Awaken the Elements (Elemental Trilogy) (6 page)

             
“Nope. Want to check this place out?”

             
“Sure. It beats lying here in bed until we finally fall asleep.”

             
They both got up and left the store they’d taken for themselves. They wandered around level three. They didn’t want to go into any of the stores, because they weren’t sure who was where. After walking around level three, they went over to the edge, looking down. Both looked at the infected at the door and shivered.

             
“You want to go down?” Rowan asked.

             
“You?”

             
Rowan looked at him, and then back at the infected. “I guess.”

              They walked over to the elevator and stopped when they saw who was in front of the elevators talking. It was the other three guys in the group. They walked over to them. Rowan chuckled. The other three were arguing over something.

             
“Hey, what’s up?” He asked as they got closer.

             
“Stefan said he was going down to level two, and Drake wanted to check out Playland.” Linden said.

             
“Play-what?” The name perked up Rowan’s interest.

             
“Playland. Level one is a giant arcade,” Drake said.

             
“Okay, so why are you guys arguing?” River asked.

             
“Linden won’t vote on where we should go,” Stefan said.

             
“You’re all holding a vote on where you should go?” Rowan laughed.

             
“I have just the answer, you guys. First we check out level two, and then make our way to level one,” River said.

             
Stefan pressed the call button. When the doors opened, Stefan went in first and the rest followed. The elevator binged, the door sliding closed. The guys came out, holding their noses on level two.

             
“Linden, you stink head!” Stefan cried out.

             
“Wasn’t me,” Linden said, waving his hand in front of his face.

             
They all looked around at each other. And then River took a few steps away from everyone. “I did it,” he said proudly.

              Drake made a face at him. “You have problems.”

             
“That’s what I’ve heard,” he said, rolling his eyes at him.

             
“No wonder your shrink kicked you out,” Rowan said.

             
“And I loved that black couch oh so much too,” River said, pushing his bottom lip out in a fake pout.

             
“That’s why it divorced you,” Rowan said, trying not to laugh.

             
“The divorce papers said I got too overwhelmed when we were together.”

             
They all laughed and walked over to the elevator that went down to level one. The directory
YOU ARE HERE
board told them where to go. It was on the other end of the mall.  Drake looked into the bookstore. It made two he’d noticed so far.

             
River’s eyes fell on a lava lamp, making him stop in his tracks. A purple lava lamp. He wanted that lava lamp. “Hey, guys, wait a minute,” he said before walking into the store.

             
“What now?” Linden asked.

             
“It seems River noticed something he can’t live without,” Stefan said.

             
“A mirror,” Drake joked.

             
“Shut up, Drake. You’re not funny,” Rowan said, going into the store after River. The others followed.

              River went over to an aisle were the lava lamps were. He read the boxes and shuffled the ones he didn’t want out of the way. There were pink and purple, blue and black, red and blue, but no purple and black. He didn’t find a purple one. Leaving the aisle and walking over to the front of the store, he thought about where he would put his new lava lamp. There it stood in the window. A purple and black lava lamp and it was shaped like a monkey. He liked monkeys. He went over to find the plug. Finally finding it, he grabbed it, ready to yank the cord out of the wall.

             
“Take your hands off of it,” Autumn said, walking down an aisle from the backroom.

He looked up at her, surprised, “I saw it first.”

              “Nope. I saw it first.”

             
“There has to be more in the back,” he said, dropping the cord.

             
“Nah. We’ve checked,” Jaime said, speaking up from behind her.

             
“Can we make a deal?”

             
“What kind of deal?” She asked, putting her hands on her hips, watching him.

             
“You get it one night, and I get it the next,” he said with a playful smile.

             
“Do you do that with girls?” Jaime asked.

              Both River and Autumn looked at him. She shook her head and looked back at River. “Maybe we can do something,” she said.

             
“Hey, who did you find, River?” Rowan asked, walking over to them.

             
“Found me a girl,” he said and winked at Autumn, making her smile.

             
“No sharin’. She’s mine,” Jaime told both the guys.

             
She spun around. “Shut up. I don’t even know you. I’m no one’s girl, got it?”

             
He put his hands up. “Yo! Sorry.”

             
“What’s going on?” Stefan asked, walking over to them.

             
“Nothing,” Autumn said, giving Jaime one last look. She then turned her attention to Stefan. “So what are you guys doing?” When she asked, Linden and Drake came from the back and stood by Stefan.

             
“We’re making our way down to level one,” Rowan spoke up first. There was something about her he couldn’t put his finger on. Maybe it had something to do with those leafy green eyes of hers. He had never seen anyone with such green eyes.

             
“I
   
” She paused, rewording her sentence, glaring at Jaime. “We,” she nodded toward him, “Are going down to level one too.”

             
“Great. Might as well join us,” River said.

             
“You mean you guys might as well join us,” she said with a smile, teasing.

              “Hey,” Jaime said, “Who these guys?”

