“I need to go shopping,” Freddy conceded.
She kept an eye out for Roland, but wherever he was, he was doing a good job of staying out of her sight. He doesn’t understand, she thought as she and Josiah approached the front doors of the school. He only thinks he does. He’s going to give himself away. We have to figure out the Three thing, and then we’ll help him with it, but he needs to let us. She was mildly disgusted when she thought back to what was technically the day before and remembered how furious she had been with Roland. It all seemed kind of overblown now. Okay, he would never be her favourite person, but it wasn’t his fault his dad had married her mum. He was just as uncomfortable with her as she was with him, and he’d had just as little say in the situation. It was also disconcerting to think of growing up with Cuerva Lachance and Josiah in your dreams. That would make anybody hard to get along with.
And … he had been crying yesterday. She felt strange when she thought about that.
She and Josiah separated to go to their lockers. As she walked down the hallway, Freddy saw heads turning to follow her progress. She didn’t think it was her imagination that people often started whispering when she drew near. Impatiently, she looked around for Roland, but he didn’t seem to be anywhere.
The first bell rang. She’d forgotten which classes she was taking when. She vaguely remembered having English and PE first period, but she wasn’t sure which one she was supposed to go to today. Wait … she’d been thumped by Keith in PE yesterday. English, then. She’d forgotten which room it was in. She would have checked her schedule, which was somewhere at the back of her locker, but she’d forgotten her locker combination. I should have prepared for this, thought Freddy, standing helplessly in front of her locker. She wasn’t entirely sure it was her locker. She’d been stupid to think she could just pick up her life where it had left off.
She ended up in the office just as the second bell rang. “I forgot my classroom,” she explained to the secretary. “Could I get a printout of my schedule?”
The secretary said, “Couldn’t you go to the computer lab?”
“I forgot my password, too,” Freddy admitted.
When the blank stare got to be a bit much, Freddy said, “I hit my head really hard yesterday. Ask Mr. Daniels. I went to the doctor, and she said I had a concussion and some memory loss.”
The secretary’s expression turned a bit sceptical, but she dutifully replied, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” She gave Freddy the printout, though not with much grace.
Freddy made it to English five minutes late. Everybody watched her as she entered the room, and a lot of the kids started whispering. Keith had been smiling when she came in; she saw the smile vanish. Freddy went to an open seat near the front of the room and sat down. She nodded at Josiah and wondered if she would be able to give him the slip today.
Mr. Dillon was staring at her as if he didn’t quite know who she was. “Sorry,” she said.
“Um,” said Mr. Dillon, “no worries. Does anyone have anything to say about the poem I asked you to read?”
“I thought it was fascist,” said Josiah. Mr. Dillon’s eyes shifted nervously to Freddy, but she just sat back and let Josiah get on with disrupting the class. It seemed to be his favourite thing to do. She wasn’t really sure what the point was.
There were more whispers and edgy glances on the way to science class. In the classroom, Freddy saw Rochelle frozen, wide-eyed, at her bench. Oh, right … she had knocked Freddy unconscious yesterday. “What are we doing today again?” Freddy asked Josiah, who was slumped on the stool beside her.
“I would say I didn’t remember, but I remember everything,” said Josiah in his favourite world-weary tone. “We’re starting a unit on evolution. I can confirm from personal experience that Darwin was right, so it doesn’t hugely interest me. Then again, nothing does.”
You’re not fooling anyone, thought Freddy, though she kept her expression neutral. Josiah knew she knew who Three was.
The look Ms. Treadwell gave Freddy was less vague and more puzzled than the look Mr. Dillon had, but she didn’t comment. So far, no one had. Maybe Cuerva Lachance had been right about people seeing what they wanted to see. Freddy sat through the class, though the lesson seemed abruptly stupid. Ms. Treadwell wasn’t telling them anything interesting about evolution; she was framing everything in the vaguest terms possible. Freddy didn’t remember grade nine science being this simplistic yesterday.
A few seconds after the bell rang to end class, she accidentally knocked her books onto the floor. Well … maybe it hadn’t been accidental. Maybe she was ever so slightly hoping Josiah would just leave with the others and give her a chance to slip away. But Josiah waited for her to pick the books up. They were the last two people out of the classroom.
Rochelle and a few of her friends were waiting for them outside. Freddy twitched. She didn’t have time for this.
“So you think you can just slap on some makeup and high heels and suddenly fit in?” said Rochelle. “You know we’ll never let it work, right?”
Freddy was looking over Rochelle’s shoulder for most of this. “Yeah, okay.”
“You are such a freak, Freddy,” said Rochelle.
“Didn’t you say that to her yesterday just before you put her in the hospital?” asked Josiah.
“I didn’t do anything to her,” said Rochelle, her voice about half an octave too high.
Freddy sighed and finally looked straight at Rochelle. She could do that now; they were almost the same height. Unexpectedly, Rochelle didn’t seem angry. She seemed scared. Her face was white and pinched and nervous. “I need to get past you,” Freddy said.
“I didn’t do anything to you,” Rochelle insisted. “Admit it, okay? Admit I never touched you.”
“But you did. Look, I really need—”
Rochelle shoved her against the row of lockers. “Just admit it!”
Freddy glanced down at Rochelle’s hands, still pressed against her shoulders. She removed them with her own hands one by one. Her time travelling had, at the very least, given her the opportunity to build up some muscles.
“I don’t think there’s any point in me admitting it,” said Freddy. “I didn’t tell anyone, if that’s what’s bothering you. I’d like to go now, so if there’s nothing else…”
Rochelle was staring in disbelief at Freddy’s hands, which were holding her own hands easily imprisoned. Freddy gave her a meaningless smile and pushed past her. She couldn’t waste time worrying about Rochelle right now. Josiah or no Josiah, she had to find Roland.
“Your approach to social dynamics has shifted,” Josiah observed.
“Has it?” said Freddy. “Look, I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Oh, no, you’ll see me now. I don’t know what you’re up to—”