6 Stella
It was a tradition at Alfea to hold a mixer dance with the boys from Red Fountain School for Heroes. Stella had seen pictures of her parents at that dance, her father handsome in his blue uniform and her mother in silver sequins with stars in her hair.
Stella had imagined getting ready for the dance with her roommates who would of courts be her friends, but that didn't seem to be going to happen. The other girls didn't seem to dislike Stella, they were just busy with their own dance plans and already friends.
But this was Stella's first dance without glasses and since her father had a scheduling conflict no parents either. Stella was feeling both pleased that her father wouldn't be there and disappointed because she missed him. She tried to concentrate on how King Radius would absolutely have wanted a father-daughter dance and not understood why this was terminally embarrassing so she really should be more relieved. Now nothing could stop her from making her first school dance great!
She had three dresses from home, but she wanted to wear one of her own creations. To show off her dream of being a designer instead of just looking like the Princess of Solaria in her glasses with a dress and hairstyle picked out by her mother. In the end she cut apart one of her dresses and put it back together with rainbow flounces and beading and a headband with jewels and bright feathers. She was going to look amazing!
The suitemates were less colorful. Solvieg had a dress the same ice-blue color as her eyes. She already had a steady boyfriend, a senior at Red Fountain. Amily was wearing pink, a fluffy confection. She had a date. Wendoline was going to wear her favorite overalls and had already asked five boys and five girls, all of whom had turned her down. Any other girl would be upset about this but Wendoline's reaction was the opposite. She was looking forward to picking up partners at the dance herself. "Anyway, it would be most proper for me to go dance with the lowliest servant!" She declared.
Amily looked sideways at her. "Well, it's personality that matters not social status but perhaps not a servant."
Stella had her sights set no lower than a prince. That would be most proper for the Princess of Solaria. Her parents would throw a fit if she came home with anything less than the heir to a moderately sized kingdom. Two fits. They'd finally agree on something.
And if she didn't find a suitable prince her parents might start finding one for her. They wouldn't force her to get married or anything but there would be a parade of awkward introductions and Mother and Father arguing and it would be unendurably annoying. So Stella wanted to make the most of her chance to meet boys on her own terms!
While she'd been thinking about princely possibilities her roommates' conversation had moved on. Solvieg was saying, "...and the witches of Cloud Tower always try something."
Wendoline said, "Last year they used a curse to turn everyone's dresses into cheese. Mine was very tasty!"
"But let's stop them this year. I'm on the dance counterspell committee. You could join if you want."
Stella asked, "Um, why do witches care about our dance?"
"It's a Cloud Tower tradition." Amily said with a sigh. "They sabotage the dance every year. I think headmistress Faragonda lets it go on just so we can practice our counterspells.
"Year before last they made it rain indoors. Lame. But it ruined everyone's hair."
That did seem kind of unoriginal of the witches. Stella knew some witches and they were just normal members of the royal court with different magic. The ones who went to school at Cloud Tower were supposed to actually do evil things. Ruining hairstyles at a dance! Turning dresses into dairy products! All the fairies must have worked so hard on their dresses and hair, it was definitely evil to mess that up!
This year's dance theme was 'Resort Realm Paradise.' Stella had joined the dance theme committee. Being a first-year her job was to enchant small flowers into big fluffy tropical blooms found in the Resort Realm. It was what all first-years in the committee did. They'd only been at Alfea a few weeks after all so they didn't get much say in the planning of the dance. That was done by older students who'd arranged previous dances.
Stella had offered her ideas. She had a lot of them. But the committee leaders weren't interested. So she'd just have to light up the room with her dress alone!