Portal - BK 1

by Imogen Rose

  “Hey, Ariele, I’ve got my notes right here. We can photocopy them in the office if you like.”

  She looked up at me carefully studying my face. I smiled at her. She hadn’t changed a bit. Same beautiful Ariele, gorgeous chestnut curls that barely touched her shoulders and green eyes. I’ve never seen more perfect brows, and I knew they were natural, never touched by tweezers. I could see her trying to read me, but she was not brave enough to blurt anything out. Not yet anyway. She stood up, towering about a foot above me. She nodded silently and we headed out of the cafeteria toward the office.

  “I heard you moved here from New Jersey?” I asked gently.

  She turned around and looked at me tentatively, “It’s complicated. We were supposed to have moved here next June, but we seem to have arrived earlier than expected. It’s a bit of a strange story. I’m still trying to work it out. A?” Ariele said looking at me hopefully.

  “Yes?”

  “I knew it! You are A! This is beyond bizarre. You are A aren’t you?” she asked pleadingly.

  I nodded; Ariele and Monica had always called me “A” back in Princeton.

  “I wanted to ask you ever since I saw you at physics, but I was scared to make an idiot of myself again,” she said. She told me that she had run into both Justin and Simla and that neither had recognized her, and both were now treating her like a nut job. Simla had been spreading mean rumors about her.

  “Have you got any idea what’s going on?” she asked looking me over with a smile. “I’m not even going to start going on about your new look,” she giggled.

  I punched her fondly.

  “The last time we saw each other was after the SAT’s at Princeton High. And here we were. I am the new girl and you seem to have been here forever. How can that be?” Ariele mused.

  “I have no idea, Ariele. This is totally bizarre!”

  “No kidding! I’ve been play stalking you for the last few days. I was trying to work out if it was really you or if you were like Simla and Justin. I got to say, I nearly gave up when I found out that you were the vice captain of the cheer squad!” She guffawed. “Gosh and on the debate team! The blonde hair and designer gear threw me completely. Have you totally lost your mind?” She chuckled, “It would have been priceless seeing you cheer! I came along to the basketball game hoping to see you in action. I was so looking forward to it! How did you get out of that?”

  “Long story, Ariele! We really have to get to the bottom of this. What are you doing after school? Can you come over and hang out later this evening?”

  She was hesitant. Her parents had her on a strict curfew. We decided that I would go along to her place with the pretense that we had to work on a physics project together. I programmed her new address into my iPhone.

  “A, I am so glad you are you. Cool Jeep by the way! But guess who is driving the Dodge Charger?” she smirked.

  I rolled my eyes at her. It felt so good to connect with Ariele. Turning toward her, I grabbed her in my arms and hugged her. It was so good to see her. There were so many questions we both needed answers to but they would have to wait until this evening.

  “Oh, A, nice going this morning in physics. That’s when I was fairly certain that it was you!”

  “You saw that? Great. I made a real idiot of myself.”

  She chuckled and said, “Apparently, you have a debate team meeting at two, don’t forget! Lily was looking for you earlier.”

  “Come with me, Ariele? Share my pain!”

  “Ok, goose, I’ll meet you outside the dork room.”

  Two o’clock came way too soon. I walked over to the “dork” room and found Ariele waiting for me.

  She took my hand and whispered, “Strength in numbers, sister from the future,” and winked at me.

  Lily arrived with the rest of the team and we went inside. I looked over to Ariele and rolled my eyes. I felt really bad for this enthusiastic bunch. They really didn’t deserve to have me here. I recognized a few kids from my other classes.

  “You’re the new girl… Ariele? Have you been on a debate team before?” Lily asked.

  Ariele sighed and said, “No, but I am trying to get a feel for the activities here so Arizona suggested I come along to see if this is for me.”

  “Well, I hope it is. We would love for you to join.”

