Nadene

The ride up until now had been silent. Layali only stared off into the distance of the bus the entire time, and Jake was seemingly day dreaming. Nadene hadn’t done much of anything either besides sleeping. Eventually the bus came to a halt right in front of the school, though no one woke Nadene up. Her eyes were closed so often that everyone assumed she was awake. And Layali rushed off way too quickly for her to check on her sister. By the time she had snapped awake the bus had already started back up. Her consciousness slowly faded in, but not fast enough. The school had already disappeared from view and the bus wasn’t stopping any time soon. Her eyes dizzily opened, and as soon as they did Nadene immediately rose up.

“Wh-What?! How the heck did I...shoot, shoot shoot shoot! Idiot!” Nadene’s thoughts raced around as she quickly darted in front of her. Only one passenger was on still. They were wearing a beautiful dress, almost glass like in its appearance. Various ornaments hung from the waist line and her hair. Her eyes were shut, but she didn’t look to be asleep, as Nadene stared at her the woman immediately addressed her,

“Well hello there dear! My name’s Spiritfawn, Jake’s mother, he’s told me so much about you!”

“O-oh, you’re, uh, Jake’s mom? You’re kind of of...younger than I thought. You know you missed the school right? I think you could walk back at the next stop”

“Oh? I guess I’ll just have to turn the bus around then”

Spiritfawn rose up and elegantly walked over to the front of the bus just as it came to a red light. The bus driver stopped in his breath and immediately turned to look at her. His hand shook as he slowly rose it up to the goddess. Spiritfawn gladly took it in her hands and softly took it. The bus driver let out a stuttered cheer, he still wasn’t sure what to do with himself yet.

“Greetings again, Mark. Turn the bus around and get us back to the school”

“I-I’m sorry misses. But I can’t turn the bus around. Not for anyone”

“Is that so..? In that case…”

Spiritfawn took a small step backwards, but an exact duplicate of her remained in her place. Nadene stumbled back and pinched herself, but eventually just stared. Spiritfawn opened her eyes and signaled for Nadene to follow her. She complied and carefully nudged herself across the seats. The two of them left the bus, leaving the clone behind.

“Being the goddess of space-time sure does have its perks, huh?” She smirked as the two saw the bus start back up again. The Spiritfawn clone only went back to where the original was sitting before. The clone gave one last goodbye before being whisked off.

Nadene only looked up at the goddess with a blank stare, “What?”

Spiritfawn lead her to the sidewalk and began walking back towards the school. Currently they were in the middle of a shopping district. Several different small businesses and shops passed them by as they walked.

“I’m a goddess, sweatie. Specifically space-time”

“The heck is space-time?! It sounds like you’re just saying that so I don’t ask questions...” Nadene asked, bewildered

“Well, it’s half space and half time” Spiritfawn eloquently explained, she did a little skip as she did so, just for emphasis.

“Okay then. Let’s say you aren’t kidding...In that case, doesn’t that make Jake at least a demi-god?”

“Yeppy~! All I need is to find him, bring him over to my world and defeat the ultimate evil!”

“Is that all?” Nadene sheepishly laughed “How are you gonna get them there?”

“Well, it’s not all that hard. Just gotta get Jake. And Samantha, you probably know her, and that’ll be most of what I need. Then just gotta send them over to the Volcano Dragon and that’ll be all”

Nadene only looked up her confused, but smiled all the same. They continued the walk for some time more, each of them looking off at the various people along the way. Spiritfawn made sure to stay ahead of Nadene the entire time, even if it was only by a few inches. Spiritfawn kept the same elated grin the entire way, and Nadene’s expression was still hidden behind her scarf.

The two of them both came up to the corner of the street among a few other people. Spiritfawn only kept walking, but Nadene stopped from muscle memory. A few of the people around her looked on in confusion, but no one said anything. The cars passing by honked their horns and slammed on the breaks, Nadene could even see a few of them crash into each other with the sudden stop. Nevertheless she kept walking until she reached the end. Once the goddess turned around and looked the damage she put a finger to her chin in confusion,

“Erm..was that me?” She whispered over the blaring car alarms, and mass hysteria. The cars zigzagged across the street, each letting off their own bit of smoke. Spiritfawn didn’t even seem to notice, as all she did was lend out a hand to Nadene and signal for her to cross. Nadene did as she was told woozly stepping past debris and murmuring sorry at every step she passed. Once she got to the end, Spiritfawn took her arm and brought her back. Nadene let out a faint gasp as she was pulled, but just as she was the outline of a box outlined every car and person with a deep mystical shade of green. The outlines stretched across every object, and as they were they slowly went back in their direction. The cars repaired and began to fall back into place, the people’s expressions came back to normal, and everything slowly began to reverse. Then things went right back to normal; as if Spiritfawn hadn’t even been there.

