Chapter Text
A crackle of blue electrical light. Then: mostly darkness.
“Naaaaat!” Bouncing. Sam was laying prone on a bed, mostly under blankets. From what he could see of the lights, they were flickering on and off. “Naaaataleeeeeah! It’s time to get up!” More bouncing. Sam rolled over, pushed the blankets back and opened his eyes a crack.
A young boy, no older than ten or eleven, with dark hair and eyes over brown skin, was staring at him from the end of the bed. “You got school today!”
“Okay, okay, I’m getting up.” Sam swung his legs over the edge, assuming his feet would hit the floor. When they didn’t hit, he scooted out further and further until… THUD! Sam looked up. Oh. That was why the ceiling had seemed closer than usual. He’d been in the top bunk of a bunk bed.
The boy was now standing over him. “Are you okay? The ladder is over there.”
“Ah yeah, sure, I’m okay. You said I had to get up, so why not get a jump start?” Sam smiled sheepishly.
“Nerd,” said a female voice. It came from the girl in the bottom bunk, whose coloring matched their brother’s. She was sitting up in her bed, a fashion magazine in her lap.
“She’s the nerd, Nat. Ange, you’re driving us. Remember?” the boy said. “Hurry up before Mama threatens to take away your make-up again.”
“And José will help me find it if she hides it, so get a move on, squirt.” Ange applied some eyeliner, a mirror held in her other hand.
The boy scurried out of the room. Sam opened the closet, and was greeted by two sides: one side stuffed to the brim with the latest in trendy clothes, the other side holding carefully mended jeans, jerseys and T-shirts. Sam grabbed from the sporty side and prayed he was right. He rushed to the bathroom to dress and get ready.
An older boy was just walking out of the bathroom as Sam hurried in. Sam locked the door behind himself and took a look in the mirror. A teenage Latina stared back, her dark hair cut in a bob. He dressed quickly, but before he could try to find any kind of usable hygiene products in the cluttered bathroom, which had cans of Axe and various beauty products covering the counters, there was a pounding on the door. “Nat! Ange is leaving soon! Get out of there now!”
Sam opened the door to see the boy who’d woken him up. “Okay, okay, I’m coming.” The boy held out a battered brown bookbag, which Sam gratefully took, then they ran out the door.
“What about breakfast?” Sam asked, his stomach grumbling.
“Did your brains fall out overnight?” the boy asked.
On the ride to school, Sam gathered that his Leapee’s name was Natalia Torres, and he was riding with Natalia’s siblings Angelica and Mateo. Their older brother José was dropping off two younger siblings at their elementary school, but Mateo was coming along because the middle school was next door to the high school.
At least Natalia was well-organized. Sam could tell she had an after-school job at a fast food place, going by the neatly folded uniform shirt and cap tucked inside her bag. The fencing mask said that Natalia also fenced but Sam wasn’t sure how often that was.
As they went inside, Sam finally located a phone in the bookbag. The model of smartphone told him that he was somewhere in the 2010s. Sam said a silent prayer and pressed his thumb to the home button. The phone, freshly charged, unlocked and Sam breathed a sigh of relief. It sucked, having to wait up to several hours for Al to get the passcode from the Leapee in the waiting room, and Sam also had to hope they hadn’t swiss-cheesed on the passcode either.
The calendar app said this was April ninth, 2013. The weather app said he was in San Antonio, most likely in Texas according to the flags on the flagpole outside of the school. He was following behind Ange as he checked Natalia’s phone.
As they approached the cafeteria, Sam figured out that they were getting breakfast. The lunch lady asked to see Natalia's ID, which Sam had thought to find in the bookbag ahead of time. "0.00" appeared on the register, so they were paying nothing for breakfast. Sam gathered that Natalia's family's income was below the poverty line. If you wanted something in this family, you had to work on it.
José came in about ten minutes after Ange and Sam sat down to breakfast. Ange didn’t respond to him, so Sam scrolled through Natalia’s phone for more clues. Natalia had her schedule, complete with classes, carefully set up in Google, which was something Sam was only vaguely familiar with through his Leaps set in the future. Google’s calendar told him that after school, he had to go to the fencing club for a few hours, then work until almost midnight. Sam guessed Natalia got dinner at work.
A few hours later, Al showed up during Natalia’s study hall, for which Sam was very grateful. Sam waved to Al from the algebra homework he was working on, then made a show of looking around then grimacing, to show he wasn’t sure how he could get out.
Al nodded, cigar in mouth, then they watched as a boy slipped out and the teacher didn’t look up. Sam shrugged and left as well, his Observer on his heels.
In the girls’ bathroom, Al said, “Ziggy’s having a hard time since you’re over ten years into the future. She wants me to report back, see what we can figure out from your current circumstances. Do you know where you are?”
“I’m in San Antonio, Texas. I’m in a girl named Natalia Torres. Al, this girl has a packed schedule.” Sam held up the phone with the Google calendar open to show him, and Al leaned forward, interested in the strange futuristic device. “She leaves home in the morning every day and doesn’t get home until past midnight. Today, she's got to go to some fencing club then to a job. I don’t blame her- her house seemed crazy this morning.”
“What do you mean, crazy?”
“She’s got five brothers and sisters and the parents didn’t seem to be around. Or there's only the mother- I don't know. They didn't mention the father.”
Al nodded, glancing down at his handlink. “Ziggy says that happens- working parents need to provide for the family, so they’re probably out working multiple jobs. How are the brothers and sisters?”
“Mateo- he’s about eleven- seems close to me. José seems ready to get out of the house. Ange cares more about make-up and fashion. She called me a nerd this morning.” Sam’s forehead furrowed.
Al couldn’t hide his smile. “We-ell, you are, Sam…” He punched some things into his handlink and waited for Ziggy to pull all this information together. The handlink bleeped and blooped. “No, Ziggy, we’re not asking you to be an armchair psychologist. You know the protocol for leaps post-2001 if you can’t pick up anything from Sam. We are making educated guesses here.” The handlink’s green and pink lights blinked. “Okay. Ziggy thinks that it’s possible something happens between Natalia and her family to make them stop speaking to her altogether. You need to fix that.”
“But how? They all seem busy and Natalia doesn’t seem like she wants to interact with them.”
Al shrugged. “That’s your problem to fix. Now can we get back to study hall?” He was now staring hopefully towards the bathroom door, moving this way and that to get a look past Sam’s broad shoulders.
“We can’t talk in study hall-” Sam stopped as he also stared towards the door, figuring out what his friend was looking for. “Al.”
“Well, nobody’s coming into the bathroom!” Al squawked. He followed Sam out into the hall.
Sam shook his head as he walked back towards study hall, suppressing a smile.
Behind him, he heard Al say, “Ooh, Sam, look at those girls, they’ve got the biggest…” Sam turned around to glare at Al. Al finished, with a small smile, “...piles of books.”
Sam looked down the hall at the girls that Al was referring to. They were holding two or three books each. Sam shook his head and walked back to study hall.
“I guess I’ll see you at fencing practice, Sam?” Al said. Sam didn’t respond, so Al punched at his handlink, mumbling about the disgrace of having to work with such a prudish colleague. He disappeared through the Imaging Chamber door.