The Elemental Written Examination

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Monday, 11.15am - 12.15 pm - Elemental Written Exam

Kira had already had her History exam that morning, and she was not looking forward to Maths that afternoon. She would fail it- she just knew it. Kira had no mind for Maths. Maths was a Lee subject. Maths was logical and... sensical- sensible and stuff. It's not that Kira couldn't think logically, it was more she hated Maths, and stubbornly resisted anyone who tried to teach her it.
Kira's mind had been too wrapped up in this whole Ressurection deal with Will to concentrate on teaching herself some basic algebra, so instead she'd concentrated on her better subjects. Deron had seemed interested, so they'd ran over some of her notes. He seemed to cotton onto the theory a lot quicker than she did, but he didn't seem to mind going a bit slower.
That was nice.
"I want complete silence in the hall while you are completing your exam," boomed Prof. Pott, striding along in front of the stage. "You are only allowed to have a pen, or a pencil, and a rubber. And there'll be no cheating, no gum-chewing..."
Kira stared past her teacher, her eyes glazing over as she stared at the gigantic clock behind the Crackpott. The pendulum swung slowly back and forth... back and forth... She'd always found pendulums hypnotic, and so always found it hard not to get distracted in exams. She couldn't help it. Back and forth it swung... and it was so pretty... that smooth sweeping motion gathering speed as it sped downwards, then slowing as it moved up and back down... down...
"... and you will do well," the Crackpott finished, clapping her hands sharply as the papers behind her lifted slowly and began to hand themselves out to the sea of seated students.
Kira stretched out her hand and took down the blue paper that was flying towards her. She turned it over to read the front:

STUDENT 832: KIRA RACHEL NORRIS
ELEMENTAL EXAM: WATER, GRADE 6
PROFESSOR: CHARLOTTE J. POTT

Charlotte?!
Well, alright then...
"11.15- you may now begin!" called out Charlotte.
Kira turned over her paper and stared at the first question. There was a small diagram of a girl in Stage 2 of the water sphere, and beneath it the question stated: 'Please describe the final stage of this move.'
It was too easy.
"Cup both hands and hold them above your head, before forcing the water sphere down with them. If performed correctly, keeping eye contact, the water sphere should move down and land in your hand, like a little ball full of water."
Next question... next question...
'People gifted with Water deal with what kind of energy?'
"The moon's neutral yin."
'Explain this.'
"Water controllers deal with the flow of energy. The moon is creates the tides and the waves, and so by tapping into its neutral yin through meditating excercises, the first water controllers learnt how to use this energy, and bend it to their will."
'Who was the first Moondit to discover the healing properties of water?'
"Lyan Beddor."
'How did this relate to the propaganda of the Moondits?'
"The Moondit Society was set up with the sole aim of conserving the old water-control ways and keeping balance with the moon's power. They used Lyan's discovery to their advantage, offering healing to the sick, if they joined their cause."
'How do the Moondits affect modern-day water-controlling?'
Kira sighed, flicking on through the paper to see how many more questions there would be. Thirty-four precisely; translating as 75 more marks to be gained.
Great.
This'd be a long hour...

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine tapped her pen against her hand impatiently as Professor "Crack" Pott was talking.
Come on, let's just get this over with...
She hated exams. Not because she did badly in them - not to sound cocky, but most of the time, she actually did rather well in them. She just hated sitting ... still... in silence... with nothing to think about but the test paper in front of her.
The worst bit was when she got really into an answer - and then someone had a coughing fit. It always happened, and it always annoyed the hell out of her.
"...And you will do well," Crackpott finished, as the sky blue papers flew out towards them.
Madeleine reached out and took hers from the air as it flew to her desk.

STUDENT 128: MADELEINE AMELIE BAUDELAIRE
ELEMENTAL EXAM: AIR, GRADE 6
PROFESSOR: JEREMY M. ARCHER

She frowned as she saw that they left off the accent in Amélie... again. They always did it.
"11.15- you may now begin!" Professor Potts called.
Eagerly, Madeleine opened the paper.
Who was the first person to write the technique used for self-levitation?
Easy. 'Zachary Quentin.'
Describe the hand motion used to levitate an object into the air.
Madeleine was irrestibly reminded of the time she and Levi were lifting Ollie up to the school from the battlefield. It had been hard, doing that for the whole time, but they'd kept each other going, joking and...
Wait. Why was she thinking about Levi Ryder in the middle of her exam?!
'Raise the palms, hand facing upwards, and...'

[Will Wright]

History and now this. Boring, boring, boring, boring. Will sat there tapping her pen against the desk. She had the temptation to use her psychokinisis to make a rubber or something to come up and hit 'Crackpott' with it. That would be funny.
She glanced around at everyone of her year in the hall. Anton was four seats back and five rows to the right. That had been a close call...a very close call. She hated exams, mostly because her mind tended to wander a lot and then left her with very little time at the end. But despite this little fact she always did quite well.
The papers ahd started to hand themselves out at the other end of the hall working their way up to her end. She hated this anticipation, she just wanted to do well and get it over and done with. A red, orange and yellow one handed itself to her in mid air. She took it without question and saw her student number, name, elemental power and grade and her teachers name on it. All in bold writing, just like her History exam paper.

