Sami woke up early on Monday. She was a little tired, but got ready for school. When Kero saw what Sami was up, he said, "Are you going to a party tonight?"
Sami groggily said, "Why would I?"
Kero flew over to a calendar and pointed to the date. He said, "It's Cassie's birthday!"
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Sami ran downstairs to the kitchen. Sami's mom said, "good morning. I made eggs and toast today."
Sami grabbed her plate and ate breakfast. After breakfast, Sami grabbed the Clow cards she had and stuck them in her backpack. After yesterday, she didn't leave home without them. As she ran out the door, her mother called out, "have fun. And don't forget about the party tonight at Cassie's house!"
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At school, Cassie couldn't stop talking about her birthday party. She just kept blabbing and blabbing about it. Sami took her seat and said, "Who all is going to be there?"
Cassie said, "You, Abby, Terry, my mom made me invite him, (the list goes on for quite some time) and I was going to ask Elliot if he wanted to come."
Sami saw him walk in the door. Sami said, "I'll ask him."
Elliot took his seat behind Sami, and Sami asked, "Elliot, Cassie is having a birthday party tonight. Want to come?"
Elliot, who looked a little sleep-deprived, wearily said, "Why?"
Cassie, who was in earshot, got very angry. She hit Elliot on the head with a mallet that she got from some random place. Elliot said, "Itai!(1) What was that for?!"
"For insulting me," Cassie said, "Now are you going to come to my party or not?!"
A now very awake Elliot sweat dropped and said, "Sure."
Sami said, "Great!"
Elliot then suddenly remembered something. He looked around to make sure nobody was listening, then whispered to Sami, "Meet me at lunch on top of the building."
Sami was about to ask why, but right then, Mr. Tomika said, "Alright class, settle down. It's time to begin our lesson."
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At lunch, Sami went to the top of the school building. She saw Elliot standing at the end of the building facing towards the area where everyone was. She said, "What's wrong?"
Elliot said, "A Clow card made its presence known last night."
Sami looked surprised. Elliot continued, "I tried to find out as much as I could. It burnt down several trees in the park. We have to go there tonight after Cassie's party and capture it. I already went to Li-san, and he gave me these," Elliot held up some spell tags, "Since we don't know what card this is, we must be on our guard. You can't get overconfident. So, keep your eyes out."
Elliot walked back inside and downstairs to eat lunch, leaving Sami standing there dumbstruck.
Sami relayed all the information to Kero after school. Kero said, "He really tried to find out as much as he could about this card?"
Sami nodded and said, "That's what he said. He even went to Grandpa for advice."
"He's really smart then," Kero said, deep in thought, "much smarter than Sami…"
Sami glared at Kero and said, "I am smart!"
"Then why didn't you sense the card last night?"
"I was tired!"
"No excuses! You should be extra careful in times like this. Who knows when evil will strike!"
"Shut up, Kero!"
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Elliot sat as his desk, the sword and spell tags laid out in front of him. He looked at them for a while, then said, "Hmm, I wonder….Now that I have met her, it seems harder to complete my mission. I think I shall wait. Acting now would be foolish. And Sami is really nice……..no! I cannot let my emotions get in the way of my mission!"
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At five, Sami was ready to party. She had her new party dress (red with a star on the collar) that her grandma had given her on, and her Clow cards with her in a side bag. Of course, she had her usual braid in her hair. She didn't know if Elliot was going to show up at the party or not, but she hoped that he would. She wanted to get to know him better. She called to her dad, "I'm ready to go," and ran downstairs.
Her father said, "That's a pretty dress Grandma gave you," when he saw how Sami looked.
Sami smiled and said, "let's go."
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Sami arrived at the party at 6 o'clock pm. Cassie, upon Sami's arrival, said, "Hi Sami! Come on, we all are out back!"
Sami headed out back, and saw practically the whole school there. Luckily Cassie was very rich and had a very large backyard, or else everybody wouldn't have fit. Abby waved to Sami, and Sami went over to her. Abby said, "Is Elliot coming?"
Sami said, "I'm not completely sure, but I think he is."
Right about then, he heard some boys say, "Look at that loser!"
Sami turned to the path from the front yard and saw Elliot wearing a brown suit with brown shoes and a tie. Everybody else had worn casual clothes. Sami waved to Elliot, and Elliot reluctantly walked over to where she and Abby were standing. Sami said, "Hi Elliot. What's new?"
Elliot said, "I had to wear a suit to a casual birthday party."
Sami, in an effort to cheer Elliot up, said, "I think it looks good."
That made Elliot smile a little. He muttered thanks and didn't say much after that. Sami and Elliot tried to have a good time, but it was hard with everyone staring at them. At 6, Cassie opened her birthday presents and everyone had cake and ice cream. It was starting to get dark, so Cassie said, "Let's light the torches, so we can see."
