Young Writers Society

*Okay this has nothing to do with the story, but I must share my pain with SOMEONE. To be put short: 8th grade promotion, and us 7th graders get to perform for them. This means sitting through the entire promotion... in the sun... and electronics aren't allowed! D: Anyways, on to the story...

“Wake up! Wake up, everyone!”

Tarrence rolled over with a groan, snuggling deeper into his thin blanket. “I need to get a new one,” he drowsily noted, probably to forget soon after. “Maybe I can steal Zyxi’s.” He lay in blissful peace for another few minutes, a content half-smile on his lips.

“Tarrence! If you don’t get your lazy ass down here in three minutes, you’ll get the frying pan, not the pancakes!” The new voice was louder, rougher, and all too familiar to Tarrence’s ears.

Tarrence sprang to his feet, flinging his blanket off in a panicked frenzy. “I’m coming, just give me a few minutes!” Deciding not to change out of his slightly dirty, duck-patterned pajamas, he tugged on a pair of white socks and his trademark yellow sweater, and made for the door. Although he would never admit it, Zyxi could be incredibly terrifying.

By the time Tarrence stumbled down the hard wooden stairs, the others were already seated and eating. Much to the brunet’s horror, young Lia was reaching for the last pancake with her fork, her long grey-blue hair brushing the eggs.

“No!” Tarrence lunged forwards, batting away Lia’s fork. He snatched the plate holding the pancake and retreated, tightly gripping the plate. “The last one’s mine!”

Zyxi faced him while still brushing her messy blonde hair into pigtails, annoyance clouding her features. She was around the same age as him- sixteen, with the same lean build. “Jeez, Tarrence, don’t be such a pig. It’s your own fault you didn’t wake up earlier. Just look at her!” Here she waved a free hand at Lia’s dejected expression. “Don’t grab it right under her nose.”

Tarrence stuck out his tongue in a childish manner. “Oh, come on. She’ll get over it, right, Cozart?” He turned to the last person in the room; A tall, purple-haired eighteen year old with an eyepatch on his left ey, and slightly disgruntled look on him.

“Don’t drag me into this,” Cozart said, shrugging and finishing off the scrambled eggs on his plate. “I’m done, I’ll put this into the sink.”

“Cocoa! I thought we had something special!” Tarrence whined, pouting upon seeing Cozart ignoring him. The brunet was used to the casual rejection, though, so he just pulled out the closest chair and plopped down, placing the plate with the pancake as well. Tarrence took a plastic fork and speared the rapidly cooling food, lifting the whole thing to his mouth and biting a piece off.

Zyxi didn’t even bother to reprimand him again, directing her attention to her own breakfast.

Lia, just as Tarrence claimed, was already cheerful again, humming while roughly dismembering her sausages.

Tarrence stuffed his cheeks with some eggs, allowing his mind to stray. Was it a Tuesday or Wednesday? He didn’t keep track. It’d been a couple weeks since they found a new home, this one, and time probably went all over the place in that duration.

“Hey, Cozart. Want to take the morning patrol together?” Tarrence called out, sliding his chair backwards. “I’ll provide the transport if you support me.”

Cozart raised a slender eyebrow, a small smile adorning his lips. “Sure, why not?”

The two headed for the door, Tarrence grabbing a bag of fertilizer off the rack next to the stairs. Cozart pushed the door open, with some difficulty. A blindingly bright light shone through, but the two, used to it, quickly turned away.Even after their eyes adjusted, it looked the same. It, being the outside landscape, if it could even be called that. It was an endless world of white with no visible top or bottom, and even its appearance felt undecided. If you stared too long, the white might suddenly look like black, or maybe a crimson red. The only things consistent were the glass dome-like places lining the area, looking connected but still so separate. This was a space where time was nonexistent, the ultimate hub of all time zones.

“Tarrence,” Cozart prompted, closing his eyes for a while. The nameless outside always made him feel dizzy just by looking at it.

“Yah, yah, gimme a sec,” Tarrence muttered, currently trying to chew through a hard bit of fertilizer. “Damn, this quality sucks. I’ll get a better brand next time.”

“How does it taste? The fertilizer, I mean,” Cozart asked, genuinely curious. He never really questioned it before, but he was bored now.

