s3.e12

Restful Reward

           After a long, unusual, and difficult night of running from a killer cyborg and collecting the petrified bodies of their friends, the gang finally managed to sneak back into the apartment as the sky filled with dawn’s blues. They worked together to get the four who didn’t “make it” back up the stairs and into the kitchen, all while keeping it quiet so as to not start a secondary incident, this time with the resident couple.

           They ended up using the Dodge Charger again to do so, which never stopped running—if not loudly—despite its damage. The collection of statues on the tile were quite varied. Colin looked afraid, Millie of course had her thumbs-up, and Arthur and Jared, who were frozen while seated in a car, were still in the position and had proven awkward to handle. Fortunately, once inside they at least had some breakfast table chairs to sit on. While Jared was posed in a way that showed him freaking out even more than Colin, Arthur simply looked over it, and, with a flat expression, he had given the time cop the good old “California Hello” with the longest of his right hand’s fingers.

           “Ah… Whew…” Lucy panted after taking a big sip of water straight from the sink. She then wiped the sweat off her brow and sighed, “Wes, the things you put us through, I swear… Carrying your Medusa’d old buddies up to a time door was not something I had in mind whenever I thought about ways to help you out.”

           “Sorry, Luce,” Wes muttered in complete exhaustion, and scarfed down the rest of the cold Poptart he had stolen out of the cupboard. “I’ll… try to do better.”

           The familiar sound of bus air brakes went off outside, and Sadie silently shuffled over to the living room window to confirm the sight, peeking through the blinds.

           “Middle and high school buses are out,” she reported.

           “That means the other me and Wes will be waking up any minute,” Jace replied. “And who knows when the locals will come in to make their coffee.”

           “It would be nice to catch a glimpse of the Desert Tree Elementary kids arriving, going up those old steps…” Sadie added wistfully. “But, I’ll always have the memories.”

           Warren, arms crossed and leaning against a wall, spoke up emotionlessly, “When you go back through the door, you might not remember any of this. And… hopefully, the others will unfreeze and be just fine. But if neither of those things happens… I guess come back through with them, and we’ll figure something out.”

           “Warren. Thanks for looking after Wes and Jace,” Lucy said as she pushed Millie through the door. “And, Wes, don’t take too long coming home. What’s your schedule, anyway? There can’t really be much left to see, right? Things… get rough for you soon.”

           “Mm-hm…” he murmured. “The good times are winding down. We only have a few days left, promise. We’ll be leaving just after we see Independence Day. July 3^rd.”

           Lucy rolled her eyes, but also grinned a little. “Yeah, that figures.” She gave her brother a hug that he tiredly agreed to, and turned to Jace. “Hey, kiddo. Be careful, be smart. A lot can go wrong on the final mile of a journey if you let it.”

           He sniffled just a bit and replied confidently, “I will, Mom. See you again soon.”

           She gave them a wave, and then dragged Colin out with her to 2020. While Wes helped her, Jace watched Sadie and Warren share a private moment. She said a few quiet words to her now-teenage son, and broke off a hug before Wes had a chance to notice.

           “Wes…” Sadie said after coming up to him. “What… are you doing next?”

           “I guess I should get that car back to the garage, for starters.”

           “I meant, past that. After the big get-together at King Arcade. After all of this, when you come back to the present. How are you going to use this big journey?”

           He was obviously very tired—so Sadie gave him some leeway when he simply shrugged and replied, “You know… Better myself. Live in the now. That sort of stuff.”

           Though risky, Sadie couldn’t stop herself from embracing him as well, saying, “I really hope you do. Wes, I promise—whatever your doubts, you’re worth it.”

           He was momentarily speechless, before getting out, “Thanks, Sadie… Goodbye.”

           She left with Arthur and Jared, and after waiting for a minute, it was clear to the three staying behind that they weren’t coming back. Warren was the first to head out.

           “You guys wait up here,” Wes said to Jace and Warren, watching the sun rise with their arms on the condo’s second floor railing. “I’ll come back in a taxi.”

           He went downstairs, backed the dinged Charger out of the parking lot slowly, and then drove off down a city street that was just waking up. The boys on their own again, Jace waited a little for Warren to speak up first, but he was even more sullen and untalkative than usual. Not that it was a surprise, given the events of the last four hours.

           “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Jace asked. “I get not letting Wes in on it, but…”

           His unkempt hair fluttering in the morning breeze, Warren sighed as he watched a bus pick up middle-schoolers nearby. “First time in a while I’ve seen them hug like that. Even if Dad didn’t know…” He looked at Jace and turned to lean back against the railing. “Thanks for getting the adults to keep quiet. I was worried about that, when you guys kicked open my door to, well, save me. Sorry for screwing up, again. First the lab bomb, now this. Not like I can stick around to learn from my worst mistakes.”

           “It’s all right. You put on a tough act, but you’ve been all alone most of the time. It isn’t easy for you to call for help, even if you work up to actually wanting to ask at all.”

           “Y-yeah. Weird sitch. I’m going to take a guess that it wasn’t the cop that found me out, but that Daemon, doing its automated thing. Maybe saw my looping returns to the hotel as an anomaly to be fixed or whatever. I should’ve been more careful. Hopefully it’ll think the rogue cop was behind it. An investigation should keep them busy a while.”

           “You should stay at the cottage with us. We’re just wrapping things up, anyway.”

           “… All right, might as well. Better than sleepless nights at the hotel.”

           “And we have catching up to do… By the way, Sally… She’s real, in the present, if your mom didn’t already tell you.” Warren said nothing, and the cousins gazed at one another awkwardly for a moment. “What happened to you? Why are you stuck here?”

           Warren shook his head. “I’ll tell you both everything, together, when the time is right. And it may be coming up… What’s the latest day you guys got up to, by the way?”

           “Um… June 28^th. Friday. Just two days away from the Toy Run submission.”

           “That close, huh? Then… Sunday night. That’s when we’ll tell Wes the truth. I’m sorry, cuz. I wanted to tell you. I even did sometimes, just to see what would happen, and it always made things more complicated. They still were, but at least we made it here.”

           Jace grinned and raised a fist, which Warren eventually, slowly, bumped.

