Meeting Maia

Reunion

I shrugged my backpack over my shoulder as I got out the limo. I waved at Charles lightly and smiled gratefully before turning to face my school.

Students littered the grounds, all of them in our drab uniform. Jonas' old friends all had their sleeves rolled up and were slouched across a picnic bench to my right. They were the most dominant in the grounds and most people avoided them at all costs.

The big red brick building stood intimidatingly before me but I no longer feared my high school hell because, frankly, I'd been through worse.

I pulled my glasses out my pocket and placed them on my face, feeling their familiarity. I walked forwards towards the front entrance.

"Raphael, ain't it?" Called one of the blonde boys from Jonas' old table. i turned round and slowly approached them.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Where'd you go, then?"

"Sorry?"

"Don't play dumb with me. One day your sick and the next you've run off with the hottest girl in school. The day after that your brother and hot sister have gone too? Where did you go?"

"We were sick of assholes like you, Brad." I don't know what came over me, but I could feel the fire in my heart.

"We? Like Hot Mia or whatever would follow you anywhere!"

"What did you say about her?" I strode up to him and stood toe to toe.

"What you gonna do about it nerd?" He straightened his back and looked at me, eye to eye.

His fist was suddenly in front of my face but I ducked and jabbed to his stomach quickly. He grunted in pain and punched me in the face. I felt my glasses snap and the glass cracked and cut my cheekbones. I lurched forwards and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt and pushed him up against the wall of the school.

"You keep your mouth shut, you hear?" I snarled, spitting into his face. He nodded frantically and I punched him one last time and walked away as he slid down the wall. I picked up my backpack and wiped the blood off my face and headed to class, grinning in spite of myself.

At lunch, the air was thick with tension and I could hear my name in hundreds of loud whispers. I was pointed at and stared at. I looked down, embarrassed and just sat at a lone lunch table where I used to sit.

I pulled out a tender chicken sandwich and a few other lunch delicacies that I had missed when on the run with the Elementals. It was good to eat normal food again and feel normal again.
In the corner of my eye, I could see Brad explaining with large arm gestures how he could have 'punched my lights out' if he'd been ready. I laughed to myself. He didn't know how strong is gotten since I'd left.

This wasn't me, this beating up people and strutting the corridors like some sort of celebrity while the whole year whispered about me. Maybe some things change you, whether you are ready or not. Some things you just can't undo and maybe being here wouldn't change the emptiness inside me. I didn't belong here, as a nobody becoming a somebody and I didn't belong with the Elementals, acting like I could save the world. I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead into my palms.

Suddenly, there was a crash as someone slammed their tray of food onto my lone table. I looked up, startled and confused. There was shaggy blonde hair and a wild look.

"Kyle?"

"Dude! What you doing here,man?"

"I, uh, go to school here!"

"What about your powers, your fire, dude?"

"Sorry, Kyle, I don't know what you mean. I'm a normal guy, who attends school at this shit hole."

Kyle nodded, obviously unconvinced but I just shrugged and continued eating my sandwich.

I had to pretend to be a normal guy after what Klaus had told me about him. I didn't need another murderer chasing me down.

"So how did you get here?" I asked trying to divert the conversation.

"I got on a bus and asked them to take me to their fourth spot because I hate that number and I hated the prison and they took me here and I was stumbling round and the police took me to a local children's home. They sent me here."

"Oh." I was kind of breathless.

"So, what about you?"

"I, uh, came home."

"Without Mia and Joe and whoever else?" I just nodded, not bothering to correct him. He kept trying to talk to me but I was mainly unresponsive. Eventually he left but not before fiddling on his phone for a bit. He got up slowly and put his phone in his pocket cautiously. He wrapped his fingers around the edges of his lunch tray and picked it up, balancing it more on one hand. Kyle stepped around me as he walked away but he was slow like he didn't really want to head in that direction.

Suddenly, I felt a large metal object hit the back of my head and I flew off my chair and blacked out almost immediately.

I blinked. My eyes began focusing on shapes. I could hear murmuring voices. I could smell medication. I could taste blood. I could feel scratchy blankets lying over my frail body. Three humans, talking under their breaths. A blue cast on my leg. Another on my arm. Stitches in my other 'leg'. More stitches on my face neck and chest. A huge stapled gash across my entire stomach, starting from my shoulder and going in a diagonal line straight across my body and ending at my hip bone. It had just avoided my heart. Tubes were threaded through my arms and other areas of my stomach. I was suddenly very aware of the amount of pain I was in. I cried out in pain and all three people turned to me. The middle one lurched forwards and took a needle from the side. The other two fussed around me, rethreading the tubes and checking that they were all fully functional. A sharp, aching pain pierced my neck and I caught the middle guy with a needle in my neck. My vision slowly began blurring again.