"Julia! Hey, Julia! Are you even listening to me?"

Julia Jasper was suddenly snapped out of her daydream from another fairy. She knew this fairy well, and she didn't like him one bit.

"As I was saying, do you even have friends? You always hang around the fairy gardens, but you only read." He said. Julia grunted. Not only was this a rude question to ask, but he seemed to miss the fact that reading outside in the gardens was very relaxing.

"Ugh, go away John." Julia snapped, turning away so that he is face was face was attacked by her shimmering blue butterfly wings.

"I'm guessing that you don't have any friends." John said with a grin. Julia flushed pink, embarrassed that he'd uncovered the truth.

"I said go away John!" Julia yelled.

"Why won't you face me, Julia? Is it because you're embarrassed?" John said smugly.

"You want me to face you? Fine, I'll face you!" Julia shouted, turning around to look at him with a vicious glare. "There! Happy now?!"

John giggled. "Do you have pretend friends? Are the trees your friends?" He asked, trying to hold in his laughs.

By now Julia was more than just irritated - she was furious. She felt personally attacked, and although she hadn't done anything wrong to John, he'd always teased her. But nothing as hurtful as this.

Tears welling up in her eyes, she shot a blast of magic at him. When it hit his tiny pixie body, he yelped in pain and watched as his skin turned blue.

"Aaah! What have you done to me?!" He yelled, confused and scared. But when he realized he wasn't freezing, he quickly calmed down. Then, a micheivous grin was etched on his face.

"I'm telling on you~! I'm telling on you~!" He cackled. "Just like I did Layla~! Just like I did Layla~!"

Julia gasped. "You. Wouldn't. Dare."

John just looked at her with a giddy look on his face, and then he took off flying through the gardens, to the Fairy Palace.

Julia chased after him, using magic to change from her baby blue dress and mary-janes to more athletic clothes, still baby-blue.

She flew into the sky, her hands outstretched, trying to catch the little weasel in her palms. But John was quicker and more nimble than Julia, as he was smaller and had less weight.

She cursed herself for losing her temper. Now because of her anger, she had to face the consequences. She was going to be banished from the Fairy Kingdom.

Julia stopped chasing after John and floating back down to the grassy ground, sobbing. She was going to be forbidden from ever returning to her home. She'd always lived here. She'd never gone anywhere else in the Land of Stories. But now she'd leave her home and never be able to return.

Other fairies and pixies nearby ignored her - not because they were mean, but because they thought that someone else would help her. That someone else would console her. That someone else  would be there for her.

Julia sobbed even harder when she realized that she was under the bystander effect.

Then she spotted Layla under the corner of eyes. She gasped, wiping away her tears. She though Trixie had been banished yesterday! What had happened? Did she come back despite her banishment?

Julia sprinted over to her to find out.

"Layla! What are you doing here? I thought you were banished!" Julia asked.

"I just wanted to tell you that the Fairy Council is focusing more on the trolls and goblins now. They found out that they've been secretly kidnapping and enslaving humans that wander into their territory." Layla explained. "I'm going to leave soon, but I just wanted you to know that they aren't going to be as strict as before. The stress is relieved!" She added.

Julia was pleasantly surprised by this. "...Really?" She grinned. "Yes! Now I won't get banished!"

"Why? What happened?" Layla asked. "I mean, I'm not close with you so I don't know what you're like..."

Julia didn't want to get into it. "Long story short, John touched a nerve and I turned his skin blue. He went to tell on me to the Fairy Council."

"Ugh, that guy? Yeah, he's a real jerk." Layla said. "Anyway, I should go now. Bye!"

"Bye!" Julia waved, and Layla flew away and out of the kingdom.

Julia was fine with Layla around (as long as the Fairy Council wasn't nearby), because Layla hadn't done something too serious. She was banished because she kept on borrowing and never gave anything back. At one point when people refused to let her borrow any of their stuff, she stole it.

Julia knew that Layla was harmful, but she wasn't annoying. Sure, she kind of ignored privacy's existence... Whatever, Julia was in Layla's good books currently if her interaction just now meant anything, so she wasn't going to be her next victim.

Julia decided that she should continue what she was originally doing, since... well... she had been doing something important before John stormed in, blabbering in his monotone voice. She had began to daydream because of that monotone voice, before things had gotten... messy.

She hovered back to the gardens, under a tree that she'd claimed as her reading spot. She used her magic to transform her athletic wear back into her baby blue dress, and sat down next to her pile of books.

But what John had said to her still hurt. She felt vulnerable. John was the first person to have ever found out her weakness, and he was the last person that she wanted to know about it.

Julia felt lonely. She was too scared to fly up to someone and ask to be friends, because that would be too straightforward, and rushed. And if she waited for someone else to come up to her, asking to be friends... well... she'd end up where she was now.

