Chris listens at his door at just after midnight. One of the best things about being an air elemental was that he could feel the vibrations in the air that sound made. He wasn’t the most experienced at it, but he could manage his own. He was even learning to muffle the sound he made by calming the air around himself. Perfect time to test that trick out. His parents were asleep, far as his air sense could tell. Hopefully they aren't alerted by the small amount of power being used. He shuts his door and gets dressed in his darkest clothes, then pockets a small fshlight so he could signal Paul when they got to his house.

  He exits his bedroom, still calming the air around him. He walks slowly and softly as not to make any extra noise. The house didn’t creak or anything but there is always a first time. He reaches the other bedrooms and opens the first door, Jackson and Jerry. They give the thumbs up and walk out of the room. They move to Elle’s room and Chris opens the door. She is there right behind the door waiting with a smile.“Let’s go.” Elle mouths the words without voice.

  Ever so quietly, both physically and with the aid of Chris’ air power they tip-toe downstairs and exit via the patio door. Once outside they move faster, circling around the side of the house behind the gym till they reach the front. Then skirting the neighbors fence and onto the sidewalk. Choosing to run from there Chris then slowly drops his air power till they are far enough away from the house that his parents wouldn’t hear them.

  “This is so awesome!” Jerry cries out.“Jerry, keep it down. The neighbors can still hear, even if our parents can’t.” Jackson scolds him.“But this is awesome. We’re like secret agents and stuff.”Chris ughs. “What no more ninja’s?”

  Jerry looks over at him, his eyes go wide. “Ninja’s, hell yeah.”“Yeah, well…ninjas…are supposed to be quiet. So, shhhhh…” Elle points out, putting her finger to her lips and shushing loudly.Elle and Jerry, Chris thinks, could form a television show the way they banter back and forth.“Yeah, we can’t get caught, no matter what. So even now we keep the noise to a minimum. Our parents would kill us if they found out about this.” Chris affirms.

  “Yeah, I want us all to keep hanging out like we’ve done the st two weekends.” Elle tells everyone. “Being grounded is not an option.”Chris, Jackson and Jerry all salute her. “Yes, ma’am.”She smiles her happy smile as they make their way up the street to a back alley with tall wooden fences around each property that cut through the back of the properties between the Thomas’ street and the next one over. Chris stops them at the alley gate to the Thomas’ house.“Wait here. Keep an eye out.” Chris huffs, he hasn’t run that hard in a while. It felt good actually.

  He looks around to the other houses. A few had lights on in the upstairs rooms but the curtains were drawn. Good. No chance of being seen. He floats up and over the fence. He nds on the other side of the fence and walks toward the house, to just underneath Paul’s window. Chris takes the fshlight out and flicks it on and off at the window.A few moments ter, Paul appears at the window and opens it. Chris floats up to him.

  “It’s out there right now.” Paul whispers softly.“How’s Ivy?” Chris wonders, whispering just as softly.“She downed a gss of warm milk. That helped her get to sleep.”Ivy had been growing uneasy over the st couple of days and not getting much sleep.

  “Cool. We’ll be right back.” Chris tells him and floats back down and rejoins the others. “Okay guys, its out there right now.“Hey, Chris.” Jackson says. “What are we gonna do about the car, anyway?”Chris stops. The pause seems to st a long time. “Good question.”Jerry perks up. “I know. We can throw stones at it.”

  They all look at Jerry like he’s complete idiot.“No seriously. Maybe whoever is in the car will get out and we can see who it is.”“Hmm, maybe you’re not such a boulder brain after all. A goofball…” She shrugs her shoulders with her hands out.Chris agrees with the pn. “Sounds like a pn. Everyone, load up. Time to py piss off the…bck car people.”

  The group trot around to the Thomas’ street and check out the surroundings. The bck car was there like Paul had said. The windows were pitch bck in the night. Along that side of the road, about five or six yards from the back of the car was a row of tall hedges. Perfect for hiding, and still close enough for stone throwing.They make a wide birth around the end of the street, away from the occasional street light and take position behind the bushes on the side of the road with the car. But away from Paul and Ivy’s house. He sees the license pte which Ivy reported. The cops had told them that they ran the numbers and ‘unfortunately’ couldn’t do anything about it. Worthless cops.

  Jerry pces a hand on the ground and pulls up a few small stones from the earth. There was enough light that the others could see them squeeze out of the surrounding grass. Everyone grabs a small handful.Chris takes the first toss, using a little air power to help aim it. Tink. Direct hit on the truck. Chris listens. Nothing.Elle takes her turn. Tink. Then Jackson…hit. Still no activity from the car.

