Elements

Chapter 42

"We have a winner!" Ms. Wren's voice echoed around the room. I had no doubt that when she needed it to, her voice could resonate throughout the entire island. "Please undo any effects you may have had on the school and return to the gym."

"Damn it!" Ethan roared furiously. "Well freak, you heard her. Get me out!" I gritted my teeth. This guy was a real piece of work.

"Hate to break it to you, but I can't do anything about your vine. I can only control and create living things. Had you'd stopped trying to kill things, and thought it through for a moment, you'd already be free." As I spoke to my arrogant opponent, I retracted the vine from around Timothy. "You're on your own." I focused my gaze on the ants who were now scurrying around aimlessly with their purpose completed. With a thought from me, they dissolved into a gentle green light, then disappeared entirely, as though they'd never existed in the first place.

While Ethan and Timothy struggled to remove the dead vine entombing Ethan, I made my way to where Lizzy was hunched over Riley.

"Is he alright?"

He will survive. Perhaps a very mild concussion. The gear struck him on his left temple, knocking him out instantly and leaving a small cut. It isn't deep, but is bleeding profusely: head wounds have a tendency to do that. So long as we bring him to the health office shortly, he will be fine.

"Good. Thanks for saving me from Ethan's little death glare. I don't know if he really would've killed me, but still... He might've. So thanks for saving my life." I thanked her earnestly.

It's not very often that I meet a person willing to see past my oddities. Now that I've found not one, but three, I have no intention of losing them; and it's going to take more than Ethan's "evil eye" to override that intent.

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I simply remained silent. Eventually, I changed the subject. "Here, let me create something to carry him." Lizzy nodded, and the glowing green outline of a donkey appeared, then became dark brown and solid. Horses are cool, but seriously overrated.

Together Lizzy and I hauled the unconscious boy on to the donkey and I led it towards the stairs. Lizzy kept her distance; animals were typically skittish around her. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Timothy had finally freed Ethan from the vine, and they too were on the way back.

We made our way back to the gym, stopping to drop Riley off at the nurse's office and dismiss the donkey. When we entered the gym, all the other competitors had already arrived. The rest of the school was seated on the bleachers, right where we had left them.

"Alright, now that all of our competitors have arrived, we can announce our winner. Congratulations, Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ella! The girls win!"

The audience responded with a mix of cheers and groans from the respective genders. "Now, if all of the competitors would be so kind as to join me in my office, I need to have a word with them. Congratulations ladies!"

Everyone began muttering to each other. No competitors had been asked to the vise principal's office in previous dorm games. Why now? Why us?

Myself and the other four remaining competitions made our way out of the gym along with the rest of the student body, trying to squeeze through the bottleneck of people trying to exit all at once. In the crowd, Anita and Ben made their way over.

Instantly, Anita rushed over and engulfed me in a crushing embrace. "You almost died! You were so pale! I thought he was going to seriously kill you! We saw the whole thing thanks to one of the staff members' powers: they created a screen for us to watch on. But seriously, are you okay? Are you still almost dead? Oh god I'm probably hurting you. Am I hugging you too tight?" My best friend said all of this in about one breath, finally releasing me from her bone breaking hug when it occurred to her that she might be hurting me. Ben stood behind her, laughing at her frantic ramblings.