type of royalty or is it like a metaphor?"

"I'm not quite sure, mystical beings can be unclear at times, mostly through no fault of their own," Faragonda said, opening the top of her desk drawer and pulling out a teacup that was filled with a steaming liquid already.

"What's in- Not important," Bloom said, focusing on who Daphne is more than what the woman was drinking in her teacup and why the liquid was steaming. "Daphne was in a lake or ocean and that's making me think she's… dead. I don't want that to be what happened to her, but if she is, maybe I have to help her cross to whatever counts as Earth Heaven here."

"She might not be deceased, Bloom. I don't want you to reach that conclusion, I've dealt with this before plus I was a person who did have to communicate with someone through dreams to be found… once upon a time."

Bloom stared at the elderly woman surprised. "You astral projected!"

Faragonda jolted slightly from the girl's shout, "Yes, that's a thing on Earth as well?"

"Kind of," Bloom said with a shrug. "My aunts and grandma on my mom's side talked about doing it during these Wiccan camping trips, at least that's how my dad described them," Bloom chuckled. "My mom would always excuse their supposed projections with having strange dreams, but I definitely think they did it now! Maybe. I always wanted to go on those trips, but mom said it was for adults and my dad would say it's for lonely spinsters." Bloom chuckled again, Faragonda cocked her head to the side puzzled but giggled softly. "This is kind of awesome to learn, especially since Daphne might not be dead."

Faragonda nodded with a smile. "Always hold on to hope, remember that."

"I will, but if she is the latter, does that mean ghosts exist?" Bloom curiously inquired.

Faragonda somberly sighed, "Yes, when a magi dies, they can imprint some or all of themselves into their magic. When they die, their spirit leaves their body and can still exist, but a ghost can only remain on this plane for a limited time because a ghost uses up their magic. I never was quite sure where they would go next? I remember when I attended services they talked about a place of rest for all magical users, they had the choice to return to a new life here or serve there."

"Ah, so like reincarnation with a little of heaven, that reminds me of an old show I watched back on Earth," Bloom said.

"I'm not sure what show you watched, but maybe. Heaven is quite the interesting name for your resting place for the dead. Since I know you're probably going to ask, we call our 'heaven' many different names depending on planets and such. Solarian residents call it 'Celestial' and then add the world realm or fields to it, Eraklyon residents like to use 'Empyrean' most others like to classify it as 'Elysian Fields' or Elysia for short."

"Elysia? I like that," Bloom complimented.

Faragonda couldn't hide her smile at Bloom's curiosity. "Although with Daphne it's been far too long for her to still be in this realm, she was a powerful fairy, but something is keeping her here whether she's gone or alive. I also think the reason she only connects to you at night is because it's easier to contact one who is sleeping compared to awake."

"I guess. I don't really have a lot of knowledge on this like you do," Bloom confessed. "Do you think we can try another session tomorrow?"

Faragonda shook her head. "Sadly, it takes a few days to build up my magic to try another connection, but I'll contact you soon if you want to try again."

"Okay, that works for me," Bloom said. "Do you think she'll let me get some better sleep though?"

Faragonda shrugged. "If she's listening to us currently, I hope she is. You do need proper rest to solve a mystery like this. I wouldn't concern myself though, Daphne is a kind and comforting person."

Bloom bit down on her lip noticing that Faragonda was trying to avoid using words that might make her think Daphne is dead. She wasn't sure who Daphne was or if she was even alive, but she could see it hurt the elderly fairy to imagine the girl might not be alive anymore. She didn't want to say anything to ruin the woman's mood though.

"Well I'm glad you helped me out, but after learning a lot, I need to grab something to eat," Bloom said standing up. "Although I might just eat popcorn for dinner tonight, they're serving Akulina tonight and either this bird is the rubbery and blandest bird, or they don't know how to cook it."

"It's the latter, trust me," Faragonda agreed. She then opened the second drawer on her desk and pulled out an item wrapped in gold foil. "Here, you can have some sweet bread. I made a bunch of them yesterday. They fill up your belly and taste good with tea."

She passed her the gold foil wrapped bread which the young girl happily took.

Sweet bread… my favorite. Daphne's voice echoed through her head.

"I think I'm going to like these," Bloom said aloud.

…

Bloom silently sat on the bench outside after leaving Faragonda's office. She hadn't even gone back to her room, mostly wanting alone time to think. She took another bite from the sweet bread, a roll of what seemed to be similar to Earth dough, but had a light glaze on it that tasted like cotton candy. She pulled out her phone while chewing on the bread to check the time. She was still surprised the magic world operated on modern earth time.

She saw a few texts from her friends and some from her parents. She wasn't really having long conversations with them like she had before. She hadn't even called them since returning back to campus. There was still tension to say the least.

She swallowed the cotton candy bread and let out a long sigh as her shoulders dropped, "I really don't want to go back up there."

"You didn't bring anything to draw with." Daphne said. "You usually like to doodle whenever you can."

Bloom straightened up, surprised. "Um, yeah, but my sketchbook is in the room, and I would be bombarded with questions by my flatmates the moment I got back up there, and I just need a few minutes of alone time to just think… which this kind of is, minus you in my head."

"Shame, I adore your doodling." Daphne complimented. "And not just because you're so good at capturing my appearance."

Bloom smirked, "Smooth way to compliment yourself."

Daphne giggled. "Enough about me, have you always partaken in drawing?"

"I… have partaken in it since I was in elementary school," Bloom replied, ignoring that she was talking out loud which garnered a few stares her way. "That question is giving me the vibe you've only been around for a short time."

"Yes, I remember being awoken when you were in a forest, but… I wasn't sure as to what… was happening and didn't have the strength to speak to you. When I finally had the ability to communicate with youI felt such… elation. I don't remember much, but I'm glad you're okay."

"You're talking more now, we can thank Faragonda for that," Bloom said, eating another sweet cake. "Want to give me more hints about what the hell is happening with me, and you latching on to me?"

"I wish I could, but my mind is still heavily clouded… There's so much I want to say… information gnawing at me, but my brain can't piece together all the details. I'm sorry."

"That just adds more questions, but it's fine. I have a feeling your memory loss isn't your fault," Bloom said. "At least I know you like sweet bread. I can see why; this stuff is pretty tasty."

"Quite. I've got a feeling I was very close to Faragonda, but… I'm unsure how… but I do enjoy chatting with you. Um, Bloom?"

"Yeah?" Bloom said after swallowing the last piece of bread.

"You must find me… But in your dreams… I simply want to have more chats with you… not all the time. But some times. Okay?

"I'd like that," Bloom said, fiddling with the wrapping for the bread.

Daphne sighed happily. "Thank you… I grow weary… must rest."

"Sleep easy, Daphne," Bloom said with a nod.

"Much thanks, oh and dear Bloom, you're not concerned about being judged, are you?"

