Without thinking I use my water manipulation to grab water from the stream nearby and throw it on the fire. The fire dissipates. I run over to Luca and shake his shoulders.
"Luca, are you alright?" I ask him.
"Kate?" he groans.
"Are you alright?"
"Peachy." He chuckles and stands up.
"What happened?" Jack asks.
We turn around and the whole class is watching us. Great, another day with people staring. Just what I need.
"Kate and I were having a friendly competition and I lost control of the fire and passed out. I'm sorry Jack."
"It's okay, no one got hurt. How did you put the fire out Kate?"
"Oh...uh...I used my telekinesis to get water from the stream and throw it on the fire to extinguish it."
"Wow, being able to use one a power to control the elements is extremely advanced. I'm impressed."
"Thanks, can I take Luca to the nurse to make sure he is alright?"
"Of course, see you both tomorrow."
We walk back into the school and down the hall to the nurse. I open the door with a squeak and help Luca walk in. We walk up to where the nurse is sitting doing paperwork.
"Excuse me, can you please help us?" I ask.
She looks up from the paperwork with an exhausted look that quickly changes when she sees Luca, "Oh my god, I am so sorry. Come over here and sit down."
She takes Luca over to the bed in the room and he sits down on it.
"What happened?"
I see a smirk cross Luca's face. "well you see, Kate over here is a lot stronger than she looks and beat me in a competition."
I giggle, "maybe you just need more practice and know your limits. That way next time you may not almost burn down the field."
He looks embarrassed, I let out a little laugh.
"Is everyone else alright, any injuries?" the nurse questions, nervously.
"Everyone is fine, I put out the fire when he lost control of it. I think Luca just over exhausted himself and needs some water and rest."
"That is exactly correct, maybe one day you will become a great doctor."
"Yeah, maybe."
If I get to live that long, I highly doubt I will be able to choose anything about my future, it seems pretty set in stone for me. I walk Luca back to his house and bring him to his room.
"Thanks Kate."
"Not a problem." I respond as he drifts off to sleep.
I leave the house and make my way over to mine. Unfortunately, the boys house is on the other side of the school. I make my way through the school ground and I hadn't realized how late it was getting, the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains in the distance. I better hurry if I want to arrive before dark.
I am now in the forest and two minutes away from the house when I hears something rustle in the bushes close by. I spin to face the sound, nothing is there. Then a twig snaps behind me and I whip around to see two glowing blue eyes staring at me followed by a low, rumbling growl. I take a step back, if I am going to run it will have to be in the direction of the school as the huge dark brown wolf is blocking my path to the house. I contemplate my options.
I can either run and hope that it isn't very fast, or I can use my powers. I decide that running will be pointless, the wolf is almost my height on all fours and that means I cannot outrun it. Maybe I can teleport to the house, although I have never tried teleporting that far before, but I guess it won't hurt to try...hopefully. I resist the urge to close my eyes to concentrate and instead stare into the terrifying eyes of the wolf that is just standing there, not moving a muscle. I imagine my room, I can feel the tingling of my powers trying to work, but the wolves growl snaps me out of my concentration. I can do this; I try to teleport again envisioning my room. Just as it was about to work the wolf charges at me and jumps on top of me sending myself toppling to the ground. His teeth are inches from my face, and he lets out a growl again, this time it is louder. Think, think. Got it.
I put my hands on both of the wolf's legs and push the heat from my body to my hands and catch the wolf's fur on fire. He jumps off of me and I scramble to my feet, never taking my eyes off the wolf. The wolf seems the panic, looking confused. I hear howls in the distance and realize more wolves are coming and I needed to get out of there. The wolf looks at me while I can see the pain in his eyes. I give him a wink and disappear. I reappear in comfort and safety of my bedroom; my breathing is laboured. I change into my pyjamas, shorts and a tank top, and climb under the warm covers of my bed, soon after I drift into a deep sleep.
I am jerked awake by Alana shaking me telling me to get ready. She said something about having to go to school early for a meeting. All I know is that I have to get my lazy butt up and ready in the next ten minutes. I brush out my hair and throw on a pair of jean shorts and a black tank top with a leather jacket. I head downstairs to the foyer and of course everyone left me...again. I sigh and open the door and walk into the forest.
