Okay, sorry for the long wait on the update, I've been pretty busy. But I'm updating, and that's all that matters! Okay, on with the story!
Chapter 3- A Stronger Friendship
Hay Lin's POV
Hay Lin shook her head hopelessly. If it isn't Irma and Cornelia fighting, it's Cornelia and Will fighting. If it isn't Cornelia and Will fighting, it's Will and Irma. I can't win!
She exchanged looks with Taranee, who looked just as upset as she was. Neither of them had talked to Will since she'd come back to school. While they were determined not to take sides, they had ended up hanging around Irma a lot more than they were Will, and they were starting to get mad. They didn't want to be between their two best friends. Hadn't they gone through enough of that when Will, Irma, and Cornelia had all been fighting? They were tired of being in the middle.
"Thought of anything yet?" Taranee asked, breaking her thoughts.
"Yea", Hay Lin said, sitting up, "I think it's too hard to think"
The two were hanging out in Hay Lin's room. Irma had gone home right after school, and they hadn't been able to grab Will before she took off as well. So they'd agreed to just go over Hay Lin's and try to think up a way to get Irma and Will to talk to each other.
"I have an idea!" Taranee said suddenly, once again breaking through Hay Lin's thoughts.
"What?"
"It's so simple, I can't believe we didn't think of it before", Taranee said, "So here's what we do…"
"Hello, Mrs. Vandom?" Hay Lin was saying half an hour later, "Yes, this is Hay Lin, is Will there?"
"Sure, just a sec Hay Lin", Will's mother said airily.
"Okay", Hay Lin gave Taranee a wink. It'd taken them about half an hour to figure out what to say to Will and Irma. But they'd finally come up with some thing good to say.
"Hi Will!" she said in a chirpy voice, "Whatsup?"
"Nothing", Will's depressed sounding voice came over the line, "Why?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to come over", Hay Lin said carefully, "My mother made a batch of cookies, too many for Taranee and I to eat on our own. And I know you love cookies…"
"Okay", Hay Lin cheered silently. She was banking on Will's sweet tooth taking over. She told Will she'd see her in a few minutes and hung up.
"One down", Taranee guessed.
"Yup", Hay Lin nodded, "Okay, Irma…"
She dialed Irma's number, "Hello, Mrs. Lair? May I talk to Irma?"
"Sure Hay Lin, hang on a sec"
Hay Lin gave Taranee a thumbs up, "Hello?" Irma's voice came over the line.
"Hey Irma!" Hay Lin chirped, "Guess what?"
"What?" Irma asked boredly.
"I got the new Boy Comet DVD!"
"What?.!" Suddenly, Irma didn't sound so bored.
"It's true!" Hay Lin said, "Wanna come over and watch it?"
"Well duh!" Irma cried, "I'll be over in five, at the most!"
She hung up without another word. "Two down", Hay Lin grinned, hanging up, "So exactly at are we going to say to them?"
"We're just going to say that for the sake of the team we need to stay together", Taranee said, "And we also need to come up with a way to get Cornelia to talk to us, so we're going to need the four of us together to do it. We can pull that off, I suppose"
"No sweat", Hay Lin said at once, "After everything else we've been through? This'll be a breeze"
"Good point"
The girls waited five minutes, and finally Irma burst into the room, "Where's the DVD?.!"
Hay Lin laughed, "You'll see", she assured the frantic girl, "I ordered pizza, we'll watch the DVD as soon as it gets here"
"Okay!" Irma said excitedly, "Oh, hi Taranee"
"Hi Irma", Taranee said, trying not to laugh.
"Thanks Mrs. Lin", Will's voice drifted in as the red-head herself stepped into the room, "Hey guys--"
She stopped short at seeing Irma.
"What's she doing here?" Will and Irma said at the same time. Taranee and Hay Lin exchanged a glance.
"Okay", Hay Lin said, standing up, "I'll be the first to admit it; we lured you here under false pretenses"
"You what?" Irma asked.
"We tricked you", Taranee said, "There is no DVD, and there are no cookies"
"Not yet anyway", Hay Lin shrugged, "My mom is making some now--"
"Save it Hay-Hay", Irma snapped, "I'm outta here"
"My thoughts exactly", Will said, turning to leave. Hay Lin, thinking fast, waved her hand. A stream of air flowed through the room, and the door slammed shut. Will jumped back, and looked around at the air guardian, "What?"
