Chapter 1: Let the journey of a lifetime begin!

I'm going to stop you here. If you think this is just an ordinary work of fiction, imagined up by someone with too much time on their hands, good. Keep reading. But if you think this real, if you want it to be real with every fiber of your being, I recommend you leave. Now. Go read about bunnies and rainbows or something. Think about anything but this. Because you might be sucked into this too. And believe me, it's too big for anyone to handle. You know the phrase "Be careful what you wish for"? A word to the people who invented that saying: You have no idea.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Casey, the self-proclaimed fun-sized M&M. I'm short. Very short. I have semi-short dark brown hair and gray-brown eyes. I'm in seventh grade. And lately, my life has sucked. Well, I mean it did. Until last May, when everything changed.

I was going to a sleepover with some of my best friends. It was at Margaret's house, which is huge, so I was beyond excited. My friends... well they were... interesting. First there was Molly. She had light caramel brown hair and bright golden eyes. She was average height, random as hell, and loved Italian food. Then came Alexis: she was short, but still a taller than me. She had fox-colored hair and brown eyes that could melt your heart. She was shy, funny, and loved spinning around. Next was Margaret: she was most likely the closest to me. When I had come to the new school, she took me under her wing. We even have a food/drink based Latin name: she was Margarita. She had dirty blonde hair, green-blue eyes, and red rimmed glasses. She was tall, hyper, and loved turtles. And then there was me. They all affectionately called me "Caseydia" after my very random Latin name, which reflected my personality perfectly.

When we got to the house, I bounded out of the car. We screamed when we saw each other and had a huge group hug. When my parents left, the partying commenced. We played truth or dare, would you rather, and created a game called "Create the ugliest hairstyle". We were all tom boys in a way, Margaret and I being the most boyish and Molly and Alexis being the least. Right before we went to bed, I decided to show them my new favorite anime: Bleach. However, they lost interest in about two minutes since we were tired and I sucked at explaining things.

As I lied down on the living room couch with everyone and started going to sleep, I felt an empty, sinking feeling. I sighed. I'd been getting that feeling more and more lately. It wasn't because I was piled with work. It was because of how much I hated the unfairness of life. How nothing would ever have a happy ending, how we couldn't live in a world like the world of Bleach. That was my last thought before I closed my eyes.

An hour or two later, someone who sounded like Margaret was calling my name.

"Casey! Casey! Wake up!"

"Wha'?" I mumbled as I snapped awake. Everyone else was already awake, their wide eyes fixed on the corner of the room. I wasn't able to make out anything except Margaret's sister, Abby talking to us about her crush. I was wondering why no one was listening to her when I saw what they were staring at. A tiny blue light. No...wait, it wasn't tiny anymore. It was growing rapidly like a black..er, blue hole. Abby's voice was slowing until it stopped altogether.

Molly tentatively touched the strange light coming from the hole. She yelped and drew back. I stared at it transfixed. I wanted to jump in. It was almost as if something was pulling me... I froze. Something was pulling me. I stared at my bronze dragon necklace. It was surrounded by ghostly light. The tiny dragon and the aqua cross strained towards the ever-growing hole.

"Guys... I'm scared!" Molly cried. I could agree. Nothing was moving anymore. It was only us. It didn't look like we had any choice but to jump into the hole. No! I thought. But it was too late. The light was already surrounding us, drawing us into the hole.

I reached for someone's hand, and Alexis reached out to me. I missed and the last thing I remember thinking was: This is not how it's going to end.

I groaned. The ground was so hard! Wait the ground?! My eyes snapped open. I was sitting under a big shade tree on lush green grass in a...park? I shook my head to clear it. That couldn't have been I dream. I never have control of my actions in dreams.

"Casey?! Casey?!" Molly's voice cried.

"Over here!" I shouted.

Margaret, Molly, and Alexis came from different directions, running towards the sound of my voice. I felt lighter when I saw that no one was hurt. Molly stared at me and cracked up.

