Back in the Day

Oh no. Here we go again. My palms are sweaty, my vision is blurring, and I can see the dizzying spiral of time and space. I feel myself falling; see the blur of the portals as I travel back. I stop, not at the portal I’ve been visiting most recently, but at one that has a vague familiarity to it. It’s the year 2012, back in the 21st century. I’ve been here before, but not for long. Not long enough to know anyone yet. I’ll have to make it on my own and I hate that. I step through the portal and gasp at the difference between my time and now. Everything is so dark and… polluted. Drunk people are stumbling everywhere, and there’s a peculiar smell coming from the teenagers in the alleyway to my right. The teenagers are wearing strange blue pants and tshirts. I need to change quickly, before anyone notices me. The wind blows forcefully and my hair whips up around me, the glitter sparkling in the sunlight, catching the alleyway teenagers' attention. Suddenly, I’m shoved forward and onto the ground.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry! Here, let me help you up.” I feel a hand on my arm, pulling me up. I turn around halfway up, ready to tell whoever this is to go kick rocks, when I see a pair of bright sea green eyes inches away from my own. I’m mesmerized by the sincerity in them, when the person smiles, pulls me the rest of the way up, and steps back. It’s a boy about my height with jet black hair and straight white teeth. As I’m staring at him, he introduces himself.
“Hey, I’m Max.”
“Uh, hey. I’m, um, Keelie.’ I stammer nervously; I was never any good around boys.
“You from around here, Keelie?” Max asked me, cocking his head to the side a bit. I hesitated. I always end up in the same place I left, so was I from here?
“Uh, no, I just moved here a few days ago so I’m still getting lost." I smile at him, hoping he believes me.
“Well, cool. How about I show you something awesome as an apology?” he grins at me, holding out his hand. I take it and he leads me down the alleyway where the teenagers seemed to have disappeared along with the smell. We end up in the middle of a busy city and he leads me down another alleyway. After about thirty minutes of twisting and turning we end up, somehow, at the entrance of a forest. He pulls me along in the forest, dodging branches and swerving around trees until we get to a lake. It’s the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen. The water was crystal clear; so clear that when I looked into it, I saw an endless tunnel of fish and turtles swimming peacefully alongside each other. I look around me in awe. The sun was shining bright and reflecting off the water, making it sparkle and shine like it was made of diamonds. The rocks that were placed in various positions all around the lake were perfect for jumping off of, as if they were there on purpose. Then it hits me. That rock over by the other ledge, I know that rock. That’s where Kevin and I first traveled. The day when he...
“Are you okay?” Max must have felt me tense because his expression was worried.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m great actually!” I said with a little too much enthusiasm. His worried face flashed confusion for only an instant before returning to his recent relaxed look.
“I used to go swimming with my dad here.” he tells me. I nod quietly, and turn back to the lake, thinking about that day. Suddenly, Kevin and I are standing on the side of the lake, stolen time machine between us, grinning like fools.
 
********
“Alright, I’ll go first and then you go. I’ll program everything in so all you have to do is push this button.” Kevin points to a red button and I nod. It seemed simple enough. Little did I know that would turn out to be the most terrorizing time of my life. Kevin pushed a few buttons and the date September 11, 2001 flashes bright blue. I look up at him.
“Why then?” I ask him.
His grin fades, “You heard about the Terrorist attack in old New York?” he asked me and I nod.
“Just a little, though. They said I’d learn more next year.”
“Well, someone crashed a plane into the Twin Towers on September 11th. Hundreds of people died that day and I want to see it. I might even be able to stop it, if we go back in enough time.”
I stayed silent, contemplating his plan. It was risky, but we could save thousands of lives. He holds the device in one hand, pushes the red button with the other, and winks at me right before flashing off into the past. I pick the device up off of the ground and look at it. It's a circular device no bigger than a bowling ball. It had a tiny screen set in the middle with a keypad below it. The screen reads: September 11th, 2001 7:30 A.M, which was about an hour before the first plane hit. I push the button and see the flash of light, and then I’m falling. I hit the ground in a busy city.
“Kevin! Kevin!” I call, trying to find him in the massive crowd of people bustling forward. Someone grabs my hand and jerks me into a building. I turn around and Kevin is pulling clothes out of the backpack he brought.
“Here,” he says handing me a gray skirt and a white ruffled blouse, “You need to put these on so we can blend in with them.” He nods his head towards the window. I quickly pull the skirt on and Kevin helps me with the blouse.
