By Firelight

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

The fire was roaring, crackling, spitting, sparkling; vivid, lurid orange and amber flames and sparks. Professor Truman, who turned out to be an exceptionally good master of fire, had created the controlled fire neatly, and without accidents in less than a second. They'd tried, and failed to time him.
The fire was surrounded bay a circle made up of hay bales, and the students were lying and sitting on these, gossiping and toasting marshmallows on wooden skewers.
Madeleine glanced around at the students as she walked towards the fire. Levi had decided to be sociable, and was joining in with conversations. Will and Anton were being sickeningly cute by feeding each other marshmallows... it was truly barf-worthy.
Saying that, she probably wouldn't mind it if it were her and Lee.
She sank down beside Lee in the group of people. "Hey guys," she said, trying to sit up properly.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

It was so nice sitting by the firelight with everyone. Will and Anton sat across from Levi, nearby that girl... Macy, he thought her name was, who was with a boy with bright green hair. There were his friends, and now... here was Madeleine.
Cool.
Laughing at her, Lee leant around and put his arm around her, pulling her upright and hugging her close. She felt wonderfully warm against him, and he felt a rush of affection for her. Brian looked like he was about to wolf-whistle, but at that point he was hit between the eyes by a well-aimed marshmallow from Kira.
Levi's face darkened slightly, but for some reason, Lee found himself taking joy in this fact, rather than jealousy.
"Hiii, Madeleiiine," chimed Ellie happily, twirling her skewer between her hands like a baton. "Ooh, scary sword."
"Tis' a Warrior thing," Brian laughed. "Self-protection. Can never be too careful."
"Shurrup, you," Ellie laughed, kicking a clump of hay at him.
Mike caught it and threw it at Kira. It landed in her hair, sticking out awkwardly and trickling down her back. She pursed her lips, picking a long strand of hay out.
Funnily enough, it jogged Lee's memory.
"You have to teach me how to plait," he said, squeezing Madeleine a little.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine laughed, feeling a warm rush as he squeezed her, bringing her close to his warm body. "You're obsessed with these plaits," she said, reluctantly struggling out of his arms and off the hay, before seating herself on the ground in front of him.
As Lee took a strand of her hair, she watched Chloe's face carefully. She pouted a little, but didn't seem to want to make a big deal out of it.
She teased out a strand of hair at the side of her face and split it into three sections. "Put it into three sections," she instructed him. "Then cross this one like... this... and then cross that outside one, and you just keep going..."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Taking her soft hair between his fingers carefully, a frown line appeared on his forehead. "Three? Just... wrap it?"
"Aww, you're so stupid, Lee," laughed Ellie. "Wrap it? What?"
"Shh," Lee laughed at her. "I'll get this... No... no I won't."
"Oh, for goodness' sake!" Levi suddenly cried, coming over and sitting beside Lee, half-pushing him out of the way. "C'mon, it's not rocket science..."
Taking Madeleine's hair, within five seconds a perfect plait had formed, and Lee was left feeling like a bug that had just been smeared across the floor.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine scowled. "Levi," she said, her voice strained and dangerous. "The whole point of this is to teach Lee how to do it."
What the hell was he playing at?! He'd been gettting on well with people just a few seconds before, and he'd had to go and...
Yeah, he was a perfectionist and had more than a few control freakish tendencies, but that was no excuse.
He backed away at her tone, thankfully and dematerialized, hopefully to somewhere far, far away.
Shaking the plait angrily out of her hair, she turned back to Lee, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly. "You plait it, please," she said quietly, a pleading note in her voice - pleading that things wouldn't go awkward again.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee gulped, steadying himself for a few moments. It was funny- in those few seconds all of the new confidence that'd he'd been feeling dissolved. Now... he just felt stupid. Small. Bad.
C'mon, Lee, it's not rocket science.
Carefully and awkwardly, he wove a plait through her hair. The end result was untidy, and lumpy, but he couldn't help that.
"There," he muttered.
From the look on Kira's face, she was ready to throw more than marshmallows.

[Ailith Rayner]

Oh. Tension in the ranks I see. Thought Ailith, Not good warriors. Pull it together.
Having said th ... well, thought that it was rather a pleasent atmosphere. The fire brought back some memories. There had been one time where two of the night-shift boys where about to leave when Ailith came down stairs, wet-eyed and snuffly, and stood on the bottom step. That was when it had just hit home to Ailith, that she would never hear or speak to her father ever again. One of the lads was a Sergent named Hoard. He saw Ailith and sat down beside the small, tortured creature and cuddled her into him, as the fire blazed beside them. Ailith, despite her grief, knew that even though she had lost her father, she had gained 408 godparents. It wouldn't make up for her father, but she was a lucky girl to have so many people care for her.

