“Welcome to the year 3010, where you never have to die! And if you do, well, you just come back to life with a little magic!” A voice said from inside the elevator. Annie and I looked at each other, humor in our eyes. When the elevator door opened, so did our mouths. Except, our mouths, they opened wide... really wide.
“Whoa!” we both said, staring at our surroundings.
All of the buildings were made of glass, and so tall that you couldn’t see the top of them! And the people! They were all talking to each other, and smiling! Happily! Every one of all ethnic groups, color, size! “Hey! My names Drake! What’s yours?” asked a boy from behind me. I spun around, and what I saw made my already stopped heart, stop even more. The boy named Drake had dark chestnut hair, and eyes so blue and so deep, I felt like I was drowning in them. “Uh-um-my-my-my name-is-um…” I looked around, trying to remember what my name was. I felt like a pile of mush. And when I looked down, that pile of mush just got mushier. Drake had taken off his jacket, to reveal… a six-pack! “Oh, my gawd.” I breathed out, still staring down at his chest.
“Um… your… name?” Drake asked, smiling at me. I blinked a couple times, and remembered my name.
“Oh…. Right… Sorry… Just got a… Little… Distracted… My name’s… umm… Nicky…” I whispered, with a giggle at the end.
Drake smiled at me, his teeth so white they hurt my eyes. “So, Nicky, are you… new… here?” he asked, staring at me, he eyes seeming to have deepened.
“Yeah… um… I’m from… the-the past.” I mumbled, sighing. I felt like I had too much to drink, and I started to sway a little.
“Really? Me too! My mom is sick, and I wanted to find a cure for her sickness…” he answered back, eyes sad. My eyelids fluttered, and my head started to cloud up.
“What time are you from?” I asked, voice slightly slurred. Drake looked at me in confusion, then smiled.
“A time near yours. But don’t worry about that.” And so I didn’t. In fact, all worrying and wondering went completely out of my head! I smiled, and kept that way until Annie, who I managed to somehow forget, nudged me out of haze.
“Um Nicky? We gotta go. Bye...” Annie trailed off as if she forgot Drakes name.
“Drake.” He replied helpfully.
“I knew that.” Annie answered back, and pulled me away.
“He. Was so. HOT!” I giggled again after saying that, a smile creeping on my face. Annie slapped me as I kept on giggling, and I touched my cheek gently. “What was that for?!” I yelled angrily, wincing from the pain. Annie looked at me and smiled mischievously.
“Well, it’s just a little technique I learned to, you know, get people back to this world! Not some flipping girly-girl world full of giggles! We’ve got work to do remember?! We need to find a solution to get you and your dad alive again!” she said, her voice getting louder and louder with each word.
“Shh! I just said that because it hurts! I’m not brain dead for God’s sake! I remember why we’re here! He was just really, really, REALLY smokin’ hot! I mean, I couldn’t help but be distracted...” I mumbled, looking at the ground. Then, all of a sudden, my vision went blurry and I quickly grabbed Annie’s hand.
“What’s happening?!” she yelled, the unseen wind roaring in our ears.
“I don’t know!” I yelled back. “It feels like someone is trying to bring us back to our time, or earlier, by force! We have to fight it!” Annie looked at me with wide eyes.
“How? I don’t wanna die! It’s too early!” she yelled, tears pouring down her cheeks, then flinging onto mine and stinging my still sore cheek.
“I don’t know! Just fight the pull! Do whatever you can! Just don’t let it take you!” I demanded, tears pouring out of my eyes too. She nodded, and we fought the power of whatever or whoever was trying to take us and getting tired, more tired, and finally so tired that we collapsed to the ground and the whole world froze. ‘Ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring!’ Annie looked at my pocket.
“Um… that’s your phone.” She whispered, voice hoarse from yelling. I looked at my phone and checked who was on the other line.
“It’s my dad.” I said, and pressed talk.
“Are you okay? Mom and I were so worried! I tried to get you to come back bu-” I quickly cut my dad off.
“That was you?! We’re in the future, trying to find a way to get me and you back alive! I thought that I- I mean Annie, was going to die!” I said, worried terribly.
I heard him sigh then say, “You can go back to the future tomorrow. But come home. We’re signing you up for private school. And Nicky? No one, and I mean no one, can know you’re dead.” I hung up, then hooked arms with Annie.
“You alright? I’m really sorry about that… My dad was trying to get me home safely, but obviously that didn’t work… Oh well! Let’s walk around before we go! I want to find the future us!” I tried to laugh ‘evilly’ at the end, but failed miserably.