  The meeting was beyond painful. Strategy, competition dates, speaker sequence. I tried to nod and make the right sounds at the right time. Lily tried to corner me for dates, but I managed to avoid that by saying that the cheer squad schedule had not been finalized yet, so I couldn’t commit to anything. It would be best to use me as a reserve (I had absorbed this concept during the speaker sequence bit of the meeting). Lily seemed to accept this unquestioningly. I guess my priority in this life was cheerleading. Ariele was asked if she would like to sit in on a few of the debates. She nodded, but looked relieved when the bell rang. The meeting was over and we all dispersed.

  I nodded a “later” to Ariele and went to find Harry. I walked around the corridor and was stopped by Simla. She looked decidedly unhappy.

  “Why are you hanging out with that weirdo?”

  “Who, Simla?” I asked, knowing full well that she meant Ariele.

  “Ariele, the new girl. You need to stay away from her. She’s really strange. Her parents are nuts too. They told the staff in the hospital that they’re from the future!”

  I tried suppressing my laughter, “I’ll be careful Simla, but Ariele and I have a physics project to do together.”

  She looked at me unhappily.

  “I have to go and find Harry, Simla. I’ll try to catch up with you later. Bye,” I murmured as I hurried off. I walked over to the weight room where I had arranged to meet Harry. I spotted him by the door. Oh yuck, he was basically eating Maria.

  “Cut it out you two!”

  Harry laughed (Maria looked mortified) and let go of her.

  “Come on then, Shrimp. See you later, Maria!”

  We waved goodbye.

  “So what do you want to do, Shrimp?” Harry asked.

  “Can we go skating?” I suggested carefully.

  He looked surprised but pleased. “That sounds great. I need some ice time before the tryouts,” he added.

  I laughed to myself. Like they were going to cut the captain? I suggested that we get some sticks so we could practice his hockey.

  He shook his head amused and patted my head, “You are funny! The best! Let’s do it!”

  He went off to get some sticks for us from the locker room. I smiled at the thought of my hidden U+ stick in the garage. When he got back, we put on a couple of helmets, I took the sticks and we roared off on his bike. This bike thing was such fun, a real thrill! I was desperately trying to hold on to Harry as I balanced the sticks between us on the seat, my legs over them.

  We rode over to the same rink I had been at yesterday. It was so much busier; I guess everyone was trying to get a little practice in before the tryouts. I spotted the lady who lent me the skates yesterday and smiled at her. She brought over a pair of hockey skates this time, as it was open hockey practice only. I put them on; they felt so much more comfortable than the figure skates from yesterday.

  Harry took my hand and we walked on to the ice and skated to the center. He carefully positioned the stick in my hand (as I tried my very best not to giggle) and we started passing the puck to one another. I felt like a four year old, but decided to take things slowly with Harry. Some guys from the hockey team came over and asked Harry if he wanted to train with them for a while. He started to say no but I interrupted and told him to go, I would skate around for a while. He patted my helmet and skated off. I watched him for a while – he was amazing. Perhaps even better than me!

  I started skating around. This was so much fun, especially with the stick in my hand. I spotted a lone puck on the ice and scooped it up with my stick and then let my stick guide it around the ice. I skated faster and faster and then had to skid to a dead stop as some
one skated in front of me. It was Harry.

  “You’re not half bad with that stick, Shrimp!” He said excitedly. “Show me what else you can do.”

  “I’m not really sure, Harry. I was skating about without thinking,” I said truthfully. I showed him my backward skating and goal shots. I could tell that he was beyond amazed.

  “When did you learn to do all this?” he asked amazed.

  “I don’t really know. I guess I picked it up watching you?”

  He seemed to buy it, typical boy! I was glad that I didn’t have to make up anything more elaborate. He looked at me thoughtfully.

  “You should maybe think of trying some girl’s hockey. I bet you’d be awesome,” he suggested proudly.

  I was still unsure how to broach the varsity hockey thing to him but decided to give it a go.

  “Harry, wouldn’t it be great to be able to play on the same team? Do you think that’s an insane idea?”

  He looked surprised and turned silent. He took my hand as he thought about it. We skated over to the side and walked over to the bleachers. Harry told me to wait at the bench while he got us some hot chocolate. I wondered if I had just blown it with Harry. I really liked him and wanted him on my side. He did not seem like the kind of brother who would be a buzz kill. He came back carrying two large hot chocolates and handed me one carefully as he sat down beside me.

