“Peg, that would be the raddest. I have something in my bag actually that I was going to hand in later this afternoon. Did you want to...? Nah, never mind.” He shook his head and tossed away the idea.
“I can take a look, I don’t mind.”
Ben looked at his group of friends and then back at Peggy.
“Did you want to go to the library or something?” she suggested softly.
“You don't have to do that, maybe next one?” Ben smiled as he shoveled in the last bite of a hotdog.
“No really, I'd be happy to help.” She looked over at Rochelle. “I don't know how welcome I am here anyway without Lacey.”
Ben laughed and punched her on the arm playfully, he was really strong, and it kinda hurt. “You are totally welcome here.” He smiled a warm smile and Peggy believed him.
Just as Peggy was finishing her last mouthful of her sandwich which she’d layered with corn chips, she saw Lacey walking towards the table, her red hair flowing behind her and a pair of black Ray Ban wayfarers hiding her eyes. She shoved Tricia over and sat down. She lowered her glasses a little and looked at Peggy, then at Ben raising her eyebrows. Peggy shook her head.
“What happened to you last night?” Peggy asked.
“Just had a couple of drinks with Greg at the bar after you left.” Lacey adjusted her glasses and tapped on the top of a soda can.
“Oh yeah? What happened?” Ben asked.
“Dunno, no potato,” she said sadly.
“Why don't you just quit this desperate act and wait until you graduate?” sighed Rochelle.
“Mind your own BS Ro,” Lacey snapped spraying her drink everywhere.
“BS?” laughed Rochelle, “that doesn't even make sense!”
“Yeah it does,” said Lacey straight faced. “BS stands for business.”
Rochelle laughed. “Are you listening to this Sammy?” she asked, waving a fry around seductively like it was a cigarette.
“Lacey’s right, it means business.” Peggy said seriously.
“What?” laughed Rochelle. “No, it doesn’t. Maybe in Canada it does.” The way she spat the word Canada was so offensive.
Peggy nudged Ben under the table and was thankful when he got the hint.
“Oh... Yeah, definitely,” he nodded, clearly having no idea what he was agreeing about.
“You guys are totally stupid,” said Rochelle becoming frustrated at being ganged up on.
Sammy looked over at Peggy and smirked a little, as if thankful that lunch had become entertaining for once.
“It is business,” said Sammy holding Peggy's gaze. She blushed and looked down at her empty plate quickly.
“Sammy!” reprimanded Rochelle as she playfully slapped his arm. Even flustered she was still really beautiful. Peggy hated her. Peggy actually hated her. Well, sort of. She hated her in that way that girls hate prettier, more popular teenage girls who get to make bodily contact with their crush.
Sammy lifted Rochelle's red tipped perfectly manicured hand off his shoulder and leaned back in his chair.
Rochelle folded her arms and made a face.
“Fire Station again tonight?” asked Ben changing the subject.
“Sure,” said Sammy.
“Totally,” said Lacey.
“Can’t,” said Peggy.
“Didn’t you have fun last night?” asked Nick.
“Yeah, but I’m grounded.” A silence fell over the usually buzzing table.
“What?” asked Lacey.
“I’m grounded.”
“Huh?” asked Ben.
“Like as in, I can’t go outside except for school stuff, and stuff with Janet.”
“What did you do?” asked Lacey.
“Uh, don’t you mean what did we do?”
“We did something?” Lacey looked over her glasses, her green eyes just slightly less sparkly than usual.
“Janet was all like - 'a stick of gum does not hide the smell of alcohol Peggy',” she said imitating Janet and then felt bad for doing it.
“Well, she’s right,” said Nick. “It doesn’t.” He looked at Lacey.
“How long is this for?” Lacey demanded.
“I don’t know. It got emotional and she didn’t say.”
“Find out,” said Lacey. “I'm gonna just go sit under a tree and maybe even sleep for like twenty minutes before class, this hangover is serious.”
