From One World [Zack Baker] To Another -Chapter 11- Welcome To California

The boy that had stopped to see if I was okay was still standing there watching me as I scanned the world around me. The buildings looked odd, made out of these strange rectangular red things that I'd never seen in my world before. I tried to think back to History of the World, and they looked like what I had learned to be 'bricks'. Everything just looked so foreign to me. There were... Machines parked on the black ground in front of this school. They looked a little like hovercraft, only older, less flashy, and for some reason I didn't think they could fly at all since they were all moving along the pavement that covered part of the ground.

"Oh Alpha Centauri, how am I gonna get out of this one?" I mumbled to myself. The boy shifted and I looked at him strangely. He was wearing strange-looking clothes that hung loosely on his body compared to the crash suits and jumpsuits I was used to seeing.

"Uh... Are you new here or something? Cuz you seem kinda lost," he said, concern still in his voice as he took a step closer. "Do you know what classes you have? I can help you find them if you'd like..."

I just stared blankly at him. What sorts of classes did they take in a school in this century? Certainly they couldn't have the same classes I had. So I just kept quiet, shaking my head no.

"Are you sure?" he asked. I nodded yes once. "Okay... I guess I.... should go then," the boy said awkwardly before he turned slowly and began to walk away. He looked back at me a few times and then shook his head 'no' for some reason, before disappearing inside the school.

Soon, I was left alone outside, everyone already heading inside the building. I walked around a little, sitting down on the steps that led into the school. I sat there quietly, trying to channel all my energy to send a message to Zeke, to see if he was okay or not. Nothing happened, and it did nothing to settle my nerves. It looked like I might not have contact with Zeke or my world for awhile, because there was no way of knowing if he had lived or died or made it home safely without getting stuck in another time himself.

I sighed deeply to myself, sitting upright a little more, wondering what I should do. I wasn't really allowed to talk to anyone based on the rules of time-space travel, and I would probably spill everything if I opened my mouth to anyone. I finally decided maybe I should check out my surroundings a little more, starting with the school. I was feeling very curious about this new world and knew that I should at least make the best of my situation for the time being by exploring things a little.

So I stood up and turned, walking up to the large double doors of the entrance. Nothing happened; the doors didn't whoosh open for me or anything. I waved my arms around a little, but it did nothing as well. Confused, I scanned the door for a moment, seeing some strange looking handle jutting out of the door. I grabbed it and pulled, and the door swung open heavily.

The floor I stepped onto was dark and had large tiles. The room I had entered was a long hall, and I could see that it branched off at certain points. There were a few people walking through the halls but, for the most part, I was alone.

The walls were lined with these strange looking metal doors, all lined up with locks on them. They were very small doors that only someone very small could fit through, and I wondered where they led to. One of these doors didn't have a lock on it, and I figured I would have a look in to see where the space led to. But when I opened the door, I was met with a wall of metal about a foot in. It was like a large metal box inside the wall. There was a shelf near the top and hooks on the sides and back. They were strange little boxes.

Closing the door, I continued down the hall, passing doors that had windows in them and numbers adorning the pain. Inside the rooms I could see people around my age, sitting in tiny chairs that were connected to tiny tables. I saw the boy that I think tried to help me in one of the rooms. His eyes were shut as his head resting in his palm, so I assumed he was asleep.

I spent quite a bit of time studying this strange new place I was in, and I jumped in fright when I heard some sort of alarm go off throughout the entire building. My heart was pounding and before I knew it, doors on all sides of the hall I was in opened, and students began pouring out. Many of them traveled to those metal boxes in the walls and opened them, putting things inside and then taking other things out. The metal boxes were storage devices. It was weird, but it made a little sense.

I stood very still in the middle of the hall, watching people pass me, some of them eyeing me with strange looks on their faces, some laughing. But I just watched, intrigued by how different they all were. It was like I was in a dream, but it was like no other dream I'd ever had before.

The crowd started to thin out a little, people going back through other doors. Many of the students were all moving down one of the halls in a direction I had not yet gone, so I followed them. They moved down a few halls, taking turns here and there, before they came to a large room with long tables. People were sat down eating at them. Must have been their cafeteria. Many of the people I followed were getting in line to receive some kind of strange food I had never seen before. Some of them were going outside, so I decided to follow them out into the bright sunlight.

There were little groups of students all huddled together out on the grass, eating their food. As I walked among the groups, watching them all intently, I got stared back at strangely.

"Hey! Guys, look! That's the chick that wiped out this morning! She's mad strange," I heard someone say, and I turned toward the voice. There on the grass was a nice sized group of both boys and a few girls all sitting together, one that was looking at me. It was the boy that had talked to me earlier.

"Hey!" he called, and I just stared at him. "Come over here," he said, waving his hand at me. I slowly made my way over to his little group.

"See? I told you, she is dressed mad weird," the boy said, but he was the only one to look at me.

"Brian, be nice," one of the girls said, but then she looked up at me and her eyes went wide. "Woah... You're right," the girl said to that Brian character.

At the sound of her words, all of the other members of this group turned to look at me in silence, and one pair of eyes caught mine. Jade green. My heart started beating wildly. I was saved!

"Zeke! You're okay!" I practically shouted as I flopped down on the ground next to him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. I wondered just what he was doing hanging out with these people but then quieted my thoughts, just glad that I had found him. Now we could get in the TRASH and go home.

"Woah... Uh, do I know you?" Zeke asked as he gently pulled my body from his. I sat on the grass next to him and looked at him incredulously. There was no time for games.

"What do you mean? Zeke, it's me, Ryko," I spoke, feeling a little confused as to why he didn't seem to recognize me.

"Zeke? No no, his name's Zack," Brian said. "Zack Baker."
Rest in the Results <3
The last name clicked in my head, and it was all very strange to me. Here was this boy who looked exactly like Zeke. But he wasn't Zeke? What was going on? Had I passed into an alternate universe?

I caught all the stares of the group on me and quickly thought of a lie. "Oh, sorry... You just... looked like someone I knew."

"Oh...okay," Zack answered, still sending out a vibe that he thought I was crazy.

"So you said your name is Ryko? That's kinda... odd, no offense or anything," the girl who'd spoke earlier said. She had long dark hair and was very pretty.

"Really? It's actually a pretty common name in --- I mean... where I'm from," I said, saving myself from letting anything slip out.

"Oh, well, I'm Brian Haner, that's Val DiBenedetto," Brian said, motioning to the same girl. "And that there is Matt Sanders, Jimmy Sullivan, Kate Phillips, my girlfriend," he said with a smile before continuing, "and well, that's Zack Baker like I said."

"Oh..." I answered dumbly, realizing they were some of the strangest names I had ever heard.

"And your name is...?" Matt asked.

"Oh... Um... I'm Ryko Calyx."

"Are you new here?" Jimmy asked.

"Uh... Yeah, you could say that," I answered, laughing nervously.

Oh boy...