TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.2 - With The Group

PART 57b: HELP WANTED 2

"Hey, Faye. I have that book you wanted,” came the voice of Azure Vermilion.

Faye turned from where she was leaning back against the tree by the football field. "And you bring it to me now, when I'm nowhere near my locker?" she accused.

"Oh. I wasn't really thinking about that," Azure admitted. "Should I bring it back later?"

"No, I'll take it," Faye sighed. "Lunch is close to being over, and once I have it, my sister will get off my back."

"Okay. Hey, which of your younger sisters wanted this again?" Azure continued as she handed over the book.

Faye stared. "Sing," she said, accepting the tome. “Soh’s barely in grade school, you really think she’s old enough to get into a detective story like this?”

"I guess not," Azure admitted. She grinned. "Not that I've met either of them in person, Lee’s your only sibling I’ve seen. I'm not even sure where you all live, considering how you didn't want me to bring the book around directly, but maybe some time later this month we could--"

"Are you trying to indulge me in conversation for a reason?" Faye snapped.

"Um, guess not,” the blue haired girl admitted. "I only thought--"

"Don't think so much," Faye interrupted again. “I admit, I feel a bit of a bond between the two of us, because our parents share a bizarre sense of humour when it comes to naming their children. So being grouped with you for a project was more tolerable than it would have been with any other Grade Nine student. But right now, I want to be alone. Understand?”

Azure opened her mouth to respond, but seeing the look on Faye's face, apparently decided instead to nod and head back towards the school instead. It wasn't until Azure was out of sight that the tall girl let out a sigh, and smacked the book soundly against her forehead a couple of times.

‘Way to make friends and influence people, genius,’ she thought. ‘Let’s hope Azure tries again on some week that doesn’t include family problems.’

***

"It's because Chartreuse wasn't touching the handle,” Frank asserted. "We never should have let her experiment.”

Frank, Carrie, Julie and Clarke now stood staring down at the prone form of the pink haired girl, who was laid out on the floor of the otherwise empty drama classroom. Unlike Clarke and Julie, who had regained consciousness fairly rapidly, their resident mystic was still out cold.

Julie raised her hand. “I don’t think Chartreuse is still unconscious because of that.”

"Oh? Why not?” Carrie asked. Frank noticed that her mood had improved slightly. Getting away from the other students had seemingly eliminated her headache.

"Because I wasn't touching that handle for the trip either," Julie admitted. "When everyone else was pulling at once, I hesitated, and lost my grip. But I’d been holding Phil's other hand. And I'm here, and I'm awake."

"Then what’s the problem?" Frank protested, throwing his hands up in the air. "Is it because Chartreuse was sick on this day in the... wait a moment. Julie, neither you nor her were touching the handle?"

"Seems so," Phil affirmed, squeezing Julie’s hand to reassure her.

Frank leaned back against the teacher's desk. “Huh. That could at least explain why we're at the school. If neither girl was in direct contact with the time machine, perhaps they weren't factored into the device's spatial algorithm? We'd need to do more testing to be sure, but..."

"But maybe you have to be touching the handle in order to be part of the geography geometry stuff,” Carrie finished. She smiled. “Boy, that will solve a lot of mathematical mapping headaches. We'll simply have to figure out where ONE person was, and then get everyone else to latch onto them."

"Still doesn't explain Chartreuse’s condition though," Clarke reminded them.

"Well, she doesn't have a fever," Carrie observed, having bent down to feel the forehead of the other girl. “And she’s breathing fine. She’s just out."

"Change of plan then," Frank decided. "We obviously can't leave Chartreuse in the school, in case she's discovered. But Clarke, you may be the only one strong enough to carry her any great distance. Can you and Julie get her back to the mansion, while me and Carrie get a bead on Lee’s sister?”

"I can do a piggyback," Clarke agreed. "And Julie can get us in without tipping off Jeeves. But what about the two of you?”

“Yeah, I'm not thrilled with the idea of strolling the streets of the past with you, Frank," Carrie said. “No offence, but if I end up doubled over in temporal pain, you’ll be less useful to me than Chartreuse."

