7 Part 4

Make sure you do this right parts 1, 2 & 3 are below.

Have you ever noticed that when something really good happens, something equally as bad happens? I was starting to notice a pattern. I’m still not sure coming to the Academy was a good thing or not, but then I find I’m pretty good with a bow and arrow. Good. But I get pulverized by Alex. Bad. I find out my talent is water. Good. I get sent on this crazy mission. Bad. We manage to steal the first piece of the heaven’s gem without getting caught. Very good. And now we get discovered by an ‘Immortal’. As bad as it gets.

I thought the old man was just an airport guard, those intimidating guys dressed in blue with the walky-talkies. But we soon found out that his blazing red eyes were more unnatural then we assumed.

After finding us Collin tried to explain to him that we were just waiting for an early flight. After all, we weren’t doing anything wrong as far as we knew.

But he just laughed, “I do not care why you are here, I already know.”

Drew’s hands flew to her belt where I knew her weapon, whatever it was, was hidden. “Now, I am going to ask you nicely,” said the guard grinning at us.

His voice was strangely horse, “I know you have stolen the Acada, I myself was after the artifact. Give it to me now and I will let you go, not to California, oh no we cannot have you discovering a second. Run home to your Academy and tell them of your failure.” Collin was breathing hard, “or what?”

The guard turned to him “you do not want to test me young one.”

Collin unsheathed his sword quick as lightning, “no, it’s you who shouldn’t test me.” There was gravity to his words and I was pleased to see the guard falter the tiniest bit. “No chance,” I said stepping forward “we’re not giving it to you and we’re not backing down.”

His eyes narrowed and flames appeared in his hands. If I hadn’t seen it at the Academy so many times it would have been terrifying. But now I only spared it a small thought. The first flame he threw I instinctively dowsed with water.

He glared at me “so you think water will protect your mission, it will not. You are far too young and foolish.”

He threw a second and third. I only just caught the second before the third caught one of the chairs on fire. I frantically shot a jet of water out of my hands. Sam was blowing darts, which were being incinerated in midair, and now the guard had retrieved his own weapon a wickedly sharp short sword. Metal clinked as Collin hacked with his own sword.

I fumbled for my bow, my hands were shaking and I closed my eyes and tried to remember the cool, calming sensation of water flowing through my veins. I drew an arrow and knocked it onto my bow in a flash. I trained it on my target. Collin and the guard where in a furious battle, Drew and Sam doing anything they could to help.

Fires were burning all around. The Small waiting room had completely transformed. Winds were howling, trying to distract and irritate the guard. I was trying and failing to fire an arrow at the guard’s back. I was frozen in place.

It was a vicious strike cutting across Collin’s chest that made me let go of the string. The guard saw it coming and it had burned to ash before it could touch him. Drew leapt forward, pulling something small and shining out of her belt. He was taken off his guard his attention still focused on me. Drew struck him hard in the chest causing him to fall backward, her knees pressing him down. His eyes were wide, and he gasped once before disintegrating to dust before my eyes. 

7 Part 3

Make sure you read this right! Parts 1 and 2 are below.

We bundled sweatshirts, our backpacks and anything else we could find to try and get the least bit comfortable. It didn’t work. I couldn’t fall asleep on the hard floor and soon I had to put on my sweatshirt so I wouldn’t be so cold. Sam started snoring at about 2:50 and I was about to start kicking when Drew spoke.

“You awake Jess?”

I considered for a moment if I wanted to be or not. We were all spread out. Collin was on the other side of the chairs, Sam was in the middle, I was by the window and Drew was along the wall.

“Yes,” I said finally.

“I know you heard me earlier.” I didn’t know what to say, something that was becoming more frequent every day.

“I don’t… I don’t care. I mean, not that I don’t care it’s just… You don’t have to be embarrassed or anything…” I shouldn’t have said anything.

“Thank you,” said Drew.

She was quiet again and then, “I’m okay really, it’s just that… Things now, are a lot more complicated. Especially for me…” She was apparently having a hard time finding words as well. “It’s just that, all my life I’ve been living in someone else’s shadow. All the time. Whether from sisters or my mom, my dad, everyone’s accomplished something big. I thought then, that I wanted the spotlight, but now I have the chance to really make a difference and… I’m scared.”

“We’re all scared. I mean, we really don’t know what we’re doing, we’re going halfway around the world and we’re pretty much on our own. Who wouldn’t be scared?”

We were both quiet for a minuet. “Something my dad used to say is ‘when in doubt, just take the next small step.’ That’s part of what helped me to choose to come to the Academy. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Magic powers… It sounds crazy. But with that small step, look what’s happened?”

Drew laughed a little, “That’s funny, because I grew up with my powers. Magic was so normal in my house. We all have it and my mom… well it’s not important.”

