Mind you, when we were arguing with Emily, don't think she was ever alone. Divine and Ebony were her die-hard friends, but the funny thing was, whereas Emily was 10, Divine was 9 and Ebony was 8.
They were hand-picked, by her Majesty herself. Usually I'm not the type to care about some things, but the way they switched up from calm and collected kids to sassy and rude kids was baffling.
During my time in the Aberdeen orphanage, there were always people who wanted to be at the top of authority. So in a situation where everyone knows their change in character, the adults won't notice, and these girls were no different.
But we were always going to get a chance to beat them to it, and it was through games.
Let me explain: the age required by the orphanage for kids to go out for festivals was 10 years, meaning we wouldn't get to see Emily during those occasions. Also, we were always put in groups and Madame Dupont always had a caretaker dispatched to watch our whereabouts.
The games were sometimes in the form of a marathon, other times it was different games at one venue, each event different depending on the month we were in, and Avery did her best to explain each game, because, I wasn't the kind of kid who used to play a lot when I was younger, so I didn't know any game by heart and whatever entails in the game.
And slowly but surely, I noticed a pattern. The older kids had a weird pattern of not playing to their heart's content, terming themselves as adults. This, during the first game, which was Tag, that I decided to gang up with the other teams to deliberately stress these two girls out.
You see, they had a problem. No one had no problem with anyone using their abilities, but whereas Emily had air magic, they had fire magic. If they had earth, they could have caught us by creating barriers. If they had air magic, they could blow us towards them.
Unfortunately, fire was the one thing that was highly prohibited, and so we tired them out, then when they finally tagged someone, they immediately get tagged back.
It went on for such a long time that I guess Ebony genuinely broke down and sat on the floor and wailed. She wasn't spared either, with others calling her a cry baby and others too making silly faces at her.
She could only resort to bailing out of the game and go back inside. Divine, on the other hand, decided to toughen up and got ready for the next game.
Hide and seek.
Now this was no regular game. Yes, you had to hide, but it was an all for all. You could choose to hide in the shed. Haystacks. Trees. Forests. Heck, you could camouflage yourself! And dear old girlie had to struggle to find everyone with a time limit given to her.
Unfortunately, I won't say the game is particularly easy for the younger kids, so it was an everyone for themselves moment. Now as for Avery(prior to the games I warned her to tag along with someone else because I was bad at hiding, but she refused), she suggested we climbed a large tree and blend in with the leaves.
"We are wearing blue missy. How in the world are we going to hide?", I asked out of frustration and helped her to sit on a branch. "We could try", she grinned hopelessly. "We could try?! We'd get caught", I said and slapped my hand across my face. I don't think there can be any possible way someone can hide whilst wearing a blue dress.
"Your powers", she said, "use your powers". "Avery.....". "See, I know if you have to hide it for some reason, but please, just this once, if something happens to you I'd take full responsibility". "You're 6 missy". "I would still have to take responsibility no?".
I sighed. Nothing I would have said would have changed her mind anyways.
The trees were swinging to an unknown tune, guided by the wind. The forest was a dangerous yet welcoming place to us. Then I had an idea. As instructed before by the One, I shouldn't expand my aura and strength. But what if I could use someone's aura instead?
"Avery, listen to me carefully and do as I say", I told her sternly. She had one job and one job alone; try and push all her aura to mine.
Then my work started. First, I needed to create an illusion to hide us. "Give me an illusion". "But you gave me a job". " Please? Just a quick one. What would be most appropriate for this situation?". "Wouldn't that be to blend in?". "Oh yeah, my bad". She rolled her eyes at me. I made sure to picture what I wanted. Trees, leaves, clouds, all blending into the background. Then I stretched out my hands and whispered, "Make my dream a reality".
"Aria she's coming", Avery whispered and held her breath.
"You're lucky I can't burn you", Divine said, playing with a fireball, "but you're not good at hiding either". Her eyes scanned her surroundings, and for a moment, I could have sworn that she looked directly at me. Avery had gotten somber after expending most of her aura for me for our good cause, so I had to make sure she didn't fall off or make any sound lest the illusion disappeared. After she left, I tried to wake Avery, but she was soo weak, she could only murmur. So there I was, stuck in the tree with her till she could wake up.
Evening came, and fortunately for us, a search party was organised to look for us. "Hey guys we're down here!", I yelled happily and excitedly waved my right hand to signal them. The illusion had died down, and Divine was shocked to see us there. "I could have sworn I searched here", she said as she hurled Avery unto her back.
I had to rush and stifle my laughter. Oh how shocked she would be if she actually found out what I did. Since Avery was still weak, I had to help her eat and take her bathe. "Avery?", she slowly called out. "I'm here", I replied. She touched my palm and squeezed it a bit, "That was amazing. We won?". "Yes, we won". "YAYYYYYYY", she calmly said, "I believed in you and you did it. I'm proud of ya".
Two phrases. Two phrases that I don't remember hearing for a long time.
'I'm proud of you' and 'I believed in you'.
"Avery?". "Yes?". "I need to tell you the truth". I proceeded to let her know everything, from my life in Aberdeen and Manchester, to my constant dreams, to how I reached here. Though in her drowsy state, she managed to pinch my nose. "Ouch what's that for?", I yelled at her and smacked her hand. "Nice. You had to hit me too", she gleed, "Honestly I'm soo surprised, but I can't show it because I'm tired. Can I sleep it over and annoy you tomorrow?". Helpless, I nodded.
And she didn't joke about the annoying part. "So you kept these things from me. For a year at that", she screamed, trying to make a scene. "Please SHUSH, no one needs to know". "Oh heck no one needs to know. I'm telling Madame Dupont". I pulled her back by her hair, "Don't you dare tell anyone, especially HER!". And for once, we fought. And a good one too, because she noticed how desperate I was to not let any information leak. We were sent to Madame, and we each had to explain ourselves. "Avery, what happened?", she asked. Avery looked at me, her face expressionless. "As her best friend, she hid something from me, and I felt it wasn't fair", she said, "so that's why I fought her, because I thought she had told someone else before me".
Well that was a big lie, I thought and looked at Madame. She was annoyed, her lips were pursed and her brows has furrowed, but the most noticeable feature was that her face was glowing red.
"It's high time I stop tolerating your quarrels Aria. Go sweep the dorms as punishment". "Just that?". "What? Do you want to cook for the week as well?". I ran out immediately for fear that another punishment would be added. Avery later on saw me sitting on my bed, cradling Marlon. "You finally told her?", he asked disdainfully. I nodded. "Well she'd be much angrier now when she finds out I came with you". "He what?", she raved, and shooed him from my laps. "I practically give up on getting angry. Maybe you had your reasons. Now, tell the story again, and this time, explain it with the thought that I didn't know the story at first. And don't remove the details about Marlon".
I sat her down and explained as to why the first day I got annoyed by the book she read as well. "That's strange, but you were always here. You never left?", she said. "Never left?", I asked. "Yes. In fact, it never felt like time went back for you, because if it did, the temple would actually know".