Element

✭ Chapter 19

After Parisa finally lets go of me, I look around. This has never happened so early in the school year before, I'm not quite sure what to do. I guess I'll go hunker down in the library. I take the quickest route there and walk in. Everywhere I look, I see fire elements. It makes sense, they hate the cold snow. But they also hate being quiet, and every ten seconds there's an annoyed "shhhhh!" from the librarian's desk.

The library's a huge dim room, with endless wooden shelves of books that stretch to the ceiling. It's probably the oldest building at the school, and I know it pretty well from my first year. I was, ah, friendless most of that year, so I spent a lot of time here. I walk all the way to the back corner where a single desk and chair lay, lit by a single lamp. I smile from the familiarness and sit down. It's cozy and warm back here, and I'm so far away from everybody it's very quiet and muffled by all the shelves. I find my favorite book series- a detective/mystery series- and start reading. I'm immersed in the book for what seems like hours until I hear a light tapping. I look up from the book and see it's Brooke.

"Thought I might find you here," she says with a knowing smile.

"Of course," I say, smiling back.

"Lunch was served an hour ago, I brought you a sandwich," she says.

"But you can't eat in here," I say, imitating a snobby teacher.

"Fine then. We'll eat outside." I laugh quietly, and stand up and stretch. Then we walk through the library and outside under an overhang. She pulls it out of her small book bag and hands it to me.

"Thank you," I say as my stomach rumbles. I didn't notice how hungry I was. She stands with me as I eat the sandwich quickly and chuckles when I finish and wipe my hands on my pants.

"So... What was the deal with that Rhodes guy this morning?" She asks with a flirty smile.

"Nothing... He's just a good friend who happens to be a guy," I say calmly.

"Nothing going on between you two?"

"Nope."

"Okay..." She says, "Are you sure?", not dropping the subject.

"NO." I say so loudly, that the librarian gives me a dirty look. And we're outside. I blush, hiding my face.

"Fine, fine. But for the record, you two look so perfect for each other." I blush bright red and she turns and waves slightly as she walks away.

"See you at dinner!" I yell to her, but my voice is caught up in the wind that just picked up. I shiver and walk back inside.

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After dinner, I really just want to go snuggle up in blankets in my room, but instead I trudge through the snow to the willow. It's really beautiful, snow covering the tops of branches and frost on the leaves. I look around, but find no one even near. Why would Rhodes even come here today? I shake my head at myself, shove my hands in my coat pockets, and walk back to the dorms. On the way, I see Parisa. And Aately. Of course. They're making... a snow fort? That's fine with me, I guess. It's just a two-foot-high wall of snow surrounding them. They've gotten quite creative on how they're transporting the snow- using the winds to shift the light powdery snow into a pile.

I watch, just out of curiosity, for a bit, then smile and turn to leave. But before I do, I see someone else walk by in the corner of my vision. It's just a second-year. I walk slowly behind a tree trunk. Then, he's hit with a snowball from out of nowhere. But it's not from nowhere. Heads pop up from the snow fort and I hear giggling. The boy looks around, frustrated he can't find the snowball's source, and keeps walking. But two more make contact and explode on the back of his head.