Chapter 5

"Mean?"

She sighed. "Yes, that's the name of the song." She found Jester so annoying. Maybe because she knew he liked her. Plus he was just strange. He walked around in a Halloween costume and was wearing the same thing she had seen him wear when her mind had been in Jane's body. He seemed like he just wanted attention, so he went about walking backwards and dancing in front of people, and telling jokes that Kayla found somewhat funny but would never admit it. She was sure she would end up tripping over him soon enough. Maybe that was his intention.

"Well, let's hear it." Kayla wished he would stop looking at her in the way he was. It made her so uncomfortable.

"Okay, I can the first verse and we can sing the chorus together. Do you play guitar or something?"

Jester looked confused. He was very knowledgeable about instruments but had never heard of a guitar. "No, I play the lute. I'll go get it." He got up from the table by the kitchen they were sitting at and went off into the direction of the gardens. Kayla was starting to wish she had come up with something other than singing to get herself in the castle. Wasn't she good at anything else? Gardening? she thought. No. Cooking? Definitely not. She laughed to herself. Jester then returned a few seconds later. He sure made a point of coming back soon. She sighed again.

"Here's my lute. Do you play any instruments?"

"I play guitar."

"Oh." He looked at his lute and wondered what a guitar was like.

"Can I see your lute?" She could play guitar so why couldn't she play the lute? He handed his instrument over to her. It was very different. It had a whole lot of string, was shaped differently, and was a different size. She experimented plucking and fingering notes but found she could not play it. She handed it back to him. "Maybe you should come up with a lute part on your own."

He nodded and Kayla sang the first verse, showing him the melody. Then they practiced the chorus, singing a harmony. Kayla had Jester memorize the parts that he would sing, and he experimented with coming up with a lute part. Luckily Jester was fast at memorizing. Their practice was done by mid-afternoon. Kayla hurried away to find Jane as quickly as she could, and she didn't look forward to having to dodge Jester all the time, for he always showed up when she didn't want him to. Kayla just plain didn't like him.

Jane was in her room, studying a book. Kayla figured she would be there, as she was nowhere to be found in the practice yard, gardens, or kitchen. She knocked on the door and Jane answered it, letting her in. It was awkward for them to start a conversation, for even though they wanted to get to know each other, after all they had been through and in such little time, it was strange. Kayla decided to complain about Jester, to get a conversation started. "I can't stand that court jester person. He's just annoying as can be."

Jane looked sad. "He's my friend, or well, he used to."

Kayla immediately regretted ragging on him. "I'm sorry."

Jane smiled. "It's alright. It's just…"

Kayla knew she was a bit selfish in this respect but she liked it when other people had emotional problems. She loved figuring out people's problems and, hopefully, solving them. She figured she might become a psychologist one day, if not a singer. "What is it?" Kayla felt she already knew. She recalled when Jester had told her (when she was Jane) that he loved her.

"He told me he 'loved me' though I'm not sure if that's true or not and ever since he's been avoiding me. It's been a year. Our friendship has been ruined."

Kayla smiled. She enjoyed the thought of her intervening. "Maybe I can get you two together again."

Jane straightened up and looked at her askance. "Really?"

"Oh yes. I know he likes me but I don't like him one bit. To tell the truth, I kind of like Gunther." Kayla blushed and Jane tried hard not to roll her eyes. "I see two ways to deal with this. One, you can convince him that you've forgotten that he told you he loves you. But I wouldn't suggest that. His confession was a major step for you two and it would be pointless to undo it. The second thing you could do is show him that there's no need to be embarrassed and that you like him. You need to convince him that it was a good thing."

Jane thought about this. "How do I do that?"

"No clue." Kayla shrugged and eagerly said, "Do you want to see the things I brought with me?"

"Sure." Jane smiled. Kayla seemed to be an energetic and fun person. Kayla practically leaped out of the room and then ran down the steps down to the courtyard and tried her best to remember how to get to her room. She found the entrance to the Throne Room and was relieved that no one was there, so she quickly made her way to the hallway and searched for her room. Minutes later, she found it, grabbed her bag, and went back the way she had come. Ten minutes later (finding the exit to the castle was harder than she had expected) she came rushing to Jane's door, toting her bag. She immediately took out her iPhone.