“Did you hear that?”

“What?” I listened again.

“It sounds like…”

Footsteps were echoing down the hall. It was a security guard checking all around like he was looking for something, or someone. I kicked Sam, who was the most exposed. He rolled over but didn’t wake up. The guard was getting closer. I grabbed Sam’s leg and dragged him backward until he was right by the window. He was starting to wake up now. Drew clapped a hand over his mouth as he began to open it. His eyes darted around until he registered who had woken him. He sat up and Drew released him.

“Gosh, what’re you trying to do scare me to death?” He whispered.

I held my finger to my lips and pointed out the guard. He was checking every row and would soon reach ours. Drew gestured for me to wake up Collin. I crawled over to him and hesitated. Then decided he would have more sense then Sam and keep his mouth shut without help. Collin breathed deeply when I shook him. He sat up and ran his hands through his hair. Then he caught sight of me and dropped low.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.

I motioned for him to follow me back to where Drew and Sam were waiting.

“What do we do mister team leader?” Said Sam in a loud whisper.

“Who’s there?” Came the voice of the guard.

We froze until he continued down his row.

“First of all, if you don’t know how to whisper, shut up,” said Collin. “Second, I’m not sure we’re braking any rules by being here, but a bunch of teens without parents might look suspicious so lets send a decoy.”

He unzipped his backpack and pulled out a small, round… something.

“I designed this myself,” he said proudly before he threw it across to the hall at the other end of the room. A voice from that direction said loud and clear “quick this way!”

The guard turned, “who’s that?” He walked down that way.

“I believe a high five is in order,” said Collin smiling holding out his hand. Drew slapped it “excellent.”

“Not so fast.” The guard was hovering over us.

7 Part 2

So I won't be able to post for about three weeks so I'm going to post three right now.

Drew went to turn in our tickets while Collin, Sam and I waited.

“Well, you had better get comfortable,” said Drew as she returned. “The next flight is tomorrow at 5:15. Am.”

Sam groaned, “camping out in an airport. People will think we’re hobos, or criminals.” “We sort of are,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but we don’t want anyone to know that, so we’d better hide somewhere out of the way. Like way out of the way.” Said Collin.

We walked around the large airport until we decided to stay in a waiting area for a smaller airline. It was at the furthest end of the airport but close enough to where we would need to be tomorrow. We dropped all our stuff in the dark corner and Collin bought us all pretzels.

Drew stood after a moment of silence as we ate. “I forgot to put the shard back, give me the carrier I’ll be right back.” She walked back to the bathroom and I found myself alone with Sam and Collin.

I felt a little awkward. Sam and Collin had some kind of feud and wouldn’t talk to each other unless it was an insult. I also didn’t like being alone with Collin. He was smart, had a quick humor, was easy with people, seriously good looking and was nice to me. So why did I feel so awkward? I stood up trying to push the thoughts away.

“I’m gunna go to the bathroom too.”

I checked my phone as I went inside. 11:24. I couldn’t believe only thirteen hours ago I had been in that van driving to Virginia. It was surprisingly empty in the bathroom, only a few stalls were occupied. I studied myself in the mirror. My hair had been curled this morning but was hanging loose and sad now. I looked tired and my lips were cracked from biting them. Although I usually didn’t bother so much about my appearance I felt a strange desire to fix everything I saw. I washed my face and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. The bathroom was empty now so I changed my shirt with a spare I had brought. Better but not perfect.

I was about to leave when I heard something. A sob coming from the only occupied stall. I froze. Someone was crying just a few feet away from me. I listened as she gained control of herself again. I had just decided to back out quietly when the lock clicked and the door swung open. It was Drew, tough strong, no nonsense Drew. The sinks weren’t directly in front of the stalls and she didn’t see me as she left.

I waited a little while then followed her out. I tried to imagine why Drew would be crying as I walked back to the others. It didn’t sound like something stupid brought on by an onslaught of hormones. She sounded like she was in real trouble. I wondered briefly if I should talk to her about it as I rejoined the rest of the team.

“That took long enough,” said Sam. “Did you change?”

“Yep, it’s like a whole different person,” I said trying to regain my usual manner and sounding a little fake.

“Where did you go?” Said Drew quickly.

“Just to the bathroom,” I said just as fast.

Drew looked away. She suspected I heard her. That’s just great, I thought, now everything’s going to be all awkward.

I checked my phone “it’s 11:47 let’s get some sleep.” 

Chapter 7 Part 1

This is one of my favorite chapters partly because we learn so much about the characters and partly because it marks the end of a very hard-to-write chapter. I hope you like it!

Chapter Seven

The Essentials  

The second we had crossed out the doorway to the building Collin and Drew broke into a run. I tried to catch up but they were much faster.