"Eh, not really," Bloom said. "Why?"

"Because you're definitely being stared at." Daphne giggled. "Night dear, Bloom."

Bloom rolled her tongue in her cheek at the mention of people staring and shifted her eyes to see a small group of girls staring her way. They whispered to each other, seeming to be gossiping about her talking to herself since they couldn't hear Daphne in her head.

"She just keeps getting weirder," Bloom heard one of the girls say, mostly because the girl didn't whisper that part.

"Well I should've expected that," Bloom said wryly, placing a hand on her chin. "Be stared at or deal with a million questions by the peanut gallery upstairs? Mm… both are equally grating, but…" After a second of thinking, she stood up and walked past the group of judgmental girls ready to be interrogated by her flatmates.

Bloom made it back to the flat, finding her friends waiting for her. She could already tell they were ready to bombard her with questions, but decided to mess with them a little.

"What?" Bloom asked, crossing her arms.

"Why did Faragonda need to see you?" Flora asked, oblivious, about the envelope.

"I-" Bloom began to answer.

"Did yo' talk?" Tecna asked. "Yo' left my name out of it right?"

"I didn't-" Bloom tried to explain but Tecna groaned, walking away.

"She talked! I can tell!" the ranch girl lamented.

"Yup you read me like a book," Bloom sarcastically said.

"I made cookies!" Musa exclaimed, scurrying out the kitchen and placing a dainty plate full of delectable cookies on the living room table. She had long stopped focusing on the envelope and made sweet treats for a study session. Bloom spotted the envelope on the table being covered by a small elephant statue.

"Did you take the fall?" Flora asked. "I mean… you were the one who found it, so, like it would make sense to be blamed. If so, are you going to be expelled and can I keep your cat food? My plants like it."

"I didn't say- You've been feeding your plants my cat's food?" Bloom questioned.

Stella knocked Flora out the way, nearly toppling the flower child to the ground. Flora gave the girl an exhausted looking glare. Stella grinned while eagerly saying, "You took the fall, to prevent me from being expelled again? Aww, you cheeky bird you! I'll have my father get you reinstated if needed."

Bloom took a deep breath and exhaled, barely containing her frustration. She calmly walked past Stella and Flora as she finally explained, "The envelope was never mentioned. Faragonda wanted to see ME because of how I've been sleeping in class lately."

"Don't forget sleepwalking," Stella added.

"That only happened three times," Bloom mumbled. "Anyway, I finally told her about Daphne, so we did some type of séance and I kind of met her face to face outside of my dreams. She was under water somewhere, might be a ghost and tried to give me a crown."

"Whoa, a crown?" Musa said, scurrying over to Bloom. "What could it mean?!"

"Not sure," Bloom replied with a shrug. "I might be linked to royalty."

Musa gasped, a twinkle in her eye. She hugged Bloom tightly enough that the redhead had trouble breathing. "What do you think your birth mom could've been? Is Daphne your birth mom? Empress, Duchess, Countess, Baroness, Queen… OMD you might be a Princess!"

"Musa… what did we… talk about when it comes to my personal… space?" Bloom questioned, struggling to breathe and ungrasp herself from Musa's snake hold.

"Um… not too tight and make it under two seconds?" Musa answered.

Bloom nodded. "Mm-hm!"

"Right - sorry," Musa said, releasing the girl.

Bloom had to catch her breath for a second. "To answer your questions: I'm not entirely sure, but I don't feel like she'd be a Queen, I'm not sure Daphne is my mom… whoever she is or was and I'm not sure what connection I even have to her. She doesn't remember much and that just leads to more loose ends."

"Well from what I've learned about crowns, they're used for various reasons by royalty in quite a lot of different groups and cultures," Stella said with a look of contemplation. "They can be gifted to men and women who are knighted, such as serving as a specialist. Then you have the crowns for winning an athletic or magical tournament. So there are still a lot of options."

"You know nothing about the Ring of Solaria, but you know about crowning ceremonies?" Bloom asked, surprised at Stella's knowledge.

"It involves crowns and winning, darling. Why wouldn't I research that," Stella said pridefully.

"Right, well it doesn't help me. All that lets me know is that I still have no idea what Daphne means to me, if she's dead or alive, what lake she's in, what the crown means to me, oh and I still don't know what happened to my birth parents!" Bloom recollected, getting a headache.

"Plus, ya have a dozen mo'e questions about how yer powers work," Tecna added plainly.

Bloom slowly turned to Tecna, giving an intense glare. "Yup, that too."

Stella rested a hand on the angry girl's shoulder and said kindly, "It's a start, okay? The journey to finding out about yourself wasn't going to be easy, but you'll get to that destination."

Bloom patted Stella's hand with a small smile. "You're right, Princess." She placed her hands on her hips. "Now that I've talked about my meeting, let's get back to the envelope. Honestly, cheating on tests has never worked out for me back in Gardenia so I vote I just give it back to Wizgiz tomorrow morning before the test starts."

"Yes!" Tecna cheered, surprising the girls. "We keep it on this table and study fo' the rest of the night."

"We can't just leave it out in the open. The temptation is too tempting!" Musa exclaimed, covering her eyes.

Bloom chuckled.

"We could hide it," Flora suggested. "That way we won't have to deal with its physical form."

"But won't we know where it's hidden, there's only so many places in here," Bloom said.

Tecna checked her watch, her jaw tightening with the fleeting minutes before she had to go to bed. "We gonna have to do this in about two hours, my study time has started and I'm losin' precious minutes standin' here with y'all. Let me make this quick, Bloom ya made a good point, but Flo'a has a point that by hidin' it, we at least won't have to worry about seein' it and it bein' in our viewin' presence. Until then, we should go to our rooms, revise as Stella likes to say in her high-talk and then meet back up to pick a secret spot."

"Cool with me," Flora said with a nod.

She looked to Bloom for her response.

The redhead cocked her head in defeat before saying, "Yeah sure, I need an hour of studying anyways. And whatever those cookies are that Musa made."

Musa clapped chipperly as Bloom took a cookie and bit into it. The cookie didn't have the same sweet chocolate taste that danced on her tongue like Faragonda's did, but they reminded her of a Christmas sugar cookie. She nodded in approval and grabbed two more.

"All right, I can study happily now," Musa said, skipping to her room to revise with Tecna following behind.

"Yes, you all go study in your rooms, don't want you doing something you regret," Stella said as Flora went back to her room. "I'll keep watch over the-"

Bloom turned Stella towards her respective room while correcting her flatmate, "It's not going to run off."

"Bollocks," Stella grumbled, stomping into her room, and slammed the door.

…

An hour later, Bloom closed her textbook about energy manipulation after reading numerous chapters that strained her eyes.

She rubbed her eyes then grabbed her phone to check the time. "I feel like I've studied everything at this point. If I read one more textbook, I'm going to explode." She turned to her cat, Kiko, who had been lying on the side of her desk, with one of his feet dangling off because of his long body. "You got any suggestions?"

