Alix walked back and forth in her room thinking over the present that she made for Zoe for her birthday. Zoe was one year younger than the rest of the class and was turning 17 on January 31st. Alix had liked Zoe when she got to know the real her. She liked that her pink streak of hair almost matched her own, the way she goes so caught up in a roll when she was acting, the way she moves on and keeps going, basically Alix was hard crushing on Zoe. She had made a graffiti art painting of Zoe. It had bright colors all around her, with a dark outline of Zoe's body, and them a brightly colored Zoe.

This was the last Saturday before the class left for the trip. They left on the 20th and as it was a very hard thing to pack, Alix wanted to give it to her before they left. She also had a small gift for Alya's birthday, but it could be packed.

"What is the big deal?" Fluff asked not understating her holder's panic.

"Well, I like Zoe in a romantic way, but I don't know how she feels about me, and this painting is kind of obvious. And I don't want to get rejected and then it would make this whole year trip that much more awkward." Alix rambled to Fluff.

"But you can't change time remember, things happen for a reason. You must try, or you can't suggest. What would happen if it went well?" Fluff told her holder, sounding as wise as her age.

"Well, I guess we would start dating. And we would be traveling, sharing rooms, and going to romantic places, dancing at big fancy balls." Alix said wishfully.

With this Alix finally made up her mind and texted Zoe to meet up. Zoe said that Alix could just come over to Zoe's room at the hotel.

Alix quickly grabbed her things and started to Zoe's place with Fluff in her MDC jacket.

Zoe meanwhile was sitting in her room, with Pollen, since Sabrina and Chloe were out on a date.

"Why do you think she wants to come over?" Zoe asked Pollen in a panicked voice.

"She is your friend, is she not, My queen?" Pollen asked as she snacked on some honey.

"Well, yes, but... ungh I don't know. I might like to be more, but I don't know if she wants to be more and now, I am paired with her for practically the whole year and what if I say something wrong and she hates me and now we are stuck together for the rest of the year." Zoe rambled to Pollen.

"My Queen, you don't know that will happen." Pollen tried to reason.

"You don't know it won't either," Zoe replied with great levels of anxiety and gay panic.

"It could go well thought My Queen. She could like you to." Pollen argued.

"Maybe, but I'm probably not that lucky." Zoe said sadly lying back on her bed.

At this Pollen stopped eating and flew over to her co-holder, "My Queen, things have been getting better and better for you in Paris. You have been excepted by your family and friends, you were formally adopted by your stepfather, who is surprisingly calm about your mothers' marital intercessions but that is beside the point, and you have me and good things are coming more and more. All you have to do is hope."

"Your right Pollen, Paris has been good for me, despite the power-hungry magic supervillain terrorist." Zoe said as they both laughed at the end.

"Should I change into something else? Should I tell her how I feel?" Zoe started to ramble again but was cute off by the doorbell to her hotel room.

Zoe went to the door and opened it for Alix, who walked in.

"Hey Alix, what is that in your hand, can I help you with it?" Zoe questioned the rather sizeable present in question.

Alix leaned it up against the dresser and started to swap her rollerblades out with her normal shoes, "That is for you, I know your birthday is coming up, and I have been working on it for a while, but I knew it was too big to pack and I know that we will be in another country for your birthday, so I thought I would just give it to you early."

"That is so nice, I didn't expect any gifts. Thank you." Zoe said smiling shyly while Pollen and Fluff flew off to the side where they could watch and still talk without being overheard by their holders. Simply put they were excited to watch two bumbling gay crushing idiots fall all over themselves.

"Don't thank me yet, you still haven't seen it." Alix told her before moving the present next to her so that Zoe would sit down and open it.

"Oh, this is going to get good." Fluff told Pollen. Luckily, they were out of ear shot of their holders.

"Well, any gift should get a thank you." Zoe said sitting down next to Alix and started to unwrap the painting. Zoe sat they just taking in the artwork for a second. In Zoe's opinion Alix was the best artist there was. It was colorful and showed so much movement and felling. It was breathtaking.

"It is ok if you don't like it. It isn't that great. I don't do people a lot, so the proportions are all wrong." Alix told her after a moment, berating the work like most artist do.

"Are you kidding. I love it, it is perfect. I can't wait to hang it up. I love the colors." Zoe replied still looking at the painting.

Alix turned to her and just looked at how her smile grew as her eyes wandered over the paint and back again.

"I'm glad you like it, happy early birthday." Alix told her simply.

"Thank you," Zoe took a sec and look at Alix her messy short pink hair, her slightly tanned skin and bright blue eyes, "Hey, um, Chloe is out with Sabrina, so if you want to hang out longer."

"Yes, that would be so much fun, I'm so down." Alix said a bit too fast.

"You should have seen her as she made that painting, I have never seen this tom-boy blush this much before." Fluff commented to Pollen.

"You should have seen Zoe panicking about why she was coming over. And I thought Chloe was dramatic." Pollen added.

"So, what do you want to do?" Alix asked.

"We could play some video games." Zoe suggested, trying to suppress her blush at her new painting.

"Yeah, what games do you have?" Alix inquired.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games.