Awaken the Elements (Elemental Trilogy) (9 page)

             
“Hey, remember the ‘Ouch, I think I hurt my arm would you rub it’ bit?”

             
Autumn’s eyes got big. “Please tell me it didn’t work?”

             
“Oh, it worked,” Rowan said.

             
Autumn shook her head. “Wow.”

             
“She was drunk,” River said.

             
“She was that,” Rowan finally said. “She probably would have went with anything I said.”

             
She laughed and took a step away from River. They walked into the glass maze a little farther. “I think we’re lost,” she finally stopped. “Maybe we should take a left.”

             
“You’re the boss,” River said.

             
“Did you happen to notice any passages we could have missed?”

             
“Nope, I think we’re lost.” Rowan did a three-sixty and looked at her. “What now?” 

             
She shrugged her shoulders. “Now we’re losers.”

              “I say we take a seat and wait for someone to come by.” She sat down on the hard cold floor. “We could be in here a long time.” Rowan sat down across from her, almost eye-to-eye. Her shyness started to kick in. River sat beside her.

             
“I was never good at mazes, even on paper,” Rowan admitted.

             
“So now you tell us,” she said, laughing.

             
“You were so confident you could get us out.” Rowan laughed with her.

             
“I bet it was one of your turns that got us lost,” River said, catching the laugh bug.

             
“Sure, blame it on me,” Rowan said.

             
“Well, couldn’t you tell something was wrong? I ran into a mirror after all.” Autumn rubbed her face again.

             
“Now that was funny,” River said with a wink as she bumped her shoulder into him.

             
“Autumn?” Someone yelled. It was Anatha.

             
“Anatha!” She called back. “We’re lost. Come rescue us.”

             
It caused them all to laugh harder. “Be careful. The maze is tricky.”

             
“Sure, you three are just dumb,” Drake said.

             
“Wanna say that to my face?” Autumn said, sobering up.

             
They heard a smack and a small cry of pain. “Don’t worry, Autumn, I got him for you,” Anatha said. They sounded closer.

             
“Did she just hit Drake?” Rowan whispered.

             
“Sounds like it,” River said, and Autumn nodded, laughing again.

             
“Never mess with family; it’s a rule. Even if you aren’t that close.”

              “It’s now noted in the back of my brain. Mess with family, get beat,” Rowan told himself out loud, and River nodded. She shook her head, still laughing.

             
“Where are you guys?” Jaime asked. His voice close, almost touchable.

             
Autumn stood up. He was right next to them. She pointed it out to the guys. “Jaime, say something again.”

             
“Like what?” he asked. They were on opposite sides of the mirror.

             
Rowan got to his feet, “How did you get over there? I thought you guys were going to save us?” They were all lost now.

             
They heard knocking on the mirror. “Who’s there?” River asked, making a funny face at Autumn, making her laugh again.

             
“Smart ass,” Drake said.

             
“Why were you knocking in the first place?”

             
“I wanted to see if it moved like a secret door,” Drake replied.

             
He pointed to the mirror with his thumb. “Can you believe that guy?”

             
Autumn looked at Anatha who was walking over to her. “My hero,” she cried out sarcastically.

“And don’t
forget it. So what were you three doing while you were lost in here all alone?”

              “Laughing,” Rowan replied.

             
“Bumping into mirrors,” Autumn said calmly.

             
That got them laughing again. “Looky who we found,” Jaime said, coming around the turn.

             
“I found them,” Anatha corrected him. “Where is Drake?”

             
“I’m coming,” he said, turning the corner.

             
“Good, ‘cause I’ll leave your ass in here.”

             
“So what happened to you three?” Drake asked.

             
Rowan pointed to Autumn, “All I did was follow her.”

             
“Whatever. You gave bad directions. By the way, don’t point at me, or I’ll make you eat your finger,” she said sweetly.

             
“Yeah, it was Rowan’s fault,” River said as he brushed against Autumn, making her smile.  She knew she was blushing as well.

             
“Well, let’s get outta here,” Anatha said, noticing the interaction between the two.

             
Rowan looked at Drake. “Did she give you a bruise?” Turning red, he shrugged and looked away.

             
“Okay. Enough. I want out,” Anatha told everyone.

             
“We go back the way we came in,” River said.

             
“No,” she said.

             
“Why not?” Jaime asked.

             
“Do you remember which turns we took?”

             
“We turned left, right, left, and right again,” he said, but uncertainty hung in his voice.

             
“No, we made a left last,” Drake said.

             
“See. I don’t know either.” Anatha was getting irritated, which wasn’t hard. Her moods ran from normal to irritate at the drop of a hat. Autumn thought one day the girl would combust with irritation and anger.

             
“We continue on,” Autumn said.

              “Okay, so we came in from the right.” Anatha stated.

