The seven

The SEVEN By Victoria Panovska

Published by Victoria Panovska at Smashwords Copyright 2013 Victoria Panovska

Smashwords Edition, License Notes Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com. Thank you for your support.

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Table of Contents Cover Table of Contents Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two

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Prologue

Every riddle in the world, We find and we solve together, We are The Seven, And we’ll be forever.

We’re clever and we’re strong, We’re brave and we’re steady, For this tangled-up story, You know if you’re ready.

The story about danger, And creepy ghostly signs, The story about friendship And evil twisted minds.

- Tori Collins (The Chosen One)

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CHAPTER ONE Not an Ordinary Girl Sunlight came through the windows of the white and blue house with the number 47 by the front door in Los Angeles and the fresh ocean smell filled every part of it. Victoria ‘Tori’ Collins, the policeman’s daughter spent the entire morning in front of the mirror. Dressed, and all ready for the first day of middle school, she enjoyed the last moments of summer vacation before they’re forced back into the classrooms. Anyway, how bad could it be? She grabbed her brand new school bag off her bed and her Yorkshire Terrier puppy, Stella woke up.

“Good luck,” she said to herself in the mirror and ran down the brand new wooden stairs covered by a moose brown carpet, her mother’s favorite color, followed by her dog.

In the kitchen, her parents were having a normal morning: Zoey, her mother was cooking breakfast and Andrew, her father, dressed in his police uniform was drinking coffee and reading the daily newspaper.

“Morning mom, morning dad!” She said. “Mom, can I get my breakfast to-go. Jess wants to be at school early to perfect her perfect attendance since pre-school.”

“Maybe you can learn from her,” Mrs. Collins said.

“Yeah right,” Tori said. “Now about that breakfast…”

“Here,” Mrs. Collins said and handed her a lunch bag. “Have fun. And don’t get in any trouble.”

“Maybe,” Tori said and walked out of the house.

She didn’t really care about getting at school early, so she walked slowly down the street looking down and kicking pebbles aside. She heard somebody running after her.

“Tori! Tori! Wait!” The girl yelled.

Tori turned around and saw her one and only friend: Jessica Jones. Jess and Tori had nothing in common, yet they were best friends. Jess was a girl with not much special traits, unlike Tori, who was quiet and mysterious. Nobody at school knew what that brunette hid.

Jess finally got up the sidewalk. With her red hair covering her gray eyes, she balanced her school bag on her shoulder.

“Finally Tori. Why didn’t you wait for me?” She said out of breath. “’Cause I thought we’ll meet at your house,” Tori said and pointed to a cream painted house down the street.

“Well I was at my grandma’s,” Jess explained. “Anyway, how do you think Starlight Middle will be like?”

“Like any other middle school, full of kids and teachers that will hate me,” Tori said and sounded a little proud of herself.

“What do you know, maybe you’ll be popular,” Jess said with a big smile on her face.

“Yeah right,” Tori said.

Tori knew her style: she wasn’t popular and she was proud of it. She loved it because she could focus on the important things. Walking and talking they approached their new school, Starlight Middle School.

Tori stood in front of the glass doors, she closed her eyes and whispered, “Here goes nothing.”

She knew middle school was the beginning of bullies, mean teachers and nasty populars. The moment they stepped in, Tori got a bad feeling but she didn’t tell anyone. That school was bad luck from the first moment.

“Come on Tori. We’ll be late for English,” Jess said.

While they we’re walking, Tori didn’t notice that their new principal walked out of his office.

She bumped into him. She heard kids laughing from behind her back as she stood up.

“Principal Benson. I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to…” She apologizing.

“No problem. Usually, bumping into the principle is a week of detention, but since it is the first day, you’re excused,” Principal Benson said.

They walked to the English classroom and when they entered the room there was more trouble waiting for them. In the right corner, right behind the bookshelves were The Perfects: Rosemary McCone, Jennifer Lane and Lora Turner, the richest and the most popular kids that tried to rule their past school. And now they were here, in Starlight Middle School. As always the Perfects were all wearing pink and pink headbands to mach Rosemary, their, somehow, leader. Tori and Jess walked in and sat somewhere in the middle row. The Perfects walked right at them.

“Hey losers, why are you here?” Rosemary said.

“I don’t know, school maybe,” Tori made up a quick comeback, which she was known for.

“Don’t you yell at us!” Lora yelled with a high pinched voice.

“You just yelled.” Tori defended herself.

“Well you started,” Jennifer said.

“Shut up Pinkies,” Tori stood up ready to pull Rosemary’s blond hair anytime she can.

“When I…” Lora started, but she was interrupted when their English teacher walked in the room.

“You’ve got luck Collins. You’ll need it,” Rosemary whispered to Tori and sat down.

“Everybody take their seats!” She said. “I’m Mrs. Turner and I will be your English teacher.”

“Is she Lora’s mom or something?” Tori whispered to Jess.

“I think so,” Jess narrowed her eyes.

The rest of the classes that day went pretty good, until their final class came, History.

Everybody was inside the classroom waiting for the teacher and talking.

“I thought today will be much worse,” Tori said to Jess.

“Yeah me to. I thought, like, the school will catch on fire,” Jess said.

“Every student’s dream,” Tori said when the History teacher came in.

“Hello everybody. I’m Mr. Jonson. How’s everybody doing?” Mr. Jonson said.

“Fine,” the class answered slowly and quietly.

“I didn’t hear you,” Mr. Jonson said.

“Fine,” the class answered much happier this time.

“That was what I was waiting to hear. So, since it’s the first day, I’m going to familiarize you with this year’s material,” Mr. Jonson said.

“Boring,” Jess mouthed.

“So this year we’re going to focus on mythologies; Greek, Roman and Egyptian. Now a little poll: How many of you are familiar with Greek mythology?” Mr. Jonson said. One part of the class, including The Perfects and Jess raised their hands.

“You aren’t?” Jess whispered to Tori.

“No. I think Greek mythology is overrated,” Tori whispered back.

“Roman anybody?” The other part of the class raised their hands, except Tori.

“How can you, your name is Roman,” Jess whispered to Tori again.

“It’s not, it’s Latin and shh,” she whispered to Jess but it sounded like yelling.

“Egyptian?” Mr. Jonson asked. Silence. Nobody answered. After a few seconds Tori slowly raised her hand.

“Really?” Jess whispered again.

“Shut up.”

“Pushy,” Jess whispered to herself. “So, now…” Mr. Jonson continued.

Tori was bored for a minute and thought about taking a little nap, but she was wide awake.

Bored by Mr. Johnson’s explaining Tori looked around: the windows, shelves and the board. She closed her eyes for a second and she heard a little girls voice slowly saying, “You’re the one.”

Tori shook her head a little and tried to focus on the board.

“Tori, are you OK?” Jess whispered.

“Yeah. Completely,” Tori whispered and turned away from Jess. She heard it again and stood up.

“Tori, please sit down,” Mr. Jonson said.

“Who are you!” Tori yelled and ran away from the classroom. The class stared.

“Jessica, what’s wrong with her?” Mr. Jonson was confused.

“Oh, she’s a little nervous,” Jess said quickly. She grabbed hers and Tori’s bag and ran out of the classroom.

“Loon,” Rosemary said and the entire class laughed while she smiled proudly.

Jess saw Tori walking down the street. She ran up to her.

“Tori what happened?” Jess asked and gave Tori her bag. “You yelled ‘Who are you!’ and ran off. So tell me, what’s up?”

“I don’t know,” Tori said.

“Then, why did you yell?” Jess asked.

“Stop bombarding me with questions!” Tori yelled and ran away. Jess stood there and looked at her until she disappeared around the corner.

“One crazy girl,” she said to herself and went to her house.

Tori ran by the bus stop where two men, dressed in black, sat on a bench reading newspapers.

When one of them saw Tori, he put down the newspaper and turned to the other.

“I think we have our Chosen One,” he said pointing to Tori running down the street.

The other put down his newspaper and stared at the girl trying to detect who she is. “No way.

That’s Collins’s daughter,” he said.

“So, we were right after all,” he said and continued to read like nothing happened.

Tori ran and ran until she finally reached her house. She slammed the door shut and ran into the living room.

“Tori, you’re home early. Why?” Her mother said. Tori left her bag on the floor.

“Mom, I can tell you everything, right?” Tori asked.

“Of course. I’m your mother,” Mrs. Collins said and sat on the couch. “Sit.” Tori sat down and told her mom all about it. “…What do you think that meant?” Tori asked.

“You know, not me.”

“But you said I have to be sixteen or older.”

“Hey, I’m not a Chosen One. What should I know,” Mrs. Collins said.

“Well you’re my mother. You should at least know something,” Tori yelled.

“Well sorry. I’m still working on the last chapter of ‘You and your tween daughter’.”

“Right mom,” Tori said sarcastically.

“No. I’m actually working on the last chapter of a new book ‘You and your tween daughter’.”

“Talking about books, can I go to that library down the street? I have to pick up something for school,” Tori asked.

“Sure. Take a jacket,” Mrs. Collins said and went in the kitchen.

Tori got her jacket and her library card that she left on the little table in the hall. And ran to the library. Tori liked it there. It was so quiet, just like the attic when no one was there.

Tori entered the library and walked through the sections. She picked two books and started to go to-wards the librarian’s desk when she bumped in a boy. They both dropped their books and they bent down to pick them up. Tori looked at the boy directly in the eyes. They were big, dark and wide open, just like her’s. His shaggy brown hair was all messed up.

“Sorry. My clumsiness can’t get any bigger today,” Tori excused herself and picked up the books.

“No problem. It happens all the time,” the boy said and picked up his books. “Well bye.”

“Bye,” Tori went to the librarian’s desk.

She left the books there and started looking at the shelves and the books on them. She noticed that the boy returned the books and walked out of the library.

“Miss,” the librarian said. “Can I have you’re library card, please?”

Tori gave her the card, took the books and got out of the library. Her mind was still wrapped around that boy. Who was he?

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CHAPTER TWO The Contest A whole week passed when something caught the student’s attention. On the school message board there was a poster that said: ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS! Our school has been chosen to participate in a contest that’s going all around the US. In this contest only ONE of you will get a full seven year scholarship to Magnolia Boarding School on Lightning Island. This lucky student will receive a free flight to the school with Lightning Airlines and a uniform from Magnolia Boarding School. It will be taking place on Friday, September 14, in the school cafeteria at the third period.

I wish you all good luck, Principal Benson “Tori, what do you think?” Jess asked.

“It will be great to get into that school. Too bad I’m not The Lucky One,” Tori said and laughed to herself.

“Whatever. Let’s just go to Math,” Jess said and they ran off to class.

The last four days were filled with talking and the teachers started leaving the classes early because they couldn’t stay in a room with all those talking kids for long. Finally, the longawaited Friday approached.

The first two periods, English and Math were nothing but talking.

On the third period the noise went from little to enormous. All the students were in the cafeteria. There wasn’t any place for anyone to come through so Principal Benson had to go through the back door. When he finally got there he yelled, “Quiet everybody!” The students quieted down and carefully listened to their principle.

“Today, is the contest draw you were all impatient for,” Principal Benson said and the kids cheered.

The principle walked behind the big jar full of pieces of paper. “On these papers are all of your names so the name of a person I pick is the winner. Are you ready?”

“Yes!” The kids yelled.

Principal Benson put his hand in the jar. After a few seconds he picked up a piece of paper. He read the name on the paper and there was an awkward silence after a few seconds he slowly said, “Victoria Collins.” Tori stood in shock. The first contest of luck she won! She walked to the principal and he gave her the scholarship and the airplane ticket. He whispered to her, “Get your uniform at the clothing store down town. Just tell your name and get it for free.” The bell rang and everybody went back to class. Tori walked up to Jess.

“You won, yay,” Jess said sarcastically. “You seriously want to go to that school?” ”Kinda,” Tori said.

“Well, what will I do without you?” Jess said.

“Maybe find some new friends,” Tori said.

“You hate me.”

“I don’t,” Tori yelled a little. “I told you, I want a fresh start, ‘cause this school is so… so… I don’t know.”

“Promise me you’ll be on ‘Chatbox’ 24/7 and text me about anything special,” Jess demanded.

“OK, OK. Just don’t bother me at night and during school hours,” “I’ll text you at lunch and after school. We’ll chat after homework.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll come after school at your house to pick what outfits to pack.”

“And after that we’ll go pick up the uniform,” Tori said and they walked in class.

After school, Tori and Jess went at Tori’s house. Stella, Tori’s Yorkshire Terrier, Stella greeted them with barking as they walked in the front yard. When they entered Mrs. Collins was cleaning the hall.

“Hi girls,” she said.

“Mom, I won the boarding school competition,” Tori said and showed her the scholarship .

“Amazing, honey. So, do you want to go?” Mrs. Collins asked.

“Will you let me?” Tori asked.

Mrs. Collins thought for a moment. “Of course,” she said.

“Then yes. We’ll go pack and later we’ll go down town to pick up the uniform,” Tori said.

They went in Tori’s room and opened her big wardrobe.

“OK, I think you should pack the jeans, lots of tees, blouses, shorts, denim skirts, jean jackets…” Jess started.

“So… I’ll just pack my entire room, right. I don’t need so much stuff. I’ll get another suitcase for my other clothes, shoes, jewelry and purses, a two backpacks for my technical stuff.”

“That’s a total of 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks. How are you going to carry them all?”

“Easy. Let’s go get the uniform and we’ll pack,” Tori said and they ran out the door.

Half an hour later they returned carrying the uniform; a crimson red jacket, a black skirt, a white shirt and a crimson red and gold tie. Tori put it on the hook on her wardrobe.

“I kinda like it. But I can’t believe you’re going away on Sunday,” Jess said and sat on the bed.

“Tomorrow we’ll have the best day ever,” Tori said to cheer Jess up.

“We’ll call it BFF day,” Jess said.

“Yeah. Now you know suitcases, how do you pack them?” Tori said and laughed.

“First…” Jess started when Hunter, Tori’s brother walked in.

Tori thought Hunter was the most annoying boy alive. Even though they were related and they had to spend most of their lives in the same house, they were like worse enemies. There wasn’t a single day at the Collins’ household without a fight between the brother and sister.

“Finally, you’re moving out,” Hunter said in relief.

“I’m not moving out,” Tori thumped him on the head. “I’m going to a boarding school.”

“Can I come?” Hunter pleaded.

“If you can afford 2 hundred bucks per semester,” Tori said. “Then how come you going?”

“I won a scholarship little bro.”

“OK,” Hunter said and walked out.

“I never saw him handling things so easy,” Jess said and laughed.

The next day, the last day of the best friends being together, Tori woke up by a text message by Jess. They started a text message conversation: Jess: Good morning BFF. Can we start our best day ever?

Tori: Sure. Come over at 10.

Jess: Why at 10?

Tori: I have to get dressed and get breakfast. _

Jess: Aren’t you dressed?

Tori: I’m in bed and in PJs. Jess: K. C U @ 10.

Tori: C U 2.

Byez.

Tori put her iPhone on her bedside table and got up. She looked in the mirror, as usual, but this time she saw something weird in it. It was like a ghost be-hind her. Then she heard the voice again.

“You’re the one,” it said.

“Are you going to ruin my last day with my best friend ‘till Christmas!” Tori yelled. But it was too late when she realized that she yelled at her dog, that ran out of her room after that.

“Tori, who are you yelling at?” Mr. Collins yelled from downstairs.

“No one dad,” Tori yelled back.

“Then come down here for breakfast,” Mr. Collins yelled.

Tori, still in her blue pajamas ran downstairs. When she entered Mrs. Collins was making waffles and Mr. Collins was drinking coffee from a giant mug. Tori sat down at the dining table.

After a few minutes Hunter came in.

“What’s up pants? And sis,” Hunter said.

“Hunter I told you, we’re not pants. We’re your parents,” Mrs. Collins said.

“That’s cool talk,” Hunter said and sat on the table.

“Since when are you cool?” Tori said.

“Since always,” Hunter said.

“I think that cool people at least remember to pull up their pants,” Tori said and smiled.

Hunter looked down and realized his pants had fallen down, he screamed and quickly pulled them up.

“You’re just ten, and your life is easier,” Tori said.

“I’m glad that’s true. I never wanted to be a Chosen One, you know, save the Earth.”

“Shut up Hunter or you’ll find your autographed baseball bat and ball in the dump.”

“You dare,” Hunter said.

“Tori, Hunter, stop it!” Mrs. Collins yelled at them.

“Like I’m gonna listen my big sister,” Hunter said.

“Ohhhhh, I’m gonna get you!” Tori said and started chasing Hunter around the house.

“You two, stop it, right now!” Mrs. Collins yelled. Tori and Hunter stopped chasing each other.

“Tori, go play with your friend, Hunter you, you just stop acting like a five year-old. Are we clear?” Tori and Hunter mumbled something. “I said are we clear?” She repeated.

“Yes,” Tori and Hunter said and left.

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CHAPTER THREE Plain UNlucky Tori went to up to her room and slammed the door shut.

“Stupid Hunter. He’s just jealous. Who am I kidding, I’m the jealous one. I’m all weird and… and now I’m talking to myself!” Tori said to herself and lied on the bed. Later Jess came in.

“Hey Tori where…whoa. That’s not a good look for you. What’s up?” Jess said.

“Nothing,” Tori said and stood up. “Let’s get going.”

“OK, now you’re just acting weird,” Jess said, “You can tell me what’s wrong, I’m your best friend.”

“It’s nothing,” Tori yelled at her. “Look, let’s just get going. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“Great, Ms. Weirdo,” Jess started and they left.

Tori and Jess walked through the park while talking about their Math teachers insane new hairstyle, Tori saw someone hiding behind the bushes. His hair that was showing was brown and messy. When she leaned closed to see who it is, a pile of water splashed at her.

“Hunter,” Tori mumbled.

“What?” Jess said.

“Oh there’s a pizza place,” Tori quickly changed the subject.

“Something’s really wrong with you,” Jess said, “And look! Now you’re all wet.”

Tori and Jess went to a fancy new pizza place downtown. They ordered the usual: Tori a pizza with no mushrooms and Jess an original Italian. They talked and talked, a little giggling when Tori saw somebody coming in.

“Jess hide,” Tori said and they both crunched down .

“What now?” Jess whispered.

“I saw Hunter and his friend who’s name I can’t remember.”

“So?” “So, he’s here. It can’t be. I thought I got rid of him till tonight.”

“Why?” “We had a huge fight this morning at breakfast and I think he sprayed me with a water-gun just now.”

“Just pay for the pizza and let’s go.”

The rest of the day went good. They went shopping and they couldn’t agree to buy anything.

Tori wanted jeans, and Jess wanted a skirt. But, when they walked back to their street they had a fight.

“Jess why are you such a crybaby?” Tori asked. “Cause… Cause I can’t find other friends.

You’re the only one that ever liked me,” Jess said. “You don’t want me as a friend, so you’re going to this school.”

