Stopping the World

“Marley, wake up!” I heard someone exclaim to me. I could distantly hear an alarm clock going off behind the voice. “You’re going to be late for class! You overslept again!”

“What?” I asked, lifting my head off of the comfort of my pillow, but still not opening my eyes.

“Get up!” I finally recognized the voice as the one of Rachel, my roommate. I finally opened my eyes to see her looking at me expectantly. I sighed, before I slowly got up.

“Look, you know I can get there instantly,” I looked at the clock, to see that I had fifteen minutes until I had to be in class. “The earth, remember?”

Okay, so I kind of ended up breaking the minor rule that Mom gave me, which was to not discuss the world outside of her side of the family. But Rachel has been my friend since before I even got the earth in the first place, and she and I were really close. So, I told her about it, and she promised to keep it a secret. Mom was a little peeved when I told her about Rachel knowing at first, but she eventually got over it and accepted Rachel as if she were apart of the family.

“Yeah, but it’ll be kind of obvious if you just pop up instantly in a hall way or something,” she said. “Who knows who could be watching?” I waved it off.

“I’ll make sure when I transport to places me in a bathroom or something,” I said, “that way, it won’t be so public.” This would probably be the first time I’ve thought of using the globe for transporting easily to class, and mentally cursed myself for being as stupid as to not thinking of it before. It’s a heck of a better idea compared to running out of the dorm building and to the building where my first class was; that was for sure. “And what about you, anyway? Don’t you have a class to worry about getting to as well?”

“Today we’re going on a field trip off campus,” she said. “So, I don’t need to be at my class for another hour, now, seeing as that’s when we’ll be leaving.”

“Oh,” I said, as I got up from my bed. “Too bad that’s not the same for me. Even though I can get there quickly, I can’t get ready quickly, so I better hurry up.”

“See, I kept trying to get you to get up,” she said in an ‘I-told-you-so’ tone. I hated it, especially since I was used to hearing that from my mother all the time when I made mistakes growing up.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, once again waving her off. She sighed as she finally left our room, in search of the most important meal of the day, I presumed, since she didn’t have to leave for class for another hour now.

>>--------------------------------------------->>

I managed to get done with five minutes to spare. Well, technically ten, since I generally set off five minutes ahead of time. Usually I would have had a good twenty, but since I overslept, I lost half the time.

I hurried up and got the globe out, focusing in on North America, then the U.S., finally rounding in on California. It’s a wonder this thing didn’t have any short cuts, like letting me quickly access places I was near or whatever, but sadly it wasn’t built with that feature.

Two minutes later I finally found where I wanted to transported to, and double-clicked on it. Making sure my purse was with me, my surroundings changed from that of Rachel and I’s dorm room to that of a.... hallway. Wait a minute, I wasn’t supposed to be in a hallway.

I looked around cautiously, noticing that I was standing right next to the planned destination: a restroom that was in the first building I had a class in. I sighed, looking at the earth floating just above my palms. The only draw back of it was that you had to be so precise with it, what having just happened being the prime example.

I sighed before carefully placing it in my big purse. I planned accordingly when buying new ones, making sure the whole globe along with a box that it fit in managed to fit in my purse.

“What was that?” I heard someone just behind me ask. I clenched my teeth before slowly turning around to see who said it.

And it turned out to be none other than Nick Jonas.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why was The Nick Jonas, of The Jonas Brothers, standing in front of me? Well, that happened to be because he was trying to take the normal route and go to college. He was still highly famous, as far as I knew anyway, but he still chose to go here. And now I also know what else you’re thinking: why wasn’t I freaking out? I will admit I did at first, but after the initial shock wore off, I just saw him as a regular person. Unlike some people, like Rachel, who freaked at just the mention of him.

Anyways, right now, I was hoping he wasn’t talking about what I thought he was talking about. But with my luck, he was looking at my purse, where I had just a moment ago placed the earth. I looked away momentarily, before looking back at him.

“What... this?” I asked stupidly, holding up my purse. “It’s just my bag-”

“I know what that is,” he said, “I was talking about what you were just holding; that you just placed inside of it.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” I said, trying to brush it off. “Just a, um... project.”

“A project?” He questioned, still not looking like he believed me. “What kind of project?”

“A... life... project,” I answered unsurely, not even believing my own lie. But lucky for me, he dropped the topic.

Or, well, if he wasn’t going to, it got dropped anyhow, because at that moment I heard the restroom door opening behind me, as a girl exited the restroom.

“Okay, Nick, I’m done,” the girl, none other than Amberly McAdams, said as she made her way to stand next to Nick. Her and I have known each other since we were four, and used to be friends... but it seemed like right after we started middle school, she changed. And she and I have hated one-another ever since. “The wind today, was... just not tolerant to my hair.”

This wasn’t too surprising for Amberly. She freaked over the slightest things, and if she wasn’t perfect at all times it would create chaos. Even if the wind ruined her hair, for instance, she couldn’t go without fixing it by looking into a mirror in the next place she entered. It was against her own code for herself or something. I know this because I once overheard her explaining this to a girl a year younger than her that... just didn’t get it.

