We slowly made our way out of the school and down the road. Star and Wave pestered me for details on what had happened earlier in the day so I finally spilled the beans and talked about my confrontation with Ms. Rose, Rob, and the principal.

They looked at each other then back at me, "and you just took that?" Wave started asking, "If that had been me I would have done much more than just blow my top, I would have found some way to bring the wrath of God down upon them, this is one of the stupidest stories I have ever heard. Why does everyone hate your dad so much? "

Star tried to cut in as Wave took his characteristic breath after the wave of information.

"So what is your plan now?" She asked softly, "You always seem to have some type of plan."

I looked at her and said in the honesty of my heart, "There isn't anything I can do. I am done. I am tired of being the outcast and having my father thrown at me like he is. I want to just walk away and give up."

Wave had finished taking his breath and I was ready for his wave of words again… but he didn't say anything. I looked over at him just in time to see him break eye contact with Star.

"Welcome, to the window, what are yall up to today?" I heard a voice say, and looking around realized we had made it to the window. A tall man was looking at us, and as I glanced up I saw his bright white eyes.

"Heading out today!" I said confidently, "I'll probably be back in about 3 hours, I don't know about these two."

He looked at me for a second, and I saw his eyes narrow, "you’re his son aren't you?"

I sighed, "yes, yes I am," I said wearily

"Ok then," he said, sounding a little warry, he glanced at Wave and Star, “And you two are with him?"

"Of course we are," Star said assertively, "We were just heading out the correct way, if you would prefer I make my own exit…"

I saw the guard look a little more concerned for a moment as he realized Star had white eyes too, "Sounds good, you two can head out," he said gesturing to Star and Wave, "let me just talk to this purple real quick first"

"No." Star said assertively, "You gave him that talk the last three times he came, he is coming out with us,"

The guard looked back and forth between Star and me, seeming to try and figure out the best course of action. "Ok, sounds good," he finally said, "let's get yall out of here" he reached out and grabbed Wave’s shoulder

As I watched, both Wave and the guard seemed to fade from existence. I turned and looked at Star, "You shouldn't have done that," I said, "now they will take forever to let me back in."

She smiled, and I saw a twinkle in her eye "No they won't, 'cause I will just bring you in for them."

The guard reappeared, he reached out to grab Star, but she shook her head, "Him first, she said stubbornly. The guard thought about it for a second then nodded and reached out to grab my arm. His grip was much softer than I expected, and I felt the familiar little tug in my gut as the world around me faded and changed.

I reappeared in the real world and shuddered a little bit. The cool breeze floating through the tunnel startled me. I always wondered how the air made it through the caves here.

I glanced around to see if anything had changed since the last time I had been in the real world, but it all looked just about the same.

We stood in a large rock cavern about forty feet by fifty feet. There was a single tunnel out, by which stood Wave and a guard, who looked asleep right now. Filling the center of the cavern was a giant white obelisk of stone.

It was always weird how the real world was so… colorful… I looked around at all the different shades and colors, no longer the ever-present white that surrounded us while in Ussa.

Though the world was still mostly one color, brown, there was an occasional tuff of green leaf or a strip of yellow stone in those walls and that always seemed to bring the reality of this world to life.

Wave gestured me over as the guard that had brought me in stepped back into Ussa. It was a cool thing to watch, he just looked at the solid stone and stepped through it. I knew it had a lot to do with what you were thinking but had never had the chance to do it myself, after all, I was a purple.

Star stepped through a moment later all alone.

"Let's go, '' she said excitedly.

Wave was already running down the tunnel, Star sprinted after him with a laugh.

I walked slowly after them, a little apprehensive about being back in the real world.

By the time I had made it to the first turn, they had made it to the end of the next hallway.

"Come on slowpoke!" Wave called down the tunnel, "We don't have all day!"

I slowly sped up to a jog, heading after them. I jogged past the next corner, I knew they wanted me to run, and I suppose I could try to catch up, but they tended to have…

There it was. As they rounded the last corner they pulled up sharp, confronted by someone.

