William Trey, Water Elemental

  Halloween, woo! Everyone's favorite holiday. Or, well, some people prefer Christmas, but Halloween is more fun, and I’ll die on that hill.

  “Ready to go?” I ask from the living room as I sit on the couch with Lily.

  “In a minute!” She shouts from her room, and I roll my eyes. I sit on the couch wearing a scorching hot knight costume. I feel so basic, but I guess it's fine. Lily's pretty basic too, with her princess outfit.

  “what? I like it.” she snorts, noticing my glance at her costume.

  “I never said you didn’t. I just can't help but feel basic, you know?” I wave a hand lazily about, pausing the video on the tv.

  “I've not dressed up at all since I was 14. A college party sounds kind of fun.” She admits with a shrug. “And it's not like I'm going to dress up in one of those ridiculous inflatable costumes.”

  “Oh, I totally considered the alien one if I'm being honest.” I say with a chuckle. “I mean, it's so floppy! I loved it.”

  “So why'd you go for the knight outfit?” Lily asks curiously, adjusting the undersized tiara on her head. It was that or an oversized one, so she picked a little small, and decided to stick it in her hair to make it stay.

  “Selena didn't like the alien.” I say simply. “Also this outfit gives me an excuse to walk around with a sword.” I pat the sheathed plastic blade at my side for emphasis.

  “Hmmm…” Lily considers the weapon for a moment. “Can I see that?”

  “Uh… sure?” I hand the sword to her. She nods.

  “I'll be right back.” She then turns and runs out the door. I just blink for a moment, then shrug. If she stole it that's fine, since it barely cost 15 bucks.

  At that moment the door to Selena's room opens and she steps out. She wears a sailor moon outfit, and even has makeup on to match.

  “Ta-da!” She grins, spreading her arms and doing a little twirl. “how do I look?”“Like an anime addict.” I say with a grin. She sticks her tongue out at me before flopping down on the couch beside me. “Where's Lily?”“Took my sword and ran outside for something.” I shrug. “No idea what.”

  Lily then opens the door and marches back inside, and it becomes clear what she did. She holds my sword, and for a second I think it's the same sword. then I feel the density of the blade and realise that's a blade.

  “Is it made of metal now?” I ask, pushing up off the couch and walking up the steps to the front door where she stands. She hands the sword back to me and I grin at the slight, satisfying heft it has to it.

  “Yeah.” She nods. “I, uh… had to go into the little park across the street and pull some trace amounts of metal out of the dirt, and used it to replace the plastic. the hilt is metal too, but only on the inside so it has the comfortable hilt still.”

  “Awesome!” I grin, sheathing the sword again. “I took some basic sword lessons when I was little, you know. Mom wanted me to exercise, and before I was really into swimming I was all obsessed with knights and samurai. I thought being able so use a sword would be the coolest thing.”

  “Cool.” Lily nods, unsure what to say to the infodump before noticing Selena. “Nice outfit.”“Thanks!” She beams at the praise. “Took me an hour to do the makeup.”“We know.” Me and Lily say at the same time.

  “Come on. lets get to the car.” I say, walking up to the door. “We're gonna be late at this point.”

  …

  “Why do you never use your car to get here for school?” Selena asks, looking out the window. I pull into the student parking lot at the far end of the school, then turn the keys again, shutting the car down.

  “My sister uses it, and I like to walk while it's still warm enough to.” I say with a shrug.

  “What about when it isn't warm enough to?” Lily asks as we all get out of the car. I lock it and tuck my keys into my pocket through a slot in my armor.

  “Mom drives her then. She only has to during the winter, or until she gets her own car.” I shrug. I adjust the slightly uncomfortable sheath as I walk.

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  “Did Eva dress up too?” Lily asks, and I nod.

  “Yeah, but shes staying at home with a few friends and handing out candy while watching a movie. they dragged a small tv upstairs and set it beside the door.”

  “What did she dress up as?” Selena asks. “I didn't get to see her.”“She wanted to dress up as a black cat but I told her no and she dressed up as a condiment bottle with her friends.”

  “Black cat outfits are for sluts. Good save.” Selena agrees, nodding.

  “So are maid outfits.” Lily offers, and I chuckle.

  “I'd bet a hundred dollars that we will see both of those outfits within 10 seconds of going inside.” I offer, and Selena shakes her head.

  “I don't make losing bets.”

  “I'll take that bet.” Lily says, pulling a hundo out of her wallet. I grin.

  “You're on.”