           After everything was taken care of, the three quartz-traveled to just a few minutes after Wes had his original bad run-in with the police. Without going into the apartment again to recheck the door, Wes got into his car’s driver’s seat and took the boys to the cottage. He said nothing about the fact that Warren would be spending at least one night there, but did go ahead and give the teen an extra pillow and blanket for the couch. The rest of the evening was quiet and brief, and following a much-needed group scarf-down of Wendy’s fast food to replenish those calories, they all went to bed early.

           The next morning, while Wes was still asleep, Warren and Jace made themselves breakfast. After an unhealthy meal, Jace followed his cousin out into the small backyard.

           “Am I going to like this big surprise?” Jace asked Warren as he went to the shed.

           “I think so.” Warren opened the sliding door and took out the toy inside—which was immediately familiar to Jace. “But be careful with this thing. There’s no safety.”

           Jace was given a big gun, which he handled carefully like Warren insisted. “It’s… one of the laser rifles from the King Arcade tournament? It’s much heavier, though.”

           “It’s modified. A little project I just spent a week of my time working on.”

           “A week? When did you even pull that off? This wasn’t in the hotel room.”

           Warren patted his pocket holding his quartz, and while that was pretty much the duh answer Jace needed, he explained further, “I’ve been looping nights, repairing the cop’s broken rifle, in your… Ah… I mean, my dad’s little lab. Something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I have my sword, but you also need to be able to defend yourself, right?”

           “So, it’s a weapon?” Jace studied it and felt the weight. “Well, it does blind them.”

           “This has a bit more pop.” Warren grabbed an empty paint can from the shed and put it on the yard’s concrete bench by the garden. “You always were a better shot.”

           “You want me to blast that, huh?” Jace raised the rifle and aimed down the sight. “Warren, when I was back in 2020, we played in a laser tag game with the whole gang.”

           “No surprise… We would do that. Did I climb a tree and ambush you?”

           “Uh-huh.” Jace began to squeeze the trigger. “It was fun hanging out with—”

           A powerful, nearly blinding, and steady blue laser suddenly shot out of the rifle. There was little recoil, but the weapon heated up quickly, threatening to melt the plastic of the kiddy rifle that encased the deadly components inside. He only held the trigger for as long as he did—five seconds or so—because he was too surprised at first to release it.

           “Warren!” Jace exclaimed upon seeing the charred paint can, the paper label still burning and turning black. “What the hell, dude? It’s a freaking death ray!”

           “Like I said, it’s a time cop rifle. But without the limiter, so it’s even stronger than usual. I only have the one power cell, though, so don’t go shooting it for fun, ’cause you got maybe four minutes of stream. And, obviously, don’t show it off or play tag with it.”

           “Did Jace just shoot off a laser beam, or is this one of those foggy, slow wake-up days?” Wes, still tired, asked from the back door, a cup of coffee in his hand.

           “Oh, Warren made me an actual sci-fi gun,” Jace replied nonchalantly.

           “Huh… Okay… Try not to burn your eye out.” Wes yawned, stretched, and took a sip of his bean juice. “Jace, did you wake up this morning suddenly remembering being really sleepy on the first of November? I guess all that ‘fun’ interrupted our bed time.”

           “Actually, yeah. But I also remember that it wasn’t an important day at school or anything. It’s not like I was the only tired kid in class the day after Halloween.”

           “Wes, I’m going to give you that new blue quartz I snagged,” Warren told him. “But they’re more complicated than the pink ones. So… not that I’m looking forward to it, but I think I kind of have to, you know… Give you a lesson?”

           “My breath is bated… But can it wait? It’ll take me a while to soak up anything.”

           “I’m about to go meet the guys at the K,” Jace said, and handed the rifle back to Warren. “If anyone’s offering a sleepover tonight, I can give you some alone time.”

           “… Alone time?” Wes said, and eyed grumpy Warren. “With him? Geez…”

           “It’ll be good for you,” Jace assured and grabbed his bike. “You can work it out.”

           “Work what out?” Wes groaned as Jace headed off. “Fine. Yeah, sure. Great.”

           Expecting a glib remark from Warren, Wes was surprised to receive only silence.

           Jace got a minor surprise when he made it to the corner of his block and found the main gang—still sans vacationing Zach, of course—waiting for him. It had already felt like years, even within his sense of time’s passage, since he had last seen them.

           “Hey, Jace!” Colin was the first to greet him, as Wessy remained a little sulky. “Figured we’d walk our bikes the rest of the way, all together. More time to chat.”

           “We even convinced Ash and Sadie to join us,” Arthur added.

           “Not really,” Sadie replied. “We all wanna spend time with you while we can.”

           “Oh…” Jace felt put on the spot. “Um, sure. I do wish I didn’t have to move.”

           “We know, dude,” Jared said, and they started walking, with Wessy in the back. “But we still got a few good summer days ahead. Also, Wes has a ‘big’ announcement.”

           “It’s not that exciting, really,” Wessy replied sheepishly.

           “Hey, any of you guys hosting a sleepover tonight?” Jace asked. “I don’t have many chances left to go to any, so I’ll take what I can get.”

           Jared answered, “Not me. I got plans with my dad. We’re gonna be at King Arcade until it closes, then get dinner. He’s been… doing better, so we’re hanging out. It’ll be his first time at the park, too. Finally.”

           “That’s nice, J. Really,” Arthur said. “We’re going to our grandparents’ place for the rest of the weekend. Leaving after lunch. Maybe Sadie and Celeste will have ya?”

           “Funny…” Jace sighed, and had a vision of the girls giving him a makeover—even though it wasn’t something either of them would be into, either. “Wes?”

           “Oh, um, well…” He hesitated. “We could have one, I guess, but it’d just be the two of us—and Lucy. Yeah… She’s been over, since her parents are still on vacation.”

           “I’m mostly free,” Colin said. “I can come, just gotta leave early in the morning. Dad’s taking me to his boss’s kid’s bar mitzvah. We’re not very observant, you know, so I might not even do it myself. But he wants me to at least see one, to help me decide.”

           Jace smiled. “Three is good. We’ll just hang out, chill with games and a movie.”

           Wes replied, “Really? Okay. I’ll tell Mom. I’ve actually been a bit bored recently.”

           “I get that, actually,” Sadie said. “Summer is usually awesome, but this one, right between schools? It’s like… I dunno, I feel like I’m just floating in space, waiting.”

