Astabiana was an average girl living in an average town, or so everybody thought. Now, when I say that wasn't quite true, I don't mean that Astabiana wasn't an average girl, I mean that her town wasn't normal. Scogliere Sul Mare is perched on an old island in the middle of the Mare Sea; it's so old that Isolen, the country the island once belonged to, forgot that it even existed. Astabiana lives in the white house on the ridge along with her grandparents. Miercolette, Astabiana's best friend lives next door. The shy kid lives across the street and Verdesa's house is down the road. Astabiana, or Biana as her friends called her, stared out her bedroom window, looking toward the sea. If you ran over to the Oles' car and crawled under the bushes behind the trunk, you would reach what Biana liked to call, The Edge of The Sea. She would scurry into her nook every morning before school and every afternoon after school. Biana hated being away from her secret fort, and so she hated attending school. Is Scogliere Sul Mare, school is a bit different than you might imagine. The towns' school buildings consisted of almost a quarter of the total buildings. Each different group, or Gruppo, had its own school building. These buildings ranged from the size of your average gas station to the size of the parliament building of 6th Street. Biana was assigned to Numero del Gruppo 17, and attended Scuola di Numero del Gruppo 17. Scuola di Numero del Gruppo 17 was located on the far side of town in The Docks, or I Moli. When she did go to school, Biana was sullen and distant. She didn't interact with the other students or the teachers.