[I think there are spoilers...]
I just started reading a book called Awakened by PC and Kristen Cast. It's the eighth book in the House of Night series. Zoey Redbird was marked by a vampyre, and to make it through the change she moves into the House of Night. She discovers she has very unique and strong powers granted to her by the Goddess Nyx. With her friends they discover secrets and get rid of evil. Throughout the series I noticed that Zoey has to take a lot of responsibility, and Zoey feels responsible for her friends, but she gets through it because of their support.
Zoey Redbird is still a fledgling, and she will be until she completes the change, if she does. But even as a fledgling, Zoey has to take on a lot of responsibility. Zoey is named the leader of the Dark Daughters, a kind of social group with lots of benefits. But as leader, Zoey has to plan all of the rituals, and set up rules. Not to mention, erasing the ways the last leader had things (which was not very well). But Zoey faces these problems head-on, and asks her friends for guidance and advice. When Zoey was unsure of her idea of a "circle" of members (people with special earth, water, fire, air, and spirit powers), she asks her friends what they think. They give her encouragement to go to the High Priestess (kind of like a principal, but with powers) and present her idea. Also, when Zoey is preforming the ritual for the first time, her friends remind her they are there for her, and give her courage.
Later in the series, Zoey is seen as a High Priestess, the only Priestess fledgling, and not only because she has the rarest affinity (power) ever. It's not official, but people look to her for commands. Most fledglings respect her. Whenever Zoey and her friends are running from Evil that had corrupted vampyres, she automatically becomes leader, no questions asked. Zoey also tends to repeat to herself throughout the series that she puts her friends in danger, and she regrets that with her life. But each time her friends are in trouble, she does whatever she can to save them. In the first book, her ex-boyfriend and best friend Heath was once in danger of being dragged to the Otherworld by spirits, but Zoey called on her affinity for Spirit and saved his life.
Zoey has courage and strength that I sometimes wish I had. I guess part of it comes with having your life on the line, and the fact that you could die any second (if your body rejects the Change), but Zoey is a strong person in general. In life now, we don't necessarily have to protect our loved ones from spirits, but we still stick up for them. And Zoey is always there for her friends.
