As I sat still in class, I couldn’t get my mind off of what happened. My older brother was just sucked into a random portal on the way to school. What was that about? Would he even be okay? When class was finally over, some annoying guy made his way over to my desk.

“Good morning,” he said.

“What do you want, Justin?” I asked, looking at the boy with too much hair.

Like, seriously. He has so much hair that his eyes are covered most of the time. It’s long brown hair that goes down to his shoulders and then in front, it all goes to the end of his nose. I can barely see his eyes which are green. To this day, I wonder how he’s even able to see.

“So how did this morning’s incident make you feel?” he asked.

“Incident?” I said, “What are you talking about?”

“Y’know, when you brother got sucked into the portal.” answered Justin.

“How do you know about that!?” I asked, standing up and slamming my hands on my desk.

“Whoa, whoa, what’s going on over here?” asked Matt, approaching my desk.

“When did you get here?” I said.

“Oh, you saw it too, didn’t you?” said Justin.

“Saw what?” responded Matt, “I’ve seen a LOT of things.”

His expression turned dark.

“L-like what?” said Justin, seeming excited.

“When you’re on the internet too long, you see some messed up things.” answered Matt.

“That’s it?” I said, “I was expecting something a bit more serious.”

“I AM serious!” he said.

“If that’s all,” I said, “I’m leaving.”

I grabbed my stuff and headed out of the classroom. Unfortunately for me, Justin wasn’t done with me. He came following me out of the classroom, along with Matt.

“So, can I interview you?” he said.

“You still haven’t told me how you know.” I said.

“Because I saw it.” said Justin, holding out a picture, “See?”

“You… took a picture?” I said.

“Yeah,” said Justin, “isn’t it strange how a portal just appeared like that?”

“So, you just sat still and watched!?” I exclaimed.

“Easy, there.” said Matt, “There wasn’t much he could have done. Remember, we couldn’t do anything either.”

“I know, but-” I started.

“Look, I’m not happy about this either.” said Matt, “A-anyways, what do you know, Justin?”

“I’m afraid I know just as much as you do.” said Justin, “That’s why I’m investigating.”

“Why do you care so much?” asked Matt.

“I am responsible for our school’s newspaper.” replied Justin.

“You just want to get a good story in.” I commented.

“Don’t make it sound like I’m some villain!” exclaimed Justin.

Our conversation didn’t really go anywhere. I didn’t really learn anything new. It hadn’t even been that long since my brother disappeared anyways.

“We should get going.” said Matt, “We don’t want to be late for class.”

“Right!” I said.

The rest of the day went by normally. Occasionally, I’d get questioned by Justin, but I never really had anything new to give him. Every time, he seemed disappointed and just left with his head down. At the end of the day, I left the building with Vera and Matt.

“I’m exhausted.” said Matt.

“Yeah, so am I.” I replied.

“Hardly anyone saw the portal.” added Vera.

“Yeah.” said Matt, “There’s hardly anyone we can rely on.”

“Justin wouldn’t stop annoying me.” I said.

“That guy just won’t give up,” said Matt, “I’m afraid I don’t know much about this whole thing either.”

“The best thing we could do is find someone that knows about these portals,” I said, “but I don’t know where we’d begin.”

We all sighed. Since the conversation became so sad, we tried to change the subject but in the end, we all just walked to our houses in silence. When I got inside my house, I heard my mother’s voice.

“W-what happened to Ken!?” she said.