Ringggg. Ringggg. Dang it. Of course the alarm clock has to ring right now. I wake up to see the sun shine down on my face. Thankfully, today was the last day before heading into winter break. More time to hang out with my friends, boyfriend, and I can’t forget my family’s annual ski trip. I look at the time, and realize that I’m totally running late for school. I get up from bed, grab the first clothes that I could grab in my drawers and rush into the bathroom.

Desperate to make it to class on time I don’t eat breakfast and I hop into my car. I step hard on the gas pedal and start driving as fast as I can. As I arrive at school, I look at the time, 8:09. Great, I’m late. This probably is going to get me another detention slip and a lot of scolding from my teacher and mother when I get home. Not to my surprise, as I walk through the door of my first class, my English teacher is already scolding me.

“Elle! Do you know what time it is?!” my teacher angrily yells at me.

“Yes, I know sir, I’m sorry I’m late,” I reply.

“Well sorry isn’t going to save you. Detention after school!” he says afterwards.

I walk to my seat next to my best friend, Jane. She smirks at me as I open up my bag to get my notebook and pen for class.

“So what was it this time? Did Ben keep you up all night again?” she whispers to me.

I could only glare at her, and grab a piece of paper to reply to her question.

No. Was helping out at the hospital last night. Mom.

As I pass the piece of paper to her she looks up and looks at me sadly. Honestly it makes me more angry than happy that she gives me her pity, but I ignore it and point to the whiteboard. Prompting her to pay attention. As a student, I wouldn’t say my academic performance was bad. My main flaw as a student would have to be my tardiness. I have no regrets though. A girl needs her sleep!

As class continued the teacher gave his usual, “We’ll have a pop quiz next class” spiel, and then the bell rang. I got up, and Jane took my arm and linked it with hers.

“Welp! I’ll do something stupid next period so we can go to detention together later!” she says happily.

“Are you stupid? Why would you do that?” I ask her.

“We were supposed to go to the mall after school today! Did you forget? Plus I don’t want to wait for you as you go through detention. I might as well do it with you, cause the more the merrier right?!” she says as she giggles.

I couldn’t help but laugh. If anyone asks, yes we are two total nutjobs, and whenever we’re in the same room together, people think we’re high. But, that’s what I love about our dynamic. Nothing could get through us. As we were walking towards our second period, I felt someone grab my waist and bring me in closer. I turn around to see Ben. I smile and hug him back.

“Hey beautiful, how was last night?” Ben asks.

“Mom is doing better, but I overslept today which made me late for class. Now I have detention and I can’t get out of it.” I sigh with disappointment.

“Babe don’t worry. You want to get some ice cream after detention then? I’ll wait for you,” he replies.

“NO! Elle is mine today! We promised to have a girls night tonight!” Jane interjects. Ben and I look at each other and laugh.

“Jane don’t worry, I’ll always remember…” I pause for her to say the next phrase with me.

“Sisters before hoes!” Jane and I yell together. We couldn’t help but burst into more laughter. Ben looks at us like we’re high again, but he quickly giggles afterwards. The 2 minute warning bell rings and all of us went our separate ways to our next periods.

Several classes later, and it’s time for lunch. I wait outside the cafeteria since that’s where Ben, Jane, and I meet to go get lunch before our last classes of the day. I grab out my phone to listen to music, but before I could I heard two kids walking by me.

“Oh my gosh did you see that?!” one kid said with excitement in her voice.

“Yeah totally! They were totally making out!” the girl next to her replies.

“Wasn’t that Ben and Jane from period 4?!” her friend replies.

I didn’t hear the rest of their conversations. I run to them and they look at me with a startled expression.

“Where are they,” I ask with confusion and hurt clearly in my voice.

“They’re by the bleachers,” the girl replies to me sadly.

I look at her to only get sad eyes in return as I bolt to the bleachers to confirm this rumor. As I stood 5 feet away from them, not only did the rumors get confirmed, but my heart was shattering to pieces. I wasn’t sure how to react, but I stood there to see if any of them would push away from each other. Watching for another minute, I realized that this act was totally consensual on both sides. I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of seeing me cry, so I held my tears in when I walked up to them, clearing my throat.

Of course the first thing they decide to do is jump in fear. Both of them realizing that I caught them in the action, they cry to me.

“Elle! This isn’t what it looks like!” they both state at the same time.

“Oh because I was standing here for about a minute straight, and none of you guys had the audacity to pull away,” I replied with a calm voice.

They looked at me and I picked up my feet and started to run. I ran as fast as I could, and before I knew it, I was lost. Weird to say, but I genuinely have no idea where I am right now. I look up to see a building covered in vines with an old rustic look to it.

