There was only one time I’d felt this bad, and it was when I accidentally broke one of my mom’s favorite dishes. It had been given to her by our grandma, and I knew that she treasured it. I was so scared to tell her that for weeks, I pretended it just vanished into thin air when really, I’d hidden the pieces away in my closet. When I finally told her, the words came out in a rush, and I felt so ashamed for lying to her.
That same horrible feeling hit me now, and I wanted to crawl away and hide somewhere. The longer Zac stared at me, the more his expression filled with concern and the worse I felt.
“I…I did do something…to mess up Jade’s project,” I said it quietly, half of me hoping that he didn’t hear.
He stepped back and shook his head. “What? No, you wouldn’t that.”
I struggled to continue, but I knew I had to confess. “It’s just that she was so horrible to me, she’s been mean for so long, and something just snapped,” I rambled. “And then we found the time machine, and I had this crazy idea to get back at her. And so we messed up her project, and then things changed, and after that, things with you were different—”
“With me?” he asked, his frown deepening.
At the same second the words left his lips, I clapped my hand over my mouth, realizing I’d said too much. He shoved his hands into his pockets and narrowed his eyes, confused. “What do you mean with me? And the machine? You used it to get back at Jade?”
I would have wrung my hands together, but I was still holding the flowers. “During the night of the band concert, we used the machine to go back to the day of the history presentations. I didn’t think it would change other things as well. I just wanted to mess up her project a bit.”
He blinked rapidly, and I knew he was thinking back over that night when Kate, Oliver and I disappeared from the gym, saying we had to use the bathroom.
He seemed more confused than ever, and I needed to explain. “When we originally went to the concert, you weren’t even there. Kate, Oliver and I sneaked into the classroom and uploaded a different file for Jade’s project, one that Kate and I put together at home. Then we hid the artifacts,” I confessed. “But it was just meant to be a prank! I just wanted to embarrass her. Then when we came back to the present…you were there. And then…you and I were kind of going out and, well…” I trailed off and watched as he connected the dots for himself.
He stared at me silently as he tried to process my words.
I bobbed my head, not sure what else to do. “Zac, I’m sorry…I should’ve told you, but I was worried you’d think I was crazy.”
He nodded absently, staring at the ground.
“Are you…are you mad at me?”
“Mad? No, but…I’m confused I guess. You and I weren’t seeing each other very much until you went back and changed Jade’s project. Is that right? And then after that, we were like…together?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“And you have no idea what else you might’ve changed?”
I shook my head. “But everything’s been fine, hasn’t it? I mean, we’re still friends, and it was just Jade’s project that was messed up.”
“Except you did to her exactly what she’s always done to you.”
I shrugged, trying to smash down the guilt that persistently got worse the longer he stared at me, his face filled with disappointment. “I’m not sure I see what’s so wrong with that.” I stammered.
“Really? Wow, Holly, that’s just…wow.”
“What? She was mean to me for years, and when I finally decide to get her back, I become the bad guy?”
“Yes!” he declared loudly. “Don’t you see? When you do what the bully does, you become the bully! You take on the mean girl persona, and that…that is not who I thought you were.”
“That’s not fair,” I argued, tears burning in my eyes. “You have no idea what she did to me!”
“I know she was horrible to you, and I get that it was bad, but you can’t sink to her level.” He stepped back again, and my chest tightened. “You were willing to risk getting into a heap of trouble and being just like Jade so that you could get a little revenge. Maybe you guys finding that machine wasn’t such a good thing after all.”
My jaw dropped, and the flowers fell from my hands. “How can you say that? I got to meet my dad because of it!”
“Yeah, and you’ve also messed with people’s lives! You’ve changed the way your mom sees things. You’ve changed things for Jade. Maybe you’ve even made things happen between us. Who knows what else you’ve changed!” He turned around and started to walk away.
“Zac! Wait a second!”
“No, I’m going home…see you at school tomorrow or…whenever. And ask Kate for her notes. I’m sure she’ll fill you in on anything you need to know,” he yelled over his shoulder, not stopping.
I stood on the sidewalk staring at his retreating back until he was gone from my sight. Tears blurred my vision, and angrily, I wiped them away. My life had been so much simpler before, but now it was turning into a huge mess! And it was all my fault.
Hugging my arms around me as a chill breeze picked up, I stepped over the fallen daises, not feeling I deserved them or even wanted them anymore, and I headed home.
“How was your walk, hon?” Mom asked when I walked in the front door.
“Fine,” I managed to say without sounding upset. “I’m going to finish tidying my room, and Kate’s going to call me soon, to give me some notes I missed.”
“Ok. I think we’re doing takeout tonight. I’ll let you know when it gets here.”
“Sounds good!” I ran upstairs and closed my door. Kicking off my shoes, I fell face first onto my bed, clutching my pillow tightly to my chest as tears spilled from my eyes. I’d always told myself I would never be the girl who would cry over a boy. And here I was crying because Zac was disappointed in what I’d done.
What I had wanted was to make Jade feel bad; the way she’d made me feel on so many occasions. But I never imagined I’d turn into the same type of girl she was because of it.
