The Elementals

Hey! Author here, I’ve been dubbed Snow in case you care. Anyway, getting to the point: this book is awful.

That’s not fishing for complements, I am dead serious. Not only is it premature writing with a horrific amount of plot holes, spelling mistakes, and overall messy writing, it’s just bad. I wrote this when I was very young and still in the godawful stage of “what’s the problem with all my characters being straight white people?” and “I’m not like other girls bc I don’t wear makeup praise me please.” This book is filled with tons of unhealthy ideas.

So Snow, why don’t you revise it? Well that’s because this book is so much of a train wreck that it cannot be saved, and I have given up. The plot is old and unoriginal, it’s filled with straight white people, and my “feminist” characters are not feminists.

So why don’t I take it down? Well 1) there’s a sequel (the horror, ik, but I am very attached to my now non-straight, feminist, not completely white cast and I love them v much so I will continue their adventures) and 2) my ego needs to be stroked every once and a while (usually every day) when I look at this and go “1M reads. Nice” and high five myself in an effort to feel some self-worth.

And that’s it. I’m not saying the sequel is anything to marvel at, but at least my writing has improved and it’s a hell of a lot better than this mess right here. So if you want to be kind and make my day I suggest you just skip to that and you’ll figure crap out bc my plot is v predictable and you can ask around.

But if you do decide to read this, remember that 1) it’s awful, I realize this, and I have accepted in within my soul and I am not taking the effort to change anything in regards to grammatical errors or structural faults in the plot when I am not getting paid for it, so your negative comments are literally useless and hurtful for no reason. Why you gotta be that way? and 2) please disregard and condemn all messages in this book about having a complex over being “not like other girls,” or stereotyping girls. Really. It’s such a toxic mindset and I’m so glad I got yanked out of that hellhole bc girls are amazing. All of them, makeup or no, sneakers or heels, both, none, anything. Girls are awesome, no matter what. Boys too, but girls mainly bc that is what I have royally screwed up on in this book.

Anyway, read at your own risk, and please just be civil. Okay? I’m not saying you have to throw up glitter, I’m just asking you to figure out when to keep your trap shut.

I was orphaned as a baby; the only survivor of a massive tidal wave. That’s how I was named. Tide, the tsunami girl. No previous records of me or my parents were ever found.

Like any parentless child, I was sent to an orphanage. Took a few tries for me to stop getting thrown out but I managed. You know, eventually, after I had been tossed around to about every orphanage in New England.

Kids with a record like mine just don’t stay in one place for long.

Oh, I was used to the reaction when people came to adopt; smiling, less smiling, not smiling, then bam, they read it and they were out of there as fast as they could. I wasn’t positive what was in my file, but I had a pretty good idea. At every orphanage, something different had happened. Something strange. Disasters tended to follow me.

At Parkers, I was having a nightmare one night and all the sinks and bathtubs flooded. Twin Hearts - I hated that name - I got slammed with a dodge ball and all the sprinklers in the gym went off. They wouldn’t stop until the red mark faded from my cheek. On a drive in a snowstorm back to Carrington the bus skidded and crashed right into the cafeteria. At Walkers - well, I think you get the point.

Westerville, the girl’s home I ended up in, was one of the kinds that you see in the movies. Drab, grey, and depressing. Even the creepy cupid statues on either side of the front doors had a frown. The food was tasteless, the beds were hard and it was the only place that would take me. I’m a…let’s go with troubled kid.

Westerville was the longest I’d ever stayed at any one orphanage. I wouldn’t say it was my home, because when you’re constantly being thrown away to some “better” place for your “needs”, it’s hard to find a place where you don’t feel like you’re walking on thin ice. But, it was all I had.

Things were going relatively well, I hadn’t done anything major, but I had a problem with this other kid named Celina Garth. More on her later.

My life wasn’t much, boring even. Boring seems so nice now. It was a seemingly endless cycle. But on my 14th birthday, (the orphanage just used the day I was found) that all changed.

I’m still trying to figure out if it’s for the better or not.

Mrs. Dretsa, our care taker, didn’t believe in getting the day off because it was your birthday. In fact, she didn’t believe in any birthday traditions at all; to her it was just another day to “take care of our little child issues”. So she assigned Celina and me to dish duty that night. I was perfectly fine working in silence, each of us doing our half. But Celina wasn’t.

Celina’s parents had died in car crash and she was the oldest kid in the orphanage. Two years older than me and wouldn’t let me forget it. It’s funny how high and mighty people are actually the weakest with a lot of words, huh?

“Say, uh, Tide,” She started. Celina had often made comments about my name, about how unusual it was, and whenever she said it aloud, she would always pause before, like she didn’t want to.

“Yeah?” I answered, not looking up from my sudsy plate.

“My hands are so tired from scrubbing all these plates; do you think you could finish them off?”

That’s Celina for you; always trying to make it seem like she’s in great pain when really, she’s just being lazy.

“Ummm,” I didn’t answer her question. I didn’t want to finish all the dishes. It was 10:30 already and I was tired.

Celina could see that I was avoiding her orders. So she pressed harder.

“It would be really great of you. Besides, you’re almost done with yours, and I’ve just started. ” She was starting to whine now.

She was right in the fact that I was almost done and she, literally, had just started; she had spent 20 minutes putting up her hair and preening herself in the window. I could see where this was going, so I tried to put an end to it.

“No thanks,”

That made her stop. She looked up at me, a cold fire in her eyes. She stood up straight and I saw that her fists were clenched.

“Do it now!” Celina snarled

That was my last nerve. It felt like something had just broken inside of me. I was sick of her orders, sick of letting her push everyone around; I was sick of her!

“NO!” I turned towards her, anger building up inside me. She took a step towards me so I had to look up at her towering figure.

“Listen here, kid. When I tell you to do something, YOU DO IT! Got it?”

I was mad. Really mad. She thought that she can just make me do something? She better think again! I could feel a strange rush of energy and power surge through my body. My vision blurred. Sort of like a camera trying to focus on two different things at once.

The sound of fast running water filled my ears. I could vaguely hear Celina’s screaming in the background. I could barely make out the words “You freak!”. My arms started to make weird flowing gestures like I’m controlling something. Suddenly, I could see crystal clear.

The faucets were spraying the soap bubbles everywhere. Where Celina had been standing moments before was a huge writhing mass of water. I looked around. I could still hear her shrieking. Then I glanced back at the blob. I took a closer look. Inside was Celina, thrashing at the walls of liquid. Did I do that? I waved a hand experimentally. Sure enough, the blob moved with it.

My anger turned to shocked confusion. I felt the power leave me. All the water fell to the ground, dropping a very wet Celina on the floor. She started to scream again and I heard pounding footsteps in the hall outside the kitchen. I froze. When they see all this, they’ll send me to a zoo or something! Panic crept up into my mind.

Run.

That was my only thought.

Run.

It coursed through my arms and legs and there was nothing stopping me.

Run.

I sprinted out the emergency exit. As alarms blared and sirens grew closer I raced out of the city. Westerville was on the edges of town so I got as far away as I could. I ran past familiar scenery then enter alien. I had no idea where I’m going. All I could hear is the echoing of Celina’s screams.

Freak! Freak!

I didn’t know how long I ran for, but eventually I had to stop to rest. My chest was aching and my heart was beating out of control. I was so tired. My legs felt like Jell-O. My head started to feel kind of fuzzy and I collapsed as everything went black.