Lights, Camera, …What?!? Book 1 Prologue and Chapter 01 by Sofia Hammerstein

Connor Slane has grown up to be one of the brightest kids in his dimension and one of the most ambitious computer science majors at his top university. Of course he has, given that his mother, Stacy Slane, is responsible for the most impressive discoveries in AI in their world. Connor knew that her experiences in another dimension, which she had taken a portal to go to school for college, were a major part of her success. Now, thanks to an exchange program between his university and her alma mater, Emerson University, he has the chance to forge his own path in computers and his other love, filmmaking. Having seen still images of their amazing holographic films, he hopes go to Emerson, and then return to build his own empire - and maybe even find his true self, as his mother did.

The only problem is that the other dimension is not like our own. Three ‘races’ of humans exist there, Littles, about our own height and four feet to six feet on average, ‘Tweeners’ who are between six feet and about eight-and-a-half feet tall, and ‘Bigs’ who average a towering ten to twelve feet high on average! Since Littles appear to be the size of Bigs' babies and toddlers, they have a compulsive instinct to baby them – literally! Though Connor is at least Tweener size in his home dimension, he knows there is a risk he could shrink to Little height as his mother did.

Beth Sylvester is a Tweener herself and another child of influential parents in the other dimension. Her wealthy Big mom is the daughter of a disgraced former CEO, and her dad is the first and only Tweener to serve on the Supreme Court. Connor’s mom and Beth’s dad were good friends while she was in the dimension, and they’ll quickly discover that they enjoy hanging out with each other. They’ll also discover that if either is going to survive to the end of the semester academically or as mature adults, they’ll need to help each other out. If not, Connor could quickly find himself on the one-way road to being adopted by some Big, and Beth might not be far from that fate either…

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The Legal Stuff: Lights, Camera, …What?!? By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Copyright © 2023-2026 Sofia Hammerstein.
 

 
 

Prologue
 

I LOOKED AROUND my room, glanced at the two closed suitcases alongside my backpack, and tried to make sure I didn’t forget anything. ‘It’s just a semester,’ I reminded myself, eyeing a couple things I was leaving behind. Several half-done projects in builder’s blocks, half-painted figurines, and other knickknacks didn’t really mean much to me, but they gave me things to do as a teenager stuck at home.

“Connor, are you ready?” I heard my sister Riley’s voice behind me.

I turned and lowered my gaze to look at her. I’d gotten most of Mom’s height, but she was all Mama’s, six inches shorter than my six-and-a-half-foot frame. She had the same long dirty blonde hair that I had, but her blue eyes had a look of sadness that made me grimace. “I guess; what’s wrong, Riley?”

“What’s wrong?!?” She asked in a voice above a normal speaking level, but not quite a shout. “You’re going to the other dimension, idiot! You know Mom almost didn’t make it back several times!”

I sighed, “I know…?”

“And you know how Mom wasn’t like she is now when she left or got back!”

I shrugged, “I know… but like she went for their programming, I really want to go there for their film industry. You’ve seen those cool pictures that Grandma shared with us! If I can learn to do half of what they do with filmmaking, I can be our generation's Alfred Hitchcock.”

“IF you make it back…?” She insisted, and the tears streaming out of her eyes tore at me.

I leaned down and wrapped her in the best big sibling brother hug I could give her. “I’ll be okay, Ry,” I told her. “I’ll make it back, I promise.”

She pushed me away and punched me hard in the arm. “You’d better!!!”

“Connor, Riley, you coming?” I heard Mama’s voice shout.

“Coming,” I said while throwing my backpack over my shoulder. I grabbed the handle of one suitcase and was prevented from taking the other one by Riley beating me to it.

Downstairs, Lila and Hannah were arguing about some cheerleading drama, but stopped and stared up at us. “Come on, everyone, we need to get Connor to the university to meet his exchange group.” Mom said sadly, looking at me and motioning to the door to the garage. Mom pressed a button, and the doors to our large family van opened up. Riley and I took our customary seats in the back row while our baby sisters jumped into the middle row they had taken over as babies.