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“Hello? This is Nicky! Who’s this?” I asked into the phone, hoping to be talking to my much older self. I’ve been going through every Nicky in the phone book for the last 30 minutes.
“Um…. It’s Nicky… Like yours is. What do you need?” the person on the other line said, her voice cheerful.
I thought for a moment then said, “Well, I know this’ll probably sound crazy, but I think I’m your younger self… But, I’m going to have to ask you a question to see if I’m right… So, do you, or did you, have a father that was killed by falling off a ladder?” I heard whispering, then the other Nicky replied yes. “Oh my gosh! That’s so cool! You are the older me!” after some more talking, we decided to meet at the nearby park in half-an-hour. “Bye!”I sang merrily to my older self.
“Bye!” she replied back. We both laughed, then hung up.
Annie called me from inside her phone booth, and hustled over to it. “Tell her to meet you at the park in half-an-hour!” I yelled through the glass, knowing she’d hear me. Annie nodded, said something in her phone with a smile, and then hung up. When she came out of the phone booth, her cheeks were red with excitement, and her black hair was pulled into a high ponytail.
We went into a local café to burn time, and found that we were both starving! Except, after looking through our pockets and everything, we didn’t have any money. We plopped down into one of the seats, exasperated. “Hello! How may I help you today?” a male waiter said. Annie and I looked down, both of our cheeks reddening from embarrassment. “What troubles you?” the waiter asked. Annie was the first of us two to speak up.
“We don’t um… We don’t have any money.” She whispered, her cheeks reddening even more. The waiter looked confused for a moment, then smiled.
“Ohh! Money! I’m sorry, I haven’t heard of that concept in… years. You must not be from around here.” He said with a laugh. Now it was my turn to look confused.
“Yes… We’re definitely not from here…” I said with a smile toward Annie. The waiter smiled.
“Well, I’ll explain. Here, you don’t need money. You just get what you want. For free. No paying.” My eyes went wide at the word free.
‘Whoohoo!’ I thought, pretty much having a party inside my head. “Wonderful.” I whispered. The waiter left, saying he’d come back when we were ready to order.
“This is so cool!” Annie said. I nodded, looking over the menu.
“Definitely.” I answered back, smiling wide. "Lets eat!"
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When we were done eating, we walked to the park using a digital map some guy gave us. My bracelet buzzed, and I sighed.”What is that?” asked Annie, looking around with her eyes squinted. I looked at my bracelet, words forming on it.
They said, ‘Where r u? We told u 2 com home rite away! And r u home? NO! So get home NOW! Love, Dad’ I rolled my eyes.
“Haha! That was my dad. He was telling me to get home. The message came on my bracelet though! How cool is that!” I thought of what I’d write to him first, then tried to figure out how to write it, when all of a sudden… My message that I’d thought of in my head was on my bracelet! Also, the word SEND appeared on one of the rhinestones. I quickly read over my text. ‘Hey dad! We’ll b bak home soon! Just meeting w/ futr selves. Love ya, Nicky.’
As soon as I pressed send, we were at the park. “C’mon Nicky! This is gonna be so cool!” Annie squealed, eyes wide with excitement. We skipped hand-in-hand, until two voices stopped us.
“Um… Nicky?” Future Nicky said.
“Um… Annie?” future Annie said. We turned to be face to face with our future selves and gasped. My brown hair had blonde highlights, I was really skinny, and I looked so mature! Future Annie’s black hair was curly now, and she was also really skinny and looked fun but also quiet, just like my Annie!
“This. Is. Awesome!” Annie and I exclaimed.
“Ya… But also pretty freaky… I mean… REALLY freaky… Haha.” My future self said. “Crap! Annie! We have to go! My dad is gonna kill me if I don’t leave!” I said, my eyes wide. “We’ll try to be back tomorrow…. How about five-thirty… or maybe six… we still have to get the back-to-life solution… We really do have to go! Bye!”
I held Annie’s hand, and we went back to our time, appearing in my room. “Whooh. That, was quick. Hopefully my dad didn’t hear us come in…” I whispered, looking around.
“He doesn’t seem to have heard… Luckily…” Annie answered back, smiling. “That was so cool! Older me was awesome! I cannot wait, to see them tomorrow.” She enthused. I heard a knock on my door.
‘Uh Oh.’ I thought. “Um… who-who is it?” I asked, afraid I knew the answer. The door opened and my dad came in, looking ragged, old, and tired.
“Your mom…” he said hoarsely. “She’s in the hospital. She- shehad a heart attack.”