Part IV

I waited until all of us were there.
Justine looked exhausted when she arrived, muttering something about "friggin' stupid Mondays." Linda looked fine, although her movements indicated that she was a little tired. Carmen had faint circles under her eyes, though one couldn't tell unless she was really close. Tiffany had fairly dark rings under her eyes, though I could tell she was trying to hide them under light makeup. Kendra and Ellen both were...full of energy as usual. They bounced on the balls of their feet lightly, bobbing up and down and flitting around people, poking them gently.
The only one of us who really was bothered by their energy was Justine, who snapped her head around to Kendra - or was that Ellen? - and shot a death glare at her. Justine was not to be messed with on Mondays unless you were asking to be killed. Which ever one of the twins who had poked Justine was lucky that she was in a forgiving mood. Well...more forgiving than usual.
She gent- fine, not so gently - pushed the twin away with her elbow and clenched her hands into fists, holding them by her side. I guessed that she was exercising a lot of self restraint. Had her assailant been someone she wasn't close to, that person would have received a hard blow to where ever Justine wanted. She usually went for the stomach, though if the person was unlucky, they got hit in the face.
I sighed and put a warning hand on her shoulder. She whipped her head around, eyes steely, but her gaze softened slightly when she saw it was me. Gritting her teeth, she slowly unclenched her fists and ground a foot into the ground. The twin had bounded off to another victim, which was Tiffany. She was too weary to do anything but weakly push the twin's finger away. If my suspicions were right, she had stayed up working on some homework assignment.
"Kendra. Ellen. Please stop." Linda had stood up from her seated position under a nearby tree and walked over to us. They settled down a bit but fidgeted impatiently as she spoke.
"Did you all have a good weekend?" I smiled slightly.
"Yes. And I have some ideas for our gift control." Tiffany perked up a little at this. As I scanned my eyes over the group, I noticed Carmen gazing at Kendra (or so I assumed, since I couldn't tell who was who), who was absentmindedly fiddling with the bottom of her shirt. Kendra snuck a look out of the corner of her eyes at Carmen before flushing slightly. Carmen noticed Kendra's eye flicker and knitted her fingers together, looking down at them. I chuckled internally. They were really cute like that.
"So what did you come up with?" Tiffany's voice brought me out of my observation of the two lovebirds.
"I think our powers are linked to concentration. And perhaps..." I suddenly realized it. "...maybe our talents can influence them."
"What talents?" scoffed Justine, scuffing a black boot casually.
"You skateboard well." Carmen offered, looking at the skateboard propped up against Justine's leg.
"That's not a talent." she replied, rolling her eyes.
"Anyways, I think you're onto something." Linda smiled slightly as her eyes unfocused into thought.
"I was thinking meditation or yoga could hel-"
"Hell no!" I was cut off by Justine just like I thought I would.
"Justine, just hear me out!" I snapped back.
"There is no way I am going to do either thing." she retorted, narrowing her eyes. She wasn't pleased, and I knew.
"Look, it's only a suggestion; I never said that we would actually do it!" I half growled at her, beginning to feel irritated.
"Oh. Fine." She calmed down and rolled her eyes, her expression softening.
"I don't think it's a bad idea, but we're going to need to find something else for Justine." Tiffany said quietly, her voice as soft as the wind. I could barely catch her words.
"Maybe we could have Justine do competitions. Competitions require concentration, right?" Kendra bubbled excitedly. It was pretty clear Kendra wanted to see Justine skateboard against other people. I gave a little smirk. If there was one thing Justine absolutely could not back out from, it was a dare. Even if it wasn't really really a dare.
"I'll do it." I resisted the urge to laugh. Justine couldn't help herself.
"Maybe the rest of us should do competitions too!" Ellen exclaimed, popping up and down.
"Tiffany could do ice skating, Lin-" Kendra began.
"I'm not doing ice skating. I do not do ice skating competitions. Period." Tiffany's voice was serious and said that she wasn't going to be convinced otherwise.
"Maybe you can do a math competition? You're very good at that." Carmen suggested.
"That's a great idea!" gushed Kendra, clapping her hands together at super speed. Carmen's eyes dropped to her feet as she rolled her foot around against the ground. She blushed slightly, her cheeks tinged with a soft pink. Kendra didn't seem to notice.
"Fine. My parents will probably be ecstatic." Tiffany rolled her eyes slightly, but smiled. Math was her strong point.
"Drawing competitions for me, I suppose?" Linda asked, knowing that there was no answer really necessary. Of course she would be doing something along those lines. With her amazing art skills, it was only natural that she would compete with her artwork.
