(For the people who don't know what the Masked Hero, yes that's what he was called in the wiki, looks like because they haven't watched the series yet, here's an image)

It was morning, and another day in hell- I mean high school. I sat in the kitchen, eating some of my breakfast. When dad wasn't looking, I snagged an extra plate for the special guest in my room. When I finished, I snuck up the stairs, down the hall, and into my room. "Hey, I brought you breakfast." I said, placing the plate in front of him as he sat at my desk. "Thank you, Y/n. I haven't had a meal that smelled this good in a long time." He said.

"Your welcome. Now, I'm gonna be gone for a while because I have school. Just be glad that my dad is working for the rest of the week, meaning that he won't be home, leaving the house to yourself." I informed, grabbing my backpack off of the closet doorknob and put it on. "School?" He repeated in a confused tone.

"It's a place to learn stuff. Basically, you sit in a room for about 50 minutes to an hour, write down an assignment, when those minutes are up, you have to go to a different room to learn a different subject, and only have 30 minutes of lunchtime and then it's back to class until the school day is over. Then, we have to do homework, which takes up even more time, and we have to somehow fit in eating, showering, and chores, which would be leaving us so little time to sleep. And then we have to get up, do it all over again, and the only time we don't go to school is one the weekend." I explained.

"That... sounds terrible. Why would they make it like that?" He asked. "Because some people are assholes and like to make children suffer because they have shitty lives and take it out on us." I said. "Any who, I gotta go. Bye!" I said, closing my door and walking down the stairs again, and sat down on my stool.

Later on, Izzie came down, and Mateo comes down a few minutes later. "Dad, where's my sign-up sheet?" Izzie asked, getting off her stool and stood behind Dad. Pops sets down the pot on the burner, signs the parent signature, and hands the paper, and another one, to her. Izzie runs back to her seat with a smile on her face and gave me my sign-up sheet. I smiled as I grabbed my backpack, unzipped it, and put the paper in there. "Mateo, where's yours?" Dad asked, turning to my little brother.

"Yeah... I don't understand the appeal of having things thrown at you. That's not a sport; it's torture." Mateo stated, leaning over the stair railing, and walked down. "Sheep Week is more than just dodgeball." Izzie stated, stating up on her chair. "Oh, right. There's Tug-Of-War, Capture the Flag, the-" "Sudden death Tetherball!" Izzie finished in a dramatic tone, jumping off her chair to stand on top of the island. I chuckled as I took a sip of my coffee/tea/or whatever you drink in the morning to wake up.

"Why don't you sign up with Cooper?" Dad suggested. "Eh..." I dragged off before shaking my head, taking another sip from my cup, looking to the side. "Right. Uh... Well, you gotta think outside the box. This could be a chance to make new friends." Dad said. "Real friends." Izzie added, jumping off the island and in front of Mateo. "One's that leave you to be cool with someone else." I added once I finished my drink.

Mateo chuckled in response as I put my cup in the sink and washed it, then put it in the dishwasher. We then left home to walk to school, and I know that we're gonna get some food from Mrs. Castillo. As we walked out, I glanced anywhere I can to spot the hourglass, but Mateo found it first. 'Fuck... How am I supposed to get it back? I can't say I'm holding onto it for a while for a friend because they all moved somewhere else...' I nervously thought while trying to come up with an excuse as Izzie came back after she ran ahead of us.

"Hey, Izz... do you remember your dream last night?" Mateo asked when Izzie came up to his side. "I do remember waking up and wanting pickles. Mm, pickles..." Izzie said. That's when we heard a familiar, old lady voice and music. Me and Izzie ran over as quickly as we could because her burritos are so good! I held Izzie back as a car drove past us, and then I let go so we could cross the street.

We came up to the window just as a couple of construction workers left once they had gotten their order. I look up at the window to see that her tortoise, Señor Tortuga, is resting on the frame of the window. "Benos diaz, Cece!" The old lady greeted. "Hola, Mrs. Castillo!" Izzie greeted, and started ordering what she wanted, and so did I. Meanwhile, Mateo was having a hard time deciding what he wanted. "Don't over think it!" Izzie said. "Sometimes, the key is to look at things upside-down." Mrs. Castillo said, twirling her spoon and caught it upside-down, probably for emphasis.

