"H-Heh ... maybe don't make deals you can't keep, Lexi... no offense" the sheepish Leah said while counseling her best friend who had visited her dorm room the following day after visiting the fairy colony. Of course, as was tradition, Lexi told Leah everything ... well especially now in the aftermath of her best friend finding out she was a superheroine. That still didn't stop the slightly disgruntled Lexi from giving her a snarky look
"I can do it ... I can ask her out ... I'm just gonna ask if she wants to go to the Valentine's Day Dance with me" Lexi reasserted, trying to appear firm and confident while her body language showed some apparent signs of wavering. Leah, detecting this, could only shake her head in wonderment.
"I just don't get it, Lex" Leah sighed, "You're the strongest person I know, for real"
Lexi would pause briefly to smile
"You can ask a cute girl on a date, I've seen you do it before!" Leah reminded
"I... I guess but most of those were just joking around or flirting or whatever..." Lexi recalled, "I don't even know if Chrissy ... yknow... goes that way..."
"Look ... I ... I get it..." Leah nodded, putting her hand on her best friends for a touch of comfort, "I mean... maybe I don't completely but I do get being nervous around somebody and the warm fuzzies..."
"The warm fuzzies?" Lexi chuckled, almost snorting as she did so.
"Oh cmon, now YOU'RE going to tease me? I'm trying to help you!" Leah shrugged
At that moment came a knock on the door
"Hello?" Leah asked
"It's Josh"
"Come in" Leah responded, summoning the aforementioned Josh James into the room who looked interested in talking for a number of reasons but his first question would of course be something most friends were accustomed to hearing from their friends upon being visited by them.
"So, how did it go?" Josh asked, "how was the fairy battle?"
"The ... fairy battle?" Lexi asked, a raised eyebrow of skepticism contrasting with her goofy grin as she even pictured the concept in her own mind.
"Yeah... sorry I missed it ... was ... doing stuff..." Josh stammered, getting a bit of a stern look from Leah. "But I wanted to know how it went, your first official call as a superhero... did you have to fight some kind of giant bug? Stop an evil fairy from taking over?"
"No and no...." Lexi shrugged, "but I did get confirmation that fairies are real"
"And from what Lex tells me, they dress FANTASTICALLY!" Leah giggled, one of her takeaways from Lexi's telling of the story.
"Oh my god, for real though, this girl Spark, super nice by the way, wore such a smoking outfit, like it was bright red, with gold trim on it, but it wasn't overdone? It's hard to explain it ... I almost wanna go to that Valentine's Festival thing just to see what outfit she's going to try next ... but they were ALL amazingly dressed"
"Valentine's Festival?" Josh asked, also seeming a bit on edge himself after hearing that
"Yeah, Lex said they do some kind of Valentine's thing in their colony... kind of like we do" Leah nodded, "I always said the fairy folk weren't too different from you and I ... just a bit smaller is all"
"Psh, you didn't think they existed either, don't lie" Lexi scoffed
"Yeah? And remember all those times we'd play 'house' as kids? Except instead of a family, we'd be a fairy family?" Leah asked
"Yeah when we were KIDS! We also pretended we were ROBOTS, I don't see that happening!" Lexi crossed her arms and hmphed, drawing a bit of a delightful giggle from Josh who loved watching the dynamic between the 2 girls who had known each other seemingly forever. It was the kind of heartwarming display very few could resist.
"Well it doesn't matter anyway, because as much fun as a fairy festival sounds ... heck it even sounds fun to say ... Lexi is going to the HUMAN Valentine's Day dance with Chrissy..." Leah would fake swoon
"I don't get why you're so interested in this..." Lexi rolled her eyes
"I can't wanna see my bestie succeed?" Leah shrugged, "at least one of us should succeed for Valentine's Day"
"There's more to Valentine's Day than dates" Lexi shrugged
"No, that's literally all it is... it's a holiday about dates ... it's a holidate" Leah nodded, proudly inventing the new term.
"Ugh, whatever fine ... I've gotta get to work anyway ... if I see her, I'll ask her, but no pressure, okay?" Lexi commented, making her way out the door and bidding goodbye to her two friends that were gathered there.
"I've ... gotta go" Josh mumbled, letting himself out as well.
