… and fifteen years later
Lucas Tristan Scoggins Friar wasn't sure how he was feeling at this exact moment; he was terrified, because he hadn't seen the group in over six years. He was also, simultaneously psyched, to see how much they had changed in the years he'd been in Texas, picking up the remaining pieces of his not-so-good family after his father died. He didn't know a thing about how anyone in the group was doing anymore – he'd lost contact with them soso long ago – last he had heard, Maya had been studying teaching, and working for her art major. Riley had been studying Chemistry at Yale, and Farkle had been studying both Physics and Politics.
Lucas was edging towards the ends of his twenties: everyday, he would look in the mirror and the times where people party and make mistakes and accidentally hook-up with barmaids, looking after his family. He'd wasted his life already.
He pulled up to John Quincy Adams Middle School. He hadn't walked those halls in fourteen years, yet here he was today, ready to dig up the past. He staggered up the steps: it was a school day, and middle school students were bustling around. A few of the ninth grade girls tried to make eye contact with him, but he ignored it.
Hardly anything had changed, that was certain. The same awards cabinet, although accompanying those that he had won all those years ago were new ones, with a new team: names he didn't recognise. He was just another name on a trophy, no one worth remembering.
He knocked on the door of Cory Matthew's history class. The older man looked in through the window and then turned the handle to open the door. He had a class; eighth graders, just like he had been.
"Hello, Mr. Friar. Nice of you to accept my invitation." He welcomed Lucas into the classroom, and the Texan man stopped breathing for a moment when his eyes fell upon Farkle, Riley and Maya.
"Class, these are previous students of mine – my daughter Riley, and her friends. Fifteen years ago, they made a time capsule to show how much time changes. Today, they will be revisiting that time capsule, and then you in turn will do the same thing." Cory reaches underneath his desk to plonk the large, ancient, metal box onto his desk. He wipes the dust off the lid, and then gestures for Riley to come closer. Riley fixes her hand on the lock, and Cory repositions himself at the front of the class.
"They were told to put in something that meant something to them. Something that changed the course of their lives," he nodded when he turned to Riley. She stood a little straighter where she stood and unlatched the lid. She reached for an object within the box, and out of it she withdrew a small, orange ball.
She smiled thoughtfully at the simple object, "When I was your age, I had so much hope and promise for the world. I thought only of the good, with a black and white perspective on the universe. I placed this ball in here because I hoped for Pluto. I hoped it would be re-instated as a planet, and it did. I put it in here because I was sure that when I opened it, I would still have promise for the world—"
"—Do you?" her father cut over her. She smiled and nodded.
"Yes. Just now everything's not so black and white."
Next, was Farkle. Riley stepped aside, and he in turn began to grope the inside of the box in search of his object.
The orange turtleneck; still neatly folded just as it had been the day he put it in the capsule. He held it up by the shoulders, demonstrating its petite size compared to the fully grown, six-foot tall Farkle of today.
"I put in my orange turtleneck. It was the thing that made me different from everyone else in the seventh grade, and someone picked on me for it. I wanted to hide myself away that day, so I did. I took of the turtleneck. But with some great friends—" he smiled and looked at each of the three people surrounding him, "I overcame it. It made me who I am today."
"The time capsule is something symbolic," Cory began, "It can symbolise your dreams, and your goals. It can be a life changing moment. You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Mr. Friar?"
Lucas bit the inside of his mouth and arrived at the small box. He knew what would be awaiting him there. He pulled out the slightly tattered sheet of paper that changed his whole life. The words on it dictated out to say that he would have to be transferred from Archer Jane Middle Education to John Quincy Adams Middle School.
"When I was in the seventh grade, I did something horrible. I… was kicked out of school for a year, in fact. I was transferred. I hold in my hand a transfer slip," he waves it in front of him, "If I hadn't been transferred, I wouldn't have met the most amazing friends anyone could have. They might not feel like it lately, but… they are." Lucas smiles at each of them. "This tiny sheet of paper made my life the best it could ever be."
Now it was Maya's turn: this was something that Lucas had occasionally pondered on those few days of solitude that he got away from work, or his family. She was the only one that no one knew what she'd put in. She didn't even bother to reach for the box, and find what she had put in there. She just walked by Cory, and begun to speak:
"I put in hope. I put hope in my time capsule; because I used to believe that hope was for suckers who don't know any better. I know, now, that hope is the best thing in the entire world. It got me a loving family, a stepfather I adore—"
"What did you put in there, Maya?" Lucas couldn't help himself but ask her. After all, she did say that she wanted them to be surprised.
She walked around to where he was still standing in front of the tin capsule. She swerved around him and reached inside, only to show him the smallest of things: a picture, taken at Maya's fourteenth birthday party. Katy and Shawn, together. Smiling. She hoped for them.
Riley and Farkle came closer too, just as curious. Riley wrapped her arms around Maya's neck, and hugged her tight. Maya, much to Lucas' surprise, but her arm around him and pulled him closer also. Lucas did the same to Farkle.
And for the first time in six years, he actually felt at home.
author's note: oh god, that was terrible. oh well.
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