AN: This might have been up sooner if I wasn't so busy. Anyways, hope you guys had a nice 4th of July (If you celebrate). I've decided that this will be a love triangle with Emmett and Landon. Hope you enjoy :)
Before last night I had originally planned on hanging out with Roland, instead I started walking over to Gentlemen Goods. I wasn't mad at Roland for not comforting me; I knew off the bat that he wouldn't be overtly friendly like Teddy. Still, knowing that someone, anyone, had heard me crying like that was like twisting a knife into my pride.
"Hello." I said, walking into the small shop. Mr. Toko was spinning in circles midair, as per usual.
"Hi~" He replied, somehow managing to keep his spin going as he spoke.
"Mind if I help out?" I asked. It was sort of an inside joke between us, people rarely came in so I wasn't so much helping as just standing there and keeping Mr. Toko company. And we both knew he would never mind.
"Only if you don't mind being busy" he joked, looking queasy after he stopped spinning. I wondered why I was never bothered by his appearance and what Roland thought of him. My alien-ness was no match for Mr. Toko's, he was essentially a yellow egg-bunny. He told me before he was time-traveller, if I remember correctly, although he didn't even resemble any human I've seen. Maybe I just found comfort in the fact that I wasn't the only one who wasn't supposed to be here.
I pondered this a moment before reverting back to our routine. Mr. Toko would act like a five-year-old who just found out he could fly while I'd organize and clean. Granted, you could only sweep a small room so many times but it did take up time. I've also gotten into the habit of re-organizing the 6 things we had each time I worked. Last time I sorted them by quantity and this time I did it by alphabetical order. By the time I was done it was mid-day and Mr. Toko approached me with my $5.
"Um, do you mind if I stay a little longer? I need the money to...buy something to thank Nathan for letting me stay with him" In reality, being obligated to do something helped me keep my sanity.
"As long as you don't mind me sleeping" He got out another 5$ and set them both on the counter "Just in case you leave before I wake up" With that Mr. Toko entered what I was pretty sure was a closet and presumably fell asleep.
"I wonder how he escaped the historians" I said out loud, also wondering what kind of psychological help my history teacher would suggest if I told him about . With a light smile, I swept the floors about ten more times before being absolutely certain that there wasn't a speck of dust in sight. With my arms thoroughly exhausted, I decided it was time to head home. The 10$ on the counter made 25$ in my pocket. The pocket watches were only 20$ so I decided to make my previous lie a truth. I spent my leftover money on candy and a tea-bag; my two favorite things.
"Nathan~" I called, entering the shop. "I come bearing gifts!" I started taking the pocket-watch out of my pocket when Nathan walked into the front entrance.
"Gifts? Amy, you didn't have to..." He started but I could see the child-like eagerness in his eyes.
"Well, gift singular" I said, dangling the watch in the air between us. There was already a similar watch dangling from his shirt but I'm pretty sure the guy didn't know the meaning of 'too many clocks.' Then I noticed that the light in his eyes had died out. Shit.
"Oh, a compass. You, uh, you didn't have too. I don't have much use for it" He noticed the look on my face "No, but I love it, really. Thank you"
"I'm glad" I said in utter disbelief "Well, I'm going to head back out, see you later." I closed the front-door on my way out, barely containing a scream. A compass? It was a fucking compass?! Why had I not noticed? I just gave a clock-loving man a compass. It was times like these I really wished I was back in my own time where pocket-watches barely existed so there wasn't any confusion. Speaking of my own time, I've been too homesick, I almost forgot. I didn't even start my 5-page DBQ on the French Revolution. Too bad I got sent back here and not France, 1848. I also had a test in science, hopefully she'll give me extra time due to the whole can't-really-access-my-books thing.
Despite my seemingly random bouts of self-pity and home-sickness, I noticed that I didn't actually mind being here. Everyone was so nice and although I don't want to get too attached since I will be leaving, it was hard. People my age, accepting me with little hesitation was actually pretty shocking. Not to say I didn't have a good group of friends back home, it's just that high-school isn't exactly the most teenager-friendly place.
Suddenly a bright light flooded my vision, disturbing my thoughts and my peace of mind. When the light dimmed I saw the silhouette of what looked like a teenage boy fall out of the time-hole. Probably looking like the masculine version of me a couple days ago.
"Nathan!" I shouted, not wanting to go alone but still I still ran straight to the train-station. There I saw a boy wearing primarily blue, even in his hair, get up off the ground.
"T-Teddy?!" I instantly recognized every detail of my child-hood friend, the hair was different, but nothing else changed.
"Amy, y-you're okay! C'mon, let's get out of here!" His voice triggered memories from years ago to weeks ago. But really. I just accepted my place in the universe and blah, blah, blah and now Teddy decided to show up. Last night would've been great, thanks.
"Hey, wait a second!" Was what I actually said, which happened to confused Teddy, not that that was really all too difficult.
"Why? What's wrong?" Teddy looked around worriedly as if ninjas were prepared to attack if we tried to leave. While I was trying to think of something to say, Nathan walked up behind me, probably just realizing where I had went.
