KOTLC- afterstory (new generation)

Chapter One

"Stella." a familiar voice said softly. Stella tossed and turned in her bed ignoring the voice, she wasn't ready to wake up and she felt so drained even though she wasn't sure why, she didn't do much the day before.

"10 more minutes please" Stella begged as she continued to toss and turn, pulling the covers over her face.

"You've had enough sleep already, trust me.''A voice - who she assumed was her mom said, shaking her gently. Someone squeezed her shoulder and jolted her awake.

"You good Stell?''someone asked. Her eyes shifted into focus as she looked around her bedroom, small by Elvin standards but massive to her, she had an enormous desk for doing homework with a beautiful bookcase made by the gnomes, on the opposite wall was her giant walk-in closet. She looked up to see that it was her parents standing next to her larger than life sized bed.

"Yeah I'm just tired." She was about to close her eyes again when her dad said

"Well you've slept all day it's one."

"ONE!" Stella yelled, yanking her covers off and scrambling out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She'd never slept in until one before.

Was something wrong with her?

She hated sleeping in because she felt like she was wasting the day.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Stella asked, rushing to her closet to get changed but she ended up tripping over her own feet and landing in strong arms.

"You are just like your mom, you know that?" Keefe laughed, flashing a smirk at Sophie who rolled her eyes. "Leave it to you two to trip over nothing." he added.

Of course Stella inherited her moms clumsiness, why couldn't it be something else.

"And we didn't wake you up because your body needs rest." Sophie replied, ignoring Keefe's comments as Stella got back to her feet. "But I'm 10." Stella protested.

"Hey, it's your fault you slept in, not ours," Keefe said grinning at her.

"We'll let you get dressed." Sophie said as she dragged Keefe with her towards the door.

"Can I eat first? I'm really hungry." Stella whined as she went to follow her mom. "I wouldn't go downstairs right now if I were you Stell" Keefe warned.

"Why not"

"Because the collective is here for a meeting downstairs" Sophie explained.

"Arghhh, how many meetings do you need?" Stella groaned as she flopped back onto her bed. "As many as we can get," Sophie told her, trying to hide the fact that she looked concerned but Stella pretended not to notice.

What was going on with the collective?

"And your friends are waiting for you downstairs too so I'd hurry up if I were you." Stella raced around looking for something to wear as her parents shut the door behind them. Her dad peaked back in and said "Oh and Stell? Maybe do something about that bedhead." Keefe winked as Sophie yanked him back out the room..

It couldn't be that bad? Could it?

Stella walked over to her spectral mirror, a gift that used to belong to her mom, that was placed in the corner of her room. And when she stepped into range, a girl with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes appeared in the corner of the mirror. "What happened to you?" Vertina said clearly, trying not to laugh. "It looks like you lost a fight to a banshee." Stella hated to admit it but Vertina was right. Her hair looked like a rat's nest. So she grabbed a hairbrush from her bedside table and attempted to brush the tangles and knots out of her shiny long blonde hair- the same as her moms.

Everyone seemed to think she was a great mix of both of her parents with her moms hair and her dads ice blue eyes. I guess they were right.

She was interrupted from further thoughts when Vertina snapped "NO, NO STOP, ARGHH YOUR MAKING IT WORSE." she really was.

"Grab some hairpins and let me help you! this is painful to watch" Vertina exclaimed. Stella was very tempted to walk away so Vertina would blink out of sight, but she did need her help as much as she hated to admit it.

So she wandered over to her desk on the other side of her ginormous bedroom to retrieve some bobby pins from her stash, and she let Vertina talk her through putting her hair up into some twisted ponytail thing. "Much better." Vertina said proudly. And it was. Her hair would've been a mess if she hadn't let Vertina help. "Thanks." Stella mumbled as she stepped out of range and ran to her closet to get changed.

She pulled on her favorite white frilly tunic - not too fancy of course! And a pair of simple black leggings. "Hurry up Stella, your friends are waiting." Her mom called from downstairs. "Coming!" Stella yelled back as she sprinted out of her room slamming the door behind her with a pair of brown flat boots in her hand as she tried to put them on, hopping down the stairs almost face planting several times.

That's when she spotted the familiar faces of her friends laughing at her from the bottom of the stairs.