Infinite Time: Time Travel Adventure Read Free Page A

worse; you could have Travis as your jerk, like I have.”
    Kimi shakes her head.
    “Damn, you’re right. Sorry. Right now it’s not about my problem with Travis, it’s about me being the jerk. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”
    Kimi stares at me for a moment. “You can… take me—,” she stops then shakes her head.
    “Take you where?”
    Kimi’s cheeks turn red. Where does she want to go?
    “To…” she shakes her head again. Wow, she really didn’t take her meds today.
    “To lunch. Come on, you can buy me lunch,” she finally says, nudging me toward the cafeteria. I can’t read girls, but if I could, I would have guessed she wanted to go somewhere else. But hey, I’m not complaining. All I can afford right now is a taco lunch for Kimi from the school cafeteria, anyway.
     
    “Over here,” Douglas waves to us. He does the same every day, and each day I tell him we know where he is. We always sit at this table, the one by the bins, the only one we can sit at. And I guess we will be at this table until we graduate from school.
    “Looks like Douglas is saving our seats,” I say as I smile at Kimi. It takes Kimi a second and then she smiles back. Something else is on her mind today.
    “Are you okay?” I ask Kimi as we walk toward Douglas.
    “Yes, why?”
    “You just don’t seem to be here.”
    Kimi laughs, then pauses. “Just my… sister.”
    “Oh. What’s Isamu doing now?” I don’t have any older siblings, and if I did I couldn’t think of any worse of a sister than Isamu. I did always want a little sister, but that’s not going to happen now.
    “Just the normal.” Kimi’s parents are hardly ever at home; out of the two years we’ve been friends I’ve never seen her parents. Most of the time, Isamu is in charge, and being in charge is what she loves. She controls everything Kimi does.
    “Taco Tuesdays are the best,” Douglas gushes as food pours from his mouth.
    “Douglas.” I shake my head.
    “What?” he replies, then picks up the taco shell that fell from his mouth.
    “Nothing.” I smile.
    I lean sideways, away from the oncoming lunch tray. Other kids throw their trays, targeting for the trash, but sometimes they land on my lap. These seats really suck, except for one thing: I bag the seat with a view of the doorway. I get to watch Clara walk in. She normally gets a salad with the other cheerleaders, then sits with Travis and the other jocks.
    On cue she walks in, and I sigh. Travis’s arm is draped around her like a cheap shirt. She could do so much better than him—she could be with me. As if Travis is reading my thoughts he snarls at me, annoyed for loads of reasons, all of which are going to result in my getting a beating.
    I push my tray out in front of me as I lose my appetite.
    Douglas looks down at it like a hungry hippo. “Sure, take it,” I say. “Just don’t be sick on me during gym.”
    Oh, gym. Great. I’ll have to be out in the field, where Travis can beat the crap out of me and get away with it.
    “Hey,” Kimi says, “my sister is out this afternoon. Why don’t you skip gym and come to my place? I’ve got the new Call of Duty game, remember?” She pulls it out of her bag, waving it under my nose.
    “Skip class?” Douglas whispers. He looks like he’s going to break out in hives just thinking about it. “Parker, that’s a bad idea, a very bad idea.” He shakes his head before I can really think about it.
    I take a sip of coke, letting the bubbles pour down my throat. “Skip gym, huh?” I nod, twisting the cap back on the bottle. I like this idea.
    “You can complete the game before anyone else.” Kimi waves the game, like candy to a kid.
    I reach out to take it, and she lets me. Jeez, the graphics look so cool. This idea does sound way better than getting a beating.
    “I’m in.”
    Douglas leans toward me. “Are you crazy? They will call home. And…” Douglas stops. He dislikes my mom’s husband, Neil, just as much as I