A car pulls up with a small hospital logo on the side. The wheels crunch on the recently snow-plowed road. Curious passerbys turn their head to look, but none curious enough to stop. Except me.

I see Kaelie run over from a nearby classroom, a smile on her face. I catch up with her. "Kaelie? What's going on?"

"Jimmy!"

I smile with her. So he's back from the hospital. "It's Tuesday... he spent three nights there. He's probably happy to be back."

"Mm hmm."

Suddenly, the back seat car door opens, and Jimmy's smirk widens to a grin when he sees his sister.

"Hey Jimmy!" She squeals.

"Hey Kaelie."

She helps him out of the car. He seems considerably stronger, and his hair is combed. His clothes are still wrinkled, however, and he seems really tired. Probably just from his body trying to recover. But the question of 'recovering from what?' keeps nagging at me. But I certainly shouldn't be the one pressuring him for information- Kaelie should, but even still. I'll let him be. It must've been a tough weekend for the poor kid.

"Look, Kaelie... I gotta go to Battle Team practice... I'll catch up with you two later, okay?" I nod, smiling, to Jimmy.

"Okay, talk to you in a bit."

"Yup."

I fly up a few feet and head towards the hole in the ground. That's kinda the unofficial name we've given it. From what other people have mentioned, I think the entrance to each element's locker room is specialized to them. How, I'm not sure. But I can imagine...

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Pressing my finger to my locker, it pops open revealing my uniform. Each night, all the lockers somehow become washing machines, assuring us clean outfits each day for practice. I actually just learned that the other day, somehow I didn't notice that my clothes were clean and fresh-smelling each afternoon. I smile as I take out the suit, and get dressed as quick as I can. I'm really spaced out right now and I feel disorganized. I could barely focus in the library earlier; Mrs. Hersmer gave us the class to work on our projects, and I found a few books near the back of the sprawling library that might be of use. I found a lot of information on the other four, but the identity of the Air element is seemingly invisible. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find much information on the mysterious Air element. As frustrating as this was, I did find a few battle plans I could use in my journal entries.

I snap back to my current situation, where Calum is now yelling my name. "Ramaya? Are you even paying attention?" He questions, clearly irritated.

I blink twice before answering truthfully. "No. I'm sorry." I shrug, looking him straight in the eyes with an unreadable expression. He glares back at me, before turning back to the battle plan he has drawn out on a board in the locker room. It shows Water team's previous attack method, and what we should do to respond at this weekend's battle.

"Water attacks in this crescent moon shape. So far, they've managed to overwhelm Earth and Animal. I do not want to be tacked onto the list, you hear? Now, because we can fly, we have a clear advantage." I sigh shaking my head. Not really. They'll just shoot water up at us.

"...All of us need to attack the middle."

I frown, but Drexel beats me to the problem. "All of us rush the center? The edges of the formation will just collapse in, and we'll be surrounded." He informs the two captains.

"Well then what do you suggest we do?" Calum snarls.

Drexel looks at me, and I get his signal. We both walk to the board, and erase the useless plan. Lystal, obviously interested, backs into the front row quickly, but Calum is more reluctant to do so. We re-draw the Water formation.

"The center of the formation is the thickest part, it has the most people. It gradually thins out as it gets to the outer edges. So all of us attacking the center would be suicide." Drexel states simply. "We should attack the outer edges, who have little reinforcements."

Lystal raises her hand. "But if no one is attacking the center, won't they reinforce the edges?"

I smile at her. "Yes. The center should go out and help the edges, leaving a gaping hole in the formation. This is when the rest of us will fill in the middle spot." Drexel draws a lump of circles, being water, and draws x's around the two outer clumps and all around the middle, signifying air. "Since we hold the element of surprise, we have to be swift, and rush them at the exact same time." He says pointing at the x's. "Then, we would spread out slightly so we surround their entire crescent form, and-"

Just then, Mr. Farefax walks into the room. "Ramaya? Drexel?" He looks surprised to see us up in front.

"Hi Mr. Farefax." Drexel says, almost nonchalantly.

"What are you two doing upfront?" He questions, looking a little perplexed.

"Drawing up battle plans." He states matter-of-factly.

Mr. Farefax cocks his head. "Alright..." He says, still confused. He gets over it and continues. "You will be battling in teams of two today, so partner up, and come to the Training Room."

