Clutching her knees to her chest, she huddled deeper under the covers. Every dog bark and tree branch scraping against the window suddenly seemed much more threatening. The night's movie kept relaying over and over again in her head. She could almost hear the man's organs splatter on the ground as that horrible, fur-covered claw ripped open his stomach.

She pondered leaving her own room to spend the night in her parents, but the idea was quickly squashed. They knew her all too well to tell that this kind of reaction was from another horror movie. A horror movie she had been explicitely told not to watch, that is. In other words, she had two choices. The first choice being that she seek protection and comfort from her parents at the risk of getting in trouble for disobeying. The second choice was to wait it out until daylight at the risk of being eaten by a monster that probably wasn't there. This was quite a dilemna, obviously.

Or perhaps, there was a third option...

A plan formulated in her mind that was bound to make both parties happy; nonexistent or otherwise. Hopping out of bed, she sped out of the room to prepare her masterful plot.

"Good morning!" A familiar knock sounded on her bedroom door, "Wake up and eat your breakfast, it's on the table."

"Kay, Daddy," the child rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she slowly crawled out of bed and made her way out the door. The father went over to the dresser drawers, pulling out a few articles of clothing for his daughter to wear to school. Placing them on the bed, he couldn't help but notice a strange smell. Leaning over, he peered under the bed where the smell was the strongest. Curious, he pulled one of the ceramic plates from the cabinet out from underneath the bed.

"Chicken nuggets?"

The girl standing outside my door was attractive to say the least. Model attractive to be more specific; and she didn't look more that a couple of years older than I was. If this is what she looks like now, I couldn't help but wonder what she'd look like when she's fully grown. Judging from her appearance, it looked like she might have been Indian or something, her dark hair was being pulled out of her face with a couple of butterfly hairclips. "I'm so pleased to finally meet you!" She grinned broadly, her voice had a noticable English accent. She grabbed my hand and shook it furiously, "I heard you were coming, but I wasn't able to meet you until now! Obviously you've probably already figured that out since we've never met until this moment. Oh, I'm just so happy to finally meet you!" My whole body was being shaken up at the strange girl's rough handshake. A look of realization swept across her face and she quickly pulled her hand away, "Oh, I'm so sorry! Where are my manners?" She looked rather flustered, "My name is Hallow Rosechain, I am the Controller of Wizard City Cleaning Crew 395."

I waited until my vision stopped shaking before I replied, "Controller? I thought Sponge was the team leader, or are you one of those manager type people?"

She looked confused, but a laugh soon escaped her, "I'm sorry for laughing, it's easy to forget that your not from around here. No, I'm not a "manager type" person. As for what a Controller is, that's actually one of the reasons that I'm here for. Follow me, please!"

Apparently 'follow me' was less of a suggestion than it was an inevitability, as I was suddenly yanked throught the doorway and pulled through the streets. I found myself bobbing and weaving just to avoid being run down by other people. Holy crap, could this girl run or what?

The world seemed to spin momentarily and I struggled to keep my balance; it took me a moment to realize that we had stopped. I placed my hands on my head in order to ease the drastic vision changes. "Well then," I resisted the urge to throw out an insulting remark, "That was fun." I couldn't help but make the last word a bit too venemous.

"I'm sorry," Hallow looked sheepish, "I can get a bit too happy times. But I just couldn't wait to show you this place!" She let out an excited squeal, making me jump in shock. God, this girl was so happy and sweet; I was starting to fear I'd get diabetes from hanging around her too long. I looked the structure she was referring to and immediately grimmaced. It looked just like...

"Your new school!" Hallow clapped, as if I, or someone unseen, had done something amazing, "Come on, I'll show you around!" Soon, I was once again holding my head to ease the the dizziness. Only now, I was inside a school building this time. Could this day get any better? "We're going to meet your teachers!" Apparently, yes.

"You'll have four classes," Hallow explained as she "lead" me down the hallways, "Basic Knowledge, Pre-Control, Pre-Philosophy, and Pre-Manipulation."

"Only four? I guess it could've been worse," I shrugged passively, noting that we had finally come to a stop. Hallow offered a blank stare, her gaze wavering over me a bit too long for comfort.

"Was that supposed to be your "happy face"?"

"Was what my what now?" I raised an eyebrow.

The smile returned to her face as quickly as it had left, "For a second there, you didn't look angry."

