Chapter 7 - What is Going on Here?

"Total of only eight kids for this year?" The man scanned all of them. Dante noticed his slit pupils and piercing green eyes. The man had side-parted black hair and wore a black and grey sweater-vest. He had dirt brown shoes with grey pants. The thing about him that freaked Dante out the most was his skin. It was a normal color, but when you stare long enough it almost looked rough and...scaly?

"Actually sir," John moaned from the nurse's arms. "There are twelve of us. They all tried to kill me!"

"YOU were gonna kill US!" Kimmy yelled, Dante putting a hand on her shoulder before things got physical.

"Ugh, MORE? You call that more?" The scaly sir hid his face with his hand, still somehow showing his disappointment clear as day. "I figured kids wouldn't wanna come this year, but only TWELVE?"

The kids just shrugged as more doctors rushed to their aid, drying them, bandaging them, and soon sitting everyone on a new bus as the man and other adults went to find the other kids.

Kimmy, Dante, John, Claire, the messy-haired girl, the Russian girl (Name was...Jane)? along with Dice and another boy all sat in awkward silence on the vehicle. Soon Lucky, Bernie, Izzy, and Pablo were soon found and escorted to the side of the bus where they were assisted with any injuries they may have. Dante was at the window seat beside Kimmy. He looked out and watched as his other two friends were getting treated for cuts on their arms.

"So," Dante started, not looking at his bus mate. "Where to now?"

"The school, duh." Kimmy said.

Dante looked at her with confusion. "The school? We should at least get a real check-up and the hospital. Or at least check HIM into the hospital." Dante nodded toward the demon at the front.

"We don't have time. As soon as we arrive class has to start. We already missed orientation and introductions."

"Uhm- I guess that makes sense. Just thought this would be the exception since we almost died twice this morning but okay."

Kimmy leaned over Dante a little to look at Bernie and Izzy. Now they were drying mud out of their hair. Dante suddenly had a flashback to last night. Maybe I should tell Kimmy.

"Hey Kimmy."

"What?" Kimmy didn't meet Dante's eyes. She kept hers outside, particularly on Bernie.

"Uhm, are you an-" Dante tried remembering what Izzy said. "Organic?"

"WHAT? NO!" Kimmy replied. "An organic? At drafts year? Imagine, they'd be dead by training."

"What are you exactly?"

"A proud, yet slightly struggling blipper!" Kimmy said. To demonstrate, she blipped from her seat to the one in front of them in a flash of orange.

Dante tried adjusting his eyes to what he saw. "So you can teleport?"

"Yup! What you've never met a blipper before? We're pretty common!"

"I guess I haven't..." Dante wasn't exactly fibbing when he said that.

Kimmy fixed her eyes on him at last. "What kind of entity are you that you haven't met a blipper?"

Dante spoke in a small voice, "I'm not one."

"Pardon?" Kimmy said.

"I'm...not...one." Dante repeated.

"WHAT?" Kimmy yelled. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU?"

"I'M NOT ONE!" Dante yelled back.

Kimmy had a look of utter shock and confusion. The same look Dante had plastered over his face almost all morning. "You're...you're..." Her voice rose louder with each 'you're' gaining the attention of the other kids.

"YOU'RE NOT AN ENTITY? YOU'RE AN ORGANIC?" Kimmy shrieked, so loud that the other kids could hear, as could the remaining from the ditch as they climbed aboard the bus and the multiple adults. All these eyes were nailed to Dante, piercing him in hopes of confirmation. Dante sunk into his seat, and said with a beetroot face, "Maybe."

The man in the sweater-vest gave the kid a spine-freezing glare as he sat himself at the front of the bus. Bernie and Izzy came down to where the other two were sitting. Kimmy patted the seat beside her for one of them to sit. "Thanks Kim!" Izzy said as she plumped herself down. Kimmy smiled for a second, but a had a look of disappointment when she saw a rosy-cheeked Bernie beside the organic.

As the bus drove down toward the school, kids were chatting loudly again, like this morning. Except now the talk of the twelve-year old's was the organic they somehow let in the school. Izzy and Kimmy had themselves turned around on their knees in the seats in front of Bernie and Dante. Izzy was bragging about how she was the first to know as Kimmy poked fun at Bernie about anything she could. Bernie just grunted and jabbed back in response. Dante looked out the window for a minute and saw a huge flock of crows following right above the bus. The black blob of feathers swayed higher and lower and split in two as it avoided oncoming vehicles. The organic tapped Bernie's shoulder, eyes still glued to the flock of darkness.

"Are you seeing this right now? Are you all seeing this right now?"