It was the same, calm, happiness around her that made her think of that memory and Ailith couldn't help but smile at the fire. It was rare that Ailith ever thought like this. The years at the assassin's school had strenthened, sharpened and thickened the steely 'outer shell' that Ailith had already had, like a blacksmith on iron ore. Maybe the Watchmen had forseen this, but it was hard to refuse the girl the only thing she had been really passionate about for two years. But now it was starting to rust. Ailith would never lose her hardened exterior but maybe, a long time from now, it would lessen so much that she would show her feelings all the time. For now though, she would keep everything to herself and be the greatest spy that she could. Ailith woke from her mini-daydream and looked about her again. She disliked having her back exposed like this, but she knew if she turned or kept turning to look behind her others would become wary and tense up slightly and it would ruin the brilliant atmosphere that they all had created. Ailith would just have to settle on relying on other people's and her own reactions to sense for danger. Ailith touched her shin. She felt a little better.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

No wonder Lee was allowing himself to get so worked up. This Levi guy was a right... well, pretty bad, at any rate. Aww... did his testosterone overdose prevent him from being able to cope when someone else touched his Head's hair? His things? She bet he was that type- rude, arrogant, and thought everyone was beneath him.
She was mad. But she wouldn't give him that satisfaction. She wouldn't do that to Madeleine and Lee.
Although... she was Head of the Spies... Ailith was a Spy... technically she could order Ailith to reduce Levi to a whimpering, infertile wreck...
Ooh, the temptation...
Don't go there, Kira.
After a few moments of awkward silence, she decided to move things on, and spare Lee any more embarrassment. Turning to Macy, and the boy with green hair, she nodded at him.
"Nice trick. Can you go through all the different colours?"
Hopefully, this would spark off the highly anticipated power show.

[Macy Deltine]

Macy sat beside her new friend, Steve and gazed into the fire. On the other side of it, was Holden, whom she hadn't spoken to much since her return. She was surprised when she had seen he had signed up for the trip, it wasn't something she could see him doing. She looked at him and gave a very faint smile. He looked up and saw that she was smiling it him, and seemed to panic and look away.
Macy didn't know what to do next, and looked back into the fire again.
"Hey, Macy, how do you think the teachers would react if I blew up part of the school...not on purpose, or anything, but Rachel says that they would kick me out, but I think they would section me, like my mother."
Macy had heard the tragic story of his parents, how his father spent all their money on drugs, his mother, who couldn't use her powers properly and was sent to a mental home, and that he had to live with his abusive uncle for a year before he came to Orchid Hill. When he talked about it, his hair kept flaring into different colours, and it was clear to see that he didn't know how to cope and was overrun with so many emotions that he didn't understand.
She sighed and looked at him. At his grey eyes, that if you look at them at first they look dull, but close-up they looked more like a storm, passing over the sea, at his now green hair, showing that he was happy, still with leaves in it from earlier that day when he thought it would be fun to try and climb a tree, but fell out (his friend Rachel, a nurse from the hospital wing who had helped Macy, was able to act very quickly in healing his cuts, and it seemed that she had become accustom to antics like this), and at his pale, thin lips that he would often purse or bite when concentrating.
"I don't know what they would do with you, Steve." Macy replied. He gave her a strange look, and turned around to her friend Kira whom had just asked him a question. She hadn't really realized much what was happening then, she had been captivated in Steve's facial features.
"I can't really change it into many colours, well, actually I don't know if I can. There's probably so many emotions that I have that don't have colours, or something. But I can do this!" He said and turned to a spot beside Kira and make it blow up. It wasn't a very drastic explosion, but it made people turn to him. Macy was surprised at how well he could just talk to people he didn't know, but she liked it about him. He was so open and fun. She hadn't had a good laugh in a while, and on meeting him, there was rarely a moment she wasn't in stitches.
"What can you do?" He said, now sitting on his knees, facing Kira. His hair had gone a navy-blue, which seemed to show excitement or anticipation.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira jumped with a few other people as the explosion went off beside her, but their shock turned to laughter quickly. The first thing Kira really noticed about this boy was his energy. There was something incredibly refreshing about the excitable way he spoke, and his rainbow ranging hair.
Now, it'd turned a deep navy, almost as black as the shadows surrounding them all.
Kira laughed at his eagerness. "Four things. Hypnoses, water, shadow control and... this."
Jumping to her feet, Kira dashed into the forest, jumping over branches and bubbling brooks as she went. Moving quickly, she dashed straight through the forest and arrived at the end of it. A boy stood expectantly for her, and he handed her a Cardsdale souvenir, and she passed over her treasure to him. Then, with a burst of speed, she ran back, and arrived beside the indigo-haired boy.
And all in less than 30 seconds.
"I'm Kira," she laughed, sinking down beside him. "What's your name?"