           The rest of the gang gave one another looks like they did indeed feel a similar way. Shortly afterwards, they rolled their bikes up to the Circle K, the busy highway nearby having replaced the quiet and easygoing neighborhood atmosphere.

           “Hey, is that Kyle?” Arthur noticed before the others. “He’s all by himself.”

           Indeed, Sherman Miller’s guru was alone, still dressed in baggy clothes and adult tie, but not at all trying to act “cool.” He was hunched over on the ground, next to the ice box and lazily sipping on a bottle of Yoo-hoo while staring off into space.

           Wessy asked Jace, “This early, I thought he’d be drinking coffee.”

           “Maybe he just lied about that?” Jace replied quietly.

           “Who is this kid?” Jared asked the others. “Why do we care if he drinks coffee?”

           “Miller’s version of Zach,” Sadie summed it up. “He was at camp with us. But he didn’t exactly… do much. Maybe he’s out of his element, outside school?”

           “Hey, Kyle?” Colin said inquisitively. “You doing okay?”

           “Huh—who?” Kyle scrambled in place for a moment as he snapped out of a trance, before getting back to his usual composure. “Oh, hey, camp kids. What’s up?”

           “You just, uh, hanging out on your own today?” Wessy wondered.

           “Oh, sure, sure. My buds got lives of their own, too. But my cool never stops.”

           “If you’re not busy, could you watch our bikes for a minute while we get drinks?”

           “No problem, my dude. Bike-watching is an old… pastime of mine.” He then murmured something Jace just barely heard, “Bike-watching? Really, Kyle…?”

           “Thanks,” Sadie replied, leaning her bike against the wall and heading inside.

           Jace was the last to go in, his eyes lingering on lonely Kyle as he did so.

           The group wandered around, picking out snacks or filling their cups with sugary drink—Jace catching a glimpse of Wessy staring at the store’s arcade cabinet, which was one of Gavin’s favorites. It somehow felt like Gavin hadn’t been in the place for a long time. For all Jace knew, Wessy still hadn’t seen him since finding out he was moving.

           “Wes, what’s your big news already?” Sadie asked impatiently once the group had lined up to pay for their goods. “Don’t be all suspenseful about it!”

           Everyone looked at Wessy, at the back of the line. Feeling pressured, he got it out, “Remember when I said I wanted to do something amazing to prove Charlie wrong? I’m going to enter to win a chance to do that Nickelodeon-Toys ‘R’ Us Toy Run thing.”

           “Whoa, like in the commercials?” Colin piped amid more middling responses to the news. “Like… Five minutes to run through the store, tossing stuff into your cart?”

           “Yeah. But I probably won’t get in. If I did, I’d get you all something. I just… couldn’t come up with some big stunt thing like Zach, Wright, or Charlie do.”

           “It’s still a cool idea, and right up your alley, Wes,” Sadie replied supportively.

           Jared wasn’t as impressed with the ambition, and asked in a scoffing way, “What would you do with all those toys in middle school? Or do you just wanna be on TV?”

           But Arthur was more cordial. “I see it as more… exiting childhood with a bang.”

           And Ash threw in, “Good luck. Get something for Lucy, too, if ya get in.”

           Back outside, the gang soon noticed that Kyle’s sunglasses were sagging, and he was doing nothing but watching the cars go by once more. He seemed utterly adrift.

           “Kyle, dude,” Sadie spoke up, and he fumbled with his shades again. “What are you even doing, wasting a summer day here, alone? Can’t you be doing anything else?”

           “Sadie, I’m fine, I’m fine. Cool kids like me, we just hang, be among the people.”

           “Celly told me she’s never actually seen you, like… out of school, with friends.”

           “I got friends. Plenty of ‘em. Hey, someone handed over The Shade to me, right?”

           Jace, having seen enough, stepped up. “You have the club-runner look, but—”

           But then Wessy moved in and interrupted, “Hold on, Jason. Let me try this thing again. I think I know what’s going on here. Kyle. We didn’t go to school with you, so I don’t think we’re as, like, ‘blinded’ by your star power? Know what I’m saying? Maybe we’re better at calling a duck a duck, that sort of thing?”

           “Wes…” Colin whispered. “Your heart’s in the right place, but maybe Jason should…”

           “N-no, Colin. He’s not going to be here next year! So… someone has to take his place. And I don’t like seeing others feeling bad, or any of those sorts of emotions. So give me a shot, even if my first real attempt at this is with… Miller’s coolest kid.”

           “I’m not really that duck-like, though,” Kyle said with a shrug.

           Wessy continued his effort, “Kyle, when did you start being ‘cool,’ exactly?”

           He grinned. “Normally, I don’t get into my real origin story. I liked the version I told the other Millers. Heh. Actually, I’ve forgotten some of my own lore. By the end of fourth grade, it had become this whole epic. It started with me being found as a baby in the trunk of a getaway vehicle abandoned on an airport runway in Miami. And ended with me riding in a Lambo with a new dad to Royal Valley. But… that’s not really true.”

           “No kidding,” Ash chortled with crossed arms. “At least Zach’s honest.”

           “Yeah… Zach’s good folk…” Kyle sighed. He shirt-collared his sunglasses and suddenly toned down his ‘cool kid cadence,’ which was pretty much an invented dialect compared to his actual voice. “We met two summer camps ago. He was amazing. His cool confidence made me want to be just like him. He said I had promise, and offered to teach me ‘his ways’ at camp, as long as I did my best to be original. I do okay with that part, but… the truth is…” He looked around, as if to check for any nearby kids he knew from school. “I faked it ’till I ‘maked’ it. This whole thing I do, was never me.”

           Wessy’s friends looked surprised that Kyle could put on such a good act, but he replied, “I knew it was something like that. Jared here is good at reading people, but for me… I guess it’s kinda similar? I can just tell when someone isn’t being their real self.”

           “Why put all the effort into it, though?” Arthur wondered. “Zach’s a natural, but he also actually backs it up, too. Helps his friends, watches out for others.”

           Kyle tepidly answered, “I moved here in third grade. Back in LA, I was… a bit of a dork. I liked classical music when the rest of my class got into hip-hop or grunge. My theater folks made me spend my after-school hours at an acting class, instead of getting out there, being social. Then I lost the few friends I had when we left the big city.”