Mateo then leaned very far to his side, trying to look at the menu upside down. But that's when Zoey arrived. "Yo, Mrs. C, these are the freshest eggs possible." Zoey said, walking into Mrs. Castillo's food truck. "Hmm, how fresh?" She asked. And that's when Mateo lost his balance and fell on his face. "Number... 37, please." Mateo muttered loudly, hiding in shame for embarrassing himself in front of his crush. And I gave him a comforting pat on the head.

(Time-skip)

After a long day of torture in hell, we finally made it back home. And I picked up some food from Mrs. Castillo again, just a little something for the special, unexpected guest staying in my room.

"I'm back, and my brother got the hourglass before I could, Null." I groaned, opening my door and closing it behind me. "Null?" He repeated in a confused tone, sitting on my bed. "Yeah, I said I was gonna come up with a name for you to have, and Null seems like a good one. Better than calling you Stranger, am I right?" I said with a laugh at the end. "I gotchu something. A delicious burrito made by Mrs. Castillo. Try it." I said, taking the burrito out of my backpack and tossed it to him, and he caught it. He looked at it with a confused look.

"You unwrap the tinfoil and eat what's in the wrapping." I instructed, taking out my homework and placing it on my desk. I sat down in my chair with a pen/pencil in hand and started working on it. The room was filled with silence.

"...I liked the interior of your home." He said, breaking the silent tension as I heard the sound of rustling tinfoil. "Thanks." I said, not looking away from my assignment as silence filled the air once again. "I'm sorry that I didn't get the hourglass. I'm taking a guess as to how important it is to you." I brought up. "Hey, it's fine. Plus, I've already done what I was supposed to do and keep Lunia's hourglass away from the Nightmare King's forces. So, in a way, it's safe with him" He said. "Oh, thank goodness! Wait, the Nightmare King? Who's that?" I asked, turning my chair to face him, placing my writing utensil down.

"The Nightmare King is a dangerous person in the Dream World, ruler of the Grim Realm and an evil force of nature. He wants to conquer the Dream World and give everyone nightmares. That arrow that was lodged into my shoulder was from his second-in-command, the Night Hunter. I'm just lucky that you had an Adison Ray." He explained.

"Another question; how did you know what it was, the Adison Ray? I didn't even know what the hell it was until you told me what to do to stop your corruption." I asked. "An Adison Ray is something Dreamcrafters have. You're not a Dreamchaser?" He asked. "No, I'm not. And it belonged to mine and my younger sibling's mother, and she's... no longer here." I explained. "Oh! I'm... sorry for your loss." He hesitantly said, turning his head to the side. "No, no, no, it's okay. You didn't know, and now you do. ...She was a Dreamchaser, or whatever it is. That's quite surprising." I said, going back to my homework.

After a while, I decided to check up on my little siblings to see how they were doing. "Says the girl who's watching anime by herself." I heard Mateo say as I opened the door. "'Cause Nova said it was awesome." Izzie said. "Dad and Y/n were right when they said you were gonna loose all your friends and die alone and sad in a cave if you don't try new things sometimes." Izzie added, flopping backwards on her bed. "I didn't say that, and Dad definitely didn't say that either." I scolded. "Well, you and he should've." Izzie said, leaning back against her pillow with an arm behind her head, picking up her tablet and continued to watch her anime.

"Izzie, I will take away your tablet if you don't apologize to your brother." I said, crossing my arms. "Fine. I'm sorry for being mean." She said. Even though it was a half-assed apology, I'll take it. "Thank you." I said.

"Hey, Y/n, can you help me with something for my comic? I need help with a detail." He said. "Sure. What's the detail?" I asked, taking the tablet Mateo handed to me. "The background behind the sword. I can't think of a good idea to make it look cool." He said, handing me his silo pen. I drew what I had in mind and gave it to him once I finished. "This looks great. Thanks, n/n!" He said, smiling at me. "No prob, Bob." I said, giving him the finger guns with a toothy grin and wink before I walked out of the room.

(Time-skip)

"Go to bed!" Null quietly exclaimed, dragging me away from my desk and taking me to my actual bed. "NO! I have a little bit left the finish, and I'm sleeping on the floor again!" I said in the same tone has his, trying to get out of his grip. "You know what? How about this." He said. He grabbed the blanket off of my bed and wrapped it around me, swaddled like I was a fucking baby, and was lightly tossed onto the bed. "We both sleep on the bed. You get one side, and I'll get the other. Deal?" He said, laying down next to me as I wriggled around, trying to break free.

