I stared at him in utter confusion with my whole body burning inside. We have been together for a year and a half and this mission was about to separate us. He stared at me in anger, not knowing the cost of our relationship.
“How could you be so stupid?!” he yelled at me, ignoring my desperation for help.
My face began to burn with my eyes on the verge of tears, “Me, stupid?! You’re the one who just left me hanging! I don’t need you! I can do this on my own!”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”
“We’re over!”
“Fine!” I suddenly realized what had just happened as he stormed out of the building to the spy scooters. I fell to the ground and began to cry as I couldn’t contain my bottle of emotions anymore. My feelings had to be ignored at this moment, though, so I could finish the mission on my own. The ground felt like it was quicksand trying to suck in all of me into nothing and I hurried to complete the mission.
***
A day had past and I was a total wreck lying dead in my bed which had become my home. He never communicated me in any form to tell me anything, not even notifying me for my help with missions we are supposed to do together. I knew I couldn’t stay miserable forever, so I got out of bed trying my hardest to compose myself without water making my vision blurry. This day can go in the history books as a day of infamy: my 16th birthday. I flipped through my calendar hoping in some way time could change and reverse the past 24 hours to a better day where him and I are still in a relationship, but it was still 10:26am on June 21st. Although the world seemed like it was crushing me, I was supposed to eat out with my family tonight at the Chinese restaurant across the street with my boyfriend and friends, according to my calendar; now, I guess, it’s just my family and friends.
“Happy Birthday, dear, Charlotte! Happy Birthday to you! And many more!”
I blew out the 16 candles and smiled as I got my picture taken with everyone, then was given a fortune cookie. Excitedly, I burst the packaging of that cookie and broke the cookie in half to know my fortune.
“You will change time at every full moon. Huh… cool! Probably just some metaphor for something,” I crumpled the little slip of paper and shoved it in my jacket pocket. This was becoming a great birthday after all, it didn’t matter that I’m single the day before my birthday. Then, it began to hit me as I stared at everyone smiling with jollification for me. It hurt to acknowledge the fact that I would still see him every week for the rest of my horrible life at the spy agency headquarters for meetings and cooperate with each other for the missions.
That night, I went onto my new laptop that I received from “the Director” as a gift. Soon it occurred to me that she gave it to me as a spy upgrade on my birthday when I powered it on to find it had to scan my face as the password.
“Of course. Just once, I’d like to receive a great gift unrelated to new spy tech. *Sigh*,” I downloaded all the spy software for the laptop and quickly put it away in my secret compartment to avoid it being revealed to my parents. I figured I would read a good book before I get ready for bed, so I turned out the lights and turned on my handy flashlight under my covers.
The next morning I woke up in my clothes from yesterday and still in the position of reading, but my book was found on the floor beside my bed. It seemed quieter than usual with no clanking of pans or the hushed chit-chat that exchanged between my parents which got me thinking that maybe I should wander around to get them going.
I slowly and silently crept down the stairs with the element of surprise when I realized no one was home, “Hello?”
“Ugh, so much homework in high school!” I heard a voice cry out, “You’re told to get involved to be “well-rounded”, but what’s the point when you can barely keep up on your grades?”
The voice that kept talking to itself (or me?) sounded childlike and almost familiar. I continued to search for the voice throughout the house, but it kept moving. When I saw the person going up the stairs, I knew I had to call towards it.
“Hey! Who are you? And, why are you in my house?” I yelled to the person walking up the stairs. It still seemed like the person didn’t even notice me calling to them, so I figured I’d go after them to get their attention. I climbed up the stairs and tapped their shoulder, but I felt invisible as they didn’t even turn around or flinch. A feeling in the pit of stomach began to sink in that I was invisible. Suddenly, the person turned around and I couldn’t believe it when I noticed she probably didn’t notice me because I was her. It clicked that this was the freshmen year me! This totally defined all the laws of science that I once believed were true until now.
*Ring… ring… ring*
“Hello? Oh, hey! Yeah, I know right, like stop giving us all these useless worksheets that aren’t going to matter in the future. I’m just going to… oh my gosh. My mom rampaged through my clothes in my closet for my pajamas? Why would she want them or go through my stuff to begin with? Whatever. Anyway, where was I?” I just stared at the younger me knowing I was a complete drama queen about every little thing. I leaned against the door of my bedroom with my hands shoved in my jacket pockets and feeling a slip of paper. Immediately, I pulled out the paper and remembered it was my fortune: You will change time at every full moon. Then it struck me like lightning that this was the day that changed the rest of my life; the day I was recruited into the spy agency. I had gone back in time because of my fortune with it somehow transporting me back in time because there must have been a full moon last night on my birthday.
