Memories

Epilogue - Geneva

"Gen, what are you doing?" You don't care. Trust me. No one cares.

"Why do you care?" I turn eighteen tomorrow and age out of this goddess-awful system. The foster system is one of the many flaws of the world. That's at the bottom of the Royal Panel's list of things to fix. It's been almost fifty years since it's been complete, fifty years since Jaida and Jackson Price retired, with four kids and no more Fire Lords. No Ices have been able to take their place, which is completely unsurprising since it's so difficult for the South Region to get Ice Royalty. Or any region, for that matter.

They also managed to create those world competitions for every element, with special thresholds for each element so only those with a natural skill to create cool things could compete. I've competed, but that was when I was eight. Back when I had a decent foster family. I even made it to world's and made it into the top seven. But, most people have forgotten about me, since it's been so long since I've competed.

There's one hitch, though, in staying forgotten for this long. They probably won't remember me when I say I am going to participate in this year's world's, though. I got a free pass to use while I am of competition age, and after not competing for nine years, I think it's time. Plus, it starts on my eighteenth birthday, which means I won't be required to go back to this awful place every night.

"I'm required to care. You are not eighteen yet, so I am responsible for you. Now, get over here before you break a limb." Sloane, I'm not going to break a bone. I do this every day.

"Coming down, don't worry." I reply, climbing down from the tree I now call my own. Since no one ever wants me, I've been in a group home for six years. People have come and gone, adopted or fostered by families from around the region, usually never coming back here. I've made plenty of friends here, keeping in touch with most of them as the time passes, and one of my friends who's a few years older agreed to pick me up from here at midnight, the moment I become free of this place, to take me to world's, which is in the building where she works, and I will finally compete one more time.

I don't know how they'll react when I show up, but that's not my problem. Connecting my feet with the ground, I stare at Sloane, who is staring at me angrily.

"You need to take better care of yourself. Now, come join the Fire class before you are disciplined." Okay, geez. I don't want to be disciplined. As the oldest foster Fire, most of the little kids look up to me, along with most of the older ones even if they don't admit it. Making my way to the big cafeteria, which is now barren of its usual tables, the instructor, better known as Ms. Poppi, is standing at the front of the room waiting for everyone to show up. With twenty Fires in the group home, it's like herding cats sometimes.

"Alright, looks like everyone's here. Let's start with red fires." Red fires, for reference, are normal fires. Blue fires are hotter, and white are the hottest.  On the other end, green is cooler and yellow is the coolest, and barely able to do anything aside from burn paper. Generating the red fire on the floor, which is completely flame resistant, I watch as the rest of the twenty of us generate their own fires, which have to be within a certain range of heat, otherwise they'll turn colors. The flames hold the color of the temperature range they're in, so it's pretty clear when they're not the correct temperature, which is what the little ones tend to have troubles with.

"Now, change it through the spectrum." Following Ms. Poppi's directions, I do exactly as she says, changing the fires from red to blue to white and then heading back down to cover green and yellow. "Good. It looks like everyone can do that. Now, onto Shape fire." Oh, great. At least this will be good practice for tomorrow, which has a portion focused on Shape fire.

The Fire World's Competition has four days, just like the Ice World's. First day is using only the color fires to create something. And considering there are only five colors to choose from, it's interesting to see what people come up with. The second day is Shape fire, where we're given a topic and have to build something that matches the topic. Third day is a private judging, which is matching fire temperatures and a smaller Shape fire demonstration. Matching fire temperature is harder than it sounds. We have a one degree deviation, which is what makes it even more difficult. And on the fourth day, we have to combine color fires and Shape fires to create a masterpiece.