Morgan had always wished for an escape. An escape from her school. An escape from her thoughts. An escape from reality. When she was younger, she would sometimes convince herself that it was real. That there was an escape to the fantasy worlds of her old books and shows and movies. That she could go on adventures and leave her old life behind, consequences be damned.

Unfortunately, Morgan did not live in a fantasy world.

And even if she did, she had an inkling it would never end up being as rose-tinted as she had made it out to be in her childhood.

Morgan lived in reality, one where she did have to worry about school, and the unknown that lay ahead.

This was going to be the first day of her last year of high school. The first of a last. The beginning of an ending. New school. New country. New everything. New was not necessarily bad. Actually, new might be good. But no matter how much Morgan tried to logic her way out of this one, or wrestle her way out of reality, she couldn't change the facts. New was scary. It was terrifying because it was unknown and uncomfortable. Morgan wanted to tell herself that that was ok, that change was a necessary part of life. But if Morgan said that she was ok with it, she would be lying to herself.

And if there was one thing that Morgan was good at, it was that.

Morgan hopped down the stairs, leaning on the railing as she went down. Her father was by the door, leaning on the wall, stress emanating in waves from him. He was on his phone, so it was most likely work-related.

Morgan sighed, stepping down carefully and coming up behind him. Time ticked by at an increasingly slow rate, passing by at a sluggish pace. It must have been at least five minutes before anything changed. Or maybe it wasn't, time keeping was not one of Morgan's fortes. And in those five minutes, not even an acknowledgement from her father, who stood there still, eyes glued to the screen. She wondered how long she could wait there without saying anything until he noticed her. Morgan squashed the wave of disappointment that threatened to wash over her. Swallowing all of the worrying thoughts and anxieties, she forced a smile onto her face.

Everything was fine.

Having had enough of the echoing silence at that point, Morgan finally made a move forward, enveloping him in a hug from behind, she paused, craning her neck to see what he was looking at.

He twitched slightly, startled at the sudden hug, eyes widened and phone forgotten. Morgan froze awkwardly and glanced over at the time, a wave of anxiety washing over her. Her father was most definitely late. Morgan swallowed a bit awkwardly and began stepping back, giving him a sheepish smile. He returned it. His smile never did reach his eyes.

"Morgan I'm running late for work, not the time," he said, peeling himself out of her grasp and fumbling with the lock on the door. Morgan nodded curtly, making sure to smile more widely. It was genuine this time. At least that's what she liked to tell herself. Scrambling to grab something for breakfast, she stumbled over to the counter, in the kitchen right beside the entranceway. Snatching some toast, she shoved it into her mouth.

"Yeah that's ok, don't worry," she said through a mouthful of toast, "I'll make sure not to be abducted by aliens," she snorted a bit at her comment but trailed off with an awkward pause as her father sighed. "Not that I'm planning to get abducted by aliens or anything," Morgan added helpfully at the end, "Because, you know, that would just be bad planning," Morgan continued waving her hands as she spoke. Her father stared at her incredulously as they both walked out the door, locking it and checking twice just to make sure. He sighed and gave a bit of a huff of annoyance at her continued talking.

"-I would already be in that spaceship before they could try to abduct me," she gave a dramatic pause as they began to near the car, "to quote: when you're being interrogated, you are the most important person in the room. So show them who's boss, die faster'" Morgan recited. That was the quote, right? Did that actually make any sense in the context? In hindsight, it probably didn't. It was too late to take it back now. But it was too good of an opportunity to fit in an obscure reference that no one except for her would understand.

"What?" her father muttered under his breath, blinking incredibly slowly. He probably had been zoned out or something and hadn't been paying attention. Or he was sick of her obscure references. Or both.

"From Doctor Who," Morgan prompted, gesturing wildly as if that would somehow help him to understand. And then promptly continued to almost slip on the grass, unceremoniously scrambling to right herself. Morgan dusted herself off, although she didn't need to. But sometimes it just felt right to do things like that, it was oddly satisfying.