           Colin poked his glasses and remarked, “Bet those acting chops helped, though.”

           “For sure. I realized I could reinvent myself in a new city, be whoever I wanted. Still, for the first month at Miller, I stayed my quiet, dorky self before I went all in on the act. But I did make one friend before then. Kid named Lewis. Bit of a jokester, and he liked me for me. Really liked my impressions. One day at recess, he comes up with this prankish idea where I go around acting like your typical ‘cool guy’ around the playground, just to see the reactions. For laughs.” He exhaled. “But then…”

           Sadie replied, “It stuck, huh?”

           “Yep. I liked the attention, and feeling special. And the more into it I got, the less Lewis wanted to hang out. I ditched an honest, good friend for…” he scowled, ripped off his tie, and held it up, “… this stupid, meaningless junk.”

           “Just because you’re afraid of being a loser?” Jared bluntly asked him.

           “Harsh. But, pretty much. Maybe I’m telling you guys this now, before we start sharing a school, because you don’t know me like my old classmates do. So, hopefully you won’t rag on me? I don’t think I can do this for three more years. It’s exhausting!”

           Ash got in some obvious advice, “Just be yourself and like who you are. It’s stuff you hear all the time, but our parents drill it into us, and it does make you feel better.”

           Jared added, “I’m not sure your take on ‘cool’ is gonna go far next year, anyway.”

           Kyle looked pensive. “Thanks, guys. Hearing that from other kids, gives me a lot to think about. But, man, it’s going to be tough going back to having, like… no friends.”

           Arthur tried to reassure him, “Who knows, maybe you’ll win Lewis back.”

           Wessy looked at his group, and concluded with, “Or… make new ones.”

           Following their consumption of early day junk food, the gang got to riding around Desert Tree—likely for the last time with Jace in tow. Wessy seemed not quite satisfied with his efforts to help Kyle, bringing it up often during the bike loop.

           “I’m serious, guys, I really do want to get better at this kinda thing,” he went on as they rolled down an empty street. “But it’s not easy getting the advice right. What if I screw up and make everything worse for someone? Jason makes it look easy.”

           “C’mon, you did okay back there,” Colin replied. “You got him to open up.”

           “Maybe, but it’s not like I gave him a solution to his problem. You all did.”

           “Because we were there,” Arthur stated. “You don’t need to ‘hog the glory’ on stuff like this. We just combined our wisdom, right? And you’ll get better at it.”

           “I hope so. I wanna be one of those guys in middle school everyone likes to be around. I don’t need to be as popular as Zach, just… reliable, you know?”

           “Aw, you’re already that guy,” Sadie remarked. “Maturity helps when you give advice—and compared to your fifth-grade self, I think you’re already improving.”

           Wessy went a little red in the face, then shook it off and looked at Jace. “Maybe I can get one more lesson from the master before he leaves? But… who’s left?”

           They came to a stop in front of Felicity’s empty house. Jace hesitated a moment before getting off his bike and going over to the porch, to peek through the windows and see what would one day be the living room where he’d watch TV with his mom or uncle. The rest of the group followed him and also explored the front area.

           “See any ghosts in there?” Jared asked jokingly. “Or, like, cursed… zombies?”

           “I saw Felicity moving in,” Ash spoke up. “Her new place is nice. Wanna see it?”

           With nothing better to do, they followed Ash to one of the mini-mansions at the edge of “Fancy Street,” just a few blocks away. In front of a two-story home with pillars flanking the door, Felicity’s older sister was talking on a cell phone as her well-dressed dad mowed the lawn. Only one window, on the second floor, was covered by curtains.

           “I’m guessing that’s Felicity’s room,” Sadie noted. “Bet she hates living here.”

           “Are we s’posed to feel sorry for her, getting to live here at all?” Jared muttered.

           “That doesn’t mean she actually likes anything about the house, J.”

           “… You guys want to hit Mansion Street?” Jace asked. “I have this new idea…”

           “Ooh, for Wright or Willa?” Wessy said eagerly. “Yeah, let’s see what ya got.”

           They arrived right as three boys Wright’s age were walking away from a folding table, set up in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Angry faces contrasted to Wright’s, looking like a con man who just got away with another big score. He dumped his winnings into a shoebox before carefully putting his Magic: The Gathering deck in a hard-shell case.

           “Don’t go away mad!” Willa called out to the disgruntled losers. “It was a lot of fun, right? You’re all good players! I think. I still don’t totally get this game yet…”

           “Willa, give it up. None of those seventh graders are going to be your boyfriend next year. Yuck. Now count this up for me, would ya?” Wright asked, giving her the cash box. He then grinned and waved as the group came up. “Hey! Any of you up for—”

           “No, Wright,” Jared stopped him. “I lost enough money to you over the years.”

           Jace got right to the point, with the others watching in anticipation. “I know this is fun for you, but like I said before, you’re gonna gamble big and lose big one day.”

           “Oh yeah?” Wright scoffed and leaned back in his chair. “Ya wanna bet on that?”

           “And, Willa?” Jace turned to her. “You shouldn’t be so desperate to cling onto any boy that smiles at you. Unless they’re also super-needy, we usually don’t like that.”

           She crossed her arms and looked away. “I’m not… desperate! Sheesh…”

           Jace let out a huff for what they were making him do. I don’t feel good about this one, he thought, but maybe it’s the only thing that will work with these two. A language they understand.

           “Okay, Wright,” Jace said, and tried to keep a straight face. “I actually do have a bet all set up for you. A big one. Two… No, three hundred dollars are on the line.”

           “Whoa! Seriously?!” Wright exclaimed, amid gasps in the group. “You’re my kind of crazy, Jason! What do ya got for me? What limb am I about to maybe break?”

           “You can only do it if she agrees, okay? The dare is… You and Willa act like a couple for all of sixth grade.” He read the eyes of both of them, as they glanced at one another and then back to Jace. “… And if you stick it out for a school year, Zach will give you the money. He’s, uh, holding it for me, since I’m moving away in a few days.”

           “Is this a joke?” Wright asked. “I mean… three big ones, just to pretend to be her boyfriend for a little while? Ha! Give me a paper to sign, so it’s official!”

           “Wright, I don’t think it’ll be as easy as you think. You also have to be nice to her.”

