ELEMENT

Part 1 - Chapter 1 (Elementia)

Sam POV
My brother, Ben and I were walking down the scenic route to the academy that we attend. The route having lots of nice views of forests and the ocean. Ben constantly practicing his "magic tricks." Burning bushes and other small plants when he failed. When we got to the academy, I was quite nervous. It was my first day there. Ben continues to try and assure me, saying, "It's going to be fine, Sam. You won't die on your first day." That was the best he could do. When we walked to the building, the courtyard was packed, new students scurrying everywhere and returning students meeting with their friends, talking about their new classes. I had zoned out, looking at the spectacle before me. I looked over at Ben only to see that he wasn't there. "BEN?!,"I exclaimed as I thought he was right beside me. The bell rang and I still couldn't find Ben. Confused, I started to head to my first class of the day. I had heard rumors from Ben and Zach about Mr. Jacksbill, the teacher who teaches you how to better use your powers. Ben had said his methods were the things thought up in nightmares, and Zach said he still wakes up, panting in the middle of the night from the terror of his first day in the class. I shuttered at the thought of the horrors. I caught Ben out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to go ask him some tips before I walked into the horror he had told me of but, I saw that he was with Zach. They hadn't seen each other in a while so, I left them alone and turned to go to class. I entered Mr. Jacksbills' class and found a seating chart written on the board. I saw I was sitting next to my good friend, Jack White. We had met when Ben had been told to take me with him one night on his way to hang out with Zach. We got to go the stir fry and hibachi joint that Ben would take me to eat at sometimes and saw Zach, a girl I didn't know, and a young boy. Ben introduced us and said, "Sam this is Zach's girlfriend, Sue White, and her younger brother that is the same age as you, Jack." Jack and I started talking while Ben, Zach, and Sue worked on something they said was for school. We found out that we had a lot in common. Like me, he also enjoyed hibachi, he liked video games, he liked to play garbh ball, and he made all A's and B's. He told me that he was an air Elemental and I told him I was a fire Elemental. We talked and made jokes and had fun for a few more hours until Ben said it was time to go home. We've been friends ever since. There we some other names of people I knew Maxine Willson. Max, I met her in the first grade in kind of a rough way. I was at recess playing on the jungle gym when I slipped and fell. I had a rather soft landing, except my leg got hung up on the way down and I broke it. I soon found out that my landing was so soft because I had landed on someone. I was crying because I had broken my leg, there were kids screaming for teachers, and the person below me was shaking me violently, which only added to my confusion on what the hell was going on, making me cry even more. We were taken to the nurse's office while we waited on the doctor. We sat quietly for several minutes until I decided to break the silence. "Hi, I'm Sam," I said it half-nervous, half-crying because I was scared that she would just start yelling and shoving me again. "No, you're a meanie face," she responded in a revolted, angry, and shivering tone that made it clear she was angry at me and was trying to hold back crying from the pain of her broken arm. Luckily, she wasn't going to yell at me anymore. I decided to keep the conversation going by saying, "I'm not a meanie face. I told you, my name is Sam." She perked her nose in the air keeping her face from looking at me and said, "Yes you are a meanie face, meanie face." I was taken aback, I didn't know what I had done wrong besides accidentally falling on her. I decided to clear things up. I asked her, quite confused, "How am I a meanie face?" She jerked her face up and looked at me with a very angry face and said, "You jumped on me and broke my arm!" I was shocked. Did she really think I jumped on her? I quickly responded with "I did not jump on you, I slipped and fell. It was an accident, I swear." As soon as I said that, the doctor walked in and checked us out. After we were checked out and the doctor had given us some medicine to help mend the bones we were walking back to class and all of a sudden, the girl said, "I didn't mean to yell at you like that. I didn't realize you had slipped, I thought you were trying to bully me by jumping on me," I was shocked. "Why would you think I was wanting to bully you?" I asked quite confused, I