I landed on top of Joyce Williams Elementary and switched on the invisibility system. Climbing out, I jumped down off the roof, and luckily only knocked the wind out of myself. I remembered that they didn't have bounce pads in the past and felt grateful it was only a one story building. I took one quick glance at my surroundings before I squeezed through a window. I smacked myself in the head when I saw the front doors were propped open by a sign that said visitors welcome. Creeping into the gymnasium, I browsed the gym, searching for my dad in his younger form. I checked out some of the other projects (avoiding the girl with the fire ants; she didn't look too friendly.) Finally I caught sight of the crazy blonde hair. Lewis looked pretty happy, not like anything was bothering him. I watched him carefully as I trailed him. He must have known I was there because he kept turning around but he just shrugged it off. He turned the corner and I saw my chance. I slipped under the cover, hiding in the wagon beside a machine that looked strangely familiar. I was jostled a bit as he lifted it onto the table. Then I thought of how the bowler hat gut could be anywhere. I quickly stuck my head out.

"This area is not secure! Get in!" I grabbed him and yanked him underneath too. His eyes bugged and I had to think quickly of what to say.

"Have you been approached by a tall man in a bowler hat?" I asked, checking that no one could see us.

"What?" he asked incredulously.

"Hey, hey, I'll ask the questions here!" I was still trying to think of how to make him believe me. How could I make him listen? The only one everyone had to listen to were the cops…

"Ok, goodbye." Lewis ducked out from under the sheet but I dragged him back up.

"Alright, I didn't want to pull rank on you but you forced my hand. Special agent Wilbur Robinson of the TCTF." I declared authoritatively, pulling out the only thing I had in my pocket. It was only a coupon, but he didn't need to know that. I put it away quickly before he could get a good look at it.

"The what?"

"Time Continuum Task Force. I'm here to protect you." He tried to interrupt but I covered his mouth. "Now, tall man, bowler hat, approached you?" I was getting into character now, easily lying to try to get him to believe me.

"No, why?"

I sighed dramatically and tapped my chin thoughtfully. "I could lose my badge for this. He's a suspect in a robbery."

"What'd he steal?"

"A time machine." At this point he just gave me a blank look.

"A what?"

"I've tracked him to this time and my informants say he's after you."

"Me? Why me?"

"The boys back at HQ haven't figured out a motive yet. And by "HQ", I mean headquarters."

"I know what HQ means!" he said haughtily.

"Good, you're a smart kid. That might just keep you alive…for now." I tried to make my voice sound ominous. "You just take care of your little science gizmo and leave the perp to me. And by "perp", I mean perp-"

"I know what it means!" Lewis said angrily.

"Ok, Mr. Smarty Pants." I stooped out from under the cover as I saw him. The Bowler Hat Guy! I couldn't let him escape. Running around the corner, I leapt out to grab him, but ended up on my face under a sheet. I stood up as rapidly as I could, throwing the star-covered fabric off of me.

"You'll never get away with this!" I proclaimed, but my face fell as I saw it was just a blonde little boy with a cap on, holding a box. "Kid with science project…" I said sheepishly.

"Dude, you almost busted my solar system!" he said, glaring at me accusingly.

I tried to look around if the real Bowler Hat Guy was around but an oddly familiar girl who looked no more than ten grabbed my hand and pulled me to her overturned box.

"My frogs, they're getting away!" she cried, forcing me to help her pick them up.

Finally she grabbed the biggest one and placed him on my already overflowing arm.

"Gotcha! That's the last of them!" she announced happily.

"Annoying little girl, I don't have time for this, I'm on a very important miss-" She cut me off and grabbed my collar.

"Don't sass me, boy!" she growled. "I know karate!" She let go of me and started punching the air. I just rolled my eyes, and still covered in frogs, turned to watch Lewis present his invention. I was feeling pretty proud of my dad as he convincingly presented his theory, although I couldn't understand a word. I watched eagerly as his invention began to come to life. I heard puffing behind me and turned for a split second to look at the Pukowski kid do laps for that guy in the too-small shorts. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. The hat! It was walking! Well, more so scuttling but it moved on its own. I turned frantically to Lewis as the Memory Scanner began to shake unnaturally. I had seen this many times before, almost every time my dad's inventions malfunctioned.

"Lewis, wait!" I called, dropping all the frogs.

