Hunter

As she opened her eyes she tried to remember where she was. She remembered the evening before; she had been out late with some friends and they decided to have a few drinks. She, being only 19, was designated "safe driver" for the crew. "Wait, where is everybody else?" she asked herself, confused. For some reason she couldn't remember anything else from the night before. She knew she didn't drink anything, she had tasted alcohol once; she didn't like it, so why did she have such a bad headache. As she started to come to her senses, she started hearing noises. Bleep. Bleep. Bleep. The constant bleeping was starting to really piss her off. She shot open her eyes as to gather her surroundings. She found herself in a mint green room, in a white hospital gown, with her family in the room. "Damn it" she said silently to herself. She and her family hadn't exactly gotten along since she left home 2 years ago with a guy she thought loved her, but instead left her for a rich, stuck-up brat.
    This is just the beginning of Hunter Jakobson's story.
Hunter was a cheerful baby and the youngest of her family. She was very beautiful, everyone said so. As she grew older her older sisters envied her. She had green eyes, and not just the normal green you would see in a person's eyes, no this green was so beautiful. Her hair was a gorgeous, dirty blonde. She was very slender and very agile.
At the age of 7, Hunter knew she wanted something different for her life than what her family could give her. Her family was considered very low class since there were 7 children and her Father was the only one that was bringing in any money, as Hunter's mother had to quit her job when Hunter's eldest brother got caught doing drugs in the bathroom of his school. Jordan was expelled and Mrs. Jakobson decided to home school him for the last two years of high school.
At 15, Hunter knew she was different from everybody else in her family and she thought everyone in the world. She was tired of being at home and couldn't sleep so she chose to go for a late night run. That's the night she realized her difference, she should have died that night, but she didn't. The doctors all said it was a miracle that her skull hadn't been crushed, but Hunter knew that the tree had indeed crushed her skull when it fell. Somehow, though she was still alive and her skull had healed itself by the time her parents found her. They had found her unconscious, with no scrapes or bruising or broken bones.
When she left home at 17 with Aaron, she was really trying to discover herself and figure out how to tell her parents what she found out shortly after the tree had fallen on her head. She was an elemental. She could control ice. She found out that the Ice elementals could heal their bones from fractures and complete breaks; depending on how bad the fracture or breakage was determined how long it took to heal. A crushed skull took all of 20 minutes to heal. The Ice elementals could also heal themselves from a severed limb or even the slightest scratch.
Aaron left her shortly after her 18th birthday. After that Hunter didn't trust anyone. Male or Female.  Black or White. She built a brick wall inside her heart and let no one take it down. Hunter decided to attend a college solely for elementals, Gracepoint College. The school was in California, she lived in South Carolina at the time, had no job, no car, and no money. How was she going to get out there? She didn't want to get help from anyone, because she didn't trust anyone. She wrote a letter to the Dean of the college asking to be accepted for she had nowhere to stay or any training as to how to use her element. She was accepted promptly and they paid her way to the school. She trained with the best of them.....
Hunter had no idea of what she was getting herself into, with letting this guy train her. She hated men but there was just something about this one. The connection between the two of them was instant, she didn't like that feeling. She never really had liked the feeling of connection between her and males. Her brothers and her Father, and her uncles were really the only men she talked to. Her grandfathers were both dead, they had fought in a war (one that no one wanted to tell her about). Why they hadn't told her was beyond her, but it wasn't her choice.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Hunter jumped at the sound of someone knocking on her door. Who is knocking on the door at 5:30 in the morning?  She thought to herself.
She jumped out of bed grabbed her gun off her nightstand and rushed to the door. She peered through the peep hole on the door and saw that it was just Baylor. She opened the door turned to Baylor and said, "Baylor, why are you knocking on the damn door so early?"
"Cause it’s time to get up." Baylor said with a smirk.
"Well, I am apparently awake."
"Sorry, but training starts at 6, meet me upstairs, in this." Baylor said as he handed her a black wet suit, with a pair of knee high boots and a pair of gloves.
"Ok and the wet suit is for......?"
"You will find out during your training today. Oh btw, prepare to be exhausted by the end of the day. You will just want to sleep by the time I am done with you." Baylor told her.
"We will see, I am really tough, you will have to push me pretty hard."  She told him as she grabbed the clothing from his hands. She turned around and walked back into her room and shut the door.
At exactly 6 am, Baylor walked through the doors to the training arena. Hunter saw him as soon as he walked through the doors. He couldn't see her and she knew it, thankfully she remembered to silence her cell phone. Two minutes later her phone vibrated in the inside of her wet suit, she took it out and looked at her caller ID, Baylor J. She figured she could come out of hiding now. So while he was turned around she came out of her hiding place and quickly and silently came up behind him and tapped his shoulder.
"Damn Hunter, how long have you been here?" Baylor asked after he came over the initial shock of her being right behind him.
"Oh, well I have been in here since about 5:50. I was just watching you wait for me, and listening to you talk to yourself." She said almost laughing.
"Oh you heard me talking to myself? What did you hear me say?" He asked alarmed.
"Oh I heard you I heard everything you said. JK, Brosky, i could only hear you mumbling to yourself, couldn't make out any of the words you said." as Hunter finished saying that she saw relief wash over him like a flood. "Dude, you need to lighten up, you are too high strung."
“You are the second person to tell me that, I guess I may need to lighten up."
She could tell that something had him so high strung, but what, she didn't know. Hunter decided that she would leave the subject alone for now so that he wouldn't increase her training to much today. Baylor decided to start small, she knew she could do more but she didn't want to show how powerful she was just yet.

