The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. I spent my off period looking up anything about world transfers, Summon protocols, and erasure protocols, but I got nothing. It was just isekai after isekai, programming commands, and alien conspiracy theories. It was so frustrating that I even did my calculus homework. I never did my calculus homework! I’d considered skipping out on school, but I’d never done that before, and if I did it was definitely going to end up with my parents getting a call. If they ended up getting called, I doubted that I was going to hear the end of it for the next few months. Ugh, I’d rather risk getting summoned then have that happen.

The next two periods that I had after that were pretty straightforward, thankfully. Thank god I hadn’t followed through on ditching them… If I’d tried talking to anyone about what happened, I do not think I was prepared for that conversation. It just sounded like such a headache, especially if that class wasn’t dragged into another world either. Then I’d have to try and explain all that to my parents. I didn’t even have to try to imagine how annoying that conversation would be. So I went to each class and kept an eye out. In each of the classes, nothing flickered, vanished, changed, or even shimmered! It was irritating, but at the same time I felt a sense of relief and annoyance. I might not have any idea where they went, but I was spared, and I was safe. It made me feel guilty, but what else was I supposed to feel?

Though… when I replayed that weird message, I felt my stomach twist with anger. Subject… Inferior? And bland!? What a stupid piece of crap… Like really? I was inferior? To Jeremy!? The guy was 80 pounds sopping wet and jumpier than a crop of freshly hatched grasshoppers. And bland!? What was bland about me!? I loved to read books! And I had a max level warrior in WoW! I just made this cool clay dragon head in art class the other day! Yeah, and then what about cross country? I was a great runner! In a year or so I bet I would be on Varsity even! Yeah… that message didn’t know what it was talking about!

I harrumphed to myself and nodded my head. Bitch ass floating words didn't even know what they were talking about… Except… I still felt annoyed. I knew that its opinion didn’t matter, but did it really think I was too inferior to be summoned? Was I really just that… bland?

I mused to myself during my walk to our meet up spot for cross country. We actually had quite a few good running routes, since we were close to a large forest and a small lake, but we always met there. The school was actually so close to them both that we didn’t even have to drive there! Granted, everyone who had a car still did… Though, if you didn’t, or had a ride, everyone could just warm up on their way to practice, and that's normally what the coaches expected from us. I set down my bag down in the grass and started taking out my training shoes. They looked sort of rough, but I’d only had them for a season. I guess I’d have to convince mom to take me to Runners Roost soon so I could grab myself a new pair. Oh that was never a fun conversation. I loved my mom, but she never really understood or cared about cross country, just that she had to pay for some things for it. I couldn’t blame her though, no one ever cared that much for it. It was a sport no one ever paid too much attention to. Still, I loved to do it. I wasn’t even gifted with a runner's body. I was an average height, and about fifty pounds heavier than all of my teammates. I made it work though, and I could confidently say I was the top of JV. I would probably even be on Varsity if a couple of the Varsity kids got sick or injured.

I sighed and began on my drills, starting to feel my legs warming up. I carefully breathed, trying to get in more and more air. I started smiling, feeling my muscles stretch and pull each other. It was exhilarating, feeling the power in my legs. I started slowly jogging towards the edge of the forest, making sure my legs felt good. I’d been fighting off a cramped muscle for a while now, and it still hurt if I hit the ground wrong. It wasn’t too bad today though, and it was probably going to go away soon enough. It wasn’t a real bad injury, or even as sucky as shin splints… ugh yeah fuck shin splints.

I slowly started to speed up, stretching my legs out in order to get some good blood flow, and activating all of my muscles. Today was going to be a good one. I had no clue what to do about this morning, but that didn’t matter right now. I was running again, and I was gonna kick today's workout in the ass! Well… until it kicked mine at least. I shook my head and kept on jogging towards our meet up spot.

After a while, I finally rounded the last bend and slowed down by the others. They all gave me a wave or a nod as I joined them. I didn’t say too much, but that wasn't anything new to be fair. I just casually eavesdropped on everyones conversations while we did our team drills and stretched out, waiting for the coaches to show up. I chuckled when something funny happened or was said, chimed in when someone asked me something, but other than that, I just stayed silent. I faded into the background, and enjoyed the warm up.

