In Too Deep

"I dare you to eat that moldy sandwich in the trashcan!" These were common words in the cafeteria one Friday afternoon. At our table, anyway. The jocks were talking to one another about their friend asking out a girl from the chess club, and the nerds were gossiping about how their friend got asked out by a jock. The populars were playing truth or dare.

Our school is one of those with a bunch of stereotypes, like in the movies. We have the populars, the jocks, the nerds, etc.

"I would never do that. Are you crazy or something?"

"That's the whole point of truth or dare!" Noah replied.

The bell rang, signaling our next class. I took one more bite of the golden apple in my hand, and threw it in the trash.

Noah and I parted ways, as I made my way through the swarm of teenagers heading to class. Just as I stepped through the door way, I felt a tug on my sweatshirt's hood. Each time I took a step, the person tugged again. I jerked my head around, as my eyes locked with icy blue ones. "Who are you..?" I stammered.

He didn't answer.

Instead the boy grappled my hand and dragged me back through the halls, and straight out the front doors.

He stopped and turned me around to face him. "Link." His voice was deep, but high pitched at the same time.  "Excuse me?"

"You asked for my name. Link."

And I thought I was the only one with a weird name.

"Ivory..." I replied cautiously, "And also, I asked who you were. Not your name." He hesitated. "Exchange student."

"Well, Link the exchange student, thanks for bailing me out of history. Lenman is so annoying." He frowned. "We're here to talk about something more important than this. You're just wasting time."

"Then get going."

"Follow me. Explaining on the way.

I took my first step right about after his tenth, and my second after his fifteenth. I wasn't stupid, I didn't trust strangers back then.

He led me into the woods behind the baseball field and stopped beneath my favorite willow tree.

"How did you-" He cut me off. "I know everything about you."

"How do you-" He cut me off once more. "Listen, you're a descendant."

"Of who?" I asked.

"Of Power. Wait, well... I'll explain everything. So there are 4 elements. They're like the glue that hold the world together. Got it?"

I nodded my head, listening. "Nobody knows about them except the descendants and the citizens. Not of Earth, but of Inserian. That's where you were born."

"Wait a sec, you mean I was born in a different world or something?" "Dimension," Link corrected.

He started up again. "The 4 elements are Wisdom, Power, Nature, and Bravery. The original founder of Wisdom was very clever. The founder of Bravery was very daring. And so on. You are a descendant of Power."

"Then what are citizens?" I asked, eager to know more.

"The people who the founders created. I belong to Wisdom." Link boasted. "So what is this all about, then?" I really didn't want to know the answer, but I think if I wanted to live, I needed to know.

"You were sent to earth as a 4 year old, along with 3 others your age, and were put in the hands of 2 other Inserians that had been trapped on Earth when they were your age. You were supposed to come back within a month, but that was when the dark attacked. We couldn't use any machines like the teleported to get you back. Inserian was in so much of a hurry that they forgot about you and the others."

"Wow..." I actually just took in something I needed to learn.

"The dark has attacked again, and the Inserian descendants died out."

"Except us..." I finished.

"Yes. The citizens are weak, and you 4 are our only hope."

"Wait, so I have to go to Inserian?!" I asked in awe.

"No. We need to get the others before we can begin our journey." He looked around before saying, "They're from the opposite elements."

"Let's go then." The words slipped out of my mouth so quickly I almost didn't catch what I said. So Link and I took off, off to Inserian.