“Oh, fantastic. Well I sure screwed up with everything now,” I sighed when the younger me turned towards me.
“What?” younger me asked while hanging up the phone.
I glanced her way as she stared my direction with wide eyes. The idea of her seeing me hit me then, “And so it continues from bad to worse.”
“Wait, you look very familiar. You look just like my friend, Caroline, but somehow older. Hmm…”
“Heh heh, well don’t waste your time, kid. I—uh—just needed to get something that flew through the window. I got it, though, so… bye!”
“Now that I’ve thought about it, you don’t look like Caroline, but like me. Haha! No, you couldn’t possibly be me! Anyway. Wait, how did you even get in?”
Why won’t younger me leave me alone?! Calm your curiosity! Trying to hold in my frustration, I looked toward her and asked, “Hasn’t anyone ever told you one question is enough for a day?—”
“Actually, yeah. My mom scolds at me for asking too many questions.” I sure remembered those times when she did gripe at me for asking lots of questions back then.
“Well, you should respect her wise advice. Don’t worry, you’ll grow out of it. Anyway, I’m just going to leave now, so you have a nice life!”
Suddenly, her phone rang again and I instantly knew who it was, “Don’t pick it up!”
She steadied her gaze upon me, “And why not?”
I thought to myself in regret, ‘Why did I do that?’ I inhaled then slowly exhaled a deep breathe, “It’s a call from this spy agency from Director Sam trying to recruit you. You’re going to love it. Then, you’ll soon love him. He’ll say ‘yes’ to be your boyfriend with you having to ask him that. He’ll give you wonderful date nights and spectacular days at school and the agency. You’ll have great times together. It’ll be the day before your “Sweet Sixteen” and you will have this mission where you have to work with him. He’s going to mess up by leaving you hanging on the edge of the building because he’ll be chatting with the damsels in distress. You’re left close to your doom to save yourself and him not caring. You both begin to fight when he assumes you were the one to skew the mission off track by him calling you “stupid”. Of course, you know you have to defend yourself for the truth and he says “it’s over”. It all begins to crush you hard with a thousand bricks of emotion tumbling on top of you. So, I guess now it’s up to the younger me to decide whether or not it’s all worth it.”
She looked around the room looking as if she just went through all of that, now, trying to search for words to say, “I—I won’t answer it.” The phone stopped ringing abruptly as she ignored the call.
“Sorry to bum you out. I want to save you while I can. Just know that you saved yourself from the pain and hardship of the situation that is to come the day before your special day. I’m going to go now.” I headed towards the bedroom door and turned my head to glance at her, “Your future’s bright! Go enjoy it.” Then I left without any noise or any other word of advice.
***
Night had swept over all the land leaving a mysterious feeling inside me that I could not shake away. The darkness swallowed everything that once had light beaming on it, except the bright moonlight that continued to shine. It was a full moon, “What was that fortune? Oh, yeah that’s right, I’m supposed to change time now! Pssft, I don’t even know why I like them if they don’t actually come true.”
Suddenly, everything surrounding me began to twirl faster and faster until it all came to a stop, and somehow I didn’t feel like hurling. I looked all around me to see if I was in the right time period, “Hm, yeah this looks about right.” Confused, I still continued to walk the direction towards home in the starry night while my mind wandered with thoughts of me not being at the right place or time. Then I appeared before the door of my house that still stood with the same trees and same car in the driveway with a dent in the back. I searched through my emergency spy gadgets in the compartment inside of my right black boot heel for my grappling hook. Once I found it, I hooked it on the tree next to my room and went up climbing into my room with a loud thud.
“Whoops, so inconspicuous,” I murmured while pulling myself up feeling exhausted. I went over to my door and listened intently for any sign that I was in the right time period.
“Charlotte probably just tripped over on her rug again,” I heard my mom say. I heaved a sigh of relief as I turned back and laid on my bed to close my eyes for a while.
Light came through my window and blinded me as I tried to open my eyes. I checked my phone realizing that it was still days before my 16th birthday. Instantly, I rose up from my bed with every intention to try and save my relationship with my boyfriend like I saved my younger self before. I ran over to my closet and changed my outfit to something that would suffice with smell quality, then grabbed my backpack as I flashed out of my room going down the stairs.
“Hey, mom! I’m going to go over to Caroline’s place for some help with homework for an hour! I’ll be back by dinner time!” I called as I flew past her out the front door. I had to figure things out and I knew Director Sam could provide the information I needed to solve this situation. There was also the matter of saving the relationship I have with my boyfriend while I still can. I found his house and him working in the garage alone, so I began to walk as I got closer to him to descend the excruciating pain of rushing to his house.
