"Misa-chan!" I hear one of my best friends cry.
"Deidara-senpai!" I hear another one call, as I'm met with two forceful hugs from different directions, nearly knocking the wind out of me. (Deidara and Misa are two of my most commonly used nicknames.)
I look down to see, Melissa and Lindsey hugging me, pinning my arms to my sides. "Hi, guys." I groan as they hugged tighter. They let go then giggled. Melissa was short, about 5'2 with long, red, straight hair and brown eyes. She was thin and a tomboy.
Lindsey was the shortest of our little group and had pixie cut brown hair, light tan skin and brown eyes. She was thin and always hyper, (also never to be given Mt. Dew, unless you can control her or are willing to accept the consequences).
"Wow, Fleabag. It's not like you to be huggy." Rachel said joining the group, a Mt. Dew in her hand, and open. (Fleabag one of Melissa's nicknames, not insulting.) Rachel was taller than both Melissa and Lindsey, had brown hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. She, like Lindsey, needs to be watched when given caffeine or sugar.
"Oh, great. I'm going to have to call the men in white lab coats now, aren't I?" I asked her, with a sigh as she took a big gulp of the highly caffeinated liquid.
"I say call the Marines. They'll sedate and restrain her faster." Nathan said coming up out of nowhere and scaring Mel and Rachy. Nathan was a little taller than me with brown hair, brown eyes, and wore skinny jeans that fit his skinny build. He could give a ninja a run for their money with how he appeared and disappeared the way he did. I also had a big crush on him. Which sucks cause he's my best friend, so being rejected would hurt like heck and would probably wreck our friendship.
"Nathan, no giving people heart attacks this early in the year." I scolded. "Speaking of which, where's Alicia? I want to be able to brace myself before she-"
"Sarah!" someone yelled as I was nearly knocked off my feet by a very forceful hug.
"Toboe!- Choking!- Not breathing!" I gasped as Nathan was having trouble breathing too because he was laughing so hard. Toboe is one of Alicia's nicknames and her most common too.
Alicia let go and tried to hug everyone else, only to have them keep her at arms length. She is a bit of a too huggy person and I have told her this multiple times. She was shorter than Rachy, had long brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin, freckles, and loved wearing dresses and skirts. She was also, as I say, "too boy-crazy".
Nathan quickly changed subjects by petting Melissa's arm and saying in a fake British accent "'Motor Torpedo Boat.'"
"'Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!'" Rachel quoted back, also in a British accent.
"What! Is the capital of Assyria?" Melissa followed. I'm sure you can guess how she said it.
"MR. STOOLS!" I yelled. (We're all in British accents if you didn't guess). "SPEAK TO ME, HOWARD!"
Our group fell silent and they all looked at me, (so did the people walking by). "That, is your favorite skit, isn't it?" Rachel asked me as if I was insane or mentally challenged. (Insane? A little bit. It runs in my family).
"Yup." I said feeling happy and accomplished.
The warning bell rang and we all looked at each other. "Now, OFF TO FIRST PERIOD!" Nathan yelled putting one foot in front of the other, a hand on his hip and a hand pointing out. He was home schooled, but he took a few elective courses here.
"And people think I'm crazy." I said loud enough for him to hear as I walked by him calmly.
"Oh, like you're one to judge, Beamer!" my friend David yelled across the hall. David was the tallest one in our group, standing at 6'5 and growing. He had soft red hair, and brown eyes. He was pretty skinny too.
I waved to David and stuck my tongue out at him "You know it, Little!" That's David's last name. So much irony!
Lunch time came and I headed to the water tower on a small hill, on top of the big hill our school was located on. Our school seems to be in the middle of nowhere, however it has a great view and you can see it driving down the highway. We're really not supposed to be up there during lunch, but the teachers never stop us.
"It's about time you got here." My friend Jessica greeted. "What Spuler keep you and Mel late after class?"
"Nice to see you too, Jess." I greeted as I sat on one of the logs, by some old remains of a fire.
"Yeah, that could've been a warmer greeting." Nathan said ninja poofing next me. Again making everyone but me and Lindsey jump.
