Replaceable Timelines: Book 1. [COMPLETED]

Chapter 5: Tempo.

Austin's already long gone, and I'm still standing in the lobby area of the school. I should've been checking nametags on the hallway doors this morning. I didn't really take in anything.

The bell still hasn't rung, so there are quite a few students walking around and making background noise. What feels like hundreds of different voices talking to one another makes it hard to form coherent thoughts.

The younger students are all walking towards the opposite end of the high-school area, the school is divided between middle school and high school. So that marks off about half of the school I don't have to go to.

I'll just walk up and down the halls on the high-school side.

Oh, there's the bell. Droning its monotone ringing noise signaling everyone to start walking in clumps toward their designated classes.

I'm clumping too and trying to see between the shoulders of the kids beside me all walking with a sense of purpose. And here's me, stupidly lost. Again. For the umpteenth time today.

I'm tired bro, I should just go home and take a nap.

Nah, intrusive thoughts shouldn't be acted on. Or something. I skipped enough school; I haven't even done any work. Or written any notes in my classes or else half-assed ones that don't amount to much.

After walking through the halls, up and down I make my way back to the front. Maybe asking Ms. Martins will save me some time. Even though she doesn't like me.

Upon walking towards the reception area, I keep my head down and look to see the floors plastered in dirt and caked in faint shoe prints and some litter. Maybe if I look really hard, I'll find a 5-dollar bill or something, or my keys.

Doubtful.

There's a girl already in the reception area talking to Miss Martins.

I can't hear her, the sounds of classroom chatter obscure whatever she could be saying to her. But I do however see the receptionist smiling happily, and even joking with the girl.

She's tall and slim, she's wearing a white hoody. Her flowing locks of blonde hair reach just past her shoulders and from her side profile, I can see she's wearing some sort of lipstick. Her skin has a creamy complexion and the cuffs of her sweater reach up to the middle of her hands. Maybe that sweater is a bit too big for her?

I can't make much else out of what she looks like, but I do hear the final portion of her conversation.

"Oh yeah, I know right? I told her I'd be back a bit after 6 but you know how my mom worries right?" She says cheerily.

Miss Martins says:

"Oh, that Taylor, ever since... No, never mind, let's not bring that up at school. I'm glad she's letting the leash off her daughter for once though. This time last year she didn't even let you go visit. So, I guess that's progress." She said in a kind tone of voice, completely opposite to the way she spoke to me.

"Anyway, I gotta get to my biology class, thanks for taking those off my hands and I'll see you later Wendy!" She says before waving and running towards me.

Biology? That sounds familiar. That sounds exactly like where I need to be.

She walks past me and smiles before running up the staircase to the second floor. I turn to look at the receptionist, when she notices me her face returns to the resting bitch face she had on before, and starts to write something down on a piece of paper.

Well, no time to think about that. I start clicking my shoes on the floor, almost skipping gleefully to see my beloved Miss. Simmons.

As I'm making my way to the staircase, I see the girl from before in the middle of the staircase texting on her phone.