[Macy Deltine]

"I'm Steve, but people seem to call me 'Bonkers from Yonkers', because I'm from Yonkers, New York, and they think I'm crazy, but I'm not." He frowned. His hair turned an aqua blue colour and he stared into the fire for some time. Then he snapped out of it and his hair turned a bright green again. He looked around at Macy, Kira and Rachel, all whom were watching him for the next thing he'll say.
A smirk spread across his face and behind him the fire began to spark, and grew larger and larger before bang!
A small mushroom cloud appeared over the fire.
Some people let out a small yelp and turned and stared at either the fire or Steve, who looked like he was trying to keep in a fit of laughter, but he finally couldn't help himself and fell to the floor in stitches. Macy began to laugh to, and was followed by the rest of the campers. Professor Thandie ripped out of the tent and everyone fell silent.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" She screamed. Everyone seemed to try and hide, and Professor Thandie scoured though the campsite and finally her eyes rested on Steve. "Mr Ritzski, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. Well, I didn't mean to, I was looking into the fire and then it kinda exploded, and I didn't mean to Professor Thandie, I can't help it." His hair was flashing different colours from radiant red to lime green, it finally set of a honey blondish.
The vice-principle sighed and looked at him. "Have you taken your medication?" Some of the other campers sniggered at this, and Steve gave them all a dirty look, making his hair turn a blacky red.
"Yes, I did. I didn't mean to do it."
She eyed him for a second before returning back into her tent were the other teachers were having hot chocolate together.
Everyone turned to Steve and someone shouted "Aye, Bonkers from Yonkers. Nice one! 'Ave ya taken your meds?"
Steve's cheeks went red, but it wasn't an embarrassed sort of red. It was an angry red. His hair also went red, but he didn't react. Nothing exploded. He just turned his back on everyone, to Rachel, Macy and Kira.
"I hate them." He said quietly.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira felt a flare of anger, clenching her fists and her teeth at the way Steve had just been mocked. There was something... something she found really likable about him, and he seemed friendly enough. So why would people do that? Why would take make fun of him for something he couldn't help?
Steve made her laugh. But he didn't deserve to be laughed at.
Hoping Prof. Thandie would do something, she looked over pleadingly, but she was already heading back to her tent, apparently oblivious. Kira sighed, and got up, scrambling after the vice-principal.
"Steve was only helping me with the opening act for the power show," Kira said boldly, staring up at Prof. Thandie. "There's always a power show at camp. He shouldn't be in trouble."
Any other student would probably have been punished for their cheek. But Kira was a Head.
There was always a difference.
Prof. Thandie sighed. "You insist on having this power show?"
Kira nodded.
"I'll just go get Prof. Truman then," Prof. Thandie said hollowly. "You'll need adult supervision."
After a few minutes of scuffling about, the campers were all ready. Kira watched them all with a surge of pride. Deron was going to arrive to quite a show...
"Well then, everyone," sighed Prof. Thandie in a resigned sort of way. "Go for it."

[Will Wright]

Will lay on Anton. She was snug and just at comfortable room temperature maybe a little more. Nothing could be better. Nothing. She was looking straight through the fire. She was more relaxed than she had been in her life. She was at peace. She was....looking at Lee. Her heart jumped and tiny bit. Not again.
She had been startled earlier on by the new boy Steven had exploded a rock or something beside Kira. She was bemused by it. But it happened again a few minutes ago and he had gotten in trouble and then people had started to make fun of him because he was on medication. She hated it when people did that, when it wasn't their fault and they laughed at them because they're different.
"Well then, everyone," sighed Prof. Thandie in a resigned sort of way. "Go for it."
Will was first to go for showing of her powers. She stood up and stood in front of everybody (they had grouped to gether infront of all the tents while she stood in front of the camp fire; the fire keeping her back warm.
"Well I've got one power that I can't show of because it's passive. But I can show you three others," she started of with a simple explosion and lifting fire of the camp fire. She then used her powers of psychokenisis to make fireballs appear.
"Come out [color=Terrico[/i]," breathed so that no one could hear her. A rustling noise came from behind them all and a small red fox leaped over everyone's heads and skidded to Will's side. Will smiled at her furry little friend and carried on. She threw fire into the air and usd her power of molecular combustion to make them explode so that they had mini fireworks showering over them and making their eye's dazzle. She used her powers of fire and pyschokenisis to do tricks like make a ring of fire for Terrico to jump through.
She was on her finishing touches now.[/color] Terrico jumped lightly onto her shoulders as she stepped into the camp's fire. The flames licked her and she became a human torch; she used her fire power to make sure the fire engulfed her completely and started ascending slowly. She rose to about 20ft in the air and made wee fireballs go in different directions and burst to make huge fireworks.Terrico lifted her up and started making her fly around, he let go of her and she used the last of her fire power that night to soar around the forest up around the academy and back again in under 50 seconds. She landed back in the fire and stepped out. She was greeted by a huge applause.Terrico dashed back over their heads still in flames and out of sight. Will stumbled a bit as she went back to her place. On her way she caught Lee by the eye and smiled faintly at him. She collapsed onto Anton and watched the rest of the performances.

