Chapter Six-Drama during the Purple Moon

It’s been about a month since I arrived at Spirit Prep. What once seemed puzzling actually makes sense now, and it’s a normal routine for me. I’m used to the schedule now. I’m actually doing well in Nature Spells, Beauty Spells and even Spell Casting. However, I’m struggling with History and especially Potions. I’m not sure whether or not Mrs. Fluttersage hates me, but I’m guessing Amber hates me because I’m so bad and my potion never turns out as good as everyone else’s. I always dread going to potions and to wake up and realize that I don’t have potions that day is one of the best feelings ever.

 

As for lunch, the only people I actually talk to are Malissa, Kylie, Gabi, and sometimes Camille, Alexis and Tyra. I don’t really acknowledge the other people who sit at my table. I usually just select a table that has a few empty seats (it’s always random). Malissa and Kylie always tend to sit with Aiers and Aquas. Even though I’m the only Terra at this table, I still feel comfortable because Malissa is very nice and helped me with my homesickness as she’s a human that’s also homesick. I didn’t think I’d be homesick because I hate my siblings so much, but surprisingly, I am. This is actually the first time I’ve spent at least week away from my home and family before. In fact, it seems like I’ve left everything to go to this school. I sit with Gabi and other Terras on some other days.

 

I’ve never sat next to any Ignises. I’ve actually considered sitting with Kristine, but she always sits with Phoebe. To be honest, Ignises kind of scare me likely because Teagen and her friend Rae are Ignises. I’ve always tried to ignore the two since the first day and it’s actually going well because I have been teased before at my old school. Yes, their words do hurt as one of the things I was hoping for when going to a new school was to avoid the teasing, but at least I actually have friends. Another reason why I likely avoid Igneses is because Amber, the house leader, scares me as whenever I mess up on a potion, which is pretty much every day, I’m always certain that she won’t take me lightly. I’ve recently started hiding myself from her with the invisibility spells I’ve learned while doing my work.

 

 

“Attention pupils.” Willow’s voice announces one day during breakfast. I turn my head towards the balcony where Willow is standing right in front of her throne. Everyone grows silent as we know she’s about to give an announcement.

“The time has come for Spirit Prep’s annual purple moon celebration. This year’s fairy dust ball game will be against ‘Esmeralda Academy’. Now, Amber will talk about the purple moon queen” Willow takes her seat as Amber stands from her throne at the same time. I slouch down trying to get used to her loud, direct and uncomfortable sounding voice before she speaks. 

 

 “Alright,” Amber starts in the powerful voice I’m used to and always dread, “so today we’ll select our purple moon court. At halftime at the game, it’s a tradition that one of the court members will be crowned the Queen of the Purple Moon while the rest of the court will be the princesses. In case you don’t know yet, court candidates must be nominated by students. If there’s too much nominees, there will be an elimination contest. Amber vanishes from her loft in a shower of flame yellow fire sparks and appears in a free and empty area of the dining hall on the opposite side of the loft. “Now, who are the nominees?”

 

“So, it’s some stupid popularity contest.” I think. I don’t like prom queen-like popularity contests because I never really win those things. I know I’m unlikely to win because I remember that in my middle school last year during the holiday season, everyone was asked to spend a dollar to give a candy cane to another student or teacher. A lot of people, especially the ones in the “popular group”, received one or even two candy canes, and I, unsurprisingly received zero. I just want to turn away and ignore all of this, but yet, I still pay attention due to the curiosity.

 

I immediately turn to Teagen because I could imagine her wanting to participate in a popularity contest. She nudges her friend Rae not soon after I began to put my eyes on the table. Rae sighs as she stands up holding her friends hand and speaking in an official sounding voicer, “I nominate Teagen Sparkle of Nature Fairyland for this year’s court of the purple moon!”

“I accept!” Teagen responds trying to sound like getting nominated wasn’t a surprise. With no hesitation, she walks up to the front of the dining hall appearing confident.

 

Other people nominate their friends, which is something I took as white noise. One of the people that accepted was Camille who was nominated by Tyra. One of the Aqua girls nominated Kristine, and she accepted. Teagen, Camille and Kristine were really the only nominees I knew.

 

When there were nine girls standing near Amber in front of the dining hall and it seems like Amber is going to speak, one Ignis girl I’ve never seen before abruptly shouts, “I NOMINATE RAE BABY!!!!!!!!!!”

“I accept!” Rae responds with a bright smile.

 

“So,” Amber starts in her normal loud and direct voice a few seconds after Rae was nominated, “we have ten girls standing. Rules state that the Spirit Prep court of the Purple Moon should only have five members, so half of you will be eliminated before this period ends. DO YOU UNDERSTAND????????”

All ten members of the court nod while giving their eyes to Amber.