"For a second?" I couldn't help but feel both insulted and embarrassed. It seemed that while I was making my own observations about her, she was making her own observations as well. But the way she put it... I don't always look angry. Do I? "Well, you smile too much, you sugar princess!" A poor excuse for an insult, but it was the best I could come up with in response to her "insult". Hallow only gave a surprised look and quickly burst into laughter.

"That's an interesting way to put it," She chuckled, "First off, your Basic Knowledge teacher!" She lead me through the classroom door. The teacher, along with the classroom, had a certain nostalgic feel to it, though I couldn't quite put my finger on the reason why. The pastel yellow walls were layered with posters of encouraging slogans and tiny wooden figurines lined the teacher's desk.

"Hello, you must be Calamity. I heard a new Janitor was coming from outside of the Between, we don't get those very often," She smiled warmly. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes (along with correcting my name), why were teachers always so nice when you meet them? It was as if all the teachers in the world had a meeting on how exactly they would act towards students upon first introduction and after that, all else was free game. Nonetheless, I gave a nod of acknowledgement. "I'm your Basic Knowledge teacher, you can call me Ms. Fairyglitter."

I couldn't resist letting out a stifled laugh. Fairyglitter? These people had some seriously messed up surnames. There was no way I was going to let the name Ms. Fairyglitter slip out of my mouth, it sounded like something a kiddie show would come up with. "Can I call you anything else?"

She appeared taken aback, "Er, no. Ms. Fairyglitter will do fine." Clearing her throat, she continued, "I'll be teaching about the common knowledge most people require throughout daily life, take math and english for instance." My eyebrows raised in surprise; huh, I guess these guys weren't all about magic as I thought they were.

"How long will this take to complete?" I asked.

She smiled, "That's a very good question. It actually varies from student to student, depending on how well they're able to retain the information given. Though for most, it usually ranges from several months to a year."

"Ah, is that so?" I tried to hide the nervousness in my voice. How well we're able to retain the information? Now I was in no way stupid, but school work was admittedly not my forte. If this was the case, I had little hope of graduating anytime soon.

Almost as if she were reading my mind, she added, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine," I relaxed slightly and she continued, "I'm sure you'll do a lot better than in your previous school."

My fists clenched at the comment. I could tell the remark was intended to be friendly, but I couldn't help but feel insulted. Inhaling, I readied myself to voice my concerns. Loudly. Unfortunately or thankfully, I was quickly interrupted by Hallow yanking me out of the room, who was going on about meeting the other teachers.

The Pre-Control classroom had a more mystical ambiance to it than the last room. The room was dimly lit by candles and smelled of incense. Due to the lack of lighting I couldn't quite make out the rest of the room.

"Hey there."

I jumped at the sudden voice, "Huh?"

"Woah there!" A man who I had failed to notice before raised his hands defensively, "Didn't mean to startle you, I'm the Pre-Control teacher, Johnathan Darkflyer. Call me John."

"Uh, hi...John," I gave a half-hearted wave, "So, what's this class about?"

He gave a friendly smile, "I'm glad you asked! This class is all about peace of mind. In here, you'll learn all about being able to keep yourself and others calm and content."

I raised an eyebrow, "So like, meditation and stuff?"

John nodded, "Sometimes, yeah."

"And if you show signs of being a Controller," Hallow butted in, making me jump, "You can move up to the Control class!"

There was that word again. I turned to the excitable female Janitor, "You said before that you were a Controller, what is that?"

"It's a person with the ability to control other's fears," John explained, leaning listlessly in his chair.

I perked with interest and looked at Hallow, "So you can make people afraid of you?" My eyes widened slightly, that was an interesting ability indeed. It was especially surprising imaging the sugar princess with that ability.

She shrugged sheepishly, "Technically, yes. I've even heard of cases where particularly talented Controllers being able to give others brain damage from the high level of fear they cause. But it would incredibly immoral to do so."

"Speaking of being particulary talented," John began, "Hallow Rosechain, right? From the Marleybone Section?"

Hallow looked up in surprise, "Y-yes?"

John laughed, "I knew I recognized you! The Control teacher from the Marleybone Section kept bragging on and on about her especially talented student that had graduated a few years back. Showed me a picture and everything!"

"Especially talented?" I asked, as Hallow looked at her feet bashfully.

"Yep, Ms. Rosechain here has the special talent of being able to control a person's fear even when she's not in the same room," John smiled.

My eyebrows raised up onced again, "Oh, really?"

