⋆✦⭒𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐗⋆✧⭒

𝟬𝟱𝟯 𝗆𝖾𝗌𝗌𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗉 𝗅𝗂𝖾𝗌

┊𖤐₊˚. ࿐ྂ。It was the girls’ final term of their freshman year at Alfea. The term prior had ended without a fuss, and after a quiet break back, Bloom was back at school in the company of her friends. The first week had been a calm before the storm of their final exams the teachers assured them, which was how Bloom found herself spending a quiet Thursday night helping Stella coat her hair with a foul smelling, green potion.
“Stella,” she said, dipping the brush into the pot. “How much time do you think you spend on your hair everyday?”

Stella sniffed and shifted in her chair.  “Ask not what I do for my hair, darling, ask what my hair does for me.”

“Okay, so what is this stuff supposed to do for you?”

“It’s Flora’s own botanical conditioner.  According to her, three minutes and my hair will shine like glass.”

“That’s cool,” Bloom sighed, eyes lifting to catch sight of her own hair in the mirror.

Stella watched her friend carefully in the mirror.  “What's wrong?”
“Oh, nothing.” Bloom set the brush to the side. “There you’re done.”

Stella spun around in her chair and arched an eyebrow at Bloom.  “Something’s on your mind.”

Bloom chuckled, “Is it that obvious?”

“I’m very adept at reading emotions, darling. What is it?” Bloom gave a half-hearted chuckle wondering how many truth was in that. “Where do I even start?”

Bloom sighed, sitting down. “It’s been a whole term and I’ve scoured every book in the library that so much as mentions Sparx and we’re no closer to working out where the Dragon Flame is or what Daphne really wants.”

Stella waved a hand lazily.  “As long as the Trix don’t know where it is either, we’re fine.”

“And finding my parents, Stell? We don’t even know where to start with that one.”

“We start,” Stella said. ““By figuring out who would have been in trouble 15 years ago and who would have needed to leave a baby on Earth.”

“But that’s the thing.  Everyone was in trouble 15 years ago. It was the end of the conflict with the Ancestral Witches, Sparx had just been destroyed, dozens of planets had suffered attacks, it could have been literally anyone,” the redhead explaned.

A shadow crossed Stella’s face as if something had occurred to her. “And…”

Stella came back to herself and prompted, “And…”  A beat of silence passed and her face softened. “Let me guess, Brandon?  You’ve got that look on your face again.”

“I have a look?” Bloom asked.

“Several in fact, there’s the ‘Brandon’s making me feel all gooey’ face, there’s the ‘I’m worrying about Brandon’ face, and of course the simple ‘I’m thinking about him’ face,” Stella said and Bloom rolled her eyes.

“What does that look like?”

“Happy.”

Bloom felt herself blush all over and glanced away. “So what’s he done this time?” the blonde questioned.

“Nothing, really. Things have just been off with us for weeks, and I didn’t hear from him at all over the break, but still, I like him, Stella, like really like him, and all this time apart has done is shown me that.  And I was hoping he’d invite me to the exhibition and things could finally go back to being right between us, but it’s tomorrow and he hasn’t said anything-”

“Wait, the exhibition is tomorrow?” Stella exclaimed, interrupting Bloom’s little rant.

She blinked. “Yeah? I thought it was the first Friday of the last term?  Which doesn’t really make sense when you think about it, shouldn’t it be at the end of the term?”