DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters here that I didn't make up myself. I don't own Lizzie McGuire, but she's not actually born yet at the time of this story, anyway.

"You know what would really make this place great? If you put computers in here, where the customers could use them!"

Larry was talking with the owner of The Coffee Bean, a coffee house which was celebrating its grand opening.

"Sorry," said the owner. "I don't think the 'geek' market is big enough to support that."

"You'll change your mind eventually," said Larry. "I bet 30 years from now all cafés will have computers."

"So you're ahead of your time," interjected Sam, who came there along with Larry and Howie. "Or else you're from a different galaxy… I can never be sure."

"Hey, guys," said Howie. "Computers or not, this place looks like it could be the new hangout place for the cool kids at school… and, also, for us!"

"How come?", said Sam. "Have you started drinking coffee? I haven't. I've heard it stunts your growth or something."

"No, but they do have other choices… soda, juice, and other stuff. Also cake and cookies. And the management doesn't seem to mind young people hanging around."

"I guess you're right," said Sam. "And it's great that all of our groundings have run out, so we can go out again. I was getting really sick of my house, even though I did get the time to write all sorts of interesting articles for newsletters and stuff."

"I've just about finished my fan fiction story," said Larry. "It takes place in the Star Trek universe about 30 years before the TV series, showing you how things got to the way they are in the show. I'm caling it 'Star Trek: The Past Generation'."

"So, like, do you get to see Captain Kirk's mom and dad?", asked Sam.

"Maybe I'll get them in somewhere, but mostly I'm focusing on the founders of the Star Fleet. I do have some scenes involving Spock's parents, showing how a human and a Vulcan get together."

"Sounds interesting. Where will you be publishing it, in one of those fanzines you were talking about?"

"Actually, I was meaning to talk to you about that. I've decided I'd rather publish my own fanzine rather than sending it to somebody else's. However, I need something to print it on… I heard you've got access to the room where the school keeps their ditto machine?"

"Yeah… being president of the audiovisual club has its perks. I've got the key to the Multimedia Room, where they keep the slide and filmstrip projectors and some other stuff… including the ditto and mimeograph machines. I even know how to work those machines, since they sometimes have me print class handouts and stuff. So I think I can get you in to use that thing, but you'll have to bring in your own paper; they'll complain if I use up the school's paper on personal projects."

"Sure," said Larry. "My dad runs an office supply store, so I can get my hands on plenty of paper, ditto masters, and other supplies… the school won't be out any of their stuff."

"That should be OK," said Sam. "Let me know when you're ready to print it."

Daniella walked in at this point. "Hi, guys!", she said. "Eddie is meeting me here… he should be here any time now. Don't tell my parents I'm still seeing him… they're still angry about that little trip we took last month."

"Don't worry," said Sam. "I don't know enough Spanish to say much to them anyway."

"Hey, they've learned English pretty well," said Daniella. "Their English is better than your Spanish, anyway."

Meanwhile, Jo was sitting at home by herself.

"It's Saturday night, and you're not grounded any more! What are you doing sitting here doing nothing?", asked Jo's mother. "You should get out somewhere. Not into the middle of another gang war, but to some safe place that's out of the house."

"I guess you're right," said Jo. "There's a café opening going on, and it seems like practically everybody from school is going there."

"Including the people who got you into the middle of a gang war last month? I'm not sure they're the ones you should be hanging out with."

"And I'm not sure I want to have anything to do with them either," said Jo. "But there'll be other people at that place, so I guess I should go."

Back at the Coffee Bean, the boys and Daniella were still talking, with their usual wide-ranging topics.

"Now, I've got an idea," said Larry. "Time travel could become possible sometime within our lifetimes. So, if we'd like to meet our future selves now, we should make an appointment to meet ourselves back in this time if one of us ever invents a time machine, or gets a chance to use one – heck, the things might be available for rental at Avis or Hertz by the year 2005. So we need to agree on a time and place – like, right here, and… what time is it, anyway?"

Howie checked his digital watch. "7:54, and 32 seconds."

"All right. So our future time-traveling selves should agree to meet here, at the Coffee Bean, 113 Maple Street, Hillridge, California, at 8 PM, Pacific… umm, are we on Standard or Daylight?"

"Er… well… Spring ahead, fall back… I'm not sure," said Sam.

"We're on Standard Time," said Howie. "Daylight Time is in the summer; it's on for a longer time now because of the energy crisis, but we've still switched to Standard Time now. That's UTC minus eight hours, to be exact."

"What's UTC?", asked Sam.

"It's what used to be called Greenwich Mean Time, but the scientists decided to rename it to Universal Coordinated Time for some reason… and don't ask me why they don't abbreviate it UCT. One of these days, I'll explain leap seconds to you… a really fascinating topic. But it doesn't really matter now."

"OK," said Larry. "Time travelers should meet here at 8:00 Pacific Standard Time, on… what day is it?"

"November 22, 1975," said Howie. "That's 12 years to the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which is likely to be a much more interesting destination for time travelers than here and now."

"Well, after they stop President Kennedy from being killed, they can come here, can't they?", said Sam.

"I don't know," said Larry. "Changing history can be… problematic. If JFK wasn't killed on schedule, the present time would be different, and we might not be in the same place at the same time… everything gets iffy. But if we have the sense not to cause any paradoxes, let's try to come here… write down the place and time so you don't forget it, even in 2005 or whenever. And if we really do it, then the time machine should be popping up right… what time is it now?"

"7:59 and 50 seconds," said Howie. "51… 52… 53… 54… 55… 56… 57… 58… 59… 8:00!"

Right at that second, Jo walked in.

"Hi, Jo!" said Sam.

"Did you, by any chance, come here in a time machine?", asked Larry.

"Uh… no… actually, I took the bus…", said Jo, a little puzzled.

"Don't mind him," said Sam. "He's just on another of his sci-fi kicks, as usual. But come and join us… we've barely said two words to one another for the last month. Are you still angry about that trip we took?"

"Er, well… I didn't really enjoy winding up in the middle of a gang fight, and my parents didn't like it very much either."

"And you think it's my fault?", asked Sam.

"You're the one who asked me to join in, weren't you? Or maybe it was Daniella… I can't actually remember. It doesn't matter… you were all in on it."

"That includes you too," said Sam. "You agreed to it as much as everybody else. And you enjoyed that movie… we all did. It was just the stuff afterward that didn't quite go as we planned."

"Well… I guess… but maybe Daniella's boyfriend Eddie should take more responsibility, because he's older and should have known better."

"Somebody mention me?", said Eddie, who had just walked in.

"Hey… the gang's all together now!", said Howie.

"I'd rather you didn't mention gangs, if you don't mind," said Jo.

"Hey, Eddie, did you come here in a time machine?", said Larry.

"Not unless you consider my old car to be living on borrowed time," said Eddie. "But at least I didn't get any more flat tires on the way here."

"He's asking everybody if they're a time traveler," said Howie. "He thinks he can attract future time travelers here by getting all of us to promise to come to this time and place if we ever get hold of a time machine, but it doesn't seem to have worked."

"Maybe our future selves got Standard and Daylight time mixed up and were an hour off," said Larry.

"Or maybe it's time for Scotty to beam you up," said Sam, "so you can return to your home planet."

But, despite some good-natured ribbing, they all got along well, including Jo, who loosened up and treated the rest of the kids as friends. The group was back together… just don't call them a gang!