Chapter 1

     It had been raining all day. It was one of those monotonous rains that isn't quite stormy

enough to be exciting, and isn't quite warm or sunny enough to be fun. It was just hour
after hour of bleak dreary rainfall. And the dreariness of the rain and of the chilly spring
weather didn't help anyone's mood much. It had been a long hard year. Classes had ended
last week so all they had left was exams. Those were pretty much over too. They were so
weak and weary that by their last exam they weren't thinking, they just wrote and filled
in bubbles, like every other student in each class of the uniform building.
    After meeting they subconsciously decided to go home together. But they were lethargic
and exhausted. They all decided, without expending the effort to discuss it, to ride the
humdrum drab gray bus home. When they got off the bus they still weren't talking. They
didn't even stop to say hello to their landlord, Paul. They were tired and exhausted and
took the droll boring elevator up to the second floor.
    Once in their small flat featureless apartment they were so drained they decided (without any effort) to order a pizza. But when the lifeless pizza arrived they neglected to
remember to tip the delivery boy or eat the pizza, despite how famished they were.
Exhausted, bored, and vacuous they decided it was too late. There was nothing left to
do. They just crawled into bed and fell asleep. It had been a long year and they had an
awesome summer ahead of them.
    It was a big surprise the next day when they decided to explore. The sun had finally come out and it was beginning to get warm. It was one of those days where you just look for
adventure. But for some reason, instead of exploring
the city, they decided to explore the apartment grounds. They had lived there about 6
months and were just beginning to get settled in. It was actually Jenn who came up with
the idea.
    "We should do something exciting. I love days like this; when I was little I used to go
exploring in the woods after a dreary spring rain"
    "There's nothing open this early," replied Starr "Besides, I just want to sleep."
    "It's too early to get up," echoed Josh, rolling over in his sleep. "Do we have any pizza?"
    Starr handed Josh one of the slices leftover from last night."Go back to sleep, you stupid lug," teased Starr, hitting him with a pillow.
    "I heard there's a haunted garden in the back," continued Jenn.
    "Whoever heard of a haunted garden? Gardens are enchanted, graveyards are haunted."
    "Haunted, enchanted. What's the difference?"
    "Hey! Jenn what did you do with my black T-shirt?" Josh loudly interrupted, jumping
onto the couch and knocking the two girls off.
    "Hey yourself! What'd you do that for?" asked Jenn hitting him. "Besides all your T-shirts are black."
    "Ouch! That hurt!" cried Josh. "I mean, the one you borrowed."
    "I'm still wearing it."
    "Oh. Well then, can I borrow your Superman tee?'
    "If you can fit in it.
    Starr looked over at Jenn. ”You’ve got pizza all over that shirt.”
    “Damn. I guess I’d better go change.”
    Jenn walked into her room and changed her shirt. She came out wearing a bright yellow tye-dye shirt. Starr and Josh stared at her. “I haven’t done any laundry in a while. It was the only thing left.”
    “Isn’t it a little bright?”
    “Yeah, well.. It's about time things changed a little around here.”
    Now that they were all dressed, fed, and busy wondering why these three good friends had ever decided to share an apartment, they began looking for the garden. The apartment Starr, Jenn, and Josh lived in was less of an apartment and more of a house. In fact it was a
mansion. Paul had inherited an antebellum home from his grandmother. It was too large
for one person to live alone in, so he rented its many rooms out to students from the local
university.
    Along with the house Paul had inherited 90 acres of land. It was this land the trio had set out to explore. Jenn led everyone out to the vast expanse of woods
surrounding the place. The three found a path and followed it, excited with the possibility
of an adventure, yet still tired from the last few weeks.
    "I'm hungry," Josh complained.
    "You’re always hungry, but you never bring any food," Jenn teased him as she tossed him a granola bar.
    "I'm hungry too. How long have we been out here?" Starr complained as she looked at
her watch. "It's one p.m. We've been out here almost 3 hours. Maybe we should go back,"
she pleaded.
    "I brought lunch and we don't have to be anywhere anytime soon," Jenn countered.
    "Look!" Josh said, pointing ahead. "There's a stone wall with ivy growing in it just ahead. Do you think that's the wall to the garden?"
    "I don't know," said Jenn. " Let's try and see over the wall." They ran over to it, but none of them were tall enough to look over the wall. Josh found a crack that they could all look through, however. Inside the walls they could see what they thought looked like flowers
or trees, but the crack was too small to really see anything.
    "Where's the gate?" asked Starr.
    "It has to be here somewhere," said Jenn. "If we keep following this wall we'll find it.”
    After about another hour of searching they finally found it. The gate was huge and white. It was made of wood without any cracks or spaces in it. It was so large you couldn't see
through it, around it, or under it. It was so overgrown with ivy that if they had not been
searching for it, they probably would not have found it; they would have passed it by.
    When they entered the garden the cool spring breeze suddenly became much warmer.
The sun was much higher in the sky and had a pinkish-reddish glow. "What happened?"
asked Josh. "Where are we? As they looked around, they saw how much more colorful
everything was. The trees were not green and brown, but many had trunks of red, gold,
and blue. The leaves were iridescence. They looked at each other and realized that not
only were their surroundings different colors, so were they.
    Josh's normally black hair had turned to hues of reds and brilliant gold's. The dozens
of spikes on his head were each a different color. Their skin was also different colors.
It was no longer one solid color. Different hues centered from the heart and changed as
they moved outwards spiraling in a rainbow of bright colors- of course they could not see
this yet, but would eventually come to realize it. Only the color of their clothing had not
changed.
    They agreed to split up and explore, and  to meet the following day where they had come in, at the gates. Josh went towards a purplish building with strange
haunting music coming from it. Starr decided to explore a wooded area she had seen off
in the distance. Jenn wasn't quite sure where she was going to look, but she was going to
find out as much as she could.