There were other dimensions, of course.
There was dimension 32, the Dimension of Spikes, and 465, the Dimension of Chairs. There wasn't a physical way to access them, unless you wanted to swim in the endless void of space and time. The other way to move between dimensions was to teleport, to disappear from one place and suddenly appear in another with nothing but a quiet poof. Each dimension was also required to have a portal to another dimension, but regulations ended there. Dimensions could be small, like the Dimension of Gold unfortunately was, or huge like the third dimension, or even spiritual, like the theorized Crystal Realm, which supposedly rested between the first and second dimensions.
You could buy a dimension. It was expensive beyond monetary value, and you had to contact an immortal being, such as an Interdimensional Guardian, to make the transaction. But like everything else in the interdimensional universe, it was infinitely possible.
I walked into Regions on Monday morning to find out that the classroom was completely empty. Luke Zirconium, my boyfriend, stumbled in after me. "Hey, there's nobody in—"
I cut him off. "Let's check the other classrooms."
The Moves classroom was crowded, and I spotted Josh Lasquash and Bayleef Boron in the corner. "I guess it's a combined class today." We each took seats in the back of the room.
Jack Lagouski sauntered in right before the bell rang. "Where have you been?" Luke asked him. "Usually you're early." His friend said nothing.
Professor Iron walked into the classroom. "I'll be teaching Regions as well as Moves this week, since Professor Alloy is on a cruise in the Great Ocean. First things first, do you know where the Great Ocean is?"
"Yes," Ava Arsenic said. "It's in the northeast corner of the Mica Realm."
"Very good," Professor Iron told her. "However, that's not what we are going to learn about today. We're going to learn about the third dimension." He pulled down a map.
The class went silent. We usually learned about in-dimension regions, not whole dimensions.
"Now, I don't know how Professor Alloy does things, but you won't learn about wars and technology. Technology's the same as here, actually. End of story." He started pacing around the room.
"Now," he barked suddenly, so that his dark glasses moved slightly, "This is a map of the third dimension. These little chunks here are called countries."
We copied that into our notebooks.
"These giant blobs are called continents." He pointed to them. "Everything else is ocean. Over here is a portal that will teleport you to the Interdimensional Abyss." The room was full of frantic scribbling.
"Now enough of that," Professor Iron decided. "We're going to learn about the lifestyle of the average three-dimensional person. Notebooks away."
He plugged a DVD player into the dusty old projector Professor Alloy never used. A faded image appeared on the blackboard. "This is what you would wear."
Ava gasped. "That shirt is so long."
The image disappeared. It was replaced by a picture of an ordinary house, though it was a little big. "This is where you would live."
The image clicked. A picture of a pink Pokémon appeared. "This is what you would eat."
Ava started crying. "They eat Pokémon?"
"No, they eat animals." Her crying continued.
"I look at this, and I see dinner," her teacher growled. "Of course, back in my day, dinner was a hard-boiled egg and a lump of burned pasta." The image clicked again. It showed a small metal structure with wheels on the bottom. "This is how you get around."
Josh snorted. "Can't those idiots just teleport? That thing is so bulky!"
Professor Iron glared at him. "They have them in the Diamond Realm, too, but in addition to teleporting rings." He flipped through the photographs quickly.
"Touchpad360s are detached from your wrist, countries hate each other, and people murder animals for sport. And that's the bell. Have a nice afternoon."
After school, Erin called me. "Hello?"
"Hey Erin," I said. "How's Professor Zircon's house?"
"Loud," Erin told me. "It's actually being renovated right now."
"But you're okay?" I asked, anxious. "Are you even sick?"
"I don't know," she replied. "I started coughing this morning. Professor Zircon fired his chef, just in case it's food poisoning."
"That can't be right." I shook my head. "All four of us ate food, from the same dish. And Professor Zircon ate like he was starving, remember?"
"Yeah, that is odd," said Erin. She groaned. "My parents won't even notice because they're in the Diamond Realm on vacation."
"They what?" I spluttered. "Call them. Surely Yanma can't take care of himself."
Erin sighed. "I tried to call him, but he wouldn't pick up, just silenced me. Playing video games, no doubt. And to think I felt bad for him! At least he knows where the frozen dinners are."
"Yes, good thing," I responded dryly. "Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
"Again, I'm so sorry," Luke insisted later, pacing around my bedroom. "I had no idea what would happen."