“Hey, EVERYBODY likes you. I’m going to this school cause I want a fresh start, maybe find somebody special. I don’t hate you.”

“You could’ve said that,” Jess said. “But, I have a feeling that you’re hiding something from me.”

“No!” Tori lied. But she didn’t feel guilty at all. Jess didn’t have to know.

After that, Tori and Jess walked home. It was dark when they got to Tori’s house.

“Bye,” Tori said. “See you tomorrow at 8.”

Tori walked in her house. She found her mom and dad in the living room.

“Night mom. Night dad,” she said and walked to her room.

She noisily shut the door and flopped on her bed. Her father followed her in.

“Why are you acting like this?” He asked and sat next to her. “’Cause dad, Hunter is driving me insane these days,” Tori said. “He doesn’t know that life is hard for me. I’m the weirdo and he’s just living with me.”

“You’re not a weirdo,” Mr. Collins said. “Well…”

“Dad!” “Just kidding. I have a brother too. Times were tough back then.”

“Uncle John told me that you behaved like… well… brothers.”

“True, but there were fights between us too,” he said. “And since you hate him that much, tomorrow you’re going away to boarding school and away from him.”

“You agreed mom?” Tori said.

“I always agree with your mother,” Mr. Collins said. Tori looked at him. “OK, usually I agree with your mom.”

Tori looked at him again. “All right! I agree with her most of the time and you can’t blame me for that.”

“That’s more like it,” Tori laughed.

“Now up to bed. Tomorrow’s a big day,” Mr. Collins said. “Good night.”

“Night dad,” Tori said and snuggled in her bed. Mr. Collins left Tori’s room and met Mrs. Collins on the stairs.

“You had a great time with her?” She said.

“She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us… And of course Hunter too,” Mr. Collins said.

“He’s just trying to be something he’s not,” Mrs. Collins said. “That disappoints me.”

“They’re just growing up,” Mr. Collins said.

The next morning, at 6:59 there was not a single sound in the Collins’ household, but at 7:00 the silence was disturbed by Tori’s extremely loud alarm clock. The entire house woke up. Tori instinctively hit the alarm clock and it stopped.

“Today. A new beginning,” she said and got up. She quickly got dressed in her clothes that were freshly washed and smelled like lavender. She carefully brushed her hair and her teeth.

“Tori, get down here for breakfast,” her mom yelled from downstairs.

“Coming,” Tori yelled back. She ran downstairs and into the kitchen. “Good morning.”

“Look, I made you your favorite food, spaghetti,” Mrs. Collins said and handed her a bowl of spaghetti.

“Spaghetti for breakfast?” Tori asked.

“Yes. Now eat,” her mother said. Than Mr. Collins walked in.

“Who’s ready for some airplane action?” He said in an announcer’s voice.

“Hey dad,” Tori said.

“Torzy, where are your bags?” Mr. Collins asked.

“In my room, by the bed,” Tori said.

“Tori, call us if you need anything or just want to tell us something. Call us when you get there,” Mrs. Collins said.

“I will mom,” Tori said. Then Mr. Collins came down with all of Tori’s bags.

“I’ll be in the car if you need me,” he said and walked away. Mrs. Collins went in the hall.

“Hunter come down here!” She yelled.

“Just go without me,” Hunter said from his room.

“I won’t miss you at all,” Tori yelled.

“Me nether,” Hunter yelled back. Then Jess walked in.

“Hi Tori. Good morning Mrs. Collins. I hope I don’t disturb your morning,” Jess said.

“Oh, her niceness is killing me,” Tori said to herself and laughed.

“Not at all Jess,” Mrs. Collins said, glanced shortly at Tori and went to the car.

“I got here early cause I woke up at six and I was bored,” Jess said. Tori put the bowl of spaghetti in the sink.

“I’m ready for takeoff,” Tori said.

“Everybody in the car,” Mrs. Collins yelled from outside.

“Let’s go.” Tori said, got her jacket and her favorite purse and they both went to the car.

Mr. Collins drove full speed to the airport, because luckily, there was no traffic at all. When they got there they were fifteen minutes early.

“Mom, I have to go to the bathroom,” Tori said. “OK honey,” Mrs. Collins said.

Tori ran to the bathroom and she went in one of the cabins. While she was in there she heard a ‘Click’ from the door. It was locked! Tori pushed and yelled for help but nobody responded. She tried calling them, but the line kept going dead.

“Mom, dad, Jess!” She yelled.

Tori heard her friends voice from in the stall. She was yelling her name. Tori yelled louder, but she didn’t hear her.

“Weird, she’s not here,” Jess said and left.

“Jess, Jess, I’m here!” Tori kept yelling. She knew it was just hopeless and then she heard.

“The doors for plane 24 are now closed.”

“No, no,” Tori yelled. Then the door opened by itself. Tori ran to the main room.

“Honey, where were you?” Mrs. Collins asked.

“Locked in the bathroom,” Tori said quickly and went to the desk.

“When is the next plane to Lightning Island?” She said to the lady.

“Tomorrow at 5:30 a.m,” She said.

“5:30?” Tori said.

“Yes,” she said. That was such a relief for Tori. Than Jess showed up.

“Come on. You missed your flight, so what?” Jess said.

“You. You locked me in the bathroom. You wanted me to miss my flight so I can stay here with you,” Tori yelled at Jess.

“Oh no I didn’t. I think it may be the draft,” Jess said.

“Draft, huh. In a room with no windows,” Tori yelled again.

“Tori calm down,” Mrs. Collins said. “You’ll go there tomorrow.”

“At 5:30,” Tori reminded.

“I’ll wake you up in time. Now let’s get back home. I’ll bake you all cookies,” Mrs. Collins said.

Tori was still mad that she missed the plane, but knowing that there will be another one the following day gave her a little more hope. On the way back Mrs. Collins said, “Can I buy you some cookies? I don’t have time to bake.”

“Sure mom,” Tori said and laughed.

When they got in the house they saw Hunter in the living room. He was watching Star Wars, eating popcorn and drinking Coke. When he saw them her turned off the TV and threw away his popcorn and drink.

“Hey everybody. Mom, dad, Jess, Tori!? I thought they dropped you off the middle of nowhere?” Hunter said.

“We’ll drop YOU of in the middle of nowhere,” Tori said.

“Tori missed her flight,” Mr. Collins said.

“Do you want cookies?” Mrs. Collins asked the kids.

“Who doesn’t?” They all said.

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CHAPTER FOUR Unraveling One Secret After they ate their chocolate chip cookies, Tori and Jess went to the attic which was the Collins’ practice and Video Game room. It had all of their instruments: piano, violin, drums, guitars, flute, a game console with a big TV and a Pilates mat for working out. Their attic was huge. They sat on the bean bags and talked about mainly girl stuff: what to wear tomorrow, make-up, nail polish, boys and video games?! Well, Tori loved video games. Playing for about a hour a day was their daily routine. When the clock ticked 6 p.m. Jess got serious.

“Tori, we forgot to do this yesterday and I thought we’ll do it via Chatbox, but we’ll do it now,” Jess said.

“You just love saying via,” Tori said.

“I said SERIOUS,” Jess yelled.

“OK. OK. What about?” Tori asked.

“It’s about going to that school,” Jess said.

“I told you, I’m going, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Tori said.

“No, it’s something else. It’s about whoever you meet there, don’t trust your secrets on them until you get to know them.”

“Since my mom told me that about a thousand times, it’s OK.” “Now you have to promise that no matter how far away we are from each other we’ll always be best friends.”

“Fine,” Tori said.

“And now for the last part. We have to tell each other all of our secrets,” Jess said. Tori stood in shock. Jess’s words echoed threw her ears.

“A… all of them?” Tori asked.

“All of them,” Jess answered.

“OK, but you start.”

“I always had a crush on Dean Knight,” Jess said and blushed. Tori sighed.

“See this scar?” She pulled up her right sleeve to reveal a dark scar on her upper arm running from her shoulder to her elbow..

“Yeah. I noticed that since third grade, but you never told me how you got it?”

“When my granddad’s house caught on fire.”

“You’ve been in a fire!” Jess yelled. “When did it happen? And how?”

“It happened four years ago, on my seventh birthday. My family and my mom’s sister’s family where at my granddad’s house,” Tori said. “Me, Hunter, Nancy and Owen played, mom and aunt Louisa baked a pie and dad, uncle Rodger and granddad played ‘Go Fish’ on the coffee table. I was just seven back then, so when we played Hide and Seek I ran to the basement. I heard Nancy say. ‘Ready or not here I come’, so I hid under the table. Something started smelling weird. I thought just mom burned something. But she didn’t. I heard screams.

“Tori, Tori!” My mom yelled.

“Mom I’m here!” I yelled, but nobody seemed to hear me. I kept yelling and when the fire came down to the basement I screamed. So loud. But nobody heard me. Later when the entire basement got burned down I thought it was the end. But I heard uncle Rodger calling for me.

“Tori!” He yelled.

“Uncle Rodger!” I yelled back. He picked me up and got me out of the fire.

“I’ll go get aunt, Nancy and Owen,” he said and left me. I looked at my arm. I got burned. I had a feeling that they will never come out. I felt my dad grad my arm, the burned one. I screamed and he said.

“We’re going to the hospital.”

Later the fire department told us that Rodger, Louisa, Nancy and Owen are dead and the house is completely burned down.”

“Wow. Sad story. They should really turn that in a sad movie,” Jess said.

“Jess!” Tori said and pushed her off her bean bag.

“And you remembered all of this?” Jess asked.

Tori was quiet. She couldn’t admit that she didn’t remember anything from before she found out she was the Chosen One. Everything she just told Jess was what her parents told her.

Sometimes she would just sit and stare into space thinking of what might’ve happened before that day. But, she did say she remembered everything.

“I had enough secrets for one night. And it’s 8 p.m.! I’ll text you a wake up text,” Jess said and stood up.

“You know I have to wake up at 4:00 a.m., right?” Tori asked.

“Of course. I will too. Now bye!” Jess said and left. Tori grabbed her guitar and played a few chords. She sighed.

“I guess it could be worse,” she said to herself. “No way. It’s a horrible life.”

“Stop complaining and get out. I have to practice,” Hunter said. He had snuck up behind Tori.

“What are you doing here?!” Tori yelled at him.

“Trying to practice drums. Out you go,” he chased Tori out and started plying his drums. Tori went to her room. She turned her laptop on and went on Chatbox. She typed in public chat: Tori C: Life is horrible isn’t it.

After a few seconds somebody named Violet H responded: Violet H: True that Then Rosemary typed: Rosemary McC: Not when you’re a Perfect.

After this Tori couldn’t take it anymore. She shut her laptop and lay on her bed. She fell asleep shortly after that. But, she had a slightly confusing dream: She was in a dark and scary woods running away from something. She sat down on a log and took a deep breath. She turned around and saw what was chasing her: a pack of wild wolves. She stood up, screamed and ran. As she ran she saw a clearing. She ran in it and lay on the grass. The soft breeze touched her skin. But then she heard it: the voice.

“Chosen One,” it said. It was more demanding this time.

“What do you want?” Tori said quietly and slowly.

“Fulfill your destiny. Make the prophesy happen,” It said.

“What destiny, what prophesy?!” Tori started to yell.

“In the place of fire The prophesy lies, You can only trust it on The person that never lies.”

“What do you mean?” Tori asked. But, then she was woken up by the ring of her phone.

It was Jess. She wrote her: Jess: Morning. See I woke you up! - J.J. Tori: No time to chat. Got 2 go.

She looked at her clock. It was exactly 4:00 a.m. She got up, put on whatever she found and went to breakfast.

“Why didn’t you go do your hair,” Mrs. Collins said.

“I’m just not in the mood,” Tori said and sat on the kitchen chair.

“OK, talk to me,” Mrs. Collins said.

She sat next to Tori. Tori was confused. If she tells her, she’ll think she’s nuts, but if she doesn’t, she’ll never find out.

“Nothing. I’m just down because I’m leaving home,” Tori lied.

“Oh, don’t worry. We’ll see each other on Christmas,” Mrs. Collins said. She looked around and pulled Tori in the basement. “Tori listen. I checked out the houses in the school and they are all named as Egyptian gods.”

“So?” Tori said.

“Anything can happen. Watch out. You’re the Chosen One and it looks like you don’t have to be 16. Tori just… just please watch out honey,” Mrs. Collins said.

She was worried about her daughter leaving to an unknown territory and she was scared that something can happen to her. She is the Chosen One and a lot of people are out to get her.

“I will. I’ll find loyal friends that will help me,” Tori said.

“There you’ll find the members of The Seven,” Mrs. Collins said.

“Who?” Tori was cut off by her mother.

“I don’t know. Got to make breakfast and go to the airport,” Mrs. Collins said and left. Tori went after her.

“I don’t want breakfast,” Tori said. That’s when Jess came in.

“Good morning Mrs. Collins. Hey Tori. When are we going?” Jess asked.

“When Andrew comes back,” Mrs. Collins said. Than a car horn beeps. “There he is.”

“Let’s go,” Tori said and headed to the car.

“Hunter, you’re sure you don’t wanna come,” Mrs. Collins asked.

“No mom, I’m good,” Hunter said from his room. The Collins and Jess headed to the airport.

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER FIVE A Brand New Home When they got to the airport, Mr. Collins got Tori’s bags and put them by the desk.

“Excuse me. Where’s the plane to Lightning Island?” Mrs. Collins asked the lady at the desk.

“At gate 25. You have 10 more minutes to check in,” the lady said.

“I’ll get your bags inside,” Mr. Collins said.

“Bye mom, I’ll miss you,” Tori said and hugged her mother.

“Call me as soon as you get there OK?” Mrs. Collins said and hugged her daughter back.

“Jess, I’ll video chat you,” Tori said when they broke apart.

“Bye,” Jess said and hugged Tori. Then they heard. “Now boarding plane 25.”

Than Mr. Collins got back.

“I got your bags in. Time to go,” he said. Tori hugged him.

“I’ll miss you too dad,” she said.

“Me to, sweetie. Now, you don’t wanna miss it again, don’t you?” Mr. Collins said playfully.

“Of course not. Bye, guys,” Tori said and went down the hall to the plane. The family went away as soon as the plane took off.

Inside Tori felt amazing. It wasn’t her first time, so she wasn’t scared.

“Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking we like to welcome you onboard this Lightning Airlines flight to Meadowville, Lightning Island flight duration is around 3 hours and we are expecting a fairly smooth flight today. Once again we thank you for choosing to fly with us today and we hope you enjoy your flight,” the pilot said through the intercom and they took off.

After takeoff, Tori sat alone listening to her iPod. But then bad thing started to happen. Tori saw Rosemary on the same plane.

“What are you doing here?” Tori asked her when she was passing by her seat.

“My private jet had technical difficulties and my parents made me go with this garbage bag plane,” Rosemary said.

“What do you mean by garbage, this is the best plane I’ve been on,” Tori said.

“Uh, you. I always go with my private jet,” she said and left.

Tori rolled her eyes. She kept listening until an amazing song that she loved came on next. She loved that song, but whenever she was listening to it a small disaster happened. She quickly turned it off, but it was too late. The plane began going up and down, swinging left and right.

That made Tori sick. She breathed heavily to make it stop. Than the pilot started speaking through the intercom: “We’re going to have some difficulties passing this area. Everybody put on your seatbelts.”

Tori wasn’t feeling well. She bent over and laid her head on her knee. The plane stopped it’s ‘difficulties’ and started flying normally, but Tori still felt terrible The flight attendants came over to check up on everybody.

“Miss,” one of them said. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. Just, where’s the bathroom?” Tori asked.

“Over there,” the flight assistant said and pointed to a door just across the cabin. Tori went there and splashed some cool water in her face. When she looked in the mirror she saw something dark moving behind her, like a ghost. Tori gasped, but kept looking at the mirror. It disappeared in a blink.

“I’m just hallucinating. This all airplane sickness is getting to my mind,” Tori thought. But then it came, the voice.

“In the place of fire The prophesy lies, You can only trust it on The person that never lies,” it said again.

“I need help, I need The Seven,” Tori thought as she left the bathroom. She sat back on her seat thinking of the riddle.

“What does it mean. And who’s the voice?” Tori thought and sighed. She was full of questions.

But nobody could answer them. The pilot started speaking through the intercom again: “Ladies and gentleman, we have begun our descent to Meadowville, where the current weather is partly sunny, and we will be in the gate in about twenty minutes. We’d like the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for arrival and we want to thank you for flying with us today,” he said.

“Wow, that was fast,” Tori thought and looked at her watch. “8 a.m. already. It’s like I just left, but been three hours.”

In 20 minutes the plane landed. Tori got out and got her bags. The sun was shining and is was pretty warm. When she looked around she saw a bunch of differed kinds of trees. The air was fresh, with a hint of ocean. She went to the checkout desk.

“Excuse me, can you direct me to Magnolia Boarding School, please?” Tori said to the woman.

“It’s a long way from here, but you can take the train,” the woman said.

“Thanks, goodbye,” Tori said and dragged her bags to the train station that was nearby. She got in the train and got to her new home. She got out at the train station at the other end of the city and looked around. There was a very large forest in front of her. A taxi cab came to pick her up.

“Miss,” the cab driver started. “Where are you going?”

“Magnolia Boarding School,” Tori said with a smile on her face. But inside, she was so nervous.

“Oh, you’re a student there?” He said.

“I am. From today,” Tori said.

“OK, here we are,” the driver said after a few minutes.

Tori looked out the window. It was an enormous campus. The school was old with a Victorian style, build from stone and it had vines crawling all over it. The cab parked on the parking lot and the cab driver brought out Tori’s bags. She payed him and he drove away.

“I think I’m gonna like it here,” Tori said to herself and entered the school’s front yard. ~*~*~*~*~*~ On Magnolia school grounds there were 31 new children waiting in the Main Hall that was also the cafeteria. They were talking, laughing and getting to know each other. Only one kid, with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes was too shy to talk to anyone: Daniel Carson. He was just sitting in one place until a girl that was talking to everybody came up to him.

“Hey,” she said. “I’m Anastasia or Stacy better.”

“Hey. Daniel,” he said.

“Why are you alone?” Stacy said.

“I… Don’t think I’ll fit in,” Daniel said.

“You’ll never know if you don’t try. Do you like sports?” she asked him.

“I do. Especially basketball,” he said.

“Great! I met somebody that might be perfect for you,” she said and dragged him to a guy with blond hair cut in a bob style.

“Hey, I’m Kendall,” he said.

“Daniel,” Daniel said.

“I’m gonna leave you now. Bye!” Stacy waved and left.

“So, you like sports?” Kendall asked. “Of course,” Daniel answered.

“Good morning students and welcome to Magnolia Boarding School,” the headmistress said.

She got on the podium while nobody was listening. “I’m your headmistress, Marissa Jones. From this year you’ll start as our freshman although you’re still in middle school. Now let’s get to the houses,” she said and the kids started talking.

“What house do you wanna be in?” Kendall asked Daniel.

