Element

✯ Chapter 20

I wake up with a start. I can hear whispering and giggling. Hm... That's weird, everyone else is asleep. I look around the room, and see a few shadows in the hall. I crack a tired grin. It's the other team, obviously here to prank us. I quietly wake up everyone from our team, and we silently slip into the kitchen.

"Alright. Time to give them the scare of their lives." I whisper, in a deathly low voice. I tell them the plan. Kaelie, Gavin and I fly up to the ceiling and drop scraps of crinkled paper on them. Alanna and Rhodes send gusts of wind through the bottom part to create a creepy atmosphere. Holden and Atticus will make the ground shake at random times. Iniabi and Felicity will create random flashes of light. Daley and Zaiden will turn into animals and make noises and run through the dark parts of the room. And Payson will create slippery water puddles. It's perfectly spooky. And sure to get back at the other snowball team.

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About 20 minutes later, after we've all stuffed our blankets to make it look like we're underneath, the other team stealthily enters the room. But we're all in position. All of the sudden, a bone-chilling wind sweeps through the room, accompanied by an owl's hoot. I smile and drop a paper. There's a scared gasp from down below, and it's all I can do to not laugh. Suddenly, some water trickles like a snake from the kitchen and crosses the dining room floor. A shriek and "what was that?!" Snake hiss from Zaiden.

"AAH! A snake! It was a snake!"

"Shh!" The voice is Parisa's. "You don't want to wake them all up!"

I laugh into my jacket. Kaelie and Gavin give me a look and I shut up. The ground then rattles ever so slightly at first, then a pause, then a bigger shake. Muffled shouts and screams from below. This is working so well! A deep, loud growl from Daley and Zaiden. Screams from the other team. The ground shakes one last time, and we drop a ton of paper.

"Let's get out of here!" I hear a guy shout.

"Yeah, forget about scaring them, this place is freaking me out!" I hear a girl cry.

"Leave and stop bothering us!" Whispers a ghostly voice from all corners of the room. They all turn white and scramble out. The door slams after the last person, and all of us come out of our hiding spots.

"Alright!"

"That was perfect."

"We sure got them back!"

"Who did that voice? That was good."

"Rhodes and me," says Alanna.

"Why did they even try to scare us?"

We all laugh. Quite the successful day we've had as an impromptu team.

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I lay on the mattress next to Kaelie and Brooke, listening to all the steady, quiet breathing. Soft light streams in through the windows. I'm sure I'm the only one up currently. There's a faint ringing, and I realize it must be the alarms all going off. One by one, people in the room wake up, droopy-eyed and with crazy bed-head hair. I laugh lightly.

"Mornin' everyone!" calls Payson. "How'd we all sleep?"

"Good.."

"Alright."

"I had such a weird dream," says Daley. "The other team was going to scare us so we woke up, made a plan, and spooked them off!"

Everyone exchanges looks, then we all laugh.

"Wha..? What?" says Daley, wide-eyed and really confused.

"Daley...Daley..." I have to stop laughing. "That wasn't a dream. We actually did that!" Nods of agreement.