Suddenly, the torches, which were only supposed to burn a little, were engulfed in flames. Everyone started to scream. The screaming stopped after the torches were doused. Sami and Elliot looked at each other. They had both felt the presence of a Clow card when the torches had burst into flames. Sami glanced at one of the light posts and saw that it had burst into flames as well. Then, Sami ran out to the sidewalk, Elliot not far behind. They both saw that lights all down the street were bursting into flames. So, they ran down the street, following the bursting lights all the way to the park. Elliot, though, was faster, so he ran ahead of her. Sami struggled to keep up. A few minutes later, Sami ran to the park. She tried to sense the card, but she couldn't. She thought to herself, "Where is it? And where is Elliot?"
Suddenly, there was a bright blast of fire from an area not too far away, fowled by a yell from Elliot. Sami, fearing the worst, ran as fast as she could. She got to where the card was, and saw Elliot, slumped on the ground and passed out, at the foot of a tree near the card. He clothes looked pretty singed. Sami said, "Hey! Leave Elliot alone!"
The card turned and faced Sami. Sami thought, "Oh great."
Sami released the Clow wand and said, "Stop that card, Thunder!"
She hit it with the Clow wand, and the Thunder ran at the Firey. It tried to electrocute it, but the Firey easily blocked it. Then it attacked the Thunder, and it turned back into a card and returned to Sami. Sami said, "What's wrong?"
Suddenly, Sami her a familiar voice say, "Sami!"
Sami turned and saw that Kero had arrived. Sami said, "Kero! How did you get here?"
Kero took a breath and said, "I felt the presence of a card, so I came to it. The card you are fighting is the Firey. Originally, when Clow Reed made all the Clow cards, he made four of them stronger than the rest. These cards, the Earthy, the Windy, the Watery, and the Firey, are called the elemental cards, since they are based on the four elements of life. This is going to be your toughest battle yet."
"Is that it," Sami said, "The Firey card is stronger, so that's why it easily beat the Thunder?"
Kero nodded. The Firey card got ready to attack Sami. Sami pulled out the Fly card and said, "Let me fly high, Fly!"
Sami hit it with the Clow wand, and wings grew on the wand. Sami hopped on and flew up high. She thought, "It can't reach me now!"
Sami was very surprised when the Firey card flew up and followed her. She flew around the park, trying to keep ahead of the Firey while dodging the fire blasts from the Firey card. Kero called out, "Sami! You can't keep this up forever!"
Eventually, Sami landed and pulled out the Bubbles card. "If it can't see me," Sami said, "It can't attack me. Make it bubbly so that the Firey can't see me, Bubbles!"
Sami hit it with the Clow wand, and it made a thick fog of bubbles. Sami could see that the Firey was firing fire blasts all over, but couldn't see Sami. Sami could sense the card, though. She snuck up on the card, and said, "Firey card…."
She didn't get to finish, because the Firey card did an about face and shot a fire blast at Sami. Sami dodged it and hid in the thick bubbles again. She thought for a moment. She then said to herself, "If I can use the Dash card to confuse it, then maybe I could catch it!"
Sami pulled out the Jump card and said, "Let me be fast, Dash!"
Sami hit it with the Clow wand. She then yelled, "bet you can't catch me," at the Firey and began running around it. The Firey looked around, getting confused. Eventually, Sami jumped up on a wall. She stopped and said, "Return to the form you were destined to be! Clow card!"
She swung the Clow wand forward, and a card shape appeared at the end. The Firey turned into wisps of light and flew at the card shape. After a while, it was in card form. Sami had caught her first elemental card! After it flew at her and she caught it, she lost her balance and fell backwards. Right before she hit the ground, someone caught her. Sami looked up into the face of Elliot. He looked weary. Sami said, "Elliot…..are you ok?"
Elliot nodded and helped Sami sit down. He then sat down too. He said, "I was way overpowered. When I tried to fight the Firey, it drained all my magic power. I think I passed out at one point. When I became conscious again, I saw the light from you and the card fighting, so I made my way over here. Are you ok?"
Sami nodded. Kero said, "Well, at least you guys succeeded in stopping the card. I'm impressed."
Both Sami and Elliot smiled. Elliot said, "Well, should we go back to the party before Anyone notices that we are gone?"
Sami nodded, then said, "Won't people notice that your clothes and hair are singed?"
Elliot said, "Well, they might notice it in my clothes, but my hair might be alright. It is dark blue, after all, and black doesn't stand out well on it."
Sami and Kero stared at Elliot. He sweat dropped and said, "You guys can't take a joke, can you?"
"Lame," Kero said, "That's the only word for that 'joke.' Lame."
Elliot glared at Kero. He said, "And you can tell a better one?"
The argument continued as Sami watched. She sweat dropped and said, "This could go on for a while…."
Nobody noticed the bluenette standing in the tree nearby. He muttered to himself, "This just gets more and more interesting. I never expected Li Sami to make an ally out of my brother. Hmm, let's see how things shall turn out."
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(1) Itai means ouch or owie. ^^ I love that word!