Emma walked into the gym of St. Francis' school. Her team was here for a volleyball tournament, and they had lost every game so far. She looked around, and her eyes landed on a slender girl sitting on the bleachers. Emma recognized her as Anastasia, the outside hitter from the St. Francis team. She had been playing against her for years in both volleyball and basketball. Anastasia was tall, with short blond hair and an athletic build. Emma walked towards Anastasia, and the other girl looked up at her, not meeting Emma's gray-blue eyes. "Hey! Nice hits in your last game. You're the outside hitter, right? Your hits are amazing." Emma stood there, but the girl didn't respond. Then,
"Hey!" a voice greeted to her right, and Emma turned to see another girl standing there. This girl was about five foot eight with blond hair and deep brown eyes. Her hair was streaked with highlights, and she had a slender, well-muscled build. Emma recognized her as Stella, the middle of St. Francis.
"Hello," Emma smiled. Stella smiled back, her eyes squinting as she smiled. The two began to talk and sat down in the bleachers.
Stella and Emma sat and talked for the entire game, watching Lake Region play Redstorm.
"Wow, they are literally being carried by one player," Stella said, looking at the court.
"Which team?" Emma asked.
"Lake Region," Stella said, motioning to the court. Emma looked out on the court, and her eyes landed on the middle hitter, number 14.
"Nikole," Emma said aloud, looking at the five eight Lake Region player. Stella nodded. Both girls recognized her from past years of sports.
"I always considered her more of a basketball player," Stella said.
Emma shrugged. She hadn't been in Varsity sports as much. "I remember playing her last year for basketball," she said aloud. "That was such a fun game! And she's clearly the best player on their volleyball team."
Stella nodded her agreement, studying the court. As the game continued, Emma began to feel random bursts of emotion: happiness, sadness, anxiety, anger, and other random feelings. She brushed them out of the way and waved goodbye to Stella as Stella went to take tickets for the people who were still coming in to watch the tournament. Emma got up and walked over to where the team from Chisago was sitting. She spotted Becca, one of Chisago's middle hitters. She was very tall, about six feet, the same height as Emma, with straight blond hair, an oval face, blue eyes, and a slender frame. Emma had talked to Becca once or twice but never in depth.
"Hey, Becca," she said. Becca was sitting with a laptop on her lap. She looked up.
"Hi."
"What's up?"
"Working on my outline for Composition. It is an online PSEO class."
"Really? I'm in that class too!" Emma said and sat down next to her. "What are you doing your report on?" After a few minutes, Mariah, Becca's younger sister, walked up. She looked a lot like Becca, but her hair was lighter and very curly.
"Becca, I found Stella!"
"Really?" Becca asked, and she put her laptop to the side and followed Mariah. Emma trailed behind them to the ticket table, where Stella sat with a few others.
"You know Stella?" Emma asked Becca.
"Yeah, Stella's amazing. I love her so much."
Emma walked back into the gym, and Sunny, a tall, dark-haired Indian girl with long hair and a very slender frame from Woodcrest, walked up to her, carrying her bags.
"Hey!" Emma greeted, hugging her. As Emma hugged Sunny, she felt a wave of emotions roll through her, but not her emotions. Emma frowned, confused by the feeling, but shook it off, forcing herself to smile again. "Great job in your game!"
"Thanks," Sunny said. Emma realized she could still feel twinges of random emotions around her.
"How are you doing?" Emma asked.
"Pretty good, but I have to leave now; our team's going back home," Sunny said.
"See you later!" Emma said, waving as Sunny left.
Just then, the team from Fourth Baptist entered the gym. One of the girls, a five-foot-ten girl with long, thin blond hair, light blue eyes, and pale skin pulled into a ponytail, immediately ran over to Emma and hugged her.
"Lilly!" Emma cried with excitement and hugged her friend. Emma and Lilly had met two years before, after a JV basketball game. Emma smiled at the memory. Lilly had chipped one of Emma's front teeth during the game, and both girls still laughed about it now. "Have you gotten a chance to play yet?" Emma asked. Lilly was one of the Fourth bench players, but she got to play occasionally.
"Not yet, but I probably will get a chance when we play Chisago," Lilly said.
"Nice," Emma said. Lilly looked at Emma and felt a weird sensation in her arms.
"My arms feel really weird," Lilly said, shaking them out.
Emma frowned. "Hmm, that's strange."
Lilly shrugged. "Probably just excited. Coach told me I get to play a lot more today!"
Emma smiled at her. "That's awesome!"
"I'd better go," Lilly waved, and Emma waved back to her as she turned and followed her team onto the court.
