Reality Check

Change

As It Was (by Harry Styles)

"In this world, it's just us. You know it's not the same as it was . . ."

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Bethany was no stranger to change. She knew all about differences and alterations; a never-ending theme in her life.

Change was a reflection of her entire life, including her friends' lives. She saw it in Kiel, who had matured so much, yet seemed to be worn out lately. She saw it in Owen, her greatest friend, who had suffered the most. She'd felt it when she had rejoined herself, feeling like a stranger in her own body. She felt it when her father was taken from her for nearly a decade.

Long after Bethany and Owen parted ways from the book club meeting, she had returned home, catching up on the homework she'd missed. After the past three crazy days, it was no surprise that she hadn't found the time to do it. In that time span, she had reconciled with Kiel, rejoined herself, and saved Owen.

Yeah. Huge change.

Now that that whole mess was past her, it'd been kind of nice to spend some time by herself. She thought about calling Owen once or twice, just to see how he was doing, but she went against it. He didn't have a phone yet, so it was too risky. She wasn't even sure if his mother had caught him or not. She hoped he hadn't gotten into trouble, but seeing the excited look on his face was worth it. After what he'd gone through in Pick The Plot, he deserved to be happy.

Currently, however, all thoughts about Owen slipped her mind. It was thirty minutes past midnight, and Bethany was restless.

Sometimes, it felt as though her two halves couldn't agree. Part of her felt comfortable here, in the nonfictional world. But the other part, the more demanding side of her, wanted nothing more than to jump into a book. She was considering it, but she didn't want to get into any unnecessary danger right now. Even still, she wanted to jump into Goodnight Moon to spend the night among the stars,or better yet, she could jump into EarthGirl to see Gwen.

Giving up with the struggle to fall asleep, Bethany threw the covers off of her and walked out of the room, pacing back and forth down the hallway. Then, an idea occurred to her, and she poked her head into her mother's room. She peered through the darkness. From here, she could barely make out the frame of the bed, along with the desk and closet which were closest to the door. Moonlight cast a faint glow on the floor next to the window, not giving light to much else.

Using her skills from her days as Twilight Girl, Bethany soundlessly crept into the room, keeping her hands outstretched to avoid bumping into anything. She made it to her bedside table and carefully slid her hand across it, feeling around. Her hand came in contact with various objects, but they weren't what Bethany was hoping for. Dissatisfied, she backed away and turned her head to the dresser, where her mother kept some of her private things hidden away.

Private things, like the photo album Bethany had recently discovered a few months ago, which had pictures of her family — her whole family — together. It was strange that her mother would keep that hidden away, but then again, she didn't want to encourage Bethany to look for her father. Her mother was always uncomfortable about the idea of Bethany jumping into books, although she believed that Bethany hadn't jumped into one since she was little. If her mother wanted to hide anything from Bethany, it would be the Doc Twilight comic book. It had to be in her room. If it wasn't, where else would it be?

She kneeled down in front of the dresser and curled her hand around the knob of the drawer, opening it as slowly as she could. She cringed at the way it creaked, but luckily, her mother didn't wake up. After opening it the rest of the way, she dove her hands in and took out the first book. She hurried over to the window and held it up against the light. She could hardly see, but the huge, grainy words at the top of the book were hard to miss: Doc Twilight.