time travel:
the concept of moving between different points in time. eg; moving backwards from the present. Can be very chaotic.
"I'm finishing up my time machine prototype."
I don't know about normal people, but at the Gallagher Academy when someone asks someone else what they are up to, building a time machine isn't too strange of a response.
"A time machine, huh?" Bex was suddenly very interested in following Liz to ask Dr. Fibs for an extra credit project.
Dr. Fibs absentmindedly nodded, a screw driver was in his mouth as he surveyed the (rather rusty) machine that sat in front of him. "How long have you been working on this?" Liz asked sounding a tad hurt that he didn't include her in this big project.
Dr. Fibs looked up and smiled. "I've been working on this project since I first began teaching at this school."
Liz looked shocked. "Really?"
"Things such as time travel take a lot of time, Elizabeth," Dr. Fibs said.
"It could have been quicker if I helped," Liz mumbled. Dr. Fibs ignored her. He pushed some kind of tack into the front. "Almost…." He kicked it. "There. Done."
We all stared at the piece of crap that was in the middle of the room. "So…how do we know if it works or not?" Bex finally asked. Clearly, she didn't believe this junk could send people through time.
Dr. Fibs flashed us all a smile. "We test it."
I raised an eyebrow. "We?"
"More like, you three actually."
Liz looked excited and Bex looked bored. Apparently testing a time machine prototype wasn't her idea of fun. "Why us?" Bex asked.
He shrugged. "You're the only ones who currently know about it. What better way than to get to be the first ones in record history to time travel?"
"I'm up for it," a voice called from behind us. I turned to see Macey standing in the door frame of his room with her hand on her hip. She looked at Liz, Bex and I. "You didn't really think you were going to time travel without me did you?"
Dr. Fibs shrugged as if showing his approval in her assertiveness. That was that.
"There's seat belts right?"
Oh, Liz.
...
The inside of the machine was clearly all made from trash. The seats were made out of old tire rubber, the buttons were of tooth past caps, and the window was rusted Plexiglas. Macey wrinkled her nose in disapproval. I sat in the 'driver's seat' with Macey, Bex, and Liz beside me.
"Ok, that number pad right there is where you punch in the date in which you want to travel. Type the numbers in by month, day, and then year. The numbers below it? That's the time you want to go to. It goes by military time. And that button there?" He pointed to a big red button. "That's when you're ready to be sent to that time. Got it?" Dr. Fibs instructed.
I nodded.
"Oh and one more thing," I looked at Dr. Fibs. "It only travels to the past. You can't go forward."
That would have been a nice detail he could have mentioned before.
He smiled and waved. "Have fun girls. I'll try to figure out how to get you back later."
Liz gulped in fear.
"It can only go back in time…" I trailed off. Bex rolled her eyes at me.
"Cam, chances are this thing won't even work. He knows that too. Why else would he be sending us?"
I nodded. "You're probably right." I looked at the number pad. "Where to?" I smiled when I said that.
"Try yesterday. At 6:00 AM." I typed in all the numbers.
I looked at my friends. "Ready?" Bex rolled her eyes again and said, "Oh just press the bloody button." She pounded her fist on it.
Nothing happened.
Bex smirked. "See it doesn't even-" Instantly the machine slammed back. My head banged against the back of the seat, hard. I saw Liz squeezing her eyes shut. When it came to a stop all four of us were breathing hard. Liz was clutching a blue notebook that she had brought with her to no doubt take notes with.
"You guys ok?" Macey asked. Bex and I nodded our heads Liz, on the other hand, looked to be in the stages of having a heart attack. "Lizzie?" Bex pressed her finger against Liz's neck to check if her heart was still beating.
"OH MY GOD!" Liz exploded. "WE JUST TRAVELED THROUGH TIME!"
Bex calmly sat in her seat with her eyes looking ahead. "We don't know that. This could just be a hoax."
Macey gave us a mischievous grin. "There's only one way to find out." I slowly opened the door to the time machine and poked my head out.
"See? It didn't work."
Macey shook her head and quietly tip-toed her way to the door of Dr. Fibs' lab. She poked her out the door and then closed it with a big grin on her face. "You guys might want to see this," she said.
