The Elements | Book 1 | Under the Sea

Feelings

My name is Lynn. I live in an old rotting house in an abandoned market place with my friends Phoenix, Hazel, Dawn, Carey, and Holly. You might be thinking, Wait, what?.. How do you survive in conditions like that? 

Well..it's hard to explain..we basically just hunt and harvest and all that other stuff. I'm not being specific aren't I? Let's just get to the story.

I sat on the sand. I've lived on this very not popular beach for about 9 years, and yet the sand still had that weird feeling to it. You know how when you first touch a surface, it feels..weird? That was what the sand at Diamond Cove (also known as Diamond Beach) always felt like. It was kinda weird since my and my friends basically hang out here everyday. 

I looked over my shoulder. Hazel and Dawn were having an argument about seashells or something, Carey was leaning on a nearby palm tree and staring into the distance, Holly was gathering sticks (most likely for our monthly beach campout), and Phoenix..where was she? 

When I turned back to face the ocean I saw Phoenix in the corner of my eye. She was next to me the whole time! "Ahh! Oh, hi Phoenix", I said, kinda embarrassed. "Hi", she said. I went back to staring at the sea. I squinted and saw outlines of coral and fish. One time I tried to get everyone else to see what I had been seeing, but they gave up, saying that all they could see was the glistening blue water. It was as if only I should and\or could see it. I took a peek at Phoenix, kind of hoping she was looking at the water and finally seeing the beauty way below the surface. Instead, she was looking at me, and she looked concerned. 

"Are you ok?", she asked. I wanted to say yes, but all of a sudden I realized that was a lie. I didn't feel right.. "Well..I guess not", I admitted. "Tell me, what's wrong?", Phoenix said. I sighed. "I don't know. I guess..well, I feel like I have this..connection..with water and the ocean." 

She might as well could have punched me in the arm in the least. Instead, she smirked, and said, "Guess what? I feel a connection too. But..not with water, but with..fire." I nearly erupted in laughter. Luckily, I kept it in, and instead replied, "So, I'm not crazy?" "I guess not," Phoenix said, "Or we're both crazy." We both giggled like idiots. 

LATERRRR..

"Lynn?" "Huh?" I looked up and saw that everyone was staring at me. "Um, what?"   We were sitting around the bonfire for our annual beach camp thing. It was basically a tradition now. We would make a fire, then look up at the constellations as we slept in our sleeping bags. Right now, I was daydreaming, and apparently they noticed I was absent-minded. 

"You okay?", asked Dawn. "Yeah, yeah, just thinking." I was afraid that Hazel would stupidly add, "Thinking about what?", but the girls went back to talking. Phoenix was looking at me though. Then she turned towards the group. "Hey guys, I have something to say." Everyone looked at her. "So, lately I've been feeling this weird connection with fire." She looked at me, and I realized what she was doing. She was trying to get me to talk about my feelings. 

I stayed quiet. "Anyway, I feel like we all have a connection to a certain something. Doesn't anyone feel the slightest connection?" Dawn spoke up. "Um, I feel a certain connection to, like, the sun and light, sort of." Then, Carey said, "And I have a feeling I'm related to night." Holly said that she felt a weird feeling around the cold, and always felt tired and sort of weak near warmth, and Hazel said that she always seemed connected to plant life. They turned towards me. I was the last one. I sighed. "So, I have connections with..water."

I felt a little more refreshed that morning. I was glad that I wasn't alone, that all my friends had a sort of connection. We were walking through the wooded area that leads to the city, when we bumped into an old man and woman. "Oh, I'm so sorry", I said. "Oh, it's fine, we were just heading to Diamond Beach. Not much people go there anymore though", the woman said. "Oh, we live there", Winter said. "Oh, really?!", the woman said, "Are you homeless?" I sighed. Why did Winter said that? Sometimes she makes things just plain awkward. "Well, kind of", Midnight explained, "It's kind of hard to really explain." "Oh, well, would you like to stay with us?" the woman asked. The man didn't really seem to be bothered either. He apparently went with anything his wife suggested.

"Um, we'd love too, but I don't know if you guys would have enough money to take care of us, since you're senior citizens," I said. "Well, it's ok. We actually have a lot of money. Don't worry about it," the woman said, "My name is Sarah, and this is Alex." The man, Alex, smiled at us. 

"Um, okay then," Phoenix said. 

Off we went. I didn't know if it was legal or not to take homeless kids, but honestly, I didn't really care. Too much was going on in my mind, it almost felt like the emotions and questions in my head were a bunch of reporters having arguments with me and each other.

We finally got to the house. It was bigger than I thought. It wasn't super big, but pretty big. It looked like it had about 40 rooms, not counting the garage or basement. "It has 40 rooms, not counting the garage/basement," Sarah said. I almost wanted to yell, Knew it!, but my inner introvert put a stop to that. Sarah gave us a tour, which nearly lasted an hour, but she didn't show us the places that weren't 'necessary', like the random closets or the laundry room.

After we ate dinner, I immediately ran into one of the guest rooms. Sarah had said before dinner that after we eat, we could choose one of the (many) bedrooms in the house, and decorate them to our liking. 2-thirds of the bedrooms were guest rooms, the other 1-third was old rooms that belonged to someone in the family. Apparently, Sarah and Alex's family used to live there, but they all moved out. 

I also think that I overheard Sarah say something about, "I wish our daughter would come back soon" or something. A favorite child maybe?

Anyway, I wanted the best room for me, so I needed to find it fast. I rushed up some stairs, then some more, all the way to the third floor, the sleeping quarters, where all the bedrooms, guest or not, were. I think Phoenix and Holly were somewhere behind me also. 

I searched the floor for a perfect room, and found a great-looking guest room. I leaped in, landing on the bed. The room was perfect. It was one of the only ones (out of 2) that had a view of the pool on that floor. And this one was also the one with a good view of the pool. The room had a bookcase on one side of the door, and a dresser on the other. The left side of the room had a bed, right next to the window, and the other side had a desk with a computer and a lamp. 

The bed had navy blue sheets, and a white pillow sat in front of the headboard. In the very back, a painting of a magnificent horse was hung on the wall. The room looked good, but I was really excited to alter the design. 

Later!

I looked at my room, satisfied with my work. I was pretty sure all the other girls were thinking the same thing. 

The walls now had turquoise and white mermaid scale pattern wallpaper. The bedsheets were now varieties of shades of blue, with a peach pillow. I painted the dresser blue, and I painted the computer desk navy blue; the drawers painted pale pink. 

It was beautiful. I left the painting of the horse on the wall, which was one of the few things that stayed the same in the room. I turned off the light and flopped on my new bed. As I burrowed into the covers, I heard Sarah (which since she's our legal guardian now, I'm going to call her Auntie Sarah) say from the doorway of my room, "Good night, sweetie!" 

I muttered a good night, and drifted off to sleep.