She stood up, groaning. "Can't I step outside for, like, two seconds?"

    "No," he said. "They'll see you!"

    "Who?" she shouted. She had gone off at him many times before, and he had the same reaction every time. She knew she wouldn't get what she wanted. Why not try for the fiftieth time? "No one's out there! I'm sick of being in here! It's been practically two years!"

    He looked at her with a sad expression. "My dear, you realize it doesn't matter."

    She looked around her home, her prison, in frustration. It was rather comfortable. It had to be, if he wanted to keep her in here forever. High walls surrounded a brightly lit, carpeted room. A four-poster bed with purple hangings sat in one corner. A white desk was in another corner. On it was hundreds of papers, letters she had written to a boy she knew she would never see again. Or would she?

    "How could you keep me from him? From all of them?"

    "My sweet, you know it's for your own good."

    "They probably think I'm dead!" she shrieked, her voice rising. "You can't keep me from them any longer!"

    "I have to," replied the old man. "There is no another way."

    Later that night, she packed a bag. She wasn't thinking about how much trouble she could get in, only the friendly faces she would get to see if she succeeded. She slipped on a black jacket over her yellow shirt, her chocolate brown hair spilling over her shoulders in the night.

    Carefully she sneaked into his room and took his key. Then she unlocked the front door.

    She sighed, breathing in the night air contentedly. Fireflies danced around her and an owl hooted somewhere off in the distance. The stars shone brightly, lighting the way home.

    "Here I come," she said as she set off through the unknown world.

2: 1 ~ Caroline

    "And so we must conclude that if the perimeter of Triangle A is used, we can deduct the area of Square B quite simply…"

    The annoying British accent of my teacher droned on and on. Usually I paid attention in class, but today was different. Just one more hour and Christmas break would begin. Just one more hour…

    My gaze flicked lazily across the room to Marvette Kent, who was absentmindedly doodling in her notebook. Her crystal blue eyes flitted up to meet mine, and she made a face in mock surprise. Yes, I, Caroline Fox, do not always act like a teacher's pet. It's a rare occasion, but today was an exception.

    I rolled my eyes at my best friend and she grinned, flipping a curl of blond hair behind her ear. Marvette then turned and pretended to be intrigued with the area of Square B.

    Suddenly the bell rang, cutting off the elderly professor. He continued to shout instructions, but no one was listening. I grabbed my things and hurried to the door, where Marvette was waiting for me.

    "I can't believe the year is half over," I told her as we pushed our way through the hallways.

    "I know…" She sighed and started flipping through a notebook, the same one she had been drawing in earlier. I had no idea what she was looking for.

    As we strolled past the students of the Eagle Ridge School for the Talented and Gifted (or ERSTG for short), several boys turned their heads. Marvette has that effect on people. Stunningly pretty, she lived up to the meaning of her name: marvelous. Of course, no one took a second glance at me. I was the shy, studious girl who hung by Marvette's side 24/7.

    We entered the dormitories. Marvette was still sending her notebook pages in a flurry. She nearly crashed into numerous people in her furious attempt to find something.

    "Uh…Marvette?"

    She looked up. "Wow, we're here already? That was quick."

    I sighed and pushed open the door to our dorm. I was lucky enough to be roommates with Marvette Kent, 16, prettiest girl in ERSTG. However, most popular was a title that belonged entirely to someone else…

    And sure enough, I could hear her nasally voice coming down the hall. "Lilah alert," I muttered to Marvette. My friend had finally found what she was looking for and flopped on her bed, smiling almost dreamily at the page.

    Looked like I was facing her alone.

    Lilah Sparks poked her head into our doorway. Her heavily mascaraed eyelids fluttered, batting over pale blue eyes. Her flat-ironed honey blonde hair fell to her waist and thick bangs lay across her forehead.

    "What do you want?" I asked her. I wasn't scared of Lilah, just annoyed.

    "Oh, just checking in. How's chess club?"

    I rolled my eyes at her. "I'm not in chess club. How many times are we going to go over this?"

    She seemed to just notice Marvette sprawled on the bed. A snotty expression filled her face as she said, "Oh, Marvette, are you thinking of a certain someone?"

    Marvette snapped the notebook shut, her face slowly turning red. "Go away, Lilah."

    Lilah sighed and checked her manicure before saying, "Okay, fine. I'll leave you to your dreamy thoughts."

    And with that, she whisked back down the hallway.

    "She came in here just to annoy us," I growled. "Her room isn't anywhere near here."

    Marvette didn't respond. She had opened the notebook again and was staring at the page, twisting a lock of hair around her finger as she did so. A faraway look had entered her sparkling eyes.

