A/N: Okay this is my first FanFiction...well on . I think I might as well just say that. I'm not going to ask you to go easy on me just because of this fact but I do hope that you keep an open mind when you review (because I strongly encourage you to) and give yourselves a chance to get used to my style of writing. Now I acknowledge that not everyone will like my story, heck right now I'm not to sure whether I like it yet or not, but I would hope that you won't review hatefully (ie. OMG this story sucks! You don't deserve to be a writer...blah, blah, blah). So now that that is said it is time to go into something that I've found is a tradition (even though I have no idea why this is a fanfiction website): The disclaimer.

So, go find someone else's disclaimer, copy and paste [here] print out, season lightly, put between two slices of 16% orange bread, eat, sue stomach for blocked colon.

Now, onward and upward let us press forward towards brighter beginnings and the light at the end of this long tunnel, let us once and for all try and finish something that which the likes of this good and great world has never seen before!
Collected Story Characters : Yea verily!

Chapter One Scratch that Introduction

I looked like a half-drowned cat.

And my homework probably didn't look any better. My uniform was clinging to my skin unflatteringly and my hair hung limply around my shoulders and plastered to my face. The rain just had to decide to pick a Monday to come crashing down – as if they weren't bad enough already! Now all of the hard work I spent on my homework was probably gone, washed away with the raindrops.

As usual I was the last one in the classroom, and also as usual I was a customary ten minutes late. Now I kind of wished I actually started to class with my room-mate and best friend. She probably had all of her homework ready and as crisp as the day we got it.

Professor Sawyer sighed and motioned me over to his desk. Reluctantly I dragged my overstuffed bag across the floor and dropped it at the teacher's feet. "You're late again, Miss Morgan." Professor Sawyer calmly considered the attendance sheet lying face up on his desk. Practically every Monday under my name was marked with a sloppy 'T'.

"Yeah," I said, "rain."

"So I assume you're homework will be considered late as well?"

"Nah," I replied sliding the soggy paper from my bag and presenting it to him with a flourish. "That is, unless you can't read it."

Without saying a thing he accepted the runny page and waved me to my seat. He turned his back to me and began scrawling the day's lesson across the white board. I guess he meant to embarrass me with this sort of attention but all I did was stick my tongue out at his back and began to yank my bag to my seat; the whole way there my soggy lace up boots squelched awkwardly on the tile.

"You look like you drowned," my best and only friend Alicia Grey commented when I plopped into the seat next to her.

I only snorted and wrung my hair out. "I'm sorry I like to sleep in 'kay? God."

"You should at least try to stay on top of your work," Alicia muttered scrawling calculus equations in her notebook. I twirled my mechanical pencil in my hand and watched her.

It was a customary routine I'd grown used to over the years. She'd always finish up her math during homeroom with a pencil in her right hand and worrying one ringlet of hair with her left. I would watch her do the first problem before settling down and doing it myself. So we would continue in this fashion until first period. I wasn't copying her work; I just liked to see her muddle through it before I decided to tackle the almost impossible feat. It was allowed.

Now before we press on I think I should clarify a few details for you. I'd like to tell you that Alicia and I had been special since this story began, but that would be lying. The truth is that while we were both incredibly smart and definitely noticeable, that was more due to the hours of time spent reading instead of hanging around televisions on the weekends; more due to my dress code and Alicia's insane klutziness than popularity.

But saying that we aren't special would be lying too.

I am not going to go into details, you'll find out as the story goes on, so right now I think would be a good time for introductions and the like.

Alicia Grey is, as I've stated before, my best and only friend. We've shared a dorm room together since first year at Redwood Academy so we were really the only people we had to talk to. In a word, Alicia is short. Well actually the more accurate word for her would be klutzy. She's always tripping over her own feet and I think this has something to do with how skinny she is. But I'm not one to judge.

Alicia has a deep red colour hair that I envy. It goes to just past her shoulders and is curled into perfect ringlets that flare up even more when it is humid outside. Still it is beautiful hair, but she doesn't really bother with it. Most people would think she was Irish because of that, she is in fact Indian, this is proved by her caramel tanned skin; she's just weird that way.

Now my name is Lydia Morgan. I'd love to be able to tell you that I was a drop-dead gorgeous chick with a superb sense of style to match, but I can't. I also would like to be able to tell you that I was drop dead ugly but with a hidden talent that makes up for it in the end; that's the only reason why I was even eligible for this adventure. Well that would also be lying and that is something I'm not going to do.

