Hello there my dear readers, and I honestly hope you're grateful that I wrote three chapters that have been published altogether! You're welcome!

My older brother raised an eyebrow and said, "Yeah?"

This place just got a whole lot more crazy by the psycho who decided to mess up my life in the first place.

"Wh-what are you d-doing here?" My voice reached an octave higher at the end, mainly because of how much weirdness was in my brain. I bet you a rare card that there was enough in my cranium to cause a meltdown to a rock.

I still looked at my brother in shock as he continued speaking. "I knew you would be here. You know how hard it was to find you? Next time you wander off; make sure you're with Mom, Dad, or me. Mom and Dad have been freaking out ever since you vanished, or will anyway. Ah, could you pay more attention to what we're doing next time we go shopping for groceries? I swear you have the attention span of a four-year old!"

"Who's the new dude?" Izaki whispered into my ear.

My mouth set itself in a grim line and I said, "My older brother, Ryo, who is also known as the most protective brother on the planet. "

"Come on, let's get going." Ryo grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the door.

"Ah, wait! Hold on!" I said.

"No 'hold on', young lady!" Ryo chided. "We are going home no matter what!"

I groaned and turned back to the bewildered boys standing behind me. "Uh, see you guys around the shop sometime!"

Aichi gave me a nervous smile and said. "Um, bye?"

Ryo let go of my wrist as soon as he shut the door of our house, which was completely barren except for the towers of boxes balanced precariously on one another.

"Hey Mom! Dad! We're back from grocery shopping!" Ryo yelled.

"Good!" a female voice who must be my 'mother' called back. "When you're done putting them away in the fridge, unpack your things for tonight. Especially you, Nia! Don't try to forget again!"

"I won't!" Probably, given that I practically have the memory span of a goldfish. Which is about five seconds.

But they should know that, right?

I spat the rest of the foamy liquid in my mouth into the sink and twisted the knob to turn on the cold tap water. I stuck my toothbrush under the faucet and watched absentmindedly as the water washed away the minuscule bubbles. I twisted the knob back and looked in the mirror in front of me.

How did this happen? I thought. It's like a dream or something. I gripped the edge of the sink. But everything feels so real. Is that even possible? I know dreams can trick the conscious into thinking that everything that's happening is real, but I've got an insane feeling that this is my reality, I stared back at myself in the mirror, my mouth still in a grim line of fear. And I'm stuck in it. I sighed. I better get some sleep. That way, at least I can deal with this craziness head on.

I walked back to my small cot and slipped under the thin blanket. Home, sweet home. I closed my eyes and let myself float away to the world of dreams. Alright, maybe it wasn't exactly the world of dreams, but it was definitely another world.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Ugh," I moaned. I groped my bedside table next to me and felt for the stupid alarm clock. My hand stopped when it touched a cool, sleek, arched surface. Gotcha. My fingers trailed up its face and held a strange t-shaped piece of metal, and the annoying sound sound stopped and I felt the back for the switch and flicked it. I clumsily placed it back on the table and closed my eyes.

What a wild ride, the most hectic dream in the history of dreams, I yawned and sat up in my bed. At least now I'm back in my own house. I groggily made my way out of my door and to the bathroom down the hall.

I'll be skipping the rest of my daily routine here, mainly because it's the same old thing: shower, brush, eat, dress, and leave. Now I better give you a proper introduction, mainly because everyone else is bugging me to do so. Who's everyone else you may ask? You'll find out soon enough.

As you know, my full name is Niyami "Nia" Kinaki. I'm fifteen, part Japanese and mainly American-because my great something grandparents were Japanese while everyone else in my family was an American.

It's the second week of my attendance at Adarity Academy, which goes from elementary to high school. It's a pretty decent and great place, but if you ever want to survive this place, you have to be careful of the popular kids in your class. Sure, there's always going to be a nice kid in the clique, but watch your back for the other ones. They are as mean as they get. As for me, I happen to grate on their nerves a lot for doing absolutely nothing, so if you're smart, you'd probably stay out of my way if you don't want to labeled as a social outcast. I find that kind of idiotic, I mean, why would you let someone else take away your ability to make choices? I just don't get eighth graders. Anyways, I get A's with a few B's and B pluses here and there, and I have purple eyes and black hair with a strand of light blue hair in front. Even though you already knew that from the beginning, my brother is pressuring me to make a proper introduction.

