Winx Club: The 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.

8. Grounded With Friends

Summary: The Winx have lost all their magic as punishment for sneaking into Cloud tower, but to make matters worse they have to clean up the entire school, but with tensions and boredom what will happen when the Trix get involved.

A/N:

Hey everybody, sorry for the late posting, some crazy changes in my life delayed the posting, but I didn't forget about you all… I just have bad procrastination as well. Bloom and her pals got into some serious trouble in the last chapter and that definitely came with consequences which means being grounded in school, kind of worse than ISS lol.

Reviews are welcomed, as long as it's about the story itself. NO CO-WRITING REVIEWS ALLOWED; COMMENTS DELETED ON SIGHT.

Without any more rambling here is:

Chapter 8: Grounded… with Friends

Sunday dragged on as a mundane, magic-less day, with the girls confined to their flat while Griselda confiscated their belongings deemed as contraband that was prohibited during magic suspension. Among the items seized were the TV, Musa's magic books, Flora's magic dusts, Stella's second phone, and many of Tecna's technological devices. They were given computers owned by the school that reminded Bloom of the Chromebooks back in Earth schools, chugging along just to open a new webpage and they couldn't use magic to get any homework assignments done which meant they couldn't do the homework until after their suspension concluded. Their phones were replaced with basic ones issued by the school, which almost sent Tecna into shutting down. Bloom was allowed to keep her sketch pad and Musa was able to have her flute and access to the library for reading since she couldn't perform magic for the time being. Bloom also got to keep both her regular phone and the one that her parents call her on. Apparently, although it fell short of being considered high-tech enough to warrant confiscation.

The phone went off numerous times that day, but Bloom refused to answer. She couldn't face her parents at the moment, they would know she was upset and there was a chance that Faragonda contacted them and told them what happened, and if that was the case, she definitely wasn't ready to talk about it. After the thirtieth ignored call, she tucked it under her bed and spent more time outside her room.

After that, she spent her time with Kiko who was unaware of his owner's punishment with the school, but could sense she was depressed. His comforting meows and purrs kept her at bay until Monday morning arrived. The five girls were woken up early to meet in the very cranky Griselda's office, awaiting the rest of their punishments. The deputy headmistress seemed almost giddy as she finished printing out five papers to give to the girls.

After an uncomfortable amount of watching the woman shuffle the papers, Griselda finally spoke up, "I believe I managed to balance your punishment with your lessons this week. However, I suppose I must give you free time so unfortunately, that is in there too."

Bloom sucked her lips in resisting the urge to snidely remark that of course Griselda would be upset at kids having any time to sit down and rest. The deputy headmistress handed each girl their assignment list while humming. The girls studied their tasks with the same matching grimace. Well's Musa's was more a constrained smile, but the disdain was still there.

After a second Bloom groaned, "You gave us a fifteen-minute break after our 'eating periods'?"

Griselda looked over her schedule and then nodded with a knowing smile, "Well I didn't want to be too harsh; you do need a breather."

"I literally have classes after both breakfast and lunch!"

"Yes, well classes are still a good break," Griselda replied.

"Cl- classes are literally the opposite of a break!" Bloom complained. "This is such bullshit, man!"

"Oh, somebody wants more chores, don't they?" Griselda challenged. Bloom crossed her arms while biting her bottom lip to stop talking. "It wouldn't be that way if you hadn't broken the rules."

"Will we at least have time to sleep?" Bloom asked through clenched teeth.

"Yes, you get to sleep the required eight hours, and you finish chores at eight p.m. on the dot," Griselda answered, checking her watch. "That gives you enough time to get cleaned up as before heading to bed. Some of the jobs I gave you can be quite a mess so be grateful I gave you that time."

Stella trembled slightly once she heard that. She looked at her nails, seeming to be fretting about what kind of manicure she'd have to get after this punishment chore list. Her shoulders slumped as she let out a weak whimper. Bloom patted her on the back with an eye roll.

"Deputy Headmistress Griselda, we really appreciate your lengthy chore list... but is there any way you can give us longer breaks?" Musa innocently requested.

"Not a chance," Griselda said sternly. "Come on, it won't be that bad, plus you don't even start until an hour before breakfast, which gives you plenty of time to get ready."

Tecna, already familiar with manual labor and the efforts of hard work nodded. The others let out a collective sigh of frustration.

"You couldn't just let us sit in a hot room for a few hours?" Bloom begged dryly, missing the detention back on Earth. She had only been there a few times, but it seemed leagues better than this.

"I'm guessing that's an Earth school punishment," Griselda confirmed. "A few hours in a classroom doesn't equate to the proper punishment for what you girls did. Faragonda is still in talks with the Griffin witch discussing the damages. You lot made her unequivocally angry." Griselda chuckled, sipping her coffee, the exhausted girls were confused at why the woman was overjoyed by this. She was usually on the verge on an aneurysm when students caused trouble, but the stricter woman gave a quick response without looking at the girls, "She finally is on my side, it's been so long."

"This was a full pager for your diary, wasn't it?" Bloom asked, sneeringly.

Stella sighed, shooting Bloom a withering glare. "Honestly, Bloom, I get your frustration, but please stop talking so she doesn't lengthen the list."

Griselda nodded, "Thank you Stella. I'll let your cohort's retort slide for now, but keep her in check for this week."

"I-" Bloom attempted to speak up for herself before Stella covered her mouth with the schedule in her hand.

Stella quickly said, "On it,"

"I understand you don't want to deal with this type of punishment, but rules are rules, and you broke the rules," Griselda said, walking behind her desk, and sitting down in her large brown chair. "One-week, girls, you have one week to prove to Headmistress Faragonda and me that you can be better students. I may not show it, but I trust you can maintain a stress-free punishment."

Bloom scoffed in response but resisted the urge to say anything else.

"All right, I've scolded you enough. It's an hour before breakfast, you'll be starting today," Griselda said, checking her watch. "Try not to look so sullen though, make a game out of it, see who can clean the fastest."

Stella looked at her schedule, then frowned. "Come, Bloom, we have to clean the rubbish bins."

Bloom nearly gagged once she realized rubbish bins were Solarian/British speak for garbage cans.

"Yes, just how I wanted to start my morning," Bloom complained walking out of the office with the other girls. "Garbage juice in my hair!"

"This is officially the worse day of my life," Stella mumbled.

Griselda sighed happily while taking a sip from her large cup of black coffee with no sugar or cream. "Griselda, you did well today."

…

Forty minutes later, after getting every inch of the rubbish bins cleaned, Bloom and Stella rushed upstairs and scrubbed their skins with rags in the kitchen sink along with their hair to rid themselves of the strong odor of garbage juice, but it still permeated a rancid smell in their hair afterwards.

When they made it to breakfast, girls were staring at them, giggling about their disheveled appearances, and whispering about their punishment. Seems word spread fast about the freshman who got magic suspension, but nobody knew why. The Winx girls sat together at a long lunch table that was scarce of other students.

"Man, y'all smell worse than spoiled milk left out in the sun fo' a week," Tecna said, sliding a little further away from Bloom.

"We know!" Stella and Bloom exclaimed.

"I still feel dirty," the Princess squirmed, rubbing her hands on her dress. "I could've gone my whole life not knowing what garbage juice actually looked or smelled like. I want to deep my hands in lye after touching it as well."

"At least you didn't have to scrape gum from the seats in the girl's locker room," Flora said, shivering. "I had no idea so many girls chewed non-vegan gum and some of it had hair in it."

Bloom gagged, spitting out her food in disgust once she heard that comment. "I wasn't hungry anyway."

"At least they gave you bleeding gloves," Stella said. "Griselda was lying, she had gloves for us but refused to let us use them because… I guess she hates us the most!"

"I don't doubt that," Bloom agreed, slouching.

"Eh, taking out the trash wasn't too bad," Musa said with a shrug. "Sorry I threw the bags at you guys; I was in a hurry."

"Don't worry about it," Bloom mumbled, taking a long sip from her coffee. "A bag full of coffee grounds hitting me in the face wasn't the worst experience during that time."

"You girls are starting to become a bad influence," Stella complained. "One of the worst things that I ever did in my first year was break another computer, and when my father found out, he sent a large donation to the school."

"That happened more than once?" The Winx exclaimed in union while staring wide-eyed at Stella.

"Legit question, how in the Sam hill did yo' break a computer not once, but twice?" Tecna questioned.

"Was it the same as the potions-" Bloom asked but went quiet while chuckling when she was met with a death glare from the Princess. "I'll leave it to my imagination."

"Just a couple thousand, a new computer lab, and I was fine. Now I can't even talk to him," Stella complained, smelling her hands to see if that juice smell had gone away after washing them fifteen times. Nope. "And he keeps bloody calling!"

Bloom rested her head on the table. "I didn't think this school was that serious about the cleaning punishments."

"I mean, they're really not, the other teachers couldn't care less about giving them out and sometimes don't give harsh ones," Stella rubbed the temple of her forehead. "Griselda isn't one of those people, and she enforces the rule with an iron boot."

Bloom groaned. "Why couldn't Griselda be a teacher at Red Fountain instead of here!"

"Hey, look on the bright side," Musa said, swallowing the last bit of her eggs. The others looked at her confused, wondering what silver lining could possibly be in this situation. She then sang eagerly, "Friendship bonding."

The other girls sighed and slammed their heads on the table.

…

Hours later, after numerous tedious chores and sitting out of classes to watch other students enjoy magic lessons, Bloom's body hit her bed. Everything felt sore, and she swore her hair still stank of spoiled milk. Kiko curled up next to her and purred softly.

"Right on que," Bloom said, scratching his forehead. "My hair isn't turning you off?"

Kiko meowed what sounded like no, but kept himself snuggled to her chest instead of her face. The redhead chuckled. "I'm gonna rest for a… minute."

Her eyes slowly closed as she started falling asleep, but before she was greeted by pleasant dreams, a looming noise disguised as chipper classical music vibrated from under her bed.

"God, no," she mumbled, smothering her face in her pillow. She ignored the cell phone ringing and covered her ears with her other pillow, but with each ring it felt like the sound was growing louder. The ringing stopped, after a few minutes, but restarted not even five seconds later. Her parents were persistent for two days, which Bloom ignored no matter how much Flora begged her to answer the phone. "This will not be my 'Tell-Tale Heart', they'll give up eventually."

"Bloom," the flower girl said with a sigh while watering her plants. "Just answer the phone."

"I really don't feel like hearing my father's voice right now," Bloom replied, turning to her other side. "I'm just going to ignore it until they decide to go to sleep."

"Do they even know you're being punished?"

"I doubt it, but I don't feel like talking to them about it."

The ringing stopped again, only to start up again a few seconds later. Flora let out an aggravated groan. "If you don't answer the phone, I'm going to recite the dangerous chemicals found in your makeup again."

"Fine," Bloom relented, she sat up and reached in between her bed to pull out her phone. She took a deep breath while pressing the answer button, then exhaled nervously. "Hey."

"Hey," her father's voice said through the phone. It gave off a tone that sounded like he knew something was going on with his daughter.

"Hi Bloom," Vanessa greeted entering the call. Even her chipper tone suggested she knew something.

"How has everything been going?" Mike asked.

"You know…" Bloom paused, nibbling on a hangnail. "Good."

"What's been happening?"

"Nothing at all, the girls and I have been hanging… chilling… killing," Bloom nervously said, causing Flora to giggle. "You've been good?"

"We've been good, but we miss you dearly," Vanessa said softly. "We're glad you're okay, but…"

"You want to explain to us why you're basically grounded?" Mike finished off his wife's sentence.

"I knew you'd do that segue well," Vanessa complimented.

"Right," Mike replied. "Now, Bloom, answer the question."

Bloom's shoulders slumped. "How did you find out?"

"Faragonda told us," Mike answered.

"She appeared on our TV!" Vanessa exclaimed. "It was magical."

Bloom nodded. "Okay that does sound awesome."

"Awesome… Scared the shit out of me... One and the same," Mike said, sounding aggravated and scared. "She could've at least appeared in the room instead of my TV. I almost threw a lamp at it."

"I told you, sweetie, the poltergeist was just a movie," Vanessa said with mock sympathy. "No one was going to come out the TV and snatch you."

Bloom giggled as Mike seethed through the phone.

"You know what? We're not focusing on that, you have to explain yourself," Mike said, turning the focus back to his embarrassed daughter. "We have to see how disappointed we are with you."

"Although, we want to hear your side of the story," Vanessa added. "We promise we won't be that mad."

"Now is not the time for the good cop, bad cop shtick," Mike said, scolding his wife, but she scoffed so much that Bloom could imagine her playfully rolling her eyes.

Bloom sighed, closing her eyes, and trying to figure out how to recount what happened without being in too much trouble.

"It's a really long story… but you have a right to know," she said. She paused for a second, debating on what to say first. "Stella lost her ring because we were… uh… out in town and some witches found it… but refused to give it back to us, and they were mean, like awful, the worse people. Stella was torn about losing her ring, so I was, and this is all my fault honestly, I was like 'Let's get it back!' Because we knew who the girls were! Sort of, so we rushed to get it back and snuck into Cloud Tower, this school for the witches and the -"

"Breathe," her parents said calmly in unison.

