I have to say, I liked the challenge of writing my 2000+ word chapter last time. So! I have challenged myself to a new challenge. Ahem. My challenge to me: Write every chapter with at least 2000 words or else. The or else? I decided that my punishment is that I have to write a one-shot based on something. Since I'm not all to creative, I let myself slide and said that it does not have to a CotRK fic, rather it can be about anything, as long as it is 2000 words or more. Anywho, I'm here to present to you the next chapter of, well, Untitled. Still can't think of a name and the ones that have been suggested don't feel right, though I'd like to thank those who gave me one. :D Ahem, well, here we go….

Disclaimer: If you haven't figured out that I am NOT the owner of the wonderful Children of the Red King series, I'd advise you get your IQ, common sense, and mental health checked…or just go read the other chapters. I'll say this again, it all belongs to Mrs. Nimmo…except for Elle of course.

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Elle was an early riser, so she always had time to think about things before Emma or Olivia woke up. This morning, Elle thought about the snippets of information that she had either stumbled upon by accident or had been told by her small group of friends. Some of it was somewhat alarming, some not so much.

The interesting information was mostly revolved around what the Bloor's had put her friends through: everything about Billy's so-called 'nice, adoptive parents' and Emma's hypnotism had intrigued her a lot. She heard small bits and pieces about Asa Pike, too, which also went near the most appealing stories that she'd heard from the group. Lastly, the ever-growing battle between the Red King's descendants, whom she had also gained some knowledge about, was a matter she was deeply drawn into.

She had thought about the last topic the most, seeing as it was a still-raging war. To the group's relief, none of the 'bad guys' had made any moves to make use of her on their side. As usual, they teased her and everyone else, but they seemed to pretty much keep their distance as much as they could. Their ignorance of her made some people, mainly Lysander and Tancred who she spent most of her time with, suspicious of their enemies' actions. The more she thought about it, Elle found it odd, seeing as they went through great lengths to persuade most everyone else endowed to join them. But the girl tried to brush it off. She did make it pretty obvious that she was opposing them right?

She had thought of other possibilities for them to leave her alone, of course. The most logical one out of her 23 (There were so many since some were quite ridiculous, even though Elle would never admit it) was about her power. For the month that Elle had been at Bloor's, she had gotten a detention twice already, but she hadn't used her power even once, nor had she given any signs of what exact forms of elements she could control or how she controlled anything. She supposed that they might not want to recruit someone who's endowment remained close to secret, since they only knew she controlled elements and that was all.

Meh, why am I thinking so pessimistically? She thought, mentally giving herself a slap. Just be happy that they haven't come after you, you paranoid dolt. Think on the sunny side! Which reminds me, is it going to be sunny or what? Britain's (1) so unpredictable. I wonder why. Stupid weather people. Oh wait, that's insulting Tancie, oops. But he can't hear me in my head, so it's cool right? I think so, but what do I know? Oh shoot! We got a English test! Stupid, stupid, stupid….Gah! I gotta cram-

"Elle, dear, I don't think it's healthy to be doing that. You might lose too many brain cells," came a voice to her side.

The said girl stopped her hand from hitting her forehead again to look at her currently black haired friend. "You're up already?"

Olivia winked. "Well, it isn't the easiest thing in the world to sleep with someone hitting their pretty little face now is it? It's quite loud."

Elle pretended to think. "Well I suppose not, but how should I know? My cruel hand is hitting me!" She said in mock distress.

Her friend gasped in faked horror. "Oh no That evil, evil hand!"

There was a short pause before the two promptly began laughing outrageously. Elle clutched her stomach as she rolled on the not-so comfortable bed. Grumbles followed, and rustling of sheets and pillows being pulled over their owners' heads. A loud 'shut up' made the two calm down. Wiping a tear of laughter from her eye, Olivia was the first to get up. "Well, I think we succeeded in waking every girl in this dorm."

A loud groan sounded, affirming Olivia's statement. Elle nodded in agreement. "Yes, I believe so," and ducked as an anonymous pillow flew over her head. "That's going to be the.." she mentally counted the events in her head, "the twelfth time since I arrived."

Her friend sighed. "Ah, yes. And what a wonderful gift that had came when you stepped foot on this campus." Both girls shared grins. "Ahem. Weeellll, shall I do the honors?"

Elle sighed. "If you must."

The actor flashed a brilliant smile. "Cool." She raised her voice higher and louder, until she was shouting shrilly. "Rise and shine ladies!"

Again both girls laughed as pillows were thrown into her direction, each one avoided by some means. Stifling a yawn, Elle rose from her mattress and strode into the bathroom to get ready.

"Good morning Tancie! Good morning Sandie!" (2)

Two identical groans came from in front of her. A grin was her reaction. "Yes, I missed you too."

Lysander looked up first. "Mmm, sure. Morning." Tancred just grunted in reply, since, like usual, he wasn't fully awake.

Elle tutted. "You guys suck mornings, I hope you know that."

Tancred waved her off. "Meh, you'll live."

"Hmm," she frowned. "I think I spend too much time with you guys. I'm starting to rub off a smidgen too much."

Lysander gave her a flat stare, one that could be interpreted as 'no duh'. She smiled back. "A little more can't hurt."

"Maybe it can." She muttered under her breath. "Tancred Timothy Torsson (3). Give me back my brush right now."

At the mention of his middle name, the boy cringed, not noticing the amusement in his best friend's poorly concealed snicker. Nevertheless, he stuck out his tongue and began painting his tree statue. "Tancred, I'll ask again. Give. Me. My. Brush. Or else."

