Chapter One

I pressed my nose against the window of the portal taxi, practically salivating as I took in the view of the realm of Magix, which would be my new home for the next three years. Lush forests, a sparkling lake, a fantastic technology-inspired city, and the beautiful, sprawling campus of the Alfea College for Fairies, my new school. After fourteen years of never being allowed off of Sparx, this was almost like sensory overload. I sighed happily, resisting the urge to giggle like a little girl at the thought of all that freedom.

"Now, Alyssa, are you sure you remembered everything?" Rolling my eyes, I reluctantly pulled my gaze away from the window and turned to face my dad, who'd insisted on going with me. He was the one fly in my ointment on this otherwise perfect day.

"Yes, Dad."

"Do you have your inter-realm calling card so you can call home?"

"Yes, Dad."

"Are you absolutely certain you didn't forget anything you might need?"

"Yes, Dad, I'm sure. Now will you please stop treating me like a child?"

His eyes flashed angrily. That was the thing about gold eyes – they reflected emotions so much more than any other shade I'd ever seen. And lucky me, guess what color mine are? Even better, although the magical dimension is home to some very interesting genetics, I'd never seen anyone else with eyes like ours. It was the subject of many a teasing taunt when I was in elementary school; Cat-Eyes, they called me. "Darling, you know I only have your best interests at heart."

"Yeah, and I love having basically no social life because of your rulebook the size of five spell books." Normally I tried not to provoke him, especially when he was in a mood, but my freedom was close I could practically taste it, and he wanted to lecture me again? Not cool.

I saw his jaw set angrily, although thankfully he didn't say anything. The taxi pulled to a stop at the Alfea gates, and I saw the driver turn around and look at us anxiously. He'd been giving Dad funny looks the whole drive, so I thought nothing of it. "We're here, Miss."

My hand hovered over the door handle. "Um… I guess this is goodbye, then."

"Goodbye, Alyssa." He hesitated, then leaned over and gave me a quick hug. I caught the briefest whiff of the smoky, spicy scent I'd learned to associate with him over the years before he pulled back, and unexpectedly, I felt a little melancholy. No matter how much he got on my nerves, Dad was the only family I had left. "Have fun, and stay safe. I'll call you tonight."

"Okay." I quickly grabbed my bags and got out of the taxi before either of us could say or do something to mess up the moment. As I watched the taxi drive away, I will admit I was a little sad. But only for about ten seconds. Then I turned around and started to explore my gorgeous new school.

It was almost immediately apparent that Alfea was enormous. And in all the orientation literature they'd sent me, there had been nothing about how to find my way around. What I should have done was ask someone for directions, but all those years of being the girl with the freaky eyes and super-strict dad had left me with the social skills of a dormouse. And all the other girls seemed to already know each other, even the freshmen… it was intimidating.

"Hey, are you lost?" I looked up to see a super-skinny blond girl with enormous hazel eyes staring at me. "You look super confused. Maybe I can help." She outstretched a hand for me to shake, threatening to overturn her piles of couture luggage. "My name is Lola, princess of Solaria. And you are?"

"Alyssa, from Sparx." I took her hand hesitantly, a little unnerved by her warm, friendly smile. Girls like her – in her tiny skirt and designer heels, she was undoubtedly like the girls who'd teased me growing up – didn't talk to weird girls like me without ulterior motives.

"You're a freshman, right? So am I," she continued, before I even had a chance to nod. "But my mom's told me everything there is to know about this place, so I can totally help you out. What dorm are you in?"

"Um, Suite 12," I said, struggling to recall the info that had been on the orientation packet.

Her eyes lit up. "Me too! That's so awesome. My mom said that's where she stayed when she went to school here. Come on, it's down this way." Then without warning, she linked her arm through mine and started pulling me down the hall.

"That must be nice, to have your mom give you all that info about Alfea," I said, trying to make conversation.

She cocked her head to the side. "Didn't yours? Or did she go to another school? Ugh, I hope she wasn't a Beta girl. They are such brats."

Unconsciously, I reached up and twisted my gold heart-shaped locket on its chain around my neck. "I don't know. She died when I was four."

"Oh, sweetie." Lola stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway and placed her hand comfortingly on my arm, oblivious to the traffic jam she was causing. "I'm so sorry. That's awful."

I swallowed hard. "Thank you. But I mean, it was years ago. I'm okay now."

"Still. I'm sorry. What a horrible thing. How did it happen?"

I bit the inside of my cheek. Everyone who found out always asked this question, and the only answer I was able to give always made me sound like even more of a weirdo than they already thought I was. "Um, I'm not sure. I don't really remember it, and my dad is so secretive about her. It's like he's trying to forget she ever existed."

Lola made a face. "Sounds like a real uptight guy." She started walking again, and I followed quickly, thankful that the focus was no longer so intently on my life.

"Oh, you have no idea," I griped. "He practically had me on a leash back home. I'm sort of surprised he even agreed to send me to Alfea, where he couldn't watch over me twenty-four seven."

She laughed. "Poor you. Well, you're here now. And speaking of which, so are we." She threw open the double doors in front of us to reveal a sunny common area with a couch and a couple chairs arranged conversationally around a coffee table, a flat-screen TV hanging on the far wall. There were four doors, each marked off by a whiteboard with two names written on it – obviously the room assignments. Four other girls were already there, lounging on the furniture or, in the case of one pretty dark-haired girl, sprawled out across the carpet.

