Chapter 2 Ember

I woke up to the alarm I had set on my phone the night before. I groaned and rolled out of bed. When I was done brushing my teeth I pulled out a maroon gray T-shirt and some jeans and changed.

I put on my new shoes and brushed all the knots out of my hair. Then I put my hair in a bun and pulled on my bennie. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my eyes were gray today. My eyes usually reflected my mood, like a mood ring, so i guess today i was feeling stormy. I grabbed the new backpack I had found in my closet yesterday, and put it over my shoulder. It already had books in it so it was heavy but i was stronger than most kids my age so it felt like nothing.

I took a deep breath and opened my door. The hallway was buzzing with activity of girls borrowing each other's clothes and makeup for the first day of school. I rolled my eyes, sometimes girls were SO annoying. I decided to skip breakfast and head straight to class. I pulled my map out of my backpack and was starting at it when I bumped into somebody. I looked up and mumbled "sorry" to the boy I had just ran into and hurried off; feeling eyes on me all the way until I reached my class. I had history first; but my guess was this history was a LITTLE different from what they taught at my old school.

I walked into my class and chose a seat in the back; I had learned a long time ago the nerds sat at the front, the populars sat in the middle, and the loners sat in the back.

People started trickling in and taking seats. I looked around the classroom for the teacher but only saw a cat relaxing on a pillow watching us with intelligent eyes. I started back and nodded, I wasn't sure what made me do it or even think it but....... I nodded to the cat. Yep totally not a weirdo.

Once everyone started getting reckless the cat moved over and sat on the teachers chair. One instance there was a cat, the next there was a lady in her mid-30s by the looks of it with honey colored hair, the same color as the cat's fur had been. Gaspes and murmurs broke out around the room but the teacher didn't seem to mind. She was patient and waited to tell everyone was quiet. She cleared her throat and said "hello class, im you history teacher Ms.Nickson. This is not a normal history class, in this class we learn about the past and connect it to ourselves today. First we're going to start by assessing your power level of whatever type of magic you are. You'll be doing this in all your classes so your teachers can each personally assess you." She looked around the room and chose a boy in the front row to stand up "now as you can see his hair is brown. Brown represents a common level magical witch is a great place to be. Now for the eyes, the eyes could help determine what type of magical you are but not always. Jack has hazel eyes. So that could mean he's an animal shifter like me...." Ms.Nicholson went through the whole class naming off power level and some possibilities. Blond hair meant you were more powerful then brown but not as strong as blacks. And blue eyes meant maybe a mermaid or sorcerer, while brown ment maybe a werewolf, green mend a sorcerer most likely. I was getting nervous because I was the only redhead in class and my eyes were always changing colors. Finely Ms.Nicholson called me up to the front of the class. But thankfully the bell rang and kids got up and left as fast as they could. "Will you take off your bennie please?" I turned from packing my things and saw Ms.Nicholson looking at me. I nodded and took off my beanie. Ms.Nicolson gasped "I don't believe it" she muttered. "We haven't had a redhead in one thousand years. And your eyes, oh their brilliant! I haven't seen eyes like that in ohhh...twenty years!" Great I thought, JUST GREAT! Can I just be normal? Of course even in a magical world I'm different. "So what does it mean?" I asked. Ms. Nicholson looked at me like she had just remembered I was still there. "Oh um... well I'm not the right person to ask but the eyes could mean your a...a, I don't know. And your hair could mean you're really powerful or really ummm... not." I just stared at my teacher. "I suggest you keep your hair hidden or, unfortunately, students might tease you about it." I nodded. I was speechless. I grabbed my bag and headed to the door but before I could leave Ms.Nicholson said "oh and Ember here" she handed me 5 notes "this is so your other teachers will assess you privately." I nodded and headed out the door. I pulled my map out of my pocket and looked for my next class. I had power deduction class and it went about the same as history. Finally I only had P.E. left. When I got to the field I noticed all the other students were in the stands talking excitedly. I walked to the locker room with all the other first year girls and changed into my P.E. clothes I had to use the rubberband from my hair to tie up the shirt so it wouldn't blow up because it was windy outside. I stuffed my hair back into my beanie and walked outside with all the other girls. We walked