He stared uneasily at the machine beside him as it rocked more furiously. The spinning turbine flew off and I had to duck to avoid it. It swerved upwards and hit the light, sending sparks flying. I watched in horror as the sparks exploded a paper maché volcano, then the Pukowski guy tripped, and knocked the fire ants into the air, where they landed on Mr. Tightshorts. He screamed an unmanly scream, and then ran around like a crazy person, upturning tables and science projects all over the gym. The nerdy-looking teacher was obviously not proud of the way things were going.

"Calm down, everyone!" he hollered, attempting to make himself heard over the commotion. "Suck it up, Coach!" He yelled at the over-muscular man who was now bawling like a newborn from the fire ant stings.

Lewis looked crestfallen as he saw all the destruction his invention had caused. "Mr. Willerstein, I didn't mean-"

"Not now, Lewis!" said the troubled teacher exasperatedly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry…" Lewis kept apologizing.

"Not now," said the teacher wearily, waving Lewis away.

Lewis slammed his headset on the ground frustratedly and ran out of the gym.

"Wait Lewis!" I called, chasing after him, but he was gone too soon. What had the Bowler Hat Guy done?

I followed my twelve-year-old father as he dejectedly went back home to the orphanage. Running up to the roof, he tossed his bag down. I knew I had to do something, or things would get really screwy back home. I parked the Time Machine in midair beside the orphanage, and climbed up a fire ladder to the roof. I hid and watched Lewis rip his notebook to shreds, trying to think of a way to make him have faith in himself and his inventions again. He looked at the original drawing for the time machine a second longer before crumpling it and throwing it at me. Well, in my general direction. I picked in up and threw it back. Lewis whipped his head around, trying to see how the paper ball had defied Physics and come back to him. He threw it again, but farther from my hiding place. I decided to take the risk and did a roll over to the paper, threw it back, and hid again, hoping my dad was dumb enough to think that it was a figure of his imagination. Which was idiotic in itself, because my dad and dumb are two words that do not go together.

"Hey, what are you doing up here?" he asked.

I cooed like a pigeon, praying that he would just take the page and go fix the Memory Scanner already!

As I expected, he rolled his eyes and dropped it right in front of him. Still cooing, I picked up the ball, put it in his hands and patted them before diving back behind the wall.

"Would you quit that, please? I know you're not a pigeon!" he called out.

I realized I would have to get back into character for this to work. I raced over to him and covered his mouth.

"Shh! You're blowing my cover!"

"But we're the only ones up here!" Lewis argued.

"That's just what they want you to think," I told him, poking his shoulder. "Now, enough moping! Take this back to the science fair and fix that Memory Scanner!" I pressed the drawing into his hand and pushed him towards the door.

He twisted out of my grip and jumped back a few steps. "Stop, stop, get away from me!"

"Maybe you've forgotten, I'm a time cop from the future, should be taken very seriously," I said superiorly, flashing my "badge" again. He grabbed it before I could pull a now you see it, now you don't. I cringed as he looked at it skeptically.

"This isn't a badge; this is a coupon for a tanning salon! You're a fake!" he said, shoving the coupon back at me. I had to think fast, but this was something I was getting good at. I decided to just be straight with him.

"Ok, you got me, I'm not a cop but I really am from the future! And there really is this Bowler Hat Guy!" I said, wishing he would believe me.

"Ugh, here we go again." He muttered as he slung his backpack on.

"He stole a time machine, came to the science fair, and ruined your project!"

I continued, my tone rising.

"My project didn't work because I'm no good! There is no Bowler Hat Guy, there is no time machine, and you're not from the future! You're crazy!" Lewis yelled at me, heading for the door. I was deeply offended.

Blocking his path, I prodded his chest. "Ho, ho! I am not crazy!" I said firmly.

"Oh yeah, Captain Timetravel? Prove it!" He looked at me impatiently.

"Um…uh…" I had to think about that one.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," said Lewis, stalking off towards the door.

I didn't think it would be a good idea to bring him back with me, but I thought maybe I could just take him to the future for a minute to prove I really can travel through time...

Lewis muttered something about hiding under the covers, and as he opened the door to leave I slammed it shut with my whole body.

I looked at him seriously. "If I prove to you that I'm from the future, will you go back to the science fair?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say," Lewis shrugged, unconvinced.

I smiled craftily. Grasping him tighter, I pushed him over to where the time machine was.

"Hey, let go of me!" he said, panic in his voice. I ignored him and kept pushing.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!" Lewis said, now really freaking out.

