Welcome to the City of Lancaster

Chapter Twenty-Four

Nearly an hour had gone by, it felt like it was a lot longer as we sat here waiting for the outcome of what my future holds, there was no point in asking Lynette, she had already seen two different versions and besides, Sam already asked her and she replied with 'it's fifty-fifty' with a grim look on her face.
I felt sick to my stomach, I didn't want to leave the academy.
Liam walked over and sat down next to me, this felt a little weird. We've hardly spoke and literally did not go out of each other's way to communication, like besides knowing his name, that is all I knew about Liam.
"Scared?" He asks.
"Isn't it obvious?" I was sweating through my shirt and in other places.
He smirks. "This is the worst part, waiting, not knowing when things are going to go one way or another in an instant."
I nodded agreeing with him.
"I don't know what will happen to you, so I've decided something."
"What's that?"
"You know everyone's gift correct?"
I nodded. "Lynette can see the future, Audrey can control the water and Ben can use his mind control to make someone do something against their will," I shoot Ben a glare.
"Persuasion," Liam corrects me,
"Yeah that one," I say and continued on. "Sam is able to conjure up a force field and turn invisible and Calum, if I am correct, is able to absorb another's gift, correct?"
"Absorption, yes," he says with a smile.
"And I have nothing which means I am a 'normie' and you..." damn it, what did he say he was?
"C'mon, I told you on the first day," he says smirking.
"Uhh... flying?" I guessed.
"No, try again," he teased.
"An elemental?"
"Nope."
I thought for a moment thinking back to my first day.
"You said something about shifting?" I guessed.
"Yes, I'm a shapeshifter," he says grinning.
"And you're going to show me now?" I adjusted my sitting position so now I was on my knees looking at him with excitement, Liam leans back from me looking a little uncomfortable.
"Eager one, aren't you?" He says raising an eyebrow. "Okay but I want you to turn your head and look at Calum, what is he doing?"
I frowned at his odd request but didn't question him, I turned my head to see Calum looking at the two of us, he nudged Sam who was looking away and now I had both their attentions.
"He is looking at us, he also got Sam to look at us... but what has that got to do with-" as I was speaking, I turned my head only to shriek and jumped back shocked to see my own face staring back at me. My face had a twisted look like a serial killer staring at me, I did not know I could even make such a face. I heard stifled laughter behind me and knew who it was, now I know why Calum nudged Sam. Jerks.
"Shit Liam!" I grasped my chest. "I almost died."
He laughs and mimics my voice. "Oh shit Liam, I almost died," he mocks with a laugh. I couldn't help it, I laughed as well. It was a good distraction, Liam turned around shifting his face to look like Audrey, she looked over at him and flipped her head.
"It's an improvement," she rolls her eyes.
"You wanna go?" Liam asks jumping to his feet, his face shifted back in his normal form grinning at Audrey who also gets to her feet.
"Bring it on tough guy," Audrey says grinning. She picks up a bottle of water and begins to move her hand around making the water move, my eyes widened at watching her manipulate the water. "I'll freeze you before you can even think about shifting."
Liam grins and leans forward like a predator hunting it's prey and before the two could even begin their little battle, the doors opened up. The headmaster calls my name.
"We'll finish this later," Audrey says to Liam in a quiet voice.
"You're on," Liam replies cracking his knuckles.
I take a deep breath and walk over to the headmaster.
"What's the outcome?" I ask him.
"Come in and find out for yourself," and unfortunately he gave nothing else away, I felt myself going numb, if I was forced to go to the ranger's base, I would cry no doubt about it.
I walked with the headmaster turning back to see the people behind me watching me, I wanted to run back to them and beg them to come with me but I could not, I needed to be strong, I walked to the centre of the room and once again, felt everyone's eyes on me, I felt like a guinea pig. 
"The council has come to a final decision," one of the elderly men said standing up. He was bold and cranky looking but when his eyes were on me, his expression softened. "You must understand that your situation is very serious as it has never happened before."
Yeah, no shit, I wanted to say. If this happened before you would know exactly what to do with me but instead I kept my mouth shut and listened.
"Due to the situation, it isn't your fault that you had fallen into our world by mistake as it is the mistake of one of our own. And the Maze of Horrors incident, I do believe that there have been incidents prior to this one many times but since Miss Johnson was apart of it, it has only made the issue worse than what it may seem."
"Please," I stopped them. "Please just stop beating around the bush, I am just a fifteen year old girl who is terrified and putting me away in some base like a prisoner is not going to make me feel any safer then I do with the headmaster. Please don't make me go there!" I hated begging but I was so close to tears.
