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A bright light burned through Corinna's eyelids. It had been years since she last felt that warm, embracing sensation. Slowly, she creaked open her eyes and allowed the sun's rays to seep into her skull. The abrasive sun blinded her for a few moments, causing her to go numb to her new surroundings.
"Young lady!" A nasally, piercing voice screeched— yanking Corinna out of her peaceful moment of readjustment.
Corinna skewed her head to glare at the person screaming her name. "Get to class! You ingrates are always skipping class!" The woman shouted, placing her heavy hands on her wide hips.
Corinna observed the woman, hoping to recognize her. But, the deep creases lined on her face and pear shaped body didn't familiarize itself within Corinna's mind. She knew the woman must've been a teacher or administrator of a school, but Corinna couldn't recall if she were at a school. Hell, she thought she was still stuck in the Upside Down. She supposed she was simply dreaming of this nasty woman yelling at her. "I said get to class, young lady!" The woman stamped her foot.
Corinna begrudgingly scrambled to her feet. Although she didn't know where she was, if any of this encounter was real or who the old woman was— she was far too frightened to question the hag's authority. "I- I- class?" Corinna squeaked out. Her voice croaked and creaked like an old unused car.
The heavy set woman's angered face relaxed after noting Corinna's confusion. "Oh! I'm so sorry, darling. You must be the new student I heard about, though... I did think it was a boy that was coming." The woman cracked a smile, revealing her yellowed and broken teeth.
Corinna attempted not to cringe at the sight and proceeded to nod. "Yes." She replied; she was going to say whatever to get out of that situation as fast as possible.
"Then come with me, sweetheart, the counselor will get you your schedule." The hag of a woman told as she walked past Corinna.
Despite despising the idea of following the old woman, this was the most action she had seen in years. Everything seemed so lifelike... it didn't seem like one of her countless dreams she had dreamt to keep her going in the limbo of the other side. Therefore, Corinna followed along... mostly out of pure curiosity to see where this presumed dream would take her. 'Class? Schedule? She must've been talking about a school. But where was—,' Corinna turned around to face the direction the old woman was walking toward, 'oh.' She thought as she was confronted with a giant high school building standing proudly before her. It had been behind her all along.
* * *
Without much questioning, Corinna was given a schedule and sent to her class. There, she met her teacher and was assigned a seat, in which she was plopped into. Throughout the rest of the day she went from class to class, learning about irrelevant things— most of which she had learned growing up such as: Physics, Chemistry, and Calculus. At the end of the day, a loud bell rang and all of the students swarmed out of the classes. Corinna thought the whole situation was strange... it was so unlike any other dream she ever had... nevertheless, she continued to assume she was just imagining herself in Hawkins while she still drifted in limbo.
