TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.2 - Of Her Peers

PART 7a: GROUP CHEMISTRY 1

"Frank Dijora was looking at you again during math class today," Julie LaMille remarked to Carrie as the blonde sat down next to her on the cafeteria bench.

"Of all the nerve!" Carrie huffed in reply. “That geek is really starting to unnerve me this week, Julie - and it’s only Thursday! I mean, he's never struck me as normal, but spying on my house from the ravine three times now? It’s almost like I'm being stalked.”

Julie brushed some of her long, naturally curly brown hair off her shoulder as she leaned an elbow on the table. While her hair was not as long as Carrie’s, it still stretched partway down her back. "And you can't figure out why he's doing it? No one putting him up to it, and you've never led him on or anything?”

“Ha! He wishes!" Carrie snorted, absently stirring the cafeteria food around on her plate. "Trust me, I have no use for the biggest mental weirdo in school. He's so straight I bet he wouldn’t even use last year’s math evaluations to study for our test tomorrow."

"Indeed." Julie tapped her chin. "And if you saw him in the ravine last night, he obviously didn't heed your warning for him to mind his own business." The corners of her mouth turned up. "I'd say he's crossed the line. Wouldn't you agree?"

Carrie blinked curiously for a moment, until she realized where Julie was going with that. "Oh! Definitely. First time anyone's done that this term, isn't it," she said, smiling. "Have anything in mind? Booby trap his locker? Hold his notes hostage? Public humiliation?"

Julie reached into her sweater vest and pulled her little black book out of a concealed pocket in her blouse. "We're in grade 11 now. We should think bigger," she mused, quickly scanning through it. "Looks like Frank Dijora's in charge of the chemicals in the lab this week. We can make a strike against him there."

"In charge of the chemicals? Wait, how do you know that?" Carrie asked. "You're not part of any chemistry club. Uh, are you?"

"No, but Sue is," Julie stated offhandedly, tucking her book away again and pressing the tips of her fingers together. "She still reports to me, you know.”

Carrie nodded. "Of course. What's the plan then?"

"Leave it to me," the brunette said airily. "I'll work out the rest of the details tonight. Tomorrow, Frank will end up in a bit of trouble with his teachers and classmates, and we'll have sent a stronger hint that he should back off. Before the weekend, I'm sure he'll have seen reason."

Carrie began to absently twirl some hair around her finger. “Right. But, chemicals? This sounds a tad more dangerous than what we've done in the past," she pointed out to her friend.

"Oh, don't worry, no one will get hurt," Julie assured. “I’ll see to that. It’s about time we made a stronger example of someone is all. By the way, Kevin should be coming to the party tonight."

"Really? Great!" Carrie declared, pushing her concerns back out of her mind. "You think if I flash him a little leg and a smile, I can con a free dinner out of him after the football game tomorrow?"

Julie smiled as she sipped at her milk. "I thought that a likely possibility. You know me, always looking out for my friends."

"At least he's known to have decent taste in food. That wrestler a few months ago had about as much culinary taste as our school cafeteria," Carrie said, looking down at the soupy mixture on her plate once more. She finally grabbed her apple instead. "I think my new head cheerleader status will net me a higher class of dates this term too," she added, taking a bite.

"Perhaps. After all, recognition and status do a lot for a person.”

"MmmHmm," Carrie agreed. She swallowed. "Though it's almost a shame, once you hit the top of the status ladder there's nowhere left to go."

Julie lifted up her glass by the rim, swirling the milk around slightly. "I wouldn't be so sure of that," she murmured.

"Pardon?"

"Never mind. Nothing you need to worry about," Julie finished, smiling serenely before downing the remainder of her drink.

***

"Is it Friday morning?"

Carrie peered out from under her blankets. "Oh boy," she mumbled in reply to her own comment.

Of course, she wasn't exactly talking to herself... she was talking to some future version of herself. A future version who had just crawled in through her bedroom window. Carrie really didn't feel like dealing with this right now. Honestly, after all the time travel she’d been subjected to, culminating in being lost somewhere in the woods to catch the flu - why had this version come back to NOW?

For her part, the newly arrived Carrie simply dropped her time machine on the ground and pursed her lips. "Yes, of course it is, this is how things are supposed to go. And you don't feel like dealing with this right now, I know," she continued. "But we've got to prove a point to Frank."

