Sometimes I wish I could go back to the "CB Likes Lainey" episode and change the ending, so I decided to write this fic to "fix" it in a way. It's meant to take place after the "Moving On" episode. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just shut up for now. Hope you enjoy it!
~.~
"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life."
~ Green Day, "Good Riddance" (1997)
~.~
CB woke that fateful morning to the sound of his phone ringing. He lifted his head, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and pulled back the Star Wars comforter on his bed. Yawning, CB stood, stepped into his flannel bedroom slippers, and stumbled down the hallway to answer the phone.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, bumping his knee on a rather large speaker on his way. He held his knee and hopped into the living room. "How in the hell did that get there? I don't have a-"
CB froze, his eyes growing large, when he spied the blue blow-up couch in front of him.
"No way."
CB glanced around his apartment, noticing that the items he'd lost in the fire back in November had somehow been returned to him. He raced over to his entertainment center and ran his hands along the stereo system in disbelief.
"My Sony three-disc CD player with bass boost!" He turned to his Super Nintendo and picked up the gray cartridge sitting on top. "And Shaq Fu! Oh, how I've missed you!" He spun around, his eyes falling on the double doors to his right. "My outdoor patio! What in the hell is going on?"
Just then, the phone stopped ringing, and his answering machine picked up the call. CB slowly sauntered over to the machine, noticing it looked just like the one he used to have in his old apartment, the outdated one that still used microcassette tapes.
"Hi, you've reached CB. I'm not home right now but my answering machine is, so you can talk to it instead. Wait for the beep. BEEP! Just kidding, here's the real beep!"
The beep sounded, and CB waited with bated breath to see who could be calling him at such an early hour. Maybe he could pick up in time and ask how in the world he'd ended up back in his old apartment. It wasn't April yet, so he knew it wasn't a prank, though he had a sneaky suspicion that Glascott or Rick Mellor had something to do with it.
"CB! Susan Cinoman here. I know it's early and also a Saturday, but I just finished with the school beautification club and it was just me and Ed Morris again, but anyhoo… I have another brilliant idea on how you can ask Lainey out on that coffee date. Call me back, so we can discuss the details, mkay? Talk to ya later. Cinoman out!"
The answering machine beeped again, and CB sank down the floor, his back running along the edge of his apartment door. He placed his head in his hands and raked his fingers down his face.
Had he completely gone mad? Was he dreaming? Hallucinating? Did he drink some expired Snapple the day before?
It seemed that CB had somehow teleported back to almost a year ago when he'd first confessed his crush on Lainey Lewis, a fellow teacher at William Penn Academy and now his best friend, to Susan Cinoman, the drama teacher.
But how was that even possible? Time travel wasn't possible. Despite the fact that CB was a huge fan of time travel TV shows and movies like Quantum Leap and Terminator, he knew that none of those were actually real. You couldn't travel back in time.
Could he?
CB stood and raced over to the calendar on his fridge, staring blankly at the date at the top of the page - May 1990-something. It in fact was a year earlier, and CB had somehow traveled back in time, back to the very day of William Penn's talent show.
He remembered that night like it was yesterday, the night he'd asked Lainey out for coffee and she'd rejected him, suggesting they go out for a drink instead. He'd been so elated that he couldn't contain his excitement as he walked with her toward his car - only to be disappointed when her ex-fiance Barry showed up and derailed his plans.
After that night, CB had tried unsuccessfully to win Lainey's affections for months, finally deciding several weeks ago to give up the fight for her and move on. She had found her soulmate in Barry, and CB figured it was no use continuing to pine for her with zero chance of reciprocation.
However...
The wheels in CB's brain began to turn as he continued to stare at the date on the calendar. Although he'd told Wilma that he was over his crush on Lainey, he'd never truly gotten over his feelings for her. In that moment, he knew that fate had given him a second chance, a second opportunity to finally go out on that date with her. He knew that if he could win Lainey over before she had the chance to reconnect with Barry, she was certain to choose CB instead of her high-school sweetheart.
After all, Barry was her past and CB had longed for so many days to be her future.
And he knew exactly what he should do.
~.~
What do you think will happen at the talent show? Will CB win over Lainey? Thank you for reading! ~ Dazzy xxoo