Chapter 21
I opened my eyes and smiled at the sight of my old bedroom. Sunlight was just peaking in through the drapes, and I could clearly make out the football and wrestling posters on the walls, the comforter Mom had changed out when I’d reached fourteen, and the older, smaller dresser I’d had until I entered high school. Yep, I’d come back for a third childhood, and the preliminary evidence showed we’d hit it around the right timeframe.
I got out of bed slowly, knowing from the last experience it would take a moment to get accustomed to the younger body. Certainly it felt weird being several inches shorter, and about forty pounds lighter, without quite as much muscle buildup as I had in my early twenties. My morning woody was a little different as well, a little smaller, and a lot more sensitive than I remembered it being even at twenty.
After turning on the room light, I got a good glance at the calendar and smiled at the pile of books on my desk while the brand new backpack sat on the chair, waiting to be loaded. Yep, it was the first day of seventh grade, and I’d stayed up late last night getting ready, but not loading my backpack until the morning.
“Brian!” Mom’s voice was accompanied by a knock. “You better get a move on or you’re going to be late for your first day!”
“I’m up mom!” I shouted back, surprised at how my voice cracked right in the middle of that. Oh yeah, I wasn’t out of puberty yet. I’d been spared that particular curse, for the most part, the last time I’d gone back, but as I began to wake up a little more, I could feel how… unbalanced things felt inside of me. This was going to be weird.
“What do you want for breakfast?” She yelled back, and I opened the door, forgetting I was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and that the front of them was tented a bit. She gave me a look that almost made me blush.
“Sorry, pancakes would be nice.” I said with a slight smile and she nodded before moving towards the kitchen while shaking her head. For my part, I grabbed a towel from the hall closet and went to take a shower. It was nice being home, and I felt so relaxed as I cleaned up, and took care of the morning business while wondering what Davey was going to look like at this age. Sure, I could call up a memory, but that had been a different Davey. I was going to get to see the original twelve-year old Davey.
“Are you excited, honey?” Mom asked me twenty minutes later after I’d dressed in a new pair of jeans, a nice blue button-down shirt with a sleeveless checkered sweater over it, and my loaded backpack was sitting on the floor next to me as I ate breakfast.
“You wouldn’t believe how excited I am.” I told her as Dad came into the room, dressed for work. “Morning Dad!”
“Morning Brian.” Dad said with a slight smile.
“Oh, I don’t know, I can remember the first time I went to Junior High.” Mom said with a wide smile. “Just don’t forget to say hello to your aunt.”
“I won’t.” I groaned playfully and she laughed softly. Fifteen minutes later we were walking outside, towards her car, and I remembered why I’d almost been late on the first day of school.
“The tires flat!” Mom groaned as she noticed the driver’s side tire. “You’re going to be late for school!”
“If you don’t mind getting Dad to change it for you, I can jog and make it to school on time.” I offered and she frowned.
“I don’t want you showing up to your first class all sweaty.” She stated.
“Don’t worry mom, get dad to fix the tire and I’ll get to school.” I said as I leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek. I still had to stand on my tiptoes to do that.
“Okay, but you be careful!” She yelled.
It wasn’t that bad of a jog to school, and I passed the familiar faces of Ronna and Jeanette on the way. They looked young, and were happily talking away to each other, but Davey was nowhere in sight with them as he’d been before. How many times had he told me the story about me bumping into him that first time he came back in time? It was a little disappointing to me that he wasn’t there now, but the sight waiting for me at the end of the bike path more than made up for that lack.
“Heya, Bri.” Trevor said with a smile as I came to a stop next to him.
“Yo Bri, glad you could make it.” Brandon added with a smile, and then turned back to tickle Sean who was too busy giggling to do more than wave. Todd was laughing at their antics from where he stood next to Trevor. His red hair was longer than I remembered, and he looked like a stoner, but otherwise was very much the Todd I remembered. Davey was standing there, on the opposite side of the circle of friends from me, giving me a very welcome smile. It was so hard not to take him in my arms and kiss him right here and now.
He was only slightly overweight, and there was a nice-sized pimple on his right cheek, but he was my Davey, and the best part was the Davey looking out at me through those eyes. It wasn’t the twelve-year old, but the slightly older, slightly more mature Davey from the last timeline. The one who’d managed to make it through the challenges of rough teenage years and become a good man.
