5th Generation

Episode 7: The Doorway

Paz walked down the schhol hallway in silence, studying her surroundings as she went. Paz was only a nickname, but she never went by her given name. She went by Paz. Then, a smiling brunette with a flower crown on her head passed her. The girl grinned wider and wiggled her fingers hello as she continued in the opposite direction. That girl was one of Paz's closest friends, Sandy. Sandy was......talkative. And outgoing. She was in every school production and would gladly burst into a musical number on command. (Or, whenever she felt like it). How she was able to stand onstage in front of everyone so easily, Paz would never know. Sandy was usually smiling and with friends. As more of a reserved girl, she didn't quite see how She could made friends so easily. Not that Paz doesn't have friends, but it was nerve wracking to just go up to someone and say hi. Paz preferred to just sit quietly and draw. All her friends gushed about her artistic talents, but she just liked drawing. It takes practice, like anything else and she just didn't see the mystifying aspect of her doodles. Sandy wasn't her only friend. They had a little group. A quartet. There was her, Sandy and two other girls. First, there was Hazel. A blonde that is waaaaay too deep in the fandom hole. She never, ever shut up about the cartoon Gravity Slides. Paz liked the show a lot and talked about it with Hazel, but she was nowhere near her friend's level. She has seen practically every video that has to do with it, knows all the fan theories, aus and was sure to let everyone know. Paz likes fandoms and was in a few herself, but had never quite hit that level of obsession. Then again, Hazel had a new one each year. 6th grade it was film, 7th grade was vampires, 8th grade was the Wizard of Oz, and now Gravity Slides. And another thing; Hazel was in love with the show's antagonist, a floating purple triangle by the name of Phil Decipher. And Then there was Jacqueline. Jacqueline had dyed her head half purple and half black in a nod to her favorite singer and proudly placed herself in the goth category. Jacqueline always said what was on her mind and always wore a leather jacket. Real leather. Even in the summer. One time, the girls were hanging out and some animal rights activist had went up to Jacqueline and told her how a cow had died for her jacket. Paz supported animal rights and did not love that fact, but Jacqueline said the jacket was old and found in her attic, so she didn't mind. If it was that old, it's not like Jacqueline had a choice whether or not to make it. But anyway, Jacqueline had starred the person dead in the eye and monotonically asked "Does that mean if I kill you, I'll get another jacket?" The poor person just looked a little freaked out and left. It was sort of cool. 

Once Paz reached her classroom, she sat down in her assigned desk and started drawing on her binder. It was covered in other doodles, but there was room.........somewhere. She heard a loud laughing that reminded her of a hyena. It was the "popular" rich girl, Pacifica. She wasn't very nice, but since Paz was just the quiet girl in the back of the room that barely spoke, she never really bothered her. Surrounding her, was her friends, giggling along with her about something. Pacifica was spoiled. And rude. On Halloween, she had turned everyone into their Halloween costumes. Paz hadn't been wearing a costume though, so she had worked with Jacqueline to fix everything. Thankfully, they had succeeded. Pacifica wasn't very smart either. She always had some sort of frankly, stupid comment to yell out in class. Once class was finally over, it was lunch time. Thankfully, all three of her friends had lunch at the same time as her.

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The three other girls were already sitting at their usual table when Paz arrived. She sat down across from Sandy, who smiled. "Heeeey!" Hazel was looking at something on her phone and Jacqueline was staring out the window. A blue journal was sitting on the table between them. It had a spiral binding and had a cerulean cover. On the front, there was a skull with blue roses for eyes. Her friends would always argue over what color it was. Everyone saw it as a different color. Sandy saw pink, Hazel saw yellow, Jacqueline saw purple and Paz saw blue. Sandy's friend Mason saw it as red. Mason was a nice guy; and behind Sandy's back, Hazel shipped the two. She called it "Mandy". Paz didn't argue. She sort of shipped it herself. It was like a running gag between her, Hazel and Jacqueline. But Mason was home schooled, so he wasn't here right now. Paz looked at the journal warily. It was a very special book. Whenever someone wrote something in it, the page popped out and whatever was written comes true unless the paper is ripped. They had decided it was too special to just call "The book", so they referred to it as The Tome. That had been Paz's idea. But Paz seemed to be the only one who was a little worried about it. A while back, a ghost had contacted them about the Tome. She had said that it was dangerous and evil. Her friends had dismissed it, and never spoke of it. But the ghost had also said a strange code. Paz had tricked Hazel into deciphering the code and translated, it was a very eerie poem. Or prophesy. Just thinking about it, sent her stomach into a knot. "Are you ok?" asked Sandy. Paz nodded.