Tooth woke up slowly, her head thrumming. Not aching, thrumming.

Her eyes opened and closed, fluttering like a bird's wings, before she could finally open them with a shuddered breath. "Oh, crap…" She exhaled. Her arms felt shaky and she tried to steady them underneath herself. She was sprawled out, face first in the dirt. As she carefully pushed herself up, she fixed her bleary gaze on the scene around her. Her memory was a jumble of thoughts and phrases, flickers of images soaring in between. Whatever had just happened, whatever had just knocked her on the ground, had definitely done some damage.

Dirt fell from her face and she lifted a hand up to feel where it was coming from. Her entire right side was caked with soft dirt. She hit the ground hard, but luckily it didn't cause any pain or injury. Brushing off, she looked around again.

Something moved in her field of vision and before she could think to speak, the thing became a figure and the figure had a very familiar voice.

"Hell." It groaned.

Aster.

Tooth let out a sigh of relief. "Aster?" She called out. Her voice echoed in her head and she shrank back at it.

"Tooth?" Came his reply. The figure sat back up and Tooth's vision finally came back into focus. Now she could barely make out his features: the floppy blonde hair, lanky frame. Suddenly her memory came back in a rush.

The morning discussion, the maps, the disagreement and eventual cave in, the drive, the walking, the finding, the falling-

She fell.

But she was on the surface.

Trees surrounded her, almost crowding over her in concern.

"Where's the hole?" She demanded immediately. Something was not right. Something was not okay. "Aster?"

Aster cleared his throat and lifted his hand away from where he'd been holding his head. It thrummed too, a concerning sensation. His eyes scanned for the hole and he slowly forced himself to stand. His body ached and his knees shook, but he stood nonetheless. He looked out, trying to answer Tooth's question. She was right. They were all in the hole and suddenly they weren't. A bright flash of light and they were here, no sign that there was even a hole in the first place?

"I… I don't know." Aster said, roughly raking out the words.

As he looked out, something caught his eye that made his heart jump in his chest. "Oh. Shit!" He couldn't help but swear at the sight as he scrambled to make it to-

"Jackson!" Aster called out, his feet catching on the ground. He stumbled, but kept going, unfazed by his near-trip. "Jackson, answer me!"

Tooth's eyes shot wide open and she shoved herself onto her knees, "What? What happened to him?"

Aster dove to his friend's side. Jackson lay still, his face tilted away, eyes shut. He was covered with dirt, not just on one side like Aster and Tooth. Completely, from head to toe. Aster grabbed his friend's shoulders and began to shake them. "Jackson, if you're messing with me it's not funny!" He stopped just long enough to press his ear to his chest. Jackson's heart beat fast, a little too fast, but it was beating nonetheless. Aster sighed in relief. His eyes shot over to Tooth's, "He's unconscious." He looked back down at Jackson before stopping and demanding, "Wait, where's Nic? Where's Sandy?" His voice was so panicked and so distraught that Tooth stood without hesitation, doing her best to ignore how her head felt.

"I don't know! Uh-" Tooth turned, whipping around in every direction. As Aster tried his best to wake up Jackson, Tooth called out to her friends, unable to see in the distance very well in the darkness. "Sandy? Nic? You guys!"

She was stopped by a sudden choking noise that quickly turned to coughing. Her eyes shot over to Aster and Jackson. Jackson was trying to sit up, his eyes still squeezed shut.

"You little shit!" Aster berated him, hitting him on the back to try and clear his airway.

"What-" Jackson tried to ask, but he started coughing again.

"Shut up, Jackson. Don't you dare try and speak- not after whatever the hell just happened to you." Aster told him.

Tooth breathed a sigh of relief as she ran over to where the two boys were. "Jackson, are you okay?"

The boy nodded, his eyes opening.

"What happened?" A groan came from behind Tooth and she let out a short scream in response.

Aster turned around, startled, only to find Nic walking through the trees, red windbreaker barely visible, a blotch of bright color in the growing darkness. "Oh, Nic, it's you."

"And Sandy!" Nic exclaimed. He stepped aside to reveal the smaller teen, his hand pressed against his face and his other arm tucked around his side.

Sandy lifted the hand against his face as a sort of wave.

"What- what happened?" Jackson finally managed, his voice scratchy and hoarse.

Everyone looked at Aster without a second thought.

Aster frowned, "What?"

Nic shrugged, "Well, you know more science than us. One minute in hole, one minute not. Explanation?"

Aster bowed his head in frustration and moved away, "Look, I don't know. I just woke up and now we're here."

"Well, that's obvious." Jackson deadpanned.

Aster practically snarled at Jackson as Tooth got onto him, "Jackson, not now."

Jackson looked over at Tooth and then behind her at his other two friends. "I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough adventuring for one evening."

"I agree, but we should probably take you to a hospital." Tooth said.

"No, I'm fine. I promise." Jackson quickly shifted, trying to launch himself to his feet. He stumbled as soon as his knees attempted to lift themselves from the dirt.

Aster immediately grabbed his arm, gripping the blue fabric tightly. "Woah there, mate. Are you insane?"

"I'm fine." Jackson repeated, yanking his arm free.

Nic joined his side, slipping an arm around him. Aster quickly did the same, finally bringing Jackson to stand.

"Jackson, you are freezing." Nic commented as the began to haul him away from where he fell.

"It's cold out." Jackson offered lamely. Tooth frowned as she joined them, Sandy taking a place beside her. Jackson sounded tired. Like he'd just been woken up from a deep sleep.

"Not that cold." Aster shivered under Jackson's arm.

"How are we supposed to get back?" Tooth asked quietly, staring up at the trees.

