BOOYAH!
And my hand isn't bugging me at ALL! YAY!
My right foot is, but that's because I twisted it while working out. But that's another story.
ONTO MY CHAPTER!
It's much shorter than the first one, that one was kinda huge. Oh well. This one has more plot development :)
Oh, and one more thing! The reason Part II is called The War Resumes is because episode 2 of the show is "It Resumes". And episode 1? "It Begins". The first book is called "The Power of Five". So going after the "Begins, Resumes" ideas, I called Part 1 It Begins, and Part 2 The War Resumes. :)
So, here it is! Enjoy!!!
Chapter 2
Cornelia
Heatherfield
Wednesday, Cornelia told the girls to meet at her place to plan their costumes for the dance Friday. She was determined to outlook the Grumper Sisters no matter what. Come Friday, Bess and Courtney wouldn’t know what hit them!
Taranee and Will seemed impressed with Cornelia’s house. It wasn’t a mansion—okay, it was. Cornelia’s dad owned a local Credit Union that had seriously expanded during the recession. She didn’t think it was all that impressive, not compared to the Grumper Sisters’s manor on the outskirts of town, anyway.
"So, Cornelia," Will said as she followed the blonde up a beautiful staircase. "Why the need to beat the Grumper Sisters, anyway?"
"Because she has to be first in the world," Irma answered for her. "At everything."
"Those two have had it coming for a long time," Cornelia told Will, ignoring Irma.
"Yeah, because they wore the same shirt in kindergarten," Hay Lin laughed.
"It’s pathetic, really."
Cornelia froze, trying not to grind her teeth.
Her baby sister, Lillian was standing there, her arms folded. She was eight years old, with her blonde cut in a bob, and wearing her favorite color, pink, as usual. Her favorite thing to do was follow Cornelia around and bug her. Or play pranks on her. Cornelia couldn’t stand her, and it looked like the little brat was going to try to follow them.
"Go away, Lillian," Cornelia said coldly.
"Who’re they?" She was pointing to Will and Taranee. They opened their mouths, probably to introduce themselves, but Cornelia quickly said, "None of your business, so buzz off!"
She grabbed her sisters arm and pushed her away.
"Fine! I’m telling mom you’re failing math!"
As she rush down the stairs Cornelia called, "She’s not here, so NEH!" She stuck her tongue out at her.
Hay Lin and Elyon cracked up.
"Very mature, Cornelia," Elyon giggled. "Sticking your tongue out and all."
"You really showed her who’s boss," Irma said, rolling her eyes.
"You don’t have to live with her," Cornelia muttered, trying to hide her blush.
"Geez, Cornelia!" Will exclaimed with they entered her room.
"You know, I think you should go shopping again," Irma told her.
"Why?" Cornelia turned to her walk in closet that her father had built for her custom last summer. It was larger than anyone else’s at school, even the Grumper Sisters. Well, at least one of the Grumper Sisters. Cornelia had made sure of it. She had to drop fifty bucks of her own to find out, but it was worth it.
Too bad Mrs. Grumper’s a model, she thought. That’s the only reason they have more designer things than I do.
"Yeah, doesn’t she have enough?" Taranee squeaked.
"I think there’s at least one top in the city that Cornelia doesn’t own," Irma said. She threw her arm over her forehead and pretended to choke out, "What a tragedy!"
Everyone laughed again. Cornelia even grinned, especially when the pillow she threw knocked Irma off her bed. After an impromptu pillow fight, they changed out of their uniforms and into some clothes. Will and Taranee had, once again, forgotten to bring street clothes, but Cornelia had more than enough for them to borrow.
"So, what should we wear to the dance Friday?" Will asked. "And PLEASE don’t say dresses. I…just…no."
"OOH!" Elyon cried, clapping her hands. "We should go as fairies!"
Everyone in the room froze at the word "fairies", as if she’d yelled a curse word. Elyon looked around, confused by her friends’ reaction. "What?"
"I dreamed I was a fairy," Taranee said. "The same dream, for the past couple of nights."
"Really? Me, too!" Hay Lin said. "I could fly, and I wasn’t small or anything, but I could control the air."
"No way, I could control fire!" Taranee said.
The hair on the back of Cornelia’s neck stood up. Before she could say anything, though, Irma said, "I could control water. And fly. But I could make water fly too. It was so cool!"
"I could control earth," Cornelia made herself say. "Every dream. Lillian woke me up both nights, and every time I fell asleep, I dreamed the same thing. I was an earth fairy, except—"
"You were older?" Will asked.
"No way, you had these dreams too?" Elyon gasped. When Will nodded, she frowned. "Why haven’t I?"
"I have no idea, but it wasn’t all magical," Will told her. "In every dream, there was this necklace that was guiding me, and there were monsters chasing me."
"Me, too!" Hay Lin said.
"So the five of us all had the same dream?" Cornelia clarified. She slid down the wall and sat on the floor.
"Yup."
"Sounds like it."
"Pretty much."
"Except for me!" Elyon cried. "I wish I dreamed about being a fairy! I’ve always wanted to fly."
"So, I guess being fairies are out?" Taranee asked.
"No kidding," Irma replied. "We’re fairies way too much already."
Everyone grabbed a bite to eat, then headed home via the bus. After waiting with them for a bit, Cornelia headed home, but didn’t go inside. When she wanted think there was only one place for her to go, her garden.
It really was a small garden just off of the huge one that surrounded her house a landscaping company took care off for her parents. But this little corner was entirely her own; the company wasn’t allowed to do more than water and weed there. All plants were her choice, and she handled her own pruning and trimming. As she wandered among her babies, as she privately called them, she noticed a weed here, and random shoot there. She tidied some things up, and while she checked on one that caterpillars had been eating up over the past month, she thought about what she hadn’t told her friends.
There were more than just dreams.
Cornelia had powers.
She couldn’t fly, and didn’t have wings, and certainly wasn’t older. But as she studied the plant, the chewed up stems healed, its color brightened, and the entire thing started growing. Same with the flowers she checked on next, and the little bonsai tree she’d begged her parents to buy off a salesmen on the side of the road a couple years back. She really did have the powers of her dreams, making plants grow. Perhaps she really could summon giant vines or move the earth like she had in her dreams. Whenever a monster had gotten too close to her, BOOM! The ground split and down they went. The ones that survived had been tangled in monster plants that smothered them or held them prisoner.
Cornelia frowned at the gravel beneath her feet and will it to move, shift, something! But nothing happened. Then her cell was going off, and it was time to go back to the real world, where plants didn’t grow twice their size in a few seconds, and the ground stand where it belonged.
It was Irma. Cornelia wondered what Irma was going to make fun of her for this time, but she still answered.
"Hey, Cornelia?"
"What’s up?"
"Um…Remember when I told you I could make water fly? I-in my dreams?"
Cornelia frowned. "Yeah?"
"Well, I’m doing it. Right now."