    I crossed the room and slung my bag onto my bedspread. Then I silently walked behind Marvette and scanned the sheet of lined paper she had been looking at.

    Her bubbly handwriting filled most of the page with notes from math class, but at the bottom was an untidy scrawl. Turns out Marvette had been passing notes with someone, undeniably a male someone.

    She seemed to notice me and snapped the book closed a second time. Scowling, she mimicked, "Oh, Marvette, are you thinking of a certain someone? She makes me sick."

    "Are you?"

    "Of course not…okay, maybe," she replied, starting to blush again. "But it's none of your business."

    "Course not." I gave her a wink and walked to the door. "I'm going to go for a walk in the courtyard. Coming?"

    "Oh! Um…maybe you should go to the library or something instead."

    I narrowed my eyes at her. Was someone hiding secrets? Marvette wasn't the secretive type, but she seemed to be avoiding my eyes.

    "You know, I think I should get advantage of the weather before it turns nasty."

    Okay, the weather already was nasty. It's December, in Colorado no less. Of course it's freezing. However, something about the outdoors drew me in. It was great to breathe in the cool mountain air and smell the evergreens.

    Marvette shook her head. "I really think the library is a good place to be."

    Okay…

    "If you really want me to, I guess I will."

    Her face brightened. "Great! Then I'll see you at dinner."

    I gave her a wave and left the room. Clearly, Marvette needed her own space.

    As I suspected, the library was close to empty. Nobody wanted to be in such a school-tied place on Christmas break. In fact, most people were probably packing up to leave. I, on the other hand, would be staying at school through Christmas. I lived in a foster home, where I wasn't very welcome.

    That's how I became friends with Marvette. She also came from a foster home and knew how I felt. The difference between me and her, however, was that she actually liked her home. Probably because she had two sisters to hang out with and decent foster parents.

    I headed over to the "new" section, wondering if there was anything good in this library that I hadn't read yet. As I moved across the library floor, my shoelace came undone. I tripped and fell flat on my face. My books fell all over the ground and I scraped my knee. My face flushed as I prayed that no one had seen my terrible fall.

    "Are you okay?"

    Well, so much for that.

    I looked up to see a pair of warm brown eyes looking down at me. A boy slightly older than me had been on his way out of the library when I tripped and was now peering curiously at me. My face turned even brighter red as I nodded, unable to speak. He held out a hand and I took it. He carefully and gently helped me up, his hand soft and warm.

    Together we gathered up my things and then stood there. After an awkward pause, he said, "My name's Nick Brown."

    "Caroline Fox," I said, finding my voice. "Thanks."

    "No problem." He had spiky, caramel colored hair and a kind smile. I found myself staring at him for a while.

    "Well, I'd better get going," he said.

    "Yeah," I stammered. "I'll – I'll see you around."

    He nodded and turned to leave with one last smile.

3: 2 ~ Zhipeng

"Thank goodness,” exclaimed Alana.  “I thought I’d be trapped in that prison forever.”

            Putting on a pinched face, she said, “Alana Kent, if you do not copy these notes right away, I shall shove you in a box and feed you bread and water!”

            I cracked up.  Alana did an awesome impression of our history professor.  Her emerald eyes glistened with humor.

            “You’re ridiculous,” I told my girlfriend.  Alana just sighed.

            “Better watch out, Zhipeng, or you’ll be next!”

            I shoved her lightly and she pretended to stumble and fall, right in the hallway.  Several people gave her weird looks, but she didn’t seem to care.  Shaking her brown hair out of her eyes, she joined me again as we continued towards ERSTG’s courtyard.

            Once outside in the blustering wind, we found a fallen tree log and watched the students leave for break.  People shouted goodbyes and gave hugs.  It was extremely noisy.

            “Have you seen any of the crew yet?” I asked Alana.  She shook her head, her cropped hair flying in the wind.

            “I’m sure they’re coming.  Just wait.”

            And wait we did.  We sat in silence as the school bustled around us.

            They have no idea how lucky they are to have a normal life…

            “BOO!”

            I jumped, surprised by the intruder.  Alana simply turned around to find the source of the now cackling boy.

            “Oh my gosh, Zhipeng.  Your face…”

            Leo Blue fell on to the ground in fits of laughter.  Alana rolled her eyes and turned back to the crowd.

            I watched as Leo regained his composure and joined us on the tree, sitting next to me.  His dark brown eyes were watering with tears from laughing so hard.  Needless to say, Leo has a strange sense of humor.  For some reason, he was my best friend anyways.

            “You’re late,” I told him.  He shook his long black hair out of his face and looked me in the eye.

            “No, I’m not,” he said.  You see anyone else here?  I’m practically early!”

