by Laura Martin
“Want to get an early start tomorrow and do a quick study simulation?”
“Sure,” Elliot said. “Why not. Who needs sleep anyways?”
“It’s been quite a night,” I said, turning to Elliot when we reached our dorm rooms. “I’d say that I couldn’t have done it without you. But you know that already.”
He smiled back. “I couldn’t have done it without you either. Just do me a favor,” he said, stretching as he yawned. “If you find another Cocoon, just wait until tomorrow to show me. Okay?”
I laughed. “No problem. Good night, Elliot.”
“Good night, Regan,” Elliot said with a grin, and he turned and disappeared into his dorm. I stood there a moment longer before turning back to my own door and creeping into the dorm. The other girls were all there, snoring softly in their bunks, and I had to stifle the urge to give them all hugs. That could wait until tomorrow.
I was still smiling at Elliot’s joke as I climbed into my bunk. I lay down, tucking myself into the covers as a bone-tired weariness washed over me. Saving the Academy, and possibly history as we knew it, was exhausting. Rolling to the side, I tucked my arm under my head and was just nodding off to sleep when my fingertips brushed against a thick piece of paper someone had tucked under my pillow. I froze, not really believing it. No way. This couldn’t be what I thought it was. It just couldn’t. I lay there for a few seconds, wrestling with my exhaustion and my need to know if my suspicions were correct. Although, after everything that had happened, there was really only one choice. Whatever it is, I told myself, Elliot and I can handle it. With that I gave in and reached under my pillow. The envelope was thick, the paper eerily familiar as I took in Elliot’s name hastily written across the front in his own handwriting. Well, I thought as I opened the Cocoon, at least this time Elliot couldn’t be mad about how the letter was written.
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
The more I write, the more I realize that the majority of my stories came from my time teaching seventh-grade language arts. It was a very different time in my life. I had free time, for one thing, but I was also testing out my wings as a teacher while simultaneously chasing this crazy publishing dream. One of the research projects I taught involved a book put out by LIFE magazine entitled 100 Photographs that Changed the World. It was beautiful, stuffed with full-page glossy pictures, and I promptly took a box cutter to it for my bulletin board. Teachers are allowed to commit book sins like this . . . at least that’s the story I’m sticking to.
These pictures, pictures that represented pivotal moments in US history, stayed up in my classroom for a good chunk of the year as we researched and debated the importance of those events. And one day, just to shake my students up a bit, I asked them what they thought would have happened if Hitler had won World War II. What if that church in Birmingham had never been bombed? What if the Triangle Shirtwaist fire had never happened? What would our world look like today? Would it be better? Or would it be worse?
I went home that day with the idea for Glitch brewing in my imagination. What if time traveling was possible, and what if some of those time travelers went rogue and started meddling in the past in order to alter the future? I started to picture what the school would look like that would train time travelers to catch those criminals, criminals I would later call Butterflies. Throw that idea in with a deep love of Ray Bradbury’s short story “A Sound of Thunder” where a bumbling time traveler accidentally steps off the designated path and kills a butterfly on an ill-fated T. rex hunt, and you have the start of what would eventually become Glitch. (If you’re shocked that one of my favorite short stories involves dinosaurs . . . you are probably new here. Go check out my Edge of Extinction series and then come back. It’s fine. I’ll wait.)
As much fun as writing about rogue time travelers was, though, I quickly discovered that this book presented a unique problem that was completely absent when my books contained nothing but dinosaurs, floating boys, and Bigfoot. Glitch wasn’t just my story, you see; it was also America’s story, and America’s story wasn’t always pretty. It’s because of this that I made sure the first time you met Regan she was on a mission to preserve the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, not prevent it. Which, let’s be honest, is weird. Shouldn’t we want to right the wrongs of history? Wouldn’t it make sense to correct the injustices of the past and prevent pain? The answer, in my humble opinion, is no. Elliot struggles with this concept, and one of his professors explained it to him like this:
“History isn’t supposed to be pretty. It’s downright repulsive at times, and you don’t have to like it or agree with it to preserve it. But remember that the healthiest forests grow the year after a forest fire, and that without extreme pressure we wouldn’t have diamonds. You can’t hurry history, and you can’t fix an injustice until people recognize that it is one.”
Even Lewis and Clark, the famous explorers I named the partner team program after, have some unsavory details in their story if you look closely enough, but if we don’t learn from our ancestors’ mistakes, how can we ever hope to create a better tomorrow? So, when Regan and Elliot go into the past, they aren’t trying to fix history, just preserve it. History is touchy and the human race has had to learn lessons the hard way as far back as we can remember. But if you remove those hard-earned lessons . . . does anything change? Does anything improve? So, my question to you, dear reader, is this: If you had the chance to change history . . . would you do it?