The truth is that my name is Lydia Morgan; I have bleached blonde hair that I dye a million different colours, right now its hot pink, purple, and electric blue, but they're always subject to change. On weekdays it is mandatory that I wear the Academy uniform of white button-downs and green knee-socks, but on the weekends I've got a singular rock style that is all my own. So I stand out but other than that I am completely ordinary.

This will be the last time I address you, the reader…well unless I forget something in which case I will then have to enclose the accidentally discarded information in parentheses but as this is unlikely to happen I will leave you with a fond farewell and then get back to narrating.

But I think we might be able to fast forward to a point a little more interesting…let's say end of the week.

On Friday afternoons the entire student body of Redwood Academy is allowed into the city for the weekend. For a full two day's you are allowed to do whatever you want provided you are back to school at ten PM sharp.

Alicia held a cup of coffee in her right hand and watched on amused as I hammered the hell out of a crossing button. "Why are we here again?" she questioned for the nth time.

"I told you," – punch – "we're here to act" – slam – "like normal teenagers." I gave it another wallop for good measure then leaned against the peeling grey poll to wait.

Alicia looked me up and down, "Normal teenagers eh?"

"Okay, well when you're as awesome as me you can't be normal, but you know what I mean." We were now crossing the street, this, unfortunately, had nothing to do with my insane awesomeness…or rather lack thereof.

I loosened the tie around my neck, releasing the windpipe crushing knot at the top. I then proceeded to brush my hair out of my face and style it blindly as we approached the park across the street.

"While you're at it," Alicia said, "your boot's untied." I cursed and bent over to re-lace the damn thing. "So, since we're here to act like 'normal teens', what do you propose we do?"

I looked up from my boot. "Ehm…we could, sit on this lovely bench and talk about…whatever it is girls our age, you know, talk about?"

Alicia laughed quietly and sat delicately on the wooden bench I had my foot propped up on.

"So!" I threw myself down on the bench beside her. "What do girls our age talk about?"

The next few minutes can be described with one look that in text can only be described as:

e.0

"No clue."

"Okay."

Another long awkward silence.

See, Alicia is one of those people who have to think about what they say before they say it; otherwise nothing makes sense at all. Me, I just say whatever thing comes to mind. I'm not really used to holding back when it came to my opinion (courtesy of my parent's thank-you-very-much) it got me in a little trouble now and again.

Now was a perfect time to utilize my weapon of speech.

"Do you believe in magic?"

"What?"

"I said," I repeated, "'do you believe in magic?'"

Alicia looked at me like I'd just sprouted two heads, some extra fingers, and a pair of wings for good measure. "No why?"

"Just asking," I replied. "Because with all of this stuff," I threw my arms out indicating everything around us and beyond, "you'd think that at least magic would exist."

"Now that would be inadvertently asking me if I believe in God."

"How so?"

"Well, God created all of this," she too spread out her arms, "and you said that at least magic should exist. You were questioning the existence of a creator."

I nodded not really getting it at all. "Well then do you believe in God."

Alicia cocked her head to one side and considered the sky for a moment. "No more than you do."

"And if I were to say I was an atheist?"

She looked surprised. "Are you?"

"Er…no, I don't think so."

"Well then my answer remains the same." She crossed her arms and leaned back as if every question in the world had just been answered.

"So you believe in God, but not magic is that correct?" I asked after another long moment of only the sound of cars zooming by.

Alicia sighed, "And now is the time when you start to force your opinion on me."

"I do not force my opinion on you. I'm merely just…returning the favor. You gave me yours and so now I give you mine."

Alicia threw her hands above her head and sighed. "Oh alright!" she exclaimed. "I give up! Tell me your vision, O Wise One!"

"I'd resent that," I considered, "but it was too pleasing to my ego." I flung my knee up on the bench and turned my torso so that I could face her better. "Okay," I held my hands up, "my theory is this; I think magic exists in all the other universes besides this one and it slowly leaks into our universe over time. Like the leaky faucet in the girls bathroom in the east wing. Eventually enough magic is collected to make something big happen, like make somebody clairvoyant, or telekinetic, or hey, maybe even make a…um…hole in the space/time continuum. A Vortex." As I went on my hands started to get a mind of their own and began to mime whatever it was I was saying with wild gestures. It's the Italian in me.

