Time Turned

Chapter 10

Okay, I am back to my fourth grade body, with my impeccable mind. Like Hermione? It is after recess when I arrive.

With a quick calculation, I come to realize that Theo only has 2 hours left before bad things begin to happen. 

Looking at the clock, the school day will finish in an hour and a half. It's enough time, but just barely.

Now, I would text him to meet me at the bathroom but I remember that my old fourth grade teacher had a silly rule where you had to earn your bathroom pass by completing an assignment to the highest levels of perfection. We just didn't have that sort of time.

I silently resign myself to my new fourth grade classroom to finish the rest of the day.

The minute hand inches by incredibly slowly. It is like a turtle making it's way across the sand. It takes forever to reach it's destination.

My impatience is not serving me well. My foot is jostling up and down, tap, tap, tapping away. 

I then make an exaggeratedly large movement where my entire leg hits the underside of my desk. In a slow chain reaction, my desk falls over, knocking into the other desks. Like Humpty-Dumpty, they all go tumbling down, with all of our books as well.

The entire class turns to look at me. My teacher is giving me a glare that would petrify even Medusa with fear.

"Lili, if you are done causing a mess, I would like to see you at my desk while the others do silent reading," she says.

The entire class fills with "oooohhs" and "somebody's in trooouuuble". The typical fourth grade stuff.

Liam, who is the third version that I have met, offers me a sympathetic smile, as I grudgingly make my way over to my teachers desk.

"Lili, I just want to start out that I am not mad, however, I would like to speak to your parents about your academics. I can only assume that you had too much energy when you knocked down those desks because you are bored with the class material," she begins.

Okay, I am not sure where this is going, but it is definitely going not how I was expecting it to go.

She continues with, "I noticed that you are reader faster than most and most presumably have nothing to do near the end of class. I would therefore like to place you in the gifted class where the work is more difficult and more challenging for your keen mind."

Oh wow, okay. I would be bursting with joy if I hadn't already known and understood the entire fourth grade curriculum. 

I'm sure my teacher's mind would have blown through the roof if I picked a pencil and started solving functions and trig identities.

She finishes with, "However, I cannot celebrate misbehavior in my classroom, and for making a mess today in class with the desks, you will stay an extra 20 minutes after school tidying up the bookshelf."

I quickly nod and head back to my seat.

Oh, this is bad. It means that instead of my 30 minute buffer, I now have 10 minutes to find Theo and bring him back to the present.

After class I spend my time sorting the books. I finish sorting in fifteen minutes but my teacher keeps me in the extra five, telling me that I can read. I pick up the "Prisoner of Azkaban" to find the time turning dangers.

Oh dear, if I don't get Theo within the five hours, time can be permanently changed AND Theo could be in danger.

The moment that those five minutes are up, I bolt out of the classroom to find Theo.