Face the Elements

Chapter 5

5. Ariel

The morning comes all too soon, and with it, school. A new school, in a new state, with a whole new set of normal teenagers to pretend to be like. Having school makes no difference to our training however, and we all are up at four AM to run and work out like usual.

Lex and I change into our gear in a comfortable silence. We finished making our room to our liking last night after I had gotten done with my shower and Lex had hers. I know that Rhett wasn't happy that I hadn't taken longer in the bathroom, but he and Lex would have to find some other way to get their alone time. There was only so much time I could spend washing my hair. Lex had just laughed at his sullen expression, and shooed him out the door. He knew even he wouldn't get away with giving me any grief. Lex always had my back.

We make our way downstairs into the kitchen. I'm dressed more modestly than my twin--nothing new--in capri yoga pants and a navy dri-fit short sleeve tee. Lex is wearing red high-cut running shorts and a yellow sports bra. We're the first ones up, and I grab us an energy bar each. We eat quickly, and then when I pull my blonde hair into a ponytail I'm instantly nervous by the way my twin is eyeing my movements. There's something about that gleam in her eyes that means she's about to change something.

"I think that since we're starting fresh, we should freshen up our looks too."

Yep, she wants a change all right, "What do you mean?"

"I'm thinking we go dark. Cali is already full of blondes, right? Let's become brunettes!"

"You think?" I was skeptical. That would be a pretty big change.

"I know. Come on, twin, we'd be hot brunettes and you know it. If you don't want to go too dark you don't have to, and we'll keep the length."

I would never say no to her, it's comical that she's even spending time convincing me, "Fine. Let's get it over with then."

She smiles widely, like I just told her I bought her a new car or something, and places her slim fingers on my cheeks. I do the same to her, then we concentrate like we did to change our room. We technically don't have to combine our gifts to get results, but it goes a lot faster when we do, especially when we're manipulating matter. I know that she would want to be a rich, chocolatey brunette, so that's what I do for her. When we're done, I look into the metallic reflection in the fridge. She gave me lighter locks than hers, a pretty tawny brown. I have to admit that my blue eyes do contrast nicely to the new darker hair.

"I love it, thanks!" I smile at my twin, "Yours looks super good too."

It's no lie. Her golden-orange eyes with the dark brown look killer, although she doesn't even bother looking in the pseudo-mirror of the refrigerator. She just is automatically confident about it. Actually, I don't think that anything could look bad on Elektra. She could shave her head bald and still look like a goddess walking among peasants.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Lex narrows her eyes suspiciously at me, "You know we're twins right. That means we look the same. Identical. You need to realize that. If you're thinking that I look good, guess what? You look good too."

"How do you always know what I'm thinking?" I grumble at her, although she's right. Besides our eyes, we're identical. Well, now we have slightly different hair colors too.

"Twinstinct," Lex uses the term that we've used forever to describe our eerie twin connection: Twin instinct. Then, she leans in and swats me lightly upside the head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"For doubting yourself."

I bite my lip to stop my smile, refusing to show her that she makes me happy, until I can't hide it anymore and I give a little giggle, "You're impossible."