Not There
This one will be a long one. I had to type this tonight because guess who has to take a bio chemistry test on Monday? Me, hooray, and I have to study the entire day tomorrow. Hey, does anybody know the name for an organic molecule with the functional hydroxyl group (-OH)? How about how many water molecules are needed when a dipeptide is broken down by hydrolysis? No? Me neither.
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Zora stood back, slightly awestruck by her own (amazing) work. The massive, gleaming machine stood like a building in the middle of the room. She smiled widely, utterly and completely proud of herself, because how many other twelve year olds can say that they themselves built the first working time machine in history?
"Zora?" Marshall stuck his head in the doorway.
"Yeah?" Zora asked, turning around to face her boss.
"Could you go and help Tawni out? Some poor new extra at Chad's goodbye party accidentally touched her purse and-"
"I understand." Zora said grimly. "Which hospital is he in?"
"I'll drive you there. Let's go." His eyes left her face for a split second and landed on the massive elevator looking thing, but then he shrugged and disappeared around the corner. Zora took one last look at her precious time machine, wondering whether or not she should make an attempt to hide it. But then she let it go and followed Marshall out, figuring that if anything went wrong all she had to do was step inside and go back.
Unbeknownst to her, two teenage boys poked their heads around the corner, eyeballing the giant time machine with a look in their faces that no good could come from.
"Dude," Grady breathed, taking in the marvelous appearance. "What do you think it is?"
Nico shrugged. "With Zora, you never know," he said, and promptly shuffled up to it, admiring it with his nose pressed against the steel doors.
"Are you sure it's safe to touch?" Grady asked warily. "You remember the last time she left us alone with something of hers?"
They both shuddered, and looked down at the marks on their hands they still bore from that dark day.
"We're supposed to be at Chad's party anyway," Grady tried to persuade Nico as he reached to press one of the many bronze buttons that decorated the ornate button-pad-thingy. (I don't know what it's called.)
"Chad can wait, he's got a couple more hours left until he's out of our lives." Nico said, pushing a particularly shiny bright red button. "Ooh, look, it's opening!"
"Weird," Grady said, walking closer to the now open time machine. "Was this what Zora's been working on for the past month then?"
"Probably," Nico said happily, placing a hand on the doorframe and sticking his head inside the machine. It looked just like a regular elevator. "God knows the girl has way too much free time."
"Poor Sonny," Grady said suddenly, as a sniffling Sonny walked past the prop house door. "She's been like that ever since she heard Chad was leaving."
"Well, that's what she gets for falling in love with him," Nico said sternly, although he looked slightly put down as well.
"OH, MY GOD MAN!" Grady screeched suddenly from inside the machine. Nico jumped and rushed to his friend's side.
"What!?" He asked, startled.
"That's just about the hugest diamond I've ever seen!" Grady said, pointing to an incredibly large glittering jewel that was inlaid gracefully in the middle of the floor.
"Whew-wee," Nico said, clasping a hand to his forehead. "What does Zora do when we're not looking?"
"I don't know, but we better go and find her, she can't just leave stuff like this lying unprotected in the middle of a room," Grady said, moving to pick up the diamond.
"Grady don't touch it!" Nico said suddenly, but Grady had already removed it from its slot, and there was a flash and a whir, and suddenly the entire elevator began shaking. The two boys huddled together, frightened.
"Dude, what's going on?" Nico asked, looking around him at all the dancing lights that had suddenly appeared.
"I don't know, but I don't like it," Grady groaned, and the next second, there was a loud hissing noise and multiple blips and beeps, and suddenly a bright blue light flashed and lit up the entire room, and suddenly the elevator was gone.
Meanwhile, at a party for a certain three-named-heartthrob, Sonny was sitting gloomily at a table, stirring her coke with a plastic spork. What looked like an explosion of pink and glitter glided forward towards her, and Tawni sat down with a huff opposite her friend.
"Sonny," she said, glaring. Sonny made a noncommittal noise in response.
"Sonny you can't go through the whole party like this. I know for a fact that Chad's just as upset as you are right now."
There came a loud woop from the middle of the room, and Chad was seen riding atop several peoples' shoulders with a girl on each arm. Sonny raised an eyebrow at Tawni and she sighed, rolling her eyes.