"Go back the way we came. As best we can at least." Aster replied.

Sandy suddenly started to bat his hands down on Tooth. Tooth looked over to see Sandy signing quickly and pointing into the distance.

She glanced at where he was pointing and then back at her friend. "Sandy, slow down! What is it?"

He took a deep breath as the others snapped their attention to him. Slowly, he signed, eyes still on the distance. "Is that the truck?"

"What, what is it?" Aster demanded. He didn't know much sign language, but he picked up on the word truck.

"You think you see the truck?" Tooth asked, eyes wide in disbelief. Sandy pointed directly in front of the group, jumping as he pressed his glasses to the bridge of his nose. He nodded enthusiastically.

"There's no way in hell the truck is here. We walked for like two hours!" Jackson said. Everyone looked in the direction of Sandy's pointing.

Nic's eyes searched past the trees and, surely enough, he saw the red glint of his truck. "No way… There it is, friends!"

Jackson's jaw dropped. "There's no way in hell-"

"Onward, friends! Parents must be worried!" Nic shouted, now hurrying both Jackson and Aster along.

"Slow down, Nic! Jeez." Jackson told him.

Tooth and Sandy exchanged panicked looks. "Our parents." Tooth said. "Oh no, our parents!" She ran after the boys, beating them to the backdoor. She yanked it open and gestured wildly. "Come on! Our parents musts be worried sick! Who knows how late it is? Oh my God, junior year just started! What if I get grounded? What if they take away my car or don't let me see you guys or tell me I can't go with them to that dental hygiene convention in Virginia next summer? Do you know how long I've been looking forward to that? It's the first time they're doing a workshop dedicated to future dentists! I can't miss that! I could miss out on so much important informa-"

"Tooth, Tooth, calm down! They'd have to understand!" Jackson groaned as Nic and Aster brought him up to the door.

"Oh, yeah, they'll understand." Aster rolled his eyes as he helped Jackson into the cab. "I'll be sure to tell my parents that I stole a map and fell into a hole and oh, look now we're here! Don't worry, Mum and Dad! It could've been a lot worse! The hole could've dumped us farther from the truck, instead of back to it!"

Tooth's heart raced at Aster words as a chilling realization swept over her. "No… No, we can't tell them, can we?"

The boys froze, Sandy trailing up. He looked defeated as he shook his head and looked to Aster.

Aster made a face as he processed what happened.

"Aster, what happened back there... It was… not normal." Nic told his Australian friend.

Aster was silent for a few moments. He could feel Jackson's eyes boring into him and he had a feeling that the obnoxious teen would not be happy with what he was about to say. "We can't tell anyone."

"Oh, come on!" Jackson winced. He thunked his head against the back window of the cab, screwing his eyes shut at the pain it caused.

Tooth frowned and crawled into the cab, next to Jackson. "Are you really okay, Jackson?"

Aster continued to talk in the background. "If we tell, then I'm going to get questions as to how I even knew where to go. And we all know that I may have obtained them in a not… legal way."

Jackson blinked over at Tooth. "I'm fine." He gave a small smile and gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist.

She returned the smile, trying to ignore the frigidness of his skin, concern arching her eyebrows at him. "You keep saying that."

"So no one knows?" Nic asked, although it sounded more like clarification.

"Not a soul." Aster agreed. He leaned back to peer at Jackson as Sandy got in. "You hear me, Overland?"

Jackson waved at Aster. "Yeah, yeah… wish I didn't, though."

Aster pointed at him, "I mean it. Not a single soul on this earth."

"I got it, okay? Nic, can we please go? I would like to let my mom know I am very much alive." Jackson shut his eyes and Tooth watched him carefully.

Nic looked at Aster. "Let's get out of here, yes?"

Aster sighed. "Yes."

Nic and Aster got in their respective seats and Nic started the engine. He looked at his dash, right at the clock. The numbers were set back to 12:00.

Nic made a face and tapped the numbers. "You see numbers?"

Aster mirrored his expression. "Is it midnight?"

"Don't think so."

"Let me check my phone." Tooth piped up from the back. She snatched her bag from the floor of the cab, digging around for her phone. "If it is midnight… It was nice knowing you all."

"It can't be midnight." Jackson said.

Tooth found her phone and pressed the home button, trying to get the screen to light up. However, her phone didn't respond. "What…?"

She held her power button down and the screen suddenly came back to life. It was turning on. "I don't remember turning this off…"

Aster's voice was laced with concern. "Wait, everyone check your phones now."

Just as the others began to search for their phones, Tooth's home screen popped up.

She let out a breath of relief and choked on it, all in the same instance. "It says it's only 8:03!"

"What? There's no way in hell!" Jackson snatched the phone on her hands, only to see the same time right in front of his eyes.

"That can't be right!" Aster exclaimed. He held his hand out, his own phone turning on in his lap, and Jackson gave him Tooth's phone. He looked at the screen. "Holy…"

"Well, I guess we won't have to worry about any punishments. Except- oh crap! I have a paper to write for history!" Jackson said.

"Oh, no! Ms. Stengel's class, right? I have forgotten! We must go!" Nic shouted from the front, shifting from park to drive and revving out of the dirt in search for the highway.

"Can any of this be explained, Aster?" Tooth asked as he handed her back the phone.

He stared at her for a moment as Nic swore to himself in the driver's seat. Then, he shrugged, unsure as he'd ever been. "I… I can't, Tooth."

Jackson shot them both a worried look that they returned. He bit his lip as he turned to look at the window, at the edging night sky. The stars began to crowd in overhead, like the trees had in the woods. Nature seemed to watch them, wary and aware at the same time.

A/N:

... Guess who ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)