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Caden sat at his monotonous desk, eagerly waiting for his teacher’s informing voice to stop. He didn’t enjoy listening to American History much; Caden wanted to eat lunch. His stomach growled menacingly at him, that wasn’t a good sign. The clock kept ticking as though it was rewinding. It didn’t pace up and stayed at a slow rate. There was no faith in Caden, as he was losing interest.
“And here, class is why George Washington was a rightful and excellent leader.” Mr. Li said. “So don’t forget to study, because tomorrow is gonna be a great day for a quiz!”
Caden groaned, he didn’t enjoy quizzes as much as everyone else in the class. All he wanted was a juicy, savory bite of his sandwich. As Caden began to write down the ample content Mr. Li explained, the bell screamed, reminding everyone of lunch. Finally, Caden joyfully thought in his head. Everyone proceeded to walk out in a rapid tone, but he jogged right in front of the mob, barely ending up behind. His shaggy hair swished around in the air. Caden squeezed through the crowd, pushing people out of the way. As he proceeded to his usual spot to eat, the ground shook, something was wrong.
Everyone tripped on one another like a row of dominoes, loud bangs were heard, along with the yells of peers. One person yelled out, “What is happening?”, but there was no avail. Cracks formed along the walls, and everyone was both bewildered and petrified at the same time. Caden laid on the floor, trembling and filled with fear. What even is happening, I mean, huh? He thought in milliseconds. The loudspeaker attempted to function, but there was a failure and a small squeak.
“AH! Earthquake!” Someone screamed from the piles of people. “Where’s a table!?”
He stepped on people to get outside, looking for clues like a detective.
When Caden got out of the school, there was debris everywhere, from inches to centimeters. His lunch spot near the tree was eradicated, but the tree had something purple on it. Its luminous presence blinds him, making Caden fall backward covering his eyes.
Getting back up, he tried to touch the goo, until a girl screamed out, “WAIT!” Caden rotated around to find her peering out behind a tree. “Don’t touch that, it’ll zap you to smithereens. I don’t know where it came from, but it is unsafe!”

“How come?” Caden asked. “This should be in a fantasy world.” He chuckled at himself. The girl’s face looked like she was just about to talk again.

“Well, this is reality, but I don’t know how this happened. Also, my name is Jane,” She replied.

Caden took another glance at the ‘thing’ on the tree. He was awfully confused. How did this get here? Caden looked at Jane.

“Well, Jane, let’s say none of this happened,” He said. “Besides, it’s foolish to talk much about this.” Jane shook her head in agreement.

After that, Caden ran home, hoping that his house wasn’t crumbled. He saw the remains of other houses, and people looking around for clues. This made him more anxious to check his house quickly before it could even be destroyed. Caden did not want his house to look like the fractured ones he saw. As he ran, everything was a blur like running a mile.
Already, the sun perched down, showing its sign of sunset. How far was his house? Caden was almost there, the remnants of other houses still in view. The trees didn’t have the same substance as, the tree at school, he thought. Finally, his house was in view, but it wasn’t decimated. Dashing to the house, Caden was gasping for air. He was running for a long time as though it was hours.

“At last, the house is here,” Caden mumbled, his voice all raspy and choked up. “I hope I get a faster time in the mile.” Somehow, Jane was in the house, sitting down with Caden’s parents.

“What – How did you get here?” He questioned, his mind twisted and broken.

“Well, my parents drove me here, I thought you’d like to tell them what we saw,” Jane responded.

An idea in Caden’s mind turned his mood radiant. “Jane, can your parents drive us to the school?” He jumped with excitement. Her parents were still outside, sitting in the car ordinarily. Jane was already out in the yard, walking to the car. Caden came up behind her, waving goodbye to the worrying parents.

__

When they both got to the school, Caden quickly rushed with Jane to the tree. “What do you think is gonna happen?” He asked impatiently. “I don’t even think that we’re going to be vaporized.” Caden just came up with that claim almost immediately out of the blue. The strange purple substance glared at them, intimidating them to leave.

“Ready?” Jane said. “Yep, I am,” Caden responded to her.

They both touch the substance, anticipating what would happen afterward. During the process, though, they both disappeared in thin air, marks all cleared. The two must have teleported to an alternate reality or, something more complex to demonstrate.

After the diverse travel, Caden woke up in his unpredicted home, wondering what had happened. He looked at the blanket, instead being sewed of yarn. His bed lacked a cushion to lay down on, only left to lay on wood. He traveled down the steep stairs to see that his parents were sitting on the couch, doing unimaginable things. His dad preferred to watch TV rather than finish work. But his mom didn’t do anything, but she always did something.

Caden had enough. This reality was tricking him into thinking random stuff. “Hello?” He asked his parents. No replies came from them.

He ran out into the street, calling out for anyone to hear him. “Hello?!”

The Echo flew throughout the microscopic town. Caden suddenly heard a voice from behind him unexpectedly. He hoped it was Jane.