Start time hit, and Coach Lane stepped up to give us the workout. The girls team had decided they were going to run the opposite way around the lake, and we'd meet them on the other side at the marina. There were a couple different paths to get there going left, so he wanted the JV kids to take the shorter one and Varsity to take the long path. It wasn't a race according to him, but he still offhandedly mentioned that the team that got there first would get first dibs on ice cream. At that, everyone cheered and started trash talking to each other, until the coach suddenly blew his whistle, and started running towards the forest.

Startled, Jake, the team captain turned to us, “Damn, the coaches are getting into this too? It's gotta be a great prize then! Let's fuckin go guys!”

Grinning, I ran towards the forest with everyone before hesitating, and then running after Varsity. I was already an alternate for them, so I ended up doing a lot of their practices. I doubted that I'd be able to keep up the whole way, but the Varsity team had the best chance of getting to the meet up spot first. Which means, even though I might get beat by some of the JV kids, I'd still get first dibs on ice cream, and a good workout. Hell yeah!

Normally for distance runs, your first mile was the slowest, since you naturally were letting your muscles and lungs get into a nice comfortable rhythm. It was nice, and usually full of everyone joking and laughing with each other. At least, that's what it was like for the Varsity kids. I had to spend the whole first mile struggling to keep up, my lungs screaming for agony as they searched for air. I didn't have the time or energy to worry about what had happened earlier today. I just had to focus on running, and let my muscles take over.

If I was being honest, I actually did pretty good today, I was able to keep up until about mile 4, which was when I had to slow down to take a quick breather. It was rough each day of practice, since I had to try so hard to keep up, but I made it work. I only needed a minute… then I'd get back to it, though probably at a bit slower of a pace.

I stretched out and checked my heart rate before wincing. Hundred and eighty-seven… Yeah I needed to chill out. The race was in two days so I shouldn't have been going that hard anyways, I just really didn't want to look like I wasn’t even trying. The coaches never commented on it, but I always felt like they were silently judging me. I let out another long sigh, and checked my heart rate. Hundred and forty, that would have to be good enough for today. I cracked my neck and then turned around, striding out as I began chasing after the Varsity. Damn it, I couldn’t even see them anymore. I hope I was able to start catching up soon, I really didn’t want to be beaten by the JV squads… Yeah, that'd be pretty pathetic.

I took a step forward, and then froze, frowning. Wait, what the hell was that? I jogged over to the side of the path and stared hard into the forest. I could've sworn I saw something move. I narrowed my eyes and looked harder, but I didn't see anything. Still… I could’ve sworn I saw… I swallowed hard and shook my head.

“I guess it must've been my imagination… Damn it, they’ve gotta be so far away, I really gotta hurry it up now.” I turned back to the trail again, taking off now that I could feel my heart rate beginning to slow down. It wouldn't for long, but oh well. I casually checked out the trees as I ran past. They were actually really nice today, fall was coming up soon, and a few had already started to begin changing colors. I sped up and jumped up to smack at a leaf, but as my hand flew through the air and got closer… I watched as it flew right through the leaf.

I yelped and landed hard, my hand shaking as my voice squeaked out. “Excuse me what?”

I slowly brought my hand to my face and stared at it. The hell was that? I clapped my hands together, half expecting them to pass through each other, but no dice. How… weird. Looking ahead, I saw that I was getting closer to another branch and raced forward, jumping up and trying to smack the leaf as hard as I could again. It sailed on right through like before, and I hit the ground hard, confused. The hell was going on? I stood back up and looked at the branch again. It wasn't that I was immaterial, it was definitely the branch. But that didn't even make sense?

Then it… shimmered. I flinched, and took a step back cursing out loud. “The hell… Wait… no no no there's no fucking way.” I fearfully stared at the tree, not wanting to admit what a part of me already knew. That thing… had come back for me. It shimmered again and I closed my eyes, cursing my luck. Of course I wasn't going to be safe, everyone else had forgotten about my classmates, but I still remembered them. That meant that the whole erasure protocol had failed. Which meant I was just a loose end. I whipped around, searching for the message like before, but there was nothing. No trees, no path, no forest. There was just a green field. It stretched out seemingly endlessly, and about fifty feet out, I could see the faintest shimmer in the air. I felt myself pale, and I slowly turned, taking it all in with baited breath. I could see a forest far off to my right, and as I looked behind me, I saw…