Stella sat at the ticket table, feeling her muscles tingling strangely. She stretched her arms, slightly confused, but ignored the feeling. Her team was playing later, and she had to be ready for the game. Moriah, the setter on her team, walked past and smiled at her.
"Hey, Stella. Want to come with me to get some food from concessions?" Stella nodded, getting up to follow her.
Becca sat on the bus on the way to her house after the tournament. Their team had lost to Redstorm, supposedly the easiest team, but they had improved significantly since the previous year. Becca didn't know what had happened, but her head hurt a lot. She hadn't hit it, but it was throbbing like she had. Maybe she was getting a migraine, though she had never experienced anything like this before.
That night Emma lay in her bed, thinking. She had gotten Stella's number and already felt she had known her for years. Emma hoped their friendship would grow; Stella seemed like a fantastic person. Emma rubbed her forehead. The emotions had disappeared, but she could still sense them in the back of her mind as if they would return the next day.
Stella stepped into school the next day feeling incredible. She had slept well, and the strange tingling feeling had disappeared almost completely. She moved much more smoothly than she ever had. In warmups, everything seemed to slow down for her as she approached and hit the ball better than she ever had. She caught a glimpse of Emma as she walked into the gym, but Stella focused on her hits. Her team was playing Fourth, the most challenging team in their conference, and she had to be on her A-game.
Emma walked into the gym, saw Stella, and immediately felt a rush of emotions. She managed to target excitement and anxiety from the St. Francis girls and the same mix from the Fourth girls. Most of the people in the gym were bored, waiting for the games to begin, but bits of sadness and happiness were sprinkled in there. Emma couldn't pinpoint each emotion to the person they belonged to, so it was like a flood coming at her. She closed her eyes and focused on Stella. She looked so confident and happy. Emma focused on those emotions and managed to block out the rest of the flood threatening to overwhelm her mind.
Lilly stared at the St. Francis team. She felt different this morning as if she could do anything. As her team lined up to hit, she hit the ball, and it went flying into the opposite wall, much harder than Lilly had intended. She ignored it and ran to get the ball, catching the eye of the Woodcrest middle hitter, Sunny.
Sunny looked at the Fourth player. She had never talked to her before, but as soon as their eyes locked, she felt something like a wind had brushed past her. She smoothed her hair and turned back to her best friend. "You look distracted." she said.
Sunny shrugged. "Just a weird feeling."
The game began, and Stella felt like she was sliding through the game, moving faster and smoother than she had ever done before. They ended up losing the game, but Stella felt better than she ever had before. She walked off the court, passing Becca as she walked into the building.
"I'm sorry you lost." Becca said.
"How did you know?" Stella asked.
Becca froze. "I don't know..."
Stella opened her mouth, about to say something, but she was pulled past Becca by one of the other girls on her team.
After Emma finished her game, she ran over to Stella. "Stella, I'm getting this bizarre feeling."
Stella nodded. "I've felt much faster than I've ever been before since we talked." The two girls stared at each other.
"Something strange is going on here." Emma said.
"Have you chosen yet?" A dark figure stood in the front of the room.
The woman bowed. "I've chosen five, my queen. They are the best of the best. The smartest player, the friendliest, the most creative, the nicest, and the most honest. Three of them have even carried magic before, in another life. And they all are connected to each other, now more than anyone else."
"Good." the figure said. "What team are they from?"
"Five different teams, my queen."
"What?"
"St. Francis, Rosemount, Chisago, Woodcrest, Fourth. One from each."
"How are they connected?"
"All are connected through the St. Francis and Rosemount girls. Most of them know each other as well."
The figure nodded. "A different approach than I thought, but this may work even better."
"So, you wish for me to claim them?"
"Yes, as soon as possible. Our world depends on it."
Becca walked past Stella and Emma.
"Hey, Becca." Stella called out in greeting.
Becca looked around and stepped next to them. "Hey, so I've been having these bad headaches, and I don't know why. I think I'm allergic to something in this gym. Stella, do you know where I can get ibuprofen?"
Stella nodded. "Yeah, come with me."
The three girls started walking down the hall, and suddenly everything went dark.
Sunny was talking with Julia, her team's setter, when the lights went out. Sunny felt a hand on her arm, and suddenly she was falling through the air.
Lilly was sitting on the bench watching the game when the lights went out. She felt movement under her feet, and suddenly she felt herself falling.
Stella opened her eyes and almost screamed. She was sitting in a chair facing a large throne. She looked around and saw Emma, Lilly, Becca, and Sunny sitting in chairs around her. Lilly, Sunny, and Emma's eyes were still closed, but Becca's were open. She locked eyes with Stella.
"What's going on?" Stella mouthed, and Becca shook her head. She had no idea, either. A light flashed over the throne, revealing someone sitting there. The other three girls opened their eyes, and all five stared at the throne.
