"I hate school." Silica muttered under her breath as a small group trudged up the stairs.

Silica was five feet tall, a half-inch taller than her best friend Talika. Silica had short brown hair, brown eyes, and was fairly skinny. Talika, who was also climbing the multiple flights of stairs, had long hair; it was hard to say exactly what color her it was though. Some said her hair was brown, others said blonde, and still others said red, no one was sure, not even Talika herself. The same held true for her eyes, green? brown? gold? Those were the most common, though at least one other person had said blue.

"School is good my love, 'tis how I met you." Estella said in reply.

Estella had dark brown hair, most just called it black. It was wavy, and landed gently on her shoulders She had brown eyes and stood five feet seven inches tall. "Well, you did get 3 A's." Talika said sighing. "One less than me."

"Yes, but I got a 60 in civics! I hate Mr. Cartright!"

"Hmmm. not much lower than last quarter, you have two quarters to bring it up ten points. that's five points per quarter. not that bad."

"Easy for you to say! You've gotten A's and B's all your life!"

"Well there was that C in handwriting. second grade.. I hated Mrs. Hartford."

"Talika! Handwriting doesn't count!"

Talika shrugged as she opened the cold metal door that had been carelessly painted a maroon color, or maybe it was more of a cranberry, the solid cranberry sauce in a can color.

"Listen, I can hear Cameron playing, try to forget about your report card for a while."

The guitar music filled the small dimly lit hallway, followed by the sound of Avian on the drums.


It was a dull, drab, rainy day, but still unusually warm for February. Report cards for the second quarter had come out that morning and Silica had gotten 3 A's and a 60 in Civics. Talika had gotten for A's. The three girls had wandered up to their afternoon hangout-spot, the Band Room. The stair cases leading up to the Band Room/Chorus hall were filled with many windows, and no matter how dark it was outside, those two stair cases were always bright and cheery. The Band hallway however had a low ceiling and was dimly lit. When one walked through it, it was almost as though they had been dropped into the passageway of an Ancient Egyptian Crypt. Akili had brought up the idea that it was haunted, everyone agreed. Akili, like Talika was four feet eleven and a half inches. She too had long hair, but it was blonde and untamed, quite the opposite of her friend's.. Her eyes varied in color, but were for the most part a shade of gray.

"Akili!" The girls cried as they hugged their friend who had surprised them by waiting in the Band Room, Akili never stayed after school.

"Hey, hey, heyÖwhoaÖone at a timeÖ hiÖ Estella, hug? Yes Silica, I love you tooÖ now let go, touch my hair and I bite you."

The girls laughed as Silica slowly dropped the hair.

"In." Akili instructed, pointing towards the half open door leading to the middle, main, part of the Band Room. The four girls walked in, narrowly missing being knocked down by Cameron who was standing by the door, guitar in hand.

"OopsÖ" He said, half-oblivious to what had just happened. "You guys shouldn't stand near the door."

"Ugh!" Akili said out of frustration. "Smack!" She looked as if she were really going to hit him tooÖ

"Start over! They messed me upÖ Dude! AvianÖ Stop playing!" He yelled at Avian who was still banging the drum.

"Wha?" he asked confused, resting the sticks on the drum's head.

"Start the song over, they messed me upÖ trying to start something here, hitting me with the door."

Avian sighed as they began to play the song again. The four girls, and the group that had already been in the Band Room sang along. They went through a few more songs before Silica found a large gong in the back of the room.

"Dude! I'm Chinese! Gong! Gong!" she cried.

"Gong!" Bellowed the large brass instrument.

There were a few groans, and a few voices yelling at her, instructing her to silence the gong and quit playing around. Slowly the girl made her way down through the stands and chairs to the floor where the others were. Then the group played around with the various instruments and such for a little while.

"Tal, what time is it?" Silica asked.

"Yeah." Came the reply.

"Time?"

"Yeah."

"Talika, what time is it, hun?" Asked Akili.

Making a face the girl looked down at her watch.

"3:15!!" She announced loudly. Instantly Cameron unplugged his guitar and shoved it into its case. There was a large commotion as everyone rushed to get their backpacks, jackets, and random other belongings together. They did one last check to make sure they had everything, and then left the room, locking the door as they did. The group walked down the stairs, through the hall behind the auditorium. They made their way through the cafeteria lobby, through the hallway containing the sports locker rooms, and out to the late bus.The group took up about half of the seats. Sometimes they took up only four seats, sometimes more, today was more, they were all going to Riverside rather than Rumford.

"All right, you're all coming over my house, right?" Akili asked nodding.

"UhÖ. Evidently? I have no homework, and tomorrow's a holiday anyway." Talika said, pulling a phone out of her pocket book. "I'll call my mom."

"Tomorrow's a holiday?"

"Yeah, Good Friday, we get next week off tooÖ April VacationÖ you haven't noticed people saying vacation???"

"Dude! Cool!"

"What time is it?"

"UmmÖ" Just as Talika glanced at her watch, the bus began to move.

