SORRY! I AM SO SORRY! I've been moving so much and I just haven't had the time to write. BUUUUUT here it is!

Nat POV:

After two long hours of shopping for everything necessary for elves, we came back home. I walked up to my room leaving Vi with the triplets. Dex knocked on my door. "Mom is taking me to… um, see her family. We'll be back in an hour. I saw the triplets and Vi scheming something when you went up here. Be careful for a while. I'll help with the aftermath when we get back."

"Ok, thanks for the warning."

"You're welcome," he said, going to the Leapmaster.

I kept putting away my clothes for the better part of an hour until Rex wandered into my room with his hands behind his back. "Hi Natalie, what are you doing?"

I looked away from the window, my notebook in my lap, "Unpacking the stuff your mom got for me. I'm almost finished. Do you need something?"

"No, I'm fine. I was just wondering. You've been up here for a while." Rex walked around the room to the bookshelf near my bed. There I had my few possessions from home, a couple of trinkets I had collected over the years and my favorite books. I hoped that we would be able to go back and get more. He reached his arm forward as if to touch them but then pulled back. "Go ahead, they aren't fragile," I said, pulling myself up and out of the window seat. With my permission, he began carefully removing the objects one by one and studying them. As he fiddled with my snow globe I asked, "Where are the others?"

"They are going through Vi's stuff. Are you excited for school?"

"I guess, but what do you even do in 'elf' school?"

"Well, you have eight subjects you have to pass to stay in school. I don't think there has ever been anyone entering mid-year," Rex said, setting down my stuff.

"Are there any books I can read that can help me catch up?" I was worried about being behind. If you had to pass to stay in school and I'm already so late, I would have to learn as much as possible before class.

"Maybe, I think mom would know," Rex turned to me, "Let's go now. She might be busy. That sometimes happens."

"Here are the books for the past three years you've missed. They won't expect you to know everything immediately," Juline gasped, dropping the stack onto the kitchen table.

"Where did you get these? I thought Dex wasn't my age?" I asked pulling the book on the top in front of me.

"Oh, he isn't but it wasn't hard to go to Foxfire and ask for the additional books."

"Foxfire? Isn't that a fungus?" I giggled, looking up from a map of stars.

"Yes, I don't know who thought of it. It signifies 'light in a world of darkness' or something like that. I don't really remember. It's been years since I was there."

"Wow. Thank you for the books," I pulled half of the stack towards me. Juline picked up the others and we headed upstairs.

Dex POV

I stumbled up the stairs. My thoughts were flying, Edalaine and Grady were fostering a girl who had grown up in the forbidden cities. That was unheard of, sure some families went to the forbidden cities on orders from the council. It was supposed to be impossible for an elf to go all by themselves. I walked to my door and opened it. Preoccupied with my thoughts, I missed the sniggering coming from my bed. Slap! All I could see was pink. A second of silence was broken by the sound of laughter and snorts. "Good one, Rex!" exclaimed Lex.

"Why thank you."

As I wiped the pink from my face, I could see that not only were the triplets there but Violet as well, standing there laughing her head off. I stared shocked at them, and then I realized that in their evil little hands with multicolored balls. I held up my hands in defense. "No… No…Nononono. " Violet smiled wickedly. "Oh yes…Yes yes, yes yes yes. AIM," They lifted the balls and pointed them towards me "WAIT JUST A SECO…" I tried to say.

"FIRE!"

SPLAT… SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT! There was something wet in my mouth. I spit it out, purple and pink falling to the floor. Laughter erupted from their little evil mouths.

"Wow Dex, you look just amazing," Bex said.

I glared, "Why was this necessary?"

"Well, we were bored and Vi told us about this cool thing humans do. It's called 'paintball'. Anyway, we wanted to try it out. I think it was a success," Rex said, flopping backward onto my bed.

I could hear footsteps outside my door. The triplets' eyes widened, they looked at their hands then at me. "Oh no," Lex whispered. I could see what they were all thinking. My room was a mess, covered in paint, my desk, the carpet, even the walls had at least a little paint, and those were all far from me. Where I stood you couldn't see the floor, a mix of purples, oranges and greens caked to the ground. The door swung open, all of us holding our breath.

"What's going on he…" Natalie was outside the door. Her eyes were wide, and mouth was open. She looked around the room. Her gaze trailed past the mess on the wall to the younger elves sitting on the bed. She took a deep breath as if she was going to scold them but then saw me. "Oh my gosh… what… happened.. to… you ?" She gasped in between laughs. She was propping herself on the door frame, her body shaking. "What do I look like?" I said miserably, I thought it wasn't that bad, but maybe not.

"Why don't you take a look for yourself." pointed Vi. I turned around to face my mirror. My clothes were splotched with purple, green and bright neon orange. And my hair had grown down to my feet. I could feel my face getting red. "Why you little…HICCUP!" A bubble floated out of my mouth. "Hiccup!" More bubbles came out. I looked at the triplets "We might have forgotten to mention we put some elixirs in them," Lex giggled. As I hiccuped, spots popped up on my hair.

"Why did you do that?" Nat asked, walking towards the desk, "It will take forever to clean," Rex and Bex looked at the mess.

"Oops, I guess Dex's room is messy," Rex said with a smirk.

"How could you make such a disaster?" Rex questioned.

"Dex, you should really stop testing your elixirs on yourself," Lex added.

"Anyway, they need to show me more of the house so… bye," Violet jabbered. Within the blink of an eye, they were gone, the door swinging close behind them. I sighed, looking around my room, I could see that cleaning up would take some time. Natalie spoke, "How about you get that paint off? I can start cleaning."

"Are you sure?" I asked looking at my bathroom and back at her.

"Yeah, you might wanna get a haircut too," she pointed to my now long hair. I hiccuped another bubble as I walked to the door. I turned once more, Natalie moved her hand and the messy elixirs rose off the floor and formed a ball of brightly colored liquid hanging in the air.

"You're a Hydrokinetic?" I blurted out. Nat didn't say she had her abilities yet. Natalie jumped and the ball fell splashing all over the ground.

"Sorry," I said, rushing back to where she was, almost tripping over my feet.

"What did you say?" Nat warily glanced at me.

"Hydrokinetic, you manifested your ability already. That's so cool!" I exclaimed.

"I haven't told anyone about it yet. I wasn't sure if it was normal or not," Nat said fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

"It is! My mom is a Froster. It's like a Hydrokinetic but instead of water she controls ice," I pulled her back as the elixirs began to soak back into the rug almost touching her feet.

"So doing this is normal?" Nat looked hopeful.

"You have an ability, many people have it. If you don't you're talentless. I haven't manifested yet, most people do by 15." I frowned, If only I had manifested by now…

"I've been able to do this since I was 10," Natalie looked back at the puddle, pulling her hand up and bringing the liquid with it.

"How? Most people are around 12 when they manifest. I've heard of a few people who manifested at 11 but even that is rare. Maybe I should ask my mom?" I questioned.

"You can do that later, go take a shower." Nat pushed out her hand and sent the elixirs down the sink. As I walked back to my bathroom, I heard Nat say, "I'll wait in my room. When you're done, come get me, we can ask her together." I closed the door and turned on the shower. I looked at my long hair colorful skin, This is going to take a while.

Thank you for reading! Sorry for the wait. Special shout out to Guest who's review helped me find the motivation to write!(I hope you liked it)

-BK13