Mena didn’t tell May or Janus the truth about what she saw when she opened the Gilded Door; she feared they would judge her for still having kind feelings towards Ashlan. Instead, she lied and said she dreamed she was back at her auntie’s cottage, which had been demolished in a fight with Anguish and her crones. It made a lot of sense to her friends and they both agreed it was a wonderful dream.

Mena, May and Janus spent the next few weeks searching the Dream Castle and all its various corridors (in addition to visiting the library during day hours only) but both proved tricky since the castle constantly shifted its doors, stairs and hallways, turning them upside down or vanishing completely. Sometimes, they would find interesting doors at the end of the corridors but just as they reached them, they’d disappear completely, occasionally accompanied by a mischievous laugh. It led Janus to remark, “If Gemini was a castle, he’d definitely be this one.”

Professor Gaia, much to Mena’s relief, pretended like their meeting never happened. Occasionally he’d shift his dark eyes towards her when he was talking about the Broccoli Plague of 747, but aside from that, him and the Tessellations, and (much to Mena’s sadness) Ashlan remained silent and out of her way. The latest bit of news, however, was not discovered, but came instead from an announcement Gemini made for the evening feast, one fateful night.

“As you freshies may have noticed,” Gemini said, standing with the teachers flanking him on each side. “This is an all girl’s school.”

“I don’t think Professor Gaia noticed,” Janus laughed to herself.

“But did you know that we have a brother school also up in the air, dedicated to saving male Groundborns and teaching them magical arts alongside the upper class Dula males. It’s name…?”

Gemini held his hands to the enormous plate glass window in the dining hall, and with a resounding flash of lightning followed by a crash of thunder, he bolded announced, “Ms. Electra’s Sunbeam Academy of Lightning Arts!”

Everyone screamed at Gemini’s dazzling weather tricks, and even more, at the prospect of meeting the opposite sex.

Gemini lowered his arms. “And in the spirit of good will and chivalry, the headmistress, Ms. Electra would like to have a homecoming with us! Perhaps, you’ll find this a good chance to meet some new friends who may dwell on a different planet mentally, but otherwise, share the same adolescence!”

Mena swallowed hard. “B-b-boys?” she thought to herself. All throughout her journey, she had very rarely encountered anyone of the opposite sex who was not an adult. But at last, that was about to change. May looked uncertain too; she had stopped eating to fan herself. Janus, however, lounged like nothing was going on.

A few cloud tables away, she could hear the Tessellation sisters boasting to Ashlan. “Sacre Bleu,” Marie gasped, finally speaking from her mouth and not a duck bill. “At last, we finally have something we excel at…well, other than Professor Gaia’s class… Boys.”

Laetitia’s voice rose high and danced in the air. “’Ow can any silly boy resist such elegance, looks, charm and poise. Our motha taught us how to be a firm option for any ‘igh class Lunaborn looking for a partner.”

Ashlan laughed to herself. “I’m sure you two will excel. I just hope you don’t get overactive bowel syndrome like you do when you usually get nervous.”

“Are you kidding me, Ashlan?” Laetitia exclaimed. “We are celestial bodies in humanoid form, we absolutely do not fart!”

“One can only hope!” Ashlan said, and Mena chuckled to herself. She almost wished she was sitting with Ashlan, roasting those two high class clowns.

“Well now,” Gemini said, his voice echoing through the dining hall. “Now that you’ve chatted amongst yourself about my little announcement, I will let you know that this Interschool homecoming will come at the end of the week. The Lollypop Homecoming Committee is busy setting up the Banquet Ballroom and they are cutting no corners. Even the theme itself has been deliberated on for a year now, and you will receive an invitation dictating what you will wear.”

Mena rested her head in her hands. She was starstruck. Even more than the Intergalactic Gala, this mystery homecoming was making her heart beat even faster. She could at least take a break from searching for the Gilded Door to enjoy something that every girl her age dreamed of. “I wonder what they’re like in the other school?” Mena asked.