Amber continues, “If more than five are nominated, then there will be an elimination competition in order to select our court. The preselected competition I chose for this year is…a fashion spell contest!” 

 

“What’s a fashion spell contest?” I wonder to myself.

 

Amber immediately answers my question in her quick words, “So, I’ll come up with a theme, and the contestants are supposed to use their magic to create an outfit that matches the theme, the five people with the best outfits get to be in the court, ANY QUESTIONS?”

 

“Yes,” a nominated girl asks briefly raising her hand, “what if you don’t know any fashion spells?”

 

Amber stares at the court with a straight face, “Anyone that doesn’t know any fashion spells will be disqualified. So if you don’t know any, then it’s best that you leave the stage.”

 

Three of the girls leave the stage frowning a bit. Seven people remain standing including Camille, Teagen, Kristine and Rae.

 

“Now,” Amber continues, “The theme is…winter!”

 

Most of the outfits that were created from the contest are these beautiful icicle covered gowns and fur coats, but I really don’t like Teagen’s outfit. I expected it to be better as Teagen thinks she’s so awesome, but there didn’t seem to be any effort put in the outfit. The entire outfit is a wet, pine green coat with a hood pulled up. Her look honestly looks like it’s been pulled together while running late for school.

 

The two that ended being eliminated from the court were Teagen and Hazel. I notice that Hazel doesn’t seem to be bothered by the loss. Hazel is a Terra that sits at Gabi’s table. I don’t know Hazel that well but she seems nice. Hazel’s, “losing is okay” response is the polar of Teagen’s unsurprising five year old tantrum she threw. I’m guessing that Rae being in the court made Teagen even angrier.  

 

While everyone in the court gets back to their tables after Amber returns to her loft and everyone at my table congratulates Camille in her return, I notice Teagen stomping past my table with a flaming red face.

 

“This is your fault!” Teagen shouts with tears with her large eyes staring at Tyra, “I’ll get my revenge at the game!” She immediately turns and out of the dining hall.

 

I think Teagen is getting really mad at Tyra for nominating Camille. I’m not sure why she didn’t yell at the girl that nominated her best friend Rae who actually made the court, but Teagen sounds serious about this revenge thing. I don’t want Tyra to be tortured.

 

 

 

Tonight is the purple moon game I decide to wear this slightly oversized, dark purple, short sleeved pajama tee shirt because Gabi told me it’s tradition that people wear purple to the purple moon game.

 

Gabi leads me to the stadium which is about a quarter mile of walking behind the school, following a bunch of other flying or walking people, also wearing purple. This round stadium looks like one in the human world, only the ground kind of looks like a shimmery pink, blue, purple and white transparent pit with white sparkles that kind of looks like the water’s surface, and you could fall into it. The actual lines of the field seem to be magically projected from the pit into the air.

Gabi sits with the other Terras. I’m pretty sure she wants me to sit with her because she’s always talking about how Terras are better than other houses as they’re more academically concerned and all that (which I kind of agree with), but I want to sit with Tyra. I’m not sure how Teagen is going to get her revenge, but thinking back from this one breakfast, it sounded like she’s really going to do it. I sit on Gabi’s right because I think she expects us to watch the game together, but I look around the stadium at the same time. While I look, another girl takes my seat on my right side. My mood sort of drops as soon as she sits next to me because I know I’ll probably want to leave to find other people.  

 

 

This game is basically the same thing as handball only it’s played in the air. Although people sitting in the top row like me would look down to see the surface of the stadium, I’m looking straight ahead to see the actual game. The round floating ball the winged players are passing is made out of golden fairy dust chunked together.

 

I don’t pay too much attention to the game; I mostly zone out thinking about how I’m going to talk to Tyra to see if she’s okay. I guess I’ll have to wait until halftime as I’m clustered by these two standing and cheering girls. I stand up too, but I’m not really paying attention. All I could focus on is how worried I am about Tyra, after what Teagen said.

 

 

At halftime, immediately when the game’s timer (which is numbers formed by fairy dust floating in the air by the way) reaches zero. A bunch of people slowly start heading to the empty rows in the front. I go down too and scanning for the tan, blond pigtailed figure.

 

When I reach the lower section of the bleachers, still scanning my eyes, Amber appears her usual shower of fire sparks in the middle to the field, with her feat standing on the transparent surface. Everyone in the stadium cheers in a dangerous volume for headphone users, at the moment immediately after she appears.

 

“Thank you, thank you!” Amber begins announcing in her usual tone, “I would like the Spirit Prep Court of the Purple Moon to enter the field!”

 

When I notice the five girls stepping on the transparent ground, I immediately begin to feel panicked as soon as I see Rae who wouldn’t look like she feels sorry for Teagen. I scan through the cheering blobs for the blonde braided pigtails much quicker than before, attempting to not look awkward while looking at everyone in the front row.