I let out a sigh of defeat, turning to my side, facing him. "Fine." I begrudgingly said with a pouty expression. "See? Now that wasn't so hard, now is it?" He questioned, taking a blanket from the makeshift bed on the ground and put it over himself. I grumbled incoherent words, shaking violently in fury. "Stop being such a baby and go to sleep." He said, turning his back to me, and I did the same, closing my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

(In the Dream World)

I was happily snoozing away, when I felt someone trying to shake me awake. "Ugh, go away." I groaned, turning the other way. "Y/n! Wake up!" I heard Mateo's voice exclaimed, shaking me even more, very violently which made my eyes instantly open. "Okay, okay! I'm up!" I shouted, trying to move my arms, but realized that I was still wrapped in the blanket. "Can you at least help me out of this contraption?!" I asked once he stopped shaking me.

"I'll do that, but first-" "Who's that next to you?" Izzie asked, finishing her brother's sentence as I was finally freed. "Who are you-" I asked, stretching, but stopped mid-sentence when I looked over to my side to see Null was there. "Uh... Nobody important." I quickly said with a nervous smile, kicking Null off of my bed, which earned a yelp out of him in response with the sound of a thud. Thats payback for swaddling me! "Ow!" He exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head, standing up. "What was- Oh..." He said, realizing who was right there.

"Wait, hold on! Is that... Z-Blob?" I asked, pointing to the slime on Mateo's shoulder. "Yes, actually. He appeared in my backpack." Mateo said as I got off of my bed. "Whoa...!" I said once I looked at the sky, seeing floating islands and many other things. "Is this-" "The Dream World. A part of it, yes." Null confirmed.

My amazement was cut off by the sound of locking/unlocking doors, and the doors around this island slightly shook. Then, a door with mushrooms opened up, and there was a glowing, misty, yellow portal in the doorframe. "NO WAY! That is awesome!" Izzie exclaimed in excitement. "You think they go to those dream island things, but which-" Mateo was gonna asked, but stopped when Izzie ran to the door, and she went through, making me gasp in surprise. "Izzie!" I shouted in a worried tone, running to the door. "Y/n!" I heard Null yelled out, but it was too late as I threw myself into the portal.

I screamed in fear, closing my eyes as I felt wind whooshing by me. I then felt myself get thrown onto a grassy surface. "Ugh..." I groaned, pushing myself up, but fell to the ground again when something, or someone, was thrown and came into contact with my back. "Get off!" I said, pushing Null off of me as I got up, dusting myself and looked up.

"Whoa..." I said, breathlessly, amazed by the nature and animals around us, and just as Mateo came through the portal. The grass was orange, the tree leaves ranged from yellow to orange to red, some even floating on big rocks or boulders, Elk with light green and teal fur with some flowers on their bodies and horns, fairies with blue skin and had red hair, and there was even walking mushrooms.

"Wow! I've never had a dream like this." Mateo said in amazement. "Isn't it amazing?" Izzie asked, jumping to catch the fairies. "It's so beautiful..." I said, climbing a tree, plucking a leaf from it. "Many Dream Islands are like this. Possibly more." Null said, climbing the same tree and sitting next to me. " And I'm still assessing that." I heard Mateo say.

"So, if this is a dream, and I know it's a dream... do you think I can fly?" Izzie asked. I watched Izzie jump high in the air, flapping her arms, but she fell to the ground, and before she could land on her face, three fairies grabbed her, one on each arm and the other on her back, and flew, carrying her in the air before setting her back down on her feet.

"Hmm... I wonder..." I muttered, standing up from where I sat, and started walking across the branched before running on them while performing ballet dance moves, not stumbling or falling once. Meanwhile, Mateo climbed on of the floating tree-rocks and started jumping across them with Z-Blob jumping behind him.