Carrie rubbed her eyes and tried to refocus on her counterpart. "Frank? Why? When?" she croaked out, discovering that her throat hurt.

"Nothing you need to worry about yet," the time shifting Carrie replied, along with a cough of her own. "Suffice to say I'm taking your place at school today. You stay here and be sick and don't let dad know."

"Hnuh. You don't sound completely healthy yet yourself," the Carrie in her proper time argued.

"Well, it's only Sunday morning for me," Carrie admitted.

"So why come back now then?" Carrie rasped, wincing slightly as she hauled herself upright and out of bed. "What's wrong?”

A mildly irritated look flickered across the other Carrie’s face. "Was I really this inquisitive? I hope not. Would be more proof against Frank's claims."

Carrie leaned against her desk for support, wondering how to even address a future version of herself. “Damn it, what are you talking about? WHAT is he claiming??"

"I think I was," Carrie grumbled, brushing an errant strand of hair back off her ear. Her flu-ridden double opened her mouth to say something else, but Carrie quickly cut herself off. "Frank has these notions about time travel, and in particular about the possibility of changing the past," she elaborated. "He'll be able to explain better and in more detail I'm sure. Suffice to say, I'm here to change the past to show that it can be done."

"Huh?" Carrie’s head was starting to throb again. "What part of the past? Why now?"

“Oh, think, prior me! This is the most convenient time and place for a demonstration,” Carrie stated brusquely.

“But WHY--" She stopped. As the two Carries linked eyes, the present Carrie incarnation saw the pain in the eyes of her future counterpart. And she immediately knew what was at the heart of this discussion. "Mama...?"

The time traveling Carrie bit her lip and turned away. "She's... she's still gone. Our trip to the airport changed nothing." Carrie clenched her fists. “So we're going to show Frank that regardless of his theories, we CAN rewrite parts of history!"

***

One of the main problems with time travel, future Carrie reasoned as she biked to school, will be the way I keep bumping into myself. That had been awkward. Worse, the conversation with the prior version of herself had felt too familiar, lending more credence to Frank's theory. After all, if everything was proceeding as Carrie remembered it happening, this must be the way things had happened two days ago.

So could she conceivably change the way things had been if they were already unfolding as they had the first time?

'I'm not going to let this drive me crazy,' Carrie decided as she brought her bike to a stop outside the school. After all, there was probably some truth to Frank's theories - or why else would he be thinking them - but surely things weren't as quite as fixed as he thought. That was what she was here to prove. Dismounting, Carrie proceeded to lock her bike up to the rack.

"Carrie! Where were you last night??" came a mildly irate voice behind her. She turned to see Julie striding towards her.

"Last night?" Carrie said in puzzlement.

Julie stared. "The party? My place? Kevin? Any of this sinking in? You were expected to make an appearance!"

"The party! My God, I completely--" Carrie cut off the rest of that phrase. Forget about Julie's party? She'd be declared insane. "--wasn't... feeling well," she amended, coughing to illustrate. The coughing still came far too easily.

"Oh. You are looking a bit under the weather," Julie admitted, looking at her a bit more closely. "You seemed fine yesterday though, what happened?"

"Oh, probably some 24 hour flu, it won't last," Carrie replied noncommittally. Except, she knew she would spend most of Friday and Saturday in bed. "...any longer than a couple days," she hastily added. Should she consider travelling back a day to go to Julie’s party, to negate this conversation? No, things were already complicated enough.

Julie frowned. "You sure you're all right?"

"Oh, yes, certainly." Actually, now was the perfect time to make her little change to the past. "In fact, I was thinking about something we were saying last Thur-- euh, yesterday." Damn it. Restart. "Julie, remember talking about Frank yesterday, and how we should do something about him crossing the line?"

"Yes. What about it?" Julie inquired, giving her friend another funny look.

"Well," Carrie said slowly, testing the situation, "Have you done much with that yet? I mean, could we maybe hold off on things until Monday?"

Julie raised her eyebrows in reply. "I don't know that I'm well enough to enjoy whatever it is today, you see," Carrie continued, letting out another cough for explanation. Only belatedly remembering she’d just said she was all right.