Chapter 1

I had the weirdest dream that night, hours before it happened. The dream had started out relatively average; I was in the nature reserve- where I spent a large amount of my time. And I was feeding Jaxx, this baby tiber who had lost it's mother and been rescued by the vets at the reserve. Jaxx was a beautiful animal- her aqua-green fur and black strips shiny and bright because of her age. I was told that tiber's resembled Earth animals called tigers, which is how they got their name. A feline, powerful, but tiger's were bigger. Jaxx, at full size, would barely be as big as a large man would. A larger relative of the tiber was the tiberan, which was the size of an Earth elephant- full grown. You do not want to upset a tiberan or a tiberan trainer; it would be unfortunate for your health.

But back to the dream, I was in the nature reserve feeding and petting adorable little Jaxx, when all of a sudden she broke into a mad dash. I ran after her of course, she could only go so far because of the reserve walls but I didn't want to have to find her if she hid underneath a plant of large variety. She didn't run far, so caught up with her fairly quickly. Once I reached her though, she was off again. I ran behind her again, and this time she reached the front gate before she stopped.

That was when the weird part began, because suddenly standing in front of me was a girl instead of a tiber. She smiled mischievously and opened the gate. I ran after the girl this time, her golden-blond hair shinning in the sun like a beacon. She wanted me to follow her, and that's exactly what I did. I was too curious to stop, my major default being curiosity. So I didn't stop, I ran and ran after her, it seemed I would never get tired. Maybe I wouldn't, so I followed the girl as she ran towards something or somewhere.

Finally she stopped; we stopped, in front of a huge cave. The cave looked big enough from outside to house about three small villages. An entire city could exist in there. The girl watched me, waiting for me to make the first move. So I did, I smiled. The girl smiled back and took my hand leading me into the cave. In the cave there was a city; lights shone from little houses and street lamps, people milled around busily preparing for something, the town looked ancient- almost like Earth, like life before Genesis. Buildings towered above the houses, their smooth surfaces reflecting the light from the homes, but no lights were on in the buildings themselves.

The girl stood there happily, almost like she was proud of me for something. Then I realized that she hadn't spoken yet.

"Do you understand me?" I asked, self-consciously shoving my hands into my pockets.

"Yes, Ambrosia." She replied.

I didn't bother to ask how she knew my name; it just didn't seem to matter.

"Have I finally done it?" I questioned.

"Yes."

I smiled.

She smiled. "You must meet everyone else, Ambrosia. They've been waiting for you."

That's when I woke up. And only then did I realize that I hadn't been sleeping, I had just been lying in bed. Almost no time had passed between then and now. It had all happened in a split second, only it hadn't happened at all. I lay in bed a few more minutes before giving up on sleep, I was too wired to sleep; I was wide-awake now. So I got up and dressed and went to Hayden's house, which was next door. I climbed through my window onto the huge marlux tree in the side yard and through the branches until I was at Hayden's window. I rapped my knuckles three times against the cold clear metal substance…because we didn't have the right things to make glass here.

About three seconds later Hayden's light went on and he walked towards the window to open it. It slid open with ease and I dropped into the room with a soft thud.

"Nice boxers." I remarked giddily. I was wired, too wired. He was wearing boxers decorated with happy faces.

"You too." He replied.

I glanced down at my own attire; I hadn't bothered to get fully dress so I was in black boxers with red, purple, and blue rainbows; and a tank top.

"Thank you." I laughed.

He grinned and said, "You do realize it's three am, don't you?"

"Do you have a point?" I asked back.

"No, why would you think that?" With that we both broke into giggles.

When we finally stopped, our sides aching from lack of air, he asked. "What brings you here at this time of night?"

"A dream that wasn't a dream." I said simply.

"A dream that wasn't a dream?" he asked softly.

"Yeah." I whispered. "I was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep but obsessing over him, when I started dreaming. It was a weird dream," I went on, describing the dream, "but then I woke up, and realized I wasn't asleep. No time had passed at all. It had happened in a split second."

