Metal & The Afterlife

Ordinary

ELYSIUM

Elysium. That's me. I'm normal I guess. My parents died in a car crash when I was twelve, six years ago. Now I live in a tiny apartment with my twin sister, Iridium and go through hell at school, like anyone else. In short, I'm ordinary.

"Lyse come on we're gonna be late." My sister yells. I put my long brown hair in a quick braid and run outside to meet Iridium. She's out looking at herself in the rear view mirror of our car. I roll my eyes.

"You look perfect as always." I tell her. I feel a twinge of jealousy looking at her perfect figure. We're twins, but Iridium has always been the 'pretty' one. Her hair was bouncier, her body more curved, her boobs more....perky? Anyway to say model would kill for those looks would be an understatement.

"Thanks Lyse. You look great too. That's not my sweater is it?"

"Uh...no." I lie unlocking the car. She laughs a little and gets in beside me. When I touch the steering wheel my hand heats up. I yank it back.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. The wheel just like...burned me or something."

"The car was probably just hotter than you thought it was." I nod slowly.

"Yeah...yeah probably." I lower my hand slowly and grip the wheel again. Oddly enough it's not even lukewarm.

We get to school in under five minutes and walk through the front doors of the prison that is John Adams High School. We both have math first period.

"ELYSIUM!!" I hear once I walk in. I'm immediately greeted by my friend Lexi. "I need your notes."

"Can I ask why...?"

"Luke said we're having pop quiz today." I nod and grab my backpack. Luke, Lexi's boyfriend (and Iridium's ex) always knows about tests and quizzes ahead if time, because he helps the teachers before school....and looks through all their stuff. "Algorithms I think." I grab the zipper of my backpack and it practically burns my hand.

"Ow!!" I scream pulling my hand away.

"What happened?" Lexi asks giving me a worried look.

"I..I don't know. Touch this zipper." She looks at me confused and slowly lowers her hand to touch it.

"I don't get it, it feels like a regular zipper." That can't be true since it nearly melted my fingers off two seconds ago. I slowly reach for the zipper, trying to bring out my inner Dauntless. I touch it again and Lexi's right, nothing happened. I unzip my backpack and Lexi grabs my math binder before running back to her seat.

IRIDIUM

An E. I got an E. I didn't even know that was possible. Apparently I failed so bad on that test my teacher had to make a grade worse than F. I guess that's a new record for me. Not that I'm surprised, math never has been my thing. I bet Lexi knew about it ahead of time. She probably even told Elysium. But if course not me, because I'm trying to 'steal her boyfriend'. Luke and I used to date yeah, but we broke up and I'm with my soul mate now and I have no parents to lecture me about grades.

"Hey how'd you do?" Elysium asks sitting in the vacant seat in front of me.

"Um...okay." I lie.

"Sorry I was gonna tell you before But there was no time after Lexi told me."

"You're still friends with her?" She gives me a sad look.

"Ridi..."

"Lyse..." I reply matching her tone.

"You know we've been friends forever. I told her to lay off you. But you are gorgeous, you can't blame her for feeling a little threatened." I nod a little.

"Thanks." Then my vision goes black. But, before you get worried, not because someone punched me, or I passed out or something, but because someone put their hands over my eyes. "Jason..." I say knowingly The hands are removed and I'm greeted by his smiling face. Jason's always smiling. I'm talking Uriah-level cheerful. (Yes I read)

"Hey beautiful." He says.

"Hey." I tell him. He gives me a confused look.

"Oh...babe I was talking to Elysium..." I give him a look and he laughs, holding up his hands in fake surrender. "Sorry, sorry. You know I was kidding."

"Well that feels nice..." Elysium says. Jason smiles.

"Relax, you're both beautiful. So babe, wanna ditch?" Jason whispers in my ear. I grin. Of course I wanna ditch, I've only been here for an hour and my GPA's already gone down about 30 points.

"Definitely." I tell him. "Hey Lyse we're gonna go to the library for study hall. She nods, knowing good and well what the 'library' is and Jason takes my hand, pulling me up. We walk out the door and...I fall flat on my face.

"Woah there, if you wanted parkour lessons you could've just asked." I glare up at Jason and he helps me to my feet.

"I slipped. In that puddle of water. I know the county's broke and all but they could at least get a 'Caution: Wet Floor' sign." I tell him. Jason bends down and drags his finger over the tile.

"Um...Ridi....?"

"Yeah?"

"There's no water here. It's not even damp." That can't be right. It was just there....wasn't it?

"Let's just get out of here. This place is driving me insane." We walk down the hall and to the back door that's always unlocked. I reach for the metal handle and my hand slips right off it. It's....wet?

"What was that?" Jason asks, confused.

"I guess they just washed this door." I say. He looks at me and then reaches for the handle. He grips it with no problem.

"Once again, completely dry. Are you feeling okay?"

~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N

Hey so do you like this? Should I continue it? Please give me feedback and stuff. Also for anyone who was wondering (you probably weren't) where I got the title, 'Metal' is for Iridium because 'Iridium' is the name of a metal and 'The Afterlife' is for Elysium since Elysium is concept of the Afterlife and Underworld in Greek mythology. So 'Metal and The Afterlife' is just a less boring way of saying 'Iridium and Elysium' Just in case you were wondering...but I know you probably weren't. AnySHAI thanks to @fivesecondsofpanic for giving me the pictures to make the cover. YOURE AWESOME and totally not pregnant. You guys should read all her AMAzing stories. goodbye.....

-A.S.