Bloom exhaled, realizing she had been talking so fast she didn't take the time to breathe. Flora looked on bemused but still giggling.

"Thank you, so, like, we snuck in and found the ring… We tried to get out the room without getting caught, forgot to add we broke into the thieves rooms, remember the thief part, so we could get that ring back, but then we got lost in these tunnels, oh yeah, the schools have these underground tunnels, and then I found this room filled with books about magic and… uh… wanted to read about Stella's ring and then this woman named Griffin, who is a total bitch by the way, started shaking the room, and we got attacked by spiders and set a room on fire and got out safe, nobody got hurt promise, but there was some damage to the room due to the fire and please… don't be mad at me!"

Bloom took deep breaths after telling her story in a fast-paced manner that left the other end of the line silent and Flora stared at her like she was crazy.

"That was impressive," one of Flora's fly traps said, startling Bloom. She had forgotten about the girl's magical flowers.

"That's…" Mike started.

Vanessa interjected. "A lot to take in."

"We would say you're punished, but the school took care of that," Mike said. "Seriously though, that was incredibly stupid!"

"You could've been killed; you started a fire!" Vanessa added.

Bloom rubbed her forehead. "You said you wouldn't be mad!"

"We're not mad, okay? I'm not mad, mom's not mad, we're just…" Mike paused trying to figure things out. "Concerned."

"Yes, we're disappointed as well but glad you're safe and okay," Vanessa said. She let out an exhausted sigh. "That's the most important part."

"I know, and I'm grounded by you and the school… probably for two weeks," Bloom mumbled.

"You're doing the job for us," Vanessa jested, giggling. "We would've liked it if you called though."

"Yeah, I know. I know." Bloom stared at the wall, shaking her head. She was glad she finally could tell them the truth, but she hated her parents being disappointed in her. "It was hard talking about it, it's tough explaining that I got punished for helping out a friend, and yes, I get it, I was being reckless and dumb, but wouldn't you do the same for your friends?"

"I'd file a police report or something, it's just a ring, but I get the sentiment," Mike agreed. Bloom smiled to herself; she was not about to explain the whole Dragon-god ring thing to her parents. She barely understood it herself. They'd be just as confused.

Vanessa seemed to agree as well, as Bloom heard an "Mm-hm." In the background.

"I doubt a police report was going speed up the process or help Stella get out of her funk," Bloom admitted. She looked over at Flora, who was humming to herself while reading a book, but the girl on the phone didn't want her to hear this part of the conversation. She walked out of the room into the living room, no one was around so she sat on the couch while continuing on. "After what happened she wasn't doing too well, and she sees me as her friend, so I wanted to help her."

"Is she your friend?" Mike and Vanessa asked together.

"I- We- That's- Maybe?" Bloom stammered. "It's kind of hard to tell, she's …strange, but also interesting. Remember that time we tried those avocado and chocolate milkshakes?"

"You tried them, we threw up," Vanessa answered gruffly.

"Yeah well, I liked that combo even if it tasted odd, and I feel the same about her."

"She's like a food combo?" Mike asked, sounding confused.

"I mean, some food combos are freaking weird when mixed together, but delicious as well," Bloom jested. "You kind of get what I mean, though, right? I didn't have a lot of friends back on Earth, not that any of those jerks liked me to begin with. Her though… she's nice to me. A snob seventy percent of the time, but I enjoy her company. To be honest, they're all pretty... out there."

"Well, to them, you're pretty 'out there' as well," Vanessa reminded. "I like Stella and you should give her a chance especially after you helped her… right Mike?"

"I mean you can be cordial to her, I don't know about friends," Mike replied before exclaiming, "Ow! I'm still bitter, get over it."

"I'll take what mom said into consideration," Bloom said, chuckling. "I'm just glad you guys aren't too mad at me."

"Just try to be safe next time," Mike advised.

"No promises."

Mike sighed. "Bloom."

"I'll try, okay?" Bloom half-promised. "Now, I'd love to keep talking, but I have to write a paper to identify and describe the key principles of magic… and I can't use magic to speed read the textbooks… I can't believe magical philosophy was the only class I got to participate in and that's the assignment. I have a long night."

"Yeah, that's how school works," Mike replied. "You were magic speed reading?"

"You are such a stick in the mud," Vanessa chastised.

Bloom chuckled. "I love you guys, you know that?"

"You don't need to state the obvious," Mike joked. "We love you too."

"I know," Bloom said sincerely. "Call you guys tomorrow, love you, bye."

"Bye," her parents bid adieu before Bloom hung up the phone. With that taken care of, she plopped down on the couch breathing a much-needed sigh of relief.

What do you think of this, weird magic voice?

No response was given, causing Bloom to straighten up in surprise. "Oh, are you just not talking to me now?"

"Everything all right?" Bloom heard a voice say to her, but it wasn't the one in her head. She turned around and spotted Stella behind her. The girl greeted her with an eager wave to which Bloom smiled back at her.

"Um, it's fine, just thinking about someone who's gone silent on me," Bloom replied, trying to be as vague as possible. "How are you doing?"

"I am doing fantastic!" Stella said, sitting next to the girl. She had a wide grin on her face that surprised Bloom since she had seen her so crestfallen for the last week and a half. "Okay, so I finally answered the phone from my father, and he was absolutely livid!"

Stella's wide smile gave a far different reaction to the statement causing Bloom to raise her left eyebrow.

"I'm missing the part where this is a good thing," she replied confused.

"It's a gift from the Dragon! Faragonda informed him what happened, but since we didn't tell her the real truth, she just told him I broke into Cloud Tower. When he confirmed it with me, I was able to be as vague as possible," Stella explained. "Mostly that I was in Magix and 'lost'my ring," Stella made sure to put air quotes around the word lost to which her friend chuckled at. Bloom liked that her and Stella both used the 'lost ring' excuse. "I was able to avoid the truth, thankfully I had a few days to come up with a good story."

"And what happened after that?" Bloom questioned, somewhat concerned.

"Don't worry," Stella reassured her. "My father was so mad, lots of yelling, me crying, but once he calmed down, he was happy I didn't lose the ring through , as he said, 'being a reckless barmy'." Bloom laughed; hearing Stella imitate her father's thick accent again. "Honestly, that would've been such an insult."

Bloom nodded. "Thank goodness, he doesn't know the true story."

"Exactly," Stella nudged her bestie with a smirk. "Point is my worries are gone. I find it disheartening to lie to my father, but you know I don't want to stress him out, he's the ruler of a planet and everything."

"Obviously," Bloom agreed with a nod. She patted the girl on the shoulder before adding, "He seemed to handle it well, minus the yelling, but he's not some scary dude, is he?"

Stella gasped. "Why, of course not! Oh dear, you misunderstood my grief, didn't you? Father is a very loving and caring person, but he is also a man of power, he has to keep up appearances, he has to be tough, and sometimes that toughness can be bleeding harsh."

"I get what you mean, to a degree," Bloom somberly replied. "You should know though that mistakes happen either way and I think he'd understand if you told him the truth."

"Nah," Stella disagreed. "I don't want to cause any more trouble… he's already going through a lot."

Bloom plaintively smiled, she wasn't exactly sure what Stella meant, but once again she didn't want to pry her, she just wanted to be there for her. "Well, you always have me to talk to."

Stella gave the same somber smile and rested her head on the girl's shoulder, and although she didn't like having someone rest on her like that, she gave the Princess a pass.

"I'm glad your parents seemed to handle everything well," Stella said, chuckling. "Although I would've loved to seen Michael's face talking about me."

Bloom chuckled. "He adores you." She sniffed the air and chuckled. "Your hair still smells like rancid egg salad."

"And yours smells of coffee grounds and spoiled milk," Stella replied with a smirk. "Oh I appreciate being your avocado and chocolate milkshake, by the way. Brilliant comparison."

Both girls laughed at that statement and then spent time studying with the others and talking about their respective strenuous cleaning duties.

…

The next day arrived, but for the Winx girls this was only two days in from an entire dreadful week of difficult chores from sunrise to sundown. They were already exhausted after spending most of the morning cleaning numerous messy classrooms since they did get an excused absences from classes that used magic for assignments. To say the least, it wasn't fun, but what made it worse was the students constantly taunting them. It may have only been two days, but it felt like an eternity.

"Hey Bloom, the new look suits you," a girl called from behind her while chuckling.

Bloom groaned as she rubbed a crick in her neck. She was too exhausted to even glare at the mocking student. She couldn't disagree either, she looked dog-tired with bags under her eyes and her hair slightly frizzy. She'd gotten hot and had tied her jacket around her waist. The comforting voice that had followed Bloom seemed to still be gone and it didn't help her feel any better. Tightening her jacket around her waist, she mumbled, "My body is just so sore, but I can't even lay down until eight."

"I know, right?" Musa said, skipping along with her same effervescing energy. "The pep in my step just isn't like it usually is. Look at my skip, it's not this low!"

"I envy you," Bloom complimented. She brushed back a couple of strands of hair from her unruly locks. As she looked over at her skipping flatmate, she couldn't help but smile. "I'm kind of glad to be working with you today."

"I feel the same!" Musa squealed. "It's fiddlesticks that this is how we're spending time together, but I'll take it."

The two girls made their way to the teacher's lounge or Professor's lounge as it was called. When they entered the room, they were met by Palladium and Wizgiz who stood behind cleaning supplies such as rags, mops, buckets with hoverboards on the bottom, suction cups… for some reason, regular brooms, and spray bottles.

The room itself was exactly how Bloom remembers the ones back on earth looking like when she snuck in there once to see if the rumors were true about there being a gaming station in there. There wasn't. Just an old coffee maker, round tables with wobbly chairs, the smell of burnt coffee, and a regular-sized fridge.

"I guess teachers' hang-out spots have a default," Bloom said aloud while looking around.

Musa had the opposite reaction, her eyes seemed to widen with a sparkle in them as she looked around the dirty room. "Wow, we're in the lounge for Professors! This is exciting! I can't contain-"

Bloom placed her hand on the girl's head to calm her down. "Not the time." She sighed, placing her messenger bag on the floor. "I'm guessing you two are going to be-"

"Monitoring you until the allotted time, Griselda's words, not ours," Palladium replied, chuckling. "Which is about thirty minutes."

"So, chop-chop, get to cleanin'," Wizgiz said, clapping at them like they were dogs. "And you can't ask us for help."

"Again, Griselda's orders, not ours," Palladium replied, taking a seat at the professor's desk. Wizgiz hopped over and planted his feet on the desk. He pulled some playing cards out of his pants pockets and sat down.

"Okay the game is five clovers, get ready to lose," Wizgiz said, shuffling the cards as Palladium looked on intrigued.

Bloom groaned, squeezing a rag in anger. I have so much rage right now but must suppress it, or I will burn the room down!

"I see someone can't contain their excitement!" Musa cheered, dancing around the room as she swept.

Bloom shifted her eyes to the girl. "Yeah, let's call it that."

She grabbed a dry rag and a spray bottle, reasoning that stewing in anger wasn't going to get her anywhere. She and Musa spent the next fifteen minutes wiping windows, cleaning under the desk, and changing the trash can. The two professors played cards the whole time.

After a while, Bloom found nothing else to clean in the room, but Musa was busy cleaning the ceiling. There was a reason why there were suction cups and hoverboards in the mix. Musa hung upside down and dipped the mop into the hovering mop bucket, squeezed the mop, and then mopped the ceiling. Bloom hadn't seen that since SpongeBob, and it was weird seeing a human do it.

"How does she do that?" Wizgiz questioned. Palladium shrugged in response.

Bloom took a seat at an empty table, letting out a long yawn. Wizgiz took notice of her fatigue and seemed to be pondering what to say next. His eyes shifted towards Palladium; a mischievous smile came across his face.

"Ye got a date tonight?" Wizgiz questioned, changing the subject, although he had a mischievousness in his tone.

"I told you we're just hanging out!" the elvish professor exclaimed, blushing.

"You have a date?!" Musa shouted from the ceiling.

"He and DuFour have been hangin' out for the last few weeks," Wizgiz answered. "Come on, stud, tell us about yer lady."

"I want to hear this," Bloom joined in, chuckling.

"For the last time, we are friends, she is dating someone else and even if she wasn't, we are not each other's types, and- I don't have to explain myself!" Palladium's cheeks turned redder once he noticed all eyes on him. "That's not what we should be focusing on, Bloom, get back to work!"

"Can't you guys just let us relax?" Bloom begged. "Why do we have to clean the ceiling?"

"Because it's dirty, and we don't want to deal with Griselda just as much as you do." Palladium replied, still blushing.

Wizgiz nodded, "Have ye heard her yell for five minutes straight? I have, it's not pleasant! All because I forgot to put a coaster down. Also, ye missed a spot."

Musa suction cupped across the ceiling with the hover bucket, dipped in her brush, squeezed it, and hit the dirty spot. Bloom sighed as drips of mop water hit the floor for the twentieth time.

"Got it!" Musa called. She then suctioned over to Bloom while humming. "Isn't this great Bloom? I haven't been able to mop the ceiling in years!"

"How the hell are you even managing to do this?" the girl questioned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"That's what we've been wondering, girls usually fall at this point," Palladium agreed, scratching his head.

