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It’s Barbara’s birthday, and that’s big business for Blue team fans. Some of the upper-class girls that had the privilege of speaking to Barbara these last 12 months have brainstormed their perfect gifts for just as long: money-drain dresses, sparkling jewellery and expensive accentuates. Some of Barbara’s best friends - Akko personally calls them “the underlings of the underlings” - had been planning a getaway birthday retreat nearby: it was no surprise Avery was in charge of the whole fiasco, and no secret that her father’s a top-board executive of a luxury estate agency either. It was the topic all over school dinner whispers, confiscated classroom notes, over crystal ball group chats. All the lights were going to be on Barbara for a single day, and that was a very big deal for Luna Nova Academy.
Barbara enjoyed the snobbery, but it was never really that great. She had better things to look forward to. The problem wasn’t that the girls didn’t care about her, it was that they never knew what she was really like. Well, maybe except for her two best friends… and a third.
Anyways, the big day arrived. Like walking out onto a red carpet, Hannah and Barbara were shoving through crowds in order to get into their first class. “Miss Parker, Miss Parker!” A jumping Wangari yelled over a herd of students, “Any quick words for our exclusive birthday girl feature?!” It was going to be like this for another 3 hours.
Barbara collapsed down onto her half-balanced stool in alchemy class, letting off a heavy groan, “What an absolute hassle,” Barbara huffed.
“Wait until you hear about what Diana had to deal with last year,” Hannah chuckled back, “She got a birthday card from the chancellor of the Exchequer’s son with a 6-foot teddy bear attached to it.”
“Go figure,” Barbara replied back with her last breath of energy. As the lesson panned onward, little specks of whispers kept grabbing her attention, and it was making her roll her eyes like a slot machine. Not much happens in alchemy class anyways, no wonder everyone’s talking about her now.
“They’re so loud.” Barbara’s attention got grabbed up by Hannah, who kept nudging her arm, “Don’t you think they’re gossiping over you?” She took a note of the scene, the table at the back that comprised Akko, Lotte, and Sucy. From a distance, Akko seemed to be bickering Lotte over something, quickly glancing in Barbara’s direction every couple of moments with an evil smirk. Even if this was happening right next to her, Sucy was happily brewing whatever obnoxious concoction she’d managed to think up this time.
“Maybe another time, Hannah,” Barbara moaned. “Where is Diana?” She took a quick scan of the room, realising she was absent.
“I’m not sure,” Hannah said, “some important business with Professor Finnelan, perchance?”
“...Go figure,” Barbara replied again.
She felt Hannah nudge at her arm more, but Hannah had a bigger grin on her face this time. Barbara swung her head around to see Akko pulling Lotte over to their direction, chaos ensuing. “Looks like you don’t have a choice in the matter, Barbara.” Hannah grimaced, standing up from her stool.
Barbara’s face morphed into a concoction of pure mischief, “I suppose a little gossip wouldn’t hurt.”
Hannah and Barbara quickly marched their way forward towards the bumbling duo. Akko was still persistent though, while Lotte, red as an apple, was pulling away. “Atsuko Kagari!” Hannah bellowed onto the two, arms crossed, “What business do you have with us this time?”
Lotte stepped in, “We don’t want to bother you!” She exclaimed, “Akko’s just being a bit stupid, that’s all-”
“Lotte’s got somethin’ to say to you, Barbara!” Akko proudly remarked, forming a confident stance in the middle of the room with a moronic smirk. All eyes in the class were on them, and Lotte started to pounce on Akko’s back with her left fist. “OW! Stop that Lotte-”
“Lotte Jansson? Something to say?” Hannah burst out laughing.
“Miss Invisible, was it?” Barbara smirked, “What could you possibly want to say to me that would be worth my time?”
Lotte shrieked, freezing up on the spot. It was the point of no return. “I uh…” She was stuttering over herself like a broken-down car, but Hannah noticed how Lotte’s right arm was tucked behind her back - was she holding something? A quick sidestep and a jab to Lotte’s side let out a squeal and a chance to nab at whatever goods she was hiding, which there was: Hannah grabbed it out of Lotte’s grasp with a giggle.
“Well well…” Hannah ridiculed, “What’s this?” She looked down at the loot while Lotte frantically tried to take it back, but it was wrapped… wrapped in present wrappings, with a tag that read ‘Barbara’. “You got Barbara a birthday present?” She burst out laughing, “Look, Barbara! Miss Invisible got you a birthday present!”
What? But that didn’t make sense. Doesn’t Lotte see how they’re treating her right now? She was on the brink of tears, embarrassed and frightened streaming down her face as if she had suddenly lost a part of herself. Barbara quickly snatched the present from Hannah. “A birthday present,” Barbara deadpanned, looking straight into Lotte’s eyes, “for me ?”