"You're finally here!" a tall girl with waist-length dark blond hair and lightly tanned skin exclaimed, leaping up from the couch. "Hi, I'm Ivy, from Limphea. And you are?"

"Princess Lola of Solaria," Lola said before I could even get my mouth open. "And this is Alyssa. She's from Sparx."

"Sparx, you say?" A pale-skinned girl with choppy, shoulder-length bright pink hair appeared at my side, holding something that looked sort of like a mini laptop, but way more futuristic and cool. "I've always wanted to go there – it has such a fascinating history. What's it like?"

"Um…" I stuttered, caught off-guard.

"Dee, don't freak her out before she gets a chance to settle in," Ivy chided. "And at least introduce yourself before bombarding her with questions that I'm sure she gets all the time."

Her pale cheeks flushed pink. "I'm sorry. My name is Digit of Zenith, but I go by Dee."

I blinked. "Wait, is your name actually Digit?"

She chuckled. "I get that all the time. Yes, it is; my mom is the Fairy of Technology, and apparently she has no creativity whatsoever when it comes to baby names. Seriously – my little brother's name is Circuit. How stupid is that?" I laughed, and so did Lola.

"Hey, if you're talking about stupid names, I'll give you one. Hi, my name's Melody of Melody." It was the dark-haired girl I'd seen lying on the carpet, a pair of old-school headphones looped around her neck, the wires twisted around her skinny torso in an artistic sort of way that looked incredibly cool. She seemed edgier than the others – the sound of her voice had a sort of sarcastic edge to it, like she knew something we all didn't – but still friendly.

Lola giggled. "Seriously? Was your mom on drugs or something?"

"Nah – legend has it she lost a bet with my dad while she was pregnant. You can just call me Mel."

"Mel it is, then."

"And I'm Aqua, princess of Tides. Well, my parents named me Aquamarine, but Aqua's so much easier to remember and much less pretentious." She was beautiful, with light coffee-colored skin and long wavy dark brown hair that had – what else? – aqua-blue streaks.

I quickly counted us all in my mind. One, two, three, four, five… "Wait a minute… there are six of us, but eight beds."

"Oh no, I've got a single," Lola said, walking over to the closest door leading off into a room. Sure enough, Princess Lola of Solaria, single was printed on the whiteboard. "As for the other one…" She walked around the circular room, scanning the names, then stopped in front of another door and inhaled sharply.

"What is it?" Mel asked, walking over to see for herself what had Lola so startled. "Oh no. Poor Alyssa."

"What? What's wrong?" I hurried over to check it out myself.

"You're rooming with Princess Taylor of Eraklyon." Lola said the name like it was a contagious disease.

I bit my bottom lip. Despite Dad's efforts to keep me away from the media, I had read about snotty Princess Taylor in almost all the gossip magazines, and how she was notorious for picking fights and getting thrown out of clubs. And now she was going to be my roommate? "Er… there's no way she can be as bad as the magazines make her out to be," I said feebly, trying to stay optimistic.

"You're right," Lola said, slinging an arm around my shoulders. "She's worse." Aqua laughed knowingly.

"But she's not here now, right?" Mel poked her head inside my room to confirm. "Good. Then let's go down to get good seats for Faragonda's welcome back speech." The others all murmured their consent and headed towards the door.

My cell phone felt like it was burning a hole in my pocket. "Um, you guys go on ahead. I promised my dad I'd call him when I got settled."

Lola grabbed my arm. "Weren't you just telling me how you're sick of your dad controlling you all the time? Well then for crying out loud, honey, don't let him! Alyssa, you're at Alfea now. You should enjoy yourself, instead of always worrying about your overprotective dad. Trust me, he'll probably never even know you didn't call."

I wasn't sure about that last part, since Dad always seems to know what I'm up to no matter what, but she did have a valid point. How could I ever expect to taste freedom at Alfea if I kept letting Dad have so much power over my life even from afar?

Impulsively, I grabbed my phone and chucked it in the direction of the door to my room, not bothering to look where it landed. "Good for you, girl!" Lola cheered, linking her arm through mine. "Now let's go." I followed her, a wide smile on my face, feeling like I had just taken the first step towards true independence.

Author's Note: Once upon a time, there was an ambitious young girl named Authoress, who wanted to write a Winx Club second-generation story. The characters she invented and the world she created charmed many fanfiction readers, and one story became two, and then three, with a prequel as well. To write all this took time, and she's come a long way in writing talent since she started. (Which is another way of saying that the original first book was not so great.) But what's she to do? She can't just take it down, because without the first one, the rest of them don't make much sense.

Her solution? Rewrite the first one.

Yes, for those of you who follow my other stuff, I'm finally following through on what I've been promising to do for a while - rewriting WCN. I know many of you liked it regardless, but I am my own toughest critic, and I think that the original version kind of sucked. So I've gone back and polished it up a bit, and I'm much more satisfied with it now.

My goal is to post a chapter every day or two. I'm very happy with the way this turned out, and I'm excited to share it with all of you!

Love,

- Authoress