“Elle! Wait!” I hear them from a distance. I look around, and I know that I have nowhere else to hide for now. I take the rusty handle to my hand, and pull it as hard as I can. The door opens and I run in and slam it as quickly as I can. When I don’t hear their voices anymore I look around to see this place covered with books. Like a forgotten library, the books were filled with dust, the floors creaked, and the air still smelled of paper. Everything in this space is still, quiet, and peaceful. The scene of this space was enough to forget what just happened, as I admire the beauty of this old, warm place.

I then walk to the first aisle my eyes laid on, for exploration. I take my fingers and place them on the dusty books as I slid them across the aisle. As I got to the end of the aisle, my eyes were fascinated to see a section of yearbooks. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what our school looked like, so I picked up the red and gold yearbook that was sitting in the middle of other yearbooks.

Star High the yearbook had written across its covers. Weird. This school isn’t currently Star High right now. Maybe this was the name of our school before becoming Harrison High?

I open the yearbook, and that is the last thing I remember.

I wake up to find myself lying on a marble floor? Where am I? From what I remember I was sitting on old wood looking at a yearbook. Now that I take another look at my surroundings, I am even more confused.

Instead of the smell of old paper, this room smells like paper, and instead of a library, I see a throne that sits above and ahead of me. Oh and not to forget a chandelier hanging at the center of the ceiling. I don’t know how I got here, but all I do know is to get out of here. As I get up I hear a quiet soothing voice.

“You’re up now. That’s good to see.”

I turn around and to my surprise see a beautiful woman, who is now seated on the throne. She has silver, curly hair that touches her hips, with her pale skin, and strikingly blue eyes. As I continue to stare at her she clears her throat.

“Do you remember what happened before you woke up,” she inquires.

“The only thing I remember is running away into this library, and picking up a yearbook. Other than that I don’t really remember what has happened,” I said.

I felt the panic and fear rise from my stomach as I had no clue where to go. Just as I was scanning my eyes for a way out the lady spoke again.

“You won’t find a way back to your realm if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Another realm? What the heck? I bet this is just a mere prank. There’s no such thing as other realms. This lady is crazy. Just to confirm that she was pranking I turned around and got a good look of her and the room we were both in. On second thought, maybe she isn’t pranking? This room does look like an other worldly place. Something that wouldn’t exist in school.

“Okay, if we are really in another realm like you suggested, where in the heck am I,” I question her.

She sighs and replies, “We’re in Venus dear. The only realm that can sustain Star High’s needs.”

That’s when I knew, she’s totally insane. Venus the planet is not a realm. Heck! People can’t, and I mean CANNOT live on a planet like Venus. I start laughing at the absurdity of this woman.

“What’s so funny,” she questions with a bored expression on her face.

“You got to be pulling some prank here, or be mentally challenged. You know Venus is a planet! Like an actual planet that actual humans can’t use as any form of habitat! We got to be on planet Earth,” I ranted quickly to her.

She sighs and tells me that this story is going to be a bit. I don’t really want to listen to her, but I can’t seem to find a way out of this room. There’s no doors or windows for that matter, so I might as well listen to this crazy lady.

“You’re from the realm called Earth right,” the lady questions. I only nod “yes” in reply. “Well this may seem crazy to you, but we are actually in a different realm, not one of your worlds. So even though Venus may be what you call a planet in your realm, you're not in your realm any longer. By opening the gateway, you’ve become one out of the 4 transfer students to represent your realm. You’ll be students here until you guys graduate, and afterwards you guys get to choose what you want to do from there.”

“WAIT?! Does that mean I can’t go back,” I question angrily.

“You can after you graduate,” she replies.

What was this messed up lady?!

“What about my friends?! Family?! My actual other life at my realm,” I question angrily again.

“Well time works differently here then in your realm. Simply told, a year here would be an hour or day over there depending on which gate you came through,” she replies.

“How did this even happen?! What gate are you even talking about?! How did I even stumble upon this gate you talk about?!” I ask again.

“You have so many questions dear, and this is the last one I’ll answer for now, because you have to get settled into your dorm. So simply, schools in your realm have partnered with our school since a century ago. To increase awareness and appreciation for beings without magical power, your realm has agreed to send four students into our realm every four years. Our realm needs to learn how to cooperate and live together with non magical beings. With that being said, we can’t take too many people from your realm so there are certain conditions that need to be met to come over to Star High.”

She continues with the rules of this world

“The first condition is that a person from your realm has to find the gate to be able to be considered for entry. The next condition would have to be that the person is going through changes in their life or wants to experience a new start within their life. The third and final condition is that this person has to have the potential of utilizing borrowed magic in this realm,” she finishes.

“So I meet all of these bizarre requirements,” I ask her.

“Yes otherwise you wouldn’t be here standing in front of your new headmaster,” she replies.

My brain hurts from all of this nonsense, but from all of that, the only thing I know for sure is that there is no way out of this stupid place. I just wanted to go home, but how did this even happen again?

