The Elementals [1] [P. Parker]

It was warm in my sheets.

I curled into a ball as the door opened, sending a blast of cool air over the only exposed skin; my face.

I let out a groan as someone began pulling at my cocoon. "No... Go'way."

"Ren, it's time to wake up, you loser." My twin brother, Ryker, said, pulling the sheets harder and sending me rolling to the floor.

"Dangit, Ryker!" I shouted. "Seriously?"

"Yes, get up. We've got school." with that, he walked out of the room. "And if you don't get up, Mrs Trubridge will have your head."

I dropped my slightly raised head to the cold floor with a groan and began untangling myself from my cocoon.

When I got to school, a lame, drab building that could really use a new paint job, Jade, my best friend, came up to me, the rest of our friends behind her.

Almost immediately after we hugged and I said hi to everyone, the bell rang, so we headed to our respective classes.

With a sigh, I stepped into the true definition of hell.

Mrs Trubridge was, in short, a toad, and I didn't say that kind of thing about many people. It was a wonder that she even managed to get married in the first place, but her husband showed up at school one day and he was just as bad, possibly worse.

She'd had two kids at the school until the year before last when the older one graduated and the younger dropped out. They were both terrible too, bullying everyone smaller than them or anyone who got in their way. I once made the terrible decision of sticking up for someone they were beating up once. I vowed to myself, never again.

But back to Mrs Trubridge.

And she wasn't even there.

In her place was a tall blonde with a small smile on her pretty face. She had large eyes and pale skin and she was leaning against the desk.

"Hi?" I asked. Mrs Trubridge was never absent. She was practically invincible against every disease known to man.

"Good morning, I'm Miss Reed. I'm substituting for Mrs Trubridge today." The new woman said after everyone had taken their seats.

I frowned. "Excuse me, but, why is Mrs Trubridge not here? She's never sick."

Miss Reed smiled. "She had an accident. I can't really tell you all much right now, but I'll try to once we know more. Right," she clapped her hands. "First on the agenda today, is algebra, for you guys. Right?"

We all sighed collectively. "Yes, miss."

The days dragged by with no news on Mrs Trubridge.

Not that Ryker in particular cared. He always said that the class was much better off without her.

Miss Reed was nice, but she always seemed to spend more time around me. Ryker had her for his math class as well and said she did the same thing to him. She was a bit like a helicopter.

One day, she was ten minutes late to class and showed up with something red staining the bottom of her white shirt. The second someone told her about it, she went and changed, but I couldn't forget the stench of blood that seeped into the room when she stepped inside every day.

About a week after the blood incident, the news came that Mrs Trubridge had been murdered and the police were coming to question all of us.