Part I

The number seven is ever present in my life. My birthday is July seventh. According to my mother, she went into labor at seven p.m. and I was born at seven a.m. I am my parents' seventh child. My name, Gwendolyn, begins with the seventh letter of the alphabet. I am one of seven friends are like family to me.
My mother and father originally intended to have only one child. They ended up with triplets, much to their surprise. Jason, Jacob, and Johnathan are their names. The number three bothered my mother for some reason (I have no idea why), so she wanted one more child to make four, which was her lucky number. Somehow she ended up with triplets again. They are named Aaron, Adam, and Alexander. Only a year after her second set of triplets, she had this great need to have a daughter. (The triplets, both sets, were all boys.) She got lucky and had me. Seven children was enough for my mother, and so it's just the seven of us.
Life can be pretty difficult with so many siblings, especially if they're all older and boys. But one learns to cope.
We live in a beautiful blue house by the sea, a seven minute drive away from the nearest house. There are seven stones that make up the walk way and there are seven steps up to the entrance. My room is actually the attic (the door to my room is seventh door down the hall), but I don't mind. I have the best view and there is even a small door with a ladder (with seven rungs) leading to the roof where I like to sit. It's a nice place to lie down and stare at the stars. Or the ocean if I feel like it.
Everything was just normal for fourteen years of my life. Nothing extraordinary or strange. It was in my first year at high school when my life changed completely.
~*~
"Gwendolyn Skah-eh-" I sighed, rolled my eyes, and then spoke up.
"It's Gwendolyn Skaelyn, pronounced as 'sky-lynn'" I didn't bother to tell the substitute that I preferred to be called Gwen. She'd forget and she'd be gone by tomorrow anyways.
As she continued to take attendance, I shot a glance to my best friend, Justine. She was staring at the hottest boy in our school as usual. I grinned to myself. She'd had her eyes on Dustin for a year or so, but she never managed to get the guts to speak to him.
Personally, I thought that he wasn't too bad looking, but he just wasn't my type. I didn't really have a type, but I wasn't interested all the same.
Justine saw something in him that I couldn't comprehend, but if she wanted him, I didn't care. Besides, she wouldn't have to deal with competition with me that way. Not that she needed any or of that, considering that all the girls flirted with him. He was nice about it, but he'd turned down all of them so far.
Either he was picky, had his eyes on a girl, or he was gay. Picky...maybe, but there were so many girls who had asked him out. If he did have his eyes on a girl, he probably could get her in a second. (Or maybe he's just too shy to ask her...) I could see the possibility of him being gay to be true but I couldn't say for sure.
I was lost in my own little world for what seemed like only a minute when the bell rang, nearly causing me to jump out of my seat. Glancing at the clock, I wondered when fifty-five minutes had passed. Then I looked down at my desk. There was a math paper with my writing, and it was completed, but I didn't remember doing it at all. I shivered slightly as my blood went cold. I managed to collect myself in time to hear the substitute say to hold onto our papers and hand them in tomorrow. Almost automatically, I packed my silvery-gray bag, slung it over my shoulder, and was out the door within the next thirty seconds. Rows of lockers flickered by my vision as I made my way through the busy hall. I skipped my locker, since I had nothing to get.
Then, I waited for the others to arrive at our usual waiting spot under the large tree in the middle of the quad.
Justine was the first to arrive. Short choppy hair with bright red highlights always signified her coming. She was my best friend and we'd known each other since we were born. She's more of a tomboy than I am. She loves to skateboard but she enjoys basketball as well. Our parents had been best friends and so her family and mine were practically one. Her parents were from Korea and she spoke Korean in her house most of the time. Last summer, she went to Korea for at least a month and came back with all this cool stuff that she gave to me and the rest of my friends.
Kendra and Ellen arrived a split second later. They were one of the few sets of twins in our school and the only in our grade. Not only that, they were identical twins. It was almost impossible to tell them apart, especially since they both always had their light brown hair tied into pony-tails at the nape of their necks. They were both born in France and often talk to each other in French so the rest of us won't understand. They're strange like that sometimes. Even so, they are great people to have around when you wanted to go shopping or get the latest gossip. They're also talented dancers.
Carmen was the next to arrive. Most people think she's African because of her dark skin and hair but really, she's from Mexico. She's fluent in Spanish and has a slight accent when she talks in English. Also, she's an amazing singer. She acts like a mother or older sister to the majority of us despite the fact that she's a year younger than us and shorter than all of us. In general, she's peppy and almost always happy.
Linda and Tiffany arrived at the same time from different locations. Linda is Russian and often has a problem with people who bother her about Chernobyl and things that happened in Russia a while back. Still, she's one of the smartest in our group and is usually takes the role of group leader automatically. She's a great drawer and has won a few prizes for her art work.
