The Elementals

Chapter 3. Announcement

Hey all of you lovely people, I'm finally done writing the third chapter. Thank you so much for the support xx keep voting and commenting your thoughts. Btw Sh*t is about to go down in Chapter 4-5. Honestly I'm the kind of person who'd skip to the interesting parts but I had to build the characters a bit. More on the Night Stranger in Chapter 4. Goodnight! (: ------------------------------------------------------------------

After reading the sketchy guy's note I crumpled it into my hand and stuffed it into my messenger bag, in case I'd show Quinn once she got here to give me a ride. I was hoping she hadn't forgotten that part.

I was confused and could feel a migraine slowly but surely making its presence noticed in my head while I fully knew Ibuprofen or Tylenol wouldn't relieve any pain. On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being not creepy and 10 being extremely creepy, this guy was an 11. I was starting to freak out about the whole earthquake and plant growing thing. It had been easy to shrug everything off until last night's events and his arrival. Not to mention I had no idea who "The Others" were. I wondered what he meant by them getting to me before he did. That part was full on freaky.

Colin suddenly came to mind and I frowned, knowing he'd feel uneasy about random strangers climbing up to my window in the middle of the night. I didn't know how he managed to get there, nor did I want to figure it out. Maybe this guy was extremely unattractive, that would probably make Colin feel better, not that I planned to enlighten him on the matter.

Thirty minutes later, Quinn arrived in her car. I was still cloistered in my room, pointlessly trying to fix my hair. Quinn got impatient and blared the car horn. I was looking forward to the day Quinn would have children who'd test her patience every day. I already feared for their lives and they weren't even born. I scurried downstairs not wanting Quinn to have a fit.

"Hey," I said, getting in and covering a yawn. Quinn didn't move, her hands resting on the steering wheel. Usually she would be drumming her fingers against it but today she seemed flat. "Hel-lo?" I tried again, getting her to focus on me. "Are you okay?" I asked, concern filling me. I questioned her again, "Is this about your basement flooding?" She looked over to me and sighed, "Yeah, I'm just tired. Our house is a mess, we're going to have to rip the flooring out and it's going to cost my parents a lot of money." With 10 girls in the house, her parents already had enormous expenses weighing on their shoulders. It didn't take a prodigy to realize that house restoration wasn't something they had a lot of spare money for. I reached out and messed up her hair affectionately, "Hey, it'll be okay. You can stay over at my house until it gets fixed, my mum will understand." Due to Quinn's anti-social personality, her parents let her sleep in the basement once her three older sisters moved out. I knew she'd appreciate staying over at my house rather than bunking with her younger sisters.

When we walked our separate ways in the school halls, I realized I hadn't told Quinn about last night's events. I had been too distracted by her problems to even think about sharing mine. A small smile crept up my face when I remembered John would be leaving soon. I would then hang out with Colin and the dance was coming up quickly. I had yet to know if Quinn would be going or not. I added the question to a mental list of things to do.

On my way out of biology, Colin caught sight of me and walked my way, giving me that toothy grin I was so fond of. "Hey you," he said. I noticed Quinn was standing down the hall, pretending to gag. "Hi," I replied, trying to keep a straight face. I failed. He whipped around and Quinn innocently lifted her head up, pretended she just saw me and waved before walking away. "You know," he started, "There are a lot of weird rumours going around about her." I suppressed a bristle, annoyance coursing through me. "You say that as if you agree with them," I told him. "Well, you can't deny she looks a bit like a freak show," he said, defending himself. I felt myself closing up really quickly. "I would expect you, of all people, to look past appearances, Colin," I replied, my voice cold as ice. I walked past him not looking back. He caught up with me, eyes wide and looking like a sorry puppy. "Melia, wait! I'm sorry! That came out wrong, I didn't mean it that way!" he exclaimed. "I don't want to talk anymore," I told him, looking away. "I will text you," he promised, before leaving.