What's eating him? Leah wondered.
While Lexi took a different path to exit the building and cut across campus towards work, Josh met up with Chris just outside the dorm building as they were planning to play some games together at Chris' dorm.
"So? Did you ask her?" Chris asked
Josh simply shook his head, looking a bit frustrated with himself as the two walked off together.
----
At the Krazy Kookie, a smug Mara looked down at her watch, counting down the seconds while glancing back at her coworker Melanie.
"You just wait..." Mara nodded, tapping her watch
"There's no way ..." Melanie said, leaning over Mara's shoulder to see the watch for herself as the time was nearing 2 PM.
At this point, the ever-attentive Mara was literally counting down the seconds, even at the expense of potential customers who stood on the other side of the counter a little bewildered.
"5...4...3..."
Suddenly, there arose the star of the show, or at least the star of this one -- Ms. Alexis Cole, running into work with just a few seconds to smile. Mara would let out a slight verbal exclamation before relinquishing a crumpled 5 dollar bill into Melanie's hand.
"Damn ... I just don't know how she does it" Mara sighed, shaking her head in disbelief, before finally turning and facing the previously bewildered customer.
"I'm telling you, Lexi has never been late" Melanie beamed proudly, accepting her prize as Lexi shuffled her way behind the counter, apron still not tied around her waist while she still maintained that smile for which she was known. "Thanks for coming through again, Lex"
"Heh, no problem" Lexi stuttered, typing her numbers into a computer to punch in, before turning to Mara, "H-Hey have you seen...?"
Just then the door to the kitchen swung open revealing...
"Chrissy!" Lexi yelped
"Yup, how's it going, Lex?" the calm blonde would ask her friend and coworker as she carried a fairly sizable tray of cupcakes, setting them on a counter to get them ready for wrapping and packing while other coworkers shuffled about to keep things moving in the limited workspace.
"Oh? Me? Me... yes, it's going well" Lexi nodded, quickly turning towards the counter just to double check there weren't any customers to wait on or talk to. There weren't any.
"You sure?" Chrissy chuckled, "You seem a bit nervous or ...upset, I don't know, you don't seem too... Lexi-like"
"She's upset that she cost me 5 bucks" Mara chimed in, not noticing that she may have been pouring a bit TOO much creme into her customers coffee while she had her back turned.
"Hey, I didn't want that much creme!" the disgruntled customer stated from beside the counter, already a bit miffed from having to wait while the ladies had their silly parlay bet.
"Well, consider it a free gift, from us to you ... Happy Valentine's Day!" Mara responded in a cheerful manner handing the young man his cup of over-sweetened and creamy coffee. As he walked away, said young man just muttered, "...I have no idea why I keep coming here..."
"Heh yeah..." Chrissy nodded, her memory having been jogged by the current incident, "Valentine's Day IS coming up, huh?"
"Yeah! Yeah" Lexi nodded, as if she herself just remembered although that was surely not the case, "And there's that uh ... Valentine's Day Dance thing!"
"Oh yeah" Chrissy shrugged, still paying attention but focusing on shuffling the cupcakes around and into their properly labeled boxes and wrapping, "I wasn't going to go ..."
Lexi began to open her mouth but was cut off by Mara
"I'm going out that night" Mara said proudly, "But I'm going to where the real action is"
"We all get it, Mara" Melanie smirked, "you're more 'intense' than we are"
"I never said that!" Mara giggled, shaking a can of pure whipped cream and spraying it into her mouth. Lexi had to admit, she wasn't hating the view, but she quickly tried to turn her attention back to Chrissy as the situation felt likely more chaotic than it actually was in that moment. It just seemed she couldn't get the words out of her mouth and even if she did, this was likely not the right time for it, not that it mattered as it seemed like there were multiple people chattering at once in that moment.
"I just REALLY like to party..." Mara giggled, mouthful of whipped cream, "and our school's parties just don't do it for me"
Surprisingly the other girls were able to understand most of what Mara was saying despite her muffled voice
"Yeah, we've noticed" Melanie nodded, "that's why you've missed... what, 6 days this month?"
"MMMmmmm" Mara shook her head, cream billowing from little creases between her lips, as she motioned with her hand for a number 5.