           “Sure, whatever. I’ve known Willa a long time. She’s not that weird. Yeah…” He looked at her, smiling widely and giving him a ‘cute’ pose. He gulped, “No… problem.”

           After a few blocks of bike-walking, it was Jared who was the first to bring up what the group had witnessed about twenty minutes earlier by asking, “Okay, Jason, I think we’ve all tried to take in what the heck you did back there, and… I mean… what?”

           “Well-put.” Colin laughed. “Did you seriously give Zach three green Benjis to hold onto just for a crazy bet, or is he gonna be on the hook after you move?”

           “There is no money,” Jace explained. “If by some tiny chance he actually ‘wins’ the bet, I’m sure Zach can come up with the cash and forgive me—and Wright should still learn a lesson about the danger of dares, anyway. Similar lesson if he loses.”

           “Yeah, but he didn’t wager anything,” Sadie remarked. “He has nothing to lose.”

           “Nah,” Wessy replied. “He’s the kind of guy that feels the loss of something he could’a had, but got taken away. All he’ll see is missing out on three-hundos. It’ll sting.”

           “But Willa’s supposed to learn from it, too, right?” Ash wondered. “Sure, maybe the reality of having a boyfriend won’t be all she’s cracked it up to be, but she might also totally think he’s ‘swell,’ and… Oooh. Then she’ll just end up driving him crazy.”

           “And he’ll push back, maybe even letting himself just lose the bet to get it over with,” Sadie finished the thought. “Odds are, they really will both learn something.”

           “Unless…” Colin murmured as everyone stopped in front of the twins’ place. “There could be, like, a one percent chance they end up mutually liking each other?”

           The group looked at one another, and then burst out in a quick bout of laughter.

           Once it died down, Jared spoke up, “Actually… Who knows? It’s not like any of us know anything about the whole boyfriend-girlfriend stuff yet. It’s so complicated.”

           “Hey, kids!” the twins’ dad shouted from their front door, as their mom hurriedly locked it. “We have to get going. You can eat your Lunchables in the car.”

           “Guess we’ll see ya guys on Monday. Zach will be getting back, too,” Arthur said.

           Everyone waved—with Ash giving Jace an extended, personal one and a grin that no one else seemed to pick up on—and the twins headed off to their grandparents.

           “Okay, Wes, I’m gonna head home.” Colin got on his bike. “See you tonight.”

           “The big King Arcade get-together, and Independence Day is this week, guys,” Jared reminded before also riding off on his own. “And… good luck with the Toy Run, Wes.”

           Wessy and Sadie walked ahead of Jace, who watched them chat cordially—and he could see how oblivious they were to what they’d one day mean to each other.

           Some hours later, Jace and Colin reunited with Wessy at his house for a low-key sleepover, expecting nothing out of the ordinary to happen. The one change-up was Lucy being over and sharing a room with her brother, who was no doubt already getting tired of such an arrangement. Even so, he was nice enough to not audibly complain about a situation that no one could do much about, at least at dinner.

           “Well, this is nice, isn’t it?” Wessy’s mom said a few minutes into the meal at the small table, covered with bowls of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. “Lucy, if I’m remembering right, you get along fairly well with Colin, don’t you?”

           She shrugged as she limply stirred her soup and stared into its broth, murmuring, “He’s… smart. Nice… Kind of funny, I guess. We’ve known each other a long time.”

           “Is something wrong, sweetheart? If there’s anything you need here, I can—”

           “It’s okay. You’ve been very generous, and a better listener than my parents…” Lucy sighed. “I think I’m just going through some painful life changes.”

           “Oh. Well, it’s quite adult of you to be able to recognize that.”

           “The annoying girls Lucy thought were her friends are being mean to her now,” Wessy explained, and got himself glared at for spilling the beans. “What, Luce? It’s true! You think our dad’s gonna help you with your Gemika problems? Or Becky? My mom always knows just what to say. So you should talk about that stuff with her.”

           “Not at the table with you three right here!” Lucy exclaimed. “Still… Maybe you could help me with the other part of it. I’m going to have to make new friends for fifth grade, and you make it look easy. How’d you get a cool kid like Zach to like you?”

           “Ahh… I see what this is about. You want to get that Lex girl as a friend.”

           “Mmm…” Lucy was bashful. “She’s just… so cool, and… self-assured.”

           “Sure, but think how it’ll look if you go up to someone like that and ask to be their friend, especially if she’s surrounded by other popular kids. Unless she really likes you just the way you are, well… Sorry, Luce, but you’re better off finding a reliable, always-there-for-you buddy first. Someone that doesn’t have a busy schedule or some big image to keep up. Before I even met Zach, or Charlie, I had that in Colin.” He looked at his old pal, who replied with a thumbs-up. “Having each other’s backs gave us that confidence boost we needed to start impressing the superstars.”

           “My kid, the social expert,” Wessy’s mom said with a chuckle.

           “I guess I see your point…” Lucy replied. “But, why do you want to do the Toy Run thing so bad? Isn’t having a whole bunch of friends who like you good enough?”

           “What are you talking about?” Wessy asked with a small scowl. “I want a shot at doing something everyone will remember about me. I need to leave a mark, you know?”

           “I mean, there’s no harm in signing up,” Colin said. “Odds are probably a million to one he actually gets to run around in a Toys ‘R’ Us on TV.”

           “It would be very cool, Wes,” his mom added. “But your sister still makes a good point. You’re lucky to have so many friends. Don’t be too disappointed if you don’t get in.” She looked at Jace. “Though it’s too bad this may be the last time you’ll be staying over, Jason. Maybe you can stay in touch? Pen pals are still a thing, right?”

           “Um… we can try, sure,” he replied, knowing he couldn’t promise anything.

           “Oh, that reminds me. Wessy, did you think about that camping invite?”

           “Mom…” He went red in the face. “Can we talk about that later?”

           “What camping invite?” Colin asked.

           Ignoring the son’s embarrassment, the mom explained, “Sadie’s parents invited Wes to join their trip to Lake Tahoe, just before middle school starts. Apparently, he showed that he had a little bit of outdoorsmanship in him at Morning Dew.”

           Lucy looked up from her soup, smiling wryly. “Wes and Sadie, out at the lake.”