With the four of us being within four years of age, we were pretty close most of the time – but we fought like siblings did the rest. Riley was getting ready to finish her senior year of high school this semester when they went back to school next week, and Lila and Hannah were blazing through their junior year at the private school we had all attended. I myself had graduated from there a year and a half ago. I was in my fall semester of sophomore year when the possibility of an exchange semester was brought up at our university.

I was currently pursuing a film and computer science double major. Growing up with Mom and Mama meant that we were good at math and science and understood computers better than any of our peers. Riley steadfastly refused to major in anything computer-related, though. When she went to school next year, she instead planned on going into art. Ironically though, she was using art like Mom did, making incredible 3D printed works that were already selling at high prices! I loved to tease her for trying to be a Luddite but doing art with computers anyway!

I looked over at her while she clearly was looking at her phone. She had dressed in a grey sweater dress and leggings outfit that she had told me was cute and ‘comfy’ over the years. So she was sending me away in her comfort outfit, and I knew it showed just how much she thought I was an idiot for going through the portal.

Lila and Hannah were just casually dressed in a set of their cheer pants and sweatshirts with their school’s name on them. I noticed then that Mom had turned her seat around after starting the vehicle’s drive to the portal. She looked back at us, making eye contact with me. “You sure you have everything?” She asked me.

“Pretty sure,” I allowed.

“You have Grandma’s number?”

I rattled it off to her. “I can just find her at Emerson, too, right?”

She shrugged, “I know she’s still insisting on maintaining her office, but I don’t think she goes in every day.”

I nodded at that, “How old is she now?”

Riley poked me, “That’s not very nice!”

“What? I’m just asking… I know she’s older than Mom, obviously…?”

Mom shook her head while Mama giggled slightly. Finally, mom looked over at her, “What?”

“Just cause you look way younger than your age doesn’t mean you’re a spring chicken yourself. It’s okay for Connor to be curious.” I mused at the fact that after Mom came back, she ended up stuck looking like a kid who failed potty training for years afterward until she somehow sorted herself out. Now she still looked under thirty, while Mama looked their actual age of early fifties. Technically, according to her government-issued birth certificate, Mom was only thirty-eight, even though they’d lived the same number of years.

Mom sighed, “I guess you’re right. Your grandma is seventy-two now, and grandpa is seventy-four. Both of them are doing pretty well health-wise though!”

“Do people live the same length of lives there?”

“The Bigs do. Free Littles are about the same too.”

“Adopted?” I asked, expecting her to say their lives were halved by their captivity.

“Depends on if they’re rejuvenated or not…?” Mom paused, “Normal adopted Littles lived to like one-hundred-ten years normally. The ones who were being given the rejuvenations were making it to at least one-hundred-twenty-five when I left. No one seemed to know how long they would live as very few of those Littles had died of natural causes.”

I nodded.

The basics of life in the ‘other’ dimension I was traveling to had become common knowledge in ours. Three races of humans lived in that dimension; Bigs, or Amazons, were these huge humans that grew on average to between ten and twelve feet tall and basically ruled the dimension. There were Littles on the other side of the spectrum that were mostly the same size as us, being under six feet. Sometimes they were smaller – child-sized even by our standards. Finally, in the middle of all of them were the Mids, or Betweeners, between six and eight-and-a-half feet.

People did argue and debate about whether things were really as bad for Littles as some stories from people returning claimed.

I’d asked Mom once, and she’d said, “Yes, Connor, I was in diapers and babied a lot by your grandma during college. Most of my friends were adopted by the time we graduated.”

My eyes had widened at the fact it was the truth, but she had gone on and explained she’d known what she was getting into. Riley and my sisters had badgered her for more information over the years, and it became apparent that she had made a crazy gamble pay off to make a fortune in our dimension. Single-handedly, Mom’s AI development company had changed the world since she returned. Among her success stories was perfecting the software for the L5 self-driving vehicle we were currently sitting in. It was fully capable of automatically driving us safely to the university, where I was to meet our group.

