"And what did you learn from this section, kids?"

Mr. Luzinsky's class was just finishing section 18 in their physics book, the chapter covering the nonlinear dynamics, the Butterfly effect.

Andrew raised his hand, "That Cael needs to go back to elementary school. Time travel DOESN'T EXIST."

Cael Claw sunk down into her chair. Why did they have to? It was as if every kid who asked her WHAT chronophobia was felt entitled to mock her for it. As if to prove her point, several of the kids sitting around her laughed.

"Andrew, uncalled for. Detention, for a week. Think it was worth it?"

"Dunno, let me go back in time, re-do, and find out."

"Three weeks, Mr. Gardner. See me after class. You too, Cael."

"You could learn a thing or two from Cael, Andrew."

"Coward Claw? Don't think so." The boy said as he signed the slip telling his parents he had three weeks' detention. "Thanks for the tip, though. I'll keep it in mind." And he left.

The room was empty by now, but she still sat in her seat, on the other side of the room from Mr. Luzinsky's desk. "Cael?" he motioned for her to come. Cael stood and walked over to her teacher. "Cael, you know, you're absolutely right. If you're not careful, there's no telling what would happen with time travel."

"But they're right, too. It's a stupid, irrational fear. Time travel doesn't exist, and it probably never will."

"Then why are you scared of it?"

She didn't say anything.

"Cael, you're a bright student of mine, and I want you to know that, but in this particular case, you're as correct as Andrew was. My brother, Phillip, works out of state, and he was telling me about a student of his. He's a bit of a prodigy. And, as a matter of fact, his student has been working on a project and was looking for a volunteer. No one around town really wants to help, but Phillip's looked at his work and everything looks safe."

Her teacher handed her a printed out email. "You know they say that the best was to get rid of you fear is to face it outright. This could be the perfect opportunity."

She took the email, which gave directions and the kid's address. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm completely serious!" Mr. Luzinsky said, "Phil said that his student is one of the smartest people he knows, but needs some help on the project. He'd let anyone help, at this point. I think you'd be perfect. Give it some thought, huh?"

"Alright," Cael said, skimming over the paper, "But it's not gonna be pretty."

"And try not to be so pessimistic. You might actually like it. Come on." He patted her on the back as he headed out of the classroom, with Cael in tow. Her teacher was nothing short of insane.

SHE was nothing short of insane, she thought as she boarded the bus with her luggage. She'd agreed to help Phillip's student, and was on her way.

The neighborhood was nice, but she still felt uneasy going down the street. She felt like a traitor, knowing what she was doing. She read the address on the paper, and then re read it, given her dyslexia.

Ding, Dong!

About three minutes later, a woman with red hair came to the door, wearing yellow rubber cleaning gloves.

"Hi, ma'am. I'm Cael Claw. I-"

"Oh, you must be here to help Dexter with his little science project. Yes, he told us someone from out of town was coming. Come on in, I think he's in his room." She stepped inside, and Cael followed. "So, where are you from?"

"Minnesota, ma'am. My teacher and Dexter's teacher are brothers, apparently. Paul Luzinsky."

"Lovely." She turned toward the stairs. "Dexter? You're lab partner from Minnesota is here!" she called.

A few moments later, a younger boy wearing a lab coat came bounding towards the stairs. "Hello," he said, suddenly composed. "Cael?" She nodded. "Okay, come upstairs, will you? I can't leave my project unattended for too long, my sister might get at it."

Cael climbed the stairs and followed the boy into his bedroom. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Thirteen, why?"

She was a good three years older than him. "Mr. Luzinsky told me that you were working on time travel."

"I am," he replied.

Cael was starting to feel awkward and stupid, standing in the middle of this thirteen year old boy's bedroom, expecting to see a time machine. Right…

Dexter pulled at a few books on the shelf on the wall opposite her, and the entire wall slid to the side, revealing another room, a lab.

