The Elements Book One: Gilly

Chapter One: The Beginning

Waiting impatiently for the school bus to come pick up the small group I was with, I let out a long breath, watching passively as my breath fogged and swirled in the crisp autumn air. A boy next to me shivered slightly before rocking his weight slightly from side to side. I briefly considered mimicking his actions, but decided against it. The temperature was still within acceptable limits for human comfort in certain cases, and I really didn't feel like making any special efforts to blend in. Not that I'd have a great time doing so, considering the fact that even with the body of a 13 year old I was still standing several inches above most of the other children at the stop. Comes with standing at 5 feet 8 - five inches above the standard height for girls my "age".

Staring blandly down the road the bus was due to appear, I brushed an unruly strand of waist-length ginger hair out of my face, narrowing electric blue eyes in impatience. I should have heard from the other four by now. My hand tightened around the strap of my backpack as I fought down the urge to draw unwanted attention by trying to find them myself.

The sight of the school bus appearing was unduly welcome, all considering. I raised an eyebrow as I caught the slight sound of skidding as the bus rolled to a stop before us, doors hissing open with more noise than I believe was usual. Seasons in Alaska don't mess around, apparently.

Some of the tension went out of my shoulders as I locked onto a set of familiar faces. Not particularly welcome ones, but at least they had bothered to show up after splitting up three days ago.

Sliding into the nearest empty seat, I turned a baleful gaze on them. "What did I ask you guys to do, again?" I asked quietly.

"Contact you." Evret sighed, refusing to make eye contact. "Which was clearly unnecessary anyways." He then shifted so that his sand brown hair partially obscured his face from the scalding glare I was currently directing at him.

"Care to remind me why I asked you to do so?" I all but hissed at him.

"Wow. Civil for.....how long even was that, fifteen seconds? You two are ridiculous." Andy muttered. Mud brown eyes met mine defiantly as we stared each other down. "I'm just saying. You two had a break from each other and everything and you still are at each other's throats the minute you're in each other's company." Finally breaking eye contact, he ruffled a hand through his short chocolate brown hair as he turned his gaze on Evret.

"They started it." Evret and I muttered simultaneously. Evret glared at me from the corner of his eye, the dim lighting making his ocean blue eyes look almost gray.

"And as for why, has nobody noticed that Dave isn't here yet?" Patrik pointed out as he lounged comfortably across a seat, dark grey eyes closed and jet black hair threatening to mutiny from the shoulder-length ponytail he had it in. "Not to kill the party or anything but if I'm right we're almost to school."

"We have a few more stops." I admitted. "Knowing him he'll get on at the last one."

"You can't just ask him? Since you apparently got all the skill in the whole 'mind reading' department." Evret asked.

"Oh, why didn't I think of that." I muttered sarcastically. "Here, let me just fire off a widespread telepathic search that'll let every bloodthirsty monster in the area know exactly where we are."

Patrik raised an eyebrow. "Well, at least you're sparing us from the ones that aren't bloodthirsty."

I fought back a snort of amusement, knowing now really wasn't the time to be allowing myself to crack jokes.

"Wrong." Andy commented suddenly. When I turned a confused look at him, he gestured towards the front of the bus. I turned to see Dave picking his way down the aisle towards us.