4th period study hall wasn’t anything to be proud of. It was a small class of 13 people stuck in a small classroom doing nothing but wait around for the period to end. Why would anyone take such a boring class full of nothing but seemingly endless amounts of time? Well, to screw around, of course. Yes, some actually did their homework, but most just slept, chatted, or played games on their phones.

The teacher wasn’t anything to be proud of either. He had a major in psychology and had come to be the school counselor, but ended up as the teacher of a variety of electives. Study hall was just the easiest one where he sat around and did nothing like his students. He’d been called teacher so many times that nobody really knew his name. In fact, he’d kind of forgotten about his name. He really didn’t interact with his fellow faculty, so he just got used to being called teacher.

The students weren’t an exceptionally talented bunch either. They were just a bunch of kids from varying grades, though calling them kids was perhaps a bit dismissive. They ranged from freshmen to seniors, though the teacher would never stop seeing them as kids despite him being sensitive about his own age.

Teach, who accepted with a resigned sigh long ago that his name would forever be as such, didn’t even bother looking at the class list as he did roll call. Ruffled his short hair a bit, scratching his scalp, and readjusted his glasses before saying, “Pepe?” 

“Here!” Jack ‘Pepe’ Peperoncino raised their hands, sitting at the very front of the classroom. The sun itself shone through the glass windows to highlight golden hair and a cheerful young man. From Teach’s observations, he used the class in order to do his schoolwork. He’d taken enough summer courses to have quite a few free periods in his final year.

“Echidna?”

“Echidna, lord of darkness, and destroyer of the world, is present!” Echidna Von Tyranicus, yes that was actually her name, somehow made the most and the least noise out of the entire class. Whenever talked to, the freshman could be heard by everyone, but until then she was as quiet as a mouse. After settling down, she pulled out her phone and boredly tapped away, immediately taking off the eyepatch that hid her heterochromia. 

“Jello?” There was a pause. “Jello?” Teach said it again. “Jello, I know this is a formality, but could you please respond to roll call?”

“Huh-Oh. Yes.” Jello Neruoka was jabbed in the side, bringing him out of his stupor. He was an artsy sophomore, using the class period to draw. While he did plenty of landscapes and tried to rope some of his classmates into being his models (to no avail), he also did a bit of modern art. Such enthusiasm for his craft seemingly came at the expense of enthusiasm for anything else, though.

“Carmen?” 

“Yo.” Carmen Rolgen didn’t bother to hide how she was playing games on her phone and chewing gum despite the ostensible rule against such a thing. The junior was supposed to be in study hall in lieu of an elective in order to raise her grades, but in reality she just used the time to play on her phone. Teach, whose enthusiasm for his job had been curbed by a dwindling wage and the harshness of reality, couldn’t find it in himself to go through the slog of convincing her to do anything else.

“Mina?”

“H-here.” Mina WItherspoon raised her hand, though it quickly fell down afterwards. She was a freshman who was taking study hall for reasons Teach couldn’t fathom. He’d had a look at her records and saw that she was a straight A student and was taking math courses far beyond her years. She did do homework in the period, but it wasn’t an egregious amount or anything, she could’ve very well done it at home while leaving 4th period as a relaxing elective. Whenever she wasn’t doing work, she was buried in a book, which would’ve led Teach to worry over her social life if it weren’t for her tablemate.  

“Veni?”

“Here.” Vinny Vinci, or as he preferred it, Veni Vidi Vici, was a problem child sophomore dumped into study hall so nobody had to deal with him. He’d gotten into several fights over the past year and Teach could’ve sworn that he’d shown up to class with a new bruise or bandage every other day. He was seated next to Mina, which was somehow the best and worst combination somehow. “Hey, Mini, the stuff you lent was good.” It was rocky at first, but eventually Veni and Mina became acquaintances of sorts.

“Hailey?”

“...” Teach accepted the raised hand as a good enough response. Hailey Menage was an absolute giant of a junior, taller and stronger than everyone in the class. Apparently, it came from being raised on a farm and doing a lot of work in the field. She was silent most of the time, but from the looks of it her grades were fine. 

“Talle?” 