"My laboratory." He said, sweeping his arm around the enormous room.

Her astonishment must have showed, because when he looked back at her still standing in the bedroom, he smiled wryly. A few steps forward and the secret door silently slid shut behind her.

"What do you think?"

"Speechless…" she said, quietly. "You built all of this yourself?"

"Yes… there would be more, but my stupid sister gets in here every so often and effectively destroys my creations." There was a certain tone of pride to his voice, which she figured he was rightly entitled to.

"Does anyone know about this?"

"Of course. You, my sister DeeDee, and Mandark."

"All right…"

"Now, your teacher sent me an email telling me about your hesitance, and I'll let you know there's nothing to worry about."

"I have complete confidence in your machine, it's just… I'm a bit of a chronodophobe. That is, I'm afraid of-"

"I know what it means, Cael." He said, not unkindly. "You don't have to worry. I'll only be sending you about an hour into the future. Just to test out the technology."

Dexter led her through the lab, over to a chamber set, one empty and the other with a set of controls worthy of NASA.

"Just step in there." he helped her into the chamber to the best of his ability, given the height difference. "And I'll be with you in a moment."

The heavy metal door swung shut, leaving her alone in the chamber.

The walls glowed blue, providing light, even though there was no discernable source.

"Computress, establish a holographic visual for chamber B." She heard Dexter say, through an equally invisible speaker.

Moments later, the boy's image flickered on in front of her. "There we go." He said, "Thank you for volunteering. I'll need you to input your data before we begin." Another screen appeared over Dexter's image, and Cael put in her information by touching the appropriate points on the screen. 5'3'', 115 lbs, no prior medical history, the kind of information that would be taken at a check-up at the doctor's. Eventually, the Personal Data screen disappeared, and Dexter was back. "Okay, I'm going to start the machine now. You may feel a little bump."

The room lurched and Cael had to hold onto her seat in order not to fall off.

A little bump? The whole chamber was shaking!

On the other end, Dexter was ecstatic. "Wow! Are you seeing theses readings?!? A fine day for science, indeed!"

The boy was so engrossed in his machine, he obviously didn't see the older blonde girl peeking onto the screen behind his back. However, Cael, with nothing BUT the screen to focus on, did see her. Cael opened her mouth to say something, but the blonde girl hushed her, giggling almost silently. Cael wasn't used to going against anyone's orders, so she hushed.

The blonde girl was off screen again when she heard over the rumbling, "Oohh! What's THIS button do?"

The tremors inside the chamber got worse. Frowning, Dexter looked up and then over at the girl, his expression going form disgruntled to alarmed – too alarmed for Cael's liking.

"DeeDee, No!" The boy ran off screen, in the direction that his sister had disappeared to.

""Dexter, this isn't funny!" The girl gripped the edge of her seat, her knuckles white. "Dexter!" she shouted, barely able to hear herself over the noise inside the chamber.

There was an explosion from somewhere in chamber A, another explosion in her chamber, a bright blue light, a sharp pain in her head, and Cael was unconscious.

Dexter got his sister away from his controls, and rushed back to the screen, which was now a black and white fuzz. "Cael? Cael, can you hear me?"

Dexter played frantically with the controls. "Computress, what happened?"

"Error: Cael was sent much farther into the future than you intended, Dexter."

"Where is she? What year?"

"2012."

Great. Just fabulous.

"DeeDee, I want you out of my laboratory this instant! Do you have any idea what you've just done?" he shouted at his sister, making his throat hoarse.

Admittedly, DeeDee had never seen her little brother so mad about her in his lab before. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he'd been working with another human being, who was now who-knows-where, or the fact that his time machine, which he'd been working on for almost two years, was now in pieces. Either way, she decided to heed his warning and get out.

Once sure that his sister was out of his laboratory and was not going to come back in, Dexter turned back to his controls, seemed to think for a moment, then sighed, his emotions tuning quickly.