The Two Worlds (4 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

“
Kay, get up!” With one
mighty shove, Nia successfully pushed me out of the bed and onto
the floor. I grunted at her, grabbed blinding at the covers, and
pulled them over my head. What happened to my red, plush
carpet?

“
Ka-aayyyy!” Nia whined and
gave me a small kick. “Come on. Move your butt. We’re going to be
late for school!”

“
What?” I yelled, sitting
straight up. Grandma walked in and sucked her false
teeth.

“
Mmm-hmmm,” she said through
pursed lips, “that’s what you get for sleeping all through the day.
Now you can’t sleep during the night.” I groaned and fell back to
the floor with a thud. “Go ahead, get up. Breakfast is ready in
case you want any. I expect you downstairs in thirty minutes,
missy.”

“
Nia,” I moaned, “what am I
doing here?”

Nia stood silently for a moment and
then whispered, “Talk to you on the bus. Now get up!”

I stumbled through a shower, breakfast,
and a kiss on the cheek for my grandmother. I then somehow made it
on the bus in my regular seat across from Nia. She offered a look
of pity and scooted over next to me.

“
Sorry about this morning,”
she chirped. I yawned, and she wrinkled her nose. “Ew, did you
brush your teeth?” I shrugged, and she continued. “Welcome back to
planet Earth, sis.”

“
How did I get back in my
bed? And what are we—I—doing here?”

“
Going to school,” I gave
her the dirtiest look I could muster, and she laughed. “What did
you think? We’re back here to live our second lives. Reality, if
you want to call it that. And I had to use a bit of hocus pocus to
get you from science class to your bedroom. Grandma’s under the
impression that you had a migraine.” She sighed happily as the bus
lurched forward to stop from missing an unfortunate kid who was
waiting at the bus stop. “Paul told you—”

“
So it wasn’t just a
dream?”

“
...That our physical bodies
are back on whatever planet we came from—“

“
Whatever
planet?”

“—
and eventually our minds
return to them. Will you stop interrupting me?” She huffed,
annoyed. “Anyway, when you fall asleep on Turgor, your mind is
transported back to your body.” I stared at her, fighting an urge
to hyperventilate.

“
Are you on something, Nia?
Is that what’s going on?”

Nia looked insulted. “I would never use
drugs,” she huffed. “And why would I lie to you about this? How do
I know what happened in your dream?”

“
I don’t know,” I confessed.
“Maybe I muttered in my sleep last night.”

Nia smirked. “The whole dream? The
Awakening of Dia, the meeting with Lynch, the Harpies?” She folded
her arms while watching me take deep breaths. Leaning over to me,
she whispered, “Don’t fight it, sis. Trust me. You know deep down
in your heart that this is real.”

“
So, I guess I don’t have a
choice in this matter, do I? And where the hell is Grandpa Lamont?
What haven’t you tried to find him yet?”

“
Don’t yell at me,” Nia said
in a low voice. “I’m not trying to find Grandpa because I know he’s
not in trouble. He’s on business like Paul said. And yes, you do
have a choice in whether you stay on Turgor or not. But this is
something that takes practice in doing, not one night. Get a grip.”
She leaned back and watched the other kids for a moment.

“
You don’t have a choice in
whether you want to deal with this or not, do you?” I asked
again.

“
Yep,” Nia repeated. “You
do. Sis, like I’ve said before, you don’t just happen to find
Turgor. You seek it...want it secretly, deep down. In a way, you
beckon it. And when you do, you make your choice.”

I took a very deep breath and let it
out slowly, much to Nia’s horror. Nothing seemed real anymore. I
had been on a different planet less than twenty-four hours ago, and
now I was on a school bus that didn’t hover, heading back to my
normal school. I closed my eyes for a moment. My sister was going
crazy, and she was dragging me down with her.

I looked over at her and thought for a
moment. “So, let’s pretend this is real. Am I going to
just...sporadically learn stuff or is Paul going to be my
mentor?”

Nia giggled. “Paul? A mentor? Highly
unlikely. Senior Awakeners only help get you started.” She reached
down into her backpack and pulled out a small purple notebook and a
piece of gum. “Here”, she said, handing them over to me, “this is
your DiGi.”

“
My DiGi,” I echoed,
stuffing the gum in my mouth.

“
Yep. It’s kind of like a
planner, diary and manual all wrapped up in one. DiGi stands for
Dilon and Gixson, the name of the wizard company that makes them.
There are so many new Awakeners these days that the Senior
Counsel—that’s that Paul’s apart of—decided to split you up into
groups. Actually, Wizards and Walkers are in groups as well, so
don’t feel bad. You stay in it until you attend a specialized
meeting with the Counsel. Go ahead and open it.”

I opened the DiGi and stared down at a
blank page. “Nothing’s on it,” I muttered.

“
Breathe on it,” Nia urged,
elbowing me. I chomped a few times on my wad of gum, sighed, and
the pages began to fill with dates, times, and small notes. I
stared, mouth agape. This actually was happening. I could barely
hear Nia over the sound of the blood rushing to my head.

“
It’s your own personal
device,” she said. “No one can read it without you being in their
presence. The Counsel assigns you to a group of other members in
your same skill level, and you guys meet whenever it appears in
your DiGi.” I looked down at the DiGi and began to read:

Welcome to the Senior
Counsel
’s Inter-Planetarian notebook, made by Dilon &
Gixson. This is built for Awakeners, Death Walkers, Wizards and
Creators. In this DiGi all of your daily appointments from Turgor
and your home planet are recorded. Please keep this DiGi with you
at all times! Failure to do so with result in disciplinarian action
and can lead to imprisonment and a fine.

Looking up, I raised an eyebrow at Nia.
“Imprisonment?”

“
It’s a really important
book,” she shrugged. “Remember, there’s a war out
there.”