“I can’t speak for the boys,” Janus said, her high voice responding pleasantly. “But Ms. Electra is quite a character. She’s actually made a deal with my daddy to strike the people of Autolycus with lightning every one-in-a-million times.”

“Er…” Mena’s eye twitched. “Do you know anything May?”

“No,” May said, “But my mummy always told me that you must act like a lily when meeting boys. But uh, does that mean I need to get a flower costume?”

Mena sighed. Seemed only the Tessellations knew anything about boys, and even Mena had doubts about that. By the time everyone headed to class, Mena was thankful she’d be focusing on the first dance of her life instead of a door that may or may not exist.

***

When Mena arrived in Professor Gaia’s class, he had smile on his face that was so self-satisfied she could hardly believe it was real. Immediately, once everyone sat in their seats, he surveyed the class with his proud and nasal voice, “You may be asking yourself? Who is the most handsome professor in the whole Magicademy asking to the homecoming?”

The whole class was silent with the sole exception of the Tessellation Twins who lightly giggled.

Though he was still smiling, Gaia howled in annoyance. “Well, nobody asked you!”

“’Oo are you asking?” Laetitia said, her voice sounding surprisingly girly and kitten-like.

“Well, for the record,” Gaia responded. “A very important client of mine.”

The Tessellations broke into giggle-fits, and Mena knew immediately that Taliesyn Tessellation was the benefactor. This, however, caused much confusion for Mena. So, the Tessellations were both attracted to Gaia and were okay with him taking their mom out to a dance? Mena had heard of daddy issues in her romance novels, but this took them to a whole new level.

“But,” Gaia said boldly, “now I must tell you. Even in times of merriment, you must remain ever vigilant. For often the greatest galas often invite doomsday as a special guest. Need I tell you about the great Red Moon Celebration held on other planetoids? It’s celebrated by vampire-like creatures to bring about the end of their world! Today, we will discuss which parties spelled the end of times for those hapless partiers.”

Mena sighed and rolled her eyes. It was back to business as usual for Professor Gaia. After hearing about the Riotous Royal Wedding of 235, the Horrendous Homecoming of 542, and the Fairly Bad Bar Mitzvah of 90 and realizing the world (or others) didn’t end yet again, Mena was fairly confident her own homecoming would hardly be the prognosticator of doom.

The young witch headed upstairs for one of her favorite classes. Despite everything that happened in it with Ashlan and the Tessellations, she quite liked Dream Divination. After a disastrous first day, Professor Stellaris always had some fun dream related activity for them to do that quickly took Mena’s mind off the ugliness that had happened. She was sure this day would be no different until she reached the top of the Sun Loft.

“Why does this room smell like my dad’s winery?” a Groundborn haplessly asked.

When Mena entered and took a seat, she saw a totally different Stellaris. With smeared makeup and bloodshot eyes, Stellaris shuffled heavily to the center of the classroom. Her normally radiant spikey hair hung over one of her eyes and she had only one giant sun orb earring in. Her clothes were wrinkled, and her abs had slightly faded giving way to a slight paunch.

“Ah ha ha,” Marie giggled. “Tha hippie looks like she needs a vacation.”

“Welcome,” Stellaris slurred. “To the, you know, my class.”

She hiccupped and added, “Another class that you take to learn a frivolous trick you’ll never use in real life.”

“Uh, teacher,” Ashlan said with her hand raised. “Are you sure you should be telling them that?”

Stellaris immediately lashed out at the young lioness. “You’re taking this class too, Lion-face! Don’t act like you’re above them!”

Ashlan was immediately silent, but she turned a dark shade of red.

“Now I’m going to pass out these cards,” Stellaris said. “Fill them out and we’ll see what it says about your future…not that it matters.”