into the middle of the field and met with the first year boys. A man's voice came over the speaker "hello first year students! Today we will be seeing your skill level in action while you're completing The Games. We will be seeing which ones of you have guts and which only want glory. Your goal is to survive. Once time is up one of the three houses will choose you to join them. Let's get started shall we?" the students in the stands erupted with cheering. "Students choose your weapons" A rack of weapons appeared in front of me and my fellow students ran towards grabbing their weapon of choice. Once everyone was done I walked up and looked at what was left. A crossbow, a sword, and some throwing stars. I went for the sword because the others would need way more concentration than a sword would. Once the last person had chosen the weapons disappeared and was replaced by a huge, black bubble growing bigger and bigger by the second until it had covered the entire field and the students in the stands were left outside. "Ok students, your goal is to be the last one standing, we'll all be watching you while you're inside the bubble and if anyone is in serious danger we'll bring you out. There are monsters in the jungle who will try to make us pull you out when you're in enough danger. Good luck!" My jaw dropped. Did he really just say that you only get out of the bubble by being in danger? I shook my head. There was no getting out of this, so i needed to get my head in the game. Inside the black bubble turned into a forest at the end of a ghost town. Students started scattering, some going in the forest some in the town. I headed into the town, my sword raised in front of me. When I spotted a convenience store I headed inside and found it fully stocked. I didn't know how long this would last so i grabbed a backpack and filled it with medical supplies, water, and some snacks. When I was done I headed outside and headed into the forest. The town was probably safer but..something felt too safe about it. So I plunged into the thick fullege hearing screaming kids and fighting all around me. I walked into a clearing to find a girl fighting a...i don't even know what it was. It looked like a manticore with a pug face and alligator teeth. The girl was shooting the pugacore with a crossbow but she had just used her last one. She tossed it aside and grabbed some leaves from the nearby bush into the monster's mouth. She muttered something under her breath and clapped her hands together. Leafs sprouted from the monster's mouth and through its nose but it didn't seem to affect it at all. It only made it mader. The girl took a step back and tripped on a rock. Before I could talk myself out of it I ran at the advancing monster. I had no experience at all with this sorta thing but they said if we were in danger they would pull us out, right? I stabbed the pugacore in the back and it roared. I held on to my sword, which was now stuck in the pugacore and climbed onto its back. The girl was just staring at me. "Little help here?" I yelled at her. "Oh uh. Yeh right." she hummed under her breath and vines started crawling up the pugacore keeping it in place as it struggled. I pulled out my sword and fell off the pugacore. Sharp pain stabbed up my left foot but I got up and walked over to the girl "you want to do the honours?" I handed her my bloody sword. She smiled and walked over to the pugacore. She raised the sword and stabbed the beast between the eyes. She pulled my sword out of the now dead pugacore and handed it back to me. "Thanks for the help. You didn't have to do it. It would have been one less compededor." I shrugged "I'm not going to win anyways. I have NO experience with this. So I might as well make some friends." The girl beamed and held out her hand "my name is Jaxon you can call me Jax what's yours?" "Ember" I said. And I looked Jax up and down. "Sit down" I told her. She looked at me funny but sat. I took out the first aid supplies and cleaned up her cuts and gave her a bag of cheetos. "Thanks" She said as I was cleaning up the last visible cut. "Anymore?" I asked. She nodded and lifted the sleeve of her jacket. She had a big cut and I didn't have any gaws. "Ummm." I started to clean it and then ripped the bottom of my T-shirt and took off my beanie. Jax gasped "what" I said alarmed, looking over my shoulder. "Your hair...It's red. And your eyes!" I nodded while taking the hair tie out of my hair and my hair fell in my face. I tied the strip on the cut and to stop the bleeding put the hair lie on top. "All good" I asked. Jax nodded and I helped her to her feet. Quickly I stuffed my hair back into my beanie. