I grumbled uncomfortably. I slowly blink my eyes open. I take a glance at the clock on my desk. O it's 7:53..... It's 7:53! I jumped out the bed fast and straight to the restroom screaming. "Out of the way! I overslept! I'm gonna be late!" I go through my shelf taking things out and throwing it on the sink counter. I grabbed my toothbrush and brush not realizing I switched them. "Ah! Where's my hoodie?!" I turn to go get it and start putting it on.
"Whoa, chill, Marco. We can still get to school by first period." I throw my hoodie on, but it was backwards. I take the hood off my face.
"This isn't about learning! This is about love. Every day, I get there by 7:55, because at exactly 7:56, Jackie Lynn Thomas gets there." The memory of Jacky comes to mind. "And we share a nod."
"Awww... Wait. A nod? You don't even say hi?"
"I'm working up to that." I take out a folded paper I had from my pocket. I unfold it showing Star my steps.
"See? It's all a part of my 23-step plan. I'm already on step 4: nodding every day."
"Hmm." A laser puppy shoots its lasers at my hands.
"Hey! Down, boy!" One laser's me causing me to fall. "Bad laser puppy!" I glace at the clock on the wall. "It's 7:54! I can't make it! Can't you just... uh, uh, magically stop time or something?" I say hoping Star has something so I can see Jackie. She scoffs then laughs.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Easy Peasy Time Freezie." A magic ticking clock effect appears over Star and me. I look at the clock seeing it froze. I look down at the laser puppies seeing them slow down then stop completely. I went to one of the puppies that shot lasers. I touch it, but instantly regret it, retreating my finger to my mouth.
"Ow! Do you know what you just did?"
"Uh... froze time?"
"You froze time!" I yell excitedly. "Now I can get to school and nod at Jackie! Hurry!" I Say grabbing her arm ready to book it.
"School?" She makes me let go and she grabs my face.
"But it's a freeze day!" She sings. Realization hit me. My eyes widen from excitement. We book it out the house ready to have a freeze day! We spent the time out having so much fun. But finally, we ended back at Echo Creek High.
"That was the funnest sixty hours of my life!" I yell happy.
"Oh, hey, there's frozen Jackie!"
"I better get into optimal nod position." I straighten my hair and leans against the lockers. "Ready."
"Or maybe now's the time to move on to the next step of your crazy plan. You could talk to her...!" I look at frozen Jackie. I started to stammer my words.
"T-The wind isn't right. I've got a pimple coming in. Uh, I'll just do the nod today."
"Okay... Easy Peasy Time Unfreezie!" I wait for Jackie to move again but she didn't. I stay in my position but look with my eyes seeing everyone still frozen. "Huh. Easy Peasy Time Unfreezie!" Nothing changed.
"Ooh." I started to panic.
"Come on, Star. What's going on?" I walk up to her, but she was frozen with a smile. "Star?! Star! Not you too!"
"Ha-ha! I'm just messin' with ya!"
"What to do? Star how do we undo this."
"The spell book! Let's go see if we find how to unfreeze time. One of the princesses must have done it before." We walk all the back to the house and straight to Star's room. I follow her to her bed. She gets on her knees and starts rummaging from under her bed. I get on my knees next to her waiting. She pulls out the book from under her bed.
"Okay, Magic Instruction Book, instruct me." She opens it revealing Glossaryck frozen.
"Oh, no, Glossaryck is frozen too."
"Good. I never liked that guy." I turn the page. "Scrape the sides, buddy."
"Okay, let's see, let's see. What to do if you make a dimension explode, what to do if you delete gravity... Ooh." I look at her.
"Don't get any ideas.
"Heh-heh. Sorry. Ah! What to do if you freeze time. We can move time forward if we go to the Plains of Time and push the Wheel of Progress."
"Well let's get right to it!" Star stands and grabs the dimensional scissors. She makes the portal. I walk through it.
"Whoa." The landscape is covered in sand and melting clocks like the portrait we were shown in art class. "This is definitely one of the weirder places we've been to."
"Weirder than that dimension of cats with human faces?" A flashback of when we went to that dimension come to my head. I shudder from the memory.
"Look! That must be it." We walk up to the wheel. "Whoooaaa..."
"Looks like a giant hamster wheel."
"Now, how do we start this thing?"
"Hmm. I got this," I say confidently. I hop onto the wheel. I try moving it. It doesn't move an inch. I try again and again but end up on landing on my head which end up with me getting my head stuck between two-wheel spokes.
"New plan. Rainbow Raccoon Rotation!" Star says blasting her magic at the wheel. It bounces across and stands next to Star, mimicking her motions. "Hmm."
"Magic won't work on that. You gotta use the magic of toesies." I look seeing a giant guy.
"Who are you?" Star asks.
"I'm Father Time. And this is Rocksworth. He's a rock, but don't bring it up. He's kind of sensitive about it." Star helps me out the wheel.
"Father Time? So you must push this thing."
