My life was just as boring as ever as we all waited anxiously for the last day in November so we could have Aurelie's party. But, finally, the day had come, and Casey, Emma, and Izzy had just turned up at my house. The first thing we did was connect Izzy's phone to the Bluetooth speaker that I kept in my room, and make sure it was charging so it didn't die on us.
An hour and a half of preparation later, we were all ready for Aurelie to arrive in half and hour. We sat on the mattresses we had set up in my room, and Casey ended up playing the American Beauty/American Psycho album on her phone as we waited for Aurelie. The four of us basically had a Fall Out Boy sing off until there was a knock at the door, causing Casey to pause the album, and me to go open the door and let Aurelie in. She was wearing a black and white striped top, with a black pair of shorts and blue Converse. Her blonde curls were loose.
"Hi, Ella!" she smiled.
"Hi Aurelie, happy birthday!"
"Thank you!" I led her up to my room, which I had made sure to leave in total darkness. Luckily, Emma hand't gotten Novocaine or some other Fall Out Boy song stuck in her head, or if she had, she wasn't singing it out loud. I clicked on the light to my room.
"SURPRISE!" The other three yelled. Aurelie just laughed.
We spent the night laughing and playing games, and Aurelie ended up having to lick Casey's foot thanks to Izzy and her dares.
Four weeks later and it was the last week of term. Cue massive class Christmas parties right about now. I'm pretty sure that was all that dragged me out of bed that Monday. I would much rather spend my fifteenth birthday at home, but Christmas parties called. I pulled on my uniform, and, not nearly so rushed for once, French plaited my hair, before finding waffles in the fridge from mum with enough for the others to have one too. Taking waffles for my friends, I set off to the bus stop, arriving a full five minutes before my bus was due.
On the bus, everything seemed normal... until Casey yelled
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" as soon as I sat next to her.
"Shush Case, do you want all the creepers in the world knowing its my birthday?" I asked her, laughing.
"Maybe. But still. Happy fifteenth Elle."
"Thank you."
At our lockers, Casey suddenly looked surprised like she'd just remembered something.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked her.
"Yeah, yeah. I - uh, gotta go, I'll see you in math Ella, sorry!" She blurted out before running off. I just shrugged and went off to sit with the others in the library. To my surprise, Em, Izzy, and Aurelie were talking fairly loudly.
"Well we know Casey won't show -"
"But Ella? Where's Ella? Shouldn't she be here by now?"
"She'll get here in her own time Iz."
"Which, I believe, is right now." I grinned, throwing myself down into a seat next to Emma. All three of the other girls turned to face me.
"Happy birthday Ella!" They cheered in unison. I just smiled at my best friends. Emma passed a wrapped box, Izzy placed a wrapped rectangle on my lap, and Aurelie pushed a small wrapped box across the table.
"Thanks guys! You didn't have to get me anything you know."
"Yes we did, your best friend doesn't turn fifteen every day." Aurelie retorted. I just laughed, and opened Izzy's present before it fell off my lap. Inside was a pair of Galaxy leggings and a silver jumper with stars on it.
"Oh my god Iz, they're amazing! Thank you so much!" I smiled.
"No problem, I had a feeling you'd like them."
I opened the smaller box from Aurelie next, finding a small red box holding a silver necklace with an E charm hanging on it.
"Turn the E over She," Aurelie told me. She was Aurelie's nickname for me - she had actually thought Emma was calling me her the first time she called me Elle, because elle in French actually means she.I did as she said, and saw my birth date engraved in small print on it - December 20th, 2000.
"Ellie, it's beautiful! Thank you!"
"De rien." She replied in French. "Anything for my Swindon-bred best friend." I smiled, and opened Emma's present. Inside her box was a Galaxy bar, and a photo frame with a photo of the five of us at an aquarium.
"Thanks Em!" I smiled, admiring the photo I hadn't seen in probably a year.
"Hey, no problem Elle."
We all just talked among ourselves until the bell went and I was off to Blue with Izzy. When we got to our classrooms, there was an all to familiar song playing from mine - Permanent Vacation. Confused, I swung open the door and went inside, only to be greeted by my entire science class already standing around.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA!" They cheered.
"Uh, thanks..." Casey just laughed at my embarrassment.
"Come on Elle, you know I have to embarrass you somehow on your birthday." she replied. I rolled my eyes.
"Didn't you do that on the bus?"
"Yeah yeah. Present's on your desk by the way."
"You didn't have to get me anything!"
"Yes, yes I did." I went over to my desk, where there was a box. I opened the lid, and saw one of the prettiest bracelets I'd ever seen. It was rose gold, with rose-shaped beads and a little flame charm hanging off it.
"Oh my god Case, it's beautiful!" I gasped. "Thank you!"
"No problem," Casey smiled, handing me a ginger beer she'd opened. "Happy fifteenth Elle."
The rest of the day was, well, just the way a day in the second last day of term would be, and the last day was mainly cleaning up, before we were let out at two to go home. It was about a week into holidays when life got very unusual. I'd thought nothing of it at first. Me and the others were making cookies at Casey's, and I was stupid enough to burn my hand getting the tray out. At least... I thought of burned it. I should have. But when Aurelie looked at it when I'd put the tray down, she looked pretty confused.
"Ella... are you sure you burnt your hand?"
"Positive. Why?"
"There's nothing there..."
