Raymond's Colette

Chapter 3: Silhouette

"Colette? COLETTE! Hey, wake up!" Colette woke up groggily. Cody was holding her up, and as her vision cleared, his worried expression appeared in front of her. "Thank God, I thought you died. Though I didn't think you'd die that quickly but still."

"Have we traveled in time, yet?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. She looked around. They were still lying in the heaps of garbage. But the time machine had blown to pieces.

"Um, about that..." He stupidly scratched his head as he looked around, "The metal box exploded. I don't know how. Everything was under control, I swear!"

"This idea was stupid, nerd egg. We almost died!"

"I'm getting there, I promise. I'll be a great scientist one day and Shelia and all those who make fun of me will praise me. But... Cheetos, you gotta help me clean up this mess. If papa finds out I wrecked his laptop, I'm dead meat."

"Man," She stood up, placing her hands on her hips, "I really thought the thing was working. I actually believed you for once, Einstein."

There wasn't anything they could do anyway. Cody cleaned up the mess. Colette refused to put her hands in the rubbish. They settled with the fact that Cody wasn't stupid, and that every young scientist deserved a second chance. Or quite possibly a third one, depending on the future.

"Cheetos, promise me you'll volunteer the next time I make another time machine-"

"Nu-uh, mister. I got no nine lives. I'm going home. I have other ways to meet my dad. I'll face-time him or something." Though she didn't mean to be harsh, but she was already tired and frustrated. She was running from her problems, not collecting any new ones. Colette took her shoes off and entered her house, sneaking up the stairs. Her mother was putting Henry in bed. She closed her room's door with a slow click, and ran towards her bed, jumping face-first into her favorite pillow. If she even managed to travel back in time, who knew what kind of beds people had back then? She always imagined the past as the stone-age, with rocks and leaves to sleep on. Colette shuddered involuntarily.

It was better to go with the flow. And so Colette fell asleep on her soft, comfy bed.

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The morning Sun reflected on her face, making her close her eyes tightly and try to go back to sleep. But she was already awake. Colette smiled as she stretched her arms and legs, the softness and warmness around her providing her pleasure and comfort. Oh how she loved her bed, jumpy and fluffy, her favorite pillow always making her head sink into the world of dreams and imaginations. And her bed sheets, oh so soft and silky and... prickly?

Colette opened one eye. Since when did they remove her room's ceiling? She never woke up to the open sky above her. And oh, how blue the sky really was! It stretched up to as far as her eyes... could... see...

Colette sat up and looked around. Why was she lying on the grass? Didn't she reach home last night? What if she didn't and fell down on this grass instead? And most importantly, WHERE THE HECK WAS SHE?

Colette worriedly looked around and saw only green grass. No houses, no roads. This surely wasn't her city. It was never that green. Was she kidnapped?

As Colette sat there, worried and confused, a figure ran towards her. She couldn't see their face in the bright light, but squinted as a boy- she could tell by the silhouette it was a boy- ran up and stood in front of her. She craned her neck up to look at him, still trying to adjust to the light. Colette found he had an incredible height and, when he spoke, a handsome voice too.

"Are you okay?" Colette stared. She nodded, and then shook her head. The boy helped her up and that was when his face came into focus. He seemed almost the same as her age, maybe a year older. He had sandy-blonde hair that was neatly combed back, and she couldn't place the color of his eyes in the daylight. She realized he was wearing funny clothes. Odd for his age, in fact. He wore a baggy white button-up shirt over a sleeveless hand woven sweater, and a loose white trouser tugged in his brown leather boots.

Colette realized that he was looking at her outfit just as weirdly as she was looking at his. She was wearing a short and frilly red dress over black tights. Her face turned red. "W-Where am I?" She asked.

"Um, Tyren Village?'"

"Village?!" She yelled and the boy flinched back. Perhaps she was still dreaming? Maybe Cody's stupidity had crawled under her skin as well and she had started thinking about teleporting or something? At the mention of Cody, Colette suddenly doubted that there was something really unsettling about her existence in a place she had not heard before, not in her own time, at least. "Uh- just to be sure, Sir, what y-year is this?" She asked as she suddenly dreaded to hear his next words. The boy seemed weirded out but answered anyway.

"1976?"

Colette's eyes comically widened as she couldn't help the scream that tore from her throat. It echoed far and wide, and the boy was pretty sure his eardrums were damaged.

"Pinch me pinch me pinch me thisisadreamandI'mgonnawakeup."

"Hey, calm down! It's okay." He said, cautiously raising his hands in front of him. Colette had already pinched herself a few good times and it hurt like hell. She breathed a few times, desperately trying to calm herself down. She took a good ten minutes as the blonde patiently waited for her to be able to talk again so that he could help her. She turned towards him. What was done could not be reversed. She had to find help, anyway. "Okay. Okay." She tapped her cheeks a few times.

"Are you lost?" He asked. His accent was pretty old, too, she realized. Like her literature teacher, he spoke clear and complete sentences in a somewhat tight and composed tone. He 'didn't let his words loose' as the teacher would say. So she really was in 1976. Lost. Alone.

"Yeah, pretty much." She quivered. The boy smiled. "I guide many people around Tyren. I'll be glad to help you, Miss...?"

"Colette."

He smiled. He had dimples. It was a charming smile. He stretched his hand out to take hers. When she held it, instead of shaking, he brought it up and kissed it, like they did in the old movies. Colette flared up, embarrassed. She was not used to old shit! She wasn't even that back in time when people kissed hands?!

"Miss Colette." He repeated in a rich tone.

She took her hand back. "What's your name?" She asked, doubting if it was the way girls asked for people's name in the old times.

He didn't seem offended. He smiled brightly, as if he was really proud that a stranger asked for his name and not his family's. You used to ask for the name of the family in Tyren. This was 1976, and she was in a country.

He bowed like a gentleman, "My name is Raymond Rivers, son of Alexander Rivers. Nice to meet you."

Colette was pretty sure she was supposed to bow in return. And she did. She bowed, buckled, and fainted on the spot like the sophisticated lass she was.