backtrack (style)

chapter four

why is planning stuff so difficult

"Stanley, get up, it's time for school!"

Stan jerks awake, his anxiety shooting up for no apparent reason. Well, now that he thinks about it, there is a reason, and it's this whole time-traveling thing.

Stan assumes it was just a dream, presuming he's coming to his senses. But, when he feels his arm, cuffing up his sleeve, Stan finds the watch.

It was not a dream.

"God dammit," Stan mumbles to himself, the sleep still present in his droopy eyes. He can barely open them.

When Stan hears a loud thump, however, he jumps and stands up, now wide awake.

It takes a moment for him to locate the source of the noise. But once he does, Stan freaks out.

It's coming from the closet, and Stan knows it's probably Jeremy. Stan quickly grabs the iron man mask from his bedside table and rummages through his desk drawer. There he finds duct tape and an old bandanna.

"Fuckin," Stan mumbles as he makes his way over to the closet. After unlocking and opening the door, he sees Jeremy with wide eyes. The rope is strained on his wrists, and Stan's too tired to handle this shit.

So, he stuffs the bandanna in Jeremy's mouth and tries to make it as tight as possible. Then, he ties it around the back of Jeremy's neck and wraps the whole thing in duct tape for good measure.

When Stan finally closes up the closet and locks it again, he throws the mask and duct tape to the side. But suddenly, Stan gets light-headed. He feels new memories start to flash up in his brain. Memories of a man in an iron man mask kidnapping him...

And Stan now realizes how big of an impact altering the course of time will make. He wonders how being kidnapped will change things.

"Stan! You're going to be late!" His mom yells from downstairs.

"Shit-" Stan curses, grabbing a random shirt and jeans, changing as fast as he possibly can. As badly as Stan wants to get a shower, he doesn't have the ti- wait, can't he use his watch?

So, Stan holds up his wrist and turns the hand to 45 minutes in the past, exactly 6:03 AM.

He feels faint and suddenly gets transported to this odd world again. The one with numbers and blue. Stan's getting quite sick of it, actually. It takes about thirty seconds for him to time-travel.

But for some reason, this time he's already spiraling down after only twenty-two seconds pass by. Maybe, the more he time-travels, the faster he can do it.

Now, Stan's actually standing instead of lying down like an idiot on the floor. He's very dizzy, but the feeling quickly fades. Stan's next to his sleeping self on the bed, so he quickly runs to the bathroom and turns on the shower. He woke up at about 6:30 AM, so he'll have a good amount of time to do stuff.

Stan takes his clothes off and jumps in the shower, glad that he can wash his hair. He has a problem with it getting too greasy, so he doesn't wear his hat anymore. And, he now has to wash his hair every single day.

But, Stan doesn't mind too much. He puts his 61 in 1 bottle in the shower caddy. It doubles as car coolant and milk.

When he's finished, Stan grabs a towel and wraps it around himself. He sneaks into his bedroom and grabs clean clothes from his dresser. Boxers, a random ass t-shirt, and some jeans.