  “Arizona, you just took my breath away. I’m completely blown away by your skating; you are awesome. I’m not really sure what to say except I think we should get Ella onto the ice too. I bet she’s like that chimp in MVP!”

  I chuckled. No chance. That girl was born to be a princess.

  “Shrimp, we really should spend more time together this year, especially since I’m off to college soon. Playing on the same team may not be the best way to do it though. I’m the captain of the varsity team. Even if you made the tryouts and onto the team, the rest of them would assume you only made it because of me. The other issue for me would be safety. I don’t know that I could concentrate on the game with you on the ice. I would spend the entire time worrying about you. Have you thought about a girl’s team? I hear the Mountain Cats are really good.” He looked over to me waiting for a response.

  He was right, of course. All those things had not been relevant at Princeton – no brother. I would really have to prove myself at the tryouts. Prove to him that he needn’t worry about me. I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself.

  “Harry, you’re right, I didn’t think about those things. It would be awkward for you. Will you give it a chance though, just for the tryouts? It’ll be fun. You can cut me if you want. I won’t be upset. Just let me give it a go?”

  Harry nodded and said he would drive me over to the sports store for some supplies, but I reminded him that he had a date with Maria.

  “Can you drop me off at school by the Jeep? I’ll drive over and get what I need. Can you help me with all those forms when you get home though?”

  He laughed and took my stick and we headed over to get the bike. He dropped me off at the Jeep and sped off. I couldn’t wait to see Ariele. I programmed her address into the GPS and headed down the road to her place.

  It took forever to get there. It started raining, and I could hardly see though the windshield. The defogger was not doing its job. I passed the house three times before I found the obscured driveway to the front of the house. It was much smaller than I had expected but cute. I ran up to the front door and knocked. Ariele’s mother answered.

  “Dr. Moreau! It’s so good to see you.”

  “It’s nice to see you too, Arizona.” She turned, looked up the stairs and shouted, “Ariele, come down. Arizona is here.”

  Ariele came bounding down the stairs and hugged me. She grabbed my hand and led me upstairs to her bedroom. Her bedroom was nice and light, covered with posters. She closed the door and jumped on to the big bed. I sat down next to her. I had so much to tell her, but I wanted to hear her story first.

  “Ariele, Simla cornered me earlier and told me to beware of you. Muhaaaaa, apparently you’re from the future!” I teased, putting my fingers to my head like antennae and wriggling them.

  She collapsed laughing and said, “She’s right. We are from the futuuuure, beewaare!”

  Then she turned somber, “Seriously though, we did fail the psych assessment at the hospital after the accident.”

  She started rambling; I could barely understand what she was saying. She told me that when they regained consciousness they had all been asked, “What year it was? Who was the president? Blah blah. Obama of course and it’s 2009! But no, it was apparently 2008.”

  I could barely grasp anything thing she said through her hurried rambling. I gathered that the psychiatrist had kept at them, but they had, naively, insisted they were right. So, they had failed the psych assessment carried out by Simla’s dad (whom I gathered was the psychiatrist) and the word spread. So much for patient/doctor confidentiality.

  “Hold on!” I interrupted, “Accident? Ariele, slow down, I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

  “You haven’t heard?” she asked.

  I shook my head.