Tiffany is Chinese and speaks Mandarin almost fluently, though sometimes she has trouble reading and writing in Chinese. (Still, she's better than all of us combined. I mean, none of us can speak Mandarin so she has to be better than all of us.) She doesn't like sports really, but even so, she's scary good at figure skating. We're surprised that she hasn't considered competing or anything. Out of all of us, she's probably the most hard working and gets the best grades. Sometimes she has problems with other students because she's shy and has glasses, but the rest of us are always there to back her up if she needs it. Not that she really needs much help. She's scary when she wants to be...
And me? I'm from the good old US of A. Just English for me. My red pixie cut hair, bright green eyes, and small frame often get me teasing about Peter Pan, especially since I'm pretty much a completely tomboy, but I've learned to ignore it. After all, with 6 older brothers, one gets used to all the teasing quickly. (It could be my brothers that caused me to become so tomboy-ish...) I'm a runner mostly; my light frame and long legs are good for sprinting, though I sometimes do long distance running.
Linda stood in front of the rest of the group and began to address all of us. This is normal, for she always wants to know what we're going to do first and then plan it. Her neat blond hair was tied into a high pony-tail as usual and it swung gently as she talked.
"So where are going today?" Her quiet voice often led people to assume that she was the following type, but once people got to know her, they were the ones who did the following. I made that mistake when I first met her.
"I was thinking of going to the library." Justine wrinkled her nose at Tiffany's suggestion. They're good friends despite the fact that one prefers to skateboard while the latter prefers to sit down with a good book. But Tiffany can have fun just as well as the rest of us even though she almost always puts homework first.
"Let's go get some food and then we can go to the library." The twins answered together, a creepy thing they did rather often. They sometimes finished each others' sentences too. It was almost as if they could read each others' minds.
"Is that alright with everyone?" Linda looked around. Tiffany hesitated, clearly thinking about her homework, but nodded. Justine scowled but eventually consented as well. Linda's gaze wept towards the rest of us. Kendra and Ellen both nodded excitedly, their long brown hair jumping up and down in unison. Carmen and I both agreed after a moment of thought and then we were off.
~*~
The twins gossiped (or so I assumed) in French as Tiffany and Justine compared the differences in their foreign languages. (Honestly, I can't tell the difference between Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese, but they both claim that they're really different. Whatever they say...) Linda, Carmen, and I chatted about the stupid things people did in class and other random things, but I wasn't really in the conversation.
Next thing I knew, we were sitting down and about to eat pizza. I realized that twenty minutes had probably passed, yet it only seemed like five. Confused and slightly scared, I tried to cover it up by eating my pizza to distract myself. The gooey cheese burned the top of my mouth as I ate. My frantic fanning towards my burning mouth caused Justine to burst into laughter while the others politely chuckled, trying not to make me feel embarrassed. (I wouldn't have anyways, but it was a nice gesture all the same.)
During our conversation as we ate, I found out that Michael, a relatively cute Taiwanese boy, had asked Tiffany out. We all chuckled and nudged her, causing her to blush. She'd been crushing on him for almost a year and it was like a dream come true for her.
Also, Linda apparently dumped James (they'd been dating for only a month) after he tried to feel her up in the halls that morning. A good choice in my opinion. I didn't like the annoying brunette anyways.
We were almost done with the pizza when Carmen suddenly announced something that had us silent for a moment. But only a moment.
"Guys? I just thought you should know that I'm lesbian." The moment of silence was quickly broken by Kendra and Ellen.
"Kendra's bi."
"I am, but you should have let me say that myself. And you are too." They glared at each other before bursting into peals of laughter. The rest of us didn't get it, but their act brought a half smile to Carmen's face.
"I think it's great that you know what you are inside and accept it." I tried to give her a hug after but somehow ended up catching my foot on the edge of the chair. She tried to squash a snicker as I got up and hugged her properly.
The others soon joined in with our hug, effectively clogging up the path to and from the door. We had to stop our little gathering and let people through. We gave sheepish grins as we apologized to the annoyed people, cleaned up our trash, and left.
No mention is made about Carmen's sexuality afterward, for the people in our school are everywhere. I, for one, didn't know if she wanted everyone to know and the others probably thought the same. And besides, it made no difference to us really. Her sexuality only told us that she wasn't interested in boys. We weren't homophobic and hadn't been since we knew what gays and lesibans were.
It was when we reached the library that things got really weird.
First of all, there was no one in the library but us. Not even the librarians were present. Secondly, there was an eerie silence. The library is meant to be quiet, but even at the quietest of times there is some sort of noise normally. And then there was the pile of seven books, each with a different name on the cover. The names looked like ours but they were...different. Not in spelling, but rather...in essence. I couldn't explain the feeling.