Kiko trilled and licked his nose before walking across her textbook to rub his head against her chin.

Bloom chuckled, scratching his head. She reached for a tiny stuffed toy mouse in a pencil holder on her desk and held it out for her big fluffy cat. Kiko took a gentle bite while purring.

Bloom sighed, patting her cat's head, "The life of a cat is simple, isn't it? You don't have to worry about exams or magic or cute boys."

Bloom covered her mouth after saying that and looked around nervously. Flora had left the room a few minutes ago to meditate. She didn't have to worry about the nature fairy droning on and on about how Bloom had feelings for Brandon.

"I mean… charming boys- wait no! I'm not talking about Brandon if that's what you think I'm doing! Why did I even say Brandon's name there? That was so random for no reason at all," Bloom rambled, flustered.

Kiko gave his owner a confused look then meowed causing the toy mouse to fall out his mouth. He looked down at the toy and poked it with his paw as if he were waiting for it to start moving.

"Yes, I know he hasn't called me since… everything happened, but he did send that nice text… so he's not ignoring me, but if he were why would it matter? Does he like me like that? So what, who cares? Who cares, I don't care!" Bloom chuckled nervously while Kiko kept poking the toy mouse and meowing softly like a kitten. He wasn't focused on the issues of humans. Bloom poked the mouse toy along with Kiko. "Unless I'm reading things wrong, it's strange having someone like him even give me the time of day. He does though… should I call him?"

Bloom looked to Kiko waiting for him to give some type of response, but the Maine Coon cat was focused on his cat toy. The redhead poked him on the head while saying, "The mouse isn't moving, answer my question. Should I call Brandon?"

Kiko cocked his head then licked his nose again. He let out a squeaky meow while leaning forward. It seemed he did want his owner to call him, mostly so he could go back to staring at his toy.

"Okay, okay, I'll do it," Bloom said, laughing. She reached for her phone and selected Brandon's number to start the call.

…

In Red Fountain arena, Brandon managed to evade an attack with his shield from Riven's saber as the blade attempted to make contact with his face. He swung his sword - not so much as to hit Riven, but more to force Riven back. His strategy worked and Riven jumped back to avoid the sting of the blond squire's blade. This gave Brandon a breather as he stepped back, allowing himself to find solid footing.

Riven narrowed his eyes angrily, before running towards the blond. The magenta haired soldier moved his feet effortlessly as his sword took smooth swings that took full advantage of its shape. His attacks were calculated and nimble, but Brandon countered by blocking each attack with his shield, forcing his opponent back.

This gave him an opportunity to lash out with his own blade, forcing Riven to go on the defensive. The spiky hair boy gripped his saber, thinking of a strategy to get the upper hand.

"I'm disappointed, Riven. I thought you would make this more of a challenge for me," Brandon chastised with a smirk.

Riven rushed to the squire, causing their swords to meet. The boy kept his eyes away from Brandon while chuckling slightly. "You're right dude, I've just been so distracted lately. You see I was thinking about Bloom and me hooking up."

Brandon clenched his jaw.

Riven continued, "For a short time and then I'd get rid of her like the trash she is," He chuckled once he saw Brandon becoming visibly angrier. "Oh wait, did that make you upset? You found out she might be a witch, right? So why be with someone like her when you hate witches?" Riven questioned, smirking. "I'll gladly take her out of your hands. Might make good use of her."

"Imma need you to shut up," Brandon said through clenched teeth. "I know you're messing with me, but you're not going to win." His stance weakening proved that statement wrong. Riven used this as his chance to strike. He swept his foot under the angry blond's feet, causing him to topple to ground on his bottom.

The blond quickly recovered though and jumped to his feet still furious, but as he tried striking Riven, the cocky boy spun away flawlessly.

"Why are you so mad, dude? I'm just being a pal and let's be real. I may not like the ginger fairy, but do you really think a morose and mysterious girl wants someone like you? A limp di-" Riven started to insult, but Brandon didn't let him finish as he snarled and stormed forward with his shield, forcing his opponent back. Riven cackled as he kept his sword against the shield.

"I'm so fucking sick you, you're an utter arsehole, a prick, a cad!" Brandon said, unleashing numerous swear words and insults. "I wanted to give you a bloody chance, but you just keep being a raging arsehole! You and that cow deserve each other!"

Riven tightened his hand around the saber handle and kicked Brandon's shin, causing the blond to fall on the ground in pain. The magenta haired warrior swung his blade again, but Brandon managed to interpose his shield. Riven leered ready to deliver a final blow to the squire, but their duel was ended once a whistle sounded.

"All right, quit fighting!" Shouted the bellowing voice of Modesto Cordatora. "Geez, it's just a practice run not an actual duel. Go and get changed. I want you to be in top shape for the upcoming school exhibition."

With that Cordatora walked off, leaving Riven and Brandon. The brash still standing soldier gave the heavily breathing boy a threatening sneer. He didn't say a word, but Brandon guessed from his smug look that Riven knew he won by psyching him out. Riven sauntered out of the arena, his head held high.

Brandon kept breathing heavily as Sky entered the arena, holding a device in his hand.

"You let him get to you again, didn't you?" Sky asked.

"Shut up!" Brandon snapped, standing up.

"Your tone doesn't scare me," Sky said, slyly. He then passed over the device which was Brandon's phone. "Bloom called."

"Oh…" Brandon looked at his phone, then bit down on his lip. "Uh, Sky, I have a confession to make about Bloom."

"You're smitten?" Sky replied.

"How did you-" Brandon asked, but Sky simply held up his hand.

"You couldn't even remotely hide it, mate," The brunette answered. "I'm amazed, you were afraid of the bird and now you see yourself dating her?"

Sky held out his hand and helped Brandon up.

"She's not a bird, she's amazing," Brandon said sheepishly. "And no critique of her will be tolerated from you. You wouldn't want me saying anything about Stella."

"Stella is special, mate. She's like my party partner… yeah." Sky said then tapped his chin, trying to think of a better word to use. "Dancer Lasse? Clubbing Buddy. No, no, wait I got it this time!"

Brandon groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Right, as you keep brainstorming, let's get back to me!"

As he said that, his phone rang again. The boy jolted, nearly dropping his phone on the ground. Sky waited for the boy to answer the phone. Brandon simply gripped it until the ringing stopped.

"Clearly that was the proper thing to do," Sky sarcastically said.

Brandon held his head down in shame. "It's getting closer to the time to tell her, isn't it?"

"What do you think my answer is going to be?" Sky asked, putting his hands behind his back with a hypercritical expression.

Brandon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm still figuring out how I'm going to broach the subject."

"Oh I have an excellent strategy then," Sky said, clearing his throat. "Greetings, hello, hi Bloom I am a-"

Brandon hastily covered Sky's mouth as he had done before and scanned the arena. "Would you stop doing that!"

