OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery (24 page)

“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 dr
agged 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
boy
friend,” 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.”

“Three in less than ten minutes . . . I was on a roll.”  He was clearly proud of the win.

Kelly smiled
.  “Even though I wasn’t going there, my dad and I used to go to all of Friendswood High’s games.  He taught me a lot.  I can’t wait to see you play for real this fall.”

“Real?  This was real.  T
hat one guy slammed into my right side with his helmet.  I think my ribs are cracked or something.”

“Bad news, dude . . .
your health insurance doesn’t work in 1966,” Scott said unsympathetically.   “Of course, if you hadn’t been such a hot shot, you might not have taken that hit.”

“I couldn’t throw the game.”

“We were supposed to lose.”

Austin flashed his irresistible crooked grin.  “Yeah, but isn’t it cool that we won?”

“You changed history.”  Scott wasn’t willing to let it go.

“Just a little.”

“Oh, and now Zoey kept Wendy from getting in that truck.  It’s almost midnight.  Unless Wendy kills herself in the next hour or so, we’ve changed history big time.”  Scott shook his head.  “I just don’t know what sort of consequences that will have.”

“But we saved a life,” Kelly offered, not seeing the downside.

“It’s right . . . but it’s wrong,” Scott persisted.

Austin groaned and pressed his hand to his side.  “It hurts to breathe.
I didn’t think I was going to make it through the dance.”

“
Maybe we can find a hardware store and get you some duct tape . . . what color do you want?  Oh wait . . . it’s 1966,” Scott reminded him sarcastically.  “They probably only have silver.”

“
I’ll take silver,” Austin muttered, knowing there was no chance they were actually going to go to the hardware store tonight.  Besides it was closed.  He looked at his watch.  “So, what’s the plan?”

“Everything should be under control with Zoey spending the night with Wendy.  What could go wrong?”

“Then we’re going back to the room?  I need to lie down,” Austin said.

“No, we’re going to hang out here for the rest of the night, just to make sure.”

“Seriously?”  Austin collapsed on the grass in the swale between the road and sidewalk.  “Sorry . . . I’ll try to keep it quiet.”  He groaned and stretched out flat on his back.

Scott looked around.  There was a tall hedge separating the house next to Wendy’s from
the park, so they should be safe hanging out here.  No one from the house could see them, and no one should be in the park at that time of night.  There was even a short stone wall across the front of the park that they could duck behind should a car drive by.

“We hav
e a pretty good view from here,” Scott said.  “But you’re going to have to move behind the wall so people won’t think you’ve been hit by a car.”

Austin grimaced and forced himself to stand up.  He stepped over the wall, then promptly stretched back out on the grass.

“I can see the lights on in the back.  I’ll walk down there and watch the other side of the house,” Kelly volunteered.

Scott reached in his backpack
and pulled out a pair of walkie-talkies and handed her one.  “Here, take this. Keep it on channel four at all times. If you see anything weird or need help, just call us and we can be down there in a couple of seconds.”

“Maybe a couple of minutes,” Austin muttered from his
prone position on the ground.

“Got it.”  Kelly turned her unit on and depressed the button to test it as she stood next to Scott.  “
Ten-four, good buddy.”

Scott jumped as Kelly’s voice was way too loud
.  “Jeez, turn down the volume.  We don’t want neighborhood watch to call the cops on us.  The last thing we need is to be arrested.”

Casually,
Kelly strolled down the sidewalk until she passed Wendy’s house, then darted into the shrubbery next to the house.  She could see a light was on in what appeared to be a bedroom, but she was only guessing.  She settled down, then had to move farther back because there was a row of holly bushes close to the front that were prickling through her jeans.  It felt good to get off her feet.  It had been a very long day, and she had to struggle to keep her eyes open.

Inside
the bedroom Wendy and Zoey had finished changing out of their dresses and into sweat pants and t-shirts.  They were sitting on the bed, polishing each other’s toenails.

“
I’m glad you decided to go to the dance with us,” Zoey told her.

“Andy . . .
Coach Decker will be in a snit.”  She frowned, not looking forward to hearing what he really had to say about it.

“Austin told me that
Coach Decker was making comments about me.  Doesn’t it bother you that he notices other girls and compares you to them?”

“He’s not
really comparing me to them.  He’s just pointing out things he likes about them so I can try to look like that.  He’s why I iron my hair.  He wants it perfectly straight like Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy and all those other models.”  She added a second coat of London Frost to Zoey’s big toenail.  “He thinks I can be a model someday.  He takes pictures of me and sends them to a friend in New York.  He has connections with some of the big agencies.”

Zoey was silent, trying not to ruin their friendship, but really uncomfortable with what she was hearing.

“It makes him happy and besides he gives me money to buy things . . . like I got this really neat yellow and gold bikini last summer.  My parents don’t make a lot of money, so it really doesn’t hurt anyone.  Do you think there’s something wrong with that?” Wendy asked, a little defensively.

“Yeah, I kinda do.  If he really cared about your reputation, he would wait until you were
eighteen and not a student anymore.”  Zoey couldn’t keep from being brutally honest. “Actually, where I come from, there’s a teacher, he’s really gorgeous, who has been sort of turning up at a couple of places I’m at.  I thought it was really cool, but now I’m beginning to think it’s a little stalky.”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that. 
Andy said he loves me.”  She gasped and clamped her hands over her mouth as if she’d said too much.  “I mean . . . uh . . .”

Zoey sighed.  The problem was, she knew exactly what Wendy was going through.  It had been very flattering to have
her handsome history teacher tell her she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.  He’d never mentioned the word “love”, but he had been trying to get her to meet him off-campus for the last month of school.  He had even called her a couple of times in the last week, late at night after her parents were in bed.  The similarities to her and Wendy’s situation was striking . . . and frightening.  Considering the fact that she knew Wendy had eventually died because of this man, Zoey was rethinking her own fledgling relationship. Looking at it objectively, she could see it was wrong for him to be taking advantage of her youth and vulnerability.  And it was wrong of her to think he truly cared about her. “You know one day he’s going to want a lot more from you than just pictures.”