Glitch in Reality

Your smart glasses malfunction during a school trip and start showing you things from a parallel dimension. Objects from the other world are leaking into yours, and you're the only one who can see them.

You slide your brand-new SmartVue glasses onto your nose as the school bus rumbles toward the Millbrook Science Museum. Your parents saved up for months to get you these glasses for your birthday. They can identify plants, translate signs, and even overlay fun facts onto whatever you look at.

But something feels off today. The lenses keep flickering with a faint purple static, like tiny lightning bolts dancing at the edges of your vision.

'Hey, are your glasses okay?' your best friend Kai asks from the seat next to you. 'They look like they are glitching.'

'Probably just needs an update,' you say, tapping the side of the frames. The static clears for a moment, then comes back stronger.

The bus hits a pothole and your glasses flash bright white. When your vision clears, you see something impossible through the window: a giant crystalline tree growing right out of the highway, shimmering with blue light. Cars pass straight through it like it is not even there.

You blink hard. The tree is still there.

'Kai, do you see that tree?' you whisper.

'What tree? There is nothing out there but traffic,' Kai says, looking confused.