[glow=red,2,300]Student 900:Will Alyssa Wright
Elemental Exam: Fire Grade 6
Teacher: Prudence H-M. Hannigan[/glow]

She had finished.
"11.15- you may now begin!" called out the Crackpott old fool.
Will like her nickname it twas funny at the best of times. Will's paper sat in front of her untouched. She was lost in her own head again. She snapped out of it quickly just as soon as someone had started coughing a lot. She looked around to see who it was. Anton. He was being led out by two teachers.
"Oh no," she muttered to herself in worry. She lloked to see Kira and Madeleine scribbling away. "Right exam paper. Focus Will focus." she turned her paper to the first page. A simple question to begin.
Who was goddess of fire? too easy.
Hestia, the Greek goddess or Vesta the Roman Goddess.
Who first wrote how to use fire for making a powerfull fireball?
Madam Gollsway. She wrote about how to make a fireball in 123BC.
How do you go about making a fireball?
Put all your power and concentration on your power of fire. Make your hands into the shape of a flower and raise them above your head. You turn 180 degrees then open your eyes. Sway on the spot. If you do it right you can create a huge fireball that could kill over a 1000 people.Very handy in battle.
She flicked through the pages one by one. Did the questions one by one. It was tedious but she had to do it.

[Macy Deltine]

(( I know that this is, like, a week late, but I'm replying to it none the less, okay? ))

Macy tapped the table nervously waiting for her paper. She didn't want to think about how she had done in her earlier exams, as if she did the fact that the head of the Academics should be getting full marks in everything they do. This annoyed Macy greatly, the pressure that was put on her as being the head, and she didn't need Jessica Harte sitting in the row across from her, talking about how confident she felt about her History paper.
Without realsing, Macy had frozen her black ball-point pen to her finger. She melted the ice, fiddled with it, then held it in the same position that was making ice grow on it again.
She half-listened to the teacher's instructions. Finally her paper had arrived in front of her. She took a deep breath and turned it over.

STUDENT 639: MACY TABITHA DELTINE
ELEMENTAL EXAM: ICE, GRADE 7
PROFESSOR: MARK PENN

She stared at the bold writing on the front of the paper. She knew that most of the others were on grade 6 elemental, but, again, most of them were born with their powers. Macy had obtained them.
She opened to the first page and read the question: 1. If person A (which was pointing to a blank-faced person beside the question) was attacking person B (again there was another blank-faced person with a big 'B' beside it) with a ground frost attack, in what way should person B defend?
Macy looked at the three empty lines underneath the question and the marks that the right answer offered, two. Two answers = two marks.
She took the pen and wrote in the lines: Person B should defend his self by either sending a counter attack of ice towards person A's frost, or being ready to melt it before it attacks him.
She looked at the answer she had written, but frowned. It made no sense. She moved on the the next question.
2. Where was the first records of the gift of ice control found?
Oh, this was too easy.
She wrote down the words that were forming in her head: The first records were found in New Zealand in 1786, which dated back to 100,000 BC, although, caves in Greenland were believed to show people with the power of Ice, but they have not been proven.
That seemed like a reasonable answer.
She spent the next hour, going through the paper, writing as fast as she could, without freezing the table out of nerves.
29. Is it possible to touch something, but not let frost or ice grow on it for some time?
'Yes, is it possible. You have to use alot of will-power, though, to control the frost. You have to picture the object having ice growing on it without you being there. Doing this this requires alot of skill and patience to master the technique.'
She mouthed the words as she wrote, remembering reading them in one of the text books from the library.
Finally she came to the last question. She looked at the question, it didn't seem so hard.
30. Describe the technique that had been established by gifted Bolivian Monks named 'The Snowdrop Tackle'
'The Snowdrop Tackle is a technique that many people have tried, but have failed to master. It is one that only can be mastered by people who have determination, physically, mentally and spiritually. To do the Snowdrop Tackle, you have to first picture the person that you want to use the tackle on, being either completly stiff or frozen. You then have to raise your arms in an upward motion, and grasp the air around you. While you do this, you must let your body pulse with your power, to flood though you veins and into your heart. Then lower your arms quickly, and from that motion a rush of ice and air will be thrown from the sky to your victim. It will freeze their blood and heart, but will also leave you very weak after doing this.
You should not attempt the tackle if you are not totally confident with your powers.'
Macy looked at her answer and was pleased. She flicked though the paper again, making last minute changes and finally the teacher in charge on the examination, Professor Pott stood up and told the students to set down their pens and place their paper upside down to be collected.
She tried to think of how well she had done, but only time would tell.