6:35 am Stevens alarm goes off. Strange, as he couldn't remember setting it. As he gets out of bed, he notices the candle is still lit with a drop of wax on it's side. Going on as if it's not there, he gets ready for school and rushes out of the house leaving the candle on his desk "Steven, you forgot your backpack again" his mom yells as he drives off.
Arriving at school late he remembers his backpack is still at home. When he gets out of his car, he looks in the backseat and there is his backpack I guess I put it in last night he thought. When he picks it up the candle is under it, still lit with another bead of wax. Unable to grasp this strange reality he hears the bell ring and runs in.
"Mr. Tannen look who is late ag..." beeeep the principal comes on the overhead speaker "teachers disregard the bell just now, it went off a minute early it is now reset and about to ring at the correct time" Mr. Stiff swallows his words, "Well, the bell rang, but do you and Marcus have your worksheets?" He sits at his desk in the front of the class. "Well Mr. Tannen, it seems I owe you an apology, I didn't even notice that you set it on my desk." Steven sits there thinking there's no way he could have done it. Marcus must have known and did mine too.
As he opens his backpack to pull out a notebook, there's the candle, lit in his backpack with a third bead of wax. Mr. Stiff turned the mobile chalkboard around to reveal the words Pop quiz. Not having time the night before, he was unable to review his notes before. Throwing out his best educated guesses he hears the little wind-up timer on the head desk go off bbrrriinngg "Okay pencils down, pass them to the front" Mr. Stiff collected the papers. The entire rest of class Steven was unable to focus and kept thinking about all these strange situations. The bell rings and he leaves the class.
"Hey tantescles, what did I say about showing up, what do you say boys, the usual?" Cheering, they grab him and pull him into the bathroom. Gus lets loose a hit to Stevens face and at the exact moment the principal walks in "Mr. Mulch! In my office now!" Steven avoided a beating. As he arrived in English class Marcus is there waiting, "Steven did you rat on Gus?" "No, the principal happened to see him hit me," Steven smirked. "While in the hallway I heard the principal say Gus was going to be suspended until Monday next week" Marcus replied. A whole week without Gus. What luck.
Finally, it was time for his last class. Sitting there waiting, Mrs. Swarts enters the room "Okay everyone, pull out your articles" Steven got nervous and looked for anything he could use when he remember that the candle was wrapped in an old newspaper. Sure enough, when he looked in his bag there it was with the candle next to it. Before he was able to read it, he heard Mrs. Swarts say "Mr. Tannen, seeing that smile as you pulled out your article must mean it’s pretty good. I would like for you to go now."
"My article was written on..." Steven scrambles to read it as he's presenting, “October 31st, 1898 [his eyes widened as he read the date] His luck ran out is the title of the article.” Steven looked up at Mrs. Swarts who looked interested, "Mr. Jefferson’s incredible luck has seemed to run out while on chase from the police. Found dead in a building just outside of town only days after the robbery." There on the front of the page was Mr. Jefferson and his family. "Is that all it says?" Mrs. Swarts asked while Steven tried to find anything else related on the cut out newspaper "Well, that is interesting, I’ll give you until Friday to find out more information because that is not enough for full points, but for now we have to move on" relieved he was able to present what little he did, Steven sat back in his desk while other Students presented.
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3 PM the final bell rings "We will continue this tomorrow class make sure you have enough material in your articles. Mr. Tannen, can I see you for a moment?" Mrs. Swartz asked, "may I see the picture on that article?" After glancing at it for a few seconds she says, "I love this small towns history, but I haven't heard of the surname Jefferson in it. The daughter in this photo though, Sally Jefferson, she looks exactly like the grand daughter of my mom's old friend from the nursing home. When I would visit my mother before she passed there was an elderly lady named Sally Dune that would always show pictures of her grand children from across the country. If you just showed me this photo, I would think it was her grand daughter."
Leaving school, Steven had no idea where to even start looking for more information on the article, so he headed to the local library. Getting there he asked the librarian where they keep the old town newspapers "I don't believe I've seen a boy your age asking about where the old newspapers are," the old nice lady said, “all of the old papers are down in the lower level.” There, the only archived article that came close was a girl who looked vaguely similar to the man's daughter, Sally Jefferson. Sally Dune sees her husband off as he heads to fight for America, the article headlined. There was nothing about any Jeffersons’ that had lived there. In fact, it seemed any articles before 1900 were sparse and/or incomplete. Heading back up stairs he asks the librarian why that might be. Puzzled, she suddenly remembered "There was a fire around that time that destroyed half of this library they were probably destroyed in the fire. The Bronco Gazette might have them in their archives, but you'll have to look tomorrow because they close in 5 minutes." Steven at a loss headed home.
Steven got home and went to his room to do homework. He pulls out the candle to examine it. A few beads of wax on the sides but all in all, the candle was basically the same length as it was. He still was in disbelief about all of this. How long was it when I started? Is it the same length? How long is it now? Getting a ruler, he made a note that it was about 9.75 inches in length. Not knowing what to do about this odd candle, Steven made a plan to look at the Gazette archives for any articles that might help him learn more about it as he already needed to head there.
There was a knock at the door "Steven you have a visitor," his mom said as she came and got him. Going down the stairs, there was Gus standing in the doorway with his father "My father drove me here to say I'm sorry," Gus said unconvincingly. Steven stayed silent until his mom finally chirped up "Steven Tannen what do you say when someone apologizes?" Reluctantly the words "It's okay" left his mouth. "Sorry about the inconvenience, Mrs. Tannen. Gus is having a get together this Saturday and we would love to have Steven" Mr. Mulch said as they left. Steven looked out the window as they drove away to see Gus staring him down with eyes of pure anger.
Snapping him out of his daze his mom said, "now that they're gone what was that nice boy apologizing for. Did you antagonize him to do something?" Staring in disbelief that his mother would think that he told her everything Gus has done. "Well I'm glad he came and apologized. I think it would be a good idea for you to go to his get together Saturday to mend things," his mom continued "for two parties ever to get along, they both have to find a way to see eye-to-eye." Ringringring the oven timer broke the tension in the room signaling dinner was ready. "Now hurry up and wash up" his mother said making sure she got the last word.
At the table his sister Stephanie was flaunting a perfect score on her recent test, "Steven have you even seen a number this high? 100 percent, I bet you didn't even know it was possible to get that" Steven stayed silent as he knew any conflict would only cause detriment to him. "May I be excused?" Steven asked. "You barely touched your food" his mom said in a quick response, "but if you aren't feeling well over what happened earlier, I'll put it in the fridge for later."
Back in his room Steven took out his notebook to review the days material along with the day before. Realizing he got all the answers wrong on his quiz his stomach started to knot. Laying down, Steven sets his alarm and closes his eyes for the day.