The toes of his boots dragged along the floor, as he brought his feet forward, before his heels took over. One ankle landed on top of the other as his shoulders sagged into the back of the chair. Landing on the table with an uncaring thump, his school bag blocked his view of the door to the canteen, which was exactly why he didn't see the teacher's pet and her personal bodyguard enter until he'd put his lunch-less bag back beneath the table.

Even when he saw them, he barely paid them any attention. His lunch was much more interesting: Homemade noodles with vegetarian black bean. Besides, he wasn't one for idle conversation or polite greeting - he was much more comfortable glaring a challenge at the students that dared look his way.

Perhaps that wasn't fair of him, but life wasn't fair. It made people different from each other just to single them out. He would never be the same as anyone else. He'd always be different and miserable and that was how it had always been and would continue to be because he put no effort into changing it. He didn't much see the point when it all seemed so obvious to him. He was Black. Almost no one else in the Nation was. How much clearer a line could be drawn between them?

Sat beside him was the only person he cared to talk to inside the concrete building of silent judgement: Kailani Blackburn, his sister. He looked to her now, sliding his fork back into his noodles. She was looking at him with those innocent, sparkling eyes she always wore. It made him sick. Sick to his stomach at the thought that, despite the covering of her hijab, she was so open, so raw. So easily broken. He would forever do what it took to save the light inside her from being snuffed out, but when she refused to close her doors to anybody and left herself an easy target, he often wondered how easy it would be for him to fail.

Taking his focus away from his thoughts and bringing it back to the present, he quickly realised she was looking at him expectantly - waiting. She seemed to notice that he'd come back and chose that moment to give a subtle flick of her eyes to her right. When she was certain he'd noticed, she turned back to her own lunch.

With a sigh, he turned round in his seat, seeing the awkwardly shuffling whizkid sat opposite him and her knight in shining ice staring at him from behind. "What?" he snapped, perhaps too aggressive but it was too late to take it back, so he just let his eyes match his tone and hoped they'd walk away.

"If I'm right, you're the key to entering a different world," the short one said. No names and cute little introductions first? Oh no, it looked like he was missing out today. He rolled his eyes and opted for naming her Minion. In honour of her uncanny ability to blend into the background as an irrelevant extra and her need to follow all the rules. He assumed it went without saying that it also included her height. Although, he did have to hand it to her: She wasn't one for messing about.

"Reality check, Minion," he said, eyes hard and unwilling. Conversations took effort that he'd rather feed into something more productive. "Other dimensions don't exist." Or at least, it was easier if they didn't. Physics was by far his second favourite subject and so far, he'd done extraordinarily well in it. But that relied on a few things; the first and foremost being that the laws of physics did actually apply to everything. As soon as other universes or dimensions came into play, things got messy. And apart from which, there was no real proof they even existed, so how Minion thought she could travel between them was beyond him.

She seemed a little taken aback by his nickname for her, only throwing petrol onto the fire that was the wicked gleam he forced into his eyes and the crafted smirk that played along his lips. If people knew even for one moment the motivation beneath his hard shell, they'd give him that awfully annoying look Kailani had mastered over the years.

However much he'd caught her off guard, Minion had her walls back up in a moment, eyes searching for an answer that better suited what she wanted. But it wasn't her who spoke next. Instead it was Shadow - who he'd named based on her impeccable skills at losing all sense of her own personality in letting Minion lead her around her everywhere. And as a mockery to her extreme paleness. "Then entertain us and laugh at our failure after."

He looked between the eyes of both girls, noting that neither girl seemed certain this would work but Minion was certainly trying her hardest to convince herself it would, having partly succeeded already. At least, that's what he could gather from her eyes and the way she held herself.

Shadow, however, was less caring about the situation and more caring about her friend. It seemed she didn't think it would work either, yet she was fully prepared to put everything she had into trying. Though she was much harder to read, her walls built stronger, so he couldn't be certain.

He'd heard whispers of people calling him cold, but it seemed that was just their word for funny. "I don't tend to follow false hopes and whimsical adventures." He kept his smirk firmly in place as he watched Minion's eyes grow harder and start to shake with the effort of keeping still. She didn't seem to realise he knew exactly what she was feeling, because she tried no harder to hide it. Maybe she'd spent too long around people who didn't care to look.

His gaze flicked upward next. As Shadow's glare set in, bulldozing through his skull with a solid force almost as unpredictable as the fire in his own, he felt a gentle hand on his arm. He whipped his head towards it without thinking, trying to mask the feeling that haunted him as he watched his sister recoil ever so slightly. Fear. She'd been scared he was going to hit her, hadn't she? But they both knew he'd never do that.

Kailani's grin rebounded immediately. "Come on, Kallai," Kailani said, her eyes growing to twice the size. "Don't think of it like false hopes, think of it more as a loose end. You can't say no to this," she was practically bouncing in her seat and the excitement radiating from every bone in her body at least doubled as Kallai rolled his eyes and sighed.