"It happened?" Hayden asked, lowering his voice to match my own.

"Yeah, I think so. In that split second I had been to that cave, with that girl. And the weirdest thing is a remember how to get there even though I've never been there. Or I have been there but not in the sense that I think of it as. Regardless, I'm going there tomorrow. I think that was the point of the dream; to get me to go there."

"I'll go with you."

No. A voice said.

"You can't." I said quickly.

"Why?"

Because I'm hearing voices that tell me not to let you come with me.

"Because I need to do this alone, I don't know why but I just do. Hayden?"

"Yes."

"Don't tell anyone about my dream, they can't know. I shouldn't have told you but now I have so you can't tell them. Okay?"

"Oh-okay." He shuddered, slightly confused.

"Good." I said decidedly.

I plopped down on his bed, falling into one of his million pillows.

"Why do you have so many pillows?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"I don't know. Just like them."

"You just like them." I giggled.

"Yeah."

I picked up one of the pillows and hurled it at him.

"Hey." He snapped, surprised at the impact of the pillow.

"Hey yourself." I replied, giggling again.

He grabbed a pillow and armed himself.

"Wait." I cried unexpectedly.

"What?" Hayden asked stopping the swinging pillow mid-air.

"We should do something." I stated.

"Huh?"

"Let's get the others and go out somewhere." I suggested.

"You do realize it's the middle of the night don't you."

"The middle of the night in the middle of Aejert, it's not like there's any school tomorrow. Plus, we don't sleep." I said matter-of-factly.

He laughed at that and nodded.

"Okay, let's go."

We went about collecting the others, climbing in and out of windows at three am in the morning.

Soon the seven of us were assembled, an odd looking bunch all in all. We stood around in a circle, watching each other. Hayden, Tobias, Lilith, Angel, Chase, Daisy, and me, Ambrosia. We all seemed a bit wired, giddy even. Lilith was bouncing on the tip of her feet, grinning excitedly. Mellow, calm Tobias was also grinning, his dark brown hair falling into eyes of the same color. The rest if the others, save Hayden and I, were fidgeting with their clothing.

Hayden and I had gotten dressed but we weren't fidgeting with our clothing, or grinning like something about the night was funny. We looked at the shinning eyes that surrounded us and then made eye contact with each other. He looked indifferent and I imagined my face had a similar expression pasted on it. Truly I felt the excitement in the air, and once I couldn't hold it in any longer I began to grin also.

"So, what are we going to tonight?" I asked giddily.

Lilith giggled and her eyes went glossy, "Let's play Truth, Lies, and Consequences." She suggested laughing.

Next to me Daisy groaned quietly, she hated Truth, Lies, and Consequences because she was the most timid of the group. The rest of us nodded; it was the favored game of us six.

"Okay," Lilith started, "We all know the rules. I go first." She ordered. "Angel, truth or consequences?"

"Consequences, of course." Angel laughed.

Lilith giggled too; "Okay, then… you have to pet a tiberan from the NR (nature reserve)."

Angel's eyes went wide; she was terrified of Jaxx let alone of an actual tiberan. But being Angel she wasn't about to back down from a consequence, so we all headed towards the NR three blocks away.

Five minutes later we were at the NR standing in front of Jaxlux's cage, Jaxlux was my favorite tiberan. So Angel looked at me with fear in her eyes and I smiled reassuringly.

"Tiberan's aren't really as scary as they look, they're just big tibers." I said hoping to calm her down.

She smiled wanly but she was still shaking slightly. She opened the cage with some lock opening skills she had acquired earlier in her life. Angel closed her eyes calmly and gave a half-smile. I glanced at Tobias and his face has a similar look- he was claming Angel down.

That's what Tobias does, he can read and manipulate thoughts and transmit thoughts and pictures. He was most likely doing for Angel what Angel couldn't do for herself, focusing on something besides the tiberan in front of her. I knew what he was picturing; he was picturing the waterfall in the mountains on the edge of town because that was Angel's "safe place". And her safe place was guaranteed to calm her down.