 

“NOW,” Amber abruptly announces, “it’s time for the annual crowning of this year’s Spirit Prep Queen of the Purple Moon!”

 

This causes my stomach to feel even tenser, I want to have some fun and pay attention to the crowning like the norm here, but I’m more focused on something that’s way more important.

 

“The competition is…a dance off!” Amber announces while I continue to scan.

 

While the excitement continues on the field, my body is in conflict on whether or not to pay attention to the contest or find Tyra. My curious impulsiveness immediately turns my body toward the stadium which the crowd is paying attention to. When turning, I get even more startled when I bump into someone. While I turn to the person I bumped at, I gain shock to realize its Artemis.

 

“Hey, Daisy,” he greets nervously, “I haven’t seen you in a while!”

“Yeah” I respond trying to sound like my mind isn’t on something different.

“I’m going to sit down.” he says, “It seems like you need a seat, do you want to sit with me?”

“Um…um…okay.” I impulsively answer knowing it’s the friendliest response. Now the butterflies in my stomach only increased because A CUTE BOY INVITED ME TO SIT WITH HIM! Does a boy have a crush on me for the first time in my thirteen years? Does my only approach with a cutish boy cause me to have a crush on him?

 

While sitting, in the front row next to Artemis, I attempt to take deep breaths and forget about the Artemis questions that were distracting me from what I feel is more important. I want to stand up again, but the tension is causing a force to glue me in the position I’m in.

 

Finally, I actually start to pay attention when a tiara that’s nothing but gold appears on Amber’s dark palms and the music stops. Amber clears her throat, “Now, this year’s Queen of the Purple Moon is…”

I quickly, but effortlessly scan the bleachers during Amber’s pause as I know this is the perfect time for the revenge.

“The queen is…CAMILLE BRIGHTLEE!”

 

Camille gasps shocked as she walks up towards to receive her crown while everyone does their applause. I try to clap too as I know Camille, but my applause for Camille leads my mind think of Tyra because she was the one that nominated her. I become relieved as soon as I notice Teagen walking directly in front of me.

 

“TEAGEN!” I impulsively shout jumping in front of her. “How dare you do something bad to Tyra?”

Teagen freezes and looks at me with a puzzled expression, “Why would I do that?”

I put my hands on my hips still talking quickly to get the words out, this is the most confident I’ve felt in forever, “You literally said that you’re going to get revenge on her!”

Teagen gives me an unpleasant stare, “I don’t remember saying that”

“Stop sounding innocent!” I abruptly shout without thinking.

 

“Um…you don’t need to fight back.” a calmer voice from behind me says. The voice is coming from Tyra who’s sitting right above Artemis in the second row, “Although Teagen always wants revenge; she never actually tries to get it.”

 

I flop back on the empty seat next to Artemis in guilt. I can’t believe I actually took her words seriously! For once, I was brave but it didn’t do anything other than making Teagen possibly hate me even more. I’ve actually stopped being confident ever since people teased me in 4th grade for the books I was interested in. Since then, I had spoken much less, it was rare to hear me talk as I worry people would tease me for my words. And as the years went on, I talked less and less. I actually made this night my plan to try to stand up for a bully, but it failed, which is something I hoped wouldn’t happen as I hoped this would be my turning point in my talking somehow, but I wasn’t being realistic. I lean my head to my knees with tears falling out of my eyes.

 

“Teagen was pretty mean to the people that got in the court.” I hear Artemis whisper.

Teagen looks at Artemis. Her face is definitely red now, “WHAT DID YOU SAY??????????”

 

Teagen jumps over the fence dividing the bleachers and the field and sprints to the center with Amber and Camille.

 

“I CAN’T BELIEVE I DIDN’T WIN!” Teagen shouts with her face covered with red and tears, “I BLAME IT ALL ON THOSE NEW HUMANS NAMED DAISY GREEN, MALISSA MULLER, KYLIE ODAK AND LUCIE BROOK!”

 

“Lucie Brook?” I think to myself as soon as she says the name. I recognize the first three names and I’m pretty sure we all knew we were the only human raised students this year, but I never met anyone named Lucie Brook here at Spirit Prep. All I know is that it feels like I knew Lucie at one point, and it seems logical that the one at Spirit Prep would be the same one I knew somehow.

 

“TEAGEN SPARKLE!” Amber shouts just inches away from her, “YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!”

 

Those words from Amber were all I hear as I stride out of the stadium and back in the main building. I do not want to think of Teagen for a long, long time after this horrible attempt I made. When I return to my dorm, my mind is all messed up to the point where I literally have to lie down on my bed. One half of me is very guilty for taking Teagen’s words this literally, but another half of me is wondering if this Lucie Brook thing is actually supposed to connect to my origin mystery.