Her words, not mine.

“Hm... Marley Terrence, I didn’t know you went here,” she said sarcastically, while I made a face at her. She knew very well that I did. In fact, when I first came to Stanford, not originally being from around these parts and in fact from the opposite coast, I seriously thought she had followed me. As if making my life a living hell from seventh through twelfth grade wasn’t enough, I now had to deal with her here. We were possibly the only two people here from my old school, besides Rachel. “Nicky, why are you talking to her?” She said this in a voice as if she owned him. I looked at him to see what his response would be, but he looked down and didn’t say anything.

“We just... bumped into each other,” I said, telling her what actually kind of happened. I said to Nick, “Sorry for bumping into you. I’ll just be on my way.”

And with that, I walked away from them, without a second glance.

>>--------------------------------------------------------------->>

“So wait... did he see you?” Rachel asked me the next morning, as I got ready for class. I shrugged.

“Well, of course he saw me with the earth, otherwise he would’ve never asked what it was,” I stated blandly, not seeing her point. She shook her head.

“No, I mean... did he see you like, appear in front of him? When you transported?” She corrected. I felt my eyes widen as I looked back at her, seeing as I had been rifling through the only closet in our shared dorm room.

“... why?” I asked her, not really knowing what to say. She sighed.

“Oh my gosh, Marley. Are you telling me he possibly could’ve saw you?” She asked, sounding exasperated, like this was her secret to keep, not mine. I waved it off.

“No, I mean... no. He couldn’t have. And if he did, wouldn’t you think he would’ve pushed the topic farther? Or may have been in more shock?” I asked, brushing it off. She shrugged, seeing my point.

I mean, he couldn’t have saw me... could he have?

>>----------------------------------------------->>

Today, I made sure to be cautious when transporting. This meaning I made sure I was exact so I wouldn’t exactly transport to a very public room or place. And I made sure to pick a different place than what I did yesterday; the last thing I needed was possibly running into Nick again.

I picked an old storage closet when the janitor’s stored their supplies for cleaning. It wasn’t the most ideal place, but the quickest place I could find that I could work with. I tapped the earth and next thing I know, I’m in the right closet... just with my foot stuck in a bucket. Perfect.

“Couldn’t you just be a little more reliable? Like, I don’t know... transporting me to a convenient spot?” I questioned the earth stupidly. It just continued to glow in response. I sighed before placing it in my bag like I did yesterday, before trying to maneuver my foot out of the bucket. By doing so, I ended up tumbling out of the closet, and instead of landing on the floor outside with a thud, something caught me instead. When I was stood upright, I took notice as to what, or I guess I should say, who caught me.

It turned out to be Nick.

It took me another minute, but I finally managed to get my foot out of the bucket, and tossed it back into the closet.

“So...” Nick started, but I cut him off.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, as if this were my own room, instead of a public hall in one of the main class buildings. He stopped what he was going to say, to instead answer my question.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said. “I, was on my way to my first class. You, however, seemed to have been in the storage closet?” He said that last statement as a question, instead of a statement, most likely assuming why I was in there.

“Um, yeah...” I trailed off, not really knowing what to say. “I was looking for, a... um... mop. Yeah, that’s it. Because a professor I passed by when making my way to my first class... asked me for one.”

“Well, you know you’re not allowed in those closets unless you ask a janitor, right?” He said, completely contradicting my statement. He looked around. “And as far as I can see... I don’t see any janitors.”

“I, um... okay, what will it take for you not to tell?” I asked sweetly, assuming he bought my excuse. I looked down. “The last thing I need right now is any trouble.”

“Well, you can let me take you out on a date,” he bluntly stated, taking me by surprise. I looked back up at him with my eyebrows raised.

“What about Amberly?” I asked, not answering quite yet. “I mean, I thought you and her were a thing... and assumed that’s why she seemed a little mad when you were talking to me... but then again, Amberly and I aren’t exactly on good terms, so-”

“No, her and I aren’t a thing,” he said, cutting me off. “We kind of were once, but then decided we were better off as friends. If we were, I wouldn’t be asking you out right now.”

“Right,” I said. “Well, I’ll think about it. But I don’t know... I mean, the only harm done would be you telling on me being in the janitor’s closet without supervision, so I mean... what harm would that be?” I went ahead and grabbed a pen from my bag, before writing my name on his hand.

“Well, that, and I could say about your, um... secret,” he said, pointing to my bag. I brought it to my side defensively.

“How much did you see?” I asked, not exactly just referring to today, but also what happened yesterday as well.

“I don’t know,” he said, playing coy. I knew he was doing this just to get me to go out with him. He winked at me, before stepping around me. Just before he walked off, he whispered in my ear, “maybe a little more than you think.”

As he walked away, I knew one thing was for sure. I was definitely going to go on this date with him.

Why?

Because I needed to know how much exactly he saw.