I arrive at the school and there is no one to be seen I walk through the hallways and out the back door, the field is filled with students. They are all watching the stage the principal is standing on trying to hush the crowd. I decide to stay where I am in the back and try to not be noticed by anyone. The crowd of students quiet down and the principal begins to speak.
"Okay everyone, you are probably wondering why I called you all here this early in the morning. Last night around eight in the evening, there was an attack on the school. A pack of wolves entered school grounds and us teachers had trouble keeping them out. These wolves were very powerful, and we were fighting them for an hour before some broke through, they began to run in a very specific direction. I followed, curious as to why they were here. The three wolves came up to another that was injured. The front legs of the dark brown wolf they found we badly burnt. I stay hidden knowing I would not be able to fight off three regular wolves, never mind these highly trained ones. The three wolves took the injured one and the rest of the pack left along with them. We are not sure how the dark brown wolf got through or how he got injured. If the person who took down this wolf is out here, please come forward." He pauses, waiting for someone to speak up.
I stay where I am not moving a muscle, I don't need any more attention on myself. The principal looks disappointed that no one has stepped up. He makes eye contact with me and I stiffen up, his facial expression changes from disappointment to curious, I look away. I can feel his still staring at me and all I can hope is that he doesn't say anything about me. After a few moments pass, I look up and the principal still looking at me, he opens his mouth to speak; however, before he gets a word out, someone speaks up.
"It was me."
Gasps erupt from crowd, some laugh.
"Really?" the principal questions.
I am confused I cannot see who it was that spoke, but I have a feeling I know who it is. Oh boy.
"Come on up here then," the principal invites.
Britany struts up onto the stage, at least it's not me. She has a proud smirk painted on her face as she looks into the crowd. I hold back my anger because no matter how much I hate her, she just saved me from being up on that stage, in the centre of attention.
"I would like to personally thank Britany on behalf of everyone here at Scholam Enim Donatur, we are truly grateful for your actions. I will now give Britany the microphone and she will tell us all her story."
Britany's facial expression never wavers. She walks over to the microphone as the principal steps back, looking deep in thought and confused. He glances back over to me and I try to ignore it and watch Britany instead.
"Thank you, Principal Grimm. It was my pleasure to help save this school from those treacherous wolves," she addresses with a sassy tone of voice, "I was in the forest looking for my phone that I dropped on my way back to school. A wolf came out from a tree and walked up to me. I used the wind to knock him back, that injured him so badly that he did not want to try to battle me anymore. I then went back to the house."
"Then how was he brunt?" someone shouted from the crowd.
There were mutters erupting in agreement.
"Well, I forgot to mention that after I knocked him over, I lit a match and used my power to blow it onto the wolf."
The principal silently questions whether the story is true as he looks from Britany to myself.
"You must be very strong to use your power to control an element that is not your own."
I now realize the mistake Britany made, to use your power to control the elements is near impossible, I got away with 'using my telekinesis to control the water' because I am a Tri. I wonder how long she can keep this lie up. For my sake I hope no one finds out who really took down that wolf last night.
The principal speaks one final time, "Thank you for sharing your story with us Britany. I will now congratulate you by making you the top fighter. This means when a problem arises here at the school you will be out there with us teachers and staff fighting on the front line!"
Britany has a disgusted look on her face, she obviously does not want to go fighting on a moments notice. I quietly chuckle to myself knowing she got what she deserves for saying she did something heroic when she didn't do a thing.
Everyone was dismissed for class and I was lucky to be one of the first through the door. I hurry to my locker to grab my textbooks that I didn't bring back because I was helping Luca. I walk over to my history classroom and take my seat. A few minutes later Luca comes walking into the class and sits next to me. Before he could say a word, Britany is at the desk.
"What are you still doing sitting with this loser? Did you not hear what I did for the whole school last night? You should be sitting with me, come on." Britany goes to grab Luca's hand to take him away except Luca pulls his hand away.
"Come on Britany, we both know you did not do anything last night other than gossip. I am going to stay here with Kate, but you can feel free to leave. Thanks."
I laugh.
"What are you laughing at?" Britany snaps.
"Oh, just the fact that you can't get the one guy in this school that you want. He wants to hang around a loser like me instead of a self-centered queen bee like yourself." I chuckle again.
She is fuming as she leaves my desk and sits down at her own. The teacher walks in and takes a stand at the front of the class.
"Okay everyone, I want you to give a round of applause for our hero Britany, who knows what would have happened if that wolf was not taken down." Everyone begins clapping.
