stream of conscious drabbles

third time is the charm

You wake up one morning feeling like your usual self.

Though it's not like you'd wake up one morning not feeling like yourself. But then again, you are a teenager, so who can tell what is usual about yourself? Still, you don't wake up pondering theoretical questions about the behaviors of your age group. Instead, you wake up wondering about the typical things you always worry about. So, you wonder about the next episode of Love & Hip-Hop; all the bamas you will have to deal with today on Facebook; the various episodes of drama occurring amongst your peers; and that fucking bitch in your World History class who you think is the most evilest person to ever exist on this planet.

Thinking of her brings up thoughts about the history project that the two of you were assigned to do together. You have the paper completed and ready in your backpack for the teacher. You have done the assignment all on your own with no help from Tasha-that evil bitch. While you don't know what she does or who she hangs with, you do know that she comes from a rather rough part of the local neighborhood. You do know that she's famous for instigating and participating in fights and other nefarious activities. You do know that she runs around with those two other girls who are no good either: London and Ashlee. They form a trio infamous for their selfish recklessness and the active terrorizing of the students in your highschool. They command respect from females with underhandedly deceptive tactics and gain respect from the dudes by putting out.

You never liked them. You try stay clear of them. But somehow, someway, you always find yourself accidentally wandering into their line of fire, apparently always in the wrong place at the wrong time. You begin to feel anxious about going to class and turning in the assignment without Tasha. You know it's the right thing to do. It's not like she helped you with the assignment or made it any easier. She wasn't the one going to the local library on weekends to help you draft and edit the paper. No, it is important that you let your history teacher know that she's basically a waste of space in his class and in group projects. So, you go about your morning in preparation for today.

You forget all about your history project and Tasha until your best friend, and next door neighbor, Chelly comes slinking into your kitchen behind your Mother. You guys have grown up almost like sisters, or more like twin sisters, since you already have a few siblings of your own. Chelly has come over to walk with you to school, as you guys have been doing since second grade. As you guys chatter and eat junk food, Chelly grows animated when she starts talking about something she thinks is so amazing that your head will supposedly explode. You roll your eyes but listen to her anyway. Chelly talks about an app that is supposed to let people redo actions that have already happened. You ask her if it's like a time travel machine or something, but Chelly laughs at such a farfetched idea. She assures you that she means the app can only take back sent text messages or Tweets; and even so, it's just some urban legend she found on the internet. Chelly claims that it's even more unreal because the rumor came from China, and what happens in China doesn't happen in the capitol of America, right?

Chelly even shows you the message forum board on her iPhone (a privilege you believe is only for children with no siblings) that claims to have the link that downloads the app. It makes you think how nice it would be to really have a time travel machine. You ask Chelly what she'd do with a time machine. She tells you she'd go back in time to stop the huge fight--instigated by Tasha & her Cronies--that barred all of the school's sophomores from the Homecoming dance next month. You agree that that would be a rational reason for needing a time machine. However, if you had a time machine, instead of going back, you would go forward. Perhaps, you would go to the end of senior year, when you graduate and finally get out of high school; or maybe, you'd skip all of that and just go to your college graduation. Chelly laughs but states that an event like that can't happen because you'd be skipping over all the time where you'd supposed to be completing the actions that get you to that end. She says you'd rip open a hole in the space time continuum.