Musa shrugged. "Lots of practice back home," she suction-cupped across the ceiling, humming. "Our ceiling got really dusty back home and then one day papa let me test out some suction cups he got from his school and here we are!"

Bloom's eyes widened. For a moment, she was speechless as she watched the chipper girl mop away at the ceiling as though she was on the floor. She eventually found the words she was looking for, "We need to talk more."

Musa giggled. "So, tell us more about your date," she said, turning her attention back to Palladium.

"Is she as cool as she looks?" Bloom questioned, trying to change focus, so she could keep sitting.

"Ye should see them together," Wizgiz said, seeming to agree with wanting Bloom to relax as he winked at her. "Almost at da hip!"

"Aww, that's so cute," Musa cooed trying to maintain her balance. "But even if you're just best friends, that's also sweet."

"Thank you, Musa," Palladium said, his cheeks still red. "I hate you Wizgiz."

Wizgiz laughed, "Ye love our banter."

"Bloom, did you finish your cleaning tasks?" Palladium questioned bringing the attention back to that boring topic.

"Yes! I finished everything, I even cleaned the freaking coffee machine," Bloom said with an aggravated groan. "By the way, the stirring straws aren't supposed to be reused, they are literally non-reusable."

"Matter of opinion," Palladium said, fishing some stirrers from a tied trash bag.

"I told ye yer the only one who does that!" Wizgiz chastised, shaking his head. "Anyway, trust us, we know how yer feelin'. We've dealt with… punishments from that grinch."

Palladium chuckled, putting a few used stirrers into the cup holder. "Do you remember the time she forced me to clean the basement, and you had to clean the air ducts?"

"Now, why'd ye remind me of that, dat nest of spiders still haunts my dreams!" Wizgiz shook nervously. "Ye had it so easy."

"My rat bite begs to differ," Palladium replied, rubbing his healed hand. "Yours didn't require five shots."

"May I remind you; this is only the second day we've been doing this, and it's probably gonna get worse from here?" Bloom brought up, nervously shaking. She walked over to Palladium and grabbed him by his vest. "I am begging you, please let me sit down!"

"I'm feeling sleepy as well… and kinda dizzy and that blood is rushing to my brain, but that might be because I didn't get enough sugar today," Musa said, dropping the mop as she rubbed her forehead.

"Well, I mean, if you're that tired, I guess you can rest for fifteen minutes," Palladium relented. He looked over at his leprechaun friend, who nodded in response.

"I'm counting da minutes," Wizgiz said, pulling out a pocket watch. Once he noticed Palladium looking at him with a smirk, he added. "I'm aware I'm actin' like her, shut up."

"Bless you!" Bloom said, pulling away and plopping down in an empty chair while Musa suction-cupped her way down from the ceiling and back onto the floor. She wrapped her arms around Bloom's shoulders to hug her.

Musa innocently said, "You seem tense."

"Mm-hm," Bloom mumbled.

"If it's any consultation, you're doing better than us," Palladium reassured.

"I'll take it," Bloom said, holding her head down. "So, back to DuFour."

"Don't make me change my mind," Palladium half-threatened with a strained smile.

When cleaning the Professor's lounge was done, Bloom and Musa parted ways, and the rest of the day had been uneventful and tiring.

After that, she made it back to her room and felt like a dim candle as she spent the rest of the night getting her assignment done and heading off to bed. She regretted falling asleep because she knew the next day would involve more strenuous cleaning.

…

The next day, cleaning had been the same strenuous and sometimes gross daunting tasks until Bloom was finally matched with Tecna late in the afternoon on cleaning up room 466 with Ms. DuFour monitoring them. There was still rocky tension between the two girls after everything that's transpired so far.

They entered Ms. DuFour's classroom, with her leading them in. DuFour, who was wearing a deep red suit and matching fedora, was busy texting on her phone and her attention was so focused on the phone that she bumped into her desk causing the girls to laugh.

"Ha-ha," Dufour said, blushing as red as her crimson suit. Her sultry voice was smooth like hot butter on a skillet. Bloom could swear she almost sounded like Audrey Hepburn. "I don't have all day, mostly because I have to meet up with a friend, so let's get started."

Bloom chuckled thinking back to her conversation that embarrassed her elvish teacher, although she knew it probably wasn't true.

"I just need the windows cleaned, the floor mopped, and wipe down the desks," Dufour kindly ordered.

"That's it?" Tecna and Bloom questioned at the same time. They looked at each other, then away. DuFour laughed, taking notice of the unnecessary awkward tension they were creating.

"Stella was right, you two do still have tension," Dufour said. "I took care of sweeping the floor and my trash bin isn't full. Anything else can be dealt with in the morning. So, you've got a light load, but after that, I would very much like to have a quick snack after you've finished your chores."

DuFour walked behind her desk and pulled out three salads.

"So let me get this straight, the fasta we clean, the quicker we can leave, and we get free food?" Tecna asked, surprised.

"Exactly," DuFour replied. "I'll even leave you guys alone to clean."

"I like you," Bloom complimented.

"Thank you," DuFour said, placing a hand over her chest with a smile. She then pointed to the cleaning supplies on the side of her desk and added. "I'll be back in twenty."

With that, the elegant woman strode out of the room leaving Bloom and Tecna together in awkward silence. Bloom rubbed her arm avoiding eye contact with the girl.

She couldn't help but think, "Just talk to her!"

Tecna coughed to break the silence before saying, "So… uh, I'll take the desks and floor, and ya take the windows?"

"Right, yeah, uh windows," Bloom reluctantly agreed. "Let's get this done then veg out- munch on lettuce- um eat salads…"

She laughed nervously before clearing her throat after realizing how weirdly she fumbled over her words. "What is wrong with me?"

"Right," Tecna said, avoiding eye contact. "Uh, now toss me that there bottle so I can get moppin'."

Bloom looked over at the cleaning supplies and noticed a large yellow bottle of floor-cleaning liquid. She lifted it with the handle on the bottle and attempted to toss it to her, but it missed her head and hit the ground, spilling open on the floor.

Bloom covered her mouth in shock and embarrassment. "Oh God, I didn't mean to do that!"

"That's fine, it was bein' used for that purpose anyway," Tecna said, rubbing her forehead. "Hand me the mop carefully."

"Here you go," Bloom said, chuckling.

"The fasta we get outta here the betta," Tecna mumbled, taking the mop.

Bloom went to clean the windows, but as she sprayed it, she bit her bottom lip and turned towards Tecna. "Tecna? I know we apologized and everything, but if you're still mad at me about our powers being taken away… I don't blame you. I'm… well you know… I'm s-"

"Ya know when I was kid, my little sista broke my protractor," Tecna said, recounting a story. "I was as mad as a weasel in a blender to the point I hadn't talked to her fo' a whole week, but then one day my momma sat me down and told me this: Holdin' a grudge at someone yo' care about is like holdin' yer breath, it gets yo' nowhere 'cept hurtin' yourself and those around ya. You get what I'm putin' down?"

"Sorta," Bloom replied, scratching her head.

"If'n ya don't then let me say this, I already forgave ya and apologized, that's all that mattas. I am still frustrated with ya, but I'm not cross with ya anymore. Ya are who ya are, ya in a new world, and I can't fault you for that… I don't agree with everythin' ya do, but ya good." Tecna smiled, playfully bumping her fist against Bloom's although it hurt the redhead more than she let on. "Now stop bein' yer gloomy self and get to cleanin'. I'm hankerin' one of them chicken salads."

Bloom smiled as Tecna went to mop the floor and said happily, "You got it, farm girl."

"Fyrecracka," Tecna replied with a smirk. "Now tell me more about ya, I need to understand why yer so mischievous."

Bloom smiled and then started her tale, happy that while the two will never be on the same wavelength about everything, they had at least come to a mutual understanding. "Well, it all started when a florist and firefighter had a baby."

…

Thursday had come and gone, most of the girls were happy it was almost over, but for one girl it was the worst day of them all. Stella looked at the text message silently. Unsure of what to say or do. She had nightmares about this day, but never expected it to come true. Now it was happened and there was nothing she could do about it, but cry.

The divorce has been finalized.

-Love daddy

Blunt, but to the point, that was what her father did sometimes with sad news. It made things worse and sent the tears flowing, but she had to wipe her eyes once she heard a knock at the door. Her heart started palpitating erratically, the walls felt like they were closing in around her, but she couldn't let anyone see she was breaking.

"Come in," Stella said, fully removing stained mascara from her cheeks.

Flora's head popped in.

"Come on Stel, we have to go mop the gym floors," she said, but stopped short once she saw Stella sniffling. "Are you okay?"

"Mm-hm… uh… let's go," Stella replied tucking her phone in her clutch handbag.

"Something's wrong, what happened?" Flora asked. "Should I get Bloom?"

"I just want to clean, okay? I've had a long tedious day and just want to clean to distract my head," Stella replied. "Can you do that for me?"

Flora pulled back and after a second nodded. "If you don't want to talk that's fine, I won't pry. Let's go."

"Thank you," Stella said, stepping in front of Flora and leading her out. The best thing was to not acknowledge it, or she'd just start crying again and she wouldn't let anyone see her break… not again.

…

Towards the weekend, when Friday finally arrived and the Winx were busy continually cleaning, back on Cloud Tower the newly named Trix were fuming. When they arrived back from their nature walk last week, they found their room ransacked and the ring missing. They were able to put two and two together and figure out who stole it but couldn't inform Griffin without partially revealing their plans.

Currently, they were in the Cloud Tower dining area which consisted of two winding staircases with platforms for tables and chairs. Some tables were floating while others were welded into the ground and some tables were in the walls of the dining hall with the rocks formed into seats.

The Trix were seated at one of the round tables on the ground floor, where they occupied the three seats.

"I can't fucking believe we've been duped by fairies again," Icy complained stabbing at her grey steak. "Darcy, how much information did you get on the bimbo?"

"Enough to have people ridicule her," Darcy replied, tapping her chin. "But sadly, not enough to fully ruin her life."

"Damn it, save that for later," Icy said, noting to possibly use that as leverage for next time, but sadly it did nothing for them currently. She was especially angry since they couldn't give the full reason why they stole the ring without revealing their master plan.

As the girls fumed, Mirta walked over to their table with Lucy in front of her. Lucy had a wide grin on her face as she made her way to the adjourning round table near the Trix. Mirta simply rolled her eyes annoyed.

She never understood the hype for the three popular senior witches, she always saw them as the bullies they were and nothing could change her mind, her best friend didn't share the same sentiment.

"We can't let those pixie losers get away with this!" Stormy said, slamming her fist on the table. "They-"

"Hey girls!" Lucy greeted, waving at the table eagerly. "Wow, look at this, sitting together."

"It's the dining hall…" Darcy said, confused at the girl's reaction. "There's a lot of people sitting together."

"Oh, duh, whew, almost forgot!" Lucy exclaimed, her eyes shifting. "But we're like the closest to each other. The cool kids together! We should- we should hang out!"

Mirta groaned before saying under her breath, "Wow."

The Trix stared at the nervous girl for a few seconds, unsure of what to say, whether to laugh or pity her.

Stormy decided as she turned away from the girl and said, "Anyways, what's the scheme to get back at those fairies?"

"Smooth," Mirta sarcastically complimented as a dejected Lucy went back to her food. Her roommate glared at her, but the perky witch simply smiled back.

"We can't just let them get away with this," Stormy said, pounding her fist on the table again. "I'm pissed! I know the stupid ring didn't work, but I wanted to melt it or something! They took that chance away from me and they will pay!"

"Stormy's right for a change," Darcy agreed, picking over her salad. "A real witch would not let such an offense go unpunished."

"Girls, we won't," Icy reassured. "Since the power of the… you know what isn't in the Solarian ring, we'll go find the true source of power at Alfea and then use it to destroy the place."

"We should just destroy the school period," Darcy suggested.

"I hear what you're saying… and I agree," Icy said with a smirk.

Mirta, who had been listening to the Trix's entire conversation, stood up and slammed her hands on the table.

"That's enough!" she snapped. "Why do you hate the girls at Alfea so much? I mean that seems kinda old school."

"Who is this gangly freshman talking to?" Stormy questioned, pointing at the girl angrily.

"The names, Mirta!" Mirta replied aggravatedly.

"I'm sorry, Mirta is there a reason you forced yourself into our private conversation?" Darcy questioned with an annoyed raised eyebrow.

"Because whatever you girls are planning to do is wrong!" Mirta replied. "Fairies aren't our enemies, sometimes they kind of rock!"

When Mirta said that last sentence all eyes were on her table, something Lucy wasn't hoping for as she tried hiding her face with her textbook. She wanted attention, but by the Trix, not her friend's idolizing fairies.

"Aww, they kind of rock to you?" Stormy said in a mocking tone. "Did you hear that everyone?" the weather witch shouted out loud, using her magic to amplify her voice. "This witch thinks highly of fairies. She thinks they 'kind of rock'."

Everyone in the dining hall began laughing at which point Mirta and Lucy shared the same blushing expression. Neither of them accounted for anyone else hearing or laughing at them. Mirta wanted to stand up for her opposite magical users, especially after meeting Bloom, but sadly she wasn't expecting everyone to be against her like this.

