Chapter 6

Chapter 6


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My eyes flutter open and I expect to see my bedroom ceiling, but instead I see a stony ceiling that is far above my head, a lot like the schools hallways or the dining hall. I look around and realize that I am not in fact in my room, but I seem to be in a hospital of some kind. I see that I have red curtains pulled around me, shielding me from view. Beside my bed, which in fact looks like a hospital bed, I find a note and a glass of water next to the soft glowing lamp. I sip on the water as I read the note. The scrawled text reads:


Went to go get us diner dinner, I'll be back soon if you wake up while I'm gone
- Nate


I sit the note and the glass of water back down on the table and try to figure out what happened. I remember being in Nate's dorm, trying to exchange energy with him, and then passing out. Then the memory of having it sucked out of me so fast that I could feel myself passing out comes back to me. I hit my legs with my hands angrily. I did it wrong, it wasn't like it was when I did it with Mr. Allore. Maybe it's because Mr. Allore knew what he was doing and knew not to take too much, but Nate didn't. I should've waited and to try it with Nate with Mr. Allore there.

Bored, I get up and pull back the curtains, realizing that I'm still in my regular clothes. Behind the curtains there are lots of squares with curtains shielding beds from view and some are drawn back to reveal empty beds. I see a nurse making one of the beds. She's wearing what regular nurses wear that work at hospitals, just some scrubs. They are light blue and are designed with white clouds. There isn't much else to the room, there are probably about 100 beds and that's it. There is a double door at the front of the room, which isn't as large as the dinning hall doors, but maybe ten feet tall. 

The nurse turns around and sees me, then starts to come towards me. She has her mossy brown hair pulled up in a tight bun and is a short plump woman, maybe about five foot.

"Good, you're up." She then proceeds to push me back into the bed. "Nathaniel brought you here, you just had a little mishap with exchanging energy I hear, good thing you stopped when you did." She hands me a hospital gown she was carrying. "But a lot of energy was taken from you in such a little amount amount of time, so you need to stay here overnight just to make sure, okay?" She gives me a friendly smile and I nod.

"Good, now put those on, Nathaniel will be back with your dinner soon." With that she leaves me, closing the curtain behind her. I quickly undress and put on the gown. Standing up, I realize that I still feel drained. Some of my energy has come back, but I really just feel like sitting down or sleeping, but my stomach refuses until I at least feed it.

I crawl back under the covers and try to lift a pillow, but I find that my charm has also been drained. The pillow barely lifts off the bed, only about three inches or so, and it's lost a lot of it's glow. So much for using that besides my limbs. I put the pillow down and prop the other one up so I can sit up, I know if I lay down I'll fall asleep.

Soon I hear the doors open and footsteps coming this way. The curtains are drawn back and I see Nathaniel carrying two plates of food, with my favorite food, waffles. I'm so happy that they serve breakfast no matter what time of day it is. Nate's face seems to relieve itself when he sees me. "Oh good, you're awake."

I nod. "Yep, but not for long." I laugh.

He pulls the little tray that connects to the hospital bed in front of me and sets my plate on it. "I brought your favorite."

"I saw that, thank you!" I tell him and happily dig into the savory food. It seems to melt in my mouth. I take a sip of milk.

Nate smiles at me and brings a chair forward and sits his plate on the bedside table. He got a normal dinner plate with mashed potatoes, steak, and macaroni. 

"I'm so sorry, Elina. I don't know what happened." He tells me after a few moments of silence.

"It's okay, I should've known better to not try with you without Mr. Allore there." I reply, shrugging. "I have to stay overnight though, and I'm still really tired."

"I freaked out." He looks at me with truthful eyes. "I thought I had accidentally touched you or drained you completely." This actually makes me laugh.

"Well I'm glad you brought me here, this is the hospital wing right?"

"Yep." He swallows a mouthful of mashed potatoes. "I've been in here a few times."

I look at him questionably. "Why?"

"I get really bad migraines sometimes, like I'm dying, and I broke my leg once."

"Oh." Is all I say, not really sure how to respond.

"Do you think you'll be in class tomorrow?"

