In the gymnasium, I’m barely breathing in the thin air. I’m next, I’m next, I’m next, I’M NEXT!!! That’s what’s going through my mind, mostly because I’M NEXT. When I hear the whistle blow I take my time moving through the cones, slowly. The stick between my fingers feel like it’s melting but it’s glued to my hands. Almost there, 3, still going, 2, you can make it, 1…I made it!! Yes, and I got 100. I run to go sit down and give my friend a high five. As I watch everybody else take their test I’m on the bench with my legs crossed. I ask to go to the bathroom but Mr. Roman tells me that there are three minutes of class left.

He says, “C’mon, Unique, you can hold it.”

“Okay,” I respond.

We are lining up to go into the elevator, now I’m in the back struggling. Then I hear wires shrieking, and everybody’s chatter.

My friend Alicia asks me, “What happened?”

My response is a shrug. The teacher calmly informs everybody the elevator is stuck. Everybody starts to chatter again, so now the elevator is filled with a bunch of 7th graders talking. It’s like we’re standing in the middle of the Sahara desert and they talk and talk and talk and TALK!!!

About five minutes later everybody pulls out work and the loud talking turns into a loud whisper.

Me and my friend are in the back doing math homework. The best part of it is the answers are in the back. While the teacher was on the phone with another teacher, we peeked at the answers in the back of the book so I’m 100% sure I’m correct. As this happened I was distributing gum to the back row. Later the idiot boy that stuck his pen into the side of the button (that made the elevator stop) came over to me and Alicia.

“ Can I have gum and what’s the answer to number 4?” he asks flipping pages.

“So you get everybody stuck in this hot, smelly, stinky elevator and you have the nerve to come over here and ask for the answers!”

He looks embarrassed so I feel bad so I give him gum and tell him the answers are in the back. Then he gets a little smirk and starts to blush. I roll my eyes and smirk.

It feels like years, but sadly its been minutes. My friend and I are having a little argument about what the correct answers are for English. We ask Emily, the girl next to us, what she got for the answer. Emily and I got the same answers.

“Ha, told you,” I tease.

“Sometimes you can be a real pain, Unique.”

“I know that’s one of the many reasons people love me,” I stick out my tongue at her and she sticks hers back a me. Then we start to laugh.

For a moment the elevator is completely silent, so silent you could hear a feather drop.

Then everybody hears jingling of keys outside the elevator. Everyone packs up so I do the same. Then the elevator doors open. Our jaws DROP!!

**********************

The teacher stepped out then back in. Everybody was confused. The P.E. teacher pushed his hand out into the other world. His hand turned orange, everybody slowly backed away from the elevator doors.The teacher calmly put one foot out, then the next.

The hallway is no longer a hallway. It looks like we’re in the middle of a meadow. But it’s weird because the leaves aren’t green they’re blue, the trunks of the trees aren’t brown they’re yellow , the grass isn’t green it’s pink and the sunflowers aren’t yellow they’re purple!! The sky was the only normal thing about it. The aroma fills the air smelling of lollipops, gummy bears, gum drops,  sprinkles, candy canes, caramel, and CHOCOLATE!!!

As I ran out Alicia yelled my name and reached for me. It was too late. My body lunged into this unknown world hoping there was a bathroom near…but I guess not. I stood in the middle of this world and it spun around me slowly but yet quickly.

My entire outfit changed, my pants turned into a white jumper with a skirt, and I had on brown and white stripped knee high socks with a brown shirt.

“You look so pale! Are you okay?”Alicia asked me as she walked out the elevator and her outfit slowly changing.

“Yeah I’m fine. I’m just shocked by this world.”

My entire class walked out one by one, slowly.

“Tell me about it. I mean there’s nothing here. No food, buildings, service, PEOPLE!!!” Alicia said with a pouty face

“I know and are these outfits serious? I mean I look like an oompa loompa.”

“Yeah but seriously what’s with the two pony tails. My hair doesn’t even reach up to my elbow. I mean what am I three?”

“Yeah, thats not the worst part.”

“ What do you mean,” Alicia said with a puzzled face

“I mean the elevator doors are gone, our bags disappeared, and no phones anywhere to be found. How will we get out of here?”

“I don’t know,” Alicia said with tears in her eyes.

“I hope it’s soon because I really have to pee.”

I walked away and trekked up to Mr. Roman. He’s a tall, young teacher that can be funny sometimes but serious other times.