He pondered it for a moment, making a show of saying a ton of random "hmm" and "weell" 's. "I think not." He finally said, a smirk smeared on his face.

Elle scowled, then sighed. "Yes, yes, I see that I was right."

He looked at her with confusion and curiosity. "About what?"

The girl looked at the African boy sadly. "Poor Lysander, now he has to put up with two me's."

Tancred dropped the brush, which Elle caught abruptly and began using it on her whale thing. She looked back at his shocked face and smiled faintly. With a nonchalant tone, she retorted "Just kidding."

Lysander laughed. Tancred just glared at both of them.

"Why is your whale green?" Lysander asked suddenly, causing Tancred to snicker.

This time Elle glared at the two boys. "It's not a whale. It's a bush."

"Hey Els?"

"Yes Ols?"

"Do you think…ah never mind."

They, the whole group, were sitting under the shady tree where the I Spy incident had occurred. Luckily, everyone seemed to forget about it or had gotten tired of teasing her every couple days, since Elle hadn't heard any comments about it for a while. The girl had crossed her fingers in hope that her luck lasted. So far so good.

She sighed. "Ols, what do you want?" she questioned, blunt but not unkind.

Her friend gave a nervous smile. "Well, you see, I was in acting class today when my mind decided to drift and think about a certain silver-blue eyed girl I know. Then my brain began talking to me and," she coughed faintly. Her words got rushed after this. "Well, you see, it was like 'Hey Liv' and I was like 'Hey brain' and it was like 'You know how Elle is endowed?' and I was like 'Dear brain how could I forget!' and then it was all 'just making sure' and I was like-"

Charlie gave a small sigh. "Can you get on with it please?" This got a few unconsciously used nods.

Olivia huffed. "Fine. Anyways, I was wondering if you could," she cleared her throat. "if you could, if you could, well, showusyourendowmentplease?"

Everyone looked at her confused. "Huh?" Billy said.

She cleared her throat again. "I asked if you could show us you endowment."

A few people oh'ed and nodded in agreement, looking at Elle. The girl just blinked. "That's it?"

Olivia looked at her confused. "What do you mean?"

Elle smiled. "Well, I mean, you said it like it was a real big deal or something. If you wanted to see it you could have just asked. Actually, I'm surprised you didn't ask sooner."

The actor's mouth formed an O. Emma butted in. "You don't care?"

Elle shrugged. "Not really. Should I?"

Tancred and Lysander both rose their hands. "I do."

Elle looked at them, bewildered. "You care about my endowment?"

When the two looked at her confused, Fidelio spoke up. "I think they care about their's, not yours."

Elle nodded. "That makes sense." Then she turned to Olivia. "So what exactly should I do?"

Olivia shrugged. This time Gabriel spoke. "You do element stuff, am I right?" The girl nodded. "So, can you make fire appear out of nowhere or something?"

Elle bit her lip. "Well, no, technically. I can't make fire appear out of nowhere, it has to come from somewhere." At the silent request of confused faces, she continued. "See, to make something appear I have to draw power out from it's natural forces, or basically the things that make it up. Fire is pretty much heat and light, right? So if I wanted to have fire I'd have to.." She trailed off. "Okay, never mind. You don't really have to know that stuff," she said, noticing the many even more confused faces. Sighs of relief came. "Anywho, most of the time I can. Some places it's harder; other places I can't. That's pretty much it."

Tancred grinned. "Show us," he stated.

The girl raised her eyebrows. "Well, what's to show?"

Lysander answered. "Make a water ball or something."

Elle grinned. "My favorite." A moment of concentration flickered over her face, but then it left. "Tada." she sighed almost dreamily.

In her hand-no, it was above it- hovered a small blueish orb. It was no bigger than a baseball and was perfectly round. As she moved, the walls flickered, like water sloshing inside. "Whoa," Charlie muttered in awe.

Elle blushed suddenly. "It's nothing," she shrugged, quickly letting it fall and hit the grass.

Tancred and Lysander shared similar looks. Each thought the same thing: What was up with that? Unknown to them, Emma and Olivia did the exact same thing.

Just as Billy was about to say something, the break bell rung, signaling the end. Elle jumped up and cleared her throat. "Yeah, well, gotta catch class. See you guys later!" Then she rushed off.

Then the four knew something was going on. Elle always waited for the two boys. Always.

That was kind of weird. Tancred thought.

Yes, yes it was. A faint voice said back. You gonna find out why?

Tancred thought for a moment. I hope so George. I hope so.

Bleh. You better.

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Woohoo…I'm pretty sure I made it. Yes, I included the intro, but oh well.

1. The setting is in Britain right? I don't remember. I thin it was, but I don't have a book handy, so oh well. If it's wrong feel free to correct me.

2. I think you can tell who's who. If you can't then Tancie (pronounced: Tanc-ee) is Tancred and Sandie (pronounced: San-dee) is Lysander.

3. Do I know Tancred's middle name? No. Not at all. Do I wish I did? Yes, yes I do. But for that to work I needed a middle name so I used Timothy for two reasons. One: I'm currently listening to Rise Against while I write this and one of the and members is named Timothy. Two: I thought it would be funny if Tancred's initials spelled TTT. :D

Yep, that's it. Sorry if you call that a cliffhanger, but…sorry. So tune in next time to see what happens next! Will Tancred find out what's up with Elle? What is up with Elle anyways? When's she getting with Tanc? Elle's parents? WHAT? ß--my idea of a preview..

R&R!

~tubs.

Word count: 2215 (including intro and end)