A Day in Another's Shoes: Part Three

     When she took a step backwards and had a proper look, Ignicia froze. She was looking at... herself.

     The faerie gulped and walked closer to the faerie that looked quite like herself. However, Ignicia noticed that whoever that was in her body (probably Undula) had pinned the set of five hairpins wrong.

     "Are you Ignicia?" the faerie who looked like Ignicia asked.

     The real deal, in Undula's body, nodded. The faerie with the brown shoes scrunched up her face angrily, threw her arms dramatically and opened her mouth, but Ignicia interrupted her.

     "Hey! Be careful with my body!" the real Ignicia protested. Then she took a look at her body. "So... that means... You're Undula?"

     "Yes," the faerie replied, rolling her eyes. "Took you long enough to figure out."

     "And to think that I have the top student's brains..." Ignicia said, feeling the familiar old flame of rivalry flare up again.

     "You shouldn't speak," Undula frowned. "Look how you destroyed my tail! That'll take weeks to heal!"

     "Can't you just cast a healing spell or something?" Ignicia said. "Oh, I forgot, you can't cast any advanced spells..."

     Undula inhaled sharply and pointed at Ignicia with an orange wand. With her voice dripping of sarcasm, Undula said, "Thanks to this body, I can..."

     "Nevermind," Ignicia said, opening the bag and looking for some potions to fight with. She remembered how Undula had utterly ruined her shoes yesterday. In a secret compartment she found a nice, blue potion and a large silver coin that hung from a thin thread. Ignicia grasped the neck of the bottle and held it up, not wanting to lose this battle.

     "Oh, that's just a healing potion," Undula said, trying not to let her voice shiver. She hoped that this would fool her archenemy.

     "Really?" Ignicia asked, looking into Undula's eyes. The faerie let her wand down and smiled confidently. If they were going to have a battle of will and brainpower, she would definitely win. Not to mention that Undula had been studying some advanced hypnotism and almost succeeded at mesmerizing the weakest member of the Seven Scary Princesses of the Sea.

     "Girls!" a voice called from above. Sitting comfortably on a cloud was the Spell Class teacher, Miss Orkana. "Please refrain from fighting in public areas. Go to the battle arena if you must." She waved her hand, and mist surrounded her to hide the small smile she was wearing. To be honest, the Air faerie was very amused. She had to admit that even if Acacia was stupid and crazy sometimes, this was one of the funniest things she had ever done.

     The two faeries, not wanting to incur a teacher's wrath, left the fountain and entered the hallway.

     "I wonder..." Ignicia thought out loud. "Who did this? Who could've had enough power to do this?"

     "Not anyone from our class or below," Undula said, before she realized that she had actually answered her rival's question. "Well, the person who did this probably wants to remain anonymous, or they would've broadcasted it already."

     "I'm so going to beat her up," Ignicia growled, grasping her wand from Undula's hand.

     "Assuming that she is here in school," the other faerie stated wisely, grabbing the bottle. Holding the familiar weapons in their hands, the two faeries relaxed a little bit and actually had a conversation that did not consist of insults.

     A giggle made them turn around, and the two faeries could only see a green leaf floating in the air.

     "It's probably just some earth faerie's trick..." Ignicia muttered, yawning. She bumped into the wall, having closed her eyes while stretching her mouth open. It functioned as a wake-up call, and the faerie looked at Undula. "Why am I talking and being friends with you?"

     "We're not being friends," the other faerie replied. "I assume that we are trying to find the person who did this."

     Ignicia didn't say anything, but handed the heavy bag over to Undula. "Well, here are your heavy things. Since they're yours, you should carry them." As the other faerie took the bag, Ignicia quickly grabbed her small book-bag from Undula's shoulder.

     "That means we're allies," Undula continued, grumbling over the fact that she had to carry her heavy bag around again. But books were useful. Much more useful than a brain that acted based on impulse.

     "What's the difference?"

     "The difference," the clever faerie stated, "is that we are united for a certain purpose while we may not agree on some other points. We may split up after our mission is done."

     "You're too serious," Ignicia muttered under her breath. "But you're right."

     "Fairly amusing coming from someone who looks like that," Undula said, perfectly coping Ignicia's best tease-voice.