The person sitting on the throne stood up, and the lights turned on, revealing a tall woman wearing a crown. "Welcome," she declared. "My name is Queen Idina. I need your help. My country is under attack by the shadowy creatures we call shades from your world. After your world banished them, they came to mine. My army has been crushed, destroyed, or captured, and more shades flood in every day. Our only chance of survival was to choose five people from the Overworld, and my seer chose each of you. You were each slipped a potion in your food as soon as my seer chose you, and your abilities should have already begun to manifest. Now that you are here, your full powers should be realized."
"What powers?" Stella asked.
"The potion gifted abilities to each of you based on your personalities and abilities. The powers will continue to grow. But we need you now. These creatures are now attacking the wall around my city. They're being assisted by the monsters in my world before, the vampires and werewolves. My people are dying as we speak."
"What are we supposed to do? We're just teenagers. Volleyball players." Emma said.
"And basketball players," Stella added.
"Not me." Sunny put in.
Emma glanced at them and then continued. "We're not warriors." she finished.
The queen nodded. "I know, but my seer told me that you are the ones who will save us. And she is rarely wrong."
"I'm never wrong." a voice said from the corner, and all five girls whirled around. The seer was standing behind them, wearing a dark hooded robe. She removed her hood, and all five girls gasped.
"Hey, you were watching the game from the balcony." Stella said. She had seen the woman watching them earlier, but she had assumed she was from one of the other teams.
The seer smiled at them.
"I have gifts for each of you." she said and led them into a room. Stella and the others looked at each other, completely confused, but followed her. The woman led them into a room full of weapons. "Each of you may choose what you need before I escort you to the battlefield."
"Aren't you going to tell us anything else?" Becca asked.
"Oh, right." the seer said. She took Becca's hand and then each of the others in turn, except Emma. As she turned to face Emma, all four girls dropped to the ground.
"What did you do?" Emma asked, staring in horror at her friends. What was wrong with them?
"They'll wake up with all the necessary memories and fighting knowledge." the seer said.
"What about me?" Emma asked. The seer took Emma's hand, and all the knowledge filled Emma's mind, crowding out her memories. Images of death and dark creatures filled Emma's mind, and her eyes filled with tears as she witnessed the doom and sadness that filled this world. "Why am I still awake?" she asked.
The seer stared at her. "One of you must retain all your former memories. Those four will wake up with all the knowledge of our world, just like you, but they won't remember much of the old world. It is for their safety and their mental health. Your mind is the strongest of all of you. You must remind them of their real lives so they don't lose themselves."
Emma nodded slowly and looked around the room. Her new knowledge told her that the curved swords would be the best option, but she was probably too weak for them.
Stella opened her eyes and frowned. She felt strange as if she was forgetting something. Then she remembered. The shades. People were in danger. She leapt to her feet and scanned the room. She reached for two swords and buckled the sheaths around her waist and turned to look around. Becca had stood and was testing the balance of a longsword. Emma was testing a large bow, and Sunny was spinning a staff. Stella turned and saw Lilly sheathing multiple knives into her belt and hoisting a giant mace.
"Are you sure you have enough knives?" Emma teased Lilly, and Lilly shrugged.
"Maybe I should bring an extra just in case you get too annoying."
"Whoa there," Becca said, swinging her sword to test the weight. "Save it for the enemy."
Emma glanced at Becca. "Huh. For some reason, I expected you to grab an axe," she said, glancing at the wall of axes. "You know, because of your name."
Becca stared at Emma. "How did you know my name means axe?"
"Wait, it does?" Stella asked, looking up from the array of sword belts.
Becca nodded. "Yeah. Odd, isn't it?"
"My name means lily." Lilly said.
"Really? I had no idea." Emma joked.
"Do you just know the meanings of random names?" Becca asked Emma.
The other girl shrugged. "I know a lot of random facts. Good memory, you know?"
Becca nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. I didn't choose an axe because I liked the sword better."
She hoisted her sword, and Stella smiled. The longsword was beautiful, but she felt more comfortable with her double blades. She was distracted by the seer clearing her throat and tapping her foot.
"I think she wants us to be done." Stella laughed.
The seer led the five girls out of the room.
"Are you prepared?" The queen asked, and they nodded.
"How are five girls supposed to change the tide of a war?" Lilly asked, confused.
"You've been gifted with powers. They will come out when necessary." the queen said. "In the past, a single gifted could destroy hundreds of these so-called shades. We've created five to save our world, but..." she looked at her seer. "We used the last of our potion. If you fail, we're all doomed, and once our world is conquered, the shades will move to the next world. It all comes down to you."