The Elementalists Page 7

  She walked away, and Chloe was pretty sure that she caught Kirin staring at her ass as she left.

  “What happened to aloof and mysterious?” she asked, trying not to sound the way she felt.

  He shrugged, unabashed and unfazed as always. “I guess it’s working.”

  • • •

  All of Chloe’s anger, frustration, and fear had been sweated out by the eighth mile of the run—one and a half blissful, punishing miles to go. It was the farthest they had gone in the first two weeks of endurance conditioning, and while many others had fallen back with complaints of shin splints and the persistent heat, Chloe gobbled up every step along the hilly path through the woods. She was fast becoming addicted to the solitary focus of running, as if locked in a trance by her heavy breaths and the cadence of her stride.

  She did not think about Kirin, no doubt flirting with Cynthia at that very moment, or her mom waiting on them at Positive Pete’s while trying to mask her melancholy with a fake smile. She did not picture a massive bolt of lightning picking off Kendra during her field hockey tryouts or Officer Brent Meeks and his pristine uniform, caught in a hail of bird crap from a passing flock of geese…

  None of that mattered while her lungs and legs ached and her heart thundered away. She was at home in the woods, an animal in her natural state. There were a few seasoned juniors and seniors ahead of her—some who were faster or in better shape—but none were more at ease with the leaves and wind whipping by and the promise of exhaustion at hand.

  Chloe was only half-aware of the large form that came from behind and fell in step with her steady gait. Instinctively, she reacted by picking up the pace a bit, but the long, dark, muscular legs stayed with her. She glanced up from the corner of her eye and was surprised to see Ezra Richardson beside her in all his chiseled glory. He was breathing hard and dripping sweat, but looked comfortable and focused despite it.

  “You’re fast…for a girl,” he said in two bursts between breaths.

  She surfaced from the deepest pools of the trance, remembering that Coach Barnes had mentioned that a couple members of the varsity football squad might join them for a few select practices. “You’re fast for a football player,” she answered.

  He flashed his beautiful smile, and she nearly lost her footing down a little slope. How does someone so big and pretty move so well?

  “You set a good pace…s’cool if I run with you?” he asked.

  She nodded and focused back on the path. How is this even happening? The only possible explanation was that Ezra Richardson, quarterback Adonis, was so egotistical that he might have been the only person left in school who didn’t know who she was.

  “As long as…I won’t get…struck by lightning,” he added with a little chuckle.

  She snapped her head around and eyed him close. “I make no promises,” she challenged before returning her full attention to the run. Okay, let’s see what he’s got.

  Chloe dug deep and picked up the tempo. The initial distraction of the unlikely presence beside her fell away. Her long strides carried her down and then back up the winding path through the trees, and Ezra’s far longer stride held with her. Their journey had wound throughout the streets and pathways of Charlottesville proper, but they were in the familiar territory of the woods behind school now, and the final approach toward the track was not far ahead.

  Chloe’s legs were still sore from the 400-meter interval run they’d been made to do on Wednesday, but she had come to relish the feel of the muscle burn and even delighted in the rubber-legged wobble that immediately followed every practice. She was not as conditioned as most of the upperclassman and was probably the third or fourth fastest girl on the team, but she was pretty sure that she pushed herself harder than anyone. The gap between her and the front would not last long.

  She navigated through a web of roots and then leapt a dried-out creek bed, handling the terrain as assuredly as she moved through the woods behind her house. Ezra fumbled while climbing back out of the creek, but he kept on her heels with the sound of his heavy breath rising. Chloe kept pushing.

  She shot out from the woods into a gently sloped field and counted the seven runners ahead of her: five of the boys’ varsity squad and the two girls vying for regional dominance. Further ahead she saw the practice field for the soccer team and the stick drills and wind sprints of the girls’ field hockey hopefuls spread across it. Chloe’s lips took on a slightly sinister curl.

