Chapter Nine: Getting Over Differences.
The truck pulled up in front of the house, and Aunt Juniper climbed out with the gleaming house keys dangling in her hands. I was still sitting in there though, it's like my mind just went numb with unanswered questions. She noticed I wasn't following her, and Aunt Juniper walked back, opened the car door, and gently but firmly pulled me out escorting me inside. Once we were inside the dining room, she pulled up a chair, and gestured me to sit. I kinda robotically sat down, like my brain wasn't connected to my body.
She drew in a deep breath, and said softly, "Jasmine, remember what I told you about your birthmark?" Of course I remember, it was a year after the crash, and my face was glistening with tears. She had held me until my sobs slowly subsided, and told me that my birthmark made me special. After she had personally consulted the principal, things got better, but not before I was totally embarrassed the next day when my teacher made everyone apologize. All of that went through my head in a split second, but I just nodded. Aunt Juniper sighed at my stony attitude, and I was surprised that I actually was giving her the cold shoulder. I needed explanations, and I could tell she was trying to approach the subject indirectly. Then again, she's never willingly talked about my leaf shaped birthmark before, until now.
"Look at this Jasmine, read the first page." With that, she handed me a thick, but oddly light, book. The cover was made of light brown leather, soft to the touch, and in the very center there was a round, flat wooden plate thingy. Carved in the center was a depiction of a single, perfect leaf that was colored a bright green. A regular old book, right? Wrong. For binding the book were long, bark like tendrils that wrapped around and around the book, comparable to tree roots. Weirdest thing? As soon as I ran the tip of my finger across the wooden carving, there was a faint click, and slowly but surely, the roots unwrapped themselves leaving the book free to open. Yup, it was totally a regular book you find at the library. That was before I read what was inside. I felt my eyes widen in disbelief as the deep green cursive writing burned the words into my mind.
"Children born with the birthmark of leaf are one of the gifted. Gifted with the more uncommon element of life, life elementals have the inner ability to connect, interact, and even control the forest itself. Life elementals are more formally known as therugists, and are gifted with special abilities. Able to manipulate the life force of any plant, therugists can let vines grow, flowers bloom, and even make trees come to life. One of the most special powers granted upon life elementals from the dryads is the power to heal and restore the wounds of themselves, and others, mortal or immortal. This healing can be achieved through magic, or more commonly through use of a variety of herbs. Therugists are effective in teams, but they are weaker in solo combat. In many cases, life elementals and the humans in the family line are gifted with the Sight, the ability to see faeries, good and bad, without glamour. All elementals have a familiar, an animal bonded to them from the moment they are born. Life elementals usually have forest animals, magical and non magical, as their familiars. Range rabbits, deer, flutterbuns, grass vipers, and forest bears are some of the possible familiars for a therugist (See complete list on page 133). In rare instances, an elemental may have a dragon as a familiar, but the chances are slim, for dragons are stubborn and demanding familiars, with a few exceptions. Only three accounted therugists have ever had a dragon as a familiar throughout elemental history."
I looked away from the elegant text and made eye contact with Aunt Juniper. "So, you mean- I'm a- I'm a-" I stuttered, still attempted to process this load of information in my head. She gave a small nod and gently closed the book, causing the root-like bindings to grow back.
"So that's why I can see faeries!" I exclaimed, startling poor Lola who was jolted rather rudely out of her afternoon nap time. "And all the plants alway seeming greener when I walk by, and the happy animals, and-and-"
"Woah, woah, woah, Jasmine, slow down," Aunt Juniper laughed lightly, "You'll get a chance to gush it over with your friends today, alright?" That's when I remembered the early dismissal. "We'll be going to a ceremony, The Ceremony I should say, to get everything sorted out for you guys. And we best be leaving now, or else the portal will close." She added, and swiftly got up and out the front door.
"But I'll miss archery!" I yelled, running after her. Funny how I cared about that right now when I just got hand basically a whole new life, but we're getting our test scores today, and that's super important, at least to me. I couldn't wait to rub it in Jaffie's face that I beat her on exams, but now I'm going to have to miss it.
Aunt Juniper rolled her eyes at me, "Come on Jasmine, you really don't want to miss this. Here they come!" Rumbling along the cement road was a huge white van, and it screeched to a halt right near us blowing dust everywhere. The doors flew open, and I saw a whole mob of kids squashed into the seats. Oh boy. Aunt Juniper ushered me up, and there was one seat bench left at the very back that actually have enough space to sit down without half of yourself suspended in mid air. The bus driver directed me to the left seats, and I noticed Brook waving excitedly at me. It wasn't long before I found out exactly why she was so excited and there was an empty space next to her instead of at the edge.
"Hey Jasmine, sit here!" She shouted, and before I could react, her hand reached out, tugged hard, and then I was flung unceremoniously into the space. Instantly I felt dizzy with nausea.
