OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery

by Kat, Bob

  “Sure am. Your sister’s really pretty. Where does she get her clothes?”

  “Believe it or not, Salvation Army.”

  Coach Decker looked seriously at Austin and then smiled. “You guys . . . always kidding.”

  “Not always.” Austin followed the coach into the locker room.

  The final class period bell sounded and students rushed to their lockers, buses and the parking lot. Everyone was anxious to get home so they could get ready for the big game. No one had much hope of winning, but at least there would be a dance afterward. Wendy walked up and tapped Zoey on the shoulder. “Ready to go?”

  “Oh hey . . . sure.” She walked with Wendy several blocks from the school to her house. When this was all a crazy story told to her by a nerd and a newbie, Zoey hadn’t really cared what happened as long as she got back home soon. But now that she knew . . . and liked Wendy, who was a real flesh-and-blood person, it had become serious. She couldn’t imagine that in less than twelve hours, Wendy would be dead. Wendy who was so full of life. What could possibly happen to make her do what she did? Or did she? Zoey glanced over at Wendy who was laughing and talking about something funny that had happened in class that day. It was then that Zoey resolved that, no matter what, she couldn’t let that happen. She would do whatever it took to save Wendy’s life.

  Once they arrived at Wendy’s house, she became even more confused. Wendy’s mother met them at the door. It had been announced at school that Wendy was going to be the Homecoming Queen, and Wendy couldn’t wait to tell her mom. Her mother wrapped her in a big hug and greeted Zoey with genuine warmth. Even Wendy’s little brother had torn himself away from his cartoons to congratulate her.

  Wendy’s room was typical teenager décor with dozens of photos of The Beatles, The Monkees and a half dozen other groups that Zoey didn’t recognize taped to the walls and around her mirror. Conspicuously missing were boyfriend, even ex-boyfriend photos. Zoey thought of her own mirror with its collection of photos of her friends, boys . . . lots of boys . . . and memorable events. Wendy had none of those. It was odd, and Zoey made a note of it to discuss with Scott later.

  “You don’t have a flatiron, do you?” Zoey asked, hopefully.

  “What’s a flatiron?”

  “It’s sort of like a curling iron, but has two flat surfaces that you run over your hair, and it straightens it.”

  “No, but I can iron your hair if you want me to.”

  “Iron?”

  “Yeah, we’ll get my mom’s ironing board.”

  “Seriously?” Zoey was a little horrified at the prospect, but she hated how curly her hair was without her Moroccan Argan oil and her flatiron, so she was willing to try anything.

  Sure enough, Wendy plugged in her mother’s iron and set up the ironing board. When it got warm, she got a paper bag which she cut open so it lay flat. “Just lean down and I’ll stretch your hair out and iron it. Then when we get through with yours, you can do mine.”

  Zoey did as she was told and tried not to think about how much damage was being done as Wendy combed her hair flat, placed the bag over it, then ironed it. The smell was awful, and she could practically hear her ends splitting, but when Wendy had finished, Zoey had to admit that her hair was smooth and straight, just like she wanted.

  “Okay, your turn.” Zoey returned the favor by ironing Wendy’s hair. It took a little practice, and Zoey burned her fingers twice, but the end result was pretty good. The two girls stood in front of the mirror and admired their images.

  “I love it when my hair is straight,” Zoey said. “You’ll love flatirons . . . uh, someday maybe if someone invents them.”

  They looked through the dresses in Wendy’s closet and picked out what they were going to wear that night. Zoey would dress before the game. She hadn’t been able to actually make the cheer squad because they hadn’t needed a back-up for tonight. Wendy would wear her cheerleader outfit to the game and change after the game in the locker room. They experimented with makeup until they felt they had achieved perfection.

  Wendy’s dad drove them to the stadium, and Wendy was upbeat and excited about the evening ahead. It just didn’t add up, and Zoey was growing more desperate by the moment.

  SCOTT DROPPED BY the Avalon on his way to the game. Kelly skated up to him, still shaky, but much less dangerous than yesterday. She brought him a Coke and sat down to take a quick break with him.

