I grew up on the border near Scotland. There was only my father and me: I had no brother or sister and I have almost no memory of my mother. I just remember that she had red hair like mine, but my father never wanted to talk about her.
My boarding school is in the middle of a forest, far from civilization, far from the world, and looks more like an old castle than a school. It's probably to protect us from the sight of the rest of the world, or maybe also to protect the world from all those children who possess an element and don't control it very well at the moment. I'm in a good position to talk about it: I'm almost sixteen and it still happens that my element does as it pleases.
Our school has a rather special organization with regard to the distribution of students. The east wing is dedicated to students whose element is earth or air, the west wing to those whose element is water or fire. Before getting our power, when we only possess our element, we are at one of the first two floors, depending on our element. Then we go up to the third or fourth.
My sixteenth birthday will be in a week, which means I will be moving to the fourth floor of the West Wing, but also that I will have a power, I will be the first of my year. A friend I had, who is four years older than me and therefore no longer at school, once took me to the roof of the building, relatively flat in places, which is accessed from certain windows. . I hope to have one of his rooms, I would have a place to escape, a place to think, a place just for me.
My name is Nina Glow, and even in a school where everyone is like me, I'm different.
......
This Friday, the day before my birthday, I sat in Elementary life science class between Skylar and Luke. It is also his birthday. Our age is counted in two different ways, one completely banal and the other incomprehensible. Most of us don't even try to understand anymore, we just live with it. Our real age is counted in years, nothing could be simpler, and our classes are formed according to our year of birth. There is this second way, the vernal equinoxes, which really makes us Elementary, people who possess an element and a power. It is our reference, because it is where a year of the Zodiac begins, and our elements depend on our astrological sign. This is March 21, my birthday. The misunderstanding is at the level of those born between the first of January and the twentieth of March inclusive, because they will only have their power on their seventeenth birthday. No one understands why, these are just facts. Luke and I are the only ones who call our friend that. I've always thought his first name suited him, the nickname Luke and I give him even more. Her element being air, she is also the only one of our group of friends to have this one, she always seemed to act with lightness, as if she were flying in the sky.
Skylar is the very image of the girl everyone wants to be or have as a friend: beautiful with her metallic gray eyes and bright smile, she never cared what people think. people about her and is always there for her friends. Her twin has the same charm as her, but is much more reserved.
We wait for our other friends in the refectory, a large room with a high ceiling and rectangular tables of various sizes. We were always the first in our group on Fridays, not going through our rooms before going to eat.
In total we are ten in our group, six girls and four boys, there are my two best friends who are not in my class, Luke, Skylar, his twin, a water girl, a boy and two girls of the earth and me, to finish. We have all known each other since the very beginning of our first year, which is more than six years, except for our friends on Earth.
The next day came quickly and my two best friends, Will with his mixed skin and Jo sixty feet tall, were helping me move my things from the second to the fourth floor. These two were constantly arguing.
All the while, I was waiting for some manifestation of my power: symptom, vision, imbalance, or just direct manifestation, whatever, but I had nothing. Generally, our powers appear by accident. A classic example that we are given is when we drop an object that we thought of, without touching it, this is the manifestation of telekinesis. However, when the power appears by accident, if you can put it that way, it's often a few days late. The other way our power can appear is through a dream: a few days before our sixteenth equinox or in the two nights to follow, we dream of having a power, we understand that this power is really ours and we know how use it without even thinking. It is also rare to have a symptom before having its power, and it turns a rumor saying that the people affected by the symptoms are weaker and that they do not support the fact of having a power at the beginning , that the body and the mind must first adapt to it.
Jo was my best friend from day one, her parents dropped her off almost the same time as my dad, and our rooms weren't far from each other. With Will, it wasn't as happy, but that was entirely my fault. That moment is in the past and we swore never to talk about it again. His room was across from mine until I moved out this morning, and we also became friends very quickly.
We arrive in front of my new room. Four hundred and nineteen. It is one of the rooms from which the roof is accessed. In this room, larger than the previous one, the bed is against the back wall, under the window, making the entire width of the room.
I can't believe it, my best friend is the first of our year to go up to the fourth! I'm too jealous, your room is bigger, and your closet too! throws Jo at me, gradually filling the closet in question.
It's okay Jo, calm down a bit. I'm too jealous, your room is bigger, and your closet too!
Oh, but what's going on? Our little Will is sulking because we'll be too far from him? I say teasingly ruffling his hair, and my best friend follows on without hesitation.
I especially think he's sulking because you won't be his roommate from today on.
You, first of all, don't touch my hair, he said giving me a hand, and you, you can't imagine how good it will do me not to be so close to you anymore .
Will heads for the door, but I grab him by the wrist before he gets out of my new room.
Will is waiting! Don't listen to him, stay with us please, I don't even have time to finish my sentence when he tears his arm away from him.
Nina, it hurts.
Enough to ?
Your element has a problem Nina, Jo intervenes, it's not normal. I'll be right back, I'll get some ice cream.
As Jo leaves my room, Will and I sit on the bed.
Sorry Will, really, I'm doing my best.
I know you can't help it.
But I dont understand. I really do everything I can to control my fire, nobody has a problem but me. I can see ?
Don't worry, it's nothing serious, he smiled at me, holding out his wrist. Do you think it's possible that your element is more out of control today than usual because it's your sixteenth equinox?
