THOSE GOOD TEEN YEARS (Book 1)

Chapter One: Something Like A Voodoo Cermony

The closet finally looked like a closet. Sienna gave a content sigh as she saw the pinks with the pinks and the oranges with the oranges. Just how a closet should be: colour cordinated.

With nothing better to do than just lie around, Sienna decided to surf the net. Maybe she could check out shoes- her favourite objects- or the new autumn collection that was coming out for the new school year. While her laptop booted up, she thought about her friends. she probably shouldn't have been thinking that they ditched her tonight, since they had a valid reason.

She was the queen bee of her grade, and SHE was FREE. The universe had a sick sense of humour.

As she was surfing and contemplating on what to buy- the cute pair of wedges or the mean-looking boots-she came upon a blinking, bold sign that said:

" 'TERRIBLE TEENS' by Miranda Walters, child psychologist, Psychology Today."

Sienna stopped. Terrible teens? 

She had just turned 13, and she thought that the teen years would be full of life and fun. But this was written by a psychologist. She hesitated over clicking the link, but finally curiosity won over and she clicked it. What she found was almost heart chilling:

"The teen years, or as we psychologists like to say, the stage of adolescence, has both its positive and negative points. Positive would be that the individual comes out of childhood and can begin to think for himself/herself. The teenager can see through the hypocrisy adults use. They become intelligent creatures. However, I believe the negative outweighs the positive. The sudden volley of changes that smack into a teenager are immense. The hormonal mood swings become intense, friends may not remain friends, your academic performance may drop down etc. The need to be noticed becomes a prominent goal, and such things may lead to huge emotional changes. This, is why I have mentioned it as terrible; there can be good things about it, but beware of the negative ones."

Now Sienna was truly chilled, even if the weather was stifling hot. The whole article was creepy, but only one specific line echoed again and again in her mind.

FRIENDS MAY NOT REMAIN FRIENDS

For Sienna, her friends were her greatest treasures in the world. NOTHING could make her trade for them; they were unique, beautiful and kept her in check. She had been with them since 4th grade, when she was new to this society. And NOTHING could break them apart. Not even the so called 'terrible teens'.

She quickly made her decision, and instantly sent a text message to her friends. The message was short:

Meet me @ d Promenade in 10, near the Ghost Hall Shop. Very Imp, do not ignore or I swear I'll kill u.

Now was the time to put her plan into action.

                  *****

The Ghost Hall Shop was a closed shop in the Promenade, a fancy, huge mall with all the necessities anyone needed. Its name wasn't really Ghost Hall, but the place was so creepy and freaky, everyone assumed that it must have been haunted. Tonight, Sienna was to meet her five best friends: Emma, Alison, Luke, Peter and Lincoln. When she reached there, she already found Luke and Lincoln waiting there. Her heartbeat quickened when Luke smiled at her, but she pushed those thoughts away for later. Right now she had to focus on the task ahead.

At that precise moment Ali, Peter and Emma came to complete the group. As usual, Ali was straight to the point.

"Ok, Si, you're going to tell us RIGHT NOW what the hell is going on. You kinda freaked me out with that lame ass text, and honestly? Why at freaking 11 in the night?"

Emma too nodded, as did the others. She suddenly realized that she had called them at night, and they, like her, had probably had to sneak out. God only knew how Emma managed that, since she was the pristine little princess (and a nerd).

"Ok, before you all start yelling at me, this is IMPORTANT. I mean it. I'm going to tell you the whole story. Right. So, I was surfing the net for shoes- no, do NOT laugh, Ali- and I came across this article about the Terrible Teens."

With this, she told them everything that she read in the article. At the end, she finally told her plan.

"So, we are going to promise to each other that we will remain together till we are nineteen, no matter what problems and shit the teen years throw at us. Ok?" She looked around. They seemed...surprised by her intensity to keep their friendship intact. One by one they smiled. Then Peter spoke.

"What do you want us to do?"

Sienna smiled. This was it, she thought happily. They'll HAVE to promise.

"We're going to bind this promise with the Blood Oath."

An almost massive groan sounded, and Sienna felt embarrassed that she still believed in something that fascinated her when she was nine. But she stood firm. Sure, the thing was childish and a little creepy, but it always worked.

"Aw, hell no, " Ali groaned, disgust clear on her face. " I can't believe you sill believe in that shit. What is wrong with you? You know what people will say when they find out? They're gonna say that she's some voodoo obsessed freak! Do we have to do this?" Ali was nothing but blunt, and Sienna was long used to her harsh but honest opinions. She simply nodded.

"And I trust you not to blab about it to PEOPLE. " She said. "We're gonna do this. I'm sorry, but please, for me. Please????"

They all nodded, and Sienna took out a big bowl, a Swiss Army knife, a lighter, some water in a bottle, paper and a pen. These were the 'ingredients' required for the blood oath, an oath Sienna formed after watching some weird occult thing on the T.V. According to this, one wrote their promise on a sheet of paper, read the promise allowed and then burnt it to ashes.then you mixed the ash with some water, added a drop of your blood in the paste, and then applied the paste (a little) on the back of your hand. Minor voodoo stuff.

When they did all of the above (Ali and Peter rolling their eyes), Sienna was satisfied. She smiled. She felt at ease. 

"Thank you guys so much!!! Next Binge treat is on me, ok? See you in school next week." Maybe she said it extra cheerfully, because even Emma murmured 'freak', letting her know that what she was doing was really stupid. But Sienna didn't care. She had a goal in life for the next seven years- a positive goal at that. She was happy. And, hey, it wasn't wrong to be happy. 

Wishing them goodnight, she treaded her way back to her house (or mansion-it was more appropriate). She could barely wait for the new school year to start.

It would be a long week.