"He just responds differently to grief than most people," she said, trying to laugh it off. Sonny snorted, and got up, making her way towards the snack table.
"Sonny, wait!" Tawni cried, and she grabbed her wrist, spinning her around and holding both hands in her own.
"Now I know that he doesn't look it, but he's just as heartbroken as you are. Everyone here at Condor Studios means so much to him, especially you! When he told me he was leaving-"
"Oh, so he told you himself, did he?" Sonny asked, nostrils flaring. "And to think I thought that he would have at least cared about me enough to tell me in person! I had to read in a gossip magazine, Tawni, do you know how much that hurt? And he wouldn't even look me in the eye when I asked him if it was true. God, I'm such and idiot," she said, turning around and pounding the wall. Angry tears formed in her eyes.
"Sonny, you should go talk to him," Tawni said gently. "It'll even things out, I promise."
"No, thanks, he probably wouldn't want to waste his last precious hours on somebody like me," she said roughly. She turned to Nico, who was standing nearby.
"Let's dance," she told him fiercely, and he shot Grady a panicked look before twirling off with a ferocious Sonny in his arms. Tawni sighed, and sat back down, replacing Sonny at her coke-stirring pastime.
"Nico," Grady hissed in his friend's ear. "We have to do something-now!"
"Alright!" Nico hissed back, turning away from Sonny for a few seconds. "Just give me a moment to think of something, okay?"
Suddenly there was an "Ahem," and both Sonny and Nico looked around to see a tuxedo-clad Chad Dylan Cooper standing there with an adorable smile. Sonny's eyes widened fearfully, and Nico's eyebrows flew up.
"Never mind then," he muttered to himself, and stepped back away from Sonny, gesturing to Chad to take his place. He and Grady stepped away quietly, and watched the couple with great anticipation, sweat beginning to grow on their foreheads.
"So," Chad said, and his voice cracked. He cleared his throat, blushing, then looked down at Sonny again. "So."
"So…" she said, waiting for him to continue. She found that she couldn't be upset while in his arms.
"I-um, I think I owe you an apology," Chad said bashfully, looking away.
"For…" Sonny pressed, feeling stupid that all she could manage were one word sentences.
"For not telling you that I was leaving." Chad muttered. "And for not talking to or looking at you since you found out."
"Yeah, why haven't acknowledged my presence in the last week?" Sonny asked him softly, tilting her head slightly. Chad bit his lip ashamedly.
"Well, I – I was afraid," he admitted, meeting her eyes again. She could see how brightly they sparkled, even in the dim light.
"Afraid of what?" she asked, looking at him with a mixture of intensiveness and pleading.
"That you wouldn't be bothered by it." Chad was whispering now, and they had almost ceased dancing, resorting to a slow swaying to a familiar song that the both of them had heard before.
"You were afraid that I wouldn't care that you were leaving?" Sonny asked, almost incredulous. "But Chad, that's – that's crazy, I mean, this whole week I've been moping around because of it."
He seemed cheered by this thought, which made her blink. "Really?" he asked, his voice an octave higher.
She nodded earnestly, her brown eyes shining. "I – well, you've come to mean a lot to me, Chad Dylan Cooper, and when you leave…well, I don't really know what's gonna happen to me, because a Hollywood life without you – or any life, really, - well, it just won't be the same."
Chad smiled genuinely, and she couldn't help but smile back. "I'll miss you too, Sonny." He said, and her breath caught. "And…I liked the way you said my full name."
She grinned at him, marveling at how he could turn the conversation back to him at a time like this. But, her smile faded and her expression grew serious as she steeled herself mentally for her next words.
"Well…bye Chad," she said softly, her voice much higher than it usually was.
"Bye Sonny," whispered Chad, tightening his grip on her hand.
The whole room seemed to vanish as their eyes locked, and all of a sudden their faces were quite a bit closer than before, and Sonny could make out every freckle on his fair skin, and every light that shone in his eyes, and suddenly his breath was on her lips and her head was tilting itself to the side, and her eyes were closing themselves…
And then there was a large crash that resounded from somewhere nearby. Sonny and Chad jerked apart, startled, to see Grady shoved into the punch bowl and Nico lying spread eagle on top of him. Both of them looked like they were trying to get out.
