Chapter 2-Aaron starts to like chemistry

I can’t remember when I blacked out, but I woke up in a house that was probably that man’s house. It smelled like burning wood. And the sun was just rising up above the horizon.

“You’re awake.” said a female voice.

I jumped and turned around. Their was a girl about my age sitting on a chair. Her brown hair was shoulder lengthed. Her bangs covered her right eyebrow. She wore a crown made of leaves and her eyes were really green.

“Who are you?” I asked. “Where am I? Why am I here?”

“One question at a time, Shadow boy.” she said.

“Don’t call me that,” I sneered. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lindsay,” she said. “Bender of earth. I control the element of Earth.”

“Umm what?” I asked.

My stomach growled. I just noticed I hadn’t eaten since I left my foster home.

“You’re hungry, want breakfast?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll take you downstairs.”

                                           

She pulled me out of the bed and dragged me downstairs. Wow, that was nice. I was still wearing the same clothes from the day before.

Before fully making it downstairs, I heard Aaron talking, “Look, you expect me to save the world without even knowing what I am? That’s suicide! I can’t believe you would-”

He stopped talking as soon as he saw me.

“Hey,” he said. “I think I finally got interested in chemistry.”

“Please,” the man said. “Join us.”

I sat down and ate breakfast with them. Pancakes and sausages with a cup of orange juice. The man’s name was Miro. He told me that one element is controlled by one person.

“Lindsay controls earth,” he said. “Your friend here-”

“Controls fire,” I finished his sentence.

“How’d you know?” Aaron asked.

“Eye color,” I replied.

“Yes, I expected Aaron to realize that by now,” Miro said.

“Are you saying I’m dumb?!” Aaron exclaimed.

“No, my dear.”

                                               

“Liar.” Aaron left the table and went upstairs.

Miro sighed. “Fire is always the one with the temper.” Lindsay laughed. I almost forgot she was there for a moment.

“And you, Seth,” he continued. “I have no idea what you are.”

I had a bad feeling that I had some important role to play in this “saving the world” thing.

“Can’t you tell by my eye color?” I asked.

“I think you control shadow, but shadow is not an element. There are only four elements. Fire, which is Aaron. Earth, which is Lindsay. And we haven’t yet found water and air.

That was enough to send chills down my neck. I felt left out.

“Before an element bender reaches the age of fifteen, their irises change colors.” he continued. “Aaron is turning fifteen in less than a month. Lindsay is turning fifteen in two months.”

“My birthday’s after Christmas.”

“When did you notice them changing color?”

“Yesterday. Aaron said they changed the day before that.”

“Interesting…”

                                      ***
After I finished my breakfast, I changed into some new clothes and
                                                     

went out to skate. As I opened the front door to Miro’s house, the first thing I felt was the cold breeze that stung my face. At least I was wearing my hoodie. Miro had known that Aaron and I skated.
In front of me, was the best skate park I’ve ever seen.

With different grinds of various surfaces, ramps of different sizes, I thought that this would help my mood.

I skated for about fifteen minutes, twenty? I wasn’t so sure. After that I sat down on the highest ramp for a moment to catch my breath.

From up high, looking around at my surroundings, I never felt so lonely. I didn’t have parents that cared for me. I had the ability to control shadows. For a moment I was tempted to attempt to control a shadow, but here in this snowy place, no shadows. I wasn’t even a controller of a normal element. So that separated me from the real world and element benders. 

I decided to skate down the ramp. As I dropped down on my board, the breeze would have given me frostbite if I was in a t-shirt. At the edge of the ramp, I caught some air for a second, and the earth reached up and grabbed me. I landed in an upright position.

“Ouch,” I moaned. “What was that for?”

“I just thought it was funny,” Lindsay was smiling. She wasn’t wearing a jacket.

“Release me,” I demanded.

“No please?”
                                         

“Please?”

The pressured lessened around my ankles. And within ten seconds, I was free. Lindsay ordered the remaining dirt on my clothes to fall off.

“Happy?”

“No.” I said.

“What’s wrong?”

“You probably would never understand.”

We walked back up to the top of the ramp. Lindsay sat down and so did I.

“What won’t I understand?” she asked.

I explained to her how I felt lonely in such a world. The normal world and this “element” world. I started hesitating when I said I didn’t know how it felt to love or be loved by someone.

When I finished, Lindsay sat there. Just sat there and stared at me. Then she hugged me. That was the first hug I ever received. She let go right away. And smiled.

“There’s your first hug,” she said.

For a moment, I was speechless. “Um… thanks.”

“You’re not welcome.”
                                             


“Really?”

“Hah, no.”

For the rest of the day, I spent time exploring Miro’s house. Lindsay had told me that he was supposedly “chosen” to collect the element benders unite them to defeat some guy named Kouki. I’m suspect there’s much more too that though, but I’m too lazy too explain.

The bottom floor of the house had the kitchen, living room, and Miro’s room. His room was absolutely forbidden, so I couldn’t explore that in risk of getting kicked out into the snow. The living room had a large flat screen TV and a nice, warm fireplace. The couches were completely make from leather.

The kitchen offered a refrigerator filled with food, a black stove, black microwave, and black counters. The sinks for silver and made of steel. Wooden chairs surrounded the dinner table.

Upstairs, four rooms were lined up in the hall. Above each room was a symbol. The first one on my right, was Aaron’s room. I symbol of a flame was above the door.

(Picture)

                                                 
Further down the hall to the left, was the room for a water bender. The symbol above the door looked like this:


(Picture)


On my right was for an air bender. The symbol looked like this:


(Picture)


Further down the hall on the left side, was Lindsay’s room. Where I was staying until Miro was positive I was useful. The symbol looked like this:

(Picture)

                     


Down at the end of the hall, was a bathroom and an exit out to a miniature sky deck. Miro had put some benches in there. This makes me wonder how he got all the money to buy all of this stuff.
And inside the sky deck, was a secret entrance to a game room. The game room had pinball, mini golf, everything in there. The room was dark with strobe lights flashing around.

I have no idea what time it was when I got out of the game room. It looked like 5:30 to me. When I went out onto the sky deck, Aaron was sitting there and staring out at the forest around us. He noticed me and waved.

“What’s in there?” he asked.

“Heaven,” I replied.

The corner of his mouth lifted into a smile. “Alright, Miro’s downstairs. Keep him entertained and I promise you my day will be brighter.”

He stood up and walked into the game room. Now, next problem. How do I entertain Miro?

I started walking down the hall. I stood and stared at Lindsay’s room for a few moments. Then, proceeded to the stairs.