  Her thighs screamed as she brought her arms up tighter for the final few hundred yards, but the vacillating movement of Ezra’s defined triceps held in the corner of her eye. Chloe started gaining on one of the boys who was lagging behind the others, and she felt like a pursuing beast, coming to gobble him up. She dug deeper, looking for more speed than her legs could muster, wanting more from herself than what she could produce. Ezra ran beside her, and their long footfalls fell into a joint rhythm. She could smell the sweat that dripped off him: earthy and oddly appealing, like the mixture of hay and the freshly tilled soil of a farm. His beaming smile had been replaced by the joyless grin of full exertion.

  They passed by the soccer field without slowing, though Chloe couldn’t help but glance at the cluster of prancing girls in the center just long enough to lock eyes with Kendra. Even from forty yards Chloe could see the shock and confusion on Kendra’s pretty little face as she and Ezra’s matching strides flew by.

  They came out of the fields and turned onto the sidewalk leading toward the track behind the school, and already Chloe could hear the encouraging bellows from Coach Barnes’s bullhorn. Ezra was not letting up and neither was she, both trying now to dislodge the other in a duel of equally matched talent. The harder they tried to break free of each other, the more simpatico their joint effort became. They covered that last stretch of ground to the track faster than all those who finished in front of them.

  “Come on, Chloe!” shouted Coach Barnes with distorted amplification. “Leave that football jock in your dust!”

  But there was no ditching Ezra Richardson. They crossed the line in what would have had to be a photo finish, and the two came to a floppy, stumbling halt among the other runners.

  “Nice job, Chloe” and “All right, McClellan” were offered by a couple of her teammates, but she was too light-headed to tell who. Her heart thundered in her temples, and she felt a little like she was swimming through the air, only vaguely aware that Ezra’s towering form stumbled beside her. She looked up at him and caught his eyes trained on her. He was still breathing hard.

  “Goddamn,” he gasped. “You’re an animal!” He reached out and slapped her five and did his best to smile again.

  Their hands were covered in sweat and spit, but it didn’t matter—it was awesome! “You’re pretty quick for a dumb quarterback, too,” she answered with a mischievous grin.

  Laughing took more energy than either one of them had left, but they gave it a pitiful try nonetheless.

  “My girl!” he exclaimed with a haggard chuckle. “Nobody messes with the Lightning Girl.”

  Chloe could only emit a croaking hack in response. Perhaps Ezra Richardson wasn’t so bad after all.

  • • •

  Kendra stood in the hallway, jumping up and down with her hockey stick thrust in the air with provocative abandon. An appreciative cluster of varsity soccer players passed by on their way to the men’s locker room, but the show was intended for Paul Markson, who lingered a moment with his eyes scanning the unsubtle offering. He tried to play it off with a cool ’sup nod, but he was clearly a bit flustered.

  Chloe watched from around the corner of the ladies’ locker room, waiting for the shameful display to cease so that she could begin her laborious forty-five minute trek on bus and foot to get home. She had no patience for Kendra’s games today, but had resolved to keep her opinions to herself after the miserable outcome of her attempt to intervene on her mother’s behalf in that adulterous relationship. Is Liz even still my friend anyway?


  Paul stopped and turned back toward Kendra as she released a barrage of cutesy giggles that sounded to Chloe like a baboon’s impersonation of a donkey.

  “So, you think you’re gonna make the squad?” Paul asked.

  “Come on,” Kendra answered with a deft twirl of her hockey stick. “They’d be fools not to take me with the way I handle the stick.”

  Paul actually blushed. “Cool, but I hope you still have time to come to some of our games; the team could really use some more motivation on the sidelines,” he said with a cocky grin before gulping from a bottle of water.

  Kendra batted her long lashes and pretended to be demure. “Of course, but you know that you can use my motivations anytime, if you wanted.”

  Paul choked and sputtered as a group of the other cross-country girls passed Chloe on their way out of the locker room. Chloe fell in behind them, intent on making her escape. She walked swiftly and focused on her feet.