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" I asked Jax nervously "what?" she responded. "My hair," I said pointing to my beanie. "Oh no I won't tell. But the school might already know. They're watching us, you know." I sighed "great" I muttered. "Well let's go back into town and check the scoreboard to see who's left." We started walking towards the town "Jax? That thing you did back thee...with the plants? What was that?" Jax looked at me as though i was mad "It was earth magic. I'm an earth sorcerer. Wait. You're that girl they found in the human world aren't you?" I nodded, confused "they said they find people all the time?" I said. "Well they do but they always know what they are when they come to us. You don't. That stuff they did today with our eyes and hair? That's just so the teachers know. All the students go back tomorrow and tell the teachers what they are. I think they like guessing and seeing if they're right." I stared at her "really?" Jaz nodded. "Well let's just focus on trying to get through this thing today." I said picking up the pace. We made it to the town and looked at the scoreboard. "Ok there were...it says there were 50 students when we came in and there are only 30 now" Jax said. "Let's go get you some real gauze instead of my shirt" I said walking to the store again. I grabbed some hydrogen peroxide and poured it on Jax's cut. She sucked in a breath. "You okay?" I asked her. She nodded and I grabbed the gauze and rereped her wond. I took off my beanie and put my hair up again so it wouldn't keep falling out of the beinne, then star----ted to treat my own wounds. I grabbed an ankle brace off the wall and opened it, pulling it over my foot. "You're hurt?" Jax said, a note of worry in her voice. "Yeah. I'm fine. This is only so it won't get any worse while we keep walking." We each drank a bottle of water and used the restroom. I grabbed another backpack and started packing it with everything I could think of that would help us protect ourselves and camp. forest. Finally I grabbed a tent,gasoline mini stove,some dehydrated food,ect; and shoved it in a duffle bag, which I tied to the second backpack. I grabbed two sleeping bags and handed them to Jax. "carry these'' I said. When I was done repacking supplies we headed back to the town. When we looked up at the scoreboard there were only 25 kids left. "At this rate were going to be doing this stupid compitition all night" I grummbled. "Come on we should set up camp in the woods," I told Jax. "Why don't we just stay in the town?" Jax asked. "I can't explain it but it seems too safe and there's just something off about it." I replied. And there was. Being an orphan, living on the streets, I had developed a trouble detector inside of me and it was going off in my head at the thought of staying too long in the village. "Oh come on, can't we just stay a little longer" Jax whined. "I'm going in the forest, you do what you want." I said firmly. I pulled my sword out of its sheath and started shaking at the fullege that was the forest. When I reached a clearing I set down my bags and began pulling out the supplies I had gathered to help me make traps around the site. I dug holes and made string traps, used bear traps, and more. "Wow,how do you know how to do all this'' Jax asked when i was done. I shrugged "been living on the street for 3 years with some other kids. All of them boys. Boys steal stuff so i used to set up traps to keep them out of my space" Jax stared at me with....what was that on her face? Pity? Disgust? I walked back to our bags and started laying out the sleeping bags. "Can you find some firewood inside the traps?" I asked Jax. She nodded and set out to look for dome firewood. I found some stones and made a circle with them. Then I set up the gasoline stove and started boiling some water to rehydrate some food. Jax came back and set the wood in the stones and we used the stove to light the wood. "Ok so we'll just wait out everyone but what are we going to do if or when it's just us? Can we just refuse to let the other one loose?" I asked Jax. She shrugged "I guess so, I mean they can't force us to hurt each other can they?" We both knew that wasn't true. They had already made us risk hurting ourself doing this "game" but neither one wanted to admit it. The awkward silence was broken by two startled crys and two traps being sprung. We  both jumped to our feet; Jax with a handful of dirt and me holding my sword. I looked out into the darkness and saw two boys hanging by their feet upside down staring at them. "It's just boys," said Jax. I walked over to them and cut the rope holding them up with my sword in one swift cut. They both fell hard on their backs. "What do you do that for?" said the first, who I noticed had a bit of an accent; though from where, i couldn't tell you. "They weren't for YOU they were for the monsters." I said. The second boy said "good idea" cheerfully. "Thanks" I muttered. I went to the traps and redid them. Both boys just stood there awkwardly "well come on, you guys want something to eat?" Jax asked. Both vigorously nodded their heads. "We haven't eaten since lunch," Said the first boy. "Where did you get this stuff anyways?" asked the second. "The store in town," I said. The second boy smacked his forehead "we should have thought to do that" he said to the first boy. They sat down on the sleeping