A/N: Here's chapter 1! I hope you enjoy!

"I think I found them."

Casey Jordan slid excitedly next to her best friend on the Cafeteria bench, a wide look in her eyes.

"What?"

Erin Davies, Casey's best and only friend, stared at her with wide eyes, taken aback by Casey's sudden exuberance.

"The Kingdom Keepers," Casey explained. "I think I found them."

Erin sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Please don't tell me you're still on that," she said.

"Of course I'm still on it," Casey said. "Somebody has to be!"

The Kingdom Keepers was a popular series of books about a group of kids stopping the Disney Villains, known as the Overtakers, from taking over the Disney parks, and the world. Just having wrapped up a couple of years earlier, it was one of Disney's latest cash cows: everyone who wasn't living under a rock had heard of these books. There were movies and video games, the Disney parks displayed posters and sold merchandise, it was often hailed as the next Harry Potter.

Growing up in Orlando, Florida, with a Disney Imagineer for a father, Casey adored the books; she was the self-proclaimed biggest fan (and proclaimed by others as well). They'd always seemed to provide a sort-of companionship: even when others, including Erin, didn't understand her, the Keepers did. The Keepers made her feel a greater sense of belonging than she ever had anywhere else.

Recently, while spending an afternoon at the Magic Kingdom-an activity she often partook in- Casey had come to believe that the stories were real, that the Kingdom Keepers were real, and so she'd spent the past month dedicating all of her time to studying the books and Orlando-based social media accounts to try and find them. Erin was the only person she'd told, and this had consequently lead her best friend to believe she was going crazy.

"Listen to yourself Casey," Erin chided. "This is nuts!"

"No it's not!" Casey argued. "I'm telling you that I saw that doll move on It's a Small World."

"Yeah, the dolls move," Erin said. "That's the point."

"That's what Gary said in the books when Kim first thought she saw the dolls move," Casey pointed out. This earned a subsequent eye roll from Erin. "And look where they ended up!"

Casey referred to a famous scene in the books, where the Kingdom Keepers were attacked by the moving dolls on It's a Small World. Casey, while last riding the ride, was sure that she had experienced the same sensation.

"You can't be serious about this," Erin said.

"That doll didn't just move. It stopped doing the dance, and looked at me." Casey explained. "This can't be a coincidence."

"Maybe it's just you being delusional because you read those books too much,"

Erin meant the remark as a joke, but Casey sighed. When she told Erin about what she'd seen, she knew she wouldn't believe her. Still, she'd held onto a little bit of hope that being best friends since they were six would give her some kind of credibility. Erin, seeing Casey's disappointment, sighed and restored the conversation to be more serious.

"What are you even planning on doing when you find these people?" she asked. "Even if it's real, you think they're just going to tell you?"

"No," Casey said. "Because they don't remember who they are."

"What?"

"You know how at the end of the last book, they were coming back from 1955, and they knew they might not remember, but it cuts off and no one knows what happens after that?"

One of the things that had made the Kingdom Keepers books so famous was their ambiguous ending. In the last three books, the characters had traveled to 1955 to stop the Overtakers from ever existing. Of course, the book had pointed out, doing so created the possibility that the group of them never would have met. On the last page of the series, the Keepers were traveling back to the present, and the book ended before they got back: no one knew whether they remembered or not.

"So you're just going to go up to some random people and say 'hey I think you're a book character and I need you to save the world'?"

"Exactly!"

Erin chuckled and looked away, but Casey was insistent.

"Look," she said. "I know this sounds nuts, believe me I do, but, I just can't shake this feeling that I'm meant to do something about this. I feel like this is my shot, you know….to be something more."

Erin looked back over at her friend, who was now looking at her with soft, pleading eyes. She sighed with a smile. Casey may be crazy sometimes, but she loved her, and eleven years of being best friends at least earned her the benefit of the doubt.

"Fine," she teased. "But don't call me for bail when you get arrested for stalking."

Casey smiled brightly and the two girls burst into a fit of laughter, before Casey pulled out her phone and slid it excitedly over to Erin on the table. Erin looked down, and Erin saw seven names, listed next to the main-character names from the book

Liam- Finn Whitman

Darren- Dell Philby

Sophia- Willa Angelo

Gary- Terry Maybeck

Kim- Charlene Turner

Olivia- Amanda Lockheart

Jamie- Jessica Lockheart


After school, Casey and Erin were walking on the usual path they'd take to get home, and Casey had already dragged them deep into conversation about her plans.

"So how do you plan on finding these people?" Erin asked. "Don't they go to school? Like in different places?"

"It's the end of May," Casey explained. "Most colleges are done by now. And I found them all on social media remember? They're all home: here in Orlando."

"Oh my God, Casey," Erin sighed. "Seriously: you're looking to go to juvy aren't you?"

Casey was barely paying any attention, just kept looking at something down on her phone, and concentrating on where she was going. She didn't comment on Erin's remark.

"When are you even planning on doing this?" Erin asked, jogging to keep up with her friend. "We're trying to finish out sophomore year here, remember? The World History final is supposed to be brutal!"

Casey still said nothing, but instead turned somewhere that they normally didn't. Erin sighed and followed her, confused. Finally, she reached the place where Casey had stopped, and looked up to see the Orlando Rec Center standing tall in front of them. She looked to Casey, and saw her wearing one of her huge, overconfident grins, usually the way she smiled before she led them to do something completely stupid(like the time they rode Rockin' Roller Coaster immediately after each drinking a giant milkshake.)

"Oh no," Erin scolded, realizing what Casey meant by this. "No! Casey this is nuts!"

"It's not nuts, it's necessary," Casey replied, adamantly. "Who knows how long I have to find these people before the Overtakers get control of everything?! And I still have to get them to believe me once I do!"

Erin stood there dumbfounded, stuttering, racking her brain to try and come up with the best excuse as to why they couldn't go through with this, because clearly, "you'll get arrested for stalking" wasn't working. She'd been hoping that afternoon that she'd have more time to try and drive Casey away from this whole latest insanity, or at least for Casey to calm down and realize how crazy it was herself.

"What about your Mom?" she asked. "Are you just gonna tell her you're running around town looking for strangers that you found on the internet? Adult strangers?"

To that, Casey pulled out her phone once more, typed something quickly, then looked at Erin with a snide smirk.

"I told her I'm catching a movie with my Dad," she said. "Airtight alibi: she's always yelling at me to spend more time with him,"

Erin sighed painfully, well aware of the fact that she'd already lost this battle.

"This is a really stupid idea," she insisted.

"When has that ever stopped me before?" Casey asked, before charging forward and walking through the rec center doors.

A/N: So right now I'm planning on doing 2 chapters a week. That may have to slow down if I'm running low on chapters, but for now I'm going to try and post on Thursdays and Sundays. I really hope you guys are as excited about this story as I am! I'm excited to share it with you!