CHAPTER ONE

"Hey toad!" a teenage boy shouted to a younger girl from across the room. "Rub my feet." "Oh you better watch that smelly mouth of yours!" she said as she walked angrily towards him. "Just so you know, two can play at that game and I don't take orders from you. That was the lamest insult I've ever heard in my entire life and trust me ,I've heard a lot. You know...she was cut short by someone shouting for them. " Derek?, Cass?" she could tell by the tone of anxiety in the person's voice that the one bawling out their names was none other than her best friend , Emma. "We're in the main hall!" she answered back. No sooner than these words left her lips had Emma barged in with great speed." Finally!" the latter commented between pants." I've been looking everywhere for you two." "Why?" Cass retorted. "Why!? don't you think you forgot something important? Look around you. Don't you notice that the main hall of all places is almost empty? We're the only ones here. "Oh right. I didn't spot that" the former added. "Ya think? I bet you two were busy arguing that you forgot that you, Cass, were supposed to give a report about the strange objects being found at the towers." "Oh shoot! I totally forgot about that!" "Figures. Your brain's memory is so small that you'll need the cloud to remember today's date." Derek said. "Oh, then your brain's memory is the size of an ant, since the headmaster chose me, currently in my tenth year, to report these strange occurrences than you snotty eleventh years." Cass added. "Enough! See what I mean! When you start your childish squabbles, both of you forget everyone and everything else. Everything seems to disappear when the two of you are together, kind of like you're in love with each other or something. "Cass let out a loud long laugh. " I'd rather sink to the bottom of the ocean than end up falling in love with him, even if he was the last person on earth. "Derek made a disgusted face and acted as if he was going to puke. "I'd rather kill myself than to end up with her." "Okay whatever. Let's just get out of here." Emma said. "Wait. What's that?" "What?" "Shh. Listen." "Sounds like something is falling from the sky." "I think it's heading directly for us. MOVE!" Something like a glowing sphere landed heavily before them. It was a crystal orb, rimmed with gold and rubies. It looked like treasure from the Victorian era." Oh. It's one of the falling objects." said Cass. She inched closer to the orb, and just when she was about to pick it up, she was stopped by her companions. "Don't even think about it." "Do you want us to die?" "Relax guys, I'm just doing research." She gently picked up the orb and waited. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Then... nothing happened. "Huh. I half expected it to blow this place up." She relaxed and started to notice finer details, and found a button. "Oh. That's odd." "What is it?" Emma asked. "There's a button. I'm gonna press it and see what it does." Cass answered. "NO don't" "Oops. Too late. See, nothing happened. It's just dumb old treasure. Let's just send it to Mr. Smith." Suddenly , a bright blue beam of light emerged from the orb. the three teenagers stood in fascination at the light display. Just then, Cass's eyes felt very heavy and hard to open. She tried to keep her eyes open, but the heaviness overtook her. The last thing she could see were Emma and Derek on the floor. A couple of moments later, she heard muffled noises for a while, then silence. Then she was awakened by a slap on her face." Ow! Why did you have to slap me you nincompoop?" She said as she angrily looked at Derek. "Cass? you're awake! I though that you were dead!" Emma said. "I was telling you it was a bad idea to push the button." "It wasn't such a bad idea. Apart from this, nothing else happened. See, we're fine. Aren't we nincompoop?" " Yeah, I'm all right." Emma gave them a worried look. "All right, if you say so. Now let's get out of here. They left, but missed one major detail. The orb was lying shattered, and wisps of black mass emerged from the shards. The dark side had arrived.