CHAPTER ELEVEN:
We're Not The Only Ones

"That douchebag. Can't believe he pulled a gun on you." Camille sat cross-legged on the white couch beside Maura and handed her a mug. Maura took it without looking up and held it in front of her face with both hands, but she didn't bring it to her mouth. She stared straight ahead with a faraway look in her eyes.

"I guess I should've seen it coming. His ex warned me, but I just assumed she was jealous or something." She blinked and her glazed-over look vanished. Glancing down at her cup of coffee like she hadn't noticed it before, she took a sip. Her face scrunched up at the bitter taste. She should've known Camille wouldn't have put enough creamer in it.

Camille, catching the expression on her friend's face, stood back up, setting her own mug down. "Dad, could you pass me the creamer?" she asked as she rounded the couch.

Christopher Long barely looked up from his phone as he sat at the bar. His crisp button-up scrunched at his elbows as his forearms leaned against the countertop, phone propped up where his hands met. "What'd you say, honey?"

Camille, already at the fridge, rolled her eyes at her father. "Nevermind, I've got it." She retrieved the liquid creamer and sat back down beside her troubled friend.

A door opened and Amy emerged into the room, still struggling to clasp an earring in one ear. Once she got it, she wrapped an arm around her husband. "Baby, you just got home from your long work trip. Don't you think you should put the work away for a bit, at least until Camille goes to school?"

"Actually," Camille interjected, catching Maura's sullen face. "I think that we're staying home today." Before her mother could refute, Camille added, "Just for today. I don't want Maura to be alone after last night."

Amy studied her daughter and her friend. After Maura had been questioned by police the night before, she called Camille and asked if she could spend the night. Amy didn't complain, knowing that Maura's home life wasn't exactly what anyone would want to come back to, especially after what she'd been through that night. Plus, going back to school the next morning like nothing happened didn't seem like the best way to deal with the situation.

"I suppose, but just for today, and you have to email your teachers."

Camille cracked a half-smile. "Fine. Thank you." She was about to say more, but the news story on the T.V caught her attention.

"Residents of Elton continue to be shocked at the striking increase in crime over the past month. Just last night, a domestic fight gone wrong led to shots fired in the parking lot of the Walmart on Greenwood Avenue."

They were talking about last night.

Maura grabbed the remote and turned it up.

"Fortunately, no one was injured due to the swift appearance of a man-in-blue; and no, I don't mean the police. A hooded figure appeared out of seemingly nowhere just in time to block the shot aimed at the victim and take the suspect down before the police could arrive. However, before the identity of this masked hero could be revealed, they sped off with a flash of blue in their wake."

The screen showed clips from the police car's camera, catching the policeman force the person in the blue hoodie to the ground. Then, faster than lightning, the figure was on their feet and running away at a superhuman speed. No way was that normal.

"The Internet dubs this masked hero as Azure, a tribute to the bright blue color of his sweatshirt. But everyone is left questioning: Who is Azure? And what is he really doing in Elton?"

Camille stared, mind numb, at the blurry freeze-frame picture of "Azure" on the television. The only thing running through her mind was how there was another like her and Ross. She needed to talk to him.

"That is truly bizarre," Amy claimed as the news went to commercial. Camille, jittery all of a sudden, sprung up from the couch, phone in hand. Her mother and Maura glanced at her, confused.

"I'll be right back." Camille ducked out of the room and locked herself in the bathroom. Holding her phone up with shaky hands, she searched through her contacts for the right one and typed a quick message.

𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘻𝘶𝘳𝘦?

A reply appeared within a minute. 

𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴. 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵?

How was she supposed to know? If it was anybody else, Camille knew she would've called him an idiot, but she held back and typed something different.

𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢. 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴

★

Evette found herself at the top of the building opposite to Gran's Grounds yet again. She felt less daunted by the height of the building she stood on, now that she could manipulate the wind and could save herself if she fell. It was still the most peculiar thing to her, how the black liquid from this little coffee shop had given her supernatural powers. So far, she knew she could make fire out of nothing and control wind, and considering how she could walk outside in the rain without getting wet, maybe even water. 

And she still wasn't sure if that was all she could do.

Evette sighed and sat down on the ledge of the building, letting her legs dangle off the side, eyes unmoving from the coffee shop across the street. People milled about the sidewalk outside. Considering it was an early morning, Evette wasn't surprised it was busy. She tugged her dark beanie down as the wind whistled melodies in her ears.