We didn't say a word to each other as we picked up the book with our name on it. And then we took "our" book and high-tailed it out of there, not knowing why we even took the books. We didn't stop until we were on the grassy hill near Linda's house.
"What do you think they are?" Justine looked at the book in wonder, running her hands over the leather cover. Which suddenly struck me as odd because I know no books covered in leather.
"And why do they have our names on them?" Tiffany's was covered in leather too. In fact, they all were, including mine, which I just realized was in my lap. The only thing different about each book was a symbol, our name, and the color of the lettering.
"What about the symbols?" For once, the twins were not blabbing about something in French. They usually do when something exciting happens. Although, I didn't feel excited. But the twins can be strange sometimes. Well, more than sometimes.
"Maybe we should take these home so we can take a better look. Talk to you guys on gmail later?" We all saw the logic in Linda's words, for the wind had picked up and the sky was darkening.
Goodbyes and hugs were exchanged before parting ways. I made it home just as the rain began to come down.
~*~
Dinner was a blur. I only remember that the boys were obnoxious as usual. I don't remember what I ate or what I said either. It seemed as if only ten minutes had passed when I found myself in front of my laptop.
Thanks to the studies I had that day, I was done with all my homework. I quickly logged onto my gmail account, sevenpowers, and then checked to see who was on.
Linda was on, as well as Justine, and before I had time to try to chat with them, they had invited me to their group chat.

Linda: hey gwen
Justine: sup?
Gwen: hi you two
found anything interesting about the books?
Linda: you haven't opened yours yet?
Gwen: i only had time to have dinner
got onto the comp just now
i'll take a look now (I pulled out the book from my bag, where I had dumped it when I started on my way home. My name, written in silver, had an hour glass underneath. How fitting, I thought, especially since I had been speeding through my day.)
Justine: well?
Gwen: my name's in silver and there's an hour glass
haven't looked inside yet
(Carmen got online and I invited her at once)
Carmen: hi all!
Justine: hey
Gwen: carmen!
Linda: hiya
Carmen: whatcha all talkin about?
Gwen: the books
Carmen: oh...
Linda: mines has green lettering and a delicate flower on underneath
Gwen: silver with an hour glass
and btw, mines isn't actually a word
Justine: red with a bonfire
Linda: whatever
Justine: whatever what?
Linda: to what gwen just said about the word mines
Justine: oh
Carmen: mine is blue with a couple of waves
(The twins got onto the computer and someone invited them into the chat)
Kendra: what'd we
Ellen: miss? (They were creepy like that sometimes...)
Linda: we just shared the color of our name and the symbol underneath
Gwen: what do you two have?
Kendra: we both have
Ellen: purple with some sort of
Kendra: purple orb (I guess it was only natural that the twins had the same thing...)
Justine: red and bonfire
Linda: green and flower
Carmen: blue and waves
Gwen: silver and hourglass
Linda: what do you think it means?
Justine: idk
Gwen: search me
Carmen: dunno
Kendra: we have
Ellen: no idea
(Finally, Tiffany got on. She probably had been doing homework so she was late)
Tiffany: i'm guessing you all have been talking about the books
mine has white with a symbol that i believe to represent wind
and what about the rest of you? (She types incredibly fast.)
Gwen: i will copy what we wrote so we all don't have to rewrite it
Justine: thanks gwen (She types the slowest out of all of us.)
Gwen: Kendra: we both have
Ellen: purple with some sort of
Kendra: purple orb
Justine: red and bonfire
Linda: green and flower
Carmen: blue and waves
Gwen: silver and hourglass
Tiffany: so now we're trying to figure out what all this means, right?
Linda: exactly what i want to do
now that we're all on, it'll make it a lot easier to figure out (Linda types pretty fast too. Faster than me but slower than Tiffany.)
Carmen: this reminds me of a lot of books i read
Tiffany: you mean the fantasy books that my parents would so not approve of if i tried to bring one home?
Justine: what else does she read?
Carmen: haha very funny. *scowl*
Gwen: you have to admit, you really don't read anything else
Carmen: fine, i'll give you that one
but seriously
Linda: you have a point though
it really is almost as if we're going to get the kind of power on the book
Kendra: so we're going
Ellen: to be able to shoot purple orbs
Kendra: at people or something
Ellen: like that?
Justine: lololololol XD
Gwen: that would be...
Linda: weird
Tiffany: exactly
i got to go to bed now
Justine: but it's only 9!!!
Tiffany: you know how my parents are
Linda: true enough
Carmen: see ya at school tomorrow!
