10 To Have a Home (Bianca)

I spent all night packing getting ready for the next day. I was moving for the trillionth time, so I knew how to pack quickly. I just hope that the place I'm staying in is as nice or nicer than where I am now.

I had about seven hours of sleep last night, more than last night, but I felt worse than if I didn't sleep at all. I got out of bed, and when I was done getting ready, there was a knock at the door, and I heard a letter fall into the mailbox. I checked what was in there, and saw it was a letter from headmaster Green. I opened it and saw an address for my new house. I shoved it in my backpack, and left for Diana's dorm.

I knocked on the door and waited. I heard shuffling from inside so I'm assuming she didn't finish packing last night. Then suddenly, the door burst open and Diana had all of her stuff in one suitcase.

"Ready!" she stated. She led the way, and I followed her. She seemed tired as if she stood up all night.

We were walking by the fraternity houses and I realized we were going the right way.

Life elemental. How could she bear the burden of something that great? As I walked beside her, I wondered what was going on in her mind. I hope she knows the stakes of her power.

"Are we going to stop by your brother's dorm before we go?" Diana asked.

"No, he has a meeting with the lightning today." I'm glad I didn't get the lightning elemental and I don't have to go to any of their meetings.

Diana yawned and I wondered what she did last night to make her so tired. I glanced at her bag and realized her violin wasn't there.

"What happened to your violin?" I asked.

"Oh, it's somewhere." That either meant she didn't want me to know, or she didn't know how to answer. Most of the time, it's the second one.

"Hey, Diana!" I looked up at the rooftops and saw an old friend. Ricky.

He had short, golden blonde hair that was put into a ducktail. You could tell he used a lot of hair products.

"Hey Ricky, how've you been?" Diana replied.

"Good. And how about you, Bianca?"

"I'm good."

He jumped down from the roof and gave both of us a hug. I wondered if he knew about Diana being a life elemental. "Where are you two heading?"

"We have a new housing assignment," I spoke up. I felt comfortable talking to Ricky. I've known him since I've started at this school.

"I see. Well I hope you enjoy the area!" Ricky said and disappeared in a cloud of steam. Water and fire.

"Was that Ricky?" We both turned to see Ben looking at the place where Ricky was standing.

"Yeah we just ran into him," Diana replied to him.

"You heading to the new housing too?" Ben asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Well let's hurry then. I don't want teachers to think we're ditching class." I checked my watch and saw it was barely 8 o'clock. I wonder what classes Ben had that were so early.

We kept walking in the direction of the address and found our stop at a really nice fraternity house.

"Is this it?" I asked.

"I guess so," Diana replied.

"Let's hurry up and get inside. I want first pick of my room," Ben cut in.

When we walked in, there was a rather spacious foyer. To my right, there was a staircase, and to my left a nice-looking living room with rustic furniture, a carpet, and a painting on the wall.

As we walked in to the right, past the staircase, there was a hallway that led to a restroom, but was a dead end. We made a left before the restroom and found ourselves in a kitchen with light wooden cabinets, and a white tile floor, there was an island counter in the center of the room. To the right there was a living room with dark brown couches, with some baskets inside of a wide, short bookcase underneath a large black rectangle. From what I've heard, it's called a TV.

The academy doesn't allow electronics on campus. I wonder what rule's loopholes were exposed to get this. Maybe they could also give us a cellphone.

There were windows surrounding the living room showing the backyard. Outside there were two areas: A pool area and a grassy area. The grassy area had two palm trees in a separate rocky area. When I glanced at the pool area, I realized there was someone outside cleaning the pool.

"Tyler?" Diana, Ben and I all had the same reaction. He looked like a normal teen doing his morning chores. He had on the same outfit he had yesterday: Jeans, a white t-shirt, and a navy-blue jacket. He glanced up for a brief moment and waved. Then he motioned for us to sit down and went back to cleaning the pool.

We sat down looking at one another. We all were confused by the constant reappearance of Tyler.

"Anyone else confused?" Ben asked.

"Yeah. Like, why does Tyler keep showing up in our lives?" I asked.

"I asked him yesterday, and he said he would explain..." Diana trailed off.

The back door opened, and Tyler came out. "Good morning," Tyler said, as if he knew us. He walked over to the counter, and got a large envelope. Then, he sat down at the table with us. "Welcome to my five man-" He glanced at Diana and I, "five-person squad. The last team member is Josh. As of right now, your schedule is literally cleared until the first assignment."

"Wait, what?" Ben cut in. "Why are we a part of a squad? I need to focus on my studies."

"Sorry to tell you this, Ben, but as of right now your missions are assignments and your performance is the test. As for why you're in a squad, I have my reasons."

"Can you explain?" Diana asked.

Tyler sighed. "If Diana didn't get into a squad, right now she would belong to the highest bidding island, and if not, she would be kidnapped. I was just able to get her with people she knows."

"How did you know I was a life element?" she asked.

"Call it a hunch." He opened the envelope and pulled out three papers. He passed one out to each of us. "This is your schedule." I looked at mine and all classes were the same: Squad. "If you guys wanted more free time, here is your chance. Ben, you literally have all day to go to the library, train or whatever you want for now. Diana, I have a set of videos, books and stuff for you to practice your newly discovered element. And as for Bianca..." He looked me directly in the eye and a shiver went down my spine. "Josh said to meet him at a local café. He'll be there at around 9:30."

"So, what? Are you like our new boss?" Ben asked.

"In some ways," Tyler replied.

Enraged, Ben got up from the table and left. After the door closed Tyler sighed.

"He didn't even let me give him his present." He pulled out a box from under the table. "White, black or rose gold?" he asked.

"What?" Diana asked.

He pulled out five boxes of phones. Two were black, one was white, and the last two were rose gold.

I picked up the rose gold and Diana followed me. "I'll ask which ones Josh and Ben would want." He got up from the table and started walking away. "Diana, I left the books for you by the stairs. You two will get first pick of your rooms. For now, just relax and take some time to get used to your phones. I'll order some pizza or whatever for dinner." He left, leaving Diana and I alone.

"So…" Diana must have been as confused as I was. "Want to go pick our rooms?"

I smiled. "Yeah." We both got up and started walking upstairs. On the stairs, we saw a pile of books.

"I guess these are the books Tyler was talking about," Diana said. She picked them up and began up the stairs. I followed.

After going completely up, directly in front of us was a room. When we went to our right, there was a hallway with two bedrooms on the right, another room on the left, and a final room at the end.

First, we checked the bedroom in front of us. It was plain with just a bed and a dresser. The paint on the walls was yellow.

"This one's mine," Diana stated. Yellow's her favorite color. She put her backpack on the floor and jumped on the bed.

I looked in the first room to the right. It was as plain as Diana's room, but was painted blue instead. "I'm going to take this one," I called out to Diana.

"Alright," she called back. I put my stuff down, fell on the bed and drifted to sleep.