     "Well, since we both want to find the person who's responsible for this stupid swap, why don't we get on with it? Any ideas?"

     The faeries were quiet for a moment. Then Undula said, "Hmm... I have a nice cousin who is pretty knowledgeable. She might be able to help us, since she knows many spells. I'm sure that a spell did this to us."

     "Pretty obvious," Ignicia said, still thinking about ways to get revenge.

     "Don't underestimate knowledge," Undula said. "Let's go." She started walking faster, and even though she wasn't used to it, it was great having two legs. Maybe this wasn't so bad, actually having someone to be friendly to her in school for once...

     "I'm not," the other faerie said, following Undula. After only a few quick movements Ignicia fell, forgetting to watch her tail. She decided bitterly that she was definitely not going to stay like this.

     Ignicia got up and slowly but steadily caught up with Undula. Soon they arrived at a pale blue cottage. Undula knocked three times and they waited for her cousin to show up.

     The door opened. In front of them stood a beauty, a water faerie with pale yellow-green hair and sparkling sapphire eyes. She was holding a bottle in one hand, but tossed it away when she saw who the visitors were.

     "Undula!" the faerie cried out and ran towards Ignicia, who was still in Undula's body. The poor faerie backed away, afraid of being hugged. The other faerie, sensing Ignicia's unwillingness to hug, stopped and took a step back.

     "I apologize for her rude behavior, Cousin Seanna," the real Undula said and quickly went on to explain the situation.

     "It is obvious that you have fallen victim to a swap spell," Seanna the water faerie said when her cousin had finished telling her tale. She took out a wand and tapped Undula's shoulder. "By the looks of it, I'd say it's temporary or you would've felt some side effects now..."

     "Side effects?" the two faeries asked in unison, and glared at each other.

     "Examples would be your mind changing, but that could happen here too. Maybe a few memories forgotten here and there..." Seanna trailed off.

     "So... Who cast the spell?" Ignicia asked impatiently.

     "Or rather," Undula added, "Is there a way to find out the spellcasters?"

     "My intuition tells me there was more than one faerie involved in the spell, so it would be harder to find out," Seanna said.

     "Is it possible?" Undula asked.

     "Look who's impatient," Ignicia muttered sarcastically. Her rival chose to ignore that.

     "I suppose. If you two join your hands and cast a spell to find out who it was, I'm sure the faeries who did it will be glowing pink in your eyes..."

     "Glowing pink?" Ignicia repeated and giggled. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

     Undula glared at the faerie who was in possession of her body. "Excuse me..."

     "Oh," Ignicia said sarcastically, "I forgot that you can't cast advanced spells."

     "You can try," Seanna said, putting a hand on her cousin's shoulder. The warmth of the fire faerie's body made her reel back as she dipped her hand in a bucket of water.

     "I guess there's no choice..." Undula muttered, eying her rival. She knew there was no way Ignicia would let this one go, being great at spellcasting and all that. She also knew that Ignicia desperately wanted revenge for this swap thing...

     Seanna began giving instructions, and the two faeries obeyed. They linked their hands and put the other hand to the heart, following the incantations. The older water faerie took out a bottle, uncorked it and let the two faeries inhale the fume. She continued to mutter things and telling the two faeries to copy her.

     Ignicia felt a ticking sensation when she inhaled. She could just imagine purple mist shrouding her as she confidently whispered the ancient words. When she heard Undula falter, she squeezed the faerie's hand tightly. Ignicia had decided that she was definitely going to extract revenge on the people who had cast this spell, and even though she disliked encouraging her rival, getting her body back was more important.

     "Now, open your eyes," Seanna said, finishing the whole spell off with taking away the bottle.

     The two faeries opened their eyes. For a second everything glowed pink, and their normal sight returned. They quickly realized that they were still holding hands and immediately let go.

     "Spell completed," the beautiful water faerie said and smiled. "Well, why don't you stay for lunch?"

     The two faeries agreed. They had a nice lunch consisting of pretty, decorative sandwiches, some ice cream and a fruit or two. Perhaps water faeries were pretty cool, Ignicia thought as she munched on a Blurf. No! It had to be that weird brain of Undula's, thinking thoughts for her!

     "Does this really work?" Ignicia asked, trying to cover up her thoughts.