I clap a long; however, Luca does not. The teacher gives Luca a glare and he reluctantly begins to clap slowly and unenthusiastically. The class settles down and the teacher gives us some more time to work on the project as it is due tomorrow. Luca begins to put the information onto poster board as I write the speech. I make cue cards of the speech for both Luca and I. We finish early and we both take out our math books since I don't have time after school to work on homework since I am working on my powers with Daniel. I can't wait to see him again; it's been so long. The bell rings and everyone heads to their next class. As we walk into the class my desk is empty so Luca rushes over and sits down. I make my way the other side of the desk and I am about to sit down when I am shoved, and Britany takes my spot. I get up, brush myself off and just walk away to another free seat because I do not feel like arguing with her today. Luca shoots me a concerned look and I just put my head down on the desk, listening to my surroundings. I don't want to talk to anyone right now, I am so exhausted right now. Luckily, I finished tonight's homework already so I can just rest. The teacher begins the lesson and asks for the answer to the equation on the board.
"Kate, what is the answer?"
Without lifting my head, I respond with, "42 grams per litre."
I hear a few gasps; it is not that impressive considering I already worked through these problems from the textbook.
"Very good," he says in a defeated tone.
Some more questions go by and he calls on another student.
"Britany what is the answer to this equation?"
"Um...three?" she says, unsure.
"No, maybe if you stop looking at your phone and gawking over Luca the entire class, you will be able to successfully complete this course."
I chuckle along with many other students. I can feel Britany's embarrassment from across the room; however, that embarrassment soon turns into anger. The bell rings a few minutes after the Britany fiasco.
Lunch is boring as usual, nothing exciting happens. Soon it is time for power practice. I get changed and head out to the field meeting Luca on the way. We head over to Jack.
"Hello there, how are you feeling after yesterday Luca?"
"I'm pretty good, it was very nice of Kate to walk me home after the nurse even though it was getting late."
"Really, that was very kind Kate. How late did you return to your house?" he asks me.
I see what he is asking, I need to be careful of my next choice of words, "I left Cade's around 7:30pm and made it to the dorm around 8pm."
I await his comment on what happened around that time.
"I guess you got pretty lucky, sounds like you just missed the wolf attack on Britany."
"Yeah, I was pretty lucky."
The rest of the class walks up to us as Jack gives me a similar look to what the principal did. Curiosity. I wonder if the principal mentioned something to him about his suspicions.
"So class, today we will be getting pointers from our hero, Britany, upon the principals respect. Britany, we want to see the potential you have and maybe you can advance the other students here in the class."
Brett nudges me and leans in to whisper, "I bet she can't help you improve at all. You should be the one helping us, not her."
"Thanks Brett, maybe she has something to share to help us out. Who knows?" I whisper back.
Britany struts up to the front where Jack stands. She retells the story from the meeting in the field this morning, but there are some holes in the story. She continues to alter it. I don't think the others realize though.
"Okay class today we will be switching between partners today to battle with each other and whoever we do not get to today, we will continue tomorrow. First up is Jason VS. Britany. This will be a similar situation as Britany was in last night due to Jason being the Alpha's son. He is bigger and stronger than a regular wolf just like the one Britany fought off."
Britany takes her stance and Jason changes into his wolf form; he is a huge grey wolf. Quite stunning. Jack shouts Begin and Jason charges at Britany knocking her over onto her back. He sits down so she cannot move. It is obvious that Britany was trying to use her wind to push him off of her, but it was no use. I hear cheering behind me and turn around to see half the school and half of the teachers watching the match. Some people are cheering for Britany as others are rooting for Jason. Jason brings his gigantic paw to Britany's throat and awaits her submission. She taps out and Jason steps off her changing back to his human form. I am surprised that his clothes don't get torn during the process. Britany stands up looking defeated and makes her way to the bleachers to sit down.
"Next match will be against the winner. Kate VS. Jason."
I stand up and walk over to the field. Damn it! How am I going to get away with this? I stick out my hand for Jason to shake and he takes it.
"Good luck." I tell him.
"Good luck." He repeats back.
I take my stance and Jason shifts back into his wolf; he is the same size as me on all fours just like the one from last night. I let the tingling of the magic coursing throw my veins spread throughout my body to prepare for any attack. Jason lunges at me.