“Then I could go it alone," Frank allowed. "But didn't we figure it was better NOT to have anyone by themselves?”

Carrie sighed. She slapped lightly at Chartreuse’s cheeks. There was no reaction. “Fine, fine, okay. Clarke, give me that burner phone that you were going to use to call us with updates. I’ll go with Frank instead.”

Clarke fished in his pocket and handed it over. “Should we phone you if Chartreuse’s condition improves?”

Carrie shook her head. “No. We stick to the original plan of minimal communications. These phones are essentially double versions of themselves in the past, even if the originals ARE stowed away in the lab and turned off. That worries me. Emergencies only.”

“Right,” Clarke agreed.

“New problem,” Julie observed. “Chartreuse is the one who was going to clue us in about Lee’s sister. Given how it was her own sister Azure who knew Faye, and thus the rest of Lee’s family.”

Their eyes drifted back to the unconscious girl.

“Well, damn. Uh, I don’t suppose you’d have any information, Julie?” Frank said hopefully. “Rumour was, last year you had a file folder for everyone in the school.”

Julie half smiled. “Not quite everyone. Honestly, I never paid close attention to Lee, since he never ended up being a direct factor in any of my plans. Nor did I ever feel the need to blackmail him. He has more than one younger sister, of that I’m sure, but beyond that..." She shrugged.

"Lee does like to keep to himself," Clarke agreed. "Sometimes I've wondered about it.”

“Well, his sister was ‘Soh’, right?” Carrie asked. “How many blonde girls who go to the middle school down the road would answer to a name like that?”

Frank winced. “Setting aside how walking up and asking young girls for their names could be misinterpreted,” he countered, “Don’t you think Lee would have spoken to our past selves already if he’d heard we were poking around? That didn’t happen in our timeline. This was meant to be spy and retrieve, not some sort of Soh inquisition.”

“Well, what DO you suggest?” Carrie said in exasperation.

“And was Lee’s sister with the necklace even named Soh?” Julie added. “I thought Chartreuse had said something about Soh being in grade school, not middle school.”

“Grade school? The sister who lost the necklace was definitely in middle school,” Carrie objected.

“Our plan has fallen apart,” Clarke decided. “We should abort, return to the present, and try this again. Maybe go to some other time, when Chartreuse wasn’t sick.”

Frank groaned. “But that’s a waste of two coins.”

“Plus I’m not sure we want to leave now, pulling Chartreuse through time again until we learn what’s wrong with her,” Carrie said.

She ran her fingers back through her hair. “Damn it! Okay, look. Me and Frank can still stake out the middle school. If we spot Soh, awesome, if not... we’ll re-evaluate at that point. We did build in a time buffer here. Chartreuse has around three hours to come to her senses. Still, don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

“That works,” Frank agreed. “Right now, it’s only...” His eyes widened, and he pointed over at the clock on the wall. “Oh no, look at the time, it’s--"

The school bell rang, signifying the end of lunch. And almost immediately, the door to the drama room opened and Glen Oaks walked into the room.

***

"Hey, Singsong, whatcha doin'?"

Lee's second youngest sister jumped at the sound of the voice, accidentally tugging on a strand of her own hair. "Ow! Oh, um, not much, Gary," Sing said, untangling her fingers from her long brown hair while simultaneously trying to hide the book she held in her other hand.

Her grade six classmate smirked at her. "Readin' again, huh? Didn't hear the bell go?"

"Oh n-no, of course I heard it," Sing lied. When HAD all these people started entering the school? She cast a glance towards the clock in the hallway.

Gary snorted. "Yeah, right," he said, continuing past her down the hall. "Bet a bookworm like you don't care about nothing 'cept your books."

Sing watched him go, the hand that had been twirling her hair now reaching up to finger the charm dangling off of her necklace. The one she'd received from her father, for her birthday. "You're wrong,” the member of the King family murmured quietly. "You're so wrong."

After squeezing the charm between her fingers, the brunette girl put her book away and followed Gary towards their classroom. Not knowing that, before the day was done, she would be devastated by its loss.