     "Yes," Undula said with a voice that dared Ignicia to say anything more.

     "Well, thank you very much for the food," Ignicia said politely. "We've got to go and find our little spellcasters now..." She grabbed Undula's arm and dragged her towards the door.

     "Good hunt," Seanna said before closing her door. Feeling safe, she smiled a little, remembering the visitors. Then she reminded herself that she had work to do and took out a pot. The Psychologist had ordered a lot of potions for that new theme, 'A Day in Another's Shoes'. Quickly the clever faerie realized that the girls she had just helped were getting this 'treatment' early. One could just imagine what would happen if another fifty students ended up like those two...

     -

     Part Four:

     "I don't feel any different," Ignicia said as they walked back to the school.

     "Maybe you aren't supposed to..." Undula muttered as she looked around, trying to see if anyone was glowing pink.

     "Or maybe the spell failed?" Ignicia said challengingly.

     "Don't you dare to mock Seanna!" Undula hissed, glaring at Ignicia. For a second her rival seemed to be submissive, but Ignicia's strong will made the unconscious attempt at mesmerization fail.

     Ignicia didn't say anything but looked around. Only now was she aware of the fact that she had been walking together with her rival. What would everyone think?

     It was probably too late to do anything about it now. Gritting her teeth, Ignicia also started looking around for mysterious pink-glowing faeries, hoping that she could find the people who had made her day so miserable. She grasped her wand so hard her hand shook and cursed those faeries. Then again... It had been a pretty interesting. She glared at the tail that followed her and caused trouble. Painfully interesting.

     -

     Meanwhile, Miss Acacia and Miss Orkana had gathered in front of the good old crystal ball to have a look at their secret project. Just as they saw Ignicia turn around, a cold feeling washed over them both.

     "Just like the old days, eh?" Acacia said, trying to ease the heavy atmosphere.

     "It's becoming a tradition," the other faerie replied, watching the two faeries in the ball starting to argue with each other again.

     "I think the last time it was called 'A Walk in Another's Shoes'..." the Earth faerie trailed off.

     "They should consider themselves lucky," the Air faerie said haughtily. "They only have to live with it for a day."

     Acacia smiled wistfully, and at Orkana's words the smile turned into a mischievous grin.

     "Oh yeah... Lucky they haven't gotten into so much trouble, unlike you..." Acacia said, eyeing her former rival.

     "You should talk..." Orkana said. "Remember when you fell into a pool of mud trying to fly?"

     "What about those Symols?" the Earth faerie said teasingly. The Air faerie humphed and threw a look around the room. She saw a schedule on the wall, a chance to get rid of this annoying faerie. It had all been Acacia's idea, she had only been there to help casting the spell and now Orkana had been dragged here to observe the progress of 'their' project.

     "Look!" the Air faerie cried out, pointing at the schedule. "Honored Miss Acacia, I believe that you have to teach a math remedial lesson in five minutes!"

     "You just want to get off this, don't you?" Acacia said but looked at the schedule just in case. After a few second she gulped.

     "Oh my... You're right!" the Earth faerie exclaimed and ran around, trying to get her books.

     "Of course I am," Orkana said, watching her former rival. "And isn't it too bad that you can't cast spells?" she said, copying Ignicia's voice perfectly. "Transportation or teleportation would've sufficed."

     Acacia didn't say anything. She had already gathered her books and was on her way out of the room when the Air faerie uttered the word 'sufficed'. The Earth faerie couldn't resist making a remark, but she knew she would be really late if she did. Deciding that this was the best she could do, Acacia slammed the door and started running down the empty hallway.

     -

     Something zoomed past Ignicia and Undula at top speed, glowing pink and leaving a few papers now and then.

     "What the..." Ignicia muttered, surprised at the thing that was now out of their sight. "A ghost?"

     "No ghosts would glow... pink," Undula said distastefully. "That has to be the worst color to wear to scare."

     "Trying to rhyme?" Ignicia asked. She squinted her eyes and tried to recall how that thing looked. "Rather mysterious, since this is an empty hallway..."

     "Which means we have missed the morning classes!" Undula exclaimed, shocked. The faerie shook uncontrollably in that realization and dropped her book-bag.