Gavin appears at my side, looking down.

"What's wrong Gavin?"

He sighs. "I'm just upset that I'm doing all this training for practically nothing. I never get to battle, except for that one time you were hurt, and all the battles sound so cool! I'll probably never get to battle again."

"Hey! You don't know that. Someone might get sick or something!" I state.

He chuckles.

"You seem excited about that." I grin, and roll my eyes. "Wanna be partners?" I ask, changing the subject.

"Yeah sure. Why not." Gavin smiles. We walk together to the Training Room, and see that the whole center of the track has been converted to a hilly terrain.

"Ramaya! Gavin! Over here." Mr. Farefax waves us over to the track.

Before long, the others come in. "Well there all of you are! I thought I was going to have to start training without you. Now c'mon! Hustle hustle!" Everyone jogs to where we are standing.

"Alright. I want everyone to stand next to their partner. Today's practice will be endurance-based, and will work on your strength too. Here's the deal. One of you will stand uphill a ways of your partner. You will try to knock each other over. It'll be hard because of the steepness of the terrain, and the uphill battler will have the advantage. But keep fighting! After five minutes, you will follow the colored path on a jog around the hills, and once that is completed, switch positions and keep battling. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" We all chorus.

"Then let's go!"

Gavin and I sprint to a hillside. It's crazy how big the inside of the track can seem when it's been transformed into 3-story tall hills. I give him the advantage first.

"Is everyone in appropriate positions? I'm going to start the five-minute timer!"

"Yes." We all call out.

"Ready, set, go!"

Gavin and I look at each other with determination. He raises his hands and swoops them to his side to gather air, and pushes it towards me. I deflect the air he sent to me by moving it aside, and shoot two small, yet precise wind bullets at him.

"Oof!" he shouts. "We're not wearing much protection, remember?"

"Oh... Yeah. Sorry."

"It's fine."

We keep at this, back and forth, until Mr. Farefax blows a whistle. I look around, and spot the dark red path that has suddenly appeared amidst the dark green hills. People stream out of the different regions of the track center and on to the path. I jog at a fast pace, but my legs hurt already from holding my ground against Gavin. We sprint around the track's perimeter, and then back and forth the long way, until the path abruptly ends.

"Go back to your positions and keep battling!" Mr. Farefax shouts.

I get the upper hand this round, which my burning calves are thankful for. I decide to go with a different strategy, pushing Gavin around with bursts of air on either side of him. Mustering a large quantity of air, I shove it at his right side, and he teeters over but regains his balance. Satisfied, I continue doing this, steadily gathering speed, until I'm shooting burst of wind at him at an alarming rate. I actually do manage to knock him over, and he stumbles down the hillside for a bit before standing up again. I smirk as he unsteadily walks back up to take his revenge, but Mr. Farefax blows his whistle and we have to run again.

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We continued this workout for four rotations. Gasping for air, Mr. Farefax motions for us to gather near him. When the last person steps off the track, the ground instantly shrinks back down to ground level. I still can't get over all this cool technology we get to use.

"That was good. I think I've definitely seen a lot of improvement since January. It's been a bit more than a month now, and you guys have been improving at a satisfactory rate. Take five minutes to get water and catch your breath."

I fly to the water fountain by the locker room door. The crisp, cold water eases my pounding head. Long before I'd like it, he's calling us back to continue with practice.

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Searching, searching, searching. It's really bothering me that the Air element from the Five only has very vague information recorded about her. Yeah, I've found out it's a girl at least. The Air element, along with Fire, were both girls. The Earth, Water, and Animal Elements were guys. I'm probably spending a lot more time on this project than a lot of other people, but it's gotten me sincerely interested. Why they did the things they did, how they found each other, the battles, the losses, and the final win. I can't believe people actually went through a time of complete war like that.

Speaking of war, at least the war-frenzy has lulled. We've stopped using gun trajectory paths as examples in math (that was really weird). But there's this tension among the school teachers, and especially among the element-specialized teachers. Ms. Benting is more serious during flying, and Brooke's mentioned several times that her swimming teacher is being super strict and is grading really harshly. It worries me. But no one else has commented on it, so I just try to ignore it.

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Hey peeps. Not a fabulous chapter, nor a long one. But it's been a busy week. At least we got something out.

14k reads now!!! Such amaze!!! Much thanks!!! Very happy!!!

-Megan and Wien