Until next time,
Laura Martin
Glitch Glossary
The Chaos Theory: The idea in mathematics that certain systems are very sensitive and a tiny change in a system may cause it to turn out completely differently.
The Butterfly Effect: A term in chaos theory that originated with the findings of theoretical meteorologist Edward Lorenz, who stated that “a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can produce a tornado in Texas.” Essentially the butterfly effect states that a tiny change in the present can have huge consequences in the future.
Butterfly: A time traveler who travels into the past with the intention of changing a key historical event in order to affect the future in a negative way.
Glitcher: A time traveler trained specifically to journey to the past in order to capture a Butterfly.
Glitch: A trip through time done for the sole purpose of stopping a Butterfly from changing a historical event.
Cadet: A Glitcher in training, usually at their nation’s Academy.
Recap: The playback of a cadet’s failed simulation that is watched in order for the cadet to learn from their mistakes.
Repercussion Track: A hypothetical analysis a cadet watches after a failed simulation in order to better understand their failure’s potential impact on history.
The Academy: A training facility for Glitchers. The location of each nation’s Academy is so top secret even the Academy residents are unaware of its exact coordinates.
Commander in Chief: The head of an Academy. Each nation’s Academy has its own commander in chief.
The Mayhem: A group of time-traveling criminals willing to alter history for the right price.
The Lewis and Clark Partner Program: A new top secret partner program located inside a mountain where Glitchers are trained to work as a team.
Chaos Cuffs: The high-tech handcuffs used by Glitchers to secure a Butterfly in the past in order to bring them back to the present with them. Named for the chaos theory, Chaos Cuffs always return the Glitcher to the exact location they originally came from. No exceptions.
Class list for the Mountain and the Academy:
Nuance and Observation Class, or “Sherlock Class”: Cadets practice identifying the historically incorrect anomaly that identifies a Butterfly as a trespasser in time.
Time Period Combat Training: Cadets train in a variety of hand-to-hand combat training so that they can use period-appropriate techniques when apprehending a Butterfly. Often this training is done in full period-a
ppropriate costume.
Language and Accents: Cadets are trained to speak and understand multiple languages. They are also taught a variety of accents in order to better blend in with whatever historical time period they are sent to.
Costuming: Cadets are taught specific fashions and clothing trends throughout history. They also learn the proper way to correctly wear tricky items such as corsets and waistcoats.
Simulation Training: A way for cadets to practice their Glitching skills in the safety of the Academy using computer-simulated missions.
Physical Fitness: Since being in good physical condition is essential to a Glitcher’s survival, cadets are put through vigorous physical fitness training to ensure their health is at its best. This includes strength training and extensive cardio work.
Acknowledgments
Raising kids takes a village, or at least a grandparent willing to step up and babysit so you can keep your sanity, and I believe that books are no different. And I have the best possible village. From a husband who routinely sends me off to Starbucks or the library on weekends so I can work while he wrangles our three kids, to a mom and mother-in-law who swoop in to babysit so I can do the author visits to schools, I am beyond blessed.
I’m also blessed to have people in my life who love me enough to tell me when my stories don’t make sense, my characters are unlikable, or my time-traveling rules are giving them a headache! It’s amazing how God brings the exact people into your life that you need to help make your dreams a reality. So I owe a big thank-you to my amazing writing group and my ever-patient editor, Tara Weikum, and her assistant editor, Sarah Homer, for all their amazing input on Glitch.
A huge thank-you is also owed to my agent, Jodi Reamer, whose faith in my work opened up the door to publishing that I’d been pounding on fruitlessly for years.
And finally, a big shout-out to coffee and the French vanilla creamer that makes it taste like heaven in a cup. Without you, this book never would have been completed. You’re the real MVP here.
Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory.
About the Author
Photo by J. Van Weelden
LAURA MARTIN is a mom by day and a middle grade author by night, although in her heart she will always be a seventh-grade language arts teacher. She still has a hard time remembering that writing isn’t just something that she does for fun, and there is nothing she loves more than crafting an unputdownable story while eating a Honeycrisp apple. After spending six years teaching the fine art of dream chasing, she is enjoying every minute of this lifelong dream of being an author. She lives in the Indianapolis area with her dashing husband, Josh, their too-cute-for-their-own-good kids, and a high-maintenance bulldog. You can visit her website at www.lauramartinbooks.com.
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Copyright
GLITCH. Copyright © 2020 by Laura Martin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2020 by Eric Deschamps
Cover design by Corina Lupp
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019955936
Digital Edition JUNE 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-289437-3
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-289435-9
2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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