Connections - Sam Harvey

3. sense and insensibility

Aisha slowly stepped over to a white eyed Bloom as Eleanor stood behind her, trying to make sense of why her friend looked like a demon. Aisha gently pushed Bloom's shoulder, successfully waking her from the trance and when she asked " What the hell just happened?" Bloom replied " I think I just saw the fairy who left me in the human world." Eleanor got up and sat next to Bloom, rubbing her back as she said softly "I can take you with me to see Dowling tomorrow if you want? We can ask her if she knows anything." but Bloom just shook her head and and said goodnight.

The next morning after Aisha wacked Eleanor around the head to wake her up, Eleanor was fuming as she walked across the cafeteria with Bloom and Aisha, who was attempting to find anyone that could look slightly like the women in her witchy dream.

"Can we not do this again?" Aisha muttered and Bloom nodded, still entranced by the photos she protested. " I know. I know. There just are still a few maybes. I know it's hard to see what someones going to look like when they're old, but.. see, if i squint my eyes and tilt my head, this Farrah Fawcett one is a dead ringer." Aisha rolled her eyes but Eleanor replied, eyes barely open "There are a lot of fairies in the Otherworld, Bloom." Bloom jumped up and turned to the girls, and defended saying "Well.. you both said that the most powerful ones come through Alfea, right?" Aisha nodded reluctantly and corrected her " Technically, Alfea looks for magical potential when they admit fairies but yes, powerful fairies come through the school." Bloom shook her head and continued "Well, this woman embedded a memory in my head sixteen years ago. That seems pretty powerful." Aisha quickly shot her down though, causing both girls to raise their brows. "What else could it be? " Bloom asked and Aisha leaned closer and remarked "I just don't want you to get your hopes up."

"The night I opened myself up to magic, I got a memory. She said 'find me', Aisha. She put me there for a reason. I know she's too old to be my mom but... one of them at least has to know where she is." Bloom ranted, causing Eleanor to crack and conclude the debate. "Maybe Sam's dad has some old year books we can look through.. after the class that we are now officially late for. Let's go!" Eleanor shouted, dragging her friends across the hall, but not before passing Sam and quickly kissing his cheek and stealing his juice. "I'll meet you at the party, later." She whispered gently, leaving before he could agree.

The three girls had rushed in the class, only to find it hadn't even started yet. As they apologised to Miss Dowling, Eleanor detected hint of humour more than anything so she smiled and moved to sit next to a girl at the back. "Hi, I don't think we've met, I'm Eleanor." Elle announced with a smile and a hand to shake which the girl took with a smirk. "I'm Beatrix. Eleanor's a really long name, how about I call you Nelly?" Beatrix practically ordered to which Eleanor simply hid the anger she'd rather not show and smiled lightly as they paid attention to the conversation at hand.

"So, it's like the perfect pear, right? What you want me to do." Terra pondered to Miss Dowling. " You know how if you ever wanna eat a pear, it's always rock solid, and you wait and you wait, and it's still a rock, and then you touch it one second later and it'll rotten mush." Terra concluded as Musa mumbled how she hated pears. Miss Dowling walked straight to Terra and advised "Your magic connects you to living things. Feel how they communicate to you. The subtle signals of nature. Pheromones, vibrations. You can give life. But there is such thing as giving too much." as the group watched the dandelion grow as the seeds flew off. "Too much is kind of her thing." Musa added on with a smile.

"Which you can feel because you're an exposed microphone on a windy peak." Miss Dowling continued. "Think of focusing on one emotion, in one direction. Narrow the field. Good." and Elle watched as her sister zoned into something, clearly happy with her progress.

Miss Dowling then moved onto Bloom. "A fire that lays waste to everything in its path is instinctual and impulsive. What about when you need that fire to stop? Can you light a single piece of kindling and leave the others untouched?" and Bloom did just that as she watched the single piece with shock.