The Elite

Chapter 7

*Ember's POV*

It's now just four days until my birthday, I returned home after finding out about Trace but went straight up to my bedroom not saying a single word to my parents.

It's Saturday and today is our 'lazy day', I'm laying in bed watching YouTube videos on my laptop when my mum comes bursting through my door. I don't even look up at her but she's staring straight at me.

"How are we supposed to fix this if you won't tell us what's up Ember?" She asks me her hands resting on her hips, "honestly you make no sense sometimes."

I continue to blank her and carry on watching my video, she stands there for another few minutes before she finally gives up with a sigh and leaves the room closing the door behind her.

I can't deny that I'm angry with them, anytime one of them come into the room I can feel my anger boiling away, I can feel it coursing through my veins. Soon enough I will reach exploding point.

My phone rings on my bedside table, I reach for it and swipe my finger across the screen to answer it,
"Hello."

"What is going on with you?" Lily asks, "your mum has been on the phone to mine, she's worried sick Em."

Here comes that coursing anger again, "I don't want to talk about it, there's nothing that can be done to change it so why talk about it?"

"Because it'll help?" She says but it comes out more like a question.

"Nothing and no one can help me," my stubborn side kicks in, "there is no point."

"I'm coming over," she says and hangs up.

Great. Why aren't I listened to? Why can't things just be left? I don't want to talk about it.
*************************************
Lily shows up at my front door, I hear the doorbell ring but refuse to leave my room so one of my parents answer it. I hear her footsteps as she walks up the stairs, she doesn't knock she just walks in.

Her blonde hair in a ponytail, her jeans ripped, the top button of her green blouse undone and her feet bare. I don't blame her it's another hot day, I just won't give my parents the satisfaction of pushing me back out into the garden for vitamin D again.

"You lady," she pauses as she sits down on the end of my bed and begins to poke my calves, "will tell me what the hell is going on right now."

I sigh and roll over onto my stomach so that she can't see me, I just want to be alone. I've had enough of being watched, I've had enough of people lying to me and hiding massive secrets.

"Don't do this Ember," she warns, her voice sounds stern but also like she's slightly pissed by the whole situation.

I roll my eyes, "what is my life?" There is a brief silence before I continue, "because day by day I'm discovering new things that I didn't even think were possible."

Now she's intrigued, "such as?"

"I have a fucking bodyguard Lily, a bodyguard!" I shout the last part adding emphasis to the whole thing, "what seventeen nearly eighteen year old girl has one of those?"

"If you're like famous?" She tries to joke but it doesn't work.

"Well I'm not freakin famous!" I shout flipping myself over so that I can face her, my cheeks burning out of anger, "I'm normal! Well at least I thought I was, but apparently that's not true anymore..."

"Look Ember, none of us saw this coming," she tries to reason with me, "my point being is that you have to make the best of it, quite clearly you're gifted."

"Gifted?" I laugh, "I don't even know what it means to be 'elite'? I just wish that I could wake up from this whole nightmare!"

I feel a frustrated tear roll down my cheek, I'm so tired of all this. I just want to go back to college and get on with my work, it's all I want to do. Stay occupied.

Lily envelopes me in a hug and offers me a sympathetic smile, I don't want sympathy. I quickly wipe the tears from my face and try to pull myself together, she goes into her bag and pulls out a stack of notes.

"I thought you might want to take your own from these," she hands me the notes as I reach across to my desk for my own notepad, "I am sorry Em."

I begin to put pen to paper taking down the first few lines from the biology notes, "what's there to be sorry for?" I ask her, "you didn't get me into this mess."

*************************************
It's Monday morning and as I rush to get myself ready for a new week in college, it occurs that my birthday is now just three days away. In three days I'll be whisked away and training will begin. I'll be pushed to my limits. Sonic trying his very best to belittle me and break me.

Yet another surge of anger courses through me, I pull on my hoodie and laughter escapes from my lips. Shear amusement, I love how people underestimate me. How they think I'm so not worth it. I'll show them.

I pick up my physics and biology textbooks, along with my big notebook. I then head downstairs and grab a packet of breakfast biscuits, I kiss Zoe on the head goodbye as she sits in her high chair in the kitchen and before either one of my parents can attempt to make conversation with me I step out the front door and begin my half an hour walk to college.

Once there it's only eight which means I have a whole half an hour until tutorial begins, I head for the library but just before I make it through the big glass doors I spot a familiar figure.

"Seriously?" I scowl, "you are joking me right?"

He eyes me up and down, his clothing dark and a five o'clock shadow on his face.
"Deadly serious," he says his voice low, "I have to go wherever you do."

I roll my eyes, I can't quite believe this. How didn't I realise I was being followed?
"To college Trace?" I ask annoyed, "why would you need to come with me here?"

He comes out a little more from the pole where he was hiding behind, "danger is everywhere Ember, you're the target."

I heave my rucksack back up onto my shoulder, "well do I have your permission to go study?"

He nods, "I'm all for anything educational."

Without giving him a second glance I head inside the library and get revising all things physics. I'm one of the best in my class, but even that doesn't mean I don't need to study. Keeping my brain occupied is important, it means I don't think too much. It keeps my inner animal at bay.

Over the course of my nearly eighteen years of life I've grown to realise that life is full of it's ups and downs. I had a relatively sheltered upbringing and now that is becoming more apparent as to why, but just because my parents tried to hide this worlds bad side from me doesn't mean that I was free from it.

Depression, anxiety and a touch of an eating disorder had affected me from the age of fourteen. My parents had no knowledge of this, I threw myself into my school work. It only came to light when I started rejecting certain types of food, my parents saw a reoccurring pattern and had to pull me out of the viscous cycle that I was battling against.

Now at the age of almost eighteen I still feel anxious, who doesn't? But I have more control over my mind, yes I sink into the occasional depression but I know how to solve it and surface myself once again. As for the eating disorder it's something I battle with, I've always been conscious of myself but sometimes I just have to push myself just that little bit further to ensure that I do eat all the food that is put on the plate in front of me.

I may come across as quiet but everyone in my family knows that isn't really me, if someone or something gets on my bad side I will not stand for it. I'll fight until I'm blue in the face, it's simple. I'm stubborn.

Nothing. Trace, Mike, Sonic or even this whole elite thing could take me down. Because at the end of the day I know that I'm capable, I know that I can do anything I put my mind to. I've just got to put my mind to this. I can be elite.