"What?" Confused, I looked down at my hand. Where I could have sworn I'd burnt it on the oven, there was barely even a mark. "What the hell?" Casey shrugged, and we all just left it at that. That was the first sign of something really, really weird going on. But we kept going on with life, as if I wasn't suddenly immune to getting burned by anything. I'd been feeling weird, almost superstitious, since my fifteenth birthday, watching anything on TV about the Council.
A few days after the burn incident, I'd been watching the news with mum, having nothing better to do, when they started talking about the Council and Stardom Girls or something. They'd called the PM Rebecca Laurence to talk about them.
"The Stardom Girls will be very important to mankind," Rebecca explained. "People may not know what - or who - they are yet, but they may just be our saviours."
"Can you tell us anything about them?"
"There are twelve of them out there, each girl born some time near the end of her sign."
"Is there any way a girl can find out?"
"Not until she's fifteen. Her powers won't develop until then, the first power coming a week or two after her birthday. But it won't be much, and the last power developed is always their strongest." That was when my mum turned the TV off.
"What the hell was that about?" She wondered.
"Some new thing. You know how the Council is." I said, hoping to disguise the nervousness in my voice. The burn incident had been a week after my birthday. I failed, mum looked at me with concern.
"Ella. What happened?"
"What do you mean? Nothing happened mum."
"Ella. Don't lie to me."
"I'm not?" My statement came out sounding like a question, which didn't help me at all.
"You are. What happened?"
"It's nothing... probably."
"Probably?"
"Ummm."
"Ella, what happened at Casey's?"
"Iburnedmyhandbutthenididnt." I replied quickly.
"Excuse me?"
"Uh, I burned my hand. But then I didn't?"
"So, you burned your hand but there was no mark?"
"Exactly!"
"I'm calling the Council. Ella, I think you're one of those girls they mentioned."
"What? No no it's probably nothing mum..."
"I don't care, I'm telling them."
"But -"
"I'm telling them Ella. If it's nothing then oh well, if you're one of them maybe they can help."
"Fine," I sighed. Well this will be interesting... It didn't take long for my phone to start ringing after mum left. The caller ID said it was Casey. "Hey," I greeted, hoping I sounded cheerful and not just nervous.
"Ella! Hi! Did you, um, see that thing on the news?"
"Yes..."
"You think you're like that? I mean really, you so should have burned your hand at my place!"
"I don't know Case. Maybe?"
"Does the Council know?"
"Mum's calling them,"
"Right. You don't want her to do you?"
"Nope!"
"It's probably for the best Elle."
"And if it's nothing?"
"Then at least you checked. I mean, the twentieth of December is pretty close to the end of Sagittarius isn't it? And that was a week after you turned fifteen."
"What, are you just expecting me to suddenly start making fire now?" I laughed, and so did Casey.
"Maybe! But that may take a while."
"Yeah... hey Casey?"
"Yeah?"
"If.... I am one of those girls.... you guys won't think I'm a freak, will you?"
"Hell no! It's awesome! Our best friend, destined to save the world with eleven other girls we don't know!" I laughed again. "Wait Ella maybe it's one of us?"
"That would be awesome. Then we could be awesome world saving people together!"
"Exactly! I'd have to check when signs end and such though."
"Well Aurelie's already out."
"Yeah she is."
"Pity. She would've liked to be destined to save the world."
"Mmh, knowing her she'd refer herself to some book character. The Herondale family maybe?"
"She so would."
"Anyway, I gotta go, talk later?"
"Of course." Mum came in as Casey and I hung up.
"Council confirmed it," she told me. "You're the oldest."
"So I'm supposed to save the world from God knows what... with eleven girls I probably haven't even met?"
"Pretty much." Well my life just officially got weird. And shouldn't mum had known? How did I even get my powers? More importantly, what were they? Judging from the first one - inability to get burnt, the most incredible power ever (note sarcasm), they related to fire in some way. I guess I had heard that Sagittarius was a fire sign. Would every girl's power relate to their sign? The news report made it sound like we were the Avengers or something, calling the report 'New Teenage Superheroes, Coming Soon?'. I figured I could hide the inability to get burnt at school, but what if I developed some power that couldn't be explained away? Even if I was supposed to get burnt a lot, classmates would get suspicious. I was going to have one hell of a time keeping my powers a secret from school. Cue doorbell to snap me out of my thoughts. Sighing, I stood, and went to see who it was.
"Konnichiwa Ella-chan!" Izzy was standing at the door with Emma. For some reason Emma held a black cat.
"Hey guys. Didn't know you were a witch Em!"
"Didn't you? Well the reason my parents came back to England was so I could get to Hogwarts easily so..."
"Why Swindon, why not London?"
"Because. My parents wanted to stay where they lived before they moved to Italy."
"Okay then.... what's your house?"
"Ravenclaw duh."
"You don't disappear during school terms," Izzy pointed out.
"Yes I do. My parents use magic so it looks like my sister and I are still at our muggle schools."
"Well then Miss Ravenclaw, what is the name of your cat?"
"Erin," Emma replied smiling.
"Em really though. Why the cat?"
"I told you! I'm a fourth year at Hogwarts!"
"Emma Louise Marshall tell us the truth now." We all laughed as Izzy made herself sound like a strict teacher.
"Okay okay! Dani found her on the street..."
"Awe! She's so cute!" Izzy smiled. Emma nodded in agreement.
"That's why Dani insisted we keep her. She let me name Erin though." Emma smiled proudly.