Near the End

Chapter 8: Next?

Augustus's POV
(Unedited)

Last night... Everything about it... Just didn't seem real. I had a feeling in my gut telling me it was real, but I still couldn't believe it. After we were excused from the principal's office, Joey and I went back to our dorm, but neither of us said a word. It made me wonder if I had really just sleep walked like Joey said I did last night... I couldn't focus, my mind was everywhere.
I bumped into some of the desks in my 1st hour class making the students laugher wake me from my thought. I noticed I had walked all the way to class by pure instinct.
I found my desk and went to go sit in it, Mae right next to me. The thought came to my mind... Should I ask her? But what if I was wrong and it was all just a dream, I'd end up looking craz-

"Augustus."

My thoughts where once again interrupted, but this time by Mae.

"Yeah?" I took a seat.

"... You.. You remember last night... It wasn't just a dream?... Right?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

She signed in relief. "Good."

A moment of silence pasted us, until I had the erg to ask

"Mae-" she looked up from her desk "why... Why did you lie to principal Torres?"

She looked at me and smirked.

"Why did you?"

I had no response, so I just gave a simple shrug. She signed once more.

"You see..." She continued, "people don't just believe that you fell into this mysterious hole in the middle of the night and ended in a total different world with a weird nature earth woman and her tiny flying human companions"

I laughed a bit at her comment for I saw she was right.

"I see what you mean..." The last words that 'Mother Earth' said suddenly came to me, "Mae.. Do you plan on going back there?"

My question struck her, for she was quiet for a few seconds, then she opened her mouth to speak.

"I honestly don't know... Should we?"

I signed and lied back in my chair. "I don't know... I mean, she did say we were supposed to return tonight.. "

She seemed thoughtful of my comment.

"The tiny human... She said- she said we where the chosen ones.."

My heart stopped at that moment.

"Chosen ones?.. Chosen for what?"

"I don't know... She also said wed be getting powers of some sort-"

"Powers?!" My heart jumped with excitement, I had always dreamed of having powers!

"Yes, that's why they threw us that glowing dust... That's why... Although I'm scared of going back, I need to! I need to know."

"For what? You already got that dust thrown at you, so that means you already got the powers, what's the need to go back?"

"Think about it Augustus... When we discover what those powers are, we might not know how to control them... Scares me to think that... Doesn't it scare you?" She became silenced once more, "... And... Even if it is a different world, it's a little escape of this prison they call school."

I saw her point, we had never been out side the school walls into the real world, we are supposed to leave once we're 18, and we have graduated from the school and chosen a job out side the school walls, or so I've heard that's what happened... It all didn't matter to me, at least not now, I am only 13 after all, I still have 5 good years until I leave the school... But with Mae's comment, it made me curious to explore the world we had visited just last night.