Chapter 1
"No, dummy, not different planets, parallel universes."
Aura's pencil stopped moving but she didn't turn her head.
The classroom had 18 desks, but each desk was wide enough to sit two kids at a time. Tommy and Jane were one desk over and one desk behind Aura. They were twins and their birthday was in June, so they were already eleven. Jane was the expert on science and Tommy was the expert on using the nuggets of knowledge he gained from Jane to conduct experiments that usually resulted in black smoke billowing out of their garage. They lived across the street from Aura which meant that she had a good view of the frequent carnage.
The twins talked constantly, but Mrs. Malone had given up on reprimanding them halfway through the first semester. The other kids had learned to tune them out.
Aura had too, but her subconscious must have picked up on something because her earlobes were itching. She stared blankly at her half-finished math problem and listened.
"You mean the fourth dimension? Isn't that time travel or something?" This was Tommy.
"No. Yes. Sort of. Think about a world exactly like this one except if the dinosaurs had never gone instinct. A lot of things would be different."
"Yeah, we could ride baby dinosaurs to school every day, instead of our bikes," Tommy said. "So, how do we get to that dimension?"
"It's only theoritc -- thee -- it's only theories right now. There's no way to prove it. We don't have the technology to go to a different dimension."
Tommy's disappointed groan melded into the sound of the final bell.
"Finish the assignment you were working on as homework," Mrs. Malone called out over the shuffling papers and the rise in chatter.
Aura pulled herself together and closed her textbook. She packed up her notebook and pencils and shoved them into her backpack. Her ears were practically on fire. They didn't hurt -- it was more like an itch that increased in intensity every second.
The closest girl's bathroom was full of laughing and chattering girls so Aura braved the hallway again. She ducked into an empty classroom. Aura breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the teacher was gone, too. Her mother said that when she traveled, she flickered like a light bulb that needed to be replaced. It was only one flicker, but the kids already thought Aura was weird, so she always made sure to hide when she felt the need to travel. She stood in the corner behind the door and closed her eyes.
Aura had been to fantastical worlds with all kinds of intelligent species from colorful blobs to full-on robots. Books, movies, TV shows -- even overheard conversations -- could spark a tingle in her earlobes that would indicate that there was a world where that thing was possible. For whatever reason, it had never occurred to Aura that there were worlds very similar to her own, until today.
She opened her mind to a world similar to hers, but different. A world with another Aura. Travelling always reminded Aura of being in an elevator -- that exact moment when the elevator stopped moving up and then dropped down slightly, right before the doors opened. That drop always made Aura slightly nauseated, both in an elevator and when she was travelling to different worlds.
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes -- and looked into her own.
"You weren't there a second ago," the other Aura said, stepping back, eyes wide. "How did you get here? Who are you? Why do you look like me?" she demanded.
"I -- traveled --" Aura said, looking around. She and her dimensional twin were in the same empty classroom Aura had been alone in just a moment ago. The other girl looked taller than her. Better posture, maybe? Yes. Also, although her hair was the same color, it was smooth and silky, like a YouTuber's. It was pulled back into a loose, sideways french braid that fell over one shoulder. On top of her head was sparkly headband in the shape of a tiara. It should have looked babyish, but it didn't. A subtle flick of mascara around her brown eyes emphasized the tiger-ish look that Aura's mom described Aura as having.
Whereas Aura could never decide what to wear to school and just ended up covered in a rainbow of colors and patterns, this Aura had chosen a soft baby blue sweater and slim-cut khaki pants with glossy beige Mary Janes. The only fashion preference they seemed to share were their simple gold-stud earrings.
The other Aura looked confused. "Traveled? What does that mean?"
Now Aura was confused. Did this Aura not travel? "I traveled to this world, from mine. I'm you, in a parallel universe."
The other Aura still looked confused, but also intrigued. "Huh. Okay. I mean, I can't think of any other possibility, unless I'm dreaming." She looked around the empty classroom. "We should probably get you out of here. My mom -- our mom? Anyway, she won't be home until six. I can hide you there until then, and we can chat but it would be better if no one else saw us together. Do you know where I live?"
"Um. I don't know -- is it great-grandma's house? 1030 Park Lane?"