  “Thanks. How are your blisters?” he asked.

  “Painful. I can’t wait to get back in my flip-flops. These skates weigh a ton.” They were silent for a moment. “I’m really nervous about tonight.”

  “Yeah, me too. We’re not any closer to finding out the truth.”

  “I know. But now it’s so real.”

  “According to the newspaper story it happened sometime after the football game. No one saw her at the dance or anywhere else until they found her body Saturday morning.”

  “I don’t think the article ever said what she was wearing, did it?”

  Scott shook his head.

  “It would have helped us pin down the time better.”

  Scott pulled a piece of notebook paper out of his pocket and spread it out on the table. “Austin drew us a map of the football field and locker room area.”

  Kelly studied the drawing that clearly showed the field, locker room exit doors, girls’ locker room, the bleachers and even the chain link fence that surrounded the stadium and the gates where everyone would enter and exit.

  “So Austin is going to come out here, and Zoey here.” Scott pointed to two points on the map. “Zoey and I are going to wait right outside the door to the girls’ locker room. There’s no way she or anyone else . . . can get by us there. You can meet us there after you get off. Okay?”

  Kelly nodded. Her stomach was twisted into knots. Tonight was so important. If they failed to clear Wendy’s reputation or find out why she had died, then all this would be for nothing. She just couldn’t bear to think about that. Failure simply wasn’t an option.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  By 6:30 p.m. the football stadium seats were nearly full to capacity for this year’s homecoming game against the Naples Golden Eagles. Zoey, wearing Wendy’s red mini dress, looked beautiful. Scott sat next to her, feeling a little underdressed in his khakis and t-shirt while the guys around them were wearing suits. The crowd rose as the band struck up the South Beach fight song that sounded a lot like the music played for nearly a hundred years at the University of Notre Dame. Wendy and the rest of the cheer squad lined one side of the lane in front of the break-through banner. The band’s majorettes had the other side covered. As Wendy was the head cheerleader, her position was to hold the ten-foot-tall pole with the drum major holding the other, and she was braced for what surely would be several tons of jazzed-up teenage testosterone crashing through.

  Suddenly, the team ran onto the field and burst through the paper banner painted with BEAT THE EAGLES in South Beach’s royal blue-and-white school colors. Wendy survived the jolt and bounced across the field with the other cheerleaders, doing cartwheels and a back handspring series that made the crowd cheer even louder. All eyes were on her and she knew it. She really put it all out there on the field.

  Zoey screamed and clapped for Austin as he jogged toward the home team’s bench. He looked incredibly hot in the tight white pants and shoulders made even broader by the heavy pads under the dark blue jersey. She was usually on the field in her own blue and white cheer squad outfit, but this gave her a new perspective, plus she could spend the whole game staring at him instead of catching only a quick glance at him between cheers.

  Scott leaned toward her and whispered into her ear. “I forgot to tell Austin something.”

  “What?”

  Scott motioned for her to come closer by crooking his index finger. She bent closer and he said, “I hope he doesn’t have a good game.”

  Zoey jerked back, outraged. “Why would you say such a thing?”

  “Bec
ause if the local papers interview him and they use his name and take any pictures, Austin will be part of the school history. Then when we go back to school there will be a record of him playing football in 1966.”

  “Oh that is a problem, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah . . . big problem.” Scott rubbed his forehead, trying to think of a solution. Finally, he stood and told Zoey, “I’ll be back.” With that he worked his way out of the bleachers and down to the sideline where he started to yell at Austin and wave him over. Austin was concentrating on the on-field action, but one of his teammates finally noticed and gave him a nudge. He looked back and saw Scott. Reluctantly, he tore himself away from the group and jogged to where Scott was standing. After a brief conversation Austin returned to the bench and Scott to his seat next to Zoey.

  “What did he say?”

  “If you know him at all, you know it isn’t in his nature to do anything at less than 100% full throttle. But he promised to avoid interviews and to leave his helmet on around photographers. It’ll be interesting to see how he makes this happen.”

