Fire and Rain

Nine

It didn’t work.

As soon as I opened my eyes, I looked to my right and found the same pink digital clock.

“No!” I screamed as I got up and opened my dresser. “No, no, no!”

I sat on the floor in defeat, my hands shaking.

“I’m still here,” I mumbled in disbelief and fear. “I should be—” I could feel tears forming, so I wildly shook my head and stood up. “Okay,” I said to myself, “let’s think about this properly, Dana.” I paced around.

“You went to school the other night to catch Maria and Fin. Then, you followed them to Science Laboratory II-A. There was a flash of light, and you woke up in bed. In this place.” I looked at the bed suspiciously, then began searching it. Under the covers, under the frame, the bed-side drawers. Nothing.

“Okay,” I nervously smiled. “Let’s not panic just yet. You’re a smart kid, you get all aces in exams. You can figure this out.”

I took a deep breath. “Now, what could this place be?” I moved to the drawer and retrieved a bunch of sticky notes. “Maybe I’m dead and this is the afterlife,” I muttered, writing down the word “afterlife" and posting it on inside of my dresser. “What else? What else?” I tapped my foot restlessly on the floor, then wrote down “prank.”

“But how could they pull this thing off? There’s no technology invented for this. Hallucinogens, maybe, but the effect should’ve worn out by now. And Maria and Fin would never d**g me.” I shook my head then wrote down “coma = dream?”

Also highly unlikely. Dreams were never this vivid.

“Okay, what else happened that day? Something unusual…” I tapped my forehead with the pen, then suddenly, it struck me. “Anchorville,” I gasped. The guide said something about a scroll and how someone was able to go to a world parallel to ours, but without the elements or Theriantropy, and the rumored portal was in Carden Academy. Could this be it? Was I sucked into an alternate universe? Was that the flash of light I saw?

I scribbled “alternate universe???” in another note, and the longer I stared at the word in writing, the more I was convinced that that was the most plausible explanation.

“Oh my god,” I mumbled as I sat back down on the edge of the bed, completely in shock and my mind blank. It would’ve been better if I were just dreaming, because at least that meant I could just wake up. I felt something warm drip down my cheeks as the realization set in. “I’m…stuck.”

My tears fell faster now, and my nose began to clog. “I’m stuck,” I repeated in a panic. “And alone. What am I… what am I gonna do?”

But I knew there was no one I could ask. No one to help me. This world was so far back in its development that they weren’t even attuned to nature. What would they know about traveling across universes? I felt helpless.

“Dana, honey!” mom's voice called.

I carelessly wiped my tears away and sniffled. Right, I couldn’t break down just yet. If I were here, then that means the Dana from this world was probably in mine. And if we exchanged places, then we can exchange back. I’ll just have to find a way somehow, but for the meantime, I couldn’t give up and ruin the life she’s built. And if she was anything like me, she would do the same.

So, feeling less sorry for myself, I stood up and changed into her clothes—stuff I never would’ve worn in a hundred years. I grabbed the photo of peppy-looking Dana and said, “Don’t you dare ruin my dresser at home,” then went downstairs.

School was more tolerable that day, especially since I knew what to expect. This time, I actually bothered to listen to the lectures and take down notes. I tried to act as upbeat as I could, and it must’ve worked, because by the start of lunch break that day, Fin told me as we walked to our lockers, “You feeling like yourself now, huh?”

“Yeah, I think I just needed to get proper sleep,” I said. “Sorry I was acting weird yesterday.”

Maria pinched my cheek and jokingly acted as if she was crying. “Thank God she’s back! I thought aliens replaced you yesterday or something!”

I laughed. She wasn’t too far off the bull’s eye.

We heard a ruckus from the end of the hall. A few books fell, and some students were snickering around. To my surprise, there was Mr. Farden, collecting his things from the floor in a panic and saying nervous “sorry's" for causing a mess. I guess, even in this reality, he was still kinda clumsy and awkward. When he walked towards us, I greeted him with a cheerful, “Hi Mr. Farden, are you alright?”

He seemed surprised that I was talking to him. “Y-yes,” he answered, “thank you Dana.” In his attempt to properly align the books in his arms, one of them fell and a small piece of paper slid out from inside.

“Oh, let me help you,” I said, and quickly bent down to get them for him. I grabbed the history book and the paper, turning them over in the process. I noticed that there were weird drawings and notes on the paper, but before I could get a good look, Mr. Farden hurriedly took them from me.

“T-thank you,” he said with a nervous smile, “I’ll see you all in class later.” Then he sped away.