The other Aura nodded. "I'll go first. Wait half-an-hour, and the school should be empty by then. If you run into anyone --" she looked Aura up and down, taking in her orange leopard print skirt and pink-and-yellow argyle cardigan. "Just tell them you're in the school play. I'll figure out how to cover for that later. I'll go the usual way, and you do the sneaky way."
She took Aura's stunned silence as agreement, and walked out. Instead of a backpack, she slung a large tan tote back over one shoulder. Aura stood there a moment, looking down at her outfit. Was the other Aura's comment an insult? The other kids liked to make fun of Aura's colorful style but this Aura, despite her demure appearance, had sounded matter-of-fact, rather than mean.
Aura slid down to the floor and unzipped her purple backpack. Aura wasn't really a mean-spirited person, and she had no reason to assume that the other Aura was either, so she dismissed the comment and pulled out her Math homework.
After half-an-hour of long division, she packed up and then made her way home. The town looked exactly the same as in her world. She wondered what, aside from the other Aura's fashion sense, was different. The main way home was three blocks north and six blocks west of the school. However, she could get home in almost half of the time if she went through various backyards.
Everything went fine until she got to the neighbor's house whose backyard was separated from Aura's backyard by a fence. In Aura's world, the fence was chain-link, with a gap big enough for Aura to slip through, almost without crouching. The neighbors were always promising to upgrade it to tall, wooden pickets, and apparently, in this world, they had.
"Shoot!" Aura said. What was the sneaky way home with this giant fence in the way?
"Aurora?"
The voice came from the other side of the fence. It sounded like Aura's voice. "Yeah," Aura answered. It felt weird to be called Aurora. Everyone except her grandmother called her Aura.
"I had a feeling you might get stuck here." Two of the pickets swung to the right and other Aura's head poked through. She grinned. "I loosened two of these boards."
"Genius," Aura said. "I'll have to do that if the Johnsons ever put up the fence in my world." She stepped forward and held the boards open for her self. Other Aura stepped aside and then Aura slipped through. "By the way, everyone calls me Aura."
"Aura," the other Aura said, eyeing Aura's outfit again. "That fits. Everyone calls me Princess."
Aura eyed Princess' tiara and regal posture. "That fits," she said.
Princess grinned.
Aura's pencil stopped moving but she didn't turn her head.
The classroom had 18 desks, but each desk was wide enough to sit two kids at a time. Tommy and Jane were one desk over and one desk behind Aura. They were twins and their birthday was in June, so they were already eleven. Jane was the expert on science and Tommy was the expert on using the nuggets of knowledge he gained from Jane to conduct experiments that usually resulted in black smoke billowing out of their garage. They lived across the street from Aura which meant that she had a good view of the frequent carnage.
The twins talked constantly, but Mrs. Malone had given up on reprimanding them halfway through the first semester. The other kids had learned to tune them out.
Aura had too, but her subconscious must have picked up on something because her earlobes were itching. She stared blankly at her half-finished math problem and listened.
"You mean the fourth dimension? Isn't that time travel or something?" This was Tommy.
"No. Yes. Sort of. Think about a world exactly like this one except if the dinosaurs had never gone instinct. A lot of things would be different."
"Yeah, we could ride baby dinosaurs to school every day, instead of our bikes," Tommy said. "So, how do we get to that dimension?"
"It's only theoritc -- thee -- it's only theories right now. There's no way to prove it. We don't have the technology to go to a different dimension."
Tommy's disappointed groan melded into the sound of the final bell.
"Finish the assignment you were working on as homework," Mrs. Malone called out over the shuffling papers and the rise in chatter.
Aura pulled herself together and closed her textbook. She packed up her notebook and pencils and shoved them into her backpack. Her ears were practically on fire. They didn't hurt -- it was more like an itch that increased in intensity every second.
The closest girl's bathroom was full of laughing and chattering girls so Aura braved the hallway again. She ducked into an empty classroom. Aura breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the teacher was gone, too. Her mother said that when she traveled, she flickered like a light bulb that needed to be replaced. It was only one flicker, but the kids already thought Aura was weird, so she always made sure to hide when she felt the need to travel. She stood in the corner behind the door and closed her eyes.