“Connor,” I heard and squirmed at the poke in my side.

“What?” I squealed.

“Mama asked if you were alright!” She told me.

I looked back up and realized they were all staring at me.

“I’m fine… Just… well… nervous butterflies, you know?”

“You can still back out, sweetie,” Mom told me.

“Mom, you and Grandpa always told me that Slane men have always gone on adventures, right? So it’s just my turn.” I forced a nervous smile, “Besides, I want to do for movies here what you’ve done for everything else!”

“Riiiight,” Riley said beside me.

I did what any good older sibling does and stuck my tongue out at her.

“Try not to do that over there, sweetie,” Mom said. “Maturity is everything… especially if you end up getting shorter.”

“You only got short because it was your second trip, right?” Lila asked.

“We were never completely sure,” Mom told us, “But I never risked going back since I didn’t want to get even shorter a third time!”

“Don’t worry, Con,” Hannah said, “I’m sure you’ll be at least as tall as Mom was!”

“Hopefully taller than that… I mean, Mom was toddler-sized even by our standards here!” Lila retorted.

I groaned.

“Not helping, you two,” Mama said.

“Who said we had to help?” Lila giggled.

“With sisters like you two, who needs enemies?” I said aloud.

All too soon, our large vehicle came to a stop outside the university building I was meeting our group. “I don’t get why they aren’t taking you through the main portal,” Mom worried.

“Supposedly this is safer…?” I said, silently sharing those concerns. “Besides, we’re supposed to be given diplomatic status for our trip.”

Mom shook her head, “Don’t depend on it, even if they give you a visa with that listed on it.”

The four of them insisted on walking me to the third-floor lecture hall, where we were supposed to get instructions before using a university-operated portal. As we stopped, I could see a few others standing around the room inside the doors. Riley rolled the suitcase she had next to me and then wrapped me in a big hug. “You better come back here!” she said, looking up at me.

I nodded, “I will!”

“I expect baby pictures if you become a Little!” She smirked at me.

I just shook my head, “In your dreams!”

Lila and Hannah came up to me one at a time, and I lifted them off their feet and hugged them like I’d done most of their lives. While Riley had nearly crossed six feet too, Lila and Hannah, for some reason, were only in the mid-five-foot range. They were wiping tears away as I turned to Mama. “I love you, Mama,” I told her.

“I love you too, Connor. It was hard seeing your mom go all those years ago, but this is harder. Take care of yourself and stay safe!” She told me as I leaned over and hugged her.

Last was Mom, who had an odd look of resignation as I leaned up to hug her. “I love you, Mom,” I told her.

“I love you too, Connor, more than you can know.” She paused for a second and pushed me away to look at me, “You have your grandparents’ contact information, right?”

“Yes, I have Grandma and Grandpa’s numbers memorized and Aunt Megan and Aunt Bella’s on my phone.”

She then squeezed me back into a tight hug and whispered, “I’ll love you the same even if you end up as a Little. Be safe and take care of yourself. Keep the toy I gave you safe!”

I nodded and wiped some tears away from my face. “See you soon!” I told them as I gathered my two rolling bags and walked into the hall’s door. I purposefully didn’t look back until I was sure they'd be gone.
 

BETH LOOKED OVER at her parents sitting on one side of the plane’s aisle, quietly talking about something. She blushed as her dad gently kissed her mom, and she rubbed his far shoulder with her draped arm. Having parents with such differences in size seemed weird to everyone else, but it was just the way it was to her. Jason and Laura sat on the other side of her towards the window, both obviously completely engrossed in the movie they were watching on their headsets.

Along with all of her siblings, she had received the gift of the state-of-the-art headsets for Christmas. Beth was a little more careful about using hers, especially in public! She wasn’t technically a Little… ‘Well, at least now…’ she admitted. ‘Knowing you’re the height of a first grader doesn’t make you feel that safe!’