“Teacher.” Talle Bleu was a sophomore who exuded a sort of cool confidence. They were a theater student and had study hall since they were taking what normally would’ve been their 4th period class as an online course. Even then, their grades were middling and often spent the period watching something on their phone rather than doing their homework. 

“Gallows?”

“But what if, he-oh yeah whatever Teach.” Gallows Huli stopped their sales pitch to acknowledge the count. He was short, short enough to look a grade or two younger than he really was, and was a bit obnoxious in Teach’s opinion. Still, it couldn’t be denied that he was lively, which was a better quality for a kid to have than being depressingly tired.

“Yolk?”

“It’s cool, it’s cool.” Yolk Arisato was the other senior in the room and contrasted heavily with Pepe. Where the latter was dressed prim and proper, he dressed casually whenever possible. He had sunglasses on inside and was putting his feet up on the table for god’s sake! Still, he was relaxed and didn’t do all that much, just using the time in study hall to look at his phone.

“Pin?”

“Present.” Pin Sue was a bit out of place among his classmates. Then again, everyone in the 4th period study hall was a bit out of place. Where at most Pepe wore a sweater vest, Pin had on a suit and even wore a golden watch. The sophomore spent much of his time in the period working on something, though he’d never gotten a good look at it. 

“Aurum?”

“Got a cig, Teach?” Teach promptly ignored the request from Aurum Saltine. It was audacious and obscene to ask for drugs from the teacher of all people, but Teach had just gotten used to the junior’s tendencies. She was somehow dressed formally and informally, as she was clad in a suit yet it was so frumpled that it appeared as if she was a door to door salesman or shady loan shark who had lost their job.

“Rosa?”

“...” Rosa Mariana Heironius Gambino Mehmed Molik, and yes that was her actual full name, was the final member of the class and also the least remarkable. Seriously, she was actually napping. Teach was pretty sure that she had taken the class to have it as a nap time where she wouldn’t be yelled at for sleeping. She wasn’t a bad student, she was passing all of her classes, it was just that she insisted on entering the realm of dreams any chance she got.

“Ok, whatever.” Teach sent the roll call through, confirming that the entirety of class was present. “It’s a wonderful Monday morning, I guess.” He hadn’t had his coffee and it showed, with how tired he felt. Seriously! His other classes were just pure suffering and he couldn’t help but feel that getting into education at all was a mistake. “Huh?” Teach looked at the screen and saw how, for some reason, the roll call wasn’t being sent. It seemed that there was a connection error. Before he could say anything else, the screen suddenly turned black, and he felt the temperature rise significantly for some reason.

He looked up from his computer screen to see something straight out of fiction.

Everything around him was fine. He was still in his chair, the classroom was still there, and everything else was still in place. It was what was out the windows that freaked him out. Rather than a pretty good view of the school campus and whoever was sneaking off to the restroom in order to skip a lesson, there was desert. Actual desert. The sun was making the dunes glow.

“What.” Teach couldn’t help but mutter to himself as reality set in. It didn’t feel like reality, though, it felt like he was dreaming. He numbly pinched at his own cheek, trying to wake himself up from the weird nightmare.

“Huh? Where’s my connection?” Carmen began irritatedly tapping at her phone. 

“Huh-What!?” Pepe almost fell out of his chair as he turned to the side and noticed his view out the window was replaced by the dunes.

“...” The easy smirk on Yolk’s face was momentarily replaced by a frown as he took off his sunglasses, staring deep out the window. He wiped his eyes and then the lenses of his spectacles, trying to come to terms with what in the world just happened.

The others followed suit quickly. All of them noticed the changes, even Rosa woke up to see what the fuss was about! She didn’t pay it much mind at first, but after a second her eyes bolted open and she was wide awake to see what the hell had happened while she was asleep. Everyone was asking questions and confused and emotions were high.

“Ok!” Teach knew what he had to do. Training that hadn’t been put into use for years suddenly found an outlet. “Everyone, be quiet, and try to remain calm. It seems like us and the classroom have been transported for some reason.” They heard the roof above them creak. “Everyone file out, one at a time, no crowding. I don’t think this room will hold much longer. Get all of your stuff, alright?”

A combination of authority present within his voice and being knocked off kilter by the situation lead to everyone following his directions, walking out of the classroom in a single file line. As soon as they made it out, the classroom suddenly collapsed in on itself, having been plucked out of the building and as such it didn’t have the support on its own to hold its own weight.

