Takes place immediately after Conclusions. I felt that it left a lot of things unanswered, and just wanted to know what happens next. So, until they make a sequel, this will have to do. I have a lot more written (8.5 chapters written so far), and will post more when I get some positivereviews.
Right as Josie is getting into her car with her mom, Victor walks up to her.
"Ms. Trent...Josie, may I have a word with you?"
"Sure. What's up?"
"In private, if you don't mind."
They walk over to an empty corner in front of the school.
"I'd just like to thank you for everything, and apologize. Thanks to you, my wife is finally back, and Pearadyne is saved. I'd like to offer you a scholarship to any college you want, after you graduate from Blake Holsey of course. And also a job at Pearadyne, if you will consider working there."
"I really don't know. So much has happened today, I come back after being gone for a year, and I'd just like to catch up with everything."
"Please, consider it. Sarah and I could really use a mind like yours. And have a talk with your mother. Tell her the whole story about Pearadyne and whats been happening at the school."
"I will. And I'm sorry about believing you were evil and everything… It just seemed that way. If I had just listened to my friends and not gone back in time and taken the ball, I wouldn't have been trapped, and the other Josie wouldn't be trapped now."
"Oh, and don't be afraid to call if you ever need a favor…" He shouts to her as Josie goes to her car.
"What was all that about?" Kelly Trent, Josie's mom asked.
"He offered to let me finish school here, and to pay for any college I want to go to."
"Why? And where have you been for the past year? I was so worried!"
"It's a long story… I'll tell you when we get home and eat. I haven't had real food in a year! The cafeteria slop is sounding good to me right now."
After they get home, and ate the best dinner Josie had in 4 years, Josie explains about the vortex, how the science club first discovered it, the floating ball, Pearadyne, her clone, her traveling back in time and taking the ball, where she was, timelines, and everything else that happened while she attended Blake Holsey. Finally, hours later, she gets to Avenir and what happened that day.
"Was he really my father?"
"Yes. Since you know most of it already. I guess I can finally talk about my job." Kelly explained, "We met in college. He seemed like a nice guy at the time. I didn't find out what he was really like until after we had you. I divorced him so I could raise you away from him, but he felt that I knew too much, so he didn't let me stop working for him. He had me go to Pearadyne to spy on Victor and try to find the ball and his machine. He told me that they were stolen from him by Victor."
"You knew about all this and still sent me to school there?"
"I had no idea what was really going on. I thought it was just business and he only wanted his secret technology back."
"What are you going to do now that he's gone?"
"Celebrate?" she laughed, "and because your back now too."
"I missed you too mom."
After some long overdue bonding, joking around, and catching up, they were both tired and ready for bed.
"Josie… There's one more thing that I just thought of."
"What mom?"
"Could you ask Victor to let me work at Pearadyne? I heard him say something about if you ever needed a favor." she laughed.
"Sure, that'd be great, you can finally stay around, and we can hang out every weekend!"
They drift off to sleep, making plans together for the summer.