             
“Drake, Stefan, Linden, Rowan, and River,” Autumn said, pointing to each one.

             
Jaime eyed them. “You all look sorta familiar. Have we met?”

             
They shook their heads, but Stefan spoke for them. “Nope. Who are you?”

             
“I be Jaime RM. Wait, I know you foolz.” he said after a while, “You bitches be Tune N’, that boy band.” The guys nodded. “I knew it.”

             
“Let’s go, guys,” Autumn said, walking out of the store. She turned and saw that Jaime followed close behind her. The guys stood where they were watching Jaime leave. They wanted to ask Jaime about the RM, she could read it in their faces. She waited to see if they were going to ask him.

He must have felt their eyes on his back. He swung around and stared back at them.

              “What foolz? I don’t play butt darts if that’s your question.”

             
“What does RM stand for?” Linden asked.

             
“Radical Mexican, and don’t you forget it either.” He turned back around and continued to walk. “Queers,” he muttered under his breath when he was sure they couldn’t hear him.

             
“Jaime,” Autumn said quietly so only he could hear. “Be good. If you start trouble, you’ll be out with the infected. I don’t care if you get munched or not. I don’t want to live with intolerance if I don’t have to. That was out there. In here, we are starting new.”

             
“Fine, I be good.”

              She reached the elevators first, waiting for the others. She pressed the call button. They came eventually. When they were ready to get in, she noticed another group of people walking over. It looked like her sister, Ivy Lee and Anatha. They were trying to get Autumn’s attention by waving their hands wildly. She thought they looked like fools. She motioned to show she saw them.

             
“What’s up now?” Jaime murmured. “They don’t look so bad, actually.”

             
Pervert
, she thought, rolling her eyes;
he’ll fit in perfectly
. The girls where a little closer now and decided to run the rest of the way to the elevator. “Why not run from back there?” she asked them as they got closer.

             
“I don’t know,” Anatha said, out of breath. Ivy Lee dropped to one knee, tying her shoelaces.

****

Looking past her sister and into the ele
vator, Envy noticed the guys. She looked at the weird guy standing by Autumn and frowned. He was dressed like a rapper. He had on big baggy blue jeans, a white tank top tucked into his jeans, and a football jacket over that. The jacket had patches on it but looked as if someone had ripped them off. He was as white as white could be too. A beanie covered his brown hair, making his large hazel eyes stand out. He stood about five-seven and wasn’t someone she would normally date, but he wasn’t a pole either. Maybe he had a chance.

****

             
Autumn noticed her looking at Jaime. “This is Jaime,” she said. “Jaime, this is my sister Envy, her friend Ivy Lee, and our cousin, Anatha.”

             
“Yo, whatzup?” Jaime said with a flirty smile.

             
“Hi,” Envy and Ivy Lee said simultaneously.

             
Anatha looked at the new guy. “And where did you two meet?” 

              “I bumped into him.” Anatha got a vision of a scared mouse hiding in a corner.
Autumn’s thinking of pictures, how odd
.

             
“Anatha,” was all Autumn said, and Anatha stopped, looking at Envy. Why couldn’t she do that with the cousin she actually liked?

             
“We’re going down homegirlies. Wanna join?” Jaime said.

             
“We were planning to anyway,” Anatha said, eyeing him. Already she didn’t like him.

As they got into the elevator
, Envy and Ivy Lee talked to Jaime. “So you’re a rapper, huh?” Ivy Lee asked.

             
“Yeah.”

             
“Jaime is your performance name?” Anatha asked.

             
He nodded, “Some of it. It’s actually Jaime RM.” Autumn pressed the down arrow.

             
“RM?” Ivy Lee asked.

             
“Radical Mexican,” Linden answered before Jaime could.

             
He turned and looked at him. “Shut up, fool, or I’ll bitch slap your ass.”

             
“Jaime, shut up!” Autumn said. “Remember what I told you.”

             
His mouth snapped shut.

             
“What’s all this yelling about? Hold the elevator before it closes.”

             
They all looked over to see Hazel, Frank, and Richard walking up. “We got a party going on now,” River said. Autumn blocked the doors, so they wouldn’t close.

             
“Why are you here, Jaime?” Envy asked.

             
“I was gonna perform today.”

             
“So you were the one opening for us,” Stefan said.

             
“No way. You bitches were opening for me,” he replied angrily. Everyone went quiet.

****

             
The elevator’s music was a little too high, and it didn’t sound right either. As Autumn thought about the music, something came to her. What if there where zombies down on the first floor? Did anyone check? She looked at the crowd quietly chatting. She pressed the stop button. The elevator came to a jerky stop making everyone look at her. Better safe than sorry, right?

             
“What’s up?” Hazel asked. She still wasn’t ready to remember what had happened.  She still had a far off look in her eyes. It hurt Autumn’s heart to see her friend with that look. But she was functioning, not a vegetable like she had been, which was a plus.