The Strange Changes/Plot

Austin woke up on TJ’s couch with a huge migraine from all the crying he had done the night earlier. He recalls the events of last night when his mom kicked him out. He saw his dad trying to save her and interject but his mom took took the lead on kicking him out. Austin got up and went into the kitchen to see his wife, making breakfast. Austin said hello and asked her where TJ was. She told him that he was at work and that TJ asked her to cook for him to help take Austin’s mind off of his current situation. Austin felt for the first time in days that somebody finally cared about him. He sat down and began to eat his breakfast. While he was eating, he tried to think of ways to get his parents to see that he wasn’t evil and that he was really a good guy and still their son.

Hannah & Alissa are walking in the halls to lunch. Alissa explains to Hannah how intense that dream of the man in the middle of the circle was and Hannah agreed to help out with the research. Hannah then tells Alissa about what happened with Mr. Ahn. Alissa tells her that she has to 100% percent report him because he could be making sexually suggestive comments and motions to other girls in their school and they had to know that he’s not trusted to be around these girls. They separate and Hannah heads to the office to talk to TJ about what happened with Mr. Ahn.

Alissa bumps into Emma in the hallway. She feels a chill run up and down her spine when she goes to say excuse me. Emma looks Alissa up and down and tells her to never get in her way again. Emma then pushes Alissa against the wall and walks away. Alissa felt a strange feeling of deja vu when Emma looked into her eyes. She shook off the feeling and headed to class, knowing something was off and she needed to tell someone else about it.

Charlie woke up with a headache on Alex & Emma’s couch. He couldn’t remember the events of the night before at all. The only thing he did remember was them chanting in Latin and then nothing but darkness. He sat up on the couch and saw Alex eating some cereal & watching Spongebob on the living room television. Charlie sat up on the couch and looked at Alex, feeling super confused. Alex waved at him and asked him did he sleep well. He sat up slowly and looked at Alex very confused & asked him about the previous night’s events. Alex told him that he lost control but it was fine because they all did. Charlie felt a pressure in his chest and started to panic until Alex touched his hand. He looked in Alex’s eyes and Alex told him it’s ok because they all have this desire to feel free and be unrestricted. Charlie gave Alex a hug and felt more at ease from Alex’s words. His phone than vibrated & he sees that he has a text from TJ that everyone needs to meet at the library for an important meeting. Charlie rolls his eyes and tells Alex about the meeting. Alex tells him he should go. Charlie gets up and gets washed and dressed. He heads out of the door as Emma heads in. As Charlie leaves, Alex fills Emma in on everything that went down while she was at school. Emma asked Alex why did she let Charlie leave & Alex told her that he had to sever ties with his fellow Elementals once and for all.

TJ was confident with his decision. Since day one, he had been watching each of the Elementals to determine who would lead the group. He looked at their ability to control their new powers, their actions, all the way down to how they balance training and fighting evil with their normal lives. And, finally, after much thought he had decided who would be the leader of the group. Austin, Hannah, Alissa and Zak showed up first and just had small talk while they waited almost an hour for Charlie to show up. Charlie walked in late with an attitude & you could the tension in the air between him and Zak with a knife. TJ chose to ignore it & announced to them that he’s finally selected a leader. He told them what he looked at when determining who was the best choice and he decided on Austin becoming the leader of the Elementals. Tears welled up in Austin’s eyes as he graciously accepted his new responsibilities. Everyone except Charlie congratulated Austin. After that, Alissa steered the conversation toward Charlie & his behavior changes. Charlie chucked and asked is this an intervention & Hannah said yes. Everyone went around and said how they saw his behavior becoming more and more reckless. The discussion finally came around to Zak and he recapped how Charlie had been treating him since they came back to school up until the dinner party he ruined by his behavior. Charlie told him to shut up and stop whining. Zak got up out of his chair and blasted him across the room with a bolt of electricity. As Charlie went to get up, Zak jumped on top of him and repeatedly punched him in the face. Charlie knocked Zak off of him with a gust of wind and it threw Zak into the ceiling. When Zak hit the floor, Charlie kicked him multiple times in the stomach. Austin & TJ finally break the fight up, with Austin holding Charlie and TJ holding Zak. Charlie pushed Austin off of him and told them that he quits and he no longer wants to be apart of the group or be friends with any of them. Alissa & Hannah call out after him but Charlie refuses to stop.

Charlie keeps walking until he reaches his house. He begins to pack his stuff in some bags. His parents enter the room and ask him what he’s doing & he chose to ignore them. His mom grabs his shoulder and demanded that he looked at her. He picked her up and threw her across the room. He told her not to touch him. Charlie’s dad looked at him in total shock as Charlie grabbed his things and left. He arrived at Alex & Emma’s house. He knocked on the door, hoping they would accept him since he would have nowhere to go. Alex opened the door and told Charlie to come in. Emma asked Charlie what happened once he was settled in & Charlie explained everything. Alex and Emma then told Charlie it was issue for him to stay there. Tears streamed down Charlie’s face as he hugged both of them. While hugging Charlie, Alex & Emma exchanged a look, both of them feeling good that phase one of their plan had worked. It was now time to put phase two into action.