Chris:
As quickly as the light overcame all his senses, it disappeared. Chris was laying on his back, blades of grass tickling the back of his neck, staring up at a web of branches and leaves that obscured the sky. He must of passed out by his favorite tree.
What a weird dream.
He sat up, expecting to see the school, and sucked in a harsh breath. Where the fuck was he? The school wasn’t anywhere in sight, instead he appeared to be in a clearing flanked on all sides by large trees.
And he wasn’t alone.
Waking up - was I even asleep? - around him other people were waking up. At first he didn’t think he knew any of them, they looked like college students mostly, but he caught sight of his science teacher and a blonde girl he’d seen around the hallway. He thought about asking his teacher what’s going on, but decided to stay quiet for the time being, let the others ask the questions.
Billy:
Billy blinked. The dinosaur that was also an A was gone. The light was gone too, so was the shaking ground and his desk and his crayon and the classroom. It was all gone and instead there was leaves, gently rolling on a soft breeze that carried the smell of the forest. Billy knew that smell from the time Poppa had taken him fishing, they had had to walk along the hiking trail to the lake and it smelled almost the same.
If Billy was older he would of asked himself if he was dreaming when he sat up to see where he was but alas, for children the distinction between dream and reality doesn’t exist the same way it does in an adult. Children are artists with imagination, the shackles of age and reality yet to take hold of tiny limbs to crush alternate perceptions of the core tenants of living.
So it was, as Billy stood up, looking at the unfamiliar faces of older people, - one that looked the same age his Poppa, another with red hair almost matching Mommy - that a smile cut across his face. Excitement welling up inside to bust out at the seams in giggles and playful glances at the people around him.