"Hey!" I nearly felt like I was going into cardiac arrest when I woke to Ophelia's voice going off in my brain. Never give that kid caffeine.

"What?" if there was an actual volume to mental communication, I bet the whole street would have heard what I responded with.

A giggle came from the additional voice "Hi!" if it wasn't the first thing in the morning, I probably would have thrown my alarm cock across the room. It's not like I would have needed it anymore, and besides, I had slept through it. My morning routine then became a very rushed version when I tore the covers off from my body and sprinted to the bathroom (I hadn't noticed that it took a bit less time to get there than it did every other morning), brushing my teeth in record time. As always, I skipped combing my hair, and put on my usual attire of jeans, a t-shirt, and a somewhat clean black hoodie. I did my best to pull my socks on while tying my shoes at the same time (it's harder than it sounds), jolted my backpack onto my shoulder, and ran into the kitchen. My mother had already been making some toast on the counter, and I hastily snatched it, heading to the door before I was promptly interrupted.

"Um...Gwen..." Mom started "it's Saturday."

I stopped dead in my tracks, frozen in place in a running pose. I then slowly put my foot back on the floor, and slinked back to my room. Going back to school on a Wednesday really threw me off my five-day schedule. I still make the same mistake on long weekends. As I went to close the door, my mom called behind me: "Now that you're up and dressed, could you take the trash out? The truck's supposed to come over for it later."

I groaned inwardly, dropping my backpack. I then plopped onto the mattress and curled back into my warm bed, not caring that my shoes were probably dirty.

"Did you have to do that?" I asked, knowing that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

"I was bored. Besides, if you slept any longer, you would have started losing brain cells."

I waited for almost a half-hour before getting out of bed knowing that as soon as I got out from under the covers, I would be cold again. This is why I hate fall and winter.

When I traveled slowly back to the living room, Mom had already started making waffles. Absent-mindedly, I sat down at the table, staring sleepily into space. Before I realized it, the smell that I'd become accustomed to every Saturday morning was nearly overbearing. When Xavier walked rubbing his eyes into the room, looking much younger in his Iron Man pajamas, I had already known he was coming in. Ever since I went to the hospital to see him after Mom gave birth, he always seemed to smell a certain way up close, just like multiple other people, if I think hard enough. All of a sudden, everything around me with any kind of odor was almost overbearing, even the still-healing cut that Xavier got when he fell in the driveway.

Trying not to act like anything had happened, I got a plate of waffles, nearly drenched them in syrup, and proceeded to eat them while watching the morning shows with Xavier. Knowing that my room was straight above where we put the room for the T.V., I proceeded to turn it up as much as possible without unleashing the beast that appears when Byron gets up too early.

Unless you haven't already noticed, my life was pretty boring at that point. Of course, it kind of changed that night. I don't see how it wouldn't. After a day of suppressing the urge to talk out loud to the new energetic addition to my insanity, I was almost completely worn out. I was ready for sleep, other than the fact that for the past week sleep hadn't exactly helped me with being tired. I didn't quite expect to fall asleep after only a few minutes of being in bed, as I usually take longer to go unconscious. When I did travel to the land of nod, I did not expect what I saw.

The room was white, and had been built in a circular structure that reminded me a bit of a court room. I stood on a small platform that was encircled with a railing. There were three other platforms, on all of which stood some familiar people. The other versions of me I had been seeing ever since I decided to go and get my head messed up. Ophelia, Naztaah, and Valkyrie. I looked back up, and saw a ledge a bit above us, which circled in an even-sized arch along the wall. There were seven chairs, all of which seated someone, each looking slightly weirder than the next. There were some hair colors I didn't know could exist even with dye.

The person sitting in the middle, whose chair was a bit taller than the other's, seemed ageless, as if he could be fourteen, or he could be thirty-two-and-a-half. He had possibly the most blinding hair I have ever seen, and I've seen some pretty bright hair. One of the people in the middle, a stern-looking woman in a fancy-looking robe, stood, and opened her mouth to speak.

"Gwendolyn Rose Lane, Valkyrie Gunfalk, Kazjia Azi Stahk, Ophelia Famir Gandaaf. You have all been called before the Council of the Guardians for examination by the seers. You will be judged according to your potential and predictions. Take heed that if we do find any of you to be a danger of any degree, we will take any and all measures to solve the problem."

If you're anything like me, then you will completely understand why everything the woman said flew straight into one ear, and out the other. Fortunately, the others looked about as confused as I was. The woman went to sit down, and a group of four people wearing green hooded robes walked in along some kind of catwalk that connected to the platforms we were standing on. They spread out, each taking a platform. I couldn't see the face of the one that stood in front of me, but I could tell his gender by his stature, and the way he held himself. With an upwards glance towards me, I could see his eyes. They were a strange hue, and they looked almost as if they glowed.

As soon as I got a glance to his eyes, everything in my brain seemed to rush in front of me. I could see everything I had ever seen, though, or even felt. I was a bit busy to pay attention to what was happening to any of the others, but I can imagine it was pretty much the same thing.

Just when I felt like I was going to vomit, the boy in front of me lowered his head, letting me go from the strange trance. I was thankful that there was a railing just then.

The hooded figures then stood, facing the Council, and removed the hoods from their faces. One of the men on the stands spoke "Seers, are the subjects in any way a threat to The Council, their world, or the future of the cause?"

Each of the figures then moved each of their right arms, pulling their sleeves to reveal strange burn marks that were formed into a certain strange shape. The man who spoke nodded, and waved his hand to dismiss the figures. They turned, and I saw the appearance of the guy in front of me. He had hair that was so blonde it was almost white, and he was pretty good-looking. His eyes looked like they belonged to my next-door neighbor's cat's, fluorescent green, slit-pupiled, and very mischievous. When the people walked past, and out of the strange room to wherever they came from, the boy proceeded to turn and wink at me, accompanied by the kind of smile that I give people when I know something interesting is going to happen.

Once they left, I looked back to the Council, less confused and more annoyed than before. Not really knowing what I was doing, I spoke out to the people in front of me "great. Now that you're done with invading people's privacy, are you going to actually explain what's going on, or are you just a bunch of-" Valkyrie reached over the railing to the best length she could to block my mouth, as she probably already knew that I was going to repeat a word that I learned after hanging around with a certain bad-mouthed female Aragorn for a few days. Looking back, I'm pretty glad Val has long arms.

Saying that the group looked surprised was putting it lightly. One guy's eyes were close to bulging out. One man, though he seemed more like a boy, looked to be on the verge of laughing. The boy in the front made a noise that was probably supposed to sound like him clearing his throat and spoke "the Council is now dismissed."

Immediately following the sound of his voice, everything seemed to shift dizzily, warping in a cycle around me, until everything went dark.