Angel's eyes fluttered open once again and she walked quickly, but quietly, into Jaxlux's cage. Jaxlux laid there, calmly sleeping and Angel timidly inched forward. She placed one of her tiny hands on Jaxlux's sea-blue coat.

"Nice kitty." She whispered to calm herself more than Jaxlux. Her eyes closed again- this time due to her own powers not Tobias's.

Angel copies powers and DNA. Which is invaluable when you need somebody to cover for you and helpful when you're attempting to calm a biological being down. Because, while she copied the DNA of a being both she and they, go in a temporary trance. She was copying Jaxlux's DNA, which would a nice addition to her growing arsenal. Once she finished she pulled her hand away and fled the cage even though Jaxlux hadn't moved the entire time.

"Okay." She said, taking a deep breath. The excitement returning to her eyes Angel turned her gaze on Chase. "Chase, truth or consequences?"

"Truth." He replied cautiously.

Angel frowned in disappointment for only a moment before grinning again. "Okay, um," she paused a couple of seconds attempting to think of a good question, "What's the farthest you have gone with a girl and what girl?"

I groaned, "Angel, come on." I whined. "That is such a dumb question."

Angel laughed and the rest of the group besides Chase and I giggled. "That's because you're the girl," she joked.

I felt my cheeks go warm and I knew that my pale white skin was reddening as I stood there. Chase giggled then, which was something he only did when he was nervous. You could always tell when he was lying because he would begin to giggle incessantly. His tan skin didn't go red but all the same we all knew he was an embarrassed as I.

"Maybe it wasn't with her." Hayden suggested, "Maybe that's the problem."

I fake-glared at him. It was known that Chase and I were a couple but we didn't really kiss and hold hands and stuff in public, somewhat because ewe weren't comfortable with it but mostly because our friends wouldn't be comfortable with it.

"Come on, Angel, this isn't a fair question." Chase reasoned.

"Why?"

"Because…because…oh fine. I, um, haven't gone, um, any farther than like making out and that was with Rosey." Rosey was his nickname for me. "And I just thought of why it wasn't fair."

"Why?" Angel asked again.

"Because Rosey's the only girlfriend I've had and what's between us has to do with the group."

"What does you two kissing have to do with the group?" Angel laughed.

"It's a relationship inside the group friendship, so it has everything to do with the group." Chase stated. It's weird knowing that I was his first girlfriend but he just didn't seem interested in dating; plus girl's don't think he's dark, cute, and brooding like Tobias- if anything they find him unapproachable in attitude. But we've been friends since we were five, the day Chase is unapproachable is the day that I fit in. Probably literally.

"What is your obsession with kissing today Ang?" I asked. Earlier today all she could talk about was how much she wanted to kiss this boy in a class of hers every time she saw him.

"It's, like, my subject of the day." She answered.

"Got it." I said.

"Okay, my turn now." Chase interrupted. Thus far the rest of the group had been watching this spectacle, now Chase dragged another person into this three-ring circus. "Tobias, truth or consequences?"

Having seen what had occurred when Chase had selected truth, Tobias chose consequences.

For some reason Chase found that excitingly funny, I figured out why seconds later when he said, "I dare you, Tobias, to kiss her, Angel, on the lips for a minimum of fifteen seconds."

"I object!" Angel exclaimed.

"On what grounds?" Chase asked evenly.

"On the grounds that that's not fair!" Angel replied not so calmly.

"I didn't realize you had such a low opinion of me." Tobias joked.

"Oh, I don't. I really don't, but I know there's some reason that that's not fair."

That argument went on for five more minutes before Angel gave in and agreed to the consequence. To the others it looked like she didn't want to kiss Tobias but to me I knew that the exact opposite was true and that's why Angel had objected. Angel was boy-crazy; one of her three current crushes was the one and only Tobias Haley. Soon after that we got tired of the game but none of us were actually tired, so we walked down to the park. We were all carrying glow-packs so we could see our way around in the dark.

"To continue with our juvenile tendencies tonight I say we play a little game of tag." I suggested.