"Well, I- I ju- just mean," Mirta stammered once she noticed everyone was staring at her.

"Oh, you j- j- just mean what?" Icy mocked.

"Mirts, sit down!" Lucy begged, keeping herself covered.

"Listen to your friend," Icy said, snapping her fingers.

"Yeah, well at least we aren't bitches!" Mirta insulted. "And can get along with fairies!"

Now fully pissed off, the Trix all turned their attention towards the witch who stood her ground on her opinion. They were shocked, how dare this low-level witch backtalk them?

A few girls gasped and there was an audible, "Oh shit she's dead."

"Wow, the little girl's got a big mouth?" Darcy calmly said before snapping her fingers. "Let's silence it shall we?"

She snapped her fingers a second time and Mirta's mouth vanished. All that was left was a clear patch of skin. Mirta started freaking out and screaming. Although her screams were muffled, everyone, minus the Trix could feel every fearful cry as the girl scraped at the newly formed skin that used to be her mouth.

The Trix looked on, cackling, along with a few girls joining in, some in fear that if they didn't, they'd suffer the same fate. Lucy ran to Mirta concerned and tried frantically to calm her down, but Mirta was freaking out so much that she started crying.

Lucy was unable to defend her friend from the mocking laughter of the witches.

"It's not funny she can't fucking talk!" Lucy scolded, trying to silence the crowd.

While this commotion was occurring, smoke formed across the dining hall floor, and soon Griffin was standing in between the two tables. Soon silence from the students entered the room, sans Mirta still frantically crying at her missing mouth.

"I try to enjoy a salad for a few minutes," the annoyed elderly witch grumbled before snapping her fingers.

In a flash, Mirta's mouth returned, piercings on the lip and all, causing her to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Stupid freshman," Darcy insulted.

She quickly cowered once she noticed Headmistress Griffin giving her a death glare.

"Instead of pestering freshmen, how about you focus on the dishwashing you have tonight," Griffin said, punishing the girl with yellow glasses.

Darcy's eyes widened and now the glare was sent to Mirta who simply glared back.

"What is all this mess? Can't you think of other ways to amuse yourselves?" Griffin scolded. "By the Eternal Dragon, there are fairies across the pond you can pester! This isn't even why I came down! Attention all students, the precious Princesses of Alfea have booked the Magix Stadium tomorrow night for some wretched music concert, so our "Money for Monsters" fundraiser has to move to the elementary school auditorium, so plan accordingly. Worthless do-gooding pixies. Now I'm even more pissed off!"

"They started it!" Mirta shouted pointing at the Trix with tears still in her eyes.

"Wow pathetic and a snitch!" Icy said shifting the blame to Mirta.

"Loser!" a girl shouted.

"I said knock it off!" Griffin shouted. The shadowy woman took a deep breath to keep her anger low. "You know what, everybody finish your meals and go to your rooms; there will be no entertainment this evening, period."

With that Griffin vanished from her spot as the smoke dissipated.

"Good going Mirta!" Stormy coughed chuckling, making sure the fearsome teacher wasn't there anymore.

Mirta's eyes welled up with tears. She rushed out of the room continuing to cry as onlookers cackled at her. Lucy followed behind her, calling for her to calm down. Darcy high-fived her sisters that they successfully ruined a person's day. She then folded her hands together before saying, "Looks like we have a free day Saturday night."

Stormy nodded fist-bumping her coven sister.

"I like the way you think," Icy nodded, sharing the same smirk.

…

Finally, Saturday had arrived, the end of the week and hopefully the last day of cleaning duties. The Winx were sore and tired, to say the least. Students mocked them when they walked down the halls, piled up writing assignments still unfinished, being excused from classes involving real magic being replaced with laborious chores out of magical assignments that involved real magic, and so much chewed gum scraped from different places of the school left them drained of joy as well.

To say they were elated this punishment was about to end was an understatement, that is if Faragonda and Griselda were ready to take away the punishment. While everyone was relaxing after a long week of classes, the Winx were not so lucky.

"So let me see if I can understand what you're saying," Stella said, glaring at Deputy Headmistress Griselda. They were back in her office being told some not-so-good news that the Princess could not comprehend. "Instead of going to the Magical Princess Musical Extravaganza tonight, you've saddled us with more bloody cleaning!"

"I would've thought that'd be obvious," Griselda replied, looking over her clipboard. "The tasks I assigned you overlapped with the start of the concert, sadly you don't have any time to go."

"This is bloody moronic!" Stella snapped. "I always go to the Extravaganza! I participated in it last year!"

"Yes, sad how things change when you're being disobedient," Griselda said, adjusting her glasses.

"Daft cow," Stella mumbled, crossing her arms. Bloom and the other girls couldn't help but give the unusually irate princess a subtle side eye. Most of the week she complained, but wasn't this aggressive about the situation. Stella hadn't informed them about the last text she received and wanted to keep it that way even if it meant she displacing her anger at that situation too.

"You're angry right now so I'll let that little retort slide," Griselda said through gritted teeth. "I apologize for this, but that's how things currently are."

"Yeah, but Bloomie hasn't even been to it!" Stella moaned. She placed her hands on the exhausted girl's shoulders, shaking her slightly. "She's being deprived of me singing! The other girls deserve something or whatever."

"Right, that's not what was on my mind," Bloom replied. "I just wanted to sleep in."

"She's kidding," Stella replied, shooting her bestie a side glare. "My point is, you're enjoying this type of torture, aren't you? I'll let my father know how you've treated us like servants."

Bloom rolled her eyes. "It must be strange seeing it from that perspective, huh?"

"You get what I mean. It just feels like you're giving us extra punishments for shites and giggles."

Griselda's eye twitched at the utterance of an expletive, but she managed to keep her cool. "I am not someone who doles out punishments for fun, you did something against school policy, and you were punished," she cleared her throat. "It is your own fault you have to deal with these in the first place, now you can either do them or sit around, complain, and be punished even further."

"Will we at least be able to eat?" Flora asked sincerely.

"Of course, I supplied food that you can eat after the school leaves for the recital in the next…" Griselda paused to check her watch. "The next five hours. See, I can be kind."

"Like sandburs on your arm," Tecna grumbled.

Griselda smiled curtly. "Oh, and before I go." The deputy headmistress walked over to Tecna and dug deep into the girl's left black tracksuit pants pocket where she pulled out a small phone that Bloom could see shared similarities with an android but higher tech. "How long have you had this?"

"Oh, why that ol' thing?" Tecna mumbled, rubbing the scar on her arm. "About a few days ago, a friend lent it to me to fix, it don't even work."

Griselda pressed the side button on the device, and it lit up with a flash of white light, much to the gadgetry girl's chagrin. She raised her eyebrow as the farm girl smiled nervously.

"Wow, look at that, it works now," the deputy headmistress said. "I'll be confiscating this until your punishment concludes on Sunday and then you can return it to your 'friend'."

She was about to put it in her pocket when Tecna tried to snatch it away. The two women fought over the device like it was the holy grail, but Griselda got the upper hand and tucked it away in the pocket on her skirt.

Tecna stared at the woman in shock, too stunned to speak at first. "Okay, now I'm scared."

"Wait, our punishment ends Sunday?" Musa said, perking up and bouncing on her toes. "Really?!"

"Y- yes," Griselda replied, surprised by the girl's energy. "But do not cross me or I will make sure it's longer and trust me, I need new cleaners around the school."

"Oh, thank you, Jeanie!" Musa said, wrapping her arms around the woman in a tight hug from which the woman could not break free.

"Yes well, think nothing of it," Griselda replied struggling to breathe. "And it is Deputy Headmistress Griselda!"

Musa was pulled away by Bloom who wrapped her around the smiling girl's shoulder to keep her from breaking free. With that, Griselda cleared her throat once again and walked past the girls towards the door of her office.

"I left your task lists on my desk; your respective name is on each list and those you're partnered with for the day." She opened the door and smiled curtly at the girls. "I expect everything to be done and no cutting corners. If anything is out of place, expect another day added."

"God, this just keeps getting funner!" Bloom gushed sarcastically.

"Cute, now get to cleaning," Griselda said, snapping her fingers before leaving the room with Tecna following behind her.

"Grizzy, ya can't just take someone's stuff without their permission!" Tecna called, but the woman shooed her off and kept walking down the hall. The southern tech reentered the room with a frown on her face. "Dragon damn it, that was the one piece of technology I could use freely. First, she locks up my phone, and now my backup! Don't get me started on them crappy laptops she gave us. They didn't even have a tri-processor and crashed five times yesterday! Do you know what it's like to live without tech?! I feel so naked!"

Flora patted her friend on the back to calm her down.

"I've never seen you get this heated before," she realized. "Annoyed, but never this anxious. It'll be okay, just practice meditation like I do."

"It ain't no time for jokes, Flo'a," Tecna said, pushing her away. The girls chuckled at her freakout to which the farm girl blushed embarrassed. "How could this day get any worse?"

"Uh, we have to clean all the lecture halls for a start," Stella answered the rhetorical question which only sent angry reactions her way. The princess sucked her teeth while walking past the group.

Bloom sighed, shaking her head. "Let's just get this started."

…

Much later while Bloom, Musa, and Stella were cleaning one of the lecture halls, Tecna and Flora were busy dusting a bust in the hallways.

"This reminds me of bein' at home," Tecna said with a soft sigh. "The land work was fine, but boy howdy did I hate doin' house chores."

Flora nodded. "Tell me about it," she lamented. "Back at home, my mom would make me dust the azaleas like every two days before my dad did it. She loved those freaking azaleas more than me, like it was super weird."

"My momma loved the prized tiaras she won in the Miss Zenith Pageants, kept them locked in a big cabinet and would get cross if one of us even tried to touch the doe." Tecna said, chuckling as she wiped some dust off a painting. "She had more tiaras than kids which is saying lots being she got eight kids."

"Eight?!"

"Yeah, my momma and papa, like bunnies, had about eight of us before stopping at Chip," Tecna said, continuing to chuckle. "My momma was like 'I's done! Callin' this the last child, we got enough grandchildren makin' babies!' she said that! Bless her heart."

"Cheesy Pete's mine stopped at two," Flora said, blushing. "How did they sleep?"

"Wif one eye open," Tecna replied, closing her left eye, and then bursting into hysterics along with Flora. "Let's just say there's a lot of us to keep the house cleaner than a chef's kitchen when an inspecta arrives."

"Sweet," Flora said with a nod. "We need to talk more."

"Ya know where to find me," Tecna replied, focusing her attention on another dusty head bust.

As the two girls cleaned the halls, the other three girls were busy cleaning the twentieth lecture hall. Well, Bloom and Musa were, Stella was busy reading her book, 'Jack's Adventures'. Bloom shot the occasional glare Stella's way, while Musa happily hummed while cleaning the floors.

Bloom sat up and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She looked at her wrinkled hands before asking, "Is it normal to have blisters from cleaning for over five hours?"

"It varies," Musa said, interrupting her humming. "I have some cream if you need it."

"Thanks, but I wouldn't be so blistered from my hands to my knees if someone would help!" Bloom snapped, glaring at the princess. "Stella!"

"I'm overseeing you," Stella replied nonchalantly.

Musa sat up on her knees and shuffled over to the girl while saying, "You know we're all on punishment, right? Which kind of means you have to join in."

The chipper girl tried to pass her a scrub brush, but Stella pushed it away with a look of disgust on her face. "And break a nail again?"

Stella put her book down and took out a nail filer and started filing her nails.

Musa smiled. "You don't have to use your hands, use a scrub brush or a rag!"

Stella's nose scrunched up. "And have my hands smell of bleach?"

"Wear gloves!" Bloom exclaimed, tossing a pair of gloves the Princess's way.

"Ugh, rubber is bad for my skin!" Stella complained, dodging the clean gloves. She wrinkled her nose, scooting back on the desk as Bloom seethed, clenching her fist. The redhead just couldn't believe her royal friend could be this lazy. She knew the princess had probably been spoon fed with a gold spoon at that, but she could help out a little more. "I had maids do this back home; this isn't meant for me! You two should be used to this though."

"Stella!" Bloom shouted, annoyed. "Get to cleaning."

"I'll take care of it," Musa said, standing up and putting more soap into the water-filled bucket.

"Musa, you don't have to do her work," Bloom scolded.

Stella stopped Bloom from talking, "No, no, no don't stop her-"

The princess was cut off when water was splashed on her by Musa. The blue-haired girl burst into laughter as Stella froze in shock from the splash. The dirty mop water dripped from her hair as she sat there regretting being assigned with the two girls in front of her.

"What were you saying, Stella?" Musa questioned with a sly smile.

"Gross!" Stella said, trembling in disgust. She sniffed her water-soaked shirt sleeve and stuck out her tongue in disgust. "You used that to clean the bleeding floor!"

Musa laughed. "I just wanted to include you in the cleaning."

"Good one Musa," Bloom said, laughing as well.

"Oh, I got some for you too," Musa eagerly said, grabbing another bucket and splashing Bloom with cold, dirty mop bucket water.

"Well now I smell like floor cleaner," Bloom said, spitting some water out her mouth. She could taste it too. "Undeserved!"

"Everybody loves a good splash fight," Musa said, bouncing on her toes.