“I don’t know, there all pretty much the same to me,” Daniel answered.

“In Anubis House there are: Michel Refold,” Mrs. Jones read. A short boy came on the podium.

Mrs. Jones send him to a room. He left.

“Katherine Nichols. Sarah Rutter,” she said to a red haired and a blonde girl that ran into the room.

“James Luther. Kendall Russo.”

“Cool, me,” Kendall whispered to Daniel and left with a British boy.

“Anastasia Flynn,” Daniel remembered her. She was the girl who talked to him when he was too shy to make friends. She went there too.

“Daniel Carson,” Daniel’s heart stopped. He’s with his new friends he went to the room. While he was going there he heard. “Victoria Collins.”

He knew her name from somewhere. But he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Where’s Victoria Collins,” Daniel heard when he entered the room. “Looks like she won’t be arriving until tomorrow, so let’s continue with Isis House…”

“Hey guys… Do you know who Victoria Collins is?” Daniel asked.

“Some girl from LA,” a boy with brown hair said.

“I think I know her from somewhere,” Daniel said.

“I know you for less 2 minutes now and I know you’re a guy of mystery,” Kendall said.

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER SIX Californian Newbie Tori’s cab left and Tori was alone. She wanted to go back, but it had already disappeared out of sight. She looked at the front yard that was right next to the parking lot. It was empty, except for a couple of boys around her age talking and standing next to the wall. She tried to walk forward struggling with her luggage. She walked half way there when somebody was pushed into her.

She fell on her suitcase.

“I’m so sorry,” the person said. “Are you OK? Those guys pushed me.”

“Yeah I’m fine. Saved by my suitcase I guess,” she giggled. She stood up and while fixing her hair, she said. “I’m Tori Collins.”

“Daniel,” he said.

When Tori fixed her hair she looked up and saw who was talking to her. “Hey I know you.

You’re the guy I bumped into, in that library.”

“Yeah, now I remember,” Daniel said. “You’re in my house, by the way.”

“Cool,” Tori said and blushed.

“Can I help you with your luggage?” Daniel asked her.

“If you wanna,” Tori said just acting nice.

“Of course,” Daniel said and picked up two of Tori’s bags.

“OK then,” Tori said. As they entered the enormous school.

“Magnolia institution was built in 1922 by Magnolia Lunar and her family and they used to live here,” Daniel said when he was cut off by Tori.

“Easy there partner, you’re not my tour guy. Tell me what I wanna know,” Tori said. “Like, why are all the houses named like Egyptian gods?”

“Well, the Lunars’ had kinda a thing for Egypt back then. Well, I’m interested in that too,” Daniel said.

“Me too!”

“No way,” “Uh huh,” Tori said. “So where’s our house?”

“Down that hall are the classrooms and the houses are this way,” Daniel said and continued walking down the left hall. Tori continued behind him. “Now these four passage ways lead to the houses: Osiris House way on the right end, than Horus House, Isis House and on the far left end, our house, Anubis House.”

“I think I have that all memorized,” Tori said and laughed. They continued down the hallway.

“Here we are,” Daniel said. Tori was fascinated by the house. When she stepped in she felt like it was strangely familiar.

“Hey, this is nice,” she said.

“Yeah, I said that too. Bedrooms are that way, but it’s a long way there. Want me to help you?”

Daniel said.

“Sure,” Tori said acting nice again.

“Let’s go. Hey, you don’t look so, you know, ‘polite’, what’s up?” He caught Tori in the act.

“OK, you caught me. I just wanna make friends. Believe it or not, I only had one friend back at home,” Tori explained.

“Oh I believe. I had none,” Daniel said.

“Everybody else thought I’m too weird,” Tori said. “Well, they avoided me because I was a geek.”

“You’re a sweet geek,” Tori made Daniel blush.

“Let me show you the way,” Daniel said and grabbed his share of Tori’s luggage. As he lead her he said. “First enter this door that says ‘Year One’ and go up the stairs. And your name is on your room’s door.”

“Thanks Daniel,” Tori said and took her luggage.

“Hey, call me Danny. We’re all friends here,” Daniel said and smiled.

“See you later Danny,” Tori smiled and entered the First Year rooms.

There were three doors. On one of them was writ-ten ‘Bathroom’, on the other was written ‘Sarah Rutter and Katherine Nichols’ and on the other one ‘Victoria Collins and Anastasia Flynn’. She entered her room. The one side of the room was taken and covered with pink and fluffy things and posters of celebrities.

“Guess I’m sharing with a girly girl,” Tori thought to herself and she started to unpack.

A little later she heard the door open. She turned around and saw a girl with long light brown hair and blue eyes standing in front of her.

“Hey, I’m Anastasia. Stacy, actually,” She said and sat on the opposite bed. “You must be my new roommate.”

“Yeah, Tori,” Tori said and sat on her bed.

“I thought your name is Victoria?” Stacy said.

“I prefer Tori,” she said.

“Great. Can I help you with your unpacking. I love clothes,” Stacy said and sat next to Tori.

“If you want to,” Tori said with insecurity.

“Sure,” Stacy said opening her suitcases.

She started organizing Tori’s wardrobe as fast and as ordinary as she could.

“Wow, where did you learn how to do that,” Tori said in amazement.

“I guess I always knew it. Living with a messy twin sister and a nerdy older brother leaves me all the work,” Stacy said and sat on Tori’s bed. “What do you think of our little house?”

“Little? It’s huge!” Tori said. “And it’s amazing.”

“Cool. I want you to meet somebody,” Stacy said.

“Let me finish unpacking and I’ll come,” Tori said and Stacy left.

She started unpacking her other stuff. She put her laptop, notebooks, pencil cases and other stuff on her desk, her books on her bookshelves and just felt complete. She opened her laptop and turned on Chatbox. She looked up ZColl00, her mom. She gave her a video call. A few seconds later the video window popped up. Tori set her camera and clicked ‘Call’.

“Hey, mom, hey dad,” Tori said waving. “Torzy!” Mr. Collins said.

“Why didn’t you call me right away?” Mrs. Collins asked.

“Mom. I had to meet everybody,” Tori lied. She couldn’t let them know what really happened.

“So, did you make any good friends?” Mr. Collins asked.

“Yeah, lots of them,” Tori lied again. She didn’t know, but she couldn’t stop it. Then she saw her brother Hunter and his friend Greg walking behind her parents. “Hey, are those Hunter and Greg?!”

“Yes. They came here to watch some action movie,” Mrs. Collins said.

“Greg came back from New York?!” Tori asked.

“He did. While you were flying,” Mr. Collins said.

“Hey sis,” Hunter said.

“Hey Tori. Long time no see,” Greg said.

“Hey Greg. Liked New York better than LA,” Tori asked Greg.

“No way! LA is the best!” Greg said and laughed. “Are you in Magnolia Boarding School, Anubis House?”

“Yeah, why?” Tori asked.

“Andy goes there,” Greg practically yelled.

“No way,” Tori said. She didn’t notice that Stacy came in the room.

“Tori, who are you video chatting with?” She said and sat next to Tori.

“Oh, my parents, brother and Greg,” Tori said and pointed at the screen.

“Who’s she?” Hunter said asked.

“She, is Stacy. My roommate,” Tori said.

“Hey,” Stacy waved at Tori’s family.

“You share a room?” Hunter asked with disgust.

“Get a life. Oh I gotta go. Have a good time with your movie and Greg, IM me when you read Harry Potter.”

“Okey dokey,” Greg said.

“Bye,” Tori’s parents said and logged off.

“Nice peeps,” Stacy said. “Tell me more about them.”

“Mom, the serious one. She always gets me grounded for every little reason. Dad, mom’s total opposite. He loves jokes and almost is never serious. Except, of course I mess up big time, or he has a lot of paperwork to do,” Tori said.

“Cool parents,” Stacy laughed.

“My brother, Hunter. Totally annoying. If I could wish on person off the face of the Earth it would be him.”

“Oh, I wish my brother would be annoying. He’s all serious.”

“And Greg. A pretty dissent guy. I don’t know how he could be best friends with one like Hunter. He’s got a fourteen year old brother, Andy and a three year old sister, Missy that is so sweet, but a pranking genius.”

“A three year old pranking genius?” Stacy asked.

“You’ll never know,” Tori said. “She’s better than 40% of the pranksters on Earth.”

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER SEVEN What Happened Then?

Tori and Stacy came running down the old wooden stairs as the wood cracked under their feet.

The common room was completely empty, only the antiques and old furniture.

“Why did you bring me down here?” Tori asked Stacy.

“To meet somebody. She’s a little too, you know, ‘smart’, but you’ll get along just fine,” Stacy said.

“Who?!” Tori practically yelled.

“Sarah!” Stacy yelled.

“Somebody called me?” A dirty blond haired girl with big green eyes showed up on the top of the staircase.

“You’re Sarah?” Tori asked. Sarah came down the stairs.

“Some may say that, some may say Sarah Rutter,” she said in a perfect British accent and sat on the couch. “And some The Technology Girl,” now she spoke in perfect American accent.

“Why are you changing your accent?” Tori asked again.

“I’m part American, part British and I love showing off. And lay off the questions…” Sarah stopped.

“Tori,” Tori said.

“Tori,” Sarah continued.

“So… Now that we all know each other let’s go shopping,” Stacy said.

“Wait I thought there were four girls…” Tori started.

“Stop,” Stacy and Sarah yelled at the same time. “You don’t wanna meet Kat,” Stacy whispered.

“She’s all hyper and loud and kind of annoying.”

“Thank you,” Tori said in relief.

“Let’s go!” Stacy said and they left the Magnolia institution.

Half way there Tori asked. “Where are we going?”

“To the mall,” Stacy answered like it was obvious.

“Yeah, and the mall is in a enormous metropolis, right,” Tori joked.

“You can always end up surprised,” Stacy said and led them to a cliff. They all looked down.

“Welcome to Meadowville.”

“Wow. Not a metropolis, but close,” Tori said. “Then what are we waiting for, let’s go,” Sarah said, although she didn’t like shopping, neither did Tori. But, they took off down Lavender Street and to the mall. ~*~*~*~*~*~ While the girls we’re shopping, the boys had a ‘serious’ discussion in Anubis House while setting the table. Kat was helping Tracy, the housemother cook.

“So… Which one do you like?” Kendall said.

“I like the blond one,” James, the British boy said. “She’s part British, so we can get along.”

“Mike likes the wacky one,” Kendall said.

“Hey, Kat isn’t wacky. She’s… well… worse,” Mike said.

“Knew it,” Kendall said. “And Daniel is crazy for the newbie.”

“Hey,” Daniel said and threw an apple at him.

“To tell you the truth. I can’t blame you,” Kendall said.

“Why do you like her? She’s so… how could I put this down gently… weird,” James said.

“No she’s not. Tori looks nice,” Daniel said.

“Wouldn’t you say VERY nice,” Mike teased him.

“Stop it! I’m leaving,” Daniel said and left.

Right then the girls came in. Kendall went to the stairs. “Hey Danny, your girlfriend Tori’s here,” he yelled and laughed. When he turned around he faced Tori.

“What did you say?” She said.

“Um… Nothing,” Kendall said and sat down. “Hey, you’re late for lunch,” the red haired girl, Kat said from the kitchen.

“Kat, you have no sense of time! It’s 1:40 and lunch starts at 2,” Sarah said.

“Oh,” Kat said and went back to cooking. The girls sat and Daniel came back.

“So, I did some research and I read about Anubis House traditions,” James stood up and announced.

“I don’t believe you,” Mike said and crossed his arms.

“Why?” James asked.

“You don’t read!” Mike yelled.

“Now I did. So, it turns out that every new generation has a sort of meeting in the attic at midnight to tell each other everything they know about the place so they gain each other’s trust,” James said officially.

“What website did you read this on?!” Stacy yelled.

“TraditionsMcOld.net, happy?” James yelled back. Everybody looked at him like he was crazy.

“So tonight we make it official,” Kendall said and stood up.

“I don’t know. Midnight sound creepy,” Kat said bringing the juice on the table. She’s been listening to them all the time.

“Nothing’s creepy Kat. Just a dusty old attic. We’ll bring flashlights,” Tori encouraged Kat. “Only if all of you will be there,” Kat said and sat down.

“Of course,” They all said and began to eat.

At curfew, 10 o’clock, everybody pretended to go to sleep. When Tracy came to check they all covered themselves with their blankets. At 11:30, Tori and Stacy snuck out of their room and met the other residents in front of the dusty old attic door. Kat was shaking and the others we’re trying to calm her down.

“Guys we forgot one thing. The key,” Sarah reminded them. “We can’t go up without the key.

We’ll have to steal it from Tracy.”

“I’ll go,” Tori volunteered. “It’s kinda my thing.” “OK. The key is in her office,” Kendall informed her.

Tori, Daniel, Stacy and Kendall went slowly to Tracy’s office. Luckily, Tracy was sleeping in her room so they could easily steal it. Tori slowly snuck in and looked for the key that opened the key-box on the wall. She found it in one of the drawers on Tracy’s desk, she opened the box and took the key. But, out-side Kendall slipped and fell on the wooden floor and that woke Tracy up. Tori hid under the desk as Tracy came out.

“Who’s there?!” She yelled with a voice that sounded demanding and caring at the same time.

Tori stayed hidden under the desk bighting her lower lip until she finally left. Then she got out, locked the key-box, returned the keys in the drawer and ran outside with the attic key.

“Thanks very much Kendall. You really helped us,” Tori said sarcastically.

“Oh, it could’ve happened to anyone. And you should give up sarcasm,” Kendall said and they went back to the others.

“I can’t believe it. You actually stole a key. Who said 11 year-olds can’t do that?” Mike said.

Tori unlocked the door. A few boards cracked and then it swung open.

“Looks like nobody’s been up here for a while,” Stacy said.

They all went up the stairs slowly and a big room covered in dust and spider-webs. They sat in a circle on the floor.

“Now what do we do?” Sarah asked.

“First everybody say their full names. I’ll start,” James said. “James Robert Luther.”

“Kendall Jacob Russo,” Kendall said.

“Sarah Melanie Rutter,” Sarah said.

“Katherine Jenna Nichols,” Kat said.

“Michel Victor Refold,” Mike said.

“Anastasia Rachel Flynn,” Stacy said.

“Daniel Jackson Carson,” Daniel said.

“Victoria Taylor Collins,” Tori said.

“Now we can start,” James said.

“James, the problem is we don’t know anything,” Tori said.

“I got something,” Sarah yelled. She started reading from her iPad. “It says ‘Magnolia institution is built in 1922 by Magnolia Lunar and her husband whose identity is still a secret’,” there was a squealing noise and Sarah stopped.

“Continue Sarah,” Tori said sounding unsure. “’She became headmistress and mysteriously died after the first generation graduated. Her husband died closely after that. The next headmaster was her twin sister who build a rival boarding school in Sparks: Kennedy Boarding School and Magnolia’s 4 daughters became keepers of each house: Rose on Isis House, Dandelion on Horus House, Tulip on Osiris House and Daisy on Anubis House. Each one of them decided to move on and left, but Daisy, the youngest didn’t. Daisy lived in Anubis House until her mother’s twin sister killed her. Residence of Anubis House over the past years and archeologist claim that they have seen Daisy’s ghost still haunting Anubis House’,” Sarah finished. There was a loud noise behind them. They all jumped up.

“OK, I think this is enough spookiness for one night. Thanks James,” Stacy said and that all started to leave the attic. Daniel locked it and found Tori. They were on they’re own.

“This should find its way back in Tracy’s key-box,” he said and showed Tori the key.

“No. I think I’m gonna make another trip up there,” Tori said and took the key.

“Wha-” Daniel was cut off by Kendall.

“Come on man. Tracy’s gonna catch us,” he said.

“Well, I guess – ‘night,” Tori said. “’Night,” Daniel said and they went to their rooms.

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER EIGHT Light from the Attic The next morning at breakfast they sat on the table ready for the first day of school.

“Did you hear that terrible noise in the night?” Tracy said bringing the pancakes and the orange juice on the table. Everybody quickly exchanged looks.

“I think it was mice from the attic,” Tori lied.

“We should really get rid of them. Eat up, or you’re gonna be late,” Tracy said and went back in the kitchen.

The kids gathered in the middle of the table. “Guys, sooner or later she’s gonna find out,” Stacy said.

“We’ll just have to lie again,” Sarah said.

“We’ll talk about this later. Now let’s go to school before we all get detention,” Daniel said and they all got up. He walked up to Tori. “Hey Tori. Do you wanna walk to class together?”

“Sure. What do you have first period?” Tori asked and grabbed her bag.

“History,” he answered.

“Me too. Let’s go,” Tori said and they walked to class.

“Why do you wanna go up in the attic again?” Daniel asked Tori. “’Cause, there was something unusual about that attic and I have to investigate,” Tori said.

“Then I’m coming with you.”

“You don’t need to.”

“But I want to,” Daniel said as they walked in the classroom.

There was nobody else they knew in there so they took seats next to each other.

“So, when will we go?” Daniel whispered to Tori. “Is tonight after curfew OK?” Tori whispered back.

“Yes,” Daniel said when the teacher walked in. “Good morning,” he said in a friendly tone.

“Good morning,” the class replied.

“I’m Mr. Jason Singer and I going to be your History teacher. I’m also going to lead the Drama Club,” he said. “Over the year we’re going to focus on the study of Egyptian Mythology,” Tori and Daniel smiled at each other. ~*~*~*~*~*~ They didn’t have the next two classes together. After the third period they gathered in the cafeteria for lunch. Tori found an empty table and sat down. Closely after that Stacy and Sarah joined her.

“Hey, how were classes?” Stacy said and sat next to her.

“Like every normal class,” Tori said.

“Of course,” Sarah confirmed. Then somebody passed by that caught Tori’s attention. The Perfects!

“Hey losers,” Rosemary started. Jennifer and Lora laughed.

“What are YOU doing here?” Tori asked them.

“Our parents bought us full scholarships and well WHY NOT?” Rosemary said. “Come on girls, we’re leaving.”

“Who is that?” Sarah asked after they left.

“Rosemary McCone, Jennifer Lane and Lora Turner. The ‘Perfects’,” Tori said. “Jennifer and Lora copy everything off Rosemary. Like, one Halloween, when we were nine, Rosemary was dressed up as Smurfette and they did to! Later they called themselves ‘The Smurfettes’.”

“Wow,” Sarah said.

“I have to get something for class out of my locker,” Tori left leavening her half eaten sandwich.

Tori found her locker with a little piece of paper on the nametag place that said ‘Locker 207’.

She knew her combination by heart: 77925. She opened it, got her English, French and Math books and left the others.

She closed her locker and made her way to the cafeteria, but the bell rang. The halls started filling with students.

“Tori! Hey Tori!” She heard Stacy yell and they found each other. “We’ll be late for English.”

“Oh yeah, let’s go,” Tori said and they headed to the classroom.

When they got in the classroom they sat next to each other. Stacy asked Tori, “You like him, don’t you?”

