The Elementalists Read online

He pulled up in front of a modest ranch house in need of a paint job and put the Jeep into ‘PARK’ behind Stan’s battered van. A Volvo station wagon with a Charlottesville High School sticker occupied the driveway.

  “Thanks for the ride,” said Chloe. “I’m so happy that your grandmother is okay.”

  “Thanks,” said Kirin, clearly wanting to say something more. He turned toward her with a noticeable swallow. “My uncle finally made it to her street the night of that party at Paul Markson’s house a couple weeks ago—her whole block was completely destroyed, and things didn’t look good… I was pretty upset, and I went overboard with the drinking and stuff. I’m not sure what you heard about all that, but I kind of got myself into a stupid situation…with Cynthia…that I’m not too proud of.”

  Chloe shrugged and feigned ignorance, though her face felt like it was throbbing. “Oh,” she whispered.

  “I just wanted you to know that, in case Stan or someone told you something about it,” he added nervously, looking away.

  Chloe’s heart felt like it might explode out of her chest. She glanced at Stan’s house and wished she could tell Kirin to keep on driving.

  “And you know, I’m serious about what I said earlier. Stan is really lucky; you look amazing.”

  They stared at each other with hushed expectation, and Chloe felt a building swell of courage. Before she knew what she was doing, she reached over and put her hand on top of his. His skin was cool as he moved to entwine her fingers with his own.

  Bold, alien words started spilling out of Chloe’s mouth. “You always look amazing,” she mumbled to herself, but out loud. “I think you’re probably the coolest person I’ve ever met, and just so you know, if your dad had allowed it, I would have much rather gone to this stupid dance with you.”

  This time it was Kirin’s turn to get a little red in the cheeks, but then, as always, he broke the tension perfectly with a smile. “I would have liked that,” he said. “How about next time?”

  “I don’t know; you think you can stay out of trouble that long?” she challenged.

  He raised her hand and brushed his lips over the back of her knuckles, and somehow it wasn’t cheesy or forced—it was perfect. “I make no promises, but I’m sure as hell gonna try.” He released her hand, just as Stan came to the front door of his house in a seventies-style light blue tuxedo and waved.

  “Oh, boy,” said Chloe as she saw him. Reluctantly she opened the car door.

  “I’m living vicariously through you, so have fun tonight,” said Kirin with a gentle nudge at her back. “Call me tomorrow if you get a chance. I want all the gruesome details.”

  Chloe looked back, swallowing the urge to cry, cackle, and scream all at once. “Bye.”

  He nodded as she closed the door, and he honked the horn as he pulled away from the curb and proceeded up the road. Chloe turned back to face Stan, who pumped his eyebrows in acknowledgment of what he thought he’d seen. His huge, horsey grin followed an instant later.

  Without thinking, she raised her hand to her face. It tingled as if mentholated. Oh my God, I think I just told Kirin that I like him! Chloe was practically bouncing as she headed toward the event she’d been dreading all day.

  Chapter 14

  The King and the Fool

  The smile that Chloe had been wearing naturally for more than an hour faded as she stepped into the strobe-lit school gym. She’d even managed to maintain the natural grin, without too much effort, through a prolonged picture-taking session by Stan’s father—posed in front of the azalea bushes in the front yard with Stan’s arm entwined in hers and an absurd corsage pinned to the strap of her dress.

  Any other day and she would have had the same pinched, uncomfortable expression that found its way to her face in most every other photo ever taken of her, but the timing of Mr. Strakowski’s digital assault could not have been better. Chloe left Stan’s parents believing that their goofy son had landed the most radiant young girl they’d ever met.

  Now the flame of Chloe’s cheer was quickly suffocating as her eyes drifted across the sea of entwined couples that covered the basketball court in some sort of slow jam nightmare. “Stan, let’s go see a movie or something,” she suggested.

  Stan’s toothy smirk kept on gleaming in the dark. “No way, dude, this is gonna be fuuun!”

  Chloe couldn’t tell if he was actually being serious or if he somehow reveled in the misery of adolescence.

