The Camp of Elements

Training Session One

Lauren's POV:

I run my fingers through my hair as we walk into the great lawn. Our next activity is lawn games; bleh. I'm not excited, right now it's hotter than usual. I'd rather it be cold. My eyes search the lawn for Bea, I need to talk to her. To my surprise, she is in the open. I jump in the air in delight.

"Camila," I turn towards the Cuban beauty. "I need to talk to Bea. I'll be back as soon as possible. Okay?"

Camila groans, she moves to face me and crosses her arms. "Sure, see you whenever." She huffs at me. She stomps after the rest of our group. I feel my heart start to ache, I'm regretting telling her. I want her to be happy, not upset whenever I'm with Bea. Maybe I could tell her what I've been doing with Bea, that might make it better. I glance towards her then at Bea, I'll tell Camila later. I bolt towards Bea, she is talking with a pretty girl. But when I show up, Bea shoos her away and turns to look at me.

"I got it," I pant, slightly winded from running across the whole lawn. Maybe I should go to a gym when I get back home. "Camila is an Air!"

"I knew it!" Bea beams, grinning from ear to ear. "That's amazing, Jauregui. But, you could of told me at lunch, anything else you need?"

"Yeah, actually," I admit, rubbing my forearm slightly with the pads of my fingers. I want to be trained to contact the Blue spirits, like Shawn was with the Green spirits. "I talked with Shawn, he said that you trained him to, you know.." My voice trails off, not being able to describe what he did.

"Yeah, I got you," Bea shrugs it off with a hand wave. "I'll teach you."

"When?" I ask, anticipation running through my veins.

"Right now."

Bea pulls me through the growth of the trees by my wrist. Twigs snap under my shoes, they sound so pitiful in the silent forest. Leaves rustle around us but nothing pops out and chases us like last time. We walk for a while, no conversation between Bea and I. I decide to break the silence as we move into another patch of green.

"Are there any other fifth and a half generation people at this camp?" I ask, straining my neck to see Bea's face.

"Yeah, but only a few I know personally." Bea answers, trudging through the tall brush. "I know Daya, Luis, Shawn, Charlie, and Ariana. I'm sure Luis's friend, Brad, is a Fire but same with Camila's case; I can't be positive. He's hard to read."

Bea pulls me into a clearing, it has a huge, perfectly round pond in the middle of it. Light streams down from the sun through the trees, brush grows around the clearing, leaving no sight of the camp. Bea lets go of my wrist, she walks over to the water side and sits on her knees. I join her, sitting on my knees just as she did.

"I'm going to tell you about the hand signals first." Bea says, she puts her hand flat against the air; all fingers up. "This is what I, a Forest, would use to contact the Green spirits." She puts her index finger and pinkie down. "This is what a Fire would use to grab the attention to the Red spirits." She puts her pinkie up and index finger up, her thumb down and her ring finger down. "This is what you would use, a Water, I'll show you in a second." She sticks her thumb up, then she lowers her pinkie down. "And finally, this is what an Air, Camila, would use."

"Hey," I say, memories from the rock wall flooding back into my mind. "That's what Camila did when I fell from the climbing wall."

"Wait, what happened?" Bea asks, confusion dancing on her facial features.

"I was climbing on the rock wall and Camila was holding the rope. You know, the one to keep the person from falling. Anyway, so I felt a gust of wind or something push me over. My belt got stuck but the shape it got stuck on broke, then the clip snapped in half. I was falling and Camila made that three-finger sign and a bunch of grayish white things flew in around me and held me in place. The clip reconnected and rushed over to me, it attached itself to my belt and Camila pulled the rope to steady me." I explain, Bea taps her chin repeatedly.