The Protector of the Covenant: Volume Two

Chapter 22

When Luna arrived and saw her sister's face she could tell she was in deep trouble. She saw Pepper as they were walking toward Violet's office and stopped her. Luna asked Pepper, "The spell worked, your neighbours are gone, why did you snitch?". Pepper sighed, "Believe me, I didn't. I'm in as much trouble, maybe even more than you for agreeing to this whole thing. Someone must've overheard our conversation.". Luna shook her head and they went into Violet's office.

As they walked in Violet had a deeply upset look on her face, she was shaking her head with disappointment. She roared: "Luna, in my lengthy reign as the head of the WSA no one has ever cheated! No one! I cannot believe you!". Luna responded, "I just didn't want to fail the final challenge in the Protector of the Covenant as badly as I did last year! People died, Violet, because of me. I wanted to avoid that and thought this would be the best way.". Violet's anger switched to sympathy and Venus touched her sister's hand to comfort her. Violet declared, "Whatever your reason is rules are rules and when you break them there must be consequences. I've given it a great deal of thought and I've decided that yours will be you have to help out with the WSA's annual beauty pageant.". Luna replied, "Yeah sure, decorating stuff and keeping things organized seems easy enough." Violet clarified, "Oh no, no. You'll have to compete. We're one short so we need you.". Luna sighed but knew her moping wouldn't fix anything.

Luna was in dismay the whole broomstick ride home. She asked Venus, "Why would witches do a beauty pageant anyway?". Venus responded, "Oh trust me they're not like the ones regular people have. Instead of a talent portion, we do spells and there's no bikini competition.". Luna did feel better knowing she didn't have to sing or show any more of her skin than she wanted to. When they got home she began preparing for the pageant. She went searching online for places that sold black gowns, looking through the Protector of the Covenant for what spell to do and watching videos of previous winners to see how it works.

She heard the doorbell ring and ran downstairs to see who it was. She said as she opened the door, "David! Oh geez, I forgot we were going to hang out today! I'm sorry. I'm busy, I have to prepare for this beauty pageant.". David responded, "Beauty pageant? I can't believe it! That's the last thing I would think you would want to do!". Luna laughed, "Believe me, I know! The head of the WSA found out about my attempt to cheat in the final challenge and so my consequence is I have to compete in the pageant.". David replied, "Oh I for sure am going to want to see that!". Luna retorted, "Oh god, I'm going to be embarrassed! You better not record anything!". The couple continued to joke around about the beauty pageant but alas Luna had to kick her boyfriend out after a certain point so she could return to her work.

Venus helped her sister out with the pageant, they spent most of the week leading up to it practising questions they thought the judges would ask and making sure Luna had perfected her spell. Luna had chosen a spell that makes stuffed animals come to life and had picked her favourite childhood teddy bear. The clothes had arrived and Venus ran up to Luna crying, "They're here! Your gowns! All black, as requested by you!". Though Luna had been grumbling all week she was happy to see her older sister act so enthusiastically. Luna asked, "Who's going to be doing my makeup? I can do eyeliner but that's it.". Venus reassured her, "Don't worry, I talked to Aunt Stephanie and she's agreed to do both your hair and makeup.". There was just a night to go until the big day and Luna was understandably nervous, if she wasn't anxious about one thing she would find another.

Luna was woken up early the morning of the pageant. She thought as she got out of her bed, "Just another reason why I hate this thing! If they're going to be judging us on our beauty shouldn't they let us get our beauty rest?". David was downstairs having breakfast with Venus, he brought bagels and coffee for the girls. When Luna saw the two she whined, "Oh do I have to do this?". Venus sighed, "Yes, you broke the rules and you have to repay for it.".  Luna and David went on her broomstick with Venus flying beside them. Luna was a nervous wreck the whole way there so her sister and boyfriend had to calm her down.

When they got there Stephanie was at the entrance waiting for them. Luna and her aunt went to the contestants dressing room while the others went to the audience section. Stephanie exclaimed, "Now this is a moment I would've never predicted happening! First, we'll do your hair, some cute little updo I was thinking. Then I'll do the foundation, contour, highlight and blush. And we end things with some killer eyeshadow matched with equally awesome lipstick. Now I know, this definitely won't be your style. It's going to be girly and not emo but just bear with it for this one day.". Luna nodded her head in agreement and the beautification process began.

Luna started off a bit rocky because the first thing the contestants had to do was a group dance and she contained no rhythm within her body. For the first round she had to come out in her gown, she had picked a black ball gown that flares out at the waist and had little bats on the bottom. The judges all seemed surprised to see her and unimpressed but she just looked at David who was smiling right back at her. Luna was first for the talent portion, she came out with her teddy bear, chalk and a piece of paper. She drew a circle on the stage with the chalk, much to the judge's dismay, and put her teddy bear in the middle. She chanted: "Gods and Goddesses, I call to you, to bring this stuffed animal to life to become my loyal companion, and to protect me at all times". Then she wrote on her piece of paper 'so mote it be' and folded it twice. Next, she chanted, "Oh stuffed animal companion of mine come to me across this great divide and settle here by my side. Come and to me and be loyal and protect me. Blessed Be!". The bear appeared and Luna quickly brought it backstage to be taken care of.

The interview portion's time came and Luna was shaking with fear. The interviewer was Luna's least favourite witch, Agatha. Agatha had a shrill voice and was very self-centred. She asked Luna stupid questions like "what's your favourite type of weather?" and "when do you like to shower?". Luna's annoyance showed through her answers and she ended up doing terrible at the interview portion. Unsurprisingly, Luna didn't win the pageant but she didn't really care anyways. Her job had been to compete and she had done just that. As the winner was being crowned people heard screams coming from the back of the stage. The winner joked, "I guess someone is a sore loser!". After the pageant was done Luna was just about to leave with her family and boyfriend when she remembered she had left something in the dressing room. When she went back in she screamed at what she saw.