{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK V} The Journey Across Water

*Sings* "Now We've Got Bad Blood..."

14: *Sings* "Now We've Got Bad Blood..."

I decided that, although I was going to be a Bad Girl, I wasn't going to be a Mean Girl. If you hurt people, people look down on you and fear you, they don't respect you, and I very much wanted to be respected.

I was going to be the Bad Girl that all the little kids looked up to. (Because I wasn't a little kid anymore. I was nine.) The Cool Girl. The Prankster Girl. The Class Clown. The girl that put down whoopee cushions to make others laugh, talked back to tattling teachers, moved the clocks forward when the grown-ups weren't in the room and stuck dunce signs on the back of teachers during detention. The New Sasha Brunner wouldn't be deliberately mean, I decided, but she wouldn't have a Best Friend, either. No. Friendships were too complicated. The New Sasha Brunner wouldn't have any particular friends, but she wouldn't have any particular enemies, either, because it would be funny when she picked the locks on toilets and stole car keys in front of care workers and their big fat noses.

I liked the sound of The New Sasha Brunner already. Maybe she needed a cool new nickname, too. Like Bat. Or Ripdog. Or maybe just SB. No. People could easily make fun of Bat. I didn't want to be referred to as 'Batty Bat' ever.

I'd work on the name later.

For now, The New Sasha Brunner was swaggering up to the door of Care Home Number Four, wearing a leather jacket, ripped jeans, designer sunglasses and a t-shirt saying 'I Play Pranks - Deal With It' which she had stolen the other day. The C****y Care Worker she was being followed by hadn't asked where they were from. She probably didn't want to have her reputation ruined any further by The Old Sasha Brunner.

By now, I was quite good at arriving at new Care Homes. I knew the drill. You went to the office. On the way, you had to be careful what you said to any other kids who were gawking at you, because if you did anything wrong you'd have to mull over it the whole time you waited in the office for Old Sh***y Social Worker and New Sh***y Social Worker to argue over why they had to take on someone who was me.

Sure enough, there was a small little girl sitting on the stairs, sucking her thumb. Wow. Was there some sort of rule that meant that only little kids could be sent as envoys?

She took her thumb out of her mouth, and spoke with a lisp. "What's your name?"

I thought about this. What to call myself? I needed a new name, if I wanted a new start.

Then, I remembered why I was determined not to be happy in the first place. I wasn't going to let myself be happy, until I'd found either Les Serpents Rouges again, or another place where the past could be forgotten and only the present mattered. I thought about Les Serpents Rouges, the warm glow of their fire that had so drawn me in.

"Embers." I decided. "I'll be Embers."

The little girl appeared confused. "Amber?"

"No, Embers." I resisted the urge to scowl. "Like the stuff in a fire."

I didn't wait for the kid to disappear to report back to the others, wherever they were. I strode confidently into the office, where three people were waiting for me, and threw out my hand, smiling. Bewildered, the two people who hadn't yet me shook it, and I commented on what a pleasure it was to meet them.

"Could you tell me where my room is?" I asked. "Just so I can make myself at home." They obliged, assuming their future yelling match would be less uncomfortable if I wasn't there.