History lesson…of a sort.

Cindy was unhappy at her clothes. The platform shoes had her walking awkwardly—Cindy had never worn high heels in her life, and these were nearly as bad. The skirt and blouse wasn't much better.

"Sorry." James said, "but at least you can wear your combat suit on under them," Cindy reluctantly nodded. Removing her gloves and undoing the seems that attached the sleeves to her torso suit. Putting them in the large purse that James had also bought, she now looked like a teenager of the time…sort of. The green highlights in her hair were something nobody else had, but there was nothing to be done about that. Fortunately, her skin tone wasn't a dramatic as her mothers.

James had just bought a jacket, to put over his own clothes, which made him blend in.

"Lucky." Cindy said. "I feel like an idiot wearing this."

"No, you look great!" James assured her.

James and Cindy made good progress towards Time's Square. When they got there…

"I don't remember it being…"

"This dirty?" Cindy supplied.

"Yeah." James said, looking at a store advertising "LIVE NUDE DANCERS!"

Cindy sniffed and wrinkled her nose, "And smelly as well."

" Oh yeah." James said. In fact his eyes and nose had been burning from the exhausts of all the cars. He pointed at a vendor, "But there is still New York Pizza."

Cindy Shook her head, "Trapped in the past and that's…"

"Well we won't get back home by starving." James said reasonably. Coming back with two slices, he handed one to her along with a coke. "Here, try it."

"Not as good as your dads…" Cindy said.

"Nothing is as good as my dads." James pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true." Cindy paused, "James…how much money do we have."

At that James, frowned, "Not as much as I'd like. I paid the guy at the store in all of our obviously modern money…so most of what we have will pass now."

Cindy blinked, "How did you get it past him?"

"He was…ah… Working with chemical enhancers."

"oh."

"I doubt he would have noticed if I'd set him on fire, much less handed him some…well we can't call it counterfit, now can we?" James said, scratching his head.

"I hope we don't have to use that excuse in front of a Judge."

"Yeah." James said, "But long story short, we have about a hundred. That isn't going to last very long."

"We can't get a job." Cindy muttered, "we don't have any ID…" She stopped, noticing James looking the other way.

"What is it?"

"That police officer has been looking at us." James muttered. "You know…"

"What?"

"Nobody had year round schools in this time…or at least I don't think they did…so if this is a school day and we're…"

"Oh…crap." Cindy said. If they get us for truancy, they're going to want to contact our parents, and that could be a little hard…and when they find out we don't exist in any records… "What do we do?"

James looked around, and saw an answer. "There."

Cindy blinked, "What…that's sort of garish…"

"I don't care." James said, "Look at the title…it's obviously about the last days of President Nixon's administration."

"So?"

"So what kids would be going to a documentary."

"Why here?" Cindy asked, looking around at the seedy surroundings.

"Maybe an art theater that's still holding on? Who knows, but I'd prefer to be in there than out here."

They quickly moved to the ticket booth where a really fat, pasty individual took their money, grinning at James and Leering at Cindy.

"Want her to get some pointers, eh, kid?" He said. James blinked.

"What was that about?" Cindy asked.

"I don't know." James said. keeping one eye on the cops who were now being distracted by a fist fight. They quickly entered the theater.

Cindy's voice came out. "James…why is the floor sticky?" The doors closed, the lights went down and the film started. James sighed. They would have to stay here until the film was over, since it would look very bad if they came bombing out while the police were still around. He could survive some boring documentary about Watergate informants.

The cops were long gone when Cindy and James emerged, eyes wide.

"That…wasn't anything like what I read in history class." Cindy said, her face still brick red.

"And Nixon didn't make a single appearance in the film." James muttered, his own face not much better than hers.

"And…" Cindy said, "I am NOT touching the soles of my shoes, I'm just going to walk off whatever is…sticking to the ground."

"That's probably a good idea." James said. "Let's….find somewhere else."

"Where?"

"I have no idea…"

TBC.