“Ok.” Teach took a deep breath in and out to calm his racing heart. They were in the middle of a desert. One moment, they were in 4th period study hall, and the next, they were suddenly thrown into the middle of the desert. “Does anyone know what happened?” Nobody dared answer, for the situation was just so absurd that nobody had a rational explanation.

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“I know!” Well, nobody except one. Echidna, putting the eyepatch back on, amped up the theatrics as she said, “We’ve been summoned by an otherworldly order in order to repel an invasion of monsters!”

“I would normally call such a notion foolish and absurd.” Pin spoke up, tugging at their suit in the desert heat. “Except this situation has already torn apart much of convention.” He began to take off his clothes, stripping down to a dress shirt and pants. “Still, I do believe there is a more rational explanation for this series of events.”

“Yeah? Like what!?” Carmen was incredulous and stress was starting to build as the implications of what had just occurred were starting to set in. “Were we fucking teleported by some science experiment gone wrong!? This is god damn insane, that’s what!”

“Everyone, calm down.” Both Pepe and Teacher said it at the same time. “Oh, sorry Teach.” Pepe backed down, allowing him to speak.

“Guys, I know this is a weird situation, but we need to start going. Even if someone is coming for us, we can’t just sit here. We need to keep moving or else we’ll bake under the sun, alright?” Everyone nodded and grumbled in agreement and Teach could see others take off jackets and excessive layers, putting them in their backpacks. “And what are you doing?” Teach looked down at Gallows, who was doing something with the wreckage.

“Stealing the wires!” Indeed, Gallows was stealing wires from the walls of their classroom which had been plucked out from reality and cast into the desert with them in it. “Copper is useful, might as well.”

“...” A part of Teacher wanted to chastise his student for doing something so blatantly immoral, but he was also right. For one, the classroom had been taken from the school, and nobody was going to use it anyways. They might as well make use of stuff that would go wasted otherwise. “There should be some umbrellas in there as well, Hailey, Veni, Pepe, you guys help me find them. We’ll need them for the heat. The rest of you, get on top of a dune and look for a river or somewhere we can go, but don’t go too far to scout, alright?”

Everyone nodded and split up to start working. Where Gallows continued to take the wires, the three students Teach called for worked with him in order to dig up the rubble to find the umbrellas. It was in a large bucket that he’d borrowed in order to carry the things during the rainy season, except a few students just didn’t take theirs back home. In the end, they had eight umbrellas, which necessitated a few of them sharing the bigger ones.

When they finished digging them out and shaking off the dust, Gallows had finished quickly snatching all the wires from the walls while the others were done scouting the horizon. Luckily enough, Talle spotted a great river in the distance. So, the group of 14 began moving forward towards water like a snake made up of a variety of colors. Teach was at the head at first, but slowly made his way to the back.

He had to check up on his students. They were in an unfamiliar situation and as such, he needed to gauge their mental state. It was his duty to make sure they were alright, even though the sheer shock of what happened should’ve numbed their reactions a bit. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

“Hey, are you okay?” He talked to Hailey first, who was at the back so she didn’t block anyone’s view. That and she wanted to make sure nobody fell behind.

“Yes.” She spoke softly and nodded, eyes focused ahead. Teacher didn’t get offended at her refusal to meet his gaze, it was probably a good idea to focus on what was in front of them. “Thank you.” Her voice carried gratitude, for while she hadn’t let panic sink in just yet, she still appreciated his attempt to make sure she was ok.

“No problem. We’ll get back soon, don’t worry about it.” He moved up the chain to Mina, who was definitely not ok. She was mumbling to herself as she wiped sweat off the sides of her head. “How are you holding up?” It had been but barely an hour since they were cast into the dunes, yet it seemed that Mina was already winded.

“J-just perfect, just great, absolutely not freaking out at all.” Mina was on the verge of a full blown panic attack, it seemed. 

“Woah, woah, calm down, calm down.” Teach took a second to ruffle through her backpack and pulled out one of her books. “What about you read this as you walk, alright? Just try to focus on the pages instead of the heat. Just keep on going, we’ll be back home soon enough, just stay strong, I know you can do it.” Empty platitudes, but necessary to keep her calm, and he hoped she could exceed his expectations.

