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I began this story during 8th grade as a joke for my friend Brittany. Then I just kept going after awhile my friend joined in and helped me decide the development of this story and its characters.

Each character is based on one of my friends. Their reactions not so much as their looks and feelings. The story is based on multiple books, but created from my own imagination.

Four friends in a coming of age story, each their own problems, each their own way of solving them. Literally being thrown into a new world. Follow them threw questioning love, friendship, family, and religion.

Sometimes all you need is a little Trust .

"Damn" Brittany muttered as she stumbled across the sidewalk. Looking back she noticed a green glinting from the stone she had just tripped over.

"No way" Brit whispered under her breath. It was impossible wasn't it. Or maybe it... no it couldn't be. She walked over to the small pebble.

It was. It had the same blue, green, purple, and red color to it when it shone in the light. It had the same perfectly round shape and brought the same question to her mind, "Why didn't it roll away?"

She picked it up. At least this time she could take it home and observe it. The last time she had seen the stone it had been half way across town while she was on her way to the lake to go swimming. It would have been very annoying to have to keep a hold on a stone on her end-of-vaction day out with friends.

But now that she was only a block away from her home on her early morning run before school she could take it with her.

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Geraldine woke with a start that morning. When she had opened her eyes she wasn't surprised to see her 4 year old cats Leo and Ozzy on her windowsill. She was surprised though to see that they had their hair on end and their eyes dilated to the point that you could barely see the ring of blue or green on the edge of all that black.

"Hey you two, what's wrong", she began as she sat up in bed. With no response from either the black or the white and grey cat she got up to see what all the fuss was about.

"What is it?" as she looked up she realized what it was. A small kitten was on one of the branches in the backyard. It was hard to tell what color its fur was from this distance ,but in the light that shone in from between the leaves it looked... no that was foolish... imagine a purple kitten. One thing that was for certain though, its eyes were green, an extremely deep green.

"It's so cute.", she whispered. Suddenly the small kitten turned its gaze towards her. The last things she saw from reality in that moment were not Leo and Ozzy ,but more along the lines of the lightning streaks that Leo and Ozzy become trying to make their way out her door.

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It had been about 7:10 in the morning. Becky was laying face down on the end of her bed watching her fav. t.v. show ,"The Tribe". Suddenly her t.v. started to flash.

"Miiiiiiiiiinnnnna", came a slow eerie voice. Becky could do nothing else but look around her room. "Miiiiiiiiinnnnna".

"What?.... Who are you?", Becky asked whipping her head around the room.

"Mina!" this time it sounded almost as if it were calling for something rather then stating it. It sounded almost like a girl.

"Miinnaaa..." the voice began to fade, 'Miinna..." It was gone.
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It was 7:43. Krystina was sitting alone in the class room with only the teacher who was sitting at his desk to keep her company.

She had gotten there early because each of her friends apparently had something important to tell and ,in Brittany's case ,show her. She would most rather be outside in the hallway with her boyfriend Daniel. Who conveniently also had something important to tell her.

Brittany and Rebeca walked together and Geraldine usually showed

Today better be good, Kris thought, I mean every things so important.

"I have a life too, even if the rest of you don't" she snickered under her breath.

The bell sounded and group girls who Kris recognized very well, walked in threw the door ahead of the rest of the class.

"Oh my God! Kristina you won't believe what happened today!" Becky said as she sat down.

"It was so weiiird!" Brit told her.

Gigi (Geraldine) just sat there in silence.

"Your on time and you have nothing to say. Looks like it will be good day." Kris said sarcastically.

"Shut-up Kristina" Brit warned, "She has her reasons." Brittany turned around in her seat apparently no longer interested in telling her story.

"Becky, can you fill me in? Seeing as everyone else feels the need to lock me out of the news." Kris said.

"Love to." Becky said.

"Oh my freakin' God!" Kristina exclaimed as Becky finished explaining to her what had happened in her room that morning. Class wasn't too far from being over seeing as Becky had taken it upon herself to detail every second of tale.

"Yeah, I know! I was almost to scared to take a shower this morning."

"What about Brittany and Gigi? I mean there has to be a reason they're so huffy today?"

"Actually I don't know know what's up with Brit ,but Gigi...well.... It was really weird. She woke up this morning and her cats were fluffed up. When she went to go check what was going on she saw a kitten in her backyard."

"So, what? Did it get like run over or something? I mean "Oh look a kitten' big deal." Kristina said sarcastically.

"Kristina,... that's not funny. She say that when she looked out the window the kitten turned to look at her and..."

"And what." Kristina pressed.

"And when she locked eyes with it she says she saw all these really ,really, bad images. She said it was like she was reliving it or something."

"Reliving what?"

"I don't know. She wouldn't tell us ,but what ever it was ... it was probably pretty bad." Becky ended lamely.

"Oh..." Kristina breathed turning to look at Geraldine just as the bell began to ring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~At this point in the story the girls are now eating lunch after separate classes.
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"So Brittany tell us what is it that you had to tell us." Becky said sitting down across from Brit and next to Kris.

"What?... Oh yeah! Um..." she reached into her jacket pocket. "I found this during my morning run."

"OH WOW! A rock. How fascinating." Kristina mused flatly.

"No! Well, yeah, I mean, it is a rock but... I don't know it's kinda special."

"Special Ed." Kristina said in what was supposedly a whisper.

"Kristina, what have we told you about under naming yourself. The word is retard my dear." Gigi announced as she sat down by Brit.

"Well you should know, shouldn't you Gig'?" Kristina said over the stifled laughter around her.

"Of course I should sweetie, I hang with you all the time." Geraldine gave as response while the others continued their laughter in congratulations to her attack.

"Anyway... um... Like I was saying it's weird i mean its not a stone..." Brit began.

"Yeah, it looks more like a marble." Gig cut in as she took the stone from Brit's hand.

"I know ,but watch this." Brit took the stone back and put it the table.

"Oh, wow." Kristina said.

"That's not it." Brit continued as she pushed the stone with her finger... or at least tried to. "It doesn't roll."

"Why?" Becky asked.

"I don't know."