"I'm just saying that you should handle this like you handle a lot of things, impulsively," Sky said with a smile.

"Oh you're one to talk! You thought gemstones could cure a back rash," Brandon chastised walking away.

"Not all of those studies were proven wrong, and it does work!" Sky defended. "Where are you going, I haven't finished scolding you!"

"Piss off!" Brandon said, ignoring his friend's order.

…

"He didn't answer and now he's going to see that I called him three times," Bloom slammed her head on the desk and let out a somber groan. Kiko meowed and placed a paw on Bloom's head. "I can't even talk to my parents about this because things are still super awkward, and I am not about to confess to the Winx that I…"

Bloom checked over shoulder again to check if any humans were in her room, but luckily the door was closed, and the plants weren't bothered by her talking. She slid closer to Kiko and said in a whisper, "…that I like Brandon and I'm making his new boyfriend nickname Goldilocks. Don't tell the others."

Bloom pointed to Kiko, but the mostly indifferent cat simply rubbed his head against her hand. She smiled and patted his head.

"Not so sure he wants to be with me though. I've got way too much baggage at this point." She scrolled through their text chats together, to double check if he showed signs of liking her. She chuckled, thinking about how they'd look together, "Goth fairy with jock specialist, maybe that's too unrealistic even for this world."

"Don't sell yourself short, girl," Bloom heard a voice say behind her. She slowly turned around, while still seated, to find one of the flytraps had spoken up. She was alarmed to hear it speak with an Irish accent. "Also not to worry, we won't tell Flora. Seriously though, you shouldn't talk so down on yourself. Everybody deserves a little love."

"Thank you… talking flytrap," Bloom said, questioning reality. "Weird day so far."

…

After everyone, mostly Tecna, was finished studying, they reconvened back to the living room where the test was still laying on the table, untouched.

"All right, we have a couple hours before we all head to bed. Where are we going to hide this?" Bloom asked as she and the other girl gathered around the envelope. "It has to be somewhere none of us can get to it easily after we hide it."

"Can't we just take one peek?" Stella begged, attempting to reach for the envelope. Bloom quickly slapped her hand away while giving her the side eye.

"Ignore the fraudster, I say you let me hide it in my room and I'll give it back in the mornin'," Tecna said.

"You're probably going to destroy it and then pretend that it got damaged," Musa said, while messing around with a long rubber band and putting each end on her fingers then bending it around to make a star.

"Yeah," all the other girls agreed except for Tecna who begrudgingly crossed her arms.

"My plants can hide it," Flora said.

"I don't trust plant creatures, especially the fly trap," Tecna countered. "A bunch of talkin' leaves… nah one of them is gonna rat us out."

"That's also fair," Bloom agreed.

Even Flora coincided with a simple nod. Stella cleared her throat to bring attention upon her and put up her hands in surrender while saying, "Okay we don't have to peek, but what if we hide it somewhere completely outside of our flat? I suggest the cafeteria kitchen! It's the best way to resist the urge. Then before your class, Bloom and I will sneak down and get it to return to Wizgiz."

Stella clasped her hands together anticipating her friends to compliment her idea, but was met with confused stares from each girl. Bloom's eyes shifted to the other girls who shook their heads in disbelief.

Flora placed a hand on Stella's shoulder then said to the other girls, "I got this one." She turned back to Stella and calmly said, "That's a stupid idea."

Stella turned up her nose in offense. "What? How?!"

"Well, let's say your plan out loud: You want us to leave test results in another part of the school. Not only that, but also in the school cafeteria where someone can find it!" Bloom said. "Okay, sorry to put a hole in your plan, but what if, let's say, Chef Sfoglia finds it tomorrow while he's preparing breakfast?"

"So?" Stella asked, oblivious.

"So, Princess of Ignorance, Faragonda has made it clear there's some type of cameras around most of the school, they'll trace that back to us," Bloom explained.

Tecna grunted in exaggerated agreement while motioning a hand towards Bloom.

Stella took a deep breath and removed Flora's hand as she tried to remain calm. "Brilliant… right well I gave my suggestion, clearly not everyone is on board. What do you super geniuses have?"

"Maybe I should just hide it in my sketchbook," Bloom answered.

"Not much of a hiding spot if we all know where it is," Musa scolded while still fiddling with her rubber bands.

Bloom opened her mouth, but closed it quickly once it dawned on her that she gave away the spot and she still didn't trust Stella in this situation.

"We could hide it in that box of Veggie Straws in the pantry, nobody touches them," Tecna suggested.

"I like Veggie Straws!" Flora defended, missing the point.

"It's not a hiding spot if we know where it is!" Musa repeated, still focusing on the bands. "One of us has to hide it and not tell the others."

"You are on a roll today," Stella said, surprised. "We need to decide who is going to be the one to hide it."

Musa grinned happily at the compliment. "I say we draw straws."

"Do we have straws?" Flora asked, scratching her head. "Oh we can use veggie straws!"

"Whatever we use we already have to disqualify Bloom and Tecna," Stella said.

"What the hell?" Bloom said, raising her hands in shock. Tecna's jaw dropped in offense as well.

"If anybody should have it should be me! Maybe Bloom, but I am the only one without a curious itch!" Tecna defended.

"I haven't said I wanted to peek," Musa whispered, turning her rubber band into another star. Sadly, no one heard her.

"I'm the one who found it though, it would make more sense for me to hide it," Bloom said, crossing her arms. She wasn't too tempted to look at the answers either, but she knew Tecna wouldn't believe that. "Shut it, farm girl."

"Ranch girl," Tecna corrected.

"Look if I know you, Bloomie and trust me, I do, I know you'll hide it somewhere obvious," Stella said, pointing to Bloom then motioning her hand over to Tecna. "And Miss Anti-social skills will try to destroy it. So as a Princess I should keep protection of this vital information."

"I might be a little lost, why can't my plants hide them?" Flora asked, raising her hand.

"We're not letting SENTIENT FOLIAGE handle this information!" Stella exclaimed, stomping a foot on the ground.

Flora scoffed, "Rude, but whatever. At least they're not cheaters."

Stella gasped in faux shock, "I would never. I have revised enough and can't jeopardize exam day by cheating. It's not worth it anymore like I thought. So that's why I-"

"No!" Tecna, Bloom and Flora shouted.

The four girls started bickering over who was trustworthy and responsible enough to hold and hide the envelope until tomorrow morning. Musa hummed softly to keep focus on her rubber band hand tricks, but the incessant arguing began to hurt her brain. As they continued talking over each other, the blue-haired girl put the rubber bands on the couch and walked over to the coffee table, removed the paperweight, and once she had the envelope she hummed a single note while closing her eyes. In a flash the envelope was gone, silencing the other girls.

"All right, done with that," Musa said, wiping her hands on her shirt.