I walked over to the door and looked out to see us; just it was us from yesterday.
"I mean the worst of the side effects would be the fact that it might turn your eyes green but really there's only a…23.4% chance of that even happening."
"Liz…no, just no."
"But Cam!"
I looked over at the Liz that stood at my side and she shrugged. "Turns out it actually makes your toes green," she whispered to me.
"Mr. Moskowitz, that sounds great but I'm really busy at the moment. Very very busy." A voice echoed in the lab. Macey's eyes widened, "Fibs," she mouthed.
"With what?" Mr. Moskowitz's squeaky voice rang.
"A big project. It should be done within a few days." More like one day.
"We have to get out of here, now," Bex whispered. She began running for the air vent that was to the left of the room.
"What about the machine?" I asked. "I'm sure he's going to notice when he has two time machines!"
Macey's eyes widened as she whispered, "We're going to have to go back in time and get out of here." We of course did not have the time to go through the pros and cons of going further back so Bex quickly hopped in. "What time?" she gasped.
"Anywhere!"
She sighed and frantically pushed some buttons and then we were off.
...
The Time Traveling Quest (the title is still up for changing)
Day 1- March 15th, 1996
LOCATION: The Gallagher Academy
NOTES: The Operatives have decided that going in a time machine is probably not the wisest of things they have done (which is truly saying something considering The Operatives have done some pretty heady stuff in the past).
"1996?" I gasped. "YOU TOOK US BACK FIFTEEN YEARS?"
Bex shrugged and gave me an irritated look. "Well, where do you suppose I should have taken us, Cameron?" I sighed, deflated.
Macey was the first to actually consider where we were. She looked around. "Uh guys? Where are we?"
I looked around. We were in a barren room with nothing but blue walls surrounding us. "Are we still at Gallagher?" Liz guessed.
Bex looked around. "You would think so, right?" Bex's gaze landed on me. "You don't think this takes us to random places, do you?" I shrugged.
Macey walked over to a door at the front of the room and slowly opened it, poking her head out. "Macey," I hissed. "What are you doing?" Simply walking opening a door and poking your head out isn't the most covert thing you can do.
I studied Macey's face and saw her eyes widen for the umpteenth time that day. "You have got to see this," she whispered back at us. Liz, Bex and I glanced at each other and tip toed over to the door, looking over Macey's shoulder.
We were in fact, still at Gallagher. We also happened to be looking at my mother. And my father.
And me.
"Why, Mrs. Morgan," I slightly younger yet still ancient looking Professor Buckingham said to my mother. "It had been far too long since I last saw you." She gave my father a polite smile.
"Well," Mom said, "I have been quite busy, I'm afraid." She smiled down at my much younger, two year old self.
"Aww Cam," Liz cooed. "Is that you?" I just rolled my eyes.
Professor Buckingham was smiling at my younger self. "This is Cameron, I presume?" My dad, who had been holding me, smiled with pride and nodded.
"It's only a matter of years until she'll be a student here," He said. The sound of his voice made my heart hurt. I could feel tears springing to my eyes.
"Cam," Bex whispered softly. "Are you ok?"
I nodded and wiped at my eyes. I will not cry over the past!
"Well, I'm glad you three could make it to the Gallagher reunion," Professor Buckingham said. She gestured to a hallway. "Come join us?"
As my parents followed Professor Buckingham, Bex was already heading towards the time machine. "Bex, where are you going?" I asked.
She shrugged. "Cam, you're clearly upset. We should just go." Macey and Liz nodded in agreement and followed Bex.
"No guys," I argued, "I want to stay." Bex gave me an unconvinced look. "Really, I want to see my father, Bex," I whispered.
Bex sighed but headed for the door. "Alright. Let's go."
...
We had taken a secret passageway that gave us a clear view of the main foyer but kept us completely hidden. Gallagher Girls from years past stood and chatted with each other, talking about their husbands, children, jobs, and anything else that had happened to them after their years at Gallagher.
My parents (and my toddler self) stood off to the side talking with a woman with familiar red hair. I gasped. Zach's mom. "Is that…?" Macey began, stunned. I merely nodded.