“If anyone asks, you’re my daughter and it’s ‘bring your child to work’ day, got it?” I nod, intimidated by the intensity in his voice and the indescribable look in his eyes. “We only have about an hour now before the first plane crashes. You and I are going to go into the first tower and at exactly 8:20 you leave the building with or without me. It will only take you fifteen minutes to get down and out but I don’t want to take any chances. Get far away too, do you hear? I’ll meet you in this building at 9:00 or 9:15. No later.” He pulls me in and hugs me hard. I hug him back and we exit the building. We walk toward the building and step inside, making sure to keep hold of each other’s hand so I don’t get lost in the crowd. We get into the elevator and go up to the top floor.
“Excuse me,” he stops an older man with obviously dyed brown hair. “Everyone needs to evacuate the building. There is going to be-“ There is a loud boom and the building shakes and rumbles. I check my watch and its 8:45.
“Kevin!” I scream, losing sight of him in the smoke that’s quickly filling the room.
“Keelie!” he calls from somewhere to my left. I turn and run blindly over to where I think he is, and run smack into someone. They grab me and pull me down to the floor; “You’re safer from the smoke down here.” they tell me and crawl off. I crawl over to Kevin and try to tell him we need to get out of here, but nothing comes out. I try to make any sound, but it hurts my throat too much, so I stay silent and try to pull the piece of debris off of Kevin. We free him and I start to crawl over to the elevator when Kevin stops me. He shakes his head and points to the stairs. I nod and we start our way over. We get to the stairs and it’s less smoky there so we stand up and run down.
“Come on, Keelie! We don’t have much time before we have to go back.” Kevin says, grasping my hand and pulling me along. Suddenly, on the third floor landing, he shoves me backwards and I stumble against the bottom step as the blazing roof above us falls in on Kevin. I try to scream, but nothing comes out. All I can do is stand there as my palms start to sweat, my vision blurs and I feel myself fall into the time-space continuum. We land back on the ground and Kevin looks up at me, wipes a tear from my face, and lets his hand fall. I knew he was gone and swore to myself I would never time travel again, but only two days later it happened once more. I-
*****

“Keelie?” Max’s voice snaps me out of my memories. “You’re crying.” He reaches out to wipe my face and I jerk back instantly, a reflex now. Kevin was the last person to touch my face and I'm not going to let anyone ruin that. Especially not some stranger from the 21st century.
“I-I’m sorry.” He says, his face turning red from embarrassment. I smile,
“It’s okay, I just have a bad memory of this place. It’s not your fault.” I keep the smile glued to my face and he takes my hand again.
"I thought you said you just moved here?"
"No, I've been here before. I don't remember much about it."
“Oh, well, I want you to meet my friend.” We leave the forest and head across the city to an apartment.
“Don’t you have a car?” I ask him, and then quickly apologize. “I’m so sorry, that was incredibly rude of me. You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to, I mean I-“ I stop, my throat tightening from embarrassment and he laughs.
“It’s okay.” He chuckles again, “Yeah, I have one, but it’s at my place. This is my friend Lucy’s house. I figured you two would get along pretty well, just wait.” He grins at me and rings the doorbell.
“Just a minute!” a girl hollers from inside and there’s a loud clattering noise. She opens the door and a red cat shoots out. The girl rolls her eyes and laughs. She’s pretty, actually. She has long black hair that makes her bright blue eyes stand out. She’s wearing a white shirt with the letters FTSK on the front and skinny jeans with black converse. She looks me up and down and nods at me, and then she jerks her chin towards my black band tee with the words ‘You’ll Never Forget’ on it in bright orange letters.
"I think I've seen them in concert before. They were pretty good.” She tells me, "Oh and I like the glitter in your hair. It’s cute.” She turns and walks inside. Max follows her in and I stand there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Max motions for me to come in, so I do. Lucy flops down on the couch and picks up her phone. “Katie said she’s having a party tonight. You want to go?” she asks Max, a huge grin set on her face. My mind is still turning over her comment. She's seen them in concert? How is that possible?
Max glances over at me, “Katie is?” he asked her. “I don’t think I’m gonna go. I can’t just leave Keelie. That’s rude.”
She barely glances at me before she says “So, bring her.” Max gives her an are-you-out-of-your-mind look and she raises her eyebrows. She turns to me and explains.
"Katie is Max’s ex-girlfriend. But I don’t think she realizes she’s an EX. That’s why he doesn’t want to bring you. He’s avoiding the inevitable scene she’s going to cause and possibly the fight that will ensue next.” She takes a drink of a soda that was sitting on the table. I don’t know how long I’m going to be here so I might as well live it up. I turn to Max.
“I want to go. I’ve never really been to a party. We can tell her we’re just friends, and I guess it’ll be up to her if she believes it.” I smirk at him as I say the last part and he grins at me so big you’d have thought I told him he won a new car. Speaking of cars... “Max? Where do you live?” I ask, trying to be nonchalant. I don’t think it worked. Lucy looked at him, open mouthed.
