Chapter 1

The Beginning

The last day of July was coming to a near end. Schools had sent out the supply lists for their students and nearly everyone had come back from vacations. Most everyone was inside now, eating a late dinner or putting the young kids to bed. However, five teenagers stood outside on their high school campus, all of them preparing for the party the next day. Two boys, both with dark brown hair, were setting up a large colorful banner across some of the school lockers. Standing next to the taller of the two boys was atall girl who was setting up tables with the help of her two friends, both of the girls around 5’4” and all of the teens around the age of sixteen or tallest girlat the table finished setting up the table and stood to pull her light brown hair into a pony tail.

“Remind me again how we got stuck with this?” she asked to her brother who was helping the other boy set up the banner.

“I’ve already told you, Lara!” he said, slightly strained since he was stretching up to tape the top of the banner in. “The juniors always have to set up the senior’s party and thanks to talkative Kass over there,”

A girl with blonde hair stood up and glared at him with piercing green eyes. “It’s not my fault, Todd. You were right beside me volunteering to set up!”

“-We’re now stuck with this job.” Todd continued as though Kass had never spoken. He then looked over to the other boy who had just cried out. “You okay Cody?”

“Stabbed my hand on this nail here.” he said, gesturing to the sharp nail poking out of the wall.

Lara rolled her eyes and looked around at the area. The balloons were set up in the net, the tables and all its occupants were set up, and the banner was at last up. The only thing they had left was to sign out with their counselor since the DJ was going to set up tomorrow before the party.

“Ready to go?” she asked her friends.

They all nodded in agreement, picked up their bags, and walked over to the table where their counselor was sitting. She glanced up at them and pulled out a stack of volunteer sheets. She began reading off the names:

“Cody Crest?”

A tall boy with dark hair and hazel eyes took his sheet loosely and stuffed it in his bag.

“Casey Munger?”

The shorter girl with auburn hair and bright blue eyes took her sheet.

“Kassidy Narne?”

Kass reached over and took her volunteer sheet.

“Larissa Terrance?”

Lara followed the others.

“Todd Terrance?”

Lara’s brother with dark brown hair and the same brown eyes as his sister leaned forward and said to the counselor, “That’s me. And may I say that sweater is quite lovely on you.”

The counselor looked up at him warily. “Sucking up won’t get you more service hours, Terrance.”

Todd’s face fell and walked with the others over to the benches next to the bus stop. All of them finished filling out their forms before talking about the party tomorrow.

“So what are we supposed to dotomorrow anyways?” Casey asked curiously.

“I guess just help out with the tables and the DJ…other than that…I dunno…” Kass finished, looking around for help.

“We could always pretend we’re seniors and just party with them…” Cody suggested quietly.

“Oh right.” Casey said sarcastically. “And I’ll really fit in with all the exceptionally tall seniors, since I’m sooo tall myself.”

They all laughed at this, seeing as Casey was the shortest one in the group. Once they had settled down, Cody asked, “So…are any of you guys going to the summer dance this year?”

“Well,” began Todd, looking over shyly at Casey, “I’m going with someone.”

“Who?!” Kass and Cody asked excitedly.

Before Todd could answer, Lara said lazily, “He’s going with Casey.”

Casey and Todd both blushed furiously and became instantly deaf to everyone’s questioning. After a few minutes of pestering the two, they got back on subject.

“What about the rest of you guys?” Casey asked, desperately attempting to change the subject.

Lara sat up and said, “I’m going solo!”

“Only because she could never get someone to go with her.” Todd muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately for him, Lara heard him and sent him a rude hand gesture which was missed by no one.

Once again in her attempt to get out of the conversation, Casey now rounded on Cody and Kass. “What about you guys? Are either of you going with someone?”

“I might go,” Cody said, “but not with anyone. Might just go to hang with you guys.”

“I’m not going.” Kass said quietly.

“Why?” Casey and Cody asked together.

“I’ve never really been a fan of dances, that’s all…” she said, not looking at any of them. Deep down inside, she knew that wasn’t the real reason, but was never going to admit it to anyone. Not even to herself.

They would have questioned Kass further, but just then, everything went deathly quiet. All they could hear was a ringing noise in the distance. Kass, Cody and Lara stood up, looking out behind the school. No one was moving, not even the crows on the ground. They too stood frozen to the ground, all of them staring in one direction: the mountains behind the school.

Kass followed the crow’s gaze and saw the strangest thing she had ever seen. The sun was now almost completely covered by something around the same size as the moon that they could see, yet the moon was clearly visible directly across from the sun’s current position. The dark object moved farther and farther over till it was directly covering the sun. An eerie darkness fell quickly over the land and quickly covered Kass and her friends.

It happened so fast that most had their eyes closed for the brief seconds that it occurred. With a loud bang, a white, hot light shot out in a line between the mountain and the bay which was a few miles away. The friends all felt the wave of the heat hit them hard, causing them all to fall back onto the ground. A split second later, it was all over.

It was as though time had unfroze. Noise had come back as well as movement. The crows, as Kass noticed, has gone back to searching for food as though nothing had ever happened. She looked over where the eclipse had been. Whatever had caused the eclipse was now gone.

“What the hell was that?” Todd asked shakily while helping Casey to her feet.

“I-I don’t know…” Lara whispered. “Kass? You okay?” she asked, looking over at Kass, who was still staring ahead at the mountain.

Kass turned around to face them, wide eyed and trembling all over, but seemed to be unable to speak. She just turned back towards the mountain, unaware of the damage that had just been done.