Aura had been to fantastical worlds with all kinds of intelligent species from colorful blobs to full-on robots. Books, movies, TV shows -- even overheard conversations -- could spark a tingle in her earlobes that would indicate that there was a world where that thing was possible. For whatever reason, it had never occurred to Aura that there were worlds very similar to her own, until today.
She opened her mind to a world similar to hers, but different. A world with another Aura. Travelling always reminded Aura of being in an elevator -- that exact moment when the elevator stopped moving up and then dropped down slightly, right before the doors opened. That drop always made Aura slightly nauseated, both in an elevator and when she was travelling to different worlds.
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes -- and looked into her own.
"You weren't there a second ago," the other Aura said, stepping back, eyes wide. "How did you get here? Who are you? Why do you look like me?" she demanded.
"I -- traveled --" Aura said, looking around. She and her dimensional twin were in the same empty classroom Aura had been alone in just a moment ago. The other girl looked taller than her. Better posture, maybe? Yes. Also, although her hair was the same color, it was smooth and silky, like a YouTuber's. It was pulled back into a loose, sideways french braid that fell over one shoulder. On top of her head was sparkly headband in the shape of a tiara. It should have looked babyish, but it didn't. A subtle flick of mascara around her brown eyes emphasized the tiger-ish look that Aura's mom described Aura as having.
Whereas Aura could never decide what to wear to school and just ended up covered in a rainbow of colors and patterns, this Aura had chosen a soft baby blue sweater and slim-cut khaki pants with glossy beige Mary Janes. The only fashion preference they seemed to share were their simple gold-stud earrings.
The other Aura looked confused. "Traveled? What does that mean?"
Now Aura was confused. Did this Aura not travel? "I traveled to this world, from mine. I'm you, in a parallel universe."
The other Aura still looked confused, but also intrigued. "Huh. Okay. I mean, I can't think of any other possibility, unless I'm dreaming." She looked around the empty classroom. "We should probably get you out of here. My mom -- our mom? Anyway, she won't be home until six. I can hide you there until then, and we can chat but it would be better if no one else saw us together. Do you know where I live?"
"Um. I don't know -- is it great-grandma's house? 1030 Park Lane?"
The other Aura nodded. "I'll go first. Wait half-an-hour, and the school should be empty by then. If you run into anyone --" she looked Aura up and down, taking in her orange leopard print skirt and pink-and-yellow argyle cardigan. "Just tell them you're in the school play. I'll figure out how to cover for that later. I'll go the usual way, and you do the sneaky way."
She took Aura's stunned silence as agreement, and walked out. Instead of a backpack, she slung a large tan tote back over one shoulder. Aura stood there a moment, looking down at her outfit. Was the other Aura's comment an insult? The other kids liked to make fun of Aura's colorful style but this Aura, despite her demure appearance, had sounded matter-of-fact, rather than mean.
Aura slid down to the floor and unzipped her purple backpack. Aura wasn't really a mean-spirited person, and she had no reason to assume that the other Aura was either, so she dismissed the comment and pulled out her Math homework.
After half-an-hour of long division, she packed up and then made her way home. The town looked exactly the same as in her world. She wondered what, aside from the other Aura's fashion sense, was different. The main way home was three blocks north and six blocks west of the school. However, she could get home in almost half of the time if she went through various backyards.
Everything went fine until she got to the neighbor's house whose backyard was separated from Aura's backyard by a fence. In Aura's world, the fence was chain-link, with a gap big enough for Aura to slip through, almost without crouching. The neighbors were always promising to upgrade it to tall, wooden pickets, and apparently, in this world, they had.
"Shoot!" Aura said. What was the sneaky way home with this giant fence in the way?
"Aurora?"
The voice came from the other side of the fence. It sounded like Aura's voice. "Yeah," Aura answered. It felt weird to be called Aurora. Everyone except her grandmother called her Aura.
"I had a feeling you might get stuck here." Two of the pickets swung to the right and other Aura's head poked through. She grinned. "I loosened two of these boards."
"Genius," Aura said. "I'll have to do that if the Johnsons ever put up the fence in my world." She stepped forward and held the boards open for her self. Other Aura stepped aside and then Aura slipped through. "By the way, everyone calls me Aura."
"Aura," the other Aura said, eyeing Aura's outfit again. "That fits. Everyone calls me Princess."
Aura eyed Princess' tiara and regal posture. "That fits," she said.
Princess grinned.
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