I wake up and examine the space around me. My entire body felt like I hugged a cactus. My brain feels like I just ran head-first into a steel door, my thoughts and memories a grey murky mess. I struggle to see because it is so dark. While squinting, I manage to spot a hole in the wall just big enough to see out of. Looking through I see something familiar. It’s grass and sky? I pressed myself to the hole to get a closer look outside. CRACK The wall collapsed. I stood up and looked around to see where I was, but the grass wasn’t there, nor was the sky. Instead, it was a school hallway.
I start walking forward hoping to find an exit. My thoughts are swirling around in a mix of terror and confusion. What is this place? Who put me here? Why does it smell like mold and my grandma? I feel entirely in the dark about this strange situation. Speaking of dark, I realized I was finally able to see, so I examined my arms and legs, wondering why they were so tight with pain. They now resemble a scratching post, looking like I had a mishap with the ticket blaster at Chuck E. Cheese. I pull shrapnel out of my arms and legs as I walk. What even is this stuff?! Why on earth is it pink!? The school itself was disgusting. The wallpaper peeled, there were papers littering the floor, the tile was cracked in weird places, And the smell grew more and more atrocious as I walked. As I bumbled around in pain and confusion, I realized something strange and infuriating. I somehow managed to end up right where I started! However, in a more careful examination of my surroundings, I noticed an anomaly….

I saw it out of the corner of my eye. It was a classroom door wide open. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t been paying attention. I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life, I went inside. As I walk in I notice nothing is really out of the ordinary, except a small blue book in the center of the room. I approached it and jumped back as it miraculously opened by itself. Hello young traveler, The book read. It appears you have stumbled into my domain. Most call me the principal. I shall help you get to the next location on your journey! Who are you?! And how did I get here?! I wrote back wanting real answers. As I have previously stated, I am the keeper of this realm. I keep things in neat order. Neat order!?! Well, as neat as it can be with the decay and such. It used to be a resting place for dimension hoppers such as yourself, but now it is only an empty husk of its former glory. DIMENSION HOPPERS?!! I write back, pencil digging through pages. Um, ow. (I was shocked that this “book” could even feel pain.) I see you are confused. Let me check something. I can hardly even describe what happened next.
My body felt like it was bursting into a thousand beams of light, and all I could see was a color that most people probably couldn’t even comprehend, and weirdest of all I smelt something like 3-week old enchiladas.

A sudden BOOM—CRASH! Came from the hallway.” HELLOOOO!” Blurted out a strangely mechanical voice “Oh- wrong room he-he…”
BOOM- HEEELOOOO!” Standing before me was the Craziest thing I have ever seen in my life.
It looked kind of like a man but with feathery chicken legs, a big peacock tail, and the weirdest thing of all– he had a disco ball where his head should have been. ( Now what I do next might have been considered a bit rude, but you know you would do the same.)
SMACK! His head went flying across the room as I screamed, he didn’t even flinch. “Ow! That was a bit rude of you traveler- but no matter!” His head then floated right back into place.
“Sorry for my rather odd appearance. The reason I look like this is that I must materialize myself into something simple enough for human minds to understand. Erm- this was all I could think of on short notice heh-” It let out a nervous laugh “I’m not a very good visualizer.”
All I could manage to do after that shocking experience was to stupidly scream a few words
“I- Who—WHAT EVEN ARE YOU?!?!”

“Huh, that’s interesting” “What do you mean INTERESTING? Just let me leave!”
Even though he didn’t have eyes, I could tell he was giving me the stink eye.
“The reason I can’t is because you are interesting, traveler. You see, that little flash that you were experiencing was a test of your origins. It was so I could see what dimension you came from. The reason you are probably confused is that your dimension doesn’t have the technology or magic to hop yet. And unfortunately, I cannot send you back to your home dimension” “WHAT!” I started to break down crying. “This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! “Calm down traveler, I know ho-” “NO YOU DON’T, YOU GLORIFIED DRUMSTICK!” I snapped at him “I can’t remember my name, my address, my own mother’s face, I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER IF I HAD FOUR SNAILS OR FIVE!”
He sighed and sat down in the chair next to me. “Yes, I do traveler. I was tossed out of my dimension as well.” “Are you sure we can never go back?” I asked, my voice trembling.
“Well even in my reality-warped state, I can’t even go back to-” “No.”
“That’s not what I said. I can’t send you back, but maybe someone else can, In another universe with hopping tech!” “so you’re-you’re proposing that I-” “Exactly!”

And that is the story of how I became our universe’s very first dimension hopper.