bags around the fire, eating silently. "So what are your names? Mines Ember and this is Jax'' I said. "Im Carlos'' said the second boy "and this is Max" he said, nodding to the first boy. "Do you guys know how many people are left?" Jax asked. They both shook their heads ''last i saw there were 17" Max said. He shifted on the sleeping bag and winced. "Where are you hurt?" I asked. "Eh. Oh it's nothing." He said, his cheeks flushing. "Where.Are.You.Hurt. Stop acting all tough. I have a sprained ankle and Jax has a nasty sized cut. What do you too have?" I said. "Well..." started Max. "Max has a cut on his side and I have a bruised tailbone" said Carlos. I grabbed my backpack and ran around pulling out gaws,neosporin,hydroperoxide, and bandaids. "Let me see," I said to Max. Reluctantly he pulled up his shirt. He had a cut the size of my pointer finger, it was green and purple as though it had been poisoned. I sighed "what poisoned you" I asked. "Scorpion thing" Carlos said before Max could answer. "Well you're going to need to hold some peroxide there for a while before I can do anything since I don't have any anti-poison." I grabbed my shirt and ripped off another strip "I really need to stop doing this" I said to Jax. She smiled back. I put the fabric over the top of the bottle of peroxide "can I have my rubberband back. You should be fine " I asked Jax. She nodded and took the rubber band off her arm. I tied the cloth to the peroxide with the rubberband and held it out to Max and said "The fabric will help you keep it on." He took the bottle. "Now you" I said turning to Carlos "can go into the woods and rub this-" I tossed him a bruise cream "On that tailbone of yours" Carlos' face flushed as he headed out of site. "Sing" I demanded. "What?" all three of them said. "Carlos sing or talk or something so we know you weren't eaten by a monster." I replied, rolling my eyes. "Okay. Well I'm Carlos and I'm 15. I moved here from San Francisco. My mom is a werewolf and my dads a sorcerer. As you can see I have Brown hair and eyes and I'm a werewolf." He came out from behind the tree and plopped down on Jax's sleeping bag. "Your guyses turn," He said. "Well Im Jax I'm also 15, I moved here from Washington D.C. My dads a human but my moms a sorsserer. As you can see I've got brown hair and Blue eyes. I'm a sorcerer but I mainly do earth magic." She finished with a flourish of her hand, making a red flower grow in front of her. "Well, im Max. Im 15. I moved here from...well I've lived everywhere actually. My mom is human but my dad is the magical representative for the USA so we move a lot. He's a shifter. I have black hair and hazel eyes. I'm a sorcerer/shifter." Jax gasped "that's SO cool." seeing my confused expression she explained "it's rare to get more than one power." I nodded. "Well. Im Ember. Im 15. I was stolen from New York. I don't know who or what my parents were.I don't know what I am." I said. Everyone stared at me "you were stolen?" Max asked. I shrugged "They drugged me then turned around and said "Hey Ember your magical YAY for you."" I replied "well, we should probably get some sleep." I said, quickly changing the subject. "I'll take the first watch" I volunteered. I probably wouldn't be able to sleep even if i wanted to, my world had been turned upside down after all. "I won't be able to sleep, so ill i'll join you" said Max. I shrugged. Carlos and Jax shimmied into the two sleeping bags and soon their breathing slowed down and Carlos started to snore.  I took a cloth out of my bag and started cleaning the blood from earlier that day off my sword. Off to my left Max started sharpening his knives. "Why didn't you say your hair and eye color?" He said quietly. I looked up surprised "you caught that?" I sacked. He nodded. I sighed and told him "It's embarrassing" he laughed "It's fine to be a common you know" Then it was my turn to laugh. Max looked confused. "What?" I shook my head "nothing" I replied. I got up and started going around gathering more wood for the fire. Hopefully by the time I got back Max would drop the whole hair and eyes thing. Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. "You can't keep me in suspense" He said dramatically. "Fiiiinnnnneeee." I said, dragging out the word. "If I tell you one will you drop the other?" I asked. He pondered it, then nodded. "My eyes change colors depending on my mood" I whispered. His eyes went wide "what does that mean?" he asked.  