"Track or cross-country for Gwen!" Justine trilled, putting her hands on my shoulders. I scowled. She knew how much I hated being in a team. It was more fun to run by myself, with no distractions, no crowds, no prying eyes.
"Singing for Carmen and dancing for the twins." I said finally, trying to resist the urge to smack Justine on the head.
It was evident that I would be racing with the track team, and despite that I knew that, I still didn't want to. The team had wanted me for a long time, and they would take me in even though it was right before their next competition. They would be incredibly joyous at my joining, and I would have to deal with it. I sighed. As soon as the competitions were over, I was getting out of that team. I only had to deal with it until summer. Which was in couple of months. Otherwise known as an eternity.
~*~
In the next couple of months, we trained for our competitions. The track team was trilled. I was not. Especially since I couldn't see my friends as much. They were busy with their activities and I was busy with mine.
Kendra and Ellen were the first to have their performance, and they did spectacular. They ended up first place. Funnily enough, the second place winners were also a set of twins. Japanese twins. I think their names were Michaela and Carmendy or something similar to that.
Justine was next up, and got second place after a girl named Natalie, who used a bike. I honestly couldn't tell the difference of who was better. I thought both were insanely amazing and daring.
Mine was a couple days after Justine's and shortly after my competition (where I came in first), I crashed into a girl named Marianne. We hit it off right away, after our embarrassed apologies. She was a drummer, African style, and we recorded some of her music. It made for great running music. Steady, strong, and quick beat.
Carmen became close to a girl named Queenie at the Drama Club where she worked on her singing and general presentation of herself for the talent show. She made third. Queenie made second. I thought that Carmen was better than all of them, but...I suppose I was biased.
Linda made first at the art show. She did an amazing piece with the four elements (was she influenced by the events?) and it was almost as if the painting was jumping of the paper. The girl in second, Bianca, her piece was...more of an invention than a piece of work. It was some sort of plant blooming. Very pretty, but...she got some points off since it was more of an invention than artwork. A pity really.
Tiffany was the last one of us. Her team came in second in the nation, which is incredibly amazing. I saw her talking with some girl with brown hair before going on stage. I was a little upset, but then again, I didn't tell Tiffany I'd be coming anyways.
Along with the competitions, I worked on my time control, which improved a bit. I was able to hold the increased or slowed down time for longer than before, but only by a couple minutes. The thing that I needed to do to slow down or speed up time was to rotate a part of my body counterclockwise or clockwise and a lot of concentration. Still, it was hard, and drained me of my strength after pushing myself to the limits. I guessed if I tried to go farther than I knew I could by too much, I might lose consciousness. I remembered one time which I lost my vision for a couple moments.
After so many months, the competitions were finally at an end. I quick the track team ASAP. They were...upset to say the least and begged me to come back a couple times. More than a couple times.
The day after Tiffany's competition, we all got together at the beach near my house and finally shared information. Kendra had finally gotten the guts to tell Carmen, and now they were a couple. Out of school anyways. I swear I could feel the waves of passion rolling off of them as they sat next to each other, cuddled under a blanket.
Tiffany and Michael managed to go out a couple times while she was preparing for the math competition, and the last time, he took her home and kissed her gently on the forehead before heading home. She turned incredibly red as she shared this piece of information with us. Just when I couldn't think she couldn't turn any redder, Justine gave a smirk and winked at Tiffany. God knows what she thought, because she managed to turn even more flushed than she was.
And Justine? She was glowing as she shared what had happened to her. I knew already even though she hadn't said anything the month before. I could tell. Dustin asked her out. They'd gone to a horror movie and apparently he got so scared that he ended up using Justine's shoulder to avoid watching. And she thought it was cute, what he did. She had enjoyed every moment of that movie, especially when he started burrowing his head into her shoulder.
Finally, I shared my own information. Not very...happy really. Xavier and Peter (the two idiots!) just had to confess their liking me and ask me out on the same day. The SAME day!!!!! It was extremely annoying. I hadn't wanted to be mean to either of them, so I'd ended up telling them I'd think about their offers and see if I had time. Which I didn't, but I could have just turned them down. I'd turned them down a couple days after. They were still sort of after me though. Xavier opened doors for me almost every time he could, and Peter was always trying to help me by carrying things for me.
Carmen pulled herself from Kendra (a little reluctantly, I think) and hugged me to comfort me when she had heard my sob story. She took my shoulders, looked into my eyes and said that I would find the right person for me someday. (Whatever she says...)
My parents had said the same as well when they heard the news. My brothers just took the chance to bother me about it. They kept saying that I was hopeless before and was an idiot for turning down both. And they really rubbed in the fact that I hurt them. I hoped I didn't...