“I’ll say yes,” Tori said and blushed a little.

“Then trust me. He’s crazy about you,” Stacy said.

“How do you know?” Tori asked her.

“Didn’t you see the way he looked at you at breakfast. Totally in love,” Stacy said.

“I don’t believe that,” Tori said.

“Do you read teen magazines?” Stacy asked.

“No.” “Well you should,” she pulled out a pink covered magazine. “Try this.”

“Glitter gossip? I don’t know. Not my type.”

That afternoon, after school Tori and Daniel came back in Anubis House laughing about something.

“And then the frog says…” Tori said between laughs. Seeing the atmosphere in the house they stopped laughing. “Guys, what’s up?”

Stacy mouthed, “Sit down.” Tori sat next to her and Tracy came in with a bunch of papers. She dropped one in front of everybody.

“Oh come on, a test on the first day!” Mike yelled out.

“When you’re done, take them to Mr. Sander’s office,” Tracy said and left.

“All right,” Tori said and got out a pen from her bag. She filled in the form: FORM FOR THE NEW STUDENTS Full Name(first, middle, last): Victoria Taylor Collins Date of Birth (mm/dd/yyyy): 07/07/2001.

Nationality: American.

Coming From (city, state and/or country): Los Angeles, California, United States of America.

Parents or Guardians: Zoey and Andrew Collins. Your Grades: English – A+ French – A History – A+ Social Studies – A Mathematics – B+ Science - C+ What Clubs do you want to Attend to (Drama, Math, Audio Video, Reporter, Basketball, Soccer, Cheerleading, Archery, Fencing, Music or Art Club): Drama and Archery Club.

What Grades do you Expect: As or Bs. House: Anubis House.

Will you Attend School Activates (basketball matches, field trips, projects, plays…): Yes. WILL YOU or WILL YOU NOT Respect your School and all of its Traditions (answer YES or NO): Yes When they filled in the form they stacked them up and Mike carried them to Mr. Sander’s office. Tracy told them that they have to do homework so everyone went to their rooms.

Curfew passed and Tracy checked all of the rooms. Tori and Daniel snuck out of the rooms and met in front of the attic door.

“Are you sure?” Daniel asked Tori before they went up.

“Absolutely,” she said and unlocked the door.

They went up to the attic, but something wasn’t the same as the last night. There were two lights: one coming from a covered bookshelf on the left side and the other from a old picture frame.

“You check the picture frame, I’ve got this one,” Tori said to Daniel and went to the shelf.

Daniel went to check the frame, but all he found was a little hole in the middle. But, when Tori yanked the sheet that was covering the bookshelf she found what caused the light: an Eye of Horus necklace.

“Daniel, come look at this,” Tori said and Daniel ran over.

“An Eye of Horus necklace. What’s it doing up here?” Daniel said.

“No idea,” Tori said and took the necklace from where it was hanging.

“Take it,” Daniel said. Tori put it around her neck. “Now let’s leave, before somebody catches us.”

They started leaving when Tori tripped and Daniel tried to catch her causing an old vase to fall and make a loud noise.

“Who’s up there?!” They heard Tracy yell, “Whoever you are, come down!”

Tori and Daniel ran down stairs and met Tracy in front of the door.

“Collins. Carson. I suspected you two stealing my key. Give it,” Tracy demanded. Tori gave her the key. “Go to your rooms emedietly, your grounded for a weekend.”

Tori and Daniel ran to their rooms and didn’t even say goodnight to each other.

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER NINE The Necklace’s Secret Tori spent the entire night sleepless. Not that she was worried about being grounded, or that she forgot to put on her braces on for the second time. She was confused. She twisted the necklace with her fingers.

“Why did it light up today?” She thought. “It’s September 12-th at 10:30 and yesterday it was the 11-th at midnight. Was it because there were less people? And whose is this anyway?”

Tori looked at her alarm clock. It was 4 a.m., still no sleep. She wished she had homework to do, but she did it all during homework hours. She got up and went to the common room. She sat on the couch when Daniel came down.

“Couldn’t sleep too?” He said before Tori could say anything.

“Yup,” she replayed. He sat next to her. Tori started twisting the necklace again.

“You don’t know what to do with it, don’t you?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know WHOSE it is,” Tori said. Then a girls voice appeared.

“It’s yours Chosen One, it’s yours,” it said. Tori stood up.

“Let’s go to bed. Like now!” she said and ran up the stairs.

When she got in her room she closed the door. “Hope Stacy’s not awake,” she whispered. Then she turned around and saw that Stacy was up.

“It’s 4:15 a.m. and you run into our room, slam the door and hope I’m not awake. Were you with Daniel?” Stacy said.

“Technically, yes,” Tori admitted and sat on her bed.

“Great! You were having a date,” Stacy said.

“No, no, no, no date,” Tori said. She tried to change the subject. “You know that today is ‘Decorate Your Locker Day’?”

“Yeah, I can read signs,” Stacy said and went back to bed.

Tori sat in her bed and twisted her necklace again. She stared at the jewel in the middle. It wasn’t a knock-off, it was a real red diamond. She got out her birthstone necklace, a real Ruby and touched them together. By her surprise, they let out a blinding light, much stronger than the one in the attic. Tori put the necklace under her bed and ran to the bathroom. She slammed the door and looked in the mirror. Her eyes were red and puffy, like when she cries.

“I really have to get more sleep,” she thought and splashed some water in her face.

When she looked back in the mirror the same misty black cloud appeared behind her.

“Chosen One,” the creepy voice said.

“Who are you!” Tori yelled. She could hear everybody getting up and coming to the bathroom.

The ghost disappeared. She saw her phone on the dirty clothes basket, picked it up and pretended to talk to somebody when everyone came in.

“Who are you to call me in the middle of the night and not tell me your identity. Ugh, don’t you talk to me like that. Good night,” she said and pretended to hang up. Everybody stared at her.

“Tori, are you SURE you are OK?” Stacy said.

“Yeah,” Tori answered.

“Who’s there? What happened?” Tracy rushed in with a frying pan.

“Nothing Tracy,” Sarah said.

“Just put the weapon down,” James said. “Show’s over. Let’s go back to sleep.”

As they headed to their rooms Tori saw Daniel. “Hey, what was with the whole show?” he asked her.

“I really shouldn’t,” she said.

“Come on. Do I look like a guy you can’t trust?” Daniel said and made puppy dog eyes.

“You’re right, you’re WAY too adorable,” Tori said very fast.

“What?”

“Oh nothing,” Tori covered up. “Back to the story. When I came back Stacy caught me so I had to lie.”

“Successfully?”

“Totally. After that I went to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. So I started twisting the necklace. I saw that that jewel had a similar color to another necklace I have, so I touched them together to compare. And when I did, it let out a blinding light and I had to hide in the bathroom.”

“So what was with the…” Daniel was cut off by Tracy yelling from downstairs.

“Whoever’s up there go to your rooms!” She said.

“Well bye,” Tori said quickly and ran up the stairs. Daniel slowly started walking to his room while looking at the place he and Tori sat. He got out his necklace, with his birthstone, Pearl on it. “It’s definitely her,” he whispered and left.

The next morning Daniel was surfing the Web and he didn’t notice when a girl came into the room.

“Hey Danny,” she said.

“Oh, Tori. Didn’t see you there,” he said and shut his laptop down.

“You missed breakfast and I thought you want to walk to class together,” Tori said.

“Yeah, sure,” Daniel said and they left. The way was silent until Daniel finally spoke up.

“Hey what’s with the whole locker decoration?” He said.

“Today’s ‘Decorate Your Locker Day’,” Tori said. “Oh man. Well got to go. Bye,” Daniel said and ran down the hallway.

Tori went to her locker, put in the combination and opened it. When she turned around she saw somebody she didn’t expect.

“Stacy! What are you doing here? I thought your locker is in the other side of the school,” Tori said.

“I switched with Camille Franklin so I’ll have a locker next to yours,” Stacy said and opened the locker next to Tori’s. “See?” “Genius,” Tori said and the girls laughed.

After classes that day, for homework, seven kids mysteriously found each other in the same spot in the library: Tori, Stacy, Daniel, Kendall, James who almost never does homework and Freddie from Isis House. They split apart after that. Daniel dragged Tori to the deserted part in the library and they sat on the dusty tables.

“So what do you wanna show me,” Tori asked him.

“This,” he answered and opened his laptop. It was a page about Egyptian Mythology. “Maybe this will tell you what that necklace does.”

“It says: ‘Eye of Horus necklaces are worn for protection. Other than that they have no special properties’,” Tori read. “What about the light?”

“It doesn’t say,” Daniel said. Then an idea flashed in his mind. He started to type really fast.

“What…” Tori said and went behind him.

“How didn’t I think of this sooner,” he said and started reading. “The Eye of Horus necklace through history. OK let’s see, Louisa… Sarah… Here! Daisy Lunar!”

“No way. Click on the link!” Tori said.

“It says: ‘She lost it before she died in 1971. It isn’t found until this day’,” Daniel read.

“But it was found. Yesterday. By you and me,” Tori said. Then she saw something. “That picture. I’ve seen that picture somewhere else.”

She grabbed her bag and pulled Daniel to the third floor, to a big portrait of a beautiful lady with black hair and glowing green eyes.

“Here she is,” Tori said.

“Nice,” Daniel said. “Wait… Look at the date of the painting. May 3 1971. The day she died.”

“This painting, it was painted on sunrise. Look at the shadows,” Tori said sliding her finger across the shadow on the painting. “She died at sunset.”

“So… Something to do with sunrise?” Daniel questioned.

“Exactly. But what?” Tori said and blankly stared at the painting.

“What are you two doing up here?” Mrs. Jones burst into the hallway. “It’s study time. Go to your house immediately.”

Tori and Daniel both ran to Anubis House as fast as they could. Mrs. Jones stayed and looked at the painting.

“What are you hiding?” she whispered to herself and examine the painting.

That night Tori had another dream. It was again the creepy black ghost she saw in the bathroom mirror that morning and the same creepy voice.

“Don’t let him drag you away,” it said.

“Who?” Tori said.

“Find the prophesy like I told you: ‘In the place of fire, the prophesy lies, you can only trust it on the person that never lies.’,” Tori woke up really early in the morning. Who was this voice and what did it want?

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER TEN In The Place of Fire Almost two weeks passed and October was just around the corner. Tori finally decided that she should tell Daniel about the basic stuff. Just not the Chosen One thing. Tori wasn’t sure he was ready for that. So, that day before breakfast, with her tie still untied and her jacket in her hand she went to the chair Daniel sat on.

“Hey, can I tell you something?” She asked him.

“Sure,” he said. Everybody looked at her.

“Alone,” Tori added. Daniel stood up and they went up the stairs in a corner.

“What’s up?” Daniel asked.

“OK,” Tori started. “It’s been three weeks now and I think I can trust you. I can trust you, right?”

“Of course. Most trustworthy guy around,” Daniel said.

“So, I’ve been hearing, well voices,” Tori whispered.

“Seriously, voices?” Daniel repeated.

“I don’t want you to think my brain isn’t functioning correctly, because it is. It’s just that! And, currently, they’ve been telling me riddles.”

“Riddle me.”

“OK, one of them is: ‘In the place of fire, the prophesy lies, you can only trust it on the person that never lies’. I don’t understand it at all.”

“Well, we’ll find out. Meet me at lunch outside, on the sports field,” Daniel said.

Tori went to school earlier to think about the meaning of the dream. While walking lost in thoughts she hit another boy and his books just flew all around.

“Sorry,” Tori said.

“No problem,” he said.

While they were gathering the books Tori noticed what the boy was wearing around his neck: a birthstone necklace. She stopped.

“Well, thanks. Bye,” the boy said and left.

Tori stood shocked. She remembered what her mom had told her: Everyone that wears their birthstone necklace is in The Seven. That’s a 97.5 percent chance. Tori knew that boy. It was Freddie Runner from Isis House. They met at the library. Tori continued walking to the French classroom. She burst in and quickly took a seat.

“What’s up Collins,” Rosemary said.

Tori managed to ignore Rosemary for the first time ever. Now she knew that what she found out is something highly important.

At lunch Tori met up with Daniel behind the school, on the sports field. On this field they were holding the soccer, basketball, archery, gymnastics and fencing practices and tournaments.

“I brought a notepad too, you know, write down stuff,” Daniel said. “OK, riddle again?” “‘In the place of fire, the prophesy lies, you can only trust it on the person that never lies’,” Tori repeated.

“Place of fire? Somewhere there’s fire,” Daniel slowly said.

Suddenly Tori yelled out. “The fireplace!”

“What’s so interesting about the fireplace Ms. Collins?” Mrs. Jones who snuck up on them asked.

“Oh nothing. We were talking about how our fireplace needs dusting,” Tori lied.

“All right,” she said and left.

“Impressive, you’re a great liar. You can even trick Mrs. Jones, the lie detector,” Daniel said.

“Wait, what’s her name?” Tori asked him.

“Marissa Jones. Preferable, Mrs. Jones,” he told her.

“I’ll be right back,” Tori said and went behind the wall. She took out her phone and dialed Jess’s number.

“It was about time you called,” Jess said from the other line.

“Hey, Jess. Do you have an aunt or something named Marissa?” Tori asked her.

“No. Why are you suddenly interested in my family?” she asked.

“Oh, no reason. Thanks. Bye,” Tori said and hung up.

“Problem solved,” she said when she went back to Daniel.

“So… In the fireplace a prophesy lies?” he said confused.

“Probably. We’ll have to check every single fireplace,” Tori said. There was silence when Tori finally spoke again. “Tomorrow at lunch Ms. Cane is having a little, you know, ‘party’ because she finally graduated from college and everybody will be in the cafeteria. That’s our chance.”

“OK, we’ll –” Daniel was cut off by the bell.

“Second bell. Gotta go,” Tori said and left.

Daniel walked to the Science Lab and took his seat next to Freddie, his lab partner.

“Hey Freddie, what’s up?” Daniel asked Freddie.

“Nothing much. I’ve heard soon we’re gonna dissect a frog,” he said.

“That’s disgusting!” Daniel said.

“I know!” Freddie said. Than trouble came by, Rosemary McCone.

“Hey Danny. I saw you at basketball practice yesterday. Pretty sweet. So, after class would you like to –” she started.

“Sit down everybody!” Mr. Carter yelled as he entered the room.

Rosemary made the phone gesture, mouthed: “Call me.” and sat on her seat. Daniel sank in his seat. Now the frog wasn’t his only problem.

The next day Daniel couldn’t take it anymore. He had to admit it, he had a crush on Tori Collins, the newbie.

“Hey Tori, can I talk to you for a minute?” he walked up to Tori and said.

“Oh, Danny. I found every single fireplace in the school. There’s one in every house’s common room, one in the teacher’s lounge, one in Mrs. Jones’s office and one in the Main Hall. We can start with our fireplace,” Tori said.

“Sure, right,” Daniel said.

Stacy walked up to them and said, “Tori, we have English first period, let’s go.”

“Has he asked you to the ball game yet?” Stacy asked Tori on the way.

“No, I don’t think he would,” Tori said.

“If he’s a proper gentleman he’ll ask you, if he’s a little boy he won’t,” Stacy explained to Tori.

“Stacy, I don’t know what I would’ve done without you,” she said as they entered the room.

At lunch everybody went to Ms. Cane’s little party which wasn’t much of a party. Tori and Daniel stayed at Anubis House.

“Coast is clear,” Daniel said to Tori and they both went to the fireplace.

“OK, if you see anything grab it. If it’s attached to a wall read it out loud,” Tori said.

“Right,” Daniel agreed. They looked in the fireplace.

“It got a piece of paper!” Daniel yelled out and on his way out they both bumped their heads on the top and laughed.

“What does it say?” Tori asked.

“I can’t make it out,” Daniel said. “We hit another dead end.”

“I’ll hide it in my room, for now,” Tori said, grabbed the piece of paper and started walking up the stairs.

“Hey Tori,” Daniel said to Tori.

“What?” She said.

“Would you like to go to the game next Saturday with me?” He said.

“I never knew you like basketball.”

“I’m on the team.”

“Then sure. I’d love to,” Tori said and went upstairs.

Daniel finally did it. He knew it wasn’t practically a date: he’ll be playing, she’ll be watching, but he was happy she said yes. ~*~*~*~*~*~ At the teacher’s lounge Mrs. Jones was arguing with the teachers.

“I’m telling you and I know I’m right. They are up to something,” she yelled.

“How do you know that?” Ms. Hale said. “Randomness is modern these days.

“I know it. They’re looking for something. Something I… We might need,” Mrs. Jones said.

“What could have they been up to. They’re just 11 year old kids,” Ms. Cane said.

“Linda, you’re kind of new around here. We look at students in more than age. It can turn out that the youngest can outsmart the oldest,” Mrs. Jones explained.

“Of course,” Ms. Cane, who really didn’t want to be there right now agreed.

“Marissa, isn’t Linda part of it now?” Mr. Singer asked.

“She has to work her way up to that stuff, Jason,” Mrs. Jones said to Mr. Singer.

“Part of what?” Ms. Cane asked.

“The meeting is over. Please exit,” Mrs. Jones ordered quickly and chased everybody out of the teacher’s lounge.

“I need more information,” she said to herself and shut the door.

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER ELEVEN The Fireplace’s Riddle It was Friday evening and Tori was at Archery practice. Busy cleaning her equipment she didn’t notice Daniel sitting on the bleachers to watch.

“Collins! On the field,” Ms. Cane, who was also running the Archery Club as well yelled.

“Coming,” Tori yelled back and ran to the field. “Your course today is this,” Ms. Cane said and showed the members of the Archery Club the complicated obstacle course. “You have to run around and try to hit bulls-eyes on every single target. So, as a special treat and punishment for tardiness, Ms. Collins will go first.”

Tori gulped and looked carefully at the course. She tightened the laces on her sneakers and got ready.

“Ready… Set… Go!” Ms. Cane yelled and blew in her whistle.

Tori took off. She hit the first bulls-eye. The second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. But when she got to the seventh, she took her stands, faced the target and tightened her bow. And right then she spotted Daniel on the bleachers and she let go of her arrow. It flew right next to the target.

“Nice job. Six out of seven. You can do better. Ms. Parker is next,” Ms. Cane yelled up to Klariza, a girl in Tori’s Science class.

Klariza was a girl with long blond hair and brown eyes. Her trade mark were her ultra-thin black-rammed glasses. She was from Isis House and she wasn’t good as Tori in archery, not even close. She took her stands and when Ms. Cane yelled ‘GO’ she started running.

Tori went to the girls locker room with Daniel behind her.

“Hey, I’m SO sorry I made you miss that last shot!” Daniel said and sat on the bench.

“No worries. I only missed one!” Tori said and sprayed some deodorant around herself and the smelly locker room. “If this was the final exam, I would’ve got 95 out of 100. That’s an A!” “Great,” Daniel replayed. Then he got a scared expression on his face. “Wait, what did you say about ending exams?“ “You know, all of our ending grades are depending on our ending exam grades. That is for the clubs too,” Tori explained.