"It's fine," I muttered defaultly, but really it wasn't. It convinced Luke to leave, however. He walked out and left me to sleep in peace.
Erin couldn't sleep. She hadn't told Annie that she had been out for several days now; she didn't want her best friend to worry. But now it was keeping her awake.
It didn't help that Professor Zircon had hired Timburr to carry out the supposedly necessary renovations for his house, and they jabbered away in their mysterious language.
"Timburr, tim-timburr."
"Burr! Tim-timburr."
"Burr-tim, timburr."
"I think she's asleep now."
Erin sat up. That was definitely not a Timburr speaking. The voice was a woman's voice, too high to be Professor Zircon's, but it easily could have been Kecleon.
"Excellent," the former of the two replied. "Wait. I don't hear any breathing. Check on her while I fire those Timburr. They've finished painting by now, and I swear I smell smoke."
The woman grumbled and opened Erin's door. It was Zorua.
Zorua's eyes widened when she saw Erin sitting upright. "Couldn't sleep?"
"Nope," she replied. Zorua handed her a cookie. "Is this a zero dimension cookie?"
"What?" said Zorua. "No, it'll help you sleep better."
Indeed it did.
"I dreamt that I was eating a particularly stringy piece of celery," said Luke.
My dad winced. "I wish the celery I ate yesterday was a dream."
Venonat pretended to be bored, but I could tell he had something on his mind. "Come on, Venonat, share your dream."
"I was kicking Mom's head into a hockey goal." He looked around. "Where is Mom?"
"She had to get to the restaurant early," my dad replied. "Eevee, what about you?"
"Julia was obsessing over her shoes, but then I gave her mine and the problem was solved." Her answer was so sweet that none of us asked who Julia was.
"Well, Annie, what awesome dream did you have last night?" Luke asked sarcastically. "It's always interesting to hear these."
"I was Erin." After thinking for a minute, I added, "Mac and Mason were kissing."
Luke winced. "Eewww."
"Yeah, it was kind of gross," I replied. "I don't know what my brain was thinking."
"Well, it's over now." Luke shrugged. "Wait. Did you say you were Erin?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I talked to Zorua and then fell asleep. She was right about Zircon Manor being renovated, too, because there were Timburr working everywhere, and they were quite loud."
"So your dreams come true now," said my dad. He laughed. "Why not?" He got up from the table.
"I don't need you to walk me to school, Mr. Zinc," said Eevee.
"Are you sure?" my dad asked. "It is all the way in Icotopia."
"Yes," Eevee replied, "Central Freezerburg Primary School is only a block away from the teleporting ring."
"Well, okay," he replied. "You know how to get back here, right?"
"Of course I do," she assured him.
Venonat, Luke and I lingered in the kitchen for a little longer. I managed to produce some random situations from my dreams that made everyone laugh.
"Venonat was playing for the Scratchemeowths. Erin caught the one and only Mew, and DC shaved."
Luke scoffed. "If any of that comes true, I'll jump into the Interdimensional Abyss!"
"Oh, yeah, that's another thing that happened. I jumped into the Interdimensional Abyss."
"Aren't you afraid of heights?" Venonat taunted.
"Of course not!" I replied sharply. "I'm afraid of falling! They're not the same thing!"
"Settle down, settle down," said my dad. He pushed up his glasses and bent down to look at the wheatgrass growing in pots along the edge of the dusty welcome doormat. "You kids had better run off to school."
Professor Alloy still wasn't at school, but we received our formal education instead from Professor Iron, who, again, was teaching the ways of the third dimension.
"This is a car," he said. "You enter through a door here, turn a little key to start it, and press the pedals to move the vehicle. You may think it looks ridiculous," he added, noticing Ava's frown, "but this is an expensive luxury that many people have."
"Like a teleporting pass?" Jack asked.
"Much more expensive, but yes," Professor Iron confirmed. "Except that now practically everyone has a teleporting pass of some sort, from the app to your regional teleporting pass, to the calendar teleporting pass which can travel anywhere in a given dimension, to the interdimensional teleporting pass. There are many people in the third dimension who don't have cars."
"What about Touchpad360s?" asked Josh.
"They're called phones, and are detached from your wrist."
Josh's mouth hung open. "Whaaa…?"
His teacher nodded. "Tomorrow we'll be studying the history of this place. But that's the bell! Off you go!"
As it turned out, however, I never did learn the next day's lesson. Or the lessons for the rest of the week.
Neither did Luke and Jack.