“We’re going to the library,” Peggy said as silence once again fell over the table.
“The library?” asked Lacey.
“The library?” asked Tricia.
“We have a library?” Sammy asked jokingly.
“What's a library?” asked Nick in a stupid voice, making Tricia giggle for the first time since Peggy met her.
“I need to get some books out,” Peggy said, saving Ben from certain tormenting. “I'm really behind in History already.” Ben looked relieved.
“Later,” said Lacey smacking an empty cigarette box on the table as she put the last cigarette in her mouth and walked off. The world seemed to make way for her as she parted the Red Sea of students who she paid no attention to.
* * *
Peggy read over Ben's paper for his health class. It was meant to be about the effects of drugs on athletes, but he'd kind of missed the point completely. He'd just made a list of pros and cons on a bit of scrap paper and he had listed way more pros than cons.
“Drugs are pretty bad Ben,” said Peggy. “You know that, right?”
He looked sheepish.
“Ben, oh my god don't tell me you are on drugs, like steroids or something?” Peggy whispered to him across the study table.
“Uh, why would you think that?” he asked, folding his arms and looking away from her.
“OK, I don't want to know, but you can't hand in a paper that is just a list of pros and cons, especially when you've really only put pros on there. When is it due?”
“Last period, can you skip next period and help me?” he asked looking desperate.
Next period Peggy had Math, she hated Math but didn't want to be skipping classes. Janet would freak.
“I can’t fail,” he said jiggling his leg up and down under the table. “I’m being considered for a couple of scholarships and I need to at least pass this.”
“Yeah sure, I guess I’ll just tell my teacher I got lost or something,” she said resigning herself to helping Ben for the afternoon. She liked Ben and he needed her help.
“Just say they messed up your timetable,” Ben offered.
“You're a genius, thanks Ben.”
He grinned.
“OK, let's fix this. Where are the computers?”
Peggy looked around but there were no computers. She was sure she'd seen computers at high schools in eighties movies. But then, this wasn't an eighties movie. This was Santolsa in the eighties. They were lucky they even had computers in the present.
“The what?” asked Ben.
“Typewriters?” Peggy asked.
“You want to type it? That will take ages, I'll just handwrite it,” Ben said, looking confused. “Just tell me what to write.”
“How can we do an assignment without Google?” she asked herself.
“Without what now?”
Peggy let out a loud breath. “OK, books. We need books.”
She managed to work out the system fairly quickly and was back at the desk with a pile of books in about the time it would've taken her to finish the whole assignment if she'd had Wikipedia.
“Hey Peg,” Ben said as he watched her run a finger down the index at the back of an encyclopedia.
“Mmmmmm?”
“Do you want to come to the next game?”
“Sure, I’d love to see the St C Chariots actually win a game for once.”
“What do you mean? We win all the time.”
“Nothing, I mean it’ll be great seeing you win a game for the Chariots.”
“Aw shucks, thanks Peg. It would mean a lot to me, no one else real
ly comes to the games anymore.”
“No one? Not even Lacey?”
“She stopped going when everyone else stopped going. She came once on her own, but that’s kinda tough, going to a game on your own. It’s not really our group's scene you know?”
“If Janet lets me go, I’ll try and bring Lacey, but I don’t really mind being on my own. I’m pretty used to it I guess.”
“Thanks Peg. I'm kinda glad you turned up here.”
Peggy smiled. “Thanks Ben, me too.”
Twenty
Back to Reality
Magz walked back out of the book room and into the present during last period on Monday afternoon. She had thought Old Janet might remember this monumental day in her otherwise very average life and be waiting for her at the book room door. It wasn’t every day you came back from the past. But there was no one to meet her. The hallway was deserted. She guessed it was probably a big ask for Janet to remember. Magz had seen Janet just a few minutes ago at the end of last period, but for Janet it had been thirty-three years.