had never even thought of bullying someone before. She seemed agitated as she explained. "Well, a lot of boys have started calling me mean names and making fun of my garden and plants I carry around ," She seemed even more agitated when she said that. "Well, I'll never bully you for your garden. I owe you that much for breaking your arm. My names Sam, what's yours?" I asked. "My name is Maxine Wilson, but call me Max. If you call me Maxine, I'll hurt you." I gulped a little bit because I believed her. "Ok Max, nice to meet you," I replied and she answered with, "Nice to meet you too, Sam." We've been friends ever since. There were some other names of people as well. There was Jase from garbh ball, he's ok. Jackie, the girl who's "going places." There was also something weird on the list. Just a place that said, "Transfer." I was confused because I had never met a transfer student before. Deciding to ponder on it more later, I sat down. As soon as I sat down, Jack walked into class and he made his way over to me to sit down. We did our usual man hug, and talked about what we had done since we had last seen each other. We couldn't get too into our conversation because a large man with a short but authoritative beard walked in, carrying a plant in a pot. He had long hair that was made into a ponytail, with a flower on the hair band. He placed the plant on his desk, sat down, and faced the class. Some kids quietly gasped as we all noticed the huge gash mark scar over his right eye. He spoke with a gruff, deep voice "Hello idiots, my name is Jacksbill, Mr. Jacksbill. I don't know your names and I don't want to but, the school says I need to and I like my income," Chills went down my back as he spoke, my life briefly flashed before my eyes as I realized that everything Ben and Zach had said was true. Before he could say anything else there was a knock on the door. We immediately found out what kind of Elemental Mr. Jacksbill was, if it wasn't obvious already, when a stem on the plant rapidly grew towards the door and opened it. Max walked in saying "I'm so sorry I'm late. The power to my house briefly went off in the night and my alarm clock was reset. Here, the office said to give this to you." We were all taken by surprise when the flower rapidly grew to an enormous size, and slammed Max against the wall. Mr. Jacksbill got up and walked over to Max. Max grunted, the plant had clearly knocked the wind out of her, and she spoke, "What the hell man? Why did you just throw me against the wall?" Mr. Jacksbill looked hard at Max and said "I wanted to make sure I had everyone's attention when I say what I have to say. I don't like it when students are late. It pisses me off, but luckily for you I'm in a good mood this morning." I could see Max was starting to look angry and I could see her pet Venus fly trap and rose thorns poking out of her purse. Before anything happened Mr. Jacksbill let her go and she sat down. Mr. Jacksbill spoke again, "Now, all theatrics aside," He paused and gave us a look that I was sure to give me nightmares that night, and said "Welcome to Elemental Control, your Hell, and my fun time." He got up, he now had a clip board in his hands, walked over to the White board and started taking role. "Julia Lacrosse". "Here". "Mat Parkinstien". " Here". " Maxine Wilson". "It's Max, and here". Mr. Jacksbill looked at Max, angry that she had interrupted him but, he didn't say anything and went back to taking role. He kept taking role but suddenly stopped. "Sam DICARTER?" He said my name with a mix of anger, confusion, and excitement. "Here,"I responded cautiously. "Are you by any chance related to Ben Dicarter?" He asked. I replied "Yes sir, he's my older brother". A rush of devious joy spread over his face as he said, "I'm gonna have so much fun this year". He started taking role again. Once he was done taking role, he told us what would happen in the class. He said that we would go to the training hanger and demonstrate how well we could already use our elements. He also said that we would be sparring and that our grade would reflect how well we did. He kept explaining, also saying that we would also, on some days, train by playing rounds Garbh Ball. We would also, as a grade, make our own Garbh Ball suits and we could equip them with anything we wanted that would make it easier for our current skill level of using our Elements. He then went on into the syllabus, which was pretty basic. Then out of nowhere there was a short power surge in the building and loud thud. Mr. Jacksbill looked as though this was completely normal and murmured "Finally, O'nelly. I was starting to wonder where you were". He then gave us a sheet of