38"BBRRRRIIIINNNGGGG!"
The wind up alarm clock screamed in Chloe's ear. The girl knocked it off her nightstand with one swipe of her hand. Unfortunately, it continued to ring after it's impact with the hardwood floor.
"Alright," Chloe said as she tossed her covers aside, "you win." The girl gasped when her toes made contact with the floor, which was icy cold. "I hate Monday mornings," she lamented to her print of St. George and the Dragon that was taped to the wall beside to her bed.
Groaning and grumbling, Chloe changed out of her pajamas. Her eyes had, until that moment, been drooping. Now they snapped fully open from the shock of the cold that hit her now barely clothed body.
With a shiver Chloe quickly pulled out a sweater and a pair of jeans. The smell of scrambled eggs wafted up to her room. Her stomach growled at the smell. Mrs. Hodges was making breakfast.
Mr. and Mrs. Hodges were the owners of the house in which Chloe, and three other college freshmen were living in. Mrs. Hodges loved the college kids as her own children, who had already been through college and were now starting families of their own. Mrs. Hodges always made them breakfast and they could never express enough how thankful they were for it. Especially Chloe.
"Why did I schedule my classes so early?" she asked herself. Maybe it was because she had been so used to it, getting up for high school the year before. Chloe descended the stairs and went into the kitchen.
The rest of the day was uneventful, as usual. After her day of learning was over, Chloe decided to return to her science class to ask her professor some questions.
"Laoshi Chong Min?" Chloe called. Professor Chong Min was from China and was very proud of his native country and loved everything about it. For fun, he had his students call him Laoshi (teacher). Chloe found Professor Cong Min bent over his desk, writing with much haste.
"Laoshi?"
"Shi?" the professor responded, but did not look up from his furious scribblings.
"I was just wondering, could you explain some things that were in the lesson today? I got lost."
"It was all very simple, it's in your textbook."
"But-"
"I'm sorry, Miss Johnson, but I can't help you any more than that right now. I'm very busy." With that, Professor Cong Min got up from his desk and moved over to another table, where a beaker was suspended over a can of burning Sterno.
"Come back tomorrow after your classes if you are still having trouble, okay?"
"Yes sir."
The next day Chloe did come back. But, only to find the professor not occupying his class room.
"Prof-I mean-Laoshi?" No answer.
Chloe then noticed Professor Cong Min's storage closet slightly ajar. Light poured through the crack and spilled onto the floor. When she went to close the door, she noticed that the closet was deeper than she thought. Chloe peered inside.
The closet was not full of spare beakers or Bunsen burners, but machinery. Panels, with colorful flashing buttons and toggle switches. But, what really caught Chloe's eye was the round, blue and silver object, which was sitting on a little table in the middle of the "storage closet." The thing was round like a tomato and had a little silver ball shaped object attached to the top. There was a hole on the top of the silver ball, which appeared to be a lens on Chloe's further examination.
Then, the girl noticed that on one side of the tomato shaped, silver . . . thing, there were lit numerals lit on a little screen. "1435 A.D." it simply said. "Hmm . . ." Chloe murmured. Then, she carefully turned the contraption, so the other side was facing her. The other side had a screen as well, but it bore lit letters. "Brittainia." It said.
Suddenly, another object caught her eye. Lying on another table was a metallic blue watch. She picked it up and gazed at it a moment. It was pretty chic looking. Chloe glanced about to see if anyone had entered the room. No one had. Chloe, with a grin on her face, buckled the watch around her wrist, just to see how it would look.
Chloe noticed that the screen where the time should have been, was blank. She was about to ponder this when, out of the corner of her eye she saw the tiny silver ball, on top of the blue and silver, round contraption, pulse a white glow that seemed to be coming from within.
Chloe cocked her head in wonder and slowly walked over to it. Then, because it seemed logical, she pressed down on the tiny silver ball with her finger. It moved down under the pressure and a clicking sound was heard.
Suddenly, from the lens on the top of the ball there sprang a hologram. It rotated a picture of a lush green forest. Chloe heard the distant chirping of birds as she stared at the hologram. Then, she heard the rush of a breeze, and even began to feel it stir her auburn curls.
Suddenly, the watch beeped. Startled, Chloe looked down at it. When she did, she noticed that she was no longer standing on a concrete floor, but on grass.
Chloe's head snapped up and she found her face to be inches away from a tree. Chloe, slowly backed up and gasped. She now beheld the forest that she had seen in the hologram. Chloe felt her legs give out from beneath her and she collapsed onto the grass.
Professor Chong Min entered his classroom sipping a soda. He had just come back from "Jerry's Subs & Pizza." He immediately laid aside his things and ran to the storage closet when he saw the door wide open.
He rushed in and found the watch gone and the activation button pushed in. Professor Chong Min promptly began to swear in Chinese, then he rolled his sleeve back to reveal a similar watch to the one Chloe had picked up.
The Professor pressed a button on his watch. It beeped in response. Professor Chong Min brought the watch near his mouth.
"Chloe!" he called.
Chloe sat there on the grass, trying to put the pieces together. Suddenly the beeping of the watch broke into her thoughts.
"Chloe!" she heard Professor Chong Min say. She looked at the screen of the watch and was confronted by the professor's angry face. "What in heaven's name were you doing tampering with my time machine? Now look at the mess you have made!"
"Time machine!" Chloe exclaimed. Now, it made sense. "So I'm in Medieval England?"
"No, more like early Renaissance England" Professor Chong Min said with a sigh. "If you hadn't interfered, I would be there, instead of you right now."
Chloe ignored that statement and said, "well, since you built this, you know it inside and out. You can bring me back to the present, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, could you do that, please. I'd rather not be here . . . now."
"Gladly."
The professor disappeared from view. A view minutes later he reappeared looking very distressed indeed.
"It's not working."
"You're kidding me."
"No. It still has a few kinks in it. Until I work them out . . . I'm afraid you're stuck."
Chloe almost burst into tears. "I can't be stuck!"
"I'm sorry. But it is your own fault. You shouldn't have been tampering with things that aren't yours. You ought to know that."
"Yes, yes, I know," Chloe said, rolling her eyes in exasperation.
"Well, I had better get to work if you're hoping to get back here within a week."
"WITHIN A WEEK!"
No response came from the professor; he had already turned off his watch.
~Well, what do you think so far? Send a review!~