Destiny: The Winx Saga {Parallel storyline}

Chapter 1: Rushing Whispers

{Millie}

I walked through the heavy double doors of the school's entrance and looked around. It was the first day back at school, and the halls were filled with happy, cheerful students chatting excitedly about their summers. I knew that their leftover summer high would die off soon, though, quashed like a bug under a vicious heel. My summer high was snuffed out upon waking up this morning after a terrible sleep riddled with nightmares about tests, stress, bad grades, math and magic.

Every year school only got harder. My insides twisted with the thought of my future grades, and the future lectures from my mother. Constant dejection was what I had to look forward to for the next ten months. I was going to need a lot of chocolate to get me through the year. Maybe a paper shredder, too, to eliminate any and all evidence of my poor academic performance.

I shook my head, clearing my mind. It didn't do to stress over things that hadn't happened yet. Things that were out of my control, like inevitable trash-worthy grades.

I hiked my bag up higher and steeled myself for the start of eleventh grade at Hreya Highschool. I looked to my right, to my best friend, Aura, for support - but she wasn't there.

I stared at the spot where she should have been glumly. Re-entering school for the first time in two months had distracted me momentarily from her absence. Now I felt it like a heavy weight pressing on my chest, and the worry that I carried for the past week came into full focus. If only I could see her today then maybe I could relax a little.

She called yesterday, to let me know she wouldn't be walking to school with me for our first day tradition. That was the first time I had heard from her in a week. The first time I had heard from her since the incident.

I was a little hurt at the briefness of the call, I wanted to hear what had happened; how she was doing and if she was ok. But Aura offered up none of that information, and I didn't ask. I didn't know how to ask.

She promised she would be at school today, though, so I would see her then. I needed to see her in one piece, safe and whole. From what little information that was flying around town, I didn't even know if Aura had survived the incident unharmed.

I shook my head again, to rid it of the images that filled my head of Aura in blood, scraped up, with a cast. It didn't do to stress over things that hadn't happened yet.

I took a deep breath and entered the crowded halls.

Friends I hadn't seen much, or at all, over the summer waved and said hi, asking how I was. I waved back and kept my exchange of words to a minimum; I didn't want to miss catching a glimpse of Aura.

By the time I reached my locker I was exhausted of smiles. Was our school always this small? I thought to myself. I knew every single person I crossed paths with. It wasn't something I had ever recognized before until today, when the only person I desperately wanted to see was no where to be found.

Well, if Aura were here already, she wouldn't have been difficult to find. She would either be at her locker, on her way to class, or in class. There was no lingering in the halls talking to fellow students for her, that was the last place she'd ever be. And I don't know why I bothered scanning the halls so meticulously, she stuck out like a sore thumb everywhere she went. I would easily have noticed her by now.

Aura was a quiet one, and in a school this small the only way to blend in was to not stay under the radar. She never listened to me when I told her that.

Crash! I felt a body slam into the metal beside me, creating a crater in its wake. The massive intrusion was Danny.

Danny was the only other person I considered my best friend. And that isn't a title I throw around lightly.