“
And so what? I’m just
supposed to lug this around?”

“
Not at all.” She took my
DiGi from me and said, “It appears in two forms and only when you
need it. The first is the actual book. The second is appearing
right in front of you as though it was put up on a projector. It’s
up to you to think of the way you want to see it. Be careful with
the second way, though. We wouldn’t want anyone else to see it.”
She handed me the DiGi, which I stuck in my backpack.
I’ll read
it later
, I thought, grabbing my bag and joining the line to
get off the bus.

School was a drag. I found it hard to
concentrate on anything and was anxious to get back to sleep so
that I could test out my new skills on Turgor. During math, I
thought about my DiGi and pulled it out of my book bag. Flipping it
open to the first page, I noticed there was only the day’s date
listed.

September 12- 7:30 p.m.
Earth Time, 8:30 a.m. Turgor Time

Meeting with Awakener
Group Sector 3902B

Initiation,
Assignments

Feeling a bit nauseous, I flipped
through the rest of the DiGi and found blank pages. Later during
lunch, I sought out Nia and asked her about it.

“
Means you have a meeting
today,” she said through a mouth full of beef taco. “Looks like
it’s tonight, seven our time. It’s with that Awakener group I was
telling you about earlier. What sector is it again...3902B?” The
thought of actually interacting with other people on Turgor had
never occurred to me.

“
So,” I began, reaching for
a taco, “what happens during these meetings?”

Nia swallowed and paused before taking
another bite. “Well, just like it said. You have initiation into
the sector, and then if there are any assignments, you sort them
out amongst yourselves.”

“
Who hands out
assignments?”

“
There’s a leader of your
sector, and he or she gets them directly from the Senior Awakener
of your group. That would be Paul.”

I took a bite and kept talking. “What
are these assignments for?”

“
Depends.”

“
On what?”

Nia rolled her eyes. “I don’t
know...the time of day, the weather, where we stand during the war.
It depends on your skill level. Awakeners are more for Awakening
people and things, so chances are you’ll probably have duties
dealing with traveling to other areas of Turgor or to different
planets.”

“
Different
planets?”

“
Yeah,” Nia said, looking at
me puzzled. “You didn’t think that Earth was the only planet that
had intelligent life forms, did you? Forget what Mrs. Temely told
you.”

“
Stupid me,” I mumbled and
took a bite of my taco.

Nia was the epitome of cool. “Don’t
worry,” she said. “The only thing you’ll be doing these next couple
of days is practicing and getting settled in. You shouldn’t have
assignments until next week.” Nia turned her attention to a couple
of girls walking towards us, and gave me a wave before picking up
her tray to join them. I sighed and continued to eat, worrying
about the night that lay ahead of me.

***

“
Grandma, we’re home!” I
yelled while Nia slung her backpack onto the kitchen table.
“Grandma!”

Grandma Mary walked into the kitchen
frowning. She looked tired. “What did I tell you about yelling in
this house?”

“
Sorry,” I said before
planting a kiss on her forehead. “How’s Grandpa?”

“
Same as usual,” she sighed,
returning Nia’s kiss on her cheek. “How was school?”

“
Good,” Nia and I said in
unison. Grandma gave a knowing
humph
and walked into the
living room.

“
I’ll cook dinner,” Nia
offered with her eyes on Grandma’s head, which was now facing the
television. We heard Wheel of Fortune and chuckled together. “You
can go ahead and get a move on. You look tired anyway. I’ll cover
for you.”

“
Thanks,” I said, surprised
at her generosity.

“
Yeah, yeah,” Nia said,
grinning. “This is a one-time deal. Tomorrow you’re on your
own.”

I grinned back and headed to our room,
where my bed awaited me. When I fell asleep this time, I awoke
immediately on my couch in Dia.

“
Good morning,” she
announced. “Welcome back.”

“
Hey,” I greeted her,
noticing I sounded groggy. “What’s up?”

“
It’s morning, in case you
haven’t caught on.” She seemed in good spirits. “A new day, a new
day.”

I stood up and stretched, looking
around. The wide windows in the front of the house gave entrance to
rays of golden sunlight. There was a serene look within the house.
I took a deep breath and smiled. For some reason this felt more
like home than Earth. Standing still for a moment, I closed my eyes
and listened to the sounds of people outside, walking on the
sidewalks and shouting at the mailboxes that blocked their
way.

“
So,” Dia said, interrupting
my peace, “what’s on the schedule for today?”

“
I’ve got a meeting,” I
remembered, plopping back down on the couch, “with my group at
eight thirty.”

“
Well, you better get a move
on. It’s seven forty-five, and you’ve got to catch the
bus!”

I jumped up and looked at the clock on
the wall, which winked and showed me that Dia wasn’t
lying.

“
Uh-oh!” I yelped and dashed
up the stairs to take a shower. Nia had created me a pretty cool
wardrobe, which I had Awakened the night before.

Fifteen minutes later I ran back down
the stairs, looking fabulous, and was about to open my door when
the doorbell rang.

“
Who is it?” I asked both
the person on the other side of the door and Dia.

“
It’s your neighbor, Rena,”
the person answered. I opened the door to find a girl about my
height and age standing there, with bright orange skin and long
blue hair. Her friendly eyes had a red tint to them, and she tugged
self-consciously at her blue hair. She gave me a nervous grin and
stuck out her hand. “Like I said, my name’s Rena. Rena Hall. Nice
to meet you.”

I shook her hand, and then stepped back
like she was going to explode at any minute. Rena blushed a sort of
fuchsia color and repeated, “Nice to meet you.”

“
Er...nice to meet you,” I
replied, regarding the rainbow-colored girl with suspicion. I
wasn’t all that keen about meeting new people on my own yet. “What
can I do you for?”