"Whatever" Melanie rolled her eyes, focusing on the customers at the front desk.
The smiling but still nervous Lexi would make her second attempt, turning towards Chrissy again when this time it was the aforementioned cupcake packing blonde that would speak,
"Yeah ... I wasn't going to go..." Chrissy started, as Lexi raised a finger high, as if to interject and make her move, but before she could get there, "... but then Trent asked me and he was REALLY insistent about it"
Lexi's finger couldn't move fast enough to the down position. Thankfully nobody else had really noticed this.
"So finally I just said yes" Chrissy laughed, "I'm sure it'll be whatever ... I mean, I like to dance, yknow?"
"Lexi, could you check in the kitchen to see if we have anymore funfetti?" Melanie asked, but Lexi seemed to be in a bit of a fog. "Lexi?"
"Huh? Oh yeah ... funfetti" Lexi nodded, that trademark smile never leaving her face even as she felt like she had to pick up her heart on her way into the kitchen. It's a good thing she wasn't really SUPER into Chrissy or anything...
----
Back at the fairy colony of Fensteralia, 3 very nervous looking fairies were being questioned in the dimly lit office of the town elder, Esmerelda as she seemed none too pleased with any of the guilty looking trio.
"So what else did you tell this human about the colony?" she asked, leaning forward
"Nothing. We told you" Spark sighed, seeming like a disgruntled teenager who had been sent to detention, "She's good, I'm telling you"
"I was pretty skeptical at first" Lark added, "but she seems like the real deal ... a human who can shrink and change sizes, she could've crushed us if she --"
"Exactly! She could've and just CHOSE not to ... this time" Esmeralda sneered, pounding her fist on her green and gold desk. "What happens if she gets angry? What if she brings more of her human friends?"
"We told her to keep it a secret..." Lark whimpered
"And you think she'll listen?" Esmerelda asked
"I honestly don't see what the big deal is..." Spark sighed, by far the bravest of the three there. Although counting Mark, that was easily not even a contest.
"Excuse me?" the irate Esmerelda asked, flexing her brow as she sat back in her chair, eager to hear whatever defense the brash young Spark was about to present.
"We're a colony of fairies... who have dwelled in this forest for eons. We've braved witches, monsters, magical beasts, rogue elves... you name it! We're afraid of one human girl who dresses like a superhero?" Spark asked, "we should be more concerned with that factory going up across the way"
"That place doesn't concern us" Esmerelda sighed, crossing her arms, "Had it been built closer to the colony, MAYBE but this isn't the first time the human world has built something close to our way of existence. We fairies are fine and happy to blend in, not causing trouble and ..."
"and not defending ourselves!" Spark snapped, drawing horrified looks from her siblings. "These people from Enormous or whatever the name is ... are encroaching on OUR land, I don't care how far it is, they're building on OUR forest and we're doing NOTHING about it... but then some human walks in and you get all upset about it"
"That's ... ENOUGH" Esmerelda sighed, just turning away in disgust, "This ... ShrinkGirl will be your responsibility ... if anything happens because of her, it will be your problem to correct"
"Okay" Spark sighed, seemingly unfazed by Esmerelda's threats as she leaned back in her chair, a slight show of disrespect.
"You are dismissed" Esmerelda would say, showing the three the way out. They'd all leave, 2 of them seeming really concerned as Spark took the middle path out, saying nothing more.
----
"It's a good thing I wasn't really SUPER into Chrissy or anything..." Lexi sighed, her head on her hands while she sat on Leah's bed in her dorm room. Leah rubbed her back shoulder a bit to console her
"Yeah but still ... I'm sorry to hear that ... but hey, you and I could go to the dance anyhow! Maybe we could even go as each others dates" Leah teased, giving Lexi a slight ribbing. Lexi would give her a smirk as another idea entered her mind.
"Hmmm ... yknow..." Lexi smirked, "Maybe we don't need to go to the Valentine's Day dance at all..."
"What do you mean? I thought you were looking forward to it" Leah replied
"Well, parties are fun ... but let's just say I know of another party ... a sort of exclusive club?" Lexi winked.
Leah thought for a second and then smirked as well, realizing now what her best friend meant.
Giantess World
