Chapter 6
Matt Anderson surveyed the harsh, arid landscape of his home world. At his side stood his father, Gideon.
"Are you ready?" Gideon asked.
"Yes," Matt replied, "I know what I'm supposed to do, I won't let you down."
"Good, head through the portal and save the world."
Matt began walking towards the ball of refracted shards of light. He took a deep breath and plunged through.
Matt sat back and looked happily at what he'd written so far. As far as anyone else was concerned, he was writing notes, but history had always been his strongest subject, so he wasn't unduly worried.
What did worry him, however, was anyone finding out what he was writing. He'd worked hard to keep up his tough guy persona through his school years, and he knew if people found out he spent his time writing sci-fi adventures with himself as the hero, he'd be the laughingstock of the school. Matt did not want his reputation ruined on the second day of class.
He normally wouldn't have written these in school at all, but he'd had a great idea the night before and this was the first time he was able to write it. Matt closed the blue notebook he kept all of his writings in as Mr. Harkness ended his lecture, telling his students to begin packing their things. As class ended and everyone filed out into the hallways, eager to go home, Matt put on his usual don't-mess-with-me scowl and headed down the hallway quickly so he could get home and finish writing down his ideas.
He was so focused on getting through the hall without being bothered that he completely collided with a girl going the opposite direction. As he hit her, both of their stacks of books tumbled out of their hands.
"Ah, jeez, I'm so sorry." Matt said apologetically as he crouched down to help the girl separate their things. "That was completely my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going, I'm sorry." I may act like a tough guy, Matt thought, but no one wins points for being rude to women.
"No, it was my fault as well." The girl replied, gathering her books into a pile. "My name is Emily Merchant. What is your's?"
"Matt." He responded, extending his hand. Emily shook it and Matt noticed she had a firm handshake, which Matt liked.
"So, I guess I'll see you around?" Matt said, standing up.
"I guess so." Emily replied. "It was nice to meet you." She said before walking off. Matt found himself watching her go before he realized he had an image to maintain. Aside from the formality, she seemed kinda nice, Matt thought to himself. He grinned to himself as he walked out of the school into the sunshine. I should try and see her again, Matt decided. Tomorrow, I'll see her tomorrow.
XXXXX
Danny Quinn was a happy guy. His senior year was starting off well, he'd managed to stay out of serious trouble so far, and most importantly, he was on his way to see his secret girlfriend. Danny loved the extra thrill having a secret girlfriend entailed. Not that he had a problem dating the smart and beautiful Sarah Page. The secrecy had been one her conditions to date him.
Her parents were incredibly strict about her dating, so in the beginning, she'd rejected all of Danny's offers to go see a movie or get dinner. Danny was nothing if not persistent, however. He'd kept up at it until he'd finally got her to admit the problem. She was devastated, she had feelings for Danny too, but she couldn't go against her parents. That was when Danny suggested the idea of a secret relationship, her parents didn't need to know, he'd told her. Sarah's objection was her friends, who were all very gossipy and over at her house all the time. She was afraid one of them would let it slip in front of her parents. Danny had a solution for that too. They would keep their relationship a secret from everyone. As far as anyone would know, they'd just be friends.
That had been five months ago, and now Danny was heading to one of their favorite rendezvous spots, the grove of trees near the back of the school. As he approached the opening in the tree line, his smile got wider. He really did love Sarah, and she loved him. There was just something about being in her presence that made him feel better about everything.
As he walked into the tree, he heard rustling in the woods to his right. Danny looked, expecting her to jump out at any moment. He wasn't expecting the sudden battle cry from behind him, and he barely had time to turn around before Sarah jumped out from the trees, knocking him flat on his back. They lay there on the ground for a moment, Danny on his back with Sarah laughing as she lay on top of him.
"How'd you make that rustling sound from the other side of the path?" He asked looking up at her.
"Fishing line," Sarah replied, "tied to one of those big branches full of dead leaves."
Danny laughed at her cunning. "Has anyone ever told you you're brilliant?" he asked.
"Not nearly as much as they should." She responded as she leaned down to kiss him. "You can start now, if you like."
"Well, you're brilliant." Danny said grinning as he kissed her back. "Now, can I please get up now?"
"Nope." Sarah replied, smiling at him as she leaned down to kiss him again.