"Oh, nighttime tag, we haven't played that in forever." Daisy laughed.

"Yeah." The rest of the group agreed.

"Does anyone remember the rules?" I asked.

"We can always make up our own rules." Chase stated.

"Yeah." I said.

"Okay, I say we play hide-and-seek tag. The IT person counts to one hundred and we hide, then every time they flash their glow-pack the hiders have to flash theirs. The last second to last one found is it." Daisy explained her set of rules.

"I say we do pairs, and instead of the IT person flashing their glow-pack the pairs have to use their glow-packs to find each other…because everyone hide separately…we all have different color glow-packs right? And the first complete pair found has one of the pair be it." Tobias suggested.

"Sure." We agreed.

Daisy volunteered to be it and we chose pairs: Tobias and Angel, Chase and I, and Hayden and Lilith. Chase's glow-pack was green colored and mine was yellow-green to match my eyes. It wasn't long before Daisy was counting and the six of us left were dispersing into different directions in order to hide. We had all set our glow-packs to flash every ten seconds and the object of the game was to find your parent without getting found by the IT person, who happened to be Daisy, first. Daisy's pack wasn't going to go off at all, to make it easier for her to sneak up on us but she didn't know who was a partner with whom or who has what color pack which made it harder for her to find a complete pair not together. Once a pair was together they turned off their packs and were out of the running for it.

Basically it was a complicated versions of glow-pack tag made up by really bored, hyper fifteen year olds. I went to hiding and found one of those tunnels that no one over ten could possibly fit into. That wasn't a problem because I was about the size of a ten-year-old at 5'½" and 42 kilos (93 lbs.) The only difference being that I had a figure. Not exactly hourglass but I was relatively happy with it, except the shortness. I mean I can't reach anything and my hands are so tiny I can't hold anything large…it's really annoying. Especially when all your friends, at the very least, are four inches taller than you are. Chase towers above me at 5'10", I make Lilith look tall and she's considered short at 5'4". I feel like I have a rare genetic defect sometimes, it's that ridiculous.

But it turned out to be good because not only did the tunnel give me a good view of most of the park because it was in the second playground in the back but it also hid most of the light from my flashing glow-pack. I couldn't see Chase's pack flashing in the dark night, neither moon was out tonight even though the sky was clear of clouds. I heard Daisy call "Ready or not, here I come." Then there was silence, nothing in the trees made a sound because the flashing packs scared them.

I heard Lilith shriek and then "Man, you caught me."

I saw Hayden then, or at least his red flashing glow-pack. I made a low whistle sound that I knew Daisy would hear and I heard her soft footsteps coming towards me, and Hayden. I curled up in a ball over my pack so she wouldn't see it flash and when I uncurled Hayden was in her grasp.

"Who's your partner?" Daisy asked.

"Lilith."

Daisy had asked Lilith the same question but you could lie so that the IT person would go after a person from another team instead of your own.

"We have losers," Daisy called, "Hayden and Lilith."

The rest of us, knowing that Hayden and Lilith were indeed a team and Daisy was not trying to trick us into coming out exited our hiding places.

We played another round, after flipping a coin- which was one of the many Earth customs the people of Genesis adapted- Hayden turned out to be it.

Chase and I were partners again, and Tobias paired with Angel, which left Lilith and Daisy to pair up. This time Chase and I ran in similar directions accidentally and I ended up only twenty feet from him when Hayden called "Ready or not, here I come." So once Hayden said that I crept over to Chase's hiding place, unfortunately I came up behind him and scared him half to death.

"Shh!" I whispered. "Turn off your pack."

"Rosey." He said, fumbling which the off switch. "You scared me."

"I can tell, you're breathing awfully hard. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." He said and I could tell me was smiling even though I couldn't see his face.

"So, having fun?" I asked as I feel his arms slip around my waist, they felt comfortable there.

"Uh-huh." He mumbled and I could feel his hot breath close to my face. He kissed me and then pulled away.

"We should play hide-and-seek tag more often." I said softly.

"Yeah." He kissed me again.

And soon we were lost in our own little world.