I think for a second. "I might just skip the first three classes and go to lunch, do you think the teachers will understand?" I poke around at the last of my waffle with my fork, feeling very full. I drain the last of my milk and feel my eyelids droop.

"Yeah, I'm sure they will, this happens more than you would think." He smiles briefly under his hood, but it disappears quickly.

"Well, I guess I should let you sleep. It's almost curfew for me too."

"Yeah, I can barely keep my eyes open." I say truthfully. I begin to snuggle into the bed.

"Well, I guess I'll see you in history. Goodnight, Elina." He grabs my plate.

"Yep. Goodnight, Nate. Thank you for the waffles." I yawn as he turns out the lamp. He closes the curtain behind him and I hear the door open and shut before I slip into sleep.


I am woken up the next morning around ten o'clock by the nurse. I change into my regular clothes and go back to my dorm feeling fully rested. I shower, get my things and head down to lunch. When I get there I notice that Macy is sitting with my friends. She's our friend too, but she is a year younger than us, fifteen, so none of us have any classes with her. She's got mossy brown hair with side swoop bangs, chocolate colored eyes, has a round like face, and wears big, dorky "hipster" glasses. Her charm is Precognition, seeing the future. She gets them in flashes and sometimes dreams. It's one of the coolest charms to me. She can also be very hyper.

"Hey guys." I greet them. I texted them this morning and told them what had happened. The greet me with happily. They start asking me questions about what had happened and I answer them with no protest. Tanya tries to suggest that it was Nate's fault, but I quickly shush her by telling her what I told Nate last night, I shouldn't have done it without Mr. Allore. 

We are talking for a few minutes before we are interrupted by someone tapping on my shoulder. I twist my head around to see the guy standing behind me. He's got dirty blonde hair with streaks of brown that is neatly kept, vibrantly colored hazel eyes with hints of green, gold, brown, and even red. He's wearing a grey v-neck underneath a blue and white plaid jacket, a pair of jeans, and some brown boots with his backpack slung over one shoulder. He's very attractive.

"Hi." He gives me a brilliant smile. He has an american accent. "I couldn't help but notice, that I haven't said hello to you yet. You're the new girl right?"

I chuckle nervously as Remi, Tanya, Kierra, and Macy gawk at him. "Yep. That's me."

"I'm Damian." He sticks his hand out for me and I shake it firmly.

"Elina."

"So, Elina," He takes the empty seat next to me and looks at me with curiosity. "they say that you have the charm of energy bending, is that really true or just rumors?"

This time I'm the one gawking at him. "Who told you that?"

"Well, I don't know if you know but you're kind of a celebrity here. People talk, especially when such a pretty girl is involved." A blush creeps onto my cheeks.

"I didn't know that." I take in a sharp breath. "But, yeah that really is my charm. What's yours?"

"Oh, mine is air and wind manipulation." He silently asks for a fry with gestures and I give him the go ahead. He whips his hand and the fry flies into his mouth, the wind whipping my hair slightly. I laugh out loud.

"Wow, that's pretty cool." 

"Yeah, I've gotten to the point where I can hover. With lots of practice I'll be able to fly. Or at least that's what they've told me." 

"Whoa, you'll have to make me fly once you figure that out." I say and then mentally slapping myself. God, that must've sounded stupid. "So, how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"We're sixteen." 

"Well, my next class starts in a few minutes but here's my number," He takes my hand and scribbles a number into my palm. "so you can text me sometime and we could, I don't know, hang out."

"Will do." I grin widely at him. He waves to all of us before getting up and heading towards the door. As soon as he's out of earshot Kierra starts making comments.

"Oh. My. Gosh." She scoffs with a smile. "You just got the hottest guy in the school's number, and you didn't even have to do anything!" I shrug nervously. 

"He totally likes you!"

"Yeah right." I roll my eyes and punch her in the arm playfully. "Come on, we are going to be late for class."

After getting up and dumping our plates I make my way towards Nathaniel in the sea of students, each of them on their way to their own classes. It's kind of cool getting to walk beside Nate in the hallways because people always clear a path for him and you don't have to shove past the jocks and gossiping girls. 

"What did Damian want?" Nate asks as soon as I get close enough to him to where I can hear him.

