Sam found herself in an empty field. It surprised her—empty fields were rare in Seattle. Besides that, she had been in Carly's apartment literally a minute ago…so where was she now?
Within a minute, Carly and Freddie showed up, followed by Spencer.
"Where are we?" Carly asked, frightened by the sudden change in her surroundings.
Freddie shrugged as Sam questioned, "Who cares? Let's just get back. I wasn't done with that ham."
"Come on, let's find a bus and get back," Spencer said, picking a random direction and walking that way.
"Look at you, all acting like an adult," Carly teased.
"I am an adult," Spencer argued weakly.
Carly just rolled her eyes as she followed her brother.
The group wasn't walking for too long before they reached a road. The pavement was old and cracked, but fresh oil spots showed that cars still used it. One way stretched off into the distance, but the other way led to a city not more than a mile farther.
"So which way do you guys think we should go?" Spencer asked.
Carly stared incredulously at him. Well, Spencer acting like an adult was nice while it lasted. "I think we should go towards civilization."
Spencer glanced the way Carly was pointing. "Oh hey, there's a city over there!"
They walked in silence, each noticing their surroundings and the uneasy feeling they got from the situation. The world around them was quiet—a few birds chirping, but no cars honking, no people shouting. It was strange.
Sam broke the silence by asking, "What the chiz is going on here?"
"I don't know," Carly replied. "But we're almost there." And it was true, just a few yards ahead lay a row of neatly trimmed suburban lawns.
The front door of a blue house with perfectly white trim opened, and a young boy ran out into the street. A woman followed onto the front porch, calling, "Michael! Be back by sundown!"
The boy just waved to his mother, before catching sight of the group heading down the street. He ran over to them. "Are you new in town?"
"Uh, yeah," Carly said. "We're kind of lost."
The boy laughed. "Gee, how do you not know where you are? This is Seattle!"
Carly and her friends looked at each other, and they laughed.
"This isn't Seattle!" Sam said. "We just came from Seattle!"
The boy joined in the laughter and said, "You're strange. Why are you wearing pants?"
Sam raised an eyebrow and looked down at her clothes, one of her penny tees and an old pair of jeans. "Yeah…what else would I wear?"
"Mama says only bad girls wear pants," the boy said. "Are you a bad girl?"
"Yeah, I am," Sam said. "So why don't you just run home?"
"And tell 'Mama' this isn't the 1960s!" Carly added.
The boy gave Carly a strange look. "Of course not, it's 1954!" He would have continued, but he cautiously glanced at Sam and ran away in terror.
The group looked at each other.
"Did he say 1954?" Freddie asked.
"Uh-huh," Carly replied, a stunned look on her face.
Sam sighed. "I'm never getting my ham back, am I?"