"How?" one of Roy's teammates on the ground croaked.
Jia pointed at the arrow," You have to shoot it between the eyes to bring it down."
"Jia!"Roy yelled as he stumbled towards his cousin, "What are you-"
"Roy! Thanks for the bow!" Jia opened her arms and moved to give him a hug when he stopped her and seized her hand to expose her cut.
Roy cursed out loud, "Your dad's going to kill me if he found out about this?"
"Which is exactly why we won't tell him." Jia instructed him. He pulled out a bandage from his gauntlet and wrapped it around her wrist before trying it. She then handed his bow back reluctantly. It had been weeks since she held a weapon in her hand and she was cherishing the moment.
"Jia, be reasonable, it's your dad." Roy pleaded with Jia, although he knew there was no changing her mind he still had to try.
"I know it's him and if he found out, I'll be locked away for the rest of my life."Jia reminded him.
Roy grimaced and stepped back from the white haired girl. "What are you doing here?"
"Freshman Field trip," Jia said with a shrug. She then looked down at the beast bedside her, "And from the looks of things it was a good thing we were in the area."
Suddenly a bunch of shrieks could be heard before a loud hiss.
Roy frowned, "What the-"
"My friends!" Jia exclaimed as she turned and ran towards the origin of the sound.
Roy frowned, "Wait…friends? You mean your roommates?!"
"I'll introduce you to them later!" Jia yelled back before disappearing into the trees. She ran and jumped as fast as she could till she found her friends.
They were all wrapped up in the vines of a Venus Plant.
A very big Venus plant.
The head rose above the ground and hissed as its arms held each one of the girls in a tight grip. They were struggling and shrieking but then again, Jia couldn't blame them. None of them felt like getting eaten by a carnivorous plant.
"Jia! Do something!" Clary screamed as she withered in against the vines.
"Our powers aren't working!" Fiona added with a grimace.
Rose, Zoey and Kyra were covered all the way up and so Jia knew she had to help them first. The full body wrap was a sign that the plant was getting ready to eat them first. She jumped over a vine that struck out at her before rolling forward and sprinting.
She had to get behind the head of the plant before her friends became plant food.
"Hurry, Jia! I think Rose is about to get eaten!" Clary urged her.
With a nod, she dodged and ran until she grabbed a hold onto one of the vines before it tossed her up in the air.
Relying simply on instinct and muscle memory, she flipped in the air landing on another vine and sliding down it till she reached the mouth where Rose was hanging over it. Jia used the rock from earlier to cut through the main vine quickly and freeing Rose from it clutches.
She pulled her up and jumped down behind the head. Rose started to wiggle her way out from the vines as Jia turned to the plant and slashed the roots connecting the head to the forest floor. With a loud hiss, it's vines fell down and the head sank into the ground.
The girls each freed themselves before running over to Rose and Jia. The white haired teenager helped her teammate to sit up as everyone let out huge sighs.
Suddenly, Kyra groaned and smacked her head.
"What? What's wrong?" Jia asked.
Kyra pointed in front of them. They all turned to see the White Dragon Orchid.
Fiona groaned and Zoey smacked her forehead as Jia stared to laugh, "All that trouble for one little flower."
"At least my camera's not broken," Clary muttered.
***
Later on after they had come to back to the school, Nurse Irma threw a fit as she fused over the girls.
They all didn't suffer much except for the occasional cuts and bruises from being strangled. Rose however had it much worse.
She had suffered a broken wrist and a twisted ankle because she fought against the plant instead of running from it. Fiona told her that the Nurse had put her roommate on bed rest for two days just to be safe.
"How are you doing?" Jia asked as she stepped into the room.
Her violet irises took in the pink colored skim on one side and the dark red color on the other of the room.
On Rose's side, there were drawings of ships, clothes and make up everywhere.
Fiona had posters of bikes, famous racers and video game characters.
Clearly, the separation in the room was obvious to anyone who entered the room. Jia still hadn't figured out how to make the wall on her side of the room violet. She made a mental note to ask Fiona about it later .
"Fine. I'm good," Rose said with a nod.
She sat up in her bed and smoothed the covers of her bed. Jia could tell that she was a bit nervous and awkward about her presence.
Jia gestured to her injured arm, "How's your wrist?"
"It's sore but the Nurse said that it'll be fine."
Jia nodded with a smile before she turned to leave. She felt that Rose wasn't up to having a conversation with her so she was prepared to leave her to rest when Rose called her name.
"Why'd you save me?"Rose asked timidly. Jia turned with a frown. In the short time that she had come to know Rose, timid wasn't in her personality.
"Why wouldn't I save you?"
Rose bit her lip and signed, "Because…"She shrugged as if the thought was so obvious," I've been so cold and distant towards you since day one."
Jia nodded, "True… but then again ,so have most people I've met have acted the same yet I'd still save them."
"Why?" Rose asked, looking so puzzled.
"Because it's the right thing to do."
Rose's shoulders slumped, "I'm sorry. For the way I acted towards you."
"It's okay."
"No it's not."Rose insisted. Jia moved to sit in front of her and waited as Rose composed herself.
"Look…"Rose began, "Growing up, I've had everything I have ever wanted except the attention of my parents." Jia nodded and waited for her to continue," At home, they would both be interested in the next project and nothing I did seemed to be enough."
"I'm sorry. That must have been rough."
Rose gave her bittersweet smile, "Then whenever I was let out of the house, people gave me attention because I was the rich girl and everyone wanted to be me or be my friend. But whenever someone even more famous then me came along and took the attention…"
"You felt like when your parents didn't give you attention."
"Yeah."
"Look, I'm not much of a person who loved attention because I got lots of it from my dad and my family," Jia admitted, she licked her bottom lip and tucked her hair behind her left ear, "In fact, I got too much attention and that's only because my family kept me hidden away from society since..since…well…"
"Since your mother died."Rose finished for her.
Jia gave her pained smile, "Yeah."
"I'm sorry. I heard that you were there when it happened."
Jia shrugged before continuing, "The thing is , you don't need to worry about that when you're here with us and you shouldn't look for attention for the wrong reasons."
Rose frowned thoughtfully, "The wrong reasons?"
"Rose, you are smart, talented and very good at what you do. Techno-magic is new magic and very tricky to master but you did it. People should want to be your friend because of those things and not because of your parent's wealth."
"I get it." Rose said with a nod.
Jia sat up straighter as an idea struck her, "Listen, why don't we put the last few school days behind us and start again?"
"How?"
"Simple," Jia stated as she held out her hand," Hi, I'm Jia. I'm your teammate."
Rose chuckled lightly before she shook her hand, using her uninjured hand, "Hello Jia, I'm Rose."