“Goddess of Space-time” She said with pure satisfaction. Nadene only sighed. She turned back around and pointed to the end of the block,

“That buildings the school. Your son should be in room 113, which is also where I should be”

Spiritfawn nodded, but then suddenly stopped her motions. Actually, everything around Nadene stopped. The cars, the people, even her body, but she was still conscious. Spiritfawn turned her nose up at Nadene and smiled,

“But, you’re already in room 113, Nadene”

Nadene’s mouth was frozen, so she couldn’t respond. The world around her slowly melted away, the various buildings draining all of their color. Spiritfawn was the only one immune. Soon a gout of darkness spread around the entire world, consuming everything in a murky black. The structures around them grew grainy and distorted like an old movie. Nadene was unable to shut eyes. Unable to blink. All she could do was watch and listen.

Spiritfawn put a finger to her mouth and whispered, “Now wake up, I’ll see you again soon”

Nadene snapped awake. Her muscles jolted up and banged on her desk. Her thoughts immediately began swarming through her, causing an intense headache. A few of her classmates, namely Stephanie and her friends, giggled at her awakening. Nadene sighed and bundled a bit more in her scarf, somehow she’d been lucid dreaming? No. That didn’t make any sense, she was right there, everything she touched and tasted felt so real. And yet as soon as she thought of it her brain began replace each memory with another. It was as if she was in two places at once, but that brought even more confusion.

The teacher brought her ruler to the whiteboard and slammed it down, a few drops of blood flew off as she did so. Nadene sighed, Mrs. Rangel must’ve still been off with her baby. She eyed the board and scanned for the teachers name *Mcdoogal*. The teacher scrunched her face in irritation and brought it up immediately in anger,

“Alright maggots! You’re all gonna learn, and you’re gonna learn the right way! The Doogal way!”

Nadene tilted her head and quickly looked at the clock, the bell had just rung. That must’ve been whatever woke her up. She looked back and rose her hand,

“Uh, Miss McDoogal--”

“That’s Ms. Doctor Mcdoogal to you” She bellowed, bringing her ruler up, “Speak, Cadet!”

“Uh, I think you’re very beautiful…” Nadene flattered, “And you don’t need to seek out a significant other to appreciate you, because just by being happy for you you shall find satisfaction”

“Kissing up to the substitute teacher again, Nadene” Stephanie teased, “Y’know if you’re into women there’s always your sister. I hear she’s open”

“Okay, that’s incredibly unc--”

“QUIET, all of you. Except for this lovely one over here, she knows her way around this world. Tamaly, you’re getting an A on this test”

Stephanie immediately let out a shocked grunt, “W-Wait...How the hell is that fair? What she strokes your ego a bit and she gets an A on the test?”

“Hold your tongue Cadet Mcallister! Tamaly demonstrated that, even though she was asleep up until now, she could scan the appropriate actions to take in order to flatter her boss. Such actions are important in the real world, I would expect more of someone from you and your sudden spike income class”

Layali rose up now, “Nadene I can’t believe you’ve been sleeping this whole time! I thought you were studying in your mindscape by now!”

Stephanie groaned, “Oooh my god, the only thing more embarrassing than you babying your sister like this is…” Stephanie paused and tried to find the right word, “I-Is...uh--”

“Is what Steph? I actually care about someone else. It’s weird how you take issue with that”

Stephanie paused and blushed a little, “I mean, uh…”. Eventually she crammed herself back into her seat and looked off into the corner. Layali sighed lightly and brought herself down too. Miss Mcdoogal watched the two of them through the conversation like a tennis ball. When they were over she slammed her ruler on the whiteboard again, a few more flicks of blood shooting out.

“Alright. Is this a regular occurrence with these two?”

“It’ll be over soon, they’re just learning how to m--”

“Quiet, Cadet Yokito! I was asking the lovely young lady in the scarf!” Mcdoogal screeched. She then she pointed her ruler directly towards Nadene,

“...Yes”

Layali immediately interjected. Nadene only shrugged while Stephanie was busy talking with her friends. Miss Mcdoogal finally took a stack of papers out from the table next to her and began passing one out to each student except for Nadene. Nadene prepared to rest her head down and sleep, but a couple of students had already gotten up and turned it in. Once around half the students had finished the phone rang. Miss Mcdoogal shuffled towards it and listened on for a few seconds.

“Keifer, you are to report to the office this instant. Your mother wishes to speak with you”

Nadene’s eyes widened. She immediately remembered everything that had happened, the bus, the duplicate, rewinding time, somehow it got to be just that more real. Yet still, she remembered everything fading, and then somehow she woke up in this classroom. It was somehow wrong and right at the same time. Jake looked similarly surprised, but only for a few moments. He shrugged and walked off without another word.

Nadene eyed Jake in the corner of her eye. Whatever was going on was probably none of her business, but even so she felt the need to find out. She let out a slight sigh, and firmly rose her hand,

“Yo. I need to go to the bathroom” She murmured. Miss Mcdoogal nodded and pointed right towards the door. Nadene smirked and quickly stood up, turning to leave without a second thought.

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