Burn

Everley Madison walked in from her scorching balcony, her pale hands twitching spontaneously.

“Not again,” she muttered to herself numbly.

Everley knew Marcus Madison, her father, wouldn't be very happy to see their balcony plants burned to ashes. She sat on their small couch and waited for her father to reprimand her about how she managed to burn another thing down, again.

Everley was no stranger to her father’s lectures; it wasn’t the first time she’d burned something to the ground. Everley had quite the reputation for accidentally setting things on fire. She had burned down a playground, their old apartment complex, her own bedroom, and the list goes on. Marcus was never happy when it happened, but he did his best as a single father to be understanding with his teenage daughter.

“Everley!” her father called. “How in the world did you manage to burn down our balcony and half Old Mrs. White’s?!”

Everley put her hands out in front of her, palms facing up, and shrugged.

“I have asked you repeatedly to control it, Everley,” Marcus sighed, massaging his temples, “and I have threatened to send you to that summer camp. This time, you are going to pack your belongings and I will drive you up there myself!”

“Dad, no! I don’t want you to send me to that awful place!” she protested.

“You don’t know if it’s awful or not! You’ve never been there!”

“What if people don’t like me?” Everley asked quietly.

“They will like you. You’re a Fire,” he said.

He had let that word slip.

Fire.

“A Fire? Is that some derogatory term?” she demanded, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Not really, but it depends on how people use it. A Fire is a person who has fire powers. Your mother went to the camp, and she was a very powerful Fire. You’ll learn more about it when you arrive.”

Everley’s mother was a Fire and married a man without elemental powers. Everley was born with fire powers giving her fiery orange hair. About nine years later, her mother was murdered by policemen. The devastating news made her powers become more active. After the death, Everley and Marcus moved to New York. She had to be taken out of school due to countless fiery encounters, constant harassing from the “normal” kids, and the Government. Everley was homeschooled for all of the seventh and eighth grades. She tried going to the public high school, but she felt like too much of an outcast to stay.

It seemed that going into hiding was the only and best option.

Her powers had grown stronger over the years, and as they did, it became harder to control them. Everley found herself almost everyday burning down the small things, which Marcus let go. She looked normal for the most part, but when the fire came in, she was instantly seen as a threat to humanity.

That was how it was for every Elemental.

People with elemental powers were seen as less than human. More as animals and the Government tried their best to send each out-of-control Elemental to a place called Camp Element. For the most part, teenagers were sent there. Over the years, this summer camp was transformed from a safe haven for Elementals to an awful labor camp that abused its power by over-working and scarring every kid that step foot on its grounds. Every day was even harder and more depressing than the last.

Marcus sent Everley into her room to pack. She was very unhappy about it, but did it obediently, anyway.

“I’ll need five pairs of skinny jeans, two sweatshirts, twelve pairs of socks, tennis shoes, five t-shirts, and a hat,” Everley said aloud. She rolled up all her clothes and stuffed them in her black suitcase. “Dad! I’m ready to go!”

“I’ll be in the garage!”

Everley ran down the stairs and into the garage. Mr. Stacey put her suitcase in the back of their old silver civic. She got ready for the long drive up to Maine.

***

“Ev, wake up. We’re here,” her father said, shaking her awake. She groaned. It was almost dusk. “Aren’t you excited? You’re going to be with kids who are just like you.”

“Why would I be excited? What if I don’t want to be with kids ‘just like me’? Maybe they’re not just like me. Maybe they’re all something else?” Everley exclaimed.

"Something else? Ev, you’re not a something. You’re a someone. You’re just a person but upgraded. You see, just because you have the amazing ability to breathe fire out of your mouth, like a dragon, and I don’t, does not make you less than anyone else. You’re just special.”

Everley smiled weakly and stepped out of the car into the howling wind. Her orange hair blew like a fire in the wind.

“Fair warning for you: don’t mess with the Wind,” Marcus warned his daughter.

She didn’t know what he could possibly mean. It wasn’t possible to mess with the wind. It was physically impossible, but she was quite wrong. Everley walked toward the entrance gate to Camp Element. She looked back at her smiling father, waving at her.

Once Everley got to the middle of the camp, she saw three large groups of kids ranging from the age of ten to seventeen. Circling up around the flagpole that was several yards away from the mess hall. Everley looked at the kids and scowled.

“I already hate all of you,” she said, glaring at them.

“That’s alright. We hate you, too,” replied a boy with glasses and a boyish smirk perfectly painted on his face.

He reminded her of a high school bully out of cheesy ’80s movie. He seemed to be pretty normal just like the rest of them. He looked normal. The boy had slicked-back golden blond hair and wasn’t too tall, but not short either. With his white T-shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes, the boy could’ve been the type Everley would see vaping in Queens. The only trait that stood out, was his cold, sharp silver eyes that could kill someone if they looked straight at him. His glasses didn’t mute them, just magnified the intensity of his irises.