"Really Brook?" I yelled as I was shoved up against Stephen, who was in turn pushed up against the dirt caked window, his flat black eyes wide as the van swerved a curve and took off high speed onto the highway. Did I mention there weren't any seat belts? Struggling into a sitting position, I proceeded to put as much distance between myself and Stephen as possible. Hard task with Brook constantly attempting to shove me back. I mean seriously, can't I get away from him for a few hours of my life?
"Sorry about my death aura," he apologized, scooting himself away all the while glaring at Brook's triumphiant expression, "I'll take that you're life right?" Well that explains a lot, come to think of it, it should have been pretty obvious since I finished reading that paragraph.
"Mmhm," I mumbled, trying to drown out Brook's voice saying all kinds of nonsense about whatever is going through her rebellious mind.
"Here Jasmine," Natalie called, and tossed me something. I reflexively caught it and realized it was some sort of cough drop thingy.
"How in the world is this going to help?" I shouted back at her.
"Just take it!" she yelled before her words were ripped apart by the chaos in the van. Unwrapping the candy, I popped the light brown sphere in my mouth. A fresh, mint like flavor spread throughout my tastebuds, and the unease in my tummy slowly subsided. Stephen visbly relaxed too, and managed to sit up in the tiny space. Whew, I felt a lot better. Mouthing thanks to Natalie, I turned my attention back to Brook, and heard a few snatches of her speech to Sabrina, "...they're like so cute together...of course he likes her...OMG yes! ...yeah...let's do it!" I didn't need to hear the whole conversation to know that she was talking about me.
"So Stephen, when are you gonna ask her out?'' Brook asked slyly. He opened his mouth to shoot back a reply, but I intervented with a, "Oh my gods Brook, leave him alone! And for your information, we're not even friends, so there!" Suddenly I felt my hands, which where clutched into fists, grow warm. Looking down, I gasped as a green glow was visible, and opening my palm revealed a small emerald green spark, which steadily grew in size as Brook continued to poke fun at me, completely oblivious to my mounting anger.
"Um, Brook, you might want to be quiet," Stephen warned, noticing the large glowing orb of energy in my hand.
"Oh look, how cute, he's trying to defend you!" In that instant, both me and Stephen's self control snapped, and I unleashed the spark into Brook's surprised face. A pitch black blaze soon exploded dangerously close to her face right after mine, and I sensed more than saw his stare drilling into Brook's face.
"Shut. Your. Mouth. Up," I growled at her, my hands sparking again with bright energy.
Her disbelief switched quickly to fury even though not even a scratch was on her skin, and she deftly turned around and chatted nonstop with Sabrina about something or the other. Guilt gnawed at me for losing control, but I was throughly sick of it.
"I can't believe I lost control like that," I muttered partly to myself, mentally cursing my out of control temper
"Me too," I heard Stephen say softly, "I'm usually not that violent." I knew that, he's so quiet that I sometimes forget that he's there. Must be a death thing. I could feel the effects of the mint wearing off, but somehow I wasn't feeling faint. Odd.
"Did you know that we have an extended lifespan now?" he asked me out of the blue, attempting to change the subject and provide a distraction. It worked.
"An extended life span?" I echoed in surprise. He smiled slightly at my curious tone, and started rattling off all sorts of fascinating facts about us elementals like he already read the whole entire guide book, which given his clique in the school, he probably did. For once I'm not being sarcastic on the fascinating part, it was actually interesting. Throughout the whole three hour car ride, I learned that elementals can live up to ten thousand years with a plus side of super mega slow aging, our powers start manifesting around the age of 10 to 13 (FYI, I'm 11), we emmit auras (explains the nausea), if we use up too much of our energy we could technically blow up (Oh goshies), got lectured on a complete list of the elements, there are secondary elements (sun, moon, star, and balance.), opposing elemental usually don't get along well with the exception of opposite companions (That explains my automatic hostility towards him earlier in the day. No idea what opposite companions are.), and that we most likely will die in combat before the age of eight thousand (Gulp.). By the time he finished talking, I was almost one hundred percent sure he read the whole book. Suddenly a thought struck me.
"Wait, so is that why you knew my parents are... dead?" My voice cracked a bit on the last part.
He shrugged, "I guess. It's more like I felt it, as soon as Sarah said that I sensed that they weren't there with you. And I'm sorry they're gone," he added as an afterthought.
"It's okay," I said thickly, "It's not like I could bring them back." I lapsed into silence the rest of the time, gazing sightlessly out the window. Stephen looked thoughtful, as if he was thinking of a plan.
Hey, I managed to find some wifi! :D Hoped you liked this chapter, but this will probably be the last one I'll complete until I get back into the US. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, thanks!
*Note: This story is actually based off of my actual friends and my life only changed slightly. The teasing bits usually did actually happen except all in school.