As I jogged up next to them I found three guards, stopping Wave and Star, "You know the rules out there, right?" The one in charge was saying. He saw me and waved me over as he went through the quick lecture. This one was actually really important, so I paid as much attention as I could.

It was really just the basic stuff, absolutely nothing that could get any attention, no running, no yelling, we had to stay quiet, if we do see anything we were on our own, and we give no hints as to where the settlement was, even under penalty of death, etc.

As they went through it I was interested to notice that all three of the guards had brown eyes today. Normally there was a lot of diversity, but today it was all the same.

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Eventually, they dismissed us and we headed out, now considerably more cautious. We exited the tunnel mouth and found ourselves in the little clearing with a sheer rock wall holding the small entrance to the cave tunnel behind us.

I gazed out at the edges of the clearing, seeing if I could spot any of the security forces out there today. Normally I could pick them up, but today they must have hidden really well.

"Ok," Wave said quietly, "this way"

He led us through the thick forest, going this way and that, seemingly randomly. I followed him, staying as silent as I could. I felt like I did an excellent job, but as I heard how many leaves were crunching under Star's feet I winced quite a few times. Maybe we weren't as silent as I would hope.

After about half an hour of wandering, we came to a small pool of water.

I saw Wave smile and wave us closer, "we are here" He whispered quietly, without even looking back at us, "I hope y'all are as excited as I am."

He turned and grabbed both Star and me by the hand and gave one of his giant grins. His blue eyes sparkled the exact way, with the exact color as the pond behind him did. He leaned back pulling both of us after him. As I looked he had his eyes closed with a relaxed smile on his face and just fell back into the water, yet as he fell in, he vanished as he touched it, as if he was just falling through a hole. His hand still pulling us, we fell through right after him.

I opened my eyes to a whole new world. As I looked around I found the prettiest blues I had ever seen surrounding me on all sides. The floor appeared to be the deep blue of the ocean extending deep into the depths of what I could see.

The walls of the pocket looked like they were carved from sapphire. The room we stood in was about forty feet by fifty feet, and somehow Wave had made what looked like pure sapphire gaming tables in the space.

The sky seemed to be the prettiest sky blue you would ever see, and it almost felt close enough I could reach up and grab it… in fact Star did.

She reached up and pushed against the ceiling. "Um…" she said a little softly, "this pocket isn't very tall"

"I know," Wave said with his signature rush of information, "but there are a couple places it does get better, here let me show you! Follow me!" And with that, he was jogging around showing us the pocket he had made.

It was actually a lot cooler than I imagined. He explained to us how he had made a couple of different rooms from parts of the pond that were a little deeper.

Then he led us to one of those rooms. The door wasn't actually a door, but a suspended state of water, he explained as he stepped through. We followed into one of the coolest rooms I had ever seen.

"So you know how making a pocket is like pinching a little bit of the Color Plane you are taking it from?" He asked with his boundless energy, then he looked at us and realized neither of us had ever made a pocket before. He shrugged and continued his explanation, "I've been working on how to mess around with that safely," he explained, as he gestured around.

I was in shock. The room that we sat in felt like a well. It was cylindrical, with steps winding slowly down the side, as it got lower the sapphire walls seemed to fade away. I started walking down the steps to make sure what I was seeing was real. The walls were like being in one of the craziest aquariums ever.

I could see through the wall into the ocean with all its beauty. As I gazed I could see sharks, huge schools of fish, dolphins, you name it it was there.

I kept heading deeper and deeper, transfixed by the complexity of the world. Huge beasts that could only appear underwater come alive in my view.

I saw a massive killer whale swimming slowly through the depths, just to be dwarfed by a humongous sea turtle, seemingly the size of an island slowly swimming around.

I just kept circling down the steps. Outside got darker and darker, yet still a deep blue. I saw some of those fish with the little light on the end of their hook thing, I saw a huge mass of tentacles floating away in the distance and found I was now on the bottom of the room, the sea floor.