XXXXX
As he walked her home, Becker was battling a fierce internal battle. Take her hand, the impulsive side of his mind yelled, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Danny's. Meanwhile, his less confident side was shouting, don't take her hand; what would she want with a guy like you? She probably has loads of football players clamoring for her attention, why would she agree to go out with a military obsessed guy like you? While the voices kept arguing, Jess began talking again.
"So, we were talking yesterday about your morning workouts and I was wondering if, um, well if you'd mind if I went running with you? I'm not that slow, I mean, I'm probably not as fast as you, but um, if you don't want to, that's fine."
Becker was shocked. She wanted to run with him. Maybe she didn't understand how much he ran every morning.
"You do know I run two miles every morning, right?" He asked cautiously
"Yeah, I can do it." Jess replied earnestly, "I ran track here for the last three years, but I quit this year to focus on my studies. I just want to stay in shape."
"If you think you're up to it, ok. I'll meet you in front of your house at 6 tomorrow morning." Becker tried to keep his voice casual, but inside he was feeling a combination of excitement and worry. He was excited that he could spend more time with her, in running shorts no less, but he was worried she would only want to spend time with him if it was workout related.
"Um, about the time," Jess began. Becker immediately became more worried, she'd want to move it later so she could sleep more and that would mess him up, but he knew he wouldn't say anything out of fear of chasing her off.
"Do you think we could move it to 5:30? I'll need the extra time to get ready." Becker was caught off guard by the request to move the time up, and could only tell her that it wouldn't be a problem.
Her whole body seemed to perk up. "Oh, good." She replied cheerfully, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, then. Bye Becker." She walked off to her apartment. Becker just watched her go, completely dumbstruck by what had just happened. Did I just agree to run thirty minutes earlier?
XXXXX
Matt sat down at his desk later that night with his blue notebook on the desk. He'd just had the idea for the portals to also go back into Earth's past and bring dinosaurs for Matt to fight. Matt sat down to write and opened his notebook excitedly.
And then stopped. The handwriting in the notebook wasn't his. It was an elegant, flowing cursive, as opposed to Matt's short, concise block lettering. Matt flipped through the notebook in terror; each page had the same writing. This wasn't a joke, someone else had his notebook. Matt checked the front cover of the book and saw the name written in the same flowing script, Emily Merchant.
After his initial few moments of fear and concern, Matt began reading through Emily's writings. Her writings were short pieces, but each one was full of detailed descriptions and powerful imagery. Compared to her writings, Matt felt like an idiot child writing about his day. Where Emily had descriptions of the scenery and nature, Matt had large fight scenes between himself and a ten foot alien that could shoot acid out of any one of its eight tentacles. Emily's writings went into detail when describing what each person looked like and how they acted. Matt didn't think he even wrote about the color of his character's hair.
Looking over everything Emily wrote, Matt realized he had a choice. He could never write another word in his free time, or he could begin improving his writing right now. Matt had never considered himself a quitter, so he grabbed a sheet of paper and his pen.
XXXXX
Becker sat in his bed, trying to force himself to go to sleep. Every time he tried, however, one name kept popping back into his head. He just couldn't get Jess off of his mind. Except for one way. There was one surefire way to get his mind off of Jess, but he'd done it the night before, it was why he'd gotten so little sleep. He stayed in his bed for another ten minutes, trying to get to sleep. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and he threw the blankets off of himself, getting out of bed.
No one knew about the secret he kept in a box under his bed. He would be mortified if his father found it. And he didn't think he would be able to stand the humiliation if someone like Danny found it. Becker got on his knees next to his bed and reached underneath it to grab the cardboard box. He gave one final sigh of resignation and pulled the box out, taking the top off and setting it to the side.
Becker reached into the box and pulled out his stack of poetry along with the pack of paper and pen he used to write it. Becker looked through the stack of poems he had written about Jess the night before. After reading through his Jess-related pile, Becker read a few he had written about going to the shooting range with his father, and some about the death of his grandmother. With another sigh, Becker grabbed his pen and sat back against his bed, waiting for the words to come to him.
AN: Yes, Becker writes poems about Jess and Matt fantasizes about being an action hero. Deal with it. I do not do poetry, I draw the line at fanfiction, but if someone can write me a good poem that Becker would have written for Jess. I'll put it in here and credit you for it. If not, I'll just leave it vague. Please review, and don't worry, the Conby will return in the next chapter.