  Ariele explained, “Remember the last time we saw each other in Princeton? Just after the SAT’s. Monica, you and I said our goodbyes as I was leaving for the airport. Well, I drove home first and did some last minute stuff before the limo picked us up. Mom, Dad and I got into the limo and headed for Newark airport. It was a miserable day, the rain was coming down in torrents and there were huge delays at the airport. The turnpike was jammed, but the limo driver managed to get us to the airport on time. I was surprised and excited to find out that we were being flown to California in a private jet, super cool. Apparently Ames Research was so desperate to have my mom come and work for them that they were going all out to get us here. The limo drove us right up to the plane. It was small but had a bar and super comfy seats. There were no other passengers. I had my own seat that folded down to a bed and a games console with Guitar Hero! We were strapped in for takeoff, which was delayed for over an hour due to the rain. Once we were up, I got served my favorite food, Taco Bell! I couldn’t believe it. My mom and dad got some sushi, yuck. We ate and then watched an early release of the new Harry Potter, which was awesome. It’s not even out in the cinema yet! The ride itself was bumpy. I guess due to the rain but no one seemed concerned. About half an hour before landing time, the ride became very bumpy, to the point we were getting thrown around. So we put our seat belts on and even had to assume the crash position, just in case. I have never really been afraid of flying until then. Then suddenly everything went calm before we felt a tremendous force and were sucked back into our seats, a bit like when going down a rollercoaster. I don’t know what happened next, I think I must have blacked out.”

  She took a deep breath and continued, “I woke up in a hospital and found Mom and Dad sitting holding my hands. We were kept in isolation until your mom came to visit us. She explained that our plane had crashed and that the rescue team had found us and brought us out here. We all seemed to have survived the crash without any major injuries. No injuries in fact. Not even a scratch, which was weird. I was thankful. Your mom was very sweet and arranged to have us moved to a house. It would have been fairly smooth, the move I mean, had it not been for Simla’s pesky dad. He insisted on a psych evaluation first. None of us liked him. He’s a really irritating little man and we thought that he was being a pain arguing with us over simple things like the present year. I’m not sure how it happened, but your mother managed to get us discharged and out of there. She set us up here until we find a house we want to buy.”

  She took a deep breath and continued. “We quickly accepted that we were perhaps a bit confused after all. It is October, 2008! We just couldn’t work it out. We still can’t, but decided to keep a low profile and get on with life as best we can while we figure it out. We wondered what your mother was doing here and how she had found us, but after the incide
nt with Simla’s dad, we didn’t want to stir anything up until we found out what was going on. We didn’t even know that the psychiatrist was Simla’s dad until I started school.” She paused but I nudged her to carry on.

  “My mom started her job at Ames and she was surprised to find out that your mother was her boss. She was the Dr. Darley who had headhunted her with this amazing job offer. They don’t really run into each other much so she’s not been able to corner her for answers. October seems to be their busy month. My mom has been working non stop on her assigned project, whatever that is, with her team.”

  I was trying to absorb all this. It was complicated. I had gathered that Mom worked at Ames. Nothing else made sense.

  “Ariele, do you know what kind of project your mother is working on?”

  “No, but we can ask her. Tell me what you are doing here though. When did you arrive?”

  “Ariele, my story is even more bizarre that yours if that’s possible. I don’t know when I arrived here. I can only remember this week, but I’ve obviously lived here a lot longer. Ella is here too. I seem to have a new dad, Rupert. And also a brother, Harry.”

  Ariele looked at me in pity and sighed, “We really have a lot of stuff to work out.”

  My phone interrupted us with a bleep. A text from Kellan.

  Avoiding getting beat at GH?

  I had to head home. “Got to go, Ariele. We have to get back to this soon!” I promised. “Ariele, I’ve decided to tryout for the varsity ice hockey team.”

  She shrugged, unexcited, “You’re bound to make the team.”

  I kissed her and turned around to leave but hesitated.

  “What’s up,” she asked.

  It seemed like such a ridiculous question given our situations, but I wondered if she could tell me a bit about Kellan.

  “Ariele, this is a bit embarrassing. I’m heading back home to meet up with Kellan. I don’t remember who he is. Or what’s between us. I seem to get flustered in his presence. Can’t imagine why! All I know is that he seems close to Harry, my new brother, and is very chummy with Ella. He hangs out at the house, a lot! He seems comfortable calling me Shrimp. The only other person who does that, so far, is Harry, but I don’t seem to mind that. I like it, in fact. Kellan makes me feel really uncomfortable but he seems fairly familiar with me. I was sort of wondering if we have dated in the past or if we’re dating now or…” I looked at her sheepishly.