Within moments, Spencer shared visions of his world to Hannah through his touch.

As he showed her around, he explained to her how his world worked.

"This is Aeon," Spencer began. "Since it is in another dimension, normal means of transportation couldn't get you here. Even if traveling at light speed existed, people on Earth wouldn't be able to get to my world. You could say that Aeon is a world within the strands of time."

Hannah saw a lush and colorful place filled with a great balance between its people and nature. The balance was so in sync that she saw the trees in Spencer's world talking and interacting with the people on his planet. They also weren't rooted in place either.

Hannah noticed that the trees weren't the only thing from nature that talked. Everything in Spencer's world appeared to be communicating with each other. Though Hannah could not see a face or even a physical mouth, she could hear their voices. Even the sky spoke. Hannah could hear an echo of a thousand voices relaying information about the weather patterns shifting.

"That's how I imagine voices of angels sound," Hannah said entranced.

The thing that Hannah loved seeing the most was the magic. Everything had some form of magical element or ability.

While Hannah was trying to take in every beautiful detail, her soul was growing weaker as it went into sensory overload. Spencer released her soul within seconds. Back in her room, she collapsed to the ground from the experience. Spencer helped her weakened soul reconnect with her body and left her to sleep.

*****

The next morning Hannah had so many questions she wanted to ask Spencer. While Hannah was driving her brother Isaac to his middle school on the way to her high school, she tried asking Spencer questions through her thought. He kept arguing with her to focus on the road and that they would talk when they were alone. Even though she had only known him for a day, she was already annoyed with his patronizing and smart remarks.

"What's wrong with you this morning?" Isaac asked, looking over at his sister.

"Nothing's wrong, dweeb," she snapped. "You know I'm not much of a morning person."

"Sorry, I asked. I hate these morning talk shows. Can I change the radio station?" Isaac asked, turning the tuning dial before Hannah could object. Isaac stopped at a station that was playing one of her favorite Rihanna songs. Hannah relaxed a little and started singing along with the chorus, which helped keep her mind off of Spencer and thoughts of his world.

Two songs later, Hannah pulled up to the middle school drop-off area. She gave Isaac a sincere apology for snapping and tried to lean over to give him a goodbye hug. He wouldn't allow it since he was at the age where he didn't like giving anyone in his family hugs in public. Instead, he muttered something along the lines of, "I love you! See you after school," and dashed out of the car to catch up with his friends.

Hannah made her way back onto the main road. As she was heading to school, Spencer appeared in the seat next to her. His head was bobbing to the radio.

Hannah laughed. "You know that's a commercial jingle for pest control?"

Spencer looked at her and kept bobbing his head, confidently. "It's catchy."

"Can we talk more about your world now? Please," Hannah insisted on changing the subject to the topic of interest.

"Did you like it?"

"What's not to like?" she asked rhetorically. "I want to know what it's like to live in a world where the sky and the trees talk."

"The sky, trees and everything in between can talk in your world too. You just can't hear or understand them," he stated. "You were able to hear the voices in my world because when I connected to your mind, I was able to adjust the frequency so that your hearing could match ours. Similar to how your brother turned the radio dial to get to another station," Spencer clarified.

"That's amazing," Hannah said in disbelief. "But in your world, I swear I saw the trees physically uprooting themselves and moving."

"You are correct," he confirmed. "The trees can move across the land. However, they prefer only to move if they need to. They are essentially the historians, protectors, and storytellers of our world. I know I told you that my people live for several hundreds of years, but trees live for several millennia, at the very least. They have seen our world rise and fall and rise again. It is partly because of them that our dimensions can connect."

"Really?" Hannah asked, glancing over at Spencer, wanting to hear more as she stopped at a red light. "What happened?"

"It was before my time, but when my world was younger, and magic was still evolving, many fought over the control of magic in our world," he stated. "It ended up turning from simple arguments and disagreements into an epic war that almost destroyed us all. It was essentially the darkest time in our history. The war finally ended when the leader of the uprising force was captured and imprisoned by the trees. That was when our high council formed."

"High council?"

The light had turned green, but Hannah didn't notice. The car behind her honked their horn. She raised her hand to signal an apology and continued driving while avidly listening to Spencer.

"The council is made up of every faction in our world. There are trees, animals, birds, and every walk of life in it. Members are rotated in and out of the council so that no one ever has more power over anyone else. It is so no one can be bought or persuaded to do anything that is not in the interest of keeping our world strong, safe, and united. Since then, there has never been another war on our planet."

"What happened to the ones who were trying to control the magic?" Hannah wanted to know.

"Well," Spencer paused for a moment, thinking about his answer carefully. "It was agreed by the council that anyone related to the uprising force were to be split up and cast out among different dimensions, worlds, and universes. This would keep them out of our world and prevent it from happening again."

Hannah drove onto the student parking lot and parked in the first spot she could find. She looked over at Spencer in disbelief at what he had just told her. "That's seriously insane!"