"What?!" I demanded. And then I saw Alexis. Her features were softer. She still had her russet hair, but her eyes... were big! We all stared at each other and then laughed hysterically. I suddenly stiffened.

"Why do we look like anime characters!" I shouted. Molly's humorous smile was replaced by fear. I forced myself to be calm as they all whispered anxiously. I did a quick once over to calm myself.

Molly's now dark brown hair was pulled back in two-inch pigtails. Her large eyes were anxious and gold. She was wearing a white blouse, a blue skirt, and ballet flats. Her hair was way too dark, but it looked so...her! Alexis looked the same, with some minor difference: her russet hair was a bit too curly, her bangs went in a straight line across her forehead, and her eyes were a deep honey brown. She was wearing a red sweater, a denim miniskirt, and Mary Janes. Margaret was the only one who looked significantly different. Her once dirty blonde hair was now pure blonde. Her eyes were solid green and she had no glasses. But it looked good, I guess. Other than that, she was the same: her hair was tied back in a high ponytail with her long side bangs partially covering her right eye. She wore a black ruffly top, a short, denim tube skirt, and sandals. However I met one problem: what the hell did I look like?!

The others seemed to be having some trouble with this too, so I came up with the brilliant idea to take pictures of each other. There was only one problem: we had no camera.

Margaret gasped. "Our phones!"

"Do you think...?"

"Maybe!"

We checked our pockets, and, sure enough, our phones were there.

"Hallelujah!" I muttered in relief when I saw that we had signal. Then I had to stifle a scream. Everyone looked alarmed.

"What?" Alexis asked.

They saw where I was pointing. The date. It read September 6, 2011. We had gone back in time nine months. The temperature seemed to go down twenty degrees.

Molly looked like she was about to faint. "How...?"

"I-I don't know," Margaret whispered. I had never seen her like that. It made me snap out of it.

I took a deep breath. "Okay ladies! Snap out of it! Let's get back to the matter at hand. Then we can worry about everything else. This is how it's

going to work: I'll take a picture of Molly. Molly will take a picture of Alexis. Alexis will take a picture of Margaret, and Margaret, you'll take a picture of me. Savvy?"

"Savvy," they echoed, smiling a bit at our old joke.

When we were finally done with the 'photo shoot', we swapped phones.

When I saw my picture, I had to force myself to believe what I was seeing. My dark brown hair was tinted with red. It was feathery and uneven, like the look I'd tried, and failed, to get for years. My bangs ran in a choppy line along my forehead. My cocoa colored eyes stood out against my olive skin. I cried out in relief when I saw that I was wearing my usual: A white tank top, olive-green cargo pants, and combat boots.

"Now that that's over with," I announced, "let's figure out where we are." They were all looking at me expectantly. I felt uneasy. I would be the boss here because I knew the most about anime. None of them had even heard about it until last night.

I cleared my throat. "R-right...well..." I mumbled while looking around the empty park. I couldn't think straight. All I could think about was bright orange soccer balls. An idea struck me.

What if it isn't 'bright orange soccer balls'... what if it's 'bright orange' and 'soccer balls'? Oh no... if this means what I think it does... We're in big trouble.

"Any ideas?" Molly asked. I nodded.

"If this is the place I think it is... well, this could be bad for us. We could very easily be killed. But it could also be good because..." I blushed at the last part.

"Casey wants to flirt," Alexis crooned softly.

"D-do not!" I snapped. "Anyway... if this is really the place... we're going to need a place to stay..."

That was the next problem. Where should we stay?

No, not the shopkeeper...he'd sense something odd about us immediately... The doctor and the protector? No...we need a place with as few people as possible...plus the doctor would be a problem...No. There's no way in hell we could stay with them. They're too spiritually aware. The 'tiger'? No. He's too private. We need someone we wouldn't be intruding on... The archer? Nope. His dad would sense us immediately... Plus he lives at the hospital or something...The healer? Oh god no... But she's the only choice we might have,
I thought grimly. Looking at my friends, I knew I had to make the right choice. So I did the only thing I really could do.

"Who's up for a little exercise?"