“So… we’ll get graded by performance?”

“Exactly. Now I gotta go back out there. I think Ms. Cane will make me run another lap,” Tori left the locker room and Daniel ran out quickly after that. He forgot it was the GIRLS locker room! ~*~*~*~*~*~ After that embarrassment in front of the girls in the Archery team, Daniel decided he wanted some guy time, so he started walking to Anubis House to get Kendall. When he got to the crossroads of the houses he saw the Horus House door open.

“Danny?” Said a familiar girly voice. Than Rosemary appeared out of the door.

“Hey, Rosemary,” Daniel said.

“So, I was wondering if you could get me ‘backstage’ on the basketball game?” Rosemary said.

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Daniel said, ran to Anubis House and slammed the door shut.

“Guys these days,” Rosemary said and left.

In the common room Kendall, James and Mike were sitting on the couches and drinking Coke form the bottles.

“Guys help. I have a not-very-secret admirer,” Daniel said and grabbed a bottle.

“You finally figured it’s Tori,” Kendall said from the kitchen.

“No, Tori doesn’t like me. It’s Rosemary from Horus House,” Daniel said.

James chocked on his drink said, “What?”

“You cannot do that,” Mike said. “Yeah she’s pretty, but her personality – horrible.”

“Oh don’t worry. I don’t want anything to do with her,” Daniel said.

“Good,” Kendall said. “Now let’s go plan a technique to win the game.”

“You just got to be captain and you’re getting too competitive,” Mike said.

“I just want our team to win,” Kendall said and he and Daniel walked out of Anubis House. ~*~*~*~*~*~ That Monday everybody gathered up in the main hall for the Monday morning assembly.

“Good morning, students. Today we’re going to pick the hall monitor,” Mrs. Jones said.

Everybody in the room groaned.

“Worst job you can ever get,” Tori whispered to Stacy.

“Yeah, totally drops your reputation, if you made one,” Stacy whispered back.

“So, in this bag are all of your names. I’m going to reach and pull out the name of the new hall monitor,” Mrs. Jones said and reached in the bag. “And the hall monitor is… Percy Fenel.”

Percy Fenel, a red haired boy from Isis House stood up and everybody clapped slowly. He walked up on the podium and took his hall monitor badge, uniform and clipboard with detention slips.

“Thank you for this amazing job. This is the best school ever. Thank you,” Percy said.

Everybody got bored and left the main hall. “Congrats Percy,” his twin sister Patricia, or also Patty said to him.

“Thanks Pat,” he said. “Gotta report to duty.”

That evening, while everyone was at dinner, Mrs. Jones went to Anubis House.

“Good evening Mrs. Jones,” everybody greeted her from the table.

Tracy approached drying a glass with a towel. “Evening Marissa.”

“Good evening Tracy, students. I would like to talk to Sarah Rutter,” Mrs. Jones said. Sarah stood up from the table and went to her. “I heard you are doing a great job in the AV Club?”

“Yes. Best in class,” Sarah said proudly.

“So, how would you and a couple of other students like to create the brand new Magnolia website. It can also be something like a social network if you want,” Mrs. Jones said.

“Of course! I love social networks,” Sarah said. “Great. Gather your helpers tomorrow and get started.

“We need it ready at least in one month,” Mrs. Jones said and left Anubis House.

“So, what does she want you to do?” James asked when Sarah came back to the table.

“She wants me and some other tech geeks to create the brand new Magnolia social network website,” Sarah said.

“Cool. What are you gonna name it?” Stacy asked.

“That… I have no idea,” Sarah said.

“I think it should be something common, like MagnoliaBoardingSchool. But, the social network should have a different tagline, like TeenSpace.Mag-noliaBoardingSchool, or something,” Tori said.

“Tori, you are a genius,” Sarah said.

“Usually I’m not good in names and such, but this one just came to me,” Tori said.

“Like an idea,” Kat said and everybody on the table stared at her. She giggled.

“O…K…” Kendall said and they continued to eat. That night Tori and Daniel decided to go down to the common room after midnight. They made sure Tracy is fast asleep and slowly went down the stairs.

“You’re sure this will work,” Tori said when Daniel turned on the lamp.

“100 percent. The internet almost never lies,” Daniel said and put the piece of paper on the top of the lamp. Soon, words written with golden ink.

“You were right! It’s invisible ink!” Tori shouted a little. “So, Danny, about that basketball thing. Is everybody taking a girl,” Tori asked Daniel.

“It’s not a date thing. The headmistress of our opponent school wanted to give girls a special treatment,” he said.

“Oh, good,” Tori said a little disappointed. “So, what does it say?” “’The fireplaces are The wrong place to look, The right path Is in the book. In this book You will find, The things you need To make it in time’,” Daniel read from the paper.

“Why does every riddle need to rhyme?” Tori said.

“I don’t know. But, this is even harder than the last one,” Daniel said.

“I still don’t get why that voice gave me a wrong clue,” Tori said and leaned on the couch.

“Maybe it’s evil?” There was silence.

“No… It’s not evil.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“Who said place of fire is a fireplace?”

“Um, you?”

“I think there’s something about that book that makes it a place of fire,” Tori said. “We need to check the library and we need to do that fast.”

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER TWELVE Revenge of the Frenemy The next morning Stacy ran into Sarah and Kat’s room. Kat wasn’t there, so it was just Sarah who was finishing a sketch of the Magnolia web-site.

“Sarah, I need your opinion,” she said.

“Yes. Those shoes do fit your uniform,” Sarah said not looking away from her sketch.

“No not that. Do you think Tori and Danny make a good couple?” Stacy asked.

“Yeah, but Tori doesn’t like Danny. Anyway, Dari as a couple name sounds right to me,” Sarah answered and left her sketch.

“I prefer Tanny and yes, she does like him.” “Danny told me he thinks she doesn’t.”

“If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have said ‘Yes’ when Danny asked her to go to the basketball game.”

“She did,” Sarah said looking disappointed. “Well, James didn’t ask me.”

“He will, trust me. He’s not a idiot,” Stacy said.

“Yes, he kinda is,” Sarah said.

“Anyway, let’s go down to breakfast. I’m starving,” Stacy said.

Sarah grabbed her sketches and they went down. From the top of the stairs they saw Tori and Daniel sitting on the couch and looking at something.

“Look at them,” Stacy whispered to Sarah.

“I still don’t think so,” Sarah whispered back. “Maybe next year.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Stacy yelled.

Everybody from downstairs looked at them. “Nothing, just nothing.”

Tori and Daniel sat on the couch and looked at the list of books in the library.

“It says ‘To Be Continued’. What does that mean,” Daniel asked.

“There are more books in the library. We’ll just have to look on our own,” Tori said and put the list in her bag.

“Today at lunch,” Daniel said and they went to class.

At lunch Tori and Daniel looked over the entire library, but nothing had anything to do with fire. While they were looking over the last row Tori saw a book that was a little burned with a fire symbol engraved in the side.

“Danny come look at this,” Tori said grabbing the book.

“What?” Daniel said and came over.

“Look this book. It’s burned a little and it has a fire symbol,” Tori said showing Daniel.

“It’s titled ‘Egyptian Treasury’. We should read it through,” he said.

Tori borrowed it and they went back to class. They had History and Mr. Singer looked stressed out.

“Everybody settle down!” he yelled when he entered. “Now it’s time to rush. I’ve just heard that the Ministry of Lightning Island wants all the first year students in every school that is competing in next year’s All Sports Championship, has to make a movie about the school’s history.”

“So, what’s the rush about that?” Daniel asked.

“You need to do it on your own. That means without teacher’s help. So, who wants to direct it?” Mr. Singer asked.

“I wouldn’t mind directing it,” Tori said.

“Your first meeting is tonight. Plan a schedule OK?” Mr. Singer said and ran out of the room.

“OK… People, after school gather up everyone and bring them to the Main Hall so we can decide the roles,” Tori said.

“Kay,” everybody said.

“Now, I’m making this a half class. Everybody go have fun,” Tori yelled and everyone ran out of the room.

That evening after homework hours everybody went to the Main Hall. Stacy and Daniel waited for Tori at the bottom on the stairs of Anubis House.

“What’s taking her so long?” Daniel said.

“Maybe she needs to break into director mood,” Stacy answered. “Tori!”

“I’m here!” Tori yelled and showed up on the top of the staircase holding a clipboard saying ‘Director’ on the back with sparkly letters.

“Wow. First meeting and you look fantabulous,” Stacy said.

“Really?” Tori said. Then she whispered to Stacy, “I think I should be hearing that from him.”

The Main Hall was overfilled. There were only 29 students, but they were talking way too loud.

“People! People!” Tori yelled but nobody listened. She told Stacy to boost up the volume and then she yelled in the microphone, “Listen up people!” Everybody in the Hall silenced down.

“As you know we’re supposed to make a movie to represent our school,” Tori said.

Then Rosemary protested. “Who made you director?”

“Mr. Singer,” Tori said and Rosemary backed up. “So, let’s see. Who writes well…”

After they casted the roles Rosemary started complaining about various things.

“But Tori, what would happened if…” she said, than there was. “But Tori, I don’t want to…” and many other stuff.

Tori became bored of the entire nonsense and went to complain to Mr. Singer.

“She keeps yapping about stuff that doesn’t even make sence,” she told him.

“Then kick her out of the movie. You’re the director,” Mr. Singer said and went back to his work.

Tori got out of his office and walked back to the Main Hall. But in her head there was a devious smile.

“Rosemary, you’re officially kicked out of the movie. You part will be played by… Kat,” Tori said when she got in the Hall.

“You can’t do that. Can she do that?” Rosemary asked.

“Yes she can! She’s the director!” Someone yelled from the crowd.

“Bye,” Tori said happily. Rosemary walked away and slammed the door shut.

The next morning, before classes Tori went up to The Perfects to talk to Jennifer.

“Hey, Jennifer. Since you’re going to History, would you mind taking this to Mr. Singer. I listed all of the roles here, for the movie,” Tori said.

“I think I can do that,” Jennifer said and took the clip-board.

“Thanks,” Tori said and left.

“I’ll take that,” Rosemary said and took the clip-board.

She turned around the corner and started writing some stuff on the papers.

“Time to taste revenge Collins,” she said to herself and went to Mr. Singer’s office.

When Mr. Singer was reading the role list he didn’t understand it at all. It said: Crew: Director: Victoria Collins.

Co-Directors: Daniel Carson and Rosemary McCone Writers: Alyssa Black and Camille Franklin. Costumes: Anastasia Flynn and Jennifer Lane.

Make-Up Artists: Lora Turner, Patty Fenel and Violet Harrison.

Cameras: Kendall Russo, Michel Refold, James Luther, Cameron and David Clarke.

Lighting: Beck Davis, Sean Gold, Ryder Clarke, Percy Fenel and Spencer Cordon.

Editing: Sarah Rutter, Justin Morgan and Timmy Steward.

Special Effects: Jerome Murray and Ethan Roberts.

Cast: Magnolia: Klariza Parker.

Magnolia’s Husband: Freddie Runner.

Rose: Jade Riley.

Tulip: Rosemary McCone Katherine Nichols.

Dandelion: Rayla Curt.

Daisy: Lillian McKay. Magnolia’s Sister: Nathalia Anderson.

Made by the idea of: Rosemary McCone.

He had a little talk with Tori but all she said was, “I would never write ‘Rosemary McCone’ on those places. It’s not even written in my handwriting. See.”

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER THIRTEEN Another One of Us At lunch Tori figured out who’s was the handwriting. She ran into her room and slammed the door shut.

“Rosemary sabotaged my list! Now I have to rewrite this entire thing,” she yelled.

“Oh, come down. I’ll rewrite it for you if you want,” Stacy said not looking up from some papers.

“What are you doing?” Tori asked her.

“Sketching dresses for the movie. That’s my job,” she said. “I wanna put a hole in the major history with these dresses.”

“Just please don’t make them sparkly party dresses?” Tori said.

“You’ll be surprised,” Stacy said. “Hey how are Ally and Camille going with the script?”

“I’m just heading there to check,” Tori said and went out of the room.

“Tori wait,” Stacy said and Tori returned.

“What?” She said.

“Oh, it’s not that important. Tell you later,” Stacy said and Tori left again.

She ran to Osiris House where Alyssa and Camille were writing. She knocked on the wooden door and a cheerful voice said, “Who is it?”

“Tori Collins from Anubis House,” Tori said. “Then come in,” the tall, blond haired house mother of Osiris House opened the door.

“Where’s Alyssa?” Tori asked.

“In her room,” the house mother said and continued with her work.

Tori went upstairs to the room that said ‘Alyssa Black and Nathalia Anderson’. She opened it and saw Alyssa and Camille writing something, listening to music and laughing.

“Hey guys, how’s it going?” she asked them.

“Amazing Tori,” Camille said. “I’m working on the storyboard and Ally’s working on the script.”

“It’s so easy,” Alyssa said. “We just did some research and we were off to go.”

“Well, keep it up,” Tori said and left.

She checked ‘Script and storyboard in progress’ on her clip-board and left Osiris House. While she was walking to the cafeteria for lunch she saw Daniel carrying four very big books.

“Danny, what are you doing? I said we’re gonna read through only that one book, not all of these,” Tori whispered.

“Check the title,” Daniel said. “’Egyptian Treasury’.”

“These are enormous, how are we going to read them?” Tori said.

“We’ll use every free second,” Daniel said and Tori nodded.

In English, Ms. Cane gave them a practice grammar test. Tori finished early and asked for a hall pass to go to the bathroom. In there she locked the door and opened one of the books. She read and read ‘Unlocking the Power’.

“What do we have here,” Tori said to herself.

“What do you have there,” said a extremely familiar voice from next to her.

Tori quickly closed the book and looked up. It was Stacy looking from the top of the toilet wall.

“Stacy, what are you doing there?” Tori asked her.

“What are YOU doing here?” Stacy said. “The truth, now.”

“OK, but promise not to tell anybody,” Tori said. “Of course. I never break a promise,” Stacy said and they both went in the main bathroom.

Tori told her everything that Daniel knew, not her personal stuff, but one thing he didn’t know. “… And this is my biggest secret. I’m in The Seven,” she said showing Stacy her birthstone necklace.

“No way. Me too,” Stacy said showing Tori her birthstone necklace, a blue Sapphire. “Finally I found somebody like me.”

After classes Tori ran into Daniel’s room. “I’m an idiot,” she yelled.

Luckily, Daniel was alone so they could talk. “Why would you think that?” he asked.

“I spilled all of our secrets to Stacy. I just couldn’t resist, she caught me with the book,” Tori said.

“Calm down. It’s OK. We’ll have some help with the books,” Daniel said.

“You’re really OK with it?”

“Why not. Three heads are better than two.” “Well, we were planning the first official meeting at midnight, our room,” Tori said.

“Sounds great,” Daniel said.

“Bye,” Tori said and left.

At midnight Daniel went to Tori and Stacy’s room. He knocked and somebody pulled him in.

“Hey…” he said and then saw Tori. “Wow Tori, when did you get so strong?”

“Nevermind that,” Tori said.

“Where’s Stacy?” Daniel asked.

“In the bathroom changing outfits,” Tori answered and sighed.

“OK, let’s get started,” Stacy said coming from the bathroom.

“Stace, I think that’s a little too much lip-gloss for one night,” Tori said as they sat in a circle.

“And anyway. What’s the point of this meeting?” Daniel asked.

“First things first. Daniel, are you in The Seven?” Stacy said.

“Shut it Stacy,” Tori whispered to her.

“Why do you wanna know that?” Daniel asked and crossed his arms in front of him.

“Well, we both are,” Tori said and she and Stacy took out their birthstone necklaces.

Daniel sighed. “Me too,” he said and he took out his necklace.

“This is creepy,” Tori said and hugged her legs.

“Why?” Stacy asked her.

“We are getting joined together to form The Seven and we’re just 11,” Tori said. “And mom said…” “’The Seven won’t get together until they’re all 16’,” all three of them said and looked at eachother.

“That was seriously messed up,” Stacy said.

“OK… Stacy here’s your book, read it through carefully. And now I have to go,” Daniel said and ran back to his room.

“Such a baby,” Stacy said.

“He’s not a baby, this is sure is creepy. I’m going to bed. Good night,” Tori said, turned off the lights and went to bed.

Stacy sat in her bed and started reading through the book. Closely after that she fell asleep with the bedside lamp on and the book opened.

The next morning Tori went in Sarah and Kat’s room. She saw Kat ran out and she stepped in the room.

“Sarah, I need my Social Studies notebook back. I have to finish the project,” she said.

“Sure,” Sarah said and started looking threw a pile of notebooks.

Suddenly, something happened that never happened before. Tori’s necklace started glowing.

“Tori…” Sarah started when she saw her necklace.

“Oh, it’s glow-in-the-dark. Bye Sarah,” Tori said quickly, grabbed her notebook and ran out of the room.

She ran down the stairs to the dining table.

“I have to talk to you. Let’s go,” Tori whispered to Stacy and Daniel and they headed out of Anubis House.

“So, what’s up?” Daniel asked.

“When I went to Sarah’s room to get my notebook my necklace started glowing. Not as blinding as when I touched it to my other necklace, but it was a small red light,” Tori explained.

“Does that mean Sarah’s one of us?” Stacy questioned.

“She was around us all the time, but it didn’t glow,” Daniel said.

“The universe is confusing me a lot,” Tori said and walked to Social Studies.

She sat somewhere in the back so she can think. She sat lost in thoughts when someone sat next to her.

“Hey Tori. Is the project ready?” she asked. It was Sarah that sat next to her.

“Yup,” Tori said and handed her a file.

“Good morning class,” Ms. Hale, the Social Studies teacher entered the room.

“Good morning,” the class said.

“We had a project due today and you worked in pairs,” she said. “First pair to present is…

Sarah and Tori.”

Sarah and Tori stood up.

“For our presentation we made…” Sarah started when Tori noticed a very important detail on Sarah. A silver chain around her neck.

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Game and The Golden Words “Tori, Tori wake up!” Stacy yelled jumping on Tori’s bed where Tori was asleep.

“Stace, what’s up? It’s 9 a.m. and it’s Saturday,” Tori said from her bed.

“You’re forgetting something. Today’s the big game against Kennedy Boarding School,” Stacy reminded Tori.

“What?!” Tori jumped out of bed and ran to her wardrobe to get dressed. “I’m supposed to meet Danny.”

“The game starts in 10…” Stacy started, but Tori was already out.

She ran downstairs to Daniel. He was ready in a tracksuit.

“Hey Danny,” Tori said and neared him.

“Hey Torzy,” Daniel said and Tori smiled. “What?”

Tori chuckled. “You just called me Torzy. That’s my dad’s line,” she explained.

“Oh. But I like it,” Daniel said. “Let’s go.”