           “Don’t even, Luce. I might not go, anyway. I had my summer fill of outside at camp. The rest of break is gonna be video game city, starting tonight. Me and Colin still have some Super Nintendo titles to beat before the 64 comes out.”

           His mom frowned. “I would’ve thought you’d want Colin to help you set up your new… you-know-what upstairs while he’s here.”

           Colin was intrigued. “You didn’t say anything about a you-know-what, Wes.”

           He shrugged. “It’s just an old computer, my mom’s Performa. She got a new one, so now… I have my own. But it’s the same machine we’ve played on before.”

           “Except it’s all yours now, so make it your own,” Wes’ mom insisted. “You may end up doing a lot of homework on it, too. Customize it, get it the way you like.”

           “That sounds more interesting than just playing more games all night,” Colin said as Lucy got up to clean her plate and bowl. “And you know I like computers.”

           Wessy, known for not liking his plans getting changed, sighed. “All right. Fine.”

           With Lucy watching Saturday Night Nickelodeon downstairs, the boys went into Wessy’s room, which was cleaner and more orderly than usual. Lucy’s temporary sleep-spot, a cot pushed against the wall opposite of Wes’ bed, was covered with blankets, pillows, and several stuffed animals that she must have brought over. Jace quickly found his uncle’s first personal computer, stuffed in a corner of the room, on a very basic and narrow desk. It looked neglected; it had yet to even be plugged in.

           Strange, Jace thought, I had no idea I’d be here on a night like this. Wes doesn’t seem to care too much about it, yet, but computers are going to change his life forever.

           “You can do whatever you want with it,” Wessy said, disinterested as he plopped down onto his beanbag chair and turned on his TV to also watch some SNICK.

           “Guh. Wes,” Colin groaned. “Try to be a little excited about this, even if it’s not a new computer.” He reached under the desk to plug in the machine, and then started working on the monitor. “Hey, Jason, you like this stuff, right? Little help?”

           Jace went over and worked with Colin to get the bulky, dusty, and beige CRT plugged in and powered on—the actual screen only about the size of Wes’ iPad. As if it were already a ritual, Colin breathed in before starting up the machine, and exhaled once the fans started going and the monitor that sat atop the big white box with a colorful Apple logo flickered to life, throwing out a whiff of ozone in the process.

           System 7 loaded, and Colin grinned as the sparse but classic and recognizable desktop popped in. He grabbed the big CD book full of install discs for Wes’ favorite games, of which there was a surprisingly large amount.

           “Used computer games get pretty cheap,” Colin explained to Jace. “Easy way to build up a library, y’know? Me and Wes pick them up at thrift stores and yard sales. Hey, Wes! What should I install first? Sam & Max? SimCity 2000? Myst? We never beat that.”

           “I… I dunno, Colin,” he replied. “Whatever you or Jason want to play first.” He moaned and turned down the volume on his TV. “I’ve seen this episode so many times.”

           “It’s just reruns right now, dude. Leave it on in the background, and come over here. I’ll show you a few cool system tricks I picked up…” He excitedly took out a CD from its sleeve as his friend shuffled over. “Look, you still got the disc full of game demos. We had a lot of fun with this stuff, remember? I’m installing them first.”

           Wessy, leaning down on the chair from behind, replied, “Sure. I remember.”

           As the demo pack copied over, Colin swiveled around in the chair and gave Wes a curious look. “I gotta say, the advice you almost gave Kyle—I mean, I can see what you were going for. It was actually on point. Where’d you learn life tips like that?”

           “Oh, um, well… A little bit from Jason, but mostly from Vanni. She’s full of all this growing-up wisdom, like I’ve told you before. She tells me about how important it is to be yourself, and not to worry so much about impressing others.”

           “Uh-huh. So, when you do the Toy Run, I guess you’ll be humble about it?”

           Wessy couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, yeah. So maybe I’m not ready to follow all her advice. But she even said that’s okay, as long as I remember it for later. She also told me that I shouldn’t hold onto things so tightly. But I like my things!”

           “Maybe she’s talking about the past, that kinda thing? Why does she give you all this advice, anyway?” Colin asked while ejecting the CD and putting in the next one. “Ya think she sees you as the next neighborhood sage, or does she just know you’re… cool?”

           “She says…” Wessy looked somewhat embarrassed, but made himself answer. “That I’m a ‘real original,’ even if I’m ‘all about pop culture’ at the moment. I think she called me a sponge right now, absorbing everything the decade is ‘throwing’ at me? And that it’s okay, again, but eventually, I should do my own thing. Whatever it is.”

           “Like an artist? Or, I dunno, a drummer, like she is? You never struck me as the creative type. Not exactly…” Colin glanced back at the screen to check the installation progress on the kids’ art studio suite. “Although, you did once print out a twenty-page story you made with pictures from Kid Pix. You could be, like, a writer.”

           “A writer? Sure, Colin. I’m a C+ student in English at best.”

           “Don’t need to be a great author to create an interesting story. There are so many ways to tell one. Even with video games! Your eyes got wet at the end of Chrono Trigger.”

           “No way!” Wes looked back and forth at Colin and Jace. “Jason, it’s not…”

           Jace grinned and shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s a good game.”

           “Ugh, can we talk about something else?” Wessy whined. “I don’t like imagining what I’m like in fifty years or whatever, old and with a job, and losing hair.”

           Colin obliged and changed the subject right away. “Speaking of computers, did Arthur tell you yet that his dad got a modem? So, now he can get… ‘online.’”

           Wessy raised an eyebrow. “That worldwide web thing? What is that, exactly?”

           Jace swallowed a snicker and tried to refrain from telling his young uncle all about the internet, which would dominate life within just a decade or so. Even Colin, already wise past his years, had yet to fully grasp the concept, but still tried to explain.

           “It’s when… you hook up your computer to a phone line. But instead of talking, you can write text onto these things called… message boards, I think? And you can also open up pages full of pictures and stuff that people around the world set up. It’s like… having a connection to a really big computer full of anything you can think of.”

           “Oh. So… it’s a way to share digital files across the phone system.” Wessy seemed to fall into momentary deep thought, like he was contemplating an entirely new piece of society he hadn’t realized was there. “… Whoa, that’s pretty wild.”

           “Yeah, didn’t we see The Net last year with your mom? That’s the worldwide web in that movie. You can order pizzas online and everything. I mean, maybe you can.”

