(one of my personal favorite chapters) Coral crawled deeper into her nest of branches. It was a bummer about losing the phone, but at least now they wouldn’t be able to call her. This had only confirmed her suspicions that she couldn’t go home. Mom had seemed genuinely concerned, but if she got caught she would be grounded for life! Mom’s and Veronica’s voices were fading away now, but Coral stayed in the tree until they were completely gone. When they were, she climbed down and walked as fast as she could in the opposite direction. After about the 20-minute mark, Coral admitted that she had no idea where she was going, what she was doing, or why she was doing it. According to her watch, it was 6:03, and she was starting to get really hungry. If she was at home, Mom would be just setting dinner out. It was taco night... No. Coral was not going home. The problem was, she didn’t have anywhere else to go. She had left the park by now, and was walking along the sidewalk in a part of town she didn’t recognize. Coral wondered if she’d become a homeless person, sleeping under bridges and that sort of thing. The thought depressed her, and made her think about the unit in social studies with Mr. Wilevkorneli, and his helper Ms. Nanord. Ughh, school. At least if she was a runaway, she wouldn’t have to go to school tomorrow. That thought somehow depressed her even more. Coral’s stomach growled. It only did that when she really needed food. Coral didn’t understand why she was so hungry. It was only 6:00; she wasn’t usually this hungry by now. She sighed. It was probably because she couldn’t have food, so it made her more hungry. The streets were deserted, probably because of the rain. The rain! Coral was suddenly struck by a thought. That’s what she’d set out to do in the first place; stop the rain! She been so worried about Mom and Veronica she’d forgotten about the water ball! I hope it’s still there! Coral turned around and raced back towards the park. ************************************************************************** Three minutes later, she was hopelessly lost. Oh, this day just sucks. She looked around for any familiar signs. She didn’t see any. Coral decided to just choose a direction to walk until she saw a familiar landmark. Then over the hill she spotted the big oak tree she hid from Mom in. Yes! She ran until she saw the big golden gates of the park. She brushed through the clearing and started the procedure she had begun when Veronica was there. She picked up the water ball, concentrated only on the growing power within her. Come on.... Coral held the ball of water in her hand for no more that a minute when she heard voices. They were men, one seemed around fifty, and the others just younger. Suddenly one called out. “She’s one of them, Rob, Jerry! Get her!” She barely had time to comprehend the words when three men jumped out and tried to tackle her. She screamed and tried to fight back but one of them had her handcuffed in seconds. Coral had never been particularly strong, so against three grown men she was useless. They threw a smelly brown sack over her head and one of the thugs picked her up, slung her over his shoulder, and walked away. ************************************************************************** Coral was pretty sure she was going into shock. Things like this just didn’t happen to her. Aside from her power, she lived a pretty quiet, normal life. She kept thinking This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening. But apparently it could be happening because it was definitely happening. The man had carried her on his shoulder for a little while, and then he dumped her into what she was pretty sure was the back of a truck. Then she heard the engine igniting and the truck started driving off down the road. Coral couldn’t see any of this, of course, because she still had a sack over her head. She also couldn’t tell how much time had passed because, although she was wearing a watch, she couldn’t see it with she sack over her head. To top it off, the violent lurching of the truck sliding over the slippery road was making her nauseous. It was hot in the back of the truck, and the sack over her head smelled like moldy cheese. Coral took a deep breath, then regretted it because it meant breathing in more sack-air. She tried to consider her options, which, for the second time that day, were really no options at all. She could try to use her water power to break out, but since she was in the back of the truck and the men were in the front of the truck, she’d probably just end up drowning herself. I hate my life, she thought miserably.
After what seemed like forever the truck lurched to a stop. Coral was thrown back against the wall and banged her elbow. Owwwww. She was trying to get her bearings when the back of the truck creaked open. She was put back on the shoulder of the man and carried into what seemed like a building. She only knew that because it was drizzling slightly outside and the rain suddenly cut off. She was carried for a few minutes then she heard a creaking noise and was thrown to the ground, landing on her already injured elbow. Someone came in and took off her handcuffs and sack before slamming the door shut. Coral gulped a few deep breaths to get the sack-air out of her lungs then looked around. She was in some sort of old prison. There were two others near her cell. One was a grumpy looking teenage boy with a bright yellow Mohawk that seemed to spark whenever the moved his head. Coral would have thought she was seeing things, but after the events of today, anything was possible. There was also a younger girl with big Princess Leia-like buns in her brown hair, who, to Coral would have looked like a normal kid except she kept throwing large boulders that she shouldn’t have been able to lift at her cell doors. After the man’s footsteps receded, the girl took a break from her boulder throwing and looked at Coral. “How’d they find you out?” she asked. Coral’s heart pounded in her chest. “I-I don’t know what you mean,” she stammered. “Oh please.” the girl replied. “If you’re in here, you must be one of us.” Her words bounced around in Coral’s head. Find you out. One of us. “I was at the playground when they got me,” she continued. “I caused that freak earthquake last week.” “The one that was on the news?” Coral asked, astounded. “That was you?” The girl grinned. “Pretty cool, huh? I’m what they call an earthbender. Stuff like that’s easy for me. Probably shouldn’t have done it though, cause it got me found out. I’m Maggie, by the way.” This was altogether too much information for Coral’s already overcrowded brain. “You-you have powers too?” she managed. “Well, duh!” Maggie said. “I’m earth, Xavier over there is lightning. And if you’re here, you must have a power, too. So what is it? Is it plant? I bet it’s plant.” The boy with the Mohawk, Xavier, looked over. “It’s obviously not plant. Plant kids are taller. Plus they usually wear green.” Coral looked down at her purple windbreaker. It seemed like a million years ago she had put that on, when in reality, it had only been a few hours. “You’re right,” Maggie said. “So what is it?” It took Coral a few seconds to realize the question was directed at her. “Uhh...” “You can talk, can’t you?” Xavier said sarcastically. “No- I mean yes- I mean, I can talk.” Coral said. “So what is it?” he asked impatiently. “Your power,” he added, in case she didn’t know. “Um . . .” Coral tried to stall for time. On the one hand, she’d kept her power a secret from everyone for thirteen years. The events of today proved that telling people was a bad idea. On the other hand, these kids were obviously like her, and they had told her their powers. Besides, if she wanted to escape, she should try to get along with her cellmates. And she couldn’t do that if she was keeping secrets from them. “Water. My power is water.” Maggie snapped her fingers. “That’s it! I knew you had something watery about you.” Xavier rolled his eyes. Before any of them could say anything else, the cell door creaked open. A man dropped three bowls of brown mushy glop that resembled soggy rice on the floor. “Dinner,” he said, then slammed the door again. Maggie looked at Coral, “So . . . yeah. This is your life now.”
