The Outsiders: Before My Time | Sodapop

Guinea Pig

July, 2016

"Bri!" I heard someone call for me. Sitting back against the plushy couch in the living room of my best friend's house, I glanced over my shoulder to see her running towards me.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You must try this," she stated. She handed me what I naturally assumed was water in a glass beaker.

"What is this?" I asked, flexing my lips in disgust at the mysterious request.

"Just try it." She seemed so excited, she gets really invested in her science experiments at my expense.

"Not until you tell me what it is." I frowned as I spun the liquid around in the cup.

"Please!" She begged.

I gave in and took the little tasteless shot. I smacked my tongue against my teeth as Lillian stared at me for a few long seconds. I looked at her impatiently, waiting for something to happen. Maybe a stabbing feeling of one of my kidneys erupting like a volcano in my body.

"Dammit." She marched off muttering to herself and I could see her blonde messy bun bobbing up and down in rhythm with her stomping.

Lillian is my best friend who revolves her life around deranged and unhinged science experiments. She wants to create an invention to make a single person time travel. Crazy, right? I certainly thought so. She has been talking about it for years. She is very committed and wants me to be her guinea pig for every little thing she tries. She has yet to succeed.

Lillian has been my best friend for the past seven years, so I have to support her no matter what. She was too determined and proud to let me tell her that time travel would never work. She gets that crazy look in her eye whenever she has an idea and refuses to rest until it's complete.

One day, she wanted to try something different. Instead of ingesting something that is likely poisonous, she sat me down on a chair in her well-lit kitchen and put a headband made of metal around my head. It was connected to a homemade looking box with lots of moving gears and gadgets in it. She plugged it into an electrical outlet, and that's when I got nervous.

"Will I get electrocuted?" I asked, obviously anxious. I held the side plastic pads of the metal headband tenderly as she secured it tightly to my scalp.

"Probably not." She shrugged.

"Probably?!" I repeated hysterically.

"Just relax. Here." She handed me this other thing made of metal that was in the shape of a "T". She made me put it in between my legs. It was a scorching hot summer in Tulsa, my bare legs hugged the metal bar and turned them ice cold.

"Okay..." Lillian muttered to herself as she flipped some switches, and turned some knobs on the box.

"What year?" She asked, about to set a dial.

"Eh?" I asked. I didn't comprehend what she had asked. I could not grasp it. That is not a question that a normal person should be asking.

"What year do you want to travel to?" Lillian asked a little slower. I have never seen this look in her eyes before. A look of optimism, excitement, and severe confidence.

"How about 1965," I suggested. I only chose that year because it was the first thing to pop into my head. It was far enough away so Lillian would feel supported by me with my blind sense of optimism that this would work.

"Isn't that the same year as The Outsiders that we read in 8th grade with Mr. Johnson?"

"Oh, you're right. I totally forgot about that," I laughed nervously.

We were in the same English class when we read that book and watched the movie. It was something that we bonded over in that miserable class. It's a non-fiction book about a group of teenagers here in Tulsa who go through the struggle of being a Greaser in the 60s. It was written by some kid for his English paper, but he talks about his struggles with being an orphan in the lower class compared to those on the other side of the tracks. It's pretty interesting, and I would love to see how accurate the book is to the real thing.

When we were learning about the book in school, the school would take class trips to the cemetery where we got to pay our respects to the kids who were just barely older than us that died. The headstones were small, but within spitting distance of one another. Dallas Winston, 1948-1965 and Johnny Cade, 1949-1965. Johnny was a Pisces, just like me. The author even came and spoke at our school about it. It was a big deal. He told us about growing up in our hometown, and how much he respected his older brothers and how they supported him through college so he could get his degree. It was so long ago I can't remember all the little details, but it was really interesting.

"That's actually perfect. When this works, you'll basically already know everything you need to," she said.

"Right. If this works out," I mumbled.

"Ready?" She asked. An unusual twinkle sparkled in her blue eye.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I said. I didn't really think that it would work, but I really need to support her with everything she does. She supports me.

She flipped a switch and I felt a slight tingle of electricity around the metal I was holding that evolved into something painful that shot throughout my entire body. I felt my spine crack all the way up to my neck and all I saw was white. There was a loud ringing in my ears and the white got brighter and brighter. I couldn't believe it actually worked!

Aha, no. I was suddenly in the hospital. My parents were sitting in the chairs beside me, waiting impatiently for me to wake up.

"What the hell?" I asked. Looking around, seeing wires coming out of the hospital gown. My legs had a slight pain, and when I shifted I felt some sort of gauze or bandage stuck to the inside of my thighs.

In my panic, I tried to sit up but my mom stopped me. "Don't sit up, honey."

"What's going on?" I asked as I sunk back down in the bed.

"Brianna, you are in the hospital," my mom said, bending over me. I knew it was serious because my mother used my full first name.

"Why?" I didn't exactly remember what had happened before my mom told me.

"You got electrocuted," Mom said gently.

I rolled my eyes. Lillian's inventions have made me puke, get a fishy taste in my mouth for a week straight, and has burned at least two whole shirts. This is the first time I've been put in the hospital because of her.

New record for us.

"The doctor said that it was enough bolts of electricity to be the equivalent of a not-very-severe lightning strike." My dad high-fived me. "How does it feel?"

"Full of energy." I joked. My mom was not amused.

I also felt quite exhausted. This was a horrible mistake. I never want to do this again, although it was also quite electrifying. No pun intended. I really do love adventure and thrill. It'll make a great story to tell.

Lillian came to visit me as much as she could. My parents were annoyed with her, but not mad. Well, my mother was a little pissed off but she kept her emotions in check and didn't make Lillian feel worse than she already did. The guilt was eating Lillian alive, I almost felt bad for her. She brought me flowers, balloons, and my favorite candy every time she stopped by.

I was in the hospital for a few days to recover, living off of hospital food pretty much the entire time. I can never eat green jello again.