Black to the Past

Chapter 20

By 6 o'clock everyone was at the library seated at a table. The teen section was crowded so they'd wound their way upstairs to the adult tables. Several adults groaned and began packing up. Once the teen section overflowed that caused things upstairs to get a lot noisier than usual. Wilson had seated himself next to Halle which placed Jalen and Meredith next to each other. Meredith and Jalen kept looking around, both a little nervous. Meredith was nervous about helping out Michael without Jalen really understanding the feelings that were swirling for him. Jalen was nervous about sitting next to Meredith without her understanding the feelings swirling around inside of himself for her.
"Okay, guys, we've gotta get started. Old fartsy Mr. Cannon decided to assign a five page essay," Halle complained.
"Why'd you take that class?" Wilson inquired with genuine interest. "Everyone knows not to take that class."
"Apparently I didn't get the memo. So, we have to hurry. It's due by Friday and I haven't written a single paragraph yet."
"What's the subject on?" Wilson wanted to know.
"It can be on anything. He's just being mean," Halle grumbled. She was blowing pink bubbles with a huge wad of bubble gum that she had in her mouth. She was rarely ever seen without it. Wilson couldn't help but think of how cute she looked with her pink bubble gum popping out of pouty lips and a wrinkled frown above her perfectly arched brows.
"Well, write about MLK Jr. You'll be killing two birds with one stone," Wilson suggested smartly.
"Good point! I'll use your research," Halle laughed loudly. She got a quick shush from the librarian who had anticipated the noise.
Halle rolled her eyes because she knew that her back was to the librarian. She would never openly disrespect the old lady who was always so helpful to her when she needed to do research. She knew better than that.
"I didn't realize we had to have a stupid prop," Jalen added to the conversation hoping he sounded cool.
"Yeah, I'm so triggered," Meredith told him. "That's why I invited Michael. He's in Robotics, right?"
"Yeah, but so am I. Anything you want built I can build for you," Jalen told her.
Wilson was watching the exchange knowing that Jalen was feeling some type of way about Meredith. He had the itch himself for Halle. She'd gone home and changed into some sexy little get up. A v-neck t-shirt that looked as soft as cotton candy. She had on some lacy little number that peeked out a bit through the almost see-through shirt. Her long legs were barely covered by the paperbag waisted corduroy shorts she was wearing with some tight looking leg things that girls wore when they wanted to act like they were covering their legs properly but really weren't. Plus she had on knee-high boots, boots his mother would have termed hooker boots but that he loved.
"Why would we need to build something," Halle wanted to know. She was glaring at Meredith as if she'd just added a ten-ton weight onto her very own shoulders.
"Because it'll make our project stand out," Meredith said as if to say 'duh.'
"Ugh, Mare! That's just extra work. We should just put together a poster and make it work," Halle said with a shake of her head.
"Naw, now, I see where she's going with this," Wilson spoke up. "We need something to wow Mrs. Hansen. This is perfect!"
"Why is this perfect, Wilson?" Halle said sarcastically.
"Because I have an idea," Wilson told them.
"Here we go again," Jalen retorted with a snort.
"Man," Wilson said daringly looking at Jalen. "You got an idea."
"No. What's yours?"
"See, we're supposed to go back in time right?"
Wilson asked the question and paused. He was literally waiting for a response. "Yes, Wilson, that's the hypothetical question," Halle responded to him sticking her neck and head out and her hand out as if to say what's your point.
"Okay, so I say we build a time machine," Wilson clapped his hand and made hand gestures as if to say he'd blown his own mind with his bright idea.
Jalen, Halle, and Meredith stared at him as if he were crazy. None of them had seen Michael slowly approaching the table. He'd caught the tail end of the idea and heard the words time machine. Standing just to the side of Jalen he tapped his shoulder so that he could put the chair in between Jalen and Meredith.
Jalen couldn't make a scene about where Michael was putting his chair without giving it away that he wanted to sit next to Meredith. So he rolled his eyes and moved his chair closer to Halle's. "Hey Michael," Meredith said happily.
"Hey, you guys," Michael said, feeling awkward. "Uh, Meredith invited me. Said you all might need some help on your project."
"We don't," Jalen responded nastily. He was beyond irritated that Michael had shown up.
"We might," Meredith reassured him. "Especially since Wilson has the bright idea that we should build a time machine."
"A time machine? What does that have to do with your project," Michael was quick to ask.
"We're supposed to pretend we're going back in time to warn Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that he's going to be killed. And we're also supposed to answer if he would believe us or not or some shit like that. So I get where Wilson's thought process is. It's just that he just made a simple project a whole lot harder," Halle said as she pursed her lips and smirked at Wilson for coming up with the idea.
"No, see, Halle it's really a cool idea. We can be like that movie back to the future except since this is for Dr. MLK Jr. so it'll be Black to the Future, get it?" Wilson asked her excitedly.
Jalen lost it, he began to laugh hysterically. Halle took one look at Jalen and she too began to see the humor and a muffled giggle became a full on rolling laugh. Meredith and Michael couldn't help themselves and since it was a library and they were supposed to be quiet and other patrons were watching and getting annoyed they laughed that much harder. Wilson was trying not to be upset because he thought his idea was corny but cool at the same time and he'd used all the nerve he had to present his idea to this group in front of the girl he was mildly falling in a serious crush with.
"You guys have to either stop laughing so loudly or leave," the librarian said as she leaned her large bosom over the shoulder of Wilson causing him to gag and forcing an even louder chorus of laughter from the group. "Okay, that's it, you guys are out. Come on, pack your stuff up. This is the library. You're supposed to be quiet."
"Okay, okay," Meredith was the first to say as she stood up and gathered her things.
Everyone else followed suit. They were still in the throes of laughter but they took the stairs down to the main lobby of the library. After laughing so hard they really couldn't get themselves together enough to work on any research. Wilson's feelings were mildly hurt because it was as if no one had taken him seriously.
Understanding how it felt to not be taken seriously, Michael was the one who spoke up first. "I think that's a cool idea for the project."
"Thank you," Wilson said nodding his head and staring at Halle.
"Hey, it is a cool idea. It's just funny, okay? I mean really, Wilson, Black to the Future? It's funny. Like one of those movies that the Winans brothers would make or something."
"So?"
"So?" Halle said challenging his look by staring him right back in his very beautiful brown eyes that always seem to be brooding with turmoil. The conflict he was currently feeling was the slow pull of attraction that he felt for Halle. Her tall, willowy frame, her heart shaped lips which were perfectly painted in some glossy, scented lip color. Her large brown eyes reminded him of the singer Mya's. He wanted to kiss her, but they were in the middle of the library so he couldn't. She was teasing him, he knew, and so he shook himself out of it.
"So what do you think J," he asked Jalen.
"I think it's cool."
"Meredith?"
"It's fine," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
Michael was watching the interaction of them all. He sensed that Jalen was feeling Meredith because he was looking at her in a way that he often wished Jalen would look at him. Crushed but not willing to give up, he wanted to stick around. He wouldn't give up hope on his feelings. Maybe Jalen had feelings for him too but was just too afraid to show it.
"Listen, we can do this. We can make a model time machine and you'll just use it as the concept for your project," Michael said excitedly as he thought of the prospect of working so closely with Jalen would force Jalen to see how perfect they were together.
"Or, you can use a real time machine and go test your hypothesis for real," a voice behind them said.