Chapter Text
Now, Scott knows that as a teacher, he probably shouldn’t be picking favorites among the students he teaches, but the group of boys who deemed themselves “The Party” were by far his favorites. They were always invested in the lessons he taught, and they went as far as to ask him questions outside of school hours. He knew he probably would have told any other students to wait until his office hours or between classes, but these kids were so interested in learning he made that small exception for them. It was truly terrible what happened to the youngest Byers boy, he was always the heart of the group, and Wheeler was so lost without him. When they came to him Friday afternoon, right before the funeral for the poor boy, they seemed to be doing a little better, as if knowing what happened was able to give them all some sort of closure. They had a girl with them, they claimed she was Michael’s second cousin who had come to attend the funeral.
Dustin Henderson was the one to ask what would, unbeknownst to him, be the first of many hypothetical questions he’d be receiving for the next few years.
“Do alternate dimensions exist?”
The poor kids were probably hoping there was a place William was still with them. Well, at least he had an answer to give them to satisfy their curiosity and, maybe, make them feel a little less upset.
“It’s actually a very likely, almost absolute certainty. There are possibly many alternate realities, some might even be so closely connected to ours it would theoretically be possible to travel to one given the proper resources.”
“How would you, hypothetically speaking, go about traveling to one?” Michael spoke up this time. It was the most words Scott had heard him speak in a row since William’s body was found. Maybe even since he first went missing. Hopefully he only got better over time. Scott also hoped he wouldn’t accidentally make things worse with his answer.
“Well, to travel to an alternate dimension, even one where the border is as thin as a sheet of paper, would require a massive amount of energy. Currently, we are unable to generate enough power to travel across dimensions as it would need to be enough to, essentially, rip a hole in space to create a “Gate” of sorts. With that Gate one would, in theory, be able to cross between dimensions freely. Closing the gate would take at least the same amount of energy as opening one would take, so inter-dimensional travel is still a far-off concept.”
Mr. Clarke clocked Dustin as the leader for science-related things, and it was Dustin who asked the final question of the day. Scott Clarke liked to think he was a great science teacher, maybe he wasn’t the best, but he still tried to know anything a curious middle school child might want to know. He will also admit this next question, while he was able to answer it, wasn’t something he ever expected a kid to ask him.
“What if there was already a Gate? How would you know? How would you find it?”
“Well, the first major clue would be a rather strong magnetic field, causing any compass that is close enough to go wild and start spinning rapidly, going faster the closer you get to the Gate. This, already, would make it incredibly easy to track down, but there are also the physical changes it would make. Having a Gate open to an alternate dimension would almost certainly disrupt the environment. There would be what is essentially a hole in the ground, on a tree, or a wall, that would appear as if the space it occupied were ripped like a piece of paper. Animals nearby might leave the area, having been spooked by the energy the Gate released upon opening, plants in the surrounding area might wither and die, depending on the energy release and even the environmental factors of the other dimension conflicting with their needs.”
“Thanks Mr. Clarke!” and with that last confusing response, the group left the way they came.
“You're welcome!” is called down the hall, even as the troupe of preteens rounds the corner out of sight. If anyone were to be there in that hallway, at that moment in time, they might have heard a sigh of confused, yet still very fond, exasperation from the man. He sincerely hoped things got better for these kids, they didn’t deserve to lose their friend like this.
If he was completely honest, all he wanted was to get home and relax, but first there was the memorial being held in the Gym to attend. At the very least, he’d have a rather interesting story to tell that night.