Next comes my brother, Ryuko 'Ryo' Kinaki, who is the most popular kid in his eleventh grade class. He happens to be the captain of the soccer team, a straight A student, perfect role model, and what the girls in my class call 'a total hunk'. He's got tousled glossy black hair, and light green eyes, sort of like a mystical pool of energy. He's got a good build, chiseled features, and what all you girls out there would consider movie star material.

My mother and father both work as entrepreneurs of the local art galleries and a well-known theater here in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Life is good, but they still care about us kids over here. My father teaches my brother everything about business tactics and all that stuff. They tried teaching me, but that ended up in an incident involving tutors, stacks of paper, and exploding ink pens. Trust me, you don't want to know about that last part.

When that idea blew up in their faces (as in literally), they found out that I had a real gift in the arts. They began including me in the plays that were taking part in their theater, and the directors were a little skeptical, but soon were very surprised. Since I was a little on the young side, they usually had me play as an extra or sometimes as a supportive character. And my parents would sometimes give artists a way to hang their art for half off rent if they would give me some lessons. Who would think that this kid was so good in the arts?

So now that this little (not) introduction of four long paragraphs is over, I should get back to school. First came Math, next came Geography, all the way to one of my favorite subjects, Chemistry.

"Class," Ms. Nikola began. "As you know, today will be the day you switch lab partners, and because I'm feeling very generous, I'll let you decide who you would be with for the next two weeks."

The rest of my classmates didn't miss a beat. In a flash of stampeding feet, yelling, shoving, and me getting an elbow blow to the gut, everyone stood behind a counter with someone next to them. I gazed at the empty stool next to me and sighed. As I had said earlier, if you cared about your reputation, you wouldn't even give a second glance at becoming my partner for anything. So I could say goodbye to a boyfriend, even though I never cared about that anyway.

Ms. Nikola looked at the empty seat next to me and glanced to the rest of my classmates. "Come on students. There are eighteen of you, so that's no excuse for one of you to be missing a partner. Come on, which one of you is a group of three?" Her piercing black eyes swept the classroom in hopes of finding where the extra third wheel went.

One of the students in front of me raised her hand. Ms. Nikola raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh, so are you volunteering to be Ms. Kinaki's lab partner?"

"No, Ms. Nikola. It's just that Ray is absent today, so someone will have to work alone," the girl looked at me and winked.

Oh no, it's that psychotic blonde that tries to make my life go to the underworld, Drew. She's one of those CCP girls (Cute, Cool, and Popular, or as I'd like to say, Crazed, Clueless, and Prissy). I cracked a smile. That gets me to laugh every time.

I began to automatically pour a bunch of chemicals into a beaker. When it comes to anything involving science, I'm the person to go to. As I poured in compound into the beaker, it started turning green. I eyed the concoction warily and took a step back. "Ms. Nikola," I called.

She looked at me and said, "Hm? Oh my!"

The green liquid in the beaker was starting to bubble, and I don't really think that was a good sign. I quickly turned off the Bunsen burner, but the concoction was already taking effect. A foul smell filled the classroom and green fog started to emit from the beaker like a drop hitting water. It starts out as a small dot, but that dot becomes the outline of a circle, growing bigger and multiplying in numbers, only stopping when it hits something on the surface of the water.

"Everyone out!"

For once, the whole class actually and willingly did what the teacher said and pushed each other out the door screaming and yelling stupid things that people normally say when something bad happens.

"We're doomed!"

"It's the apocalypse!"

"I don't want to die!"

Seriously, can these people overreact anymore? It's just a simple one-oh-one stink bomb. That's when it hit me. Stink bomb. That would mean a single thing . . . Someone switched one of the test tubes with another! Ah, I'm idiot!