The three girls looked out the window and gasped. Soon the whole bus was admiring the multitude of crows racing beside the bus. A few even tried hitting themselves against Dante's window in hopes of breaking the glass. Dante flinched as the four crowns whacked against the glass and flopped onto the road.

Kimmy looked at Bernie and smirked as the blonde his herself in her jumper. "Frizzle you've done it again."

"I didn't mean too! I don't even know how I do that!"

"Wait, do what?" Dante asked.

"THAT." Kimmy pointed outside, now a build-up of different birds joined the brood, pigeons and owls and more crows flew up against the bus as more fell away from it. Dante looked at Bernie. "YOU'RE doing this?"

Bernie hesitantly nodded with a flush of embarrassment in her cheeks. "I'm a bird caller."

"Even when you're not calling them!" Kimmy jeered. "I'd call you a bird magnet!"

"I have no idea how, but birds just like gluing themselves to my hair, no matter how far away they are." Bernie explained.

"Well," Dante looked out the window at the array of feathered creatures. "If you can control them, they make a pretty cool scenery."

"Really?" Bernie said, the both of them now staring out of the window. "They're killing themselves because of me."

"I understand that." Kimmy snarked. Bernie blew a raspberry at the blipper, which caught her off guard. "Dulce Jesús! Some of that spit got on me!" Kimmy wiped her cheek furiously, muttering more Spanish under her breath.

"Okay, it is unfortunate that the birds are dying." Dante admitted. "But take the negatives out for and enjoy the positives, just for a minute."

"That's a pretty big negative to take out, but yeah...they are nice to look at." Bernie replied, though she wasn't looking at the birds.

The rest of ride went with people quietly watching the birds, chatting about Dante and Kimmy and Bernie arguing about what kind doughnut sprinkles are the best. Dante went deep into thought as the girls quarreled. He watched birds go splat on the window as he thought about Ophelia and Boedrick. What are they up to this morning? Has Mum and Dad found another playdate for Ophelia to play bankers with? Has Boedrick already gotten beat up on his first day back? Were any of them thinking about him? Obviously not. He thought instantly. What would they say when he recounts everything that happened to him this morning? Not a clue. He held off calling them purely because of all the madness he endured. But now he was pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialing his mum's number

"GUYS!" Izzy bounced up and down in her seat. "We're nearing Dome: C-448!"

Although Dante had no idea what the redhead in front of him said, he looked ahead out the window. There was a huge, glowing pink wall that stretched higher than the clouds. Cars before them passed in no problem, and there even some passing out of it with a white flash in front. All the kids prepped up for entering the barrier with an "OOOHH" that wound up higher and louder they got. Dante looked at Bernie panicked for a second. "Has an organic ever passed through one of these?"

"Nope," she said, "But hey! You'll be the first! Or the first to try and fail!"

"Either way its a historical milestone!" Izzy commented cheerfully.

Dante clenched up as the bus entered the wall, the whole bus erupting in pink. "Hello?" Amara said on the phone, but was quickly cut off by whatever static the barrier had. Soon the pink passed and Dante looked around and felt his heart racing. He wasn't dead. Izzy and his other friends pointed that out too.

"You're okay!"

"Damn, it didn't kill you!"

"Historical moment made."

This place had a modern yet fantastical fantasy look to it. As they passed different streets the children could see regular shops and houses and other buildings, but there were tentacle-armed humans and even witches that occupied these structures. Dante saw someone walking their pet manticore, it looked like it was only a cub and it was eager to fly. After passing through a suburban neighborhood filled with light elves, Dante saw rolling hills of green up ahead, with a country road that led to a building at the very top. Izzy was practically doing back-flips. "We're here! We're here!"

Once they made up the final hill, all the kids jumped out of their seats and stampeded to the exit. "Woah, hey!" the sweater-vest man (uhh, Brian)? yelled. "Single-file dipsticks! Single file-!" he was interrupted by the bedhead girl knocking him down, yelling "LAMRONBA, HERE COMES JEWEL!"

Dante got swept up in the crowd, practically lifted off his feet as he squirmed to the door. He closed his eyes and moments later found himself on the dirt ground outside the bus. Multiple people stepped around him, except one that stepped square at the center of his back. "OOOPS!" John sneered.

Dante lay face down in the dust for a few moments before being lifted right up onto his feet by Izzy and Bernie. "Need a little help there?" They wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

"Argh!" Dante spit out some dirt. "Yes please and thank you!"

"Well," Kimmy said, staring at the palace before their eyes. "Buzzcut, welcome to Lamronba!!"