The Queen smiled gently. "Don't be afraid child, my husband was explaining the reasons why we are allowing you to remain at the academy."
"You can't do-" I stopped and met her eyes. "Allowing me to stay?"
"Yes," the queen nods.
"You could've started with that," I mumbled. "So wait, I am totally confused right now. The Maze of Horrors, people have gone into it and it isn't a big thing, why?"
"The Maze of Horrors is one of the last trials young rangers go through before officially becoming a ranger," the queen explains. "It is horrifying - yes but that is why rangers in training are to go on as many missions as possible, to learn how to fight different people and creatures, to come up with a strategy and to overcome their fears. It is not the first time young rangers get a bit carried away upon hearing about that maze and always sneak out to explore it themselves and it won't be the last time either. It is terrifying - yes but give it some time and you'll recover from it."
"Oh," was all I could say. God, that was embarrassing, just couldn't help myself.
"By allowing you to stay, you will learn our ways and follow our rules," the king adds. "And by you going into the maze proves that there is something special about you which has captured our interest."
"What do you mean?"
A cranky elderly woman speaks up obviously annoyed at how many questions I was asking.
"His highness means that we have had known about your world for quite some time and detecting magical energy is hard to see. We are hoping that having you join the rangers team can help us get an inside of what a person from the other world is like."
"So I am a practice dummy?"
"We would like to learn about you as you are from the other world, yes," the queen speaks up. "But only if you allow it, we may be the high council and a king and queen but we will not take away someone's choice," the king assures me. 
I nodded my head slowly. "But I get to join them on missions?"
The elderly woman scoffs, I rolled my eyes. The thought of this was terrifying but at the same time, remembering Shawn in the maze... maybe I can learn things from here and like the queen said, overcome my fears. It would definitely be nice kicking Shawn's ass after everything he has been my aunt and I through, the rage was swirling around inside of me, I wanted to become stronger.
"I will do it," I say confidently.
"Excellent," the king claps his hands together. "Thank you Miss Abigail Johnson."
"No, thank you for allowing me to stay, you have no idea how much this means to me," I was grinning from ear to ear until the cranky elderly councilwoman cleared her throat.
"Oh," I mumbled and bowed and glanced over at ranger Ace who for some reason was giving me the biggest dirty look ever, what the hell did I ever do to him?
The headmaster said a few things and we were then dismissed, I exhaled feeling myself feeling lighter and lighter with each step.
"I can't believe it," I say to the headmaster stopping by the door. "They're allowing me to stay."
"It is excellent news," the headmaster agrees.
I couldn't wait to tell everyone but the picture of Liam shifting as me and making everyone laugh flashed across my mind, I wouldn't mind getting a little bit of payback.
"Headmaster, can I be the one to tell them?" I asked him.
"Of course," he says smiling down at me.
"Thank you," I go to leave but I stop. "Oh and can you pretend to look upset?"
The headmaster gave me a look before he caught on. "Ahh, playing a prank on your friends I assume," he chuckles. "Just this once I will join in on this teenage fun," he lowers his eyes looking down which was perfect. I did my best to look upset as well and I opened the door following the headmaster out. We reached everyone in the foyer, almost everyone except Audrey stood up immediately.
"Judging from those looks, something bad happened," Sam says widening his eyes.
I looked away from him. "Something did happen."
"Oh no..." Sam whispers.
"They're actually going to send you to the ranger's base?" Calum asks keeping his face composed, I could not read his facial expressions.
I looked away sighing, I was fighting the urge to smile and finally looked up at them. Even Liam and Ben were looking a little sad, Lynette was raising an eyebrow at me and I knew that she knew that I pulling a prank. Audrey I could see was trying to listen but appeared to not care.
"They said that due to everything that has happened, that unfortunately for everyone that is involved... I am allowed to stay," I say the words and watched my magic happen. They all, except Lynette and the headmaster of course, all looked confused before their faces brightened up laughing.
"Oh my god," Sam yells. "You had us going there for a minute."
I grinned feeling a warm sensation washing over me which had me wondering when was the last time I felt like this, I embraced my friends one at a time.
"That was a good one," Lynette whispered.
"Thanks," I whispered back.
Audrey, I could tell was trying to be reluctant about it as she hugged me, I did not say anything as things were still needing to be fixed between us but I was happy to see that she did not overly hate me.
Sam picked me up and spun me around and Liam and Ben both gave me half hugs and lucky last was Calum. I paused unsure of what to do, he looked like he wanted to hug me as well but instead he reaches out and taps my shoulder.
"Great news," was all he said.
I have to admit, I was a little bummed that that was all I got from him.
"We should celebrate," Sam interrupts the awkwardness.
"Sounds good to me," Lynette adds.