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52: Butt's House

Jeremy

Our time at the Time Capsule was cut short as Butts drove all of us to his house. The man sure did drive the bus around a lot. Come to think of it, I couldn't recall a time I saw him with a personal vehicle. Was the bus his personal vehicle? It occurred to me that night that I didn't know much about Butts as I thought I did. Finally, we reached his house and went inside, and gathered in the living room. No time was wasted in bringing out the dry erase board that lay in his closet.

"Alright," he began while uncapping a black marker. "What do we know so far?"

"Well," began Marvin. "I used the time car that you built to get here in order to warn you about the terrorists that were going to attack you in the future because of your love of dangerous stuff." Butts got busy writing everything down without speaking. "Meanwhile, Melissa felt she needed to follow me to see what I was doing even though she had rejected me a million times already."

"Well excuse me for being curious." She had some heavy eye rolling going on. "By the way, weren't you the one that invited me to come on a date that night? I honestly can't believe I said yes to you for the first time."

"It's like I'm living in an episode of Riverdale," Marvin sighed.

"Wait a minute," Emma raised her hand. "Are you saying that in the future there's a show based on the Archie Comics? With Jughead and Veronica?"

"Yeah," Marvin responded. "But the show sucks. Season one was the only good season."

"Anyways," interrupted Butts. "I'd prefer to not be living in an episode of Dawson's Creek. Why don't we get back to business before things spiral out of control?" We all agreed and Marvin and Melissa were able to shut up. "Now, about that time car. What kind of fuel does it run on?

"Lithium -Ion," Marvin continued. "And lots of it. But it also needs some electricity. Without each other, the car can't travel through time."

"Interesting." There was definitely a lot of writing going on with the board. "And how would we acquire this Lithium? Heck, where are we going to get enough electricity?"

Just like that, Marvin took his iPhone out. Melissa seemed a little hesitant to take hers out at first, but she eventually gave in with defeat. Part of me wondered how easy it could be to get a new phone.

Butts continued to speak in excitement. "These phones of yours have Lithium?" They both nodded yes as a weird equation was being written. "Something tells me that with two phones, that should be able to carry enough Lithium to get you guys back home. Of course, there can't be any delays. If there are, none of this will work out. But where are we going to get enough electricity?

"The clock tower," answered Melissa. This Saturday at midnight, there's going to be a lightning strike against the clock tower. Apparently, it takes a couple of years to repair after that, but if this works, the clock tower might not need repairs."

"That could definitely mess with the timeline," announced Marvin. "The spacetime continuum might be screwed up causing a lot of potential problems."

At this point, Butts had written quite a few unfamiliar equations down. Once he finished writing down the last equation, the man took out a book from the drawer and took a moment to search for a certain page. Once he found it, he began reading the theory.

"If time is created by a creator, the events in time have already been set. As though man has free will to do as he wishes, his free will has already been predicted and the outcome must come forward as planned. Any disturbance in the set of events that lead to the outcome will course correct itself and time will continue as planned." We all had a blank look on our faces. "Basically, if you mess with the events of time, time will somehow correct itself so the events that are supposed to happen will happen."

At that point, I had to stand up as I couldn't believe what I just heard. Parts of me wanted to laugh because this was so crazy, but somehow it made sense.

"Back on Tuesday, I was on my bike and Hailey was about to crash into me until Melissa stopped it. But the next day, Hailey crashed into me and my bike."

"Whoa," blurted Hailey. Like, Whoa." She was clearly caught surprised. Were we meant to be together?

"Crazy I know," stated Butts looking like he was in thought. "But yes, it seems as if Hailey was destined to crash into you. Fate had it so you two could meet. Once Melissa butted in, it all had to be rewritten and so it happened the next day instead."

"And that's exactly why I lost parts of my body!" shouted Marvin in excitement. "It's why Jeremy had a red leg. With Melissa and I being here, we were interfering with everything which impacted us and Jeremy. Hell, Melissa and I could've easily disappeared into oblivion if we continued to screw everything up. Without him meeting Hailey, there would be no reason for me to exist."

Chills went down my head and spine. What did Marvin say? At that point, I wanted to pass out.

"Hold on," I interrupted while looking at Hailey who seemed just as dumbstruck. "You're saying that I'm your father. As if you're my son? From the future? Hailey is your mother? And Melissa?" My sight went towards her wondering if it could be possible.

"I'm her mother," stated Emma in a low tone. "Still have no idea who the father is though."

"Alright," interrupted Butts. "We should save this little reunion for another time. Let's get back to business." Marvin?" His attention went directly toward my future son. "This car you brought. It's destroyed?" Indeed, it was. "Is it possible that we could use Jeremy and Emma's racecar?" A nod yes was the response and it was made known that it still needed to be finished. "It's settled. Everyone, please be ready. We have a full night ahead of us." Crossing out a few equations and putting the cap back on the marker, he put his back against us. "Tonight, we're finishing that racecar."

This chapter was packed with craziness! But we leaned a lot. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to comment and vote!

Have you seen Riverdale?

Were Jeremy and Hailey truly destined to be?