Monday
It was a normal day at century high school: students were going into the school to get breakfast, teachers were preparing themselves for the day, and a dimensional rift had opened in the cafeteria. Wait, a dimensional rift? In a few minutes, word got out and people were flocking to the rift. Freshmen were scared of what could be inside, sophomores were confused, and juniors and seniors merely took pictures to post on instagram. As they did so, three… creatures stepped through: a tall, lanky ringmaster with enlongated, pale white fingers and a permanent grin, a 7-foot tall man with a serene looking mask on their face, and a vaguely humanoid creature in wizardly gear. After they all stepped out, the portal closed behind them with a “shoom” sound. The three creatures all looked at the students, then quickly huddled together and started to whisper to each other. The conversation went something like this: (note: don’t read this out loud, but feel free to voice each of the creatures any way you like. Also, sections like this will appear multiple times.)
Ringmaster: ok, obviously we’re not in our home plane. What should we do? Mask: MAYBE WE… SHOULD ASK… WHERE WE ARE?
Wizard: the archivist is scared. Too many lookies, not enough bookies.
Ringmaster: ok, archivist obviously doesn’t like this place. I’ll just talk to the locals, and find out where we are.
Mask: I’LL… STAY HERE. MAKE SURE… I DON’T… SCARE MORE PEOPLE. Wizard: archivist will find the bookies.
Ringmaster: well, it’s settled then! Huddle over?
Mask: HUDDLE… OVER.
Wizard: bookies!
After they said this, they broke out of the huddle. The ringmaster-looking fellow looked at the students and casually just said “where are we, and who’s your leader?” at this, a few freshmen
chuckled, but most kids tried to explain to the creature that they were in century high school, and their leader is the principal. The ringmaster nodded to this response, thanked the kids, and started to walk like he was straight out of a rubberhose cartoon to the principal’s office. The masked creature stayed where it was as people started to poke at it, but it didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it seemed to like being poked at. Meanwhile, the wizard quickly went into the media center and started to amass a pile of books. The librarian had seen weirder, though, so she didn’t try to stop them. Meanwhile, the ringmaster was having a conversation with the principal, who was extremely confused but was helping the best they can. They explained to the ringmaster that creatures like him and his cohorts have never been seen before, so they didn’t know how to help them. The ringmaster was a bit sad by this, but shrugged it off and said that for the time being, they would explore the school and it’s surroundings until a new rift opened and let them back into their home plane. The principal said that was fine, but as the ringmaster went out of the room, they made a mental note to not have any more jalapeno poppers before bed.
By Nolan Dickman