What happened in chapter one

Sudi, Meri and Dalila are typical teenage girls living in Washington, D.C. until they meet Abdel, a strange young man who announces that they are descendants of ancient Egyptian pharaohs. They brush off his insistence that they must defeat the Cult of Anubis until they find themselves in possession of unmistakable powers, including the ability to transform themselves into animals, and they are forced to battle the evil forces that threaten themselves and their world. The Summoning is the first book in author Lynne Ewing's Sisters of Isis series.

Trying to wake from a dream, Sudi finds herself not in her bed, but outdoors, falling down the front steps of her house in Washington, D.C. She assumes she must have been sleepwalking, but as she is going back inside, she hears a howl that sounds more human than animal. Back in her kitchen, through the window she sees a long, snouted face with pointed ears, which she dismisses until she sees the frightened reaction of her cat, Patty Pie. Sudi is upset, but thinks she must be experiencing anxiety after her recent breakup with her boyfriend, Brian. She reflects that she hadn't been crazy about Brian — actually, she has a crush on a boy named Scott — but she and Brian had become a couple until he revealed a darker side, and she falls asleep recalling the night she wishes she could forget.

When she wakes up the following morning, Sudi finds a long bronze snake in her bed. It is decorated with Egyptian symbols and when she touches it, the symbols seem to move. As she gets ready for school, she finds her younger sisters, twins Carrie and Nicole, playing with a Ouija board, and she reminds them that their mother doesn't approve of their experimentations with magic. The girls warn her that the board has predicted that something bad will happen to her, but Sudi goes to school anyway, wondering what the board's message was.