Being stuck at home for a couple of weeks was actually pretty boring. After everyone realized that the neighborhood was safe again, everyone ended up going back to school. I found myself with my head down on my desk.

"W-what's wrong?" asked Vera.

"We're not making any progress!" I complained.

"Progress with what?" a girl I'm not familiar with suddenly said.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked.

"I'm Chloe." the girl answered, "What's bothering you?"

I looked up at the girl with short neck-length orange hair and green eyes that were behind a pair of glasses.

"I don't even know," I said, "why would you even care?"

"Hmm," she said, putting her finger to her lips, "why wouldn't I?"

"I'm confused." replied Vera.

"So am I." I responded.

"Fascinating." a familiar voice said.

"Justin, what are you doing?" I asked.

I looked over to him and saw him standing there, drooling and writing in his notebook.

"Glad to see you never change." I said.

"I don't ever see you around much, Chloe." he said, putting his pencil down.

"I didn't give you permission to give them my name." she said.

"Is there any reason you decided to bother me?" I asked.

"You fought those monsters, didn't you?" she said.

"How would you know about something like that?" I asked.

"I may or may not have been there… watching." answered Chloe.

"That's creepy." commented Justin.

"I don't think you really have any room to talk." I responded.

"So, does this mean you know about other worlds?" asked Chloe.

"Only that those monsters came from another." I said, "The same world my brother ended up in."

"Your brother's in another world?" responded Chloe.

"Yeah," I said, "and it'll be a long time before he comes back."

"I see." she said.

"And what are YOU doing, Justin?" I asked.

"Oh," he said, "I'm just writing about some interesting things like Chloe actually being here for one, Frederica actually showed up to school and I've even seen Theodore!"

"I'm always here," said Chloe, "it's not my fault you weren't seeing me."

"Sorry," said Justin, "I guess you always just blended into the background."

"So, Frederica and Theodore are here?" I said.

"Yeah," said Justin, "Frederica's actually here for once and I guess you didn't know that Theodore's been here."

"Since you brought up other worlds," said Cloe, "we've got some books in the library about them."

"You really think they would help us?" I asked.

"You never know." she said.

When school was over, I went to the library with Chloe, Matt, Vera, Justin, Sheldon, Frederica, and Theodore. I never really went in there that much because I wasn't really that interested in reading what they had to offer most of the time. The library was decently-sized. It wasn't too big or too small, but it had enough room to have a decent selection of books. Bookshelves were up against nearly every wall and they were several different isles. My friends and I followed Chloe to a corner in the back.

"So these are the books?" I said.

"I don't know about this." said Matt, "They all look like works of fiction."

"H-how are stories supposed to help?" asked Vera.

"Hold on," said Sheldon, pulling a book off the shelf, "this one looks interesting."

He flipped through it and there was information about people coming from other worlds and people travelling from Earth to these worlds. However, the book didn't reveal anything we didn't already know. In his frustration, he threw the book on the ground.

"Hey!" said Chloe, "These are library books. Be careful with them."

"Oh, uh, sorry." said Sheldon.

Justin banged his head against the wall.

"I was hoping for a new story," he said, "all I'm getting is what we already know."

"I guess this was just a waste of time, huh?" said Matt.

Then, he froze.

"What is it?" I said.

"Ken And The Golden Pearls." he said, pulling a book out, "How long has this been here?"

"Give me that." I said, ripping it out of his hands.

"Hey!" exclaimed Matt.

I flipped through the book and read a few pages. In the beginning, a boy named Ken ended up in another world by stepping through a portal. He had no idea how he got there. He soon met a floating creature about the size of a little kid's but her body seemed to be a teenager's and then the two of them always travelled together. Eventually, he received a message from the demon lord telling him that he needed to collect all seven golden pearls to defeat her. Thinking it might lead to a way back home, he sets out on a journey with his floating friend and a knight.

"There's no way." I said.

"Why does the book end there?" asked Vera.

"That is really strange." commented Justin.

"Well, it's only the first volume." said Chloe, "I'm sure the story will continue eventually."

"Still," I said, "isn't that an odd place to end it?"

Matt grabbed the book from me.

"Ken mentions his sister more than once," he said, "but you're probably right. There's no way this is the same Ken."

"I wouldn't want to think that my world only exists in fiction." added Sheldon.

"If that really was the real Ken in there," said Frederica, "do you think that we can go to him if we actually manage to find a way inside the book?"

"There's no way it would be that easy." Theodore added.

"Well, knowing how these types of stories work," said Matt, "there are lots of ways people can be sent to other worlds: opening portals, being sucked into a computer while playing a game, reading a book, getting hit by a truck, and there are several other ways."

"Let's hope we don't need to test all of them." said Sheldon.

"Yeah, if any of us gets hit by a truck, we won't be able to go back." said Matt.

"Well, we don't even know if we'd end up in another world after our deaths unless we actually experienced that." said Chloe, "Let's not try that."

"I might as well check some of these books out," said Matt, "maybe then we'll be able to learn something."

"Do what you want." I said.

"Are you not satisfied?" asked Chloe.

"I don't even know how to feel right now." I said.

"I see." she responded, "Honestly, something like opening portals would be difficult."

"Have you done it before?" asked Sheldon.

"Not really." she said, "I just don't think it would be that easy."

"Well, I think that's all we're going to learn for now," I said, "I'm going home."

"Sounds good." said Matt.

I went home and spent a normal afternoon in my room. I did wonder what was with Chloe, though. Why did she suddenly want to talk to us? Who the heck was she? She seemed normally enough, but I found it strange that she was only then starting to talk to us. Was there something going on with her we didn't know about?