I then jumped down and landed in a right-split. "That was awesome!" I exclaimed with a smile on my face as I stood up. "Izz! What are you doing?" I heard Mateo ask. I turn around to see that Izzie was eating the grass with the Elk's. "It's a dream; I can be whatever I want to be! It tastes lie... Cotton Candy!" Izzie said, chewing on more grass. "Izzie, that's disgusting. You don't know where it's been! There might've animal who peed there!" I stated, pulling her up and back on her feet.

I look up at the floating tree-rock-thing that Mateo was on and saw that he was drawing the scenery. "Are you seriously drawing right now? Live in the moment, bro!" Izzie stated. "I am drawing the moment." Mateo clarified. "Whatever." Izzie said as the Elk's ran off in different directions.

"We have to go, I sense something." Null said, jumping down from a tree and walked to us. "Why? What's wrong?" I asked. To answer my question, there was a loud, rumbling sound, like it was thunder and lightning. "What is..." I heard Mateo asked but stopped mid-sentence, seeing something in the horizon. I jumped up to where he was and looked to see there was a very dark-purple and red cloud.

"Yep, I think it's time to go." I said, grabbing Mateo and Z-Blob, and jumped down. "Uh, Izzie-" "What? Why?" Izzie asked, interrupting her brother. "Look how majestic!" Izzie said, gesturing to the woods. And we saw the small, mushroom people running our way, then the fairies flying in our direction, and then a heard of Elk and a couple of Unicorns ran to where we are, all having the same fearful expression. "Uh, they're majestically heading this way." Mateo said, grabbing Izzie's arm and dragging her away. "Time to skedaddle!" I added, grabbing Null's hand and dragged him away.

We ran towards the door, only to see it disappearing and ascending in the air. "Wait! We need that!" Mateo exclaimed as the door disappeared into sand. "Crap." Null spat. "Mateo. Mateo!" Izzie exclaimed, pointing behind us.

And from one of the trees, there was a weird looking creature with a very dark-purple body, glowing yellow eyes and mouth, and a pair of bright-purple wings. Then another one with a knight helmet with a light purple flame at the top, glowing yellow eyes, and same body shape as the winged creatures. The sky changed from a normal blue sky to a warm orange color, and the trees all lost their leaves, the bark became a dark purple with glowing orange veins, and the rocks became a dark shade of indigo, and the grass also became a dark shade of indigo as the little creatures came closer.

"What the fuck are they?!" I asked. "Just run!" Null exclaimed, pulling me with him as we were still holding hands, and Mateo and Izzie followed behind as the stampede of Elk and Unicorns came running in our direction.

I turned my head to see that the flying gremlins were following us. The four of us jumped down and hid behind a small ledge in the ground, and the creatures just flew past us. "What the heck are they?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. "Grimspawn. Servants of the Nightmare King." Null explained. "What happened?!" Izzie asked. "I think they've turned this dream into a nightmare." Mateo guessed. "Exactly." Null clarified.

That's when Z-Blob jumped off of Mateo's shoulder and hopped forward. "Wait, buddy!" Mateo called out, getting up and ran to pick up Z-Blob, the rest of us also getting up. And that's when this giant being stood before us.

Not only was it cool looking, but it was also terrifying!

"Um... nice monster?" Izzie sheepishly said with a grin. In response, it roared, which sounded like a grizzly bear became a thunderstorm. I then raised it's foot over Z-Blob, ready to stomp him to death. "Ah! Watch out!" Mateo yelled, running over and slid underneath, taking out his pencil. Just as he did that, it glowed and grew bigger with glowing sand coming off of it once it finished. he then exchanged the Pencil for Z-Blob, and just in time too because the monster stepped on the sharp end of the pencil.

The monster grabbed it's foot and hopped on the other one in pain, almost reenacting that one scene in the first Home Alone movie. Meanwhile, the four of us ran away. "What did you just do?" Izzie asked. "He dreamcrafted, of course." Null spoke with a joyful laugh, like he was happy about this. "Well, whatever it was, it was awesome." Mateo said, looking back at the monster, seeing that the monster was giving chase, before looking back ahead.

"Can you do it again?!" Izzie asked in an excited tone as we slid under a floating tree-rock and continued running. "I don't know how." Mateo said.

We stopped in our tracks when we saw a group of Grimspawn in front of us. "Crap..." I muttered. "I don't think I like this dream anymore!" Mateo said. "How do we wake up?!" Izzie asked.