What was she doing here, anyway? She wanted answers, but obviously sitting on top of this building wasn't accomplishing anything. If anything, the fishy business happened in the back, not the front of the shop.

So Evette grabbed her backpack, hefted it over both shoulders, and pushed herself to her feet on the ledge. She'd been practicing this particular skill at home, mostly just in her locked bedroom, but now seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. Evette took a breath and held her hands up, palms down. The wind picked up and whooshed around her body, pulling her hair this way and that. Extending her leg out over the edge in the open air, she took a step. When she didn't immediately lose her balance, her other foot followed.

"Sweet," Evette breathed as she looked down at the streets below. She bit her tongue as she focused on manipulating the wind to carry her to the ground. Once her feet landed safely on the sidewalk, she dropped her hands, letting go of the wind. She looked up, making sure no one saw her. Even if they had, at least she was wearing what she dubbed as her "investigative gear"—black long sleeve, black jeans, black beanie on her head, and the only running shoes she had (an old pair of army green tennis shoes that never left the back of her closet). The getup was a bit too black for her liking, but Evette needed to be able to hide in the dark if she was going to get any answers. And at 6 in the morning the sun had yet to rise, providing her with enough shadows to sneak around in.

Evette stuck her hands in her pockets and casually strolled across the street once the crosswalk sign showed the little walking man. She avoided the front of the coffee shop and crept around towards the back, making sure to keep in the shadows. As soon as she saw the back door to Gran's Grounds, she was immediately reminded of the staircase just inside that door that she was dragged down on the night everything happened. She eyed the door with disdain. Gotta be extra careful, wouldn't want to be caught again.

A light flickered on underneath the door she was staring at, shaking Evette out of her memories. She ineptly thrusted her hands downwards to propel herself up with the air around her to land on the fire escape several feet up. As soon as her feet landed, the door propped open, and a shadowy figure stepped out. He turned and checked over his shoulder before slipping out all the way. Another figure followed suit, lit cigarette perched between his lips. Evette gasped as she recognized them as the two men who kidnapped her.

"I can't believe Biggs is lettin us go if we don't find the Elementum. Like, I've got my own personal problems, I don't need'a add that shit to the list," the one with the mustache complained. The other one smacked him upside the head, making Mustache hiss and clutch the back of his head. "What the hell, Ben?"

"You should be thankful he isn't killing us for what happened," the other one, Ben, scowled around his cigarette. He sighed and rubbed the stubble on his double chin. "We wasted his entire life's work on some dumb kid. There's no way we're getting out of this one unscathed."

Mustache nodded. "I guess you're right."

The glowing red of Ben's cigarette fizzled out as he tossed it to the ground and stomped it out. Evette held her breath as the men became silent. Who was Biggs? What was the Elementum they were so worried about finding? And was the "dumb kid" who ruined everything her? All she did was spill that black liquid everywhere, and she'd supposedly wasted this mysterious guy's life work. It didn't make much sense to Evette; but then again, nothing these days really did. 

"C'mon George," Ben huffed, pushing his back off of the wall. "The longer the Elementum is out there, the harder it'll be to get it back."

The men began to walk away. Evette watched, eyes wide and confused, as they made it to the end of the alleyway and disappeared around the corner. She let out a deep breath she'd been holding onto and closed her eyes. Her head was pounding with all this new information, making it hard to focus on just one thing. Why couldn't Gran's Grounds just be a normal coffee shop, with no underground drug cartel or whatever?

Evette forced herself to think happy thoughts, like the quiz she got an A+ on in calculus, or the oatmeal she'd made herself this morning before school. Once she felt her body relax, she opened her eyes and checked her phone for the time. A sigh involuntarily left her lips as she realized she only had twenty minutes until school started. She slipped her ugly green shoes and beanie off, stuffed them in her backpack, and pulled on her sneakers. With a quick glance around to make sure the alley was still barren, she quickly switched her shirt out for a sweater.

When her disguise was completely put away, safely concealed in her backpack, Evette set off for school.

★

On the outside, the students of Northwood High appeared like regular teenagers as they lingered in the hallways and chatted to friends between classes. A couple AP students furiously scribbled in their notebooks in the cafeteria, where a last minute study-session had formed.