"Okay." I said calmly, hoisting him over the wall. He screamed as the ground rushed up to meet him and I felt a pang of pity for him as his eyes widened and his arms flailed.

He landed with a dull thud in the time machine, and with him still screaming, I jumped in deftly and closed the hatch. Lewis pressed against his seat, looking apprehensively at everything. I punched in the date of when I left, and felt the time machine rise higher and higher.

"What is this? And where are we going?" he asked nervously.

"To…the future!" I replied dramatically, and accelerated. We burst through the stormy clouds into the sunshine. Lewis watched in amazement as the time bubble engulfed us, taking us to the year 2037.

"Whoa," Lewis breathed as we flew over the city. He looked amazed as we passed the bubble travel and the insta-building. It was actually kind of funny to watch, because this was the city I had grown up in, and I couldn't see what was so remarkable about it. I mean, yeah, it's awesome, but not mind-blowing.

"Is this proof enough for you?" I asked smugly, gesturing around.

"Is it ever!" Lewis replied, still in awe. "I never thought time travel could be possible in my lifetime and here it is, right in front of me!"

"The truth will set you free, brother."

"This is beyond anything I could have imagined. This means I could really change my life." Lewis said, his voice getting quieter as he thought of the possibilities.

I was thrilled with myself, thinking I had given him his confidence back. "That's right, you can! Next stop, science fair, to fix your Memory Scanner!" I began hitting the buttons that would take him home. He shook his head.

"I'm not going to fix that stupid Memory Scanner," he said with disdain.

"What!?!" I braked so fast the time machine screeched to a halt and spun around to face him, shocked.

"Wilbur, this is a time machine. Why would I fix my dumb invention if you could take me to see my mom now, in this ship?" he said, rolling his eyes.

I frowned, seeing his logic, but knowing I couldn't allow it.

"I could go back to that night, and stop her from giving me up." He continued as if in a trance.

"The answer is not a time machine! It's this!" I disputed, holding up the picture of the Memory Scanner.

"This? You want to know what I think about this?" I watched stunned as he ripped it into quarters.

"What are you doing?" I yanked my seatbelt off and scrambled for the scraps of paper.

Lewis took this chance and grabbed the steering wheel. "I'm sorry Wilbur, but you don't know what I've lived through." He tried to turn around.

"Lewis, no!" I yelled, seizing the steering wheel.

"Let go!" Lewis said angrily.

"You let go!" I countered

"You're not the boss of me!" It was true, but I couldn't let him know that.

"Yes I am! 'Cause you're twelve, and I'm thirteen! That makes me older!" I argued as we had a tug-o-war with the steering wheel.

"Well I was born in the past! That makes me older and the boss of you!" Lewis tried to wrench the steering wheel out of my hand but it came right out of the dashboard. We both screamed as we ricocheted off a building and rocketed to the ground. We skidded along the grass when we crashed, and finally ground to a halt. Luckily we weren't hurt but I couldn't say the same for the time machine.

"I am so dead." I moaned, still holding the steering wheel.

I jumped out of the busted time machine to survey the damage. It was worse than I thought. I knew that I was in huge trouble as soon as I saw it.

"I'm not allowed to look at this thing, let alone drive it! Mom and Dad are going to kill me, and I can tell you this, it will not be done with mercy." I said melodramatically, covering my face in hopelessness.

"Isn't there like, a time machine repair shop or something?" asked Lewis.

"No! There are only two time machines in existence and the Bowler Hat Guy has the other one." I was mad that he couldn't comprehend how dire the situation was. I needed another plan, and fast.

"Well, someone's got to fix this." Lewis stated obviously.

"Good idea," I said, dragging him closer to the time machine. "You're smart, you fix it!"

"Are you crazy? I can't fix this thing!" he shouted.

"Yes, you can. You broke it, you fix it," I said stubbornly.

He appraised the damage. "Ok, on one condition: I fix it, you have to take me back to see my mom." he said, knowing I couldn't say no.

"What? You didn't even follow through on our last deal! How can I trust you?" I said accusingly, pointing a finger at him.

"Well you told me you were a time cop from the future! How can I trust you? he retorted, mimicking my finger pointing.

I was trapped. "Touché." I tapped my chin. I would just have to lie.

"So do we have a deal?" Lewis asked, extending a hand.

I really needed him to fix it, so I just decided to agree. We shook hands, and began to think of how we were going to dislodge the time machine from the dirt.