I think this is the quickest I've ever updated. I wouldn't suggest getting used to it, though. This one was also in development for a while, I just needed to write it down. This one's a chatty one, so get ready for a lot of back and forth. With that said, enjoy this latest chapter!

(Nicholas is 16, Connie is 15)

It had been a few months since the incident in the store. Nicholas had looked into what happened with the girl named Connie, but he was still confused. What could possibly cause a person to time travel? No amount of science could possibly allow it to make sense, no matter how hard he looked, and it was rather taxing on his mind.

Into his next school year, he tried to progress as if things were normal. But, seeing a thing like that and not being able to talk about it for fear of looking crazy was maddening in and of itself. He couldn't forget the look on the poor girl's face, lost and alone. He felt a sense of sadness for her, being suddenly thrown around anywhere at any time, without so much as the shirt on your back. How are you supposed to live with that, he wondered. He also wondered if her parents would know about it, and what they wanted to do. Did she have any friends? Would she always go somewhere she could be safe? There were too many questions he wanted to ask her, but above all, one important question loomed: Would he ever see her again?

His friends can tell that there's something on his mind, but they leave it alone and convince themselves that, "He'll talk about it when he wants to talk about it." He doesn't like worrying them, but he also doesn't want to seem crazy or delusional for telling them that he helped a little girl who suddenly disappeared. He had his mother, who was present during that incident, to talk to about it, but she told him that there's been no record of any missing girl named Connie, so unless he could get more information somehow, he was going to have to let it be.

Day by day went by, and it didn't seem like he'd run into her again. He almost hoped that any stray sound from a bush or behind a tree might be her, happy to see a familiar face. But to wish that on someone, especially the little girl he remembered, was selfish, he told himself.

It was a mid-September's day, and classes were over for the day. Every student started on their usual path towards home. Nicholas, in particular, took the bus down the street to arrive at the nearest stop and walk the rest of the way home. He arrived at his stop as always without too much delay, as it was a public bus that stopped more often than a school bus, and always took time to assist people in wheelchairs. He himself took his time walking home, deciding to take the scenic route through the park on the next block. His parents wouldn't be home until the evening, so as long as he was home before them, there was no problem.

He eventually reached a bench at the corner of the park, flanked by the brick walls belonging to the homes next to it. He had never walked so much in a single day, so his feet were begging to rest. Resigning to take a break, he lay his backpack on the ground and slumped onto the bench.

Resting peacefully, Nicholas took a glance out at the whole park before him. There was barely a soul out there, save for the occasional jogger. Taking in this moment of peace, he wondered to himself just why he was so obsessed with seeing Connie again. It didn't feel like one of those fated meetings that was all over the different kinds of young adult novels. Those involved bumping into someone around your age at a museum or a coffee shop, not finding a naked five year old in the clothing department. It felt more like...finding an injured animal and helping it back on its feet. Wary at first, but takes to you once you show that you mean no harm. That's definitely what it felt like. She wasn't an animal, of course, but he felt the indescribable and inexplicable need to help her. As he wondered why this was, he heard the sudden noise of a twig snapping.

He looked in the direction it came from. To his right was a rather large tree. Looking around it, still sitting on the bench, he couldn't find anything that could have made that noise. No animals, no fallen fruit, nothing. In the back of his mind, he thought it might be her again. At this point, however, he had already convinced himself that he was just being too hopeful. "I'm going crazy." He said out loud. But another noise came up that was a little more solid.

"Psst." A voice called. That made him much more alert. Whoever made that sound, they were behind the tree. Nicholas stood up from the bench and walked carefully to the tree. Once he was close to it, he stepped quickly around, trying to surprise whoever was waiting behind the tree in case it wasn't her. But luck was in his favor again this time. It was like meeting her for the first time all over again. She did look different in that she now looked to be more his age, but it was the same blonde curls he remembered and almost the same face.

"Connie?" Was the only word out Nicholas' mouth.

"Hi, Nick." Connie waved as much as she could with her right hand, as her right arm was being used to cover her chest, while her left hand was settled between her legs.

"Look at you!" Nicholas was so overtaken with joy, he embraced Connie with his arms wide.

"Yeah. Look at me. Could you lend me something? It's a little chilly for me to be naked." She sounded slightly annoyed.

Once again, Nicholas' habit of not reading the atmosphere kicked in. "Sorry!" His first thought was to lend her his jacket, but taking a closer look, he realized that they were roughly the same height. Her top half would be fine, but everything below the waist would be exposed to the elements. He then remembered something and ran back to his backpack. Connie looked from behind the tree to find Nicholas pulling something out of his backpack. It was a white shirt with his school's name on the front and a pair of blue shorts with his last name written on a small tag on one of the legs. "How's this?"

"Your gym clothes?"

"Sorry. It's all I got right now. I didn't do a whole lot today, so they shouldn't smell that bad..."

"Guess I can't be picky..." Connie sighed, taking the clothes and slipping them on. They fit her as well as Nicholas thought they would.

"Take this too, if you're still cold." Nicholas handed her his jacket.

"You sure you won't be cold?"

"I'll be fine. You're gonna give it back anyway."

