The Elementals; Fire

Chapter 11

A full school week went by, where I had managed to avoid the trio. They'd tried to talk to me, but by the third day, Roman was the last to try again, but they realised they weren't going to get anything out of me. I was angry, but I wasn't angry at them, I was angry at the prophecy, and the fact it was right. These three people were the only other known others with powers similar to mine, and if I wanted to learn more, then I had to stick with them, it just didn't roll with me that they, and the stinking prophecy, thought they had a rule over my life, I'm just not that kind of girl.

"I can't believe you haven't spoken to them all week, I thought you were warming up to them." I zoned back in to our conversation, it was dinner time and I was with Tamara and Sally, at an uncomfortably empty table.

"I was warming up to Talia and Roman, but Luka was just too much" The lie I had fabricated rolled off my tongue now, what with Tamara droning on about them constantly.

"I thought you had the hots for him though, it certainly looked like you did." I froze, but regained myself quickly.

"Yeah, he's good looking, but what does that matter when your personality is that of a bin?" Of course that was another lie, because ever since I found out that it was just an act for Luka, to wind me up, and that he actually apologised, he has been seeping into my brain every chance he had, I couldn't shake this pointless crush. Unfortunately, Sally caught me out on this lie.

"You're lying, you like him" She sounded angry, but that didn't surprise me, she didn't take to the trio as well as me and Tamara did. Ever since she found out I had temporarily ditched them, she wasn't so snappy and as quiet anymore, it almost hurt my heart knowing that in at least a couple of weeks time, that was going to change again.

"No I don't" The best reply I could think of. Sally regarded me suspiciously, looking like she one hundred percent didn't believe me.

"I think you do, but as your best friend, I am telling you he is bad news, I can feel it. I'm also pretty sure I saw him chatting up some girl the other day" I felt my heart clench, but tried to calm myself down. So what? We aren't together, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't see me like that anyway, all he does is roll his eyes at me and patronise me, not the kind of  romantic actions that I look for in a person.

"Luka is entitled to do whatever he wants, and even if I did like him, I would also have to realise that." Thankfully, they left it at that, and the rest of the day went by quickly. Hearing the last bell of the week, I was ready to go home and spend the two days in peace, not having to use all my energy into ignoring people who were going to be in my future life, but of course, it wasn't that easy. I'd only just made it out of the school entrance and in to the car park, when Luka blocked my way, and his the way he was stood said he had no intention of moving.

"Excuse me" I tried to walk around him, not making eye contact, but he just stepped in front of me again. I felt a tiny flame start in my stomach, but I didn't know if it was anger or the sheer fact that it was Luka standing so close to me. I tried stepping around him once more, and again he moved in front of me. This one made me realise that it was anger, and it had just doubled. Finally, I looked up to him, but wished I hadn't. He had his usual neutral face on, but I could see something in his eyes, impatience and worry, this made the fire simmer, but only a tiny bit.

"What do you want Luka?" I tried to keep the anger in my voice, but as always, looking into his blue eyes made the fire disperse.

"You can't avoid us forever Layla" This surprised me, as I thought Luka would be the last one from the group likely to pursue me in my avoidance. He was the first one, on the first day, to realise I weren't speaking to them, and he accepted it pretty easily.

"We've given you a week, we've given you space, but you need to accept yourself and start training with us." The training bit caught my attention, but the rest of it annoyed me.

"A week? Roman only stopped trying to talk to me two days ago, by your statement I should have until next week" I couldn't help the sarcasm, it was in my blood. Luka just sighed and rolled his eyes. See what I mean?

"So you're telling me you want to spend the next week sulking instead of training?" He had me there, I was actually pretty eager to learn. For the past week, to distract myself from the trio, but mainly Luka constantly popping into my head, I have been trying to self learn, and actually managed to make the fire appear in my palm by thinking, however that only happened by thinking angry thoughts, I didn't want it to only appear based on that.

"No, what I'm telling you is that I don't like things forced on to me. First off, it was you three barging into my life, which I have told you about previously. Now its about my life and future? Practically telling me someone, or something else, has planned out my entire life and I don't get a choice in it? That's something hard to accept." Something flashed in his eyes, but it went just as quickly.

"We've all had to accept it Layla, we've all had to give up things. If anything, you're the luckiest of the four of us."

"And how do you come to that conclusion genius?"

"because more than likely, this is the area we're going to be staying in for a while. When I found Talia and Roman, they had to leave their lives behind so we could find you and complete this group, they didn't want to, but they understood the pull they had inside them couldn't be ignored." I didn't ignore the fact that he didn't say this about himself, whilst trying to ignore the guilt that had started to creep up on me about them all having to move.

"What about you?" His face, that was neutral, had a cold look come over it.

"I didn't have anything to leave behind" We stood in awkward silence, my mind battling between rebelliousness and acceptance. I was trying to weigh up the pro's and cons of accepting, whilst another part of my mind was focused on what Luka had said about him not leaving anything behind. What did he mean? Would that explain his actions? No, I know people have bad childhoods and bad lifestyles, but that doesn't mean their personality has to be like his. People can choose their personality, I know this because of myself, and my own attitude. You can change it if you want, and like me, he's choosing not to. That didn't stop me from feeling bad, and wanting to know about his past, and help him anyway I could. Eventually, I chose the latter of the two options, realising the quicker I did accept this situation, the quicker I could learn to accept myself and my powers, and learn how to control them.

"Fine" Was all that I said, I didn't want him to have anymore gratification than he did, giving him that now would allow him to try and be above me for the rest of my life, however all he did was give me a suspicious look.

"Fine?" I gave him a blank stare. This guy hits me with the guilt tripping then has the nerve to not believe me when I've accepted my fate?

"Yes, fine. When do we start?"

"We start tonight."