"Well, not exactly..." She shrugged, looking slightly uncomfortable, "Anyway, let's go meet your Pre-Manipulation teacher!"

The Pre-Manipulation looked more like a school gym than a classroom; or do school gyms count as classrooms? Though unlike a regular school gym, there was a distinct lack of basketball hoops, courtlines, and bleachers. A woman dressed in a jogging outfit seemed to be busy arranging some unseen items in a storage locker.

"Ma'am? We're here about the class introduction," Hallow smiled and waved at the woman. When she walked over, I was noticed the heavy makeup that was layered across her face. Coupled with the jogging outfit, it almost looked as if she was planning to go somewhere important and then changed her mind.

"Yes, I remember," She nodded curtly and turned to face me, "So you're the new meat, huh? I'm Karen Myrrhfalls, you will address me as Mrs. Myrrhfalls."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, "Yeah, okay, and this class is for...?"

Myrrhfalls narrowed her eyes, "This class is about staying in peak physical and magical condition. Here we will be pushing you're physical and magical capibilites to the limit, possibly further."

Ah, so I was right to assume this place was similiar to a school gym. This place was nothing more than some glorified PE class. Well, that's not so bad; PE had actually been my favorite class. The magic part however... I grimaced, remembering the incident I had with my mop. "Yeah, that's fascinating," I remarked dryly, "Let's wrap this up. Just tell me what a Manipulator does so we can be on our way."

Myrrhfalls was hammering me with a full on glare now, "A Manipulator is a person who has the ability to control the surrounding area."

I raised an eyebrow, "So, telepathy then?"

"No," Hallow shook her head, taking over for the seething Pre-Manipulation teacher, "A Manipulator can control the, er, "wall" between this world and the outerworld. You'll learn more about this later on."

"Now that you've gotten your information," Myrrhfalls leered, "You can "wrap this up" just like you wanted to."

Hallow grinned sheepishly, "Uh, right. W-we better get going now, come on Calamity."

The Pre-Philosophy classroom resembled a cross between a science lab and a history museum. Dusty, old books and fossils littered across the room contrasted against the shiny, black tables and crystalline beakers.

A tall man wearing a lab coat approached us, "Hello, you must be Calamity. You can call me Mr. Staticbreeze I've heard a lot about you; you're a bit famous in the scientific community, being from Earth." I tilted my head, scientists find me interesting, huh? Well that certainly wasn't a first for me.

"M'kay, so is this like the science class or something?" I shrugged, changing the subject.

"Actually, yes. This class specializes in scientific experiments along with the history of the Spiral," Staticbreeze nodded, "The people who become Philosophers have the ability to see an object's or sometimes even a person's past."

The moment he finished his sentence, I turned on my heels and walked towards the door, "That's all I needed to know, see ya!"

"C-Calamity!" Hallow called out, rushing behind me.

"That was faster that I expected," I stated in surprise, "How long were we in there for? Ten minutes, maybe?"

Hallow sighed, "Actually, we were supposed to be in each class for at least a half an hour. But with your, er, expressive personality, it was probably for the best that we had cut the times short." My usual frown deepened slightly, trying to ignore what she was implying about my behavior.

"Oh, that's right!" I jumped at Hallow's sudden exclamation, "I forgot to give you this." She placed a shiny looking card in my hand, it took me a moment to realized that it was an ID card. A numbered code, along with my "name", and picture was rather expected; though I couldn't help but wonder where they had gotten a picture of me. I was a little surprised to see my age on the card as well.

"Hey, why doesn't it have my birthdate, wouldn't it be easier to just put that on the card instead of having to change my age every year?"

She chuckled, "Since time flows differently here, some people might find the concept of dates rather confusing. The card is enchanted so that if you age a year, it'll show on the card as well. You're experience will change as well."

I raised an eyebrow, "Experience?"

"It's how old you are in the Between," Hallow explained and reached into her pocket, pulling out her own ID card. I glanced it over:

Age: 2

Experience: 14

I stared blankly at Hallow for a few moments, "You're...two years old."

"Yup! I'll be three next year!" She grinned, "Anyway, here's you're house. You should probably get some sleep. After all, you've got school tommorrow!"

I glared at the ID card I held in my hand, my picture glaring right back.

Age: 12

Experience: 12

Five years here is a year on the the outside. So, I guess I'll technically be twelve for roughly another five years. I groaned, things had been so much simpler back on Earth. I tossed the ID in the drawer next to my bed. When I get back home, I can't wait to forget about all this crazy nonsense.