And then we showed each other what our powers could do now. Justine could now cause her whole body to burst into flames at will, though she could only do her hands if she wanted to do only a bit of herself. The other bits she was working on.
Tiffany could create gusts of wind up to 20 feet away, and was steadily increasing the distance. So she claimed anyways. She hadn't been able to measure, and we didn't know how far she could blow before.
Linda was coming up with more kinds of plants and creating hybrids for different uses. It was clear that she'd been studying her plants.
Carmen was like Tiffany, water up to 20 feet away. But she needed water to begin with, and hadn't figured out how to draw water from the air. She managed to get a little out of the air before, she said, but it was hard.
Kendra was becoming more skilled with her telepathy and could handle more than one object now. It was dizzying to watch her shift around stones with simple flickers of her eyes.
Ellen...was frightening. She began to spew information that we had in our heads that we weren't even thinking until she brought it up. We begged her to stop after a minute.
And I? It was hard to show them the difference in my powers. I'd only increased by a little bit of time, barely noticeable. I felt...ashamed of myself. And disappointed at how little progress I'd made compared to the others. My heart sank, and there was a bitter taste in my mouth at the end of the day.
We all went home at around 5 to do homework and eat dinner. During dinner, the A triplets were still teasing about Xavier and Peter, while the J triplets had gotten bored of that and were bothering about my height. Whenever they couldn't find anything else to bother me about, they turned the subject of my height. I flicked three peas at them, with the peas in fast motion, and they whacked their foreheads. My parents missed the shooting of the peas, and I gave a smug grin at them as they glared at me.
I scuttled upstairs as soon as I finished eating and finished off the last of my homework. By 9, I was on the computer and chatting with the others. We didn't talk about anything important, just life and girlfriends/boyfriends and stuff. Carmen was even beginning to finish sentences made by Ellen and Kendra. Scary...
At 12, everyone else off of the computer, so I got myself off and flopped on the bed. I wasn't tired, though I should have been. As I looked around my room for something to read, my eyes fell on the leather book with my name. It almost seemed as if it was...calling me from its place in the bookshelf. I pulled it out gently, but then dropped it as soon as I had it in both hands. It was...shaking.
As I stared at in horror, it began to grow bigger, and I backed up as far as I could, hand ready to slow down time if needed. The lettering almost seemed to bleed and cover the entire book in silver as it expanded. The leather turned to fur and I began to see a four-legged shape. A dog?
Or...not. Intelligent yellow eyes opened and...the book shook itself before opening its mouth. Except whatever came out was all distorted and slowed do- I looked down at my foot, which was turning counterclockwise. Whoops. I stopped and this time when it spoke it was normal. At least, as normal as a talking wolf's speech can be.
"I greet you, Controller of Time." I blinked a couple of times, aware that my mouth was hanging open and that I couldn't do anything about it.
"Um... Hi?" I squeaked, nervously wiggling my toes.
"I am Hana." It...um...she was a female. I kind of guessed from the slightly feminine shape of the wolf, but it confirmed my thoughts. It took me a moment to realize I was supposed to reply with my name.
"I-I'm Gwen. Short for Gwendolyn."
"Gwendolyn...goddess of the moon. Not quite suitable, but a nice name all the same." I nodded dumbly at the talking wolf, which had sat down and began casually scratching an ear with a paw.
"There's no need to be afraid. I'm not going to eat you. I don't think you'd be very tasty anyways. No offense intended, of course."
"N-no, of course not." I stammered, sinking to the ground and sitting down where I had stood.
"You can come closer if you like." Her eyes were friendly and warm, but I was still in shock at the fact that my book had turned into a wolf whose head rested at my waist level.
"I think I'm okay here." I mumbled, staring.
"Alright, if you say so." she got up and walked over to me and sat down next to me. I could feel warmth radiating from her form.
"You may be comfortable talking to someone from far away, whereas I am not. Also, it's rude to stare." I blinked a couple times, shifted away from her slightly and tried not to stare.
"Sorry."
"Anyways, I am your book. In a different form."
"Will the other books turn into wolves as well?"
"No. The others will be other animals."
"So...why have you turned into a wolf? And why now?" She sighed and shook her head.
"You have met the opposing seven forces. It has come time to teach you how you must go about saving the world from the Armageddon."
"Pleasant. But we haven't met seven forces yet."
"You have. You just don't know it." I thought about it. Where were there seven people in our lives...? It suddenly came to me. And it filled my heart with dread.
~*~
I couldn't speak for a minute or so. It couldn't be. It couldn't! Why?!
"Not Marianne... Oh gods, not her."
