Chapter 3

I was right, you know. My parents where slightly upset with my tardiness. Out past midnight on a school night was bad, not even having mentioned I would be out or calling them was worse. Not having an explanation was horrible. But I did a cheesy save. I mumbled "Uhm... there's this girl..." and then blushed. It wasn't hard to blush when standing before my parents and thinking of the two girls I had met yesterday, and all the things we had done.

The comment pacified my father somewhat, but my mother was almost more upset until he calmed her down as well, reminding her how time could slip when childhood sweethearts meet. "That's what I'm afraid of" she mumbled, and then stormed out.

My father had looked embarrassed, and looked around, and then he had gotten me to my room, and told me to get up in time. Love was no reason to miss school, however tempting. After some more hesitation he mumbled about getting me a box of condoms.

Condoms. Oh shit. I tried to remember if there had been any talk of prophylactics or protection of any kind with the girls, but... nothing came to mind. I hoped they were protected. But of course, they would have to be. How else would they have dared... ?

How did they dare? The behaviour was unexpected, to say the least. Irrational, almost. Okay, so I had heard that people that survived dangerous situations sometimes felt erotically charged because of the near brush with death, but... that would only explain Tina. Sonya... I wondered about her. She had been clear it had been a one night thing though. Maybe she was just... easily convinced that way. Yeah, maybe.

This was all so very strange, I couldn't hope to get a grip on it. Nor could I get help from anyone. I guessed that would be tying our little group together... we shared secrets that we could never tell anyone. Maybe it was the cash that had influenced Sonya. She was after all a lawyer. She was supposed to be able to sniff out rich dudes from a mile away. I had a hunch she wouldn't appreciate that theory though.

I fell asleep thinking of what we had done, and I woke up thinking about it. It wasn't until then I remembered the envelope. I opened it and looked at the contents. The first paper had me turn on the radio and listen to the news for the first time in years. Weather forecast, important news headlines, all matched as it had been written in this letter.

Proof. Some sort of it. I didn't get it though... the paper described in some details a lot of things that had happened during the night, way after I had gotten the envelope and the briefcase, yet it didn't list stock numbers or anything like that. Numbers would have been exact and directly verifiable... Sure, this was... accurate... but...

I had to dash, of course, blushing my way past a still slightly upset mother and a father who just grumbled and went to work. He looked like any office wage slave, but I knew he had his gun on under his jacket, and the briefcase was reportedly 'dangerous to try and open'. Looks could be deceiving... I guess I was going to have to be as well.

School would have been a fog, or should have been, but suddenly I couldn't help but seeing useful information everywhere. In history I considered what I liked most about different periods of time and what I would do if I could go back there. What to sell, what to buy, and what to experience. I paid attention to important dates and changes in the timeline. PE came along and even though the teacher was a bit upset and a bit of an arsehole I just went along with his instructions, thinking the matter of our discussion suddenly rather unimportant in the whole.

There is just something about the thought of time travel that captured my mind. When lunch came I spent it considering food, what had been eaten in the past, and what would be eaten in the future. This brought my mind to hunting. I didn't know if I would be able to bring things back in time with me, but it seemed probable considering I still possessed the weapons taken off the dead attacker. My circumstances might be different though, I didn't know, so I figured I would need to be able to hunt with ancient methods.

It struck me after lunch, when I was sitting in a window with Peter chatting idly, that I seemed to have a streak of heroism in me. Maybe it was my dad's teachings of justice and all, but I just hated to see people hitting the weaker and such.

The first day I came to this school I saw a guy slap a girl. That was enough to make me react, but then another guy said 'Hey, stop it', and got a punch in the face for his comment. That unlucky guy was Peter Nelson, and ever since I kicked his attacker in the nuts I was his best friend. The girl, Shannon, was more shy but still seemed to appreciate the help.

Peter had quickly picked up that I was in a weird mood. Of course he quickly associated it with the day before, leading to an admission of meeting someone after detention, a girl. As any guy would he teased and hollered about it.

To quiet him down and get his mind off it for a second, I asked him about that first day in school, about what the first slap had been about. I never had found out, and Peter didn't know. Just like me, he had just seen wrong being done, and stepped in... Although his stepping in wasn't all that thought through. I just kept seeing Shannon in my head all of a sudden, like she was under a new light due to recent developments.

I jumped down from the window and gestured towards the other end of school. "Come on, she's in biology right about now. We can catch her there." Peter stared. "Approach a girl voluntarily? You need to get that lump on your shoulders examined. We're the slackers, the kids who just go around speaking lots and doing little... Don't disturb the peace by actually going after someone..."

I laughed, but it turned out Peter had a class and had to head off. I still waited outside her biology class when Shannon came out. Pretty girl, but painfully shy. She started and blushed when I confronted her.

"Shannon, I am sorry to remind you of past bad things, but I just can't let go of a thought... You remember when I first came to school and downed that guy... ?" She nodded. "I did it because he slapped you and because he knocked out Peter, but... I never found out why he slapped you. Could you tell me?"

She looked cornered, scanning the area as if looking for escape. "Later... ?" Her request was whispered. "After school?" I asked, already having told my parents I would be out late today. She nodded. "It's a date then." I said, and saw her shyness explode. She dashed away in a shade of red I thought was reserved for warning signs.

Physics and chemistry came up, with barely a break in between, and I considered how to make gunpowder and what the proper physics of a sling, a spear and a bow was. I figured arrowheads would be hard to produce. What about paradoxes? Again the complexity of time travel boggled me. What if I brought modern ammunition and somewhere a scientist dug up the casing of a nine millimetre round? Or even a partially destroyed box of ammo if they found where I camped. I'd have to find out more about how those things worked before I could make any final decisions, and until I knew I had to plan as if nothing could be left behind to be found.

Peter asked me how Shannon had reacted to my surprising approach, and what she had told me of that first incident. Being reminded had got him wondering as well what the story behind it all was. I shrugged and tried but failed to keep the grin of my face. "She'll have to tell me more on our date after school."

Peter stared at me as if I'd farted an entire marching band. "Date? You go to ask her about a small thing and end up with a date?" He got distracted by a pretty girl walking by and then fought to gather his train of thought.

So I wasn't a virgin, but I wasn't exactly mister popular either. I'd had a few relationships, as had Peter, but the last one was years ago. We had pretty much settled in to our single slacker routines, and frequently complained about our lack of luck with the ladies. Peter gathered his wits again. "What, you get laid yesterday... No, don't try to argue, I know that smile you had this morning, you got laid and you got laid good... Apparently very good, because today you're mister smooth going out on dates and all... Spill, how good does it have to be? Is the transformation permanent? Would it work with hookers?"

After school I wasn't even sure if I would meet Shannon, but she waited by my locker. Blushing, eyes aimed at the floor as usual. I managed to convey a wish to go to the caf' across the street, and we did. I picked a booth furthest in and made myself comfortable where I could see the door. Shannon sat down across from me.

"So, Shannon. I didn't mean to freak you out earlier... I wouldn't mind going on a date with you, but... You know... only if you know it's going to be one when you accept. Okay?" She mumbled something as an answer and I had to ask her to speak up.

"I don't mind. This can be a date, but... I have to be home soon." I nodded. I didn't have that much time either. We shared a bowl of ice cream as she explained. She spoke silently, so I had to strain my ears and sometimes ask her to repeat a few words. She seemed used to it.