"Hmm," Chad said, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Where'd that elevator come from?"
"I have to go," Sonny said suddenly, and she tore herself away from Chad's embrace and ran out the door of the banquet hall, her face in her hands.
"Sonny!" Chad called after her, but she disappeared.
"Hey, that was awesome!" Grady high-fived his best friend as they de-tangled themselves from the punch bowl. "We should ride in mysterious elevators more often!"
"What are you two idiots doing?!" Tawni hissed, dragging them to the side. "Chad and Sonny were just about to kiss when you interrupted them!"
"Were they really?" Nico asked, looking vaguely interested. "Well, anyway, we need to go find Zora, because she left her diamond in the middle of her elevator and we're trying to take it to her but it looks like its some kind of transporter-"
"I don't care about what you're up to!" Tawni snapped, making them go quiet at once. "Just don't in Chad and Sonny's way for the rest of the night, okay?"
And she stalked off, muttering to herself.
"Nico," Grady said hesitantly, sounding distant. "Nico, look at the clock."
Nico glanced up, and then turned to Grady with a weird expression on his face.
"Yeah, it's eight-oh-seven. What up?"
"My cell phone says seven-oh-seven, as does my watch." Grady said, looking very confused.
Nico dug in his pockets for his cell phone. "Yeah, so does mine, actually," he said, frowning. "Weird."
The two stayed like that for a minute, and then both their faces lit up simultaneously and they turned towards each other, broad grins on their faces.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Nico said, rubbing his hands together.
"I think I am!" Grady exclaimed, jumping up and down. "We just time-traveled!"
"Exactly!" roared Nico, and they rushed back to the time machine, inspecting in by prowling around its perimeter.
"Let's go see us in five years," Grady suggested, eyeing the control panel with all the shiny buttons.
"Okay," Nico said, and punched in what he hoped was the date. "Now, pick up the diamond, I think that's how you start it."
Grady bent down and snatched the enormous glittering gemstone off the floor. The time machine began to rattle and glow, and dancing lights swirled around them, and with an enormous blue flash, they were gone.
"Bye, Chad!"
"See you, Chad!"
"Good luck, CDC!"
"Keep in touch, man!"
Sonny pushed her way through the crowd that was gathered around Chad's departing limo. She was breathing heavily, trying to get to the front so that she could at least see him one last time. When she heard the car start and a door slam, she sped up, knowing that it was a matter of seconds before he was gone for good. She managed to burst through the front of the crowd, but he was already moving, pulling away from the curb.
"Chad, wait!" she screamed, waving her arms manically. But he didn't hear her, and neither did the driver, and she watched as that black limo departed slowly, taking with it a big chunk of her heart. She felt a single tear slide onto her cheek as she was jostled and pushed back into the heart of the throng.
"Sonny, Sonny!" she heard her name but didn't turn around. "Go away," she muttered to whoever was calling her. Hands grabbed her shoulders and she found herself face-to-face with Grady.
"I'm really not in the mood to talk to anybody right now, Grady," she said quietly, averting her eyes.
"Sonny, this is important – did you and Chad ever manage to kiss before he left?"
"Wha-? I – no, well, almost, but-"
Grady swore and Nico appeared behind him, looking anxious.
"Sonny," he said seriously. "Listen very carefully, okay? Zora built a time machine and when she left it alone we decided to snoop. We traveled one hour into the future and accidentally stopped your kiss. Sorry, we didn't know. Then, we decided to mess around with it and go five years into the future. But, I pressed the wrong numbers and we went forward ten years."
"A time machine?!" Sonny squeaked, seeing the truth in their eyes.
They nodded. "There's no Condor Studios in the future," Nico continued for Grady. "It's all gone. Me and Grady are in jail for selling you drugs, Sonny, and you're in rehab because apparently you weigh about eighty pounds. And Tawni's in some kind of mental institution because she didn't have anybody in her life. You know how hard it is for her to make friends."
"What about Zora and…and Chad?"
"Zora went MIA a few years ago in a war with planet J-41. And Chad – well, he's um…"
"What?" Sonny asked, narrowing her eyes.
"He's dead."
