Mr. Williams waved me off and I almost ran into Jo as I exited the room. I held out my arm, motioning for her to go ahead of me. “You know if you don’t say anything to them when they say stuff like that, the rumors will just continue,” she said over her shoulder as we both made our way to the bathrooms. My vision was already becoming blurry with the shift.
“It doesn’t matter what I say to them, Jo. They’re still going to say whatever they want to say,” I replied.
“If you say so,” she said, pushing the door to the girl’s bathroom open a little harder than she really needed to.
Great.
Jo was in a bad mood. I was starting to think she had a total of three moods:
Sullen—Usually a result of her being pissed at me.
Shy
Fun—But I’d only seen glimpses of this one.
I wasn’t quite sure why she was acting so sullen today, but I assumed it was because I didn’t say something to Alec. She didn’t understand that people like him would never change, and it wasn’t worth my time to try and change them. When it came down to it, enough of my time had been taken up by Josephine Lambert. My uncle thought we were together. My friends thought we were bangin'. Maybe we needed some time apart. I needed to focus on Jenna and Jo apparently had Ben.
As we came out of the shift, there was one thing I knew for certain: we were back in the past.
As I stepped into the hallway of 90’s grunge, I felt a sense of foreboding. No longer did I think this time period was less dangerous than the one where nearly the entire population had died and crazed men wanted to eat us alive. The past was pretty scary on its own. Who the hell would choose to wear that much plaid? Not to mention the whole getting my ribs smashed in the last time I had blasted-from-the-pasted it.
When Jo pushed the school doors open I was a little miffed to find Bentham and Randall waiting for us in the school parking lot. The only bit of comfort that I found when waking up and realizing we were taking another walk down memory lane was the understanding that I wouldn’t have to spend time with Jo’s boy toy.
But, like always, I didn’t quite understand how this whole shifting thing worked.
“Can’t quite say I’m glad to see you two,” I said, reaching out to shake Randall’s hand. His Redskins apparel replaced by a suit with a tie that had pumpkins on it. Cute. But I knew he had to have been burning up. Whenever we were, it wasn’t fall.
“Lovely manners,” Bentham commented.
“The boy meant that anytime he sees us means a shift. He hasn’t come to appreciate the gift he has been given yet. He will in time,” Randall replied, patting me on the back.
Yeah. One day I’d appreciate it. Right.
“I knew what he meant, Randall. Besides, the kid and I are old friends now. Helped him with the car thing, remember?”
Randall nodded. “Speaking of. I think it’s best that we stay as clear of each other back in our usual present as we can. I’m more and more sure they are tracking our behavior there, and I don’t want to give them a chance to muck things up more than they’ve already have. It’s important we keep this grouping about the task at hand. They already know about our connections with our shifting partners, and they’ll no doubt use it against is if they can. No need to give them more ammunition.”
I wasn’t the most intuitive of people, but I was pretty sure I knew exactly what kind of relationship Randall was referencing. I looked over at Jo who was kicking at a rock, refusing to join the conversation at all. Bentham was shaking his head at Randall, and the whole group had fallen silent.
I cleared my throat. “I think Randall’s right.” Jo’s head snapped up and her eyes found mind. I saw it there. The look. Betrayal. I was supposed to be on her side of things. Didn’t she understand my agreement was given in order to keep her safe?
Jo shoved her hands forcefully into the pockets of her hoodie. “You mean the Dark Men? You think they’re watching us back in the real world?”
Randall nodded. “I think so. I think their involvement is limited. But I’m sure they’re watching. And they’re controlling things like this shift. For some reason, they felt it was important we all be on this shift together. Which tells me two things. One, this date must be significant in the long scheme of things. Two—they sense our grouping is shifting from a simple alliance to something else. Whatever we are meant to see today will test this bond.”
“Well, let’s get the fun started. Anyone know what today’s date is?” Bentham asked, stealing a glance at Jo. Her head was back down.
“I could go back into the school. Look around, ask someone for the date,” I offered. I looked at Jo when I suggested this, but she refused to meet my eyes.