“Hmm?” Tarrence gulped down another mouthful of fertilizer, using his tongue to dig out wet wads of dirt from between his teeth. “It’s kinda hard to say. It’s got this herbal flavor to it, and it’s really dry and sometimes crunchy, and sorta reminds me of really crumbly, dry… Okay, it tastes like dirt. But good-tasting dirt!”

“I don’t know how that works,” Cozart mumbled, but didn’t ask any further. He shifted his body weight onto his left foot, wishing that they’d build a porch so he didn’t feel like he could fall into the void at any time.

“Alright! I’m feeling energized, and ready to go! What do you think we’ll find today? A teddy bear that belonged to Shirley Temple? A paintbrush of da Vinci’s? A TARDIS?” Tarrence emphasized the last word, clearly showing his preferred option.

“Sure, sure, of course,” Cozart rolled his eyes. “Keep your hopes lower. Anyways, we’re technically supposed to look for the twins.”

“It’s not like we’re going to find them any time soon. I want to have as much fun as possible,” Tarrence smiled. He left out the ‘before it’s too late’, because Cozart knew. They all knew.

There was an awkward pause as the two boys tried to figure out what to say, so Tarrence went ahead and started the transportation. From the purposely created plot of dirt to the left of the doors, the brown-haired boy crouched and buried a small seed, from an apple or orange or some kind of fruit. It didn’t matter, because the result was the same.

Biting into his thumb, Tarrence let some blood trickle onto the mound. The red drops turn the little dead seed into a small sprout, to a flowering tree, to an apple tree in full bloom. “Huh, so it was an apple tree,” he whimsically said to himself. By all means, the growth should have stopped there, but there was nothing natural about growing a tree in less than a minute, so it was no weirder for the tree to start to twist, growing downward to exit the door and stop, almost as if waiting for the two to get on. Actually, not as if; It was waiting for them, Tarrence made it so.

Wordlessly, the pair climbed onto the smooth wood, with Tarrence first and Cozart second. Cozart shifted nervously, trying to make himself as comfortable among the branches as possible. Tarrence noticed this, and gave him a big smile that didn’t reassure the older boy at all.

“Here, I’ll make a seat belt,” Tarrence said, directing the tree to grow a relatively thin branch over Cozart’s right shoulder, going diagonally across his chest like an actual seat belt. “Alright, since you’re guaranteed not to fall… I’m going to go wild today!”

“Wait, wait, no, no,” Cozart nervously began, already gripping the leafy branches in front of him. His pleas went unfulfilled as Tarrence gave a maniacal laugh and ordered the apple tree to shoot forward like a roller coaster, looping around and turning in all directions that, by all means, should have caused the wood to break under the pressure if not for Tarrence reinforcing it like the plant master he was.

The two whizzed through the air, if there was any in the first place. For a while, the ride was utterly silent, except for Cozart’s occasional undignified squeak after any particularly crazy section. The ride suddenly slowed down after a crazy loop, much to Tarrence’s displeasure.

“Hey,” Tarrence pouted, looking back. “Stop ruining the fun.”

Cozart sighed, rubbing his left temple with one hand. His right hand was currently gripping the tree, slowing it down. His special power allowed him to slow down any living organism, plant or animal, as long as it was within a certain range, and he was more than willing to utilize his ability here. “Slow down. I won’t stop you from enjoying yourself, but let’s not go wild, alright?”

The brief exchange ended, Tarrence grudgingly toning down the ride. The two rode along the every-growing tree for another while, although it was going significantly slower than before.

Tarrence decided to rekindle the conversation, not liking silence much. “So the twins were the ones who sent us here, right? Do they even know how to send us back?”

Cozart opened his mouth to respond, before realizing that he wasn’t actually sure. After pondering it some more, he shrugged. “Give them to Zyxi. She’s the one who actually met them, she’ll know what to do.”

“Oh, depending on the girl, now, are you?” Tarrence smirked, dodging a large reality fragment of some wooden furniture. The Time Hub, as the four called it, was crazy enough, so tossing in floating chunks of distorted objects really shouldn’t have been too weird, but it still was. Tarrence kept an eye out for any rare complete objects, because anything could be useful. An old paintbrush might belong to Botticelli, or a broken coat could have come from Albert Einstein, and they wouldn’t even know it, since they looked like mundane items.