I tapped his shoulder three times gently. He didn’t respond. Again a little harder. Still no response. Finally, a lot harder, Mr. Roman whips his head around so quickly that his neck looks as if his head would snap.

“WHAT,” he says with his face reddening.

“Whoa! Calm down.”

“Oh I’m sorry. I was lost in my thoughts.”

“It’s ok,” I said.

“Well hey. What’s up?”

“I was going to ask how we are going to get out of here.”

“Oh, well that’s what I was thinking about. Do you have an idea?”

“Me?” I said with a shocked face

“It was just a thought.”

“Ok,” I turned around and walked back to Alicia. She turned to look at me with a perplexed face.

“So, what did he say?”

“He has no idea. He practically spat in my face.”

“Wow, well guess we’re stuck here,”Alicia said rolling her eyes.

“I guess so.”

Soon everybody turns their head to a loud horn sound. Then birds fly out from the trees in a distance. Mr. Roman tells everybody to find a partner, stay close, and to follow him. Alicia and I connect immediately, then I feel an extra arm attach onto mine. I look to my left and there he is– Zayne. He looks at me with a big cheesy smile showing his perfectly white teeth.

“Let go of me you neanderthal.”

“Wasn’t ‘idiot’ bad enough?” Zayne said, putting his hands up in defence.

“Well, not if you’re both,” I said, sticking my tongue out.

“Hey. Why are you so–,” He stopped as he saw something in the distance. As I looked in the same direction as him and I saw what he saw. It was unbelievable, I never saw anything like it in my life. He looked at me and I looked back at him, everybody is looking at this unknown creature.

I saw an over-sized emu bird, that was maybe bigger than an elephant. Its colors were unusual. At about 10ft tall this bird had cerulean and electric lime brightly colored feathers.

“Do you know what that is?” he said breaking the long silence.

“No, what it is?” I said, with a sarcastic face.

“That’s an elephant bird. It went extinct in the 17th century. Their closest relative is an ostrich. They were only found on the island of Madagascar. They’re up to 10ft tall and can weigh up to 1,100 pounds!”

“Whoa! How do you know all of these facts about the bird?”

“My dad has been an archaeologist for 7 years and you learn a few things when that’s all he talks about,” he said and we both laughed.

“And your mom?” I asked.

His face got sober and so did mine.

“My mom died 3 years ago in a car crash. Me and my dad survived but she didn’t. We pulled out of the driveway and she was just reaching for her seatbelt. A drunk driver was going super fast and her air bag didn’t inflate in time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he said quickly.

“Oh yeah, let’s go back and find Alicia and the group.” I spun around so quick that the scent of my hair filled the air. “Where did our class go?”

“They were here just a second ago.”

We both ran around the field, to the edge of the woods, and down the hill to a yellow pond with purple ripples and they were nowhere to be seen.

********************

We’ve been walking for about an hour and I felt that we passed the same tree about seven times already.  I was hungry, my feet hurt, and there was an annoying buzzing sound that was driving me crazy. We passed the same tree an eighth time around, suddenly the air started to smell of sweet, fluffy, cotton candy. A magical bright pink fruit appeared on the tree. I watched more fruit grow. A wooden post on the tree said a “EAT ME”. I turned around and Zayne was gone. I looked back at the tree and saw Zayne reaching for the fruit. I ran over to him and slapped the fruit out of his hand. The ground began to shake when it fell, it sank deep and a headstone popped up. ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Peach R.I.P’ it read.

“Look what you did!” yelled Zayne.

“What are you doing?” I screamed.

“I’m just hungry and there’s nothing to eat–unless you have something to eat and you’re not sharing.”

“Why do you always think I have something? What am I a store?”

“Every time at lunch you have like a chocolate bar or some kind or candy.”

“You’re so smart,” I said sarcastically, “don’t you think if I had something to eat I would’ve probably ate it already?”

“Yeah but you have sharing issues. You could of eaten it behind my back and I couldn’t of known. Ever since I met you you never gave me anything.”

“Everyday you always ask me for my stuff and I always give you. I’ll admit I hate sharing but I do it anyways.” I said getting frustrated.

“No, you don’t. What have you ever given me?”

“I gave you gum in the elevator,and at lunch I gave you Starburst, Gushers, Kit Kat, Skittles, Nerds and a piece of my Hershey bar.”

“Oh whatever. I’m still eating the fruit,” he scampered to the tree, grabbed the fruit, and took a big bite.

