The next morning I wake up to hear Dad knocking on my door.

"Wake up Blitz! Dendo city awaits!" He calls happily, "Are you awake?"

I make an animal-like grunting noise and my dad counts that as a yes.

"Get up and ready! The bus will be here in twenty minutes." I hear his feet walking down the hall and away from my room. I just lay there for a minute, trying to gather my thoughts.

Dendo....bus....twenty minutes.....TWENTY MINUTES! I sit bolt upright and almost fall off the bed. I stumble off the warm mattress and it feels like abandoning a warm house in the arctic. I shiver as my feet touch the ground and massage my eyes with my hands.

"Come on Blitz. Wake up!" I whisper to myself.

It doesn't work.

I stumble over to my closet and pull off the clothes I slept in yesterday.

Which outfit would make a good first impression? I decide on a yellow tank top and short jeans that smell like dirt. I throw the clothes on sleepily and walk over to my mirror. For a couple minutes I stare groggily at myself in the glass before snapping out of my sleepy stupor and grabbing my comb. I pull the brush through my hair a couple times before deeming it good enough and slumping out of my room, and into our bathroom, yawning. I brush my teeth and get ready before trudging down the stairs to see my dad standing at the bottom, waiting, completely ready.

"I made eggs!" He says happily, holding a plate. I grin slightly and collapse into my seat, yawning. Last night had been pretty restless for me. I stayed up for a long time, worrying, before falling asleep, but whenever I did I'd wake up a half hour later, sweating and panicking from a nightmare.

Dad sets the plate with the eggs and toast in front of me and I slowly start to eat.

Dad laughs and kisses me on the cheek, "You are not a morning person!" He states.

No duh.

I eat and Dad asks me to stand up. I do and he looks me up and down, rubbing his chin with his hand.

"Hmm...." He says.

I stand there for another couple minutes impatiently my dad watching me.

"Ugh! What?" I exclaim, throwing my hands up in the air.

My dad grins and chuckles, "Remember, Blitz, patience is a virtue. Anyway, I was just thinking about how much you look like your mother."

I frown and cross my arms, memories of my mom rushing to my head, "I don't want to look like her. She left us, remember?"

My dad nods his head, sighing sadly, a depressed look coming over to him. I walk over and hug him. I don't want to leave him. And it's not entirely selfish either. I don't want to leave him because I'm all he's got left and he's all I got left.

He's scarred to, just better at hiding it, but sometimes when I walk past his bedroom at night, I can hear him crying or whispering things into the dark. He thinks he's alone. I try to chase away his loneliness, but it's hard to when the loneliness is after me too.

My dad hugs me back. We stay there for a moment and I cherish it, but this time I'm the one to move away and the one to kiss him on his cheek. He smiles at me and loses his depressed expression as I look at the clock on the wall over his shoulder.

"When exactly is the bus getting here?" I ask him. It's 6:49.

My dad turns around and squints at the clock for a minute before jumping, "We have to be at the station by seven!" He yelps as he rushes to the door.

I follow him and we jump into the car.

"Let's go over a few things. First, you brushed your teeth, right?" He asks, pulling the lever. The car starts to rumble and vibrate slightly.

"Yes." I say, rolling my eyes.

"And you have your Shinju and bag?" He asks, grabbing hold of the steering wheel, about to press the gas pedal.

I smack my forehead with my hand and jump out of the car, "Be right back!" I shout, racing to the house.

How could I forget? I'm so stupid! How embarrassing it would have been if I'd arrived without it! What would everyone think?

I thunder up the stairs, going two at a time, and bang into my room, rushing to my bedside table and grabbing my Shinju. I snatch my bag and run back down the stairs and out the door to our car. I jump inside, slamming the door shut behind me.

"How fast?" I ask, panting slightly.

"Twenty seconds." Dad says, cranking the lever again.

"New record!" I cry triumphantly. Dad smiles at me and pushes the gas.

"Okay." He mutters, focusing on driving and trying to go as fast as possible without breaking the speed limit, "We are about ten minutes away so we should get there right on time." He says. The car in front of us moves to the next lane so Dad moves forward.

Ten minutes later we're at the station, looking around. There are what feels like hundreds of people crammed in the area, running around, looking for their trains.

I look at the map that the man at the front gave me and see the layout. Above us is a roof, but there are no walls. It's like a giant gazebo with what feels like everyone from all the cities jostling around inside. I look around at the place in what could be described as awe.

Every city has a station, but you usually don't get to go to one unless you get your Shinju and have to get moved to a different city. The stations basically have RV-like buses that lead to the other Cities. There's the water city, Mizu City; the wind city, Kuki City; the ice city, Asiu City; the fire city, Kasai City; the metal city, Kinzoku City; and of course, the electric and earth cities, Dendo City and Chikyu City, all of them different and unique in there own ways.

"Come on. The bus leaves in five minutes." Dad says, grabbing my hand and pulling me through the crowd of people. I snap out of it and try not to fall over as I stumble after Dad, stepping on shoes and bumping people. I mutter sorry to people, but they seem not to notice. That, or they're just ignoring me.

