PROLOGUE
The story always begins the same ... until it changes.
Once upon a time, there were eight sisters who would all one day be eight years old.
At the same time.
They were octuplets, you see.
Their names were Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinnia. They were each born a minute apart on August 8, 2000. All eight had brown hair and brown eyes. And although they were all the same exact age, give or take a few minutes, each was one inch taller than the next, with Zinnia being the shortest and Annie the tallest.
On New Year's Eve 2007, their parents disappeared, or died. Their mother went into the kitchen for eggnog, their father went out to the woodshed for firewood, and neither returned.
Now the Eights must figure out what happened to their parents while keeping the outside world from discovering that eight little girls are home alone.
At the beginning of their first adventure, also known as The Sisters Eight, Book 1: Annie's Adventures, the girls became aware of the disappearance of their parents, and they found a note hidden behind a loose stone in the wall of the drawing room of their magnificent home. The note read:
Dear Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinnia,
This may come as rather a shock to you, but it appears you each possess a power and a gift. The powers you already have—you merely don't know you have them yet. The gifts are from your parents, and these you must also discover for yourselves. In fact, you must each discover both your power and your gift in order to reveal what happened to your parents. Have you got all that?
The note was unsigned.
During the course of Annie's Adventures, Annie discovered her power: the ability to be as smart as an adult when needed. She also discovered her gift: a lovely ring with a purple gemstone in it.
And what did happen to their parents? Well, we don't know that yet, do we? If we did, then this would be the end of our story, not the continuation...
CHAPTER ONE
It was the first week in February, and it wasn't like our lives were getting any easier.
Our parents, having disappeared on New Year's Eve when Mommy went to the kitchen to get eggnog and Daddy went out to the woodshed for more firewood, were still missing. Or dead.
We still hadn't found a way to get into the home of our evil neighbor the Wicket so we could find out what she had stolen from Mommy's Top Secret folder.
And we were still in the third grade at the Whistle Stop, a private school running from kindergarten through twelfth grade, where we were forced to wear ugly yellow plaid uniforms.
We were at the Whistle Stop that morning. Our only classmates were Will Simms, a towheaded boy we liked, and Mandy Stenko, a redheaded girl we didn't. Our teacher, Mrs. McGillicuddy, known to us Eights as the McG, was going on and on about something.
The McG was a tall blonde with a long nose, on the bridge of which perched horn-rimmed glasses. On this particular morning, the thing she was going on and on about was hearts.
"The heart," the McG said, "is the organ that pumps blood through your body."
"I'm pretty sure we knew that already," Georgia said.
"Is there going to be a test on this?" Petal wanted to know.
The McG ignored us.
"The heart," the McG went on, "is also one of four symbols on playing cards, the other three being the club, the diamond, and the spade."
"Does this have anything to do with your giving Will soccer trading cards for his birthday last month?" Durinda asked.
"Will doesn't even like soccer," Rebecca pointed out, forgetting how Annie had encouraged us to pretend he did on the day the McG had given Will the cards.
The McG glared at us.
"Sorry," Jackie said with a peacemaking shrug. "We thought you'd want to know."
The McG ignored us some more.
"There are several holidays in the month of February," the McG went on. "Some are national, like Presidents' Day; one has to do with predicting the weather for the next six weeks;
The story always begins the same ... until it changes.
Once upon a time, there were eight sisters who would all one day be eight years old.
At the same time.
They were octuplets, you see.
Their names were Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinnia. They were each born a minute apart on August 8, 2000. All eight had brown hair and brown eyes. And although they were all the same exact age, give or take a few minutes, each was one inch taller than the next, with Zinnia being the shortest and Annie the tallest.
On New Year's Eve 2007, their parents disappeared, or died. Their mother went into the kitchen for eggnog, their father went out to the woodshed for firewood, and neither returned.
Now the Eights must figure out what happened to their parents while keeping the outside world from discovering that eight little girls are home alone.
At the beginning of their first adventure, also known as The Sisters Eight, Book 1: Annie's Adventures, the girls became aware of the disappearance of their parents, and they found a note hidden behind a loose stone in the wall of the drawing room of their magnificent home. The note read:
Dear Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinnia,
This may come as rather a shock to you, but it appears you each possess a power and a gift. The powers you already have—you merely don't know you have them yet. The gifts are from your parents, and these you must also discover for yourselves. In fact, you must each discover both your power and your gift in order to reveal what happened to your parents. Have you got all that?
The note was unsigned.
During the course of Annie's Adventures, Annie discovered her power: the ability to be as smart as an adult when needed. She also discovered her gift: a lovely ring with a purple gemstone in it.
And what did happen to their parents? Well, we don't know that yet, do we? If we did, then this would be the end of our story, not the continuation...
CHAPTER ONE
It was the first week in February, and it wasn't like our lives were getting any easier.
Our parents, having disappeared on New Year's Eve when Mommy went to the kitchen to get eggnog and Daddy went out to the woodshed for more firewood, were still missing. Or dead.
We still hadn't found a way to get into the home of our evil neighbor the Wicket so we could find out what she had stolen from Mommy's Top Secret folder.
And we were still in the third grade at the Whistle Stop, a private school running from kindergarten through twelfth grade, where we were forced to wear ugly yellow plaid uniforms.
We were at the Whistle Stop that morning. Our only classmates were Will Simms, a towheaded boy we liked, and Mandy Stenko, a redheaded girl we didn't. Our teacher, Mrs. McGillicuddy, known to us Eights as the McG, was going on and on about something.
The McG was a tall blonde with a long nose, on the bridge of which perched horn-rimmed glasses. On this particular morning, the thing she was going on and on about was hearts.
"The heart," the McG said, "is the organ that pumps blood through your body."
"I'm pretty sure we knew that already," Georgia said.
"Is there going to be a test on this?" Petal wanted to know.
The McG ignored us.
"The heart," the McG went on, "is also one of four symbols on playing cards, the other three being the club, the diamond, and the spade."
"Does this have anything to do with your giving Will soccer trading cards for his birthday last month?" Durinda asked.
"Will doesn't even like soccer," Rebecca pointed out, forgetting how Annie had encouraged us to pretend he did on the day the McG had given Will the cards.
The McG glared at us.
"Sorry," Jackie said with a peacemaking shrug. "We thought you'd want to know."
The McG ignored us some more.
"There are several holidays in the month of February," the McG went on. "Some are national, like Presidents' Day; one has to do with predicting the weather for the next six weeks;
Similar Books
