Chapter 5

• I wake up to the smell of pancakes and my stomach grumbles. “mmm smells great.” I say as I watch Dad flip the pancakes perfectly and place a few on my plate in front of me. 
• “I know you love them.” He says, smiling. “I remember you told me you could live on them alone when you were little.”
• I smile back up at him as I place a few in my mouth drenched in maple syrup. “So where were you last night? Hot date?” I mumble around a mouthful of food.
• “Hmm?” He looks surprised, then recovers quickly laughing off my teasing “no, no nothing like that. A work emergency, that’s all. What were you doing up? Was anything wrong? Bad dreams again?” he frowns, shifting the conversation back to me.
• “Nope, I was just up reading when I heard you come in.” I smile, not understanding his awkwardness.
• “Good morning All, ready for school Sis?” Heather strolls in, fresh from the shower and smelling great. She has her bag on her back already and her Com in her hand, texting frantically and not looking up at us. Has she already forgotten our little fallout? Little miss nosy. 
• I decided to let it go, since I hardly know her and partly feel sorry for her. She tries too hard. As long as she stops her prying.“I’ll be ready in a minute,” I jump up and rush to the shower, dressing quickly and grabbing my bag on my way out of the room, to walk into the kitchen with Blaze standing at the door, leering at me behind hooded eyes. I drop everything and stand frozen, not able to say a word and not knowing whether I am imagining him being there. It’s as if he stepped out of my nightmare and materialized in front of me. The moment Heather looks up, his face changes to serene and innocent. And I wonder if I had imagined it all. 
• “Blaze,” she sighs, practically swooning and throwing her long limbs around his neck. He instantly puts his nose in her neck and takes a long silent sniff, looking at me as he does so and I get a chill down my spine. 
• “Wh- what’s going on?” I stammer. 
• “Oh! Ky,” Heather turns to me, surprised that anybody else was in the room with them. Dad, just sits and reads articles on a Com that is as big as a Tablet where I’m from. Oblivious to what is happening around him.
• “Do you remember Blaze?” she asks. It’s the way she asks that has me suspicious. As if she knows something. She waits for my answer. I must be silent for a long time because the three of them just stand and watch me. Is this some sort of game? What is she playing at?
• “Yeah, hi,” I say simply.
• “Ky” he drawls, mischief written all over his face.
• “What do you want Blaze?” I ask bluntly. Not failing to miss the appalled look on Heather’s face.
• “Well, didn’t Heath tell you? I am driving you...and her...to school today.” He smiles brightly and puts his arm around Heather's waist, pulling her closer and whispering loudly in her ear “Isn’t that right baby?” He leers at me as he does this and I’m momentarily speechless as I stare at how disgustingly he’s enjoying toying with his prey. Heather is speechless too as her eyes are closed at apparently enjoying his attention. I must have been mistaken. There’s no way Heather would have wanted to be that close to a creep like that if she knew who he really was. 
• I pull Heather’s arm, managing to pull her out of his grasp and into my bedroom without her having a chance to protest and much to Blaze’s surprise. Closing the door firmly behind me, I spin to face an angry Heather “What do you think you’re doing! We were having a moment and you just ruined it!”
• “A MOMENT!?” I whisper, shout, for Dad and Blaze not to hear us. “Are you freaking kidding me? That guy is a creep, Heather! There is NO WAY I’m allowing you to fall into his trap.” 
• “Allowing me? You’re NOT my mother, Ky. Dad has no problems with us dating. He is not a creep, how dare you!” We’re both livid and I am shocked at the revelation that this older boy was able to get permission from our father to date my twin sister. 
• “Are you blind! Or just a fool?” I shout, not caring now who hears.
• “Just stay out of my life!” At that she storms out of my room, slamming the door behind her. “And you can catch the bus to school, I’m leaving!” She shouts back as an afterthought. 
• I sigh, sinking onto my bed and glance up at the mirror. “AAARGH!” I shout. I need to tell her about Blaze. I’ll need to do it as soon as possible too. It feels like I simply can’t escape him. Everywhere I go. He’s there. I don’t even know where ‘here’ is and yet he’s here too. The whole point of jumping was to never ever see him again. 
• I go back into the kitchen and pick up my bag off the floor. I notice everyone has already left. I head for the bus stop down the street and hope I’m not too late for school. The last thing I need in this freaky suburbia, that I now need to find a way out of, is to be marked tardy. 
• The school is quiet. My first class of the day has already started. The teacher gives me a sharp look when I enter, but nods her head and I take a seat. The only seat that’s left to take. I glanced over at the girl on my right, with braided black hair and striking blue eyes and the most beautiful chocolate brown skin that glowed. She had her book open to page 543. The title read Dimensions. 
• I paged through the book and came to the exact page when the teacher said “So, now that you have a little background information about Different dimensions and the theories that ours might not be the only Dimension out there, you may now look at the assignment at the bottom of page 543. Discovering interdimensional travel and the possibilities thereof.“ It was like all the questions I had were answered. All the pieces were put into place. How it’s possible that I came here. 
• Why did I suddenly have a twin I knew nothing about and why do my mom and brother no longer exist. It also explains why Bennet is so strange. It’s not the Bennet that I knew. I breathe out a sigh of relief and the girl next to me frowns at me. 