Lotte couldn’t take it anymore. She ran out of the room in tears, the whole room erupting into gasps and shocks. “H-Hey, wait Lotte!” Akko promptly followed, almost tripping over her feet in a panic. However Akko was going to recover from this one, no one really knew.
Hannah snarled to herself. “What a crybaby!”
Barbara looked at the paper-bundled gift. It was very thin, shaped like a rectangle, and hollow, but there was a rattling sound of plastic inside when she moved it around. It was not like any other present she’d received in her life, let alone from such a meek and poor girl like Lotte, so that begs the question, what could it possibly be?
Hannah placed her hand on Barbara’s shoulder with a smirk, “Not to worry, Barbara,” she said, “it’s obviously nothing fancy. It’s some kind of elaborate joke, I’d say.”
Barbara kept looking at it. She couldn’t understand. She’d called Lotte every insult under the sun, but Lotte would consider her enough to gift her something. Did Lotte want something from her? Or maybe Hannah was right? What was happening here?
“Hello?” Hannah hummed, “Anyone home?”
Barbara snapped back to the moment as Hannah waved her arm in front of her sightlines, “I beg my pardon,” She uttered quickly, “of course, it’s a prank! It has to be.” She quickly tucked the present in her inner cloak pocket and sat down again.
A couple of hours passed. In their finest dresses, you could probably mistake the main hall of Avery’s family golf resort for an early prom, white tablecloths with dazzling cutlery and make-do apple juice for the wine - but it was the finest apple juice. Hannah, Barbara and Diana were centre-stage at their table, Barbara’s vicinity guarded by boxes of presents of gifts. While some of the more eccentric guests were busy on the dancefloor, Barbara was too full of contempt to get her feet moving.
“He was very adamant on the quality of the stuffing,” Diana continued with a simper on her face, “and said that it was, specifically, Vicuna wool, from South America. He’d spent a couple of thousand pounds on it and was sure to include that in the letter for god knows whatever reason.”
“How much?!” Hannah gasped.
“I recall it was… £20,000?” Diana added. Hannah gasped so hard she was lost for breath. “Needless to say,” Diana continued, “that was a short straw compared to the price of the bear’s outer fabric, and those little pieces of crystal he had ordered for the collar.”
“Dare I ask… how much?!”
Barbara was taking a gander over the different boxes. That one there must be from Mary - it’s a tea set every year. That box over there was obviously from Blair: it was strangled up with patterned tape like a psychopath was told to wrap it for her. And in front of her, packed neatly and plainly with her name on it, was a small little rectangular gift from the only person not invited to the party. She had to find out what that present was. It was driving her crazy.
“If you’re going to stare at that one all night then you might as well open it, don’t you think?” Diana snapped Barbara’s attention back to focus.
“Eh? The small one?” Hannah exclaimed over the party noises, “That’s just a prank gift from that Lotte girl.”
“ Lotte Jansson ?” Diana pondered, “Akko’s friend?”
“That’s right,” Hannah continued, “She stirred up quite a scene in alchemy class: she made a run for it after she gave the present to us.”
Diana raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t know you were acquainted with Miss Jan-”
Barbara quickly snatched her glass, the sudden action catching Diana’s tongue, “I am not acquainted with Miss Jansson,” she stated, “nor will I ever be for the foreseeable future.”
Despite her strong tone, she could feel Diana’s side-eye sting her spine as she sipped on her apple juice - the finest apple juice, that is. “I see,” Diana commented, “so a sudden gift out of nowhere, then?”
Barbara nodded, looking away.
Diana looked forward onto the dancefloor, “I feel like Miss Jansson is the kind of woman who picks those she respects very carefully, don’t you think?” She said with a smile.
“Wow…” Hannah followed with her usual support of anything Diana said, “I didn’t know you knew Lotte so well!”
“I don’t,” Diana added, “I see no reason why she would give out her respect otherwise.”
Barbara slowly rose from her chair, and with a quick beat nabbed the small gift from the table. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” she quickly muttered under her breath. Diana took another sip from her glass as Barbara scurried to the nearest exit.
“You seriously don’t think she’s going to buy into that prank, do you?” Hannah whispered in shock.
“What prank ?” Diana quickly responded.
The sounds of paper tingled the bathroom’s reverb. Inside a locked cubicle, bits of gored wrapping fell onto the floor. Barbara had to know what it was. What was so important to give to her? What could Lotte want to give-
She gasped. Barbara hovered her hand over her mouth… there was no way this could be… How did she even know? How could anyone know? This is… This is the hyper-rare first-week director’s cut of Night Fall: Solstice.