  As with most high school football games, this one moved along pretty quickly. Austin tried to minimize his skills and experience. He had to lead a team who was unfamiliar with his style and low on talent. They suffered through several fumbles and too many dropped passes to count, but luckily the other team wasn’t having a good night either. The first half was tied at seven-seven when the teams headed for their locker rooms. The cheerleaders, too, left the field, and Zoey popped up and hurried down to their locker room. Wendy had promised to let her in during the half, and since that worked into the plan perfectly, Zoey complied.

  The second half started with South Beach kicking off and giving up a runback for a touchdown. South Beach held the ball for one play before fumbling and Zoey, who had returned to her seat when Wendy returned to the field, could see the frustration on Austin’s face as he threw his helmet down on the sideline.

  “This isn’t good.” Scott shook his head in frustration. “He’s forgotten where he’s at and why.”

  Zoey smiled, secretly wanting Austin to save the game and to worry about the press later. She was a cheerleader at heart and couldn’t go against her team, even if it was generations before her time. By the end of the third quarter, Austin’s two touchdowns passes had inspired the team to rediscover their defensive strategy and hold the Eagles.

  Going into the fourth quarter seven points ahead, Austin finished it off with another perfectly thrown pass for another touchdown. He trotted to the sideline and laughed in jubilation as the team surrounded him, pounding him on the head and shoulders. He was being Austin. A potential all-state quarterback in two different centuries. The game ended with a fourteen-point victory and Austin, Zoey and Scott all made eye contact and nodded as they took their assigned positions as diagramed on the napkin the night before.

  Scott and Zoey hurried out of the stands and stood just outside the girls’ locker room, waiting for Wendy while everyone filed out of the double-wide stadium gate that exited into the parking lot. Austin was tied up in a team meeting under the stands, but they knew he would join them as soon as he could.

  Kelly came limping up and had to wait until most of the people had gone out of the gate before she could slip inside. “So how did it go?”

  “We won!” Zoey exclaimed with delight. Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader.

  “Oh, no,” Kelly grimaced. “We were supposed to lose.”

  “I know,” Scott agreed. “I tried to tell him, but Austin owned the second half. He could do no wrong.”

  “He was totally awesome.” Zoey was crushing on him, so in her eyes, everything he did was amazing.

  “Remember we’re here to prove that Wendy didn’t kill herself . . . just find out the truth,” Scott reminded them. “We’ve already broken enough rules. We can’t change history. That was our agreement.”

  The stadium was completely empty by the time Wendy came out of the locker room. She was wearing a sparkly little black dress that made her look older than her seventeen years.

  “Oh my God Wendy, you did so great. I wish I could do that many back handsprings and get your height on my jumps,” Zoey gushed and gave her hug.

  “It’s nothing really . . . just practice, practice, practice.” She glowed at the praise. Her cheeks were flushed from the exercise and the excitement.

  “That dress is really hot,” Zoey said. “I wish my mom would let me wear something like that.”

  “I’m sure she will when you’re seventeen,” Wendy assured her. “Let’s go. We’re going to have a blast at the dance. Where’s Austin?”

  “He’s still with the team,” Zoey told her.

  “I can’t wait until he . . . uh, everyone sees me with Austin. He’s got a lot of girls trying to get him to notice them.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” Zoey muttered.

  They were standing just inside the gate when Wendy’s attention was drawn toward the parking lot. The same old pickup truck that had dropped her off at work was parked off to the side and had flashed his bright lights twice. “Hey, I’ll be right back. There’s someone I need to talk to.” Before anyone could say anything, she walked through the gate and jogged over to the truck.

  The window on the passenger’s side rolled down, and she talked to the driver through it. Scott, Kelly and Zoey exchanged worried looks, but didn’t know what to do. They couldn’t hear the conversation. All of a sudden, the driver leaned over and opened the passenger door from the inside and pushed it open.

  “What’s Coach Decker doing out there with Wendy?”