  “Lightning!” shouted Ezra Richardson as he emerged from the men’s side at the same time.

  Chloe winced and turned, scanning past Kendra’s piercing glare as she did.

  “Hey,” Ezra continued, strolling right between the traitorous flirtations. “A bunch of us were talking about going out for a bite to eat—you’re coming!” he declared as the entire cluster of cross-country girls gathered around him, vying for his attention.

  For some reason, his confident gaze held on Chloe. Kendra bristled beside her. “Uh, okay. Where are you guys going?”

  “Not sure yet, any ideas?” asked Ezra with his gleaming smile returned.

  Kendra’s mouth was agape now. Chloe smiled back. Actually, she did have an idea. “How about Positive Pete’s Diner? They have great shakes.”

  “Yes!” he shouted. “Positive Pete’s in twenty minutes!” He leveled a commanding point at Chloe. “Do you have a car?”

  She shook her head.

  “You’re riding with me,” he announced before heading off down the hall with a ‘follow me’ wave.

  The other girls and a number of the cross-country guys chased after him, but Chloe paused for a moment to catch her breath, feeling oddly emboldened by Ezra’s public recognition. She ignored Kendra’s scorching stare and turned to Paul as she strolled by. “Hey, Paul, have you seen LIZ around?” she asked, overemphasizing her old friend’s name.

  “Uh, no…not for a few hours,” he answered, taken off guard.

  “Oh, okay. Could you tell her I was looking for her when you see her?” she asked without waiting for an answer.

  “Uh, sure,” he said in her wake.

  She strolled after her team with an extra little saunter to her step.

  Chapter 7

  Free at Last

  Chloe had always sat at the last stool at the counter and had always eaten for free. Over the summer, she had come to Positive Pete’s at least once a week when her mother was on the dinner shift and watched the groups that occupied the booths behind her in the mirror that hung on the wall over the coffeemakers. She liked her special seat and relished the insider looks and gossip she exchanged with her mom, but she had always been jealous of the camaraderie and conversation she spied in the reflection.

  Now Chloe sat in the coveted corner booth, surrounded by older kids while local sports king, Ezra Richardson, sat beside her telling jokes and holding court. He hadn’t paid any attention to her since they’d gotten there, but his huge arm was draped casually on the rim of the booth behind her. She felt oddly protected by its hovering presence.

  She’d greeted Kirin and Cynthia on entry—scrunched a little too close to each other a few booths down—but had excused herself to sit with the team, despite their invitations to join them. She’d walked away with Stan’s bloodshot stare tracking her from the other side of their table.

  She tried to focus on any one of the conversations around her, but found herself glancing over to Kirin with annoying regularity instead.

  Ezra looked up from an intense search through the menu. “So what’s your deal, Lightning?” he asked, commanding her attention again.

  She wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I was trying for aloof and mysterious, but now that’s failed miserably, so I’m going with misunderstood genius.”

  “You’re the youngest chick here, but the only one who isn’t hanging on my every word,” he whispered. “W’sup with that?”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean to offend, Your Highness.”

  Ezra narrowed his eyes, looking through her. “Is that Asian dude your boyfriend or something?”

  “What? No!” She was flustered. “He’s a friend of mine.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said doubtfully as he leaned out of the booth to get a better look at Kirin. “I’ve never seen him before.”

  “Don’t stare,” Chloe hissed as she sunk lower and hid her face behind a menu. Ezra caught Cynthia’s eye and waved.

  “Well, if you like him, you’re gonna want to get him away from Sin Decareaux, I’ll tell you that,” He righted himself again. “That girl has an appetite,” he added knowingly.

  Chloe swallowed her embarrassment. “Sin, huh? I guess you speak from experience?”

  “We’ve been in the same class since seventh grade,” he answered somewhat cryptically.

  Chloe watched her mom bring a tray of milk shakes to the stoner table—Kirin got a black and white. Of course, my favorite. She turned back to meet Ezra’s expectant gaze.