“’Sup, D?”
He stared at me in bewilderment trying to figure me out like I was the greatest enigma of the world. I stared at him blankly to understand why he looked at me like I was a stranger.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Who are you?”
Confusion struck me as I couldn’t understand why he acted like he’s never seen me before in his life, “I’m Charlotte? Your friend?” I leaned closer to him and whispered, “You’re backup for spy missions?” I stood up straight again and studied his face trying to search for his recognition he gave me at one point in our lives.
He leaned close to me with his mouth murmuring in my ears, “How do you know about me?”
It occurred to me at that point that he honestly did not know me. Something was still wrong with this dimension or parallel universe or whatever it all was. I pulled out the fortune in frustration from my pocket, explaining my situation to him, knowing he’d know what was up with it even though he didn’t know me.
“I don’t know what’s going on. Now, I’m me, but you don’t seem to know me. None of this is making any sense to me whatsoever because I’m sixteen, except it’s really just a few days before my 16th birthday.”
“Well, I can tell you one thing: whatever is causing you to travel through time is this fortune. These two destinations must be significant to you in some way that you are meant to live it over again to either save yourself or fix the mistakes made.”
“So if you don’t know me, I must not be a spy?”
“Apparently not because I don’t know who you are at all.”
“That wasn’t painful to hear.”
“What?”
“How you don’t know me. In my place, we were together as a couple.”
“Were?”
“Yeah… you broke up with me on a mission when you abandoned me the day before my birthday.”
“Oh, wow. I’m sorry.”
I could feel his sympathy for the mistakes he made in my world, “It wasn’t your fault. It was my guy back at my place.”
“Wait, so you went back in time yesterday to your younger self before you joined the agency?”
“Yeah…” I answered him quizzically.
“And you told her that she shouldn’t join?”
“Yeah…” I stopped trying to guess as he was the genius here now.
“You must’ve changed your past which eventually affected your future!”
A lightbulb went on in my head and I gasped, “I must have! I did. Ugh, now what?”
“Maybe, somehow, you will be able to change the course of your life so far by going back to that day to alter your future.”
Somewhere in me I knew he was right; he was always right, “You’re right. I’ll find some way to get back to my past before tonight!”
I began to run away to the Chinese restaurant for more fortune cookies when he grabbed hold of my wrist just as I turned and I glanced back at him over my shoulder, “Good luck. I know you will fix this.” I smiled as he let my wrist go, and I quickly ran to the Chinese restaurant.
***
“This has to work,” I hoped as I listened to my new fortune: Time is only an illusion of what you want starting from your past. I held tightly to the slip of paper while shutting my eyes closed with my heart wanting to change my past for the benefit of my time. Everything around me began to spin and fade away back to the familiar room I woke up in at one point of my young life before I became a spy. It was then that I realized I came back at a different time than before with her talking to Director Sam already. I couldn’t help but think I was too late to alter my future, until she hung up the phone screaming she was a spy in my ears.
“I sure was excited,” I remarked sarcastically.
I looked at my fortune as it went blank to the inscription of “Carpe diem” on the slip and I grinned. Everything turned dark slowly, then light overruled the darkness as it all got bright again with me in the midst on the mission before my 16th birthday.
“How could you be so stupid?!” he yelled at me. I just stared at him trying to recall what had happened when this happened the first time. Then I remembered that this was when I was on the verge of tears and yelled back at him. I knew I had to make this right and save our relationship because all the good times outweighed the bad.
“I don’t know, how?” I looked over at him with a questionable look on my face.
“What?” he seemed so confused with my neutral response.
“We have to finish this mission together. Come on!” I grabbed his arm so we could fix the problem of this mission. As we were completing the mission, I stared at him with a sparkle in my eye and he slightly smiled. I knew I fixed the problem, whatever it was at one point in time and we completed the mission.
We ran out of the room as quick as we could to avoid being exploded with the building when it would self-destruct. It boomed with a loud roar of flames and flying ashes and he turned towards me as we caught our breath and slowed down.
“I’m sorry I exploded at your face and yelled at you,” we went to a walking pace and I caught my breath to have the ability to reply back.
“No big, it was only a verbal fight.”
“Well, you sure calmed me down when you didn’t explode back at me.”
“We don’t need to fight each other and be dominant over the other. We just needed to cool down and talk it out in a calmly fashion.”
“So what changed your mind about not exploding? You were pretty upset when I yelled at you, but suddenly your mood changed.”
My eyes wandered around, struggling to figure out how to tell him what had really happened. I collected my thoughts and my eyes targeted back on him, “It’s a long story.”