Connie uttered a short laugh and put the jacket on. "How long has it been, anyway?"

"Half a year, almost." Nicholas came back to the bench and sat down. "I found you hiding in the clothing department."

Connie sat next to him, searching in her mind for the event. "Uhh...was I young then?"

"Really young. You didn't know what happened to you."

"Right! That must have been one of my first travels." Connie clapped her hands upon remembering.

"How do you forget something like that?"

"Well, it's hard enough to remember things from when you were only five or six. Imagine trying to remember things that happened a long time ago, but everyone else tells you like it was just yesterday."

"Yeah. My mom does that all the time..."

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna hold that against you. But you were acting like it had been years ago."

"Felt like it. I wasn't sure I was going to see you again." Nicholas glanced over her. "How old are you right now?"

"Fifteen."

"Sixteen, myself. My birthday wasn't too long ago."

"Same here, not that that matters right now..." Connie paused and swung her legs on the bench. "Were you waiting for me?"

"Kind of. I looked into that condition of yours."

"What'd you find?" Connie seemed extremely curious.

"Not much. A bunch of people refusing to believe it exists, and those who do believe it don't have a whole lot of information." Nicholas crossed his arms. "About the same as I saw: Naked person shows up either from the past or future, and after a while, disappears, leaving behind anything they might have been carrying."

"Oh..." Connie looked rather disappointed.

"Yeah. Most of the information was from stories of people who knew people with the condition. Like one person who said their son visited them from the future when they weren't even dating anyone yet. And someone who said he knew who his girlfriend was gonna be because she showed up as an adult when he was a little boy."

"Interesting." Was all Connie answered with.

Nicholas was a little surprised by that response. "That's it? I thought you'd be happy to hear that there were others like you."

"Well, I kind of already knew that." She stretched her arms above her head.

"Really? You've met other people who can do it?"

"No. But the condition is a little more known where I come from."

"So does that means you're from the future?"

"Yup. Don't ask me how far. I don't want to scare you."

"Okay..." That statement confused Nicholas, but he let it go. "Do we still meet?"

"All the time." She smiled. "And you're always super helpful."

"Well, that's nice to know, at least." He smiled in return. "What about your home life? How do your folks deal with it?"

"They told me they already knew I could time travel after I came back from when you first found me."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Apparently, I survived some sort of accident by traveling when I was a baby. They thought it would be better to tell me once I was old enough to grasp the basic idea." She shifted slightly, like it had been the first in a long time she was telling this. "It was a little confusing at first. They didn't know how I did it or why I can do it. But they never gave up on me. They'll tell me that as long as I came back to them, that was all that mattered."

"Wow. Your parents sound pretty cool."

"The coolest!" Connie had the biggest smile on her face. "They'd always ask me about what I saw, pushing me to write things down in a journal."

"That would be handy."

"Yeah. Especially when you open it to find messages you wrote as someone older. They were usually things like remembering certain dates or reminding where certain things were."

"Woah." It took a moment for Nicholas to process that idea. "Wish I could do that."

"Trust me, you don't want this condition. Not every travel has been pleasant."

"Sorry...I didn't mean to..." He began to feel a little awkward.

"It's okay. You can't do what I do, so I can't expect you to always know how I'm feeling."

"I just wish there was more I could do to help you." He looked down at his feet with grief.

"Hey." Connie brought back his attention. "You do enough. You're going to keep doing well for me. That, you can trust me on."

"Really?" He asked, to which Connie nodded in response. He finally decided to ask something that had been on his mind. "Are we ever gonna actually meet? Or are you just gonna be this phantom girl I keep running into and helping?"

"Don't worry about that. We'll meet eventually."

"Care to tell me when that is so I stop panicking about it?"

Connie took a big breath. "Sorry. It's kinda like the movies. Knowledge of the future can be dangerous."

"Oh..."

Connie put a hand on his shoulder. "You already made a good first impression by helping me back then. By the time we actually meet, it'll be like we've known each other for years!"

Nicholas looked at her for a moment, but then smiled. "Okay. I won't worry about it, then. Just let it happen as it comes, right?"

"Exactly. The one thing about the future you can tell someone is not to worry about..." She was cut off mid-sentence when she suddenly vanished, which took Nicholas by surprise, as he had never seen it happen in front of him. He didn't think it would be so sudden or so quick. Just like that, he found himself looking at his gym clothes and jacket on the bench next to him.

He shook himself back to reality, put the gym clothes back into his backpack, and put his jacket back on. Heading home, he couldn't get rid of the satisfied look on his face. Getting to know that not only would they be meeting eventually in their lives, but that she was happy to know him as well. He also smiled at the fact that the little girl he helped grew up to be rather pretty.

Then he paused. He was so overwhelmed by the fact that he got to see Connie again, he forgot the most important fact. He saw a girl near his age completely naked! Any boy his age would have a certain reaction to seeing something like that. So why didn't he?

Hope you all enjoyed this one. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do next. I think I have enough continuing storylines for now, but that can always change. I might do some single chapter stories, but that'll come later. Before I forget, I'd like to thank Moviac for the idea that spawned this chapter. You've given this story some much needed meat.

Once more, if you've got any questions or comments, click that sweet review button.