PROLOGUE
Hello again.
I'd have put an exclamation point after that but I'm not feeling very exclamatory at the moment. Then again, neither are most of the Eights.
Dread. Now there's a word for the old vocabulary list. Dread, a noun meaning "a great fear, especially in the face of impending evil." Dread —we'll get back to this shortly.
I suppose you're wondering what will happen to the Eights next. "And then what happened?"—this is the question that has driven storytellers for centuries, for millennia even. It's the question that drives readers to turn to the next page.
But before we begin turning pages, we must once again do a brief recap for those of you who have been away from the story for a few months, although the story itself is ongoing even in your absence.
Very well.
The Huit octuplets need to figure out what happened to their parents, those parents who so inconveniently disappeared around ten o'clock at night on December 31, 2007. But before they can do that, each sister must discover her own individual power and gift. Thus far, six of the eight sisters have done their parts.
Annie: p ower—can think like an adult when necessary; gift—purple ring
Durinda: p ower—can freeze people, except Zinnia; gift—green earrings
Georgia: p ower—can become invisible; gift—gold compact
Jackie: p ower—faster than a speeding train; gift—red cape
Marcia: p ower—X-ray vision; gift—purple cloak
Petal: p ower—can read people's minds; gift—silver charm bracelet
Two of the Eights, Rebecca and Zinnia, have yet to do their parts. And that is the problem currently facing the Eights. You see, like you, they would like to get on with the story. They would love, perhaps even more than you, to discover the answer to the burning question "And then what happened?" They'd particularly like to know that because at the end of Book 6: Petal's Problems, some new and interesting information came to light.
But what happens next may be a big problem:
Rebecca is next.
Oh, if only Zinnia were next, seven of them say to themselves, particularly Zinnia. I can't say I disagree. If Zinnia were next, everything would be sweetness and light; adorable Zinnia cares hardly at all about getting her power and mostly focuses on her gift. Oh, if only the Eights could leapfrog right over July and into August.
Unfortunately, time doesn't work that way. There is a natural order of things even when dealing with an unnatural creature such as Rebecca.
Durinda might have been concerned about the nature of her power, but Petal is the only Eight to ever flat-out not want hers.
Well, seven out of eight Eights polled don't want Rebecca to have her power.
And now we come full circle to...
Dread.
Let the fireworks, as they say, begin.
ONE
We would have liked to be solving the mysteries of the universe, or at least the mysteries of our universe. In particular, we would have liked to be focusing on the recently acquired knowledge that, in addition to having a crazy younger sister, our missing mother had an identical twin named Queen. In super-particular, we would have liked to be focusing on the fact that Queen and her husband, Joe Ocho, had some offspring, number unspecified, that we had strong reason to believe were those ominous beings known as the Other Eights.
But we couldn't do any of that, could we?
We couldn't do any of that because (1) we were asleep, it being that time period ridiculously referred to as "the middle of the night"—ridiculous because dead in the middle of the period most people are asleep, night formally becomes morning; (2) we had something more immediate that was weighing on at least seven of our minds, even if those minds were currently slumbering; and (3) just as the clock turned over to 12:01 a.m. on July 1, seven of us were rudely awakened by the sound of "Hup one! Hup two!" shouted from below.
We tried to ignore it. We really did. Some of us needed our beauty rest, some of us needed that nighttime respite
Hello again.
I'd have put an exclamation point after that but I'm not feeling very exclamatory at the moment. Then again, neither are most of the Eights.
Dread. Now there's a word for the old vocabulary list. Dread, a noun meaning "a great fear, especially in the face of impending evil." Dread —we'll get back to this shortly.
I suppose you're wondering what will happen to the Eights next. "And then what happened?"—this is the question that has driven storytellers for centuries, for millennia even. It's the question that drives readers to turn to the next page.
But before we begin turning pages, we must once again do a brief recap for those of you who have been away from the story for a few months, although the story itself is ongoing even in your absence.
Very well.
The Huit octuplets need to figure out what happened to their parents, those parents who so inconveniently disappeared around ten o'clock at night on December 31, 2007. But before they can do that, each sister must discover her own individual power and gift. Thus far, six of the eight sisters have done their parts.
Annie: p ower—can think like an adult when necessary; gift—purple ring
Durinda: p ower—can freeze people, except Zinnia; gift—green earrings
Georgia: p ower—can become invisible; gift—gold compact
Jackie: p ower—faster than a speeding train; gift—red cape
Marcia: p ower—X-ray vision; gift—purple cloak
Petal: p ower—can read people's minds; gift—silver charm bracelet
Two of the Eights, Rebecca and Zinnia, have yet to do their parts. And that is the problem currently facing the Eights. You see, like you, they would like to get on with the story. They would love, perhaps even more than you, to discover the answer to the burning question "And then what happened?" They'd particularly like to know that because at the end of Book 6: Petal's Problems, some new and interesting information came to light.
But what happens next may be a big problem:
Rebecca is next.
Oh, if only Zinnia were next, seven of them say to themselves, particularly Zinnia. I can't say I disagree. If Zinnia were next, everything would be sweetness and light; adorable Zinnia cares hardly at all about getting her power and mostly focuses on her gift. Oh, if only the Eights could leapfrog right over July and into August.
Unfortunately, time doesn't work that way. There is a natural order of things even when dealing with an unnatural creature such as Rebecca.
Durinda might have been concerned about the nature of her power, but Petal is the only Eight to ever flat-out not want hers.
Well, seven out of eight Eights polled don't want Rebecca to have her power.
And now we come full circle to...
Dread.
Let the fireworks, as they say, begin.
ONE
We would have liked to be solving the mysteries of the universe, or at least the mysteries of our universe. In particular, we would have liked to be focusing on the recently acquired knowledge that, in addition to having a crazy younger sister, our missing mother had an identical twin named Queen. In super-particular, we would have liked to be focusing on the fact that Queen and her husband, Joe Ocho, had some offspring, number unspecified, that we had strong reason to believe were those ominous beings known as the Other Eights.
But we couldn't do any of that, could we?
We couldn't do any of that because (1) we were asleep, it being that time period ridiculously referred to as "the middle of the night"—ridiculous because dead in the middle of the period most people are asleep, night formally becomes morning; (2) we had something more immediate that was weighing on at least seven of our minds, even if those minds were currently slumbering; and (3) just as the clock turned over to 12:01 a.m. on July 1, seven of us were rudely awakened by the sound of "Hup one! Hup two!" shouted from below.
We tried to ignore it. We really did. Some of us needed our beauty rest, some of us needed that nighttime respite
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