"Is that the one with Christopher Lloyd?" he asked absentmindedly as he continued to his own car, which was still in the garage. Morgan grumbled a bit, the words not being, well, actual words. Why was he confusing Back to the Future with Doctor Who? Well, to be fair, he had never actually watched Doctor Who. Ok, maybe it wasn't that much of an impossibility given his limited knowledge of both properties.

"Morgan, I know you're worried about moving, especially with your new school, but I cannot afford to be late for work" He paused, turning to a black car parked in their driveway, "My friend here," he gestured to the man that stood beside the car, "works at your school so he'll be driving you to school."

Morgan blinked, taking in the car slowly. She had been too focused on the grass and her father, that she hadn't even noticed that there had been another car.

Morgan peeked around her father's shoulder, planning to try to get a good first look at the newcomer from afar. Instead, her brows knitted together in confusion, eyes fixated on the man standing awkwardly beside the car. He waved at Morgan from where he was standing a few metres away. It took a few moments for her brain to process what she was seeing, and another few for her to try to understand what it meant.

Because Morgan did not spend countless hours watching shows to not be able to recognize the characters and actors who played in them instantly. And if she didn't know better, she could've sworn the "friend" her father was introducing to her, that was standing before her, was, or was a doppelganger of that.

Danny Pink. Danny. Pink. From Doctor Who, or rather, his actor, standing there.

What the fuck.

Either her eyes were deceiving her, or her brain was. Neither an unlikely possibility

More importantly, at least at the moment, why was he standing right here, on her driveway? No matter how hard she tried to piece the puzzle together, the pieces just didn't quite fit. It had to be the actor right, but that didn't make sense. Why would her father be friends with some famous actor and yet have no clue what Doctor Who was? It wasn't entirely impossible, just highly unlikely.

Then the second option: maybe he was a lookalike of the actor or something? Wasn't there that one guy that looked a lot like Matt Smith? That seemed to be the most likely explanation. But that also seemed highly unlikely, given how much of a spitting image he was.

Alternatively, she was still asleep and didn't actually have to go to school today, which was a plus you know. And if she was asleep, this had been an awfully mundane dream up until this point. Morgan frowned again.

"What are you doing here," she blurted before her thoughts could properly process the sentence. Her hand flew to her mouth in surprise at her own outburst. That probably wasn't the best way to start a conversation, was it?

"Excuse me?" Danny said as if making sure that he had heard correctly. Morgan winced,

Shit.

She had not meant for it to come out like that.

She frowned a bit too, narrowing her eyes at the man that stood in front of her. Wait, frowning, that wasn't right either. It probably wasn't a good idea to seem standoffish in front of her dad's friend. Not exactly the best first impression she could make and- she was still frowning wasn't she? Morgan would've sighed, but she didn't have the time right now.

So instead, she forced her mouth into a smile and waved back. There. Normal human behaviour. Hopefully, that would be enough to make him forget about her earlier outburst. Or at least, disregard it. She winced a little at that. The way she was putting it made her seem like an alien.

Instead of continuing to fret over something she couldn't change, Morgan let her eyes wander. Ok, one tree on her front lawn, check. Road to her right, check. She tried to focus on the sounds around her, the cars in the distance, the wind above, but that only resulted in even more panic. Maybe it was best to try to block everything out instead. Morgan gathered all of her thoughts methodically and took a deep breath to calm herself. It somehow only resulted in making her heart beat faster, pumping adrenaline into her veins.

Her gaze flew quickly to her hands. One, two, three four, five fingers on each hand. Ok, so then she wasn't dreaming and she had looked in the mirror that morning so, logically whatever was happening was probably not a dream. That was one thing ticked off of the list.

Logically speaking, there was nothing to worry about. She was probably overthinking things. Yeah, she was probably just overthinking. She needed to stop overthinking, that would only make her more anxious, which would make her look like a mess in front of everyone. She needed to stop overthinking. Unfortunately, that only resulted in making her breath more shallow.