He had a savory look on his face, like he took a bite out of heaven. He watched me and and I watched him take another bite, then another, then another. He spat out the pit of the fuzzy wuzzy peach. The seed sank deep into the soil, a mini storm cloud appeared and started raining on the pit. A pink leaf popped out of the ground and slowly grew into a tree.

I walk away from him so he sprints over to me and I roll my eyes.

“Unique? Unique help me,” I turn around and see no one. Once again I hear my name

“Unique!” I look up to see Zayne slowly floating up.

“This isn’t funny!”

He grabs onto a tree and I start laughing. However, this tree doesn’t look like any ordinary tree that you would normally see back in the city. Its big like a skyscraper and it looks kinda perfect. The trunk is smooth, like a goldenrod color with no bumps or branches. The trunk is the size of the elevator in Barclays Center, the leaves were as thick as a Narnia book.

“Ok. Well instead of staring at this tree, can you help instead?”

Suddenly I see a head pop out of the tree Zayne is holding on tightly to. I look more closely at it, but it disappears.

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“What are you looking at? Can you please help me?” Zayne says screaming, breaking my thoughts.

“Sorry. I thought I saw something.” I looked around to see if I could find a vine of some sort to pull him down. I looked under a bush to see if any vine was there, then looked behind a tree, and in a burrow.

“Look under the bush,” Zayne yelled.

“I looked already,” I hollered back

“Just check again maybe you missed something.”

I rolled my eyes and stomped over to the bush thinking about how arrogant he is. I bent down again, there it was…a rope. A golden orange rope that looked short and wouldn’t be able to reach Zayne.I picked it up, showed it to Zayne, and yelled, “It’s not long enough.”

“Just throw it and I’ll try to catch it,” he yelled.

My first attempt was not successful. I tried two more times and every time it was a fail.

“It’s not working. You don’t listen at all, all you do is bitch. You think that you’re better than everybody else and can do whatever you want. Sometimes it’s not all about you.You should consider–”

“Shh.” Zayne says putting his index finger up to his lips.

I rolled my eyes, “Who are you talking to, this is exactly what–”

“Shh.” He says in an intense voice as if he’s getting agitated.

I gave him that ‘I’m gonna kill you look’. He then pointed at the tree and I see a pair of bright blue eyes in the tree, staring at us, listening to our conversation, and watching our every move. Zayne slowly crawls the tree branch, then he falls flat on his face about five feet onto grass. The bright blue eyes suddenly disappear.

“Great, you scared it away,” I said resentfully

“How about a ‘Zayne are you okay?’” He said lifting up his head. I chuckle and run over to help him up.

“Hmm, must of wore off,” he says examining himself.

When he’s up on his feet we both stared into the fascinating tree that has a magical creature living in it. Suddenly I see a tail that is about one foot long with a poof the size of a baby’s fist at the end of it. Then we hear mumbling, and I nudge Zayne in the side and point over to the tail. The tail suddenly disappears behind the magical tree. Zayne and I approach the tree slowly and quietly, then we here more mumbling. I motion Zayne to stay here and I walk slowly over to the tree. I jump out where I heard mumbling and so did this mysterious creature, we then both leap backward with a shocked look on our faces.

I got a closer look at the creature, those weren’t the eyes I saw in the tree. This one had electric lime colored eyes. I stared intensely into them. Then the creature spoke:

“Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get here? Why are you invading our land? You don’t belong here.” The creature went on and on with more questions. Suddenly another one appeared, this one didn’t look as bad as the first. This one had bright blue eyes, I’m positive these were the eyes I saw, they were bright blue eyes that could hypnotize you if you stare into them too long. They looked the same except their eyes. They had an orange-yellowish color with a high tabletop hair cut. They were only about three feet tall, and skinny legs with three toes. The creature that was asking me all these questions stared at me like it was looking for answers.

I felt like I was standing there a bit too long. All of a sudden I got this weird feeling like I had to let something go. Then I remembered I have to pee!

I feel my warm face turning cold like a pale color. I asked if there was a restroom near. The creature pointed to box the size of a porta potty maybe three times bigger, that wasn’t there before. I stared back at the creature like he was crazy.

“What is that?”

“A bathroom” he said with a straight face and a Scottish accent.

“So, you’re telling me I have to go in that?”