I could see massive crabs walking around, five or six times my size. Then I saw a quick movement and a massive eel-like creature sprang from the depths, tearing one from the safety of the seafloor.

I heard Star gasp, and she grabbed my hand for comfort "Sea dragon" she breathed.

For a second it didn’t click until I realized that the unfolding eel that had taken the crab was indeed a sea dragon, a thing that I thought had only been told of in stories.

"Oh ya," Wave said, “you occasionally see one of those, "My favorite is the Kraken though. Come on, let's go test out the foosball table I made!"

I couldn't take my eyes off this wonderful sight. I watched as a giant manta ray drifted across the ocean floor right near us, nice and content.

Wave sighed, "It is the closest thing I will ever get to the real thing. I thought making it would help me realize how dangerous it is, but it just tempts me more." He walked up to the wall and poked at it. A small stream of water slowly trickled down the wall. He wiped it slowly up and sighed, turning to look back at us.

"I understand how people could let all the creatures into our world," he said, and as I watched his blue eyes seemed to come to life, "this world," he said gesturing, "is so magnificent, so glorious, so simple I wouldn't give it up for anything,"

Star and I looked at each other, "sure we would love a game of foosball!" Star said happily, grabbing Wave's hand and pulling him back up the steps, "Come on slowpoke!" She called back to me.

I followed slowly, transfixed by the world surrounding us. By the time I made it back to the main room Star and Wave were deep in a game of foosball. I walked up to a pinball machine and messed around with that for a little while until suddenly I felt a presence at my shoulder.

"Well, well, well, wouldn’t you look who it is," I heard a mocking voice from behind me. I sighed softly, turning.

"I was just getting ready to go," I said firmly to Rob, "I hope you don’t mind me stopping by."

"No, no, I don’t mind, friend," Rob said with a smile, "In fact, please come again when Wave's not around and I can show you some... cool things." I must have made quite the face because he started cracking up laughing.

I looked across the room and saw Wave and Star heading over and gave a relieved sigh; they had noticed.

"I might think about that offer one day," I said completely lying to Rob's face. It only made him laugh harder. Then he grabbed my shoulder firmly.

"You never come in here again without me, you hear me purple!" He said quietly, but firmly, almost deadly. I could hear the chaotic turbulence of a typhoon in his voice. "Never"

"What was that you said?" Star asked as she finally made it over to us.

"Oh, I was just congratulating Ray on his practice earlier," Rob said turning with a smile. We all knew that was a lie, but Wave shrugged it off.

"Where is everyone else?" Wave asked, "Aren’t they supposed to be here? Did they get lost? Did they not want to come?"

"Calm down there Wave," Rob said calmly, "I was just making sure everything was in order before I let them in."

"Oh, ok," Wave said, "It is, you can go grab them all real quick, I'll hold the pocket together for the moment"

Rob nodded and disappeared, stepping back into the real world.

Star gave a disgusted look at the spot he had been standing, "Why do you deal with him again Wave? "

Wave sighed, "Normally he is really cool and he is actually really smart… he just has some… prejudice," he said looking at me.

Around this time Rob appeared in the middle of the room with six people holding him, they all let go, looking around and studying the room. Rob disappeared again, reappearing again seconds later with just as many people.

Wave gave a sigh as he disappeared again. "I told him no more than four people today. He is going to leave a trail home…"

He appeared with another six and gave a wave to Wave, "That's all of them"

Wave sighed and nodded, "I've got some homework I forgot to grab, I'll be back" he called to Rob, "have fun!"

Then Wave grabbed Star and me by the hands and the magnificent room faded from view to become the real world. The area was the exact same as before, except now there was a quite defined trail leading right to the pond, almost as if nineteen people had walked the exact same path.

Wave looked around and sighed at the trail. "Let's try to fix their mistake," he said sadly and we tried to silently make the trail disappear as we headed back home.