They had stood too far off for us to hear what they were saying but thankfully all three of us had been trained to lip-read.
"So," my mom said, but judging by how tense her shoulders were, she wasn't really into the small talk. "How have you been, Angela?"
Zach's mom shrugged with a breezy indifference. "I've been good, Rachel." She smiled at them slightly. "And you two? You have a daughter I see." My dad shrugged and looked down at my younger self. "I have a son myself." And his name is Zach.
My mom looked up at her. "So I've heard." There was something awkward and tense about the entire conversation. I just couldn't tell what.
"Same age too." Zach's mom put on a teasing grin. "Who knows? Maybe they'll get married and have little spy children of their own someday." My dad clenched his fists slightly, clearly not finding the joke all that funny. Macey and Liz, however, seemed to find it hilarious, they were both laughing.
"Shut up," I mumbled towards them.
"Oh Matt," Zach's mom sighed. "I was only joking." She studied them slightly. "I know neither of you like me all that much. Although, I'm not sure why."
Mom looked away and pointed off to the corner. "Sorry, Angela. We'd love to stay and chat but my sister just entered and we haven't seen her in ages. Nice talking with you." She sounded every bit as serious.
On cue Aunt Abby in her young and gorgeous self sauntered over and Zach's mom walked away. "Rachel, Matt!" She hugged them. When she pulled away she looked down at my toddler self. "And Cammie!" She lifted me out of Dad's arms. "How are things in La Casa de Morgan?"
Mom sighed and looked over at Angela Goode. "Angela is here," she muttered under her breath.
Abby made a face. "I know." She looked between my parents. "Does she know you two know about…?"
Dad sighed. "Probably."
"Does that mean…?"
"Joe and I will take care of it," he assured her. "She's probably busy now anyway what with a kid and all…"
Abby raised her eyebrows. "Angela Goode has a kid?"
Dad shrugged. "Yes."
Abby let out a low whistle. "Never thought I'd see the day."
By then I was beginning to feel a little frustrated with the entire conversation so I got up. "Let's go, I'm tired already."
Macey, Bex and Liz shrugged and followed me back into the room and settled in the machine. "Where to?" I asked.
Macey flashed us a devilish grin. "Anyone up for seeing Rachel Morgan as a teenager?"
...
Day 4- October 2nd, 1983
LOCATION: The Gallagher Academy
NOTES: Ms. Angela Goode is even meaner than we thought.
"Are you seventh graders?"
The girl who asked that very question was of course none other than Angela Goode. She looked Macey up and down with disgust (evidently, girls who walk around with Prada handbags are frowned upon in the 80's). "What's it to you?" Macey shot back with a flip of hair. She leveled her eyes at the girl in front of us showing her she had no fear.
I nudged her, warning her that starting a fight really wasn't good when we weren't even in our own century.
Zach's mom shrugged. "I've just never seen you around before."
"We keep to ourselves," Liz offered. Did I mention that Liz is probably the worst liar ever (even though she's a spy)?
"Mhm," She mumbled unconvinced.
"Are you a senior?" Bex asked.
The girl flipped her long, red hair behind her shoulders. "Yes. I'm Angela. Angela Goode."
Liz began to fidget with the hem of her skirt.
Angela looked at Liz and raised one of her eyebrows. "You heard of me, Blondie?"
Please don't screw up, Liz. Just nod your head. Don't mess up Liz. Don't mess-
"I heard you're quite good at what you do." Understatement of the century.
Zach's mothe-Angela smiled at the compliment. "Good," she said, "Well, I'll see you ladies around." Not likely.
I could already see the look of excitement in Bex's eyes. I knew my friend all too well to know exactly what she was thinking. "Oh no. We're not spying on Zach's mother right now."
Bex pouted, "Come on, Cam! We're in the past, the least we could do is take advantage and have some fun!"
So we ended up sitting in a tight air vent watching Zach's mother flip through some magazines in her bedroom for a good two hours.
The Operatives noticed that Angela Goode, despite popular belief, does not spend all of her free time working with the terrorist group The Circle of Cavan. Her life is far more boring.