A soft knock came at my door before Oliver opened it a crack. “Holly? Are you crying?”
“No,” I said, my voice muffled from my pillow. “Go away.”
My door creaked open, and I lifted my head enough to see him step inside.
“I said go away,” I muttered the words and turned my back on him. “I don’t want to talk.”
“I thought you were just out with Zac. What happened?” My bed shifted as he sat on the edge of it. “Holly, come on. You know you’ll feel better if you talk about it.”
I sniffed hard, wiping my face on my freshly cleaned pillow and not caring. “He found out…about what we did to Jade.”
“How?”
I gave him a quick rundown on what had happened at the park and how I couldn’t stand to keep the secret from Zac anymore, not when he knew about the machine. By the time I finished explaining, I was crying all over again, and Oliver looked torn between annoyance at Zac and his own guilt.
“Why do you look like that?” I asked, wiping my face on my sleeve. “You didn’t come up with the idea, remember? I did. I’m the one who suggested we mess with her project.”
“I know, but I agreed.” He hugged me, and I leaned against him. “I get where Zac’s coming from, but you’re not the only one to blame for what happened. Sometimes, when people get pushed too far, they have to push back. Maybe we went a little overboard, but you can’t let this hang over your head forever.”
“Feels like it’s going to,” I mumbled.
He chuckled. “You’re in seventh grade, Holly. Trust me; there’s plenty of years ahead of both of us for messing up. Let this one go.” He poked me in the ribs, trying to get me to smile.
“And Zac?”
“He’s just one guy. But I’m sure he’ll come around eventually. Don’t worry about it.”
He gave me one more tight squeeze before he stood and left me alone. He was right, but it only made me fe
el marginally better about what we’d done. I took off my tear-stained jacket, as well as my pillowcase, and busied myself with putting the last of my books back on their shelves. I tried to convince myself that Oliver was right and we had more important things to worry about.
But even so, the guilt inside me sat heavily in my stomach, and I could not rid my mind of Zac’s disappointed expression.
I didn’t want his opinion of me to mean so much. But it did.
And I wondered if he’d ever want to talk to me again.
Chapter 7
The next day at school was a disaster. Zac barely even nodded in my direction. I glanced his way a few times, but it was obvious he was ignoring me. Adding to my distress was Jade, who glared angrily towards me, but I managed to avoid further confrontation by staying as far away from her as possible.
It seemed my worst fears had been realized and I was right back where I’d started a few weeks earlier. Zac was barely acknowledging me, and Jade was throwing repeated mean looks my way. I couldn’t believe that things could change so rapidly. Especially because everything had been going so well.
Along with these issues, I was filled with an eerie sensation that I was being watched. The feeling increased as time went by and I developed a new sense of paranoia that continued to grow in the back of my mind. I worried that whoever had broken into our house was going to come back. He had clearly been interrupted before finding what he was looking for. And if that was the case, there was a good chance he would return.
Meanwhile, Mom took a couple more days off work to get the rest of the house in order and to deal with the insurance agency. And finally, towards the end of the week, the house was restored to a semblance of order.
When she eventually returned to work, she was faced with a compulsory evening conference that was to be held somewhere in the city. It meant she’d be leaving us at home alone. As she grabbed her purse and prepared to walk out the door, I saw the hesitation on her face.
“We’ll be fine, Mom,” Oliver told her. “Really. We have the alarm system and everything.”
“I know, I just…I can’t help feeling that I should be staying here with you.”
“It’s ok. You’ve already said that we need to get back to normal,” I pointed out. “And you have our permission to call us every half hour if it’ll make you feel better.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, her frown deepening, but finally, she relented and held out her arms to hug us. “Alright, but if either of you starts to feel uncomfortable, you call me right away. Promise?”
“We promise, Mom!” I said, pushing her out the door.
Though she’d put on a strong face the past few days, we could both tell she was barely holding it together. The insurance money was going to take a little while to come through, and until the house was back to the way it was, I didn’t think Mom would return to her usual self. Though to be fair, the kitchen was still blue, and I suspected more than ever that somehow we were responsible for that man breaking into our home. I hadn’t said it out loud, and neither had Oliver, but we both knew the truth. Whoever came to the house had been looking for one thing…Grandpa’s time machine.
I mumbled something to Oliver about going to finish my homework and headed for the stairs. But he grabbed my arm.
“What?”
“I’m going back,” he said simply and then turned for the basement.
“Wait, what? Oliver!” But he had already disappeared through the basement doorway.
I followed after him and found him already at the workbench, fiddling with the time machine. “Hold on a second. We decided we wouldn’t use this for a while! What do you think you’re going to do?”
“I’m going back to that night of the break-in,” he informed me without turning around. “And I’m going to see who did it. You coming or not?”
I thought of how disappointed Zac looked after I confessed my crime against Jade, but this was different, right? If I went with Oliver, it wasn’t as though we were going back to mess with anyone.
Or at least I didn’t think we were.
I knew that messing with Jade had been reckless on my part. And that had led to a fallout with the boy I’d been crushing on for years. I wasn’t sure that we should be using the machine again without giving it more thought. Oliver’s plan could get us into serious trouble. “Can we talk about this for a minute? Please?”
