Chapter 1
"Andy, Andrew, please let go of my arm before you pull it out of its socket."
After five straight minutes of dragging Ann through the halls by her arm, Lash sighed and let go. She frowned and massaged her wrist.
"Thank you. Now would you care to explain what happened back there?"
Lash raised his eyebrows innocently.
"What where?"
Ann crossed her arms over her chest as her frown deepened.
"You promised Andrew. You promised me that you would try to be better!"
"I did try. I didn't like it very much."
Ann's mouth was open in disbelief.
"I don't believe this." She whispered. "I defended you to them. I called you my friend."
He mimicked her, crossing his arms, and smirked. Ann shook her head.
"I should have known you would lie to me."
"Yeah? Well if you knew then you shouldn't have made me promise in the first place."
She took an abrupt step forward.
"But you didn't have to promise! You could have said, "No, I'm afraid I can't make a promise like that.' And I would have been fine! That's the problem with you, you always expect me to be fragile. But I'm not!"
They were silent, and completely oblivious to the crowd that was forming around them.
"Are you angry?" Lash finally asked.
"No." Replied Ann, shaking her head. "I'm hurt. I mean, why should I expect my best friend to act any different from anyone else in my life?"
Lash only looked at her.
"Is that the gym?" She asked, pointing toward the double door beside them, and he nodded.
"Hey! Lash, my man. Who's the babe?"
They both turned as one to see a heavyset boy coming toward them. At seeing him, Ann's eyes went wide, and she reflexively stepped behind Lash, who was grinning.
"Speed, dude, what's up? You remember Em?"
Andrew's friend and crony's eyes popped as he took another look at her.
"Whoa!" He exclaimed loudly. "I remember meeting a scrawny, but cute, kid but you're a total babe!"
"Speed, how do you do?" Ann greeted him coolly. "I thought you were in prison as well?"
Lash cleared his throat and cast a nervous glance at Ann, who raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him.
"Yes, well, our parents may have had something to do with us getting out on parole."
Ann shook her head, and turned to enter the gym with only a short goodbye to Lash and Speed. After knowing her for so many years, Lash knew that she wouldn't say a word to him for the next two weeks or so, after which she would go back to her normal, friendly self with him. It was like her personal failsafe against losing control over her emotions.
As she entered the gym, Ann saw that Will, Layla, and co. were all sitting in the bleachers, most likely to lend moral support to the new students.
The principal of the school began her speech/pep talk just as Ann came to a stand among the other teens. After that, Coach Boomer gave his own, slightly less up building speech, and power placement had begun.
In her old school, they had done like this. Though they had tested her to see how powerful she was. So even though she had been expecting it, Ann was shocked to see how rude Boomer was to kids who didn't live up to his expectations.
"Cromwell!"
Ann jumped at the sound of her name, and hastened to go to stand next to the Coach. Glancing at the bleachers, she saw Layla giver her a reassuring smile.
"The daughter of 'Wimpy Cromwell', eh?"
"Original." Her mind said.
"I wouldn't know sir." Her mouth said.
"Whatever. Just show us your powers."
With a shrug, she turned to face the other students and closed her eyes.
"Easiest first, Cromwell." She told herself. "Time to think happy thoughts."
Kittens, warm summer nights, and chocolate all failed to win against the stronger emotions of nervousness, fear, and sadness that she was experiencing.
"Before graduation, if you please." Coach Boomer's snide commentary did nothing to help the situation.
Finally she thought of her family, how they made her feel, and she began to sense the familiar tingling in the pads of her fingers.
Out of her pocket, she took a small piece of stem from a rose, and held it up in front of her. Gently, she beckoned the tingle to travel from her fingers into the clipping. As she slowly released her control, allowing her natural instincts to take over, new growth blossomed from the stem, turning into a single, perfect white rose.
Ann sighed with relief. Now that was over, the nervousness began to dissipate slightly.
"Plant manipulator, eh?" Commented Boomer.
"Not exactly." She replied. "If I may?"
She reached into her backpack and pulled out a bottled of water, and poured it into a small puddle in front of her.
This time, she thought of running along the beach, the wind in her hair, the sand under her feet, and the sound of waves crashing against the shore. The carefree feeling that bubbled up was a little difficult to manage at first, but she managed to center it in her palms.
Her request was different this time. To push the cool feeling from her hands into the open air, she had to speak to it in her mind.
"Please listen. This is not the time for jokes. We must be serious."
Her heart leapt as she felt the first soft rush of air around her. She reached out with imaginary hands, bringing it to the water, and turning it. Faster and faster the water spun, combining with the air around it to form a small cyclone on the gymnasium floor.
There was applause from the other students as she allowed the miniatures storm to dissipate. Ann blushed and smiled at them as she coaxed the water back into its bottle.
"An elemental. Who would have thought?" Sneered Boomer.
"I get it from my Mother's side." Ann explained.
"Obviously. Is that it?"
"Yeah."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"No, sir."
With a scowl, Coach Boomer turned to the other students.
"Would anyone care to enlighten Miss Cromwell as to the four elements?"
Ethan immediately jumped up from his seat and recited loudly.
"Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. She hasn't done fire yet."
Ann sighed. She'd been afraid of this. People just didn't seem to be able to get the hint that she was reluctant to use certain powers for good reason.
"With all due respect sir, I don't think that's a very good idea." She said patiently.
Boomer rolled his eyes.
"Do it!" His voice was loud enough to make the ground shake, and the students cringe.
Anna shrugged. She was never one to refuse an order. With one final sigh of defeat, she pulled out her lighter from her pocket. It had been a gift from her paternal grandfather. It was made of sterling silver, and was decorated with fire-breathing dragon on one side, and a phoenix on the other.
She took a deep breath, held the tiny flame over her palm, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she pulled the lighter away, but the flame remained hovering over her hand.
The feeling from her Earth powers was a tingling in her fingers, Air and Water was a coolness in her hands, and Ice was a deep chill over her entire arms. But Fire felt like a burning hot flame throughout her entire body, centering in her heart.
Ann reached for it now, silently begging. But Coach Boomer's harshness had unsettled her. That added to her original nervousness began to bring out the one emotion that fire detested. Fear.
As the tiny flame began to grow bigger, she felt it wavering, fighting her attempts to control it. By the time it was the size of a baseball, sweat had begun to drip from her forehead.
All at once, she heard a familiar deep chuckle in the back of her mind, and the fireball jumped out of her hand, suddenly exploding into the size of four basketballs put together. Ann heard Layla scream as it flew at the bleachers where the older students where sitting.
Aha! Evil cliffhanger! Expect lots of these Points upwards
I know that adding author's notes anywhere other then the beginning and end of the story is against the rules, but I just want to break the rules this once to thank everyone for their kind reviews, and to notify any future reviewers that I intend to reply to all reviews through PM's, and if you don't want me to do so, just say so (Hey, that rhymes!). But if you don't mind, then I just want to say that I really, really love replying to my reviews!
WA
P.S. I love it when people speculate about what's going to happen in my stories so speculate away!