paper that we were supposed to fill out. As he was passing it out he said "Ok what your going to do is put your Element, your blood type, emergency contact if you have one, medical insurance, your age, and your home address". A kid in the back of the class asked the question everyone was thinking but already knew the terrifying answer to, "What is all that stuff for?" Mr. Jacksbill replied as though he took joy in it "Why, my little idiotic pupil. They're in case we need to A: give you a blood transfusion. B: call your insurance company and tell them to visit the school hospital. C: to call your parents. D: make a home visit In case your parents won't pick up the phone and tell THEM you're in the hospital. Or E: to tell the morgue what age to put on the tomb stone". At that point I genuinely passed out from fear but woke up the second I hit the floor. As the bell rang Mr. Jacksbill looked at me siting on the floor and said, "Oh yeah, I'm gonna have a field day". The rest of the day was pretty much a walk in the park compared to the hell hole I had just got out of. The best part of the day though was lunch. The food court would be better described as a food city. They had 15 different food chains. A salad ROOM. A drink machine that scanned your finger print and found out your favorite drink exactly, based on who your parents are and what drinks they bought the most when they went out to eat and paid for 3 or more meals. Jack and I ran immediately over to the hibachi restaurant and ordered the shrimp, chicken, and beef meal. We went and sat down at a table and a few minutes later Max joined us. She had two plates. One had three hamburgers on it and the other one had every slice of pizza you could think of. I looked at her and said "Damn Max, holy shit. How much are you going to eat?" she looked at me with a slightly sad and annoyed expression and said "Damn blood sugar man, ever since I started to use my Element for extremely long amounts of time to help with my garden, I keep needing to eat more and more". I looked at her with sympathy and said "Someone with glasses once said, 'Dang, that's tough bru". We all laughed. Max, Jack, and I continued to talk about what all we had done over summer break. Jack said he went to visit his uncle who lived on the air island and that while he was there his uncle took him to an abandoned factory and taught him how to heat air in his right and cool the air in his left hand and shoot them out at the same time to make a tornado. It was safe because before the tornado could get away from them and injure any one his uncle would sent a tornado of his own that was spinning counter clockwise to Jack's clockwise tornado and they would cancel each other out. He then said that before he left, his uncle had started to teach him how to make the tornado form around himself but they didn't finish and him and his dad have been working on it a little every night. I sat there hyped up because even though Jacks was pretty damn cool, mine was better. Max went on next to say that she just stayed at home with her grandma, but that she may or may not have figured out how to not be affected by poison ivy and how her grandma finally taught her how to take lemon seeds and turn them into what ever plant she wanted. I told her that that was pretty cool mainly because now if I got hungry in class she could grow me a banana to eat but still I saved mine for last because I wanted to leave lunch on a banger. I started with, "So what's the one thing that only air Elementals can do as soon as they decide the to". they looked at me with eager faces, and I continued. "Flying, right? Well what if I told you that Ben taught me how to not only fly by using my flames to lift me up, but he also taught me a straight shot trick of my own, and how to cover any part of my body in fire and not burn my clothes off". They looked at me with blank expressions for a while and the Max said "Ok that's nice, but Jack being able to create a frigin' tornado around him self is way cooler". I felt betrayed but then admitted that "Yeah the tornado was way cooler." Then the bell rang and we went back to our classes. After school, on the way home, a strange girl with almost elbow length messy, but kinda hot, dyed blue and pink hair and a lip ring walked up to Max, Jack, and I. She walked right up to Max and said, "Max we need to talk, like, now". Max looked surprised to see her, like she didn't expect to have seen her ever again, and said, "Hey, Josie, ha-haven't seen you in a while. What are you doing here?" Josie looked at max with needy eyes, and said, "We need to talk about the thing," max looked pissed and said "Hehe not right now, Josie, I'll call