gThe first day of school, we love to hate it. That first time we have to wake up to a blaring alarm, first time we have to get ready before the sun is awake, first time we see our teachers and our friends- oh right, friends. Sage had completely forgotten to reach out to Alexander after he had become a ruler, they had planned to meet up over the summer but he had completely forgotten once he had a whole village to rule over. Well, he'd see him again today anyway. Sage had already slept in, so he was rushing to get ready. Once he had eaten, he rushed upstairs to grab his phone before he left. When he stepped into his room he saw Aqua sitting in the frame of the window, when did they get here? Sage pulled back the glass of the window and the screen to let Aqua in. They came into his bedroom and said "Hey" Casually, as if appearing at someone's window was a very normal thing to do. "Hey, you." Sage said, "Come to wish me good luck on my first day of school?" Aqua nodded, "You gonna miss me?" Aqua looked to the side, thinking about it, before shaking their head. "Are you in denial?" "I'll only miss you a little, we aren't going to be able to have lunch together anymore." Aqua said, "Oh that's true, shame, I was gonna suggest we start swapping lunches." Sage said, Aqua rolled their eyes, "I'm not trying any of your weird human food." Aqua said, Sage checked the time, "I gotta get going, see you later! And uh, close the window on your way out...and maybe stop flying up to my windows?" Before Sage shut the door he heard Aqua say "No promises''
...
It was honestly disappointing that he was still late for school after rushing that much to get out of the door, it's surely Aqua's fault. First class, History. Sage checked the room number and walked into school, now searching for room 238. He went up to the second floor and paid close attention to the sequence of numbers, 236, 237... there it was, room 238. Sage strolled into the room and spotted Alexander immediately, he had a friend in this class, lucky him. He sat in the seat beside him, he should probably explain why he wasn't at the dance, and why he didn't meet up with him over the summer. The only problem, he would have to lie. You simply can't lie to a friend you've known for years, they always know. But he doubted Alexander would believe him if he told him he had been building a main village for all these fairies in the Mushroom Domain anyway. "Hey, Alex, hi!" Sage said, nudging Alexander's desk to get his attention, but he didn't seem to gain his attention...was he ignoring him? "Alex, what's wrong?" Sage asked, he didn't think Alexander would be bothered by him not showing up to the dance, he had other friends that were there after all. Suddenly, Alexander stood up and moved to another table, all Sage managed to say to him was "Hey-" before he was completely out of earshot. Well....this sucked. He should apologize, he will apologize. The teacher came to the front of the room and introduced herself, and Sage decided this would have to be a lunchtime issue.
...
Lunchtime rolled around, he had no clue where Alexander's locker was so he ended up following him. Watching his head over the crowd until it stopped and went to the side to get his things out of his locker. Then, once he had stopped at his locker, Sage stood behind him, when Alexander turned back around he jumped at the sight of him. "Sorry we never got together over the summer..." Sage started, but Alexander pushed him out of the way and disappeared into the crowd. Man, he was getting really good at avoiding him! Sage was almost impressed...
Sage walked downstairs and sat at the bottom of the stairwell, the spot where he and Alexander used to have lunch together. But oh well, sometimes you just lose friends you've known for years! Why? No one knows. Sage sat on the ground angrily eating leftover pasta, he was going to have to find another friend to help him through the school year or he'd just be the laughing stock again. His head perked up when he heard a little cling... a bottle cap had rolled towards him, he looked at it...weird, must have rolled out of some kids lunchbox and all the way over here. But then it rolled again, after it had stopped rolling towards Sage. He blinked his eyes, did he just do that? Or did that cap move on its own? He picked it up, stood up, and headed towards the exit of the staircase. He looked around but he didn't see anyone...weird. He returned to eating his pasta like normal, only to be interrupted by the warning bell, he had five minutes to get to his next class. He gulped down the last of his pasta, tucked the container away in his lunchbox and dashed back up the stairs to put it in his locker. He could've sworn that lunch break was three minutes long.
...
Next class, science. The minute Sage walked in the door he saw Alexander sitting there, early because of course he was. Not one, but two classes with his ex-friend, great. He sat down two desks away from him, maybe this was his chance to find out what happened. The teacher came to the front of the room, and immediately launched into a speach, "You know what I don't like?" He said, the class remained silent, not sure how to answer his question, and because it was the first day of school, too shy to try. "How QUIET IT IS IN HERE!!" His teacher shouted throwing his hands up to exaggerate his point. Sage rolled his eyes, maybe it's because everyone got up at six this morning he thought to himself. "You're supposed to be making FRIENDS, chatting, c'mon guys, you haven't seen these people in THREE MONTHS!!" Still nobody moved to talk to each other, this upset his teacher. "Alright, everyone in pairs of two, talk about what you did this summer!" Everyone turned towards their friends and the unfortunate ones who didn't have friends in the class turned to people they kind of knew. Not Sage, Sage was on a mission. He stood up, walked over to Alexander's desk, and sat beside him, "So, how was your summer?" He said casually, now Alexander couldn't get out of this, Sage was simply doing what his teacher had asked. Alexander looked at him, obviously infuriated with how he was following him around. "I'll stop bothering you when you tell me why you're mad at me." Sage said in a serious tone. "You said you'd come to the dance...you never did." Alexander said. "But you had other friends that were going! I figured you'd just hang out with them..." Sage argued, "That doesn't mean I didn't want to go to the dance with you! Why did you lie to me? Why did you say you were going if you didn't plan on showing up?" Alexander raised his voice, "I didn't plan anything! Something just...came up." Sage said, "What was it then? What came up?" Alexander asked. "I can't tell you." Sage said. Alexander stood up to face Sage, "You still can't tell me the truth. Why do you keep lying?" Sage blinked back the tears that spiked his eyes, he really didn't like being yelled at. "I...don't mean to." Sage tried to explain. "That doesn't make any sense! Nothing you do makes any sense! Why didn't you respond to me all summer? How did you burn your ankle? What were you doing throwing rocks into a pond with some weird person dressed like a fairy?" Alexander yelled, Sage took a step back...he was talking about Aqua, someone saw them at the Wishing Pond. "How do you know about that?" Sage asked cautiously, "You haven't heard?" Alexander asked, Sage shook his head. "The whole school is laughing at you and you're telling me you didn't even notice?" Alexander pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed Sage a video someone had posted online, it was him and Aqua, standing at the Wishing Pond and making their wish. "And they're laughing at me too." Alexander said.
