One word of advice? That is-from a college student's perspective. Do not. Take. 8 AM's. I'm a freshman at Camelbridge University (nope, you read that wrong, it's Camelbridge, not Cambridge. We're all too broke to afford Cambridge) and I thought that it would be smart to take early classes. You know, get everything out of the way so that I can be free by the early afternoon. I don't know why on Earth I thought that. I am not a morning person in the slightest. So when my alarm went off early this morning, I didn't even bother to hit snooze. My roommate, on the other hand, was getting sick and tired of my laziness every morning.

"Wake up, Imani," she groaned into her pillow. "Now."

"Five more minutes."

"You say that every morning."

"Because those five minutes are a lifesaver every morning."

"That's because it always ends up being longer than five minutes. And I have to suffer through it all."

My eyes were closed, but I could hear her jump out of her bed. That could only mean one thing.

"Alright, I'm up!"

I rose before she could even do what she was thinking about. She would've tickled me if I took too long to get up. Ever since she overheard me and my parents talking about how ticklish I am, she's been using that to her advantage. And I hated that. One day, I was going to figure out her weakness too.

"I'm up, see?"

"Your bonnet went missing again."

"Ugh."

My bonnet was always going missing. That thing had legs, I kid you not. I'm pretty sure it's a universal black girl experience for your bonnet to just run away at night.

"I'll find it for you later. Just focus on getting ready for now."

"Thanks, Adri. You're a real one."

"I know."

When Adrianna-or Adri as I call her-first met, we clicked right away, thankfully. Our college matched us after we answered a few questions similarly. But even with that, people still often get roommates who are...ugh. We got along right away when we first met, though. We're both black and rock our natural hair often, so whenever it's wash day for either one of us, there's no questioning the hair explosion by the bathroom sink. We always clean up after. We were both pretty clean people. Room inspections were a breeze because we both don't smoke. We couldn't even if we wanted to. We both run out of breath just by walking up a few stairs. But despite how similar we both were, we had a lot of differences too. I'm dark-skinned, but she's light. I dressed more casually (I own about a million hoodies), and she dresses to impress. We also have different majors. She's a Biology major, her goal being to get into a good vet school. I'm an English major. I want to become a bestselling author. That's my dream. And if little me hadn't wished for fairy wings, I would've definitely wished to be an author. Oh, and I'm sure you're wondering if she knows about my wings. She doesn't. My parents made me swear that I tell no one. And I know that they aren't here, so they can't control my actions. But the truth is I'm honestly...afraid. I've built so many bonds here with people. Everyone has been pretty nice to me. I don't want to ruin what I have by suddenly saying "Oh, by the way, guys, I can fly!" That's weird, honestly. Plus I still get the chance to spread out my wings every now and then. I just go in my free time. I know it isn't a smart move to walk around in the forests by yourself, but I had no other choice. The forests surrounding campus were one of the only places where I could truly be myself. I always made sure nobody was around before I started flying. But man, flying around felt like an addiction. I'm so obsessed with the feeling of being able to zip past the trees, or even soar above the clouds if I wanted. I just...wish I could make it normalized. But oh well, right? We can't get everything we want in life, and that's okay. I was fine with what I had. So I hummed a little as I went into our bathroom (Camelbridge had private bathrooms for everyone, thank goodness) and I got ready for the day. Blue and white Camelbridge hoodie, check. White sweatpants, also check. Matching blue and white Nike Dunks? Very much a check- I loved all my sneakers, though Adri was more of a shoe expert than me. Instead of putting my hair up like usual, I decided to keep it down. And all I did to accessorize was put in some fake diamond stud earrings. Adri probably had some real diamond earrings lying around somewhere.

"Adri?"

"Huh?"

"Do you think I can borrow your diamond earrings sometime? You know, just in case a handsome stranger ever decides to ask me out one day."

"Girl," she began to laugh. "What handsome stranger? This is Camelbridge University, home of the knights or whatever. Ain't nobody here worth wearing diamond earrings for. Maybe try Harvard."

"Maybe I will. You think I should transfer?"

"No. I'd miss you too much."

"Aw, really?"

"No, not really. Don't you have class soon?"

"You're so rude! But yes, you're right, I'm about to leave."

"Good, I can finally get some peace and quiet."

I rolled my eyes at her, but I had a smile on my face as I did so. We always teased each other like that. It was just our sense of humor, nothing else to it.

"Oh, and take this."

She threw an umbrella my way. I must've looked a little confused, so she opened up the window blinds to show how much it was pouring down outside.

"Oh. Well, thank you."

"Sure thing."

We looked after each other, too. It was one thing that I loved about our friendship. She always had my back, and I always had hers. I didn't want anything like my secret to alter that.

