The Past and the Future: After the Adoptions

The Time Capsule

Catlynn's POV

(AN: All writing in italics are memories/flashbacks to when the squad was younger! Enjoy!)

"This box smells like the 1940s." Matilda said. Valerie snorted and said, "Come on, stop exaggerating. None of us are that old."

"Well, duh!" Matilda said, rolling her eyes. I laughed as I brushed some dust off the top of the time capsule, causing Josie to sneeze uncontrollably from next to me.

"Sorry. Slightly allergic to dust." Josie said. I smiled at Josie and then put the box down in the middle of the room, my living room, where my friends were sprawled across every single surface available. 

"Guys! Come here!" I said, motioning for my friends to sit in a circle around the time capsule. Keira picked up the time capsule, put it in their lap, and then said, "I just want to marvel at all the stickers we put on this before we sealed it up."

"You're our tape girl, Clem." I said, motioning for Clem to pull the tape off the box. Clementine giggled a little and I smiled, despite Clem having just turned twenty-two, she still laughed like a little kid.

Thinking of Clem's laugh made me realize- we all still acted like the little kids we once were in a way. Most of us still had our old security objects, I had handed my blanket down to my daughter Eleanor, but it was still in my house. And we all still had a little bit of our old personalities, Matilda's laugh, Val's sparkle in her eyes, Penney's goofiness, Josie's smile, Clem's happiness, Keira's creativity. 

I laughed, coming back to reality. "Remember that day? God, it was so bittersweet, but we had so much fun..."

"Y'all brought all your photo albums, right? And your yearbooks?" Josie said, coming into my apartment with a shopping bag full of stuff. 

"Woah, Josie! What did you even bring?" I asked. Josie laughed and said, "Mama apparently has a collection of pictures and stuff from when I was in high school, and she handed it down to me when I told her I was doing this! Plus some craft supplies." I gasped and took the bag from her, putting it on the couch with the rest of the bags and photo albums people brought. 

"When are we planning on opening this back up again?" Matilda asked, sitting on my kitchen counter with a cup of coffee. I smiled and said, "When Clem comes back from Brazil."

"That might not happen." Clem said. We all looked at her in shock and she started cackling. "I'm kidding! What, you think I would ever leave here for good? I love New York too much!"

"Let's just forget about Brazil and all that jazz for now and do some good old fashioned arts and crafts." Penney said. "This box has been over ten years in the making!"

"Earth to Catlynn!" Matilda yelled, waving her hand in front of my face. I snapped back to reality and realized that the top was off the box and all the contents were in plain view.

"Come on! Let's rip this thing open and dig up our past!" Josie squealed, pulling a sweatshirt from the top of the pile. "Hey Catlynn! I think this thing belongs to you!"

I gasped as Josie handed me the sweatshirt. "It's my old Hamilton Middle band sweatshirt!" I put the sweatshirt on, surprised that even though it was a little short, it still fit me after almost twenty years. "I'm gonna wear this more often." I said to myself, smiling.

"Woah! Guys, look! It's all the programs from musicals we did together in high school!" Keira said.

"My hospital bracelet! Clem, I think yours is in here too!" Penney squealed, pulling out a colorful beaded bracelet and handing a second beaded bracelet to Clementine.

"I forgot I had this!" Clem said. "You made this for me, didn't you? It was my birthday gift or something." Penney nodded and then Matilda pulled out a pair of dirty shoelaces.

"Ah hell yes! The laces from my skates!" Matilda screeched, and then passed the box to Valerie. We had all put one or two items that were important to us in our past in the box, and some of us had forgotten those items even existed.

I smiled as Valerie pulled out her old stuffed frog she used to carry everywhere, Keira was reunited with their old art tablet, and Josie found an old journal she used to write letters in. There were also some photos in the box, taken with my old Polaroid camera which was still somewhere in my room.

That gave me an idea.

"Guys! Look, it's a photo we all took together back in 2021. When Clem was adopted. I think this was taken at a party we had for her?" I said. Clem took the photo from me and gasped. "You're right, I remember this!"

I smiled and looked to my friends. "You guys want to recreate it? With my phone?" My friends all nodded and we all got into position. I somehow managed to hoist Clementine on my shoulders, just like I did in the original picture. We all were smiling, arms around each other, and I got the photo timer app working.

"3...2...1...smile!"