Cozart gave a snort at this. “If Zyxi heard you say that, she’d kick your perverted ass to hell and beyond."

Tarrence shuddered at the thought and the ever-growing tree took a little dip from its straight path, but he didn’t reply. Instead, a small, moving dot of brown caught his eye. “Hey, what’s that?” He stopped the growth to take a better look.

Cozart squinted with his one good eye, before letting out a small gasp. “It’s a person! Who… is walking on nothing?! Quick, drop down!”

The other boy didn’t hesitate; In one shout of “Hold on!”, he dropped the overburdened trunk into a near-vertical drop. Within seconds, the two were close enough to identify the kid’s features.

The kid looked around thirteen, with messy, dark brown hair tied in a ponytail and a light complexion. He was dressed in a red flannel shirt and blue overalls, looking just like a stereotypical farmer without the hat. To be honest, he looked… too normal, for someone who was walking on nothing like it was, well, nothing.

The boy spotted them and jumped a bit, golden eyes eyeing them nervously. “H… hello?”

Tarrence took one look at him and gave a flirtuous smile, clearly mistaking the poor boy for a girl. The kid was feminine enough, Cozart mused, trying not to laugh at Tarrence’s huge mistake.

“Hey there, darling,” Tarrence said in a husky voice that he probably thought was seductive, just loud enough for the new youth to hear. “Your name is… Cori Ravenswood, right?”

The darker brunet looked rather startled by the way Tarrence addressed him, but corrected him anyways. “Er, that’s my sister. How do you know her? My name’s Cora.”

Tarrence did a double-take, aghast. “Wait, what?! You’re a boy?” Upon seeing Cora slowly nod, he hid his face in his hands and moaned. “Oh god, I just called a male ‘darling’. Fuck my life.”

Cozart smirked, continuing the conversation with Cora. “My name’s Cozart, and this idiot is Tarrence. Do you know a girl named Zyxi?”

Cora looked a little intimidated by Cozart’s height, but brightened up after hearing the last word. “O-oh, Zyxi! Yes, we were friends. I can’t believe she ended up here.”

“How do you know she’s here?” Cozart asked.

“Um, because there’s no other reason why you’d be asking me about her in this kind of place,” Cora responded, shrugging.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tarrence interrupted, recovered from his momentary embarrassment. “This trap’s just standing here, in the middle of the freaking Hub, on nothing, and you guys are conversing like we’re in the middle of some grocery store?”

Cozart turned to look at his friend, sighing. “Really, Tarrence? We’re in a place where any kind of logic is blown to pieces, you can hyper-grow plants, and we all have some sort of weird power. Is this really that weird?”

“True that,” Tarrence muttered, unable to form a counter. Deciding that he’d made enough of a fool of himself for the day, Tarrence put on a stiff act. “Well, could you please come back with us? Us four- me, Cozart, Zyxi, and another girl named Lia- patrol this place every day to look for you twins, and today, we’ve finally found you.”

Cora hesitated, nervously glancing around. “I don’t know… I ended up here ‘cause my sis was mad at me and accidently used her powers, and I don’t know if she can find me again if I leave this area.”

Cozart shrugged. “We can wait, we should bring both of you to meet Zyxi, anyways. How long do you think it’ll take until your sister finds you?” He shifted himself into a more comfortable position, now that the living rollercoaster was no longer in effect.

“CORAAA!”

Cora sighed. “Just now.”

A young girl stormed over to the trio, looking exactly like Cora. On closer glance, her hair was a little longer.

“What are you doing here, idiot?!” Cori screeched, her face arranged in a scowl.

“Y-you sent me here…” Cora mumbled, shifting his feet and looking away.

“Silence!” Cori exclaimed, pointing her index finger at her brother. “Don’t talk like that to me!” Just then, she noticed Tarrence and Cozart, her gaze lingering on the tree for a brief second. “What are you two peasants doing here?”

Tarrence felt torn, wanting to flirt with the cute girl but hesitating when he remembered that she looked exactly like her twin brother… who looked like a girl. It just felt wrong, especially since he couldn’t look at the girl without thinking of the boy, and thinking about a girl when looking at the boy. It was all very confusing, and also felt very important to Tarrence.

Cozart was trying to come up with an appeasing answer for the bossy girl. I was never the social one, he mused. If only Lia was here.

