The Elementalists

19.

"What do you mean you'll be late?" Brett demanded, his voice slightly high pitched.

I sighed, tired of repeating myself. "I suck at self defense, so Rhaeya is making me start taking extra classes. Today is an introductory class. I'll be late by half an hour or so." I paused before I hastily added. "If you ask me once more, I'll burn your brownies. And I'm not talking about the baked goods."

There was a short pause as my threat sunk in and I could hear him gulp over the line. "You should really respect your boss." He whined before hanging up.

I rolled my eyes at his need to get in the last word before I stood up and proceeded towards Colin warming up on the mats. His eyes turned to me as I strolled towards him. I took my own position and mirrored his warm up stretches.

"Who's Brett?" He asked as he pulled his arms behind his head. "Your boyfriend? Heard you say you were going to be late."

I grimaced. "Nothing even close. He's my boss. I work at Anchor."

His eyes widened in surprise. "You work?"

I ignored the surprise in that statement. "Yes. At Anchor. In the kitchen."

"Why?" He finished his stretched. "Why do you need to work?"

"It keeps me occupied. My guardian isn't home five days out of the week. I go stir crazy." His incredulous look started to dull a bit as I started on the final bit of warming up. Luckily, our sparring prevented him from asking me anymore offending questions and I took a bit of my hurt out on him. Almost took him down three times. He escaped my grip and I couldn't react fast enough before he had my cheek pressed against the mats.

They smell horrible by the way.

I struggled a bit, and tried everything. It was my last one before Rhaeya got back to me but soon realised it was futile. My body went lax underneath him as I managed to get in enough of a breath to grunt out a defeat. Colin, tired as well, grunted out a reply before he pushed himself off and collapsed to the side.

As the two of us wheezed our way back to temporary good health, a pair of well known calves approached me. More properly, Rhaeya approached us.

"You almost got it, Fiera." She lightly tapped my side with her shoe. "Maybe next time."

I decided not to answer as I heard a thud of Colin hitting the floor. Turns out, he fell flat on his back as his elbows were too tired to keep him held up.

I didn't have to worry about giving an excuse to Flo or Eric once class let out. It was the final day before the weekend, which meant I had work. Which meant they wouldn't wait for me. Which meant I could peacefully go freshen up, and wait in the Common Gym for my brother and his quarry to arrive.

The Common Gym is exactly what it's name suggests. A place for individuals of any element to come and train. It had several gymnastic equipment, a whole corner dedicated to the fighting dummies, fighting mats placed on fair wood floors under harsh dangling white ceiling lights, which weren't currently on as the skylights dominating the ceiling lit up the place well enough. They kept out the worst of the heat and only let the sunlight in.

I didn't get Wafi's choice of meeting here. The doors had no locks. Anyone could walk in at any time. Anyone could see the three of us standing there. Three of us, maybe. Wafi did say he might not show. He'd even told me to leave if he doesn't show up within the designated time.

I glanced at my phone, five after. There is time. Comforted with that thought, I plugged my earphones in, pulled my notebooks out and set to do some homework, comfortably seated up in the bleachers.