𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 , 𝟖𝟎𝐬

12 = naomi

TUESDAY, AUGUST 4th, 1987

brandy's point of view

the next morning i woke up to a note on the refrigerator from aunt maggie. she apparently left for san fransisco last night when i was asleep, it says she needed to be there for a friends moral support of helping him remove an embarrassing tattoo he got when he was high off meth.

not my words.
hers.

i sighed and then quickly turned towards the front door when i heard the mailman drive off from our house. i had totally forgotten about checking the mail these past few days so i ran outside to retrieve it.

there was one envelope in there that was addressed to "the parents and guardians of brandy alexander." from monterey highschool. well shit, that can't be good.

i scrambled to open the envelope up once i was back inside.

it was a truancy letter. apparently this high school has a program that holds summer classes for students involved in performing arts outside of high school. and in my case, acting. so not only did i forget about the stupid mail but i also forgot that i still have to attend my own alternate version of highschool in the 80s.

i put my head in my hands for a minute until i came up with an idea on how to handle this. there was no way i could call my aunt and ask her to leave her meth head friend and help me with this issue. she wouldn't understand why i haven't been in school.

before i could even realize what i was doing, i was calling the schools number that was printed on the paper and was mustering up all my acting skills and a posh accent.

"this is monterey highschool's offices, how may i help you?"

"hi, this is margaret alexander calling, i have received a letter in the mail regarding my niece, brandy alexander's absences in these past few days and i would like to speak to someone who can help me with this."

"hi, yes. i'd be happy to help you with that. brandy has three consecutive unexcused absences-"

"well, you see, she has actually been working this past weekend and i've been told by her manager that he has already sent over the papers regarding this little incident. you should be receiving them soon, but in other news, brandy will actually be coming in to school today, she will just be tardy. okay, thank you." i quickly said and then hung up.

none of that was true about my manager having any kind of papers about this but i just hoped they wouldn't see through my bluff.

i looked at the clock and it was already 9:30 am, so i quickly ran upstairs and got ready for school.

=

walking into a school i've never been in before was quite terrifying. i thankfully found a crumbled up a piece of paper in my bedroom that happened to be my school schedule so i knew where to go.

it was lunch already and i hadn't spoken to anyone yet. i just eyed everyone up until they looked over at me and i had to awkwardly pretend i wasn't staring at them.

i was walking down the hall towards the cafeteria when someone forcefully pulled me off to the side and into the bathroom. i turned to face them once they closed the door behind us.

"naomi?" i practically yelled.

"it's kayla now, apparently!" she said and then pulled me into a hug.

"what the hell is going on here?" i asked, pulling away and then immediately started pacing back and forth throughout the entire length of the bathroom.

"girl, i have no idea. i woke up in a random ass bed with random adults surrounding me who are supposedly my parents!"

"oh you woke up in a bed? how nice. i woke up on a fucking red carpet in front of everyone!"

"forget how we woke up, can we talk about how unfair this is? we somehow end up three decades in the past after getting into a car crash? and you are an actress and i'm just a boring normal person?"

"oh my god, you don't want to be me in this situation, so much has happened i think i'm going to die."

"are we stuck here? are we dead?" naomi started pacing back and forth with me.

"i-i don't think we're dead! i mean, we have heartbeats and everything and nothing weird has happened yet like in that episode of greys when meredith died and things kept repeating..."

"true! and there hasn't been a light yet!"

"okay, so we aren't dead. and i don't know how this happened but i'm in the public eye and i'm already messing up! i made a comparison of my passed out aunt to river phoenix and jason flipped his shit thinking river was dead, but river isn't even dead yet in 1987!"

she sighed, "we have to watch what we say i guess ..."

"well, i try to but it's not like i can google when certain people died or when certain things came out so i can have my facts straight!"

"jesus christ, you're right. okay, honestly, maybe you should tell jason and he can understand you and help us."

"tell jason i'm from the future? how do you think that's gonna go? hey, jason, real quick before you go, when i passed out at the premiere that was actually me transporting myself here into the 80s and i'm actually from 2018. nice seeing you, bye."

"well, not like that, kennedy! but we could do it. we have all the facts. you tell them certain things will happen and they'll have to believe us."

"or they'll think we're psychotic and lock us up because we're "predicting the future." i crossed my arms.

i watched naomi pull herself up on to the counter with the sinks. she took a minute to think and then said, "if you really think about it. we were real people before we even got here. brandy and kayla were real people, i mean they have us on file at school, we have families, everything. maybe we're just here to continue it on for them ... even though this year has been over for thirty one years, shit, i don't know!"

"i wish i had watched shane dawson's time travel conspiracy video before all this." i started to whine out of frustration.

the bell rang signally 5th period had officially started and we should be settled in the cafeteria by now.

"ugh, come on." naomi hopped off the sink and pulled me towards the door, "we'll discuss plans on how to get back to the future over our cold, public school lunch served peas."

"ew!" i scrunched my nose and whined again as my bestfriend pulled me out of the bathroom and into the hallway.