Power Revealed (The Elementers) (15 page)

He made it the next few miles back to his house without seeing the white car again. Upon finally reaching his house, he closed the front door behind him with a sigh of relief. He said a quick hello to his mom, hurried upstairs to his bedroom, shut the door, turned off the lights, and closed the curtains. In the dark, he sat by his bedroom window peering through a slit in the curtains into the night keeping an eye out for the white car or any other Elementers. He sat there, keeping watch for hours. He wanted to talk to Raven or Mr. Hamilton, but during the last few weeks he had never asked for their phone numbers since he could always reach them with Earth or Water Talking. He didn’t dare use his energy to Talk to them right now since that could lead the people in the white car to his house. Instead, Justin camped out by his window, trying not to spend his time thinking about Raven being out at the movies with Eric. Justin finally gave up the watch by midnight, pumped out a bunch of pushups to expend some energy, and dropped onto his bed hoping that no one showed up while he slept.

Chapter 22

Justin shoved his English book into his backpack and looked up to see Raven standing beside his desk. “Hello,” she said.

“Hi. How was the movie?” Not that Justin really wanted to know about her ‘not-a-date’.

“It was pretty good. How did practice go?”

“Good. There were no–” Justin almost said ‘no explosions’, but he remembered his classmates nearby, so he rephrased his response. “No accidents. I learned a lot. You’re coming with us on Saturday to meet with Anya right?”

“Definitely. She’s great.”

“Want to practice again after school on Monday?”

Raven bit her lip. Justin was beginning to recognize that look. “Monday? How about Tuesday instead?”

“Don’t tell me, Eric again.” Justin didn’t hide the irritation in his voice.

“No, not Eric again. Nikki and I are going to watch the basketball game,” Raven said defensively.

“That Eric is playing in, right?”

“Justin, it’s a basketball game. They’re fun. Why don’t you come with us?”

“I think we have other things we need to be doing right now after the,” Justin lowered his voice, “attack.”

“Justin, I know it’s important, but I can’t put my entire life on hold.”

“I’m not asking you to.” Justin wanted to tell her about the white car from last night, but the conversation was going in the wrong direction. “It’s just that someone—” he stopped and glanced at his classmates who hadn’t yet rushed away for lunch. It was so easy to be with Raven when they were alone. But how was he supposed to talk to her with others around when nearly everything they had to say was secret? “Last night—”

“What?” Raven said.

Justin shook his head. What was the point? She had her own life. “Forget it. I can take care of it myself.”

Raven just stared at him for a moment. “Fine.” She took one last look at him and then picked up her backpack and walked past him and out the door.

Justin wanted to kick something, but satisfied himself by saying, “Fine!” Not that Raven could hear him.

“I overheard your conversation,” Lewis said.

The comment made Justin jump. “What?” Justin’s heart sped up as he tried to recall exactly what he said to Raven and how to make it sound like something else.

“I heard what you said,” Lewis repeated. “Are you completely insane?”

“Uh, what do you mean?” Justin was pretty sure he’d been careful. What had he said about the Elementers?

“Raven asked you to go to a game with her and Nikki Valentino and you said no. Are you an idiot?”

Justin laughed. He’d much rather be insulted than have Lewis find out about his powers. “Why am I an idiot?”

“You said no to going out with Nikki Valentino. That has to be the surest sign of an insane brain.”

“You like Nikki?”

“Don’t you?” Lewis said.

“Not my type.”

“What, Raven’s your type?”

“Raven? No. Besides, she already has a boyfriend,” Justin said.

“Then why did she ask you to go to the game with her?”

“We’re just friends.”

“Wait. How have you already buddied up to Raven, one of the best looking girls in the school, when you’ve only been here a couple weeks? I’ve been here almost a year and can barely get Nikki to say two words to me.”

“Women can’t resist me,” Justin joked.

“Yeah, right.”

“We also happen to have been assigned as partners for our science project.”

“She has to talk to you. Now that makes more sense.” They had reached the cafeteria and joined the long line to buy lunch. “So, you need to tell Raven you’ll go with her to the game.”

“Why?”

“Because Nikki will be there and I’m coming with you.”

“I don’t know. I think Raven is pretty irritated with me right now. She probably doesn’t want me coming any longer.”

“Oh, that’s right. The women can’t resist you because you’re so smooth with them.”

“Whatever. I don’t see Nikki over here asking you to go out tonight.”

“That’s because I’m busy. A bunch of us are going out tonight to eat downtown and afterward we’re going across the street to go bowling. Want to come?” Lewis asked. He added with a mischievous smile, “I know Amanda wants you to come.”

He still didn’t entirely feel like being social, but he figured it was better than sitting at home while Raven was likely out with Eric. “Yeah, I could use some down time.”

Chapter 23

Justin sat down in the booth of the diner and Amanda scooted in next to him.

“You’re Mom’s really talkative,” Justin said as he turned to Lewis across the table.

Lewis laughed, “Yeah, sorry. She’s a reporter and wants to know everything about everyone. I always get drilled with questions about my day. Just be glad you’re not the topic of some story. She never stops until she has all the answers. She can be a real bull dog.”

“Like you’re all that different,” Amanda said.

“Me?” Lewis said.