             
“We go left,” Drake said, cutting in. Anatha looked at him, and he shut his mouth.

              “We can always sit down, sing campfire songs, and wait until someone discovers we’re missing,” Autumn said, nudging Rowan which got the three of them giggling again.

             
“Kumbaya?” River asked.

             
“Sure and
Stand by Me
too,” Rowan said.

             
“I liked that movie,” Jaime said.

             
“Sick balls, Chomper!” River said.

             
The grouped laughed. “Okay, enough chitchat, back to the matter at hand,” Drake said.

             
“Party pooper,” Rowan whispered.

             
“I know,” River and Autumn said at the same time. The three exchanged smiles.

The group made a left, and then voted on taking a right. The right took them straight out of the mirrors. This funhouse was bigger than Autumn
had first thought. They managed to make it out safely, although Drake did trip and fall in the rotating room, a fun ending to a long night.

             
Envy and the others were outside the funhouse waiting. They all looked tired. She saw Richard and Frank were arguing; nothing new there. Brothers and sisters were meant to argue. Envy and Ivy Lee were chatting with Stefan, Linden, and Hazel. The next few years were going to be long and miserable. She wanted to go home already. She missed her own bed. And just like that, her guilt came rising up. It wasn’t her bed. It was their bed. She sighed, following the others down the stairs of the funhouse.

             
“Where have you guys been?” Envy asked.

              “Lost,” Anatha yawned. She wasn’t going to admit it to anyone, but she was tired. That was strange, even to her. She usually had to force herself to sleep. The only times she truly felt tired was when she was sick.

             
“Lost?” Envy asked.

             
“Anatha saved me, Rowan and River from the crazy mirrors. One beat me. Then they got lost too,” Autumn said, yawning. Bed did sound pretty darn good right now. The irritating buzz was back in her head. She looked at Anatha. “Stop already.”

             
“Sorry,” Anatha said, looking away. Everyone looked at them for a few seconds, and then shrugged it off.

             
“Yeah, and Anatha beat Drake,” River said, grinning.

             
“She did?” Stefan looked up from some paper he was reading. Rowan eyed it; it looked like a cheat paper. He wondered what kind of cheat paper, perhaps for a video game. His eyebrows rose.

             
“And then he tripped in the rotating room,” Jaime added.

             
“I had to rescue Linden from that room,” Stefan said, chuckling.

             
“Stefan, you said you wouldn’t tell,” Linden said.

             
“So let me get this straight,” Envy stalked over to them, making Autumn roll her eyes. Her sister: the drama mama. “Autumn, Rowan, and River got lost? Autumn, how could you? You are, after all, ‘miss-know-it-all’. And Anatha, Jaime and Drake came to the rescue?”

             
“They got lost too, so back off,” Autumn said. “I’m going to bed.” She walked off to the elevators.

             
“I think I’m going too,” River said, yawning.

             
“Ditto,” Linden said, standing up and stretching.

             
“Why don’t we all go to bed?” Drake inquired.

              “Maybe I don’t want to go to bed,” Envy said, scowling.

             
“Envy, I’m tired too,” Ivy Lee said, before following the others to the elevator.

             
Autumn got in the elevator and pressed the up button. “Hey,” Hazel ran in. Rowan got in along with Anatha, River, and Stefan. The doors closed before anyone else could get in.

The elevator binged, and the doors slid open. They crowded out before it went back down. Autumn wanted to go to bed.

             
“Anyone have a watch?” she asked. She watched as everyone looked at his or her wrist. But they were surprised to see there was nothing there.

             
“I forgot my watch on the bus,” Rowan said.

             
“It’s in my room,” Anatha and Hazel chimed in at the same time. They walked over to the main elevators. Autumn looked up by the main elevators and found a clock. It was almost two.

             
“Really?” She questioned herself out loud.

             
“What?” Hazel asked.

             
“The clock says it’s almost two.”

             
They all looked up at the clock. “It has to be wrong,” River said.

              Autumn shook her head, “The second hand is moving.”

             
“I swore we were only in that funhouse for over an hour,” Rowan said.

             
“We played video games for a while too,” Stefan said.

             
She looked back up at the clock, “I don’t know. All I do know is that it’s time for me to go to bed.” She yawned, stretching her arms over her head. The guys watched her stretch, taking in her curves. She turned around quickly, hiding her red face.

             
Hazel pushed the elevator call button. “Riding on the elevator gives me motion sickness.”

             
“We will all be walking as if we are going up and down,” Rowan said, demonstrating. The elevator doors opened. He did his funny walk into the elevator.

             
“Maybe by doing it, you won’t get it,” Autumn said. She saw the others coming their way. Quickly, she pressed the button for the third floor. They stood waiting for the doors to close.  As the others got to the elevator, it finally closed. The glass elevator lifted, and they could see the second group below. She wanted to stick her face to the glass and make a childish face.