Games For Money-Chapter 6

The next three days were uneventful. No letters, calls or riddles. Nothing came. I was really starting to worry. Maybe they had subbed us out. Or maybe they were waiting for us to make a move. Maybe they were waiting for us to go up to them and ask.

I was still debating the possibilities when I walked into chemistry. I was relatively early, so I figured I had time to think over everything. But what happened next drove that clean out of my mind.

Malhaar entered the classroom. Her appearance was striking. She was ashen faced and looked...I don't know how to describe this...less mature. Her face looked kind of empty like it had something missing. I ran across the room and skidded to a stop before. She looked up and make an effort to look normal. But I could see that there was something she was hiding. She had news.

"What happened? " I asked.

She brushed me off with a disgusted look. I wasn't sure why, but that got me angry, angrier than I should have gotten. It was just so irritating. How could she? Why? She honestly should tell me. I was slowly getting angrier, and I wasn't making an effort to stem the growing feeling of wrath. But she just kept walking away. She knew, she just knew. She knew something and she wasn't telling me about it.

Why? Why should I always be the one to try and fix a friendship? Why should I always go back? I guess i just cared too much for my own good.

I ran after her and screamed, " tell me about it now!"

She looked at me as if she had no idea what I was talking about. " Stop acting!" I shouted and people started to stare.

" Who the hell are you?", she replied, giving me a weird superior look.

"Hilarious. Soo funny. "

" Just please leave me alone?"

I looked at her surprised. How could she joke about things like this right now? Then, I heard a loud noise. I turned to see the rest of my class. But...their faces, they were all Happy. Happy? Happy before chemistry? Something was really wrong.

One of them stood out. Her face was familiar. But…how could she be back? I looked closer and saw that it was indeed her. But how? She had shifted to New York a while ago.

“Keshvi?”

She came up to me and said, “duh! What’s up?”

I was so stunned and so happy that I launched at her and hugged her. (Malhaar, don’t feel bad)

“Woah. Not used to the affection. What the hell happened to ya?”

I broke off and said, “you came back?!”, with my voice rising an octave. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I didn’t care. 

“Yeah! Africa is amazing!”

Africa? She went there a year ago. For a Christmas trip. I looked around my classroom taking in the place. Wait, what? No. I could see the chart I made on magnets lying on the teacher's table. I remembered working on the 3D models all year. Where did that come from?

I looked at Keshvi and said, “what year is it?”

“Why, it’s 2022! New year! Aren’t you so happy?”

“Um, yeah”

“What happened?”, she asked, looking concerned, “you’ve gone all pale.”

“Nothing, nothing,”

I refused to believe it. how could I be back here? Suddenly, something occurred to me. I had obviously gone back in time. And I still don’t know how. But could this maybe be the next round in the games?

My head began to spin. How long would I have to be here? What would happen if I took too long? Would I really have to relearn fractions?