‘I still can’t believe the story… even though I know, it’s true.’ A quick glance over at her dad, and she could guess why she had fallen for him long ago before having her mind and body utterly destroyed by her grandmother’s company. ‘I still can’t imagine what it must have taken for Daddy to be willing to try to save me that way.’ Save, of course, was a relative term… She was alive, and biologically you could argue she was the same matter and creature she was before, but truthfully, she didn’t remember anything before she was reborn. ‘The closest I ever got was when Daddy showed me the ‘Inches’ poem I gave him.’

That still hadn’t been a clear memory… but there was a deep feeling that she had made it. Her brain had been destroyed by a chemical in a test product she and her real mom had unwittingly used. Her… ‘mom’ had suggested trying to rebirth her to reset her body. So, using the newest technology at the time, her addled body was implanted into her mother’s womb for nine months and reborn as a bouncing baby girl. Her body had been able to grow again, and her brain learned everything all over again, just like a normal infant. That she had then caused her mom’s womb to suddenly work and gained three siblings made them seem like the perfect family. ‘At least until they admitted to me what happened!’

All of that was ancient history now, and she was on her way back for her fourth semester of college at Emerson – her parents’ Alma Mater. Lance had stayed home and was waiting another day before going back for his second semester at Hamilton University, where their Dad had earned his law degree. It was the university her Dad had wanted her to attend too, but something about Emerson had pulled her back to Ames.

‘Even if I was a Little, there has been some progress there. Thanks to Daddy and Grandma Ruth, Littles rights had made significant gains in the past twenty years!’

She knew that the elderly Ruth Jones was not her biological grandmother, but she affectionated her dad as a son after years of knowing him. She’d insisted as soon as Beth could talk that she was to be called Grandma. Indeed, she was proud to be able to call a Supreme Court Justice her grandmother!

It was a bit weirder having one as your dad, though!

Her friends assumed she’d follow in her dad’s footsteps and become a lawyer, but she was leaving that to her siblings. Instead, she was studying Electrical Engineering. She loved the subject from what she’d learned so far but wasn’t particularly looking forward to her upcoming semester’s course load. ‘Calc IV, Signals and Systems, Data Structures, alone would be bad enough…Being stuck in that stupid Western Civilization History Class will only make it worse!’ She mused that at least she was taking one ‘fun’ elective course in filmmaking for her arts elective.

She glanced back over at her siblings and realized that her own headset would be getting a fair amount of use this semester.

She reached into the bag in front of her with a sigh and pulled out a book she had started reading over the break. Her dad apparently imported from the other dimension, and she couldn’t put it down as it told a story of a ring of power and a weird race of Little sounding creatures called dwarves.

It fully distracted her for the remaining half-hour of the short flight!
 
 

Chapter 1: Departure
 

CONNOR LOOKED AROUND at the group of eleven other students and two professors sitting in a circle of chairs on the lecture hall floor. A man who looked just shy of forty, with midlife-crisis-bleached-blonde hair, stood and spoke, “Okay, I think we should all know who each other are before proceeding with our briefing and then transportation through the portal today. First, most of you have met me preparing for the semester, but there are a few I’ve only emailed with. So… I’m Doctor Matthew Owens. I’m a professor of history here at the university and will be going along as one of your academic advisors at Emerson. I’ll be taking advantage of the time there to study Amazonian History and its parallels to our own dimension’s.”

There was a round of polite applause as he nodded towards a woman of similar height, both of them short of six feet tall, who stood now as he sat. I guessed she was probably close to his age, but her brown hair was natural and well cared for. “I’m Doctor Katherine Benson. I believe I met all of you for your initial physicals last fall. I’m a professor of medicine specializing in nanite replication. I’ll be spending time with my counterparts at Emerson University’s hospital studying their nanite advancements while also checking up on your health and advising you like Doctor Owens.”

“Now, let’s get to each of you,” Doctor Owens said. “Amelia, you’re next to Doctor Benson; how about you go next?”

