Element Academy

It's Called Pacman... Crystal

Crystal didn’t like the idea of leaving Page with Demetri, he seemed like a nice guy and Page really seemed into him, but still they had only just met.

“Come on Crystal. Lighten up.” Jane said, “She’ll be fine, now come on the game where that yellow circle guy eats the mini circles is open.”

“Don’t you mean-“

“Crystal! Long time no see!” Crystal turned around to see Mahoney heading towards her and moaned. “How’s it going.”

“Well, it’s going.” Crystal said. Between the dim lighting, all the flashing of lights and all the people, how in the world did he see her?

Mahoney laughed like she said the funniest thing ever and said, “Did I introduce you to Natasha?”

“Don’t think I’ve had the pleasure.” She said trying to keep her tone neutral.

Mahoney waved over a brunette with curly brown hair, “We met while playing that game with the yellow circle guy who eats those mini circles.”

Crystal couldn’t stand it, “Really! Why doesn’t anyone know the real name? Its-”

“Hey Mahoney!” Jane exclaimed, as she strode over with her red hair bouncing against her dark blue leather jacket. Mahoney and Jane began talking as Natasha walked off to go chat with some shaggy haired kid.

A game beeped behind Crystal, she turned and saw a group of boys leave a game she knew very well. Mahoney stopped talking and he and Crystal exchanged a silent conversation. Immediately they took off at the game. It was just like the one Mahoney and Crystal used to play all the time when she went over to his house, except it was the T.V. plug in version. The two rockets, the lines and formations of the weird alien rocket shapes.

“I bet you can’t beat me.” Mahoney challenged.

“Prepare to lose.” Crystal replied, “Again.”

And they were off. They joy sticks flew and the buttons were on fire. Mahoney and Crystal played like pros beating the levels like they were no big deal. Soon they had attracted a huge crowd with a classic video game arcade battle between the sexes. The crowds were divided, who would win? Crystal or Mahoney? The game raged on; Mahoney lost a rocket then Crystal’s rocket was hijacked by an evil ship.

“Come on Crystal!” Jane shouted.  Soon the entire arcade was chanting their name. The lights were flashing, the sounds were roaring. Crystal could feel her hands fly and see the determination on her and Mahoney’s face reflected in the screen.  Then, bam!

The entire room erupted into cheers of surprise and victory. They both lost! Three hours of playing and they were both destroyed at the same time! Crystal and Mahoney just laughed. Mahoney extended his hand and Crystal shook it while shaking herself. Her eyes hurt and her hands were raw, but it was worth it. It had been so long since she had just had fun and she got to do it with Mahoney. They clapped along with the crowd as they chanted “Rocket pairs! Rocket pairs!”

…

Mahoney and Crystal were still laughing as they walked along the circle stones that lined the paths throughout the garden behind the hotel. Lush green and colorful bushes rose up on all sides.

“The way you blasted that rocket and then it blasted you! Priceless!” Mahoney laughed. “You should have seen your face!”

“Me? You should have seen your face!” Crystal exclaimed. They burst into another round of laughter. For some reason they couldn’t stop laughing; their sides hurt so bad that they had to sit down on a stone bench in front of a flower bush to keep from falling over. It took them at least ten minutes to finally stop laughing, but even still they were still threatening to start laughing all over again.

Mahoney looked up at the bright blue sky. Suddenly his face became all serious, “So tomorrow it all changes, huh?”

Crystal looked at him then looked up at a lone wispy cloud crawling across the sky. “I guess you’re right, tomorrow we’ll be ‘sorted’ into our bending positions and we’ll all become super element wizards. Do you think they’ll put a hat on us to decide which element we are?”

Mahoney shook his head, “You don’t believe it’s real?”

“No I believe, but I want to see it, to truly have one hundred percent faith that it’s real.”  Crystal said, “This all seems to good be true, you know?”

“I know what you mean, like how could they have seen me ‘show potential’ if I don’t even remember showing potential myself?” Mahoney wondered.

“Well anyway, I guess we should head in, I don’t know how long we’ve been wandering around it might be close to eight.” She said.

The two got up and Crystal and Mahoney both flinched as a small rock flew down from nowhere and broke a small pink garden globe behind them. Mahoney shouted that they were under attack. Crystal looked around trying to find who threw the rock, but she couldn’t see anyone. They ran into the hotel where they found out it was seven forty five and they parted ways to head off to prepare for tomorrow. As Crystal headed to her room she couldn’t shake off the sneaking suspicion that she knew who had thrown the stone.

That didn’t matter now all that she was worried about was getting to bed, tomorrow was a big day. When she walked into the room, Jane was already out and snoring on the furthest queen bed. She could hear Talula singing in the bathroom. As she passed, the door opened and Talula walked out with her hair in a towel, guacamole? on her face, and ear buds in her ears. Crystal wondered if anyone told Talula about the “no electronics” rule that “Camp” had. She smiled, probably not.

Quickly Crystal grabbed a pair of jeans and a purple shirt ran to the bathroom and changed into the clothes she wanted to wear tomorrow. She hopped into bed and begged sleep to come, yet all she could think about was tomorrow and Page. Where was she?

It must have been around ten o’ clock when Crystal finally heard the soft shuffling of a person sneaking into the room.

…