            “Whatever.”

            Leo stood up and stretched.  He found a rock on the ground and started tossing it, rolling it off his arm and bouncing it on his knee.  I had to admit, he was extremely coordinated.  That was probably a result of spending all his spare time on the basketball court.

            Leo had it all.  He was athletic and strong, tall and handsome, tan, muscular, and overly intelligent.  It’s a wonder he doesn’t have a girlfriend.  His only fault was that he had a terrible sense of humor, but that could be worked around.

            “Yo, Alana,” he said.  “Where are your sisters?”

            Alana just gave him a look and said, “River’s probably scaring the new students out of their wits, and Marvette’s probably doing her hair or something.”

            Alana was a triplet, and her sisters also went to ERSTG.  River was annoying, but Marvette was okay.  All three were sixteen, a year younger than me.

            Speaking of River, she strode across the school’s lawn as we spoke.  When she was within earshot of us, she started balking on about how everyone else was missing.

            River and Alana are almost identical.  The only way I can tell them apart is that Alana’s about a head taller, and River’s hair is much longer.  River usually kept her auburn hair in a ponytail over her shoulder, with strands escaping on either side.  Her green eyes were menacing.

            “Where are those two?  Why, I bet they’re hiding somewhere, exchanging tips on painting their nails!” she barked.

            “Come on, River,” I said.  “They probably just got held up.”

            “Yeah,” said Leo.  “Marvette isn’t that prissy.”  He threw his rock far away, into a nearby pond.  The throw probably terrified all the happy fish swimming around.

            “We should just go without them,” muttered Alana.  “Who needs Pretty and Snobby anyways?”

            “What are we, the seven dwarves?” said Leo, falling into his laughter again.

            “Yeah,” replied Alana.  “And you’re Annoying.”

            Leo took a bow.  “Why, thank you."

            “Maybe you should be Weird.”

            He shook his head, making a tsk tsk tsk noise.  “Nope, Alana, that’s you!”

            I sighed.  Come on, guys, so we can leave and not be around these idiots any longer…

4: 3

Marvette

            I snuck one last glance in the mirror, making sure my hair wasn’t a rat’s nest.

            It wasn’t.

            I then turned and dashed down the hallway.  My friends were probably wondering where I was, but I couldn’t just take Caroline with me!

            One of these days, she’s going to find out my secret…Let’s just hope that isn’t anytime soon.  A suspecting best friend was the last thing I needed at the moment.

            When I arrived at the courtyard, I saw the rest of my crew huddled around a fallen log.  River seemed agitated, of course.  Sorry, sis.

            When she saw me, she threw her hands up.  “Where have you been?  We’ve been waiting forever!”

            Zhipeng rolled his eyes, which were the same color as the sky.  “River, you just got here yourself.  Give her a break.”

            I smiled at my friend, trying not to stare.  His thick black hair stuck up in tufts and he grinned, lighting up his pale face.

            “So, where’s little Miss America?” asked Alana.                         

            “You mean Snobby,” put in Leo.  “Look, it’s perfect!  We really could be the seven dwarves.  There’s seven of us, after all –”

            He suddenly caught himself, sneaking a sideways glance at Zhipeng.  The boy didn’t seem to notice Leo’s slip.

            Two years later, and we still can’t get it right?

            Then again, this was Leo we were talking about.

            I turned to River.  “Could you have picked a worse time to meet?  There’s a ton of people out here!  They’re bound to see us leave!”

            She shook her head, frowning.  “That’s the genius about it.  We’ll blend in.  No one will give us a second glance.”

            I didn’t agree with everything River did.  It must be a sibling thing.  The three of us never saw eye to eye.

            “Look, let’s just go,” said Zhipeng.  “She won’t be here for at least another hour.  It’s not like she ever does anything helpful, anyways.”

            “Seriously,” agreed Alana.  “All she does is take up space in the bathroom.  It’s useless.”

            “Like it or not, she is a part of us,” replied River.  “She always has been, and she deserves our trust.”

            “She doesn’t deserve anything but getting kicked out,” I muttered.

Alana

       Suddenly she was there, her yellow hair flying and her chest heaving.

            Seriously, I thought, some work won’t kill you every once in a while.

            “Oh, River, I’m so sorry!  I couldn’t find my hairbrush, and then my hair was getting a little too wavy, so I had to straighten it again, and then I had to do some homework…”  Lilah trailed off when she saw our faces.

            We weren’t buying it.

            “Come on,” muttered River.  “Before the yard is empty.”

            We followed her lead and whisked off to the hidden brick wall, where River pushed a button and the metal chute appeared, leading the way to our second home.

            Here we go again.