A/N-FINALLY!! Another chapter. Woohoo! I haven't got much to say as I just typed up another story(le sigh, I know, NOT another story...)before I started this story(go read my new story! Now! I mean, after you finish reading this new chappie). So this will be short. The authors note I mean, hopefully not the chapter. Anywho...moving on...

CHAPTER 2-HEAVEN?

I blinked in disbelief. Tell this wasn't happening. Just tell me I was seeing things. I turned to look at Rane, whose jaw had practically dropped to the floor.

"Are...are we dead?" she asked softly.

"Not quite" a man's voice chuckled from the right of us. Both Rane and I were able to pull our eyes away from the white, cloudy, nothingness that surrounded us. A middle age man, who was begining to bald,sat at a tall wooden desk, draped in a white robe with a pair of thin glasses perched on the end of his elongated nose. "You can come a little closer" he said with a smile.

"Is this heaven?" Rane asked him as we cautiously walked over to the desk. If you ask me, it sure looked like it. Everything was white. Just pure white. We were even walking on clouds! I saw not golden gate, but in front of this was a white wall of...you guessed it, white doors. Hundreds of doors. Doors that were identical to the one we had just walked through. "Are you St. Peter?" Rane continued.

"Rane..." I hissed, elbowing her in the ribs.

"Whaaat?" she whined. "I was just asking!"

"Don't worry about it" the man laughed cheerfully. "I'm afraid this isn't heaven Miss. In fact, it's pretty far from it. Welcome to the outer realm waiting room."

"The what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Ok, I knew weird and this was beyond it. What's the chance that a door would randomly appear in the middle of the school parking lot and it just happens to lead to the outer realm waiting room, whatever the hell that is?

"The outer realm waiting room..." he repeated.

"I got that. What's the outer realm?" goodness, how dumb does this guy think I am. Just because I'm a little LD doesn't mean he too can act like I don't get stuff.

"The outer realm is almost like a parallel universe to your world, which you call Earth. We here call it the inner realm. This is the waiting room, where you register and then are accepted into the outer realm."

"And...." I prompted, feeling a little freaked out. Where are the guys with the straitjackets and Prozac? I bet you they're on their way right now. This is WAY too weird to be real.

""And...what more do you want to know?" he asked, seeming a little bit confused. Hello?? Shouldn't I be the confused one here?

"What's so special about this outer realm thingie?"

"Well you know how you all have books and movies in the inner realm" I nodded slowly. Ok, the men with the straitjackets aren't coming for me; they're coming for him. "In your world, those characters are fictional. Here in the outer realm is where they exist. No movies or books to act as guidelines."

"So this outer realm thing is just these fictional characters home?" Rane interjected. I turned to Rane in shock. She was paying attention? A conversation as long as the one we had been having normally wouldn't have kept her attention. Hell, I don't even know how I paid attention.

"Have you been paying attention this whole time?" I asked in disbelief. Something REALLY freaky was going on here.

"Yeah, weird I know. I was impressed too."

"That's because here you guys are normal" the man cut in.

"Excuse me" I shot back. "I don't think this concerns you. I don't even know who you are."

"I'm sorry" he apologized genuinely, which impressed me, seeing as how I had just snapped at him. "Forgive my lack of manners. I'm Retep T. S., but people normally just call me Ret."

"That's St. Peter backwards..." Rane pointed out, impressing me. How could SHE notice that, and not me? Thing were NOT making sense at all.

"That's true. How keen of you to notice."

"Can we cut the crap?!?!" I shouted, getting fed up with their antics. I'm sorry, but I'm not content with the explanation we have received, I have no idea where the hell we are, and why is Rane suddenly smarter than me?

"There's no need to overreact Nixie" Rane said softly, placing her hand gently on my shoulder. "This is an adventure. Isn't this what you wanted? An escape?"

"Yeah, but where have we escaped to? What's the purpose of this outer realm?"

"I can answer that" Ret interjected. "The outer realm is a place away from home. It is a place where people like you, people who have been teased and mocked their whole life, to just be normal, and have fun. This is your haven."

"But everyone can't just stop the world, can they?" I asked, perplexed. I wish I could say this was making sense to me, but it really wasn't. I mean, a world just for the stupid people, just where we could be normal? Well maybe I don't want to be normal. No one asked me if I wanted this.

"We monitor the inner realm closely, looking for signs of misery, depression, and desperation. Feelings of not fitting in, feelings of not being good enough, you know the sort. These feelings are detectable at a young age. We then grant these children special powers, like the ones you two were blessed with. It is then up to the bearer of these powers to use them for their benefit or not. So no, not everyone can stop the world as you did, but they can in their own special ways if their will is strong enough, as the two of yours was." Alright, this is starting to make a little sense, but I still have no idea who this person is. I mean, is he some sort of alien, or an angel, or what. Because normal people don't have these kinds of powers. Ahh! Too much thinking!

"That's kinda cool" Rane said with a small smile. "And charitable. Isn't that great Nixie? They're helping us to be happy!"

"Who's they?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't get some crap answer. Now that I'm normal, I'm not going to take anymore of those BS answers people feed me and pretending that the answer makes sense. Nope, those days of innocence are over for me.

"I'm afraid I can't really answer that" I glared at Ret. This is NOT what I wanted. Some "you wouldn't understand" answer. I can't stress how much that infuriates me. "It's really complicated. And it's not exactly that you wouldn't understand as much as it would take me years to explain exactly who "we" are and where we come from. I hope you understand. I'm not trying to blow you off, or push the question aside. It's just that it's a complicated answer, though the question is so simple" Ret gave me an encouraging smile and I felt relieved. Not at the fact that he didn't give me an answer, but that he didn't talk down to me. It was kinda nice the way that he talked to me like I was an equal.