  “Okay, so what’s your story?” she shot back. “Famous sports god with the whole world groveling at your feet: women, awards, and riches, just yours for the taking?”

  Ezra glanced down at his callused hands and lost the curl of his smile. “I’ve never been handed anything in this life. I work my ass off every day to get where I’m going,” he said. “I might play big and act like it’s easy, but I’ll always remember where I came from and why I’m working to get somewhere else.”

  That caught Chloe off guard. “I didn’t mean to imply—”

  “It’s cool,” he cut in with a now more sheepish smile. “It’s just that people are always telling me how lucky I am. Sometimes I want them to know that luck had nothing to do with it…”

  She reached out and shook his hand. “I’m a Straight-A nerd with no friends, a falsely tarnished reputation, and an attraction for bad weather,” said Chloe.

  “I’m good at football because I work at it every day all year long. I get okay grades, but football is my ticket to becoming the first person in my family to go to college. If one day I can make money by playing this game, maybe I won’t be the last.”

  This guy is full of surprises! “My mom had me when she was nineteen and raised me more or less on her own in a little house that’s falling apart at the top of Red Hill Road. Unless this running thing pans out, all I’ve got is my grades. She didn’t go to college either, and it’s like her dream for me to be able to go, so she works two and a half jobs to try to afford it, and it’s still iffy.”

  “Me and my little sister live with my grandparents on a run-down farm on the other side of Walcott Avenue, and I’ve had to balance my work in the field with a construction job for the past five summers just to get enough money to buy that piece of junk car,” he countered.

  “My dad abandoned us when I was eight. You’ve probably heard the rumors. A lot of people think he had some sort of psychotic break or something. I guess he used to go off on these intense apocalyptic rants in public, and a couple times he got picked up by the cops… One night, my mom asked him to go out for a quart of milk, a red pepper, and some toilet paper as she was making us dinner, and he never came back.

  Turned out he’d packed his bags and put them in the pickup earlier. He left me a hundred dollars and a message on a Post-it note, but he never said a word… My life is a white-trash cliché.”

  “I’ve never even met my dad, and my mom died of a drug overdose when I was ten,” he said, still holding her hand with a triumphant smirk and a lot of pain behind it. “Just another young black man le
ft behind with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup.”

  “I’m really sorry; that must have been awful,” she blurted, realizing how much she had misjudged Ezra Richardson.

  “I guess we’re just a couple of sad stereotypes, huh?” he chuckled, still holding her hand tightly.

  Then Chloe’s mom cleared her throat beside them.

  “Can I take your order?” asked Audrey with a pen and pad in hand and a sly smile on her face.

  Chloe let go of Ezra’s grip, blushing and flustered. “Hey, Mom.”

  Ezra flashed his teeth and swung his liberated hand over to Audrey without a moment of hesitation. “I’m Ezra,” he stated. “I’m very pleased to meet you.”

  “I’m Audrey,” she answered with a firm shake and a corresponding pencil point to her name tag. “I’m happy to meet you, too,” she grinned. “Are you on the cross-country team?”

  “Football, ma’am,” he said, subtly flexing his arms. “But Lightning here is going to be my endurance trainer, twice a week until game season starts.”

  “I am?” asked Chloe.

  “Yup, Tuesdays and Fridays for the next three weeks,” answered Ezra. “Congratulations—it’s an important job,” he added as the little twinkle in his eye danced between Chloe and her mother.

  Are you flirting with my mom? This was the Ezra Richardson she had expected, but now she saw past his cocky veneer with a newfound respect. She was oddly excited about the proposed schedule, but couldn’t let him win so easily. “Wow, I feel really blessed. Can I hold your shoes and help put them on your feet?” she barbed.

  “Yes, you can!” he declared jovially.

  Audrey smiled. “What can I get for you all today?” she asked as the rest of the table starting barking out orders of burgers, fries, and shakes. She scribbled fast and worked her way around to Ezra with an expectant look.

  “Just a large water and the bread basket,” he answered.