           “Oh, yeah! I remember not really understanding the whole thing about computers talking to each other, but now it’s making more sense. Huh. Wonder if it’ll catch on.” Wessy looked at the progress bar on the monitor and sighed. “Man, see, this is why I like console gaming more. You just power it on and play. Installing stuff takes forever.”

           “You get better graphics and audio, though,” Colin replied after the three heard the doorbell ring downstairs. “Who do you think’s coming by this late?”

           “Maybe Jared got done with his dad time and wants to hang out?”

           Wessy’s mom came up to the room a minute later, pushing the door open to give them news of visitors. “Wes? A couple of your classmates are downstairs.”

           “Classmates? You mean, like… not someone in my, you know… circle?”

           “Gerald and Carson. Actually, they were looking for Jason. I guess they went to his place first, and his dad told them he was over with us.”

           Wessy and Colin both turned to Jace, who gave them his best “no idea” face.

           “We might as well see what they’re up to,” Colin said. “This next one’s gonna take a while to install, anyway. Have those two ever been over, Wes?”

           “No…” Wessy ran his fingers through his hair. “We aren’t even that chummy.”

           His mom replied with a smile, “You guys can always make even more friends. You three should hurry up and come down. It’d be rude to keep them waiting.”

           “All right…” Wessy, losing control of the night, breathed out. “Fine…”

           “Jason, there you are!” Gerald greeted him, and Colin and Wessy as they headed down the stairs. “We heard you’re leaving soon, and we really wanted to share something with you before then. This won’t take very long, promise.”

           Carson held up a CD with no label, nestled in a classic big jewel case, and added with a cool smile, “Music camp was awesome. At the end, we got to use all this software to make a real composition—and they even taught us how to ‘burn’ it onto a CD!”

           “Like, with a lighter?” Wessy asked, in what must’ve been a confusing night for his tech knowledge. “I don’t think you guys have even been in my house before.”

           “Nope, but nice place, Wes,” Gerald replied, looking around. “Does your mom have a stereo system by the TV we can use? It’s just four minutes long.”

           “Of course,” she answered and guided everyone over to the living room console. The tape and CD combo unit was beneath the older record player, and between her disc and vinyl collections. “Turn it up, kids. The neighbors don’t complain. Much.”

           “So, what are we about to listen to?” Colin wondered. “Hardcore rap?”

           “Nah,” Carson replied. “Something more marketable, easier to chill out with.”

           Gerald tossed in the CD, cranked up the volume, and hit play. Without any sort of introduction from the two composers, a funky jazz fusion beat began to flow through the house’s tall speakers, quickly working up to a smooth tempo with nice use of snares and keyboard. Given the limitations of modern-day music programs—and the fact that it was written by kids—it wasn’t very hi-fi, the instruments were obviously digitized approximations, and the sound lacked richness and layers. Even so, it was pretty good.

           “Wow!” Wessy’s mom exclaimed halfway through the song, as she swayed to the beat. “You two came up with this in a couple weeks? It sounds like a demo a real band would put out! And better than what most middle school music classes could pull off.”

           “Thanks!” Gerald said over the music, and smiled upon seeing Colin drumming along on the coffee table and Jace thumping a foot. “We learned about music theory and everything. Jason here helped encourage us to give the camp a try. This copy is for him, but…” the track faded to silence, “if you guys want one, too, we can make more!”

           “Really cool stuff, guys. Seriously,” Wessy said. “Well, thanks for stopping by.”

           “Hold on, Wes,” his mom replied. “I’d like to hear that again, and really listen.”

           Carson, looking at her music collection, smirked. “I was hoping you’d say that!”

           “Wes! Are you paying attention or not?” Warren snapped at his dad inside the cottage’s living room at about the same moment in time. “This is really important! I swear, you’re always spacing out. It’s bad enough I have to teach you something.”

           “I am listening!” Wes fired back from the couch. “I can’t help it if my ‘contemplating stuff’ face looks like a bored one. I had no idea the blues were so much more complicated than the pinks. Can you… start from the beginning?”

           Warren grumbled but did so, taking out his new, fully charged blue quartz and pacing about on the rug as he tried to keep it simple. “I think the blues are newer tech, since they’re more advanced. They also have a built-in manual.” He poked at one of the crystal facets to bring up an external and bright holo-display, straight from a sci-fi movie. “It works like a touch screen,” he swiped at the two-dimensional projected instruction book, “and it has over four hundred pages. So, do some homework.”

           “But what all can it do, aside from create portals you can walk through?”

           “It can close them, too—doesn’t matter if someone else made them.” He tapped in a few parameters to make a small, floating black hole in the living room, which he tossed the television remote through. He closed the portal, and a few seconds later, it reopened on his other side and spat the remote back out. After sealing the temporal doorway a second time, he insisted, “You have to close them yourself. Don’t forget.”

           “Right, I get it… Wouldn’t want the time fuzz following right behind you.”

           “This is the interesting part.” Warren created five small portals all around him, and threw the remote into one again. This time, he let the time-tears stick around.

           “… Are we waiting for something?” Wes asked impatiently.

           “I’m leaving them open for a minute. Take out your pink and use the snapback feature I told you about to go back to this minute when I say so. I’m synced to you.”

           “Well… All right.” Wes took out his quartz and waited. “I have to admit, you’re a smart kid. Smarmy, too, but smart. Do the instructions say what powers these things?”

           “I’m not ‘smart’ enough to understand it. Something about an enclosed seventh dimension quantum manifold, kept stable inside a solid hard light matrix. I don’t even want to think about what happens if a blue quartz cracks… Okay. Let’s jump back.”

           Wes held his breath and squeezed his quartz, returning to the room a minute earlier. It all looked the same, of course—except one element was now missing.

           “Um… What happened to the portals?” he asked. “Why can’t I see them?”

           “That’s the weird thing. They’re actually still there, but you only see them in the same timeframe you trigger them. The quartz still detects them, though.” He held up his crystal, and Wes noticed a small blinking light. “You never know what might pop out at you, so it’s probably a good idea just to reset them all. Like this.”

           Warren activated something, and the portals suddenly came back into existence for a few seconds, with one of them spitting out the remote—which had retained its momentum after being tossed in. Warren caught it, and Wes rubbed his forehead.

