Ambassadors

A New Turn of Events

I have to act fast just in case the chosen kid gets back in the water. I put all my dislike for them behind me and ask if he could show it to me. He responds with a 'why' so I have to explain. "I found this weird... rock and it would be cool to see what it's made of."  I say in a nonchalant voice. He seems to accept my reason, "Sure come over anytime." He then says his farewells to everybody before filing out with his family. Naturally my whole family questions me but they know I can be a science nerd at times. Plus I love gadgets so I got off easy. Surprisingly, my mom didn't make one of my sisters to join me so I decided to ask Isaac to come along. He doesn't appear beside me but instead discreetly shows up under a tree. He catches up with me and we walk to his house together. Mrs. Moris opens the door and welcomes us in. Unlike her boys, she's polite and sweet. She directs us to Cade's room and goes to the kitchen to fix snacks. Isaac knocks on Cade's door and after hearing a muffled 'come in' we enter. His room is filled with gadgets and other crazy items but overall its pretty neat. "Um, who are you?" Cade asks Isaac and somehow it didn't come out rude. Isaac introduces himself and they start talking about one of the video games he has on his shelf. I tune them out and scan the room for anything that looks like a rock sampler. There it is. Sitting on his desk is, as he had said, a very advanced lab set. I'm about to sit down when I here a 'hey' from behind me. I don't need him to tell me to sit somewhere else so I lounge on the bean bag next to the desk chair. Isaac is invited to sit on his bed. "So where's the rock?" He asks me and yes, it did sound rude. Before I lose my patience I pull the shell out and give it to him. He stares at it for a while. "What is this?"
"You tell me." I reply motioning to the kit. Although unsure he runs his hand through his black hair and gets to work. He does some tests or something and then he leans back in his chair. "So what is it?" Isaac asks
"Oh it takes thirty minutes to an hour to get the results. Wanna play that game while we wait?" Cade says and Isaac responds with an excited yes. I hate video games. I think to myself as they rush to the screen, I then notice there's only two controllers. I guess I'm not even invited. Cade makes me so mad! He treats me like a stranger, I thought he was naturally like that. Yet, He'd just given me evidence that he simply didn't like me. I still sit on the bean bag watching the surprisingly non-violent game. I probably judged all video games as gorey murder simulators but this one was Minecraft. Which I love.
Isaac keeps giving me a guilty look. He started moving to get up when Mrs. Moris walked in with chocolate chip cookies. My anger momentarily lost, I leap up and take the plate thanking her profusely. Cade pauses the game and sits on his chair, Isaac just lowers himself on the floor in front of me. "How much longer Cade?" I try and fail to hide my annoyance but he doesn't seem to notice my tone. "Ten minutes left." He read from his timer before grabbing another cookie. We ate for the remaining time. Isaac was still giving me that guilty look, if he wants to say something he can always say it telepathically. I wasn't even mad at him so I just continued eating. A low beep coming from the kit filled the room. We both stare at Cade expectedly as he checks the manual, repeatedly. "What's wrong?" Isaac asks.
"Where did you find this?" Cade asks back sounding very distant. We look at each other then back at Cade. "Wha-" He cuts off my question, already knowing what it is. "This must be a Chrysoberyl gemstone... That'd be the only reason Beryllium is in it."
"Chryso-what?"
"It's a rare gem but there's so much Beryllium I'm just not sure..." Cades voice faded as to our horror the gem shell thing started to glow. Finally Isaac's voice came in my head. "The kid is back in the water. We have to leave." I nod and blurt out 'thanks!' as I grab it. Cade looks utterly confused but before he can get a word in Isaac says goodbye and we quickly run down his stairs. We slow down when Mr. Moris comes into view. He's nice like his wife but can be a bit intimidating. I polity tell him that I have to get home. We're able to get out of their house and walk back to mine. Isaac apologizes about ignoring me but before I can reply, he disappears under the same tree he came from. I'm getting upstairs when mom tells us she leaving for work. Of course I run back down and hug her, my sisters and I making sure she has everything. By the time I get back to the protruding rock everyone's there. The shell thing is still glowing bright so it doesn't matter. It's decided that Isaac should help me since shark boy is well, a shark. So I mid shift, he shifts fully and we're off.
I spot an island when Isaac comes up for air. "There!" I yell in his mind. He speeds up and after a long swim, for him, I spot the last chosen kid. The light from the sunset hits her face so I can't see it. However, I shift back and swim to the shore where she is. I can't think of anything else to say but hello. She turns towards me and tries to block the sun. "Um hi... Where did you come from?" She looks around at the deserted beach before looking back at me, squinting. "Do I know you?" she asks, still trying to get the sun out of her eyes. Now that I think about it her voice sounds familiar, I stand in front of the sunlight so I can see her face. Her chocolate brown eyes widened, as do mine. "Natalyn?"
"Marcie!" she gasps before we hug each other. I haven't seen her since sixth grade. She had to move to Colorado, we weren't able to keep in touch. "What are you doing here?" I ask still smiling.
"I'm here on vacation... What are you doing here?" she replies, looking around again. Reminded of my mission I fish the shell out of my shorts pocket and hand it to her. She looks at me befor crying out. The glow crawls up her arm and finally rests on her right cheek close to her ear. Unlike when I got my shell, her mark continued to glow and she continued to scream in pain. Soon the others join me on the beach, asking what happened to her. She was now on her knees holding her head. "What did I do!?" I yell panicking. Miko stands next to me. "Maybe she's the wrong one or something..." She looks at her panicking. "What do we do now? She might die!" Just as she said that Natalyn fully drops to the ground. We all stare at her thinking the worst. I drop next to her and look at her face. The mark slowly dims before becoming its original color. Natalyn groaned and opened her eyes. She mutters something intangible then jolts upright. "What's wrong!?" I ask as she stands up shakily. She looks at everyone of us, then to the horizon. "We have to go."

(Picture of Marcie's animal)