Jesse's POV

"Back again," I said as I stood up in the midst of the portal hallway. It was mostly dark with colorful portals illuminating the floor.

"Let's split up to cover more ground, see if there's any 'special' one," I added.

They all nodded, then we went our separate ways.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Doubt it. I don't think so. Nope. UGH, this is so confusing! What do all the colors mean?? I angrily thought as I passed by each colored portal in the hall.

"Hey, guys, look what I found!" I heard Petra's voice from further down in the hallway. We all came over to her. My stomach dropped when I saw what it was.

"You've gotta be kidding me," I said.

Before me was a whole other hallway of portals, except this time, they had signs on top of all of them.

"What do those signs say?" asked Lukas.

"Signs? Oh, I didn't notice that," said Petra as she wandered down further into the hallway. She stopped and read one. Then, she went a little further to read more.

"This is fantastic!" she exclaimed.

"You found the portal home?!" asked Maya.

"Well, no. But I think this is better! Take a look!"

We into the hallway and read each sign above the portals. The first few read: 0.09a, 0.011a, and 0.012a.

"Uh, how is this better?" asked Aiden in confusion. The rest of us were a bit confused as well.

"These are the early versions of our world," said Petra, still glowing a little. Maya and Aiden still looked lost.

"She means this is what the world used to look like," said Lukas.

"So, this is like, time travel?" asked Maya as a smile began to spread on her lips.

"It's not like time travel," said Petra, "It is!"

"This is so cool!" said Aiden as he jogged down to see more versions.

Maya gasped and said, "I just got the best idea ever!"

"What is it?" I asked.

"We could go back in time see the younger versions of the original Order of the Stone, and you know, get to know them and tell them things they could use in the future!"

"Wait a minute," said Lukas, "telling them things from the future might mess things up. Like, if we told Soren not to use a command block to defeat the Ender Dragon, that could mean we never became the New Order, or even became friends in the first place! Well, I might not be your friend in the first place."

"I totally and 100% agree with Lukas, we shouldn't do this! It's too dangerous!" said Maya as she clung onto his arm.

"Uh, that's not exactly what I meant," he said, trying to shake her off, "You basically just contradicted yourself. I just think we should think this through before we do anything crazy."

"Lukas," I began, "considering everything we've been through so far, I think the 'not doing anything crazy' ship has sailed."

"Besides," said Petra, "If we do this, we can totally make Axel and Olivia even more jealous of everything we've been through. Now, let's see..."

She walked down the hall with a fist on her chin as she mentally did the math to find out when the Order of the Stone was in their youth.

"Here! Over here!" she exclaimed from the other end of the hallway. We jogged over to her.

"This one!"

"So, you're very much 100% totally sure that this is the one," I said.

"Hey, what did I say about that reputation as a wimp?" she said with a grin, "Of course I'm sure."

"Okay," I said as I stepped to the front of the group, "Let's go."

We jumped through the portal all at once.

And so it began.

"WHOA!" I yelled in spite of myself.

Okay, so imagine standing on solid ground one moment, then finding yourself free-falling the next. That's how portal hopping feels.

Everyone else fell in shortly after me. I stood up and dusted myself off.

"Okay, see anything?" I asked. We observed the terrain. All around us was just—

"Grass, sky, clouds. Doesn't look like anything different or special," said Aiden.

"Hey, look, there's someone over there," said Lukas. 

I looked over and saw a man walking along a path.

"Hello!" I said to him. It caught his attention, but he looked angry at me for some reason.

"Hey! What do you juvenile delinquents think you're doing here?" he angrily exclaimed as he marched over to us. I exchanged a confused glance with Petra, then I looked back at him.

"Do you realize what day it is?" he asked me.

"Well, actually, no," I said as I nervously laughed.

"It's Monday. You kids should be in school!" he said.

"But—"

"But what? It's breaking the dang law to not be in school right now, but I'll be less tempted to call the cops if you march right into that building over there," he pointed in the distance at a large brick building, "Lord knows what you could've been doing out here. Unnatended by an adult."