you when I get home". Josie looked as though she was on the verge of tears and now that I looked a bit closer, it looked as though she had already been crying. She spoken with a soft, timid, and beseeching voice, and said, "Max you won't be able to call me. My parents kicked me out. They found some left over pot from a few nights ago and I have no where to go. Please we need to talk". Max looked at us and said, "Ok guys, I really have to go. I will call you guys when I'm home," And she grabbed Josie with her arm around her and started to make their way towards Max's neighborhood. Jack and I looked at each other both wondering what the hell had just happened. We decided not to talk about it, and just go on home. I said bye to Jack at his house, it was only four down from mine. When I got home I went and made myself some dinner and took it to my room. I noticed that Ben was already in his, this was made obvious by his closed door which our mom never let us close when we're out of the house because we're "both a bunch of sweaty nasty boys who leave our clothes on the floor, and need to let fresh air into our rooms so we don't suffocate". I knocked on Ben's door, the reply was, "Come in," I opened the door to find Ben sitting in his desk chair with pain killers, an ice bag on his face and chest, and a bottle of scotch. It was clear to him that I had been startled by the sight of these and he said "O'nelly, my new power usage teacher is," he grunted as he readjusted himself in his chair and continued, "a lightning Elemental asshole. So Sammy, how was Jacksbill?" The look of horror that I felt shoot across my face as he said the name gave him everything he needed to know, but I decided to add, "He slammed Max against a wall with a plant for being late, and wait, he said that name O'nelly right after the power surged and there was a loud thud". A frown came across my older brothers face as he said, "Yeah. O'nelly doesn't like jokes. The power surge was him, and the thud was me". I looked at him in utter disbelief and said "Damn man," "yeah," was the reply. He told me that he had been knocked out for a while, and that's was why I didn't see him at lunch. We continued to talk for a while, and I asked how Zach was doing and he asked about Max and Jack. Once we had finished talking, I went to my room to eat dinner. After I had finished my dinner and cleaned the dishes I went upstairs to see if Max would call. I sat on my bed for what felt like hours, checking things on my phone and waiting for Max until finally after my exciting first day at Springville academy had worn me out I fell asleep. The next day was nothing much, it was actually pretty relaxing. Mr. Jacksbill announced that we would be getting a transfer student from Jetson Academy the next day. Everyone seemed excited to meet a new student. I was hoping it would be someone really cool so that Mr. Jacksbill's class would feel less scary. He also announced that we would soon begin sparring, and on Friday there would be a pep rally. Everyone seemed really excited and nervous about sparring. I just hoped that I would be placed on a team with Jack and Max. My father had taught me some fighting techniques so I wasn't too scared. At lunch that day I saw Ben and Zach. Ben's hair was standing out in every direction as though he had been electrocuted, he probably had been. Zach had electricity sparking out of his eyes and hair, it reminded me of the time that he stuck a fork in a wall outlet and fried himself so much he over charged and had to go far into the wood to release it all. Calculus was pretty easy and biochemistry was a breeze. Max didn't walk home with us that night, she had said she need to do something important right before we left school and we hadn't seen her since. When I got home that night Ben was in the back yard with Zach, it looked like they were practicing sparring. I paid no attention though as I had home work to do. I started working on my Garbh ball suit, I made a belt that would go across my chest to hold just normal Garbh ball things: Some morphine, a couple bandages, and a needle and thread. Next came the jacket itself. I took an old jacket of my dads from his high school years that he gave me. It was horizontally striped in red and black , his school colors, I didn't change much besides adding some shoulder and elbow pads made of steel. I also gave it a tune up, just made sure all the seems were still together, I had to sow up a couple rips but not that much. Next we're the pants. I just used some of my old denim pants and gave the padding on the knees and important areas. For my shoes, I just used Ben's steel toed boots that he gave me. Finally, to tie it