Crumbling Time

Crumbling Time (Chap. 3)

3. Changes

School was normal. People called me a freak as usual, though I noticed not as many people did so. They must have heard I went to the stupid party and thought I did have sense. They sure didn't. At least I-and even Cam-was keeping the hope for this generation alive.

To make it even more normal though, Cam didn't talk to me. I saw him in the hall twice, but he didn't so much as glance at me. He just walked on with his friends. It actually made me laugh.

Not having him walk right by me though. Walking on his right was who I believed to be the vice president of student council, and on his left was the goalie for the hockey team. So Cam had a nerd on one side and a big buff guy on the other. I was surprised the VP wasn't being shoved in a locker or something.

At home, I did my homework as quick as possible so I could get to the TV before my dad got home. He had a tendency to hog the boob tube a lot. So tonight, when he got home, he took one look at me and trudged upstairs, I guess to start on that overdue paperwork of his. He was a police detective.

When it became late, I went upstairs to take a shower and go to bed. I took a ten-minute shower and read after I got cuddled under the covers. Just because spring had started didn't mean it was warm yet.

The next school day was basically normal. Basically being the operative word.

We were taking notes in Chemistry about the different chemicals. I thought it was easy enough to understand-if I could read the entire PowerPoint slide first. Mr. Madden was going too fast with the notes. I tried to get him to slow down, but every time I tried to speak up, he wound up talking again. And if I interrupted him, his already wavering opinion of me-which I was not about to get into-would only waver more on the bad side.

Finally, when I couldn't take it anymore, I glanced at the clock and blinked. Time froze, and I was able to write down the notes at a decent speed.

"What did you do?"

I jumped at the sound of the voice, and looked around to see who had spoken-who was still unfrozen. I noticed Cam staring at me with a mix of shock and confusion on his face.

"How are you unfrozen?" I asked disbelievingly.

"You did this?" he asked.

I didn't know how to reply. I had no idea what to think, seeing him unfrozen, unlike the rest of the class. That had never happened before. But weirdly enough, I automatically took note on how he was actually talking to me again. But then I decided it was maybe best if I would get back to the actual issue.

"You have a power too?"

That question caught me off guard. "Too? You mean you have a power?" There were more people like me?

His eyes darted everywhere but to mine.

"Hey, answer me," I snapped.

"Answer me," he ordered, finally looking in my eyes.

"Fine," I said. "There's obviously something weird about you, seeing as you're the only one unfrozen, so, yes, I do have a power. What about you?"

He hesitated, then sighed. "Yeah. I can manipulate time too. Just not in the same way."

"What's your way?" I couldn't believe he was being so open. I was ready to argue with him until he confessed.

"I can travel back in time."

My eyebrows reached my hairline. "Whoa," I mouthed.

That was better than anything I could ever do. I was only able to stop time long enough to do what I wanted. Cam could actually go to the past. He had a real skill, compared to me.