1 The Sparks

"Push!" called the doctor. "Just once more, Mrs. Hall. He's almost out!" And with the one final push, he was out. The newborn was given to Mrs. Hall. She smiled lovingly at the infant and held him close.

"Liam," she said exhaustedly. "His name is Liam. Liam Duke Hall."

"Isn't he adorable?" Mr. Hall stared proudly at his wife and child. But then he noticed something weird in the baby's grasp. "Doc, what's wrong with his hand? Is that—"

"Oh my god," said the doctor. "But—but that can't be. There's no way!" The doctor was terrified. There hadn't been any kind of elemental signs in newborns in fifty years, let alone one of light, one of the two rarest elements to have. The other being darkness, equal to light in power.

That was the last time anyone saw the manifestation of his powers though, including himself. He didn't even know he had them. His parents never told him or anyone else. The only ones who knew of it were the two of them, the doctor, and the nurse that was with the doctor during the birth. No one else knew.

No one else, that is, until seventeen years later in his high school math class. As he sat there staring at the problems on the assignment a spit ball came flying through the air right at the side of his forehead, as it did every day. And just like every day, he got mad. But after going so long without acting on it, he became even more frustrated and angry about it than usual. There was a flash from his hands.

The teacher looked up. "Liam, is that a cell phone? Come put it on my desk. And I had better not catch you again this year or you'll be sent to the principal's office."

He groaned, got up, and took his phone from his pocket to her desk. His right hand felt warm, almost hot. It was a lot redder than his left. "What was that?" he wondered silently to himself, walking back to his desk.

Once class time was over Liam quickly took his phone back and ran to his locker. As he struggled with getting the locker open, he noticed the redness in his right hand wasn't going away. "What on earth happened in there?" he thought to himself. Thinking over the occurrence, he realized that the bell had already rang. "I'll put some oitment on it later."

Liam, sprinting the whole way, barely made it to his last hour on time. "Oh, thank God the bells are slightly delayed due to that small electrical fire we had last week, or else I wouldn't have made it," Liam thought to himself. "Huh, usually Mr. Rogers is already in the classroom. I wonder where he could be?"

Ten minutes had gone by and no one had seen the beloved teacher. Liam always liked Mr. Rogers, especially when he gave him an A+ with bonus credit after all the time he spent on his English essay. Just then the classroom door burst open. "Sorry, class, but I was busy chatting with Ms. Felmer down in the lounge," shouted Mr. Rogers. Finally, now Liam could show him what he'd been working on the last couple of weeks.

"Excuse me, Mr. Rogers," said Liam. "I was wondering if you'd look at my essay explaining how the old elementals used to use their powers."

"Yes, Liam, just put it on my desk there and I'll read it before I go home," replied Mr. Rogers. Liam excitedly returned back to his desk.

Once Mr. Rogers finished the lesson, the last bell rang. "Have a great rest of your day, kids! See ya Monday!" Mr. Rogers began to pack up his things. "Oh, Liam! Don't worry, I'll have that read and graded by the end of the day!"

"Thank you Mr. Rogers, I'm quite confident you're going to love it!" Liam began his walk back to his locker. He quickly grabbed his things and began to walk out of the school. While he was walking he decided to take the long route out of the school, straight past the office, so he could talk with his friends more.

While walking he noticed out of the corner of his eye that there appeared to be a girl signing up for classes. He thought to himself, "She must be new. I wonder if she'll have the same classes as me." The mysterious looking girl noticed he was staring at her. She smiled and waved at him. Embarrassed because of how long he had been accidentally staring at her, Liam quickly waved back and kept walking.

He was finally home and could relax! That is of course, until his parents get home from work and had him clean the house. It was a beautiful day outside (one of the few Montana had this season) so he decided to go out and get some more fresh air. While reaching for the door handle, Liam noticed that the red on his right hand had slightly faded away. "Wow, that went away quickly. I forgot to put oitment on it, but it seems to be doing all right as it is."

Once outside Liam remembered his dad telling him how they were going to rip the old cedar tree up from the backyard. The tree had been there since the house was first built and it saddened Liam that it had finally met its end. He looked up to his once magnificent tree house, but after a while of not being used and kept up with it was starting to rot and fall apart with the tree. His gaze was filled with admiration and love.

Remembering all of the good times he had around this now dead tree, he grew sadder. He touched the bark with his slightly red hand (which had now turned a pinkish color). Suddenly his hand started to feel warmer and warmer, looking redder and redder. Hoping he didn't just stick his hand in a pile of fire ants, Liam removed his hand from the tree. Just then a small, yet powerful, beam of light burst forth from his hands and incinerated the once great tree right in front of him. Shocked by what he just did, Liam quickly sprinted back into his house and called his parents.