Elements' Rising

Chapter I: The Alert

Saturday, March 23, present day - Torrance, CA 8:34 AM

Remy's POV

Fudge might as well have been the gingerbread man, because he was sure as hell hard to catch.

"FUDGE! GET BACK HERE!" Remy Alburne thundered as she sprinted across the park.

The massive German Shepherd dashed in random directions, spraying mud everywhere, his ears flopping back and forth, tongue hanging out.

I swear, that damn dog is trying to piss me off.

She felt heads around her swivel in their direction, regarding them with an expression of amusement mixed with the 'what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-them' look.

Fudge barked happily, running through every single mud puddle, and made sure to splash everyone within a 10 foot radius. Remy cursed as she tried to jump over each puddle while keeping up with her dog.

It was totally a slipping hazard.

The air around was still a bit moist, an odd thing in Southern California, the rain smell, a sweet pungent scent similar to faint chlorine, still lingering. Along the park were trees placed at random, posing an even greater difficulty at the many obstacles Remy was currently facing.

Fudge kept speeding up as she continued to chase her dog throughout the outskirts of the park, nearly running into a few trees.

She was well aware of her brother somewhere around, probably videotaping her getting splashed in mud and dog drool, so he could add it to his collection of "embarrassing videos of Remy I can use in the future to blackmail her". 

Clare was twisted that way.

She slowed to a stop, putting her hands on her knees whilst glaring at Fudge, who was now caking his dark fur with gooey brown mud as he rolled back and forth, like a rolling pin on dough.

Remy groaned at Fudge as he got up, shook the mud off, and pranced around, wagging his tail. She winced as an image of her scrubbing her dog popped up in her head. How one could have so much energy at 8 in the morning was truly a mystery...

"Well... that was entertaining," Clarence walked up, his arms swinging, with a large grin plastered on his face. He regarded Fudge- who was suspiciously eyeing a beetle- with a look of amusement before turning back to her.

"You could've tried to help, you know." Remy narrowed her eyes, irritated.

Her brother, who was sporting a nonchalant expression, heaved a sigh and took out his phone, and stared scrolling through it. "I'm on a babysitting mission from Lukas, okay? I'm only here to distract you and make sure you don't go home before they're done preparing your surprise party. And he didn't say anything about helping you with runaway dogs so..." He kept his gaze on his phone, not bothering to look up.

Remy causally sidled up next to him, Fudge in tow. "Isn't the whole point of a surprise party supposed to be, I don't know, a surprise?" She questioned.

Clare gasped exaggeratedly, raising his eyebrows slightly. "You don't say?"

"You sound like a meme." She snorted. "You've been reading way too many."

At this, he finally looked up at her. "There is no such thing as too many memes." Clarence huffed, resuming to scroll through his phone and plopping down on a nearby park bench. "Why don't you and Fudge go do something... somewhere that's not here? I'll call you when we can go home."

"Wow. What an amazing babysitter."

"You can thank me later. And to think I'm not even being paid..." Clare shook his head, clicking his tongue.