  The other three turned to see that Austin had walked up behind them.

  “That’s Coach Decker?” Scott asked.

  “Yeah, it’s his first year of teaching. Isn’t that cool?”

  Scott, Kelly and Zoey exchanged shocked looks.

  “Coach Decker is her ex-boyfriend?” Kelly gasped. “But he’s a teacher.”

  “Oh my God. That’s creepy,” Zoey added.

  It dawned on Scott that the threat went deeper. “It’s him. I’ll bet she killed herself because of him.”

  “If we stop her, then maybe she won’t go through with it,” Kelly pointed out.

  “We can’t. That would be interfering,” Scott insisted.

  “Then why did we come?”

  Scott heaved a big sigh and dragged his fingers through his blond hair. “I don’t know. I just hoped we could fix things.”

  Wendy hesitated, then as Decker continued to talk to her, she started to climb into the truck.

  “We can’t let her go with him,” Zoey sputtered. “Isn’t someone going to stop her?”

  “We can’t. It would change things,” Scott explained impatiently. He, too, was torn, but he was committed to the plan.

  Zoey’s horrified gaze looked from one to the other, and when it was clear no one was going to move, she dashed out the gate and ran over to the truck with more speed than anyone had ever seen her demonstrate. Just as Wendy was closing the door, Zoey reached her and yanked it open.

  “You can’t leave,” Zoey declared as she struggled to breathe.

  “I have to go with him,” Wendy told her.

  “No, you don’t. You promised we’d all go together. Austin’s waiting for you.”

  Wendy looked torn. She glanced over at Coach Decker and back to the small group who was waiting for her.

  “Go to your dance . . . with your boyfriend,” Coach Decker said. It was more of an order than a statement, and it was clear he wasn’t pleased.

  “But I’d rather be with you,” Wendy started to say, but the coach practically pushed her back out the door.

  “Go play with your friends, little girl,” he declared. She had barely cleared the truck, when he hit the gas. The truck lurched forward, slamming the door from the acceleration.

  Wendy and Zoey jumped out of the way and stood in the parking lot as he roared away.

  “Wow, what was that all about
?” Zoey asked.

  “Oh, he and I . . . talk a lot . . . about things. He just broke up with his girlfriend, and he’s hurting. He says I help him feel better.” Wendy’s eyes shifted away, not meeting Zoey’s as she hurried to add, “Nothing’s happened between us . . . you know sex and all . . . we’re just friends . . . that’s all.”

  “You shouldn’t go places with him.” Zoey tried not to let her horror show. “He’s a teacher.”

  “But he’s not really that much older than me,” Wendy said defensively. “If I was already in college, no one would think twice about it. I’ll graduate in a just a few months, and then it’ll be okay.”

  Zoey wanted to say how very un-okay it was for a teacher to date a student, which was obviously what was happening, in spite of Wendy’s denials.

  Wendy was very upset by the turn of events, but she tried to pull herself together. “Let’s go have fun.”

  Wendy and Zoey linked arms and walked back to the group. Wendy gave Austin a smile, and he walked over to her and took her other arm. The three of them went toward the gym where the dance was being held.

  Scott looked at Kelly and held his arm out. She linked her arm with his and they followed the others to the gym. Their plan was to hang back and keep an eye on things since neither were dressed appropriately. It was a noisy crowd, and they weren’t comfortable in crowds, so they were fine hiding in the shadows with an occasional foray to the refreshment table. Unlike 2013, no one challenged their right to be there or made them show any ID, which was a good thing since they had none.

  Two hours later, the party started winding down. Austin was a gentleman and escorted the two girls home, unfortunately by foot. Scott and Kelly trailed along behind, staying several blocks back so they wouldn’t be seen. Once Austin was sure Zoey and Wendy were safely inside for the night, he walked back down the sidewalk until he met up with Scott and Kelly.

  “I heard you had a great game,” Kelly congratulated him. “Everyone who walked by us was singing your praises. They’re going to be really bummed out when you aren’t here for the next game.”