They headed down to the sports field that was covered with boards. The smell of grass filled the air. Soft breeze flipped Tori’s hair.

“The weather’s amazing today,” she said.

“Not a single cloud. It’s gonna be a great game,” Daniel said.

“Danny, serious time,” Tori said and looked Daniel directly in the eyes. “Do you think I’m crazy?”

“Absolutely not,” Daniel said not moving his eyes from Tori’s.

He wanted to go ahead, ask her to the dance, but Coach Griffin had to step in.

“Carson!” Coach Griffin yelled from the team tent. “Game starts in 15 minutes.”

“Bye Tori,” Daniel said and ran to the tent.

Tori went back to the crowd and she and Stacy sat on the bleachers. They started talking, but didn’t forget about the time.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Here is the first basketball game of the year!” The announcer’s voice rang threw the field. “Today, playing as ‘Home’ the basketball team of Magnolia Boarding School, the Magnolia Wolf Pack! With their new captain, Kendall Russo.”

The Magnolia bleachers yelled and cheered as the team came out of the team tent. When Tori saw Daniel she made the ‘Thumbs Up’ gesture and mouthed, “Good luck.”

“And as ‘Guests’ the basketball team of Kennedy Boarding School, the Kennedy Wild Cats!

With their captain that lead them in five state championships, Noah Cook,” the announcer said a little less existed.

The Kennedy bleachers cheered and the Magnolia booed as the Kennedy team came out of the guest team tent. The referee tossed the ball in the air and the game started.

About halfway through, Kennedy was in lead when dark storm clouds started covering the blue sky. Daniel had the ball and ran bouncing it to the hoop when lightning stroked. He jumped and released the ball that fell right in the hoop. The score was tied, but it started pouring rain. The game ended and the bleachers started to clear.

Ms. Cane stood by the door and counted the kids that entered the school. Tori pulled up her hood and went to Daniel.

“Danny!” She yelled. “Come on.”

“Coming,” Daniel yelled back and they ran inside.

“That’s all!” Ms. Cane yelled and closed the door. Inside Tracy made everybody hot chocolate.

Tori, Stacy and Daniel gathered up in a corner.

“That rain was so unexpected,” Stacy said.

“It wasn’t natural,” Tori said “Something caused that rain.”

“Now we have to find out what caused it,” Daniel said. “We can’t let something like that ruin our next game.”

“That’s the only thing you think about, the game. You know our lives might be depending on this,” Tori yelled at him. “All you can think about is that stupid game.”

“Wow, Tori. Just wow,” Stacy said and they left. Tori sat on the bench.

“Why do I lose every friend I make. I just want to be normal. I don’t want any part of this,” she whispered to herself. “I just got unlucky… My life’s unlucky.”

The next day was cloudless and Tori, Daniel and Stacy went out on the sports field.

“Sorry about yesterday,” Tori said. “I overreacted.”

“No worries. It’s my fault to mention the game,” Daniel said.

“Still,” Tori said.

“Hey guys look what the rain did,” Stacy said pointing to some paths in the ground.

“Rain can’t do something like this,” Daniel said.

“Wait a minute…” Tori started and touched the path.

It was made of golden powder. She ran up to the top of the bleachers and read what was written. It said ‘Time to rejoin’. Tori ran back down.

“Guys, it says ‘Time to rejoin’. Whatever it means,” Tori told them.

“Hi,” Sarah walked in.

She and Klariza came to the sports field to do homework. Sarah noticed the paths.

“Who did this?” she asked.

“Who did what?” Klariza asked.

“These… These paths,” Sarah said.

“Sarah, are you hallucinating?” Klariza asked.

“No. Klare wait for me inside, be there in a minute,” Klariza left and Sarah went to Tori, Stacy and Daniel. “You don’t think I’m hallucinating, do you?” she asked them.

“No, we see it too,” Stacy said.

“It says ‘Time to rejoin’,” Tori told her.

“And that means…” Sarah started.

“We have no idea,” Daniel answered.

“But, we’ll find out,” Tori said. “Now, Stacy will you?”

“Of course,” Stacy said and she and Sarah went inside.

After a few minutes she came running out. “She said yes and I told her, but she has to do homework so she didn’t come,” Stacy explained.

“So, everyone that’s in The Seven can see this, that’s why Klare didn’t,” Tori said.

“I think this means we have to rejoin. All seven of us,” Daniel said.

“Guys I almost forgot,” Tori reminded herself and took out the book she was reading. “Look what I found.” “’Unlocking the Power’?” Stacy read.

“Yeah. It says that when all of the members of The Seven rejoin and put their necklaces together they make a power source that lets out a blinding light,” Tori told them.

“But, why did it let out a light when you touched your birthstone to your Eye of Horus and when you went to Sarah’s room?” Daniel asked.

“Reminder I guess,” Tori said. “Anyway, we have to rejoin faster, look for any clue on other people.”

“Necklaces around neck,” Stacy reminded.

“I already saw one by Freddie from Isis House,” Tori told them.

“I’m lab partners with him. I can check tomorrow in Science class,” Daniel said.

The next day Alyssa brought the script and Camille the storyboard on set. The cameras arrived and the costumes were done. Rosemary was grounded so she couldn’t destroy the movie.

“OK, let’s shoot one,” Tori yelled. “Ready and… Action.”

“Scene 10, Take 1. Action,” Daniel said and shut the clapperboard.

The actors started the dialog and Tori was impressed. Every now and then she would say something like ‘Dim the lights’ or ‘Shoot from another angle’. The tech group left at around 11 a.m. to work on the web-site and the others finished shooting at 8 p.m.

“Good job everybody,” Tori said. “See you tomorrow.”

Back at Anubis House, James made an announcement: “I just wanted to remind you that on Wednesday is my birthday,” he said “I’m officially turning 11.”

“Wait, what date is Wednesday?” Tori asked.

“October 10th, why?” Kendall answered.

“Oh nothing,” Tori said and grabbed Daniel. Stacy and Sarah tagged along and they went in Tori’s room.

“Guys… I think James’s in The Seven,” Tori said.

“That slime-ball?” Stacy said.

“Hey don’t call him a slime-ball,” Sarah said.

“Sorry,” Stacy said.

“He’s born on October 10th, which is the 10th day of the 10th month,” Tori explained.

“They are lots of people born on October 10th,” Daniel said.

“True. Somebody has to check,” Tori said.

“I’ll do it,” Sarah said.

“OK. Danny gets Freddie, Sarah gets James. For now, me and Stacy will stick to the books,” Tori said and Daniel and Sarah left.

~~~

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~~~

CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Fire Survivor The next day Sarah ran to James and Mike’s room. “James, can I talk to you for a second?”

Sarah said.

“Here comes the payback for not asking her to the game,” Mike said from his bed.

“That’s a maybe,” Sarah said and she and James left.

In the corner by the attic door. “What’s up?” James said.

“What hour have you been born in?” Sarah asked.

“10 a.m. Why?” James answered.

“Do you wear necklaces?” Sarah said.

“Do I look like a girl? That’s right, no,” James said, laughed and left.

Sarah looked at him and saw a shine.

“Liar,” she whispered to herself and went back to her room.

The next day in English, Ms. Cane walked up to Tori.

“Meet me in my office in two minutes,” she whispered to her.

After exactly two minutes Tori left the classroom. While she was walking there, one of the girls of the Reporter Club also known as the school newspaper followed her.

“What secret am I gonna find out?” She whispered to herself and followed Tori around.

When she entered Ms. Cane’s office, she leaned against the door and listened to the conversation.

Tori went into Ms. Cane’s office and closed the door.

“Sit,” she said.

Tori sat. Ms. Cane took her glasses and whipped them with a small tissue.

“What did I do?” Tori asked.

“Nothing at all,” Ms. Cane said looking mysterious.

“Then… Why am I here?” Tori said impatiently. “This came in the mail today,” Ms. Cane said handing Tori an envelope, “It contains some things from your burned house in Pennsylvania, from the big fire in 2008.”

“How do you know?” Tori asked.

“You’re famous for what you did. The strategy you escaped with is still unknown,” Ms. Cane explained. “Now you can go back to class.”

Tori walked out of the office and headed back to class looking at the envelope. It was very light, so it couldn’t contain anything big.

The reporter came out from her hiding place and opened a notepad. “’Tori Collins. The horrible survivor’,” she said and wrote it down.

She hid it in her pocket and let go her hair from her ponytail. Her blond hair fell down and her blue eyes sparkled. Rosemary McCone… The girl that’s going to ruin Tori’s life with this article.

In History, Rosemary suddenly walked in the classroom.

“I’m here for the article,” she said to Mr. Singer.

“Of course, take a seat, wherever you like,” he said.

As she walked to the back she dropped a notepad in front of Tori and whispered to her, “You can’t stop me.” Tori read what was written on it. It was the article and the print date was the following day.

“Mr. Singer can I have a hall pass?” she asked.

Mr. Singer looked in the drawers in his desk and said, “Here’s one…”

“I don’t care,” Tori yelled, grabbed her bag and ran out.

She threw the notepad on the ground and Rosemary, who was enjoying this, kicked it under a desk and whispered to herself, “Just like the good old days back in LA.” “Daniel, go after her and make sure she doesn’t leave the school grounds,” Mr. Singer said.

“Why?” Daniel said.

“Trust me. I know these kind of people,” Mr. Singer said.

Daniel ran out of class and kept running down the hallway looking for Tori. While running, Stacy came out of the Science Lab. “Danny, what are you doing?” she said and ran along with him.

“The better question is what are YOU doing?” he answered and kept running.

“I heard something and Mr. Carter asked me to see what it is,” Stacy answered.

“Well, it was Tori. And I’m looking for her.”

“What did she do?” Stacy asked.

“Ran out of class for no reason,” Daniel answered. They kept running until they saw Tori sat on the floor and leaned on a locker.

“Hey what’s up?” Daniel asked her and sat next to her.

“Nothing,” Tori lied.

“So… Why did you run out of class?” Daniel asked again.

“Just leave me alone OK!” Tori said and ran away. Stacy and Daniel exchanged looks.

While Tori was running she bumped into Percy. “Can I see your hall pass please?” He said.

“I don’t have one Percy,” Tori said, pushed him away and ran.

“Collins, detention. I’m sure I’ll waist two pink paper pads just on you this year,” Percy said and wrote Tori a detention slip.

Tori ran in Anubis House. Luckily, nobody was there. She sat on the couch and tried to concentrate on what she heard, “You are famous for what you did.” Those words got stuck in her head.

“I didn’t do anything,” she yelled and leaned back on the couch.

Meanwhile, when Daniel got in his classroom Mr. Singer immediately gave him a hall pass and said, “Go.” Daniel grabbed his bag.

“Thank you Mr. Singer,” he said and left the classroom.

He saw the direction Tori ran in. “Anubis House.” he whispered to himself.

“Hall pass,” Percy said as Daniel came up.

“Here,” Daniel said and showed him.

“All right. Better watch out what Tori does,” Percy said and Daniel just rolled his eyes and ran away.

He went to Anubis House and slowly opened the wooden door. He saw Tori sitting on the couch and sat next to her.

“Now seriously, what’s going on?” He said.

“This is so messed up!” Tori yelled.

“Again what?” Daniel asked her.

“I’m famous about some children story that didn’t even happen,” she said.

“OK, third time. What?” Daniel asked.

“I survived a fire, big deal,” Tori said.

“Wait a minute…” Daniel said.

“It’s true,” Tori said.

“Yup, me too.”

“Fire?”

“No, ship wreck.” “No way.”

“Yes way,” Daniel said. “Anyway back to the running out thing.”

“Yeah. Rosemary overheard Ms. Cane talking to me and giving me this,” Tori said and showed Daniel the envelope. “And wrote an article about it that’s a total lie.”

“OK, what exactly happened that day?” Daniel said.

Tori told him every single detail, except after the fire. And she told him that her parents told her all of it, too.

“I don’t know if it really happened ‘cause it doesn’t seem possible. And if it didn’t, I’ll have to live a big lie!”

“It’s not a lie,” Daniel said and stood up after Tori.

“Maybe it is,” Tori said and looked through the window. “We have to destroy that article before it goes to print.”

“Yeah. And how do we do that?”

Tori turned around and said, “We’ll need Sarah.”

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Accidental Discovery Sarah ran heavily breathing into Tori and Stacy’s room for the meeting they called her for.

“James confessed. He’s in The Seven. But, it took me 12 hours,” Sarah said and sat down on the floor. “So… Why are we here?”

“Rosemary will post an article about Tori being a survivor and it’s full of lies. AND it has stuff about all of us in it,” Daniel explained.

“So, you as the Tech Girl, we were thinking if we could make an operation kind of thing where we’ll help you tap in the computers and delete that article,” Tori said.

“We could call it “Operation: Cut That Article”. It sounds official,” Stacy said.

“Sure, I’d love to help you. But, when exactly are we doing this?” Sarah asked.

“We have to do it tomorrow morning before it goes to print,” Daniel said.

“Tomorrow morning it is,” Tori agreed.

The next morning, before everyone woke up, Tori, Stacy, Daniel and Sarah sneaked down to the copy room, also the Reporter Club meeting room. There was one boy copying the newspapers.

“They haven’t got to that section yet,” Sarah informed them.

“OK. Sarah, go behind the computers, Stacy and Daniel, go outside and do your thing. We start on go.

“Go!” Tori said and everybody took their position. Tori waited for the signals. The signal from Sarah came and the one from Daniel and Stacy too. “It’s show time,” Tori whispered to herself.

She ran out to the boy that was copying the newspapers and yelled, “There’s a fire. Everybody has to be outside.”

“Fire!” The boy yelled and ran out of the room. “Sarah,” Tori whispered and Sarah came out.

She cracked the password and deleted the article. “Done,” she said and they walked out.

The boy ran to the front door with Tori and Sarah behind him. They gave Daniel and Stacy the signal.

“Where are you going?” Stacy asked.

“There’s a fire. I have to get out,” the boy said.

“No there’s not,” Daniel said.

“But, a girl told me…” The boy started, but he was interrupted by Tori coming in.

“Hey, what’s up?” She asked.

“You told me that there was a fire,” the boy said. “No I didn’t. I just came down ‘cause I heard noise,” Tori lied.

“OK. But, I may report you,” the boy said and left.

“Mission accomplished,” Tori said when the boy turned around the corner.

“You’re sure you deleted it permanently,” Stacy asked. “If it’s in the Recycle Bin they can still retrieve it.”

“It’s deleted permanently,” Sarah confirmed.

“Now let’s get back to sleep. It’s 5 a.m. and we have a French test today,” Tori said and they went upstairs.

After school, everybody except James gathered up in front of James and Mike’s room.

“Happy birthday James,” Mike yelled.

James got out and said, “What are you doing here?”

“It’s your birthday idiot,” Tori yelled.

“You said you wanted this,” Stacy said.

“And here’s the cake,” Kendall said and put a chocolate cake on the floor.

“Hey. Wouldn’t it be better if we go… oh I don’t know… DOWNSTAIRS,” Daniel said.

“OK. Let’s roll,” Kendall said and they went downstairs.

He placed the cake on the coffee table and light the candles.

“Make a wish,” Sarah said.

James closed his eyes and blew on the candles.

“What did you wish for,” Kat asked.

“That… is my little secret,” James said and smiled.

“Open the door!” They heard a voice from outside.

“Everybody in the attic,” Tori whispered.

“I’m not playing, open this door,” it said.

“Run,” Tori said.

Everybody ran upstairs in a single file with Tori at the tail. When she got to the seventh stair she slipped on the loose wood and it fell off. Inside there was a small golden light. Tori took the object without looking at it and put it in her pocket.

“Tori come on!” Daniel yelled.

Tori went up and Stacy locked the attic door. Tracy opened the door and Mr. Carter, who was knocking entered.

“Where are they?” He asked angrily.

“Who?” Tracy asked.

“The first year students of this house,” Mr. Carter said.

“I think they went upstairs. Why do you need them?” Tracy said.

“They entered the copy room early in the morning and lied to my son,” he said.

Sarah and Stacy were listening to them.

“That guy was Anthony Carter, Mr. Carter’s son,” Sarah said.

“We’re so dead,” Stacy said.

“He’s gonna chase us out of the school,” Sarah said.

Daniel walked over to Tori who was sitting in a corner and sat next to her.

“Hey what’s up?” He asked.

Tori checked if anyone was around and said, “Look what I found,” she took out a golden Ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life, big as her hand and showed it to him.

“Where did you find it?” He asked.

“Under the broken stair,” Tori said and put it back in her pocket.

They heard Mr. Carter knocking hard on the door.

“Open up,” he yelled. “If you don’t open in 20 seconds I’ll go straight to the headmistress.”

They opened the door and walked out.

“Those who didn’t leave this house yesterday at 5 a.m. go back to your rooms,” Mr. Carter said and Kendall, James, Mike and Kat left. “So, you four admit you where there and you lied to my son.”

“We didn’t lie. I heard there was a fire around here and I told them that it might get to here, but nobody believed me, so I went to him. He believed me, but then I heard that they shut the fire down,” Tori lied.

“I’ll let you slip this time, but remember, if it happens again, you’re getting suspended. For now, you have detention for leaving your house in the morning,” he said and left.

“Where did you become such a talented liar?” Stacy asked.

“Once you become a junior actress, there’s no going back,” Tori said and they went back to their rooms. ~*~*~*~*~*~ October passed like nothing and the sudden cold wind marked the beginning of November.

Most of the trees didn’t have leafs anymore, but on some of them, there were a couple left. One chilly morning, Sarah came down for breakfast holding her laptop. She sat down, put it on the table and opened it.

“It is finished!” She said.

“What’s finished?” Stacy asked pouring the cereal in the bowl.

“The school website,” Sarah said and showed it to them. Everybody cheered. “I’m taking it to a check at lunch and launching it online.”

“So, we all get an account,” Tori asked.

“Of course. And… For a little surprise, we payed some guys to make a phone app!” Sarah said and held up her iPhone with an application called “Magnolia Website.”

“Sweet,” everybody said.

“I know,” she said.

At lunch Sarah ran in the Main Hall and yelled, “The Magnolia website and it’s app are open for business.”

Everybody cheered and went to download the application.

“This is so cool,” Tori said when she successfully created an account. “You can post anything.”

“Yeah. Sarah you’re a genius,” Stacy said.

“I friended all of you guys,” Kendall said. “I’m still accepting,” James said.

The next couple of days everybody was too busy with the website they didn’t even bother to concentrate in class that drove the teachers insane.

~~~

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Gone at Christmas Eve Classes, practices and homework, that’s how November passed in Magnolia Boarding School.

The morning before Christmas, Mrs. Jones told everybody that for Christmas, they can stay at Magnolia or go home. At Anubis House, Mike and Kat packed their bags and left back to their hometowns.

“Hey guys,” Tori said to Danny, Stacy and Sarah and motioned to her room.

When they went up there she took out the envelope and said, “We forgot about this.”

“What’s that?” Stacy asked.