Alone. Without any friends.

She sighed, taking a book and opening it to see the contents. But she couldn't focus on the pages, too swamped with her thoughts. She sighed yet again, closing the book and setting it back on the pile.

I guess I'll just go for a stroll, she thought, standing back up.

She used her magic to change into blue overalls, and prepped her wings for her flight. She'd flown very fast today, something her wings weren't used to. Fairy wings were quite delicate, so you needed to make sure you didn't overwork them or damage them. They were irreparable, even with magic.

After soothing her wings, she floated gently in the air, a foot off the ground, and took a flight through the gardens.

These meadows were bathed in orange light from the sun's setting. Birds flew back into the trees, to their nests. Fairies began to finish up their outside routines to head back inside their homes.

Julia knew she'd have to gather her books from the tree and head back home herself, so her parents didn't worry, but she didn't feel like doing it right now.

As she subconsciously traveled through the gardens, she realized that she'd found her way to the golden, shimmering Fairy Palace. She gazed at its magnificent beauty, one that always seemed to fill her eyes with a glowing starlight. But not this time.

She turned to the right to gaze at the setting sun instead. Her stare turned upwards at the sky, as it went from blue to purple to pink to orange, from furthest to nearest the setting sun.

"What am I supposed to do? I can't keep living without anyone to commune with... without someone to laugh with, or talk with, or sulk with..." Julia mumbled to herself, and the sky. "Please, just give me a sign that everything will be okay. That I can have a friend soon."

She waited for a moment. Then two. After three, she sighed and stared at the ground, littered with flowers. "Of course," She muttered.

As she started to fly back home, she heard something, from the Fairy Palace. From one of the rooms.

The Fairy Palace didn't have all the walls or ceilings as a normal building would, but the scenery was so nice in this kingdom, and the fairies in here would never do anything unruly such as infiltrate the palace, so the Fairy Council had no need to shelter from either.

But this meant it was easy to eavesdrop on any conversations inside the palace - except in teh meeting room of course. That was the sole room that had all four walls and a ceiling.

Julia hovered behind a wall and overheard a conversation between two voices. One was warm and wise, and the other was young and unsure.

"This will be your new room. Hopefully things will be better for you here than it was before, in that village." The warm voice said.

"But... are you sure that I'll be able to control my magic? What if it goes out of control, and I burn down the Fairy Kingdom-" The younger voice worried.

"Don't worry, us fairies are experts on magic. We'll teach you to learn how to control your magic so that doesn't happen." The warm and wise voice said.

Julia suddenly recognized the warm voice. It belonged to the Fairy Godmother. But she didn' recognize the younger voice...

...could it be a new fairy? Perhaps she was born in one of the human kingdoms and accidentally burned down her village?

Regardless, Julia was intrigued. She felt like she'd gotten a sign, like she'd asked for.

"Thank you," Julia mouthed to the sky with a smile. But then her eyes widened. It had gotten dark. Her parents must be worried.

"Shoot!" She whispered, forgetting she had to be quiet.

"Who's there?" The Fairy Godmother called.

Julia blushed with embarrassment and fly away, quickly and silently.

+.*.+

Julia flew inside her treehouse cottage home and was immediately met with her parents.

"Hey Mom, Dad..." She said with a nervous and sweaty grin.

But her parents weren't smiling. Julia's father had the same blonde hair she did, while her mother had her brown eyes.

However, the physical similarities were the only similarities they had. Julia was a nervous, introverted person, and wasn't easily provoked unless you touched a nerve (as demonstrated earlier that day). However, she wasn't the type to worry.

Her parents on the other hand, were quite extroverted, was angered very easily if any of their loved ones were insulted, and were big worry warts.

"Where were you, Julia?!" Julia's mother, Cassandra, asked.

"We specifically told you that you could go outside on your own as long as you came back before dark!" Julia's father, Jacob, said.

"I know, I know... I'm sorry. I lost track of time..." Julia said. She couldn't muster up the courage to even look at them. It was easier to just look at the floor in these situations - her parents' worried faces were too much to handle. They had very expressive faces...

"Well, you better not lost track of time again. You scared us!" Cassandra said.

A minute or so of reprimanding later, Julia flew up from a hatch in the cottage and through one of the larger branches of the tree - which served as a little hallway to her room, which was a giant, hanging bud flower.

Once Julia flew inside she collapsed atop her bed. She was going to have a hard time sleeping that night.

Why?

Because Julia had a mystery on her hands. What mystery, though?

The mystery of who the Fairy Godmother had brought back with her to the Fairy Kingdom.

And after that... maybe they could even be...

...well...

..friends.