Evette, although she wasn't in that particular class, sat on the outside of the circle, doodling in her notebook. To the casual onlooker, she seemed like pinnacle of an innocent school girl with nothing better to do than to draw flowers and swirls and mandalas in her notebook. If you were to take a closer look, you'd see Evette's page was actually covered in sketches of suit ideas and scribbled conspiracies of the mysterious "Elementum." She came to the conclusion during government class that since she supposedly ruined Biggs's work—whoever that was—she must be related to the Elementum going missing. And that meant that the two goons who kidnapped her, George and Ben, were now after it, and whatever it was, Evette knew she had to make sure they didn't find it. The chances of them being an underground, kidnapping, good-guy organization was extremely less likely.

Therefore, she had to find the Elementum first.

This revelation led to the brainstorming for "super suits" in Evette's notebook. If she was going to find the Elementum, she was probably going to need some sort of protective and identity-concealing gear.

As Evette continued to furiously write in her notebook, pushing her glasses up every so often, Ross stepped out of the bathroom across the hall. He swiped his hand over his lips and popped a mint into his mouth before heading to his next class.

As he walked the halls, he kept his eyes peeled for a certain dark-skinned girl. He needed to know more about this Azure character from the news, and Camille had said that Maura, the victim who Azure had saved, was her close friend. The possibility of someone else being like them was both exciting and trepidatious. He needed to know more.

Ross's mind was so foggy with anxiety for both the upcoming game and Azure, that he accidentally shoulder-checked Lewis as he passed. Ross turned and apologized, then shuffled his feet quicker to reach the classroom before the bell rang.

Lewis looked back at Ross as they accidentally ran into each other, but Lewis's attention was quickly stolen away as his eyes found Evette in the cafeteria. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to the blonde. As he neared, he noticed how entranced she was by whatever she was doing.

"Hey," he choked out as he stood above her. Immediately, Evette slammed her notebook shut and held it protectively to her chest. When she looked up and met Lewis's warm eyes, she relaxed, but only a little bit.

"Sorry, you scared me," she said.

"Sorry, I, uh, I just wanted to see how the hot chocolate making is going."

Evette stared at him for a moment before she remembered their rendezvous at the humble coffee shop across from the devil's coffee shop.

"Shoot, dude." Evette dropped her notebook and sighed. She smiled apologetically. "I've been so busy lately that I forgot about it."

"Don't worry about it, it's fine." Lewis shrugged as he sat down across from her. He noticed how she inconspicuously nudged her notebook away from him. "So, uh, what're you up to?"

Evette's eyes widened. Her mouth bobbed as she struggled with how to respond. Obviously she couldn't tell the truth, but she'd also never really been too great at lying. Thankfully, she didn't have to. Northwood High's pep band director, Mr. Morris, appeared behind Lewis with a bright smile on his face before Evette could blubber out an unbelievable lie.

"Evette! I was hoping we could talk, if I'm not interrupting," he said, sitting beside Lewis and casting glances between the two. Evette, grateful for the distraction, looked to Lewis.

Honestly, Lewis didn't want to stop talking to Evette just yet. He'd actually mustered up enough courage to approach her and say hello, and now a teacher had decided to interrupt. Perfect.

"You're fine, it's fine," Lewis replied. Evette sent him a lingering glance before turning to Mr. Morris.

The band director clasped his hands together and cleared his throat. "This is something we might want to talk about . . . alone?"

"Oh," Evette said, confused. She turned to Lewis with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry, Lewis. Maybe we can talk later? At lunch?"

"Sure, yeah. I have B lunch." Lewis said as he stood reluctantly, a hand lingering on the table. Evette shot him a faint smile.

"Me too. I guess I'll see you then."

Lewis turned and walked off, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. Evette watched him leave until Mr. Morris cleared his throat. He was looking at Evette with concern that confused her.

"Is there a reason why you quit my band?" he asked slowly, not breaking eye contact. "Are you okay?"

Evette couldn't conceal her confusion if she tried to. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just busy, you know. Senior year is pretty crazy." Her voice got quieter as she spoke, as she realized she had started to ramble and her excuses sounded fabricated. In reality, she was exhausted and confused and scared, but not from school or her home life or whatever else Mr. Morris was thinking of; it was because of her powers and her newfound mission to find the Elementum. Sitting around at school felt like a waste of time when she could be out there in the city, looking for ways to stop Gran's Grounds' evil plans.

Or, whatever underground villains were working under the guise of an innocent coffee shop.

Mr. Morris tapped his fingers against the cafeteria table in an irregular beat. Evette knew he didn't believe her. "Hm. Well, you know, if you need anything you can talk to me, right?"

"Yeah." She smiled, hoping showing some teeth would sell it. "Thanks." 

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