Cammy
I watched as Jade, still putting on her threatening-top-of-the-pecking-order look escorted the newest witch-hunter over to the car that I sat in. He looked around my age with curly brown hair that had lighter yellow ends. His bright green eyes surveyed the area before just settling on the car as if he was planning to make a run for it before he decided it was best to just play along. A few freckles spotted his pale cheeks, a light brown colour. He was pretty small compared to most witch-hunters or really anyone but despite his height, he held his chin up high and walked casually towards the car. He wore a confident smirk on his face and didn't look or acknowledge the people shouting congratulations at him. I didn't blame him for that. What was so good about leaving everything behind to start a whole new life? That's why we tried to get them early, so they wouldn't miss anything. But despite his lack of training or knowledge of us, he didn't even flinch when Jade took out one of the sharpest knives from her belt and started twirling it around her fingers. That's what she did whenever she was bringing in another recruit, I think she did it to half threaten the newbies and for them to be scared of her and half to try to get a rise out of them and see how brave they were.
I couldn't help being surprised by this new guy's ease, usually, I would notice small signs of nervousness from the recruits. Something like gripping their elbows tightly, clenching and unclenching their hands, blinking a lot, swallowing, twirling something in between their fingers, looking downward, hell, sometimes they'd even pretend they had an itch to stall the walk to the car just across the road!
But this guy made everything seem fine. I was actually pretty impressed. I felt like he would end up to be quite good, one of the witch-hunters that no one would forget.
I felt a tinge of jealousy stir inside me, he was already doing better than when I was first found. Quickly, I pushed those feelings down as Jade reached the car and opened the door for the recruit. Coral, was his name.
Coral slid in the car swiftly, leaning back and crossing his legs over so he looked right at home. He gave me one sideways glance and then just kept staring at the ceiling as he put both his hands behind his head.
"Hey," I said, hoping to get him talking. "Heard you're the newest witch-hunter, what powers have you got? Water, Telepathy, super strength? That's a common one."
He didn't respond, just kept bobbing his head lightly. Was this guy deaf or what?
"Do you even know you're a witch-hunter? Has Jade explained it to you yet? Because I can tell you if you want."
No response.
"I mean, obviously you've got healing but do you know what else? A lot of people only find out in big situations when you really need it. Like how your friend was super beat up today."
He looked as if he hadn't heard me again.
"Uh... are you deaf dude?"
This was getting annoying now.
"If you are, you know we've got these really good hearing aids in Tasmania that can make anyone hear everything. Pleasures of future technology if you ask me. It's amazing what people can invent nowadays."
I leaned forward, trying to see Coral's face so I could see if he was just playing a trick on me.
"Hello?" I said, frowning at him.
Obviously seeing me move in peripheral vision, Coral turned and grinned at me. Slowly, he raised a hand and slipped off one of his air pods, putting it in his blazer pocket.
"Sorry, were you saying something?"
I felt like an idiot. Of course, he had air pods in really loud so he couldn't hear me, everyone our age did. I shrugged, trying not to let him see how he got to me.
"Oh, I was just wondering if Jade had explained to you that you're a witch-hunter or if you knew your other gift, you know because witch-hunters get two and we only know about your healing. Mind you, that's a really rare and powerful power for witch-hunters as well as witches."
Coral raised his eyebrows at me. "What makes you think I would tell you my other gift even if I did know?"
I matched his smirk and said, "You can either tell us or try to kill a witch with just healing. I'd like to see you try that. That's if you've even figured out your power." I noticed that my tone turned challenging at the end but didn't care. This new guy was really starting to get on my nerves.
He hesitated a second before answering. "Oh, yeah I got another power. Fire. Never really use it though, I've never found a reason to. I only didn't totally freak out when I figured it out because my mum told me all about witches and witch-hunters."
I stared at him. "Wait, so you've known about your gifts for how long?"
Coral shrugged. "Five years, maybe more."
"Why didn't you come to join the witch-hunters then?"
"Never saw reason too. I liked leading a normal life." He quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, so what, you're my age as well? Year seven?"
I nodded. "Yep. My gifts are hyper jump and water. Like nearly every witch-hunter, I grew up in their camp since my parents were also witch-hunters. You're a rare case, not growing up with us. Anyway, I'm sure you'll get along well with the others."
Coral looked at me quickly. "Others?"
"Other witch-hunters our age," I corrected.
He nodded. "So you are..."
I stuck out my hand to him. "I'm Cameron. You can call me Camy though, it's what most people call me."
He went to take my hand. "Coral."
I put on a sly smile. "I know."
He grinned as he shook my hand. "Sorry, forgot that you guys were such big stalkers."
"Better than the witches getting to you." I reminded him.
Coral shrugged. "Guess, so."
