Chapter 2

Kelsey's come out the portal..but where is she really?

The black hole spit her out. She landed palms flat on the pavement. She looked up. She was at the side of a building, one she recognised. It was only then that she noticed that the black hole traded her clothes for a school uniform.

 

Why am I at school?

 

She got up, dusting grey specks from her trousers. She couldn’t understand why the portal took her here. She turned round, but all there remained was a red brick wall. She felt it; hoping for a small black dot. She planned on poking her finger in and stretching it out. No way was she going back to school. She only left yesterday.     

 

It clicked. Maybe she was here to stop herself from letting Mike sit next to her. So Kelsey decided to go inside and upstairs to her science lesson.

 

She went to politely knock, but held herself back. She couldn’t just waltz in and say ‘Hey me! Oi Mike �" get away from her.’ She wouldn’t say something so blatant anyway.

 

She went to another room, knocking on a door down the hall. As she opened it, she looked around the corner and the teacher was waiting for her to ask something, “Sorry sir, you got any revision booklets?” Since it was June, everyone would be revising like crazy - and Kelsey herself knew how well she had to do. At least now Mike wouldn't be a distraction!

 

The teacher looked confused, “Isn’t it a bit early in the year?”

 

How could he have said it was early? Kelsey didn’t recognised the teacher, so thought he was a substitute.

 

“No.” Kelsey said. The teacher pointed to a stack of books at the back of the classroom. He kept eyeing her suspicously too. Maybe there's something wrong with him...

 

As she left, Kelsey looked up at the clock 11.52. She could revise for the next 8 minutes until her past self came out of the classroom. Kelsey normally used the toilet around lunch time - and there her plan of warning herself would work without the risk of both Kelseys seeing each other.

 

Kelsey pushed the heavy grey door. The sensors detected her motions and so the lights flicked on. Kelsey went into the end stall �" the largest, perhaps for disabled people �" and sat down cross legged on the cold floor. She placed down her large pile of revision books onto the floor and picked up the top one.       

 

Her revision started at page seven - ah yes, chemistry, the atoms, Kelsey thought.  But the textbook she was looking at wasn't right - the pages were green around the edges and inside the book the topics weren’t what she'd been studying all year. She hadn’t read about the heart or anything about circulatory systems.

 

Kelsey thought it must've been her - that she hadn't revised enough; so chose to learn about the heart anyway.

 

The main door to the toilet creaked open. Two loud girls were walking along to the sinks. Kelsey heard water gushing from the tap, as one girl gossiped, “She’s such a freak. I don’t see how anyone can stand her.”

 

“She really annoys me. I can’t stand her voice!” The other piped, before mocking a high pitched chipmunk, "'but I didn't know that's went there!' Idiot. She's so lazy. She's can be bothered to learn anything!"

 

"I know! As if Penelope Donovan wasn't annoying enough without being completely useless! And when she dropped that beaker, uh, I can't believe it. Little b***h is gonna bring our grades down!"

 

Kelsey stopped listening after that. Wait, Penelope Donovan? Kelsey lifted her head from her textbook. It isn't possible...

 

"She pathetic," one girl said, "She's so obsessed with Zack Warren. It's not even funny anymore!"

 

"Mmm, she's just so desperate. Why can't he just go up to her and say 'Penny, you're disgusting. Now stop stalking me!' Then she'd be so embarrassed she'd move schools!

Author's Note

Not done! but review plz!

Reviews

[luv2dream]

thank you for submitting into my contest and you have been read.

[None]

Neat story line so far. I love your characters, they are very full and relate-able. Also, I am extremely interested that you have set it further into the future. So cool. I think you have a very interesting, almost movie-like plot you are working with, and I am very intrigued to read more.

Here are a few things I noticed:
- Be careful with POV. You switched from Kelsey's mind to her mom's without any warning or division.
- Take some time away from the whole portal thing and then go back and consider condensing it a bit.
- In my opinion, she is way too calm and okay with the whole portal/time travel thing. Have her figure it out and emotionally deal with it a bit more before she starts walking around the school thinking on how she's going to change things. I mean, how does she even know it's the past? Uniform colors? Things would definitely look different if she went back to her mom's day.
- Good job with clarifying the age difference between the mom and the daughter without explicitly saying that's what you were doing. Also, what kind of apprenticeships is the mom studying for?

I love the perspective and internal voice of your character. It's very realistic and down to earth. She is mature, but her age. I am intrigued by her artistic abilities too. Good job on giving her a well rounded personality, in a difficult, yet believable situation that is more than desperate enough to take a jump through a portal. You introduce and act upon your conflict so well, which is so important. I will stay tuned for the rest!