Parallel [ONC 2020] // Shortlisted

Chapter Fifteen

The books in the library offered us no solution to our current problem, but it was a good distraction whilst we waited for Mrs Likens to come and find us. Ricky dug out a book containing nothing but odd facts and spent almost an hour reading them out to us although I'm not sure if I fount it as fun as she did. There were some facts a lady just shouldn't know.

Still, I was thankful for the distraction. We may have finally found the solution we needed to get me home and I hated how drawn out it had become. It all seemed far too complicated for me to wrap my head around, but I was pleased so have somewhat of a solution. All we needed to do was figure out whether it work but I didn't like the odds that had been presented.

If it didn't work, we would end up in trouble for breaking the clock and I would end up stuck in a time that was so different from my own. Everything I had grown up knowing would be worthless and I would stick out far more than if I was still home. I didn't want to be the strange girl who knew nothing of computers or science, who could darn a sock better than answer a mathematics problem. I didn't want that to be me.

"If this does not work, what will happen?" I asked.

"We find another way. You got here somehow, and it will be our task to get you home. Just because you're in the school system doesn't mean anything. Mrs Likens had no idea who you are, and she checks the system more than anyone else. There is always another door."

"The only issue is, we don't know where that door is," Mitch added.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious for your wonderful words of wisdom." Ricky rolled her eyes. "We'll find a way and I'm sure Mrs Likens will help us. She loves a good mystery and hit is probably the best mystery she's ever heard."

"She's a little-" I paused "-eccentric."

"That's just who she is, she's the best science teacher this school has, and she's put up with asking all sorts of questions over the years. If anyone can find a solution to this, she can."

I had my doubts. Somehow, I didn't think a woman with bright blue and a tendency to wear stripped socks that were pulled up to her knees really knew what she was talking about. Despite that, we didn't have much of an option and she had already helped to explain just what could have happened when Luke had knocked the clock over.

My chances of getting home relied on whether or not her idea about the clock really worked or if it had just a coincidence that he had knocked the clock over around the time we were due to leave. A clock didn't seem all that likely, but none of what had happened made any sense to begin with so I suppose it might have been possible. Luke had caused a lot of strife in my life since he had been born but this was perhaps the worst thing he had done, if he could be considered responsible.

Ricky continued to read out her strange facts from the book for another half an hour before Mrs Likens reappeared. She held onto several sheets of paper which had been rolled up into a cone and her she looked a little flushed. Upon noticing us, she rushed over and dropped the paper onto the table, taking the empty seat beside Mitch and unfurling the cone she had created.

"Right, I did some investigation into this sort of thing and like you said, there is very little to go on other than what we came up with, but I might have a solution. We know that there was an event that caused your timeline to cross with ours and that it is more or less likely that that event was your brother knocking the clock over. It seemed to open a door that you crossed through and the door closed not long afterwards. We need to open that door.

"My proposition is simple. We need to recreate the events of the evening that lead to the door opening in the first place. You must wear the same clothing you wore that evening and it must take place at the same time, although we can reset the clock ourselves as Ricky proved earlier. We know what was said because of the echo we heard earlier; everything must be done exactly the same. And yes, before you say anything Ricky, we need to knock the clock over.

"That clock is our doorway and if it doesn't get knocked over, the door won't open."

Mitch and Ricky exchanged looks but Ricky couldn't fight the smile that had started to form on her lips at the prospect of knocking the clock over. I couldn't contain my excitement at the prospect that in just a short period of time I could be back home and the previous events would never have happened. It would be as though nothing had really changed, and I could go back to living the life I was supposed to lead.

And that there was a feeling of doubt that plagued the back of my mind. Even though I had only been there for a few days, Ricky and Mitch had become my friends despite our glaring differences. I didn't want to leave them and never remember who they were or what they did to help me, even if it did seem a little outlandish. They had believed me when I thought no one would and put their lives on hold to help someone they didn't even know.

I wanted to go home. I didn't want to stay in a place that was so different from my own, but I also didn't want to leave them if I wouldn't remember them. There had to have been a way to remember them when I returned home, but I didn't know what that was just yet.