"How come Nathan never scares you, Sarah? He can scare everyone, but you!" Rachel yelled, throwing a "Ziplock" bag full of chips that she doesn't like at Nathan. There's not much she doesn't like, food wise, there are some people she really hates, like Justin Beiber's fan base.
"Because, my older sisters used to scare me all the time as a little kid, and now that I've learned never to let my guard down, I don't get scared easily." I explained to them.
"Unless someone goes for your sides." Alicia chimed. She's one of the only people who know where I'm ticklish.
"No, the only reason you get a reaction is because it tickles." I argued, covering my sides in case anyone tried a sneak attack.
"And besides I've creeped you out, once." Nathan said, getting a mischievous grin on his face. According to me he didn't, I just couldn't breathe because I was laughing too hard.
"Once." I clarified for him.
He leaned a little closer and started moving his hand down my leg. "One day though…" he said in a creepy way.
I calmly said. "Not working." before taking a bite out of my sandwich.
"HEY!" Rachy scolded. "NO PDA!"
"At least not here." Melissa finished, giving me a look. I glared at her and continued eating. She knows just about everything there is to know about me.
I headed down the hallway from my locker, my notebooks all in a bag slung on my shoulder, rather than in my backpack. My text books take all the room there.
"Hey Sarah! Wait up!" I heard Rachel call.
I stopped so she could catch up. "Hey, Rachy. Need a ride today?" I asked smiling at her.
"Yeah if it's not too much trouble." Rachel clarified. "My mom doesn't wanna have to drive all the way here just to have to drive all the way back." Her mom works at an elementary school in town, our school about twenty minutes outside of town, and that's for me. Rachel lives on the opposite side of town than I do, but even so the elementary school where her mom works is on the to my house from school.
"Ok we'll have to talk to Rachel about it, but I'm sure she'll be fine with it. Follow me." I said leading the way. Rachel is my second oldest sister. and she often happens to like my friends, it just depend on who they are and how they treat her. My friends are very nice a lot of the time, they're all just nerds, the one thing she doesn't like.
I was at the top of the stairs before pausing and gasped for breath. I felt myself fall forward as Rachy called my name, and grabbed my wrist to stop me from falling down the stairs. I pasted out when she pulled me back.
I found myself somewhere, unusual, different, kind of creepy only because I didn't know how I got here in the first place. "Ok… what just happened?" I asked out loud looking around. I was standing on a tall tower, a light shining above me and light coming through the stain glass roof of the tower. "What's going on? How'd I get here?" I asked out loud.
"Dormant in you is an incredible power." A voice came from nowhere said. "But in order to awaken it, I need to know a few things about you."
I wasn't sure what to do. The voice didn't seem threatening, or intimidating, but more, how shall I say, honest, sincere, caring? "Like what?" I asked the voice.
"What do you hold closest to you?" the voice asked, as if it were interested in a good way.
"My Family and friends." I answered. "They're more valuable than anything to me."
"What do you desire most?" the voice asked.
I held my breath and thought for a moment. "To protect the ones I love. To be strong for them." I answered out loud. What I really wanted was to see my departed family members, mainly him.
"One final question: what are you most afraid of?" the voice asked again, still sincere and kind.
I bit my lip before answering. "Losing everything, til I have literally nothing left, but my own life." I answered.
"Then go forth, and awaken the power hidden deep within you. Those closest to you will be there as guides along the way." the voice told me.
"I guess I passed." I said to myself.
The floor beneath me started fading and I feel into the darkness, but landed roughly on another tower. People wonder why I hate unguarded heights.
I looked around and only saw a door, a door that had no way of me opening it because it looked like a projection. "What now?" I thought. I was tempted to pinch myself, but then again, every time I had, I had never been dreaming. That and I have a high tolerance for pain.
Three weapons suddenly appeared in front of me; a sword, a shield, and a strange staff, all on pedestals. "Curiouser and curiouser." I said to myself approaching them.
I walked over and grabbed the shield first. "This weapon contains the power of a guardian." The voice spoke up again. "Is protection really that important?"