• “Sorry,” I whisper. “Rough morning.” she nods and gets back to her assignment. Suddenly I feel hopeful, that perhaps I don’t have to leave after all. Perhaps Heather is right, the Blaze from this Dimension might not be like the Blaze from my Dimension. I look up to see Heather at the other end of the room, her head turned back to look directly at me. The look she gives, however, is anything but pleasant. It unnerves me. I look back at my assignment and try to focus on how to do it. 
• We need to research the question “Is it possible to travel through different dimensions? If it is, what are the possible ways to travel? If it isn't possible, provide theories that would need to happen in order to travel through dimensions.”So I need a stance, I think I might say no just for the fun of knowing that I’m probably the first to ever have been able to travel to a different dimension successfully and unaware. 
• In case I want to go back however, I decided to research the possibilities of interdimensional travel and how to accomplish it. The bell rings and I’m so excited by this new discovery that I choose to ignore Heather being weird. She is my interdimensional sister after all. I wait for her outside the classroom. When she spots me, she rolls her eyes and tries to dodge me in the crowd but I’m too fast and grab her elbow. I quickly hooked my arm into hers. “Oh, don’t be such a grouch sister dear.”I smile and wiggle my eyebrows for good measure. She struggles not to laugh but doesn’t manage it. In an instant, it’s gone again. 
• “I thought you’d be happy for me. That I have someone too. Not everyone can have what you and Bennet have, you know.”I see how sad she is and decide to take a leap into the unknown world of compassionate people. I give her an awkward, one-armed hug. 
• “Sorry,” I say
• “Why do you scrunch your nose?”
• “I don’t like hugging ok! Or PDA!”I burst out, let go of her. I almost push her away. Almost.
• “Since when?” she counters. “All these years I’ve been trying to pry you off me and now you all of a sudden don’t like public displays of affection?”Her eyes shoot up but her arms are crossed. She stands in front of my locker so to try and bury my head in there wouldn’t work. 
• “People change Heather. And can you keep your voice down?”
• “Who do you think is gonna hear us? The government?”She bursts out laughing and I hear a few snickers from others close by. What an odd thing to say. I think. 
• “Don’t be ridiculous Heather. Can we let it go? I need to get my books for my next class.”
• “We can let it go when you agree to have a double date tonight with me and Blaze.”She must be out of her mind if she thinks that’s going to happen. “Show me you’ll give him a chance and I won’t go all postal on you and make your life a living hell.”She really is a feisty one when she wants to be. It truly is like looking in a mirror. “Fine,” I say. “Now get out of my way!” I really don’t need her making my time here more difficult before I’ve figured a way out. Great. I just realized that I now have to sit through an entire meal with my 2 worst enemies and Heather, the twin from suburban hell. “Urrgh!”I groan. 
• Heather smiles, moves out of my way and heads off to her class. Luckily we both don’t take computer science. 
• Just my luck. On my way to computers, I bump face-first into a very muscular rugby player. “Hey sweetheart, I haven’t seen you in a while.”Bennet bends down to try and kiss me again and I move my face just in time for him to give me a peck on the cheek. “Uh, yeah. Great to see you.” 
• “Is something wrong? I feel like you’re avoiding me. Usually, you don’t mind all the people.”Great, another lecture about my reluctance to be touched. 
• “Look, people change. Just because I was willing to kiss you in front of everyone last week, does not mean I’m going to be up for that today.”His shocked. I hear “umph” remarks from surrounding people and realize what that must have sounded like to someone who is in love with a girl who he thought loved him back. I need to learn more about this other Ky because I’m tanking at being her. 
• “Are you breaking up with me?”His bottom lip quivers and his eyes get moist. No, No, No. The last thing I need is another scene. My stomach turns but I take his hand anyway. “No. I just don’t feel well today. I don’t want to risk you getting sick ok?”I try and give my best smile. This just makes him look a little scared. 
• “How about we go out tonight? Huh? Might cheer you up. Heather and Blaze invited us.”His tears seem to subside but now he looks confused.
• “I thought you weren’t feeling well.”
• “I might feel better tonight, what do you say?”
• “But I don’t understand. I thought you hated that guy. You always said he was a creep.”Finally! Something Ky 1 and I can agree on. 
• “I know right!” for a second I forget who I’m trying to be. “But Heather is forcing me to go. Said she’d make my life a living hell if I don’t. I certainly don’t want to test out that theory.”
• “Right.” he nods. Smiles and says “Ok, great. I’ll see you tonight then. At least with me there, he might not want to try anything shifty.” he winks and walks off. I sigh with relief. How many bullets do I have to dodge this morning? I’m already dreading what tonight is going to be like. 
• The rest of the day goes fairly slowly until I find Heather talking to Bennet. It wouldn’t be strange at all if they weren’t standing in an abandoned school hallway and Heather wasn’t peeking over her shoulder every few minutes. What is she up to? I need to get closer. Making sure I’m unseen, I walk through the hallway and run to the nearest abandoned classroom. They didn’t see me. I’m close enough to hear Heather whispering.
• “Is all of this really necessary?”Bennet asks her.
• “Of course it’s necessary. She’d be put at high risk if this isn’t successful. Is that what you want?”Heather whispers. 
• “You know I don’t want that. I just-” Bennet runs his hand through his hair and pulls it at the back of his head before letting go “You know how much I care about her.”
• “Just do what you’re told,” Heather says. Before Bennet could respond, she walks away again. A few minutes later, Bennet emerges from the hallway. And I’m standing in the abandoned classroom wondering what in the world they’re talking about.