[Ailith Rayner]

Wow. That was cool. What?! What am I saying?! Urgh, hate that word in that context, yuk.
There was a gap in the performances as people fidgited and looked about to see who was going to follow that act. Not surprisingly people were slightly reluctant. Ailith smiled and looked around to see who was giving in to desperation and excitement. Ailith did a double take on Kira who seemed to be making eye-contact with her.
Mmm... a chance to show myself may not be a bad idea. Can't hide forever. With a look from Kira, eyebrows raised and a small smile, Ailith got to her feet. Why not. They're ... well they mostly human.

Ailith stood but decided not to be seen just yet. It wasn't that she disappeared but if you weren't watching you would most certainly miss. Kira could see her as she was watching Ailith but as no-one else was no one had noticed until Ailith had gathered herself and prepared for her performance.
"Good evening, Spies," Ailith smiled as cheers and whoops arose from the four other Spies.
"Carers," another cheer, "Academics ... Warriors and last but in no way least ... Professors Thandie and Truman." Once the audience had calmed Ailith proceeded to say, "Now does anyone happen to have a spoon?"
The audience frowned before someone shouted, "Yeah! Over here!" and grabbed the head of the person sitting next to him. The audience laughed, as did Ailith. This crowd worked themselves!
"Thank you, yes, but I do in fact mean an implament for eating soft solids or liquids. In fact anything metal?"
"Here! An actual spoon." Professor Truman handed over his spoon from making the chocolate.
"Thank you Professor. Now, watch closely all of you."
Ailith held the spoon at the bottom with one hand, waving the other and staring intently at the spoon puting on a face of total concentration. Gradually the spoon began to bend at the neck. The audience had no doubt seen this trick done before by amatuers and began to say things like "yeah, yeah", "yawn", "seen it!". When Ailith lay the bent spoon in both hands and folded them quickly inwards bending the spoon completely in half. The crowd shut up and watched and waited. Ailith stood with her hands clasped and looked at the people around her. She smiled and raised her eyebrows at them as one might when waiting in an awkward silence with a stranger.
"So, how are you all? Enjoying yourselves?" There was a few mumbles of agreement but not much else. They were watching intently.
"Well, I don't know about you Warriors," Said Ailith amiably, opening her hands, "but the thing that really gets under my skin is armour." She lifted one hand above the other and poured the molten stainless steel into one hand. The crowd were either smiling or watching fixedly with mouths and eyes open a little wider than normal. "You know when you're out and your helmet weighs a ton and your body armour, awh! Don't get me started! So what I do," She dipped two fingers into the pool of metal, "Is cover the basics." Ailith wiped the two fingers across one cheek, one on the cheek bone the other just below it and each finger left a sheet of metal on her face. The audience either laughed or went something like "Awh class!". Ailith again dipped her fingers into the steel and drew them across the other cheek in the same position. And once more but this time a thick sheet down the middle of her forehead right down her to the end of her nose. The surplus metal she evened out between both hands and wiped them along her jaw.
Ailith spoke again but very stiffly, "Of course the Academics will have spotted a flaw in my makeshift armour. And hey, who knows, maybe some of the Carers will have spotted it too. Who knows? Sometimes they surprise us all." A few of the Carers made a fake-huffy face including Will, the girl Ailith had met when she first arrived, while the rest of the gathering laughed.
"Hi." Ailith nodded to show no hard feelings. "Well, if i move my face any amount of course the metal will fall off, yes?" Ailith called to the crowd.
The spectators hazard a, "Yes?"
"No!" Shouted Ailith, making her face as wide as possible and the sheets of metal moved with her face. People laughed or shouted with approval.
"Will The Warriors please raise their hand?" Three hands were edged into the air. Ailith looked at the girl closest to her. "You got a knife?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine was eyeing this girl interestedly - and wondering why the hell she wasn't in her group. Her metal bending was incredible...
"Will the Warriors please raise their hands?"
She glanced at Steve - she couldn't bear to look at Levi - and put her hand into the air.
The girl glanced at her. "You got a knife?"
Madeleine blinked. In actual fact, she had three blades - her sword and her grandfather's dagger (and there was no way she was giving that for the girl to bend) in her belt, and a penknife in the inside pocket of her jacket.
She took it out and threw it across to the girl. "I want it back," she said, smiling.