I put the shield down. "I'll weigh my options first, thank you." I backed away from it kind of slowly, then headed for the staff.
It looked really odd to me so I picked it up for further examination. "The power of Mystic, the strength of a mage." the voice told me. "It will give you wisdom. Is wisdom, really that important?"
I looked up at the sky, only the light shown down. "If you're going to asked that question for all of them, let me see what all my options are first." I said to the voice. I do tend to openly speak my mind. Sometimes I'm a little too honest or open with it though.
I put the staff down and headed for the last weapon. The sword. It looked kind of like the sword for the 'Legend Of Zelda' games. (Which Rachy has completed multiple times and knows the stories by heart.)
"You must give your power a form, however you must give something up as well." The voice spoke again.
I chose the sword. It would be the most useful in a fight, and who knows what was out there.
"Now what do you give up in exchange?" The voice asked me.
I walked over to the staff. "I give up inner strength. The protection of others, particularly my friends and family, is most important." I answered, gasping it, having it disappear in my hands.
The floor started to disappear again. I searched for something to grab onto to prevent from falling, but it was useless. Again I fell into the darkness, only to land on yet another tower. "Be warned, the closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes." The voice said to me, as my shadow came off the ground and twisted itself into some sort of monster, and grew to about, my estimation, 30 feet. It reached it's hand down and grabbed me. I struggled against it, and kicked, but it was useless.
"But never forget-" the voice called over the roar of the creature as it swallowed me in darkness.
"'Never forget' what?" I screamed.
"Never forget-" the voice called again, but it mumbled and faded out as I was swallowed further and further into the darkness.
I shot up panting hard, my head feeling like a bunch precisionists had used my head as a drum. "You're awake. That's good." Nathan's voice said happily.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, surprised to see him sitting in a chair next to me. I was on the couch in the teacher's lounge.
"I was waiting for you to wake up, in Melissa's, Alicia's, and Lindsey's absences." he said giving a small smile, that was also his creeper smile.
"How long was I out, it feels like hours." I groaned holding my head.
"Not too long, about 20 minutes." He told me handing me a bottle of water and some aspirin, probably from the school nurse.
"Thanks. But really only that long?" I asked. "What happened exactly?"
"You suddenly pasted out, when you were about to go down the stairs. You would've fallen had Rachy not caught you." He answered. "By the way. Since the buses left, and you were unconscious I used your cell phone to call your dad so that you could get a ride home some other way."
I felt my face go hot. He had reached into my pocket just to grab my phone. Why didn't he just ask my brother Daniel, or my older sister? "You really are a creeper if you took it upon yourself to reach down my pants to grab my phone instead of just asking one of my siblings." I said trying to sound flustered, not embarrassed.
Nathan laughed, as a toddler came running into the room. "'Hara', up peas?" he asked trying to climb onto my lap.
My step-mom soon followed. "Sarah, are you alright?" she asked, coming over and feeling my head for a fever and lumps, in case I hit my head on something. Jen (My step-mom) was very short. 5'0 and ½ inch. She had long dirty-blonde hair that was normally kept in an up do, and had a faint southern accent left over from when she was little.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I probably just didn't get enough oxygen to the brain or was standing too long." I assured pulling the persistent two year-old onto my lap. Ethan (the toddler) was my baby half-brother. The rays of sunshine on his head and light gentle lakes in his eyes, kind of run in our family, but they were absolutely adorable with Ethan. He was also very tall for his age.
"Are you sure you'll be ok to baby-sit on Friday? You've been begging to for sometime, but I'm not sure if you just fainted."
I quickly tried to stand up, but Nathan held me down. "No! No I want to baby-sit. I'm fine, see?" I argued picking up Ethan and started lifting him like he was a set of weights. "I can handle a toddler for a night."
My step-mom thought. "If you're really sure. But if you feel faint, or ill, or even a head ache at all, you let me know, and I'll get someone else so you can rest." she told me, seeming rather over protective.
"Yes. I am fine." I assured.
"Just be prepared to run tomorrow if you don't want to be ambushed with Glomps and questions from the over-protective people in our group." Nathan warned.
I groaned. That's practically everyone.