Elemental

20. AN EVENING OF DISASTERS

"Turn! Duck! Left!"
"Ow!"
"Bloody hell Sparky, I said left, not right!"
"You're saying them too fast!"
"And you are reacting too slow, now duck!"

"Arghh!" Tori yelled angrily. "Stop it Blaze, for heaven's sake man, you're not helping." Tori slid to the ground, panting like a thirsty dog, trying to recover from an air bomb that had just hit her squarely in the stomach.

Blaze sauntered towards her, grinning. "I'm trying to teach you not to trust the enemy, yet you keep falling for every instruction I give." He watched her roll her eyes and wipe her brow. "You're too trusting, Sparky, you know that?"

"I didn't until now," she replied, massaging her left shoulder, where a gravel bomb had hit her.
Blaze smirked. "Does that hurt?"
"No, it feels like I'm sitting in a throne up in God's good heaven," she started sarcastically. "Of course it hurts, you idiot!"

"No need for that tone, Sparky, I'm still your teacher." Blaze taunted
"Stop calling me that," Tori countered, feeling her stomach lurch pleasurably at the grin on his face.
"Why?" He leaned against the wall on one shoulder, his hands in his trenchcoat pockets, and looked at her in amusement. "You haven't seemed to have had a problem with that all along."
"Well now I do, alright?" She replied bitterly. "I stopped being friends with you after you started pelting me with Magical bombs, which, might I add, you have done with no credible training or instruction whatsoever."

"Don't worry Sparky, you'll get over it, trust me."
"I did, and look where that has got me," Tori replied with a sigh, gesturing to herself, lying on the ground, leaning against the wall in exhaustion, sweating profusely and bleeding slightly from her shoulder.

Blaze laughed. "Alright then, madam grump, we may as well call it a day." He held his hand put to help her up. She took it and hoisted her self up. He smiled at her. "Try to get some sleep before sunrise," he advised as he walked out of the hall.
"Right," Tori replied, to no one in particular, watching his back.

Blaze had had her come down to the back halls again, this time earlier than the last. She had been awake, nervous at the thought of her impending exam, when she had felt her pendant burn. The time on a clock on the farthest wall read four o'clock, and Tori certainly did not believe that she would have any sleep at all. Despite that, she limped her way out of the hall and headed off to her dorm cubicle.

She tiptoed past Laverne's cubicle, who's light was on, not wanting to be heard. Tori heard the ruffling of pages and a small cough, allowing her to draw the conclusion that Laverne was awake and studying. As slowly and quietly as she could, Tori let herself into her cubicle, pushed her pillows aside and sat on her bed. She pulled of her coat and closed her eyes for a few seconds, trying to regain her breath without making any sound. She did want Laverne to come prying.

Tori and Laverne had not talked or interacted in any manner ever since their argument. The Group did not sit together anymore, and Tori only ever met the boys individually. She had given up on trying to mend things with Laverne mainly because Laverne avoided Tori almost as much as she did Laverne.

Tori sighed, lying down against her pillows and propping her feet, still with her shoes on, up on the crumpled quilt.

When and how she had fallen asleep, Tori did not know, but when she was jolted awake by the noise of a group of rowdy girls leaving the dorm for breakfast, Tori realised that she had overslept, and would be late for her exam if she did not start getting a move on already.

Her head reeling mercilessly, Tori forced her self out of bed. She rubbed her eyes and stared into the cubicle mirror. She looked like a mess, a perfectly bruised mess. She pulled her hair back, away from her eyes into a pony tail, noticing that it had grown longer and her natural flaming red hair was starting to show, contrasting horribly with the artificial blue.