     No... It couldn't be true. She had promised herself to be a good girl, and here she was, skipping classes with her rival and talking like nothing had happened. For the last few years running, Undula had gotten the prestigious Perfect Attendance Award, always being on time. Stupid, stupid spell to make her late and everything! The utterly disappointed faerie thought about how she had worked so hard to earn a good reputation (at least concerning the teachers) and good grades. She looked at the clock and saw that it was way past noon.

     "It's Saturday today," Ignicia commented when she saw what Undula was looking at. They were both thinking the same thing. One had obligatory classes Saturday morning, but afternoons were for those who attended advanced courses or remedial classes.

     "Let this nightmare end soon," Undula prayed as she looked around. Her mind couldn't help but to think of that weird, pink ghost glowing...

     Wait! Seanna had said that the ones who had cast the spells would be glowing pink... Which meant... That pink-glowing so-called ghost was one of the faeries who had put this cursed swapping spell upon them!

     Undula looked at Ignicia, and it seemed like the both had reached the same conclusion.

     "It was running towards the remedial classrooms, for language and math classes..." Undula said.

     "Well, what are you waiting for?" Ignicia said, already taking off. "Let's go."

     "Watch out!" Undula warned, but it was too late. Ignicia had already crashed into one of the many lockers that were in the hallway. Despite the clumsiness of her tail, Ignicia managed to get up surprisingly fast. Maybe... Ignicia shuddered. She was actually getting used to this tail!

     Well, there's no time for that now, Ignicia thought. Quickly they hurried down the hallway to the remedial classrooms.

     There were two lessons going on. One in the ancient languages of faeries, and one in basic mathematics. The two faeries took a look at the math lesson first, and found their pink-glowing faerie.

     Ignicia's and Undula's jaws dropped when they saw who it was that had cast the spell. The Earth faerie that stood in front of the desk was glowing brightly, reading from her textbook.

     "M-Miss Acacia cast the spell?" Ignicia muttered, unable to believe her eyes. Undula was the first one to calm down and analyze the situation.

     "It would seem so," she said. "But why?"

     "Whatever," Ignicia said, holding her wand tightly. "I promise I'll return that favor... Making me so miserable..."

     "You really aren't forgiving, you know that?" Undula commented.

     "It doesn't lie in my nature," Ignicia said, looking around in the classroom. Yes... It was perfect. Above the teacher hung several sheets with the multiplication table printed on them. The faerie grinned evilly as she waved her wand.

     Soundlessly the huge posters fell down on the Earth faerie, who shrieked angrily. The two faeries watched as she put them back up, but Ignicia waved her wand again and they fell down as soon as they had been put up.

     Miss Acacia looked at the posters with rage as she tried to put them away, but another wave of Ignicia's wand made the giant papers cover the Earth faerie.

     "I didn't know she was afraid of darkness," Ignicia commented innocently when they heard a few desperate muffled sounds from the posters.

     "Ah, revenge... So sweet..." Ignicia sighed contently as she made more trouble. Undula couldn't help but to admire the faerie that was standing beside her. Of course, Ignicia's methods were very simple, but a certain genius lay in that. Still, Undula admitted that she herself never would've dared to do those things to a teacher...

     "But it's kind of boring to extract revenge alone," Ignicia stated, tossing her hair and the wand. Immediately the blackboard shook, and Miss Acacia dropped the piece of chalk she was holding.

     "I'm not going to..." Undula said firmly but stopped when she saw what her rival was doing. "My potion.... What..."

     "Hush," Ignicia said. "You don't want us to get caught, do you?" She opened the bottle that she had taken from Undula's bag, opened the window a little bit and poured the liquid on the floor of the classroom.

     "That's..." Undula stuttered, too shocked to say anything.

     "Slip-a-magic, right?" Ingicia grinned as she watched several faeries, including Miss Acacia, slip for the next few minutes.

     The so-called 'mishaps' just got worse and worse from that point. Soon the whole classroom was filled with thick, almost unbreakable bubbles that froze to ice if you touched them. The numbers on the blackboard disappeared, and an army of white, finely drawn chalk surrounded Miss Acacia.

     Ignicia felt so much more satisfied when she heard giggles. They started out small, out of respect for the teacher, but soon the whole class exploded and laughter echoed in the room when the poor Earth Faerie hit her head on the desk.

