3 Just Another Day (Diana)

I woke up from my heavy sleep, sweaty and out of breath. I was used to this reaction. I got up and started taking a shower. When I was finished, I heard my neighbor, Ben, practicing his dagger throwing. Then he stopped. Probably taking a break. I should probably practice too, but I'm not feeling it today.

About 5 minutes later, I was ready to leave for school when I heard a knock at the door. "Coming!" I called.

I ran to the door putting my shoes on as I opened it. A friend of mine was standing in front of me. Bianca.

"Hey, Bianca," I said. "Hold on a second, I'm almost ready."

"Mkay," she replied. She had a light skin tone, medium to long brown hair and was about 5'8", as tall as me, maybe shorter. She wore her usual light blue shirt and beige cotton jacket. She's probably the most shy person I know.

I got my backpack and violin and left. We are usually quiet on our way to school, but today we were especially silent. Today was element day. We were about to find out what we were. I already knew what I was. Non-elemental. Bianca was different. She knows she can control water, but her brother controls lightning...

"Nervous?" she asked.

"Yeah." I knew I was a non-elemental, but...

"Don't be. We were made for this. We need to do this for everyone who can't." I stared at her in disbelief. She usually didn't talk that poetically. I'll ask her about it later.

Bianca was looking into the sky. She usually does that when she is thinking. In the distance, the bell rang.

"We're going to be late!" Bianca exclaimed. She took my hand and we started running off to school.

I had some flashbacks as we ran through the halls. Most of them were boring. I started noticing that in all of my flashbacks there was always one dark figure in the background...

I snapped out of my daydream when we turned the corner and ran into someone. Both Bianca and I fell back, but the person we ran into was still standing. He had dark-ish skin and long brown hair. I noticed he looked extremely angry and began to power up his hands. His index, middle finger and thumb began to glow orange; fire powers. Then the late bell rang.

"Watch where you're going!" he yelled. At this time, the halls were empty.

"Sorry, we just need to get to class." I got up and helped Bianca do the same.

"Oh no you don't. I feel like I need to see you *burn*." He drew signs in the air of which I was unfamiliar with. Then his hands burst into flames.

"Run," I whispered to Bianca. We started running in the opposite direction. I felt the heat of his flames getting closer to us. We rounded a corner and ran into someone else. We fell back, and I thought to myself, Not again!

I looked up to see one of the strongest (if not the strongest) caster in the school. Tyler.

Tyler had pale skin and messy, black hair. His eyes were so dark, it felt as if there was no life inside. He looked down at us, eyes half closed, slightly tilting his head, making me shiver. Then he looked up to see the guy chasing us.

"Steven," he said calmly.

Steven stopped and opened his hands immediately extinguishing his flames. He scowled at him the entire time.

"Don't you have a class to get to?" Tyler tilted his head with his tired annoyed look.

"Why would I have to listen to you? I'm a senior and you're still a freshman. If anything, I should be telling you what to do!" Steven replied.

"The weak do not tell the strong what to do."

"I could tell you the same thing." In a split-second Steven's hands burst into flame once again, and he went to punch Tyler. Tyler just simply raised his left arm and...

Snap! A shield made of pure ice sprouted from his wrist intercepting the punch. Steven left his hand mounted on the shield, fire extinguished. He pulled back his hand and I realized it was bleeding.

"I'm sorry, you were saying?" Tyler said. Steven left without another word leaving Bianca and I alone with Tyler. He looked directly at Bianca. "I thought I told you to be more careful."

"Sorry..." she replied. He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. He handed it to me.

"This will ensure you aren't counted tardy." He stared at us and said, "You can go now."

We both ran away from him as fast as possible. I was confused the entire way to the class. Why did he help us? Did Bianca run into him as well? More questions to ask her later.

We burst through the classroom doors. The teacher stared at us in confusion. "Do you have an excuse for being late?" she asked.

I pulled out the piece of paper Tyler gave to us. It was blank. I gave it to her anyway. "Here."

She looked at it and her eyes widened. She cleared her throat and said, "Take your seat."

We sat down, and continued our daily routine.

Tyler... Why did he help us? I know I asked that before, but I'm still confused. He is literally the top dog. Why would he help us out?

"Miss Dabria?" I looked up and saw my teacher looking directly at me. "Could you please answer the question?"

"Sure."

...

It was finally lunch time. I was ready for me to know my element (though I already did). I was sitting with Bianca and her twin brother, Josh. He had semi-dark skin and curly dark brown hair. He was a rather relaxed guy and was super strong too.

"You ready for element day, sis?" Josh said, with his mouth full of ramen.

"Yup." She continued eating without another word.

"Hey Josh," I started.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know Tyler?"

He looked up from his food and said, "Yeah. Strong dude. Has ice. Antisocial." He continued eating. Something was bothering him.

"Do you know him, personally?" I asked.

"Nah. I'm cool with him not being in my life." I looked around the cafeteria to see if I could find him. No luck.

Bianca saw me looking around and said, "Don't worry about him. You should be more worried about element day."

I thought about it for a second.

"Alright."

"Students and faculty please excuse this interruption. All freshmen, please go to the stadium now." The announcement came up on the intercom, and the entire cafeteria began to shift.

"Hey Josh, what time is it?" I asked.

He checked his black analog watch and said, "We still have five minutes. I'll walk with you over there. Besides, I have to do the ceremony too."

...

We were walking to the area of the ceremony, when Josh said he needed to go to the restroom. We were at the outside area of the school taking a short cut.