We'd been travelling in the car for about an hour and a half as I told Coral all about life in Tasmania. I told him all about the wake-up at 6:30 on each weekday, the bullies that you had to watch out for (mostly the seniors), the food times and what it usually was. The best thing about the food was you always got dessert every three days. I also told him about the drills for training and a lot of the games we play. I was so eager and distracted telling him about how only a few days ago I'd been able to go on missions to fight witches, I didn't notice that he had slipped in one of his air pods till he handed me the other one to put in my ear.
Jeez. He got me again.
"Don't worry mate, I was still listening to you," he assured me as I slipped the small white device into my ear.
Immediately loud music blared through it, filling my skull. I lay back and listened to it thankfully, relieved I wouldn't have to do any more talking for now. I don't know if I'd be able to do that all the way to Tassie. The drive always took hours.
I didn't concentrate too much on things for the next half hour. I just listened and watched as Coral took out his phone to switch songs or playlists. At one point I noticed him texting someone, probably his friend and looked out the window, not wanting to invade his privacy. I watched as the surroundings zoomed by, a big blur of colour that I could only just distinguish. A tree there, one rich-as person living in that mansion, a bridge over there, a crowd walking dogs over there and a few other things. Getting bored, I looked back at Coral to see he was still texting. But then when I looked back out the window, something unusual caught my eye.
"Uh... Jade! There's a ball of fire coming right for us! Tell the driver to speed up or, swerve!"
Coral sat straight up and looked out the window.
"Open the roof door thingy, whatever you call it!" Coral shouted at the driver.
Obediently, the car's roof opened electronically as Coral concentrated, his hands forming a loose circle. I didn't understand what he was doing till I saw the fire starting to swirl, forming a sphere in between his hands. Within seconds, he'd formed a ball of fire matching the one that was coming for us and threw it so the two balls banged into each other. Smoke filled the air and the impact of the hit made all the cars swerve sideways a bit. Tyres screeched and I could hear shouts as cars collided behind us. Within seconds, we burst through the wall of smoke and could see everything clearly again, cruising down the highway as if nothing had happened.
"Crisis averted," Jade stated neutrally.
"Who do you think that was?" Coral whispered to me.
"I don't know, probably just a witch. Maybe it was Xenus," I joked, because of course it wasn't her, she was the most powerful witch in the world.
"Maybe," Coral agreed, his seriousness making me feel unsure, he wasn't usually like that.
It was another ten minutes with Coral texting again when Jade, in the passenger seat in front of me, turned around and made eye contact.
"Don't just sit there listening to your music. Shouldn't you be telling him about what we do as witch-hunters? " She asked me accusingly. Not like it was much of a question anyway.
Before she could answer Coral looked up from his phone. "Oh, nah it's fine. He told me all about the training, food, goals, leaders, yadda, yadda, yadda of witch-hunters. I don't even know if my brain could physically hold more information about it. Also, just for the record, it isn't his music, it's way too good for that."
Jade rolled her eyes and looked down at Coral's phone and put her matter-of-factly voice back on. "Who's that? Your mummy? You know if it's all too hard for you, nobody's stopping you from going back to her now."
I looked down at his phone and realised what Jade was talking about.
"Oh, nah that's my friend Harvey," Coral answered, matching Jade's tone. "He would have been driven to the hospital and had paramedics going crazy today if it wasn't for me. But of course, you wouldn't know about that. All you do is try to make people impressed with you, you don't care about them. If you did you wouldn't be twirling knives in front of their faces or reading their texts and invading their privacy. I mean, do you even know the definition of 'being nice?"
Jade didn't answer, but she was glaring daggers at Coral which might have been intimidating if he wasn't just staring at his phone.
When Jade didn't make a sound Coral shrugged, "Obviously not."
Turns out Coral could imitate voices quite well. He was just about the first person our age that I'd seen get a rise out of Jade. She was two years older than us and always acted superior. Jade went red all over and shot me a dirty look as I laughed silently.
"Shut up, Cammy," with that, she turned around and didn't bother us again.
I looked at Coral and smiled. "Nice, you've got to be the first person I've seen able to get a rise out of Jade." Grimacing, I took out the air pod. "Damn, that's really beginning to hurt my eardrums now."
Coral grinned, taking his one out as well. "You'll get used to it."
"Yeah, also I forgot to remind you. When we get back to Tassie the first practice we'll be doing is a game of crossover. You have to get to the end of the other team's territory and you'll be safe. Except the thing is the whole team has to make it."
Coral nodded. "Oh yeah, I played that in PE. You can't get tagged on the other team's territory or you have to sit down right? And then someone from your team can run over to get to you and you both get a free walk back?"
"Yeah," I agreed. "Except the way we do it you have to knock the other person to the ground instead of tagging them."
"Okay," Coral grinned and punched a fist against his flexed hand, making a quick flame burst from the impact to make it more dramatic. "It's on."
Jade looked back at us. "Guys, we're here. The train's all ready to take us back home, we're just waiting for you."
A/N: HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER!! =D
Cause I've got lots more! >:D
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Anyways, love you guys and have an awesome day! ^^