1st Element

Another day for Nathan and his friends....or is it? (Also ned suggestions for the names of the hijackers and their groups name!!)

The birds were singing. The sun was shining brightly and the weather was perfect. A heat wave. Nature was in harmony. And I was stuck inside a stuffy classroom, with my least favourite teacher doing double maths. The air conditioning was turned on at full power, but it wasn’t making much of a difference. I was seriously sweating. And on a day like today! Flapping my hand, I unbuttoned the top of my shirt and leaned back slightly on my chair, trying to stifle a yawn. And failed.

            “Am I boring you Mr. Daniels?” My teacher, Mr. Adams stopped writing on the board. He always addressed us by our second names. Everyone turned to look at me, raised from their own similar stupors, interested at this exciting new development.

            “No sir” I lied, keeping a completely straight face and staring him in the eye innocently. Everyone held their breath. Mr. Adams was famous for exploding in anger at the littlest provocation. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I’m not going to break! I thought mentally at him. But Mr. Adams just looked at me suspiciously, then turned away and continued his teaching. The tension deflated as everyone let out a sigh of disappointment.

            “And so x is equal to y….” I soon lost interest and slumped forward on my desk. Lazily, my eyes roamed around the room. Sitting next to me, my best friend Johnny was fast asleep. A baseball cap covered his head and messy blonde hair. Drool was hanging off the side of his mouth. Amazingly Mr. Adams hadn’t noticed him. Unlike him, my other best friend, Anna, was wide awake and listening to the teacher, even taking down notes while she fanned her hand to keep cool.

            “You know it wouldn’t kill you to take notes” Anna whispered quietly. She hadn’t even moved her head. I pondered over this for a second.

            “But I’ll just get them off you later” I whispered back, grinning.

            “No you’ll not!” She whirled her head around and faced me, her curly brown hair bouncing angrily and her eyes flashing. Sometimes you could tell her mood by looking at her hair. Suddenly, her normally icy blue eyes turned a startling, glowing purple-grey. I gaped at her in shock.

            “What? Why are you staring at me?” she whispered, annoyed.

            “Your eyes....they-!” I started. Did I imagine it?

            “SILENCE!” Mr. Adams shouted, pointing at me and Anna. Everyone flinched in fright and Johnny woke up.

            “Who?! Wha!? Where?! The answer is pie!” Johnny said in confusion.

            “Johnny!!” I hissed. Mr. Adams suddenly appeared in front of me at a speed which even I never knew he possessed.

            “Mr. Cage, Mr. Daniels and Miss Jones. Do you know what I’m going to say?” Mr. Adams asked quietly.

            “Erm….great work, well done and have some cookies?” I answered meekly.

            “No! DETENTION!” he bellowed.

            “And then some cookies?” Johnny asked sleepily. Mr. Adams looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

            “NO!!” he roared as the bell for the end of the lesson rang.

 

*                      *                      *

 

“It’s all your fault!” Johnny moaned next to me. We were sitting on the train home as usual together. Mr. Adams had held us up in detention for half an hour. It was now 4:00pm and still pretty sunny. Everyone was heading home from work. All the chairs were filled and many people were standing up.

“Yeah! Johnny’s right. It’s all your fault” Anna said on my other side, then punched me. She hadn’t spoken to me since we left school. I looked from one to the other.

“OW! Hey! It’s not completely my fault!” I rubbed my arm in annoyance and Johnny sniggered. I glared at him to be quiet and he made a zipping sign on his lips. Then Anna punched me again. Hard. I paled at the pain. Anna was strong for a girl of her slender build and (apparently) beautiful looks.

“Yes it is” she said with finality, brokering no argument. Johnny couldn’t help but burst into hoots of laughter and I glared at him with murderously. Around us people stared at our conversation and some elderly ladies frowned disapprovingly.

“That is most unladylike...you’ll never find a husband acting like that” I muttered mutinously under my breath.