"You cannot even begin to imagine," said Maya.

"But... we have... Ivor!" I said.

"Ivor? Where is he, then?" the man asked.

"In prison,"  I mumbled.

"Then I guess you are unattended. Well? What are you just standing her for?! Go!"

"Right, right, sorry!" I said as I hurried toward the building as my friends followed.

After I was sure we were far enough from the man to hear us, I murmured to everyone, "I'm sure the Order of the Stone probably attended here. Finding them should be a piece of cake!"

"I hope you're right," muttered Lukas.

Things were pretty confusing the first day we entered that world, and honestly, I don't remember too much of it. It was like we were small fish in a big ocean. There was a lot of rushing here and there and back again. We tried to stick together to the best of our ability, but some classes we had apart. Still, we kept our eyes open in case we saw anyone who at least resembled anyone from the Order.

"Jesse!" exclaimed Lukas as he rushed over to my table in the cafeteria with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Well, aren't you chipper today," I said as he sat next to me. Aiden and Petra were sitting there, too. Maya was sitting with the jocks and the cheerleaders, apparently she had already signed up to become one.

"What's up?"

"I saw a kid today in my class today," he began, "he looked exactly like Soren, well, except uh, not like him. Er, I mean, there's a chance that I found young Soren."

"Lukas! That's awesome!" said Petra.

"I know! We have to meet him!"

Aiden's POV

"Aiden!" I heard Katcha's voice from behind me, "I need to talk to you!"

I couldn't just start talking to Katcha right there because my friends couldn't see her; they'd think I'm insane. I needed to slip away to someplace quiet. I don't think that'd be too hard though because they were busy trying to talk over each other excitedly.

I grabbed my tray and carefully stood up. I saw an uninhabited table across the room, so I briskly walked over there with Katcha following.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Okay, first of all..." she began.

Uh oh. When she says that she had probably planned a whole lecture for me that 'helps me with me with life's problems.'

"Ugh, what is it this time?" I asked as I rested my head on my hand.

"No, no, don't worry. This time, it's short," she said, "I'm a ghost. I'm invisible to everyone but you. I can go through stuff, so I was thinking I could try and scope out Soren for you while you're in class!"

"That's cool and all," I said, "but do you even know what he looks like? I mean, you have been watching me for my whole life and all, but I never met him before!"

"Of course I know what he looks like! Heh, ah, hold on," she placed her fingers on her temples and shut her eyes, "it's coming to me..."

I rolled my eyes, "It's okay. You don't know what he looks like."

"Ummm... yeah, no. I don't," she said.

"Okay, from what I've seen of him in books," I began, "he has red hair, like Petra's."

"Eehhhhh?" she said as she smirked and air-elbowed me.

"Shut up," I said as I blushed. She just started laughing.

"Okay, okay, continue."

"Alright, in the future, er, present, or whatever you would call our time era, he has a mustache and beard, although I doubt he has them in this dimension. Well, unless he has Gill's miraculous moustache-growing abilities, although I don't think he does. Um... what else..."

Suddenly, the bell started ringing, signaling the end of lunch. I pulled out my schedule to see what I had next.

"Creative writing. Sweet!" I said happily to myself as I read aloud that my favorite class was next, "You think you know enough about Soren to find him?"

"He's a dude with Petra's hair!" Katcha said.

"Um, I'm pretty sure he's also kind of nerdy, he's got this thing for Endermen," I said as I grabbed my stuff from the table.

"Cool, I think," said Katcha, "Oh, you sure you'll make it without me watching over you? Y'know, being your guardian angel and all..."

"Yeah, mom, I can handle myself," I said.

"Geez! Alright, alright. Bye!" she said as she faded away.

As I walked to my next class, I started thinking that Katcha had something else to tell me. I mean, she said 'first of all,' and when someone says that, they usually mean they're going to tell you more than one thing, right? Oh, well. She'll just have to tell me later. Right now I had to focus on getting to class on time.

