TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.2 - Of Her Peers

PART 9b: PRESENT TENSE 2

Frank stared at the place where Carrie had been standing, his eyes wide. This had been his first look at a temporal shift in progress. There had been a bright light, forcing him to blink, and... maybe some sort of sucking sound? Hard to say. And then - no more Carrie.

At last, that fact fully registered, and Frank smacked his palm against the lab table in frustration. Carrie was gone, and she hadn't let him explain things.

"I should have prepared better for this talk," Frank chided himself. Though to be fair, he had been going over what to say to her ever since he'd sent off the Carrie who had requested his help on Friday. The very same Carrie who had only now left for the past.

In fact, now that he thought about it, if this had been the necessary sequence of events leading up to Carrie's arrival in the past, this future couldn't have been changed in the same way that Frank had reasoned that the past couldn't be altered. Awkward. And of course now both events were in the past and out of his control!

Which was when Frank heard a bit of a commotion upstairs. He hurried to the bottom of the basement staircase even as the door at the top opened. Standing there was...

"Don't travel into the past!" Carrie shouted, taking the steps two at a time.

"What?" was all Frank could think of to say.

Carrie hit the landing next to Frank and looked around the basement. Breathing heavily, she was still able to let out a sigh. "I missed myself then," she stated sadly. Carrie moved to set down the time machine, in order to wipe some sweat off her forehead. "Well, as I said, I had to at least give it a try. Right?"

Frank frowned. "Yes. Of course," he said, at something of a loss.

"Frank!" came a voice from the top of the stairs. "Did someone just run into the house??"

"Uh, it's okay!" Frank called back up. "It was just Carrie! She needed to... check on something outside.”

"Oh," the voice replied. "Carrie? Could you please make sure to close the front door next time?"

"Certainly, Mrs. Dijora!" Carrie called out. The blonde shook her head, turning to look back at Frank. “That’s it? You know, your mother is pretty trusting of me being down here, given only our initial encounter on Friday. Heck, I wouldn't have even met her then if she hadn't been driving up as I was seeing if you'd arrived home yet."

Frank made a little shrugging motion. “My parents are often pleased when it looks like I'm doing something sociable. But... and forgive the question... where and when did you come from?"

Carrie blinked. "Oh right! Later today. Sorry about barging in, I didn't think I had much time." She exhaled. "Which I didn't. Damn it. Damn it all."

She leaned on table, shaking her head. "I won't bother trying again, at least not right now. I'm out of coins, and tired out after that sprint. Actually, I’ve been awake most of Friday as well as the afternoon here talking with you... I'm due for a rest."

Things started to click. "We're going to have a talk in a little while," he ventured.

“Sure. Oh, right. I should have known you wouldn’t know, even though you did know when I left." Carrie shook her head. "This time traveling will take some getting used to, huh?”

She took a deep breath and wiped off her forehead one last time, completely regaining her composure. “No point talking more until you’re caught up then. If it's at all important, when I arrived I was about a block away from here. Good luck figuring out the machine! You might as well keep your apple too, I'll eat when I get home." She tossed the piece of fruit onto the lab table.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I'm sure this will make more sense at the end of the day," Frank decided.

"Probably," Carrie answered with a shrug and smile. "Oh, and Frank... I really am sorry about hitting you like that. But you need to avoid pushing my buttons that way. Okay?” Then, with a quick wave, Carrie was off up the stairs again. She departed the house moments later.

Frank continued to stand where he was for a couple of minutes, running back through that conversation in his mind. "This must be some discussion we're going to have," he concluded aloud. Then he glanced over at the newly arrived apple on his table. “And since when do I start giving out fruit?"

***

Julie slipped behind the tree again. Carrie was now leaving Frank's place, and this definitely looked like Carrie, be it the running girl (which seemed most likely), or the blonde from before.