The Grimspawn, that had wings, flew towards us and surrounded us, the monster towering over us and reaching a hand down to grab us.

That's when the familiar sound of my alarm on my phone blasting in my ears. And I also heard the sound of K-Pop; it was barely auditable, but I can still hear it. "Is that my phone?" Me and Mateo asked as the same time, in the same confused tone.

(In the Waking World)

I jolted up with a gasp, and started breathing heavily, looking around to see that I was back in my bedroom, I wasn't swaddled in a blanket, Null just jolted awake from the floor, and the sound of Just Dance, Heavy Metal Version by Sable, blasting out loud.

I reached over to the cubby of my headboard, grabbed my phone, and turned off the alarm. Once I did that, I fell back on my bed with a relief sigh. "Holy shit..."

(Time-skip)

I was putting stuff away in my locker, minding my own business with the events of the past couple of days playing in my mind along. I sighed, shaking my head to get rid of those memories and went back to putting stuff in and taking stuff out of my locker. "Hey~" I heard a voice say. 'God, not again' I thought as an annoyed expression came to my face, internally groaning. "The hell do you want this time, Markus?" I asked, exchanging the last things with my locker before I slammed the door close and looked to my right to see one of the banes of my existence.

Markus; Logan's older brother; just as annoying, but thrice as terrible.

"I bet you're wondering, 'What's the most handsome, attractive boy in school doing in your presence?' Well, I would say that I-" "Not happening." I dismissed, placing my backpack on my shoulders and walking away. "Oh, come on! Why would anyone want to say no to being my girlfriend?" He cockily asked, following me. "Because you're arrogant, egotistical, an egomaniac, selfish, a pompous asshole, and in my personal opinion: not, nor ever will be, good looking. And let's not forget what you did to your girlfriends over the years of high school. Let's walk down memory lane, shall we? Let's start off with prom night." I stated.

-Flashbacks-

It was Prom Night, and Markus, and a girl with long, black hair who wore a sparkly red dress were talking to each other and laughing. Markus' eyes widened when he saw something coming their way. He grabbed his girlfriend and turn her around to face it while hiding behind her, and a cake splattered all over her. She looked down at herself in utter shock before turning around and glared at him. Markus then started acting like nothing had just happened, and she slapped him and walked off.

"Or 2 months before that. At least they had gotten together after that; happy to Susie and Samantha."

Markus was sitting behind the bleachers with a girl, but this time had short, wavy blonde hair, and a pink bow in her hair; and they were giving each other lovey-dovey eyes. And just as they were about to kiss, a gasp interrupted them, and there was another girl, with hair pushed over to one side with an undercut, a punk-style outfit, and she held a bouquet of flowers, and a letter that said happy one-month anniversary on the back. In a fit of anger, she threw the bouquet of flowers and letter on the ground and stomped on them both into the ground and walked away in a huff. The blonde girl had a wide-eyed expression and her mouth agape before she looked back at Markus like he just killed her dog, and then slapped him and walked off.

"And five months before that."

He was at his girlfriend's house with her family, celebrating her birthday. And just as she blew out the candles, and everyone was clapping, Markus had an evil grin on his face as he grabbed the back of her head and smashed it into the cake, everyone gasped and the sound of silence filled the air, leaving Markus the only one laughing. The girl started tearing up before sobbing into her hands. He tried to tell her to lighten up and that it was just a joke, but the house shook by the sound of footsteps as a figure stood behind Markus with his arms crossed, making him halt in his giggling fit. He turned his head around and was suddenly filled with fear. Behind him was a very big, buff man with tattoos on his body with a very furious expression on his face as he glared down at Markus; the girl's father who had just gotten released early for good behavior on the same day as his little girl's birthday and wanted to surprise her only to see this. He grabbed Markus by the throat and threw him out the window.

"And let's not forget last year's Autumn Festival, or as people are now calling it; the Carrie Incident."

Markus and this girl had finished singing and dancing for the crowd. The girl had long, wavy, dirty-blonde hair with a bright pink gown. Markus pulled her into the spotlight on the stage and pulled out a bouquet of roses from his back and gave it to her. She looked surprised and started shedding happy tears as the crowd started clapping, not noticing Markus sneaking off of the stage, snickering as he gave his buddies a thumbs up before sneaking back onto the stage, and began clapping along, holding back a smug look. Then a bucket of red paint poured from the top of the stage and fell onto the girl, causing the crowd to gasp in shock and stop clapping, leaving Markus and his friends the only ones laughing. The girl's flabbergasted face then morphed into one of rage as she marched over to Markus and slapped him, kicked him where the sun don't shine, then tackled him and started beating him up as the crowd cheered her on.