The silence between the seconds stretched longer. It had begun to stretch into the dreaded "awkward" territory.

"Hi, I'm Morgan," Morgan said, breaking the deafening silence, shoving out her hand for him to shake. Although to be fair, deafening silence wasn't the best way to describe it. There were many sounds, so many that drowned out everything else. Too many that they faded into the background. She glanced back to gauge his reaction, greeted by a slightly raised eyebrow and mouth stretched thin into a polite smile.

"Danny Pink," he started, then paused, "Mr. Pink, as I am going to be your teacher" He added as an afterthought, releasing her hand to rub his nervously against the back of his neck. Morgan took a sharp intake of breath and watched carefully as he returned to his car.

She clumsily strolled to plant her feet beside the car, waiting for a few more seconds than necessary with bated breath.

"Danny Pink?" she asked carefully, testing the words on her tongue as if by saying it, she could somehow change something. He raised his eyebrow at her and shared another raised eyebrow with her father. There were a few moments where the two men had a silent conversation with their eyes, before finally peeling them back to their respective cars.

Morgan took that as her own cue to get into the car, swinging her bag over her shoulder shakily as she sat, fumbling around with her seatbelt. See, normal everyday things. Breath in. Because everything was normal. Breath out. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

Everything was fine.

"Danny Pink?" She repeated the name.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" he said, curling in on himself, his tone probably a little more defensive than he had intended. Morgan shook her head adamantly attempting to give him a reassuring smile. Instead, he sighed, turning on the ignition and started off towards the school.

Something strange was definitely going on. She wanted to freak out, hell she was already having a slight panic attack internally, her rapid heartbeat and shallow breaths screaming as a warning alarm rang out all throughout her head.

Externally, she could only allow herself to freak out after she had figured it all out. Or when she got home, to a space where she could break down without the prying eyes of others. Otherwise, she may dissolve into a full-blown breakdown in the middle of class, which was never ideal for the first day of school.

But the facts were that a man named Danny Pink had just pulled out of her driveway. Who also happened to look exactly like the character Danny Pink. Whom she could safely presume was the real Danny Pink. Danny Pink, fictional character from the Tv show Doctor Who. Or a really dedicated cosplayer that had come to kidnap her.

Both were terrifying thoughts.

Morgan was standing in front of her period one class. It was a small hallway, walls filled to the brim with flyers and yet still somehow bare at the same time. Light poured in from some window to her left, she couldn't be bothered to check where it was coming from at the moment.

There were much more important things to preoccupy her at the moment.

Such as whether she had found the right door for her class. This moment of confusion quickly joined all of the other worries which were slowly beginning to pile up in her head. So she checked the room number again just to be sure that she had it right. Or maybe to just calm her current anxiety. Maybe if she could solve one issue all of the rest of them could be solved as well. Sighing, Morgan leaned back against the wall.

If only the world worked that way.

The door to what she hoped was her English class was still closed. It was bare and a dark blue colour, somewhat foreboding in its emptiness. Morgan paused, her hand hovering over the door knob. Would it be weird to go in? Probably. Being the first in class was always weird, especially on the first day. Morgan swallowed nervously. The door was oddly familiar, well, as much as a random door could be. But every high school door seemed to look the same no matter where it was, she mused.

Or maybe that was just what she told herself to avoid thinking of any other possibilities, ones she frankly didn't want to worry about right now.

Her efforts to draw her mind away from the subject were unfortunately rendered futile. The memories from the morning poured into her head, squeezing in as if they were trying to make her head explode. Or implode, to make a black hole abyss in place of her brain. Assuming she didn't already have a gaping void in place of a brain.

Danny Pink. Well, he didn't just look like Danny Pink. And he didn't just have the name Danny Pink either. He actually acted like Danny Pink. He acted like Danny Pink from Doctor Who.