Bloom and Stella shared the same mischievous expression before both girls started tossing wet sponges at the chipper girl who ran away, trying to avoid the sponges.

"Oh, those smell awful," Musa pinched the bridge of her nose. "You girls are gonna get it this time!"

"What are you ruffians doing?!" The girls heard a voice shout from behind them, they all turned around and were met with Tecna, Flora, and Griselda entering the room. Flora and Tecna were covering their mouths to hide their laughs while the Deputy Headmistress could only cover her face with her clipboard while groaning.

"Sometimes I regret the choices I made to become a deputy headmistress," Griselda said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I came here to tell you the school is about to leave, and you could take a break, but I'm contemplating changing my mind."

"Please don't," Stella begged. "I'm covered in dirt water; I must take a shower!"

"I'm feeling very generous, so I will honor that request," Griselda relented. "Afterwards I expect you to get back to cleaning and I will know if you haven't."

"I fully believe that," Bloom dryly said. "So, what happens if we finish early?"

"Well, I'm still feeling generous, so you can relax for the rest of the night," Griselda replied, happily. "A little incentive should make you content."

"It does, thank you, Jeanie," Musa said, attempting to hug the woman, who simply pushed her away.

Jeanie groaned. "I'm prohibiting calling me by my first name unless you want more punishments!"

"Whoopsie, sorry," Musa apologized.

"Apology accepted, now have fun cleaning," Griselda said, turning on her heel and leaving the room. She then grumbled under her breath. "I can't stand Faragonda and that stupid name sometimes!"

…

A while later, all the students and teachers got inside the shuttles to the Magix Auditorium. Griselda looked back towards the school, then shrugged off the fact that the Winx would have to miss the trip. She felt guilt for this, but a punishment was a punishment. The Winx watched on through the windows as the buses floated off, leaving them behind.

Bloom sighed. "Well, they're gone."

Musa pouted. "I always feel sad when the school is empty."

"Right, and we still got…" Tecna said while looking over the chore list. "Three mo' chores before we can relax."

"And one is mopping the floors? We already scrubbed the bloody floors!" Stella exclaimed. "Bleeding Omega, can't we be done with this! Unless… Oh, I have a brilliant idea!"

"There's no way you can get your servants here," Bloom joked.

"Shut it," Stella whispered. "How about we invite our blokes here to help us finish cleaning."

"That's so ridiculous that I'm completely on board," Bloom said, fist-bumping Stella.

The princess giggled eagerly.

Flora nodded while sitting in a lotus pose. "Yeah, it'd be totally awesome to have some guys here, but if we get caught-"

"Then we'll be grounded into infinity!" Tecna stated the obvious.

"I think it's a great idea!" Musa said, clapping.

"So, we're inviting Riven, I guess," Bloom said, staring directly at Musa. The blue-haired girl's crimson cheeks gave her away. "Plus, Griselda said 'no magic, no techno-gadgets', she didn't say 'no flesh and blood'."

"I find yer use of a technicality impressive," Tecna said with a wink. "All right, I'm feelin' mischievous, let's bust some rules an' invite them fellas!"

Stella and Bloom high-fived each other eagerly. Now it was time to send an invitation to their favorite boys.

…

"You sure they're coming?" Bloom asked, adjusting her collar. "You did tell them about the cleaning part, right?"

"Mm-hm," Stella hummed, avoiding eye contact with the girl.

"Cool, so they don't know," Bloom said, seeing right through the girl's BS. She looked away from her phone and gave Stella the side-eye as the princess smiled nervously.

"I may have left that part out," Stella sheepishly replied. "They wouldn't have agreed to come if I told the truth, but better than telling them the truth, I informed them to bring snacks and a Bluetooth speaker."

"Conflict avoided then," Bloom replied sarcastically, chuckling. "Also, we have to make sure we put these back in Griselda's lock drawer before she comes back," she mentioned, playing a game on her phone. "Tecna, are you sure you didn't break anything?"

"I ain't even respondin' to that," Tecna answered, her eyes focused on her phone.

"Love, stop being such a worrywart, we're covered," Stella reassured before pointing forward with a wide grin. "That's them!"

The other girls looked her way and noticed floating objects coming their way, when they got closer, Bloom's eyes widened in shock. They were on floating bikes! Sure, she had seen that basically, every vehicle seemed to float, but this was a special type of amazing to her.

"Holy crap, they're on hoverbikes?" Bloom cried out intrigued.

"Right, you're not used to floating vehicles," Flora said chuckling.

"Oh my God, that's so awesome!" Bloom squealed, bouncing on her toes for the first time. Unlike the bus, this just looked a special type of awesome to her. Once she noticed her friends staring at her with smiles, she calmed herself. "I mean, that's all right."

Stella chuckled as the guys made their way toward the girls and parked a few feet away from them. They removed their helmets much to the girls' enjoyment who swooned over the boys.

"Hey guys," Sky greeted. He walked over to Stella and put his arm around her hip. "How are you doing?"

"Good as usual," Stella said flirtatiously.

Brandon was not as smooth as he rushed over to Bloom, nearly tripping on his feet. "Bloom, greetings, hello, hi, how you doin- what's up?"

"Sup, howdy, good day, bonjour," Bloom said, chuckling at the boy's giddiness. "I'm fine."

"Where is he?" Musa eagerly questioned, pushing Bloom and Brandon aside. She looked around, with a hand atop her eyes. As Riven set up the kickstand on his bike, the girl spotted him. "Riven!"

"Oh no," Riven fretted, hiding behind Timmy.

Musa squealed before taking a running stance and racing over to the boys, leaving another Musa-shaped cloud behind her.

"How does she-" Brandon started to ask, touching the cloud that began dissipating, but Bloom shook her head.

"Don't ask."

"Don't move," Riven begged, staying behind Timmy. "Or I will gut-punch you."

"I wasn't planning to, I have some questions," Timmy replied, staring at the charging girl.

Musa reached her destination and stopped before colliding with the two boys. Her wide grin remained there, creeping out both boys even though her eyes were innocent.

"Hi Riven!" The girl greeted, trying to sound flirtatious but was more like a children's TV host. "How's it going?"

"Good," Riven replied cautiously. "Keep a distance please."

"That is great!" Musa said giggling. After a second of fawning over Riven, her eyes turned towards Timmy whose eyes widened in surprise. "Hi, taller guy, how are you doing?"

"It's Timmy and I'm doing well," Timmy replied, keeping his body in between Riven and Musa. Timmy looked back at Musa's original spot and then at her unnerving and unwavering smile. "How did you-"

Before Timmy could ask his question, Musa giggled like a young schoolgirl. "I like you Tim-me. Let's get to the party!"

"Did she just call me Tim-me?" Timmy questioned as Musa led him and Riven into the building.

"At least she's not obsessed with you," Riven grumbled. "This party better be worth it."

"Right, party!" Stella said giggling awkwardly. "About that, we need you blokes for something, before it starts."

The guy's eyes shifted confused, but they didn't know what was yet to come.

…

"Let's go through the woods again, that was smart!" Darcy snapped as she and the Trix exited the forest and made their way to the tunnels. "Hey, next time, let's wade through a swamp."

"Hold on, Darcy, what's that?" Icy said, cupping her hand over her ear, before adding. "The sound of no one caring!"

Icy gave the girl an annoyed eyebrow raise while putting her hands on her hips.

Darcy glowered at her coven sister. "I can't stand you."

"Why did we go this way again instead of just going through the main entrance?" Stormy questioned, changing the subject.

"There's no way we'd be able to sneak off without Griffin confronting us?" Icy responded. "And there is no way I am sitting through some dumbass fundraiser filled with bratty kids."

The girls squirmed jointly just thinking about it. Lots of kids and slimy creatures would be there, yet to them the kids were what grossed them out the most.

"We go through here because it gets us to Alfea quicker and no one notices we're gone," Icy added.

"Does it though or are you too scared of Griffin to sign out normally and give her a reason?" Darcy questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Man, that sound sure is getting louder!" Icy snapped. "Now let's go!"

Stormy patted Darcy on the back while the mind witch grumbled under her breath.

"I can't stand her either," Stormy whispered.

"I heard that!" the ice witch shouted over her shoulder.

…

"So let me get this straight, one last time," Riven said, scratching his head. "You invited us here to help you clean?"

"You see-" Stella started before Bloom interjected.

"Mostly," she answered walking over to the group. Stella gave her bestie a side-eye glare, but Bloom shrugged in response. "We're almost done, but hey afterward we can party, and you brought a speaker, chips, and what I'm assuming is soda so it's going to be fun."

"Plus, Griselda was right, cleaning can be fun!" Musa sang sliding across the floor like she was ice skating. "I like to skate across the floor for fun!"

"This is cool!" Flora said, skating across the floor in her pumps along with Musa. "The faster we clean the faster we can go wild!"

"Bye," Riven said, turning on his heel and preparing to leave before being turned back around by Sky.

Riven rolled his eyes.

"As long as we get to hang out with you gals, we're up for anything," the prince said. "So, toss me a mop."

"Good sport," Stella said, handing him a mop and her boy toy went right with cleaning the floor with no issue.

"Wow, for a prince he sure does seem ready to clean," Bloom noticed.

"He's always been like that," Brandon said, laughing somewhat nervously. "Now, how do we use this thing… I'm a guard so I never really mopped, right Sky!"

"Yuppers," Sky replied, keeping his eyes focused on the floor.

"You just dip the mop in the water, squeeze it to get out any excess water, like so," Musa said, standing in front of the boys sliding over a mop bucket. With each step she demonstrated the process. "And apply to the floor!"

"Tch, easy," Brandon said, dipping the mop in the bucket and knocking it over, spilling water everywhere.

"Yes, a bigger mess! Thank you, bodyguard!" Riven congratulated sarcastically. He even clapped with a mocking tone. Timmy simply shook his head taking a few steps back from the spill.

"I meant to do that!" Brandon said blushing. "Imma just go refill this."

Brandon looked around unsure of where to go, making Bloom shake her head laughing. Sky facepalmed.

"It's just water, we're using it to clean anyways," she said. "But maybe you should sit this one out."

"Yes, please do," Tecna said, mopping the big pool of water. "Dragon's flamin' breath, how do ya not know how to use a bucket? I already got corns on my feet from cleanin' and ya made things worse!"

"I'm so glad you invited us to this," Timmy said, taking the words right out of Riven's mouth.

Brandon held his head down and took a seat in a chair in the classroom, mortified. Bloom rolled her eyes and gave the southern girl an exasperated look as she was tired of her attitude.

"Oh, you were thinkin' it," Tecna responded.

The redhead rolled her eyes again and then walked over to Brandon with a rag. "Just clean the chairs, it's easy."

"I will do my best!" Brandon replied, taking the rag with a smile.

He's so cute.

Bloom tossed a mop to the last two boys. Timmy caught one and shrugged before starting to mop, but Riven stood there moodily.

"I don't do custodial work," he replied.

"You will, for the next fifteen minutes, Spike," Bloom said, giving the boy a new nickname. "That or you'll be missing the party and I know you don't want that."

Bloom walked away leaving Riven to seethe. The boy stood on the sidelines as everyone else cleaned. He tapped his foot impatiently.

Musa skated past him singing, "Soap, rinse, dry! Soap, rinse, dry!"

Riven smiled at the girl's goofy singing, then let out a sigh of defeat and picked up the mop, and joined in cleaning the floors.

…

Fifteen minutes later, chores were done, and partying had commenced. Bloom was the first to choose the music. Her eyes stayed on her phone as Riven walked up to her and bumped her arm with his fist lightly.

"Stockings," Riven greeted.

"Spike," Bloom greeted back. "You enjoying yourself?"

"A few complaints, next time list that the beginning of the party is cleaning up. I want to make sure to skip this."

"Oh, stop complaining, you're having fun," Bloom replied, playfully punching Riven back. "I know we conveniently left that part out-"

"Yeah, 'conveniently'," Riven said, putting air quotes around the last word.

Bloom chuckled while typing a playlist on her phone and hitting play. Loud metal music blasted through the speakers scaring Brandon who jolted with the drink in his hand. The others just stood around accepting the new music choice.

"Yes, finally someone with taste," Riven complimented sincerely. "What band is this?"

"Python Insanity," Bloom replied, placing the phone down and taking a sip from her drink. "Earth band."

"Hm, Earth has some good taste," Riven said. "You know who you should listen to?"

"I'll take some recommendations," Bloom replied slyly.

"The Hounds," Riven suggested. "Hardcore for others, but you seem to have good taste, so you should like it."

"Play it next and I'll see if they're any good," Bloom accepted. "But if they suck… you owe me a soda."

"Deal," Riven replied with a wink. "You know what? I'm liking you more and more."

"Ditto," Bloom said, chuckling. "Although you need to change your hair type."

Riven smirked. "After you change collars, scruffy."

The two laughed and continued talking while drinking. Brandon watched from the side, holding his drink, and crushing it slightly in his hands. Sky and Stella came close to him and patted him on the back.

"Go talk to her," Sky advised. "You know you want to."

"Trust me, she likes you," Stella reassured. "Those two are just friends… with great chemistry."

"Thank you," Brandon said, glaring at the Princess. "She's just so… everything. I want to get to know her more, she just seems so… I can't even explain it."