all together, I decided I would wear a beanie, because I look pretty damn sexy in a beanie and also it's a beanie. I put my new suit in a small duffel bag that I would take to school and use as a gym bag sometimes. I decided to start working on biochem next. I was on a role the teacher had given us child's play. I was about half way done when someone knocked on my door. Curious to who it was and not disapproving of some company, I told them to come in. When they opened the door I saw it was my dad, it made me jump a little because my dad had never come to my room before besides to wake me up in the morning. He look a little happy and said "Sam I have some good news," eager to know what it was I said "what is it dad". "Son you know how your uncle Ruskin moved to the fire island a few years back because of a job opportunity". "Yeah". "Well he said he was sorry he hadn't visited in a while but said he was coming to visit next Friday with some big news". "That's awesome dad. Did he say what the news was?" "No he left that part out, he said it was going to be a surprise". "Nice uncle Ruskin always has the best surprises". "Yes he does I still remember when you were sick that one time and couldn't go swimming with Ben and Zach. So to cheer you up Ruskin brought you a puppy". "I loved scout. I still miss him". "Yeah I was sad to here that he got hit by that car, and I think the driver was beside her self in shock that she had just hit a dog but, then she was just flat out pissed when she saw how much it would cost to fix her car". "Yeah, we always knew scout would never go down with out a fight". My dad chuckled a bit. He turned to leave but then quickly turned back around and said "oh yeah I almost forgot, I was working late last night and never got the chance to ask. How was your first day of school how are Jack and Max doing," I told him everything they had told me. He looked intrigued and bewildered "so just to be clear anything from a lemon seed." "lets just say I got hungry in class today and had a mango as a snack". "Huh, well that's just cool. Anyway Sam I have to go help your mother with a few things, you ok in here, you need help with any home work I can send Ben up". "Nah dad I'm good". "Ok Sam I'll see you later then". "By dad". After my dad left I finished my home work and got ready for bed, I wanted to be well rested for what ever craziness would happen the next day. I woke up the next morning and got ready for school. I went down stairs and Ben was eating breakfast at the table for once. He looked and me and said "you ready for today Sammy boy," I was in a good mood and saw nothing strange with this question and said "Yeah actually thank you for asking, we're getting a transfer student today in Jacksbill's class today so that might be interesting". He looked at me in slight disbelief "you can take the most ordinary things and make them sound like they're the coolest thing that has ever happened to you". "Yeah I guess I do". I sat down and ate my breakfast the went upstairs to get dressed. I met up with Jack on the way to school, we talked and talked all the way there. We met up with max at the front of the school, she seemed to be in a rather joyful mood today. I asked her why she looked so happy and she said "it's nothing, I'm just really happy today." We got to Mr. Jacksbill's class and found an extra desk, we assumed it was for the transfer student and paid no attention to it. Everyone sat around waiting, scattered across the room just talking to their friends, for Mr. Jacksbill to get there. The bell rang and Mr. Jacksbill came through the door and sat down at his desk. He looked around and said "I see the transfer student isn't here yet," he opened a drawer to his desk and pulled out a spray bottle and watered his plant. He looked at us almost daring anyone to say something about the plant. He put the bottle away and went to the white board. "Ok listen here students, when the transfer student gets here I want you to be nice to them, you know the whole bla bla bla about welcoming them, Yeah , do that," for a moment I thought he was actually going to be sincere. He started writing things down on the white board and explaining how we would be going to the training hanger and sparing today. When he moved out of the way of the white board I saw that he had written names in groups of three. "These will be your teams for sparing, memorized them good," he said as he sat back down at his desk. I was relived to find that Jack, Max and I were on the same team. There was just the word transfer written with Albert Reynolds and Haylie Jenkins. He told us to grab our change of clothes and right as we were about to leave there was a