When I woke up, my head was killing me. I felt cramped and I found that my knees were right up to my face. More than that, I found that I couldn't see very well. Everything was blurry. When I struggled to rub my eyes to see what was wrong, I felt something cold and metallic on my skin. I struggled harder and I heard rattling. Suddenly, my legs started to cramp. I squeezed my eyes shut and stood up.

My head hit something, but it kept going. When I was standing at my full height, I saw that I was…in a garbage can.

"Funny," I said to myself, "I don't remember having my body crammed into a trashcan onstage. Maybe everyone thought I was dead so they tossed me." I reached up to rub my eyes again to find… "What the heck? When did I start wearing glasses again?" I took off the frames to see they were big, black, and blocky. Total nerd glasses. But, they were really cool in my opinion. I cleaned them off on my skirt and stuck them back on my face.

When I could see clearly again, I saw that I wasn't even close to the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. Instead, there was a big, white building in front of me. I was just about to climb out of the garbage can when there was a sudden commotion and a security guard burst through the door. I ducked back inside the can and pulled the lid over me. When I felt the can being lifted up and carried away, I started to panic.

WHERE AM I GOING?!

I kept my trap shut, not wanting to make my existence known quite yet. I didn't know where I was, where I was going, and my own name was even debatable.

Quinn. My name's Quinn.

I felt a sudden jolt as the can hit the ground and I heard retreating footsteps. When there was just a faint, yet constant buzzing noise, I stood up again, setting the can's lid on the floor. I was now inside what I assumed to be the white building I had seen. I obviously wasn't going to get answers by sitting in the trashcan, so I climbed out and looked around for a few seconds.

I appeared to be in an intersection of eight hallways. I just kind of turned in a circle five or six times, trying to figure out which hallway I should go down. When I was getting too dizzy, I just picked number three and started walking.

As I walked, I heard noises. People were rushing around, headsets clamped over their ears and clipboards clutched to their stomachs. A few security guards dressed all in black wandered around, carrying screaming teenage girls over their shoulders. (I gave these girls odd looks as they passed.) What made this scene strange was that everyone was wearing totally retro clothes and working really old equipment.

What is going on here?

"Hey, you!" one of the guards shouted. "Don't just stand there! Get to work. We're on live in twenty minutes!" I whirled around and looked at the man.

He was bald, buff, and scary, typical trademarks of anything relating to security guards. He lowered his massive sunglasses off his face and looked at me, one eyebrow raised.

"Must be new here," he muttered to himself. He turned his head back to me. "First day on the job, kid?"

I stayed silent. Deciding to go along with it, I nodded dumbly.

He shrugged. "My name's Otto." He extended a beefy paw in my direction and I shook his hand without saying a word. "I'll take you to Marie. She's in charge of the makeup-wardrobe department here. I'm assuming that's where you're going?"

I nodded again. Otto grabbed my arm and started weaving me through the crowds of people. I ran into a couple people, but they rushed off before I could apologize.

"Okay, kid," Otto called over his shoulder, "what do you call yourself?"

"Um…I'm…I…" I faltered. Mentally, I smacked myself in the face. "Quinn," I breathed. "Quinn Winslow."

"Okay, Winslow." Otto's voice was muffled because he was walking away from me. "Marie'll ask you some questions when we get there. Don't be intimidated. She's strict on everyone. You have to be pretty stout-hearted to get through her interview. But she has to be. I mean, this is the Ed Sullivan Show."

I stopped dead in my tracks. This caused Otto to drag me a couple feet.

"Did you just say Ed Sullivan?" I said in disbelief. Otto nodded. "There has to be a mistake. The Ed Sullivan Show hasn't shown since 1971!" Otto gave me a look.

"I think you're the one that's made a mistake," he huffed. "Today is February 9th, 1964."