I shrugged "the teachers don't know." or won't tell me I thought. I grabbed some firewood and put it in the fire. When my hands were a little closer to the flames I felt a connection, a burning designer to touch it. This has always been a problem. I was a pyro. I quickly pulled my hand away and sat by Max. "what are we going to do when it's just us?" I asked. Max shook his head "you really don't know a lot about the magical community do you?" I crossed my arms defensively "I only found out it existed a day ago." I replied. "Your right, sorry. This is just a big deal in our world and everyone watches it. I mean EVERYONE." "no pressure" I mumbled. "Well when there have been teams in the past they just say their a team and they all share the win. Most people don't do it because they want all the glory to themselves" he said the last part sarcastically. "I can probably work on your cut now." I said changing the subject, of how little I know. I walked over to the backpack and pulled out some gawes and neosporin and walked back to Max. He pulled the peroxin bottle back and (thankfully) the poison and was sucked into the cloth. I put some neosporin on it and he winced, and rapped his middle in gaws. "That should do it. We'll all clean our cuts in the morning again. You should try to get some sleep." I said. In truth I needed to clean my ankle wound. It was worse than I was leading on. "Im fine" said Max. I sighed and went back to the backpack and grabbed it. I walked to the other side of the campfire and sat down. When I took off my shoe I grinded my teeth together. I took my sock and the brace off and sucked in a breath. "What's wrong?" Max asked. "Nothing" I replied hurriedly. He raised his eyebrow but said nothing. I looked at my foot and winced. It was bent slightly and purple. I probably shouldn't have walked on it, I thought to myself. Max got up and walked over to me "what is-'' He saw my foot and his eyes got wide. "I thought you had a sprained ankle not a broken one!" I glanced at Jax and Carlos "shhhhh" I hissed at him "It's not that bad, I just shouldn't have walked on it" I replied trying to prove it was nothing I moved it and sucked in a breath. Max scowled at me. I rummaged around in my bag until I found aspirin. I gulped down a couple pills and put the brace, my sock, and shoe back on my foot. I grabbed my t-shirt and ripped again. Soon I'd have no t-shirt at all i thought to myself. I found a stick and tied it to my leg with the fabric strip. I looked up and saw Max staring wearily at my ankle. "Im fine. I've had worse" I reassured him. And I had, living on the streets I've been scraped by things that would make tetanus shots need tetanus shots but I never had the money to go to the doctor so I had to deal with it. "I've always been a fast healer" I reassured Max again. "Fine" he grumbled eventually. I looked at my watch. It had been 10 when Jax and Carlos had fallen asleep and it was 11 now. It had only been an hour. "Well give them tell 3 and then they can take watch" I replied. Max nodded his agreement. When I'm nervous I like to draw so I grabbed a sketch book i had swiped for the store out of the back pack and started drawing, when I draw its like the world falls away, Im in my own world. I drew Carlos and Jax sleeping, Max and me sitting by the fire, I just drew the days events and some hard and sad things from my past, dont ask me why, i dont know. While I was finishing up the my drawing of my taking off my beanie I heard someone breath "wow" over my shoulder. Instinctively I reached bak and used their momentum to propel them forward. It was only Max. I breathed out "dont you know better than to sneek up on a girl who lives in New York?" I asked as he got up, winching slightly. "I dident sneek I asked you a question and you dident answer so i came to see what you were doing and....wow. Your an amazing drawer." I snached my new sketchbook before he could, and stuffed it back in my backpack. "Yeah, well its not that hard. I have a photographic memory so im good at remembering details" I mentily slapped my self, great another thing weird about me. I'd had a photoghraphic memory ever since i could remember. I always acted like i needed to look at papers again and stuf so noone would think i was a freak. Oh well. I walked over to Jax and Carolos and shook them awake. Carlos grabbed my arm an twisted but I just grabbed his wrist and pressed the pressure point. "Its me" I said in a calm voice. Carlos and Jax got up groggely. "Sorry" Carlos muttered "its fine. Next time bloke your pressure point" I added. "What time is it?" Jax whined "It's 3. Your turn to keep watch." I told her. "What do we do? Do we just SIT here for 4 hours?" Carlos complained. "Wel we did it for five so you should be fine" Max said sternly. "You can draw or whiddle or something to pass the time." I told them. Jax and Carlos got out of the sleeping bags (a little reluctantly) and sat by the fire. "I'll take Jax's bag you can have Carlos's I told Max". He nodded and layed down. I thought I would be too worried to fall asleep but as soon as my head hit the pillow i was out.

Is this bad looking back? Yes. Do I want to post it so when I'm an adult I can look back and laugh at myself? Absolutely. I'm sorry to anyone excepting story's. I was having a hard time and have finally gotten the rhythm of school and now realize that my attention is that of a fruit fly. I love having ideas and everything but I'm way to busy and don't have the patience for writing so I'm sorry. Sometimes I might randomly post something if I'm extremely board idk. -Mia out