“Let’s see,” Tori said and opened the envelope.

Inside there were a bunch of papers stapled together. The ends were burned, but the inside was completely untouched. On the cover it said in a messy handwriting: Zoey’s Diary “It’s my mom’s diary,” Tori said and flipped through the pages. “It dates back to when she was 11 to the day she graduated from high school.”

“Hey guys,” Kendall entered the room. Tori quickly put the diary under her bed. “We’re starting to decorate the Christmas tree. Tracy wants you downstairs and what’s going on here?”

“Nothing,” Stacy quickly said.

“OK, let’s go,” Kendall said and they all left.

Downstairs, Tracy had put up the Christmas tree in the corner and the decoration boxes were on the coffee table.

“Start decorating kids. I’m busy with the food,” Tracy said from the kitchen.

Everybody started decorating the tree, walls and tables.

“Hey Sarah,” Stacy said.

“What?” Sarah asked her.

“Wanna have fun with these mistletoes?” Stacy asked her.

“Who doesn’t,” Sarah said.

After they put one at the entrance hall they put a couple more.

“So, we put one on the entrance, one on the chandelier…” Sarah said.

While Sarah was making plans Stacy looked around with a basket of mistletoes. While she was standing by the main entrance door she heard something behind her. Before she could even turn around it grabbed her.

Sarah quickly turned around as Stacy’s basket of mistletoes fell on the ground. She saw a piece of paper on the ground. She grabbed it and ran to Anubis House.

“Guys Stacy’s gone,” she yelled.

“What do you mean?” Tori asked.

“I think she was kidnapped. When I turned around she was gone and I found this on the ground,” Sarah said and showed them the paper.

“It says ‘If you want your friend back, come at the abandoned warehouse in the woods’ Signed: C. Who could C be?” Tori said.

“Whoever he/she is, they’re so unprofessional. Who gives clues after they kidnap somebody,” James said.

“I think we should look for her,” Kendall said.

“I’m coming too,” Tori said.

“Me too,” Daniel said.

“I have nothing else to do,” James said.

“Coming too,” Sarah said.

They grabbed their jackets from the coat stand and left. When Tracy came out of the laundry room and saw the students were gone.

“Where are they going. It’s almost sundown,” she said and put the laundry on the table.

“What?” Kendall asked while Tori was on the phone.

“Line went dead, AGAIN,” Tori said.

It was the sixth time they called Stacy, but didn’t succeed.

“OK, let’s just keep going,” Sarah said.

“Do you know where we are going?” James asked.

“No idea,” Sarah answered and they walked through the woods.

The night quickly approached and it slowly started to snow. The white snowflakes flew through the air as the cold December wind tossed them around. A soft blanket of snow started to form on the ground as the five of them walked down the path in the woods.

“This snow is so wonderful,” Tori said to Daniel, who was walking next to her.

“It would have been more wonderful if Stacy wasn’t kidnapped,” he said.

With her hands in her pockets and her jacket zipped up, Tori fearlessly led the path through the woods, as the wind blew her hair around. She was fascinated by the view.

“You know this is my first time seeing actual snow,” she said.

Daniel stopped for a second, “This is your first time?”

“Yup,” Tori answered.

“Then you have much to learn,” he said and tackled her in clearing.

“Danny stop it,” Tori yelled.

“All right,” Daniel stood up and gave Tori a hand. She grabbed it and he threw her on the other side.

“Guys get serious. We have to save Stacy,” Sarah said.

Daniel and Tori, all wet from the snow got back to the path. They walked a couple more minutes and they saw an abandoned warehouse.

“She has to be in there,” Kendall whispered. “Let’s open this door,” James suggested.

They all pushed the rusty old metal door until it opened. They ran in and saw Stacy tied up.

“Guys don’t…” She tried to warn them when a tall, very skinny woman with long, pin straight black hair and cold ice blue eyes came out of the shadows.

“Look who’s here. The Seven came to rescue their friend,” she said. “But, before I let that happen, I’ll need you necklaces. Starting with you,” she said, went to Tori and stuck her hand out. “Give,” she said.

Tori reached to her necklace.

“Are you nuts?” James yelled.

“Don’t do it Tori,” Sarah said.

But, Tori had another trick up her sleeve. She took out a silver chain and threw it outside, in the snow. While the woman was searching for it, she helped her friends untie Stacy.

“Now let’s get out of here,” she said after the job was done.

They ran down the path until Magnolia Boarding School came in view point. Then they slowed down.

“Who is that lunatic?” Kendall asked.

“That is Corrana. She gives me the creeps,” Stacy answered.

“And Kendall. Corrana said that The Seven came to rescue Stacy. Do you happen to be in?”

Sarah asked Kendall.

“Well, since you all are. Yes,” Kendall admitted it.

“Hey, guys. Doesn’t Corrana remind you of somebody else?” Tori asked.

“No, who?” everybody else answered. ~*~*~*~*~*~ In Horus House, while everyone was at the Christmas fest, Violet Harrison sat in her room and stared out the window. Her dark brown hair, almost black was sprinkled with tiny snowflakes and her ice blue eyes were focused on one point: the woods.

“Why did this have to happen?” She said to herself.

She went down to the Main Hall and saw everybody panicking.

“What’s going on?” Violet asked.

“Six students are missing,” Rosemary answered coldly.

“Who?” Violet asked.

“Tori, Stacy, Sarah, Danny, Kendall and James from Anubis House,” Jennifer answered.

Then they saw them walking in the Hall. Tori and Daniel were soaking wet and Stacy looked terrified.

“What happened?” Klariza asked. “Why are you two wet?” She pointed to Tori and Daniel.

“And why do you look like she’s seen a ghost?” Freddie asked Stacy.

“We went out for a walk,” Sarah lied.

“And Daniel tackled me in the snow,” Tori said.

“I saw a snake and I’m still terrified,” Stacy said looking girly.

“You two go change right now before you catch a cold!” Tracy demanded. “And put warm clothes on.”

Violet sighed as Tracy handed them hot chocolate. She looked through the window again and saw the white snow fall.

“One, two, three, four, five, six…” She counted as the snowflakes fell. “Why isn’t it easy?”

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Diary “Mom… Mom there was snow here! Mom… OK mom I understand, bye,” Tori talked to her mother on the phone.

“Are you in trouble?” James teased her.

“Yeah. Mom’s mad ‘cause I didn’t go home for Christmas,” Tori explained.

“Why didn’t you?” Kat asked.

“I didn’t want to be in a Collins’ family reunion. Everyone from my family gathers up at the youngest, our family’s house. And it’s like a weirdo parade from around the world,” Tori said.

“Yaiks,” Mike said.

Stacy came by Tori and whispered, “Are we checking the diary?”

“Yeah,” Tori answered and they went upstairs.

“So, anything interesting?” Sarah asked as they sat down in a circle.

“Nothing yet…” Tori started. “Oh, here it is. Mom went to school here. Listen her entry,” Tori said and started reading, “’Dear Diary, Me and my bestie Miranda are having a great time even though I’m in Anubis House and she’s in Osiris House. I’ve met a really cute guy here. His name is Andrew Collins and I think I’ll ask him to the dance. My roommate Melinda is very nice, but kind of shy. - Zoey’.”

“Wait, Melinda?” Stacy asked.

“Yeah,” Tori confirmed.

“Last name?”

“Beeson,” Tori said. “That’s my mom.”

“Really, your mom?” Sarah asked Stacy.

“Yeah,” Stacy said. “Mom’s maiden name is Beeson and she went to this school.”

“Here’s the entry from the next day,” Daniel said and started reading” “’Dear Diary, Andrew already asked somebody I didn’t expect, my BFF Miranda! I’m so mad at both of them right now. Anyway, there’s this girl next door. Her name is Rachel Valdez and she’s mysteriously quiet. I have a feeling she’s hiding something. I’m secretly planning an investigation with Melinda tonight. Wish me luck, - Zoey.’.”

“Rachel is my mom,” Sarah said. “Valdez is her maiden name.”

“This diary may contain information of the students that lived here,” Daniel said.

“Check out the day of the dance,” Stacy said.

“That page is missing,” Sarah said. “Somebody ripped it out.”

“We’d better hide it,” Tori said and hid it under her bed.

“OK, let’s go to dinner,” Stacy said. “Go on, I’ll catch up,” Tori said.

After they left Tori took out her phone and dialed her dad’s number.

“Hey dad. I want to ask you something. What happened at the day of the dance, in your first year at Magnolia,” Tori asked him.

Mr. Collins sighed. “All right,” he said. “I’ll tell you. I went to the dance with Miranda, a girl from Osiris House. We started dancing and then I spotted your mother talking to some girls. She looked so beautiful in her blue dress, so I left Miranda and went to talk to her. But, just went I got to her, she left. I asked Melinda where Zoey was and she told me that she’s in the bathroom.”

“I didn’t have the courage to enter the girls bathroom, so I waited in front of the door. I heard her fighting with somebody and that somebody was probably Miranda. I never knew they had such a powerful dictionary at the age of 11. After a couple of minutes, Zoey came out. I tried

talking to her, but she yelled at me, “I never want to see you again!”, and left. I didn’t go after her although I wanted to. That day I swore that I will get that girl and not date anyone else but her, my true love. And here we are, we’re married, have wonderful kids and my promise isn’t broken. Why?” “Oh nothing. Just curious,” Tori said. “Bye dad.” Tori closed her phone and went to dinner.

“What are we having today?” Said the always hungry Mike.

“Pizza de la Italia!” Tracy said putting a family sized pizza on the table.

“Awesome,” Mike said.

Tori took an piece without mushrooms and put it on her plate.

“Does little Tori not like her mushy wooms?” James teased her.

“Ha ha, very funny. The fact is that I’m horribly allergic to mushrooms,” Tori said.

“Lucky,” Mike mumbled.

“So Mike,” Stacy said. “I heard you’re going to sign up for the Comedy Hour at the Premiere Theater.”

“Yup,” Mike said proudly.

“What’s your audition act?” Kat asked.

“This,” Mike said and stood up. “What does the bird say to the other one when they fly over an ocean?” Nobody answered. Mike started over, “I said…”

“We heard,” Tori said.

Mike sat down, “I can’t be that humorless.”

Kat laid her hand on his shoulder. “Yes you are Mike.”

When dinner was over Sarah whispered to Tori, “I have to tell you something.”

“All of us?” Tori whispered.

“Yeah,” Sarah whispered back and they went upstairs.

“Look what I found under the fire symbol on this book, the letter L.” “This one has an U,” Stacy said.

“They all spell LUNAR. The name of the family that built this place,” Daniel said.

An idea flashed through Tori’s mind. “Meet me tomorrow at sunrise by that portrait of Daisy Lunar on the third floor.”

“OK…” Sarah said.

“Everybody up to bed!” Tracy yelled in her new megaphone she bought for yelling at the students.

“Let’s go,” Daniel said to Sarah and they left.

The next morning at sunrise, everybody snuck out and went to the third floor. They met Tori there.

“Why are we here?” Sarah asked.

“This,” Tori said and told them all they found out with Daniel about the portrait and the necklace.

“Yeah, and what now?” Stacy said.

A little sunlight came from the window and landed on the painting of the sun on the portrait. It fell and unraveled five slots big enough to fit a dictionary.

“Look at these,” Tori said in amazement.

“I think we should put the books in this,” Daniel said.

“Here,” Stacy handed him the books. “You brought them?” Sarah asked her.

“Yeah. Just in case.”

Daniel put them in a way to spell LUNAR, but nothing happened. Tori tried pushing the wall, but all that happened was a small piece of plaster falling from the ceiling. Daniel tried it backwards, but nothing happened again.

“This isn’t it,” Tori said.

“We’ll try sometimes else,” Stacy said and took the books. They put up the portrait and went back to their house.

One the way back, Mrs. Jones caught them. “What are you doing so early?” she asked.

“Umm…” Tori tried to think of a lie.

“Give me your bags,” Mrs. Jones demanded and took their bags. “Now go back to your houses.”

After they left, she took them up to her office. She searched them and found Mrs. Collins’s diary.

“Zoey, Zoey, Zoey. You haven’t changed a bit since the old days,” she said to herself.

While flipping through the pages, a small piece of paper flew out. Mrs. Jones picked it up and saw the address to Rachel Valdez Rutter.

“Oh, Chosen One,” Mrs. Jones said and hid the diary with the paper in the upper right-hand drawer of her desk and locked it.

The next day at lunch break, Mrs. Jones returned the bags to Tori, Daniel, Stacy and Sarah.

They checked if everything was there.

“The books are here,” Stacy said.

“But the diary isn’t. Jones must’ve taken it,” Tori said.

“Should we go look for it,” Sarah asked.

“No. Going into her office is too risky. She has surveillance cameras placed everywhere,” Tori explained.

“Then how do we get it back,” Daniel asked.

“For now… We don’t,” Tori said.

“Why?” Stacy asked.

“If it’s important, we will,” Tori said.

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER NINETEEN Holiday Fever New Year’s day was three days later. The Clarke brothers from Horus House, Ryder, Cameron and David tried to look cool with the fireworks after the embarrassing skiing accident.

“What are you doing there?” Beck said.

“Setting up the fireworks tonight, nerd,” Ryder said.

“He’s not a nerd, girls are all over him,” David, reminded him.

“But, Mrs. Jones said no fireworks,” Beck said.

“I know,” Ryder said and went back to working on the fireworks.

“If you rat us out, we’ll tell all the girls that you’re Canadian,” Cameron said.

“So?” Beck said.

Cameron was silent for a second. “Forget it,” he said.

Beck went back to Isis House. Tonight better wear helmets,” he said.

“Why?” Rayla asked.

“Clarks are setting up fireworks,” Beck told them.

“Mrs. Jones said no fireworks,” Patty said and ran for the door.

“Wait,” everybody yelled.

“Don’t rat them out,” Camille said.

“We all want fireworks for New Year’s eve,” Klariza said.

“You’ll be a party wrecker, Pat,” Percy said.

“OK. But, if Mrs. Jones gets suspicious I’m not taking the blame,” Patty said and went to her room.

“She’ll totally take the blame,” Percy said.

At New Year’s Eve everybody gathered in the school’s yard. They all wore crazy hats as a weird tradition in Magnolia Boarding School. There were piles of snow on the ground “Today we are crossing into the new year,” Mrs. Jones said. “Let the countdown begin.”

As everybody counted down from ten, The Clarke Brothers gathered up behind the bleachers where the fireworks were set.

“Ready?” David whispered.

“Ready,” Ryder and Cameron whispered back.

“Five, four, three, two, one,” everybody counted.

At the end out the countdown the fireworks were launched in the sky. It was an amazing show in all colors and shapes.

“Who played smart and did this?” Mrs. Jones yelled after the show. Everybody was silent.

“Who did it?”

Patty wanted to raise her hand, but Percy hold her down.

“Don’t do it Pat,” he whispered to his sister.

“Don’t tell me if you want, but I will find out,” Mrs. Jones said. “Now everybody back inside.” ~*~*~*~*~*~ Two weeks passed since Mrs. Jones discovered about the Clarke Brothers and grounded them.

One evening, when the boys where on kitchen duty an important conversation came up.

“So, what are you planning for Valentine’s Day?” James asked Daniel.

“James, Valentine’s Day is a month away,” he said.

“There’s no such thing as to early to think about the perfect present,” Mike said.

“I guess flowers,” Daniel said.

“You have to work the old think melon,” Kendall said and thumped Daniel on the head.

“Hey, stop that!” He yelled.

“Go think of something, we’ll cover you,” Mike said and Daniel ran to his room.

He sat on his desk and thought. Then he grabbed a piece of paper and started scribbling something. He heard a knock from on the door and hid the paper.

“It’s open,” he said.

Tori came in. “Hey, we have a meeting in my room. Kind of important,” she said.

“Sure,” he said. “Be there in a second.”

Tori winked at him and left. He grabbed the paper he was writing and hid it carefully behind all the clothes in his wardrobe and went to Tori and Stacy’s room.

“So, what’s up,” he asked and sat in the circle as the other five of them.

“That Corrana woman. We think she’s after us,” Stacy said.

“Yeah. Why else would she lead us to a trap with Stacy,” Daniel said.

“We have to think of a defense system,” Kendall said. “If she knew who we were, she could easily track us.”

“Already working on it,” Sarah said not looking up from some papers.

“Do you guys know who she is? I mean, not in the name,” James said.

“She reminds me of somebody, like I said, but I just can’t put my finger on it,” Tori said.

“I know,” Stacy said. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Thursday morning, February 14, Valentine’s Day. Tori woke up early and started reading a book for English class when she heard a knock on the door. She opened and found a basket of freshly picked lilacs on the ground.

“Stacy, wake up and look at this,” she said.

“What?” Stacy said still sleepy.

“Somebody’s left a little gift for Valentine’s Day. On the card it says ‘For Tori Collins’ and there’s a poem,” Tori said and showed her the basket of lilacs.

“Cool. Read it,” Stacy said.

Tori sat on her bed and started reading the poem.

Victorious, your name means I’m pretty sure you are, Cleverness, I see in your eyes That are twinkling like a star.

Obvious is no word for you Rocking every night, I know you can be mean sometimes And know the time to fight.

Especially for you - ??????

PS: Meet me in the attic tonight at midnight.

“Ohhh. A secret admirer,” Stacy said now wide awake.

“It’s cute,” Tori said. “He spent most of his time writing a poem.”

“So, you’re meeting him tonight?” Stacy asked.

“I don’t know. What if it’s a trap?” Tori said.

“What?! No way,” Stacy said.

“Come on Stace. Oldest trick in the book,” Tori said.

“Then, for emergencies only, carry this walkie talkie. I called dad and told him to send me 7, for the entire group,” Stacy said and threw Tori a walkie talkie.

“OK, let’s get ready for school,” Tori said and threw the walkie talkie in her bag.

At school, the same day, love was all around: love cards in the lockers, bouquets of roses and ‘I love you’ teddy bears. Tori went to the second floor to look for Daniel at his locker. She saw him with a couple of boys and hid around the corner to wait for him to be alone. She pulled out her little mirror and checked her hair. When the boys left she came out and started walking down the hall looking sweet when she tripped over a loose tile on the floor and fell.

“Tori are you OK?” Daniel ran over and helped her up.

“Yeah, I just think my nose might be bleeding,” Tori said, grabbed a tissue and put it on her nose.

“What are you doing on the second floor anyway?” Daniel asked.

Tori threw away the tissue in the nearby trashcan. “I’m just turning in some Math papers,” She showed him a file. “Well, see you around.”

That night, at midnight, Tori walked up to the attic and used a bobby pin to pick the lock. She waited in the darkness with her hand close to the walky talky.

“Hey,” somebody said from behind her.

Tori screamed and held the walkie talkie straight in front on him, ready to attack. “Danny, what are you doing here?”

“I… I sent you the basket,” he said quietly and gave her a rose.

“Thanks,” Tori said.

“I know the secret admirer is a little cliché, but I like it,” Daniel said and smiled.