“... Alright.” She muttered to herself and buried her nose in her book.

“Just focus on it.” Their chain of umbrellas was fairly widely paced, they weren’t crowding them together or anything, but the lack of anything on the sands meant it really didn’t matter. If it was a jungle, just a few feet of distance in the thick greenery could lead to them getting separated, but they were on the sands. “Hey, Veni?”

“Yeah, Teach?” Veni was with Talle, though neither of them seemed to be talking to each other. Veni was just grumbling to himself about how hot it was. 

“Could you go make sure that Mina doesn’t stray and carry her umbrella? Plus, it’d be good if she has someone to talk to.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He handed the umbrella over to Talle and turned back to join Mina. Teach saw how his backpack sort of sagged with something heavy in it, but he didn’t want to pry.

“And how are you doing, Talle?”

“Not great.” Talle wasn’t handling the heat especially well either. Their decision to wear all black clothes was really biting them in the ass, it seemed. “I assume you don’t have a fan?”

“Sorry, you’ll just have to wait until we get to the river.”

“Oh woe is me.” They sighed, but they weren’t panicking. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon.” He wasn’t entirely sure, but how far could they have gone? Even if they were thrown into the Sahara, they just had to hitch a ride to an airport and then they’d be back without a problem. At most they’d be gone for a month, but that wasn’t all too long considering they could be halfway across the world for all they knew. 

Next up, he walked up to Aurum and Pin, who were chatting.

“So, are you sure you don’t make lingerie?” Or, more accurately, Aurum was talking while Pin held the umbrella. 

“Even if I did, you don’t have the figure.” Pin had been suffering Aurum’s questions for a while. She somehow had the worst qualities of a curious child and knowledgeable adults.

“Well fuck you too! I’m just saying that you’d probably make a bit of money if you made stuff other than suits.” 

“What brings your presence, Sir?” Pin saw Teacher and immediately latched onto him as an escape from Aurum, privately praying that he was there to relieve him of his duty, but expecting nothing but disappointment. 

“I’m just here to see how you two are holding up.”

“Oh just peachy!” Aurum, even without the blazer and under a umbrella (which, to be fair, wasn’t made for thesun) was sweating quite a bit, but she took her mind off of how miserable she felt in her pseudo-formal wear (though it was more like business attire) by thinking about other things. “Do you think the people here wear skimpy clothes? That’d be awesome! I can’t wait to see some desert beauties!”

“Your hedonistic obsessions speak so much of your character.” Pin had taken off and folded his clothes, stuffing them neatly into his backpack. Like Aurum, he wasn’t doing all too hot in the heat and seemed to be suffering due to the sweat even more than Aurum, who was somewhat used to it. 

“And you’re a prude! C’mon, don’t tell me you aren’t excited to see what the locals are wearing!”

“Normal clothes? I wouldn’t be excited unless we come across a place where everyone wears bespoke suits of a variety of styles. Perhaps I may find a new fabric that’s to my liking.” Just as Aurum was focusing on her more base thoughts to stave off the stress, Pin let himself focus on his hobbies in order to not think about the ramifications of what had just happened.

“Bah, boring!” Aurum dragged out the word to really rub in her disappointment. 

“Alright you two, just keep on going. We’ll get you some better clothes for the desert soon enough.” By that, Teach meant t-shirts. Sure, it probably wouldn’t fit with Pin’s style and standards, but if he had to choose between being unfashionable and being drenched in sweat, Teacher hoped that he’d choose the former. 

Next up was Pepe and Rosa. Or, more accurately, Pepe, who was carrying Rosa on his back while she lazily held the umbrella and both of their backpacks. Luckily, Pepe had a strong build and Rosa was a light girl, so it looked more like Pepe was giving his little sister a piggyback ride more than anything, though the two didn’t look even remotely related.

“You two okay?” Teach had a small smile as he approached the two of them. 

“We’re alright.” Pepe gave a sunny grin, but kept his voice a bit hushed for the sake of Rosa. Though, Teach was pretty sure that girl would’ve slept through anything short of the apocalypse, but it was the thought that counted. 

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t blame you for freaking out.”

