CHAPTER 1



“Did you have a good summer, Ali” grinned Lou, “summers over so up we go to year eight!”
“Phew, you would not believe the last week of summer, Lou” Alicia panted, “terrible!”
“Let me guess…Homework, dry cleaning, ironing a uniform, packing up swimsuit having last splash with lil’ sis in the weenie pool, the usual” Lou replied, like it happened every single day.
“You know everything about everything!” Alicia smiled happily, and laughed.
“Right…and 2+2=5?” Lou joked, grinning, “anyway, I haven’t found all the facts of America”.
“But that was homework, Lou” Alicia wined, “I have a spare sheet in my locker, go on before the teacher sees”
“No way, chill out, Ali” Lou whispered, “It is totally in my Nan’s hands.”
“So you have not done it?” Alicia muttered, squinting.
“My Nan’s printing it off today, the deadline is tomorrow” Lou replied, “I did it all by myself!”
“Yo, this atmosphere totally works, ya okie, guys?” Alex interrupted, grinning in a so called ‘hip’ movement.
“Uh huh, nice….moves” Lou smirked, “trying to be fashionable, Alex?”
“So how was your summer Alex?” Alicia smiled nicely, so bright she could overthrow the sun.
Her smile was like that you see, Alicia was a beautiful, adorable girl, 14 years old on February 5th. The girls envy her, the boys fancy her, I mean her mum, dad, half the boys in the school and her boyfriend call her Munchkin, and the other half calls her baby face.
How does she get so much attention well, mmm tricky:
~ She has Baby blue eyes, large and perfectly placed
~ Long blonde hair, wavy and silky, of course
~ She eats healthily, keeps to a strict diet and has the most sassy figure any girl would wish for
~ Deep pink lips, all the trend and utterly natural, hard to believe but true
~ She always wears pink satin or velvet tops, ironed to the tip of the label
~ She wears high heels and jeans, only the newest fashion
~ She is so sweet and is loyal and true, not one touch bossy
There, is that a list long enough for you?
Anyway moving on…
“Yes, my holiday was great thanx, Munchkin”, Alex stuttered, gazing into Alicia eyes and then he winked and grinned.
“Oi, what about moi” Lou smirked, fluttering her eyelashes,” How about something for the best girl?”
Lou and Alex were going out, and were madly in love, but no one knew it, except Alicia, Lou, Alex, Max (Alicia’s boyfriend) and all their other relatives that are in their houses.
Lou was Adventurous and outgoing, loyal and true, but a daredevil in the making. She had scruffy mousy hair and loved surfer boys and always went down the beach to surf and catch a glimpse of their long flowing hair, blonde, of course. She has deep brown eyes and little faerie ears. She was active and strong and a tomboy, but at the disco once she wore a camouflage long gown, with handmade bracelets, she was beautiful, she brought out the diva within Alex always says.  For the rest of the boys not falling for Alicia they had a go trying to get her friend because her face was perfectly placed, and they loved it when she flicked her long locks and also she had little cute curls on the end of her long flowing hair, but Lou loved one and only one and knew she would keep to her promise, she went on loads of dates but none were intense or special or eye-catching enough for a call-back.
It was late luck that got Lou someone special, at last only Alex was left, so what could she do but ask him out? They laughed all the way through the date, next day, they were kissing!!!
“Oh my, Oh my”, Said Max approaching, “The loveeeers are in da’ house as Alex would say, man!”
“Max, don’t do that, snookums”, Said Alicia, cuddling up close, “What’s up?”
“Sorry Munchkin, my hunny”, Said the gorgeous-superstar-total-hot-to-most-girls-Alicia’s boyfriend, “Sorry, bro’ how are you, Alex, what’s with the hip look?”
“Um”, He quickly said, and then moved his face close to Max’s ear, “trying to impress the hot one, you know, my lover”, He whispered quietly.
“You’re trying to impress…Laurence” He shook his head talking a bit too loud. Lou’s head turned with Awe at Alex, gazing into Hazel eyes.
“I think she already is impressed” He whispered.
“I liked to be called Lou, thanks very much”, Lou smirked moving closer to Alex with each step, “You were trying to impress me?”
“Well, you know, Lou…babe, you know how it is um…um…um!!” Alex muttered, trying to act really cool though he was red hot in the face.
