Chapter 1

"Akai Ito

An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet...

Regardless of time, place or circumstance....

The thread can stretch or tangle,

but it will never break."

- Ancient Chinese belief.

***

Prologue - Sofia Adams

As long as I can remember they have always been there.

Ethan Hernandez was my neighbor on the left, Nick Williams on the right.

We grew up practically together. Each two years apart. Ethan was two when Nick was born and Nick was two when I was born. Which made Ethan and me four years apart. It wasn't much.

The three of us became best friends. While Nick always encouraged my craziness Ethan was the voice of reason. We were an even-tempered trio. Inseparable. We were perfect after Anne and Tom joined the group. The years we spent together were definitely the best years of my life.

Every day for years on end we would meet in our tree house after school.

Ethan taught me to read for endless afternoons, my first kiss was there, and consequently Nick's was also there.

The first time I saw Ethan drunk, Anne's first broken heart, and when Tom got his driver's license. Even though it was confiscated that same day for him hitting the tree in our tree house. Typical Tom.

Looking back I cannot understand how my life became what it is now. How could I have gotten so deep into the pit? At what point did everything go wrong?

I think of the things I could have done differently. Maybe we would all still be together today.

***

Chapter 1

Sofia Adams - October, 1994

I left the house and ran around the yard completely happy with what I had just accomplished. My bare feet touched the green grass and tripped over a few rocks on the way.

I looked left and right indecisively about who I should tell first.

Finally, I decided to run to the left. Ethan would love to know, he was just as excited as I was, even if he wouldn't say anything.

Ethan had been acting like an annoying adult lately.

I found him leaving the house when I hugged him excitedly. Ethan was used to my outbursts and quickly hugged me back.

There was a distinct size difference between us, he was getting taller by the day, he had turned eleven last month and it seemed that I was falling behind with my few seven years of life.

I hated the age difference, my consolation was that I was not so far away from Nick.

“Hey Ethan, Dad agreed to make our tree house, isn't that cool?” my shrill, shrieking voice reached Ethan's ears easily.

He smiled instantly.

“Really? Will he let me help?” he asked hopefully.

I rolled my eyes. It was Ethan's face that he was more excited about building the house than having it afterwards.

“I think so, he likes you. He says you seem much more 'in the know' than the rest of us." I replied with a grimace, not really understanding what my father meant by that, but it seemed like a good thing.

Ethan pulled me out of the hug.

“Come, let's tell the others.”

We then headed for my neighbor's house on the right.

Nick was playing video games with his new friend, Tom. He had moved into the neighborhood about a year ago and occupied the house next door to Nick's. I didn't like Tom very much. I was used to Ethan and Nick, they were there when I was born, but Tom was new and picked on me a lot. He kept calling me Sun, that was the name of his grandma's dog.

I watched Ethan greet Nick with that weird touch that they invented and never taught me. Idiots.

Tom smiled and held out a controller to Ethan while I plopped down on the familiar couch and watched them play.

“Ethan, come on” I jumped up on the couch, I was dying of excitement.

Ethan laughed.

“Tell me what?” Nick asked without taking his eyes off the television.

“Uncle Ben...” Ethan began quietly.

Why did Ethan have to be so slow?

“My dad's going to build our tree house!” I shouted excitedly, running over Ethan's words.

Nick shouted along with me, Tom just laughed and said that was pretty cool.

“We should go over there and beg him to start it today," Nick said.

That's why Nick and I were friends, he always went into everything head on, just like I did.

Soon, the three of us were getting up and running outside, but we interrupted our run at an abrupt stop at the door, our eyes focused across the street.

There, getting out of a car parked in the house opposite mine, carrying a pink backpack on her back was a girl. Looking about my age, she looked like a blond angel with rosy cheeks.

“I wonder who she is?” asked Nick, curious to no one in particular.

“I think it's the new residents of the house," Ethan replied.

“You could go talk to her, Sun" was the only thing Tom said, shrugging his shoulders afterwards like it was no big deal.

“Hey, girl," I shouted loudly across the street, and the girl, until then oblivious to the three pairs of eyes staring at her, looked surprised at my call. After a brief moment of pondering and a positive nod from her parents, she crossed the street.

“What are you doing?” Tom asked in a panic.

“Talking to her, isn't that what you told me to do?” I questioned. What a silly question.

“Not now," he grumbles.

She comes to the group looking embarrassed.

“My friend wants you to be our friend," and I pointed at Tom. He in turn looked as if he would rather die than be there.

“What? That's not what I said," Tom replied, turning his face away while Nick and Ethan laughed.

“That's what I understood.”

She stared uncomfortably at her feet, not knowing how she should act.

“We're going to start making a tree house today, do you want to come?” I invited. Finally a girl to play with me.

Ethan promptly glared at me. I bet he thought my parents would never let us help, but I had my tricks.

“Sure, it'll be great," she finally replied with a smile. In her smile there was a missing front tooth and I, who had a soft tooth, could already see myself planning to pull it out together.

We shook hands as we walked to my house.

“My name is Anne," she said softly, breaking the silence.

“Mine is Sofia," I answered, smiling, "and now I think we can be the Fantastic Four!” I declared excitedly, I loved that movie too much, it was the first one my parents took me to see months ago.

“Sofia, here there are five, not four” reminded Ethan.

But I wasn't considering Tom... Whatever. Ethan gave me a scolding look as if he knew what I was thinking. Arhg, I hated it when he looked at me like that.

I had hoped one day to have friends so that we could be the The Powerpuff Girls, or the totally spies, but since I only had boy friends, Fantastic Four would do for now.

“We'll think of a better name than the Fantastic Four," Nick said with a laugh.

“Let's have a contest!” I suggested energetically as we walked into my house.

“How about the Heavy Quintet?” asked Nick, making me laugh.

“Never," I replied with conviction, "it was a ridiculous name.”

“The five detective?” suggested Tom.

“And of course Ace Ventura has nothing to do with the name, right?” asked Ethan, messing up Tom's awful hair do that looked just like the guy in the movie.

We all laughed as we sat on the couch in the living room and said names worse than each other.

From that day on we became a group, even Tom was part of it.

We never decided on a name because of lack of agreement, but that didn't matter. What came from our group of five changed our whole life.