"Hey, look! I'm over here! And now I'm over here!"
"And how long were you on the wheel?"
"Oh, you know... forever. Until someone cast a freeze spell and knocked me off of it. What is that?" Father time runs up to a mud puddle.
"Uh, mud?" He falls face-first into the mud and rolls around in it.
"Oh, it's glorious! I love mud." I watch father time put mud on his tongue. He gags in disgust and spits the mud in my face. Gross. I wipe it off.
"So, Mr. Time, how would you feel about getting the universe started up again?" I ask.
"Oh, where has this been all of my life?"
"Uh... look, look, look!" Star picks up some mud and slathers it on the Wheel of Progress. "You can play with mud on your wheel."
"Huh? Huh?" I say gesturing my hands toward her.
"Well, that is an enticing offer, but nah."
"Argh!"
"Oh! There's some mud that's a slightly different color." Father Time runs off, and we start to chase after him trying to convince him to get on the wheel of progress. When we hop on the rabbit to chase after him when he got on the turtle, I notice the clock around its neck.
"Cmon Marco!" Father time runs across the river. We follow in pursuit.
We step onto one clock that was on the river, but it transformed us into infants. I lost my footing from it, about to fall in the water, but star helps me back into balance. Star steps onto the next clock, transforming into an elderly woman. The hearts on her cheeks droop. "Oh, my hearts..." I was ready to jump onto the next clock, but something flashes in my head for a second making me misstep. I fall over and my chin lands on the clock Star is standing on. Only my head is aged up while the rest of his body is still that of an infant.
"Not a word." She giggles at me. I stand back up and we finally cross the stream. Our bodies returned to normal. We started running.
"I think he went in there." We run up the stars into a building. As we made it to the top, we walk in with a bunch of T'V's displayed across the walls.
"Wow... It's the history of the whole universe! Ooh! Battle of Lexington. Nailed it." A giant eyeball comes down from the ceiling and looks at Star. All of the television screens suddenly show Star as a baby.
"It... It's me!" The screens show baby Star playing with toys, young Star taking the royal carriage for a joyride, and young Star being taught how to swordfight by her guard. "Oh, I remember that!" The screen continues showing Star's life. "Oh! Hi, me!"
"This place must keep track of everything we've done in our lives." The giant eyeball looks at me now, and the television screens start to show my life too. The televisions show me nodding to Jackie Lynn Thomas from elementary school, middle school to high school. Seeing all that made me realize..... "Wow. I've been nodding for a long time." I felt a hand place on my shoulder.
"Hey, guys!" I turn my head seeing Father Time playing with the spring door stopper. "Isn't this place incredible? It's like we're living in the future."
"Father Time!" I run to him.
"Emerald Snake Strike!" Star yelled and now I was tangled with Father Time.
"Great. I think we got him." I started peeling off the snakes off me and Father Time. "Yuck. Okay, buddy, let's get you back to your wheel." I started guiding Father Time back to the wheel, but that eyeball thing looks at Father Time. The television screens changing. It starts showing Father Time running endlessly on the Wheel of Progress, slowly becoming depressed as the years go by. Me and Star look at each other, sympathetic. I look back on the screen noticing a red and brown blur.
"Ah, all right. I guess I'll get back to doing that. Oh, well, it's only for all eternity." I shake my head taking my focus back at Father Time. He started walking back to the Wheel. I sighed.
"We can't just make him."
"Maybe there's some other way to turn that giant wheel." I look back at Father Time petting a giant hamster. A smile forms on my face as an idea popped up.
"Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" We all head back to the wheel. Star made a spell getting all the material she needed and placed them where she wanted. The wheel was now a carriage being pulled by 4 hamsters.
"Actually, I was thinking we'd— ...Never mind, it works."
"Now you can go anywhere you want and keep the wheel moving!"
"Aww, thanks, guys. I owe ya. Please help yourself to any of my mud. Even the nice stuff," he says gesturing to the mud next to us.
"We're good," I respond to him.
"Oh, and maybe don't freeze time again. It's kind of fragile. You don't want to break it. Know what I mean? Well, so long!" he laughs. "Time hamsters away! Yoo-hoo!" The hamsters started moving. "And nice seeing you again Marco!" I look at him confused. I was about to question what he meant, but Star cut me off before I could ask.
"Wait. The wheel's moving."
"We've got to get back!" We yelled. Star took out the scissors and make the portal to school. I fall in time as Jackie passes by. I nod at her, and she nods at me back. I bite my bottom lip. I gather my courage and yell, "Hey, Jackie!" She stops skateboarding and looks back at me.
"Hey, Marco!" We briefly look at each other in silence. "Well, see ya!" She skateboards away, and when I know she's gone, I catch my breath I held in.
"You did it! You finally talked to her! What happened to waiting for the perfect time?"
"Well, all of a sudden, I thought: if you have the time, why waste it? Looks like I'm finally geeeettiiiiing sooooooomewheeeeeeeeeere..."