Bloom stared at the chipper girl perplexed. "Wh- What was that?"

"I hid the test results," Musa answered nonchalantly. "You guys couldn't decide who was the hider, you all kept revealing your hiding spots, the arguing was making my brain all fuzzy, so I squirreled it away somewhere super-secret. A place only I know."

Musa placed her hands on her hips while grinning confidentiality. Tecna squinted her eyes at her roommate, attempting to read her mind for the answer.

"Ya hid it in yer clarinet case," Tecna guessed.

"Nope," Musa said truthfully.

"In one of yer books… the ones ya done already read," Tecna guessed again.

"Nuh-uh," Musa said, collecting her rubber bands and redoing her shapes. She skipped back to her room as Tecna followed her.

"It's in the fridge, somewhere in the kitchen, in the microwave?!" Tecna grilled.

Musa wasn't budging, simply answering each guess with, "Nope, nada, negative."

Tecna stopped at the door, scratching her head, but backed away when Musa bent back in between the doorway while keeping her infectious smile, "I can do this all night, but I'm not gonna tell ya!"

She straightened back up and went into her room to grab a book to read.

"Now listen here," Tecna started before slamming the door behind her.

"Where do you think she hid it?" Stella asked, nibbling on a hangnail.

"Stella, stop," Bloom scolded. "You're gonna pass your tests, you're not a dumb blonde."

"Aww, you really think so?" Stella twirled her hair with a smile. "I do try to maintain intelligence; I do have to run a kingdom someday and design clothes. Which requires a fair amount of intellect as well. Hm, maybe studying some more will help."

Stella smiled at Bloom before heading back to her room.

"What about me?" Flora asked her flatmate, leaning closer to the redhead. "What type of smart stuff have I shown?"

"Oh shit, I forgot you were here," Bloom said, alarmed. "Um… well… if you were able to make Mirta move as a pumpkin then you have an intellect that I don't quite understand."

With that she headed back to her room, leaving a flattered Flora left in the living room. The flower girl placed a hand on her chest while smiling softly, "Not a lot of people get that about me. Bloom, come here!"

"Ugh, I feel like I'm in a nineties sitcom with you people!" Bloom shouted as Flora ran into the room to wrap her arms around her.

...

The Solarian princess rested in her bed, unable to relax. Hours had passed and night had come, but thoughts of the envelope still ruminating in the blonde's head, preventing her from getting any sleep. Finally, after much pondering, she snuck out of her bed, put on her slippers, and tip-toed out of her room.

She said in a soft whisper, "I'll just take a quick peek to see if I know all the answers and then put it back. Yes, quite a good plan. Now where did she hide it?"

Stella made her way to the kitchen and quietly opened the cabinets, pulling out cereal boxes and griddle cake mix but what she was looking for wasn't there. Next, she pulled open the countertop drawers, but they were mostly empty or filled with old junk.

She slammed the drawer shut in frustration, causing it to make a loud thunk sound. Stella ducked to the ground just in case anyone was awakened by the sound.

"Bleeding stars, where is it?" Stella angrily whispered as she crawled out of the kitchen. She tried to remain quiet as she crawled to the nearest bookcase. Her chipper flatmate did enjoy reading, so maybe she hid it in one of the books.

When she made it to the bookcase she spent the next two minutes checking different books, but none of them contained the envelope. While she did her searching, unbeknownst to her another one of her flatmates snuck into the living room. They kept themselves silent as well, but while tiptoeing around the area, she bumped her foot on what appeared to be the end table next to the couch.

"Shit, that hurt way more than it should have!" the girl shrouded in shadows angrily whispered.

Stella gasped, dropping the thin book, and ducking behind the couch. Has she been found out? There was no backing out now. She carefully stood up straight and tiptoed to make it back to her room so she wouldn't be spotted. She almost made it there, but soon bumped into a strange wall except… she wasn't near a wall! In her fear she started screaming and flailing her arms wildly at the assailant who had begun screaming as well. More screams from different directions in the living room area started after that.

Soon the room was brightened by a small bunny shaped lamp on the coffee table being activated.

"Huh?" Stella said, noticing a hand grasping onto a familiar friend's cheek. "Oh, it's just you darling."

"Let go of my face!" Bloom said through pinched cheeks. Stella sheepishly released her grip. Her embarrassment soon vanished once she noticed it wasn't just her and Bloom who had snuck into the living room.

Tecna was at the bookcase, gripping different books, Flora was in the kitchen, one hand in the box of veggie straws she loved so much, and Bloom was next to Stella, rubbing her sore cheek. The only one missing was Musa, well they couldn't see her at least.

"You caved!" the girls exclaimed pointing at each other in different directions.

"Correction, you all caved," the girls heard a voice chastise. They looked around, but their confusion was soon answered when Musa rolled into the room and sprang to her feet with grace. The girl wasn't in her pajamas but a baby blue miniskirt with a white sailor blouse, a pink cardigan, and a pair of pink knee-high boots. Even her detective hat was blue with a white bunny imprint on the front. "For you see, Detective Musa saw this happening! You all thought you could be sneaky, but the super sleuth in front of you knew you'd be sneaky, so I out-sneaked you!"

Musa planted her left foot in the front to strike a pose. Her friends were just left with more confusion.

"What?" Bloom questioned, scratching her head.

"Allow me to explain," Musa said, taking a seat on the armchair. "I knew most of you couldn't resist the temptation of opening that envelope to see the test answers, I knew none of you were even strong enough to hide it. Tch-tch, even with my doubts I at least hoped you could resist the temptations for searching for the envelope."

"Uh, I don't know about them, but I was just… trying to get some fresh air outside of my room," Stella lied. "It's so stuffy in there, but the rest of you have a lot of explaining to do."

"Um, I was sleepwalking," Bloom mumbled. "Then Stella woke me up by assaulting me!"

"Likely story," Stella said, avoiding eye contact from the girl.

"Okay well, what the hell are Flora and Tecna doing up, huh? Why are they here?" Bloom accused. "Tecna what happened to getting rid of it?"

"I was gonna do that! I wasn't gonna look at some of the answers to make sure I might pass- I wuz not- Why are you accusing me- I would never- Flo'a wuz clearly the ne'er-do-well!" Tecna stammered, while shaking with the books still in her hands.

"I was actually grabbing a snack, but I was also looking for the envelope because I was thinking about copying some answers, but I still wasn't sure, so I went back to eating veggie straws," Flora confessed.

"Now that I believe," Musa said, pointing to Flora. This made the mellow girl smile while chewing on her nighttime snack. "And don't even think of asking where I got this super cool sleuth outfit, you haven't earned that answer now!"

"Okay then where did the lamp come from?" Flora asked.

"I bought this adorable remote-controlled bunny lamp just for this occasion!" Musa eagerly said.

"Ya bought that last week from Blippo because ya thought it would work as a readin' lamp," Tecna corrected.

