Chapter 4

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She watched me with anticipation as I turned my body to face her, uncrossing my legs so that they could dangle from the side of the bed.

"I traveled back in time." I shrugged.

She sat back in the desk chair, placing both hands on the chair's arms. If she was shocked, she was doing a pretty good job at hiding it.

"You traveled back in time?" She repeated, turning it into a question rather than a statement. I nodded, pursing my lips. She examined my face with a concentration I'd never seen before, most likely trying to figure out whether I was playing with her or not. "It's not even April Fools' yet. Are you being serious?"

"I swear on my life." I wasn't lying. The sooner I got her to believe me, the more sane I'd feel. "One minute, I was twenty nine and the next, I'm back in high school." I looked at her with pleading eyes. "This isn't a prank, you have to believe me."

She looked at the ground, staring off into space as I rattled my brain in an attempt to think of something, anything that could convince her. "I do." She murmured softly, before lifting her eyes to meet mine. "I do believe you." I was completely taken aback by how easy it was to get her on my side. If anything, I thought she'd call the closest psychiatric hospital and have me locked up pronto. "It's not like you to make things up." She explained. "So, if you're telling me that you somehow managed to travel eleven years back in time, there's not much I can do other than try to help you figure out how and why."

Thank God she's so understanding.

"I've been trying to figure it out ever since I woke up from my nap." I sighed. "I don't know why The Cascade decided to just randomly change all of a sudden."

"The Cascade?"

***

"So, what's it like? Neets asked, pulling her biology book out of her locker. "In the future, I mean."

"Chaotic." Was the first thing that came to mind. "Melting glaciers. Shooting gorillas. Businessmen running countries. Twerking."

"Sounds horrific. But what's twerking?" She asked, innocently, closing her locker.

I shook my head at her as we made our way down the hall together. "You don't even want to know."

After explaining The Cascade to her the day before, Neets came up with multiple theories as to why its nature had changed from minutes to years, based on the information she had managed to squeeze out of the few, vague facts I had to offer. "What about me?" She asked, excitedly. "What am I like? What do I do for a living?"

"You got into Harvard Law, just like you've always wanted. From what I heard, you graduated at the top of your class and worked in one of the biggest law firms in the country." Her eyes lit up with pride. Neets was a very hardworking overachiever, it never surprised me to see how successful she had become.

After a few seconds, the glimmer in her eyes died out and her face slightly dropped. "What do you mean by that? From what you heard? Indirectly?"

"Oh." I said, rubbing the back of my head and smiling. "We kind of fell out on each other after you moved away for uni. I mean, we did talk every now and then but as the days went by, you got more and more engrossed in schoolwork and I just didn't want to distract you or anything."

We'd made it to the biology lab just before the teacher wrote the lesson's title on the whiteboard behind him. We quickly sat beside each other on the nearest vacant stools behind one of the long, ceramic tables.

"Promise me one thing." She whispered after a few minutes, her eyes glued on the teacher so that she wouldn't be told off for 'side talks'. "Now that you have a chance to do it all over again," she paused and dared to turn to her right so that she could look at me, "don't end our friendship."

***

Soon enough, it was lunch time and Neets and I made our way to the cafeteria. We grabbed a couple of trays and shifted in the line every couple of seconds. One thing I definitely didn't miss was the food they served here. After placing whatever my tastebuds considered edible onto my plate, we headed to an unoccupied table and sat.

"You said The Cascade always happened so that you could prevent something bad from happening, right?" She asked, picking at her packet of chips.

I nodded, peeling the seal off of my cup of chocolate pudding. "Still doesn't explain why I'm here."

"There you two are."

I looked up to spot my old friend Chase, taking a seat opposite from me. He was my closest friend, aside from Neets of course.

"Mr Butler has me spending lunch doing all the assignments I never gave in." He rolled his eyes. "Told him I was going to the bathroom, ended up coming here."

Neets laughed, understanding what was going on, not like me. "Well, you should get back before he finds out the you lied to him. You do know that there's a bathroom right next to his office?" His face drained of what little colour he had in his complexion as he darted out of his seat and ran through the exit of the cafeteria. "Chase was in Florida for the past three weeks." Neets explained. "All of the other teachers never really pressured him with deadlines except for Mr Butler." She pushed her tray of barely touched food and propped an elbow up on the table to lean on. "Now, back to the topic at hand; The Cascade."

"I don't think we should tell Chase about it." I told her. "The less people that know, the better."

"Totally." She agreed. "It would only make things harder."

I looked around at the cafeteria filled with bustling students, eating and socializing with their friends. Life was so simple for them. Life was so simple for me.

"What happened here that was so bad that it had to pull you back in time, so that you could set it right?" She asked.

And at that moment, the answer to her question came walking into the cafeteria with a group of his friends.

Nolan.

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A/N:

Who who what what where? Nah but who who where? Like where where where? How did we get right here? Like nah nah nah. Who and what and where? Who and what and where?

I should probably start writing the next chapter, the laziness is kicking in already 😭

I should probably start writing the next chapter, the laziness is kicking in already 😭

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Chase Falks: played by Asa Butterfield. (If you've never watched The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, we can't be friends.)

Feel free to comment, vote, follow, whatever :')

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