Petra's POV

After school that day, I just decided to look at posters. No particular reason why I did, I guess I just wanted to see what was up.

As I was considering joining a combat class, (hey, it could come in handy!) I heard some people talking behind me.

"Man, this thing is gonna be huge!" said a boy, "I'm glad you decided to do this, man. It's gonna be the biggest bash this year! We're totally gonna get stoned!"

"Nobody's getting stoned," said the other one, "I just want this to be sort of a high school get-together, to, y'know, get to know each other."

"Dude, you can't invite almost the entire school to your house tonight and expect them not to get even a little tipsy."

"But I won't be serving drinks there, man! There's no way they'd allow it! It took me a whole day to convince my mom to have girls in the house, let alone host a house party!"

"But you can't expect them not to bring drinks. Look on the bright side, if things go south, you'll still be able to say you hosted the wildest party of the year!"

They continued walking down the hallway and when I was sure they wouldn't notice me, I turned around to see who they were.

They both had letterman jackets on, and they were probably from the football team. One of them was about as tall as Axel but slim, and the other one was as tall as Lukas or Aiden.

"A party, ey?" I said to myself, "Almost the entire school will be there; this could work."

I began to follow behind them. I had an idea.

"Um, hey, did you say something about a party?" I asked. They both turned around.

"Yeah, I don't think I've seen you around here," said the taller one. He had fair skin, green eyes, and brown hair.

"Yeah, my friends and I are kind of new," I said.

"Whoa, you look like a hot chick!" said the shorter one. He had dirty blond, swept back hair and dark brown eyes. I scowled at him.

"I punch like one too, so I advise you to not call me that unless you want a new nose job," I said.

"Whoa, you've got some sass, hot chick," he said as he grinned like an idiot.

"My name is Petra!" I exclaimed as a began to wind up for a hit.

"WHOA! Whoa, whoa! Nobody is punching anyone!" exclaimed the brunette as he jumped in between us, "Now, Emery, apologize for being an idiot to Petra!"

"Sorry," muttered Emery half-heartedly as he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Apology accepted," I said, trying not to explode.

"Alright. Everyone's cool. Now, proper introductions," said the brunette as he stepped back to where he was standing earlier, "My name is Brian, and this is Emery. I'm sorry about what happened, he's just sometimes a little... girl crazy."

Emery huffed.

"Hey, to make it up to you, would you like to come to my party tonight? I'm gonna need someone to keep people in their right minds." He chuckled a little.

"Really? Sure! But, is it alright if I bring a few friends along?" I asked.

"Sure! Who are they?"

Ah, this plan was working so well. I guess I should thank Emery for being an idiot.

"Their names are Jesse, Aiden, Lukas, and Maya," I said.

"Hey! I know Maya!" he exclaimed. Emery elbowed him, "Excuse me," he coughed, "Yeah, I think I've heard of them before. It's cool if they come."

"Great! Thank you!" I said.

"Here," he said, "One sec."

He took off his backpack and grabbed a small pad of paper and a pen. He then wrote something on the paper, ripped it out, and gave it to me. I took it and read it.

"It's my address," he explained, "so you can get there easily."

"Wow, Brian, she never would have guessed," said Emery obnoxiously.

"I-ignore him," Brian said, "See ya tonight!"

He and Emery walked away together, still talking.

"Well, that was easy!" I said as I went back to look at the posters as I waited for my friends.

"Hey, Petra!" I heard Jesse call from the other side of the hall. She ran over to me and said, "Who was that you were talking to?"

"A guy named Brian. I got an idea to try to crash this party that he was hosting tonight because that would mean the whole school in one place at a time."

"...and that means the Order will probably be there!" Jesse said.

"Right on," I said with a smile.

"Wow, good idea!" she said.

"Here's his address to where the party is being held at," I said as I handed the note to Jesse to read.

"This ought to be good."