Through the Storm

Chapter One

Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 12:15 pm

"How far back shall I go?" I asked Kevin. We kept ourselves far away from the long line of kids at the audition line.
"Half an hour?" Kevin suggested.
"Hey! Give that back!" Mitch snatched the bag of candy one of the campers had taken from a toddler's stroller and through an exasperated look in my direction. "It'd be nice if you actually watched your group of kids."
"Sorry, Mitch." I picked the little boy up before his kleptomaniac ways got any worse. "Hold up your hands," I told him. He grinned a toothless smile and opened his little chubby hands in front of my face. "See? Nothing."
"Let's keep it that way, okay? You don't need to be taking other people's stuff." I set the kid back down and have him a little shove towards the others, who were headed for the large stretch of grass reserved for campers having lunch at the theater camp.
"Mitch Grassi," I said, grabbing his hand and intertwining his fingers in mine. He spun around to face me. "You have a soft spot for the klepto kid, don't you?"
I smiled at him and shrugged. "Maybe." His face relaxed and he tugged on the front of my shirt, pulling me closer before kissing my cheek. "So...what are you tonight?"
"Um...I've got plans with this really cute guy with beautiful brown eyes and adorable dimples." Except I couldn't actually remember what we planned. "It's a...surprise."
"You're so full of it." He laughed and shook his head. "I can't believe you forgot your promise to spend an entire evening with me reciting Shakespeare...in French...backwards. Then we were supposed to watch Spirited Away and SpongeBob."
"I must've been drunk when I said that." I took a quick glance over Mitch's shoulder before pecking him on the lips. "But I'll agree to SpongeBob."
He rolled his eyes. "We're supposed to go see that band with your friends, remember?"
A little girl from Mitch's group tugged on his arm and pointed towards the bathroom. I darted around him before we could discuss my inability to make plans a few weeks in advance and actually remember them a few weeks later.
"Yo, Scott, over here," Kevin said, nodding towards a tree.

Time for some travel planning.

"Are you coming with us to see that band tonight?" I asked. What I really wanted to know was if he forgot about it too.
"Um...let's see. Spend a night out with your high school friends who, I've heard, are like a real life version of Gossip Girl? Not to mention blowing an entire paycheck on an appetizer and a couple of drinks?"
He shook his head and smiled. "Take a wild guess."
"I see your point. How about we hang out in your and Mitch's neighborhood tomorrow?"
"Sounds good."
"Okay, on with it. I want to get this experiment over with while we can." Kevin tossed me my journal and threw a pen on top of it. "Write down your goal, because time travel without a goal is just-"
"Reckless," I finished for him, trying to hold back a groan.
"The gift shop is right over there," He pointed behind us. "I've been watching for the last hour and the same girl's at the register."
I gave him a smirk. "You've been checking her out, haven't you?"
Kevin rolled his eyes and adjusted his SnapBack. "Okay, so you set your stopwatch and then jump back thirty minutes. You go into the gift shop and do whatever it is you do so a girl remembers your name." I chuckled. "It's called flirting, Kev." I said quietly so nobody else could hear. Then I focused on writing my notes before Mitch got back from the bathroom.

Goal: Test theory on someone who has no knowledge of the experiment.
Theory: Events & occurrences, including human interaction, while traveling into the past will NOT affect the present.

Non-geek-speak translation: I jump back thirty minutes in time, flirt with the girl in the shop, jump back to present time, walk back into the store, and see if she remembers me.
She won't.
But Kevin Olusula, winner of the 2009 National Science Fair and a soon-to-be MIT freshman, won't confirm this conclusion we've tried it from Every. Single. Angle.
But I've never been friends with a science geek before. Although Kevin's more of the bad-boy-hacking-into-government-websites kinda geek. Which personally, I think is awesome.
"Do you know for sure you can jump back exactly thirty minutes?" Kevin asked. I shrugged. "Yeah, probably."
"Just make sure you note the time. I'll record the seconds you're sitting here like a vegetable," Kevin said, placing a stopwatch in my hand.
"Is that really what I look like when I jump? How long do you think I'll be like that?" I asked.
"I'm guessing that a twenty-minute excursion, thirty minutes into the past, will leave you catatonic in the present for about two seconds."
"Where was I thirty minutes ago, just so I don't run into myself?"
Kevin clicked on the stopwatch on and off about ten minutes before he finally answered me. He's so totally OCD. "You were inside, looking at the stage setup."
"Okay. I'll try not to end up over there."
"We both know you can choose your location if you really concentrate, so don't give me that I-don't-know-where-I'll-end-up-crap," Kevin joked.
"Yeah yeah. You do it, then, if you think it's so easy."
"I wish."
I get why Kevin is so fascinated by my power. But for me, I don't really consider it a power...more like a freak-of-nature kind of deal.
And a scary one, at that.
I glanced at my watch, 12:25 pm; then closed my eyes and focused on thirty minutes in the last and on this exact spot, though I really have no clue how I do this.
The first time I jumped was about five months ago, during my first semester of college. I was sitting in the middle of a French poetry class. I dozed off for a few minutes and I woke up to a cold breeze and a door slamming me in the face. I was standing in front of my dorm. Before I even had the chance to panic, I was right back in class again.
Then I panicked.
Now it's fun, for the most part. Even though I still have no idea what day or time I traveled to that very first jump. As of today, my known record jump has climbed from six hours to forty-right hours in the past. Jumping to the future has yet to work, but I'm not going to stop trying.
The familiar sensation of being pulled into two weeks took over. I held my breath and waited for it to stop. It's never pleasant, but you get used to it.

--------------------
A/N
And that's chapter one!! I hope you are enjoying it so far!
Please favorite and stay tuned for the next chapter which is coming your way soon! :)