knock on the door. Mr. Jacksbill got up from his desk saying "that must be them," he opened the door and said "headmaster Gordon right this way sir. Oh and this must be the transfer student, your not what I was expecting". He came back from behind the door and stood near the wall allowing headmaster Gordon to come in. He was a short man but had a muscular build, he also wore glasses and had long slicked back hair with a goatee. His voice was deep but gentle when he spoke "everyone I'm sure Mr. Jacksbill has already told you that we expect you to welcome thins student with open arms. You may come in now". Jack had been whispering something in my ear but I completely zoned him out as the transfer student walked into the room. Everything else in the world disappeared, a girl with brown hair walked into the room, her hair came down to just below were sleeves on a T-shirt would be she had freckled cheeks and a hair band in. She had beautiful dark blue eyes that looked as though they were filled with the ocean. She was wearing a light blue hoodie with blue jeans and sneakers. She stood holding here books in her arms against her chest. Her hair was curly and wavy as if they were made of small ocean waves. Headmaster Gordon started talking and I snapped out of my trance "everyone this is Shannon Phillips," she was looking around the room at everyone and then she looked at me, I was still looking at her so our eyes met. She stared at me with a look that said hi, I'm not sure how long we had been looking into each others eyes but she suddenly gave me a friendly smile that was warn and playful, I smiled back. Suddenly out of nowhere Mr. Jacksbill spoke and his voice broke our eye contact as though a gun had been fired "welcome Ms. Phillips, we were just about to got to the training hanger. I hope you brought a change of clothes". "Yes sir, I did". "Good, ok everyone let's go. Thank you headmaster Gordon". "My pleasure Mr. Jacksbill". As we started to leave the class room I tried to get to the front of the class so I could introduce myself to Shannon but she was already gone and talking to the people on her team. Max walked up behind me with Jack and said "hehe damn Sam , you've never been interested in girls before, but I gotta say she's not to bad of a way to start". "What are you talking about Max?" Jack punched me in the arm and said "bro we saw the way you were staring and Shannon and don't think we didn't see those playful innocent smiles either". "Was it really that obvious". They both spoke in unison "Yes". We got to the training hanger and changed into out gym clothes. When we walked out of the locker rooms I saw a rock climbing wall that looked as though everyone in the class could fit on it, a Garbh ball arena, a karate ring, and a pit that I can only describe as full of knives poking out of the wall. "Damn Sam you looking fit man, when did you get abs?" said max as we met up with the rest of the class in front of Mr. Jacksbill. "Over the break I guess, I was working out to get ready for this year and well they just happened," I replied. "Hush," yelled Mr. Jacksbill to the whole class "now in a moment I'll put your names up on the board in the order in which you're going, now this goes with out saying but your mommies and your daddies ain't here so if you get hurt, well I don't give a shit, get up and keep going. You will be fighting for 10 minutes straight so I hope you're ready". he walked over to a computer and mashed a button. The names flashed on the board "Albert Reynold, Haylie Jenkins, and Shannon Phillips V.S. Jack White, Maxine Wilson, and Sam Dicarter". Mr. Jacksbill laughed "oh this is gonna be fun". We walked out on to the sparing ring and stood there Mr. Jacksbill gave us instructions "ok you will begin when I blow this whistle 3,2,1," he blew the whistle. I didn't know how we should start so I turned to ask Mr. Jacksbill "hey Mr. Jacksbill how do we sta," my sentence was interrupted by a blast of fire, one of Albert's I assumed, "ok I guess I'll just whoop ass as I go". My hands roared with flames as I shot back at Albert. He dodged them with ease and then I was hit by a bolt of lightning, it was Haylie man did it hurt like a bitch. "Yo Jack, Max can I get some fucking help?" I turned towards Haylie, I engulfed her body in flames. Then I saw Max's thorn bush stab Haylie through the arm. "About time max where the hell were you?" "This bitch shot a lightning bolt at my chest and through me, it pay back time". "You fucking stabbed me". I ran towards Albert and punched him in the stomach, while he was keeling over I grabbed his head and thrust my knee straight on his nose. He stood up and stumbled backwards, while he