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She followed them up an attractive winding staircase in the middle of the building. When they reached the third floor, she was led down a hallway filled with doors until they reached one labelled with the number seven. There was no handle or lock on the door, which was strange. How was she supposed to get inside the room?

“It’s touch-activated,” Jordan explained before she could ask. “It’ll open when it reads your bio-signature, which Jarvis should have uploaded by now. You and D.C. are the only ones who can open your door from the outside. Give it a go.”

Alex pressed her hand to the door and it automatically clicked open.

“That’s pretty cool,” she admitted.

“Do you want us to come in and introduce you?” Bear offered, albeit hesitantly.

Alex peeked through the doorway. It was dark inside, but a large window on the opposite wall allowed some moonlight to spill into the room. In the dim light she could just make out two beds; one was already occupied.

“I think she’s sleeping,” Alex whispered. “I can introduce myself in the morning.”

“Good idea,” Jordan said. “And hey, how about we stop by on our way to breakfast? We can all go down together, if you want?”

Alex smiled. “That’d be great, thanks.”

“No problem,” he said, before they both wished her goodnight and headed further down the hall to their own room.

Alex quietly entered her dorm and the door sealed shut behind her. She tip-toed over to what she thought was the bathroom, and once the door was closed she turned on the light. It was nice, if simple. There was a toilet, a shower and a basin with a large bench—half of which was covered with her roommate’s toiletries. Alex opened up the drawers on what she presumed was her side and she was pleased to find a new toothbrush and toothpaste ready and waiting for her.

When she was finished, she turned the light off and crept back into the room, tripping over only once before reaching her bed and crawling under the covers. She would be able to explore more in the morning… and hopefully find a change of clothes.

While lying in the dark, Alex reflected over everything that had happened that day. Somehow she’d been transported to an entirely different world, and she was now stuck there for an unforeseeable amount of time. It was insane, yet she’d clearly seen evidence of it being true. People inherworld didn’t disappear at the drop of a hat—nor did lollipop sticks, for that matter. Of course, it was possible that she reallyhadbumped her head after falling into the fountain at the International Exchange Academy, but she doubted that was the case. If so, her hallucination was certainly lengthy—and detailed.

No, it looked as if the impossible truth was her new reality, as illogical as that might be. But on the positive side, she’d somehow managed to gain two friends without even trying. Jordan and Bear had already formed a solid bond with her and she felt comfortable around them, almost like she’d known them for years, not hours. She had no idea how that had happened—she hadn’t even had to resort to eating dirt in a playground with them. Though, Bear’s gifthadalmost caused her to eat dirt, come to think of it. Hmm.

Another interesting development that she couldn’t quite get her head around was the possibility that she had some kind of gift. There had never been anything special about her before—surely she would have noticed if she could shoot laser beams out of her eyes. That kind of thing was hard to miss, right? Perhaps they were wrong about her, perhaps she was just as normal as she’d always considered herself to be. Only time would tell.

Alex had no idea what the next few days, weeks, possibly months had in store for her. All she could do was hope for the best, and to do that, she knew she would have to fully embrace her new world, no matter how strange it was. Acceptance was the key, even if nothing made sense to her. If need be, when she finally made it back home, she’d make sure to find a seriously good psychiatrist.

On that thought, Alex smiled wryly to herself and snuggled deeper into the bed. It was surprisingly comfortable, and it wasn’t long before her overwhelmed and exhausted brain quieted enough for her to drift off to sleep.

Alex woke suddenly, startled by the sound of a door slamming.

Where am I?she wondered, sitting up and blinking sleep from her eyes. Memories from the day before flashed across her mind as she took in her surroundings and, realising that it hadn’t all been some kind of head-trauma-induced hallucination, she collapsed back onto her pillow and groaned loudly.

A knock at the door caused her to bolt upright again.

“Alex?” Jordan called. “You up?”

“Rise and shine!” Bear added.

She scrambled out of bed, tripping over the blanket in her haste and falling heavily to the floor.

“What was that noise?” Bear called through the door. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” she answered, rubbing her stinging elbow and pushing herself back up to her feet. When she opened the door, Jordan and Bear took one look at her and burst out laughing.

“What?” she cried indignantly, running her hands through her bed hair.

“Not a morning person, huh?” Jordan observed between laughter.

She crossed her arms. “What gave me away?”

“Just your sunny disposition,” Bear said, still chuckling.

“It’s early,” she told them. “I only just woke up.”