.............................................................................................................................................................................

Hunter knew something was up with Baylor. He was too shakey for something to not be wrong, but what was bothering him so badly? All of a sudden her head started to hurt really bad. Then the next thing she knew she was hearing his thoughts.

"Why does this girl have to be so damn fine? I mean like really, she's Ice, like me, she understands me, and she's extremely beautiful. I like her a lot; maybe that's why I'm shaking so badly. Man, I really hope she doesn't notice." Hunter heard as she listened to Baylor's thoughts.

"Baylor? You ok?" Hunter asked Baylor once she finally managed to stop listening to his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine." He replied, kind of startled at the question.

"Are you sure? You seem totally out of it." She said questioning his response.

"Well, I guess you could say I'm kind of out of it in a way." Baylor said as he sighed.

"Um, do you want to talk about it?" She asked him, mainly out of concern but mostly because she wanted to know if he was going to say anything about him liking her. She was doubtful of it. Guys tended to struggle when it came to feelings.

"No, Not really." She half-way heard him say.

"Ok, well I guess I'll go start training." Hunter said as she walked off to find something to get started with.

Why he persisted with training her before the sun was even up was beyond her, but it is what it is. Hunter decided that she would go for a run around the track. Generally, he had her do two miles, so today she decided to do three, but first she needed to do some stretches; she did not want to pull one of the muscles in her leg, as she did the first time he’d had her run. That was one mistake she'd rather not repeat.

After her training that morning Baylor sent her on her way and told her to keep hydrated and cool, because it was supposed to be one hell of a hot day. And with that he was gone. Hunter went about her basic morning routine after training. She went back to her room stripped the wet suit off and jumped into the shower. Then she would get out and get dressed. She never did the whole hair and make-up thing like the other girls did. Hunter never understood the point, your make-up would just get smudged and your hair would get messed up, either naturally or by some guy that rubs your hair while he is doing a fail attempt at flirting with you. So she'd dry her hair and put it in a ponytail. She would then proceed to the Café to find something of edible quality. Once she actually found something she would eat then do who knows what for the rest of the day, well until 2pm because that was her other training time. At that time she and Baylor would be in the arena for 4 to 5 hours doing nothing but training, which was good for her because after the tree fell on her she had the hardest time doing simple tasks, such as picking things up off the floor, and even running. Yet after two weeks, Baylor had her running 2 miles in under 13 minutes, and he was proud of that.

For the next four days Hunter noticed that Baylor only called her in the mornings for training for two hours then the rest of the day she had to herself. On the fourth morning she saw Baylor in the hallway before training so she walked up to him and said "Hey Baylor, what's going on?"

"Um, nothing, why do you ask?" Baylor responded as he looked away.

"Oh, yeah nothing is going on, alright", Hunter thought to herself. "Well, you have been avoiding me like the plague for the past few days. And you always want to chill with me. So, what's up?" She asked him in all seriousness.