Like an army of throwing stars, a bunch of cards nearly decked all the students in the face before landing safely on their desks. Mena immediately grabbed hers. The young witch was happy Stellaris didn’t ask the students to work in pairs, but she was still concerned about how her teacher was behaving. To say that this was the antithesis of Professor Stellaris, would be saying the least.

The paper was divided into two separate areas separated by a half-sun-half-moon with a friendly face. The instructions stated, “Write your dream above the dais and watch as it names your desire for your future.” Mena decided it would not hurt to fill out the dream that was haunting her the most: the one at Sunset Lake. Once she had scrawled it down, the Sun-Moon quickly changed to a heart and down below the words wrote:

“You seek love and stability in your future. The kind you get from being with those closest to you.”

Mena nodded as she felt her eyes water a little. She had not had that stability since she lived with her auntie in her little country cottage.

“Alright,” Stellaris said, returning to the front of the classroom. “Hand in your dreams.” She held out her hand and like a magical vacuum, sucked all the papers back into her hand. “Now let me tell you little anklebiters something!”

Stellaris held the pieces of paper in her hand and incinerated them. “None of these dreams matter. Dreams are nothing more than sad little wishes, and wishes are just sad little dreams. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Mena winced as she saw her paper burn up, and she felt heat flare up from behind her eyes. What was wrong with Professor Stellaris. “Now would you kindly,” the teacher sneered. “Get outta my sight!”

Most of the students hustled out as quickly as they could, but Mena remained seated at her desk. Pretty soon everyone, including Ashlan and the Tessellations had departed. At last, Stellaris glared at her from behind her bloodshot, alcoholic eyes. “What do you want?”

“What gives, Stella?” Mena asked with her arms crossed. “You’re certainly not acting like your happy, peppy self.”

Stellaris took a sip of a bottle labeled “Burning Brandy” with a drunk looking sun plastered on it. Flames erupted from her mouth and she coughed. Then her eyes watered, and she sobbed, “Oh Mena, I should be happy about the Interschool Homecoming, but I’ve just heard that what’s going to happen to me is worse than probation. I could lose my job! Apparently, the Lollypop Judicial Branch takes endangering the life of a student very seriously!”

Mena put her hand to her chin. “When is your hearing, Stella?”

“Next week, after the Homecoming.”

“You know, I could vouch for you!” Mena said. “I think you’re a wonderful teacher! Nowhere as creepy as Carrie, or as scary as Caligari, or as evil as Gaia.”

“What was that last part?” Stellaris asked, her eyebrows raised.

“Nothing!” Mena said quickly. “But, of course, I’ll vouch for you, Stella. You’re one heckuva teacher!”

It was like the light returned to Stellaris’ eyes and soul. Her voice returned to a bubbly pitch and she seized Mena, squeezing her very hard. “Oh sweetheart, that would mean the world to me.”

Mena gagged from smelling Stellaris’ alcohol-stained breath. Stellaris quickly released her. “Yep, I can do that,” Mena said. “You should probably shower and have a breath mint before that.”

Stellaris nodded. “Of course.”

Mena added, “And you should look good, it’s Homecoming after all!”—Mena’s eyes glinted in a sly fashion—“Who are you asking, by the way?”

Stellaris gave a loud chortle. “That’s a secret, Mena.”

“Got it,” the young witch replied, wondering if it was Gemini. “I guess I’ll be surprised then.”

Mena left Stellaris’ office feeling pleased she had helped one of the most beloved teachers in the whole Nightdream Academy. All that evening, her mind drifted off towards thoughts of the homecoming and what it would entail, taking her mind off the Gilded Door completely. When she went to sleep, her dreams had nothing to do with the door, rather they involved Fabius getting down on his knees and asking her to the homecoming. And of course, she said, “Yes.” He was the man of her dreams quite literally.

When Mena got up the next morning, she noticed there was looks of excitement on both Janus and May’s faces. “Mena,” May exclaimed. “We got our invites, and you’ll never guess what they say!”