Four Elements Book 1 - Hidden Powers

Chapter 4 - Set in motion - part 1

"Was Saturday the best party ever or what?" Jessica grinned.

It was Monday morning just during break. Andie, Jessica, Emily, Isabelle and Bane were sitting outside, enjoying a few minutes of sunlight before locking themselves in stuffy classrooms for the next few hours.

"Yes, it was," Andie agreed. "Thanks again for that, you guys."

"Ah, no big deal," Jessica said, ruffling her hair. "You remember the awesome ideas you always have for our birthdays? It was our turn."

Andie smiled. She loved her friends. They were only three, well, four, now, but she felt closer to them than anyone else in the word, even her parents and sister, who she loved dearly. She was actually not always sure why. It was like a thread had been woven between the five of them in an unbreakable alloy of some sort. She liked that idea immensly. She couldn't imagine her life without them. Even Bane, in the short time they'd known each other, had come across as friendly. Of course, she wasn't ready to share everything with him or Isabelle the way she would with Jessica or Emily,but she had a feeling that their friendship was going to keep growing. The bell rang at that moment, so the five friends gathered their things and headed to class. At the entrance, Jessica went to History while Emily and Isabelle had gym class, leaving Andie and Bane make their way to Spanish alone.

"Hey, I really hope you were okay with my being at your party... I know we haven't known each other very long..."

"I haven't known Isabelle much longer," Andie pointed out. "And don't worry, I was glad you came."

Bane smiled.

"I still can't believe Jessica had that crazy idea!" Andie said with a laugh.

"... Well... actually, it was my idea."

Andie froze.

"She did the organizing and supervised decorating, but the suggestion was from me."

Andie flushed in embarrassment.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm an idiot!" she exclaimed. "It's just Jessica and Emily have known me longer, and Jessica's always the one who comes up with the craziest ideas, so I assumed..."

"It's okay," Bane smiled. "Don't worry about it. Of course you'd come to that conclusion."

"You sure you're not mad?"

"Do I look mad?" he said, with a huge grin.

"Uh... no," she said, flushing slightly as she noticed how his eyes sparkled when he smiled.

"Come on, we had better get going or we'll be late." Bane said, still smiling.

He held out his hand. Andie smiled back at him, then slid her hand in his. Then, they hurried up the hall to class, laughing.

The rest of the day went on normally. The final bell rang, filling the students with that happy feeling that school is over. At least for until the next day. Everyone poured out the doors to their cars or buses. Well, almost everyone. Andie was still in the school. In the library to be exact. The librarian was well into the last trimester of her pregnancy and Andie had offered to help her after school until she left for her maternity leave. She was currently sorting through the books on the higher shelves, which were often the one with the most misplaced books. She was standing on a stool, looking at the titles, removing them to put them in a box, which she to move them to the correct section. Andie was almost done. She glanced at her watch. It was almost six. It was lucky her mother had taken the day off and could take care of Hannah. She hadn't expected this to take so long. Of course, she preferred to be doing that rather than imagining Miss Philipson doing all the work in her condition. So she grit her teeth and kept going. Eventually, she found the last book in the shelf that shouldn't be there. She put it in the cardboard box she'd placed near her to avoid going up and down all the time. She meant to climb down, but she couldn't quite see her foot, and accidentally placed it wrong. So when she moved the box back, whe lost her balance as her foot slipped from the stool. Both Andie and the large box fell to the floor. Everything else happened in a split second: Andie hit the floor hard, saw the box tumbling down towards her, and she instinctively raised her hands above her to try and shield her face. There was a loud thump, but no box crashing on top of her. After a few seconds, Andie opened her eyes. And to her utter amazement, she could see a faint red-orange glow above her. Slightly breathless, she glanced around her. The faint light had formed a perfect circle around her...