The female twin didn’t look happy about their lack of a reply. “Well? If you’re done wasting my time, it’s about time me and my foolish brother went back.” She grabbed Cora’s wrist, who was looking more and more uncomfortable about the situation.

“Zyxi!” Tarrence burst out, trying to catch the girl’s attention before she left, probably by teleportation or some kind of wacky magical shenanigans. “Um, we were sent from her! To find you guys!”

“… Zyxi?” The girl’s angered expression evaporated, replaced by a look of childish glee. “Oh, she’s here? Lead me to her! You fools, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Because you didn’t let us-!” Tarrence began, ticked off by Cori’s disrespect.

“Si-LENCE!” Cori yelled, pointing her finger in the boy’s direction. “Hm… Oh, okay, she’s there? Let’s go!”

“Wait, what? I didn’t even tell youuuuuu-!” Tarrence was once again cut off, this time by a sudden feeling of nausea, and then with a fabric-like tug of their surroundings, the group of four was suddenly back in the wooden cabin Cozart and Tarrence started off in.

“… Teleportation?” Cozart asked for confirmation, although he already knew the answer. It was a quick process, and almost would’ve felt instantaneous, if it wasn’t for the dizzy after feeling.

“Jesus, these crazy magic psychopaths and their stupid mind-reading powers…” Tarrence groaned, leaning against the wall for support. He hated nausea, because he couldn’t do anything about it, unlike a physical wound.

“Are you two back and oh my gosh it’s you two! Too!” Zyxi turned the corner wearing an apron over her casual clothing, and did an immediate double-take upon seeing the twins.

“Zyxi~!” Cori squealed, doing a complete one-eighty from her earlier treatment of Tarrence. The younger girl ran over and tackled Zyxi in a hug, a smile splitting her face. “So this is where I sent you!”

“Nice to see you too- Wait, what?!” Zyxi screeched the last part, grabbing Cori by the shoulders and roughly shaking her. “You knew that you sent me somewhere? I thought that you were just playing around with your powers!”

Cori pouted, putting her small hands on Zyxi’s arms to stop the shaking. “It was an accident. I knew that I sent you somewhere in the… you guys called it the Hub, right? I just didn’t know where in this huge space.”

“So why didn’t you search?” Zyxi asked, eyebrows knitted in confusion and irritation.

“Becauuuseee…” Cori turned away, shrugging. “It would’ve been too inconvenient~”

A slap resounded through the house.

Tarrence raised his eyebrows. Cozart turned away. Zyxi stared in surprise, for the hand that slapped Cori… did not belong to her.

Cora had rushed between the two females, and was determinedly staring down his sister. “Sis, don’t be so rude.” He then turned to Zyxi, lowering his head in apology. “Please don’t take what she said the wrong way, Zyxi. You see, searching in the Hub… it’s easier said than done. The Hub is an endless place, and one mistake could’ve meant us getting stuck here, too, and then where would we be? I assure you that we did what we could.”

Tarrence smirked. “Girl-boy has some balls after all.”

Cozart nudged him in the side. “Shut up.”

Cori started trembling. “Cora…”

“Eeek!” Cora’s previous façade of bravery immediately vanished, replaced by his usual nervous and push-over self. “Y-yes?”

“Never mind,” Tarrence muttered, slightly disappointed.

“How dare you embarrass me!” Cori yelled, throwing a small tantrum. “Hmph. Well, you’re my little bro who doesn’t know any better, so I’ll forgive you… this once.”

Cora gave a little whimper. “I’m the older one, though-“

“Silence,” Cori firmly stated, cutting Cora off.

Zyxi sighed. “Same as always, Cori. Same as always. Putting that aside… Will you be able to get us home now?”

“No,” the twins chorused in unison.

“Why not?” Zyxi growled, feeling the irritation towards her childhood friends build up again.

Cori owlishly blinked her luminous golden eyes. “The spell needs all of you to be willing.”

Zyxi blinked back. “Hold on, you can’t mean that…”

Cora shrugged, scanning the occupants in the room, which did not include Lia, who was still in the kitchen cheerfully making random sweets. “Someone here doesn’t want to go back home. Actually, with the amount of negativity in the air… I’d say that none of you actually want to return.”