was still stunned I kicked him in the chest and he went flying. He got back up and ran towards me shooting flames at me. I dodged them but to late I realized they were a distraction for him to come around and spin kick me in the face. I went flying backwards and slid across the floor. I got up, now I was pissed. I ran towards him burning flames behind me to give me a boost, the I jumped in the air, my arms propelling me high. Then I came back down, my flames were really burning now I used them to speed my decent onto Albert. I landed on his chest and the ground beneath him cracked as I did. "There Albert when I hit you, you stay down". I turned around to see who was left. I saw Jack, Max and Haylie lying on the ground Haylie was covered in vines binding her head to toe Max and Jack were both lying face down, Shannon was standing over max her arm was went and now that I looked closer so was the areas surrounding Max and Jack. "Oh great, well this is gonna be fun," I thought to myself as I Shannon turned around and faced me. "So were the only two left huh?" "Yeah it looks so". "So hey you seem pretty cool and I don't really want to fight you". "Yeah your kinda cute yourself but the rest of your team is knocked and so is mine, one of us has to go down so the other can win". "Well I guess I got no choice". I ran towards Shannon not wanting to hurt her to much so I covered my body in flames attempting to knock her out in one shot, also I wanted to knock her out before she could hurt me. I collided with Shannon she slid backwards, absorbing the blow. Seeing that I had failed I quickly blasted her with flames but I was too late what I had feared had already happened. Between my flames and Shannon was a wall of water, I jumped backwards knowing that I was screwed. "So your a water elemental". "Yep, and your fire". "Yeah this isn't fair". "Yeah I know". "Well I guess I gotta use it". "Use what?" "A little trick my brother tough me". Flames grew in my right hand eventually turning blue from the heat, I grunted as sustaining this temperature shot pain all through out my body. Shannon, not knowing what to expect increased the size of her water wall. "Ha you know water puts out fire right". "Yeah I know but did you forget that when water gets hot enough it evaporates". Shannon thickened her water wall even more but, it wouldn't do her any good. I extended my arm at Shannon aiming for just the right spot so it wouldn't hurt her to badly. Then when I was sure I wouldn't miss I fired. A beam of blue flames hit Shannon's water wall and immediately vaporized a small section and connected with her shoulder, I had hit my mark. "Ok Shannon I'm sorry I had to do that because you honestly do seem kinda cool. You ready to give up yet?" "Yeah, you seem really cool yourself and your cute which is what I'm really sorry because this will hurt you the most". "What do you me..." I was interrupted by a sudden intake of water into every part of my body. I felt my self suspended it water. I moved frantically trying to figure a way out, but it was no use the water pressure was to much. The last thing I was able to make out before I passed out from lack of oxygen was Shannon saying what I think was I'm really sorry. I woke up five hours later in the infirmary. Standing next to my bed was Max, Jack and Shannon. Jack clearly had a broken nose, Max had her left arm in a sling, probably form where Haylie had hit her, and Shannon had her shoulder bandaged from where my straight shot technique had hit her. I went to move my right arm to sit up but it was in a cast. "Damn Sam, Shannon told us what happened, I'm pissed I missed your infamous straight shot trick," said Max. "Yeah, he told, me I might need more practice I guess I did," I was referring to my right arm "sorry again for using it on you Shannon." Shannon looked at me and smiled "it's fine, my adrenaline was so high at the time it didn't hurt that much and before it could were off the nurse gave me a bunch of pain killers, I should be the one apologizing to you for surrounding you in water like that I know how much it must have hurt, you being fire and all." "Yeah it's fine, so what happened to you two," I looked at Max and Jack, they looked at Shannon. I was in shock, one person had taken down my whole team. "So what happened to your team Shannon. I took down Albert, what happened to Haylie." "That was me," said Max "after I stabbed her I had some vines wrap around her, I raised her in the air and slammed her down on the ground, she over there with a concussion and a bandaged shoulder and Albert, thanks to you in lying over there with three broken ribs." I was amazed I hadn't meant to hit him that hard. The