-Flashbacks over-

Markus was stunned with silence before he shook it away with a cocky grin on his face. "Yeah, but I'm a changed man." He said with the upmost confidence. "Uh-huh? Sure, and I'm a dragon." I said, rolling my eyes. "Come on! What's it gonna take for you to be with me?" He asked, genuinely offended. "Nothing! Because you ain't worth anything to me; If I was put into a room with two people that could destroy the world, along with you, and I was given a gun with two bullets; I'd shoot you with the two bullets." I stated.

"But-" "But nothing. Now, leave me alone you slippery, slimy, absolute scumbag, useless, PIECE OF SHI-" I almost shouted, but get interrupted my someone pulling me away and out of sight. I looked behind me to see Mateo pulling me along into the library between bookshelves. "Uh, Mateo, what are you-" "Just stay right there; I'll be right back." He said, quickly interrupting me and ran off. Only to come running back with Izzie in tow.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not reading Lord of the Rings." Izzie stated. "What? No, not that. ...But again, you're really missing out." Mateo said. "Get to the point, Mateo. Why did you pull us into a secluded part of the library?" I asked. "The dream! What if it was real? What if we made it come true?" Mateo asked, making my body tense and adverting my eyes anywhere but him or Izzie.

"Okay, look, that was crazy, I'll give you that. But it was a dream, broseph." Izzie said. "But what if it wasn't?" Mateo asked. "But what if it was? See? We can do this all day." I asked. "What are you getting at?" Izzie asked. "You two have to promise you won't tell anyone what I'm about to you." Mateo instructed, taking off his backpack, but stopped midway as Izzie groaned in annoyance. "I'm supposed to be in P.E. right now." Izzie said. "And I have dance class; we don't have time for this." I said as me and Izzie walked past him. "Just promise." Mateo whisper-shouted, pulling us back.

"Oh, okay. Okay. Sheesh." Izzie said, taking Mateo's hand off of her and me doing the same. Mateo unzipped his backpack and revealed what's inside of it to us. And it was none other than Z-Blob, and Izzie squealed very loudly causing me to put my hand over her mouth.

We turned our attention to our only entrance and exit to see Zoey, pushing a cart. "'Sup?" Mateo casually asked. Zoey said nothing as she continues to push the cart until we couldn't see her anymore.

"Shut the front door! I just want to cuddle him so hard. Look at this guy!" Izzie squealed, snatching Z-Blob out of Mateo's backpack and started messing with his body by squeezing and stretching him. Meanwhile, I was flabbergasted. "We can't let anybody see him." Mateo said, taking Z-Blob away from Izzie. "Especially not a teacher." I added. "Yeah, we don't want him taken to some secret, evil government lab for tests. No, sirree." Izzie stated as she took Z-Blob back, and then started mimicking zapping sounds.

"But, how is this even possible? I mean, seriously, how?" Izzie asked, holding Z-Blob up to my face. "...I don't know. But it means anything is possible, right?" I sheepishly asked. "Yeah. The doors, the islands, that thing I did with my pencil; all of it. Even that guy- Wait! The guy that was with us in the dream! Who was he?" Mateo brought up. He and Izzie turned their heads to me, making me turn my head away. "N-no clue." I stuttered in a sheepish tone.

"Y/n. He knew your name, so he must know you. And you two were also on your bed. Is there something you're not telling us?" Mateo interrogated. "...Fine, fine. I'll explain everything later. But, I think Z-Blob is trying to say something." I said, pointing to the slime in Izzie's hands, who was moving in a bouncing motion. "Maybe, but I can't quite understand. ...I really should've drawn him a mouth." Mateo said. Then, Z-Blob just consumed Mateo's pencil, making it disappear in his slimy interior.

"Oh! I think he's trying to tell you he's hungry." Izzie stated.