“Why? I know you already have your suspicions of who broke into our house. And so do I. I’m not going to sit around and wait for him to come back. I can’t.”
I wasn’t sure how to stop my brother. I had a bad feeling about what he was suggesting. I didn’t think it was a good idea. But at the same time, I wasn’t about to let him go alone. “I’m calling Kate.”
“Why?”
“Because we promised each other that if one of us goes back, all three of us do, remember? I’m calling to let her know.” I was already searching for her name on my phone when he opened his mouth to argue. But he took one look at the determination on my face and changed his mind. Rolling his eyes, he turned back to the machine while I silently begged for my friend to pick up.
“Holly?”
“Kate, is there any chance you can come over to my house? Like…right now?”
“I think so. Why? What’s up?”
“Oliver has some crazy idea to go back to the night our place was broken into,” I answered quietly as I climbed the stairs so Oliver wouldn’t overhear. “I’m hoping you can help me talk him out of it.”
“Does he know who broke in?”
I almost said Thaddeus Banes, but I wasn’t completely sure. And I hadn’t seen anything, but a shadow that night so there was no point accusing a supposedly dead man of this crime unless it really had been him.
“No…maybe…I don’t know. But I don’t think this is a good idea. Mom’s gone out, but still…what if something goes wrong? Like very wrong? This person could hurt Oliver.”
“Alright, I’ll be there as fast as I can,” she promised and then hung up.
I paced the front entry impatiently waiting for Kate’s knock, and when it finally came, I dragged her inside, shutting and locking the door behind her. I hurried back to make sure the alarm was set, just in case, and then nodded to the basement door. “He’s downstairs.”
Together, we raced down the steps to see Oliver had set the machine on the floor in the basement and was adjusting the knobs. He barely offered a glance when Kate and I approached him. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“First, there’s something Kate needs to tell you,” I said, and mimed for her to talk to him.
She took a deep breath, and I waited for her to give him some crazy speech that would convince him not to go back, but instead, all she said was, “Let’s do this!”
“What?” I yelped. “Kate! You’re supposed to talk him out of it!”
“Holly, he’s right. And you know it! You guys started something the day you found this machine, and now when things get a little crazy you’re going to miss a chance to see who’s behind all of this?”
“It could’ve just been a burglar! We could be walking into a very dangerous situation!” I tried to argue, but I could tell from Oliver’s set face that he wasn’t about to back down. And neither was Kate.
Sighing with frustration, I pleaded, “Guys, seriously, this is beyond ruining someone’s project at school. This is dangerous, really dangerous. What if we get hurt? What if something happens to the machine and we can’t get back?”
“Then let’s make sure nothing happens to the machine,” Oliver suggested as he stood.
I ran my hands through my hair, searching for options. I could let them go without me, but if something happened to them, if they were injured or hurt in some way, or even worse, if they never came back, I couldn’t live with myself.
Knowing I was going to regret my decision, I stepped forward, and Kate acknowledged me with a pleased nod.
“Mom will be back in a few hours,” I reminde
d my brother as he picked up the machine. “We have to be back here, or she’ll think we were kidnapped. Got it? No wasting time. We get there; we see a face, we leave. Deal?”
“Deal.” Oliver nodded in agreement.
He inhaled a deep breath and then told us both to hold on. Kate and I grabbed his arms as he flipped the switch on Grandpa’s machine. I was growing used to the strange sensations that happened when we were yanked from the present and sent abruptly into the past.
But the second that my feet hit the floor in the previous time zone, I knew something was wrong.
We were in the basement, and the light was off as it should have been since we had gone out for dinner. But the house was eerily quiet. Not a single sound could be heard anywhere.
“Are you sure this is last Sunday night?” I whispered as Oliver checked his digital watch.
“Yeah, and it’s twenty minutes before we got home from the diner. The intruder should be in the house.” Holding onto the machine, Oliver moved slowly towards the basement stairs, craning his head in an attempt to hear if anyone was on the floor above us. There were no footsteps, no sounds of rummaging, nothing.
“I don’t like this,” I urged. “Oliver, let’s just go back.”
“Not yet,” he whispered. “Just wait a second.”
The sudden click was so loud in the silence of the basement that it was near deafening. “Yes, just hold on for one second,” a man said from the shadows of the basement. My stomach dropped to the floor as I gulped. “Now then, let’s see what you have in your arms, son. Flip on the light.”
“No,” Oliver said fiercely. But the man shifted against the shadows, and a sliver of moonlight caught the shiny object in his hand.
“Don’t make me hurt you. Turn on the light. Now!”
“Oliver, just do it,” I whispered, hoping he understood what I meant by that.
The machine was our only chance to get out of this. We had to leave immediately. I glanced over my shoulder to my brother, trying to make him understand that we needed to leave, but he couldn’t see my face in the darkness. I winced when the light clicked on. It was Kate who had flicked the switch, and she stood trembling in fear as she stared at the man across the room.
Time Traveler - Books 1, 2, 3 & 4: Books for Girls aged 9-12 Page 19
