The Elementalists

EMMA

   Liz's foster family was really nice. They'd invited us into the house and offered us cookies; we talked with them for awhile and had a lot of fun. When we left they told us that we were welcome back anytime, and they seemed especially fond of Cooper, which was a good sign for Liz.

Cooper had wanted to stay, and Liz's family would've let him if it weren't for Robin, who insisted that he see his family first. After all, it had been at least a week or two since he'd last seen them.

After Cooper's house, we had gone to John's. John mother gave us all hugs before she'd ushered her son inside. As she closed the door she'd yelled, "Come back anytime, Emma and you others!"

I could tell by the look of annoyance on the others' faces that they weren't coming back anytime soon.

We had gone to Jamal's house next. When he'd knocked, the door had flown open and his mom had began to yell at him before she'd started crying and hugged him. Jamal had looked embarrassed and slightly annoyed, but he had accepted the hug anyways.

And now it's time to take Mark home.

We walk towards his neighborhood, which isn't very far from Jamal's. I haven't talked much the entire time; I've been too busy wondering what's going to happen to Robin.

Is she going to leave for the summer? Is she going to stay in the tree house, all alone? She had said that she plans on coming back to school no matter what, but I still worry as to what's going to happen to her. I don't want her to just disappear on us—on me.

"Is that it?" I ask, and I point at the house in front us, and since Mark was leading us this way, I assume that this is the right place.

"Yeah," Mark says, a hint of nervousness in his voice, "that's it."

We walk up to his doorway—except, I notice, Robin stays a few yards behind us for some reason. I motion for her to come stand with us, but she only gives me a sad look and stares at the ground.

Mark doesn't seem to notice. He's about to ring the doorbell when the door flies open and a little girl, who looks a bit younger than Liz, runs out and throws her arms around him.

"Mark!" she cries. "You're home! Why were you gone so long, Mom and Dad wouldn't tell me and I was scared 'cause I saw you on the news and all—"

"I'm fine, Alice," Mark says, cutting her off. "Where are Mom and Dad? How are Adeline and Milo?"

"Adeline is in her room right now," the girl—Alice—says. "I don't know where Milo is, somewhere upstairs, probably. They've been worried too." She grabs Mark's arm, saying, "Let's go show Mom and Dad you're home! Come on, Mark!" Then her eyes seem to rest on me and she lets go of her brother's arm before pointing at me and asking, "Who're they?"

Mark seems to remember that we're here and turns around to face us. He smiles, turning back to face his sister, and says, "That's Robin and Emma. They helped me come home."

Alice's frown turns into a smile and she exclaims, "Let's bring Mom and Dad out here so that they can meet them, too!"

"Sorry," Robin says, "but we can't right now. We have to...I have to get Emma home." Alice's smile fades, and Robin quickly adds, "I'll come back later though, alright? And I'll bring the others, too."

Alice's eyes widen and her smiles returns. "Yeah!" she says excitedly. "I wanna meet all of Mark's friends!" She laughs and runs back inside, screaming, "Mom! Dad! Mark's home! He came home!"

Mark rubs the back of his head with his hand and says, "Well, we don't have much time before everyone's out here." He turns to face us and smiles. "Thanks for every-thing. We should all get together again sometime soon." As the noise in the house gets louder and footsteps are heard coming down the stairs, Mark quickly adds, "And thank you, Robin, for everything. We can all hang out in the tree house soon, and, if we decide a time and day, we can even make it a weekly thing."