Vitality | Elementals 1

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Heath

Monday at school, I started to notice that Lincoln was acting a bit different. He always had his eyebrows furrowed as if he was upset of confused about something. Not to mention he didn't seem mentally present in the conversations we were having in our earth science class.

This was his favorite class, and he wasn't even paying attention. The two of us were supposed to be choosing a natural disaster to do a short presentation on, but he was just doodling random patterns in his notebook.

"You know what I think we should do our project on?" I asked.

"What?" Lincoln asked, keeping his eyes on his doodle.

"Zombies," I said.

"Sure," Lincoln said, which made me raise an eyebrow. He really wasn't paying attention, so something was bothering him.

"Lincoln, what's up?" I asked.

Lincoln finally looked at me, his eyebrows still furrowed. "Nothing. Why?"

"Because you're not paying attention," I said. "You just agreed for our project on natural disasters to be zombies."

Lincoln sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just....going through something."

"So basically, something is wrong," I said.

"No, not really," he said. "It's not bad, just....confusing."

"Mind telling one of your two best friends?" I asked.

Lincoln just ignored my question, switching the topic completely. "How about we do our presentation on volcanic eruptions?" he asked.

I sighed, knowing he wasn't going to tell me anything. He was always so stubborn at keeping things to himself unless he felt like he really needed to tell someone, which rarely happened. "Sure," I said.

After telling our teacher what we were doing our project on, we got to work with researching about it. Well, I was basically doing all the researching. Lincoln was too busy doodling in his notebook because of whatever was bothering him.

This was the last class we had at school so when the bell rang, I had to head to the soccer field for a quick practice before the game began.

"I still want to know what's bothering you," I said to Lincoln as I followed him to the locker.

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" he asked. "I'll figure things out."

"Sure," I said sarcastically. "I'm pretty sure moping about it isn't going to help you figure it out."

"Figure what out?" Wendy suddenly asked, standing behind me.

I pretended to jump, then placed my hand over my heart. "Don't scare me like that," I said.

Wendy rolled her eyes. "Ha ha, Heath," she said. "You're always such a kidder. So, figuring what out? Is everything okay, Lincoln?"

"Yeah," Lincoln said slowly. "Everything's fine. Promise."

Kailani then walked up to us. "I hate school," she said. "This one guy almost gave the whole class detention because he wouldn't stop arguing with the teacher. Luckily, someone reminded the teacher that there's a soccer game. Oh, and Heath, I got you something for good luck." She opened her backpack and pulled out a tiny plastic bag. "I kept one of the chocolates specifically for today."

"You are amazing," I said, taking the chocolate from her. It was so hard not to eat the whole box myself because that was how good the chocolate was.

"I know I am," Kailani said before looking at Lincoln and Wendy. "Are you two coming to the game?"

"Yeah, of course," Wendy said. "We have to show our support for Heath, right Lincoln?"

"Hmm?" Lincoln asked, looking over at Wendy.

"I said we have to support Heath at the soccer game," Wendy said. "Are you sure you're okay? You've been so distracted today."

"I'm fine," Lincoln said. "Really."

"If you say so," Wendy said before looking at me and Kailani. "We should be going, anyway. We want to go to the smoothie shop before the soccer game. Would you like to come, Kailani?"

"No, you two go ahead," Kailani said. "I'll just sit in on Heath's practice."

"Okay," Wendy said. "I can get you a smoothie there if you'd like."

"No, you don't have to," Kailani said.

"I will anyway," Wendy said with a smile. "It will be a late birthday present. What's your favorite flavor?"

"Strawberry-kiwi," Lincoln said before I could. "Right?"

"Yeah," Kailani said. "You really don't have to g--"

"Come on, Lincoln," Wendy said before grabbing Lincoln's arm and pulling him away.

"Wow, I guess you're getting a smoothie whether you like it or not," I said. "By the way, have you noticed Lincoln acting different?"

"Yeah," Kailani said. "It started yesterday. He was in his room all day and only left just to get something to eat. I tried asking him, but he just told me he's figuring it out. It's probably one of his problems where he's not going to tell anyone. It will pass soon."

"Probably," I said. "In the meantime, I need to head to the locker room."

"I'll see you on the field, then," Kailani said. "Good luck."

"Thank you," I said before quickly going to my locker to drop my stuff of before heading to the locker room. Once I was changed into my uniform, I went on the field and to where the coach was standing.

When everyone was there, we had a quick practice before the game was going to start. While our team was waiting near the sides, I looked through the stands to see if I could see my friends. I shortly saw them, as well as Wendy, sitting together.

Lincoln still looked troubled. He was looking at his smoothie with furrowed eyebrows. That guy was going to end up blowing up if he kept everything to himself.

When the soccer game started, I immediately felt pumped up like I always did when I was playing soccer.

The school we were playing against was a strong opponent. It was hard to score on them, but it was also hard for them to score on us.

At one part of the game, one of my opponents decided to trip me, making it look like an accident. I quickly got up, feeling a slight pain in my ankle. I ignored it and kept playing, even being able to steal the ball from the jerk who tripped me and made my way to their goal. I passed the ball once I was about to get it taken from me, then my teammate scored.

We won the game 1-0, thankfully. It was a tough game, but we never gave up.

Even afterwards, my ankle was still a bit sore, but I still shook it off. I couldn't let it affect me.

_________________

So Simon meeting the others probably won't happen until tomorrow. It took me longer than I thought to write the chapter of All of Me because my head was hurting, then I took a nap. cx

Simon is still my bae. cx The next chapter will be a bit sad, though, so....