The Power of the Elemental Crystals

Chapter 5 - Fire

Matt walked into math class with his hair tucked into a beanie. He took a seat next to me and Sally, but he didn't have his usual carefree expression. Instead, he looked worried.

"Matt, why are you wearing a beanie today? I like your natural hair." Sally said.

"It's nothing. Just focus on math." He said hurriedly, fidgeting with his hands and keeping his head down. 

Sally looked surprised. "Since when do you care about math?"

"Since now. I've decided that my grades matter." He didn't look away from his desk.

Just then, Mr. Davis entered the class holding worksheets. Everyone quieted down and turned their attention to him.

"Listen up, people! Today we're going to be doing group assignments. I'll be handing out a worksheet to each group. The first team to finish answering all the questions correctly will have to turn it in to me for a prize." 

Half of the class groaned and the other half cheered. 

"Okay, I'll be taking attendance and then assigning groups." He started reading off the list of students and the silence broke when people starting chattering again. Noah seemed to be absent today, or maybe he was just arriving fashionably late.

"I really hope the three of us get put into a group together!" Sally exclaimed.

"Yeah, me too." Matt and I agreed.

Unluckily for us, we all got placed into separate groups. I had to work with Aaliyah, Christopher, and Joseph. 

Aaliyah and Christopher were very kind and I was happy to work with them, but Joseph was the problem. Joseph Scott was one of the popular kids of the school, but also a jerk. And I just happened to be his type.

"Hey, are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see!" He leaned towards me and smirked.

I ignored the terrible pick-up line and grabbed the worksheet as Mr. Davis handed it to us.

"Aw, come on. You're no fun." He made a sad puppy face.

"Joseph, just leave her alone." Aaliyah sighed and leaned back in her chair, tapping her pencil.

"Fine." He rolled his eyes before trying to use the same pick-up line on a girl behind him.

"Flip over your papers in 3, 2-" Mr. Davis paused when the door swung open and a very disgruntled Noah showed up. His hair was a lot messier than usual and his collar wasn't even buttoned up.

"Sorry I'm late." He mumbled, making his way across the room.

"It's fine, just take a seat next to Aaliyah." Mr. Davis instructed.

As he sat down beside Aaliyah and I, I let him know what we were doing today.

Mr. Davis did the countdown again and there was a frenzy as everyone flipped their papers over and grabbed their pencils.

"What's the Pythagorean triple if side 'a' is 11 and side 'b' is 60?" I directed the question to Noah.

"The hypotenuse is 61." He replied confidently, his eyes already scanning though the next question.

All of a sudden, the fire alarm set off. I looked around the classroom to see a piece of paper burning in Matt's table. He and his teammates instantly jumped out of their seats and started getting into the single file line to leave.

There was a panic as everyone realized that the fire was in this class and rushed to the door. Mr. Davis wasn't too calm himself, but he tried to keep us all in order and kept reminding us that we'll be safe.

Noah grabbed my hand and led me to the exit. I felt myself blush as the warmth of his palm heated my cold hands. 

When everyone got outside safely, Mr. Davis grabbed the fire extinguisher and went back in the class to put it out. It wasn't a big fire, but it was still unsettling.

The others were chatting with each other when I made my way towards Matt. He looked terrified and was staring at the floor.

"Matt, what happened back there?" I asked. After all, the fire did take place on his group's table.

"I need to tell you something." He muttered, still looking down. "But not here. After school, at the bleachers. Tell Sally to come along too."

"Alright." I said, seeing that he wasn't in the mood to talk right now. As I was about to leave to go tell Sally, I got a glimpse of a strand of hair sticking out of his beanie. Instead of his golden locks, it was a shade of fiery red.

Red... represents fire. Could he have powers too?