Twelve years before:

She was eleven years old when it happened. It was an accident. She had sworn it was.

Astronomy class had just ended. Mrs Fluffs had just dismissed the class after a choir of nightingales sat on the windows, singing their melodies as they usually did at the end of every rose cloud. Layla Arclight was the perfect student who always got perfect scores on tests. She was the star student and a role model to others. She had become 'Student of the Starlight' four times in her school year. She knew some of the students in her class were probably jealous especially now after she had been awarded a fifth time now.

Layla and her class had just gotten outside the classroom, into the bright and colourful hallway before one of her classmates, Cecil, called after her then grabbed the back of her shirt.

She was taken aback by the action at first but kept her composure. "May I help you Mr Cecil? Do you require assistance to our next class? If so, that is not the way to ask a lady for help."

Some of the seniors had stopped close by, a few leaned against the wall, keeping an eye on the juniors.

"You need to step down and give others a chance at top spot!" Cecil seethed. If looks could kill she would be dead right about now.

"I'm not going to stop excelling in our classes. Just because some students don't have the brain capacity to understand words on a board, that is not my problem. Get better," she said, her icy blue eyes locked on his green ones.

"You better stop or else," he threatened, his eyes narrowed.

Layla gave her signature smile. "Is that a threat, Cecil? In front of all these people? Are you sure you want to go down that route after I kicked your ass the last time? Am I that irresistible?" she mocked with fake sympathy.

"I– You little bitch," he said, his hands balled into fists.

She let out a fake gasp with wide eyes. "Oh Cecil, you have such a potty mouth for someone so important in this school. One would think you would know better after being held back for two whole starlight's."

The seniors mouth hung open at the blows Layla was delivering to her classmate.

"I'll have you know my father is important to this school and he wants me to excel!" Cecil said loudly.

Layla raised an eyebrow. She couldn't care less about who he was and how important he was, but it did not give him the right to speak like an obnoxious pig. "You think I care who your parents are? Your father could be known across the entire world, and I wouldn't give a damn. Focus on your studies and you will get smarter."

If he balled his fists any tighter, she swore he would break a few bones in his hands at this stage. She had better places to be than stay and parent a child who couldn't handle his big emotions and kept talking as if he was a celebrity. She spun around to leave but was grabbed by the shirt and pushed into the hard brick wall.

"Who said you could leave," Cecil said angrily.

She was taken aback. "Contrary to popular belief honey, a woman doesn't need a man to dismiss her. She may leave at her own free will."

It wasn't till after she finished her sentence that he pushed her harder against the wall. At this point more seniors had gathered. She panicked and somehow a thunderbolt shot from her hand causing the sleeve of his white shirt to catch fire. He quickly let go and started to scream like a little kid whose parent had said no to candy. She couldn't help but laugh at him as he waved his arm about as if he was doing the chicken dance.

After a little while, one of the older boys stepped forward. He had worn a black tank top with matching tight jeans. He had a stud piercing in both ears and one on his eyebrow. "I think we've had enough fun," he said, his voice sounded like honey to her ears.

With a flick of the wrist, a ball of water dropped down from the air above the boy who was on fire and dropped on top of him. Layla quickly stepped back. Cecil gasped a little as his clothes clinged onto him.

"You bastard! Don't you know who I am!" he yelled out.

"I do and quite frankly I don't give a single fuck. Your father might be funding the school, but I run this place so take your ego and shove it up your ass," the senior boy said, bending down to Cecil's level. "If I have to hear you speak like that ever again, my water powers will be the last of your problems, kid."

Cecil crossed his arms. "You will regret this!"

"Let's see who they believe. You –" he poked the boy in the chest "– or me. I have it all recorded kid."

Cecil was in utter disbelief; his mouth had dropped to the floor and was unable to close it like a clownfish.

"Also, just a word of advice because I'm sure they taught you all basic knowledge a few starlight's ago, but you do know females get their charge earlier than us males, right? Do you youngsters never listen?" the older boy said, bending down to Cecil's level a little more, his black hair moved from his cheek.