"I'm guessing 3:30"

They rode along until they got to the catholic school, being that I was a nice day, they decided to get off there, and walk to the apartment complex which Akili lived in.

"Who's running to the house?" She asked loudly as the reached the section with her house.

"I am!!!" A few of them yelled taking off into a run, as they raced, the other half walked behind them. They went into her house and threw their belongings onto the floor. Akili went into her kitchen, grabbed several sodas and handed one to everyone. Raven was sitting on the floor watching cartoons next to Akili's eleven-year-old brother, who was looking very annoyed.

"I'm hungryÖ" Whined Silica.

"UmmÖlook for fooÖno wait.. Kat! Look for something for Silica to eat, I don't know if there's anything, but she's hungry, and I don't trust her in there alone."

Sighing, Ekatrina stood up off of the couch. Ekatrina was tall, about five seven, and had her short blond hair pulled into a ponytail.

"Come, child." She said, leading the small brown-haired girl into the kitchen. A few minutes later, they emerged, Silica holding a bowl of chocolate ice cream in her hands, and a broad grin on her face.

"Oh noÖKatÖyou didn't let her put sugar in there, did you?" Akili groaned.

"Sorry, I didn't see her, I thought she was getting a spoon!"

"A spoon would have been betterÖ maybe she would have choked on itÖ" Raven muttered from his spot on the floor.

"You guys wanna eat supper here? No school tommorow, people could sleep over too." Akili suggested out of nowhere.

"I think she's trying to keep us here." Silica whispered. "Conspiracy!"

Akili shot her an evil glance, as everyone called home, surprisingly everyone's parents were nice to them. After they ate, they all went up to Akili's room and sat on her floor, bed, or a chair, wherever there was room. She cleared her throat for attention, and began to speak:

"I saw somethingÖ"

"Huh?" Silica asked confused. The group shushed her, and Akili continued.

"The other night, I sat down to write, I couldn't think of anything, so I just sat there, staring at the paper. On the paper I saw us, all of us. We looked just like we do now except for our clothing, we were adorned in medieval garb; eloquent gowns, capes made of finely woven velvet, shirts made of fine silk, each person dressed in a different color; the boys, some had armor on, some were dressed like princes. I had the feeling we were all related somehow, I figured it out as it went on, the girls, most of us were sisters, Talika, Silica, you two were twins, Estella, Errena, same deal. Ekatrina, you were a friend; Bonnie, you were a cousin. Some of the boys were our brothers, Avian, you had a twin named Jackle, but we don't know him yet. Cameron, you were our fourth cousin, you also had a twin, his name was Axel. Raven, you were a friend. I was the youngest in our age group; there is a five-year difference between me and the oldest in the other group. This makes them younger than us. We don't know any of them yet either."

"So what was this? A dream?" Avian asked.

"A past life?" Asked Quistis.

The next word Akili spoke chilled everyone.

"Now." That's it, that's all Akili said; now.

There was a long silence.

"SoÖ" Avian finally spoke, "So ho come we all have different parents?"

"IÖ I'm not sure, the only thing I can figure is maybe we were switched at the hospital."

"UmmÖ AkiliÖ you're older than both Talika and Silica." Errena stated.

"Here," She answered. "Not there." She held up her hand to prevent further discussion. "Just wait, we're going home."

The group sat there, just staring at their friend, so many questions rushing through their heads; What was she telling them? Was it true?
Errena looked just like Estella, only about 5 inches shorter. Quistis, who was about 5'1 with brown eyes, twisted her finger in her medium length brown hair. Calista looked as if she were about to say something, but changed her mind. Calista was about 5'2", she was also extremely thin, she had naturally bond hair, but had dyed it a reddish copper color. Avian was about 5'4", he had dirty blond hair which looked as if it had not been brushed in a few days.

Finally Errena spoke, "Home?"

"Home, NeathraÖ Atlantis" Akili said calmly.

"How?" Estella questioned.

"ÖI don't know."

"I'm hungry."

They all turned to look at Cameron who was sitting in the wooden chair at Akili's desk.

"What?? I amÖ"

"Me tooÖ" Silica agreed.

"You would be." Talika said, glaring at her.

"We just ate." Akili mentioned.

"So? Can't we order a pizza or something?" Silica asked.

"Pizza? I want pizza!" Cameron joined in.

"Do you guys have money? If you have money I'll let you order a pizza."

"I haveÖ" Silica counted her money. "$84"

"$84? What did you bring $84 to school for?"

"I dunnoÖ" She shrugged.

"I only have $5, I want money."

"Is there anything you don't want?" Kat asked him.

"UmmÖ" he considered this, "probably not, wellÖ Errena's ex-boyfriend nakedÖ. EwwÖ"

They laughed. It was around quarter past 7 by the time that they had finished their pizza. It was then that they began to plan their trip to their world. Those members of the group who didn't believe were few, and in any case, all of them worked on the plan. They decided that whatever they did, they had to do it that night while they were all together.

All right, since this is getting a little long, here is more of the story: The Plan