“Don’t worry, I have training. I’m used to being thrown into weird situations. I’m pretty sure that if we’re trapped in the wild, my boy scout experience will help.” Pepe had an optimistic outlook.

“Well, we’re in the desert.” Though Teach was sure plenty of those skills would still transfer over. “Still, I’ll rely on you for that, alright?” In situations like this, it was good to make people feel useful. Giving someone a role lets them feel satisfied with a job well done, it gives them something to do and focus on. 

“Of course.”

For the 7th umbrella and last pair, it was Carmen and Jello. The latter wasn’t spacy enough to need to be carried, but it seemed that he was focused on the bright desert landscape and had to be occasionally dragged back into the shade by Carmen. As for the girl herself, her jaw was liable to get sprained with how much she was chewing her gum.

“Interesting-”

“I swear if you die of heatstroke walking into a mirage to sketch it I will kill you myself.” Carmen was irritated, though whether Jello or general stress was the major cause was a mystery to all. “Hey Teach, what’s up?”

“Just checking in on my students.” At least she wasn’t bottling it in. It was better for Carmen to be irritated at the moment, when they were alone and just walking through the desert, rather than at a time when such an attitude would lead to problems. Plus, if she held it in, it’d only come back with a vengeance later.

“Why ya worrying so much, Teach? We’re not babies. Well, most of us aren’t, I swear I feel like I’m reprimanding a toddler when I’m with him.” Carmen sighed as she resolved to simply hold Jello by the collar.

“Well, I’m your teacher. I have to make sure you’re fine. Even if you’re all high schoolers, this is the sort of thing a lot of adults aren’t able to handle.” He was lucky he managed to prevent them from spiraling in the beginning, focusing their efforts on something productive rather than freaking out.

“Hello, Teacher.” It seemed that the artist only noticed Teach’s appearance just at the moment. “This is quite the odd predicament, is it not?”

“Yeah, it is. Try not to wander off, alright?”

“I cannot guarantee anything.” Well, at least he was honest.

Teach walked off and made his way to the front of the line. There was also the matter of water to consider. Only Pepe, who had a canteen full of water, Rosa, who had a thermos full of tea, and Mina, who had a water bottle from a vending machine had any sort of containers. That meant they wouldn’t be able to travel very far from sources of water, lest they fall to dehydration. Still, there was bound to be somebody near rivers, if only because other people needed water as well.

Finally, he was at the front of the line, where Echidna walked. 

“Ah, if it isn’t our Teacher!” She was in her theatrical mode, what with the eyepatch covering her red eye. 

“Hey Echidna, how are you doing, what with all of this?” He wasn’t sure if her explanation straight from a novel was a method of coping or a genuine delusion, though it could’ve been both. Still, the girl was a bizarre mix of dedication to her image and flagrant disregard for it. She wore an eyepatch and spoke in a bizarre accent, but there were also moments where she just openly didn’t care about it. Teach had a hard time believing she was faking it if she also let the facade drop so easily, but couldn’t find any other reason behind her behaviors.

“Didn’t I say? This is simply fate’s call! I must go forth and fulfill my great destiny!” 

“And what would that be?” Teach held the umbrella for the two of them against the beating desert sun. 

“It’s simple!” There was no elaboration for a moment as it seemed that not even Echidna herself considered what exactly she was supposed to do. 

“Oh, we’re close.” He turned around to the rest of the class and called out, “Alright, we’re near the river! We’ll rest there for a while and take stock of what we have. After we have a break, we’ll begin moving up the river until we find somebody to help give us directions!”

“...” Everybody seemed to be alright with that, but in a moment their eyes weren’t on him. Jaws dropped to the floor and everyone was speechless as they looked behind Teach.

“Hahahahhahahahaha! It seems we have returned to my home plane! I knew there was something familiar about this place!” Echidna’s laughter prompted Teach to turn around, whereupon his jaw also dropped to the floor. The large river was quite normal, mundane even, but that wasn’t what caught their attention.

No, it was the fish the size of a school bus jumping out of the waters as if it was a whale or something. Now that they were closer, they could see a variety of other peculiarities. A beast of flames was clashing with a mound of grass and stone, a large winged cat was bathing in the shallow portion of the river, and in the distance they could see a giant sand worm tunneling through the dunes.

They were no longer on earth, at least no part of earth they knew of.