"I am unsure if that is her name, but I know that you seven have met the opposing forces."
"It can't be her. It just can't. She's too nice, too kind."
"Don't judge a book by its cover." Hana put a gentle paw on my shoulder as I slumped my head into my hands. I ignored it.
"I hate those stupid sayings." I muttered, rubbing my temples with my fingers.
"You aren't the only one going through this. The others will be experiencing the same thing now, but with their books. I will stay with you." I looked up at her.
"A silver wolf by my side during school. Funny, I don't think that would work too well at school." I couldn't help letting bitter sarcasm leak into my words. She laughed, a surprisingly high pitched chime.
"Silly. I'll be with you in a different form. Not my book form, it'll be too much of a hassle for you. And you might lose me." She gave a kind smile before she began to shrink. I gaped at her as she began a silver wolf pendant on a black rope. The wolf winked and Hana's voice came from the pendant.
"Yes, I'm a necklace. Put me on. Don't take me off. Ever. Unless I tell you so." With shaky hands. I fumbled with the clasp until I finally got it onto my neck. I tried to put my thoughts aside and fell asleep without turning the light off.
~*~
The next day, we were all up early and met under our tree. Everyone else was also wearing a necklace. Except the color of the pendant was different. Ellen's book told her to check for anyone looking. There wasn't, so all of them changed into their animal forms.
There was Hana, my silver wolf, Vinnie, Justine's red fox, Pax, Tiffany's dove, Will, Linda's garter snake, Marie, Carmen's tiger, Laura, Kendra's komodo dragon, and Cam, Ellen's chameleon. The books all knew each other already.
I was a little intimidated by Marie and Laura, but they turned out to be very friendly. Vinnie was a playful little creature, and he apparently liked to play tricks on people. Justine appreciated Vinnie's tricks on her brothers. But she didn't say what he did. All she said was that it was something that she probably shouldn't share. That worried me a little. Pax was very quiet, but her voice rang loud and clear when she wanted it to. Cam sort of disappeared somewhere, and only Ellen knew where he went off to. And Kendra sort of knew I suppose, but she acted as if she didn't know. Maybe she really didn't, but then again, I wouldn't know. Will reminded me of a British gentleman, and if you weren't looking at him, you could just imagine a tall handsome gentleman. Hana was playful like a pup in some ways, but in others, more mature than the others. It was interesting to switch back and forth between the two.
After some time had passed, it almost seemed like they had some sort of a signal, and they all turned back into necklaces at the same time. A little creepy how they changed at practically the same instant. We picked up our...necklaces and put them on and headed off to class.
~*~
I tried to ignore the necklace I was wearing the entire day. It was hard though. I kept feeling as if there was a spotlight on it, as if everyone who looked at me was looking at it. It didn't help that Hana told me to stop worrying while I was in the bathroom. Not the most comfortable day. Especially when Mrs. Alic, my English teacher, pointed it out. She said that it was really pretty. All the while, I was sweating like a pig. I'm surprised she and everyone else didn't notice. I swear my heart could have jumped out of my throat at that moment. Good thing it didn't.
I met with the others after school. It was then that I remembered about Marianne and the other six. As casually as possible, I brought it up.
"So...you guys heard about the opposing forces that we've supposedly already met?" Internally, I whacked myself for sounding so obvious.
"Yeah, but...who?" Carmen's face wrinkled in thought. I realized that the others probably didn't know about the people I had seen. Not everyone had been able to go to the others' competition.
"I can't think of seven people that we've met." Tiffany said, also looking thoughtful.
"Who the hell cares?" Justine said cheerfully.
"I do. And I know who they are." I said quietly. "Or at least, I think I do."
"You do?" Linda looked rather surprised.
"Yes. We've all met one." I sighed and ran a hand through my short choppy hair.
"We still don't know who you're talking about." The twins also had no idea.
"Marianne was the one I met. She's African. Justine met Natalie. I think it's Natalie anyways. I couldn't stop looking at her when she was performing."
"It can't be her!" Justine half-shouted, causing the passing students to look at us funny.
"Justine, please calm down." Tiffany tried to sooth Justine, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. Justine ignored it.
"The twins met another set of twins."
"Michelle and Kimberly?!" they screeched. (I got the names wrong.) One of them looked like they were going to faint, the other looked horrified, and Carmen was immediately at the side of the one who looked like she was going to faint.
"Ellen, it's going to be alright. It might not be them." Carmen murmured, gently rubbing her back.
"Is there something we should know?" Linda had picked up on the same thing as I did. There was something more than met the eye.
"Ellen?" Kendra said softly, looking her twin in the eye. There was a moment of silence before Ellen nodded.