My classmates from this morning? They looked the same as I when I had last seen them, and they were definitely just as freaked out as back then. Some of them were panicking and running around, others were curling up into balls, rocking back and forth and murmuring to themselves, and some were even actively arguing with the teacher, their hysterical voices echoing over the fields. That was just crazy though, I'd seen them vanish hours ago. By this time, they should’ve been able to calm down and figure out what to do by that point in the day, but if I didn't know any better… It looked like I was brought to the exact moment they had all been taken. I gulped hard and looked down. No… I was still in my running gear. I gulped hard, and looked back at the others. I probably should've been scared, freaking out over why, and how I was brought here. But I wasn’t. Weirdly enough, I actually felt kind of… relieved.

I shivered as a strong gust of smacked into me, passing over the fields. I shook my head and turned to look at the trees, but they were still. I frowned, but then I felt a warm presence behind me, comforting and gentle. It looks like my little goddesses summon system had a bit of a hiccup, I guess I’ll step in and help her out… try not to be too boring now… I’m looking forward to what you might do…

I whipped around trying to catch whatever had just said that, but whoever, or whatever it was, was nowhere in sight. I eyed the area again, then let out another long sigh. Yeah, today was going to be a long one. I guess I might as well get with the others. Thankfully, it looks like most of them were finally calming down a bit. The ground felt the same as back home, and I could still breathe the air, so that was a bonus. It really was just open fields the same as back home. This… was just too weird. I rolled my neck as I got closer to my classmates. I might as well go head on over and try to figure out what the hell had happened and where I was. I snuck over to where everyone was gathered around Mrs. Fletcher, and tried my best to blend in with everyone. Currently, it sounded like some of the kids were surrounding her, begging her for answers that she just didn’t seem to have.

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“Mrs. Fletcher, where are we? What’s going on? What happened to our phones and all our stuff?” Traci, one of the more popular girls, sniffled, wiping her sleeve across her eyes, the mascara dripping down her cheeks.

“I- I’m sorry kids, I really… don’t… know…” Poor Mrs. Fletcher sputtered out, her eyes flashing everywhere as she tried her best to look strong. She was always so calm and collected in class, but she honestly looked like she was about to faint now. I couldn’t really blame her though, I doubted I would be doing any better in her shoes. As all the other students crowded around, begging her for answers she couldn’t give, I took a step back and frowned. Okay… I wasn’t an expert in this kind of stuff, but this was all eerily similar to something I used to watch all the time back home.

Shit, was I stuck in an isekai or something like that? What the hell was I supposed to do now? I was in a different world sure, but everything was all wrong. The shows were always so cool, and usually the class would be summoned to a mystical castle or somewhere in an entirely different world, given magical treasures, and some cool legendary abilities or weapons. I used to love watching them in my free time, or during my off periods. This though… all of this was nothing like that! I frowned and looked around again. We were just in some random field, with no castle or king. No one to ask any questions or give legendary quests, and all I could see were just my classmates losing their minds. After all, we were all just a bunch of students, and we didn’t even seem to have gained any abilities or superhuman strength that I could tell. I could see that some of my classmates were thinking the same thing, based on the way their eyes were darting around and they were trying various different poses. I sighed and looked at the ground, frowning. There was no grand magical circle, or even a whole court here to warn us about some demon king or some other thing that was threatening the safety of their world. We were just… kids, standing in the middle of fucking nowhere, confused as hell and worried for our lives.

Then there was the whole manner of the summon protocol not bringing me here this morning. Those words that had been floating in front of me earlier that day... There was something really fishy about that whole situation. I narrowed my eyes and hummed to myself. So, the whole class was summoned to another world, cool, but then I alone was rejected for being… bland? And then, not only that, but when it started its Erasure protocol, I wasn’t affected by it for some reason? Maybe it was a proximity thing, and I was too close to it or something? But then why did it take all day for it to realize its mistake and take me anyways? Plus, did it really need to take me right in the middle of my workout? I get summoned to another world and I’m all covered in sweat… ugh…

Then there was the whole thing with that cold breeze that had whispered to me… What did it mean by ‘little goddess’ and ‘hiccup’? Maybe I really wasn’t supposed to be here, but then that would mean that something else other than the ‘goddess’ noticed that I’d escaped the Erasure protocol. Then for some unknown reason decided to bring me here anyways? Does that mean I wasn’t brought here by the same protocol that had brought everyone else here? The hell was that supposed to mean for me?

