Mena rummaged through her bag over and over—it was a mire full of school books, sugared cloud puffs, a bunch of poorly sharpened eyeliner pencils and cheap makeup. Mena’s heart pounded furiously. She had already lost the moving picture of her parents at Deidre’s house, and she desperately hoped she hadn’t lost the delightful tome of romance. Mena looked up frantically. What if someone had stolen it? It was brand new and state-of-the-art after all.

“Mena,” May asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Miserable Magicaps,” Mena said with her false swear. “I lost my copy of Love In The Days of Magic.”

“It’s gone?!” May asked equally shocked. “What do you think happened?”

Mena gritted her teeth. “What if someone stole it?”

Suddenly, an invisible switch clicked on in Mena’s head. “Ashlan!”

But the lioness had already departed. Stellaris walked over to Mena and May with a look of piqued interest. “I couldn’t help but overhear you girls. I’m sorry your book vanished, Mena, but it’s best not to jump to conclusions about a fellow student stealing it.”

“B…But…” Mena stammered

“Miss O’Ryan was fighting right by our side the whole time,” Stellaris said with a smile and a lift of her hand. “I don’t believe she could have been in two places at once.”

Mena looked at the ground bashfully. She was furious with her former friend for showing her up, but she couldn’t deny what Stellaris said. “You’re right professor.”

Stellaris tilted her head and winked “Try to always look at things from an unbiased perspective. It’s not only good for others but it’s good for yourself.”

Mena managed a weak smile after a long hard day. “I’ll try professor.

As May and Mena approached their dormitory, May patted Mena on the back. “Look at the bright side, now that we’re back, we can finally start writing,” her friend said to comfort her. “Better get it in since school starts tomorrow.”

“You know what,” Mena said, making a small brace-faced grin. “I’ll write the best story that anyone’s ever read. It won’t merely knock your socks off, it’ll knock your pants, shirt and underwear off too!”

“I didn’t know it was that kind of novel,” Janus said with a spacey smile as she opened the door. “Welcome back!”

Mena brushed past Janus, hurled her bag onto her bed and her body soon followed its trajectory. She quickly opened a blank notebook. It was intended for one of her classes, but she couldn’t resist writing down her ideas. She grabbed a feathered plume from her nightstand and started scrawling. “What?” she asked as Janus and May both stared at her.

Mena shrugged her shoulders and continued to scrawl. “I gotta get my passion down on paper before it all goes away.”

“Don’t mind her, Janus,” May responded. “She’s at the center of her brainstorm.”

“I can put anything I want on paper,” Mena thought, “obviously writing the best words possible is the best plan of action.”

“How about,” Mena planned in her mind, “I write a story about a girl named… Gena…and she’s uh… a princess.”—Mena’s eyes glinted—"Princess of the world! She’s so beautiful that everyone uses her beauty as a measurement for their own! And…all her loyal subjects adore her. They’re not even jealous that she’s so pretty and talented. In fact, it inspires them to live better lives themselves. Especially her staff…who are”—Mena’s teeth spread into an enormous grin. “A bunch of handsome shirtless men around her age. She regulates all of them to work without shirts, even the cooks and the cleaners.”

Mena snickered to herself. This was so easy. And it only got better and better the more she elaborated.

“Oh, but she’s got to have a problem. You can’t write a balanced story without your main character having a problem”—Mena placed her feather plume to her chin and positioned her eyes towards the ceiling.

With an enthusiastic yell, she screamed, “All the handsome men adore Gena…but she’s strictly monogamous! I’m such a genius!”

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Janus and May both looked up at her startled, but Mena simply laughed some more. “Sorry, I’m currently in the throes of creating a romance book that’s going to go down in the annals of history.”

“Sounds more like the ana…” Janus said wryly but May cut her off.

“Hmm, Mena, let me see what you got.”

At first, Mena didn’t want to share her ideas with May. After all, such a fertile idea garden could be pillaged. But she thought, why not, maybe her genius would rub off on May.

May observed what Mena had written on her notepad. Mena tried to detect emotion in May’s eyes, but the reflection in the candlelight, bounced off her friend glasses. Mena was unable to see them or read her friends mind, but she knew May was going to be soon begging her for tips and…

“Uh, Mena,” May spoke adjusting her glasses. “I’m not sure people are going to like this character…”

Mena’s face turned pale. What could May possibly mean? “I don’t want to upset you, Mena, but there’s no way anyone is going to relate to Gena, Princess of the World and the Other Galaxies too.”