Musa bit her bottom lip embarrassed, but quickly recovered, "I bought this lamp for many reasons, but catching a captor was on the list! Now where was I? Oh right, shame, shame on all of you! What happened to studying and relying on our own intelligence to pass the test? I thought all of you were better than this!" The blue haired girl dramatically placed a hand on her heart from the betrayal she just witnessed. The rest of the girls remained silent in shame. "I was worried that Stella would try to look for the answers, yes, but I held out hope she wouldn't try to go searching for this and the rest of you… even my bestie and roomie Tecna!"

Musa turned to Tecna and held out her arms then crossed them over her chest as if she were in pain.

"I just… it was… dagnabbit I ain't got a good excuse," Tecna sheepishly said.

"No, you don't, none of you do, not even you Bloom," Musa said, pointing to the redhead. "You may have a jaded view on the world, but cheating is beneath you. You're far too smart on your own."

"I hate that even when you're scolding me, you still sneak in a compliment," Bloom said, rubbing her arm in embarrassment.

"It's a gift," Musa said, gleefully. She then stood up and walked over to the couch where she retrieved the manila envelope from under the middle cushion. "And for anyone curious, yes, I did originally hide this in between the couch cushions. I know it's an obvious spot, but I just had hope that my friends wouldn't go searching for it." Musa placed the envelope on the coffee table then placed her hands on her hips and said in a surprisingly serious tone, "Look, I know how hard these tests can be, my papa is a professor and pretty strict when it came to me getting good grades back in primary school, but he also reminded me that it's never the end of the world if I don't do well on a pop quiz, test, or even final exam. If we fail, we can take it again, if we must retake the class then we do that with our head held high and a smile on our face, like Stella has."

Musa motioned her hand over to the princess who had run her fingers through her hair abashedly, but perked up once she received a kind word from the positive girl. Musa meant it as well; she had come to find many positives in each one of her new friends and she wasn't going to let them ignore them.

"I try to be as optimistic as possible, even during stressful situations like these and while I can't give you my energy, I can give you reassurance that everything is going to be okay. So please, just let me hold on to this until tomorrow and then we can return it to Wizgiz without any guilt." With that, Musa plopped down on the couch. She fiddled with her fingers, waiting for her friends' responses.

Even though the petite girl spoke like a children's show character and was more animated than the old-timey cartoons Bloom watched as a kid, she couldn't disregard what the chipper girl had said. She had a mostly cynical outlook for the world, but Musa's optimism kept going since the redhead first met her. Musa had been through a lot, and she still kept a smile on her face.

Although Bloom was still reeling from issues being revealed to her every week, a simple test shouldn't be what did her in. That helped her decide on what to do.

"Guess I almost let my intrusive thoughts win, but you're right," Bloom said, walking over to Musa and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry Musa."

"I am sorry as well!" Stella said, jumping in next. "I'm on edge about possibly failing, but I have to be honorable, and not just because I'm a Princess."

"Totally!" Flora added, chewing on Veggie Straws. "Plus, if I can make Mirta move with a homemade spell, I can do this."

"I shouldn't have been so weak!" Tecna said, covering her face with the book she was still holding. "I'm sorry. When I kept scoldin' y'all it was to hide my own thoughts of wantin' to cheat!"

"Aww, Techy, it's all right," Musa said, rushing over to the magenta haired girl to hug her. "It's tough to resist the allure of doing bad things. I'm just glad you stopped yourself."

"I really didn't, I got caught," Tecna mumbled.

"Eh, semantics," Musa said, waving a hand away at that comment. "My point is that during all our tests tomorrow just try to do something, anything to keep your stress stable. I hum something, it helps, always has." The joyful girl said the last part in a more melancholy tone that Bloom guessed related to her mom. "You guys don't have to make some huge promise, but please, let's just head to bed and return the envelope to Wizgiz. I think good things will happen when we do."

The girls looked around at each other before Bloom answered, "Keep it safe, Giggles."

"Yes, I scored a nickname!" Musa cheerfully said. "I shall! Then after all the tests I'll get us pizza!"

Musa eagerly took the envelope and placed it close to her heart before heading back to her room.

"Oh Musa, we're doing a separate pie, right?" Flora asked, making sure she got the vegan pizza.

Musa peeked her head back into the living room with a raised eyebrow and cocky smile, "You know I got you!"

The girls laughed before all heading off to bed. They were all apprehensive about tomorrow and all the exams, even Musa was, but relying on the vast knowledge they've learned throughout the semester meant they could still pass everything. Stella was the most worried, but as she rested her head on her pillow, she started taking deep breaths and slowly felt herself calming down.

…

The next day, the Winx girls stood outside Wizgiz's classroom along with the other students for the class period. The leprechaun professor had yet to arrive, which only increased his students unease.

Musa had the envelope tucked into a small furry backpack and kept herself calm by listening to music. She happily swayed from side to side while her earbuds played some energetic pop songs. Her friends on the other hand weren't as relaxed. Even the studious Tecna was on edge as she nervously fidgeted with a pen.

Stella tapped her foot while glancing at the clock, "Is it normal to feel your heart racing and numerous concerning thoughts?"

"Um, not really, but deep breathes okay," Bloom reassured. "We'll be fine."

Stella nodded, breathing slowly.

"Hey, wait a tick," Flora said, twirling her hair. "Did my mind blank or is Stella, like, not supposed to be here?"

Stella's eyes shifted around surprised attention was on her now. Musa then turned to the other girls while still listening to her music and asked loudly, "HEY WHY'S STELLA STILL HERE AGAIN?"

Bloom yanked one of the musical girl's earbuds out her ear and shushed her with an irritated look on face.

"I'm aware my class and dreadful final exam isn't until later today, but I came with my gals to give back the test answers. We are a team after all." Stella explained.

Tecna's eyes shifted towards the Princess before she promptly asked, "Yea' and?"

Stella gave the curious Tecna a dirty look. "Um and… it's my princess' responsibility to return this with you. He will believe me when I tell him we all didn't peek at the answers."

"Mm-hm and?" Tecna interrogated with her arms crossed.

"And… My other class is an hour and a half long, so the test there doesn't start until twenty minutes in. I can sacrifice a few minutes of tardiness," Stella nervously added.

Tecna pulled a piece of gum from her pocket and chewed on it slowly while saying one last time, "Come on now, don't stop there."

Stella seethed as she pounded her fist together while sucking on her bottom lip, "All right, and I wanted to see if he'd give me some points when I take my test! There, happy?! Get off my back!"

A few girls standing next to the Winx stared at Stella, bewildered at her outburst, but the blonde girl snapped her fingers at them to look somewhere else. They rolled their eyes, offended.

"It's betta to leave nothin' out then omit the finer details," Tecna cooly said.

"I am not in the mood for your tone this morning," Stella said, her eyes narrowing angrily.