Alex moved a step closer to Lou and shot a movie star grin. Lou span all the way on her heel checking there was no one in the corridor, saw nothing, span her back away from Alex and fell into his arms and let out a cute, lovely, angelic giggle that Alicia and Max had never heard before.
Lou then realised what she did and blushed, span to face Alex gave him a small peck on the lips and hastily marched into the toilets where she could not be seen.
Alicia and Max stared and stared, heard the toilet door slam and Max burst out laughing.
“What are you doing Hun? Laughing? She is my friend!” Alicia sighed, though she was slightly grinning too, “Alex, does she always do that with you on dates……”
But when she took a glance at him he was running up the hallway Laughing happily.
“I guess he enjoyed it in a different way” Max beamed, just as the bell went for class, “better get going, babe see you later, my Alicia-gator, Stay safe Munchkin” Max soothed, giving Alicia a movie star grin and a romantic, slushy kiss on her smooth, gentle lips and fingered through her blonde hair, then walked down the corridor, leaving Alicia bent in the knees.
At that moment Lou shoved open the door and grinned.
“Oooooh… that must have been nice!” She Laughed, but stopped and frowned,
“you were not embarrassed…I get that, I acted like a total moron out there…I just really love him Alicia you know the way you love Max…” muttered Lou.
Lou moved closer to Alice and they burst out laughing.
“boys…” Chuckled Alicia, “what are they like!”
Lou ran forward, chuckling, grabbing Alicia by the arms and dragging her across, but when they saw the teacher stop short and walked carefully down the varnished, patterned corridor, whirled round the corner, out of sight and they ran again their hair flowing back, but Alicia could still see that Lou, outgoing old Lou, had red eyes, from crying.  
“Are you ok?” whispered Alicia, “You know, about….him”
“No…I have butterflies about him but, I just can’t be with him around here, He’s so cute to me, Al. But I don’t want him to be embarrassed, and he certainly does not want me to” Lou moaned, “Come on, we’ll be late for class” She mumbled, sadly.
“Look, he loves you, that is really important, think about that!! He won’t be embarrassed, and…Your giggle is so great, so loving, you don’t have to be embarrassed” Alicia encouraged, “Even Max was impressed” she laughed, but she was a bit envious.
Lou saw this straight away.
“Right, but Max loves you, I get it about Alex, thanks…Now let’s stop talking about boys, moving on” Lou laughed, now happy, “WE ARE SO LATE!!” she shouted and with that, raced Alicia down the corridor.
1 minute later, they were in class, being lectured about being late and everything.
“hmmm, a punishment…maybe you could do deten -”thought Mrs.Rannay, but before she could finish, the headmaster, Mr.Danbrew, the head teacher walked in and interrupted,
“These children do not need detention for a punishment as such, Mrs.Rannay; I will see them in my office now, along with Alex and Max, please…thank you”.
And with that, he beckoned the girls to follow him, and went into class 9D to get Max and Alex. They walked slowly to the head teacher’s office and sat down by the desk on chairs that had been laid out for them.
“What have I done wrong? Oh please, I’m sorry for whatever I did”, moaned Alex, preparing his apology while Max chuckled behind him.
“We are not in trouble!” Lou chuckled, cuddling up to Alex, “there must be another reason”.
  Mr.Danbrew marched in, sat down on his padded, humongous chair, slapped his hands on his desk, and clasped four booklets which were filled with instructions between his hands, looked across at the children and…grinned.
“Humph! Amazing! So you are the great four I heard from the emperor of Lantasha about, some heroes, little school children…no matter, so what is your plan!”, Mr.Danbrew squealed excitedly, then stopped short and looked at their screwed up, confused faces, and looked at the floor in shame, “you have no idea what I am talking about…do you?”.
   “Umm no…not really, um no, uh uh, not a clue!” they all muttered quietly, one after the other, trying to stop their faces become even more full with confusion and laughter.
“ Ah…ok…great…um…ok, I’ll tell you then, excuse me” Mr.Danbrew muttered as he marched out the room, and came back with swords and bows with arrows and other amazing weapons and a long flowing dress in silk pink with twinkling stars on in silver glitter . There was a no sleeves gold tank top with a long sleeved white gold glittering cut-off jacket and white flared jeans with gold patchwork flowers on, and gold bangles. Shining out was a little solid gold headband that crosses the forehead with little white diamonds in the middle, and a silver one with amethyst diamonds in the middle. There were also two brown leather jackets with gold lining and two green short sleeved t-shirts that say I shall survive and let the force be with you in a lighter shade of green and two brown trousers with a work belt full of mini-swords and a little bag to keep bows in. There were little bags with gold and silver sparkle in and little clips for hair and mini-wings that stick on your back and grow into real size wings (Lou saw one of those in the top-notch trick shop in pink and blue plastic, but it was £300 and these were not made of plastic) and there were what looked like diamond rings with lasers inside and loads of other objects which everyone did not understand.
