N0T1ME

Chapter 1

A/N: Originally published on FF.net April/May 2016.

November 20th

2015

Friday

It was unusually bright and sunny for a fall morning at Hill Valley High School. Even in temperate California, there was no doubt in anyone's minds that it would be yet another dry winter, and their drought situation wouldn't be ended anytime soon. Kids were excitedly talking about their plans for Thanksgiving on the last Friday before break. A group of four teenage girls sat together against a wall. A heavy-set girl asked one of the others, "What are you doing for Thanksgiving, Em?"

A bookish teen girl, the one referred to as Em, glanced up from her statistics textbook, "I don't know yet. We were going to try to have the whole family together for dinner, but I don't know if anybody's going to be able to make it. Even my dad said he might be busy at the Institute," she said. "What about you, Steph?"

Stephanie shook her head. "My mom's flying me and my brothers out to some big family reunion in North Carolina. We're leaving tonight and we won't be back until break is over."

"Oh. I guess there go any plans of hanging out," she said.

"Yeah, sorry. But I'll have my phone and my laptop, so maybe we can video chat?" Stephanie said optimistically. "And hey, at least you'll still have Cindy and Marlene to hang out with."

The girl addressed as Cindy shook her head and spoke without looking up from her phone. "Uh-uh, not me. I'm going down to LA this weekend, and then way the hell up to Oregon until next Friday, and I'm pretty sure after all that driving all I'm gonna do Saturday and Sunday is sleep. Maybe even Monday. Who knows? Not like this school will miss me, anyway."

Emma looked to the last girl in the group. "Marlene?"

"You're always welcome at our house, I guess," she shrugged. "Grandma Lorraine loves having visitors for Thanksgiving, and she adores you. I think the whole family does, actually." she added.

Emma laughed, "Everybody except your brother." She looked down at her homework again, and after writing for another few seconds, closed the textbook and stacked her notebook on top of it. "I still don't know what his problem is."

"Junior's just bad at talking to girls, is all. He doesn't mean anything by it," Marlene said.

"He's just bad at talking in general," Stephanie replied.

"Maybe Emma's just bad at talking to boys."

"They're both terrible at talking to each other. That's why they can't get along!" Cindy said.

"That's at least one thing they have in common."

Stephanie stretched her arms up, groaning as she did, then asking, "You and Junior are twins, right? How come you're so much cooler than him?"

"Well, the obvious answer is that girls are cooler than boys. At least on a personal level. I don't have any scientific data to back it up generally," Emma laughed.

"How does that apply to boys who became girls?" Cindy asked.

"Oh my God, don't be an ass, Cin," warned Marlene.

"What? I'm seriously asking." Cindy replied innocently.

"Ask Emma, "Steph retorted. "Isn't it always the smart ones who can't comprehend gender?"

"Not ALWAYS. Just ones who are always convinced that they're right no matter what. Which is most of them." Emma answered. "But I was raised better than that. I do want to know why he hates me, though."