Bloom snickered just as the classroom door magically opened and Wizgiz came out.

"Well lassies, are ye ready for the big test?" he asked, facing the crowd of his nervous students. Every girl was too anxious to speak. Didn't bother Wizgiz though, "All right that's what I like to hear, come on in now!"

With that the leprechaun teacher went back into the classroom. A few girls hesitantly followed behind the man. A few more that went in showed more trepidation, especially for the ones that had to be dragged in by other girls.

"We should probably… wait for everyone to get in there," Bloom said, her feet unmoving.

The Winx girls all agreed with a simple, "Yup."

As the Winx stood by the side, Stella caught a familiar nuisance being dragged into the classroom. The girl kept her eyes closed and shook her head in fear. She asked, "Was that Amaryl?"

"Yeah, she usually keeps herself hidden in the back of the classroom," Bloom explained. "She's apparently had to take this class twice now."

Stella perked up hearing that as a mischievous smile formed on her face. "And she had the nerve to taunt me for retaking classes? Hm, this day just got a tad bit brighter."

"Does that mean you're ready to go in?" Bloom asked, looping her arm around Stella's.

The Princess contained her excitement, but she was still jumping for joy in her head. Because her bestie finally linked arms with her! Stella nodded. She and the other girls made their way into the classroom, surprising some of the girls at how long they took to enter.

"Sheesh, you losers took your- Eep!" Amaryl snidely started to say until she noticed Stella with the other girls. The Princess waved at her with a sardonic smile, simply keeping silent.

Amaryl looked at her phone to avoid eye contact, but this only made Stella giggle.

"Ye are the last ones in here," Wizgiz asked. "I even see you brought along, Miss Stella. She must be eager enough to take the test early."

"No, of course not, I'm not Tecna," Stella joked, giggling.

Tecna glanced at the Princess for a second, trying to decipher if that was an insult towards her or not.

"She's with us for a good reason," Bloom said, taking hold of the envelope as Musa passed it over to her. The bright girl gave the wary redhead a reassuring smile to let her know things were going to be okay. The group tensed up as the redheaded girl held out the envelope for Wizgiz to take it. "You bumped into me yesterday and this slipped out of your arms when you had all those papers with you. I tried to call you before you vanished, but you know, you were gone like you usually do. It's still sealed. I swear none of us have opened it. None of us. At all."

Her friends nodded silently.

"Well thank you, lassies. I knew I misplaced it and I'm glad ye didn't open it," Wizgiz said, taking the envelope.

"Wait, you believed that?" Bloom questioned, gaining a slap on the arm from Tecna. "I mean we are telling the truth, just thought there'd be more doubt from you."

"I have no reason to doubt ya," Wizgiz reassured. "The proof is right here; the envelope is sealed off. I know yer probably curious about what's inside though."

Before the Winx girls could answer, the classroom seemed split with some begging him to and the other half frantically begging he doesn't. The fearful ones even cowered under their desks.

"I mean I am," Flora admitted, answering for the group.

"Don't open it!" Amaryl exclaimed, hiding behind another girl.

"They actin' mo'e nervous than when I broke my mama's favorite vase," Tecna whispered to her friends.

"A little jumpy today, aren't we, ladies? Oh I bet I know why. It must be all those frayed nerves from stayin' up late and studying'." Wizgiz said, preparing to open the envelope. "Now let's see what's in here."

The terrified girls stayed hidden, the eager girls leaned forward at their desks and the Winx simply stood together as Wizgiz opened the envelope with it facing upright and a barrage of sparkles shot out through it.

"Oooo," Musa said, mesmerized by the dazzling colors the sparks showed.

The hiding girls were shocked at the reveal while the excited side shared the same amazed look Musa did. Once the sparkles faded away, Wizgiz placed the envelope down on the desk.

"I liked that one!" he said, chuckling. "Congratulations girls!"

"Um, I know I'm the only earthling here, but I'm not the only one lost right?" Bloom asked, scratching her head.

"Right there with you, love," Stella replied. "Wizgiz, you didn't do that last year. Just a lot of mud… That's why I failed."

Wizgiz chuckled, "Yeah, I figured ye all be confused, allow me to explain," he said taking a seat on his desk.

Amaryl jumped from her desk, "Yeah you better, because why didn't theirs explode with glitter confetti?!"

"Amaryl!" Laurelai exclaimed.

"Um, at least that's what I heard from… my… visions," Amaryl lied, slowly sitting back down.

"I love it when a student lies badly," Wizgiz said, shaking his head. "Again, let me explain, this semester we did many fun exercises and transformations in this class and while I'm happy how every student's power has grown stronger, and while Alfea does teach ya about usin' yer magic, us professors also want to teach ye about responsibility." He rubbed his chin for a moment before continuing. "Magic is... Well, it is a powerful force. It can do great things, but also dreadful things."

"Ain't that the truth," Tecna mumbled.

"You're learnin' to be a nymph or fairy, or simply use yer magic for basic things, but it takes time to learn it and it doesn't always involve using cheats. It will blow up in your face if that cheat goes wrong or another example," Wizgiz walked over to a purple haired girl and held up her right hand that was covered in blue ink. The girl blushed sheepishly. "It might stain yer hands. And I ain't talkin' 'bout using dark magic."

Wait, can witches have black fingers? Look into that later. Bloom pondered.

"There's nothing wrong if you fail a spell or transformation at this school, you can always keep trying. Cheatin' ain't goin' to lead ya to an easier solution. Even if yer from another realm, ye can still hone your spark," Wizgiz said, shooting that compliment to Bloom.

The redhead smiled. She still wasn't entirely sure what her powers were or even what a spark could mean for her, but it didn't mean she couldn't keep learning.

Amaryl let out a long-annoyed groan while crossing her arms, "Would you get to the point already!"

"Probably shouldn't piss off the guy who's about to say if you passed or failed," Bloom snidely said.

"No worries, Bloom, her attitude won't be the basis for her grade, her opening the envelope I left at her door is the deciding factor," Wizgiz said with a grin. Amaryl gasped, but held her tongue to allow the leprechaun to explain the assignment. "The test to see who is on their way to learning how to be responsible and honorable was by placing a large envelope of varying color where one of you could find it and it was up to you to return it to me or open it and be met with an unpleasant surprise."

Wizgiz chuckled as the students who opened the envelope showed their guilt by holding down their heads. The girl with purple hair stared at her blue dyed hands with a frown.

Many other students quietly stood up, each holding large envelopes in their hands and placed each one on the desk. There weren't many there, but many of the other students had taken the Winx girls route and fought back their temptation long enough to return this evidence back to the professor.

"Thankfully many of you seemed to prove you can resist the urge to cheat," Wizgiz said, happy the girls standing at his desk weren't the only ones to do the right thing. "And for that many students passed today."

"I passed?!" Stella questioned.