By some miracle we get to the train to Dendo City with no trouble (except a couple bruises) with two minutes to spare. In one minute, Dad kisses me on the cheek, and, going down on his knees, hugs me. I hug him back but he pulls away a moment later.

"Okay, lets make this fast." Dad takes a deep breath, "Do you want me to put your Shinju on for the first time? Family's supposed to do it and once it's on your not supposed to take it off ever." He says.

I look into his emerald green eyes for a minute before nodding. He smiles and pulls gloves out of his pocket that look very much like Platina's. I slowly hand him my necklace with the Shinju attached and he takes it.

"Turn around." He commands so quietly I barely hear him. I obey and shiver slightly as he moves the necklace over my head. My Shinuj rests on my chest. On my heart. It's a light weight. Like a feather. The cool chain sparks slightly and I relish the little zaps that hit my skin. Each one perks me up. Wakes me up a little.

Dad slowly snaps the chain together and the minute he does electricity shoots into me, rushing through my system. I jerk slightly and Dad appears in front of me, holding me steady as my element enters me. I feel my fingers tingle and my hair feels staticky as the feeling passes over. Dad lets go of me as it slows and stops. Not completely, however. I can still feel it pulsing inside of me.

A horn blares and Dad stands up quickly.

"BUS TO DENDO CITY WILL BE LEAVING IN THIRTY SECONDS! I REPEAT, THIRTY SECONDS!" A mans voice bellows.

Dad gives me another, quick hug and pushes me slightly toward the bus. I walk over to the open doors. The man at on end smiles kindly at me and I smile shyly back. I look back and see my dad. He gives me a thumbs-up and winks. That makes me smile and I step firmly onto the bus, clutching my bag close.

The doors close behind me and I walk down the aisle, passing rooms with other kids, all with sparking yellow Shinju's attached to necklaces, earrings, or bracelets. Some even have crowns. A couple people clap, able to tell I'm new, but most of them just ignore me, which is fine by me.

I get to the back of the bus and walk into a room nervously. It's a simple area with light yellow wallpaper, a single window, and two very comfortable-looking beds on either side of the window. I look around me in amazement. This is it. I'm in a new world now. From what Dad had explained to me about the different cities, everything in Dendo City uses electricity. There isn't a single bit of gas, the locals all power the things themselves. I thought that was really cool.

"Hello! What's your name? Are you new?"

I look up to see a pretty girl with a pink skirt, freckles, a necklace with a beautiful dolphin charm, and a yellow sweater standing in the doorframe. She has wild brown hair, big grey eyes, and a swirling yellow Shinju attached to a shiny yellow bracelet with other charms, one of them being a cotton candy.

"Hello! My name is Espurna, but everyone calls me Purna! I'm a transfer from Mizu City, my favorite color is pink, and my all time favorite food is cotton candy! Could I stay in here with you?" She asks.

"Oh!" She suddenly exclaims, making me jump, as though forgetting something, "I forgot! I don't even know your name."

"Hi." I say awkwardly. "I'm Blitz and I'm from....er...Chikyu City."

She gives me puppy-dog eyes, "Can I stay here with you? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!"

"Sure." I say awkwardly.

Purna beams at me. She turns to the bed on the left, "I call this one!" She exclaims and throws her bag and herself onto the mattress. I sit down on the other bed.

Purna rolls onto her stomach and faces me, "So, tell me about Chikyu City!"

And just like that I believe I have made my first friend at Dendo City, and we aren't even there yet.

Wow.

I lean back on my hands and stare at the ceiling, "Chikyu City is basically all farms and fields, so there's lots of places to play at. I used to dig holes in the dirt and pretend I was a fox."

She laughs. "What about the people?"

"All the people there are kind but can be lots of fun." I stop, unsure of what else to say.

Purna rolls onto her back, "What about your family?" She asks.

"I have a dad." I say. "He's the best,"

"Brother? Sister? Mother?" She asks. I flinch slightly, tensing, but Purna doesn't notice.

I wait for a minute. Should I tell her? I just met her....but she seems trustworthy.

"My brother died and my mom left us." I say quietly.

Purna goes quiet. "I'm sorry." She murmurs after a minute.

I shrug and fall back onto the bed, "It's okay. What about you? What's Mizu City like?"

For the next hour, Purna tells me all about Mizu City and her family. I get to learn all about the water city and am fascinated. It's so different from Chikyu City! I even start to relax and begin to laugh genuinely. Who would've thought Mizu City is underwater? After she tells me all she has to tell about her boring older brother and calm parents, we go quiet. I start to doze off when Purna speaks.

"Hey Blitz?" She whispers.

"Yeah?" I say with a yawn.

"You're my first friend." She says quietly. Then she yawns and no sound comes from her bed. I look over at her. A strand of frizzy brown hair is resting silently across her pretty face, moving slightly with her soft breathing.

"And you're mine." I whisper. Then I close my eyes and fall asleep, images of Dad swirling in and out of my dreams.