“Umm… what do you want me to say?” The very short college girl asked, clearly nervous at speaking in front of everyone as she stood up. She was pretty with her strawberry blonde hair and striking green eyes, but I would have been worried she was in middle school at most if she wasn’t here with us. I guessed she was about four-and-a-half feet tall at best! ‘She’s going to be in so much trouble over there!’ I thought.

Doctor Benson rubbed her shoulder gently, “How about you all tell us your name, age, major, and why you decided to do the program?”

I felt terrible for the poor girl. She was clearly not happy with the situation. Finally, she sighed and said, “Well, okay then… I’m Amelia Silverston, but my friends call me Amy… I turned twenty-one last fall - even if no one ever believes me!” There was a general chuckle at that from the group. “I’m studying Physics. That’s why I’m going… The other dimension supposedly is at least thirty years ahead of us in understanding quantum and particle physics.”

She looked at Doctor Benson as if to ask, ‘Enough?’ When the short girl received a nod, she breathed a sigh of relief as the slightly taller girl beside her started.

“Hi, I’m Ava…” a girl only slightly taller than her stood. “And I fully understand the short people problems, Amy!” The brown-haired girl explained, “I’m twenty and an archaeology major. I’m interested in similar things as Doctor Benson, actually.”

An average height and slightly overweight guy with closely shaved hair stood and said, “I’m Oliver Sanders. I’m twenty-one as well and studying Electrical Engineering. I want to go and study some of the new conductive materials the other dimension has been developed, as well as their battery cell technology.”

The second tallest guy besides myself stood then, “I’m Asher Colson. I’m twenty-one and studying music. There’s been a lot of back and forth about technology over the years, but no one has really studied music in the other dimension to see what’s different!”

I nodded, ‘Musicians don’t strike me as the type to survive adoption attempts.’ Asher looked like he was probably reasonably strong, but he didn’t strike me as a fighter like I had been brought up by Mom.

Another tiny girl, who I knew would have a future mommy’s fan club fawning over her, stood next. “Hi, I’m Mila Olson, I’m twenty-one, and I’m studying Early Childhood Education!” She smiled, “I know the rumors out there, but I want to see how they care for their kids!”

Mila was the epitome of a cheerleader as she spoke. ‘Maybe I should be playing a game of who will be first adopted…?’

The others followed in relatively rapid succession. Avery was a twenty-two-year-old Psychology major with bright pink hair that definitely made her stand out. Tatum was a larger guy in girth but still under six feet in height. He was studying Chemical Engineering and seemed pretty bright. Then Noah, a very short guy at about five feet, would be sharing some computer science courses with me in theory. He was definitely overweight, and the way he spoke made me feel like he had a massive chip on his shoulder about being smarter than everyone else.

Luca was another short guy at just a few inches over five feet. “I’m studying astronomy and am curious to see if their solar system matches up with ours! Also, I’m really interested in their current planetary colonization efforts!”

Liam was another computer nerd studying computer engineering and claimed he was interested in learning about the other world’s chipmaking processes. I shook my head, knowing my mom was as far along with following their technology as anyone would ever be. He was just above five-and-a-half feet himself. Something about how he carried himself told me he was at least a moderately well-trained fighter.

The final girl before me was Willow Kastner, one of our oldest members at twenty-two, who was just a smidge over five feet in height and overweight. She was an art major, and the bright blue hair she wore went well against the other odd colors in our group.

Finally, I stood myself, “I’m Connor Slane. I’m twenty and dual majoring in Computer Science and Filmmaking. My mom went to undergrad at Emerson, and I’m looking forward to experiencing the more advanced filmmaking technologies there!”

Doctor Owens gave me a warm smile, “Thank you, Connor.” Then, he stood and turned to the rest of the group as he activated a projection screen at the front of the hall. ‘Dimensional Exchange Briefing’ was the title of the first slide.