  He nodded his chin in the direction of the bleachers. “Come on, let’s get something to drink and then get a good seat.” He offered his arm to Chloe, and she took it with a theatrical roll of her eyes. “My date is hawt!” he proclaimed for no one but her to hear. She couldn’t help but smile along with his absurd glee in the face of such horrors.

  Still, Chloe kept her head down as they skirted along the sidelines of the basketball court. They wound their way through the mass of milling bodies that stood on the shore while the sea of slow-dancing couples clustered beneath the giant, dangling disco ball at center court. Kids were dressed to the nines: suits and even some tuxedos for the boys and the full array of cocktail dresses, from slutty to classy, for the girls.

  Chloe glimpsed Liz and Paul locked in a slowly rocking embrace near the three-point line. Liz looked beautiful in a long, black dress that showed a lot of back and just enough cleavage to keep Paul’s attention and attract the occasional glances from a number of the other boys around them. Chloe was strangely happy to see her old friend nestled so contentedly into the crook of Paul’s shoulder.

  At the other end of the gym, a cheesy deejay with overdone sideburns and a well-trimmed mullet grooved his big head to the tune on a stage set up beneath the basket. Chloe’s eyes were drawn for a moment to the gold plastic Homecoming crowns, positioned on a red felt pedestal beneath a spotlight. “Oh, boy, this is going to be painful,” she whispered.

  Stan pulled her hand toward a long table draped in a white cloth that was already stained with numerous pink spills. A sign read “EXOTIC PUNCH.” Getting closer to the three big bowls of sugary goodness, Chloe could see a caterer replenishing the contents with two gallon jugs of ginger ale and fruit punch, and an entire carton of rainbow sherbet—the “exotic” special ingredient.

  Undaunted, Stan slid right up to the table and held up two fingers with a nod and a grin. He made certain to point out that each cup needed a healthy scooping of the sherbet before he walked away contented. He handed Chloe a cup like he was giving her some sort of life-giving chalice.

  “Here’s to making light of serious situations and making serious fun of stupid situations,” he raised his own cup of now muddy colored brew for a toast. “And to good friends to join us for both.”

  Chloe had to admit, sometimes Stan had a real way with words. She raised her cup, and they clacked the plastic together before drinking. Right off, she got a cold lump of undissolved sherbet in her mouth, followed by a semicarbonated rush of sugar. After years of her Mom’s conscientious support of local farmers, the sheer amount of artificial flavoring that Chloe ingested in that one gulp was enough to make her shudder. She actually gasped with her tongue sticking out, already dyed an unnatural red.

  Stan downed his entire cup without coming up for air. He finished with a satisfied “Yes,”, capped with a foamy moustache. “That tastes awesome!” he declared with enough volume to turn a few heads around him. “I’m gonna get some more,” he bellowed before heading back into the increasingly large throng around the table.

  Chloe could only shake her head as she turned away to scan the room, but was cut short as she came face to belt with Ezra Richardson’s looming form.

  He also held a couple cups of punch, looking down on her with a furrowed brow. “Are you here with him?” he asked, letting his disapproving eyes glance to Stan’s receding head.

  “I’m pretty sure you don’t need to be lecturing me on the quality of our dates,” Chloe said coolly.

  “Listen, Lightning, I didn’t know that you and Ke
ndra had some sort of problem with each other when she asked me to the dance. I wouldn’t have said yes if I’d known it would bother you so much. But I got to tell you, other than the fact that she seems to want to find out everything I can tell her about you all the time, she’s a pretty cool girl,” Ezra insisted. “But that dude, Stan, is no good for you.”

  “Leave Stan out of it!” Chloe snapped. “He’s a friend, and he’s been there when I’ve needed him,” she added. “What did you tell Kendra about me?”

  Now Ezra looked a little stung. “I didn’t tell her anything except that you were my people and that she’s wrong about you. Just like I’ve been trying to tell you about her! Damn, you two are a lot alike—hot tempers and cruel wits—I think maybe you two are made for each other.”

  “Not likely,” Chloe muttered.

  “Whatever,” Ezra shot back. “But your boy Stan is a drug fiend, and I don’t want to see you messing with that road.”

  “Oh, Mr. High and Mighty, now you’re going to tell me who I should be hanging out with?” Chloe said. “Stan smokes pot, and trust me, I can handle being around him without falling victim.”

