My name is Chase!

I head back into the lunch room, forgetting about the girls. I have bigger and better things to be worried about, like school ending and my 16th birthday. Harris will throw me a lame little only his parents, and his family will be at their party I'll get a marble cake and chocolate ice cream with the same pink wrapping paper he's been using the past 4 years for my presents. Which are all books and movies, well last year he got my iPod. Once the bell rings, I head out to my next class. Tatum tries to talk me into sneaking out, something I've never done surprisingly, so I can go to his party.

I've thought about it before, but I just don't want to get caught and get in trouble with Harris, so I decided against it. Moving on to a different topic he tells me about what his plans are for the party to be awesome . . . another way for him to tell me that I need to go. I sign out to get a drink, walking down the hall to the closest drinking fountain, and I spot the girls again. They seem to be in a heated conversation, and I can't help but watch them. I can't hear what they are saying. Then the boy who says his name was Chase rounds the corner and joins the conversation. What is he doing here? Who are the girls? Too many questions start going through my mind. I don't want him to see me, embarrassed he'll tell those girls about his prank. Yet my feet go towards them, I want to know what he is doing here. The closer I get the

more I see my pepper spray didn't do anything to him.. it must wear off after an hour or so. Darn, I was hoping that stuff burned for hours and hours. "What are you doing here?" I ask interrupting their conversation, they were so distracted by what they were talking about that they didn't even notice me coming. Chase looks at me, ad gestures toward me with both his hands smiling like a baboon. "I told you! It's Lyra!" He says to the girls, and the brunette is standing in shock. The small blonde is giving me the stink eye. I mentally hit myself, I should've just left it alone! "Again... you have to wrong person... You need to leave!" I say, shooing them towards the fire exit that just happens to be right to my left. "Holy shit! It is you! Chase wasn't lying!" The brunette says wrapping me in an anaconda-like hug. Okay, now I'm mentally shooting myself with a gun. Maybe I should yell for Sean, as he said. But then I would attract a lot of attention, I don't want that. "You can put me down now.... ah... girl," I say, and she releases me immediately. "Well... it wasn't nice meeting your friends who think it's funny to play tricks.. have a nice life," I say turning ready to run. I get grabbed and pulled out of the fire exit. "Let go of me! I have school! I still have that pepper spray!" I yell profanities. "Flora." the Chase boy says, and the brunette nods. She bends down places her hands on the grass and starts humming some tune that I don't recognize. Then vines burst from the ground, splattering dirt and reaching for me. Chase's grip on me moves just as the vines grip my feet, twisting up my legs. What is this? I'm dreaming! Too much reading about witches! I close my eyes, I'll pinch myself awake. I pinch my hand, and then open one eye. The three of them are standing in front of me still watching me with curiosity. I try and move, but the vines are too tight. "She has forgotten.." The blonde sighs, looking at her nails. The boy nods. "Oh think about how happy Molly and Garret will be!" the girl, I assume is Flora, squeals. "Sorry about the vines." She adds. Molly and Garret? Those are the names Chase told me about being my parents or something. I'm still woozy from the vines. "How... di- how..... what? Vines?" I stutter unsure of what I should ask exactly. Flora smiles, and nods. "I'm an elemental, like you!" She begins, with the same fairy tale. "I'm earth. I control plants and dirt." She smiles, touching the dead bush next to her, and humming that same tune. Then it blossoms with green again. I look in horror. I feel a scream coming. "I could just knock her out ya know. it'll be the easiest way to get her back to Spridge." the blonde says. Oh, god! I'm going to scream! Controlling plants, and bushes! Little middle school girls want to knock me out! I reach down and start pulling at the vines, as I begin hyperventilating. They must all be taking some crap, or... they're like top-secret government experiments! I'm still dreaming, I mean what else could be going on? "No, Sierra you might kill her," Flora says, sighing. The vines won't budge, I'm stuck.

"Only a little shock." Sierra, begs. SHOCK!? Like electricity? "No." Chase says she needs to come willingly. The next 20 minutes of my life are like a weird history lesson, on my apparently home realm called Spridge. About how it's just like earth, and his people. One royal family how rules the realm, and they have protectors called Elemental. Which I am one of. "Lyra. I know you don't believe any of this, but... maybe you can just come with us... and we can show you." "I just want to think about everything." I lie, "I promise... I'll think about it, but I need to get back to school." I say, then Flora does her 'elemental thingy' and the vines go back into the earth. They all hug me accept Sierra and then disappear in thin air. I think I'm losing it. Running back into the school, I take my seat in the study hall. Tatum questions me about why I was late, I tell him I also stopped in the bathroom. He seems to have believed me. Leaving study hall I head to my next class, going through that in a second it feels. Then the same for my last two other classes. School is out. Sean is giving me a ride home.