Wizgiz nodded, which caused the Princess to bring him to a tight hug. "Yes, I'm glad you did the right thing as well, but I would kindly ask ye to let me go, as I'm having trouble breathin'."

Stella gasped slightly embarrassed and dropped the short teacher to the floor. "I am so proud of myself for I, Princess Stella Davenwood have proven that I am honorable!"

Amaryl rolled her eyes while saying loud enough for the girl to hear, "Still an egotistical snob."

The blonde girl smirked, ignoring her former flatmate's insult, "Aww don't be so snippy because you failed, love. Right Wizgiz?"

Wizgiz nodded, going behind his desk to retrieve an item. "Oh yes, this was a pass or fail assignment and I'm aware of every student who opened them and not just because of dyed hands, but each envelope had a trigger that when opened I was alerted."

The guilty students all lamented their failing test grade in the class by either bursting into tears or as Amaryl showed, having hissy fits that amounted to screaming threats for a lawsuit at the teacher. The Winx and innocent students looked on laughing and even recording the outbursts. Wizgiz didn't pay the angry students any mind as he pulled a couple trays of apples on sticks with a pink glossy coating, possibly some type of melted candy.

He gave each girl who passed a candy-coated apple including the Winx, but Stella took a pass, "I'll wait for when it's my lecture with you, plus I just brushed my teeth. Without further ado, I have to make it to my next class. Professor Zelda is going to ream me for being late, but this made it all worth it! See you girls for lunch later."

The girl spun on her heel and sashayed out, brimming with delight. Her friends laughed as she left, but were surprised when she popped her head back into the room calling over to Amaryl, "Oh Amaryl!" The orange-blonde haired girl looked over to her, her brows furrowed in an angry expression. "Make sure to maintain honor when you take the class again. Bye love."

Amaryl snarled as Stella left laughing. Bloom nodded her head in approval.

Many girls started begging for Wizgiz to reconsider their grade while the girls who aced the easy test looked on laughing. Bloom and her friends went to some desks in the back of the room, all grouped together now, and enjoyed their candy apples. Bloom was surprised these existed in the magic realm, but she wasn't complaining. It was the sweetest thing she ate since trying Magic cuisine.

"You know, after we get all our tests done today, we should watch a movie," Flora suggested, chewing on her apple. "Bloom, you got any good Earth movies we can watch tonight?"

"Hm, horror or anime?" Bloom suggested with a mischievous smile.

"Oh no, I ain't ready for your type of horra, but… what in the Sam hill is anime?" Tecna asked.

"I guess you'll have to see it for yourself, tonight," Bloom said with a wink.

"Anime sounds fun already! Oh, I'm so glad I have my besties to watch new stuff with!" Musa eagerly said.

Trap envelopes, candy apples, strange quizzes, and now she might get to show her friend the anime she thankfully had saved on her phone. She was wary about making friends with her flatmates, but she found herself liking them a lot more than when she originally met them. Bloom was still exhausted from both her dreams and controlling her powers, but there seemed to be a silver lining to all the madness.

She had heard about parent-teacher conferences in a week or so, she wasn't sure how that was going to go, and she hoped she wasn't involved. Unresolved tension stayed strong with her and her parents. For right now, she just wanted to spend the evening with her friends watching anime that the other girls probably wouldn't understand, but it was going to be a good time.

…

The light from Flora's phone brightened her way down the dimly lit hallways as she tiptoed her way to Palladium's office where Mirta was being kept for protection. She knew she should've stayed in bed, but she also knew she had to quickly try something else to see if Mirta had imprinted a little bit of herself before the cruel Trix turned her into a pumpkin.

Not only to prove to herself she could do it, but to give Bloom good news. She didn't just see how crestfallen her roomie had become, but she could feel it. Few people believed in her reading chakras and energies, but she was getting better at reading others true feelings and Bloom had been more sullen after her break.

The least she could do was try to reach Mirta with her own nature magic. Once she made it to the Elven teacher's door she turned the handle without a second thought, she knew he kept his office door unlocked like Faragonda did. He was easy-going and trusting when it came to entering his office.

She saw the Mirta pumpkin under a grow light. The girl smiled, "Thank goodness Palladium chose to protect you, this is such a rad lamp. How you doing Mirta?"

A long vine that was shaped like a small hand lifted up the bottom part slightly and gave the flower child a weak wave. Flora could see Mirta was trying to move some way.

Flora chuckled somberly, "You can't really answer that. I'm glad to see you're kind of moving though. You totally make orange work. Probably doesn't, like help currently, but um, I hope you're in there somewhere. I never really got to know you before those evil witches turned you into a gourd, but from how I saw you fight against them, it shows you have good energy. Bloom said you were super helpful whenever she went to that shop in Magix City too."

Flora placed both her hands on the pumpkin and although it wasn't strong, she could feel the girl's being in there. Mirta wasn't fully conscious, and she couldn't talk, but she was aware that she was in a room and this girl she had never met before was comforting her. It made Mirta less afraid. She showed this by wrapping her hand vine around Flora's arm.

"Your vines are super cool. I love it," the nature fairy complimented. "I wish I could've found a spell or elixir to make you talk at least. I imagine you want to go like, full chatterbox. Don't blame ya, there. I'd love to gab with you, but the Trix used some messed up dark magic on you. I'm able to make Venus flytraps talk, but not a human… At least you're still awake." Flora looked around nervously, not wanting to get caught in the office. "I can't be here too long, just had to check on you and tell you there's many more people coming in to help us turn you back to your same groovy self."

Flora giggled. "Don't worry, Mirts, I'm not gonna give up on you. You have a good chakra, from your root to the crown and you tried to protect me and my friends so you're seriously cool in my scroll." Mirta's vine tightened slightly around Flora's arm, but it didn't feel like it was trying to hurt her, more a comforting grip before pulling away.

"I got you a gift," Flora said, wiping away a small tear. She dug into her skirt pocket and pulled out a round rose quartz gemstone with a black string looped around it to make it a necklace. "It's a quartz necklace, the rose color means healing and compassion. My friends think this stuff is gibberish, but, like, it gives me comfort." She placed it around pumpkin Mirta's 'body' and patted the top of her 'head'. "You look perf!"

Flora walked over to the door with her hands behind her back, she never fully trusted witches, but 'Mirts' made her rethink that long misgivings towards them. She took one last look at the girl, opened the door, and left without another word.

She didn't see it, but Mirts, in a semi-conscious state, refixed the necklace around her to show off the gemstone.

…

End

All right, what did you guys think? If you have any questions, comments, concerns, noticed errors that I can fix, or just want to say hello, comment down below and also tell me what you think of the story so far! Like and follow this story for a more action-packed adventure with The Winx Club!

P.A.C.E (positive attitude changes everything), my lovelies.

Oh and thank you again to, corvid_king! You're such a great beta and were super patient with me taking forever to write lol.