  “Yeah, that’s how it starts,” said Ezra with surprising force in his voice. “And you can trust me, I know where it leads! I’ve seen what that shit does, and I won’t sit back and watch it happen to you!” His cups of punch were shaking in his grip.

  Chloe was silenced beneath the force of his conviction, feeling the press of his will towering over her… “Okay,” she said meekly. “I won’t get caught up in that, I promise.”

  Ezra’s fury deflated, and he was left looking surprisingly vulnerable. He avoided eye contact with Chloe as he gathered himself and cleared his throat.

  “I’m sorry,” mumbled Chloe, wishing she could somehow let him know that she understood why he was upset and how flattered she was that he cared so much about her. Against all better judgment, and despite the unprecedented moment of victory she had achieved earlier with Kirin, she felt the urge in that moment to reach up and meet his beautiful face with her own, just to let him know that she cared for him too.

  Instead, Kendra slid her hand around Ezra’s waist from behind as she slinked under his arm and pressed herself against him with a deep kiss that he did not have time to see coming or the will to resist. At first, he looked surprised, but then he closed his eyes and leaned in for more.

  Kendra looked stunning. Her hair fell in a wave over her shoulder, matching the floor-length, blood-red dress that clung to her figure like the ephemeral covering over some ancient Greek goddess of love. She looked like she belonged on the red carpet at the Oscars, and she would have been a best-dressed contender even there. She made every other kid on the floor, besides Ezra, look like they were playing dress-up in their parents’ closet—which of course Chloe actually was.

  She disengaged from Ezra, leaving him befuddled and silent before turning her fiery gaze on Chloe with a victorious sneer. “Well, well, look who it is,” she sang with fake cheer. “Don’t you look adorable!” She looked Chloe up and down. “I was so hoping you would come to the dance. Ezra has been telling me good things about you, and I wanted to bury the hatchet and let bygones be bygones.” She reached her perfectly manicured hand out to Chloe as the edges of her plump red lips curled dangerously.

  Chloe’s instincts told her to back away from the hand like it was an open flame, but with an encouraging nod from Ezra, she forced herself to accept the smooth, heavily lotioned palm. Kendra’s grip was firm, on the verge of painful, and Chloe clenched back with all the force she could muster as she nodded with an oily smile of her own. “You look beautiful as always, Kendra.”

  “You’re sweet,” Kendra said, releasing the shake before slithering back against Ezra. “I just hope it’s enough to keep Mr. Richardson’s attention,” she said with her vicious smile blooming in full.

  Chloe struggled to keep down the shudder that threatened to spasm up her spine. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” she said through clenched teeth as Stan stepped up beside her with a refilled cup and his punch-stained grin flashing between the gathered parties.

  “Hey, dudes,” he said innocently as Ezra’s hard glare fell upon him and Kendra’s wicked glee became complete. The slow jam ended, and the deejay mixed it up with a hot dance number that made the crowd cheer and brought many of the kids in the bleachers to their feet.

  “Come on, Ezra, let’s hit the floor,” said Kendra with a playful tug on his arm.

  Ezra held his gaze on Stan, however, and there was a threat there that even Stan couldn’t miss. “You better be good to her,” he commanded as Kendra kept tugging.

  Stan was a little flustered. “Yeah, no problem, dude,” he offered with a nervous chuckle.

  Ezra turned back to Chloe, looking like he wanted to reach out and grab her hand but for the cup of punch in his grip. “Don’t leave yet, Chloe; don’t run away again. There’s something I want you to see tonight before you go,” he said cryptically with a flash of mischief in his eye and something more behind it. Kendra kept pulling as Ezra was slowly carried away from Chloe’s look of confusion. “Promise me you’ll stay this time, for just a little longer,” he called back.

  “Yeah, whatever, I promise,” said Chloe with a dismissive wave as Ezra and Kendra were swallowed by the swell of people onto the floor.

  “What the hell was that?” asked Stan before gulping at his second cup of punch.

  “I have no idea,” admitted Chloe before taking a second sip of her own appropriately oversweetened poison.