Julie watched discretely as Carrie turned and headed back in the direction of her own house. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Julie pursed her lips. So should she track this departing Carrie or maintain surveillance on Frank's house? Was it possible that there was still a second Carrie inside, just as Clarke had supposedly seen a second Carrie in the pharmacy the other day? What about that black box, where was it?

Even as Julie contemplated her options, she saw the person she had called minutes ago turn the corner a block away. She smiled, quickly deciding on how best to proceed.

***

“Carrie!"

The blonde cheerleader turned upon hearing her name, seeing Julie riding up on her bicycle. "Julie," she greeted with a slight wave. "No one driving you about town today?"

Julie shook her head as she pulled up alongside her friend. "Nope. Have to keep fit somehow after all," she remarked with a smile. "Good to see you've recovered from your illness. Out doing anything in particular?"

Carrie’s hesitation was brief. "Not at the moment," she answered with a shake of her head. “I was just taking a walk. Actually I’m heading back home now to take a nap... not quite feeling a hundred percent yet.”

"I see," Julie responded. “I ask because I called your house earlier. Your father said I'd just missed you, but also mentioned something about Frank calling you too. Now, if that geek is still bothering you, I have been considering alternate ways of dealing with him in the coming week..." Her voice trailed off.

"Oh! Well... I'm not sure that's altogether necessary," Carrie replied uneasily.

"Really?" Julie mused, raising an eyebrow.

‘She knows I was at his place!’ Carrie thought to herself. ‘How can I explain this? Think, Carrie, think!’

“Yes, everything was a big misunderstanding," Carrie assured her friend. "See, Frank was actually researching physical education. And as I am the head cheerleader, he was trying to get a sense of where my abilities come from. He simply sucks at being discrete.”

Julie's raised eyebrow twitched. “Are you telling me that you’re fine with him looking at you now?”

"Oh, hell no! But he's going to stop. I even got him to agree to give me some pointers in math, to make everything up to me. I know I did badly on Friday's test," Carrie added with a grimace.

"If you're having trouble with a subject, you know I could have found someone to help you," Julie observed.

"I didn't see any need to trouble you. Besides, Frank is getting top marks in our class."

"True, he is." There was a momentary silence, then Julie smiled again. “Okay, don't let me keep you here talking if you're still not well. I'll see you tomorrow in school?"

Carrie nodded. "Sure, talk to you then!" The two girls waved and Carrie resumed walking down the street.

The blonde didn't see Julie's eyes narrow behind her. “I’d better not find out that you're lying," Julie whispered to Carrie's retreating form.

She then turned away to head back home herself - she had some serious thinking to do before checking up on the surveillance at Frank's house.

***

Luci glanced at her watch. Two o'clock in the afternoon. She could be at home, getting a head start on the next unit in one of her courses, but instead she was here on Hickory Avenue. By Frank's house. Were her priorities really in the right order?

"Fancy meeting you here," came a voice intruding into her thoughts. Luci looked up to see Clarke approaching her.

Luci half smiled. "I could say the same," she remarked idly. She glanced over towards Frank's house then back at Clarke. "Though contrary to what you may be thinking, I'm just passing by."

“I’m not thinking anything," Clarke assured her.

"Mmm hmmm." Luci eyed the tall blonde boy. “You being around has nothing to do with Julie then?” she ventured.

Clarke hesitated. "Should it have something to do with her?"

Luci pursed her lips. "Julie does occasionally have this need to check up on people is all." Again the short haired girl glanced towards the house before her gaze returned to Clarke. “Speaking of, do you know of any specific reason why Julie might want to check up on Frank?"

Clarke crossed his arms. "None of this is for me to say."

They both stood there in silence for another few minutes. "Julie's just using you, you know," Luci finally said. "So you should never feel obligated to do things for her."

"Perhaps," Clarke responded slowly. "But you really don't know Julie like I do."

The two teenagers continued to regard each other. Their staring match was only broken when Clarke spotted Carrie hurrying around the street corner two blocks away, headed towards them.