That same evening Irma came home happy. She was in a absolutely perfect mood. Everything was just lovely.
"What's up with you?"
"Huh?"
Irma looked down at her little brother Christopher.
"Nothing, honey!"
Irma kissed his forehead and went singing into the bathroom.
Chris looked wide-eyed after his sister.
"You, you called me 'honey'. Not worm or frog or..."
He watched Irma close the door.
The water guardioan bumped down onto the bed, smiling. She looked at the ceiling and blushed.
"What a perfect day..."
Irma stood up and undressed, wrapping herself into a towel, grabbing the phone and walking into the bathroom.
She filled the bathtub and dived into the hot, bubbly water. The smell was relaxing, and the water colored pink with the bath salt. She was just about to dial Hay Lin's number when the phone rang.
'Whoever it is, they can't ruin my life at a perfect moment like this...' she thought and picked it up.
"Helloo?" she said dreamingly.
"I feel the heat from here!"
Irma instantly recognized Hay Lin's voice.
"Are you somehow telepathic, Hay Lin? I was just about to call you..." said Irma and smiled.
"No, I just know you too well." Hay Lin laughed. "So, what's up?"
"Nothin'..." said Irma and played around with the water. "But he's sooooooo cute..."
"Who?"
"Are you nuts? Mac of course! Did you see the hair? The smile? The intellect!"
"Irma, we don't know his grades, he came to our school today."
"Nonono, he's perfect!"
Hay Lin rolled her eyes.
"Are you in the tub?"
"Yup."
She laughed.
"You know, sugar melts in water, so you better get out. I recieved a call from Taranee only minutes ago, she wants all five of us to meet at Golden."
"Hmm?"
"Hel-LOOOO? Earth to Irma, come in please! I'm talking to you!"
"Sorry, I was just..."
"Just hurry up."
Hay Lin hung up the phone and went to get dressed. Irma on the other side, forced herself out of the tub to get dressed.
Irma was from nature a real 'little flower', she chose light colors, and whatever she put on, she always managed to look adorable.
She took a sea-blue shirt, jeans and sliped into her trainers. She let her curly, auburn hair hang loose and put on some caramel-coloer lipgloss. Irma looked at her reflection in the mirror and enjoyed seeing what she saw.
In other's eyes' Irma was maybe short, slightly pouty and had to much humour which didn't match her brains. Practically, she spent far too much time on playing pratical jokes instead of foccusing on her studies.
Irma didn't have such perfect grades, or she wasn't ecpecially smart, but Irma was special in her own little way, just like everybody else.
She hurried out the door, and schocked her little brother again by kissing his forehead again.
"You're acting even more weird than usual!" said Chris and looked at Irma.
"Oh, I am?" she asked and smiled at her brother. "Chris, I'm going out, can you tell that to mom when you see her?"
Chris studied her wide-eyed, and nodded slowly.
"Perfect." she said and hoped out.
Irma walked, or more danced along the streetm thinking of Mac, of his perfect smile, his perfect hair, his perfect physique...
She smiled to herself and started singing.
Heatherfield was at it's most beautiful moment right now. It was quite late, but the sun still peaked from behind the houses, the air wasn't hot, just warm and a light breeze cooled Irma's face.
"There you are!"
"Hi, guys."
Irma smiled at her fellow Guardians and best friends Will, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin. But for some reason they didn't. Well, they did, but Irma could see they faked.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked and raised an eyebrow before bumping down next to Cornelia. The blonde looked into her blue eyes with a hard facial expression.
"What!" said Irma, slightly annoyed. "Can someone please tell me what's going on?"
The Guardian of Fire took a sip of her milkshake and studied Irma closely.
"We want to talk to you about this new guy." Taranee finally said.
Irma crossed her arms and pouted.
"Why?"
Will was the leader, and she wanted to loosen the tensed situation.
"Er... " she began and rubbed her wrists. "Irma, we all now you're totally into this Mac-guy, but..."
"But... What?" asked Irma in a Will-like tone.
Cornelia narrowed her eyes at Irma.
"For once in your life, be serious!" she growled and pushed her lightly. Irma ignored her. Will cleanched her throat.
"You see... Taranee spotted something... Weird in this guy's mind."