Finally I called after them “wait up!”

Collin slowed but Drew turned the corner before stopping.

“Why are we running? She won’t know what we did until…” The sound of a siren stopped me mid sentence.

“Till that?” Asked Sam. Without discussing it any further we all started running.

I’ve never been one for sports or dance very much, so I had very little stamina for the hard run and soon had to call for Collin to stop.

“I think we’re good now,” he said only slightly out of breath.

“Did you get it?” I asked panting heavily.

Drew smiled and pulled out the copper bag withdrawing the small crystal from it.

“One down seven to go!” said Sam enthusiastically.

Collin scowled at him “did you do the math all by yourself?”

“I’m twelve not five,” he snapped back.

“Well pewee, you don’t look it.”

Drew cut across them before Sam could reply, “stop it you two. We’re a team and if you two keep fighting all the time we’re not going to function as one.”

Sam glared at everyone. I could tell it would take more time before Collin and Sam got along so I broke the silence.

“So, what happened?”

“Nothing really,” said Collin “once you left the room we just smashed the case and grabbed it.” He shrugged “I just wish we’d have gotten away without anyone finding out. It was a janitor; he came just as we were leaving. He probably didn’t see the mess until we had already left.”

“Do you realize what this means?” I asked the full impact of it hitting me.

“Yea, it means we’re that much closer to reassembling the heaven’s gem.”

I shook my head “don’t you get it, we’re criminals. That girl could give full details of our appearances to the police. She might even have caught our names. Even if we survive this mission, we’re going to be in serious trouble.”

Sam and Drew both looked disconcerted and worried, but Collin only shrugged. “Sometimes it’s worth it, but don’t worry so much. Remember I’ve done this before. There are a lot of risks you have to take but it has to be done. We can’t let Feren win.” We were all silent.

I nodded “Then, what’s next?”

I had to admire Sam’s ability with the pulse finder, no matter how much he gloated about his own skills or Collin’s dislike of him. We soon determined the next shard was located somewhere in southern California.

“How are we supposed to get there?” I asked, “I don’t think we can take the school van.”

Collin dug through his backpack “aha,” he said pulling out seven airplane tickets. There was no time, date, destination or airline on it.

“Round trip flight anywhere we want to go,” he said happily.

“I didn’t know you could get those,” I said thoughtfully.

“You probably can’t but the Academy has all kinds of connections.”

“So we just go the airport and keep moving?”

“What else would we do?” Asked Drew.

I guess I hadn’t really thought about it.

“So how do we get there mister team leader,” said Sam sarcastically to Collin.

“Pipe down pipsqueak,” said Collin distractedly.

He had once again pulled out his smart phone and was looking up directions to the nearest airport.

“Darn, we’ll have to take a bus,” he said frowning and tapping his phone again.

It wasn’t any trouble locating a bus stop and seven stops later we were at the airport. “Security is going to be a problem,” said Drew, “how are we going to get all our gadgets through.”

Collin went through all our gadgets, “the only things that might be a problem is my communicator and Drew’s carrier. It’s already got part of the heaven’s gem in it, who knows what kind of reading it’ll get on their scanners. We’ll also need to take out our Bluetooth communicators.”

We pulled out our earpieces and put them in Collin’s backpack.

We debated sever possibilities of getting our things through without detection but I couldn’t see how any of our ideas would work unless we were planning on a fully-fledged ‘attack and dash’ as Collin put it. But we were in an airport, top security; we all knew there was no way we’d get away with it.

“Alright, I think I have an idea,” said Drew retrieving the crystal out of the bag. “We’ll have to take a gamble on the communicator.” She began rummaging through her backpack and pulled out a roll of duct tape. “Trust Yolo to always supply the essentials” she said handling it fondly. “Wait here,” she walked away toward the women’s bathroom and remerged not long after empty handed.

“Where did you…” Began Sam but she just patted her upper leg.

“It’s all taken care of, it’s not metal so I should be able to take it with me through the detector.”

Collin grinned, “You’re a regular criminal Drew.”

Drew gave him a look, “let this be a lesson to you never to underestimate me.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I said gesturing to the full body scanners.

They were relatively new and not everyone went through them. Some random number like every sixteen people had to go through it.

Drew sighed deeply.

“We’ll just have to have an once of luck on our side,” said Collin.

“No such thing,” she began walking toward the line for security.

Collin was smiling at her in a way that made my stomach flop strangely. I had no idea what could have triggered it but for some reason I wanted the metal detector to go off. It didn’t and she didn’t get called to go through the scanner. I was relieved of course but the way Collin retrieved her bag for her made me feel the same pang in my gut I still didn’t understand. We all got through fine with the exception of Sam who was taken aside to do a hand swipe.