  “Hmm…” Jerry hums. He takes a good handful of stones, smiling wide. “Scattershot.”The others snicker as he unches, shooting his hand forward. Using his earth power to guide the stones they ‘tink’ repeatedly off the back window.The drivers side door opens. A man dressed in a bck suit gets out and looks around.Bingo.

  The man talks into the colr of his suit jacket. Huh?“We got possible hostiles in the area.”Hostile? He hasn’t seen hostile yet.“Chris, what do we do?” Elle whispers from the next bush over.

  “You guys get back to the alley. I’ll draw his attention.”“No, we stick together.” Elle says. Chris can hear the apprehensiveness in her voice.“I’ll be right behind you.” Chris tells her then grabs some stones. “Go.” Stressing the point.Elle and the others keep low and make it back into the alley. The man pulls out a fsh light and shines it around.

  Time to go. He sends the stones out using a funnel of air to direct them into the man. As he waves his hands around Chris takes that moment to run for the others. He looks back, the man was getting back into the car. The car starts and tires squeal as it makes a fast u-turn in the street. Chris books it toward the alleyway where he spots the others by the Thomas’ alley gate.“What do we do now?” Elle asks, huffing a bit.

  Hmm. Headlights appear at the end of the alleyway as Chris thinks. “Jerry! Colpse the alleyway or something so the car can’t follow us!”The car drives with intent toward the gang. Jerry quickly squats down and pces his hands on the ground. But instead of the dirt path of the alley colpsing, a row of thick spikes shoot up.“Let’s go!” He shouts.

  Chris looks up, he sees Paul looking out the window. Chris gives his friend a thumbs up.The gang run quickly to the other end of the alleyway as the car races toward them. Behind them they hear the car hit the spikes, but Chris doesn’t hear the loud pop of car tires being blown. He looks back and notices the car driving over the spikes which Chris assumes broke under the weight of the car.

  “Good job, Jerry. Your spikes failed.” Elle scolds him.“Sorry!” He says.“Forget it let’s run!” Jackson barks.The car was now driving for them with increasing speed.

  The gang run around the corner, exiting the alleyway and keep running as fast as they can. They make it around the corner of the next street and come face to face with another bck car. They pause only from the brightness of the headlights stunning them.“This way!” Chris shouts as he grabs Elle’s hand and cuts across the street. Jackson and Jerry following right behind.“Stop! We only want to ask you some questions!” A man’s voice yells out.

  “Or what? You’ll chase us some more?” Jerry yells back.Good one.“We won’t hurt you!” Now the sounds of foot steps resounds behind them.“Yeah, right. You’ll just bind and gag us and let your boss hurt us!” Chris yells back as they reach the next street. They don’t let up until Elle points to the stream.

  “Let’s go surfing.” She tells them with a smile.“Hell yeah!” Jackson announces.Chris could only imagine what she meant. Guess he’ll find out soon.The reach the bridge and hop down the short bank into the stream. Elle’s power fres big time. She stands facing downstream with her arms out a bit and her palms down.

  “Hold on to me guys.” She says as they raise out of the water till they are standing on the surface. The boys hold onto her arms and shoulders as they all move forward on a shelf of water.Chris is in awe. He looks back, the man chasing them stops and looks on. Chris can only imagine his face as one of confusion and defeat. Good.“Like I said before, I suck at surfing when I have a board under my feet.” She giggles. The rest chuckle.

  It almost felt like flying, the wind blowing past, the smoothness of the flow. And with his hands on her arm his Spark fring giving him the sense of her feeling of freedom. It was to awesome.The stream was a great way to escape due to the fact that it wound through parts of the city that cars couldn’t travel. They had to duck low to go under a few bridges but was smooth sailing none the less. The gang slide along the surface of the stream till they reach the back of the Prowman’s house. Elle comes to a slow stop at the dock.

  “Thank you for riding Elle’s waterways. Please disembark and have a wonderful evening.” Elle tells them in a pleasant chipper tone.She was too much.They quickly race home through the back yards of the houses between here and Chris’ home and enter as quietly as they left. Chris knew they were gonna be tired tomorrow morning, but it was worth it. That should hopefully get those goons away from the Thomas'.

  At the door to his room, Chris feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns around and sees Elle smiling to the side of her mouth. She looks to Chris parents room and puts a finger to her lips as she gently pushes him inside, shutting the door most of the way shut. Chris didn’t know what she was doing, he was stunned.“I had fun tonight.” She says ever so softly.Chris smiles, he did have fun tonight. “I did too. And about before…in the bathroom…”

  Elle bites her lip, nervously. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Good night.” Then quickly pecks him on the cheek and leaves.Chris was speechless. But right then and there he decided to go for it. He would officially ask her out. Sorry Ivy.