“We will all receive an additional briefing on the other side at Emerson, but we have been strongly suggested to brief you all in advance of the many things you need to be aware of in the other dimension. First, for transportation, we will be using the university portal that you can just walk through. A conveyor belt will transport your luggage to a parallel portal beside you when you arrive. Meanwhile, you will step straight through one yourself.”

“What’s it feel like?” Mila, the short girl who wanted to study early childhood education, asked.

“A bit like a rollercoaster and airplane ride… but not. You may or may not end up nauseous from the trip. We have been advised that it can be a bit better if you close your eyes just before you walk through.” He paused, looking for other questions.

Tatum waved at him, “Is it true we may shrink as we go through?”

“Shrink or grow…” he said. “Most people shrink, but it seems random and is still being studied. It’s part of why in a few minutes before we go through, you will all be measured and weighed here, and then same on the Emerson side.”

“How short do people get…?” The shortest girl, Amy, asked.

“It just depends,” he said.

“You can end up pretty short,” I told her myself. “My mom, on her second trip through, ended up under forty inches in height.”

“That’s a toddler in our world!” Mila said.

I nodded, “Yes!”

“No worries of you shrinking that far?” Asher said.

I shrugged, “Who knows…?”

“May I continue?” Doctor Owens asked impatiently.

“Yes, sir,” several people said.

“Good! Once you make it through, there will be a medical examination to ensure nothing has gone awry with your health. There isn’t anything expected, so this is more of a routine checkup for visitors. One of Emerson’s hospital staff doctors will administer this, overseen by Doctor Benson for your protection.” He looked around as if waiting for questions but moved on. “You’ll be reunited and assigned a dorm at that time.”

“Why haven’t we already been assigned?” Asher, the only person close to my height, asked.

“Due to the randomness of height changes, it was suggested we wait. If, for instance, you are below six feet in height here, you might find yourself taller than that there. On the other hand, you could also likely be above six feet here and be shorter there.” I squirmed at that thought, “In either case, they find it’s best to have people separated by height in dorms due to the dimension’s extremes in height. If you were shorter and trying to use a sink or shower in the Big dorms, you may not be able to reach, for instance.”

“So, we may end up in the Little dorms?” I found myself asking.

“Yes,” he said to me. “I know you had tried to make some alternate arrangements there with family, Connor, but they insist that our group stay on campus in the normal dorm arrangements, so you get the full experience.”

“With family?” the girl next to me, Willow, whispered.

I nodded, “I’ll tell you later.”

“So back to arrival… Once you’re assigned a dorm, an RA will collect you and help you get settled into your room. If there are any issues, you will be able to contact Doctor Benson or me, and we’ll try and help negotiate a solution. Please note, though, that per the agreements you signed, Emerson has full rights to assign you the dorms of their choice.”

I felt my stomach squirm at this, knowing some of the stories Mom had told me about her friends.

“That should take us to just before lunch, I believe, when our group will meet up for a quick lunch meeting with one of the deans. They will schedule a couple of meetings after that with you, and then you’re supposed to meet with your assigned advisor before dinner. After dinner, you’ll be able to finish getting settled, and then you’ll have the next four days, including the weekend, to acclimatize and be ready for classes to start on Monday.”

“What about books?” Noah asked.

“Everything will be on a tablet assigned to you, is my understanding. Emerson has already arranged digital copies of textbooks so that you don’t even need to go to the bookstore.”

“And for other items we need?” Liam asked.

“There’s a bookstore on campus and a nearby mall. You can get a ride on their carshare system to get clothes or anything you need.”

“Wait, will any of our clothes fit on the other side?” Mila asked, suddenly panicked.

He shrugged, “My understanding is that it’s hit or miss. The university has promised to provide funds for you to purchase up to two weeks of clothes as needed to get you by if the ones you bring don’t fit. Whatever you wear through the portal should size down or up with you.”

There were a few other inane questions and some nervous questions then too. The portals had been open now for forty years, but travel through them was still not a commonplace thing. In the past twenty years, there had been many scandals and incidents with adoption policies in the other dimension that had all but eliminated any non-government official travel until about five years ago when the tourist companies had finally been allowed to restart.

