FictionPress.com - let the words flow
| FictionPress.com - let the words flow |
|
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
Summary: Aidan and Alexa look perfectly normal. They act perfectly normal. Only one catch – they aren’t. Alexa can make fire appear from midair, and Aidan can conjure storms with a wave of his little finger. What else do they have in common? They both despise each other.
When Alexa and Aidan are set as foster siblings, things don’t look great for the future. Alexa is a cheerleader who holds her only-child stanza with pride, while Aidan is a troubled foster kid who just wants to mess with every family he gets in, and date every cute girl in school.
When the two finally meet as teenagers, it doesn’t all go perfectly. Alexa was happy as an only child, and Aidan thinks Alexa is superficial. But everything is different when Danielle arrives at their school.
Danni is another Elementalist, a sage of the race’s wisdom. She knows all the ropes, but gives spontaneous cryptic warnings, and she warns them both of the infinite dangers to Elementalists.
Alexa, armed with fire, and Aidan, armed with the storms, are both in for a wild destiny, if they can survive long enough to find out what it is.
The Elementalists
Powers
Chapter 1:
Unwelcome Surprise
“So let’s get this straight,” Alexa made a face, already not liking the sound of her mother, Dawn’s, news, “You invited one of your foster kids to come live with us? In our house? Which is already very small.”
Dawn shrugged, wiping her brown bangs out of the way of her hazel eyes. Her cropped short hair was damp with sweat from working all day in the backyard for her day off while Alexa was at the school. Finally, their dull backyard had been tilled, mulched, planted, watered, and better yet, mowed.
“Is that a problem?” Dawn asked, “You’re used to my kids coming around every so often. Aidan’s just coming and staying the night for awhile.” She leaned against the railing of the back porch, gazing towards the new, shriveled rose bushes in the flowerbeds by the chain link fence. Gracie, their silver tabby, was already investigating, sniffing at the watered grass and bushes that had just been planted.
“Yeah, but those kids just come for a day or so. And most of them are little kids. Like five or six. I can handle that. They don’t stay all night. But we’re already in two bedrooms here, mom. What’s he doing, sleeping on the couch?”
“Nope.” Dawn picked up her gardening gloves and started to go through the backdoor into the cool, air conditioned house, and Alexa hurried after her. “He’s staying in my old room, since I haven’t decorated it yet or anything. We’re sharing your room.” She said it so casually, Alexa almost didn’t catch on for a moment. Then it hit her, and her jaw dropped just as she nearly slid the door shut on Gracie’s tail.
“Huh?”
“You heard me,” Dawn said, reaching down and picking up the tabby, ignoring the wet paw prints she left on her jeans, which were already dirty and smudged with dirt and wet leaves, “Alexa, this is just for a few weeks. But Aidan doesn’t have anywhere else to go. I just want to give him a try here. Who knows. You may like having someone else around the house besides me and your cat.” She dropped Gracie on the secondhand couch, which had stuffing falling out of one cushion and a large layer of duct tape and super glue supported one leg.
“Mom. Read. My. Lips.” Alexa said, still staring at her mother as she walked into the kitchen and cracked open a Diet Coke. “I don’t want a brother. Not a foster brother. Not a real brother. Can we just rule out siblings all together while we’re on that subject?”
“Too late.” Dawn vanished from the kitchen and pulled open the basement door just as Alexa fell into a chair.
“Dang it.” Dawn’s voice echoed from the deep chasms of the Kydrian’s basement. “Alexa, give me a hand here. The lights are out again.”
Alexa rolled her eyes, and heaved herself up. The fact that her mom had the nerve to ask for her help when she had just sprung a new brother on her, one that wasn’t even cute and little, wasn’t very appealing.
“Here.” Alexa flicked her fingers, and a little ball of fire emerged above her short nails, bitten from a week of tests and life. While she had sworn to quit, as the rest of her cheer squad was getting onto her for it, it wasn’t going so well with the school’s Spring Fling coming up. The fire flickered bright orange and dimmed as Alexa walked down the stairs, the little ball of fire flickering over her shoulder as she trotted down the stairs to where her mother stood in the center of the room.
“Thanks hon.,” Dawn said gratefully, beginning to search for certain crates, “Now where is that extra bedding…”
Alexa glared at her mother, and the little fire at her shoulder expanded, crackling a little in the humid air. Alexa had been making fire as long as she could remember, ever since she was a little girl. She had always done her best to control it, but her emotions could run wild and make things hard to control at times. Her mother had known from the start. Apparently, her father had done it, too.
Her father, however, Jake Kydrian, was a far away memory. Alexa hadn’t seen him since she was three, when she was too little to remember much more than his thinning blonde hair, blue eyes, like hers, and toothy smile.
Jake wasn’t something Alexa dwelt on, though. Moreover, giving up her bedroom, bathroom, and screen porch to share with her mother concerned her. It was undeniably unacceptable.
“I’m not giving up my room.” Alexa insisted stubbornly, “I need that room. Why can’t you find him some new parents?” Again. Alexa added mentally, while pulling herself up to sit on a pile of crates marked ‘Spare Bedding’ while her little ball of fire hovered in the middle of the room. Her mother had been out late countless nights dealing with Aidan Ventatio, her mother’s one case she had never met, yet she had been with him for the past four years, since his mother died when he was eleven. Apparently he was ‘a great kid with problems.’ Also known as the ideal troubled foster kid.
“No one will take him, or they’re all full.” Dawn said from where she was pillaging through crates. “Alexa, have you seen those boxes of bedding? I wanted to change out the sheets and get the furniture fixed up before he gets here tomorrow. We’ll have to do some serious cleaning and moving before then. I have to pick him up from the office at three…”
“I haven’t seen any bedding.” Alexa said dryly, pulling her legs in front of the scribbled words of the boxes she sat on while the flame in the middle of the room flickered mischievously. “When did you say he’s coming?”
Dawn began piling crates on the floor, searching through the bottom ones along the damp far wall, near the boiler and washing machines. “I’m picking him up at three, Alexa. And you’re coming. Quit giving me that look.” She looked up and glared at her, “He’s coming. Get over it. I already promised the agency he had a place with us for at least a few weeks. He’ll start at Terry High with you on Monday. I already arranged with your teachers for him to have your homeroom.”
Alexa’s jaw dropped. Okay, having to share your room with your mother was one thing. Being forced to share a homeroom with your ‘brother’ was completely unacceptable.
“Mom!” Alexa protested, “Why am I suddenly playing babysitter with him? I thought he was older than me.”
“By about nine months, and he went into kindergarten a bit late. He’s a sophomore, like you. Now help me find that bedding.” She flung the crates to the floor on top of the others and glared around the basement, seeing only a few more boxes clearly marked ‘Christmas decorations’ and ‘Jake’s stuff.’ She was clearly trying to ignore those.
“I’ll help,” Alexa said, bargaining, “If he sleeps on the couch. I need my room.”
“I need a new car, but I’m kind of stuck in that situation.” Dawn looked over at Alexa, who hopped off the crates as the fire over their heads flickered. “Alexa!” She had spotted the boxes of bedding that Alexa had been sitting on, smushed slightly from her weight.
Alexa shrugged, “Whoops. I must’ve missed those.”
Dawn glared at her, “Get it together, Alexa.” She started picking up crates and roughly shoved the first at her daughter, “Aidan is coming. Get used to the idea. You can’t be the center of the world all the time.”