Gwen: bye-ah
Kendra: good
Ellen: bye
(Tiffany left the six of us to discuss the books more.)
Justine: thinking of which,
Gwen: you should be going to bed since you parents say so but you aren't because you don't want to
Justine: exactly
Gwen: i know you too well
Justine: that's what happens when
Gwen: you know a friend for a long time
Justine: yup
Kendra: you guys should almost
Ellen: like us
Carmen: you guys kinda do
Gwen: except we're not related are we?
Linda: a red head related to a korean?
long time ago maybe, but recently?
nope
but anyways, back to the books
Justine: right
Gwen: some of these sort of relate to us though
Carmen: what do you mean?
Gwen: i mean, flower for linda
linda loves plants
Linda: that's true
i didn't think about that...
Gwen: and carmen is gentle like the ocean sometimes but at other times when she gets angry or frustrated she can get stormy and angsty
Kenda: just like the
Ellen: ocean does sometimes
Linda: and you would know best since you live by the ocean
Carmen: i can sorta see that
Gwen: yup fire suits justine because she's so hot-tempered and untameable
Justine: that's not nice!
Gwen: but true
Justine: good point
Carmen: XD
Linda: and tiffany is dangerous like the wind if you mess with her
Gwen: i would have never thought that when i first met her
Carmen: most people don't
Justine: she can hold her own if she wants
Linda: she's just too polite to do so usually
Gwen: that's what you get from a chinese household i suppose
Kendra: perhaps that
Ellen: may be true
Justine: *nodnod*
Gwen: concerning the purple orbs...
i have to say, i'm stumped
Linda: i gotta go to bed
Justine: parents?
Linda: yeah
Justine: why do you even listen to them?
Linda: i dunno
why do you not listen to yours?
Gwen: lol
Carmen: good one! actually, i gotta go to bed too cya
Linda: yeah, bye everyone
Justine: bye
Gwen: ttyl or rather, tomorrow
Kendra: see you guys
Ellen: at school!
(And then both Linda and Carmen were gone, leaving Justine, Kendra, Ellen, and me.)
Kendra: i don't think we got
Ellen: very far with our discoveries
Kendra: about the books
Gwen: at least we sorta found out a little bit
Justine: she's got a point
Kendra: we actually need to
Ellen: finish our homework
Kendra: eh he... ^^"
Gwen: good job guys... talk to you guys tomorrow?
Kendra: yup
Ellen: bye
Justine: cya
(Then it was just Justine and me.)
Gwen: wow... that was pretty crazy
Justine: what was?
Gwen: all of us talking at once
Justine: i guess so
Gwen: what about you?
do you have homework
Justine: err...
i...
um...
Gwen: go do your homework i'll talk to you tomorrow
Justine: fine... *sulk*
Gwen: XD
Justine: hmp
Gwen: hugs and kisses to speed you along!
Justine: thanks... i'll need it
Gwen: i know you will ^_^
Justine: hugs and kisses to help you sleep
Gwen: good night 'tine
Justine: 'night gweny-poo
Gwen: didn't i say not to call me that yesterday? (I scowled at the words on the screen, but half smiled inside at the affectionate way Justine addressed me.)
Justine: too bad still calling you that
Gwen: be like that then
Justine: i will!
Gwen: go do your homework
bye

I logged out so that she wouldn't try to delay her doing homework. Stretching my fingers, they felt numb from typing for so long, although I'd typed longer before. The laptop blipped to tell me that I had low battery and I sighed before turning it off and taking it downstairs to charge. I would have charged it upstairs if my parents let me.
Then I headed back upstairs, flipped off the light, and collapsed onto my bed, welcoming sleep to take my mind off of all the strange things that had happened that day. It was only then that I realized I hadn't looked inside the book yet.
Sighing, I turned the light back on, wincing as the bright light burned my eyes. As I squinted at my surroundings, my hands found the book and I flipped it open. I let myself adjust to the light before I began to read. Or rather, try to read.
The writing was some strange language made up of symbols. They were flowing and graceful, made with gentle but firm strokes. It looked hand written but it was so beautiful. Not quite perfect, but amazing in its own way.
I couldn't consciously understand any of the writing, but when I let my mind wander a little, it seemed to make some sense. Losing all sense of time, I absorbed the information in the pages, not quite understanding what it was trying to tell me, but subconsciously knowing what it meant.
When I looked up at the clock, I found that it was already two in the morning. It took me by surprise, and I stared at it before really realizing that it was late. I hadn't felt tired before but a great weariness fell upon my shoulders and my eye lids grew heavy. By the time my head hit the pillow after putting the book down and turning off the lights, I was fast asleep.