Amanda turned to Justin. “Lewis can find anything online. It’s a game we sometimes play. We ask him to find any bit of information, and he tracks it down in no time. I don’t think it’s always legal how he does it.” Amanda gave Lewis a look. “But it’s amazing to see. Besides, Lewis’ mom is super nice.”

“I suppose. But you’ve never been between her and what she wants to know. She never lets up. Anyway, she’ll pick us up down the street at the bowling alley at nine. So be prepared to give a play by play of the night,” Lewis said. Amanda and Joyce just shook their heads.

The food arrived while the girls were telling Justin about Ms. Chalmers falling off the stage at the last school assembly. Justin thought about how good it felt to laugh and feel like a regular teenager. He hadn’t laughed since— He realized he hadn’t laughed since Henry’s death. But during that thought he looked up to see Raven and a few of her friends walk in the door to the restaurant. Raven was wrapped up in a conversation with someone. Justin figured it must be Eric. The group sat down at a table on the other side of the restaurant.

Throughout the meal, Justin tried to ignore the other table, but every once in a while, his ears would catch Raven’s voice and he’d force himself to not look over there. As his friends were finishing up their meal, Justin felt a buzz of Earth energy. He automatically looked over at Raven’s table but she and Nikki weren’t there.

“Justin? Earth to Justin. Are you ready to go?” Lewis asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Justin shook his head to clear his thoughts of Raven.

“Let’s head over to the bowling alley,” Lewis said.

As they began to get up from their seats, they hear a scream from the kitchen followed by the sound of numerous kitchen pots crashing to the ground. Justin turned to look through the large window opening into the kitchen and saw huge flames engulfing half of the kitchen. A fire alarm began blaring throughout the building and a few kitchen employees climbed over the counter, trying to swiftly escape the fire behind them.

All at once, everyone seemed to launch from their tables and catapult for the front door. The doors couldn’t fit the mob all at once, resulting in a frenzied shoving match. By the time Justin and his friends made it out the door, Justin noticed the guy Raven had been walking with standing amongst the crowd, but Raven wasn’t with him. A heavy rock seemed to plummet to the bottom of Justin’s stomach. Where was Raven?

Justin rushed over to the guy Raven came in with. “Where’s Raven?” Justin demanded.

“She and Nikki went to the bathroom. They must be around here somewhere,” the guy stopped and looked at Justin like he was a lower life form. “Who are you?” Just then the guy’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the screen, and answered, “Raven? Where are you?”

“Where is she?” Justin asked.

The guy listened to his phone for a moment. “If there’s a fire in the hallway, sit tight in the bathroom. I’m sure the fire engines will be coming soon.”

Justin didn’t wait to hear more. Without thinking, he hurried over to one of the employees. “There must be a back door. What’s the quickest way to it?”

The guy pointed to the right. “Go past the stores, take a left, and turn into the alley.” Justin bolted in that direction.

“Justin, where are you going?” Lewis called after him, but Justin didn’t take time to answer. He knew he had found the back door when he came upon a few more diner employees standing in the alley involved in a heated discussion about what happened. Justin immediately headed for the door.

“What are you doing?” yelled an older man who must have been the manager.

Justin quickly realized that it would be faster to get rid of the guy rather than argue with him about the wisdom of entering a burning building. “Um, I was looking for the manager. There are a bunch of official people out front asking for the manager,” Justin said.

“Oh, thanks,” the man hurried in the direction Justin came from with the rest of the employees walking behind. With his audience removed, Justin carefully touched the door handle to make sure it wasn’t too hot. That was the only caution he felt he had time to indulge in. He yanked open the door and waved his hands through the smoke in a vain attempt to see better.

“Raven!” Justin yelled. But he heard no response. “Raven!” he hollered again as he walked further into the smoke filled haze. His nose and throat began to burn from the smoke inducing an involuntary coughing fit. With his throat on fire, yelling was difficult, but he realized he didn’t need to yell. Lowering himself to his hands and knees to get below the worst of the smoke, Justin connected to the earth element and reached out. “Raven! Where are you?” he called.

“Justin? Is that you?”

“Yes, where are you?”

“We’re in the bathroom at the end of the hallway along the right side of the restaurant. We can’t get out because there’s a huge fire at the end of the hallway. What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure what happened, half the kitchen is on fire. Can you use your powers to get out?”

“No. I don’t know how I could. I’m in here with Nikki.” Raven stopped and her connection got a little fuzzy. “Uh, no, Nikki. I didn’t say anything. Please stay at the back of the bathroom. I’m just plugging the bottom of the door with wet paper towels” She paused again and the connection cleared up. “Sorry, Justin. I’m in here with Nikki. I don’t know how to stop the fire and I can’t very well use my powers to break down a wall with Nikki here. She’s not going to believe that happened naturally unless I create an earthquake and that might cause the roof to come down on us. Please tell me you’re here to help.”

“Of course. Just stay away from the door and give me a minute.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” Justin spoke with far more confidence than he felt. He dropped the connection with Raven and focused his concentration on stopping the fire. He crawled forward until he could really feel the heat against his skin. He reached out to the water element and focused on the sinks to the right of him. Much like the water fountain, he urged the water out of the tap, but made sure he used a little less pressure to avoid uprooting the sink. Directing the water toward the fire near the hallway, Justin expected the fire to go out easily, but instead the water just strengthened and spread the fire. It dawned on him that this must be a grease fire. Duh! He just made things worse. So much for being the hero.