(Time-skip)

"What does a Z-Blob eat?" Izzie asked as we sat at one of the round tables in the cafeteria. "He eats purple moon rocks from planet Narbula." Mateo informed, taking out a red-white-and-blue Jello and a slice of pepperoni pizza with a bit of green bell peppers. out from his lunch box. "Without a mouth?" I asked in confusion as Mateo laid the food on the table in front of Z-Blob, who was peaking his head out of the open backpack. "What do I know? Let's see." Mateo rhetorically questioned. 

Izzie picked up the pizza slice and held it in front of Z-Blob. The living slime took it and retreated back into the backpack and burped up the pepperonis. "Maybe he's vegetarian." Izzie guessed.

We then heard the sound of someone clearing their throat; we turned our heads to that person to see Zoey sitting across from us from another table. "Everything cool over there?" She asked. "Everything's good, Zo." I replied with a nervous smile. "Dang girl, you really get around." Izzie said as Mateo waved back.

Z-Blob extended out of the backpack, head on the table, but Mateo quickly shoved him back into his backpack and picked up a Jell-o cup and spoon.

"Izz, N/n, if Z-Blob is real, do you think the other stuff in our dream could be real too?" Mateo asked, whispering. "I hope so. I love fairies." Izzie said. "But I hope not. Don't want to deal with those shadow-looking fellas again. Especially the one that looks like a scarecrow." I said, leaning forward, my arms crossed in front of me and supporting my weight on the table. "No. No, I saw Cooper in the belly of that monster. And then he wasn't in class today." Mateo informed.

"Wait, you mean, like he's really stuck in the belly of some giant walking cage beast?" Izzie questioned in shock. "Is that so hard to believe?" Mateo asked. "Well... Yeah, I guess it would be hard to believe." I said. "I mean, yes, but-" Izzie started, but was interrupted by Mr. Oz, an old science teacher here, walked up to the table.

"Mateo, feeling better?" He asked. "Uh, yeah. Yes, just hunger pains. You know, growing boy. Thank you for your concern." Mateo said. "Good, good. That's good. But it dawned on me when you ran out of class that you might be trying to keep something from me." Mr. Oz said. "What?! No, I mean-" "Homework, Mateo. You ran out without turning in your homework." Ozwald clarified.

That's when said homework was tossed out of Mateo's backpack, with a little bit of green slime on it. "And now I see why." He commented, picking up the three sheets of paper. "Oh, did you sneeze in your backpack again, silly?" Izzie asked, making up an excuse. "Not a lot of answers here. You have so much potential, Mateo. But, you're gonna need to come see me after class this afternoon." Mr. Oz said before the bell rang.

"Sorry, Mr. Oz. Gotta go." Mateo said, quickly running off, right before coming back and dragging me and Izzie away; Izzie complemented Mr. Oz's beard by calling it cool. "Hey, don't forget about our little rendezvous after school." Mr. Oz said.

Mateo bumped into a kid's tray, causing some of the kid's food to fall on the ground. Mateo gave a nervous smile before giving the kid his uneaten Jell-o Cup. "Bon appétit." Mateo said before we exited the cafeteria.

(Time-skip)

The three of us were on our way, but Mateo ran ahead of us. Me and Izzie went around the corner, she was on her scooter, and I was using my wheelies; when we turned the corner, we saw our dad talking to Cooper's mom.

Mateo made a hand gesture to follow him, and we did. We snuck by dad and Cooper's mom and into the apartment building Cooper and his mom were in.

We made it to the floor and room Cooper was in, and he was just lying in bed, sleeping. "He doesn't look so good." Izzie commented. "Maybe we should get him some soup or something." A voice spoke up in suggestion. We looked to our right to see it was Logan. "I got the best recipe-" "What are you doing here?" Mateo asked, like as if Logan wasn't allowed to be here at all.

"Uh, he needs more than soup." Izzie said. "Uh, you give someone soup when they're sick. It's what friends do." Logan stated. "You have no idea what he needs. He was my friend, too, until you came along and jerk-ified him." Mateo said, walking up to Logan. "That's not even a word." Logan said.

"Uh, guys! Look at him." I said, gesturing to the poor kid as his colors started going pale. "It's like he's fading." Mateo said. "What's wrong with him?" Logan asked.

I looked over at my little siblings before pulling them into a huddle. "We're gonna have go back to save him and get him to wake up." I said.