There was a stunned silence from Sonny and she felt like the room was tipping. Grady grabbed her arm, trying to hold her up.
"Sonny – Sonny, get a grip," he said firmly, shaking her. "We're not finished yet, it gets worse."
"Worse!"
"Apparently, his plane to New York where he was supposed to be filming the movie he's leaving for was taken over by terrorists. Only four women survived." Grady said grimly.
"Well, we've got to do something!" Sonny shrieked, losing her head. "Come on, let's go back in time, one hour at least, and maybe we can convince him to stay, at least for one more day! What are you waiting for, let's go!"
But they just stood there, staring at her, and a sinking feeling began to start in her stomach. "Why aren't we going?" she asked, close to tears.
"Grady left the diamond in two thousand nineteen." Nico explained. "It's the power source or something, and we can't time travel without it."
"WHAT!" she fumed, and stomped over to them, grabbing their ears. "Take me to this time machine – NOW!"
"Yes ma'm," they replied, and without further ado, led her to the parking lot to where said time machine was standing. Sonny raised an eyebrow when she saw it.
"It looks like a regular elevator," she said, walking forward. They just shrugged.
Suddenly, Sonny gave a great yelp of delight. "You guys are such liars, there's an enormous diamond sitting right in front of me!"
Nico and Grady rushed to her side, and gaped when they did indeed see a giant diamond sitting in its slot on the floor. Sonny grinned at them, then marched over to the control panel.
"Okay, let's see," she said, inspecting the buttons. "September 27th, 2009, seven-zero-zero," she said, punching a series of brightly colored buttons.
"Are you sure you punched in the right date and time?" they asked, trying to see for any mistakes she might have made.
"No offense guys," she said happily, bending down to pick up the diamond. "But I'm not an idiot."
Their indignant "Hey!" was lost in a series of whirs and buzzes as the time machine began rattling and the lights started dancing and beeps and blips were heard, and in an explosion of blue light, they were gone.
Two hours earlier:
"Right on time!" Zora said as the time machine appeared in the middle of the prop house. Sonny, Nico, and Grady stepped out, slightly woozy. They spotted Zora's beaming face and straightened up.
"Zora," they said, but she silenced them by holding up her hand.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, you were just here, telling me the whole story," she said. "Now, go, Sonny, and make sure you kiss him before you walk down the hallway at seven-oh-five, okay? Hurry, because you guys should be coming pretty soon, okay?"
As if on cue, the air before them began to ripple and glow, and beams of light began dancing around the time machine.
"GO!" Zora urged them, and they were out the door in a nanosecond.
The trio sped down the hall, with Sonny in the lead, but they stopped short when they saw a couple standing there, kissing. Their arms were so wrapped around each other that it was hard to tell whose hands were whose. Nico and Grady started giggling, and Sonny's mouth fell open when she realized it was her and Chad.
"Sonny?" came a voice, and she turned to see another Chad walking towards her. She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all. Time travel is confusing, she thought.
"Hey, Chad," she said weakly, trying to smile. He merely gaped at himself down the hall.
"Why are we over there – kissing?" he asked. "What is going on? I was just heading down to the party and-"
"Chad," Sonny interrupted. Nico and Grady had managed to sneak off somewhere and were most likely spying on them. "We need to talk. Over there." She pointed to the place where they had previously been.
Poor Chad looked so bewildered. "Am I going crazy?" he asked. "I thought I just saw-"
"Yeah, you did," she said, grinning. "Chad look, I don't want you to go."
Chad raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?" he asked, sounded very interested. "Do tell."
"Well, because if you go, then how are we supposed to do this every day?" she asked, and without the slightest hesitation, stepped up to him and kissed him softly. They were faintly aware of a loud, "Why are we over there – kissing?" but ignored it. It was even better than their almost kiss was/would have been. They broke apart, grinning.
"I'm definitely staying," Chad murmured, and led her out of sight of the group that was watching them kiss – over there.
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Who's confused? *Audience raises their hands* Good! Then I've done my job! Haha, just kidding, I didn't really think this through, that's why it was so bad. Sorry. But, if you can tell me what the name for a biological catalyst is then I will be done with my homework and have more free time to write a better Not Anywhere chapter! So, review, please, and I'll be very happy.