Elements

• Lydia Kuelsen, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2010

Elements
My name is Lily, and when I was thirteen I had a best friend named Rose. We lived at an exclusive boarding school that looked just like Hogwarts Castle. We were like twins; we looked the same (brown hair and eyes, tall and thin) and enjoyed doing everything together.
One afternoon, we were walking around the gardens, waiting for the six o’clock bell to sound while talking about how boring life was. As we rounded a corner, we saw a suspicious hooded figure placing an envelope into the school mail slot – then it disappeared into thin air! We ran to it and I read the letter aloud.
“Headmaster, I know the Elements are in your possession. Return them to their rightful owner or I will take them from your chambers by force. RN.”
Rose explained to me that the Elements were said to hold the balance of the world and that they would only work for someone who wouldn’t misuse the unimaginable power they held. We both got excited and decided to try to find them ourselves. Then we could break out of school and travel the world, having too many adventures to count.
When we met outside in our usual hideaway that night, we decided on a plan. We would climb through a window to get into the Headmaster’s room then we’d take the Elements, and set off to see the world. But when we got in, the room was empty. We couldn’t do a proper search until we knew the Headmaster wouldn’t come back and catch us. So we hid under the bed to wait. When he re-entered the room, the school evacuation bell suddenly went off. The short, plump man ran straight back out and we heard screaming coming from the dorms. The chance of being seen if we left was too high so we had to stay put.
Later on, some strange men barged into the room and started looking for something. They eventually found us hiding under the bed and chained us to the bedpost. We were told remain silent if we valued our lives. I was imagining everything in the room turning to dust (except Rose and I) desperately wishing that it would happen and life would go back to normal - when Rose nudged me. She flicked her head towards my shackled hands and I saw a silver bracelet that held five charms, on my left wrist.
“Elements,” she whispered. Realization dawned upon me. Each charm represented an Element: Fire, Earth, Air and Water. But what was the last one? When I touched it, there was a blinding light. Everything in the room had been replaced with a pile of ash, including the strange men. At that moment I realized that the last Element had been desire. I had wanted everything to turn to ash and it did! On that day, Rose and I agreed that we didn’t want any more adventures and maybe our life wasn’t so boring after all.