The Elements

Present Day Chapter 1- I'D Rather Have a Crush Then a Secret this Huge

"Hey, James can I show you something?" Max asked her friend as they took a break under the cherry blossom tree.

"Sure" he replied, throwing his water bottle to the ground. She took her hand out of the pocket of her faded denim jeans and constrained really hard. A white flame quickly appeared and danced in the middle of her palm. Shocked, James looked at Max, waiting for the answers that weren't being explained.

"Um... wow" James admired as he looked up at her slowly, trying to take his attention away from the flame.

"We need to tell my sister about this" James admonished, grabbing Max's wrist, as if the mere brush of her palm would send him bursting into flames.

"Why?" she defensively asked while he dragged her up the steps, and to the kitchen.

"Um... Allie? Max has something to show you"

"Okay," said Allie placed her writing pencil and looked at Max who thrusted her hand out. One solitary flame appeared, hovering over her opened palm.

"Isn't this bad?" James worried.

Finally, Allie broke the silence in the kitchen and looked at her brother, and simply muttered "James". Allie jumped out of her chair, knocking it down. The sound was covered by Allie's voice yelling incoherent swears and barking orders to James. Her long red hair flew in every direction as she ran all over the first floor of the house, grabbing items and stuffing them into her school bag. James ran upstairs to his room and came down with two bags, throwing one to Max. The shock of telling her most guarded secret to her friend was still processing through her mind as the black bag fumbled through her grasp and fell to the ground. Then Allie ran back into the kitchen

"Max, where is your house?"

"813 Thomas Ave ." Max slowly replied. Her brain tried to put together a sentence and her mouth and tongue struggled to form words.

"Okay, hop in the car, both of you." Allie ran back into the kitchen one last time as James ushered Max out of the house. Tripping over her feet every other step, Max leaned on James until they made their way to the old beat up sports and utility vehicle.

Allie returned with a letter in her hand and put it underneath the doormat.

Dear Mom & Dad,

Found the fire one. Don't know when we'll be back.

Love You,

Al and J

Don't tell them anything!

"Where are we going?" Max asked finally being able to process thoughts and reason. Reason told her that no sane humans ushered themselves out of a building that fast unless it was burning and she hope that she did not set fire to another person's house.

"First your house, then the bank," Allie informed the two. She turned onto Thompson Ave. The car slowed down into the empty driveway; no one was home.

"Okay Max, here's a bag of clothes, I'll wait five minutes starting now."

Max quickly unbuckled the seatbelt and opened the car door. Running up the front steps, she opened the front door and found the nearest bag. She went up to her room, grabbed the first clothes she saw and went to her bed to find her hidden money. Something in the back of her mind telling her that she won't be coming home anytime soon. Looking around one final time, she took in the scenery, packed a few more items, and went back outside.

As she sat in the car, she finally found the voice to ask a question, "Okay, what is very bad?"

"Max you are not alone, I have the ability to control water," replied Allie. Max was taken back by the sheer force of the words, for years she had been hoping to hear them. Now knowing she was not alone made her head swim. "And I can control the air" added James. "Now we have to find the person who controls the earth.

"Why?" She asked really not seeing the point of the conversation but seeing where the craziest people on the earth were at the moment. "Because the government has been looking for us for the past couple of years now." She explained to Max, as she waited impatiently for the red light to turn.

"Allie, take a left after this light then take a right." said James being a backseat driver as Allie sped the car up as soon as the light turned green.

When they got to the bank, Allie rushed out of the car, but left them with a warning, "Max, you and James stay in the car. If you see anyone weird honk the horn two times" said, Allie, as she leaped out of the driver's seat and ran into the bank's building, "Just hurry up!" James yelled after her.

After awhile of waiting, Max got kind of bored and wanted to try to get more information from James, "Now can you tell me what's going on?" She asked.

James took his eyes off the door of the bank, "Okay" He replied, "Years ago when I was eight and Allie was thirteen. She was watching me when our parents were off to the store and I was climbing on a tree. Allie kept on pleading with me to get down but I kept on climbing. Then I lost my grip and fell. Halfway down, I started to slow down before long I was floating in the air. I finally got to the gro-"

"James look at that van!" Max said interrupting James mid-sentence, she pointed to the black van that had just rolled into the parking lot and parked across from their car. Then two men got out of the van and walked into the bank. He and the man that got out of the passenger seat were dressed all in black suits with black shades, their head shaved into a military high-n-tight, and both the same dark brown.

"Maybe one of them are a Bank Manager or something?" Max said trying to get rid of the worried look that had come across James's face as he watched the men walked into the Bank.

"Why would a bank manager be driving a black van?" James asked.

HONK! HONK!

Max turned her attention back towards James, who was sitting down from honking the horn. The bank doors flew open without delay and Allie ran towards faster than a cheetah, which did not seem possible to either James or Max before then. The men followed behind and caught up quickly due to the fact Allie had a giant bag slung at her side.

James opened his door and jumped into the driver's seat as Allie flung herself into the car, James put the car in reverse and turned the Honda around as the men jumped into their own van finally realizing that the trio was making a quick getaway.

James got the car in drive as soon as he turned around and was facing towards the exit, "Hold on!" He yelled towards the back. The car screeched as it left the bank's parking lot, leaving tire tracks where it once stood stalled. The men followed the Honda with their own van, James weaved through the busy roads until he got to the highway, then he drove until he reached the first exit.

"Where are we now?" Asked Max, unpeeling herself from the car's seat and finally opening her eyes as James slowed down, turning into the exit, "I think we lost them" Said James, as he looked back, and talked to no one in particular. James parked, both he and Allie got out. "Hey, Max!"

James tapped on the car window, "Are you coming? Or do you want to say inside that old car?"

As Max opened the car door and noticed that the outcome of the high-speed chase caused smoke to rise out of the hood of the car, "James, look at this." Max yelled to him as she ran to the front of the car and opened the hood to see the damage his driving caused.

A small fire broke out in near the battery and James swore, "Allie, can you fix this?" he asked in a scared voice.

"No, it's near the electrical wires. If I try to extinguish it, the water will set the whole car ablaze." She then looked at Max, "Do you think you can absorb the fire?"

"I can try." Max looked at the fire and put her hand in the middle of the pocket of flames and tried to call the fire into her. The energy vibrated through her body and swarmed through veins, then the fire died.

" Wow." Said James and Max looked towards the vast space between her and the ground as the smell of the gasoline and stale air overwhelming hit Max, her face twisted in a painful expression, and the world around her disappeared from view as she fell.