CHAPTER ONE
Samantha Person woke up early that morning. She could tell there was something wrong, for she was hearing a strange noise coming from outside.
"Sammy! Wake up fast," her younger brother screeched. She quickly sat up and rushed to pull her torn jeans and her fading Welltown High School sweatshirt on. Almost falling down the stairs, she ran into her brother, Oscar. "There- there's something funny outside," he mumbled. She could tell he was terrified. It took a lot to scare him.
"Okay, okay," Samantha comforted him. "I'll go see what it is." She marched through the kitchen, and flung open the old screen door that lead to the backyard. She looked around. There, sitting under their old oak tree, was a police box that looked like it came from 1963.
No sooner than she had taken in the fact that there was indeed a big blue box sitting in her backyard, the door to it was swung open. Samantha screamed. From behind her, she heard Oscar dash back into the house. She was supposed to be the older sister, she was sixteen, she thought. She was supposed to be taking care of her younger brother, she wasn't meant to be scared of anything! She was soon snapped out of her thoughts, though.
Out of the box stepped a man. He was tall, with a mop of dark brown hair and barely any eyebrows. His physical features, though, were nothing compared to what he was wearing. He had on a pair of trousers, at least that was normal enough. They were held up by a pair of bright red suspenders, though, and odder than that, he had a matching red bowtie on. In his left hand he held an old tweed jacket. But what really threw Samantha off was what he held in his right: a fez.
Samantha was at a loss for words. She stood perfectly still, gazing at the odd man who had just appeared in her yard.
"Quite sorry to give you such a fright. Didn't mean to, honestly. Didn't even mean to land here. Well, if I could just get the darn vortex manipulator to work it never would have happened. I'm the Doctor, by the way. Don't even ask 'Doctor who?' I've had enough of that question to last a lifetime. Well, for you, very many lifetimes. Now! Where was I? Oh, yes, the vortex manipulator, that's right. Well, if you don't mind, may we borrow your yard for a little while? I think it's really broken this time, she's completely shut herself down. But it shouldn't take me long. Meanwhile, I'll do that and you, pity I don't know your name yet, can bond with the Ponds! See, that rhymes. You know something will be good when it rhymes!" He paused for a quick second to clap his hands and grin at Samantha. "Well, there's someone else you can get to know too, but she's not exactly a Pond. It'd been a while since I'd seen her, she didn't believe it was me when I showed up. Can you believe that? I convinced her eventually, though. You know what? I'll go grab them." He poked his head in the door of the blue box, throwing the jacket and fez back into it.
"Come along, Ponds!" He shouted. Why need he shout when the box was so small? How did anyone else even fit in there? Samantha thought. Another voice called back, it seemed to come from way too far away to possibly be within the police box.
"Me too?" It rang out.
"Yes, of course you too, Renée!" Soon after three people stepped out.
First, a tall, thin, red-headed girl who seemed to be in her mid-twenties. She was wearing a short, jean skirt, a red pullover sweatshirt, and cowgirl boots. Samantha, who was still too stunned to make a sound, took notice of the shining diamond ring on her finger. Next, a young man, who appeared to be about the same age, stepped out. He was wearing jeans, a dark green t-shirt, and a navy blue vest. This, Samantha concluded, must be the girl's husband, and together, she thought, they must be who the man called "the Ponds".
And finally, out stepped… but it couldn't be. Samantha blinked. No, no, that was impossible. But it must be, for here she was, standing in Samantha's yard. But no! This was 2013, there was no possible way. Though as Samantha gazed at her, she concluded that however impossible it was, it had to be who she thought it must be. The woman looked just as though she did in all of Samantha's textbooks, and it was quite impossible for someone to look so much like her. So, Samantha decided: Madame de Pompadour, the uncrowned queen of pre-revolutionary France, was indeed standing right in front of her.
"But… but you… you can't be real…" Samantha sputtered, staring at the woman.
"That is hardly the way to speak to a royal, young lady," Madame de Pompadour said sternly. It was too much for Samantha to take in. She could tell she was going to faint before it even happened, before she toppled backwards, before she saw was the young man running to catch her.