Piper Jacobi had always thought she was a little different.  She was homeschooled in a falling down barn that her family called home.  She never thought of it as "hiding", more like being poor.  Her father didn't make much money as a school teacher and her mother was busy raising four boys and one girl.  She had never been to a mall, or a city.  She always thought that was because her mother over-protective.  She blamed her mother for being over-protective every time she replied with a strange answer.  If it was dark outside and if Piper or one of her brothers wanted to gaze at the foreign galaxies their mother always replied, "Good heavens no!  It's not good to wander in the dark."  Piper never believed her, what could be wandering in the dark near what looked like an abandoned farm house?  A stray cat, or worse... a lone deer?  But like a well- brought up girl she never asked the lingering questions that surrounded her mother's strange antics.

    Piper's father worked as a professor at a college in the next town over.  Piper was always very curious about why he would go on long vacations and work extra late.  He would usually reply, "Oh Piper, no need to worry.  I have so much work to do and too many things to learn so I'm sent around to get a better understanding of my studies."  Piper never asked what he exactly taught, she knew it was important though or he wouldn't be sent places every week.

    Piper's brothers were all older than her.  Roden was the oldest and at the age of nineteen he still lived at home. Leland was the next oldest, he was eighteen and was Roden's best friend.  They both looked like their father; so tall that their heads usually grazed the top of an average doorway and so skinny that if they turned sideways you wouldn't be able to see them.  Roden and Leland had jet black hair that gave off a blue tint and crystal clear blue eyes that looked like deep pools of Carribean Ocean water.  Dagen was the next oldest, he was sixteen and insisted on being called 'Dag.'  The youngest brother was Kristopher or Topher; he was fifteen and was Dag's best friend.  They both looked like their mother.  Dag and Topher were on the shorter side and when they stood next to Roden or Leland, the crown on their heads came up to their older brother's chests.  Dag and Topher were extremely handsome with dark caramel eyes and perfect smiles that formed dimples on their cheeks; they also had light blond hair that glimmered in the sunlight.  As for Piper, she was not only the youngest and the only girl; but she looked like neither Dagen and Kristopher nor Roden and Leland.  She was average height, average weight, and she had average looks.  Piper's hair was mousy brown and her eyes were a bizarre violet color.  She also got along fairly well with the group of oldest brothers and the group of younger brothers; but she didn't have a sister, she felt like she was missing the other half that made her feel complete.