"Wait for me out here. I'll be out shortly." He left us alone and we immediately found trouble.

"Oh wow! I guess today's my lucky day." Steven set his hands on fire once again.

This time I was ready. I powered up my hands and was ready for some dagger practice I said I'd do.

Then from behind, two guys, about the size of Steven, came out of the shadows and restrained us. My hands powered down, and Steven was smiling at us. He clenched his fist and had the most wicked smile on his face.

His eyes widened, and he extinguished his fire, and made cast signs for a fire ball, and threw it behind him.

The fireball intercepted a dagger made of ice.

"You again?" Steven said.

"Leave them alone." It was Tyler. "If you insist on fighting me, then you'll need your friends to stand a chance."

"Volt. Poncho." They immediately left us alone, and lined up by Steven to attack Tyler.

"Oh, I should've warned you." Tyler snapped both of his hands. Magical weapons appeared in his hands; a sword of ice in the right, and the same shield from before in the left. "I don't lose."

Steven threw a few fireballs and Tyler blocked them with his shield, all while Poncho was casting earth spells and Volt ran in for an attack. Tyler dodged Poncho's attacks and threw his sword at them then snapped the fingers of his right hand, exploding the sword, and creating a smokescreen. Volt casted a lightning bolt and shot it towards Tyler. With his right hand, Tyler made a series of hand signs, and placed his hand on his shield. The shield grew to a wall made of ice. It intercepted the lightning bolt an-

Snap! The wall exploded, and all I could see was an icy mist. Then from behind, I heard electricity. I expected Volt to come out, but when the mist settled, it was Josh. He was holding Volt and Poncho by the throat, with electricity running through his hands.

"I leave for one minute, and you already find trouble," Josh said. I turned back toward Tyler and saw his sword made of ice was at Steven's throat "Thanks for taking care of them."

Tyler pressed his sword on Steven's throat and let go. The sword's ice spread across his throat and stopped when it completely covered his throat. "Try to protect them better." He snapped his right hand and a mist covered my eyes.

By the time I could see again, Steven, Volt, Poncho, and Tyler were gone, and Josh's hands were still in the position they were in before, electricity still running. He stopped the electricity and put down his hands. We were silent.

"Uh... Let's go," Josh said.

I nodded and so did Bianca. We walked toward the ceremony area wondering what had just happened.

"Bianca?" Josh spoke up. "When was the first time you ran into Tyler?"

She looked at him in bewilderment. "Well, on our way to school, Diana an-"

"I said first," Josh intercepted. He eyed her suspiciously.

"On my way to Diana's dorm I ran into a few of the lightning elementals. I put up a fight but couldn't do much since I could only cast water. Then Tyler intervened and helped me out." She looked at him nervously.

Josh gritted his teeth. "They were supposed to be at the meeting," he whispered.

"Hey, Josh." We all looked up and saw Ben.

Ben is one of Josh's closest friends. As well as my neighbor.

"Hey Ben. On your way to the ceremony?" Josh asked.

"Yeah I am. You know, I saw the strangest thing. Tyler was dragging three seniors toward the headmaster's office. They were covered in ice and moved with Tyler without him needing to touch them." I smiled.

"Yeah. Well, we'll see you later," Josh said. We continued in our separate paths.

As we walked I couldn't help but think what the ceremony is going to be like. I noticed the closer we got to the area, the more nervous I felt.

"You'll be fine," Josh told me.

"I know, it's just that I don't know what to expect."

"Neither do we," said Bianca.

I sighed. "Alright, I'll try to calm down."

...

Before we entered the stadium, we all lined up to wear our appropriate attire. For males they wore white t-shirts and khaki pants, and for females we wore white dresses. The idea was to be colorless and fresh in the world of war.

We were seated in our designated seats. Bianca and Josh sat next to each other in the middle, but I was in the front row. The reason for that was that there were warlords watching our every move. They would choose to accept us into their army or try for someone more powerful. If the strongest were in the back, they would just stay till they knew the strongest soldiers were already chosen.

The head master walked up to the podium about to start the ceremony. He was bald and was wearing a black tuxedo with a green tie. He smiled as if it was the first time he'd ever done this.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am headmaster Green. I am proud to announce, the beginning of the Elemental ceremony!"

...

He went on, continuing his speech going off about the lives of war and sacrifices. I was in a daze the entire time. I thought about what would happen once I was called up to the podium. I kept telling myself, at least I'm not the first one.

"Now, without further ado, let us begin the ceremony!" He called people up name by name. They were to hold a magically enchanted piece of paper and see what element they had. If they had fire, it burst into flames. If you had earth, it would turn into stone. So on and so forth.

As the students continuously walked up to the podium, I wondered what a non-elemental would do to the paper.

"Next up, Diana Dabria!" This was it. This is element day. Here I go.

I got up and walked to the podium. I studied the piece of paper carefully. It looked old, and crumbled, with a tan tint. I picked it up. Then something bizarre happened. Nothing. Not a single thing happened.

I looked over to the headmaster. His face was white, and he was sweating heavily. I looked back toward the paper, and I realized a change. It was cleaner. The folds and the slight tears repaired themselves. Before I knew it, I was holding a perfectly clean white paper.

"Ahem." I turned back the headmaster. His face was still white. "I pronounce Diana Dabria, a life element."

Then all hell broke loose. Warlords were yelling, students were whispering. Then smoke bombs flew from an undetermined area, and put me into a deep sleep.