Everyone was running.

Ms Stevens was blowing her whistle, trying to get everything in order.

And I was at the centre of it all, watching Brie panic and scream, flailing her arms in terror. Her clothes were alight with flame, burning her skin and following her no matter where she went.

Then...

It was like time stopped.

I can't explain it. But everything slowed to a standstill.

Time that had escaped me before returned, giving me a chance to think. My eyes widened in horror, complete and absolute.

Oh man.

I did this. 

How could I have been so stupid?!

WHAT HAVE I DONE?

I did the only moral thing I could in this situation:
I summoned water.

It danced around my hands, sweeping up and down my arms without touching me, before I finally sent it towards Brie.

There was a sinister hiss when the two elements made contact, and then time sped up to normal again, and there was Brie, confused as ever and drenched from skin to bone.

The smell of smoke, one with a certain unearthly quality to it, lingered in the auditorium. Sardonically it reminded me of my dad's barbecue lunches back home.

The panic stopped, and the last scream died in someone's throat as everyone stared at the shivering bully, trying to make head or tail of what had just happened.

Three things occurred in the small time frame I had before the questions started.

One: the Gang plus Eric and I stared at each other with petrified expressions, our gazes drifting to the door.

Two: Brie's friends rushed to comfort her as people began to raise their voices.

Three...

Lily, Gracie, Skye, Lyn (still massaging her throat), Casey, Eric and I took off running out of the auditorium.

<⚙︎>

Ms Stevens yelled at us, of course, but we ignored her.

The only thing on our minds was to run.

"Where can we go?" I yelped as we passed our History classroom. We were near the school's entrance now.

"I have an idea," Gracie called back, the panting of the others echoing around the schoolyard. "Just follow me!"

Passed the front office. 

Passed the classrooms.

Run run run.

Students stared at us in minor interest as we swept passed their windows, teachers shouting for us to stop.

We didn't listen.

Hurtled past the gate.

We were out.

Grace took the lead, and we followed her down the road, dodging cars and passers-by.

"Get to the park!" She yelled.

Soon we made it to the park, the cement and mute-coloured houses around us giving way to lush greenery and birdsong.

"Gyps!" Grace cried, waving me up. 

I pelted passed the others, almost out of breath. "Yeah?" I inhaled.

"Give us a lift!"

My lungs wailed with relief when I realised we wouldn't have to run anymore. I held out my hands to the others, and instantly we were twenty feet in the air, my wind powers holding us aloft.

"You have to steer us!" Grace instructed.

I felt like blacking out, but I quickened my breathing, nodding. The white-haired girl pointed out which way to go. 

We were flying about twenty five feet in the air, ghosting over the treetops and roofs of houses. Deciding to play it safe, I angled us higher until we were thirty feet off the ground. I could see Casey's apartment from here!

"Wow," I heard Lily gasp from next to me.

I nodded. "Quite a sight," I exhaled.

We glided with the wind, and to my right I saw Skye doing loops in the air, clearly enjoying herself.

It felt like we had been airborne for years, when in reality it had probably only been ten minutes.

"How much longer?" Lyn rasped, her voice croaky from the incident. I puffed my cheeks out, exhausted and slightly angry due to the reminder of what had just happened.

"Almost there," Gracie responded.

"Can't you portal us there, Lyn?" Lily asked, finally coming up with a good idea.

I perked up, turning around. But Evelyn was shaking her head. "I've never portalled anything bigger than that Toblerone," she replied, sounding like there was rust in her throat. "Let alone the seven of us!"

"Can ... you and ... Skye ... take over?" I yelled, feeling my strength running out. To my dismay, I noticed my friends and I were almost bouncing up and down, as if we were falling and then my power rushed to pick us up.

"Good idea!" Skye yelped, and suddenly we were flying steadier as the two carried our weight with their powers. They floated us a bit higher, roughly thirty six feet above the ground.

I glanced over at Eric, who looked surprisingly calm despite our current situation: on the run and probably suspected of witchcraft.

Something occurred to me.

"Hang on a minute," I tried to amplify my voice, but I didn't know if I was too loud or too quiet. The edges of my vision flickered.

"Did any of you feel time slow down when Brie was on fire?"

Immediately, Lyn's eyes widened, along with Lily and Casey.

"I think so," Lily squeaked quietly. 

"But who..." Casey started. She sounded distant.

No, wait, she was right there in front of me... 

"Eric?"

"Here!" Gracie yelled, pointing downward. We began softly descending. Thirty feet.

As I looked to where Grace had pointed, my vision flickered.

Wait... am I still using my power?

My strength gave out.

We stopped gracefully descending and immediately began falling as my power snapped off.

Yep.

We tumbled in the air, plummeting toward the ground in a helpless free-fall.

Everyone screamed.

I can't help. I'm too weak.
I've killed us all.

<⚙︎>

"Is she alright?" A familiar, mature voice asked, her tone lined with concern.

Opening my eyes felt like too much effort. My limbs slightly ached.

"I don't know. She blacked out before we hit the grass," another voice explained. Grace's voice.

I groaned before finally opening my eyes.

It took me a moment to realise who was standing in front of me and where I was.

Gracie was breathing a sigh of relief, along with Evelyn, who was gripping my right arm with worry plastered on her face. Skye was behind Grace, and another person was on the edge of the bed.

"What happened?" I asked, sitting up. 

I inspected my surroundings. I was in a small room, lying on what seemed to be a guest bed. I took note that my two friends had changed out of their earlier clothes. 

It occurred to me that I hadn't even registered what we were flying over before I passed out.

"Hey buddy," the figure at the end of the bed gently greeted, and it registered as the voice from before. I smiled as I finally recognised who it belonged to.