It was the box-office dominator of the last two years, breaking numerous box-office records and spanning almost 2 years in cinemas due to the excessive demand for re-releases. Night Fall: Solstice was the seventh live-action adaption of the globally-loved book series by Anabelle Crème, based on the immensely popular “Solstice” arc that spanned volumes 274-313. A 3-hour epic set in the late 1800s, the main heroine Belle is left distraught after her lover of the last 100 volumes - the handsome vampire Edgar - is killed in a hit-and-run by a car completely made of silver. In her grief, she falls for the ever-present werewolf Arthur - who canonically cannot wear a shirt for lore reasons (you need to read volumes 64-69 to understand, it’s very deep) - and joins their “pack” to marry him. However, all hell breaks loose when the pack find out that she is also a vampire because of the one time Edgar gave her an accidental hickey in volume 237, and so Belle is cursed to be a vampire-werewolf hybrid known as the werepire . While Belle is hunted by the werewolves, Arthur rebels from his pack’s traditions and vows to stay with Belle for eternity in the woods… until the next day, when Edgar comes back from the dead as a psychotic cybernetic android named Eddy-047.
Barbara started to shake, the piece of high art in her hands trembling with her. Without a moment’s breath, she dashed out of the building and to the nearest broom.
Akko got into a lot of trouble after she was found gargling in the school fountain, and now she’d been locked up in the laundry room shovelling through sweaty garments for the rest of the evening. On the other hand, Sucy had decided to stay after alchemy class for another casual 6 hours of her time, dubiously using the school facilities to her advantage. She didn’t know how Akko managed to show up in that fountain with the ears and tail of a donkey, but she had a suspicion it had something to do with Lotte. Sucy probably should’ve done something about those two, she kept thinking to herself over stenches of smoked salmon… but decided to get back to her potion-brewing.
Lotte was stuck under her bed quilts. What a disaster . Never again. Not to mention the donkey in the room, Akko hadn’t made Lotte this mad since she ripped up her score of the Song of the Spirits. Oh Akko… would she ever change? Lotte was hugging a pillow underneath her quilt and started to squeeze it even tighter, her eyes starting to glisten up. Would Barbara ever change?
A knock on the door. Lotte flicked her crystal ball, temporarily flash-banging her to tell the time: 9 pm, it wrote. She dragged herself out of bed towards the door in her nightdress, missing her glasses, and slowly opened it - making sure the light outside wouldn’t blind her. The sight she saw was quite a spectacle - something she had seen somewhere that instantly took her attention and flooded her with butterflies. How could she forget? This sight was like the unforgettable scene from Night Fall: Breaking Dusk Part 10, when a distraught Belle opens her mansion door (that she stole) to one of the most erotic cuts of movie history: a shirtless Arthur in the pouring rain, softly panting under his breath, pecs and six-pack presented as expected - perfectly. With his strong masculine arms, he brushed his short jock-style hair back like a hair advert, and says “It’s a bit moist, but I’m all out howlin’ for you.”
This was unfortunately not Arthur, but a soggy Barbara in ruined party clothes: her hair was everywhere, her make-up looked like a splattered artist’s palette, and she was not ‘softly’ panting but completely deprived of air. She slowly held up the rare edition of Night Fall: Solstice under Lotte’s awe-struck gaze, her hand dripping rain pellets onto the floor.
“Good evening,” she gasped.
Lotte took a short beat to comprehend what was going on, and quickly closed the door. Barbara patiently waited while she heard the earth move inside the room in front of her. A couple of seconds later, Lotte jolted the door open again with a new set of casual attire, her glasses wedged on her face wrong, and her hair partially groomed. Her cheeks had caught up on what was happening and eagerly flushed a bright red in response.
“Good evening,” Lotte replied.
“I opened your present,” Barbara added in bursts, pointing at the CD case in hand, “I wanted to um, give you my humblest thanks.”
“I see,” Lotte flushed, “I’m glad you like it.” Barbara was still clinging to dear life: she must’ve sprinted the entire school and back just to make it here. Lotte noticed her ruined clothes for a moment, and took a gander at all of her, “Did you… go outside?” Lotte questioned pensively, “The forecast, it said-”
“I was at my birthday party,” Barbara puffed, “but I opened your present, and I wanted to ask if you would watch it with me tonight.” She was starting to catch up on her breath, and she quickly weaved her hands through her hair.
“Why?” Lotte mumbled quietly under her breath.
