Hello, this is the first chapter of my story Somnolent. It's basically my first story, so let's see how it goes!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

CHAPTER 1

All I wanted to do was go back to my wonderful bed and take a nice, long nap without worrying about work or any responsibilities as my Pre-Calc teacher droned on about the homework. I glanced at the clock: five more minutes, and then over at my partner. Evan looked just as bored as I did, not really listening to whatever their teacher was saying.

Evan was pretty much the smartest kid in the class, he was athletic and he always had this mischievous smile on that marked him as a bit of a troublemaker. He was tall, a few inches taller than me, with short dirty, blonde hair and blue eyes and very attractive.

We never really talked and when we did it was either about school or sports even though we practically stalked each other to our almost the exact same class schedule. And besides, I was just some random girl with gross mousy brown hair that was always in a braid and brown eyes. I was plain. I even had a charm bracelet with little, miniature weapons on it. It was really nerdy. I was the kind of girl that guys don't like; the kind who just blend into the background.

I was dozing off into a nice state of "I don't care" when a loud, dog-like growling sound echoed in the hallways. I started, Evan and I glancing at each other in puzzlement, but the rest of the class didn't seem to notice the disturbance.

"Alice, did you hear that?" he whispered quietly to me, leaning towards me ever so slightly. I nodded and frowned when suddenly the announcers sizzled: Sorry to interrupt classes, but will all students please report to the large gym for the school assembly please.

"Oh, I forgot about the assembly today!" my Pre-Calc teacher said, "Well everyone, single file out of class and head over to the gym."

I sighed and stood up as the rest of the students filed out of the class before me, as my desk was not exactly close to the door. I started forward only to trip over my bag and land sprawled on the floor.

"Oh hey, you okay?" Evan asked helping me up.

"Uh, yeah. Not my most graceful moment." I responded, turning a bright shade of tomato-red, embarrassed.

Evan looked like he was about to respond when he suddenly stopped and looked around.

"Where did everyone go?" he said slowly.

I stared at him for a second, just realizing that all of the students had abruptly disappeared and that the school was deathly silent. ADHD does that to you; random spells where I guess my brain zones out and misses something. Or at least that's what my doctor told me. It really sucks when someone says something important and you totally blank out: such as what the homework was or what time your supposed to be somewhere.

"That was quick," I murmured, "Come on, let's go before we get yelled at."

We headed out the door and into the hallway when I heard the growl again. Evan and I glanced at each other warily as if to make sure we weren't going crazy. We rounded the corner into the main hallway when we saw it. It looked like a black, fuzzy dog, but it was ginormous. Like, I'm-eight-feet-tall-and-can-easily-bite-you-in-half-ginormous with blood-red eyes. We both froze and stared at it for a second as Mr. Fluffers – yes, I named the thing that looks like it wants to eat me - growled again.

"On the count of three, we run back the way we came," Evan said, gulping.

"Agreed," I said.

"THREE," he yelled, just as the dog lunged at us.

Evan grabbed my arm and we sprinted off down the hallway we had just come out of, heading for a side door, Mr. Fluffers right on our tail and Evan mostly dragging me. We burst out the door and out to on top of the hill that holds our school. The sky was dark and gray with storm clouds, threatening to rain. I loved rain and cloudy skies; it was the perfect weather to take a nap to, that it if I didn't get eaten by a giant, evil-eyed dog from hell. I made a promise to myself: if I got out of here alive, I was going curl up and take a nice long nap and not worry about how I taste.

Mr. Fluffers busted through the door and part of the wall and I gave a strangled squeak, pulling Evan and I to the side, off the sidewalk and onto the grass. He, of course, promptly slipped on the grass, fell into me and we both slid down the damp hill, only the concrete stopping us. I looked up in horror at the dog as it leaped at us, gripping one of my charms on my charm bracelet reflexively.

I always did that when I was nervous or scared. I never seem to lose the bracelet because it always appears back on my wrist even when I could have sworn that I had taken it off. My mom had given it to me this year for my seventeenth birthday, saying that it was a present from my long-lost dad. Praying to whatever was out there, I tried to stand when suddenly a three foot long glowing – oh, my goodness it's glowing – sword sprang into my hand.

I didn't even think as Mr. Fluffers descended on top of us: I swung the glowing monstrosity at the thing right as it looked like it was going to tear my throat out and it sliced straight through it. Gold dust exploded everywhere and I, of course, inhaled a metric ton of it. I coughed trying to clear my throat of the stuff.

"Alice," I heard a voice say and when I didn't respond: "ALICE!"

I blinked, clearing my eyes, and looking into Evan's blue ones as he crouched next to me, a concerned and scared look in his eyes.

"Did that just really happen?" I tried to say, but something in my throat caught so I cleared it and asked again.

Evan opened his mouth to say something, but what it was, I guess I'll never know for another voice butted in,

"Oh, thank the gods you two are all right!"

Evan and I both scrambled upwards and I whipped my sword around to point towards the unknown voice all the while thinking: I'm holding a sword, I have a sword, Where did I get a sword? I'm holding a glowing sword? A curly, brown headed boy with a backwards baseball cap and the wisps of a beard was trotting - wait, trotting? Who trots? - towards us, but stopped suddenly, putting his hands up like in surrender when he saw my mysterious, I-think-ill-pop-out-of-thin-air, glowing, bronze sword.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he shouted, "It's okay, I'm a friend. I'm here to help!"

I saw Evan tense up in the corner of my eye, "How do we know that you're not another monster?" he shouted back.

I continued to point my sword at the stranger, but my grip was shaky. The fight had really taken a lot out of me.

"Because I'm here to protect you and take you someplace safe for special kids like yourselves, people who can see and do what you two can," Hat-Man said.

Evan and I hesitantly glanced at each other, but I guess my gaze contained all of my fear and exhaustion in it. We didn't have a choice whether to trust Hat-Man and I didn't have the energy to fight another Mr. Fluffers. I lowered my sword and Evan and I walked carefully over to the man. He gave us a reassuring smile.

"I'm Evan Cosden and this is Alice Mason," Evan said introducing us, "So, who or what exactly are you and where are you going to take us?"