Elements

“I think it’s time we go back,” Leo whispered, his warm breath tingling in my ear.

“Yeah, I guess.”

I turned to Carina and Michael. Michael was slumped up against a part of the trunk, and Carina was laying on his chest. She noticed me looking at them.

“You ready to go?” she asked.

I took in a deep breath. “I guess.”

I brought each one of us down from the tree, and we hopped into Carina’s car, Michael and Carina in the front, me and Leo in the back. We were quiet the whole way back, but it was a calming silence. Carina dropped me off first.

“Good luck girl,” she said. “Call me if you need anything.”

Once again, I got a nervous feeling from standing in front of my house. I walked through the door, to see Raven sitting there with my parents.

“Raven told us everything,” my dad said.

“You’re not mad at us for not telling you sooner?” I asked.

“Can we see?” my mom said, staring at me in a daze.

“See what?”

“Your powers. Raven already showed us his, and told us about your friend’s powers.”

“Sure, but we’ll have to go outside.”

We headed into the backyard. I turned into my element outfit, and my parents looked stunned.

“What? You guys already saw it on the news,” I said.

“It’s just so… crazy to see it in real life,” my mom said.

I walked over to our small apple tree. It was dying because Raven always forgot to maintain it. Using my powers, I made the crisp brown leaves turn to bright green. The dark-colored tiny apples turned into radiant red, plump, glossy fruit. I walked over and picked an apple, and handed it over to my mom. She took it and stared at it as if she couldn’t believe it was real.

“That’s impressive,” my dad said.

“That’s the least she can do,” Raven said.

I blushed. “Let’s get back inside. It’s getting late and I’m worn out. Good night.”

Raven teleported in front of me. “We still have school tomorrow. Just try to ignore the other kids there.” I rolled my eyes.

“Are you serious? We still have to go to school after all we’ve been through?” I moved to the side and walked past him, but he appeared in front of me again.

“We can’t miss it because of our… incident. We still have normal lives that we need to keep living, and school is a part of it.”

“Fine. I’m going to bed.”

I woke up the next morning to the sound of my alarm blaring. I could barely get any sleep last night. I didn’t want to go to school and face everyone there. What would they think? I checked my phone to see a text from the group chat.

Carina: Is anyone else considering staying in bed and never getting out?

Jade: Yep

Carina: Great. I’ll be over at urs with ice cream and movies in 5

Leo: Guys I wanna stay in bed too but we have to go to school. Might as well get it over with.

Michael: Yeah people might make fun of us more if we didn’t show up today

Carina: Ugh. Fine. Jade u want me to pick u up?

Jade: It’s fine, Raven’s taking me. I’ll have him pick u up tho

Carina: K cool. Cya guys soon

I got ready and headed out the door.

“Bye honey,” my mom said. She kissed my cheek. “Have a good day at school.” “I’ll try,” I sighed. I walked out and went into Raven’s car.

“Make sure to pick up Carina on the way,” I said.

“She doesn’t want to drive in her own expensive car?” he asked jokingly.

I rolled my eyes and didn’t respond. We were silent for the rest of the drive, even after we picked up Carina. We only exchanged a brief “hello”. When we pulled up to the school, the butterflies in my stomach multiplied. Within a second of stepping outside of the car, about 10 different news reporters came up to Raven, Carina, and I.

“How long have you been keeping this secret?” a reporter asked.

“Can you demonstrate your powers?” another questioned.

“Why did the villains attack you?”

“How do you feel about your identities being exposed?”

The questions just kept coming, and more cameras were shoved in our faces. I looked over to the oak tree to see Leo and Michael in the same situation as us.

A stone was placed in my hand and looked down to see the raven on it. Raven teleported me and Carina to Leo and Michael.

“Guys we need to get out of here,” I urged.

The principal, Mr. Lenny, and the vice principal, Ms. Caddy, pushed through the sea of people. Mr. Lenny grabbed me and Michael, and Mrs. Caddy grabbed Leo and Carina, escorting us inside. I saw Raven teleport away.

Mr. Lenny and Ms. Caddy opened up the front doors of the school and pushed us inside, shutting the doors behind us. The news reporters were still hovering outside, and I felt like we were in a zombie apocalypse. Raven was already inside.

“Come with us,” Mr. Lenny said.