Layla could see from where she was two shapes on his fair left cheek, a water drop and a thunder bolt. She couldn't believe her eyes. She had heard about the rare dual elemental powers, but she had never seen it for herself. He was quite a handsome boy too with his oval shaped jawline and perfect skin.

"Now go little boy before I drown you again," the senior warned as he raised his pierced eyebrow.

Cecil's eyes went wide. He didn't utter another word before he ran away when he saw the senior boy's friends stand behind the senior.

The man walked over to Layla and held his hand out. "I'm Dexter. It's a pleasure to meet you. What's your name kid?" he asked with a smile.

She looked up at him and smiled. He was quite tall and easily towered over him. She took his hand and shook it. "I'm Layla. It's a pleasure to meet you too, sir."

They had spoken for a little while as they walked to their next class which was right next door to each other on the other side of the campus. Layla often sat on her own during their breaks and apparently Dexter had taken notice. He had offered for her to sit with his friends.

–

When lunch break had come around, she decided to take Dexters offer and sit with him and his friends. His friends seemed quite interested in her long, wavy blue hair. They kept asking her questions about it and some had her really thinking. She didn't know why she was born with blue hair, but she did know it was unique. A one in a couple million hair colour.

"Hey Dexter, does the thunder bolt and the water droplet on your cheek mean you have those powers?" Layla asked, looking up at Dexter who sat to her right.

He nodded. "Yeah. Although, depending on the day sometimes it's a curse while others it's a blessing from the goddesses," he answered then took another bite of his sandwich.

Layla clapped her hands a little and smiled. "That must be so cool! Two powers, wow!"

She looked around the table and noticed each boy had a different mark. They all had one marking on their faces, some with elements, others with other shapes. One had caught her eye though and it was the guy who sat across from her with his Cobra like tattoo on his cheek. "What does a snake mean?" She leaned her head to the side.

The man across from her looked up from his bowl of soup. She still remembered his name, Dylan. He was the only one in the group with grey hair and grey eyes. "As it shows, it helps me summon snakes of all kinds."

"That must be so cool!" Layla exclaimed.

"It really isn't. If you asked my opinion on it, I'd say it's the most useless power on the planet. Yes, it feels nice to be the third person in the world with this but how will snake snakes help me in a fight? They won't. I'd probably die in a war before they could kill one man out there," Dylan said as he stirred his soup and sighed.

"It's still cool to me," she said with a smile. They really were but she understood everyone had their own opinions about them. She remembered how her mother spoke to her about the powers, the elemental ones and how not all people possess fire or water. Although her mother didn't speak in great length about them, and she never asked questions.

"Oh, I didn't tell you guys, but my brother almost threw me out the car yesterday... twice actually," the blonde-haired man, Jack, said between the silence. He was quite tan, and Layla noticed the fire symbol on his cheek, so she was safe to assume he wielded fire.

"What the hell did you do bro?" Dexter asked between his laughs.

"Essentially, we were in the car, driving up that mountain, right? He was listening to his podcast, and I changed it. He literally stopped the car and went "If you do that again, I'll throw you out the window." So, what did I do? I opened my window and looked down at the distance to which he asked what I was doing so I said, "Checking how high the drop to see if it's worth it." I'm lucky to still be alive, long story short," Jack said with a big smile on his face.

"You're an idiot bro," Dylan said then took a sip of his water.

"I've done that before," Layla said. "Exact same place except my older brother couldn't actually throw me unless he wanted to be burnt to ash by our mother. You might know him, he's a senior too. He just didn't come to school today."

"Who's your brother?" Dylan asked, leaning on his hands.

"Caspian. Caspian Arclight," she answered.

She saw how they froze like statues. Some began to chew their food very slowly.

"He's the one with deflection, right? He's quite scary to practice with," Dexter admit. "He just throws your powers back at you like there is no tomorrow."

Everyone nodded in agreement, even Layla admitted that his brother's power was something not a lot of people are prepared for. She was sure a lot of the elemental powered students were zapped by their own magic. A silence hung in the air before the class ball rang again. 

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Total word count: 1828 words