Oh yes. My ex boyfriend and best friend were making out and I was trying to run away from them. This is really all of their faults. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have run away and end up in this weird place. But from what I understand, the only way I can get out of this place is to graduate. Before I can ask her how to graduate from this weird high school, she interrupts me and my thoughts.

“So now that you understand why and how you’re here, let me bring in the other three that came here with you today,” she says.

Wait so they all came in on the same day as I did? What were the chances that could’ve happened. Coincidence? I think not. I lowkey still think this is all some sort of camera prank or something. The lady, who I guess is the headmaster, lends me her hand to stand and starts walking behind me. I quickly turn around and start to follow the lady. As we started following the red glamorous carpet, a door suddenly appeared in front of us. Wait! This door was here all this time?!

“Before you ask, only I can make the door appear and disappear,” the headmaster quickly replies as if she read my thoughts.

I gulp out of nervousness and cursed inside, slowly coming to a realization that this isn’t just some sort of prank. We arrive at the door, and she takes her hand by the door handle and opens it to what awaits my new journey at Star High.

Psych! I’m not that cheesy or corny. But the headmaster did open up the door and saying that I am shocked is an understatement. I am the only girl out of the four that were supposedly admitted into this school too. The next thing I noticed was that they were all talking, as if they’ve been friends for ages. Suddenly they looked up at me, and then just stared at me.

“Wait! Where’s Brian?! What’s this rando doing here?!” a boy asks me.

I look at him and he has strikingly black hair. His eyes were emerald green and I would say that he is about 4 inches taller than me, which would make him about 5’9.

“She made it here fair and square, and now she is your new teammate,” the headmaster replies.

Teammate? I question myself. Before I get the chance to ask what that entails, that same black-haired boy looks at me angrily.

“This wasn’t what we planned headmaster! Brian was supposed to be our fourth and final teammate! How can we work with this obese girl!” he yells. Then he quickly adds, “No offense to you.”

Yeah like that was helping at all. I officially hate him, and he’s only said like three sentences. I guess he’s never learned that first impressions actually mattered.

“That was rude Zane! I know she’s not Brian, but we can’t do anything about it, this realm has reached its capacity,” another boy responds. This one has chocolate, brown hair and gold colored eyes. Of course his visuals were also striking and impressive, but I wouldn’t let that distract me right now. The black haired guy, whose name is Zane, just rolls his eyes and grumpily sits there.

“Whatever Seno. I thought you’d at least be disappointed too,” Zane exclaims.

“Well there’s nothing we could do about it now,” the guy with dark blue hair responds. I looked at his eyes and they were similar to my brown colored eyes.

“That’s right Ren! Zane you should really listen to what he’s saying,” Seno exclaims.

Zane just looks at me and quickly says, “I’m sorry.” I just nod my head quickly as my way of taking his apology for now. But I swear if he messes with me again I’m just gonna really beat him where it hurts. Now that’s all of the way I ask them, “What do you guys mean by teammate? I’ve been meaning to ask,” I quickly add. Everyone looks at me, and as I saw Zane open his mouth Rain quickly cuts him out, “Every student that’s admitted to this school has to create a team that they’ll be with for the rest of their time here at Star High. However in our case, since we’re the only humans around we automatically get paired up together. The gates made sure to admit students that’d have great chemistry together when coming to this world,” Rain finishes explaining.

Wait so the gates thought that rude boy, Zane, and I were compatible as a team. Hah! They really messed up, maybe I can be asked to be switched with whoever that Brian guy was.

The headmaster chimes in, “These teams are finalized and you can’t go back to your realm because of privacy reasons. So even if you guys wanted Brian you can’t because he wasn’t accepted to begin with. I had reports earlier this morning that the gates wouldn’t let him.”

Everyone stayed quiet for a bit. Well there goes my chance of getting out of all of this.

“Now that you know the guys’ names, everyone, this is Elle. Treat her well. You guys will be living and going to school together from now on. Also get prepared for the classification exam tomorrow,” the headmaster adds.

Everyone except me nods their heads. It’s like everyone here knows what is going on, if anything they sound like they knew of this realm before they got here. I should really ask soon how they knew. Suddenly they get up and start walking. That’s when I realized another problem.

“Wait! You’re telling me I’m going to be living, eating, and sleeping with these guys in the same room?!” I yell with concern.

Everyone turns to me and Zane rudely tells me, “Of course not you idiot. We all get separate rooms. We live in the same house, yes, but other than that no one will care. Plus you’re not any of our types so you don’t have to worry about any of that.”

That was it! I went up to him, jumped, and pulled his hair down, so that his eyes were at my level.

“You say anything else disrespectful one more time, and the next time, I won’t be pulling on your hair. Let’s just say you wouldn't be able to have kids in the future,” I threateningly told him. His face got red, and he pulled away. He storms away from me and starts walking towards I guess where I’ll be staying for the night.

Everyone, including the headmaster starts laughing as Seno, Rain, and I head out to the house we’ll be staying in.