Cianna did not remember how she got there because, frankly, she was pretty sure she didn't know where there was exactly. Sure, maybe it was related to that field trip the class was supposed to be going on, but the smell of storage and sort-of-white walls covered in tasteless tags gave her the feeling that she wasn't too far from school at all. It would be the basement, if the school had a basement... which they did not, so that only left her more confused.
"What the..." she began and stopped herself all in the same breathe. No one was around to answer the question anyway, unless you counted the ages-old, faded mural of nondescript students that were clearly drawn by someone without the experience of public education because they looked too darn happy about being at school.
Her head was spinning. Was it the dust? Hopefully, it was the dust of the faded, chipping, white paint on the walls because even if it were laced with lead like it was likely of a school of this age, it would be better than half the things the people in A-wing... and C-wing... and D-wing... basically, half the school was huffing voluntarily. Cianna brought the collar of her shirt over her mouth and nose, and pulled herself up off the floor where she had apparently passed out.
"Great. Did I get kidnapped?" she would have asked if only those deceivingly happy students could possibly answer her.
"No, all the people who would kidnap you and lock you in a basement graduated last year," they may reply.
The only way out she could see was cracked and opened purple door. There was a light on the other side. This situation looked worse and worse as time progressed. What the heck?
Cianna stumbled with her hands dropping to her sides, lacking anything because it seemed she had nothing on her when she was deposited here by whatever, whoever, whatever.
To the door she went, knowing that this could all be a trap, but she was basically trapped anyway, so what the hell?
"- Come on, come on, we don't have all day..."
What the hell, indeed... Who was that? And why did they sound like they were ripped out of a oldie comic strip of a boy playing baseball?
"Why I oughtta' - " she could almost hear that voice say. That was why it sounded familiar, right? It sounded like a stereotype.
The light was a faint yellow, not unlike what the other school color tried to be. It was almost gold.
On the wall opposite the door she poked only her head through, she saw another mural, drawn on the gray concrete of the paint-scrapped walls. In chalk.
"Snap?" she spoke aloud, confused.
There he was! In all his blue-and-white glory, Snap of Chalkzone! Drawn, no less, in chalk. Drawn well, surprisingly.
"The one-and-only!" the drawing spoke, his chalk-drawn mouth moving in perfect sync. This could be no trick. No one could possibly get it to look well enough.
"You're drawn magnificently," she said despite having no clue as to why she felt inclined to. It must be the paint-dust, chalk-dust, weed, whatever.
"Gee, uh..." the drawing looked at a loss for words, "Thanks... could you help a magnificently drawn guy out, though?"
"Help me out... of the mural..."
Snap's form seemed to wriggle, but only slightly, against the flat background of what looked to be a faded scene of a classroom.
Well, if she were going along with the rest of this...
"The chalk... Use the chalk..."
Snap looked really hard at her at that moment, as if she were the talking overlay of dust on a decaying school wall.
"The uh... the uh... chalk there... in your hand," he sounded unsure at first, but then committed to a tone laced with snark, "Oi what are these guys teaching you kids these days..."
Cianna looked down and, sure enough, chalk. She didn't have to be told what kind of chalk it was. There were even glowing sparks coming from it every so often, the harder she stared at it. She knew this was it. It was the chalk.
Lightning quick, (Because when does one get a chance like this? Not often.) she drew a circle, which turned out perfect almost magically, in the floor beneath them both.
"Excellent! Excellent! Now, just... uh... erase the rest of this gar-bage around me so I can jump out..."
Cianna shrugged, and proceeded to scrap away the faint lines around the blue boy with the back of her empty hand. She switched the chalk, and repeated on the other side of Snap's form.
"Ahahahaha!" Snap laughed as he watched the literal garbage fall away from the wall into the world beyond, that he could see thanks to the glowing portal.
Soon enough, Snap popped straight off the wall and yelled Geronimo before diving down the hole.
Cianna blinked into the white abyss beyond. She leaned over the side, feeling a slight twang of vertigo take over as she wobbled. In the distance, she could make out colorful drawings and landscapes like she had only seen in the cartoons. And less pleasant things she'd seen drawn in a classroom.
"Boy, this place has changed a bit. Don't know how I got to this part," Snap seemed adequately disgusted by the scene, though pleased about his restored freedom.
He started stepping further away when he stopped suddenly.
"Ey, uh... You coming or what? We could use an ar-tist around these parts... God knows we could use less of these... scribbles... and more art. Like -uh- yours truly!"
Cianna stared at the blue boy, who seemed entirely genuine in his offer. She looked down into her hand where the chalk sparked again. Chalk. Chalk. Cianna got the chalk...
The chalk-a, chalk-a, ChalkZone.
