Bubbly Boredom

Aethra pulled open the door to her dorm room and dashed toward her bunk, avoiding a collision with the upper bunk on her way. Zahra wasn't there, but she'd left a disposable cup of water on the desk, half full, lukewarm, and cloudy.

Aethra was out of class for the day, but Zahra had another lecture before they could hang out together, so she lounged across her bunk, bored.

What time is your class over again? she texted Zahra.

Not for another hour and a half 😐, Zahra texted back.

Come on, Aethra thought. I can keep myself busy for that long.

She cast a weak sealing spell on the door -- enough to give her time to prepare herself before someone got inside -- and dissolved her glamour, revealing the itchy spots of jeweled acne on her cheeks and her folded dragonfly wings.

She glanced around the room, looking for something to mess around with, and spotted the cup of water. It had a plastic cover and straw atop it, but Zahra hadn't drunk from it in the last two days. She wouldn't miss it.

Aethra pulled the lid off the cup and discarded it, keeping the straw. She stuck her finger into the water and swirled it around, leaving sparks of glowing cyan and pink light. As the water spun, it began to glimmer and foam.

Perfect, she thought.

She stuck the straw back into the cup -- now full of bubble fluid -- and pulled it out. The thin layer of film on the end of the straw confirmed her magic had worked. Aethra put the straw to her lips and blew through it. A gleaming, transparent soap bubble blossomed from the tip of the straw. At first, it remained a blobby sphere, but as she continued to blow, it contorted into the shape of a delicate butterfly the size of her hand. It parted from the straw and flapped wings of soap film, trailing tiny bubbles as it circled her.

Aethra lifted her free hand, and the bubble butterfly settled atop it, growing more iridescent as she made contact and cast a sealing spell. Now when it fluttered away from her, its trail sparkled.

I can do better than that, she thought.

She dipped her straw again and blew another bubble. This one stayed much smaller than the butterfly, growing two stubbier wings and a bumpy surface – a bee bubble. A soft sound – less of a buzz and more of a purr – came from the bee as it bumbled around the room. It rested on her finger to seal itself, then flew off to explore her desk. Unlike most bees, it had no stinger, only a more pointed bump on its rear.

The butterfly and bee paid little mind to each other as Aethra watched, even when the bee bumped into the butterfly and bounced off its wing.

She blew a few spherical bubbles, letting them pop without aid in small, misty showers as she decided what to do next.

Not wanting to make more creatures, she blew a long, wavery bubble tube with a series of sharp puffs, then twisted it into a tight, bulging spiral. The shape resembled a spring with no space in between, and when she tried to compress it, the bubble burst.

Aethra hopped off the bed and dipped her straw again. This time, she blew soft and smooth, making the bubble emerging from its tip expand into a large, rounded heart shape close to the size of her head. She touched it and sealed it off with a quick flick of the straw.

The heart bubble glowed rosy pink, with highlights of purple and red, and it bounced back into shape as she stretched and squeezed it with her hands. She set down the cup of bubble fluid and tried to balance on top of the heart bubble, wobbled, and almost hit her head on Zahra’s bunk.

Too small, she thought. Grabbing the straw again, she poked it through the bubble’s skin and blew. It stretched larger, puffing out to twice its original size, and rounded out even more until it had lost its heart shape in favor of a lopsided orb. Aethra kept blowing, and it grew even more. She flopped onto it, bounced, and pulled out the straw, stretching happily atop the soft bubble.

Much better than a human mattress.

Soap film still clung to the tip of her straw, so she blew a flurry of tiny bubbles through it, which circled the room. The butterfly flapped to one of them and merged with it, growing a few inches but keeping its shape.

She leaned toward the desk, dipped her straw again, then blew another bubble, which shaped itself into a dragonfly. It zipped around, absorbing the tiny orbs until only the three creatures and her bubble cushion remained. Aethra laughed.

Her cushion bobbed in midair, letting her float even with her wings tucked away, and she put her straw to her lips again.

Before Aethra decided what to shape her next one into, someone jiggled the doorknob, and she coughed out a surprised breath, producing a spiky bubble. She popped it with her fingertip.

She called out through the door, “Who’s there?”

“It’s me,” Zahra said. “Unlock it, will you?”

Someone might be in the hall, Aethra thought. She opened the window and shooed the bubble creatures outside.

“One second,” she said.

Last was the bubble cushion – and if a human saw that, they’d be suspicious. Aethra flicked it, undoing the sealing spell, and hopped to the ground as it burst, leaving a damp patch on the carpet.

She released the sealing spell on the door and stuck the straw back into the cup.

Zahra walked in, still in her human disguise, but no one followed her.

“Hey,” she said. “What were you up to?”

Aethra shrugged but couldn’t help glancing at the cup.

“Not much, waiting for you,” she said.

Zahra noticed her glance and spotted the cup. She picked it up and sipped at the straw before Aethra could stop her.

“Should have finished that earlier,” Zahra said. A gleaming purple-blue bubble formed with each word, stretching into cursive letters to match the sounds.

“Huh?” Another rounder bubble puffed from her lips. She popped it and shot Aethra a suspicious look.

“I got bored,” Aethra said. “You didn’t seem like you’d be drinking it again, so….”

She gestured at the speech bubbles. “I wouldn’t have changed it if I’d known.”

Zahra smiled and sighed, an intentional deep breath that released a beachball-sized soap bubble. She touched it, making its surface glitter with lavender light, and leaned in to blow through its surface. The soap still in her mouth produced more bubbles, surrounding themselves with a puff of air and another layer of soap as they entered the beachball bubble.

“Not too different from bubblegum,” she said. “Except for the taste.”

She popped the different words after they appeared, then laughed, burbling out the remainder of the soap as bright, sparkling orbs.

Aethra laughed with her.