She’d only been gone for a week, but it felt like a lifetime. While it was true that she had thought about Jack a lot, she had been so caught up in being in the eighties to spend too much time missing him. That made her feel guilty. She should have missed him way more than she had, and now the thought of seeing him and having to explain all this made her just feel really tired. She loved Jack, she really did, but he was the last person she wanted to explain herself to right now.
Magz walked slowly, feeling like she was living in some futuristic dream. The lights were too bright, and her head was pounding. She began to feel light-headed, another side effect? She pulled her phone out of her pocket and for the first time ever she was relieved when she remembered the battery was dead. She wouldn’t have to deal with the present for just a little bit longer.
“Magz!”
Magz grinned.
Balancing a coffee, a pile of books and a shiny black tote bag, Mrs. Willis was clacking her heels down the hallway.
“Get inside,” Mrs. Willis whispered, gesturing with her grey spiky head to the classroom and looking the hallway up and down.
Magz did as she was told.
“Well?” asked Mrs. Willis still standing holding everything, about to burst.
“Well… I went to the book room like you said,” Magz shrugged. This was a weird conversation to have, she didn’t know what to say.
“Did you… go?”
“You know I did,” Magz said laughing, “look at what I’m wearing!”
“Oh, dear God,” said Mrs. Willis falling onto the desk behind her. “That’s the uniform I bought you that first week.”
“Yeah, it’s a little itchier than mine, but whatever.”
“There were so many things I wanted to tell you, but I…”
“It’s OK, we had that whole conversation about how you can’t tell me anything. I get it. I’m not supposed to tell you anything either, but I think I already messed that up by calling you Mrs. Willis.”
Mrs. Willis laughed. “Don't worry about that.”
“This is so weird,” Magz said flopping dizzily into a seat in the front row.
“It’s so strange,” Mrs. Willis said. “I remember all those years ago, wondering what we would say to each other in this moment, and now it’s happening.” Her wrinkled face paled.
Magz jumped up and rescued the pile of books before they fell, Mrs. Willis plonked down in the chair at the same time.
“You must have so many questions,” said Mrs. Willis.
“Only about a million,” Magz said. “I don't even know where to start.”
“I think you’ve met Sammy and Lacey and you’ve been to Super Pan. Oh yes of course, we had that argument in the kitchen over those cocktails, didn’t we?”
“You grounded me and I’m still pretty mad about it.”
“You’ll thank me later.”
“I don’t know about that Mrs. Willis.”
“Oh, for God’s sake stop calling me Mrs. Willis.”
“Sorry... Janet.” Magz rubbed under her eyes, smudging her dark blue liner.
“You can’t look them up, you can’t meet anyone. You can’t see anyone. You have to be careful here now.” Old Janet looked over at the door.
“I'd be lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind, like, all the time.” Magz thought about Sammy. She knew she wasn’t meant to Google anyone, but he was all she could think about. What happened to him? What happened to them. Were they ever a them? Were they ever together? Did she have any effect on his life beyond being the new girl at the cafeteria table? Maybe if she knew they were never going to get together it would be good for her, she could just relax and have fun and enjoy her life without the constant anxiety of having to act cool in front of him because he was so damn gorgeous. And here, in front of her stood the woman who knew all the answers. Old Janet was basically like a God. She knew exactly what was going to happen for the next thirty years.
“I want to know so much, and you can’t tell me,” Magz said feeling her headache worsen. “You know my whole life for the next thirty years.”
“I know what happens if you make certain choices.”
“So, there is no free will?”
“Don’t be so ridiculous Peggy.”
Magz’s hairs stood on end.
“You just called me Peggy.”
“I always wanted to call you Peggy, but you weren't meant to be Peggy until now. Anything you find out about the past needs to stay in the future. Imagine if you knew who you were going to marry, or if you were going to have children or not, or when you were going to die? These aren't things we are supposed to know, and for very good reasons. Just think about that before you go off Googling. You could change everything with a little too much information.”