“Do you want us to tell everyone that the theme of the disco is magic, I think it is too late for that, but I will consider it, seeing as I am a school councillor and Lou is a prefect, so she can go out of lessons unlike me, and I could announce it at our meeting.”, Alicia said without hesitation.
“Um, no, actually…how should I put this, um, ok…you were chosen, um” Mr.Danbrew spluttered.
“Chosen for what, what is it” They chorused, smiling.
“You were chosen…you were chosen…you were…” Mr.Danbrew muttered, then took a big breath and said, in an amazing speed so the words were like gobbledy goop, “YOU WERE CHOSEN AS THE WARRIORS OF MAGIC TO PROTECT LANTASHA…YOU ARE SOOOOOOO MAGIC, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE IT, YOU WERE CHOSEN TO BE THE MAGIKARS OF LANTASHA, IT IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” .Mr.Danbrew took 5 big breaths and looked up at them, and repeated slowly, “You were chosen to travel to a…parallel universe, you are full of magic, you will find it when you go to Lantasha, the parallel world, you shall have to meet a princess there, she shall help, she has lost her, the next air to the throne, her brother. They need your help, before you ask, you were chosen because, your soul is good and free and kind! It is mostly Alicia and Lou, but we chose you two, Max and Alex, because you care for these girls, they need your protection, so it is important you are there too”.
They stared at the teacher in amazement; there was a long silence, until Alex spoke first, “Is this…um…”
“True? yes, definitely, utterly true” Mr.Danbrew muttered, and then sighed, “well, if you are not up to it then…”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN UP FOR IT!” they all said, and then Lou opened her mouth and grinned, “I AM FLICKING FLYING UP THE ROOF FOR IT!!!!”
Everyone grinned and nodded, but then Max said “but wait, how can we trust you about all this?”. They all nodded.
“Look at this” Mr.Danbrew said, and then he took a piece of the clothing, put it on a massive manikin, and before they could say, “it won’t fit!” it grew in size, “now, do you believe me enough yet? Wait! Probably not yet .Okay, hold out your hand Lou, yes that’s it, now, Look carefully at your hand, visualize your hand okay, now clear your mind and keep thinking about the thing that pops into your head when your are fully relaxed, now, when I touched your first, second and third finger, breathe in on the forth and see what happens when I touch the thumb”
   Lou closed her eyes on the fourth finger, breathed in and out, then the second he pressed his podgy finger on her thumb, she stood up and before she could do anything about it she started swirling in a whirlpool of fire. Her hair flung up past her ears and stood up like a loo brush, though gently swaying so it looked like a vast sea. Her eyes flung open suddenly and became ruby red and then emerald green, her pupils vanishing as If running away, further and further.
With that she swirled around hair flying above her hair. The feeling was wonderful, she felt she could go on forever, but eventually she had to go down.
“that…was…amazing” she stumbled, grinning and catching her breath.
         Alicia looked longingly at the clothes.
“do you think I could” She muttered, “try it on?”
Everyone laughed and giggled.
“I mean see if it fits…”
  Alex went closer to the outfits,
“yeah, I will too…to try it on” he stumbled, picking a top and trying it on.
     The second they tried them on they fitted to their waist size and their right length, fitting to perfect size.
“what on the heavens!!” shrieked Alicia, bending in all different shapes breathing in and out, watching it grow and shrink as she did various movements.
“Way wicked, I look great, I have to admit!” Alex smirked, glancing at everyone staring at him, “…What?”
Lou grinned and said, walking over slowly, “course you do, b-e-a-utiful you look”.
She smiled, a smirk creeping across her face. She looked down at the swords. One was sparkling, shimmering on the tips. She picked it up and it glowed a buttercup yellow. She gazed into it and suddenly her hand was uncontrollable. She slashed with the sword like an expert.
Mr Danbrew stepped towards them, with five bag packs filled with sheets and food.
“Ok, you are ready to go” He said, with a tear in his eye, “I am going to miss my best students…”