"Ellen and Michelle have...been more than just friends over the last couple months." Kendra finally said. And then Ellen burst into tears, with Carmen desperately trying to calm her down.
"Oh god." Justine whispered, wide-eyed.
"I am so sorry Ellen. I didn't know." I managed to choke out. Tiffany didn't say a word, but went to help Carmen sooth Ellen.
"Who are the others?" Linda eventually said, after Ellen's sobs had turned into quiet hiccups.
"Queenie. Bianca. And a brown-haired girl I saw talking to Tiffany." I listed.
"Why did it have to be Queenie...?" Carmen mumbled, still comforting Ellen.
"I can't believe that it's Bianca..." Linda gasped.
"Rachel...?" Tiffany choked out. I felt really bad being the one to share this piece of information. But I figured that it would have been found out eventually.
"I'm sorry. It was hard on me too." I said guiltily.
"It's not your fault, Gwen." Ellen said, looking at me with teary eyes.
"Yeah, don't feel bad." Kendra said, trying to smile. And failing.
"Let's all go to the beach. Maybe we'll feel better?" I hoped that maybe once we were there, Hana and the others could explain some things.
~*~
The trip was spent in silence, and because the others moved slowly, I made time move a little quicker so that we could get there faster. Or at least seem faster for me.
Once we arrived, Hana and the others changed and took their animal forms.
"I'm sorry Ellen." Cam said, changing into the color of the sand.
"We're all sorry." Laura said.
"I'm proud that you told everyone." Hana praised, though there was a tinge of sadness in her voice. She gently nuzzled my leg, and her silver fur was soft against my leg. I sat down and hesitantly rubbed her fur, sinking my hands into the softness. Her eyes closed in pleasure and we sat there, comforting each other.
Meanwhile, Cam had made his way onto Ellen's shoulder and Laura to Kendra's side. Will lay curled around Linda's neck loosely, and Pax stood on Tiffany's outstretched finger. Vinnie was curled up on Justine's lap and Marie was nuzzling Carmen. We all needed as much love and friendship as possible. It was hard knowing that the friends we had made over the last couple months were actually our enemies. And in Ellen's case, more than just friends. We just sat there in silence for an hour, just trying to heal the wounds of the spirit inflicted by the new knowledge.
And now, we would have to learn how to defeat the friends we had bonded with.
"We know this will be hard, but you will have to learn how to defeat the oppossing forces. That is, unless you want the Apocalypse to occur." Marie smiled (as much as a tiger can smile), but her eyes were serious.
"The other seven will be out to cause the Apocalypse. Not that they need much help." Hana added.
"What do you mean, not that they need much help?" Justine asked, scowling.
"The universe is ready to destroy Earth and cause the Armageddon. All the opposing forces need to do is stop you seven." Pax twittered, not helping the situation much. She only had the best intentions though.
"So what are we supposed to do about it?" Carmen asked, nervously leaning on Marie and holding Kendra's hand.
"All you need to do is don't let the opposite side defeat you and try to make sure the Apocalypse doesn't occur." Laura said cheerfully. We all glared at her. Except for Cam. At least, I didn'think he did. Then again, I couldn't really see him too well.
"Fantastic. How are we supposed to prevent the Apocalypse then?" I asked.
"Stop global warming, help save the environment... Just make sure the world isn't destroyed by storms, heat, loss of land by water, volcano erruptions, and all that stuff. Those are all actually signs that the Earth is ready to break into bits."
"That's...lovely." Linda said calmly, probably trying not to sound sarcastic or annoyed. It worked, to some extent anyways.
"We'll talk to you guys more about it later. But now, I think it's about time for you to go home." Cam's voice suggested. I couldn't figure out where he was, but I nodded. We exchanged hugs and farewells then headed off to home.
I spent dinner worrying about what we were going to do while maintaining a cheerful exterior. Or at least I tried. When I finally finished dinner and homework, I flopped onto my bed and Hana turned into a wolf. She came up onto the bed with me (causing the bed to creak a little with the weight) and allowed me to sink my face into her silky fur.
"You should try to talk to the opposing seven like normal until you have your first real encounter. We don't know for sure if they are the right ones, though we're pretty sure. Still, try to maintain the friendship as best as you can until then. Alright?"
"Alright." I mumbled into the warm pelt.
She acted like a warm squishy pillow to hug for the night. It was comforting to have her warm prescence by my side, and I wondered why I never wanted a pet before. They were really soothing.
I fell asleep listening to Hana's gentle breathing. The last thing I remember seeing was her silver fur shining slightly in the streetlamp light that leaked through my windows.