"Oh, nothing really, just wanted to introduce himself and welcome me to the school." I shrug, wondering why Nate would care. Of all the people to walk up and introduce themselves to me he hasn't asked about a single one except for Damian. I decide not to think anything of it for now and just worry about history.

"So, what did I miss this morning?" 

"Nothing much, I'll get you caught up later if you want, we can go to the library." He tells me as we approach the classroom. "I mean, only if you want, you can get someone else to, it doesn't matter."

I laugh loudly. "Nate we've been friends for over a week now you don't have to worry about me not wanting to hang out with you. You're one of my closest friends here and I enjoy spending time with you." His face lights up in a smile. 

"Okay then, I'll get you caught up in the library." As we start into the classroom he ducks back under his hood, all his messy hair going with him. I sigh loudly and pull it back down.

"Oh no you don't, I am getting you out of your shell and the first step in that is leaving your hood down so that people can actually see that cute face of yours." 

His cheeks turn red and so do mine, but then he smirks. "Okay fine, I'll keep my cute face in view for you today."

I shove him playfully in the arm before taking the seat next to him in the back. "Shut it."

After a few moments Mr. H walks into the classroom cheerfully. "Good afternoon, class!" There are some Good afternoon, Mr. H's thrown around. 

He sits down his bag and then pulls something that looks like a flyer out of it. "It's that time of the year again!" He holds up the flyer, and there is a mixture of groans and exciting babble, but being in the back of the class I can't see the flyer, even with my good eyesight. 

"As you all know, the Halloween dance is coming up. Some of you have been to one but a lot of you haven't, so I'm going to go over it with you."

He pulls up an empty desk and sits on it, putting his feet in the chair. "So, this next week and three days are going to be insane, putting up decorations, everyone scrambling to find a date and a costume, things like that. What's going to happen is it starts at around seven o'clock on October 31st. You'll get out of school and get in your costume and all that before hand. There will be drinks, food, candy, music, a costume contest, a bar --for the older students and teachers I will add--, and some games. It will last until twelve am. Everybody with me so far?" he pauses and waits for a set of nods. "Okay, now for the next part. We need a lot of volunteers to help get ready for it, especially people with charms that can help lift things high and stuff like that. You will also help clean up the next day. If think you want to sign up for the decoration and clean up committee, grab a flyer at the end of class and turn it in signed before this Friday. You'll stay in the dining hall after lunch on the 31st and help until about five or six, then you'll leave to go get ready. The next day, which will be a Saturday, you will report to the great hall around lunch time to help clean. I'm sorry to say that there won't be any breakfast that morning, so you all should stock up on oatmeal. Okay, any questions?"

It is silent for a few minutes before I timidly raise my hand. "Um, where can we get costumes?"

"Glad you asked Ms. Faith, I had forgotten to mention that there is a costume shop open now in Eden, they have costumes and makeup and accessories for pretty cheap. Any more questions?"

A few more kids raise their hands and ask questions, but my mind is elsewhere. I turn to Nate. "Are you going?"

"Me? Nah, I usually don't go." I frown at him.

"Oh come on, please?"

"Maybe..." That's good enough for me right now.

"I think I'm going to join the decoration committee. Do you think I should?"

"I think so, especially with your charm you would be a big help." He reassures me.

"Will you join if I join?" I ask hopefully. "We will both get to get out of school."

"But, my charm is useless for that kind of stuff. Useless for anything in fact." He sighs.

"That doesn't matter, you could still help. And besides, you would be keeping me company." I grin at him. He still looks unsure so I stick my lip out and make my eyes wide. "Pwease?"

He sighs but with a smile. "Okay, fine." 

"Yay!" I exclaim happily and turn back towards the front of the class.

"Okay, if that's the last of the questions, let's start with some actual history." Mr. H gets off his desk and goes to the chalk board. "Turn to page 237 in your history books, we are going to start where we left off learning about the history of the elemental charms."

But the rest of the class I hardly hear a word Mr. H is saying, it all seems very interesting, but my mind is wandering to the Halloween dance, buzzing in excitement, for this will be my first school dance, and first real Halloween.


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Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, thanks for reading!