First of all, I need to make something very clear. Ever since I posted chapter 9, a bad feeling has been plaguing me. It was a weird idea, but I wanted to try it. When I was looking at the view count, there was a 35% drop-off in views between chapters 9 and 10. It was clear that a lot of people didn't like the idea at all.

So, I've completely rewritten chapter 9 to be a lot more... normal than it was before, and I did it in a way so chapter 10 would be unaffected. You might want to go back and re-read it now.

Plus, updates might be hard to come by, as I am starting high school now and I'll have a lot less free time.

Anyways, onto the eleventh chapter of The New Dimension. Enjoy.

The school cast a dark spell on me as I stared at the front doors. Honestly, I couldn't even imagine myself dreading school this much. But I just knew that Penny was lurking inside the hallways, and that she was probably just going to harass me for the bajillionth time. The only support was Mr. Peabody's words from yesterday. But staying away from Penny wasn't enough to stop her. She followed me everywhere. She's a leech.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly pushed open the doors. The scent of Penny penetrated the air.

"Sherman!"

Well, that explained why I smelled Penny.

"You need to stay away from me!" I growled.

"I really need to tell you something!" she declared.

"Go ahead," I scoffed. "Tell me while I ignore you."

"I-I... I..." Penny croaked. Then she sighed. "Wow, this is really hard."

"Last time I checked it was really easy to say mean things to me!" I snapped.

"I just wanted to say that I am sorry," Penny mumbled.

Suddenly, I perked up. Did I hear that right?

"I'm sorry..." Penny repeated.

"Now you're sorry?" I asked.

"Yes. Sherman, please. After you snapped at me, I realized that my bullying really hurts people. Please, I need you to forgive me."

"You want me to forgive you?" I questioned.

"Yes!" Penny pleaded.

It was nice that Penny was finally done teasing me, but I wasn't so sure if her apology was serious. It could have been some cruel joke and she would go right back to annoying me once I fell for it.

Alas, her apology did not convince me.

"If you want me to forgive you, then you have to prove that you are sorry."

"What?" Penny asked.

"Yep," I said sternly.

"But how do I do that?" Penny questioned.

"Figure it out," I scoffed, as the bell rang, signalling that we had to go to our classroom.

Turns out the day would not be as glamorous as I thought it would be. Boring lessons about New York were bad, but an assembly was worse.

It was simple. Line up, go to the gym, and sit down in our spot of the gym. All I had to do was follow everybody else to figure out where my class' spot was.

Unlike in my own dimension, the people here were generally quiet at first, until a girl came up to the podium and the school quieted down.

"Attention, everyone!" the girl announced. "Today, we have a special treat! You see, I've noticed that more and more people here are getting into arguments. So, if you have anything to get off your chest, you can come up here and give a public apology! Who wants to go first?"

A public apology. That would be the perfect way for Penny to prove she's sorry. If only she was smart enough to figure that out.

Suddenly, a random boy raised his hand, and the girl at the podium immediately called on him to come to the front.

"Hello," the boy said weakly. He was also coloured, just like the criminal and Mr. Peabody. "You see, my friend, Michael, and I got in a fight last night. He was talking to me about how the world should remain static and how nothing should ever change. But, I disagreed. And I yelled at him and made him really mad. I just want to say that I am really sorry for this, Michael. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that just because you had a different opinion. I'm sorry." The boy finished his apology and went back to his seat.

Weird. If Penny was really sorry, she probably would have raised her hand first. In fact, five more people went up, and none of them was Penny. The stories were pretty much the same as the first one. Two people had conflicting worldviews and they got in a fight.

"Anybody else?" the girl called out after the fifth kid went back to her seat.

I guess Penny isn't really sorry after all. Which means that she will continue to harass me every single minute for the rest of my life.

However, my thoughts soon ended when Penny raised her hand and rushed up to the stage.

"Looks like we have one more apology! Come on up here!" the girl yelled.

Penny slowly walked up to the stage, and she looked even sadder than the other kids. "H-Hello..." she began weakly. "I have a very special apology. It's for a guy named Sherman."

I piped up and began to carefully listen to the words she spoke, as the realization came. Penny actually was sorry, and she meant it, and she was proving it right in front of my eyes.

"For the past several days, I've been a bully. I've been stalking Sherman, harassing him, and calling him a dog. I have been a very mean person, and the only reason I did it was because he was a little bit smarter than me. Eventually, he snapped at me. And then I realized how much my bullying actually hurts other people. So I just want to say that I-I-I'm sorry, Sherman. I promise, I will stop bullying you from now on. Thank you, everybody." Penny rushed back to her seat like the wind.

The girl at the podium picked up the microphone again. "Well, we had some very good apologies today! And it has become clear that a lot of problems are arising in our fair city. I will team up with some of my closest friends to try and stop these problems. If anyone is interested, feel free to apply. And that concludes today's assembly, have a great rest of the day!"

Just like that, most of the school instantly stood up and began to walk out the doors in an orderly fashion, except for me and Penny. Instead of leaving, we ran up to each other.

"Did I prove that I'm sorry?" Penny squeaked.

"Yes, you did," I said.

"I should have never bullied you," Penny said. "Are we okay?"

"Yes, we're okay," I smiled. "But can we not tell Mr. Peabody that we made up?"

"I'm way ahead of you there," Penny agreed.

Worry no more, Penny and Sherman have stopped being enemies, and now they're trying to hide their budding friendship from Mr. Peabody. Will it work? Will Peabody find out? Find out in the next chapters of The New Dimension.

Feedback is appreciated.