"We brought you both here to talk", Taranee pointed out, "We've given you guys time to get over your fight. Now give us time to get you to make up"
"Right", Hay Lin nodded, "Give us a chance, please. Give us five minutes, and then you can hate us for the rest of your life if you want"
Will and Irma glared at her and Taranee for a second, and then gave each other a loathing glare, "Okay", they finally said at the same time. Irma took a seat on Hay Lin's bed. While Will opted for finding a bare spot on the floor.
"Okay", Taranee said, "The thing is, splitting up like this, we don't think it's a good idea"
"Right", Hay Lin continued, "Before all of this happened, weren't we pretty good friends?"
"That was before Will--"
"No", Taranee cut in, "Irma and Will, you're not allowed to talk. You can talk when our five minutes up, got it?"
They both nodded, "Good", Hay Lin said, "Anyways, weren't we friends?"
Another nod from both girls, "Before we even found out we were guardians, we were pretty close, weren't we?"
Again, they nodded, "We barely knew Will and Taranee", Hay Lin said, "But still, we were all really good friends, right?"
It was easy to tell Irma and Will were tired of nodding, "So why can't we go back to that?" Hay Lin concluded.
"Yea", Taranee said, "Even if we had never become guardians, I'd still want to be friends with you guys, you know what I mean?"
They nodded, "So", Hay Lin said, "Lets pretend for a second we'd never become guardians. Lets pretend Elyon was really our friend, not a spy, and lets pretend Phobos didn't exist. We'd be some pretty tight knit friends wouldn't we?"
"Yea", Taranee nodded, "So, back in reality, can't we still be like that? Can't we be friends?"
Silence, "Our five minutes was up three minutes ago", Hay Lin pointed out, "You can talk now"
Irma and Will both exploded into conversation, "Okay, scratch that!", Hay Lin cried, "Talk one at a time please. I'll point to one of you, and you talk. And no interrupting, got it?"
They nodded, "Okay", Hay Lin said, "Irma"
"We may have been friends before we became guardians", Irma said at once, "But that was before Will stopped believing in friendship!"
"Now wait just one second--"
"Will", Hay Lin said at once, "I thought I said don't interrupt? Come on, Taranee and I are trying to prove something here, give us a hand"
"Can I say something?" Taranee asked.
"Sure", Irma, Will, and Hay Lin said at the same time.
"Well", Taranee said carefully, "The thing is, even after we became guardians, we were still friends. In fact, all this fighting started after we beat Phobos. Did anyone else notice that?"
Will and Irma gave each other guilty looks and nodded. "So", Hay Lin said, "Will, Irma said something about you not believing in friendship anymore. That's not true, is it?"
"Well, I…" Will hesitated, "I'm not sure, okay? I mean, I thought about it a lot, and I just don't know what to say"
Irma suddenly looked uncomfortable, "Um, look, Will, what I said, earlier…I mean, I know, you went through a lot, I guess I just…I wasn't thinking--"
"Forget it", Will said at once, standing up, "Nice try Hay Lin and Taranee. I gotta go though, see you guys at school tomorrow, bye"
"Will, wait!" Irma scrambled up as Will left and took off after her. Hay Lin and Taranee exchanged looks and took off after them. Evidently Will moved faster than they thought, because she was already outside before they caught her.
"Will!" Irma said, running in front of her, "Wait. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry about what I said, really, I am! I was wrong, and I wasn't being fair, I wasn't thinking, after what happened in the woods with Cedric, I'd be a bit freaked to, I'd say things like that, I should have thought about how you were feeling. But after everything we've been through, I've seen you bounce back a lot, I figured you could just bounce back from this to. I really am sorry, but I don't blame if you don't want to forgive me"
Hay Lin and Taranee's jaws were practically on the ground. They'd never seen Irma get so emotional. Never. They looked at Will for her reaction, and were surprised to see tears in her eyes.
"Will?" Hay Lin put her hand on the red-head's shoulder, "You okay?"
She closed her eyes and shook her head, "I'm sorry to", she said quietly, "For everything"
Hay Lin broke into a grin. She looked over at Taranee, who was also smiling, and then looked at Irma. She was grinning widely. "Group hug!" Hay Lin said finally. Irma and Taranee quickly joined, and even Will managed a smile through her tears as the friends hugged each other. Hay Lin shot Taranee a smile.
That worked out better than we thought, didn't it?
Hay Lin's eyes grew wide, Taranee?
Who else can talk to you in your head? Taranee asked, giving her a smile.
But how? Hay Lin asked, bewildered, I thought because our powers were diminishing you couldn't do that anymore!
I know! Taranee thought, so did I! But when Will and Irma made up, I felt like I could just…do it, you know?
