The Darkness that passed by as we went through the doorway, thought Newt.
After they were given the medical all clear, a police officer came to take their statements.
‘We were hiding in the basement,’ said Newt, with a sideways glance at Rowan. ‘We figured that was the safest place to go with a tornado on the loose.’
No one questioned their story.
It was a week before the school re-opened. The principal’s office still hadn’t been repaired, the window was simply boarded up. There was a caravan parked beside it, acting as his temporary office. Scientists and weather experts had finished their investigations and taken their data back to their laboratories and offices.
Newt had had seven days of pampering from her parents, who were very relieved that she was okay. It was great, but she was ready to get back to a normal life, without doorways into other worlds or freak weather conditions or parents hanging around telling her how much they loved her, every five minutes.
She met Rowan by the front entrance.
‘You know, last time we were here there were –’
‘I know,’ Newt cut him off. ‘I haven’t forgotten.’
‘Cool.’ Rowan looked embarrassed. ‘I just wanted to make sure … you know … I hadn’t imagined the whole thing.’
‘You didn’t imagine it,’ Newt assured him.
‘Cool … ’cause I …’ Looking a bit guilty, Rowan blurted, ‘I told someone about it.’
‘You what?’ Newt’s eyes flared. ‘Are you nuts? No one’s going to believe it. They’ll think you’re crazy. They’ll …’
‘It’s okay. It’s okay,’ he said. ‘I found a website about other people going through doorways. Their stories were so much like what happened to us … I couldn’t help myself … I had to send a message.’
‘I’m not sure that was a good idea. What if –’
Rowan interrupted her by digging in his schoolbag and pulling out a badly wrapped gift, which he thrust at her.
‘It’s a book,’ he said. ‘The Hobbit. A fantasy. But … I thought maybe –’
Newt interrupted him by digging in her schoolbag and pulling out a neatly wrapped and ribboned gift. ‘Snap!’ she said, holding it out to him. ‘This is also a book. A Brief History of Time. It’s a science book.’
They exchanged the gifts awkwardly, putting them away in their bags without unwrapping them.
Newt couldn’t quite believe how far the two of them had come. We’ve gone from hating each other, to saving the world and giving each other presents.
‘Newton. Rowan.’
They turned with relief, to see Ms Bloom rushing over from the staff car park.
‘I just wanted to make sure you were both okay,’ she said, a little flustered. ‘After all, I sent you to the principal office, into the eye of the storm, so to speak.’
‘We’re fine, thanks,’ said Rowan.
‘Well, I’m glad.’ She went to move off. ‘See you in class.’
‘Um, Ms Bloom?’
‘Yes, Newton.’
‘Have you always been a science teacher?’
‘Yes,’ she replied, surprised by the question. ‘I almost chose a career in research, but opted for teaching instead.’
‘How come?’
‘Oh, I don’t know.’ A faraway look crossed their teacher’s face. Newt watched her lips as she spoke. There were no scars.
‘Long ago, just after I finished my PhD, I was offered a job with an up-and-coming tech firm. They did a lot of government contracts. Weapons and things. I almost took the job. But then … I decided that was not the person I wanted to be. I didn’t want to use science for destruction. That’s not forward thinking. I believed it should be about the betterment of the future. And what better way is there to do that, than by teaching.’ She smiled. ‘Speaking of which … you will be doing that experiment in class again today. Try not to blow anything up.’
‘I still don’t understand the experiment,’ lamented Rowan, as Ms Bloom walked away across the school grounds.
‘I’m sorry about that,’ said Newt as they walked along. ‘I should have helped. We were supposed to be doing the experiment together.’
‘Attention!’ Mr Hardnose was bellowing at students in the grounds. ‘Bell’s about to go. Move it! Double time! Quick, march!’
Mrs Farunkle stuck her head out of the caravan window and shouted. ‘Rodney! Phone call! It’s that over-caffeinated parent again!’
‘It’s good to be back,’ Newt said to Rowan.
They smiled at each other and headed off to class.
Keagan sat back in his chair, the OTHER WORLDS website on the computer screen before him. It had been only a few weeks since he had stepped through a doorway into another world, a perfect world, and returned to set up the site.
In that time, he had already been contacted by others who had done the same as him. A brother and sister who had visited a beast world, a couple of online gamers who had entered a game world … and now this. Two school kids who had stopped a dark world.
How many more worlds were out there? he wondered. How many more dangers to be faced? How many more problems to be solved?
Who would be next to step through a doorway into one of these OTHER WORLDS?
Books by George Ivanoff
You Choose 1: The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove
You Choose 2: Mayhem at Magic School
You Choose 3: Maze of Doom
You Choose 4: The Haunting of Spook House
You Choose 5: Night of the Creepy Carnival
You Choose 6: Alien Invaders from Beyond the Stars
You Choose 7: Super Sports Spectacular
You Choose 8: Trapped in the Games Grid
You Choose 9: Extreme Machine Challenge
You Choose 10: In the Realm of Dragons
You Choose 11: Creepy Crawly Chaos
You Choose 12: City of Robots
You Choose AFL: Footy Fever
Royal Flying Doctor Service 1: Remote Rescue
Royal Flying Doctor Service 2: Emergency Echo
Royal Flying Doctor Service 3: Medical Mission
Royal Flying Doctor Service 4: Fast Flight
Meet … The Flying Doctors
(Illustrated by Ben Wood)
OTHER WORLDS 1: Perfect World
OTHER WORLDS 2: Beast World
OTHER WORLDS 3: Game World
OTHER WORLDS 4: Dark World
A Random House book
Published by Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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www.penguin.com.au
First published by Random House Australia in 2018
Copyright © George Ivanoff 2018
Illustration copyright © James Hart 2018
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Penguin Random House Australia.
Addresses for the Penguin Random House group of companies can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com/offices.
ISBN 9780143786269
Cover and internal illustrations by James Hart
Cover design by Tony Palmer © Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Internal design and typesetting by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Cover and internal images: lightning onot/Shutterstock.com; portal phyZick/Shutterstock.com; series title type Epifantsev/Shutterstock.com;
circuits ivn3da/Shutterstock.com
Penguin Random House Australia uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and
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