But those three facts were still very concerning, they meant that it probably wasn't a coincidence. One strange thing was just a fluke. Two strange happenings, that was a coincidence. Everything else seemed to be the same, her dad, her room, every little detail except Coal Hill school and well, Danny Pink. Maybe the school in the show was based on a real one? Maybe-

If this was some sort of elaborate prank, Morgan at least commended them for their dedication to it. But before she could continue that train of thought, someone else came to speak instead. Someone who was not Morgan.

"Good morning," a voice rang out uncomfortably near Morgan's ear, "Is this your first day at Coal Hill? What's your name?"

Morgan blinked at the outstretched hand and then slowly brought her gaze up to the face. And then she froze, the world slowed around her. And blinked. Again. But Morgan blinking wasn't going to magically make things disappear. Thankfully not everything was a Weeping Angel.

Clara Oswald was probably one of the furthest things from a weeping angel one could find. Round face, large eyes and a long fringe framing her face. Clara Oswald was standing in front of her. She could hardly believe that that was a sentence she would ever have had to think.

What the hell. Morgan took another deep breath in.

Ok, so assuming somehow that these were the actual characters, if it was Clara Oswald, it had to be early series 8 as Danny Pink was still alive and her hair was relatively long and wavy. God, what had her life come to where she could even consider this as a possibility?

Two people. Two presumably fictional characters, or lookalikes. Maybe that was just a coincidence? Yeah, she was definitely pulling at strings here. That was 3 things so far. And three things signalled a pattern. This was no longer in the realm of coincidences. Morgan gulped before pulling on a wide smile.

"Morgan," she paused, gathering her thoughts again, "Are you my English teacher?" she asked, brightly. Morgan needed to make a good first impression if this really was Clara Oswald, or even if it wasn't. Which at this point, it probably was.

She should probably stop denying it…

Or maybe she could go on ignoring it for a little bit longer.

"Yes," Clara's voice rang out interrupting Morgan's thoughts yet again. "Ms. Oswald, sit wherever you like, as no one else seems to be here yet," Clara smiled widely, unlocking the door and motioning for Morgan to step forward. She hesitated for a moment before peeking her head into the classroom.

The window was directly across from the door, the main board to her right. Light poured in from the windows capturing every crevice in its warm embrace. The morning light that shone through was still new and gave a sort of youthful glow to the room. It was a spitting image of the one from the show.

Morgan took a few steps forward before choosing herself a seat by the window, at the front of the class. She wore glasses but sometimes it was still a little tricky to see stuff from the back.

And besides, the windows were really great, one could admire the view.

Morgan set her stuff beside her neatly and settled herself in. She leaned lazily into her elbows as she waited for the rest of the class to trickle in. Many minutes passed, as the room grew more and more full. Laughter began to rise from the seats beside her, whispered conversations floating through the air. It was so painfully normal that it almost made her forget the current situation.

Almost.

Eventually, everyone arrived and the class settled into a quiet rhythm. Clara began to teach, her words filling the empty spaces that the previous chatter had left. The words blurred together each one made of syllables and letters until they lost all meaning to Morgan. As the minutes ticked by, so did Morgan's growing feeling of dread. It sat there festering deep below. Waiting.

By the time the lesson was over Morgan could barely hear Clara dismiss them over the pounding in her ears. She had just sat through a lesson taught by one fictional Clara Oswald and had not absorbed a single thing due to her constant worrying. The fact that that was even a thing that she could even think was worrying in its own right.

But much more importantly:

What was she going to do now?

The words repeated inside her head as she drifted off towards her next class, right up until they were the only thoughts left. No matter how much she attempted to deny it, this was not a dream. Something strange was going on- No, way beyond strange. This was downright bizarre, and Morgan had to get to the bottom of it. She had to, because if she didn't then what was she supposed to do? Her feeling of numbness to the situation could only last so long. No matter how much she wished she could just ignore everything, she really couldn't. Even so, that fact led to an even more important question.

What the hell was she supposed to do now?