“A few other reminders before we get to our last checks here. Please remember we are guests at their university and must follow their rules and procedures. Failure to do so may mean you are removed from the program.” I grimaced at that, knowing that probably didn’t include a trip back home. “You have been granted a special student visa for your semester that gives you some rights that are near diplomatic immunity but not fully considered that. I highly recommend that you don’t depend on that to get you out of trouble, though! They’ll go over the university rules and procedures with us themselves when we get there. Please know that you have one date home through their portal at the end of the semester; you must come home on that date. You can’t come home before or after that day.”

I found my palms sweaty at that statement; it was very much what Mom had dealt with. ‘I’m only going for the semester; I can figure out things and get back here!’ I thought to myself. ‘And if it’s a one-way trip… Well, Mom and Mama still have my sisters.’

I jolted back when I heard, “No more questions? Then let’s get moving to the portal!”

I stood up alongside the others and pulled my luggage along. We were led to an elevator and a sub-basement where I heard rumors about a test nuclear reactor for the physics department. There had always been security guards around the entrances, so I figured it was true. ‘I wonder if there’s that and the portal, or it’s just been a diversion from the portal…?’

Unsure of how deep we were underground, I couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous as I followed the group down a fairly old-feeling concrete-walled hallway. We made a few turns before coming into a larger open room with two shimmering portals. One had a conveyor belt running into it, and the other was being used by someone walking through it just then.

“Good afternoon, I’m Professor Menger, and I run the operations here for the portal. First, we need you all to leave your non-carry luggage on the belt before following Doctor Lethbridge into that side room. Then, we’ll document your height and weight measurements there before you come out here and walk through one at a time to the other dimension.”

I noticed the professor seemed to be a bit freakishly tall, as he was even taller than I was! ‘A Mid or an Amazon from the other side…?’ I wondered.

I followed the group forward and ended up midway in the line. Avery was declared ‘Five-foot nine, one-hundred-thirty-seven pounds’ as she slid her slip-on shoes back onto her feet.

“Next?” The man said. “Name?”

“Connor Slane…” I told him, looking up into his face. I noted that he was one of the very few people I had met that I had to do that with!

“Please take your shoes off and step onto the scale,” he told me.

I stood on a metal plate with the digital readout you could see above it. A moment later, a laser flashed and measured my height while my weight was checked by the scale.

“Six feet, six-and-a-half-inches, one hundred-seventy pounds.” He loudly announced to the technician taking notes in the system.

“You can put your shoes back on and rejoin the group.” He told me, “Good luck over there.”

I looked up at him and wondered if there was a double meaning with that statement but muttered, “Thanks…” to him as I strolled out to meet the others.

‘I wonder why they’re really collecting the data?’ I thought as I moved closer to the portal with everyone. There was a nervous quiet that had descended upon the group. Surely the others had heard of the stories… all true, according to Mom!

Finally, we were all lined back up and told, “Take a deep breath and close your eyes as you pass through. We’ve found that it tends to keep your chances of feeling motion sick down.”

One at a time, I watched as the first five of our group, led by Doctor Owens, stepped through. The light was shimmering as I approached it, and I knew I had this last chance to go back…

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and stepped into the portal, feeling a strange static sensation pass over my body.

 
 

Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you did so and press the Kudos button! I should be posting a couple times a week until this is fully posted here on BC. This first full novel is complete (73 chapters plus Epilogue) and published on Amazon if you wish to be impatient though!

All of my published works have AI read audiobooks available for them. I’ve spent some time tweaking pronunciations, and they’re pretty good when you can’t afford thousands to pay for audiobook creation! They’re a $1.99 addon to the $6.95 price on Kindle. If you’ve already purchase the book it should come up as only $1.99. They’re also available on Audible directly, but that’s $10.95 versus the cheaper price! https://www.amazon.com/author/babysofia