"Then go talk to her," Stella said, pushing Brandon towards the two talking. The boy took a deep breath, casually walked over to the two, and stepped in front of Riven.

"Greetings again Bloom," he said, trying to sound sly. "Excellent music choice you selected."

"That's why you jumped like a woman seeing a rat," Riven insulted.

"Hey, Riven, go talk to Musa," Brandon said through clenched teeth.

"You should probably leave. Brandon wants to converse," Bloom said, emphasizing the last word.

Riven chuckled like they just shared a joke. "Fine, I'll try conversing with the girl who I'm pretty sure inhales sugar." He took a long sip from his cup and walked over to Musa who was busily moonwalking by herself until she saw him walking over and perked up even more.

Brandon looked over at Riven and then back at Bloom. It was worse than he thought, for him anyway, they seemed to have a secret joke that he didn't know about. He had to show he was cool too.

"How about them… earth… stuff," he started, his left eye twitching.

"Earth stuff is good," Bloom replied, noticing how tense the boy was. "By the way, there's not anything in here to get me drunk, is it?"

"No, don't worry, it's harmless," Brandon said honestly. "It's this gloopy drink called Omega and it's really good. We drink it all the time back at Red Fountain and on Eraklyon."

"Neat," Bloom replied casually, taking another sip. "You seem to like this stuff."

Brandon nodded.

"Reminds me of this drink back on Earth I like and it's really cheesy so don't tell anyone. You have to promise, I'll look like a total weirdo if you do," Bloom half-threatened to which the bodyguard happily zipped his lips. "It's called… Yoo-Hoo, a chocolate milk drink back on Earth."

"Oh, my dragon, you still drink chocolate milk?" Brandon said in a hushed tone that wasn't drowned out by the music. "That's so precious."

"Shut up." Bloom playfully shoved Brandon causing them both to laugh before she asked, "Got anything else interesting to chat about?"

Brandon hadn't expected to get this far, what could he discuss with her next? "Uh, um, you see, there's this thing called… you haven't heard of that show. Have… you done anything exciting lately?"

"If you count cleaning the entire week, then yes it was very exciting," Bloom replied sarcastically. "I'm pretty sure I have calluses and blisters on my knees, hands, and feet. Everything pretty much aches and…" The redhead closed her eyes while laughing. She pressed her cup on her forehead. "I just realized I'm discussing this with a guy like you're my doctor. Bury me now."

Brandon laughed. "Hey, I understand, we've been stuck doing stable duty since our last scuffle in the swamp. Yeah, the school is none too happy that we destroyed an airship. Bunch of tossers if you ask me. 'Oh, you ruined a new airship, off to cleaning! Blah, blah, blah'."

Bloom took a long sip from her cup before adding, "I swear they're turning us into grumpy old fogeys like them."

Brandon nodded in agreement. "I'm using that word next time."

"Sorry I charge for the usage," Bloom said slyly.

"I can write you a chec- Oh… you and that Earth humor," Brandon said, shoving Bloom back, nearly toppling her over. "I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize, Hercules," Bloom said in a slightly flirtatious way. "Nah, Goldilocks suits you more."

"Gee thanks," Brandon said sarcastically with an eye roll.

The two laughed for a few seconds before Bloom continued the conversation.

"Honestly for a magic school, this feels less like Harry Potter and more like a cleaning manual."

"Harry Potter, I'm assuming that's a non-magi fantasy novel?" Brandon surmised. "I love fantasy novels. My favorite is the Pedigree Saga."

"Go on," Bloom said, intrigued.

Brandon's eyes and smile perked up once he heard that and eagerly told the girl about the book series as the others continued talking.

"And that's why juniper's berries are better than most modern-day meds," Flora told Sky, who sat next to her, interested.

"Whoa," Sky said.

"Don't entertain her," Stella said with a sigh.

"Wait, wait, she may have a point," Sky disagreed. "Go on."

Flora smiled and then stuck her tongue at Stella, who let out an annoyed groan. "Gladly," the flower child said.

Timmy and Tecna sat together, sipping their drinks silently.

"Enjoying the party?" Timmy asked nonchalantly.

"You know it," Tecna answered dryly.

"Fantastic," Timmy said, taking another sip. "Not much of a dancer?"

"Not in the slightest, cowboy," Tecna said. "You?"

"Not in the slightest, magenta-haired girl." Timmy shook his head. The two clinked their cups in their joint anti-socialness.

And Musa and Riven were talking… well Musa was doing most of the talking about everything.

"My favorite candy has to be gummy bears, the sour ones, I love the sour and sugary mix that they offer. I also like taffy, oh who am I kidding I can't choose one type of fave candy! And have you ever tried spicy candy? What's your favorite form of social media? What was the last good book you read? Do you listen to any podcasts? Oh, listen to me talk so much. Yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah, I forgot what you asked me! What was it?"

Riven blinked, contemplating everything about life that brought him to this point before saying, "I asked what was your favorite class?"

Musa giggled nervously, "Oh… magical philosophy."

…

As the group partied and most were having a good time, the Trix had made their way onto the Alfea campus and were floating outside the building where the party was being held, watching the Winx and their guys. They kept their heads down as best as they could to not be spotted by their foes.

Icy rolled her eyes at the joy they were having. "Simpletons."

"How long is this ditz gonna ramble about juniper berries?" Stormy questioned, slightly concerned for the Princess being forced to listen to the weird conversation.

"Hopefully long enough for us to procure the dragon flame," Darcy replied, "Let's conjure the spell already."

"You sure we shouldn't leave?" Stormy questioned, scratching her head.

"Because of those twits?" Icy questioned, mildly annoyed. "I want the Dragon Fire and I'll burn in the flames of Valhalla before I let a handful of pixies get in my way!"

"That's good and all, but how are we going to deal with them?"

"I say we summon a Cretan Minotaur from the creature preserve and have him crash their party," Darcy suggested.

Icy nodded. "Excellent idea, DARCY!"

Stormy rolled her eyes.

"We have to summon the whispering crystal first though," Icy replied. "I can feel the flame close by."

"You better be right about this," Stormy said with doubt in her voice. She was already tired; she didn't feel like being misled again.

"I'm always right," Icy said in an arrogant tone.

"Not even worth it," Stormy said while lowering herself to the ground.

Icy grumbled while she and Darcy followed suit, remaining unnoticed by the party-goers. They walked to the middle of the courtyard and took their formation in a circle. Icy dug in her pockets to pull out a small blue crystal that gleamed like a bright light, she held out her hand for her sisters to pass her the crystals they had snuck out with, in their pockets. Both girls passed them over. Icy rubbed her hands together and whispered under her breath trying to remember the right spell.

"Energies of Chaos unite," she started. "Form the Whispering Triangle. Let the three cease to be, and bear one power onto me."

The three crystals merged into one medium-sized gemstone and the light began tracking the power they sought for. Before it could continue, Icy snapped her fingers to cease its movement for the time being.

"Damn it is close by?" Stormy said, shocked.

"Oh, ye of little faith," Icy insulted her. "Now that we've taken care of that, let us summon the minotaur."

"Join hands sisters," Darcy commanded, holding out her hands.

Stormy squirmed. "I always hate this part; Darcy's hands are always so damp."

"Yeah seriously, your hands are like holding wet rags that are also sticky," Icy insulted.

"Mm-hm!" Stormy agreed.

Darcy raised her left eyebrow before slapping her coven sisters on their respective heads. "Complete the fucking chain!"

She then quickly wiped her hands on her shirt, blushing slightly. Her coven sisters groaned and took hold of each other's hands, squirming at the clamminess of the mind witch's hands.

Darcy sighed. "Inya-e-sorinum. Methos-via-comos-fractos. Creature lost in the maze of mayhem, cross the void!"

As the words escaped Darcy's lips, magical air swirled around the three girls and ascended into the air into a small tornado. As the tornado grew stronger a beast began to materialize from the void that the Trix summoned the monster from. Before their evil eyes, a four-armed Minotaur emerged.

Icy cackled. "I love when my plans work out!"

Darcy released her hands and clenched her fist offended at her sister taking all the credit once again.

Stormy patted her on the back. "I get it, but just keep reminding yourself that it's not worth complaining about."

The Minotaur stomped the ground while growling. Darcy snapped her fingers bringing attention to the minotaur. She waved her hands across the beast's eyes, putting him under her control thanks to a quick complacency spell she had been practicing.

"Listen, we know you're all angry, but we have one request," she said. "There are some people who are bothering us, do something about it."

The mindless creature nodded and rushed off, howling in the night.

Darcy clasped her hands energetically looking over at Icy. "Wow, Icy you were able to use your real mind powers to tame the beast. You're so awesome!" she sarcastically congratulated before putting her hands on her hips and giving her sister a know-it-all expression.

Icy rolled her eyes. "Let's just find the dragon flame!" She then mumbled under her breath. "Getting on my last nerves!"

The girls followed the whispering crystal through the school, phasing through a wall through a spell. Icy rubbed her hands together, she was so close to the dragon flame that she could almost taste it.

…

Back at the party, the gang spent time relaxing while Flora's music choice, sitar relaxation music, played in the background.

"This music makes me feel really calmed," Brandon said, humming along to the sitar playing. "Like I'm in a whole other world."

"You see I told you you'd like it," Flora said. "Best music ever."

"It sucks this party can't last forever," Musa said, snuggling next to Riven who had an aggravated look on his face as he tried to pry his arm away.

"Maybe not forever but I was hoping it would go on at least until morning," Brandon said, placing his arm around Bloom's hip. He winced once she pressed her hand tightly around his and moved it away. "My hand has a mind of its own."

"You're a bad liar," Riven said.

"You freaking stole my line!" Bloom chuckled as the two clinked drinks much to Brandon's annoyance. "Sadly, though, we gotta kick you guys out soon."

"Aww, I felt like this party was really slow!" Musa said, staring at Riven with innocent eyes. She had latched onto the boy's right arm and was snuggling against it like a pillow.

Riven groaned averting eye contact with the snuggling girl. "The faster I leave the better."

The rest of the group laughed but were quickly cut off when the room and floor began to aggressively shake. They nearly toppled over then a second later when the tremors started up again.

"Are we under a fault line?" Bloom asked non-sarcastically.

"None that I'm aware of," Stella replied. "Somebody or something is causing these quakes."

"It's coming from inside the building," Flora noticed. "Or outside… I kind of can't tell."

The group ran to the balcony to check to see if the sound and vibrations were outside from where they were, but found nothing in the surrounding area. Until a chair was thrown from the first floor, smashing the glass window.

"Maybe someone returned to the school?" Stella suggested, frightened.

"Who would-" Riven questioned before a menacing growl echoed through the halls a second later. "Never mind, the obvious monster answered my question."

"We'll be right back, you girls, stay here!" Brandon said as he and the other specialists rushed out of the room and down the stairs.

"And they're gone," Tecna said before she could question them about their next move. "Come on girls, let's find out who this rabble-rouser is."

Tecna and the Winx raced downstairs and spotted smashed statues, windows, and picture frames. They kept close to each other, noticing the claw marks deeply scratched into the walls.

"Yeah, this doesn't seem like something we should just rush into without the-" Stella said before being cut off by Bloom. She was led down the hall by the girl as she whimpered.

"We need to at least see what it is," Bloom said.

"What, what is?" The girls heard a voice say from behind. They screamed while sharply turning around but were only met by the Specialists screaming with their weapons. Thankfully the minotaur was nowhere near them.

"Don't do that!" Bloom shouted, catching her breath.

"You screamed at us!" Riven snapped back.

"Whatever," Sky said, tightening the grip on his sword. "We need to find the beast who caused this much damage!"

Sky led the group down the narrow hallways as the growls grew louder. Tecna looked over the claw marks with intrigue.

"What kind of creature do you think could do this kind of damage?" Timmy asked.

"A big, heavy creature," Tecna responded.

"Oh, golly gee, I never would've guessed detective!" Riven snidely said.

Tecna clenched her fist, seething in anger. She was not in the mood to be insulted right now. "It's two an' a half meters tall, and weighs close to a ton. Its fur is bristly an' has horns and multiple clawed limbs. It also has a musky oda. Now, is that betta?"

"You had that one coming," Timmy said, chuckling.

Riven groaned and stepped in front of Sky with his saber. The creature was easier for him to take on than Tecna was, and he wasn't ready to test the towering country girl. They turned another corner but kept themselves hidden behind the corner of the wall and peeked over to spot the minotaur still wreaking havoc.

"I'm containing myself, but is that a real minotaur?!" Bloom frantically whispered.

"Yup, in the flesh," Stella said. "They're usually at the Creature Preserve in Magix City, how did one get here?"

"Not sure, but we gotta do somethin'," Tecna said, preparing herself for the fight, but before she could run over Stella yanked her back by the arm.

"No powers, remember?" she reminded the girl.

"Oh, that's just great," Riven said with a groan while rubbing his forehead.

"That won't stop us from defeating this beast!" Brandon said eagerly, wielding his weapon. "Let's go!"

"We can still help," Bloom volunteered, pulling Brandon back.

"How? Being used as toothpicks?" Timmy questioned, mystified.