I must say, it was quite comforting to see him act the same as he did in my reality. Maria turned to me and whispered, “What’s that about?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I didn’t know you were close with Mr. Farden,” she said. “He’s a bit weird, isn’t he?”

I shrugged. “I guess. But I kinda feel bad for the guy. He’s got enough students on his back already, even though he’s a good teacher.”

“Guess you’re right,” was all Maria said about the topic. “Anyway, let’s go have lunch. I’m excited for Taco day.”

“Oh, you guys go ahead,” I said, closing my locker. “I have something I need to check out in the library.”

“Do we have homework I don’t know about?” Fin asked in a panic.

“No, I just—I need to do some advanced reading,” I lied. From what I’ve learned, the Dana here also had good grades, so it mustn’t be that weird for me to say that.

“You’re ditching Taco day for the library?” Maria said, sounding disappointed.

“We do have exams in a few weeks,” Fin thankfully reminded her.

“Alright, you nerd. We’ll save you a plate then,” Maria sighed, then she and Fin went on their way.

I went to the library, and just as I expected, it was almost empty except for a few students and the librarian. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I went to one of the computers to check their database. I was banking on the idea that there must be something here—mythical or scientific—about different universes. If the person who wrote the scroll from our reality really traveled to this world, then there must be an account of their appearance here around the same time.

After a few minutes of searching, I found that there were publications about the city's history so I decided to check it out. I started scanning the books one by one, without bothering to sit down. What surprised me most was how backward everything was. Looks like the development of humankind here was really stunted due to the endless wars. Aside from that, and one account of a supposed “explosion" of yellow light—thought to be from a bomb—around where the school now stood, there weren’t anything else.

Disappointed, I shut the book close. I was about to return it to the shelf when Gareth suddenly appeared. He looked at the section label above me, as if to make sure that he was in the right place, then curiously looked at me.

“Hey,” he slowly said, glancing at the book I was sliding back into place, “you…didn’t go to lunch?”

I had always noticed something was off with Gareth 2.0, but I just couldn’t quite put a pin on it. For someone who’s supposed to have a “thing" with “me,” he still seemed a little too stiff. I mean, for the entire morning period that day, we sat three rows away from each other and barely said a peep.

“No, I wanted to…” but I forgot what crazy excuse I’d given to my friends back then. “I wasn’t too hungry. What are you doing here?” I threw his question back at him. His eyes flew to the sign above me again, indicating that this was the section he was looking for.

“I was just planning to read up for our field trip tomorrow,” he answered, but I couldn’t read his face since he turned it away from me to scan the shelves. I did remember something about a field trip, but the place sounded foreign to me.

“Right,” I muttered. I guess even in this universe, Gareth was a good student. “Anyway, um, I’m going ahead now,” I awkwardly said. He continued his search and didn’t bother to look at me.

“Alright,” was all he said, and I walked away, deciding to check out the other books some other time. Although, I highly doubted I’d find anything more substantial. I found Maria and Fin in our usual lunch table, except this time, there were Lara and Carey—the girl from the party—sitting with them.

“Hey,” I greeted as I sat next to Fin. Lara and Carey smiled up at me with a “Hi, Dana,” and Maria slid a tray of tacos and cola towards me.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling back even though I had no idea why the two were there at our table. Back in my reality, Lara and I were at most, acquaintances. And Carey, well, I didn’t even know her then. They also didn’t have food with them, so I guessed they were just there to chat.

“Um,” I hummed, as I noticed they were looking at me expectantly. “What’s…up?” I asked.

“Well, aren’t you excited?” Lara said with a wide smile.

“Excited for what, exactly?”

“Ooh, ladies, she is playing coy!” Maria teased as she playfully hit my shoulder over Fin.

“No, seriously,” I chuckled, confused, “what is it?”

“The cheerleading competition? We got into the grand finals?” Carey said, as if I should know.

“Yeah, D!” Lara enthusiastically exclaimed, “I’m sure you got the text before we did! Seeing as how you’re the captain, and all.”

Text? Captain? Grand finals of what?

What the hell is happening?

“Okay, so I was thinking, we should start with our new routine later.” Lara clapped her hands together.

“Later, yeah.” I muttered, still at a loss but trying not to be so obvious with it.

“Ah, I’m so excited!” Lara squealed as she squeezed my hand. “See you later at practice, Captain!”

I attempted to return the excitement she showed by smiling widely as well. “See you later!” I said back, even though I wasn’t sure where or when exactly that would be.

What the hell was “cheerleading” even?