           “And I thought the pinks were a head trip,” he groaned. “Things just get hard to think about when you add space to time travel. That tech have any other secrets?”

           “Just one, I think. But I’m still figuring it out.” Warren stared into the quartz’ internal glowing display. “There’s some… ‘experimental feature’ with loads of warnings attached. It’s called ‘Slipflash’, and as far as I can wrap my head around it, it jumps you back in time instantly, keeping your current position like usual. But it also has an option to only bring the user with it—maybe that means anything you’re carrying, I dunno, reverts to a previous state? I haven’t played with it yet. It’s a little beyond my needs.”

           “Try it out. I wanna see what it can do. If I’d even see anything on my end.”

           “No way,” Warren scoffed and tossed the captured and fully-charged blue quartz to Wes. “I don’t want my atoms turning into spaghetti. If you wanna mess with it, go ahead. Maybe I could still go back and save you after you screw up.”

           “Fine. Maybe I will. Now, can we eat? What did you want me to make?”

           Warren crossed his arms, gave it some thought, and replied quietly, “Gyros…”

           Meanwhile, the younger Wes was bored, watching with some humiliation as Jace, Carson, and Gerald had broken out into a dance party in his living room. The music was a hit, or was at the least providing a strange spontaneous bonding experience for the others; like kids from the future laughing either with or at the latest meme together. Only Wessy and his dog Tiger, sleeping on the rug by his feet, weren’t really into it. Most surprising was the sight of Lucy dancing a bit herself, near Colin.

           “Guys!” Wessy shouted over the music. “We all like your song, but I do have other things planned for tonight. And this is, like, the tenth time it’s played.”

           “Pfft, fine, grumpy-pants,” Gerald huffed as the music started its fade out. He let it finish before ejecting the CD, putting it back into its jewel case and giving it to Jace. “Here’s your copy, Jason. Again, we can get more for the rest of you guys.”

           “Maybe we’ll even make a whole album over the summer,” Carson added, and turned to Wessy’s mom, leaning against the kitchen doorway where she’d been watching all the dancing and jamming. “Thanks for letting us borrow your sound system.”

           She replied, “Oh, thank you for using it. Wes complains whenever I start playing my 60s and 70s albums. ‘I’ve heard these songs a hundred times,’ he tells me.”

           Wessy scowled, but still gave them a friendly wave out of his house and watched from the door as they got into the car belonging to Carson’s patient dad—surprising, considering he was a high school basketball coach. Lucy reverted to her usual self, now with some self-realization that she had just been dancing carefree in front of everyone.

           Picking up on it, Colin encouraged her, “Hey, Luce, ya looked pretty cool when you let loose. Only other kid I’ve seen dancing with no shame like that is Jason.”

           Rubbing her elbow, she blushed and looked away, murmuring, “T-thanks…”

           “All right, Wes, you’ll get what you want,” his mom said. “The night is yours.”

           “Finally,” he muttered quietly, then corrected himself, “I mean, um, good. Time to play some games. Okay, buds, what do you want to conquer tonight?”

           Colin crouched down and started skimming the label tops of the Super Nintendo library lined up in one of the entertainment console’s shelves. His tapping finger reached the well-worn game system itself, and he gave its already slightly-yellowed top half a pat.

           He looked up at waiting Wessy and said nostalgically, “I still remember when you unwrapped ‘Old Trusty’ back on your seventh birthday, at Jolly Roger’s.”

           “The old Treasure Trove…” Wes’ mom sighed. “I still miss that place.”

           “Um.” Lucy suddenly brought over a beat-up Monopoly box. “Do you three…”

           Wessy, trying not to let out an angry groan, exclaimed, “Lucy! Please, no more Monopoly. We’ve played it every day this week. Just because we’d have four players—”

           His mom convened again, saying, “Sorry, boys, she just recently ‘graduated’ from Monopoly Junior, and has been on a kick. She doesn’t get many chances to play with this many. Wes, maybe your friends would want to play. At least ask them first.”

           Wes looked at Lucy’s puppy dog eyes, and with an eye twitch, replied, “Fiiiiine…”

           Monopoly always had the chance to either end quickly or become a game of attrition, and the one with Lucy that night hit the mid-range, ending after an hour. Colin had played strategically and was leading for most of the game, Wessy just bought up real estate and utilities at random, and Jace had managed to invest in most of the left side of the board. But it was Lucy with the luck—landing on both Park Place and Boardwalk while having the cash to buy both properties. When anyone landed on her blue space hotels, it was devastating to their coffers… and Wes soon found himself bankrupt.

           “That’s two-grand. Pay up,” she said as he grumbled after rolling a bad number.

           “Luce…” he groaned, “you know I only have a few twenties left. We can’t come back from all this—look at your fat stacks! Like, all the money in the game!”

           “All right, all right. I’ll let you three have the rest of your sleepover. Thanks for playing with me.” She yawned. “I hope you learned some good lessons about the danger of runaway capitalism, and… how quickly you can lose everything.”

           “You’re hanging around Mom too much. C’mon, guys. Are you Afraid is still on.”

           “You got skills, Luce,” Colin complimented as she started cleaning up.

           Jace, who ended up in second place, did wish he could chat more with his young mom—if only because she was actually a pretty smart and witty kid. But, knowing it was best to limit such interactions, he just gave her a “good game” and headed to the couch.

           All the lights were off and a classic Are you Afraid of the Dark? spooky tale was playing on TV, a perfect way to end a sleepover that went in odd directions. The boys were on the couch with junk food, while a pair of sleeping bags on the floor beckoned.

           “Sorry you guys have to sleep down here,” Wessy said while kids tried to avoid a bad fate in the background. “I just don’t want Lucy feeling crowded. And… sorry that the sleepover went all over the place, and we didn’t get to do any of the usual.”

           “Nah, it’s cool,” Colin said between his munches on chips. “It was actually kind of fun. New, in a good way? Maybe it’s okay to break out of the routine sometimes.”

           “Really? You think it went all right? At the end of the night, I just feel confused.”

           Jace, still tired from the big chase, began to drift off on his end of the couch, but not before speaking his mind. “I think middle school will break all the routines, Wes.”

           “Huh,” was his reply amid the room-filling flickering TV light. “I guess it will.”