“What happened?” Stacy’s voice as heard from Tori’s walkie talkie.

“Sorry I gotta go,” Tori said.

“I get it,” Daniel said and left the attic.

Tori felt bad for ditching him, but it was best for her, him and Stacy.

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER TWENTY At the Last Moment “Move!” Tori pushed her way through the crowd in front of the Magnolia Boarding School Message Boards.

After a few minutes she came out and ran to Anubis House screaming from excitement.

“Guys!” She yelled.

“What happened?” Stacy, Daniel, Sarah and Kendall yelled back.

“The movie we made is reviewed for an audience with the president next week,” Tori yelled.

“Seriously,” Stacy said.

“All over the school message boards,” Tori explained.

“Where?” Sarah asked.

“In the Meadowville Premiere Theater,” Tori said.

“Then we should get ready and find something nice to wear.” Stacy said.

“Let’s don’t forget the director’s speech,” Sarah said.

Stacy and Sarah went upstairs and Tori stayed.

“I guess you’re over excited about this,” Daniel said.

“Why wouldn’t I be,” Tori said.

“I just wanted to remind you that there’s a lunatic after us,” Daniel said.

“Don’t worry, I never let my guard down. That’s how I’m trained,” Tori said and smiled.

“Do you think that will work?” Daniel said pointing to the very complicated security system they built on the entrance door of Anubis House.

“Hopefully,” Tori said and went upstairs. ~*~*~*~*~*~ It was Saturday, March 17 and everyone was up at 6 a.m. At 5 p.m., two hours before the premiere, everybody started being nervous.

“Tracy, have you seen my index cards?” Tori yelled.

“On the counter, sweetie,” Tracy said while washing the dishes.

“Oh, I’m so nervous,” Tori said to herself.

“Don’t be. Now let’s get you dolled up.” Stacy said and dragged her to their room.

By 6 p.m. everybody was dressed up and waiting for the car on the parking lot.

“You look pretty,” Daniel said to Tori. “Thanks.” She said and blushed a little.

“Don’t need to be nervous. It’s just a simple speech,” he said. Tori smiled. “There’s the car.”

They went in and the driver drove them to the Meadowville Premiere Theater. The outside of the theatre was decorated with colorful lights and a big banner that said, ‘Premiere of the historical movie “History of Magnolia’” with big bold letters. Nobody was there yet except the cast that waited for them backstage.

“Wow, you all look so pretty,” Klariza said to the girls.

“Thanks, you too,” They all said.

“OK, who’s ready?” Mr. Singer, that just entered backstage, said. He was all dressed up in a suit and a bow tie. “I invited your parents, they’re going to be here in half an hour with the president of Lightning Island and his wife.”

“So, I do the speech, we watch the movie and then the cast party,” Tori said.

“Yes,” Mr. Singer confirmed.

“Should I let them in Mr. Singer?” Beck, that was working in the ticket booth said.

“Yes. Tori, Daniel, go stand at the entrance door and welcome the guests,” Mr. Singer said.

“Ready?” Daniel asked Tori.

“Ready as I can ever be,” Tori said.

They stood by the door as everybody came in.

“Mom, dad, Mr. and Mrs. Flynn, Mr. and Mrs. Carson and Mr. and Mrs. Black!” Tori thought.

Then she asked Daniel and panic. “Whose last name is Black?”

“Alyssa’s why?” Daniel answered.

“Oh, this is bad,” Tori said.

“Why?” Daniel asked.

“The Blacks’ are our rivals. Mom and Mrs. Black were friends in Magnolia, but then something happened and they started hating each other,” Tori explanted.

“So…” Daniel started.

“So, if they see each other they’re going to fight and this will be ruined.”

“Where are they sitting?”

“Mom and dad are road C, seats 4 and 5 and the Blacks’ are road G, seats 12 and 13,” Tori told him.

“Great. There’s no chance they meet,” Daniel said. “Oh here comes the president.”

“Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Wolf,” Tori said and they shook hands with them.

“You are the ones that directed the movie,” Mrs. Wolf, the president’s wife said.

“Yes, me and Daniel,” Tori said.

“Let us lead you to your seats,” Daniel said and they lead them to the first row, at the ‘VIP’ seats.

“Enjoy the show,” Tori said and she and Daniel went backstage. They were followed by a mysterious black shadow.

“Tori, we’re going in the audience, good luck,” Stacy said and everybody left except Tori and Daniel.

“Why don’t you go in the audience?” Tori said.

“I don’t want to,” Daniel said. Then they heard sounds of wires ripping.

“Tori look out!” Daniel yelled and pushed Tori out of the way before the spotlight fell from the ceiling and made a loud noise.

“Are you OK?” Daniel asked as Tori breathed heavily.

“Yeah. I almost got killed, but yeah,” Tori said.

Mr. Singer ran in. “What’s going on?” he yelled.

“The spotlight almost fell on me,” Tori explained.

“Are you both all right,” he asked.

“Yeah,” Tori and Daniel answered.

Mr. Singer ran off and they heard his voice through the microphone. “We’ll be postponing the speeches. Enjoy the movie,” he said.

Tori and Daniel ran back to the audience.

After the movie, Tori’s parents came backstage with a big bouquet. Her father was recording everything.

“Mom, mom you’re squeezing me too hard, I can’t breathe,” Tori said to her mom after the movie.

“You’re my directing little girl,” Mrs. Collins said and let go of her.

“Zoey, our plane leaves in a half hour. We’ll better get to the airport. See you in a couple of months,” Mr. Collins said and closed his camcorder.

Tori hugged them and said goodbye to them. “Hey Tori. I heard about you and Danny behind the curtain,” Stacy said. “Sorry I missed it.”

“I would have get squished if it wasn’t for him,” Tori said.

“Yeah right,” Stacy said and laughed. “Let’s go to the cast party.”

“You go ahead. I have something to take care of,” Tori said and Stacy left.

While Tori was walking around the stage where she was supposed to hold a speech Daniel came behind her.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey. Thanks for saving me from that falling spotlight,” Tori said and gave him a rose from the bouquet her parents gave her.

“No problem. You wanna go to the cast party?” Daniel asked.

“I really don’t,” Tori said.

“Me too. Let’s go to Anubis House. We can hit a movie or something,” Daniel said.

“Sure,” Tori agreed and they went to Anubis House.

During the movie Daniel decided that it’s time to do the thing he was preparing to do since the first day they met.

“Hey Tori,” he said.

“Yeah,” Tori said.

“You know that dance at the end of the school year,” Daniel continued.

“Yes,” Tori said.

Daniel’s heart started pounding really fast. He didn’t have the courage to do it and he knew that.

“Nothing,” he finally said. “I just reminded you. My real point is that you should hide the Ankh somewhere safer.”

“You’re right,” Tori said. “I’m gonna hide it in the loose tile under my bed. Thanks Danny,” she said and left.

“Why am I such a wimp?” Daniel said to himself.

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Dance Wrecker “Tori, Tori wake up,” Stacy yelled.

“Oh not again,” Tori said and stood up. “School and the ending exams finished last week.”

“Yeah, but the dance is in four days,” Stacy said.

“So?” Tori said still sleepy.

“So we have to get ready. What are you going to wear?” Stacy asked.

Down at the kitchen the boys were eating breakfast at the table.

“Why didn’t you ask her?” Kendall yelled at Daniel.

“I can’t, OK. Besides, you all didn’t ask anybody either,” Daniel said.

“True. But, we’re keeping ourselves fresh for next year,” Mike said.

“Then count me in,” Daniel said. ~*~*~*~*~*~ The next three day passed with shopping for the dance and the day of the dance approached. As the night slowly fell the girls were giving their outfits final touches and the boys were hanging out in the common room.

“One, two, three, four I declare a thumb war,” Mike said. “Oh, James loses again.”

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Tori said.

“Nothing… Wow,” Mike said. “You girls look fantastic.”

“Thanks,” the girls said.

They all wore different colors with matching shoes and jewelry. Tori had orange, Stacy green, Sarah blue and Kat red to match her hair.

“Shall we go to the dance?” Sarah said.

“Yes, we shall,” James said.

The Party Balcony, a big balcony on the fourth floor of Magnolia Boarding School with a view of the garden was overfilled. All the kids from the school and most of the teachers were there.

“Here’s your punch,” Daniel said giving Tori, that was sitting next to the edge of the balcony, a glass of punch.

“Thanks,” Tori said and sipped from the glass.

“What’s up out there?” Daniel asked.

“Nothing interesting,” Tori said. Then a familiar skinny figure appeared on the lawn. “Oh this is bad, this is very, very bad. Get Freddie and the guys and meet us at the front door.”

Tori ran to the girls and told them about what they saw. They all went downstairs to wait for the guys.

When they finally arrived and got out of the school they heard somebody yelling after them.

“Wait! Guys! Where are you going?!” they heard a girl yell. It was Klariza.

“OK, Klare. You wait here. We’ll tell you later,” Tori said.

“All right,” Klariza said and sat on a stair as The Seven ran in the woods.

“So, now where do we go?” James asked.

“We saw her go to the middle of the woods, so I guess there,” Daniel said.

“Let’s go,” Tori said and ran to the heart of the forest.

“There’s nothing here,” Stacy said.

“Oh there is,” They heard a woman’s voice from the woods. She came out and they saw who she was: Corrana. “Look at The Seven getting tricked. You were on guard all this time and you fell for this one.”

“Who is she?” Freddie whispered to Daniel.

“Shhh,” Daniel said putting his finger over his lips.

“Now I ain’t playing. Give me the necklaces. And the Eye of Horus, I need that one,” Corrana said. Tori got out her Eye of Horus necklace and her birthstone necklace and threw it in the middle.

“Tori are you serious?” Stacy asked.

“Trust me,” Tori said.

“Look at the famous Chosen One giving up,” Corrana said. Everybody stopped.

“Tori, you’re the Chosen One,” Sarah said.

“Yeah…” Tori said looking guilty.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Stacy said.

“I didn’t want you to know,” Tori said.

“All right,” Stacy said and threw her necklace in the middle too.

But, when Freddie threw his, just as it landed on the pile over the Eye of Horus necklace it let out a blinding light that made even Klariza at the entrance shut her eyes.

“Run!” Tori yelled and grabbed the necklaces. The light slowly dimmed down as Tori threw the necklaces back to everyone. When she put on hers the light totally disappeared. But, everybody else was gone. Tori was alone, lost in the woods.

She looked around, but nobody was there. She ran down the path. Her feet hurt because of her flats and her dress flew all around so she couldn’t run fast. The only thing she was thinking about is running, saving the Ankh from Corrana.

She finally reached the cliff. There was nowhere else to go. She heard footsteps behind her and the sound of cranking branches.

“Impressive running Chosen One. Now we’ll see how impressive your swimming is,” Corrana said when she came out of the woods.

“In your dreams,” Tori said and slowly backed off. Daniel and Stacy peeked from the woods.

“Danny, are you sure?” Stacy asked him in a whisper.

“100 percent. Kendall, James, Klariza and Freddie are guarding the doors and Sarah is close to Mrs. Jones so if anything happens you’ll text her and she’ll be there to report it,” Daniel whispered back.

Tori slowly backed off until she got to the edge of the cliff. The ground broke from where she was standing. She started falling and the Ankh flew away. Stacy caught the Ankh and Daniel twisted his arm around Tori’s. He pulled her up and she hugged him. Daniel was confused, but he sure enjoyed the moment.

“Someday, this will become common,” he thought. Tori let go and realized Corrana’s gone.

“After her!” She yelled and they all ran after Corrana.

When they got to the front door Kendall, James, Klariza and Freddie looked confused.

“What’s up?” Stacy asked.

“She’s inside,” Freddie whispered.

They ran in and saw muddy shoeprints on the floor that leaded to Anubis House. They went up, but nobody was there.

“Tracy’s at the dance,” Stacy reminded them. “Guys what’s going on?” Sarah ran in and asked.

“Corrana’s here,” James whispered.

“Kendall, James, Freddie and Sarah go upstairs, we’ll get weapons, Klariza you can go back to the dance,” Tori said.

“I should really…” Klariza started.

“G0! This is our fight,” Tori said.

“All right,” Klariza said and left.

Sarah, Freddie, Kendall and James went upstairs and Tori, Stacy and Daniel got the weapons: frying pans, mops, brooms, pots and a metal rod.

“We’re ready,” Tori said.

Sarah, Kendall, Freddie and James came down running with Corrana behind them. Tori tried to hit her with a frying pan but found herself hitting the couch instead. Daniel swung with the metal rod, but Corrana ducked before he got to her. She ran out and the kids followed her until she disappeared somewhere through the halls.

Running to the emergency exit they hit into nobody else than Violet.

“Wha-” Violet started.

“Don’t even get there,” Corrana said and ran off.

“Violet, have you seen a black haired skinny woman running by?” Tori asked Violet when the group ran by.

“No,” Violet said and left.

They continued running until they reached the back door. But, when they opened it, they only saw a black figure run through the woods.

“Should we call the police?” Stacy asked.

“No. If it was something important to her, she will come back,” Freddie said.

“Guys, did you save the Ankh?!” Tori panicked.

“This thing?” Stacy asked holding up the Ankh.

“Yes,” Tori said and grabbed it. “It must have fallen when I almost fell down the cliff.”

“So, now what?” Kendall asked.

“Now… We party,” Daniel said and they all ran to the Party Balcony, except Tori.

“Hey Tori, aren’t you coming,” Daniel asked her. “I’m sure Corrana wants something from me.

It’s like I know her,” Tori said.

“You’re just jumpy about this entire thing. Loosen up,” Daniel said.

“You’re right,” Tori said and they went to the dance.

~~~

~~~

~~~

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Summer Goodbyes It was time to leave Magnolia and go back to their hometowns. Most of the students left most of their luggage in their house’s basements. When everybody left Anubis House Daniel held Tori back.

“Hey, what’s up?” Tori said.

“I wanted to give you this, like an early birthday present,” Daniel said and gave her a medium sized blue box.

“Thanks, but I didn’t get you anything,” Tori said.

“You don’t have to,” Daniel said. “Open it.”

Tori opened the box and took out a silver charm bracelet that said ‘TORI’. The O was like the Eye of Horus and on the top of the I there was a small heart.

“I love it,” Tori exclaimed and hugged Daniel.

“It’s vintage, one of a kind,” he said.

“It must have cost you a fortune.”

“Nope. But, if it did, I would’ve bought it anyway.”

“Guys, the cab is arriving in 5 minutes,” Stacy ran in.

“Coming,” Daniel and Tori said and ran to the parking lot with their bags.

While they waited on the parking lot, Daniel singled Tori out of the group. They went into the corner.

“I just wanted to say… Have a great summer,” he said.

“You too. Maybe come by LA,” Tori said.

“My parents will never let me,” Daniel said.

The horn from the taxi rang and the driver yelled, “James Luther, Sarah Rutter, Freddie Runner, Anastasia Flynn, Kendall Russo, Daniel Carson and Victoria Collins are in this car.”

They ran in and Freddie took the front seat. They spent the entire ride talking, laughing and joking, like any normal kids. After the cab driver dropped them off, they gathered by a bench.

“So, we are the team,” Sarah said.

“Yup, I would’ve never suspected you guys,” Stacy said.

“And this is our Chosen One?” Freddie asked.

“Yup, that’s me,” Tori said.

“I have one question,” James started.

“What?” Stacy asked.

“What does The Seven stand for? It’s an acronym, right?” James asked.

“I think it stands for ‘The Sensational, Extraordinary, Valuable, Excellent and Not-normal’,” Daniel said.

“Why?” Kendall asked. “’Cause we’re all that,” Daniel said.

“True,” Tori said.

“We’ll be late for our flight, bye,” Kendall said and he, James, Freddie and Sarah left.

“Promise me you’ll call me, text me or video chat me over the summer,” Stacy said.

“Of course,” Tori said and hugged her new best friend.

“Bye,” Stacy said and went to the plane to the state Washington.

Daniel came up to Tori. “Looks like we’re on the same plane,” he said.

The three hour flight went like five minutes for everybody. When they landed Daniel went home and Tori took the train to Los Angeles. The Perfect tried to ruin those 11 hours for Tori, but she used an old technique. She turned them off and enjoyed the ride like they were not even there. When they arrived at the Los Angeles Train Station, Tori took a cab to her house. On the way, she text messaged with her friends.

Stacy: Seattle seams a little different than it did. Does LA? Tori: LA is pretty much the same. Same beaches, same ocean, same celebs Daniel: Want a postcard from SF? Tori: Sure. Want one from LA? “We’re here miss,” the driver said.

Tori payed him and took her bags. “Home sweet home.” She said and entered the front yard of the white and blue house. Her Yorkshire Terrier puppy barked happily as she petted her.

“Hey Stella,” Tori said.

She ran in the house and yelled, “I’m back!” “Tori!” Her mom yelled and hugged her.

“Torzy how was your flight?” Her dad asked her.

“Amazing,” Tori said.

“Did that school of yours give you a yearbook. I’m dying to see what nerds you hung out with,” Hunter said.

“Yeah, they did,” Tori said and took out a big red book.

“Come on, show us your friends,” Mrs. Collins said and they sat down on the couch.

“OK. This is Danny,” Tori said showing them the picture of Daniel, right on the first page next to hers.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Mrs. Collins asked.

“No, nothing like that,” Tori said.

“Well he should,” Jess said from behind them. “Jess when did you get here?” Tori said.

“Just now,” Jess said and sat in the couch. “Come on, let’s see the people.”

“All right. That’s Stacy, my roommate,” Tori said.

“I saw her on the video chat,” Hunter said.

“The blond one is Sarah,” Tori said.

“Wait. Sarah Rutter. Rachel Rutter’s daughter,” Jess said.

“Yup. She goes to Magnolia too,” Tori said.

“Next time you see her, tell her to ask her mom for an autograph,” Jess said.

Tori introduced everybody and Hunter threw a negative comment at everybody.

“So, who did you go to the dance with?” Hunter asked her.

“Nobody. I went solo.”

“Why didn’t you ask him?” Jess asked and pointed to Daniel.

“It wasn’t girl’s-choice.”

“Did you get your report card,” Mrs. Collins asked.

“Yeah, here,” Tori said and handed her mother a laminated piece of paper.

History – A+ Mathematics – AEnglish – A+

French – A Science – B Social Studies – A Archery – 100% Drama –100% “You’ve got an B in Science,” Mrs. Collins said and hugged Tori.

“I tried my best,” Tori said.

“Who on Earth tutored you?” Hunter yelled. “Klariza. The one that tutored me in Math too,” Tori said.

“All this learning?!” Jess said. “I wanna know if it was an interesting or eventful year?”

“You have no idea, Jess. You have no idea,” Tori said.

The Seven was not what Tori expected. They were so different from her, but somehow the same. She thought that from the next year there won’t be any secrets, any clues. But, she was wrong. That was just the beginning of the adventure that will not just change them, it will change the world…