I shook my head and refocused back on the people in front of me. Some of them were still asking the teacher questions and looking for help, but the vast majority were just standing there confused. No one knew what to do or say, and sure, a couple people had an idea of what might have just happened, but that doesn’t mean they wanted to admit it. How do you even go about admitting that to everyone? ‘Oh hey, sorry guys, but I think we’re the main characters in an Isekai. Calm down, we’re probably not going to be able to make it back home unless we defeat some evil demon king and his super powerful army using the powers that the goddess of this world is going to bestow upon us. Chillax guys, this’ll be fun!’

Yeah no, there was no way that was gonna happen. So, I just stood there with everyone else, trying my best to look as surprised and bewildered as my classmates. I was doing a pretty good job, until I started hearing yelling in the distance. Startled, the whole class turned to the source of the noise, just in time to watch James and Barry running full sprint at us. Damn those football players could really move when they wanted too. It looked like they were coming back from where they'd snuck off and had been checking out the trees. They really must have found something absolutely crazy to be running that hard. We all nervously watched as they finally pulled up to the group and stopped, gasping for air.

We all patiently waited, and after a moment, they finally managed to choke out what they had seen and were freaking out about, “Guys you really gotta check this out! It's like we have this weird bubble all around us! When we tried to walk past it, we ran into a wall, but there was nothing there except like a shimmer in the air. So we decided to see how far it went right and left and found these weird words floating in the air. We think there’s something that wants to talk to us?”

Startled and curious, we all looked at Mrs. Fletcher, who was seemingly in the midst of having a panic attack. Wow, she really was going to be no help here... We all looked at each other, and after a quick discussion, the rest of us agreed that we should probably go check it out. With James and Barry in the lead, we all started cautiously making our way over to where they had run from. I had noticed a shimmer in the air when I first was brought here, but I didn’t even think that it could be a barrier. If it was though… Who put it there? And why were we in the middle of it?

As we all followed behind James and Barry as they led us around the edge of the barrier everyone started whispering to each other. I could hear hope in some of their voices, and fear in others, but everyone was curious what the message might have meant. Then James and Barry suddenly stopped, stepping aside and pointing at the ‘wall’ triumphantly. Behind them, I could see that right where the shimmer started, there was in fact some writing. The writing seemed to fluctuate, moving from varying different symbols and shapes almost at random. It was weird, and every once in a while I thought I could make out something I recognized, but then before I could pin down what it was, the word would change to some other weird symbol or nonsense. The weirdest part of it all though, was that the symbols and writing seemed to almost make sense, as if a part of me recognized them. Then there was also the weird fact that they seemed to be arranged in the form of… a doorway?

“What do you think it says? We don’t really recognize anything teach, but we figured out of all of us you would probably be the one that understood any of these, right?” Barry tried to nonchalantly ask, but we could all hear the slight worry in his voice. Still, we all turned and looked expectantly at her, she was the World History teacher after all, surely she recognized some of these symbols, right?

“N-no, I don’t really recogni-,” Mrs. Fletcher, who had come after us when we'd all started walking towards the door, started saying. That of course, shattered all of our hope, and we all visibly deflated. I let out a sigh, and turned to look at the ‘doorway’, when suddenly we were all interrupted by a shrill piercing noise. A couple of us screamed, and we all covered our ears, whipping around to see where the source of this new noise was coming from. All of our eyes landed on the offender at the same time. It was one of the more quiet kids in class, Brett, who guiltily leaped back from the doorway in surprise.

“S-sorry, I just wondered what it felt like and reached out to touch it… and then the words started feeling like they were almost calling out to me and… and… and…” I blinked and looked back towards the writing on the barrier. I could’ve sworn they were changing shapes even faster than before… Then they suddenly stopped, flashing bright red. Then, after a brief moment they blinked, before suddenly swirling around, outlining the shape of the doorway in various different blinking colors. It was almost mesmerizing, but I still took a step back. Who knew what was about to happen?