nurse came up to me saying "ok Mr Dicarter your good to go home, and you can take that cast off tomorrow morning," I thanked her and we all left to go home. "So Shannon where do you live," I asked "on crest view lane it's only ten miles from the school, but I ride a bus that drops me off at a stop two miles from here." "Cool." "Hey guys I completely forgot, you remember Josie from the other night, well she's staying at my place and I gotta go."said Max ran off in to the distance and onto her neighborhood. Jack, Shannon and I continued to walk and talk and get to know each other until we reached an intersection and Shannon had to go down it to get to the bus stop. Jack and I continued to our neighborhood just talking and goofing around as we walked. When I got home Ben was asleep he had clearly had a long day at school I decided that I needed to get to bed as well I had been knocked out for a long time. I went to bed thinking of the girl I had just met, she was nice and pretty and had a hell of a right hook from what Jack told me. Shannon, even her name was pretty. I woke up the next morning and found that Ben had already left, I took my cast off and ate breakfast. School was nothing much, In Mr. Jacksbill's class people were talking about the sparing matches and some were asking me where I had learned that "Laser thingy." Lunch was easy I sat with Jack, Max and Shannon who decided to join us because of far she said we were the only people she had made friends with. The rest of the day was a breeze. I got home that night to find Ben sitting in his room. His hair was standing on end again. "O'nelly again," I asked. "No this time it was Harrison, a water elemental to day from sparing." "What happened?" "Well me and Zach were on a team and the rest of his team had been knocked out. Zach started charging up his lightning storm and I was charging up a straight shot. I hit him with the straight shot weakening his water shield. Then when Zach unleashed his lightning storm on him I got electrocuted because, I was standing in a puddle that was still connected to Harrison." "Dang man, you got some really bad luck." "Yeah, so what happened to you today Sammy boy." "Well nothing much everyone kept asking me how I pulled off the straight shot yesterday and, Shannon ate lunch with us." "Shannon that's the new girl right." "Yeah." "That's cute." "What." "Well my baby brother likes a girl, and she thinks he's cute. How adorable." "Shut up Ben I don't like Shannon, I just think she's kinda cool that's all." "Yeah sure you wanna know where I've herd that before." "Where." "Zach, he said the same thing about sue. Guess what happened two weeks later." "What." "I cought them sucking face in the boys bathroom." Ben laughed remembering this. I gagged a bit because I saw Sue as a distant older sister figure, with her being Jacks older sister. "Yeah well, what do I do." "Well baby brother what do you like about her." "Well. She has beautiful hair." "Really girls hair turns you on." "Shut up Ben you like girls that are older then you." "Ouch big roast, and chase was only two years older than me." "Yeah Well uh. I like her smile." "Now we're getting somewhere less creepy." "Her eyes are blue, deep blue like the ocean. I feel as though I want to get lost in them. She has adorable freckles that turn scarlet some times when she gets embarrassed." "Wow Sammy sounds like you hit your self a really nice crush., "yeah, she is." "Well all I can tell you is don't be creepy about it. Give it some time get to know her some more. Then, if it seems like she likes you back go from there." "Really." "Really works every time." "Thanks Ben." "No problem Sam. Hey if you could send mom up, my singes are starting to bother me." "You got it." "Thanks man." I went to my room and pondered on what Ben had just told me. I decided I was going to talk to her during the pep rally tomorrow. Jack and I got to the gym the next day and found Max and Shannon, they had saved us some seats. I started talking to Shannon and telling her jokes, she seemed to enjoy then, then the headmaster started talking. "Students it brings me great pleasure to have this pep rally at yet another end of the first week of school. I hope all of you have enjoyed your classes so far?" The whole gym roared with joy. "Yes yes yes we are all happy to have the new first years this year. I'm sure all of you are having a good year so far?" Me and the rest of the first years roared with joy. "And the returning students your first week has been good as well?" The rest of the gym roared as everyone else yelled. "Well then it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to and back to Elementia's SpringView Academy."