The rain had stopped at around one, and the sun was shyly peeking out of the pearl-colored clouds. It felt nice outside. A little humid, but nice. At least for Indiana anyway. As I decided to eat my lunch outside as a reward for my hard work (I almost fell asleep during my history class), I saw something a little...odd. Well, not super odd, I guess. But there was just a black owl sitting by a nearby pole, staring directly at me. Okay, maybe it wasn't odd, but it was creepy. I figured it might've just wanted my food. I wasn't about to make a fool of myself and try to feed it, though. Right as I was about to bite into my BLT, though, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Sorry to interrupt your lunch, but do you mind if I sit here?"

I turned to face a girl about my age with the longest, most curly bubblegum-pink hair I've ever seen in my life. It didn't look like she was wearing a wig, either. It looked like her natural hair color. Her hair wasn't the only thing that made her stand out, though. Her makeup-or her lipstick and eyeshadow, at least-was a deep purple. Her hazel eyes seemed to glow every time the sun touched them. Her nails had abstract designs on them, but they were still mainly purple too. As weird as it might've seemed, her look went well with her ivory skin tone. Her outfit was the only thing that didn't stand out too much. She was wearing a similar hoodie to mine, only the lettering was different. She also had on sweatpants, but they were gray and not white.

"Sure."

She gave me a close-lipped smile as she sat down.

"Thanks. I'm new here. The name's Candy."

"Candy?"

"Well-that's my nickname. People say that my hair looks like cotton candy so...there's that. My real name is Katie, though."

She honestly smelled like candy too. But I wasn't about to tell her that.

"Oh, well they're not wrong. I'm Imani. Are you...an art major by any chance?"

She gave me a look of surprise. "How'd you know?"

"Just a guess. You seem like the creative type."

"Oh, I do love to paint."

"That's nice. If I tried to paint it would look like a first grader did it."

"No way," she laughed. Her laugh kind of sounded like bells if that makes sense. "Anyone can paint. Really paint, I mean. It just takes the right instruction."

"I'll take your word for it, then. But um...why Camelbridge of all places? Not to seem rude-"

"Oh, you're fine! I just chose this place because it's close to home. Or something like that."

"Ah. How far do you live from here?"

"Like ten hours, give or take."

I choked on my sandwich a little bit. "Ten hours?"

"Give or take. Could be more like twelve with traffic, you know?"

"Candy, that's not close. Like at all. And I know there are so many better colleges out there, actually close, instead of Camelbridge."

"Oh, I'm sure there are. But none of them have fairies for students."

"Hm?"

She gave me a smirk as she crossed her legs over. "You heard me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Candy, I told you to leave her alone!"

Now another voice came along. This time, it belonged to a man with pale skin, long, dark hair, even darker eyes, and a suit as sharp as the knife I accidentally cut myself with the other day. Weird description, I know. But he honestly looked like he had a business meeting to attend. He sat down on the other side of me, his eyes glaring directly at Candy.

"Well, I can't help it. She's like my sister."

"Your what?"

"I'm a fairy too, Imani. Although, my wings aren't quite like yours. They're bigger and feathery. But you can fly so much faster than me."

"What?"

"You keep confusing her, Candy. Stop it."

"I'm just stating facts here!"

"Okay, just- just pause! What makes you think I'm a fairy, first of all?"

"We've seen you fly around the forests. Arthur the shapeshifter here has been following you around."

I slowly turned towards him for confirmation, and he nodded his head. "I've been watching you since you started coming here, Imani."

"You know I take my shirt off whenever I fly around, right?"

"Well, I-yeah and that's-that's the bad part about it-I'm not perverted I swear-I just needed to prove to the others that you're a wisher. Plus you fly fast anyway so...it's hard to focus on you."

"Okay-you're weird, but whatever. What others are you talking about, exactly?"

"The other wishers. Those who have made abnormal wishes that came true. We call ourselves wishers."

"Isn't everyone technically a wisher, though?"

"Not exactly. In our history books, you're not a complete wisher until your abnormal wish has been granted. Ours have."

"Imani, we're here to invite you."

"Invite me to what?"

"Our secret society of wishers. It's a haven for all of us- a place where we are free to be ourselves. We're located at a place called the Castle of Wishes. It's a beautiful place, really."

"All you have to do is accept our invitation. Tell no one about it."

Arthur handed me a golden envelope. It was pretty, I'll admit. It looked like it was made with actual gold.

"I'm sorry this is all so sudden," Candy sighed. "But as soon as we found out about you, we had to come see you in person. You have a gift, Imani. It would be such a shame to keep it hidden forever."

My appetite was gone. I looked towards both of them, then down at the invitation. So there were others like me out there. After all this time of wondering. I didn't know how to feel, though. I was just...in shock.