“Mrs. Fletcher, what the hell is going on!?” Jake, one of the smartest kids in class, yelled out in exasperation and… fear? That’s odd, he was always so calm… though I guess in a situation like this I couldn’t really blame him. After all… well… I guess I didn’t know how I felt, it was almost like I was in another one of my dreams. I was sort of just watching from the back like I always did, waiting for the monster to suddenly make an appearance, right before some hero or army stood up or appeared and fought back against it.

I glanced back at the swirling symbols on the doorway again, and wondered to myself what was gonna happen. Maybe it really was a doorway, and it was summoning something? The issue with that was though, was the problem of who or what was gonna step out? Were they going to answer our questions and help us, or were they going to harm or enslave us. Mrs. Fletcher must have thought the same thing, because she had gotten herself back together and was telling everyone to get away from the doorway. Maybe it was going to explode? Or maybe we'd all get sent back home? At the thought of that, I felt a sinking feeling in my gut. I realized a large part of me really didn't want to go back home. Not after doing basically nothing here and never seeing the world. When I was brought here, I was actually sort of… excited? That's right. I was excited about what was happening and what could happen here. I was excited by this new world and doing something other than boring school work and college scouting. I wanted this to be real, and I was excited about who or what could end up walking through that door. It was almost a new feeling, I don’t know the last time I’d felt excited over something? Probably the last time my mom had gotten me a new Bionicle… wow I really am lame. But I still refused to accept that I was bland. Stupid protocol, probably didn’t even know what was cool…

I stopped grumbling to myself and paid attention to the symbols again. The swirling symbols had stopped blinking and changing colors, and had suddenly warped and moved. They began growing and expanding until they had filled out the frame of the doorway, but nothing had actually happened yet. It was like going up the first part of a roller coaster, but without your glasses. Unable to see when the drop was going to happen, just having to hear the click after click of it as you ascended into the sky, your gut sick with tension as you waited for the pause, and then the BOOM of the drop. Everyone was watching the doorway just like that, the air charged with tension. No one dared to even take a breath, and we all just stood there, frozen scared to death, but still wanting to see what was about to happen. Then, like a synchronized swim team, everyone took a single step back as the door shook. We all kept staring, afraid to look away in fear of missing something. Then, the doorway began to shake, moving back and forth so fast that it looked like it was vibrating. Then, as if it hadn’t been there in the first place, everything vanished, being replaced with a simple wooden door that just simply popped into existence. It just sat there, before suddenly swinging open. My eyes widened, and everyone took in a sharp breath as someone slowly stepped out of the doorway.

They were absolutely massive, easily over seven feet and covered in armor head to toe. They had a huge greatsword strapped to their back, and looked like they could crush my skull with one of their massive fists. Before I could even fully process that beast of a warrior, or what the hell I was gonna do if they decided to just start killing, they stepped to the side and stood at attention. What followed after was a thin, tall and absolutely ancient looking man. They wore a tall blue hat and had what would have been a gorgeous robe, except for the fact that it was covered in old wine stains. They held onto an over the top looking staff in one hand, and were casually thumbing through a huge tome in the other. He didn’t even look up before he stepped to the other side of the doorway as another man walked through. Although he was shorter than the first armored knight and the tall old man, he was still at least six feet tall. He walked through with a swagger in his step, and had a huge longbow strapped to his back. Just looking at him, I could tell that he was incredibly deadly. His eyes never stopped moving as he strolled over to stand behind the old man, choosing to lean on a nearby tree and whistling to himself. Then, last, but certainly not least, the last person walked through the gate. She was gorgeous, and carried herself with a refined elegance that belied how obviously strong she was. She was absolutely ripped, having muscles that bodybuilders back home would kill for, a warmace swinging from one hip, and a gold bordered book dangling from the other.

Staring at her, I had no doubt in my mind that she must have been the one in charge. There was something about her that just radiated authority and power. Then, as if to agree with me, the three who had walked through first bowed to her. Hell, even the old man stopped perusing his old tome and did, though with how tall he was, he was still almost her height. Shit… this really was looking like it might be looking up for us all.

The gorgeous lady looked us up and down, before flashing us all a dazzling smile, “Welcome to the world of Zioln otherworlders, I imagine you all must be unbelievably confused. Don't worry, everything will be made clear in time, but first, let's all have some tea and relax, hmm?”