  …

  “This game is rigged.” Lily mutters, handing me the bill as I laugh. Selena just shakes her head with a sigh.

  …

  The college we go to is by no means the largest college in the world. It's a big, but only slightly above average sized college. As such, the school has been memorized by all three of us already. Specifically Lily, since she's only been here once for her lectures, and we showed her around. Due to that, we all know the direction to the cafeteria and gymnasium, which are back to back with each other. All the food is spread out on one half of the gymnasium, where people bring their plates and fill it with food, then go to the cafeteria with it where all the chairs are set to sit.

  “You have the cupcakes?” I ask Selena.

  “yeah, I got ‘em.” she nods, holding up a big box. “Me and Lily made them last night while you were passed out at your place.”

  “I had classes all day!” I protest, but she just ‘tsk’s and shakes her head. Lily takes the box and walks off to hand it to one of the staff.

  “She's grown more comfortable.” Selena says approvingly as Lily walks up to a man wearing a t-shirt with our college's logo on it.

  “She gets more comfortable with people she’s close to or around more often.” I say. “A social introvert is what my mom calls it. This party is going to bottom her battery pretty quickly though, I'd imagine.”

  “Yeah, I agree.” Selena nods, then grins. “You know what'd cheer her up?”

  “Jello shots?” I guess.

  “Jello shots!” She laughs, holding up 6 shot tickets. She then stuffs them back into her pocket. “But first, food.”

  “Food sounds good.” I agree, following beside her to the gym. “I wonder what they have.”

  “Nothing healthy I'd imagine.” she shrugs. “Actually, there's probably one of those huge caesar salad bowls that are actually just the pieces of caesar salad taken apart for us to put back together.”“And with too much cheese.” I chuckle. “That punch smells good.”

  “There's punch? Where? And how do you- oh yeah.” She shakes her head. “That's kind of weird.”

  “Well, get used to it. I can feel those jello shots, though they're more alcohol so it's a bit harder as the ethanol is in the way.”

  “Great, so you can lead us to them.” She says as we reach the line. Positioning ourselves in the back of the line, Lily makes her way back to us.

  “Lead us to what?” She asks as she stands beside Selena.

  “The jello shots, obviously.” Selena says, grinning.

  “What? But I'm 19, I can't have alcohol.” Selena points out. For a moment I just stare at her, confused, before both me and Selena remember.

  “Oh yeah, the drinking age is different in America." I remember, nodding to myself. Then I shrug. “Well, here, the minimum age to be an alcoholic is 18, so we're all good.”

  “Really? That seems a little young.” Lily glances around, noticing a few kids our age slurping up little plastic cups of jiggling not-quite-solid, colorful jello. I'm pretty sure they aren't allowed to have those in the cafeteria though…

  “Not Canada's fault that the US has shit drivers.” I say with a shrug, chuckling at the death stare she gives me. It's then that we reach the front of the line and I can grab a plate to load up some food onto. As we talk, I grab every sweet known to man, and a few I think no human has ever seen before. College parties, ey?

  “We don't have that bad of drivers.” Lily grumbles, snatching a plate.

  “It's the seventh most dangerous place to drive in the world as of 2019.” Selena adds helpfully.

  “It's weird that you know that.” I chuckle, gesturing for us to make our way back to the cafeteria.

  “I had a project on graphing a few years back and I chose car accidents per capita. 2024 was a far worse year.”“What were the stats then?” Lily asks curiously as we start to wander, searching for a place to sit.

  “Around 59 hundred people per million.” She says. “Around 40 thousand deaths total.”“Brutal.” I say, sliding into a decent enough looking seat at a graciously unoccupied table. I set my food down and unwrap the wrapper on a cupcake.

  “It's sad to know so many people died in such a preventable way.” Lily sighs, picking up her fork and stabbing into the leaves of her salad (yes, there was a caesar salad.)

  “It's a sad truth, but we aren't superheros.” I say with a shrug. Lily's eyes light up for a moment, and I give her a flat look. “No.”“Please?”“No. You're not becoming a superhero. Vigilantism is totally illegal everywhere.” I say flatly. “Also we'd get in so much trouble.”

  She sighs and nods. “I know.” She admits meekly. “I guess it kind of sounds cool though.”

  “I agree!” Selena says enthusiasticly. “If you change your mind, let me design the emblem.”

  Lily smiles a little and shakes her head as she finishes her salad and moves onto her dessert. She's the only one who took salad. “Maybe a little of it, but I like art too.”

  “So we'd do it together then.”“Yeah. We'd do it together.” She then pauses. “Do you smell smoke?”