I knew I had overreacted but I couldn't help getting defensive when it came to Quinn. I smiled knowing she would have done the same for me or worse. Hmm, most definitely worse. In my defense, at least I never stayed angry for long. I could already feel the frustration fading as I walked into history class.

Halfway throughout history, the old intercom speakers crackled a few times, letting the students know an announcement was about to be said. "Good morning Petersburg High!" an energetic voice shouted, making everyone drop their pencils and stop in their tracks. We had the most spirited, social and effectively the most hyperactive school president you could ever get. "I have an announcement to make! Unfortunately..." she started, sounding as if her mum had just bought her a kitten, "The school dance scheduled on May 24th is cancelled" Goodness, could she have been any more dramatic? "Luckily, our lovely principal here, has managed to reschedule it and it is OFFICIALLY this FRIDAY!" she screamed. "Oh my gosh! Hey Mrs. Holt! Your hair is totally GORGEOUS today!" she continued, forgetting that the entire school was still listening.

Meanwhile in class, the girls stared at each other in horror. Some didn't have a date, many had plans that day and most didn't have a dress. "Great," I thought, discretely sliding my cellphone out just like every other girl in the room. I texted Quinn.

-Mall after school. You're coming.

I got a reply 10 seconds later.

-Can I drop my stuff off at your house before we go?

I texted back.

-Only if you're quick.

-Honey, I'm not the one who has an issue with s-p-e-e-d in the morning.

I smirked at her reply and hid my phone out of sight after writing back and telling her that was a minor detail.

Once school was over Quinn and I left and went straight to her house. She got a cardboard box out and told me to fill it up with a list of things she needed. To her credit, we managed to do this in a record time of 30 minutes before dropping everything off in my room. As we drove to the mall I started feeling bad for pushing Quinn into coming to the dance. A pang of guilt shot through me as I was just starting to realize how awkward she might feel considering I was going with Colin and she was going with, well no one. "So, how do you feel about this dance so far?" I started. She looked over and raised an eyebrow. "Fine I guess. It's a pretty big deal considering more than 1000 people will be there. Maybe that punk drummer in our band will be there," she said and winked.

We got into the mall and went to our favorite shop called FaerieTale. "I'll find you once I get to the changing rooms," I promised her, knowing she'd be quicker than me. The shop was huge. Casual clothing was scattered all over the place but so were higher end dresses for proms, dances etc. I found at least 10 dresses to try on and brought them over to the changing rooms. "Quinn?" I called out, trying to figure out where she was. This was a huge waste of time because as I scanned the doors, I noticed one door had about fifteen black dresses hanging over it. "Quinnnn," I whined. "Could you wear any colour besides black? You have at least six of these at home which all look the same!" She opened the door and replied : "Yeah but these have 'Tigress' written all over them. I can't go wearing some frilly pink dress." I looked at it sceptically. "I will hunt down the perfect dress," I told her. I ran out and rummaged through numerous dresses until I found it. A red strapless dress which I knew would hug her figure just right. "Try this on," I ordered once I got back. One minute later, the door opened just enough for me to see her face. "Aw Quinny-Poo, are you shy?" I laughed.

She stepped out and my jaw dropped. "If you don't buy this one I swear to God I will murder you. It looks perfect!" I affirmed. "I don't know," she replied hesitantly. "Strawberry ice cream is on me if you get this," I said. We both grinned and I ended up getting some gold coloured dress.

When we got home, my mum greeted us with dishes of macaroni and apple crumble. "Ughhh," kept saying Quinn. That's Quinn-code for "I love this". Her and my mum got along quite well mostly because Quinn was her number one fan when it came to her cuisine. Unfortunately, although Mum liked her, she wouldn't let her sleep in my room. "I don't want you two staying up chatting all night for the next few weeks! Both of you young ladies have school!" she said, arms crossed.

I helped Quinn set up her stuff in our guest room before I said goodnight and entered mine. My stranger was waiting.