“This means something to me,” Barbara said wistfully, “and I’m tired of pretending it doesn’t. I was wrong about you Lotte, you are most definitely worth my time. I can scarcely believe I stayed at all those dull parties before - I don’t think I’ve ever properly conversed with half of my guests.” She held her head down and started to chuckle faintly under her breath, “Can you believe it? The star of the day, the birthday girl, ditching her own party…” As soon as she stopped, she quickly hid her face with her hand before leaking her emotions away, sobbing to herself. “Why could I so passionately disregard your respect for me, Lotte? How could I have possibly seen it reasonable to degrade you like that, over all those times? I never knew that you saw me in the opposite way…” Barbara didn’t expect herself to break down like this. She knew this was probably how she had felt after all this time… hidden under expectations and aristocratic behaviour. She said it herself though, she was tired of hiding from her passions for the sake of appearance, tired of hiding from the people she could love. After a small beat of thought, Barbara straightened up her back and sniffed her crying nose, her eyes glowing with reflected beads of tears, “With that in mind,” she whimpered, “I don’t owe you just an apology, but a means of action, so I am sorry, Lotte. I thought that watching this with you would be a start of a friendship I could be proud of. Would you like to join me?”
Lotte wanted to pinch her cheeks, just to check if she was dreaming. “Okay,” she stuttered, water dancing in her eyes.
Barbara’s demeanour broke down with a huge sigh of relief, “Thank you,” Barbara said, “Thank you for giving me this chance to-”
Lotte clutched onto Barbara, staggering the both of them back. She was squeezing her like a stress ball, her head dug into Barbara’s shoulder, “You’re gonna catch a cold,” Lotte muffled.
“Ah,” Barbara didn’t realize she looked more than worse, “Of course! I need to get back to my dormitory and change! I’ll be just a…”
Lotte was wearing puppy eyes. “Can I come with you?” She asked.
Barbara put the Night Fall: Solstice DVD into her Witchtop’s DVD player, and it quickly started humming away. Her shared dormitory had been quickly adjusted for cinema lighting, and her luxury-sized single bed’s frame was walled up with pillows. Lotte was eagerly twiddling her thumbs for the show to start: she hadn’t seen this film since she went to her 31st viewing last year. With a flick of Barbara’s wand, the dormitory TV bloomed up in light and sound. Barbara was just as excited - with the notion of finally enjoying herself with a friend, she pounced onto the bed next to Lotte as the thunderous Plummit Entertainment ident started to roll. The two of them were huddled up together on the duvet, touching shoulders with beaming faces.
“It’s cus like, I love you, Belle,” the cyber Edgar said airily, his foam nose muffling his synthetic voice, “cus you’re like, really sexy and all that.”
“Stay away from her, you dog!” Arthur bellowed down. Belle held her hands together in delight as she heard the sound of honking bell horns thud down the wooden stairs, “You shall torment her no longer!”
“You’re like the werewolf though, my dude,” Edgar replied, brushing the afro out of his LED eyes.
“SILENCE!” Arthur started to beat his naked chest like an ape, “I’ll make sure to make a quick act out of you!”
Around 2 hours had passed, and the final 2 hours of the film were rolling in. Barbara had forgotten how spectacular the Circus Brawl scene was in this scene: word around fan forums goes that Arthur’s actor kicked Edgar in the groin so hard that he broke his toe with the clown shoes on. Another hour. Barbara could feel the weight of her eyes pushing themselves down. Ah yes, it was that one scene now: the kissing scene in the wheat fields - she must’ve rewatched it a thousand times on Witchnet, daydreaming of a partner to run away with her as any girl would. The calm strings and felted pianos started to make Barbara’s heartstrings tug away, slowly sinking deeper into her emotions. It was different now. She had someone to share this feeling with. She looked to her side.
Lotte was asleep, resting her head on Barbara’s shoulder, at peace. Thoughts about her dreamy appearance started to dance in Barbara’s mind, the way her glasses had leaned off her nose, maybe Barbara would fall asleep too if she went ahead and counted every freckle on Lotte’s face. The sinking feeling of a missing half to Barbara’s heart was starting to get heavier. She gently put her arm around Lotte’s waist and held her close. She was so warm. Her hair had a fragrance of lavender. Barbara was lost in her mind… The reason why Lotte would care for her so much remained a mystery she couldn’t even understand, but there was something magical about Lotte that Barbara wanted to know more about. Embraced in her warmth, while silk strings strummed her heart from distant speakers, she gently kissed Lotte’s head and closed her eyes.
The lights on Barbara dimmed away as midnight clocked out for the next morning. Well, they were supposed to. The heat of the moment, of course, left a birthday party without a cake cutting, and two girls sleeping together in a shared dormitory. Diana simpered a little to herself as she picked up the Luna Nova magazine the next morning, “Parker and Jansson’s Birthday Bash!” smacked the front page with a picture courtesy of Hannah. Barbara and Lotte were sleeping side by side, heads together, fingers intertwined, finally at peace with one another… and that’s big business for Blue team fans.