Think Three Times

Down, Down, Down

"Ok, so here's the drill: everyday, we come up here or higher, then pick an activity. Falling is a fun one. The goal is to get as close to the ground as possible, then catch yourself really fast. Try not to die."
"Question," said Eric, "we're falling from the sky. Shouldn't there be air resistance, or at least wind making it hard to hear you?"
"We're wind elementists, or air elementists. Gee, I wonder what's causing this lack of air resistance."
But then Will's voice softened to an almost sympathetic tone "Where magic is involved, try to forget science."
"Another question," said Eric "do we have to come this high everyday?"
"Oh, no. I was testing your strength. I also got a pretty good measure of Chris, Marina, and Liz's strength."
Eric instantly wanted to yell at Will, but what he had said triggered another question, one that Eric didn't think he would like the answer to.
"And what did you find of my strength?"
"Eh. You're only slightly below average."
Was this an attempt at niceness? Or by way of an apology?
"Is that the closest you come to apology? Because if you're looking for forgiveness, you've gotta do way more than that."
"I wasn't apologizing, I was merely stating the facts. Why would I be apologizing when I've done nothing wrong? However, if you choose to take my accurately stating the facts as an apology, ok then."
"You insufferable jerk! You made me break my legs! And you say you've done nothing wrong? Have you ever broken your legs?"
"Yes, I have broken my legs, but I didn't force you to jump off the building!"
"No, but if you hadn't interfered I would have been fine!"
"Listen, you needed to learn something and I helped you. I know sometimes it's hard to accept new facts, and learning is hard, but I helped you. Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way, but it's worth it. That was one of those times."
Will's voice was calm, like he hadn't been yelling two seconds ago. It was a wonder no one had heard the argument.
Eric fumed, but decide there was no point talking to Will.

Down, down, down.

Down, down, down.

Down, down, down.

Have you ever fallen from so high up you can't see the ground, but also not been able to feel wind? Ok, probably not, but heads up, its really hard to tell if you're moving or not. That's why Eric only had a couple seconds warning before he hit the ground. Instinct flew into action and he caught himself, landed, and collapsed from the sudden loss of the energy it took to slow down.
In a spilt second he notice something falling REALLY REALLY REALLY fast, and before he could do anything Lizzie was hovering two inches off the ground in front of him.
"Hi!" She said, then wondered off. Completely normal. Yup.

Character map:
Eric- Eric isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, or the brightest bulb in the house, or any thing like that. He grew up around normal, nice people, which makes him extremely bad at handling people like Will, Hailey, and Jacquelyn. That being said, he is extremely good at managing nice, normally people like Ellie, Chris, Marina, and John. He's a wind elementist and the main character.
Will- Will really is an insufferable jerk. He hates everything about the elementist system and is kind of ignorant, blinded by hatred. He has all the qualities necessary to escape, except the motivation and determination to try. Wind elementist.
Hailey- Hailey can't put two and two together, but she can figure out what two and two are. She's stubborn and very suspicious of everyone, meaning she doesn't trust any one except her family. Kind of hypocritical in the sense that she hates nosiness, but is the nosiest person ever. Can't stand not knowing every piece of the puzzle.
Jacquelyn- Really hard to describe. Very spiteful towards the Organization, but doesn't really care that much about anyone else. She'll do things like help people like Eric escape the organization, but usually just to be mean to the organization, not to help people.
Kylie- Mean.
Everybody else- normal people.