"Stupid," I muttered. There's only one person who could have done this to me. Elaina, the other CCP in my class, who is just as bad as Drew is. Only this CCP is the master of pranks, while Drew is the mistress of make-up. I'm telling you, that girl wears too much make-up and nail polish and such girly clothing. Oi, just thinking about that makes me dizzy.

I sighed as everyone in the school was rounded up to the soccer field outside.

"Nia!" I heard someone call my name. There was only one person that I know of-well, four actually-that would call my name out in public. I turned my head sideways and faced my older brother.

"Hey bro, what's up?" I sarcastically said.

He stopped short in front of me and eyed me. "What happened?"

"Elaina swapped one of my test tubes and I created a stink bomb by accident," I deadpanned.

He sighed and roughly shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I told them to quit it already! Ugh!"

I shook my head. "Dude, you know that's never going to happen unless if they take you seriously, right?"

"Which absolutely sucks," he murmured.

I shrugged and heard a loud crackle, as if someone was crumpling a gigantic piece of paper. "Attention to all students," a loud voice boomed. "Due to a small incident involving the chemistry lab, any classes there will have to be changed to free time until next week. Enjoy your lunch break!"

Everyone around me started cheering, jumping, and hollering out things like, "Good riddance!" or "Hey Nia!"

Oh wait, that last one was-

Hey, MeiMei here! What's up-

MeiMei get off the computer! Sorry, but that was MeiMei, the hyperactive (and not to mention extremely crazy) and beautiful, and smart-

MEIMEI! Sorry, I'll have to let my brother take over from here while I try to find a strawberry lollipop if I ever want to save our ears.

Too all the fans out there reading this, my name is-

Alright, alright! Sorry, but the rest of my friends are screaming to get a move on to the part where they appear. Well you just have to hold your horses!

Back to the story, which was where again? Oh well, guess I'll have to start from my point of view until my sister comes back!

(Ryo's Pov)

I turned just in time to see Nia being tackled by a whirlwind, which was MeiMei.

As my sister had said before, she is hyper, crazy, talkative, and exactly how my sister acts whenever she gets extremely excited. Trust me, having MeiMei talking is bad enough, but having MeiMei and Nia will make even the most stoic person on the face of the planet fear for their ears. MeiMei is sixteen, my age, and she has curly brown hair and bright blue eyes. Like the rest of my friends and I, she knows how to play Vanguard.

Now that I'm done with that little intro, I'll continue with why in the world MeiMei tackled my sister, not that it's uncommon for her to do that.

"Argh!" Nia yelped and landed on her-

Off the chair bro! It's my turn to type!

What?! But I just got here!

Who cares, I'm the one writing this story!

So sorry about all you having to deal with that confusion, I'll explain about it later. Which as my friend would say, never. Ha!

(Nia's Pov)

I groaned and lifted my head, only to be greeted by the smiling face of my friend. There is only one person that I know of that can knock me down with the power of a pro football player. I let my head fall back to the ground and muttered, "Ow. MeiMei get off me."

"Okie dokie!" She chirped. MeiMei jumped off me and started bouncing like nothing had ever happened. Yeesh, just watching her makes me feel like an old lady.

"Guys, guys, guys!" She squealed. "Guesswhat?! There'sanewcardshopatthemallandthey'vegotVanguardcards,OMG!OMG!"

Sorry, but did I forgot to mention that she can talk ridiculously fast? Only my brother, the rest of my friends and I can make sense of what she's babbling about, so here's what she actually said: "Guess what?! There's a new card shop at the mall and they've got Vanguard cards, OMG! OMG!"

My mouth dropped. "Holy cow, are you for real?!" I grinned and jumped up and down with her. "Ah! I don't believe it!"

"Me neither!" She shouted back.

We both screamed in glee together at the same time like a group of fan girls.

My brother cringed and took his hands off his ears. "Oi! You two sound like we're at a boy band concert."

I grinned at him and said, "Who cares?! There's finally a card shop in our hometown!"