“You haven’t told her yet? Usually that’s the first thing out of your mouth.” Max glares at her, but she keeps going, “Max’s mom is the number one bestselling author right now and his father owns the most prestigious private school in New York. He’s rich.” She winks at him as he continues to glare at her. He sighs and turns to me.
"You want to see?” he asks, his eyes lighting up.
“Sure!” I exclaim with genuine enthusiasm. Max, Lucy and I get up to go.
“Let’s take my car. I so don’t feel like walking all the way out there.” Lucy says and grabs some keys off the coffee table. We head out to the parking lot for the apartments and get into a bright yellow Mustang, much older than the ones back in my time. The whole way there I’m comparing the electronics in the car to the advanced technologies we have in 2253. This Mustang would have been mere scrap metal compared to what we have, not to mention all of the fumes it puts out. I shudder just thinking about it. We pull up to a huge white brick house. I get out of the car and stare. Max smiles at me as we walk up to his front door and I examine the elaborate patterns embedded into the doors. I run my hand over a flower and feel smoothness of the oak. He steps up beside me and I look at him. Our eyes lock and a sensation explodes throughout my body. It's something I've never experienced before, but I like it.
“It’s beautiful.” I whisper to him.
“Thanks, my mom picked it out.” He breaks his gaze to unlock the door and we walk in. Suddenly I feel my palms start to sweat and my vision blur. Then I’m falling and I land back in the bathroom of my high school in the future. I hear the bathroom door open,
“Keelie! Are you back yet?” A girl loudly whispers to me. I key in the code to the bathroom stall and open the door. I go around the bathroom checking underneath the stalls for feet, then turn to glare at her.
“Lauren! Are you crazy??” I yell at her. She flinches and looks hurt, so I take a deep breath and hug her. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, but you can’t just come in and say that! What if people were in here? I’d have gotten in so much trouble because they’d have thought I really left.” I explain.
Lauren has short, curly blonde hair and brown eyes, though she insists that they're hazel. She absolutely loves adventure. This gets her in extreme amounts of trouble sometimes, but she also has a quick mind, which she uses to talk herself out of most of her predicaments. Lauren nods her head calmly, as if I didn't just yell at her.
“Yeah, I get it. I'm sorry, but you were gone for half of 4th block! When did you go to?” her eyes gleam brightly, like a child’s in a toy store. She loves it when I travel. I roll my eyes.
“I went back to 2012.”
Her mouth forms a tiny O and she starts to bounce excitedly, making her short curls shake crazily around her head.
“Did you meet anyone else?” she asks me, still bouncing. I sigh. Ever since I met the girl in 2134, she thinks I meet people like me all of the time.
“No, I think Darcy is the only one. I’ve never met anyone else who travels and I’ve been doing it for ten years.” I go to the sink to check my reflection as I answer her. Ugh, I hate the ‘recently got back from traveling through time’ look. The bags under my eyes were a dark purple and my face was flushed. I pull out my compact and start to sort through the makeup choices I have.
“I like that one.” Lauren says, walking up behind me and pressing one of the holographic buttons on the compact. A tiny scanner scans my face and my makeup materializes perfectly. I close the compact and turn to look at her.
“So…..?” she prompts, trying unsuccessfully to hide her excitement.
“Let’s walk and talk. 5th block is about to start.” I tell her and open the door to walk out. “I went to 2012 and it was so different. Everything we have here was gone and it smelled horrible. But I met someone. His name was Max and he took me to the lake.” I emphasized the word ‘lake’ and Lauren's eyes got so big I thought they were going to pop out of her head.
“Where this all started? Did you tell him?” she asks me and I shake my head, unable to speak, trying not to think of it. I take a deep breath and start speaking again. My voice sounds a lot stronger than I feel and I'm glad.
“He took me to his friend Lucy’s house and she’s pretty cool. She’s like me except she likes bands from her century. She told me she saw them in concert.” I grin and point to my shirt. Lauren snorts loudly and rolls her eyes. “But I felt something as soon as I saw him and when he took me to the lake and I started thinking about Kevin, he sounded really worried about if I was okay, even if we just met. I don't know what to do around him, though! I've never done this before.” We stop outside of our 5th block classroom, Language IV. She hugs me.
“We'll figure it out. Projection chat me after school today; We’ll talk then. But for now, you have stuff to do.” She points behind me and goes into the classroom. I turn around and my face instantly changes from my intense, deep in thought expression to a massive grin I couldn’t possibly suppress. John was walking towards me. John, my incredible (other) best friend who can make me laugh anytime and always makes me feel excellent about myself.
“Hey, stranger!” he says, smiling from ear to ear at me, his electric blue eyes shining.“Where you been? You missed half of 4th block!” he leans in to give me a hug and I feel a twinge of guilt for never telling him about my time-traveling.
“You know what? I’ll tell you what I was doing, just follow me first.”