"Vortex…" Alicia asked.

"Why not?" I questioned. "It would take an enormous amount of energy of course, like the equivalent of five plus lightning bolts, but I don't see why it's not possible. I mean think of it, it would have to be like something that could rip the fabric of space and time but if my theory is correct and that magic is slowly leaking into our universe from others, and I really think it is, then once that energy ignites the magic it'll be like an atomic bomb. BAM!" I clapped my hands together sharply. "A vortex."

Alicia raised a questioning eyebrow. "And how would the magic ignite?"

"The fabric of two universes crashing together," I answered confidently.

Alicia rolled her eyes and sighed. "I really don't get you Lydia, you're a complete science fanatic, yet you love religion, and you believe in magic."

"I do not love religion. In fact I hate it." I contradicted. "I just like questioning it and making people question their beliefs. It doesn't hurt to be open minded."

Alicia shook her head at my argumentiveness and stood up stretching her arms over her head. "Well I don't know about you, but it's getting late and if we don't want to end up having to sleep on the streets we'd better be headed back to the Academy." She started walking in a westward direction.

I followed suit pulling up beside her and swinging my arms in a carefree fashion. "I don't know, I think sleeping on the street might build character."

"You're so strange!"

"You wouldn't like me otherwise."

Well at the snails pace we were going at it seemed very likely that we'd be sleeping on the dirt road to the Academy.

Unfortunately being students at a boarding school meant that we were kind of dirt poor, I mean our families were rich considering they'd been able to send us to Redwood in the first place, but we didn't exactly get allowance for getting A's on major tests. And we didn't have jobs to go to like normal teenagers our age since we couldn't leave campus during the school week unless signed out by a proven relative.

This is my lengthy way of saying we were too freaking poor to get a cab.

"Hu! What was that?" Alicia spun around. It had gotten darker the last mile and so we'd both started hallucinating imaginary noises.

"Just me," I grunted lifting the heel of my boot from a hole in the path. I craned my head around behind me and shielded my eyes from the small slice of sun still peeking over the horizon. "Ugh, at this rate we're going to have to find a nice tree to hole up in for the night."

"It's your fault you know," Alicia insisted and continued to walk on. "You were the one who insisted we find a trash can."

"Hey, we can't have you littering can we? Bad habits grow more serious as time goes on, leaving a cup on the side of the road one day will turn into having your half of the room as messy as mine, and we can't have that."

"You speak from experience then?" she wondered.

"Yup," I answered and started skipping. "Damn those gum wrappers."

Alicia chuckled at that and we continued on in companionable silence.

Soon trees began to loom around us on the dirt path turning deep reds and oranges as the autumn season went on. I kicked a pile stacked under a branch out of my way and watched as they scattered. The darkness deepened as the last sliver of sun disappeared turning the road to black and making it almost impossible to see. I looked up at the sky and found Ursa Major right away, other than that I was completely useless at astronomy.

Alicia reached into her small purse and brought out her cell phone and flipped it open. "Nine-thirty," she informed me, then she spun the phone around in her palm to illuminate the road, an impromptu flashlight. "And so far we're nowhere near school grounds."

"Aw, well that doesn't mean we still don't have time left. Let us press onward."

"And then there are the times when you're just too optimistic for your own good," Alicia sighed.

I groaned and spun around to face her, "Look if you're going to keep complaining about how bad a friend I am, then why are you still here?"

"I did not say you were a bad friend!" Alicia exclaimed.

"It was certainly implied!" I shot.

"How could you accuse me of something like that? You know all too well I don't have any other friends!"

"Are you going to blame me for that too?"

Alicia's next accusations were drowned out by the roaring of the wind swirling around us. But we continued yelling. It was one of those best friend moments when you both are so tired you don't care to listen.

"It is your fault…!"

"…I'd never…!"

"Things just don't happen!"

CRACK!

The sound of something snapping, the wind picking up tenfold, so fast my hair was whipping all around us flying out of its restraints. It swirled around us like we were in a tornado ripping at my clothes and un-tucking my shirt. I screamed. The kind of scream that is reserved for truly terrifying situations was tearing out of my throat.

"LYDIA!"

"ALICIA!"