Well, this is my first real fic here XD I'm psyched! This is the background on my character.

I was walking to go get ice cream with Brook when I saw him. Brook was speaking English, she liked it better since she loves to go to New York all the time. Leaving me alone with- no, happy thoughts, Kiera. I reprimanded myself. I responded in French, of course, because my English wasn't quite as good. No, scratch that, Brook's bitchy friends said my English wasn't worth a damn. Not to mention the rest of me. From my unruly carrot-red hair, to my dark brown eyes that needed Harry Potter glasses to my slightly overweight form.

I suppose my self-esteem took one for the team there. I already felt self-conscious, because Brook looked long and lithe and roughly three years older than her fifteen, so I stuck to French, my natural language. When we got to the food cart, Brook turned the charm on, trying to bum a couple of free ice creams. She tossed her newly highlighted brown hair as she quickly fixed the coppery shadow that coated the lids of her chocolate-coloured eyes. I remember sighing, because my green tankini fit me all wrong by comparison to her black and pink bikini. I hate the pool. That's when I saw him.

I first saw a hand stick out of the sky, followed by it's counterpart. Then, the two pushed the air apart and it crumpled. Like a poster being ripped. The other side glowed blue. Then his arms stuck out, followed by his head, then torso then legs as he fell from the sky. He let out a disgruntled "oomph" as he fell. I stood there, gaping like a complete moron, and then giggled a bit. After all, he had just landed in the sand filled Hermit crab enclosure. He picked a crab off his arm.

"Kiera!" Brook hissed "M'aidez s'il te plait" (help me, please)

I continued to gape at the guy. Brook elbowed me, and then turned to see what was so interesting "Kir, that guy is not worth your time. Seriously, who tattoos their face? He must be a gang member. Not to mention, he's at least eighteen." She whispered, handing me one of the free cones

I licked the slowly melting ice cream, sitting down atop a fountain-like part of the city pool. "No, Brook, I'm not checking him out. He just fell from the sky." I switched to English, wanting her to understand it better than French would allow.

"If that's the ESL way of saying he's high then that's probably true." She remarked. I sighed and approached him

"salut, Je sais que ce n'est pas l'affaire de moi, mais es-tu bien? Tu es tombé de ciel. " (Hi, I know it's not my business, but are you okay ? you fell from the sky)

He brushed his coat off, then gave up on removing the sand and just took it off. "I don't speak very much French, you'll have to forgive me. You must be Keira. I'll admit, falling from the sky, albeit three metres up, wasn't on my bucket list." He rubbed his back, which had taken the brunt of the impact.

I licked my cone absently, then looked at him "I speak English. Can you tell me how dans l'enfers you managed to fall from thin air?" I demanded (dans l'enfers- in the hell)

He laughed, pushing his curly black hair back revealing the mask-like tattoos on his face. His blue eyes looked guarded though, like he was keeping something from me. "I was sent." He checked his watch and cursed. "I need to make this quick. In slightly under 18 months, you'll go through a rift, that's what I did. You'll be given the chance to meet the characters from this book." He handed me an ereader "Or this series rather. My email's there too, for any questions . I've really got to run, otherwise I'll be too late." He raced behind a bush and ripped the sand beneath him, like he'd ripped the sky, and fell through.

"What the fuck?" Brook blurted, storm clouds present in her brown eyes.

I sighed, seeing the note atop the ereader "tell no one about rifts." It was signed with a question mark. "I borrowed my eReader to Jordan's friend. He returned it" I lied. Jordan was my cousin. He didn't like Brook, because of her conformism. She didn't like him because of his "I'll-rebel-to-anything" attitude. She'd never go ask him.

She wrinkled her nose "eww. Why?" she asked

"out of the goodness of my heart?" I tried

She rolled her eyes "Did you sneak out to meet this Arthur Penhaligon again?" Arthur was the main character in a series that I'd read. I pretended he was my boyfriend because I wanted Brook's friends to shut up.

"Yeah, and he wanted to read the Hunger Games, so I made a deal." I lied

Brook rolled her eyes "You planning on swimming for once?" She changed the subject."

"Why, certainly" I put on a sweet- little kid type voice "I love hypothermia, hair damage and being bumped into by random children. I sat and read instead. After I got to the middle of the book, I noticed Brook swapping numbers with the lifeguard and sighed. That girl was impossible sometimes. I typed out an email to "DramaKing at gmail dot com"

"Hey, he-who-never-gave-me –a-name,

Can you tell me why I was chosen for this *odd* honour of *oddly* going to meet fictional characters?

-K" and hit send. I prayed to the wifi gods that there would be wifi to hack. There was a pool network, whose password was 1234abcd. I swiftly received a reply.

"K-who-has-also-not-deigned-to-give-me-more-than-initials (Or, Keira Amelie Davidson)

Ask Nyx. And we're only fictional to those who don't understand the concept of rifts. If you can guess my name by reading you'll get it, otherwise, tough luck until 18 months from now.

-He-who-is-too-awesome-to-share-his-name"

Arrogant âne (ass) ! I typed back a nice, sarcastic response

"My dearest Âne,

I will certainly go ask a fictional goddess about a fictional person's *fictional* motivation. I simply cannot think of a better way to spend my summer. You must be Aphrodite, because obviously you're secretly a gorgeous blond bitch. Also it's not remotely creepy that you know my full name.

-Keira"

My phone chirped several minutes later

"Empress of Sarcasm,

It's not very flattering when you insult someone (and someone's goddess, I might add) after they've given you a lifetime opportunity, but what do I know?

-Someone who is NOT Aphrodite LaFont" He replied

I rolled my eyes and stashed my phone away, motioning to Brook to leave. She sighed and stormed over to me, waving to the lifeguard. After summer ended, I was caught up on the books. I had determined that my mysterious 'friend' (ami d'écriture or pen pal was more like it.) was Erik Night. I wondered why Jack couldn't have given me the books, I did love Jack, until he died in Awakened. Erik, even when I wasn't seeing him from Zoey's eyes, was an arrogant, pompous well, âne. Sixteen months remained until this supposed trip. To me, it sounded a little too perfect, so I was planning on bringing Brook with me. There was no way I'd get screwed over then, right?

Well, that's chapter one. While you're here, check out KShade's Elementals: Last Chance. She's one of six writers that will be writing this story, each from a different POV… Thank you so much for reading and please review, concrit (particularly on the French, I've only been in immersion for two an a half years, so i'm by no means perfect) and even flames accepted with a huge smile.