It had thesame effect upon Irma as a slap in the face. She jumped up and practically yelled all over the place:
"YOU READ HIS MIND?"
Cornelia gasped and pushed her down again. Hay Lin and Taranee noticed people watched them, and Will burried her face in her hands.
"Are you out of your mind? You can't just yell out things like that!" Cornelia growled and shook Irma.
"Where are you trying to come?" Irma said more quiet this time and narrowed her eyes at Will. The redhead looked at her and sighed.
"Taranee didn't get a full hit, but she just felt that it's something weird with this new guy. He's... Not like everyone else..."
Irma gave her a wild look for a moment, then smiled coldly.
"Now I understand."
They looked at her.
"You're jelaous."
The other Guardians exchanged looks and didn't dare saying anything. Cornelia was the first one to break the silence.
"Grow up, Irma, and see the fact. This guy is not what you think!"
Irma turned pale.
"You know what I think? I think that you're all just jelaous jerks that can't be happy for me for once!"
Irma stood up and headed to the door.
"Irma!" Will ran after her. "Can't you see this? That guy did something to all of us! We're fighting! Since when do WE fight? Irma!"
Irma looked at Will.
"Let me go." she said shortly and turned around. Will just stood there, with her mouth slightly open.
"Irma..." she whispered, but the door closed loudly behind the water Guardian. She went back to the table and collapsed onto her chair.
"Why all this?" she asked, looking up into the ceiling. "Why?"
Cornelia sighed.
"You know Irma, she'll get over it soon enough."
Irma was running along the street. She couldn't stop her tears. They rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto her shirt. Why did they do this to her? They should be happy that Irma finally found someone she liked!
She kept running into people, not stopping and apologizing, just keep running. Irma crossed the road without looking up, she was nearly droven over three times. She didn't see anything, she didn't feel, didn't hear.
Irma was headed to her favorite place in the world: The seaside.
Water was Irma's element, she was the Mistress of any liquid. She could control water, it could do anything she wanted it to.
After 25 minutes of marathon-level running, her legs pulsated and she was out of breath. Irma collapsed into the white sand on the beach. She loved the feeling of the small sandcorns against her skin.
Irma was always drawn to water, ant form of water.
She looked up into the sky. It was dawn, and had got a red-toned color, it wasn't blue anymore like during day-time.
Irma sighed and inhaled the lovely smell of seawater. She loved the smell, she loved the feeling of cold water and, weirdly enough, the flavor of salty sea water.
Irma closed her eyes and hoped to fall asleep. But Irma never got her wishes fullfilled without using her powers.
"Irma?"
Irma opened her eyes and found herself staring into Mac Brook's blue ones.
"Mac?"
She didn't move, just continued lying flatly on her back, staring at the young man.
"Is that a new form of therapy you're trying out?"
Irma was a bit schocked, so she simply said:
"Uh... yeah..."
Without any warning Mac bumped down next to the water Guardian and did like she, sighed and looked up in the sky.
Irma wasn't serious, but Mac clearly took her seriously. Like, the first person that ever had taken her seriously.
"Should I be quiet or can we talk?"
Irma giggled.
"You can talk."
"Cool..." Mac laughed and continued staring at the red-shaded sky. "So... What's up?"
Irma pouted as she thought.
"Nothin' special, just got abandoned by my friends."
Mac turned to Irma.
"You got what?"
"Abandoned. Had a fight with them. You know, the two girls you saw today and two others."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, I just noticed they weren't real friends anyway."
Irma sighed and thought of the other Guardians. She missed them already.
"So, what are you doing here?" she asked and turned to Mac.
He hesitated for a moment before answering:
"I live here."
Irma jumped up.
"Where?"
She was curious, she had never seen a house here, and she was here nearly every day, but now she saw a little house on a cliff.
"There."
Mac pointed at the little house Irma had just spotted.
"You live there? When was it built? I'm sure it wasn't there before..."
"Bought it from an old fisherman. Didn't have to pay a lot. Is your therapy over?"
Irma laughed, but she noticed that Mac had a kind if talent of chaging the subject without making her upset.
"It wasn't really therapy..."
She expected Mac to explode and yell that she was stupid and that she had insulted him, but he just laughed. Irma couldn't believe it. Her kind of humour. It felt like she had finally found someone that really understood her.