"Oh, Um, Well...........Um, I got busy." Baylor started. "I was training, you know, getting better so that I can train you better."

"Yeah right, sure." Hunter said as she took three steps closer to Baylor. Then in one swift movement she disarmed him of the damned knife that he had been messing with the entire conversation, and pinned him to the wall with her arm across his chest. She looked him dead in the eyes before she continued, "Don't lie to me, Baylor." She said in a whisper, "I know exactly why you were avoiding me. One thing you don't know about me is how well and how far my abilities have developed. Most times if I am in the same room, I can hear your thoughts. Creepy, I know, but it is what it is. Fact of the matter is, I know you were shaking like crazy the other day when you were training me because you are attracted to me. So, I don't ever want you to lie to me again. Do I make myself clear?" She said as she moved her arm up closer to his throat to apply more pressure.

"Uh, Yes, Ma'am, You've made yourself very clear.” Baylor said. She could tell that this was making him uncomfortable, but she continued to hold him there for a few more seconds just to ensure that she had made her point.

"Good, now that we understand each other, you may now have your knife back." Hunter said as she handed Baylor his knife back while unpinning him in the same movement. She then turned and walked off, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

She decided that she wouldn't spy after that, Hunter glanced at her watch the display read 4:50. Why had she gotten up so early? Oh, yes to talk to Baylor before training. "Eh, I still got like an hour before training even starts; I'll go get a little more sleep." She said to the walls. Hunter talked to the walls, because they would listen and not judge her, unlike people.

Hunter wasn’t asleep long before Baylor called her, and she knew why.
“Yellow?” she said when she answered her phone.

“Why do you always say that, Hunter?” Baylor said on the other end of the line.

“What, ‘Yellow’?” She asked trying to play innocent.

“Yes, why do you always answer the phone with ‘yellow’?”

“Um, well…….I really don’t know. What do you want Baylor?” She asked even though she already knew what it was he wanted.

“It’s time to come upstairs. Wet suit, boots, and gloves. Pull your hair up because I’m pushing you hard today. Now I know what you are capable of and I’m going to use that to my benefit.” Baylor said with a hint of an attitude.

“Yeah, Ok. I’ll be up there in ten.” Hunter responded and hung up the phone. Good going girl, going to get yourself in a hell of a lot of trouble. She said to herself as she rushed to get ready. When she was done she rushed upstairs.

When Hunter got upstairs to the arena Baylor was already there. He was talking to a couple of people that she had seen before but never met. She knew that they were talking about her before she even walked up. The head nod from the other man standing there gave her that impression. Hunter walked up and stood behind Baylor, she let her breath fall on the back of Baylor’s neck. When she was in her boots she tended to be about as tall as him, but she was still an inch shorter. She knew that it sent a chill down Baylor’s spine, because in that moment he turned around and flashed a smile at her. She decided to leave his thoughts alone today; she knew that he was pissed so she didn’t even want to know what was going on in his head. Not right now at least.

“Go do some stretches and run 2 miles. When you’re done meet me back here.” Baylor told her sternly.

“Ok. See you in a few.” Hunter said as she walked away. “Man, that guy is hard to figure out. One minute he’s all chill and calm, the next he is mad and frustrated. What’s up with that?” she said to herself as she walked towards the track. After some stretches she started walking and gradually increased it to a full on run. When she got done she realized she ran the 2 miles in 11 minutes and 27 seconds. DAMN!! She thought to herself. That’s the fastest that I have ever run that. Baylor didn’t notice nor will he. Boys, so unobservant. Oh well.  

“No problem, man. Just keep us posted.” The tall guy was saying to Baylor when she walked up.

“Ok, will do.” Baylor said in reply.

“Ok, Baylor, I’m done with that. What’s next?” Hunter asked him when she felt that it was safe to interrupt.

“Now, you take a break. Take 10 minutes to stretch your legs, get some water, and sit for a little bit.”

“Okay.” Hunter said with a bit of hesitation as she walked off to get some water. There was a mini fridge up in the arena that held some cold waters, but she wanted to see if she could use her element and make a bottle of warm water cold. So she went on a hunt in search of warm water. She found some in the back of a closet beside the fridge. Probably the bottles to restock the fridge. She thought to herself.