Jane remembered when the device had made a strange noise that had frightened her, causing her to destroy the thing. She now felt bad, knowing it had belonged to Kayla. "What is that?" She couldn't think of anything to relate it to.

"It's called an iPhone. It's a computer and a phone."

"I have no idea what you just said."

Kayla pondered, wondering how she would explain a computer and the Internet. Explaining the concept of a phone was simple enough, so she started with that. "Phones are devices you use to talk to anyone in the world. You just press some buttons and you can 'call' someone else anywhere in the world by putting their phone number in. Each phone has its own number so you can call that phone. It's kind of like shouting someone's name and they shout back, except the phone number is like the name and you don't have to shout. You hear their voice in the phone and they hear yours. It doesn't matter how far away you are."

Jane nodded. She tried her best to understand Kayla's analogy.

"And then there are computers. Computers are machines that have these settings where you can do stuff on them like write except you press keys for the letters. There is the Internet, which is thing with a lot of information there that you can access. It's like a book except you can find anything on it and it's not hard to find. iPhones are phones and computers all in one device." Kayla turned her iPhone on and out of curiosity, typed in Google to see what would happen. There was no signal, of course. Expressing her disappointment, Kayla sighed, looking at her iPhone. There were some disadvantages to travelling to the past. "You can also listen to music on it," Kayla continued. She looked at her iTunes songs that she had downloaded and decided to play the song Mean, as she and Jester would soon be performing it.

Jane was surprised, but delighted. She sort of liked the song, though it was different. She was fascinated by the idea of music coming out of this device. Kayla stopped the music. "Yeah, that's the song Jester and I are singing." She out away her iPhone and took out her flashlight. She turned it on. Jane was mesmerized by it. Light seemed to magically come out of it and as the sky was cloudy and Jane's windows were closed, it lit up Jane's room and gave it a yellowish glow. "How does that work?" Jane asked.

"Well this dude named Thomas Edison invented the light bulb about a thousand years from now and light comes out of it when it has electricity. Electricity is power that makes something work. This thing is called a flashlight and batteries," Kayla showed Jane the extra batteries she had brought. "Make it work. It's like a smaller torch." She handed the flashlight to Jane, who eagerly switched it on and off.

Jane remembered her unanswered question, and having heard the word again, asked, "What's a dude?"

Kayla laughed and said, "It's just another word for a person." She took the flashlight from Jane and put it away. She took out a chocolate bar and her coke. "This is chocolate and this is coke. They are foods that are really good. Do you know what sugar is?"

Jane shook her head.

"It grows in a faraway place from here and it hasn't been discovered yet." She paused. "At least I don't think it has." She shrugged. "I don't know; I'm not that good at history. Do you have a cup?" Jane got up an fetched a cup from the shelf. Kayla poured her a cup of the coke.

Jane nearly choked, as she was very surprised by the flavor and fizziness. "What's is this?" she asked, coughing.

"It's soda. The fizziness is carbon dioxide they put in it."

Jane looked at her. "What?"

"Never mind." Kayla knew there was no point in trying to explain the science of the Earth's atmosphere to Jane. She unwrapped a chocolate bar and gave some to Jane, who very much liked the taste of it.

Kayla and Jane went through a few more of Kayla's things, in which Kayla explained pens, paper, and the concept of the printing press. At dinnertime, they left Jane's room and went to the tables by the kitchen where Smithy, Rake, and Jester were already gathered. There was an empty seat beside Jester, who was hoping Kayla would want to sit there, but Kayla sat beside Smithy on the other side and winked at Jane, who sat beside Jester. They hadn't sat together in a long time. Kayla enjoyed sitting next to Smithy, who she liked, but as she was too fickle, she decided she would focus any romantic feelings on Gunther.

Kayla was asked many questions, including "What kingdom are you from and what is it like?" and "How do seem to know Jane?" Kayla came up with answers that did not reveal the fact that she had traveled back in time. Dinner didn't taste as good as what Kayla was used to, but she knew they didn't have the resources she was used to. She dealt with the annoying question and looks from Jester, and soon went to her room where she did some serious thinking.