“I can relate to her!” Mena chimed in but May rose her eyebrows, stopping Mena in her tracks. “No, I can’t…but I’d like to be able to!”

“Don’t we all,” May said, matter of fact. “If I was like that, I wouldn’t have to get good grades…but Mena, simply try to make your character a bit more down-on-the-ground.”

Mena nodded, and thanked May, but now her task had gotten a lot harder. Still, she could do it. She had read a bunch of masterfully written romance novels after all. All she’d have to do is ground her wild imagicnation.

Mena stared at her notebook for five straight minutes without an idea on how to write a less-than- perfect character. Perfection was easy to invent but flaws were hard. Her hand shook and she raised it. “This is soooo hard,” she whined, accidentally throwing her plume over her shoulder. “Oops!”

Mena watched as the plume flew across the room, landing right beside May’s bed. “Oh my magicaps, May, I’m sorry! I almost got ink on your bed.”

Mena hurried over as her friend. She tried to reassure May that it was okay, but suddenly, Mena’s demeanor changed. Sticking out of May’s bag, was Mena’s missing copy of Love In The Days of Magic.

“May…” Mena asked, a squeak in her voice as she pulled it out. “Why do you have this? Are you the one who stole my book?”

“I didn’t!” May responded candidly. “I don’t know how it got in there…I…”

Mena frowned; her eyes glared with an angry intensity. “I know how it got there. You didn’t like that I took it away from you last night.”

“What?!” May asked, her deep voice jumping an octave. “Mena, I didn’t steal it.”

Mena shook her head. “It’s not like it could have walked into your bag. How did it get there then?”

May looked helplessly at Janus who couldn’t offer her a lifeline, not having been there. “M-M-Mena,” May stammered, but she realized Mena was tear-blinded.

“May, this is the only thing I have left in my life. You know I can’t believe after all that happened with Dede and…you know what, May, talk to the hand…”—Mena shielded May’s face from her sight in an uppity fashion.

May began to sob with deep whimpers. At last, Janus spoke, her gentle and airy voice cutting through the air with surprising sharpness. Her large purple eyes matched it with equal sternness and she put her arm around May. “I’m surprised at you, Mena. This isn’t like you. Not for the short while I’ve known you, at least.”

“This is me,” Mena exclaimed in tears. “People think I can be happy and silly all the time, but I can’t. Not when I lost one of the most important people in my life.”

Janus placed her hands on her hips. “Still doesn’t mean we shouldn’t investigate the circumstances of how May got the book. Someone could have put it in her bag as a prank.”

“Nobody was there to do it”—the young witch grabbed her book and stomped to the door—”I really need to get away from all of this. This day blows cauldron bubbles!”

As tears streamed down her eyes, she walked up the Cloud Wall so she could hide in the bathroom, Mena realized she was being a bit unreasonable, but she couldn’t help it. Today had been so bad, she couldn’t stand to be in the company of anyone. Stellaris’ words of being too quick to judge someone for a crime came to her mind, but she was far too upset to even think of another cause. She shuffled into the aquamarine bricked lavatory and gazed at herself in the mirror. Tears streamed down her face.

A suave voice peeped up at her, distracting her from her misery. “A look of sadness is unbefitting to one so beautiful.”

Mena looked down. No one was there, and Mena called out nervously. “Hello? Is anyone here?”

“Only me, M-M-Mena,” the darkly handsome voice said again.

Mena gasped. Her book was talking to her. She nearly dropped it out of shock and the book cried out. “Watch it, baby. Don’t scuff my flawless cover.”

Mena gazed at the book cover. Fabias moved like he was like a real person trapped in a book and he gave her a sultry wink. “I’m sorry that non-beauty was so jealous of what we have together that she had to steal me.”

Mena’s eyes widened. So, May did steal her book. “Oh Fabias,” Mena said, dramatically raising her hand. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

Fabias gave a grin so white and shiny it could make a sheet of freshly fallen snow jealous. “Relax, babygirl, that’s why you have me. You can confide all your little secrets in me.”

“Really?!” Mena’s brown eyes glistened like milk chocolate.

“And not’s not all,” Fabias responded, his eyes sparkling as he gave her a harrowing gaze. “I want you to know that I can make you perfect. With my powers, you can become as beautiful, smart, talented and all-around flawless as Princess Gena.”

“Whaaaa?!” Mena said, dumbfounded. “I can…”

“Life isn’t always perfect,” Fabias responded, wagging his finger. “But it can be, when you become its author.”