He nodded, “It looks better on the inside, than the out,”

I walked slowly to the porta potty. I walked in and it was the most amazing bathroom in the world (bathrooms aren’t really that big in my house). It wasn’t just a regular toilet. This toilet hung on chains. The toilet paper was glowing like a glow stick that you buy at a carnival, and the holder was a skeleton that matched the toilet paper.

Using the bathroom just came naturally to me. I didn’t have to think about anything else. Only that was on my mind. I had a little fun on the toilet when I started to use it the toilet started swinging back and forth. Finally, when I had my fun I went to wash my hands. The water was fine at first, then it became scorching hot so I rapidly pulled my hands back, putting them to my sides. Soon the water started turning grey, then black. The water wasn’t water anymore, it became a figure. It slowly creeped out of the faucet as I backed away. I tried pulling open the door, but it was stuck! I pulled harder with all my force. A big black monster appeared from the sink and stood before me. He was about seven times bigger, wider, and stronger than me. Again I tried opening the door, but instead of pulling I pushed, it still didn’t work. I let out a colossal scream so loud the monster had to shield its ears with his hands.

The black monster grabbed me and yelled, “What are you and what are doing in my world?” That word stood out to me, ‘my world.’ Was it really ‘his’ world? Was he just saying that to scare me? I could hear Zayne knocking on the door and yelling my name. I tried to move quickly to the door, but the monster grabbed me again. I felt like a hamster being squeezed by a one-year-old baby. All of a sudden, I see a white figure creeping on the monster’s shoulder. My eyes suddenly shift over the monster’s shoulder and I see a small white cat, about the size of my palm, watching me with its huge eyes.

“Meow, who are you?” the cat said with a sweet baby voice.

My eyes suddenly grew as big as the cats and I watched the cat yawn and its eyes focused back on me and the cat spoke again.

“Meow, do you speak English?”

“Uhh, yes.”

“Meow, then answer me.”

When I heard a louder knock, my head quickly shifted to the door, Zayne came bursting in shouting my name. He hurtled toward me and the monster who held on to me so tight. Zayne hopped upon the monster’s back and tried to take him down. The monster dropped me onto the hard marble floor. I realized the cat jumped off his shoulder and was looking at me from under the sink. I thought about how close the monster was to his cat (it was a cute cat). I crawled over to the cat, snatched its small body, and grabbed it by its paws so it wouldn’t try to scratch me. The cat gave a loud cry and the monster snapped his neck so hard he fell onto the marble floor.

The cat’s eyes suddenly grew bigger and bigger as he realized the monster wasn’t moving. The room grew dark, abruptly a portal showed up. It wasn’t a regular portal, it looked like a black hole. It looked liked the milky way galaxy all swirled into one hole. It was really pretty.The cat quickly jumped out of my hands and onto the monster’s huge chess. He meowed, and meowed, and meowed. Zayne walked slowly step-by-step to the portal. I nabbed his upper arm and yanked it so hard he tripped backward.

“What are you doing?” I said with an annoyed voice.

“What if thats the way home?” he said with a little innocence on his face.

“Yeah, but what if it’s not?”

“Then it’s not,” he said walking closer to me. Unexpectedly he grabbed my face and his lips met mine. I didn’t realize it at first, but he was kissing me. It lasted about ten seconds, he then picked me up and jumped into the portal. The trip was about three minutes of screaming and flailing. Then, by surprise, we both rolled onto the grass. When I stopped on my back and was breathing hard, I quickly realized where we were. We were back in New York, specifically in Central Park. I look at Zayne and he was laying there on the ground daydreaming. A dog jumped on me and started barking at me and licking my face. I became conscious of whose dog this is. It was Alicia’s, I quickly jumped up and saw Alicia running toward me. I ran to her as well. We gave the tightest hug we possibly could.

“Oh my gosh! Where were you? The class went bonkers looking for you guys.” There was a pause. She pointed at Zayne “What’s wrong with him?”

“Honestly, I really don’t know.”

“Where’s the rest of the class?”

“Do you know what time it is?” She pulled out her phone and showed me the time. It was approximately 6:00pm.

“Oh. Well I just want to go home and sleep.”

I was back in my regular clothes, my black pants, a white and red shirt, and my red sneakers. I pulled out my phone to text my mom. Alicia walked toward Zayne and I heard everything they said.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Zayne took a long sigh. “I kissed her,” he said with his eyes staring up into the bluest sky, with his hand resting on his stomach.

“Oh wow.”

“Yeah.”