“I heard that” Anna said, but I pretended not to notice. There was silence for a while as we entered a tunnel and blackness engulfed us. Only the dim lights from the train provided any illumination. Cables and wires sped by in a blur along the wall as the train picked up speed. Johnny was once again fast asleep. I swear all he ever does is sleep...like some human sloth or something.

“Umm....Nathan?” Anna had tapped me on the shoulder and was leaning in close to be heard above the roar of the train. I stared at her warily. She held her hands up, placating.

“I’m not gonna hit you again” she said, annoyance in her voice as if the mere thought of her hitting me was unnatural.

“Well forgive me if I’m not as readily accepting as you. So what do you want?” I said gruffly. Anna looked hurt for a second, almost at tears. She sniffed loudly. People on the train turned and looked at us. I shifted awkwardly under their criticising stares.

“Fine....sorry. Sheesh. What’s the problem?” I sighed and Anna instantly turned back to her normal self. Damn her and her girly wiles.

“Umm...what did you mean about my eyes?” She stuttered, blushing and turned her head away. I was perplexed. This is Anna we’re talking about. Miss smarty pants; miss popular, big boobed, hot bodied, fit, self-assured Anna. All the guys loved her and the girls admired her. I’d known her since we were kids, along with Johnny. Amazingly she kept us as friends when we got into secondary school. Some of the guys resented me and Johnny for that. Now she’d been reduced to a gibbering wreck.

“Well you see-” I started. BOOM! Suddenly the train jerked to a jarring halt, throwing me and my friends out of our chairs. Alarms started ringing, wailing loudly and mournfully. The lights also cut out, immersing us in the gloom.  

“What’s going on?”

“Was it a bomb?”

“Must be terrorists!!” One woman started screaming and soon other people were crying or muttering in fear.  I got up to my feet drunkenly, waving my hands around in the dark. I touched something soft.

“Eek!” A girl cried out near me.

“Anna?” I said tentatively, waving my hand around again. There was contact again and I felt Anna’s hand grip mine tightly.

“I’m....I’m scared” she whispered.

With another sudden jolt, the train began moving along and I was yet again sent flying forward, Anna and me were ripped apart. The train moved at speed and passed several underground stations at a terrifying speed. It made me sick to look out the window. Soon the train burst out into the sunshine. The bright light hurt my eyes and I blinked rapidly to clear them. The sunshine seemed to renew my lost strength and I got up again, steadying myself on one of the handlebars. I looked around and saw Anna and Johnny unconscious on the floor as well as most of the other passengers. Suddenly anger swamped me. Who can do this to innocent people?! I stared thoughtfully for a second at them, and then noticed it. A swiftly advancing wave of blue energy. It looked menacing, crackling with power.

“Oh hell.....” I swore under my breath.

 

Author's Note

My first chapter!! I know it's a pretty long, but bear with it. Lemme know about your thoughts.

Reviews

[cquig]

Fantastic. Great chapter and I love how it ended. It was like a short story with a cliff hanger ending. I think one sign of an excellent chapter is when it leaves you wanting to read more. That is what your chapter one has left me wanting more. I enjoyed the bits of humor as well. Even in a serious story you need to have humorous breaks. Well done Emy, now I'm off to read chapter two.

[jphillips]

Very Fun! I love the group of three, they seem like classic characters. I was only left wondering where we encountered the first elemental, was the chapter thusly titled only because of the blue ball of energy at the very end?

[A.C. Flanagan]

Its not long. Its a great size. Most people's are too short. Also, its very good. It peeked my interest. My only suggestion is to ease up on the LYs. A rule of thumb is to avoid the use of adverbs, especially those ending in ly. most of the time, they aren't needed, and the rest of the time they shouldn't be needed. a good writter gets the mood across without saying it, and you've done well with that. I got all this from Stephen King, who then said that even he has used them more than he should have.

good work. look forward to reading more.

[Skelasoldier]

Excellent work!, Cant wait to read more!

[Tempest Soul]

Love the train scene. Suspense + cliff-hanger = awesomeness (that's a word, right?)