"What's insane is this world. Look at all these young humans, scurrying into a building to learn things that will put most of them to work in meaningless jobs. Instead, they could be learning how to enjoy their short lives and the world you live in," Spencer said with a hint of sadness in his tone and climbed out of the car.

Hannah followed suit and walked with him into the school building. She wanted to know so much more about his world and was so deep in thought that she didn't notice the eyes of every girl and boy following them as they walked through the halls.

******

Spencer spent the morning wandering the corridors and checking out the library and empty classrooms while Hannah attended class. He was amazed to see how much had changed, yet how much was still the same. The wax-coated floors looked unchanged. The lockers were different colors but essentially the same too. He even looked in on a science lab class and saw things that made him feel like he was right back in the 1950s.

As he walked the halls, between periods, he'd observe how the boys and girls interactions with each other were different. There was much more touching, kissing, and hugging in the halls then there was before. He was amused to see that girls wore pants, jeans, and shorts, just like the boys did, which wasn't something he recalled ever seeing back in 1952.

Spencer also noticed that many of the students kept their heads down, staring at their phones. He knew that's what they were because he had seen them advertised in Hannah's magazine and on the television commercials the night prior, as well as watching Hannah use her device to call and send text messages to her friends. While he was amazed at how far their technology had developed, he also realized how behind they were in comparison to his world.

"Excuse me, young man, do you go to this school?" a suspicious middle-aged man asked as he approached Spencer in the middle of the crowded hallway.

Spencer smiled politely at the man, "No, sir. I'm just visiting a friend."

"Who's your friend? We don't allow strangers to wander our school unaccompanied," he said. Spencer could sense the man was getting tense.

"Vice Principal Roku! Hi, I'm sorry, this is Spencer, he's with me," Hannah said, appearing at Spencer's side.

"Miss Huntress! You should know better than to let your friends, who do not go here, wander school property alone. I was about to call the police." He looked sternly down at Hannah through his square-shaped glasses.

"I'm sorry for causing any concern, sir," Spencer said, extending his hand to the Vice Principal.

Vice Principal Roku looked at Spencer's hand, shocked to see a teenager trying to be polite. As he responded and shook it, his face relaxed, and he smiled a genuine smile that Hannah had never seen before. He turned to Hannah and said, "I'll permit Mr. Spencer to stay. Hannah, please take him to see Mrs. Bullet. She can give him a 'Visitors Pass' for today."

With that, Spencer and Hannah made their way to the Admissions Office. He went back to see Mrs. Bullet, while Hannah sat at the front of the office, waiting.

"Hannah, who is that cute guy you're with?" Peggy-Sue, the most popular junior girl, asked walking in and taking a seat next to Hannah.

"Hi Peggy-Sue," Hannah said, not surprised that Peggy-Sue was talking to her. "That's Spencer."

"Is he a new student?"

Hannah looked directly into Peggy-Sue's natural sultry eyes. "Kinda. He's here looking after his grandma. For about a month. So he's going to go to school here during that time," Hannah lied.

"How do you know all that?"

"His grandma is a family friend. She asked me to give him a ride to school while he's here," Hannah added to the lie.

"Hannah! There you are!" Tina thundered, bursting through the office doors, with Jennifer in tow.

The office assistant scolded Tina for not using her inside voice.

"Tina, hey!" Hannah said, shifting her attention from Peggy-Sue to her friends.

"Guess what just happened? Eddie just asked me out on an official date!" Tina said in a lowered voice, but still with high pitched excitement.

"Should I still guess?" Hannah joked. "That's awesome, Tina. What are the plans?" Hannah asked, wanting to know more.

"He wants to cook me dinner at his house on Friday and rent a movie from Redbox," Tina responded. "He said his parents are going to be out of town on their yearly anniversary getaway and thought it'd be fun."

"Wait! Eddie Bowski's parents are out of town all weekend?" Peggy-Sue interjected.

"No," Hannah said at the same time as Tina said, "Yes."

Hannah could already sense the Peggy-Sue planning her next house party. She had a reputation for crashing student's houses when she got wind that their parents were gone. She'd throw unannounced parties and leave it for her victims to clean up. Hannah urged Peggy-Sue not to do it. Hannah tried to use the argument that since she lived next door and her parents were going to be home that they'd be keeping an eye on Eddie.

Peggy-Sue ignored Hannah and left the office.

"Way to go, Tina!" Hannah said in a snarky tone. "You do realize you just ruined your date night now."

The bell rang, signaling the next class was about to begin. Hannah sent a thought to Spencer about her having to leave, as he was still with Mrs. Bullet filling out paperwork.

______________________________________________________________________________

Author Note:

Thank you for reading this chapter. I hope you continue reading further. I would be ever so grateful for feedback/comments on anything that stood out to you.

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Happy Reading!