Guardians of Elemental Magic (G.E.M.)

Chapter 2: The sign

A/N: Hellooooo thanks for coming back and reading the next chapter! :D Just a heads up, my chapters tend to be quite short... but I do put a lot of time into them so hope you don't hate me too too much! >.<

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Ruby's POV

I knew he was a gem. He had to be. But what was his name again? Aidan? Andrew? Austen? Yes, his name was Austen. And how am I supposed to confirm that he is a gem? When we got home, I had a long discussion with Mia that night, trying to figure out a way to confirm our hunch. We knew he was fairy, that much was obvious, but he was an Earth fairy. And if what Marcus said is right, the gem at North High should be the emerald. However, after spending hours on the topic, the we couldn't figure out how to tell whether someone is a gem or not.

"Wait, Marcus, you and I are all gems, but how did we find out about that?" Mia suddenly asks. I ponder her question a bit. How did we discover that we were gems?

"I... don't know," I admitted. "We all just discovered our special powers and told each other."

"Right, all gems have a secondary power but we can't wait around to see Austen use his. I mean, we don't even know what his power is!" she exclaims with a pout as she flops onto her back on her bed. She quickly sprung back up, a big smile plastered on her face. "Hey but let's look on the bright side," she said as she draped her arm over my shoulders. "You've gotta admit, that Earth fairie is pretty cute," she said with a giggle, nudging Ruby with her elbow. I sighed and plucked her arm off my shoulders, heading back to my own room.

"Aw come on, you're no fun!" Mia exclaims as I left her room, shutting her door to drown out her unnecessarily peppy voice. Whatever. I just need to get close to him for now. I'll figure out the rest later.

The next day, I walked to class deep in thought, scratching my brain for a way to approach Austen. I was so deep in thought that I tripped over the steps of the portable. Damn it. I braced myself for the impact that never came. Instead, someone was holding me in their arms. One hand around my waist and the other caught one of my hands. I felt a shock go through my body from the contact. I looked up to see Austen's green eyes staring back at me. He has brown hair that almost covers his eyes and he was tall. By the look in his eyes, he felt the shock as well. I quickly scrambled out of his hold.

"Uh... thanks," I said without a hint that I felt the shock. What was that shock? Was it a sign that he was a gem?

"You're a gem," he says suddenly, but softly enough that only I could hear him. My eyes grew wide but I quickly recomposed myself.

I stared at him with my best poker face and cocked my head. "What are you talking about?" I asked innocently. I can't let him know my identity without knowing his. He could be one of the hunters sent by the Water fairies to kill the members of G.E.M.

"Don't try to act innocent," Austen chuckled. "That shock was proof enough that you are a gem. Gems can sense a shock when they touch each other." So that's what that shock was.

Before I spoke, I looked around to ensure that no one was within hearing distance. Confident that we were alone, I held out my hand and introduced myself. "I'm Ruby, the ruby of G.E.M. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Austen, the emerald of G.E.M.," he says as he shook my hand. This time there was no shock. "You only feel the shock upon first touch," Austen said as if reading my thoughts.

I glared at him. Tch, know-it-all. "And you're an Earth fairy. I'm guessing you're here to look for the other gems as well?" I asked coldly. I didn't like his know-it-all attitude. Nope, not one bit. But don't be mistaken. I'm not acting cold towards him just because I don't like him; I'm just normally cold towards everybody. In my opinion, emotions were useless and does nothing but give you grief and heartache. But now, it makes sense why Marcus, Mia and I have never felt the shock before. We've probably touched hands when we were babies, and along with all our other baby memories, have forgotten about it.

"Yes."

"Well, have you found anyone else?"

"No. I've been here for about a year and you're the first one I've found," he said in that annoying monotone voice of his.

"I see," I said, since it was the nicest thing I could think of to say in this situation. Being nice is the persona I decided to go with upon coming to Earth. Not friendly and outgoing, just quiet and nice. We fell into an awkward silence. People from our class were starting to come out of the school and were walking towards the portable.

"Why don't we join forces for now?" Austen said hurriedly. "We'll meet after class in the forest behind the school and talk more about it then. Deal?"

I nodded. "Deal." This was the reason why I came to Earth in the first place. Joining forces with him also increases my chances of finding the other gems. We both walked into the portable and for the rest of the day, acted like we usually did.