Old Janet was both stern and sad and Magz immediately wondered what she knew about her friends in 1983. Was Lacey still alive and living in Santolsa? She doubted it, if anyone got out it would be Lacey. Would Ben Peppercorn be playing for the LA Lakers? What about Sammy Ruthven, what was he doing? Was he fat and balding and living in the suburbs drinking beer and eating chips on a couch?
Magz didn't want to know if it meant finding that out.
What if she could look herself up? She'd Googled Magz Martin loads of times and also Margaret Martin, but had she ever Googled Peggy Martin. She felt for her phone in her pocket and the yearning for a full battery returned.
“This is just... so crazy,” Magz said, shaking her head as she stared at the crucifix above her.
“Life is crazy, whether you have a time machine or not.”
“A time machine sure makes it harder.”
“So, are you going back?” Old Janet asked.
“You know I'm going back.”
“Good, I need you to take something for me.”
* * *
When she bumped into Jack outside her locker as the last bell rang, he was less than impressed. He was mad as hell. He swore at her and Magz thought he was going to storm off and probably not speak to her for at least a couple of days. But he didn’t move, he just stood there, fuming, his lips in a thin line and his hands clenching his books.
“...And why the hell are you suddenly here now when you haven’t been in class all day?”
“I'm sorry.” Magz was totally exhausted, and even though she should've been in awe of the fact that she was one of the only people on the planet to travel through time, she just felt really pissed off and wanted to go home.
“Sorry? All I get is a sorry? Are you kidding me?”
Magz rolled her eyes and sighed. “I was really sick, I didn't think it would be this big of a deal, I'll text you in the future.” A promise she knew she would not be able to keep. She frowned at that, she was lying to him. She was a jerk. But seriously, she just wanted to go to bed.
“The last time you were doing stuff like this is when you were with Big Mick,” Jack accused.
“Oh, for
god's sake, when are you going to realize that I am not ever, never going to ever do anything with Big Mick again? After the way he treated me, do you think I'm that stupid? Really Jack?” Magz couldn't believe Jack was still unable to let this thing with Big Mick go. It was only in that moment as she said it that she realized she was over Big Mick. She stopped herself before she said something about liking someone else. The less she had to explain the better.
“I know you Magz. I probably know you better than your own family and I know something is different with you. You even look different,” he said looking suspiciously at her big hair. “How about you just let me know when you're willing to tell me the truth huh?” He stood for a moment waiting for a reply, anything that she could say that would make him stay.
But Magz just looked at him. She knew he was right. Her family didn't know her, and in only a few days Magz had decided where her family would be from now. She wanted Janet to be her family. She wanted Lacey and Sammy and Ben to fill that empty place that had been vacant for so long. She knew that Jack had been filling it for a long time, but something had changed. It was like they had snapped apart somehow. He was right. 1983 was home, and it was calling her. Calling her away from him.
When Magz had first met Jack, she thought she was in love with him, but as time passed she’d begun to realize that even though he was cute and lovely and everything she wanted in a boyfriend that he was never going to feel that way about her. Her feelings for him became more about him being funny and generous and everything she wanted in a best friend. He looked after her. He’d been her rock, the light during the darkest nights of her soul.
Her thoughts switched to Sammy. She thought of the unspoken tension between them, whether it was hers or theirs she wasn't sure, but it was something. A feeling she wasn't sure she'd ever really felt before and they had barely even spoken to each other. It was that chemistry people always talk about. That sexual tension. That Soulmate thing. That “the one” thing. She thought it was just something they said in movies before she met Sammy.
She thought of Ben and how he had confided in her. She thought of Lacey and how she had brought a spark of fun back into her boring life. She thought of Janet. She thought about Janet yelling at her when she had come home slightly drunk from the Fire Station and it had been awful and yet it had made her feel so cared for and safe. Like someone actually cared enough to get mad.
Class of 1983: A Young Adult Time Travel Romance Page 11