"Jess."

Grace's cousin smiled, leaning forward and putting a hand to my forehead. "You'll be okay, Gyps," she reassured.

I felt warmth spread throughout my chest. I knew Jess from that month we spent in New York; Grace got her in contact with my parents, and Jess babysat me and Josh when mum and dad wanted to go out on their own during the four weeks in the City That Never Sleeps.

She had become like a second mother to me.

Plus, she and I had bonded just a little more when Gracie told her I also liked girls.

Jess pushed her long dirty-blonde hair out of her eyes, relieved. "You conked out before you all hit the ground. Thankfully, no one was hurt, just stunned. You only fell a few feet because Cuz managed to grab you all before impact."

Gracie smiled shyly, and Skye punched her shoulder. "That's my partner in crime!" She grinned.

I finally realised where we were.

"We're at the Happy Home?"

Jess's smile brightened at the reference I only used as a kid, and she nodded rapidly. 

I rotated my head wildly. Only Gracie, Skye and Lyn were in the room apart from Jess.

"Where are Casey and Lily? And... Eric?" I muttered the last name uncertainly. "Was Eric there? I'm still kinda foggy," I added.

Evelyn nodded. "Yeah, he was," she smiled, rubbing my back soothingly.

"Your voice..." I gasped. It was no longer raspy, as clean and beautiful as it had been before.

"Courtesy of me," Jess explained, flipping her hair sassily. "I fixed her up with some water."

Skye rolled her eyes. "She used her healing power."

"Ah," I nodded, sharing a glance with Jess. 

One of the reasons the GangGang was so close with Gracie's cousin is because not only does she know about our powers, she has her own.

"To answer your question, your friends are out shopping with Max," Jess replied, getting up from the bed.

I brightened. "I haven't seen Max in ages!" I smiled, thinking back to the fiery-haired girl who had babysat me and Josh alongside Jess.

The two had been best friends all throughout high school, accepting the babysitting job together during the last two years. It had been a while before they decided to live together in Max's holiday house, which me and Josh had dubbed "the Happy Home" whenever they took us there, because they always let us eat as much takeout as we wanted. They had always been so kind to us. I unconsciously smiled at the memories.

If Jess had been like a second mother (despite only being eighteen now), Max was the cool older sister. Even though she was a strong, well-rounded and mature girl, she had an eye for fashion and the mischievous nature that would never fail to make your stay a fun one.
Man, I should capitalise on these descriptive sentences and become a professional Google Reviews commenter.

"She's very excited to meet your friends and see you again too, despite the circumstances," Jess sighed, turning to leave the guest room. We followed her out and turned right to the lounge room.

The Happy Home was a cul-de-sac that had a large backyard. The lounge room was the second room you went into when you entered the house, the first being the dining room with the kitchen in a section across the table. The dining room connected to the lounge room by a short hallway; in the lounge room was the tv and two couches. The right back of the reside gave way to the guest bedroom, with a bathroom across from it.
The lounge room ended in a main entry to the backyard (which housed a clothesline and an outdoor grill); shielding the backyard were two forked rooms: one leading to the main bedroom and another bathroom, and the other serving as the second entrance to the backyard that was built in the space between the two hallways. A clothesline and an outdoor grill were found at the end of the backyard. From a birds' eye view, it would look like the house had two curving tails, or perhaps crab claws. 

I looked out the lounge room window and saw the sun was shining through the leaves of the trees down the side of the house.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"Only an hour," Lyn replied, sinking onto a couch facing the TV. I followed suit, settling down next to her, with Jess on my other side and Gracie and Skye sharing the other couch.

"Maxie and your friends should be back soon. They decided to get supplies for your hideout," Jess explained, grabbing the tv remote from the coffee table in front of her.

"Hideout?" I echoed.

"We've decided to stay here for the time being," Gracie jumped in, swinging her legs over the arm of the second couch. "Jess agreed. She and Max both work from home anyway."

"Right. I remember that," I murmured, reminiscing the time when Josh and I asked with great curiosity why Jess and Max stayed home on weekdays.

"Just until this whole thing blows over. You guys are in so much trouble," Jess sighed.

I turned my gaze tv-side.

"Hang on, are you sure it's safe for them to be out? What if they're recognised or caught? Aren't we all over the news by now?" I felt my panic rising.

Lyn playfully whacked my arm. "Enough questions," she scolded. "Don't worry about it, alright? You've done enough."

I glared at her, offended.

She sighed, shaking her head. "That wasn't a dig at you, Gypsy-Vanner." A smile appeared on her lips. "I know you did everything you did for me. I'm thankful. What I meant was, you've done enough worrying about us. As long as we stay in the Happy Home, we'll be fine."

I couldn't conceal my smile. She was so good to me.
They all were.
My closest friends.

Jess rested her arm around me and Lyn, ruffling my hair. "Just watch," she grinned as she clicked on The Golden Girls for us all to watch.

I allowed myself to relax, leaning against my chestnut-haired friend. I saw Skye joking quietly with Gracie on the other couch, and smiled to myself.

Everything would turn out fine.

But something at the pit of my stomach told me it wouldn't. 

I couldn't help replaying the details of the mess, reliving everything that had happened.

I remembered something and furrowed my brow, confused. "Why didn't Eric get scared about Brie? To everyone else, didn't it look like she spontaneously combusted?"

The members of the gang that were present thought about this. 

"Yeah, and time slowed down for you guys too, right?" Grace asked.

We reached the same conclusion.

"Does Eric have a power too?" Skye asked.

The tv babbled with stock laughter and witty lines, filling an unsure silence.