One.
"Virgil! VIRGIL!" Charlie shook his shoulder. "Get up, Virgil. NOW. We had a breakthrough!"
Virgil lifted his head, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Charlie, everything you do is a breakthrough. I'm tired. You've been at this for days and you haven't let Zeke and I get any sleep. Now could I just-"
"Virgil, LISTEN! This isn't even my breakthrough. This is Zeke's."
"Zeke cracked the formula?" Virgil's eyes widened. "Way to go, man!" Zeke and Virgil gave each other the secret handshake that Virgil had used to do with Derek when they were friends. Now that Derek was Public Enemy #1, it had become the official Minutemen Salute.
"Scorch!" they shouted in unison.
"Zeke gets it right," smirked Virgil, looking at Charlie.
"Shut up. Now look. If we remove the variable from this part of the equation and replace it here, and move the decimal about... hmmm... seven spaces, we ought to get it right."
"So if before we had a demonstration of practical time travel..."
"Now we have a demonstration of rational time travel." Zeke leaned back in the chair. "All my idea."
For the past month the three Minutemen had been working on their time travel formula, trying to perfect it and make it run smoothly. They had been granted NASA's original formula by the FBI, and were being funded by both groups. Suddenly, Zeke had noticed that they simply had a few of the digits in the wrong place.
"Once again, Mongo read." Zeke smiled, thouroughly satisfied with himself.
"So that's it? Time travel with no rifts? No black holes?" Virgil was skeptical. "You're sure?"
"Positive. Zeke's a genius," said Charlie, switching off the time machine. "Now we just get Janette and-"
"Charlie? Janette and Stephanie moved."
"Oh yeah. Then I guess... we have the remote, right? Where should we go?"
"NOWHERE! How about to sleep, Charlie? That sound good?" asked Virgil impatiently.
"Fine, have it your way. Night."
"Night," said Virgil and Zeke.
Two.
"Another lovely morning, huh?" Zeke sighed, adjusting his backpack on his shoulder. "Just where I want to be. High school."
"Finish the semester and you're outta here, Zeke," Virgil said, parking. "Senior year is almost over."
"Awesome. Now let's get out of this car. It's too small." Zeke had to duck not only to get into the car, but to ride in it at all.
Charlie, Virgil, and Zeke made their way toward the front doors of the school, Charlie blabbering about the time machine, Virgil saying hi and waving to people, and Zeke blatantly ignoring all who stood in his way. They were so preoccupied that none of the boys noticed when they ran smack into three girls walking in their direction. All six of them fell over.
Amid the laughter, the Minutemen stood up, brushed themselves off, and offered their hands to the girls. Charlie's girl was about his height, slightly taller, with straight blonde hair, a wide smile, and icy blue eyes that looked like Virgil's, only to Charlie, they were way prettier than Virgil's. Zeke's girl was about five inches shorter than he was, and wore glasses that framed bright green eyes. Her honey-coloured hair was tied in a ponytail. Freckles dotted her nose, and she bit her lip shyly. Virgil's girl was a brunette, with light brown eyes and a mischevious grin. Her sparkly blue headband glittered in the sun and her grin spread as he blushed.
"Hey," she said, still holding on to his hands after the other girls had let go. She followed suit, introducing the three. "I'm Ambre. Blondie here is Ashleigh, and Glasses over there is Hailey. And you are?"
"Virgil," he managed to sputter. "And Charlie and Zeke."
"Nice to meet you. Will we be seeing each other again? Do we share any classes?"
As it turned out, Charlie and Ashleigh shared English and calculus, Zeke and Hailey shared European history and shop class, and Virgil and Ambre had identical schedules.
"So..." Virgil said nervously, turning to face Ambre. "Shall we?"
"We shall," she answered, giggling. "Hey! We can all sit together at lunch. Are you guys good with that?"
"Totally," Charlie said. "See ya, Virg!"
"See ya," Virgil said, walking away with Ambre.