  • • •

  Chloe leaned back against the top row of bleachers and stared down at the sea of dancing kids that moved in jerky flashes beneath the strobes. Stan lazed beside her with a face-splitting grin. Three empty cups of punch were discarded on the seat in front of him. Despite herself and her surroundings, Chloe couldn’t help but be caught up in his unending mirth.

  “So let me get this straight,” Stan said as a fresh wave of chuckles spilled out of him. “The super-jock quarterback guy is your special friend and protective keeper. The new-kid-surfer-dude and you have a budding…thing,” he made air quotes. “And you’re archenemies with the hottest, richest, and bitchiest chick in the school?”

  Chloe was nodding her head. “Yup, that’s about right.” She was amazed at how absurd it all seemed when listed together.

  “Who is the mysterious Lightning Girl?” he asked with the mock voice of a sensationalist newscaster. “Faster than a speeding bully, bringer of nature’s fury, and YES, she even looks good in her mom’s eighth grade dress.”

  Chloe snorted. “Okay, you’re going to have to shut up now.”

  Stan kept going. “You may not see her coming or know what’s happened until it’s too late, but BEWARE: if you get too close to her, you WILL be shocked.”

  Chloe punched him in the thigh, and he doubled over whimpering and laughing at the same time. “Don’t underestimate the Lightning Girl! She may be small, but she packs fists like THUNDERBOLTS!”

  Chloe wound up to punch again, but he threw up his hands and cringed away. “Stop! No!” he blurted. “I’m done!”

  As Chloe lowered the threat, Stan fluttered back beside her with a hangdog face. He rubbed the place on his leg where she’d hit him and winced. “Ouch, dude. That really hurt.”

  “Well, keep that in mind next time you want to push it, buddy.”

  “Man, you’re mean,” he joked… “If encountered, one should NEVER provoke the Lightning Girl!”

  Chloe laughed as she scanned the dance floor for Ezra’s head above the crowd. Instead, her gaze settled on Brian and Rosalie as they sloppily climbed the bleacher stairs toward them. Brian looked pretty good in a dark brown suit, having cleaned up to a hipster-chic that Chloe hadn’t thought him capable of. Rosalie was equally cute in a little hippie dress that probably cost more than the full worth of Chloe’s wardrobe. They also looked like they were out-of-their-minds wasted.

  Chloe nudged
Stan’s leg with a warning look. When Stan noticed the approaching twosome, he straightened a bit, and a nervous chuckle spilled out of him.

  “Oh boy, this is gonna be a blast,” he said with a pained smile.

  Brian gave the ‘what’s up’ nod as he approached, holding on to Rosalie’s wrist while her spacey attention trailed behind. Brian came at Stan with an intricate handshake before the two newcomers plopped down on the row of bleachers below. Rosalie’s gauzy, canary-yellow-covered rear came down directly onto Stan’s trio of cups with the clatter of breaking plastic and a cold, wet surprise from the “exotic” dregs.

  Rosalie released a high-pitched yelp that sounded to Chloe like a hungry kitten, and then she stared oddly at the ceiling with her mouth locked in a bizarre rictus grin. She made no effort to move as the red stain climbed up her backside.

  “Dude,” said Brian with a zonkered gaze of his own. “Rosalie has never taken mushrooms before.”

  “How considerate of you to let her do so in such a safe and calm place,” Stan said as the deejay moved into another dance number that brought a cheer from the crowd.

  Chloe watched as hands shot into the air and the mob churned with renewed vigor. She spied Liz among the many, moving her hips and shaking her hair as Paul bounced beside her. Chloe tried to suppress the part of her that wanted to go down and join them.

  Brian brought her back to the drama at hand with a sleazy nod toward Rosalie for Stan’s benefit. It was like she and Rosalie weren’t even there, which was looking more and more accurate in Rosalie’s case. She was still staring at the ceiling, mesmerized by the play of lights across the rafters as Brian made an unsubtle ‘blow-job’ gesture.

  “Seriously?” spat Chloe under her breath.

  Stan looked like a deer caught in headlights as Brian hooked a thumb toward Chloe and gave his blow-job rendition again. Stan could only shake his head and grimace.

  “Oh my God, you are like radiating an amazing golden aura right now,” Rosalie slurred with her big, crazy eyes now fixed on Chloe.