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

Chapter 8: Routine

A/N: Welcome back everyone! I know, I didn't upload this yesterday, but that's cuz I was sick :'( Anyhow, I'm feeling better now so I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter! :D

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Third person POV

The next day at school, Austen got to class earlier than usual. He was deep in thought, thinking about Ruby. To be more specific, he was thinking about the strangely sad expression that flickered across Ruby's face yesterday when she was looking at Mia and Marcus argue. It was strange to see such an expression from her, to see any expression for that matter. He also felt strangely jealous about the way Ruby smiled at her advisor and childhood friend, Marcus. After all, she never smiled once at him. Although to be fair, they had only met a few days ago. Now that he thought about it, why did he even care who she smiles at? Anyways, somehow, he just had it in him that Ruby would never smile, or that she wasn't able to smile, only to find out that she most definitely could. He was itching to know what kind of relationship they had.

At that moment, the door to their portable opened. Austen turned around and saw that it was Ruby and Mia. "Hey!" Austen called out to them.

"Hey cutie! You're sure here early today!" Mia responded with her usual bright smile. Ruby simply responded with an expressionless "Hey" before walking straight past him without even so much as a glance in his direction. She sat down in her usual seat, which was right in front of him, Mia taking the seat to her left. What's up with that? Austen thought to himself. I thought we were close enough to at least greet each other! He was not in a good mood. First with her relationship with Marcus and now, she was ignoring him. Austen decided to talk to Ruby after class.

Once the bell rang, Ruby left class right away. Austen didn't even get a chance to speak with her, so he waited until the end of school to talk with her. When the bell for the last class rang, Austen sprinted to Ruby's locker. His class was closer to it than Ruby's so he should be able to get there before she leaves. Austen waited for about two minutes at her locker before he saw her appear from the corner of the hallway. She didn't notice him until she was a few feet away from her locker. She looked up at him and simply said "Hey."

"Hey? All you say is hey!? You've been ignoring me for the whole day! What's up with that?" Austen asked furiously. He was so loud that people in the hall were staring at them.

"I told you we shouldn't let other people know that we know each other," Ruby said in her usual monotone voice. This time however, it annoyed Austen more than ever.

"So you just pretend you don't know me?" he asked, without lowering his voice.

Ruby slammed her locker door closed, glared at Austen and said sternly, "follow me." She walked off without checking whether or not he was following her. But of course, he was. They stopped at the forest where they first met up. Ruby turned around and asked angrily, "What's wrong with you?" This was the first time Austen has ever seen her show genuine emotion aside from her smile when she saw Marcus. He was taken aback.

"Uh... I-I just want to know why you were ignoring me, and why you had to stay back in Neraida," he stuttered, quickly adding that last part in to not sound as whiny.

Ruby studied him before answering, her expression already once again concealed under her expressionless mask. "I told you, I don't want people to know that we're acquaintances. And I found another gem."

"What? Which one?" Austen asked, surprised. How'd she manage to find so many gems in merely a month?

"The sapphire," Ruby responded simply.

"How did you find out?" Austen asked in complete wonder.

"She was the commander leading the Water army two nights ago," Ruby replied simply.

Austen nodded slowly as he processed what she just told him. "So she's an enemy." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Well she's my enemy. You could technically become allies with her," Ruby said with a straight face. For a moment, Austen thought that she was joking, and then realized she was absolutely serious.

"Are you kidding me? We're a team now, and I plan to keep it that way," Austen said strongly. He liked working with Ruby and although he won't admit it, he might even like it a bit too much. "Look, I think we need to get together soon and plan our next move," he said quickly, "We have to get Griffon on our side before the Sapphire does. For all we know, they might already be working together." Ruby nodded in agreement. "When are you and Mia free?" Austen asked.

"I'm free today, but Mia has to work on a group project, but we can meet without her, she already knows about the Sapphire. And I don't think we should meet at my house. The Water hunters might come again since they located us the first time."

"We can use my house but my parents will be home. Are you okay with that?" Austen asked, knowing how uncomfortable Ruby felt last time.

"It's okay as long as there's a private place we can talk."

"Okay it's settled then. My house itis. Let's go!" Austen said excitedly. He always secretly wanted to be alonewith Ruby and get to know her better. After all, she was sometimes difficult todecipher.    

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I'm sorry this chapter is on the shorter side but I can assure you, the story is only going to get more interesting! See you guys in the next chapter! 

- Raven