The Elemental Warriors: Chapter 4

## Chapter 4- Ember

Picture it.
Your first day of school.  If you
were going into second grade, it might be a sign of fresh starts, cool new
teachers, and maybe even new playground equipment!

If you were going into sixth
grade (or whatever grade you start middle school on), it would be a sure sign
of impending doom.

As I walked through the doors of
Riverscene Middle School, I felt like my stomach was turning upside down.  I checked my schedule.  Why did those people have to put me in 7th
grade math?  This was going to be hard
already!  Oh well, at least I would be
with my friends in all my classes except FACS.

I looked down at my schedule
again.  Where to find room 104…?  There were 3 hallways that stretched out from
the gigantic, empty lobby.  I wished I
had gotten a map.

The bell rang.  In a panic, I turned right.

Don’t ask me how I got to
homeroom.  It involved trekking across
the entire school and being REALLY late.
Soon I would find out what detention was like.

Sky,
Coral, and Sage beckoned me over to a four-chair circular table.  “We’ve been waiting for you, Ember,” Coral
said amidst the chatter from the other tables.  Oh yay.  “We’re going to do a meditation circle.”

“It was her idea,” Sky said,
pointing at Sage. “She insisted on it.”

“Okay guys, I want us all to
close our eyes,” Sage said as I sat down.
“Hold hands…channel positivity into your brain… think positive
thoughts.  I WILL succeed. This WILL be
an amazing year…”

“The seventh graders WILL beat
me up in math,” Sky said, making me snort.

Sage ignored that comment. “Now
open your eyes,” she finished.  We
did.  Then we looked down and screamed. “¡Mierda!”
Sky yelled.

We were floating at the top of
the ceiling with no gravity holding our chairs down.  Things escalated quickly.  Coral let go of Sky and Sage’s hands,
breaking the weird connection we’d had.
Then Sky and Sage quickly let go of my hands.  I didn’t realize why, until I clasped them
together a few seconds later, and felt them burning up. *Fast.*  My eyes grew wide as I
thought up a brilliant idea.  Would it
work?  I prayed that no one got hurt in
the pursuit, then I put my arms at my sides, palms to the ground, praying that
this would work.  Sure enough, a minute
later, they were on fire and I was in full jetpack mode.  It was super fun, until I blew a hole in the
wall with my body.  It hurt.  A lot.

Meanwhile, things were just as
crazy for Sky, Coral, and Sage.  Well, I
think so.  Sky was probably invisible,
because I couldn’t see her even from my sky-high (pardon the pun) perch.

Coral
was having a little less fun.  Every time
she frowned (which was a lot, because there was a bunch of frown-worthy stuff happening),
water would shoot out of her hand.  Once
it hit the teacher square in the face, and even though the said teacher had seen
where it came from, she blamed it on one of those squirty Gatorade bottles.

Sage was talking to the class
pet.  (What a middle school class would
do with a hamster, I don’t know.  Maybe
the class was for science when it wasn’t a homeroom.)  She kept showing him her lunchbox and saying,
“Seriously, do you smell carrot sticks in here? It’s just Oreos and a
PB&J.”  The hamster must have
inquired what a PB&J exactly was (hey, don’t be hard on it, it’s a hamster,
people), because Sage added, “Peanut butter and jelly, okay?!?!  Jelly is not another word for carrots!”

All in all, it was a really
chaotic five minutes.  But the weirdest
part was that no one else noticed.

At
lunch that day, we all met up.  Sage had
saved seats for everyone.  “That was
really weird in homeroom,” Sky commented as she sat down.  “I mean, how *did* you do that jetpack thing, Ember?”  I replied, “Well, flames just started, like,
shooting out of my hand, and I just thought, *okay, why not try it?* “

Sky continued, “And Sage!  You were like talking to the hamster!  A bunch of stuff about carrots and
jelly.  All I heard back were a bunch of
squeaks, but seeing as how Sage hearing a hamster speak English would probably not
be the weirdest thing that has happened this week-“

“Definitely,” Sage interrupted.
“On Saturday Paul and I-“

“-she probably did hear the
hamster speak English,” Sky finished.

“Hey, I got some good news,
Sky…” I said, leaning towards her.  “If
any of those dumb seventh graders try to hurt us, I can just… MELT THEM TO
PIECES!!!”  I pointed a finger at the
ceiling.  A cone of fire shot out of it
(as planned), burning a gigantic hole in the ceiling (not as planned).  A bunch of yoga balls dropped out of it,
bouncing off people’s heads and into their lunches.  I don’t know how someone could not notice a
yoga ball sitting on their lunch tray, but all the people under those
circumstances did just that.

“That must be the auxiliary
gym,” I mumbled, making my friends cry with laughter.

Okay, I’m done now.  How did I do?

*<Aaurgh, you ruined it!  It was going to be perfect!  That’s going to be in the book!>*

It’s your turn next, Sky.

*<mumble mumble>*