"Eloise?" Ivy said, looking at her classmate as her eyes adjusted to the light. "How did you find me here?"
"I saw you coming from here yesterday, so I figured you came back here again. Why do you come in here, anyway?" Eloise said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind herself.
"Because it's quiet," Ivy awkwardly replied.
"Oh," she said with a nod, looking around the room. "Anyways...Ms. Buchanan said it's time to come back—"
"It's not 2:05 yet!" Ivy said, checking the time.
2:07
"Oh..." she said, deflated.
"I know I said I wouldn't bother you after this morning," Eloise started, "but I'm only here because I was asked to, promise!" She paused, looking at Ivy's clothes with a bewildered expression. "Uh...were you always wearing that?" she said.
"Oh...um..." Ivy awkwardly started, uncertain of what to say. "It's...a costume," she finally said.
"How is it glowing like that?" Eloise said, walking towards Ivy. She stopped herself, quickly looking away from the clothes. "Oh-um, sorry. I guess that's pretty prying of me, isn't it."
"You're not gonna tell Ms. Buchanan about this, are you?" Ivy desperately said, unfolding her school clothes.
"Of course not!" she replied, holding her hands in the air. "Promise." She stared at the glowing threads. "How do you get the threads to glow like that?"
"Oh, this?" Ivy said, glancing at her billowing sleeves. She froze.
The usual steady glow of the clothes was now rapidly pulsating, causing a sporadic pattern of swirls and streaks all around her. When did this start? she thought in bewilderment.
Overhead, the 5-minute warning rang. Ivy looked at the door's window. "We can't keep the light on in here!" she quickly said, dashing to the wall and turning the switch off. "I don't want this secret spot get discovered."
"...Do you come here often?" Eloise hesitantly said, uncomfortably looking out of the window.
Ivy paused. Should I apologize now? she thought, carefully watching Eloise. "Often enough, I guess," she said instead, glancing at the floor.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed the fabric of her clothes slowly stopped swirling, coming to its usual steady glow. Wait a second...
Ivy reached out and switched the lights on again.
The patterns swirled.
She switched it off.
The patterns stopped and glowed.
"Wait..." she said.
"Wait what?" Eloise said, shifting from foot to foot. "We kinda need to get back to class before Ms. Buchanan calls administration or something—"
"Just another minute," Ivy said, quickly switching the light on and running to a stack of boxes. "I need to try something."
Climbing to the top of the stack of boxes, she carefully balanced herself and stood as close as she could to one of the light panels.
"Ivy, what are you doing??" Eloise exclaimed. "You're gonna get hurt, get down from there!"
Ivy didn't hear Eloise. Instead, she was focused on the swirling patterns on her clothes. The swirls became more and more frantic, spinning in a dizzying kaleidoscope. Ivy could feel as energy coursed from the sleeves to the pants and finally to the boots. The boots began to glow, the bottoms becoming increasingly brighter.
Suddenly, her feet began to lift from the boxes. "Woah!" Ivy exclaimed, trying to ground herself.
She was unsuccessful in the attempt, instead propelling herself to float in the center of the room. "Wo-hoa!" she said spinning in a somersault mid-air as she struggled to gain her balance.
"What is happening?" Eloise exclaimed, ducking to avoid Ivy's flying figure.
"I don't know!" Ivy replied stopping short of hitting into the wall. "Turn off the lights, Eloise!" she exclaimed.
Eloise dashed to the wall, flipping the switch.
The pulsating lights slowly stopped, becoming a steady glow once more. As the patterns slowed, Ivy could feel as her boots slowly lowered her to the ground. She landed with a soft paf on the carpet. The two girls stared at each other, wide-eyed.
"What. Was. That?" Eloise said.
Ivy hesitated. Should I tell her? she thought. But I haven't even apologized yet; I can't just pretend that I never was a jerk to her and tell her about the future world...what am I supposed to do? Say 'Hey, Eloise! Sorry about my behavior towards you, but now that that's in the past and all, I got these clothes from some friends 1,000 years in the future? Ivy frowned. But then again, what else could I tell her? She shook her head. "I need time to think about it," she blurted.
"Huh?"
"I mean," Ivy quickly said, throwing off the future world clothes and quickly switching into her normal school clothes, "I-I'm sorry."
Eloise stared at her. "Huh?" she repeated.
"I'm...I'm sorry," Ivy said, brushing her clothes and facing Eloise head-on. Just go on and say it, Ivy! she thought, steeling herself. "I've been really mean to you," she awkwardly started. "And all this time and never gave you a chance to even get to know me. I've thought about it, and there's really no excuse for how mean I've been." Ivy frowned. "I mean, then again, it was because I was bullied pretty badly when I first moved to this school last year, and I kinda have trust issues now, but that's beside the point—" Ivy cut herself off. I'm rambling, she realized. "I just wanna..." Ivy paused, losing her nerve for a second. Shaking her head, she continued. "I wanna apologize. For being mean."
Eloise stared, her eyes wide. Slowly, a smile broke out on her face and she seemed to brighten. "Oh!" she stammered. "Apology accepted." Eloise stuck out a hand. "Will you formally take my offer of friendship, then?"
Ivy stared at her extended hand. "What?" she blankly said."You're just gonna accept my apology like that? Like, you aren't mad or anything?"
Eloise frowned. "I mean...I was hurt, but I can see you're being genuine. You seem like a good person, Ivy. I really just wanted to be friends!"
"And this whole time—to think I thought you were making fun of me!"
"What?" Eloise cried, withdrawing her extended hand. "Is that the impression I was giving you?"
"...Yeah, kinda."
"I should be the one apologizing then!" Eloise said with a dismayed expression. "I'm sorry, I never realized that."
"Well, if that's all sorted out..." Ivy slowly extended her hand. "Friends?"
Eloise smiled, then took the extended hand, shaking it. "Friends," she said.
Ivy smiled, then looked to the bag that she had stuffed with her future world clothes. "As for this," she said, taking the bag up, "I'll explain more to you later."
"Okay!" Eloise cheerfully said.
Ivy paused, suddenly at a loss for words. It's been so long since I've made a friend...well, not counting the future world friends... How does friendship work again?
"I mean," Ivy said, attempting to explain herself. "I don't quite know what happened with the clothes myself, and it's a bit of a long story that I don't think I'll be able to fit into such a short period of time since we need to get back to class, and oh, look at the time, seems like we only have a minute left before the bell rings!"
Ivy ran past Eloise and opened the door, her ears flushing from embarrassment and her arms tightly holding her bag of clothes. "Meet me here tomorrow morning!" she blurted.
What did I even say?? she inwardly groaned to herself as she ran down the hallway, to her lockers. I hope I don't regret bringing her into this.