Oh, now it was starting to make sense.
"So...you don't want to be seen with a weirdo like me anymore?" Sage asked. "That's not the reason-" Alexander started but Sage cut him off "THAT IS THE REASON ISN'T IT? You're so afraid of people laughing at you that you'd get rid of me after knowing me for years? Whatever, doesn't matter. At least I got my answer." Sage said and walked back over to his desk to sit down, now everyone was staring at him, it seems he drew a bit attention to himself when he had that argument. He sunk his head into his desk as his teacher made some joke about him and Alexander "catching up a little too much", this really was a horrible start to the year. But then his head perked up again, someone saw him and Aqua. He unlocked his phone inside his desk and tried to summarize what happened to Aqua, but it was too difficult to type without the teacher seeing. Once the bell rang he would text them while walking to his last class.
...
While walking to his very last class, Sage pulled out his phone and texted Aqua.
Sage<3: Hey so apparently my whole school saw a video someone took of us at the Wishing Pond...that's probably bad, right?
He tucked his phone into his pocket and continued walking, he had to pull his phone back out of his pocket right after when he got an instant response back.
Aqua_waterfairy: WHAT?? COME TALK TO ME NOW.
Sage<3: I can't, I'm at school!! Wait for me at the village, we'll talk when I get home
Sage walked into his last class and tucked his phone back in his pocket. Nothing new happened in this class, just introductions as usual. Sage noticed he didn't have this class with Alexander, but he saw another familiar face in this class, behind him he saw Jackson. Oh good, another old friend of his. Sage eyed the time while his teacher was going on about whatever, he really had to talk to Aqua, he's had close calls before but this time a video of him talking to another fairy was on the internet. And even more concerning, Aqua wasn't hiding their wings, meaning they would know for sure that they were a fairy, and they also knew what they looked like and what area they lived in. This actually might be worse news for Aqua, since Sage's wings weren't out in that video. Sage couldn't help but feel like it was almost his fault, if he wasn't standing there, that kid from his school never would have taken that video. He made a note to himself to figure out who took the video as well, maybe he could get the principal involved and get the video taken down, it was taken without his consent afterall. When he heard that bell ring it was a miracle, he had a lot to say to Aqua, so he grabbed his bag from his locker and then he was rushing down the stairs and out the school. He followed the sidewalk to his bus station and waited for the bus to arrive.
...
The bus stopped right outside the park, Sage hopped off and walked towards a tree in the park. He turned around to make sure the bus had drove away, then turned back to the tree and knocked seven times in a sequence, this caused the cloaking spell to come off and Sage to see his lovely village again. "Hi, prince Sage!" Sage was greeted the minute he stepped past the tree, "Hi, Rosemary!" He waved back to the fairy, and headed to his castle stairs. He could already see Aqua watching him from the window, he was hoping they weren't too upset with him. "Hey, you." Sage said swinging the door to his castle open and stepping inside. "This is very bad." Aqua said calmly, almost as if they were trying not to freak out. "I know, what if they find you? Your wings were completely out in that video." Sage said, Aqua looked at him like he was crazy, "Find ME?" They asked, "What if they find YOU? You know, THE PRINCE OF THIS WHOLE DOMAIN?" They asked, their facade of being calm instantly failing. "You're still a village ruler! It's still bad if they find you, and you're my friend, meaning if they find you, I'd go running straight to Hunter Headquarters." Sage said. "Can you show me the video?" Aqua asked, Sage pulled out his phone and looked for it, it didn't take him long at all to find it, which was a bit concerning. He held out his phone to Aqua as the video played... "All you need is a rock blessed by water fairy magic, luckily, you happen to know one." Wait a minute... "Then you throw it in the pond, and make a wish." Alexander didn't tell him the video was filmed so close you could hear what they were saying. "I think I may be able to get the video taken down if I take my case to the principal." Sage said. "But then you're principal would know you were a fairy, or at least associating with fairies." Aqua argued. "Well, what am I supposed to do then?" Sage asked, Aqua sat down on the stairs to Sage's bedroom as they thought about it. "I'm not sure if there's anything we can do, I think you've just gotta lay low for a bit, try not to cause any scenes." Sage wished Aqua had told him that before he made a scene in his third period class. "Alright, I'll try." He said.
Aqua hesitated before saying, "I think we should try not to be seen together." Sage sighed, "Really?" "Yeah, can't risk someone seeing us together again, this is going to have to be goodbye for a while, until this blows over." Aqua said, "Awh, but I'll miss you!" Sage said, giving Aqua a hug. "We can still message each other." Aqua said, "It's not the same." Sage replied. "Would you rather never see me again because you're captured or dead?" Aqua asked, Sage reluctantly shook his head, "Then this will have to do." Aqua said. Sage sat down beside Aqua on the staircase and looked up to the window, the sun was already going down a bit, he'd have to leave soon or his parents would be worried. He held Aqua's hand and rested his head on their shoulder, under his breath he muttered,
"being a fairy sucks."