"Of course!" Hay Lin said out loud, "Because our friendship's been repaired, our powers are growing stronger! This is great!"
"What in the world are you talking about Hay Lin?" Irma asked, confused.
"No time", Hay Lin said, grabbing Irma by the arm and somehow managing to grab Will and Taranee at the same time, "We have one more job to do before we can really be done. To Cornelia's!"
"Hay Lin, you're not listening", Irma said, "Cornelia made it very clear she never wants to see me again, can't I just wait outside?"
"No", Hay Lin said at once, "I have a good feeling about this, okay? I know we can do this. Maybe Cornelia doesn't want to see you, but it doesn't matter. This just feels like something we have to do, you know? And we have to do it as a team"
"But Hay Lin, Cornelia hates me"
"No she doesn't", Taranee said, "Give us a chance Irma"
"Hello girls", Mrs. Hale said, opening to door, "So nice to see you again. Cornelia's up in her room. Oh…" she caught sight of Irma, "Um, Irma, I hate to do this, but Cornelia said she'd rather you didn't visit her anymore…"
"Um, please let her come with us Mrs. Hale", Hay Lin said, "We really need to talk to her as a group, please…"
"Well, okay", Mrs. Hale said doubtfully, "Go on"
"Wow, you must have really gotten Cornelia steamed", Will said, "What in the world did you do?"
"Don't ask"
"Cornelia?" Taranee knocked carefully on the door, "Cornelia, it's us, can we talk?"
The door flew open, "You, you, and you", she pointed to Will, Taranee, and Hay Lin, "She-" she pointed to Cornelia, "Has to leave"
"Please Cornelia", Hay Lin said, "We really have to talk to you. All of us", she added pointedly.
"Well…" Cornelia hesitated, "Fine. But one dig at Caleb or I, Irma", she said warningly, "And you're outta here, got it?"
Irma nodded, and the girls stepped inside Cornelia's room. "So", Cornelia said, "What do you want?"
"Well", Hay Lin said carefully, "We really need to talk Cornelia. We understand that your upset about loosing Caleb and Elyon--"
"But we still have a job to do", Will finished, "I know it's hard, Elyon was your best friend, and we understand that. But best friend or not-"
"We still have to fight", Taranee concluded, "It's our job, you know that, and as much as you may not like it--"
"It's what we have to do", Irma picked up strongly.
"What, did you guys rehearse this?" Cornelia asked, half jokingly.
"Actually, we're just making this up as we go along", Irma said, "So whatta you think so far?"
"I think you're pretty pathetic", she said, smiling. She carefully patted Caleb's petals, "But …I guess you're right"
"We are?"
"I guess, I knew that all along", she continued, "Even when Irma was talking to me, as mean and blunt as she was, I guess I knew deep down she was right
"I mean, I don't want to fight Elyon", she plowed on, "She's been my best friend for as long as I can remember. But if it's what we have to do…"
She stood up and walked over to the window, looking out into the city, "This is our home, isn't it?" she said. They saw her reflection in the window; she was smiling.
"We have to protect this place, don't we?" she continued, "Heatherfield", she continued to look out the window, "Our home. But if Phobos has his way--"
"It won't be our home anymore", the words had sounded familiar to Hay Lin. And she knew why. They were the exact same words she'd told Will, after Will's mom had been in the car accident. Will had entered her own little world, and Hay Lin had pulled her out, by saying exactly what Cornelia had just said.
"Right", Cornelia nodded, "So even if I have to fight my best friend…well, bring it on Elyon. I'll fight, even if I won't like it. Because I have to protect Heatherfield. With you guys. With my friends"
She turned around to face them, her eyes shining brightly.
"We've gotta stick together"
"So you don't hate me?" Irma asked anxiously.
"Not most of the time", Cornelia shrugged. Irma laughed.
"I'll take it"
"It's settled!" Hay Lin cheered, "We are the best! High five Taranee!"
The two girls exchanged high fives, grinning. Irma gave Cornelia a smirk, and said, "So?"
"So what?"
"Very funny", Irma said sarcastically, "You know how we have to hug, right?"
"We do?" Cornelia asked, "I don't know…"
"Oh get over here", Irma grabbed Cornelia by the shoulder and pulled her and the other girls into a group hug. No matter what laid ahead, right then they had a golden moment of peace. As friends.
Uh huh, and how long will that last? One chapter, two maybe? I don't know…wait, I should know these things, shouldn't I? Oh well, we'll see what happens next, stay tuned! The next update will definitely come faster! Review!