The Crystal Heart: Part One

      But this term would be different, now that Jessie had graduated. After all, Kassy could work and still have time for friends, right? Of course she could, in her opinion. Other Light faeries still did. Plenty had tried to make friends with her last year, before they had known about Jessie. They would introduce themselves, but them Jessie would swoop in and drag off Kassy by saying something like. "Sorry, but Kassyandrya is very serious about her work and doesn't like to talk to other faeries much. Would you mind passing that information on?" When they were out of earshot of the other shocked faerie, Kassy had asked why Jessie had done that. She would respond with, "They looked suspicious. I wouldn't want you making friends with them."

      Kassy now could see the front desk and the faerie sitting behind it. She flew the last few yards with her bags.

      "Name and faerie type, please," the bored faerie asked in a dull voice without looking up.

      'Kassyandrya, Light faerie!" Kassy told her brightly.

      "Right, oh. Well." The faerie looked up at Kassy, worried. "Well, you see, one of the faerie towers is completely full. And well, there is extra space in your room, as you would not have a roommate if she could go in her tower. So, here is your schedule, and here is your room number: Room two hundred and ninety four. Please do your best to make the other faerie feel welcome in your room and tower." She handed Kassy a scroll with her schedule and smiled still looking worried.

      Kassy, on the other hand, was less than worried. "I'm sure that we'll grow to be the best of friends, don't you worry!" With that, she swiftly flew up to the Light faerie tower.

      Maybe I'll share a room with a Fire faerie, and we can have contests to see who can make the room brighter in the dark! I'd have to watch all of my papers, though. Or maybe it'll be an earth faerie. And we can fill our room with tons of potted plants, and when it rains, I can give them sunlight! Or maybe, even a water faerie, and she could help you whenever you know someone was sick! Even with an air faerie, you could be cool during the warm days. The only type of faerie that wouldn't be of any assistance to you be-

      Kassy was at the Light faerie tower, and in front of room two hundred and ninety four. She took a deep breath, and turned the doorknob. The door swung open. Inside was a Dark faerie setting up her bed. Bags were on the far side of the room, and the bed nearest to the door was unoccupied. If the Dark faerie had noticed her come in, she made no way of showing it.

      "Er, hi! I'm Kassyandrya, but you can call me Kassy. I'm your new roomie!" Kassy told the Dark faerie excitedly. "And you are?"

      The Dark faerie straightened up. "I'm a Dark faerie who is just as excited about this arrangement as you are. If we can make an agreement to ignore each other around here, then this whole term will just run a whole lot smoother. Okay?"

      "But I'm genuinely excited! You, see, last year wasn't much of a good year for me, and I was hoping that my new roomie would be a good chance of me finally having a good experience in the Faerie Academy!" Kassy explained in a rush.

      "Oh, great. They put me with a perky one. You know, I know that Light faeries are normally the perkiest of all faeries, but you are unusually and extremely perky. Well, I guess that you'll find out sooner of later that my name is Katie. Now, first things first, do you have a petpet?"

      Kassy nodded, glad that they were talking and Katie wasn't just throwing out insults out at her. "I have an angelpuss. Her name is Angela."

      Katie rolled her eyes. "Of course, you do. Why had I expected anything less? Anyways, I'll tolerate little Angela, as long as you tolerate Patricia. My floud."

      It could be worse, Kassy thought. Then she nodded.

      'Good. Now, that side is your side of the room. You stay on your side of the room, and I'll stay on mine. Make sure that you keep dear little Angela out of my things, too. And I, in turn, shall keep Trixie out of your stuff. Is that understood?" Katie looked at Kassy as if she was doing Kassy a huge favor by allowing her to know the ground rules, and not just start yelling at Kassy if Angela saw something shiny and darted after it.

      "Crystal clear." Kassy raised her eyebrows a fraction.

      "Good, now, if you will excuse me, I'm going off to the... Dark faerie common room in the Dark faerie tower. I'm sure that I will still be welcomed there, in fact, I'll bet you that most of the faeries will feel sorry for me, as I now have to share with a Light faerie. That'll give you enough time to unpack. I'll be back when I get kicked out or by midnight, whichever comes first. Actually, no, scratch that. If it's before midnight, I'll make sure that I am anywhere but here." With that, Katie walked out of the door and shut it with a loud slam.

      Kassy began upturning the contents of her bags. She let Angela out of the fuchsia carrying case, and set her up a small playing area near the corner in her section of the room. "Now, Angela, listen closely to me. You are forbidden, to even set one paw on that side of the room. Understand? I'm doing this for your own good. I don't want you turned into a plant, okay?" Angela, able to understand what she was saying to her, purred and flew over to her small playing area before curling up in her bright pink bed.

      Kassy sighed and went back to unpacking her bags.

      At breakfast the next morning, Kassy had no idea where to sit, having no friends, but she had no intention of sitting by herself. She wanted to make new friends, after all. "Hey, Kassy, over here!" Another Light faerie, Celine, was waving her over to her table. At the table was also an Earth faerie, Nikki, a water faerie, Mandy, an air faerie, Heather, a fire faerie, Rosie. They were among those who had tried to talk to her last year the most. Relieved at finding familiar faces, Kassy started to go in their direction. She was stopped, however, by a Dark faerie.

      "Hi! You're Kassy, right? We're friends of Katie's. You want to come sit with us? Please? We really want to meet Katie's new friend!"

      "Um, sure." Kassy mouthed to Celine, Nikki, Mandy, Heather, and Rosie, I'll eat with you guys at lunch, these are my roomie's friends! When the Dark faerie had her back turned, trying to locate her other friends. Celine, Nikki, Mandy, Heather and Rosie all looked a bit startled, but went back to talking with each other. Kassy felt bad about leaving them, but she wanted as many friends as she could.

      "Over here, Kassy. Just follow me." The Dark faerie smiled at Kassy and led her to a table with four Dark faeries sitting around it.

      "Sit down. We don't bite." A Dark faerie smiled sweetly at Kassy when they got there. Kassy smiled back and sat. The other Dark faerie sat own next to her.

      "Everyone, this is Kassy, Katie's new roommate in the Light faerie tower. Kassy, I'm Karly, and this is Alyssa, Marissa, Lizzie, Emmy, and Felicia. We're all good friends of Katie's."

      Kassy smiled. "Did Katie really get back into the Dark faerie tower last night to talk to you guys?" Karly nodded.

      "So, um, where is Katie?" Kassy asked as she took a bite of her food, but she didn't really realize what she was eating. She had a nervous feeling at being around strange, Dark faeries who were Katie's friends. She also had a feeling that these were the elite of the Dark faerie tower.

      "I don't know. Did you see her this morning?" Karly asked her. Kassy shook her head. Just then, the bell rang.

      "I should get to Gym." Kassy stood up.

      Karly nodded. " Hey, can we eat lunch together, too?"

      "I wish I could, but I kind of already promised some friends that I would eat lunch with them," Kassy said apologetically.

      Karly dismissed it with a wave of her hand, "They'll be more times to chat. Bye, Kassy!" They walked off to their first class.

      With that, Kassy hurried off to her first class, Gym. However, she got lost along the way and wound up by a storage closet. A storage closet that was... crying? Someone was in there! Nervously, Kassy turned the door handle. Inside was startling. It was faerie. Someone that Kassy knew. She gasped as the figure looked at her.

      "Katie?!" Kassy asked.

To be continued...