"Oh, Amy! Who's this? A friend of yours?" Nathan asked, again making it hard for me to know if I saw him as a father-figure or a brotherly-figure.
"Hey, who're you?! Get away from Amy" Teddy shouted, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me over to him. Oh Teddy. Maybe those goggles were on too tight or the dye seeped into his brain. I mean, Nathan did say my name, and wasn't exactly being intimidating. Not like he could've been if he tried. No one can be intimidating with a pocket watch.
"T-Teddy, wait! He's-!" I started, again trying to shorten my thoughts but I was cut off by Teddy. I loved him and all but there are times where he shouldn't speak. Like now.
"C'mon Amy... Let's just go home, okay?" My blue-haired friend said with an exasperated sigh. It was hard to imagine my actual, legal home, void of any clocks. Looking back, I saw a heart-broken Nathan.
"W-wait, you're leaving?" He asked, I could see my compass sticking out of his pocket. Dammit. I felt like I was leaving one dog at home while I took the other for a walk. Either way I would feel like a jerk.
"That's tight. I'm taking her back with me." Teddy, it's still one of those times. He activated the time-jumper and we began to levitate. Well shit.
"H-hey, w-wait...!" I shouted. Again, love Teddy and all but I can make my own decisions thank you very much. In a second we were landing in Landon's lair (try saying that ten times fast), and standing up off the ground.
"...You okay?" Teddy asked. I glared at him, trying to tell him with my eyes that he's an idiot and no I'm not okay because I just left all my friends without saying goodbye.
"What's gotten into you?" I asked in case he didn't get my eye-message. He's usually a total idiot but never like this. More in a cute-puppy-way than a dropped-on-the-head way.
Teddy dropped his head and exhaled deeply "I'm sorry, Amy, none of this would've happened if I wasn't being so stupid." Remember when I was mad at him? Yeah, me neither.
"Um, i-it's oka-"
"Hey, Amy. Do you remember that promise we made when we were kids?" Teddy interrupted.
"Oh! Th-that? Yeah, I remember it. You do too? I had almost forgotten about it, but-" I rambled until Teddy stopped me.
"And what do you think about it?" He was being serious, which scared me. The last time Teddy and I had a serious conversation...
"H-huh?" I asked to buy more time.
"What do you think about us getting married when we grow up?" He asked, preventing any kind of verbal escape. I did seriously consider running but then I remembered how all our races ended up.
"Hey, we were just kids! We didn't know what we were talking about" It was true. Everyone thinks it would be awesome to live with their best-friends but marriage was different. Marriage implied love and kissing and making love. I didn't love Teddy in that way. When we were little, I remember us trying to convince other people we were siblings, it convinced me well enough that even just kissing Teddy would feel like incest.
"Nevermind, just forget about it. Sorry if I was awkward. Anyways, what's up with that crazy outfit?" Classic Teddy. Always putting on a smile and changing the topic.
"Oh, this is just the kind of stuff people wore back then. I've been meaning to ask you: What the hell did you do to your hair!?" I asked, almost running a hand through it but decided against it.
"What does it look like? I dyed it" He gave me a cheshire-cat grin as I shook my head as a mock disapproving parent.
"Geez, you really are a rebel" I said sarcastically and yanked his also rebellious hoodie drawstring.
"But that's not a bad thing, right?" Teddy laughed "If I wasn't a rebel, then I wouldn't have stolen Landon's second Time Jumper to bring you back."
"You WHAT?" I shouted, it always bothered me when Teddy messed with Landon. Maybe because I was grateful for him looking after Teddy.
"Hey," The smile wiped off Teddy's face "If I let Landon send it off for testing then you would've stuck in the past for another couple weeks." News flash,Teddy, that wouldn't have been that bad.
"B-but what if it was defective like the first? Then the both of us would've been stuck here" I verbalized the other reason I was mad. Not that Teddy would've minded, apparently. I thought I heard him whisper something, probably proving my point.
"What was that?" I asked, pinching his arm like things were normal again.
"Nothing. Here, I want you to take this, Amy" He said with his grin and handed me his Time Jumper.
"Why are you giving me this!? You should give it back to Landon!" I demanded, shoving the Time Jumper back towards him.
"Landon thinks that some criminal broke into the lab and stole it. I don't want to know what he'll do to me if he finds out that I'm the one who took it." He admitted, never losing that smile as I sighed in defeat and switched out my old Time Jumper for the new one.
"Are you sure it's okay if he doesn't get this back?" I asked, even though I was already sold.
"It's fine, it's fine. He'll probably just end up making another one again. Anyways, I better get out of here before Landon comes back. I'll see you later, Amy. I walked across the street to my apartment, surprisingly in the same place as Nathan's house, and entered my room. I flopped down on the bed and my muscles instantly relaxed. I never knew how much I would miss my lump mattress. And my computer. Internet. I immediately jumped into the chair and surfed the web for a few mind-numbing hours. Afterwards, the night was dark and I collapsed on my bed. I knew I should've called my parents, or went back to the past and told Nathan what happened, even if I did just come back. However, I was just too exhausted and fell right to sleep.
That night I had seemingly endless nightmares of robots taking over and killing everyone.
A/N: Hope you enjoy my longest chapter! :)