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

Chapter 9 : Friend or Foe?

A/N: Thanks for coming back and reading the next chapter!! <3 So this story was initially supposed to be purely adventure and fantasy, but after letting one of my friends edit it, she kind of turned it into a romance ... XD BUTTT, I decided to keep some of those edits and well.. I ended up with this chapter! Please don't kill me if my romance writing skills are terrible :( Hope you guys like this chapter!

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Austen's POV

I was nervous. Really nervous. The closer we got to my house, the more I hoped that my mom wouldn't go crazy about Ruby coming over again. She probably thinks we're dating or something. The thought of dating Ruby made my face heat up. I shook my head to clear my mind and glanced at Ruby. She was looking straight ahead with her trademark serious expression. I noticed for the first time how her hair wasn't as dark as I had thought. In the sunlight, it seemed more brown than black, almost as if she got highlights. I also noticed how beautiful her eyes looked even when she was glaring at me. I shook my head again. Why was I even having these thoughts?

We arrived at my house after 15 minutes and I took out my keys to unlock the door. When I opened the door, I saw three pairs of shoes just inside the doors. Great, everyone is home. I stepped in, holding the door for Ruby. She cautiously stepped in. I could tell that she instantly knew that my whole family was home. My mom came out of the kitchen at the sound of the front door opening and closing. When she noticed Ruby, a huge smile instantly took over her face.

"Ruby! How nice to see you again my dear!" she exclaimed as she started to hug her. Ruby smiled accepting her hug, although he could tell that she was forcing herself not to push his mom away.

"Uhhhh mom!" I stepped in, freeing Ruby from my mom's grasp. "Ruby and I are going to head upstairs alright? We've got work to do!" I said hurriedly and lead Ruby upstairs. Ruby gave a weak smile to my mom before quickly following me. Once we got to my room, I closed the door and turned to Ruby. "Sorry about my mom," I apologized, expecting Ruby to be very angry.

"It's okay. Let's start planning what we should do next," she said to my surprise. However, she didn't move after saying that we should start discussing our plan. I finally realized that it was her first time in my room and was probably feeling quite awkward. That was also when I realized the horrendous state my room was in. I had clothes and paper all over my floor, and my bed, as usual, was unmade.

"Right you can put your bag down and sit anywhere you want," I said, as I quickly started clearing a space in the centre of my room, hoping she wouldn't mind the mess. "I know it's kinda messy in here... sorry," I apologized feeling embarrassed. She placed her bag on the ground and sat down next to it, not paying any attention to the mess in my room.

"Okay," she said, getting down to business right away. "We know that the Sapphire and Griffon are both Water fairies but we don't know if Griffon is an enemy or not. I think we should find that out as soon as possible."

"Right," I said and quickly sat down across from her. "How do you plan on doing that?"

"Well, I'm not too sure yet, but we can't let them know that we're also gems. If they find out, we're going to have more enemies to deal with, which is the last thing we need."

"True," I nodded as I agreed with her. "I've been meaning to ask but, how did you figure out he was a gem without him finding out about you?" He was really curious. The first time he touched Ruby's hand, they had both felt the shock, and it wasn't something that could easily be controlled.

"It was quite easy. I just masked my aura. That means that he can't feel my powers, making him think I'm a normal human," she replied as if masking her aura was the easiest thing to do in the world. Which it isn't. Masking one's aura requires extreme control over one's power. It was simple enough for most Earth fairies, since healing takes just as much control, and essentially every Earth fairy knew how to use their powers for healing. But gaining absolute control over one's power takes a lot of training, which is why Earth fairies learnt to control their powers early in their training. Ruby must've been doing the same if she has such good control over her powers.

Ruby continued to look at me and said flatly, "Why are you staring at me?"

I quickly looked away and cleared my throat. "Uh, right, so he doesn't know you're a fairie or a gem. Then we have an advantage. We just need to figure out whether he's an enemy or not," I said as I quickly got up and headed to the window. I wanted to open the window because I swear; the temperature in this room just went up by five degrees. The window was right behind Ruby and as I was about to lean over and open the window, I slipped on a piece of paper and fell to the floor. When I opened my eyes, I was looking straight into Ruby's shocked black eyes. I froze there for a moment not knowing what to do. I had landed on top of Ruby from the fall.

At that moment, my mom opened the door with a tray of refreshments in her hands. She stopped in her tracks when she saw us. "Oh, uh... I'm sorry to interrupt you guys," she said quickly before closing the door and leaving. I could hear the smile in her voice, and I mentally hit myself.

"Can you get off me now? You're kind of heavy," Ruby said underneath me. I quickly scrambled up as she sat up.

"Sorry," I said quickly. Ruby just looked at me with her shock replaced by her usual cool demeanour.

"You should go open your window," she said.

I looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"You were going to open your window, weren't you?"

I complied and went to open the window, this time, successfully staying upright. "I'm sorry about that... just now. Uh..." I trailed off as I noticed Ruby looking at me with a vacant expression. Did she not feel anything at all just now? I mean, my heart is racing so much!

"Don't worry about it," Ruby said with a shrug. "Let's just quickly figure this Griffon thing out. I should leave before your mom starts to ask any questions."

I sat down across from her again. "Okay, yeah you probably should. How about we just trail them for the next few days and see what they're up to?" I suggested.

Ruby nodded as she considered my suggestion. "That seems to be the safest thing to do. We'll follow them after school for the next few days and figure out if they know each other. I'll let Mia know about this as well."

"OkayI'm down for that! I reeeeeaaally hope that Griffon isn't an enemy you know?Life would be so much harder for us if he were." She agreed with me beforegetting her bag and standing up. "You going now?" I asked. She nodded. Therewas this strange feeling deep down that I had; I didn't want her to leave.Shoving those feelings down, I opened the door to my room and lead her backdownstairs.     

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Thanks so much for reading and see you in the next chapter!

-Raven