“Oh, I already don’t like you. Let me guess, you’re in the Wind element?” Everley asked, folding her arms over chest.

“Wrong. I’m the wind leader,” he said his stupid smirk widening.

“Whatever...” she replied, starting to get annoyed. She already knew she was going to hate him the most, and nothing was going to change it.

“Maxton, stop taunting the new girl,” a tall boy scolded from the back.

“Shut up, Spencer, she’s a Fire,” Maxton argued shooting Spencer a nasty look. The people from Spencer’s group cowered behind him.

“No need to mock her. I bet she’s very nice,” Spencer insisted.

Spencer walked over to Everley and held out his hand. “I’m Spencer Humphries, I’m an Earth and don’t mind Maxton. He’s a little rough around the edges.”

“I’m Everley Madison,” she replied, shaking his enormous hand.

Spencer offered to give her a tour around camp and answered all of her questions. He was the greatest person there so far. Everley thought that maybe she could make a few friends while she was imprisoned there.

“Over there,” Spencer explained, pointing to a Mess Hall, “is the place where we eat every day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, you name it.”

“Is the food any good?” Everley asked.

“Not at all,” he answered casually.

“All right. Over to your left are Wind and Earth Cabins. I recommend staying away from Maxton. He has a pretty sticky past with the Fire element,” Spencer warned.

“How so?”

“When Maxton was about eleven-years-old, his parents and brother died in a house fire while he was at school. When he got to his home, it was nothing but debris everywhere,” he explained.

“When did he find out his parents were dead? Did someone tell him?”

“Not exactly. He found them laying in what was left of his parents’ bedroom,” Spencer said. “And over to your right, is the maze. Whatever you do, do not go in there. We’re only let in to test our powers.”

“So, Maxton has been here for three years, then?” Everley asked, doing the math. “How do you know all this?”

“Counselor gossip,” he said. “And every time he’s been tested, he’s coming running out, crying for his parents. I know that from talk and experience.”

“How long have you been here?”

Spencer scrunched his eyebrows. “About two years now.”

“Wow... how long will I be here?”

“Until you pass the Maze,” Spencer replied. “People who have finished the Maze, don’t come back here.”

“Where do they go?” Everley asked.

“Nobody knows until they get to the end,” he said. “I suppose they go out into the world.”

“Interesting.”

“Another good thing to know is that you are the first Fire in two years.”

Everley gaped at Spencer as he walked away from her. She walked into her cabin that she got all to herself. But, there was no cabin, really. It looked like it had been burned a couple thousand times. It was cold and lonely there. Everley shivered. She’d rather sleep on the pavilion floor. At least, there was a bathroom that works, sort of, she thought, turning one of the sink knobs. Water barely came out.

Everley walked through the Mess Hall and noticed that the entire Wind element was death-staring her. She tried to ignore them and quickened her pace as the wind blew her bright hair. It started to annoy her and she could feel my powers igniting.

“Just ignore Maxton. He can be a jerk,” a girl, who Everley recognized to be in the Water group, said.

Her honey blonde hair, sparkly blue eyes, and tan skin weren’t hard to forget. Her voice was airy and kind.

“Are you kidding? He is a jerk,” Everley replied with a snort.

“Not always. He can be kind, but only if you’re on his good side. You definitely don’t want to be on his bad side,” she said.

“Tell me about it.”

“Hey, you’re the Fire, aren’t you?” the girl asked.

“Yeah, I’m Everley, by the way,” she said, holding out her hand.

“I know. I’m Luana, the Water’s leader,” she responded, shaking Everley’s hand.

“Does this mean I’m automatically the Fire leader?” Everley asked.

“Yes. Since you are the first fire in two years. Rumor has it, Maxton killed the Fire leader two years ago in the Maze and no one came back from that group,” Luana said, whispering the last part.

“Should I be afraid? ’Cause I’m not,” she asked, crossing her arms.

“Most of us are intimidated by him, but being a leader, I have to go to meetings with him and Spencer. It’s nice to have a girl around, too,” Luana replied.

“Ugh, meetings with him? This is going to be a disaster,” Everley said, shaking her head.

“I really hope he will see you for who you are, and not just a Fire. You’re really nice, Everley. I hope Maxton will have a change of heart.”

“Thanks, and me, too,” she said.

Everley walked to an empty table, and eat alone while Maxton’s wind stormed around her. She tried so hard not to lose it on him. She had a feeling Maxton’s hatred for her would soon turn into a civil war. As much as Everley didn’t want a war, but she would fight if it meant it would protect herself.

Little did Maxton know, wind is the fuel to fire.

***