Lucas and The Time-Traveling Fog
Chapter 3 Grand Entrance

Walking through that big wooden door, my senses were immediately signaling that I shouldn’t be there, because why on earth would my school hang a big yellow banner for all the world to see that says “Welcome, Adams High School Class of 1960”? That isn’t even the name of my school.

Now, this has got to be some dream. I mean, what’s next? A crazy killer with a hatchet sneaking up from behind and killing me? I would expect something like that, but not some cheerleader handing me a flyer. Oh, and get this, the cheerleader didn’t even have my school logo or letters either. Instead, there was some cougar on it with the words, CA. The cheerleaders were standing on opposite sides of each other passing out these flyers to students who walked past them.

I didn’t even say anything to her. She just decided to run from behind and say, “Hey! Kid! Don’t think we forgot about you,” as she tapped my shoulder. I immediately turned around in shock, and she handed me a flyer. But the way she looked at me, though, as she handed it to me, creeped me out.

I don’t know about you, but I totally got this weird vibe from her, like ‘What are you doing here’ kind of vibe, you know? Anyway, I just rolled my eyes at her and asked, “What the heck is this?”

She replied, “Sorry if I scared you. I didn’t mean to, and this is our school flyer, and it’s pretty important, so you better read it.” She then took off somewhere, probably to meet up with her fellow cheerleaders.

I looked at the flyer, and there was nothing special about it. It just said something like, “Do you like to hang out and drink some delicious smoothies? Well, come on down to Pete’s diner today right after school, where you will have a great time and meet new people. Don’t forget to say that you were sent by the Cougar Cheerleaders at Adams High School, where you will get 2 cents off when you purchase anything from Pete’s Diner by August 31st, 1959.”

Wait, Pete’s Diner? There’s no such thing or place as Pete’s Diner or any diner at all that I’m aware of where I’m from. Where or when exactly am I really because I never heard or been to that place before. When I finished reading the flyer, someone yanked it right in front of me. By someone, I meant the same blond cheerleader who gave it to me. I was not expecting her of all people to do this to me, and she had the courage to get right in front of my face just to say to me, “Hey, what are you doing here in our school? because I know every face of every kid in this town, and I haven’t seen the likes of you before.”

As I was about to say no and come clean, she stopped for a second and said, “Ohhhh wait a second I do remember you.” “You do?” I asked, and to my surprise she answered, “Why yes, your Gary Walter whose family is from California and lives just a block away from me.” Umm yeah, totally, let’s go with that, so I nodded. She then replied, “Great. By the way, you are so lucky to have a Boss Father.”

“Yeah, I guess my dad is pretty great,” I said.

“Only pretty great?” As she looks at me in disbelief. She quickly laughed it off, saying: “But I guess you get that a lot, dontcha’?”

“Oh yeah, all the time.”

She tilted her head and replied, “Oh, I had no idea. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I stated.

She quickly changed the subject. “I love your new ride, by the way.”

“How did you--”

She interrupted me and said, “I saw you driving to school, and it’s easy to tell you’re a new kid when you’re the only one who has California plates. That’s something you might want to change while you are here. Also, I should introduce myself. My name is Janet Smith.”

“Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Janet,” I replied

Now, where have I heard that name before? Like I’d heard her name from somewhere, but I don’t exactly remember where or when. I thought I actually said that out loud to her, but I didn’t, thank goodness. But I actually said, “You know, I just realized who you look like!”

“Folks around here always say that I look like Marilyn Monroe.”

“No, you kind of, uh, look like my grandmother, to be honest.”

As soon as I said that, it clicked that this tough lady was my grandmother.

No way! While I was happy figuring out who this lady was and why I knew her, Janet, who still had no idea ... was not! She was so red in the face that it was the color of a bright red apple, I swear. She was so angry she slapped me so hard in the face that I still had the mark throughout the day.

Janet then said, “If you’re done, let me show you around here, new kid, and even though you are a senior like one of us, we won’t haze you as much, I promise.” She then showed me classes that I had never seen before. As I’m walking around these hallways, I look in every classroom, and it’s super obvious to me which room is for each subject.

Everything in the classroom looks totally retrofitted. I am talking about the chalkboards, old desks, especially the old school mascot, which is apparently a Cougar that I see roaming through the hallways every once in a while. It’s so strange to me seeing everyone, especially myself, in retro clothing. It’s just a shame this whole thing is not real, but one of my crazy-feels-real kind of dreams, and it would only be a memory by the time I wake up today.

While Janet is showing me around, she gets this bright idea that I must share “my” schedule with her. Even though she asked nicely, I asked why. She laughed and said, “Why? Isn’t it obvious? I want to see what classes we have together.”

I replied, “Oh,” as I grabbed the supposed schedule out of my backpack, and as I looked inside, a paper with a name really popped out to me, and it said, “Gary Benjamin Walter.” I didn’t get a real good look until later, but it totally appeared out of nowhere. “Uhhh, here you go.”

She then looked at it and said, “Thanks, and hey, we have English, Math, and lunch together. That’s bad, especially English.” S~ᴇaʀᴄh the ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Why is English so bad?” I asked curiously.

“Our teacher is so nice and very resourceful and he is especially resourceful for a new kid like yourself and he may seem terrible at first, but sooner or later, you’ll like him.”

That’s when I heard this loud old school bell ring, and she stated, “Oh, that’s the bell. let’s go to the first period...come on, Gary.”

We then took the stairs and started to head to English, which is on the third floor, by the way, and we were only on the first floor! I was so not having it today because I was totally sleep deprived at the moment, probably because I stupidly stayed up till 1 a.m. playing Fortnite with my friends, and I just needed a moment to rest. But that moment of peace just never showed up.

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