"Are you from here?" Rane asked curiously.

"Where is here?" Ret responded friendlily. "I can't answer that question either. But I do have some questions for you girls. First, I need your full names" Ret proceeded to pull a large brown book out from shelf under the desk and set it down, with a loud thud, on the desktop.

"I'm Rane Sorenson" Rane replied, before looking at me. I gave her a shrug, signifying that she could give him my name. I have to admit, Rane was right. This was an adventure, what I was looking for. Is it exactly what I expected? Well, I don't know how to answer that cause I don't know what I expected. But it can't hurt to tell him my name, can it? I mean that's what life's about, taking risks. "And she's Nixie Adler."

"Ah yes" Ret said, flipping through the pages of the book before stopping on one. "Well it's seems you girls certainly deserve a break from your lives. It's a pleasure having you join us."

"What now?" I asked, looking at all the doors before me. So many selections, how do you choose?? "Do we just pick a door?"

"Oh no" Ret said with a chuckle. "If it only were that easy. You can't just walk into the outer realm like you own the place. There are rules. Now let's see, you girls are assigned to the Newsies sector..." my ears perked up at that. Newsies??!?!? We're going to see, and meet, the Newsies?!?!? Scratch everything I was just complaining about! I don't care where I am, who you are, whatever...I'M GOING TO MEET THE NEWSIES!!!! "...so I believe that your guide will be Hope." I snapped out of my happy dance, which involved me and Rane circling about singing we're gonna meet the newsies over and over.

"Who?" I asked, but Ret didn't need to answer my question. Through a door I hadn't noticed, this one being red and marked with a NO UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY sign, walked a short girl, not much shorter than myself, and I'm 5'2". She wore clothes period to 1899, a pair of tattered black slacks with faded yellow suspenders hanging down, brown boots under her pants, and a red men's button down shirt open over a grey (it was probably once white) wife beater type shirt. Her curly brown hair fell to her shoulders and was topped off with a grayish newsie cap, and her light brown eyes were lined softly with what looked like charcoal. I noticed that tucked in her belt was a slingshot and something that was clearly out of period, a gun. But it wasn't like any of the guns I'd associate with 2004. It looked like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, like something from outer space. I had to remind myself, that it could actually be something from outer space.

"Hey Ret!" she said cheerfully before blowing a bubble with the gum she was chewing. I was bewildered. Was she from the past, the present, or the future? What was going on???

"Nixie, Rane, I'd like you to meet Hope, your guide" Ret introduced. With a smirk, Hope bowed to us in a mocking manner.

"'Tis a pleasure to meet ya" she said, laughter in her voice.

"Same..." I said a little reluctantly. Strange character, this girl Hope was.

"Alright, listen up" she said, her tone changing to authoritative. "The rules are simple. For the first three weeks you're here, you have to stay in the sector you're placed. In your case, it happens to be in the newsies sector. But don't worry about that because I'll be with you the whole time. Try and stay within the period, it makes things more fun. Also, you can't leave the outer realm for those three weeks either. But that's not a concern either. If you have any questions, concerns, gripes, requests, or muffins, come to me. I prefer chocolate chip" she smiled at this, showing off a row of perfect white teeth and two dimples. "Don't do anything stupid, stay out of trouble, if you need help call me. Only guides are allowed to carry stunners" she motioned to the gun on her hip. "And those are only for the most serious of cases. If I forgot anything, I'll probably remember later and I'll tell you then." I blinked. This girl had just said this whole speech without even taking a breath! That had to take talent. I took a glance at Rane, who was grinning. Well she looked excited. And I should be excited too. I get to spend three weeks, AT LEAST, with the newsies, with barley any restraints. Plus, this Hope seemed alright, perhaps it wouldn't be bad having her around all the time. She probably knew all the secret alleys, and lots of other things that could come in handy. Hey, this sounds like an awesome adventure, certainly beyond my imagination.

"What are we waiting for?" Rane exclaimed. "Let's go!"

"Slow down" Hope laughed. "First, we need to get you out of those rags and into something more suitable. You'll find clothes in the closet" she pointed to a brown door that I'm sure wasn't there before. But you know what? I've decided the best thing to do here was not ask, because things didn't always have to make sense. Rane and I stepped into the closet, finding ourselves surrounded by clothes from 1899. They had everything! You name it they had it! I picked out a pair of khaki slacks, a blue men's shirt, which I buttoned up except for the top three buttons, rolled the sleeves past my elbows, and tucked in, and gray suspenders, which I let hang down. I chose a pair of brown loafers to accompany the outfit. Somehow, they all fit, but again I wasn't going to ask. Rane chose a black skirt that had been torn at the bottom, making it only down to her knees. She found a light green blouse that complimented her eyes beautifully, and a pair of ankle high black boots. With me perching a brown newsie cap on top of my moose brown hair, the two of us exited the closet, newsified.

"Wonderful!" Hope said cheerfully with a smile. "Now, if you're ready" she looked at both of us, and we nodded. What an adventure this was turning out to be! "Alright then..." and for the second time that day Rane and I stepped through a strange looking door, but this time when we stepped through and were consumed by a strange white light, I wasn't half as scared as I was excited. I was going to meet the Newsies! Ret was wrong. This was truly heaven!

"Feels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door"-Guns'N'Roses