     "It's a bit suspicious, though," Undula commented. "She doesn't even do anything..."

     "Maybe she can't," Ignicia said as she prepared the finale. The atmosphere was filled with tension.

     Ignicia closed her eyes and muttered something. She formed her hand and started drawing. Amazed, Undula watched as her rival drew a whole set of traps and constructions in the classroom that solidified just after a few seconds. Obviously the students saw it too, since they were all trying very hard not to laugh.

     "What is it?" Miss Acacia asked, just as she stepped on the first trap that lead to several chain reactions. For the next five minutes, the whole class laughed their heart out as they watched their poor teacher move here and there because of Ignicia's little set of traps.

     "There," the maker of the traps said as the Earth faerie was hit by several books that had fallen down from a shelf.

     "Surely she does not deserve that?" Undula wondered out loud as they watched Miss Acacia get up. When the Math teacher was looking around for suspects, Undula realized that Miss Acacia was truly angry. She quickly ducked out of sight, but her excited rival did not have the same luck.

     "Class dismissed," Miss Acacia said, staring intently at the window. She quickly opened the door and grabbed the two faeries that had caused her all this trouble as her students left the classroom. The teacher dragged Undula and Ignicia into the classroom, slammed the door and proceeded to glare at them.

     Silence.

     "What do you have to say for yourself?" the teacher asked when no one said anything.

     "What do you have to say for yourself?" Ignicia repeated. "We know. We know it was you who cast this stupid swapping spell on us." Undula winced. Ignicia was very much in need of a lesson on how to be tactful.

     "Well, I know that you two did this to me," Miss Acacia said, pointing to herself and then to the part of the classroom that had been ruined by Ignicia's tricks.

     "Umm..." Undula said, trying to be diplomatic. "I'm sorry about what happened, but..."

     "But?" the Earth faerie said, eyeing the two faeries. She had a hunch that it was Ignicia who stood behind this gruesome revenge of theirs, but Undula wasn't totally innocent either...

     "Since you're the one that cast the spell," Undula said, "Then surely you must know how we can turn back to our old... no, original selves."

     "Of course I know," the teacher said, looking at Ignicia. "But do you really think I'll tell you after you've done all this to me?"

     Ignicia gulped. "T-this... it won't last forever, will it?"

     "What if it does?" Miss Acacia asked, grinning so familiarly so Undula shuddered. No way! That teacher standing there obtrusively with a grin like that... She actually looked like Ignicia!

     "I'm sorry," Ignicia said, knowing that she had lost this battle.

     "Well, you won't have to wait for long," the Math teacher said, pointing to the setting sun. "You will switch back when the sun sets."

     The golden sun that had lit the sky so long was now slowly disappearing. The sea beyond was swallowing it whole, and the last rays searched the sky as glittering stars took form.

     Miss Acacia smiled. From the behavior of these two faeries, it would seem that their little project had been successful. She watched as the two closed their eyes and returned to their rightful bodies. Then the teacher stiffened, remembering how she had been humiliated on that lesson.

     "So... What was it all about?" Undula asked, back in her proper body. She looked at her tail and sighed. All those bruises and bumps would take a long time to heal...

     "It's..." the Earth faerie stopped, wondering if it was a good idea to tell them all. Then she thought of how she had been treated and opened her mouth again. "A project called 'A Day in Another's Shoes'." Miss Acacia quickly explained the whole project for them.

     "I hope that you have reached to a degree of understanding now, even if you may not be best friends," the Earth faerie finished.

     "Who wants to be friends with her?" Ignicia said in her old stubborn way.

     Miss Acacia shook her head. Rivalry never changes... Speaking of rivalry, she still had some business to settle with that Orkana, ditching her like this... The teacher gripped her wand and looked at the two faeries, wishing that they would leave soon.

     "Yeah," Undula said, copying Ignicia. It wasn't that hard to do, considering that she had 'been' Ignicia for a day or so. She looked at the Fire faerie challengingly, just the way Ignicia used to challenge her. "And you know what?"

     "What?" Ignicia asked, sensing that it wouldn't be something good. Surprised, she saw Undula point at her feet and utter the three worst words she had heard the whole day.

     "Your shoes stink."

The End