Elements Rising

Chapter One

A bus pulled up in front of a large fountain, representing the four classical elements, and a black-haired young woman exited with a number of other young men and women. She was wearing a pair of slightly baggy, slightly long blue jeans, with a rip on the left knee, a slightly tight gray hooded sweatshirt, and no shoes. Her hair was rather unkempt and her eyes were different colors, the left one gray and the right one blue.

"Welcome to Four Elements Academy. At this academy, you will learn to hone your elemental gifts. I assure each and every one of you, this school is a very safe place. Now, if you would please follow me, I will take you into the Registration and Enrollment building, the main building of Four Elements Academy, and allow you to register and receive your room assignments and schedules."

Four Elements Academy was a large, sprawling establishment. There were many different buildings, each with the name of the building somewhere on it, and each looking different than the last. Each building had its own use or specialty and the appearance of each building reflected that. The fountain had a spout pouring water into the large pool, a spout pouring out controlled bursts of flame, a spout blowing out puffs of air, and a spout pouring out small, decorative stones that fell into the pool below.

The man led the group into the building marked Registration and Enrollment. The building was large, both on the outside and the inside, and the walls were adorned with pictures of people manipulating the elements. There was a large desk at the end of the room with two hallways branching off on either side, leading to other buildings of the school. There were a few people sitting at the large desk, typing away on computers and there were relatively long lines leading to each person sitting at the desk. The group, that had just entered the building, split up into the lines and awaited their turns to be enrolled into Four Elements Academy.

At the same time as the black-haired girl was awaiting her turn at the enrollment desk, another bus pulled up outside. Another girl got off the bus with another large group of people. The girl had shoulder-length gray hair and dark green eyes. She was wearing a purple graphic tee, with an elephant wearing a pair of 3-D glasses on the front, a pair of gray skinny jeans, and a pair of white and green tennis shoes. She had a yellow duffel bag with her, which she carried off the bus with her. A man came out of the building in front of them and introduced them to the Academy and that it was somewhere they could feel safe. He then proceeded to lead them inside where the group split up into the lines to be registered.

Even though the lines were relatively long, they seemed to move rather quickly. The black-haired girl was almost to the front of the line and a few spots behind her was the gray-haired girl. The gray-haired girl noticed the black-haired girl's clothing and hair but kept her opinions and judgments to herself. Soon, the line moved again and it was the black-haired girl's turn at the desk.

"Name and element please," the woman at the desk, her name tag reading Erin Redd on it, said.

"Aurora and my element is water," she replied to Ms. Redd.

"I need your first and last name."

"Um...."

The truth was that it had been awhile since she had ever had to use her last name for anything, so she never really thought that much of it ever again. She didn't even know who her parents were anymore, since her mother, Harriet, had died giving birth to her and her twin sister, Jasmine, on Christmas Day, and her father, George, had killed himself by overdosing on sleeping pills. Aurora had known she could manipulate water from an early age and when the man that she had arrived here with had come to her with an offer she couldn't refuse, she took it. There was really nothing left for her where she was from, back with the Theater Kids, so this was a kind of fresh start for Aurora. If she had to be honest with herself, she was tired of using her powers to forage for coins in fountains, or pickpocket people passing by, just to be able to eat. Any other money she pulled out of a fountain, or didn't spend, was given to the leader of the Theater Kids, an older boy whom she didn't know the name of.

"I need your last name," Ms. Redd said, impatiently.

"I-I don't remember," Aurora stuttered out. It wasn't that she didn't remember her last name, it was that she just didn't use it after she ended up with the Theater Kids.

"You don't remember your own last name?" Ms. Redd asked.

"N-no," she replied.

She was suddenly scared that this woman was going to yell at her or something for something as simple as forgetting her own last name. Although, then again, it wasn't that usual for someone to forget their own last name.

"Alright then," she sighed and then continued, "I'll just put in your first name, as it's known, and your last name as unknown."

Aurora just nodded and some sheets of paper came out of the printer after Ms. Redd entered all of the information. Ms. Redd grabbed the sheets of paper that had printed out and handed them to Aurora.

"What are these?" Aurora asked, referring to the sheets of paper she was handed.

"Your schedule, a map, and your room assignment."

She was also given a key, and Aurora looked at the paper with her room assignment on it. It said 'Darwin Hall, Room 321.' She walked out of line and began immediately searching for Darwin Hall. She looked around and saw a gray-haired girl around her age walk up to the desk and begin the same process she had just finished. She was able to overhear some of the conversation of what was being said.

"...Iris."

The conversation went on, going through all the details, sheets came out of the printer, Ms. Redd handed them to the girl and told her she would be staying in Darwin Hall, Room 321. Grey took her schedule, the map, her key, and her rooming assignment and saw that a black-haired girl was standing near the hallway going off to the right. As Grey was about to ask the girl where they should go, the door to the registration building opened and two more large groups of incoming students walked in. Two girls out of the two groups stood out the most, probably mostly because of their contrasting clothing choices. One of the girls, with her red hair tied back into a high ponytail and bright green eyes, was wearing a long-sleeved black turtleneck, which bared her midriff, with a pair of black leggings and a pair of black, knee-high, heeled boots. She had a black duffel bag with her. The other girl, who had platinum blonde hair with different colored highlights and icy blue eyes, was wearing a short-sleeved white blouse with a white ruffled skirt and a pair of white, knee-high, heeled cowboy boots.

The girls made their way to the front of their respective lines and gave their information to the women behind the desk. The women typed their information into their computers and paper came out of the printers. The women grabbed the papers and handed each girl a key and the papers. They both looked at the paper with their room assignments on them, then looked on their maps for where Darwin Hall was. The two girls looked over at the hallway going to the right and saw two other girls standing there, talking to each other. One had black hair and one gray eye and one blue eye and the other had gray hair and dark green eyes. The bubbly-looking blonde spoke up first, speaking to Grey.

"Hi, excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to know where Darwin Hall is, would you?"

"Um, no, not really, but the both of us," Grey motioned between herself and Aurora, "are headed there too. I'm in Room 321."

Aurora said that was her room as well, and the redhead and the blonde both said that was their room too. All four girls thought that was either a coincidence, a mistake, or they were all really roommates. Everyone took a minute to look at one of the maps and figure out where Darwin Hall was. Once the spot on the map was located, all four girls made their way toward the building that was Darwin Hall.

Once the girls entered Darwin Hall, they made their way to the third floor and searched for Room 321. When they found it, one of the girls used their key to open the door and all four girls walked into the room. Immediately upon walking into the room, there was a large common living area with a modest sized kitchen off to one side of the room. On the other side of the large room were four doors, which the girls assumed to be bedrooms.

Each girl went into a room and those who had brought stuff with them set their belongings on the bed and walked back into the living room. The girls all sat down and began to wonder why they, of all people, were brought together. Everyone seemed to have differing personalities, so it was obvious they weren't roomed together because of that. Perhaps it was because of their different personalities? Someone had to know something.