(Outdated) The King of Elements

Welcome to Amity

Dre felt as though he were seated in an airplane during take-off. It felt like his stomach was going to sink into his feet from the velocity of the flight. He tried to open his eyes, but they refused. He couldn't even move any of his toes or fingers. His whole body was paralyzed as a faint light slowly began to creep up on him. He could feel warmth cloak him. His eyes shot open to the ground coming towards him fast. "Oh, God, it's all over!" he cried as he covered his face with his arms. His descent slowed to a crawl as he gently landed on solid ground.

Panicked, Dre slowly uncovered his head as he looked up and gaped at the tall, onyx gate in front of him. Gleaming in the middle of the gate was a golden pentagon with a silver fox's face. On each side of the gate were cemented walls that stretched as far as he could see. He could see what looked like two stone towers perked high above the gate. Dre turned his back to the gate to see a path that shone like opal heading towards buildings that reached the skies. It was as if he was in a world much unlike his own, with the building connecting to each other, creating a line on houses. A fountain was erected in the middle of a road that seemed to be made for walking, or at least bicycles. Megumi and Ian looked just as amazed as he was. "Holy crap. What is this place?" Dre whispered in astonishment.

"Heaven, probably." Ian said.

"Don't say that. I don't want to think that the candy killed us."

"That was a figure of speech."

"How do you think we get in?" Megumi asked, knocking on the gates. The gates slowly creaked open, displaying a narrow path of cobblestone in between two large gardens.

"I guess that's how," Dre commented.

The wind swayed the flora, making it appear to be a sea made of violets. The garden stretched about half a mile before it, along with the large concrete wall, curved. Directly in front of him, however, was a large building made of white brick. An intimidating looking door stood between the group and the mystery of what awaits them, completely out of place from the beauty of the opal path and violet garden.

Dre walked down the path, his heart thumping in his chest, as he neared the door. He pushed on the thick door. It opened far too easily, making Dre topple over his feet and land on the stone floor. He jumped back on his feet as fast as he fell, readying himself for a monster that wasn't going to show.

Instead, he found himself in a foyer at least twice the size as wide as the one in his high school. The walls were painted a pearly white. Five flags hung from the high ceiling. A flame-red flag, which had a silhouetted image of a phoenix taking flight, was hung to the immediate left, followed by an ocean blue flag that bore the silhouette of a sea lion. In the center was a tan flag, which had the image of a turtle. The flag to the right of it was snow white and had an image of an eagle's profile. The final flag was stone gray and had the same image that was on the gates outside of the school.

"What are you doing, Dre?" Megumi asked him as she strolled in, Ian following.

"I was testing the gravity. It's still on."

"Get up, man. You're embarrassing us," Ian said as he walked over Dre.

Under the flags were three gray double doors, where sounds of people chattering were flooding out. The word "Cafeteria" was displayed above it. They rushed to the center doors and went inside, where six rows of tables were perched in a large room. Each table appeared to be filled with people around his age chatting with each other. They made their way to a table and sat down in the only seats that were available, where two people were seated, a young Japanese girl who looked about ten years old, and an older looking boy who looked in his late teens. They were both reading, the boy reading a book with a heart-shaped moon, and the girl was reading an upside-down algebra book.

"Hi. What's your name?" Dre asked as he sat down by the boy, outstretching his hand.

"Reading," the young man said in a low voice, not raising his head from the book.

His name is Reading? He must have had a pretty rough childhood. Or did he mean...

"Ohh, you meant you're literally reading," Dre said, igniting with a sudden realization. "I thought you meant that your name was 'Reading'. Boy that would've been pretty awkward if I had greeted you somewhere out of the blue, huh?"

The young man raised his head from the book. He glared at Dre with fierce, black eyes. His short hair was as black as his eyes, with the exception of the tips of his hair, which was a bright red. His dark eyes and hair made his pale skin seem even paler by comparison. "What part of 'I am reading' do you not understand?" He lowered his head back into the book, resting his left hand on his cheekbone. Dressed in all black, except for the silver crucifix on his shirt, he wore a black, leather wristband with spikes jutting from the edges of them, as well as a spiked collar around his neck. He definitely looked like the type of person who'd kill Dre just for keeping him from his books.

Dre, however, wasn't used to using common sense.

"Do not worry about Michael. He is just being a Mr. Grumpy Pants," the little girl stated in a thick Japanese accent, poking him on his cheek. "Isn't that right, Michael?"

"Keiko. Stop," Michael grunted, not taking his eyes off of the book. "That's getting annoying."

Keiko laughed innocently at him, her yellow almond-shaped eyes beaming. She wore a white baseball jersey with black sleeves with the number two stitched on it. Her black, shoulder length hair danced as she laughed. One thing's for certain, had guts for irritating him. "Hi. I'm Keiko Tsusaki," she said as she turned to Dre and Megumi, her hand outstretched. "What are your names?"

"I'm Ke'Undre Wolf. Most people call me Dre," he said as he took her hand.

"Megumi Gladestone. Do you guys know what's going on here?" Megumi asked the group.

"I don't know. Michael and I got invited here from a lady with dark skin and curly hair. We saw her running from a scary monster whenever we were going back home."

Michael gave a deep sigh as he slammed the book closed; the surrounding people quit talking and turned towards him, as if he had fired a gun. "Let's go, Keiko."

"Go? Where to?" Keiko asked, looking up at him as he stood up.

"Another table," he said as he looked around for another table, towering over the group. Geez, he was tall. Dre had estimated that if he stood side by side to him, he would only come up to his shoulder.

Life is so unfair sometimes.