After a while Liz Impatiently sighed. "This is boring. Can we just go?" But as she said it Angela finally got up, checked her surroundings (room, closet, hallway, etc.) and then went over to the corner of her room, reached through a small hole in the wall and pulled out a folded envelope. Slowly, she ripped off the top and pulled out a piece of evapo paper. In thick, black letters at the top the words "The Circle of Cavan" had been typed.
Angela sighed and stared at it until a knock came from the door. Quickly and quietly she slid the envelope and paper back in the hole and yelled, "Come in."
In came a beautiful girl with dark hair and blue eyes. My mother. "Hey Angela," she said happily. As if years later she wouldn't be enemies with her. "The juniors and sophomores are having a movie night, wanna come?"
Zach's mom looked up at my mom and shrugged. "Sure."
My mom looked at her and titled her head slightly. "Everything ok?"
For the first time ever, I saw something scared in Zach's mom's eyes. "Of course," She lied.
As we shoved ourselves back in the machine (which we had hidden in a secret passageway for safety) I leaned back against the rubber seats and yawned. "When are we going to figure out how to get back the present?"
Liz studied the wires poking out at the top. "We could now, if you want," she offered, "It shouldn't take too long, I think I can figured it out." I didn't doubt that.
"No," Bex whined. "One more time jump?" she offered.
I shrugged. "Any particular time in mind?"
She grinned a Bex-ish grin. "Gillian Gallagher."
...
Day 6- April 7th, 1862
LOCATION: The Gallagher Academy (er, what will soon be The Gallagher Academy)
NOTES: Gillian Gallagher is one exceptional lady.
"Ms. Gillian, Mr. Cavan is here," a young looking woman who I assumed to be the maid said.
Gillian Gallagher (yes, that Gillian!) smiled politely at her. "Thank you, Georgia. Please tell him to wait, I have company."
The maid nodded and turned to leave. "Also, Georgia!" Gilly called, "Please get these young maiden teas. They've been traveling." Georgia nodded and left.
See, meeting and talking to Gilly was the easy part of this whole trip. The hard part was looking like we belonged.
...
"How are we supposed to hide this thing?" Bex gasped an hour prior, as we looked around to see if anyone had seen us randomly pop in (they would probably think we were witches.) To our relief the time machine had landed in an open field with no one around.
Macey sighed and hopped out. "We can just push it behind something like we've always been doing. It's not a big deal."
"What if someone finds it?" I asked. I glanced around to see if there was tarp somewhere we could put over it.
Macey shrugged. "They'll think its witch craft but it's ok because they won't find it," she assured.
"What about clothes?" I pressed again. We all took one glance at our clothes, very bright, sneakers, t-shirts, and jeans. Not fit with the 1800's at all.
"We could steal some corsets and dresses," Bex offered. Leave it to Bex to stick with the illegal method. She held her hands up when she saw my expression. "It's not like there's a clothing store around this place. And even if there was, what would we pay with? US dollars that don't exist yet?" She did have a point there.
"But how are we going to steal these clothes?" Liz asked, "We can't just walk out in broad daylight dressed like this." She gestured to her outfit.
And that's how we ended up with old cloth wrapped around us, stranded in a no name town in hopes of finding some rich person who had dresses to spare.
"Are you lost, ladies?" A soft voice said from behind. We turned to see a very familiar face smiling politely, but not too nicely. She had curly blonde hair that cascaded down her back. Her eyes were a light blue. She was Gillian Gallagher.
And she clearly thought we were poor, middle class. Probably daughters of farmers, farmers who worked on farms that her father owned.
Macey responded with as much respect and coolness. "Possibly." she pretended to look confused and scan the roads. "We are looking for a Miss..." Macey pretended to think for a moment. "A Ms. Gallagher."
Gillian looking surprised, I'm not sure if it was because we were dressed poor and were looking for her or because Macey didn't recognize her or know her name. "That is I," Gillian said.
