Keeper Kids (A KOTLC fanfiction)

Chapter 12

"Hey, what's up Eliana?" said Lia, her voice a bit scratchy as the wind from outside whipped around. Eliana gazed at the tiny screen, eyes pleading. Lia frowned. "Haysen said you were sick but you look-" "Shhhhhhhh," whispered Eliana. "Come over to Glowvale and I'll explain." Lia nodded and her tiny face disappeared.

Later, there was a knock on the window. Eliana flung open the curtains and Lia was hovering there, sitting on a giant wave of rain collected together. The windows opened and Lia tumbled in, the water dropping like a bomb with an enormous BOOM. 

"So, whatcha want?" Lia asked after they had changed Lia into some comfy pyjamas that Eliana lent her and were covered with blankets on the flowery carpet and eating mallowmelt. Eliana shrugged and took a tiny sip of her lushberry juice. "Listen," she muttered, "I know you're gonna freak out but... I'm a Mesmer. And a Psionipath." 

Lia's eyes widened. "Wow. Why did you never tell me earlier though?" Eliana shrugged again and took a bite out of her mallowmelt slice, chewing for a few minutes before answering, "People would take advantage of me and my parents said not to." 

Lia frowned. "You should be proud. My parents aren't really proud of us, they're just happy we manifested. I think they were hoping that we'd manifest something that was different to them but, oh well." She took a big bite out of her mallowmelt. Eliana suddenly sneezed. Lia's face creased with worry. "Are you okay?" Eliana nodded. She couldn't explain why she just sneezed. It was because she smelt something strange in the air, something different from mallowmelt and lushberry juice.

Eliana then explained about today's situation. Lia gave her some practises to calm down from when she had manifested. Elemental abilities were a lot harder to control and Lia thought it would be perfect for her. Before she knew it, the time that they had left for talking was gone. Lia brushed the crumbs off her hands and gave Eliana a big hug. "Good luck!" and then she leapt away.

Eliana cleaned up slowly before tucking into her bed and smiling at the thought of finally telling her secret.

The next day, she decided to wear the mysterious bracelet that someone gave to her. It was pretty and one of the beads glowed blue when it hit the light. Eliana also sprayed a little bit of the Panakes perfume she inherited from her mother to make sure that she was presentable. Then, she leapt to Foxfire.

Lyndsey crushed her with a hug. "Yesterday, Haysen said you were sick so you couldn't come. Are you feeling better now?" She nodded mutely. Lyndsey didn't seem to notice and gave her another ginormous hug whilst Lia just gave her a wink.

When Eliana was finally released, she noticed a tall raven-haired beauty walking past the lockers. She was wearing the blue uniform so she must've been in the same year as Eliana. Eliana ran forward and grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face a beautiful girl. Her eyes were pale blue, she had delicately arched eyebrows and slightly pink cheeks giving her a glowing look against her smooth bronze skin.

"My gosh!" she shouted. "Get your hands off me!" Eliana gripped her arm harder. "No." "Ugh, what do you want?" she yelled at Eliana. Eliana glared back. "Who are you?" She sighed and yanked her arm away from Eliana and crossed them. "I'm Hadleigh (pronounced Head-ly). Is that it?" Eliana shook her head. "Do you want to join us for lunch?"

Hadleigh shoved her against the lockers and bent down to whisper in her ear, "Don't come near me ever again."

Lia and Lyndsey ran up to her. "Are you okay? What did that witch do to you?" Eliana shook her head to clear her thoughts. "She didn't do anything. I'm just a bit shocked, that's all. Let's go to class."

At lunch, Haysen leaned over and whispered, "I'm so glad you're feeling better." She blushed, her heart thumping loudly and she felt embarrassed. Bad Eliana! "Thank you," she murmured back. Haysen leant back and Lia was hotly explaining about Hadleigh. Lyndsey suddenly piped up, "It's Hadleigh Aria, right?" Eliana nodded. 

Lyndsey sat back, triumphant. "Ah, I know a bit about her. You know, gossip." (A/N I tried to make Lyndsey the gossip queen bc her mother is Marella who used to be the one who knew all the gossip.)

Finn grabbed her arm. "What? Tell us!" Lyndsey went bright pink due to the fact that she liked Finn and wiggled out of his grasp. "Okay," she mumbled.

"So, her mother was Rayni Aria. (the father remains unknown) Rayni was, like, a good acquaintance to our parents but some of our parents hated her. Tam was her favourite of the group. Then, when our parents grew up, Rayni went out of their contacts. Got married to someone unknown then she had a child. One day, when she was out for a walk, she vanished. I mean, not like a Vanisher or light-leapt away but she wasn't seen again after the walk. Everyone assumed she died and they plucked a hair out of her daily hairbrush and her seed was planted, forgotten."

"Her daughter, Hadleigh, was devastated. She wasn't a popular choice with adoption because she was scary. By the age of 2, she was cursing and stabbing with knives in her room, according to rumours. Then, the tragic accident of her life happened. Her mother 'died' and Hadleigh was only 9. She was adopted by this woman named Trella or something of the sort. Trella was a good adoptive mother to her and was kind. Hadleigh and Trella loved each other, truly. But, Trella was a lady, graduated from Foxfire and studied the elite levels. To have adopted a random scary kid was not on her agenda and things started to go wrong. Trella's title was removed and she was banished. Before she could be banished though, she was trying to light leap to the Tribunal and then, her concentration was broken by the fact that she knew she couldn't save Hadleigh and she faded away."

"Everything she owned was given to Hadleigh as it stated in her will. Lots of people protested but her will was her will and Hadleigh now is the richest heiress in the Lost Cities. She lives by herself, no adoptive parents. Look, rumours is that she is so wealthy she could buy the entire world and still be rich. But, she's still a weird kid so no one wants to get close to her."

"How old was she when Trella died?" Eliana asked. Lyndsey shrugged. "Around 11/12. Trella died this year. Hadleigh must have been mourning because I didn't see her at all at the beginning of the year. But, she passed the midterms which means she must've been here for midterms."

Lia stuck out her chin. "That doesn't make it okay for her to shove Eliana though. Just because she's angry doesn't mean she can take her anger out on poor innocent souls." Waylen nodded, agreeing, but that wasn't the end of it. Eliana stood and walked up to Hadleigh's table and sat down. She took the opportunity of the walk there to also dump her tray. 

Hadleigh's face was pinched tight. A butterfly hairclip was tucked into her black hair. She was gazing at a photograph, which was rather unusual in the Lost Cities but the photo seemed to be taken in the Forbidden Cities so that made everything alright.

The photo showed a lady who was in the middle of skinny and plump. Her blonde curls dangled above her shoulders, one arm was clutched tightly around a 10 year old Hadleigh who was wearing a grey embroidered tunic and some soft leather boots. Hadleigh was only up to Trella's neck but her energy matched perfectly with Trella's, both of them smiling widely and laughing. A teardrop landed on the photo and the spell was broken. Eliana blinked and realised Hadleigh was crying.

She sat down and wrapped an arm around her and Hadleigh seemed to lay into the hug before pushing Eliana away. "I told you to stay away," she hissed before jumping up and running out of the cafeteria. Eliana went back to her table and raised her eyebrows at them. "Weird," they said all at the same time.