"Yeah, we're not doing this again, you girls stay here, the men will take care of this," Riven said attempting to run towards the beast before being yanked back by Tecna.

"The last time the men took care of it, Timmy got face-planted into the ground. About five times," Tecna said.

"That is not the same thing!" Timmy snapped.

"We're not arguing about this!" Riven shouted.

The beast let out a louder growl as he turned his attention toward the group. The girls glared at Riven and Timmy since they were the ones that inadvertently alerted the beast towards their hiding spot.

"Just stay here, please, we are begging you, we can handle this," Sky said. He then rushed towards the beast who was digging his hooves into the ground. "Quickly let's lead him to the courtyard!"

"We-" Musa started before Riven silenced her.

"Stay where you are, little fairies," he commanded. "This isn't a job for you."

Musa stared at Riven shocked as he patted her head like a child then rushed towards the monster along with the other boys. The boys used their weapons to fight the beast off and successfully got him out of the hallways. The girls stood back pissed off.

"Why do I feel I just got treated like a child?" Musa said, sounding slightly annoyed for a second time. "He may be cute, but I don't agree with his views right now. Do you 'little fairies'?"

"For once I think we're on the same page," Bloom said with a nod.

Musa led the girls in search of the beast in a different direction. They ran into the hall, unaware that the Trix's were drawing closer to them. The witches heard the screams and growls but disregarded them as their minds were focused on the crystal leading them to their destination.

"I think we're getting close," Icy said as they turned another corner.

…

As the Winx tried to find a way to help the guys, the specialists in question were busy trying to defeat the beast before them, but he was far too much to handle on their small team. They had fortunately led him outside and weren't giving up. The beast began to charge directly toward Brandon until they both heard another whistle.

"Over here!" Stella called from behind the monster.

"Oh, sweet Dragon, why are they here?" Brandon questioned, banging the front blade of the sword on his head.

The minotaur turned towards Stella and raced after her. He spat at her, a large amount of saliva nearly hitting her.

Stella squirmed. "Ew, you nasty barmy, you think I'm scared of you?" She dodged out of his way before he could gore her with his horns. "I may not have powers, but I'm not letting that stop me. Here bull boy, try to get me."

Sky rushed towards her and knocked her out of the way, blocking the beast's horns with his shield. His feet dragged on the ground as he struggled to keep the beast away.

"Stella now is not the time!" he snapped.

Stella rolled her eyes, but before she could say anything another whistle was heard, and the beast turned his attention toward the person behind him. It was Tecna.

"Dragon damn it!" Sky exclaimed.

"I thought y'all might need some help," Tecna called. "Follow me you angry bull!"

"I don't understand, I don't bloody understand why they won't listen!" Sky complained racing after the minotaur, but as he and the other Specialists made their way towards the creature and girl, they found a strange sight.

Tecna was racing around the bull, confusing him long enough that when he thought he could puncture her side, the farm girl raced between his legs and pass Sky while laughing.

"Now I'm here, can yo' stop me?" Tecna challenged chuckling. As everyone looked on, Tecna kept the beast distracted. "I used to take on bulls like yo' back in Titania!"

"This isn't helping!" Sky snapped.

"Yeah, this is more counterintuitive than anything," Timmy agreed.

Just as he said that Tecna tripped on her footing and fell over, the minotaur had a sickening leer as he dug his feet into the ground and prepared himself to charge at the girl. Tecna's eyes widened as she froze in shock, but before he could gore her in a quick second a figure shielded the girl in the best way possible.

Timmy swiftly came in and grabbed the minotaur by the horns and was pushing him away while snarling back at him. He surprisingly pushed the beast away, but his feet were weakening.

"Did ya-" Tecna questioned in shock, but was taken back as Timmy glared at her.

"Run. Now!" he snapped. Tecna nodded and picked herself up, running off along with the other girls. Timmy grumbled under his breath, "I can't stand people sometimes!"

Timmy released his hands from the beast and quickly sped off, diverting his attention from the girls and back towards him and the other boys.

Musa attempted to fight off the beast next, but Riven turned her the other way and pointed in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, fair," she said, before speeding off. Riven readied his weapon while charging after the beast.

"I got this, guys," he said, spinning his saber at his side. The beast attempted to knock the boy to the ground with his fist ready to make contact, but Riven dodged quickly.

"We need to work together!" Brandon shouted.

"Just worry about your prince, squire bo- Shit!" Riven insulted before having the wire of his saber grabbed by the beast. The beast huffed with a smirk then yanked the wire which caused Riven to have his body jerked in the air. In front his teammates his body was spun around along with the wire and he was tossed through the air while screaming. Luckily, he flew through an open window to an office and landed. "I'm in pain… but okay!"

Brandon sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "He's such a twit."

Bloom walked over to the frustrated boy, keeping an eye out for the minotaur as she went over to him, "I'm just guessing you'd rather I sit this one out?"

"Please." Brandon said calmly.

"All right," Bloom calmly said, walking back to her hiding spot accepting that it was better to hide and formulate a better plan to defeat the minotaur over the possibility of being gored in the stomach by one.

"Oh, thank you!" Brandon said, surprised she listened. He couldn't hide his smile, but quickly tensed up when he heard another growl echo through the hall.

Sky shouted at his friend, "Help me you daft moron!"

"Right," Brandon said, running to where the beast had been led to and his teammates were losing the battle at.

…

"Why is the ride stopping?" Riven said, his vision blurred before everything stabilized in front of him. Stood in front of him were three witches, the Trix! They all shared the same look of disinterest as Riven regained his footing.

"Hey," Stormy greeted.

"Were you three always real?" Riven questioned groggily. "Or are you attractive ladies' part of my mind?"

Riven attempted to touch Icy, but she grabbed his hand and tightly squeezed it. Riven released his hand and looked over his body. Some minor bruising, but nothing too damaging. Thank goodness the window was open.

"Thank goodness your little tumble didn't ruin that cute face of yours," Darcy said, walking around Riven. She grabbed his chin and looked into his eyes with a sly smile.

"Why thank you, ma'am," Riven said dizzily. He quickly regained his footing, he looked at his arm to make sure it wasn't broken, but as he noticed Darcy touching his face he backed away. "Uh, I mean back the fuck up!"

"Feisty one," Darcy said, smirking. "I love your dark energy."

"Yeah, it's like emitting off of you," Stormy agreed, touching the boy's shoulder but he winced and took a step back.

"This boy has a very strong negative force, not like us, but pretty damn close," Icy added. "What do you think?"

Stormy scoffed. "I think he's just an average-joe idiot who's wasting our time."

"I'm not deaf you know, and once my vision goes back to… norma…" Riven said, panting. "...you're going to get it."

Darcy laughed. "Hey, we didn't do anything to you… yet."

Riven groaned. "Oh Dragon, you did not just say that."

Darcy smirked. "You love it," she then turned towards her sister. "Now that I've had my fun, let's go."

"Thank you, because we're very close and I know exactly where it's going," Icy said with a smirk.

As the witches walked off, phasing through a wall casually, Riven could hear Stormy say, "You really think you're all that, don't you?"

Riven's mouth dropped open when he saw them go through the wall casually. He then looked down while clutching his arm.

"What… negative… force? Just going to ignore that disturbing thought and- Shit!" Riven looked at his wrist and unlike the rest of his body… well it was a dark purple and slightly swollen. "That doesn't look normal." He tried to turn it and winced. "Eh, it's probably fine. Well, time to get back to the fun."

Riven calmly left the room humming, he was bruised, and his wrist was most certainly broken, but at least he wasn't going through what his team was.

…

Back in the courtyard, the rest of the Specialists weren't having a good time as their bodies were being slammed down by the fists of the mighty minotaur so badly the girls could hear every grunt and cry.

"Amazingly, this is somehow worse than when Timmy got smashed into the ground," Bloom noticed. "This is painful just to watch."

"How. Do. You. Think. We. Feel!" Timmy shouted in between punches. "We could use some help here!"

"Now they want our help," Bloom said with a snide tone, but quickly went back to concern as she saw Brandon get dragged across the floor by the leg. "He is right though. We should… probably do something."

"We don't have anything to fight with though," Stella brought up, scratching her head. "Hang in there boys!" She looked at her friends, asking nervously, "Anyone got a plan?"

Stella nibbled on her fingernail as she heard giggling from behind her. She and the girls turned to spot Musa with a few mops and some buckets hanging from her arm.

"I have an unconventional idea," she said with a smile.

…

With the plan enacted in under a minute, Tecna coaxed the beast away from the bruised boys and smacked it on the head with a mop. The boys staggered to their feet, dazed, and confused. Tecna ran down numerous halls as the girls readied themselves.

"You ready?" Musa asked.

"As I'll ever be," Bloom replied with a sly smile.

"Techy, you close?" Musa called.

"Like a hound at the end of a race!" Tecna called back, she came running down the hallway along with the beast barreling after the girl. The specialists were behind them trying to call him off, but he was focused on the farm girl.

As the creature reached its clawed hand out to grab Tecna's waist, she jumped out of the way as Bloom and the others spilled the liquid soap causing the Minotaur to slip and slide on the floor. He skidded a few feet before making contact with a wall and toppling down to the ground in defeat. He was rendered unconscious, thankfully.

"We did it!" Musa cheered. "We did it! We did it!"

The three bruised Specialists made their way to the group, surprised, they defeated the beast.

"If it wasn't for your ace thinking we'd be beaten into a pulp," Brandon congratulated high-fiving Musa before wincing from shoulder pain.

"Hey guys, I just met these witches- Oh you defeated the beast?" Riven said, taking notice of the unconscious minotaur that Musa had covered his head with a wet mop. "I could've done that too."

"You got propelled through a window," Bloom reminded. "But you were with us in spirit."

"Whatever," Riven mumbled. "Anyways, I found these witches who snuck into the school… I'm just guessing here, but I think they're the reason this beast was transported from the preserve."

"Was one of them a bitch with white hair?" Bloom knowingly asked with her arms crossed.

Riven nodded. "That was one of them."

"They must be after the Ring of Solaria again," Stella surmised. "But they must know I have it."

"I'm not sure… but…" Bloom paused as she heard whispering in her head, not the comforting voice, but her own this time.

Go to her office.

"Follow me," Bloom said, walking past the group down the hall towards Faragonda's office, the one place they had to be. The soft-spoken voice was rubbing off on her regular consciousness.

"I feel like she was supposed to finish that sentence," Timmy said, following behind her.

…

The Winx and Specialists stopped at Faragonda's office and thankfully the Trix weren't there. Everyone was confused about why they were there, even Bloom, but she wasn't going to ignore the voice. Had the magical voice that guided her before finally returned?

"Why are we here?" Musa asked.

"There's something in her office that the Trix are after," Bloom said, looking around.

Stella scratched her head, but then gasped in realization, "They must want to use Faragonda's all-seeing crystal ball to find whatever nefarious items they're looking for."

"If they haven't already," Flora said.

"I don't see them; they couldn't have gotten here yet. It's not like the door is unlocked or something," Bloom said, attempting to push the doors to show it was locked, but was shocked to find the door was very much unlocked and the Trix were there. Icy's hands were hovering over the crystal ball, but she stopped focusing once she saw them. Bloom almost tripped with how quickly the doors opened. The group looked at each other in shock. "Why though?"

"Um, she doesn't lock her door that much," Stella responded. "Trust in the students and all that hogwash."

"No, we don't need someone to keep watch, we're fiiine," Icy sarcastically said, her eyes shifting towards an embarrassed Stormy.

"In my defense-" Stormy started before Bloom cleared her throat to bring attention back to her group.

"What are you three doing here?" Bloom questioned. "And get away from that orb-thing!"

"Or you'll what?" Icy said mockingly. "We're busy here."

"Get out of here or…" Bloom paused, pondering her next move. The witches didn't know the Winx's powers were gone, but they had to do something or the Trix would get whatever they were looking for.

"We'll sick our boys on you!" Stella said, pushing Sky to the front of the group. "Right Sky?"

"I'm gonna be honest, my shoulder is still very sore," Sky admitted, sounding somewhat dazed. "And I'm suffering from a really bad dizzy brain."

Bloom groaned, closing her eyes in frustration. "God damn it."

Darcy yanked Icy's ponytail so she could whisper in her ear, "We're not going to find the Dragon Flame anytime soon, but we can deal with them."

Bloom could hear the mention of the Dragon Flame. They were after it and she wasn't going to let them take it not just because it could explain what she was, but witches this malicious could use the flame to take over Magix realm.

"You're surrounded and we're not letting you get the Dragon Flame!" Bloom exclaimed, taking a step closer.

"What are you all doing here?" the group heard a voice ask. They all screamed while turning around causing the women before them to scream back.

It was Faragonda and Griselda and both women had to catch their breath once the groups stopped screaming.

"I need my medication," Faragonda said, breathing heavily.

"Faragonda, we are so sorry!" Bloom apologized.

"It's fine, it's fine," Faragonda said, calming her heart.

"What are all of you doing here?!" Griselda shouted, causing Faragonda to plug her ears.

"Although your yelling pierces my ears, you have a point," Faragonda agreed. "Why are you in my office, while I'm gone? And why are there boys here and witches?"

"I told you they'd have a wild party!" Griselda said, pounding her fist in her open hand.