Ryo smacked his forehead. "Dear Grandma Nellie, someone save us all." He looked up to the sky with his hands pressed together, as if it'll save him the torturous-CANDY!

My brother stuck out twin strawberry lollipops right in front of us and we took it. MeiMei and I took the candy at the same time at unwrapped them. We stuck the wrappers into our pockets and popped in our mouths.

"Yummy!" We said at the same time.

Ryo sighed in relief. "Too close," he murmured.

If there's one thing that will save my brother's ears from these two eager girls is candy and a good book in my case. So it's safe to say that my brother is safe. Until we get excited again.

My eyes gleamed in excitement as I stared at the rare cards on display in the display case. The small shop was completely jam packed with kids of all ages and a few adults chaperoning their kids. You could say that there were more people here than a Yankee's baseball game.

The card shop me and my friends were at was called Card Shop Guardia, the newest and the only card shop in existence in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

"Nia, over here!" I looked around me to see who had called my name. A hand stuck out of the crowd, and I started slipping my way between spaces in the crowd to where it was. I wormed my way past someone and apparently, that someone accidentally elbowed me from behind, but luckily a friend caught me from falling flat on my face.

I looked up and was greeted by a familiar face. "Thanks for the save Ian, otherwise I would've taken a nosedive to the floor."

"No problem, it's the least I could do for you helping me with my science homework."

Ian Sintrov is a Russian friend of mine that used to live in London, then in Italy before moving here to Haverhill. He's got dark skin and black hair with serious slate gray eyes and a build slightly bigger than one for his age. He's in the same grade and class as MeiMei and Ryo, and he's the go-to guy when it comes to music and everything about it. However, he sometimes has trouble when it comes to science, so that's where I step in. Ian always promises free strawberry lollipops to my brother if I help out with his science projects. To Ryo, that's basically winning your freedom after being a slave for the devil for three thousand years.

"So why were you calling me?" I asked.

He grinned. "Take a look for yourself," he stepped aside to reveal eight decks all set on a table, each in a different colored deck case. I picked up a yellow case and slid out the top card. Little Sage, Marron, a Royal Paladin.

I gasped as another image came in mind.

I ride, Little Sage, Marron!

I shook my head and it went away. My dream . . . It feels so real, but it can't be possible. It's only a dream . . . right?

I felt a weight on my shoulder and tensed. "Hey sis."

"Huh?" I followed my gaze up and stopped once I realized who was talking to me. I blinked and replied, "Yeah, bro?"

"You've been staring off in space for a while now," Ian said.

"Oh, sorry," I apologized.

MeiMei bounced on the balls of her feet as she stared at me with wide eyes. "So which deck are you gonna pick? I've got the Neo Nectars! They're so cute!" She gushed and rubbed her light green deck against her cheek.

"Um," I placed a finger on my chin and glanced at the remaining decks on the table in front of me. My other hand hovered over the decks as I made my decision. "I'll go with . . ." A gleam caught my eye and I looked at it. My sights settled on an orchid colored case with a yellow Vanguard circle in the middle of it. A sudden spark of energy passed through my system when I brushed my fingers against it. "I choose this one."

MeiMei looked at my new deck with stars sparkling in her eyes. "So which clan is it? Show us! Show us! Show us!" She squealed.

I smiled and revealed a card from my deck. My smile instantly turned into a frown and my brows furrowed. "Destiny Guardian? What kind of clan is this?"

MeiMei, Ryo, and I turned to Ian with piercing stares.

He shook his head. "I'm not the Vanguard expert of this group, so you should ask Lucas."

I stared at my deck then back to the ones on the table. I wonder what type of clan you are.

I slipped snugly under the covers of my own bed in my own room. I stared up at the ceiling, my heart swirling with emotions and questions.

I hope all of this will make sense tomorrow. Or if I'll have more problems to deal with, I sighed and slowly resigned myself into the clutches of what would hopefully be a dreamless sleep.

Though I have to ask the world one question: Why do the heroes never have their wishes come true?!

What do you think? Review, comment, and hopefully give me ideas for Nia's cards!