Five friends from small-town America. Five friends with secrets. Jake, the "fearless leader," and Marco, the "class clown" who used humor to mask pain and intelligence, for whom scholarship was the only thing allowing him to attend university. Cassie, the tree-hugging, wildlife-loving nature nut, Rachel, the fearless gymnast and her boyfriend Tobias - a "rescued" street boy who's recently discovered inheritance and his cleverness were connected to secrets he never wanted to reveal to anyone. These five friends had a past they wanted to forget, which was the reason that they moved states away to escape their memories.
The five friends met three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Isaac, the almost 23-year-old guitarist for the brothers' band Hanson. He was a "computer geek" with a tendency to run at the mouth and ramble incessantly. Taylor, the "pretty boy" heartthrob of a keyboard player who's imagination and love of journaling was leading him to pursue an English/Creative Writing major. And Zac, the smart-mouthed head banging drummer, who had hidden his love of math and sciences until he finally had the chance to explore the challenging classes his mother couldn't teach him. They were the members of Hanson, three people often treated as one unit, who were ready to explore their live.
Soon the three brothers would find their lives entangled with those of their new friends and roommates. But five and three together number only eight. So in Cassie and Rachel's new roommates they met the two girls who would round out their numbers. Sonya, a wild, spicy redhead who's up-front attitude was a perfect match for Rachel. And Cassie's roommate Noreen. Nory, a "PK," or "Preacher's Kid" of Pakistani background immigrated to the States with her family as a young child, due to religious persecution and a lack of popularity, since they were openly Christian in a Hindu country.. She was a soft-spoken girl, but she knew how to have fun. Ten young people started university in 2003, not knowing what the year would bring, not understanding how important their friendship would be on the survival of the world.