We followed him to his office, and he gestured towards the chairs in the front of his desk. Carina and I took a seat while Leo, Michael, and Raven stood behind us.

“We understand you have powers, which is causing a lot of commotion with the press. They are disturbing our school, and in order to keep you five safe, you will each have a bodyguard assigned to you.”

“A bodyguard?!” Carina exclaimed. “We don’t need a bodyguard!”

“The bodyguard will guarantee your protection, as well as scare off the reporters. Until they are gone, you will have a personal guard. They will only escort you from your car to inside school, and vise versa.”-

“Great,” Carina muttered. “And here I thought having powers was cool.”

Mr. Lenny ignored her. “If you have any problems, you will come to me immediately. You are all excused.”

We shuffled out of the office, when the bell rang.

“I’ll see you guys later,” Michael said.

“See you after school sis,” Raven said to me.

“Bye guys” I turned to Leo. “Let’s go.”

“I’ll walk with you guys,” Carina said. “I need to stop by my locker.

We walked down the hall, but didn’t make it very far before running into Kiely with her friends, along with their jock boyfriends.

Elijah walked up to Carina. “Hey girl. You’re looking fine. You wanna grab lunch later?”

“You asshole.” She flung him against the wall using Air.

“Don’t mind him,” Kiely said. “We should totally have a girl's night and hang out. I’ll drive you guys to school every day. I’d like, totally be honored.”

“Shut up Kiely. You just want the attention from the press because you’re not talented enough to get them to notice you,” Leo said.

“Whatever,” she flipped her hair and strutted back down the hall, with her minions following her.

“The day barely started and it’s already turning to crap,” I said.

I said bye to my friends and walked into the class. All of my classmates came up to me with lots of questions, reminding me of the news reporters.

“I can’t believe it! How cool is it to have powers?” a girl named Avneet asked.

“How do your powers work?” another girl named Lina wondered.

I ignored them and sat in went to sit down.

“Where did you get your costume?” asked Jahnae, my table partner. “I saw it on the news and it looked amazing!”

“Hard to explain,” I said. “Can we not talk about this? Please?”

“Oh, of course,” she said sheepishly. “Sorry.” The day was pretty much the same, with more people coming up to me. I wondered how my friends were doing. They were probably getting questioned as well.

It was the middle of fourth period when there was an announcement over the loudspeaker.

“Could Raven Grey, Jade Grey, Carina Oliver, Michael King, and Leo Brooks please come into my office,” Mr. Lenny’s voice blared.

I walked out of the class and into the hallway. I saw Michael and went to catch up with him.

“Hey Jade,” he said. “Do you know what this is about?”

“No clue. I hope we’re not in trouble.”

“Probably not. How much do you want to bet it has something to do with our powers?”

“You’re right. What else would it be about,” I said sarcastically.

He opened the door to the office and saw Raven, Carina, and Leo already inside. Standing in a neat row against the wall were five men wearing black suits and sunglasses. They each had a wire attached to their ear.

“They,” Mr. Lenny said, “are your new bodyguards. They have already been assigned to you. Take a minute to get to know them.” They all started walking towards us. The one who came up to me had black hair and pale skin. I could see through the sunglasses was a pair of small brown eyes.

“I’m Wayne.” He extended his hand out to me.

“Jade,” I said, shaking his hand skeptically.

“I will escort you every morning from your car into the school, and after school, back into your car.”

“Thanks, but my friends and I like to stand outside before and after school,” I said.

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible. Your safety would be too much at risk,” Wayne told me.

The bell rang.

“You guys can head straight to lunch,” Mr. Lenny said. “Your bodyguards will be outside of your sixth period classes in order to take you to your car.”

“Great. I just love having a babysitter in high school”, Carina murmured.

“This ‘babysitter’ will get the cameras out of your face, Miss Oliver. You are excused”, Mr. Lenny said.

“Well this sucks,” Leo said as we walked into the cafeteria.

“I’m reconsidering my plan of staying in bed and never getting back out,” Carina said.

Michael opened up his backpack. “My bodyguard is super old. I don’t know how he’s supposed to protect me. I think I’ll--”

I never got to hear the rest of the sentence, because, at that moment, a boulder came in through the ceiling and landed in the middle of the cafeteria.