Macey smiled pleasantly. "We are acquaintances of your father." Gillian studied our outfits. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Emily St. Hastings and these are my sisters." She gestured to each of us. "Carolina," she pointed to Liz, "Kathryn," She pointed to me, "And Helen," She pointed to Bex. Macey leaned in a little closer. "Your father has mentioned a school for young, rich ladies such as ourselves, that you are planning to build." Macey smiled. "We would like to help."
At the mention of her school Gilly brightened up. "Oh, please come with me!" She took one last glance at our clothing. Apparently fashion is highly important in all ages.
"We've been traveling in our carriage for a long while," Macey explained with a fake grim smile to her long, cloth skirt that was clearly not sewn well (we found them lying in a bucket outside a house. What can we say?) "We preferred something more…comfortable?" Macey clearly wasn't all too familiar with 1800's English.
Gilly nodded and lead us to her carriage.
And that's how we got to the spot we're in now. We were each stuck in a (very tight. I wouldn't be surprised if these things were used for some kind of illegal choking practice) corset with a fancy 1800's style dress. Gilly was sitting in front of us and apparently Ioseph Cavan right below us.
What a day.
"So ladies," Gillian said as Georgia gave us each a cup of steaming hot tea. "You truly believe my school could work?"
"Oh, indeed," Bex nodded. "Women showing their strengths? Positively brilliant." Gillian beamed.
"Ms. Gallagher," Georgia called from the door. "Mr. Cavan requests that the two of you speak now. He is quite busy."
Gilly sighed and set down her tea. "My apologies, ladies."
"Quite alright," Macey said. "We were just leaving."
Of course, we just did what we did best and watched Gilly and Ioseph from a window.
"I'm afraid I cannot join you, Ioseph," Gilly muttered lightly.
Ioseph (I rather tall man) glared at Gilly. "You know this means war, Gilly," he said gruffly.
She gave him a sad look. "I know.
...
"Let's just go back home to the present," I mumbled tiredly as we quickly hid in the machine, tarp and all. "Can you get us home Lizzie?"
Liz grinned. "What do you think?"
"Liz? Anytime now?" I asked impatiently.
"I almost…there got it!" Instantly we were thrown forward. I ended up hitting my head against the dashboard while Liz and Bex smashed heads.
"Is it done? Are we in the present?" Macey asked.
Liz grinned and said, "Only one way to find out." And for one second I was beginning to feel like I was having déjà vu.
We stepped out of the machine and found that we were in fact in Dr. Fibs' lab. Liz sighed with relief. She walked over to the door and peered out. "YES WE'RE BACK TO THE PRESENT!" she did a little happy dance.
"Figured your way back, I see," Dr. Fibs said from behind. "How was it?"
The four of us looked at each other. "Informative," we said in unison.
Five Rules to Time Travel (a list made by Cameron Morgan, Macey McHenry, Rebecca Baxter, and Elizabeth Sutton.)
RULE #1: Don't talk to anyone.
Ex. Say if you happen to run into the mother of a mysterious boy spy, DON'T TALK TO HER. (Because chances are, aforementioned boy spy will find out.)
RULE #2: Dress in disguise.
Ex. Trust us when we say this, it isn't wise to run into people your present self knows without the art of disguise and deception. They will have strange memory of you. And it won't be a good one.
RULE #3: Remain calm.
One word: Liz.
RULE #4: Hide the time traveling machine well.
Ex. Your teacher may or may not notice that a 500 pound piece of rusty metal is sitting in their classroom.
RULE #5: Fit in.
It's as simple as this, if you're in the 1800's and you're wearing a plaid skirt and a blue sweater, somebody is going to start questioning you. (Operative Baxter would like to add that it's probably not a good idea to say American slang in the 1800's or else you will receive the strangest of looks.)
A/N: So I started this in the summer, stopped, continued in the fall, stopped and just today I decided to finish it. So seeing as there have been so many time jumps while I have been writing this, it probably is a big jumbled mess. And there's probably a lot of errors so bare with me. But it IS the longest oneshot I have written and I have spent the most time on so feedback is really appreciated.
P.S. I wouldn't be able to tell you when this whole thing takes place. All the information shnozz is out of place. So yeah.
P.S.S first thing posted in quite awhile WHOOP