She knew how much he loved science and he couldn't deny how intrigued he was by the possibility, how obsessed he had always been as a child, that parallel universes were in fact real. The tale of excitement he'd thought had had its final telling years ago began its familiar hum through his bones. He swallowed once, and it was gone.

"I can and I will," Kallai said. They were reaching dangerous territory and he could feel the hair on his arms bristling. If his parents caught him spending time with - helping - White people, it would end about as well as it had done last time. His eyes became even darker as he turned away from the brightness that was his sister.

"What if I go? It could be dangerous, so I'd need someone to protect me," Kailani said with a smile that played at the edges of his vision, nudging his shoulder slightly as she leaned towards him. They both knew what she was trying to do, and the posters for the healthy lunch options curling at the corners were suddenly in need of his attention.

Minion started to open her mouth to interject but he could see how much she needed Kallai, and though guilt would eat away at him if he didn't go, having Kailani join them would be the only way he would follow them on this godforsaken journey to some other world beyond the knowledge of their greatest minds.

"Kailani's coming with us." Minion could see the benefits of bringing his sister and he knew what Kailani was like. There would be no talking her out of this. Nodding, he could see the relief has it flooded Minion's face, swallowing her whole until she herself had to blink a few times before being able to nod her thanks.

Soon after, Minion's lips were pressed into a thin line again, trying to hide all the emotion that poured through every pore in her skin. "We need one more person. You can finish your lunch and then you're coming with us."

He could tell just by looking at her and hearing the strain in her voice that this was a change of plans. So they thought he'd be easy? He was a tough person to deal with, and he prided himself on it. How else was he to make it in this world? He nodded, keeping his expression dark and distant.

Not a moment after the door clicked closed behind them, Kallai was shovelling the last of his noodles into his mouth under the amused gaze of Kailani. "I knew you were excited really," she giggled, sitting up that little bit straighter, crossing her arms.

"Don't mention this to anyone," Kallai said, an eye roll loosening his neatly carved features. "Just eat your lunch." A grin passed between them that he could only hope no one else noticed. He let himself breathe in their shared excitement for a moment before flicking the switch inside him once more, shutting off the light from behind his eyes as he packed his box - empty but for the fork - into his bag which was swiftly slung onto his shoulders.

Even as hidden as he could keep it, the buzz in his veins grew impatient. It wasn't until Kailani was stood beside him that he realised the toe of his shoes had been tapping the floor. Not a word passed between them as they left the canteen, neither looking back once.

They were out the doors seconds later, but with a scowl he quickly realised one thing: They had no idea which way the girls had gone. His eyebrows knitted together as he stood in the doorway to the canteen, arms crossed. His shoulders barely moved as people pushed past him or got pushed into him; the infinite bustling crowd that ambushed those doors everyday was no bother at all. Parting like the red sea, the crowd took one glance at Kallai's scowl and let him storm right through.

They stopped at the single rectangular window that overlooked the yard: one large sanded AstroTurf, a concrete netball court, the field only used for sports days and the patch of grass they called a garden directly below the window. "Spotted them yet?"

Kailani looked a moment longer before pressing her finger to the glass. Sure enough, Minion and Shadow were walking up the path through the grass, Shadow's hair a glistening beacon in the afternoon sun.

It didn't take the siblings a minute to find the door to outside closing behind them, too far away to hear. Kallai let his trained frown rest loyally on his dark skin as he tapped Minion on the shoulder.

"Who's the last one?" Kailani was practically bouncing beside him, her head spinning every which way and he knew she was making a million guesses herself as to who it was.

"Tallie Armstrong," Minion said, smiling that relaxed, confident smile that made him want to strangle her. The creases down his forehead deepened, needing no conscious input from Kallai himself.

"A strange group to choose," he muttered, lifting his glance to find Shadow's eyes testing him - almost daring him to question them. He didn't. Wordless, their conversation passed quickly from eye to eye - an easy journey with only two inches between them in height. It was only in considering their similar heights he realised the horizontal distance between them, too. He opened the distance up to at least a metre as subtly as was possible. She smirked at him. She'd noticed. His scowl hardened but he was the first to look away when Minion cleared her throat.

Facing the group, Minion straightened her back, "I'm going to get Tallie. You can come or stay, just don't kill each other." She span away from them as a light blush crawled up her face. Her footsteps grew quieter as he watched Shadow watch her leave.

Just as he'd known she would, Shadow followed Minion. He would follow too, he knew, but for just that moment, he remained where he was and spoke to the fierce girl over his shoulder as he turned to his sister, "There's a reason I call you Shadow." A wicked grin flickered across his lips and he left it up to her to determine just how long he'd had that name for her.

"Nice pet name," Shadow called back with a wink. Then, spinning on her heels and letting her long blonde ponytail whip around her, she said without turning around, "I should start calling you Firecracker to your face."

Even when she was facing away from him, he could feel her smirk heating his cheeks.