Hunter had frozen things in the past, but just cooling something down,  that would be a feat. Hunter tried to focus on the task at hand but she could help but wondering about what Baylor and the other two students had been saying about her. I mean it’s in a girl’s nature to wonder about such things; honestly it’s in any person’s nature to wonder about it. She didn’t need to let it bother her; she had to focus on cooling the water without freezing it. The freezing was the easy part; the cooling was the hard part.

Still Hunter was going to do it. She was going to cool the water down, but that would have to wait till later, it had already been 8 minutes and she still needed to get some water. She preferred to drink warm water after running anyways.  She figured it would be safe to chug the entire water bottle since it had already been like 15 minutes since she had got done running. She downed the bottle then threw it into the recycling bin. She may be badass, at least to herself, but when it came to being green and environmentally friendly she was right there with all the nerds and geeks and anyone else that recycled.

She walked over to where she had left Baylor, who was lost in thought, and said, “I’m back, and it’s been 10 minutes. Just so you know.”

“Uh, oh yeah. Sorry, I was thinking about some stuff.” Baylor responded half-zoned.
“Eh, it’s no problem.” She told him.

“Ok, well I’m not feeling too well so you go ahead and be done for today, we will skip today’s 2 pm training, unless im feeling better, Ok?” Baylor told her.

“Ok, well I hope that you get feeling better soon. I’ll catch you later.” Hunter said as she turned and started to walk off.

“Will you go out with me?” Hunter heard Baylor say, in a very low voice.

“Uh, what was that?” Hunter asked him.

“Will you go on a date with me?” He asked in a louder voice.

“Um, well……I would love to, Baylor. Thank you, for finally asking me.” Hunter said as she blushed.

“Cool, ok, How about Friday night, I take you to a movie then to dinner?” Baylor asked.

“Sure, what time?” Hunter asked.

“How about 4:30? We could swing by the theater pick a movie then decide on eating before or after the movie, and where. That sound cool?” Baylor asked.

“Yeah, 4:30 on Friday, I’ll be ready.” Hunter answered, trying to sound as if she wasn’t about to explode.

“Ok, well I’ll catch you later. I’d really like to kick this, whatever it may be, to the curb before I get sick, so I’m going to go take a nap.” Baylor said as he walked away, passing Hunter and leaving her there, alone, in the arena, with her thoughts.

He actually did it. I didn’t think that he would but he did. WOW! I’m actually surprised; I never thought that he would do it. Hunter was in total shock because of what just happened. She stood in the arena for about 5 more minutes before she left and headed down to her room. She wanted to get out of these clothes and then confide in her journal, as she did every day.  She secretly had like Baylor since the first time she laid eyes on him. How could she not? He was tall, dark, and handsome, and his eyes, oh, his eyes they were so pretty. Most times she wouldn’t refer to guy’s eyes as pretty but his were gorgeous. So deep blue, almost like the ocean, they had so many different colors in them and it made her jealous. Her eyes were green, just plain green, even though people told her all the time that her eyes were very beautiful, she just didn’t believe them.  
At 2 pm Baylor called Hunter and told her that he was feeling better and was up to giving her a few lessons. So Hunter got changed back into her wet suit and boots and headed upstairs.

“Hey, Baylor, did you get any sleep?” Hunter asked him, her voice sounding concerned.

“Oh, yeah I did. I slept from about 8 till 1:43. It was amazing.” Baylor told her.

“Well, I’m glad you are feeling better, buddy.” She said.

“Ok, so I want you to try something that I have been attempting to do for a while. You don’t mind do you?” Baylor asked her.

“Well, it depends on what exactly you are wanting me to do.” Hunter told him.

“I want you to get into a pool of water and freeze it. I have attempted this for months, and I have not yet succeeded with it yet.” Baylor said.

“Oh ok, I’ll try it, don’t know that I’ll be able to do it though.” Hunter lied to Baylor as to not make him feel bad, since he had been training to do this stuff for years, whereas she had only been training for 3 weeks.

“If you can’t its no big deal, I just want to see if you can do it.” Baylor said.

“Ok, well let’s just see if I can do it.” She said knowing that she could do it.

“Ok, over here is the pool that I have been working with.” Baylor said as he walked towards the pool.

Hunter jumped into the water. She started to focus herself so she could freeze the water…..