"No, no, no that is not what happened!" Bloom said. "You might not believe us, but we can explain."

"Whatever she says is a lie!" Icy snapped.

"It better explain the unconscious minotaur downstairs," Faragonda said, hands on her hips.

…

Later, after the Winx explained their side of the story and gave enough evidence to prove their case, they all stood outside in the courtyard. The minotaur was successfully transported back to the preserve thanks to Faragonda. The Specialists were getting ready to head home and the Trix were begrudgingly waiting for their headmistress to arrive to pick them up.

"I'm so glad all of you are safe. That's the best thing that came from this situation," Faragonda said, her deputy headmistress was about to speak, but the headmistress cut her off. "I'm aware of the damage, let it go."

"I will not," Griselda grumbled.

Faragonda rolled her eyes. She then walked over to the witches who avoided eye contact with her. "As for you three witches-to-be, you took things too far this evening. I don't know what's going on between you and my girls, vbut it ends tonight, do you hear me?"

"Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah," Icy mocked, sticking out her tongue. She kept her eye contact averted from the woman.

"Mature response," Bloom said from a distance.

Icy scowled about to deliver a curse word-filled retort but froze in horror at the sight behind Faragonda. Bloom followed her eyesight and along with the others was surprised by smoke manifesting before them. The smoke quickly formed into a shadow that rose up and dissipated into a woman, Griffin opened her eyes, slowly they shifted to the three frightened witches.

"I try to relax, and this is what I have to deal with," Griffin said, finishing her smoke entrance.

Bloom bit her bottom lip, containing her excitement at the woman's entrance mostly because she remembered the hell-storm that woman gave them when they snuck into the archives. Griffin shifted her eyes towards the three witches.

"I figured something was wrong when I hadn't seen you, buffoons, at the fundraiser," Griffin said walking over to them. She paused when she spotted Faragonda. She took a few steps back. Even though she was a towering, grim-looking woman and considerably taller than her fairy counterpart, the presence of the short, sweet-looking woman seemed to unnerve her. She cleared her throat before greeting, "Faragonda."

Faragonda had a twinkle in her eye looking at the headmistress witch. She walked over and gave the woman a big, tight hug much to the other woman's displeasure.

"It's such a pleasure to see you in the flesh!" the elderly fairy said. "You've been avoiding me ever since classes started."

"A snake-filled pit would be better than this," Griffin mumbled, patting the woman on the back awkwardly. "Can you stop hugging me now?"

Faragonda pulled back with a soft smile on her face.

"I came here to pick up my students as you requested," Griffin said, wiping her dress of the elderly fairy's germs. "And I'm going to do that. Excuse me."

Griffin stormed over to the Trix and snatched Icy's arm, gripping it tightly and making the ice witch shudder.

"The next time you want to sneak off somewhere, don't do it here!" Griffin scolded. "Your powers are being stripped for the week!"

"Yeah but-" Icy started before being met with a cold stare from the elderly witch. She bit the bottom of her lip to silence herself.

Bloom chuckled, noticing the formerly tough witch cowering at someone else who seemed too much more fearful than her. Griffin glanced at Bloom, who tensed up slightly. Did she remember her? Hopefully not. Griffin seemed to only be annoyed at a fairy laughing at a witch but turned her attention back to the Trix.

"That's not even the worst I'm about to do to you," Griffin scolded before smoke began emitting from her body again.

"I really can explain," Icy said, her voice high-pitched in fear. The rest of that dialogue was cut off as the group vanished before everyone's eyes and just like that, they were gone.

Bloom turned to Stella and went, "That was so fucking awesome!"

Stella smiled. "I knew you'd react that way."

"Let it go," Faragonda said, pushing Griselda back before she could scold the girl on her using the F word. "Oh, and boys, expect your Headmaster to receive a letter for all the great work you did tonight. We'll leave out why you actually came here."

The guys high-fived each other happily.

"Yes, well, say your goodbyes to your friends, and then meet us in Faragonda's office!" Griselda ordered, walking off with the headmistress.

Bloom walked over to Brandon who perked up seeing the girl walk over to him instead of Riven.

"So, uh, thanks for everything, Brandon," Bloom said, rubbing her arm. "Sorry, you had to fight a Minotaur."

"Whaaat, that was fun," Brandon said, playfully shoving Bloom, this time without much force. "Never a dull moment with you."

"I try to keep things exciting," Bloom said, a hint of playful mischief in her voice. She held up her fist, but Brandon looked confused for a second. She smiled, a contented sigh escaping her lips. "It's a fist bump."

"Really?" Brandon said with a wide-eyed expression. "This is the first time I've been offered one!"

"Take it now or I'm lowering my arm," Bloom said with a chuckle.

Brandon honored that request and bumped his fist against hers with a wide grin. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but his giddiness kept the smile on her face.

Stella hugged Sky before he hopped on his bike.

"Shall I see you soon?" Stella questioned Sky with a flirtatious smile.

"Sooner than you think," Sky said, kissing Stella on the cheek. "I'll miss you, love."

"Same to you," Stella said softly.

Tecna and Timmy said their goodbyes differently as the farm girl passed him over a slip of paper.

"What's this for?" he asked.

"My number, I want to have more talks with ya, yer a mighty fine friend to have!" Tecna said, bumping her fist against Timmy's arm. "Ya the only one who understands binary transmitter couplings and much more. Plus ya saved me, literally grabbed the bull by the horns. We're friends af'er that. So hit me up when you can."

"I'll… uh… I'll do that," Timmy said, clearing his throat nervously.

And lastly, Musa and Riven, goodbyes mostly involved Riven trying to pry his arm from the cheerful girl's grip as she hugged him tightly making it difficult for him to reach his bike.

"It was so, so, so much fun hanging out with you!" Musa effused. "We have to do this more!"

"Mm-hm," Riven grumbled. His eye twitched as he successfully broke free. "Got out of that snake grip… I'll see you around… hopefully later than sooner!"

He adjusted the bandages around his wrist while taking a few steps from Musa.

"Byeee!" Musa sang.

"Yeah, and next time you have a party, try and make sure there's actually some fun involved," Riven said, causing Bloom to roll her eyes.

"See ya later, party animal," she said, casually waving.

Riven chuckled before putting on his helmet and starting his hoverbike first, the others followed suit and one by one they floated off, back to Red Fountain to rest.

"He's so dreamy," Musa cooed, thinking about Riven.

Bloom walked over to her and patted her on the back. She didn't quite understand her friend's fascination with Riven, but she didn't seem to understand her own fascination with Brandon either.

…

In Faragonda's office, the girls stood before her, arms behind their backs, nervously awaiting whatever punishment the two headmistresses had for them.

Faragonda cleared her throat, "Now... I've looked at the situation as a whole. And so, I will not reprimand you."

The girls sighed in relief.

"Oh, my Dragon, you are the best, I could just hug you!" Musa exclaimed, holding out her arms, before being held back by Tecna.

"Although I saw what transpired on my crystal ball and... in the future, you might want to party first and then do the cleaning. At least that's how we did it in my day and I don't think times have changed all that much." Faragonda chuckled, causing the other girls to as well. Griselda simply groaned. "Well, I believe you have made amends."

Faragonda snapped her fingers, and five glowing vials came out of her desk drawer and sat atop her desk. "I'm returning your powers to you early."

With another snap, the bottles opened, and the magic contents floated out and swarmed over to each fairy, the colorful bottles hit the right girl and Bloom could feel her energy return. She touched her heart as the voice returned happily saying,

Welcome back.

Yeah, don't vanish like that again, she begged the voice through her mind. There was a small giggle from her comforting voice.

"Thanks, Faragonda," Bloom said.

"Think nothing of it," Faragonda said kindly. Her eyes darted to Griselda who averted eye contact with the group by looking at her clipboard. The elderly woman elbowed the woman in the hip much to her annoyance.

"Right, I'm sorry for being so cross with you this week," Griselda apologized, blushing. "You understand, I only get like this will handling students on punishment?"

Bloom looked over at her friends who shared the same smile before they all burst into laughter. Griselda's blush grew a deeper red as the girls left the office still laughing.

"Inside joke I'm guessing," Faragonda said, chuckling to herself.

"Sometimes I really hate children," Griselda grumbled.

"Come now Jeanie," Faragonda said, patting the woman on the back. She sighed, staring outside the window. "They still have a long road ahead of them and many obstacles to overcome. But one day, they'll be true fairies. Next Friday, the roses will bloom. And someday so will they."

Griselda smiled softly before shaking her head. "You're still quite the poet."

"I try," Faragonda said.

…

"Yeah, so we saved the day and got our powers back," Bloom finished recounting her story over the phone to her parents about her day with a prideful smile. She was outside her flat, sitting on the floor in her pajamas. Telling her parents what happened made her feel good after a long week. "Ignore the party part."

She had to be honest this time, but luckily her parents weren't too bothered by that.

"That's great, we're so proud of you," Vanessa complimented. "You were so brave."

"Well- I mean, I know, thanks," Bloom stammered shyly. "So, that means my grounding is over, right?"

"Nice try," Mike replied. "We're not as lenient as the school."

"I mean-" Vanessa started, but then there was some muffling in the background.

"We're not," Mike said. "You still had a wild party with boys, so you're still grounded until next week."

Bloom pouted. "I hate you guys."

"We love you too," Vanessa said, unmuffled.

"You know I could be doing whatever I want; you don't know what I'm doing," Bloom said chuckling.

"We'd know you're lying," Mike and Vanessa said knowingly.

Bloom groaned.

"That's what we love most about you though. You're honest with us," Vanessa complimented. "Now we're going to let you go."

"Yeah, get some rest," Mike added. "You've had a long day."

Bloom sighed. "You're right, thanks for listening. I'll call tomorrow and… I love you guys and miss you, like a lot."

"We miss you too," Mike said, somberly. "Hopefully we can see each other soon."

"And I hope you're taking your vitamins!" Vanessa said impatiently. "You're taking them, right?"

"Oh my God," Mike said, letting out an exasperated sigh. "She's not taking the vitamins, they're still in the cabinet."

"No way I'm taking those chalky things." Bloom agreed, chuckling. "Now I gotta go. I'm getting tired. Bye."

"Bye," her parents said before Bloom slowly hung up the phone. She let out a somber sigh while walking back into her flat where Stella was holding a teacup of what Bloom could guess was peach pomegranate tea on a saucer plate. She took a sip before smiling at the girl.

"Good conversation with your parents?" Stella questioned.

"Yeah…" Bloom frowned. She hated to admit it, but without them around she felt a hole in her heart.

"Everything all right, darling?" Stella asked concerned.

"I just… I miss them, to be honest," Bloom admitted. "It's just so weird being this far away from them."

Stella nodded. "I know what you mean… My mum and dad mean the world to me, and I miss them dearly."

"Same…" Bloom bit her bottom lip. "They can be clingy as hell and it's annoying, but I'd give the world to have a hug from my mom."

"Will one from your bestie help?" Stella asked kindly.

Bloom rolled her eyes smirking, but then said, "A quick one."

"Yes!" Stella cheered, placing her glass of tea on the countertop. She walked over to Bloom and gave her a nice, tight hug. She smelled like peaches, which seemed to be her favorite thing, but the redhead welcomed it. It reminded her of home.

The hug lingered for a good few seconds before Bloom pulled away. She looked around and the room was empty sans her and Stella. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Stella gave the girl a sly smile. "Don't want anyone seeing you genuinely hugging a Princess?"

Bloom laughed. "No, I'm just glad Musa isn't awake, she'd put us in a stronghold bear hug."

"Brilliant," Stella jokingly chided, shaking her head. "I know you miss them though, but the good news is, there's a break coming up soon, so you'll be able to spend time with them for two weeks."

"Finally," Bloom said, her body relaxing from the tense weeks she had so far.

"You're too much." Stella giggled. "Well, I'm glad I could help at least. Now if you'll excuse me."

The Princess walked back over to the countertop and grabbed her teacup and saucer. She took a quick sip before saying, "I have to head off to bed after nighttime tea and don't want you to take that away from me."'

"But of course, her highness requires her beauty sleep," Bloom said, mockingly curtseying.

"And don't you forget it," Stella said, pumping her arm against Bloom's while walking past her. "I'm glad we're becoming friends, Bloom. I really am."

Bloom pursed her lips while thinking for a quick second. "I am too, Princess. I am too."

"Night Bloom."

"Night Stella."

With that, the two girls entered their respective rooms and closed the doors. Bloom spotted Flora fast asleep, as was Kiko. She plopped on her bed and snuggled under the covers, falling fast asleep. She planned on sleeping in on Sunday after this long tiresome week.

Not everything from a week of chores was terribly though, she enjoyed spending time with her new friends, they may be strange at times, she was strange to them too, yet they were nice to her. She hadn't received that type of kindness back at her Earth high school and that's what she liked about them. It was worth being grounded with them at least.

…

A/N:

End

I love Bloom's relationship with her parents in this, I added in her calling them in these chapters because it felt like something a homesick person would do. I know I did when I was staying on a college campus, but I love the found family trope in general.

It was fun writing this chapter as a whole though, I really love exploring these new ideas I have with Winx Club and putting them on paper. Next chapter is the parent's day episode, it'll be posted in a few days.

Peace!