“Looks like we all made it this time.” Davey said softly.
“Yup, just like Brian planned.” Todd added.
“You come up with good plans, Bri.” Trevor added with a sigh. “So what happens now? We never got enough time where they weren’t listening to go into too many details about what happens when we all get back.”
“We’ll discuss it after school, okay?” I offered.
“You mean after flag-football practice.” Brandon pointed out.
“Well, what are Sean and I going to do while you boys get all hot and sweaty?” Todd asked.
“What about me?” Davey pointed out. “I’m not on the team.”
“Like hell you’re not.” Trevor snorted.
“You’re signing up today.” Brandon said as he got Sean into a headlock and proceeded to give him a noogie. “As for these two, we could use some pretty cheerleaders.”
“I’d watch that if I were you.” Sean growled as he slipped out of the headlock and managed to kick the back of Brandon’s knees, sending him to the ground. We all laughed as Brandon looked up in surprise at his boyfriend. “I learned wrestling in the last timeline, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.” Brandon laughed. “Just checking to see if your runt of a body could still get out of it.”
“Runt of a body, you really don’t want any do you?” Sean teased him.
“Um, about that.” Brandon said and he looked over at me. “Aren’t we like twelve now?”
“We’re all twelve now, right?” I asked and got nods all around.
“Should we be having sex?” Brandon asked.
“Well, it’s not like we weren’t playing around at this age anyway.” Trevor said, but then he gave me a look. “Well, most of us were anyway.”
“Aren’t we all like virgins again?” Todd asked. “I know I am.”
“So am I, physically.” Sean said, but he was grinning at Brandon. “For right now, at least.”
“So am I, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t have fun.” I said with a shrug. “I mean, we’re all pretty established in our relationships, right?”
“Yeah, that’s for sure.” Davey said with a smile.
“Just remember, coming out right now isn’t going to be fun or easy.” Sean reminded all of us. “My parents, and Davey’s at least will have conniption fits and we’re too young to get emancipated yet.”
“I hate being young again.” Davey moaned. “You lose so many privileges that being an adult gets you.”
“It takes some adjustment.” I agreed. “Some of us have it easier than others, and we should make sure our families get used to us spending a lot of time together. For now, my place, or Trevor’s will be the best place to get together as a group.”
“Oh yeah, a lot of trips to the barn.” Brandon said with a leer at Sean. “You really are cute at this age, you know. Then again you’re cute at any age.”
“You’re just saying that because your twelve-year old hormones are talking.” Sean teased back, but he was smiling as the bell rang.
“Ah, crap, we got class.” Trevor groaned, and we all headed into the school as a group. A few of our ‘friends’ from this time gave us odd looks because Todd, Sean and Davey weren’t normally part of our group, but they’d get used to that in time.
Time.
We had so much time to plan now, and while it was true I hadn’t been able to do more than lay out the basic elements of how to secure access to the time machine and get us all back here, but I had spent plenty of time over the last years in that other timeline planning on what to do when we got here. First off was to get reestablished in our younger bodies, and our younger lives.
There were other things to take care of, but that would take a little bit longer. I intended to make sure that no other time machine could be built, and to do that someone would have to die. The easiest would be the scientist. While my friends had by and large balked at the idea of killing the soldiers and others that would be in the chamber with us, I had been able to adapt those plans to non-lethal means. Sean and Davey, though, had shown no squeamishness at killing, and they would be the ones to help me with the plans for the scientist that had started this whole chain of events.
We had years, though, before we needed to take those steps.
For now, the most important thing was to just enjoy the fact that instead of being a lonely time traveler, we were all in our younger bodies, and we all remembered our friendships and relationships with each other. There would be no dancing around, trying to reestablish what had been begun in a previous timeline. I just did my best to not think about certain things that couldn’t be changed.
Uncle Rich already had AIDS, and he’d die around Christmastime this year. Going back earlier might have changed that, but the fact was we knew that at this age our bodies were able to handle the adult memories of past lives. Going back further endangered that, as Davey learned in my original timeline. Saving Uncle Rich just wasn’t worth that risk.
First period English was fun, but jock math was absolute hell for me. By whispered agreement, those of us in that class (Trevor, Davey, and I) agreed we’d get out of it after the first week and into a more advanced math. Davey joined Brandon, Trevor and me for lunch, while Sean and Todd visited with some of their old friends. While we were all good friends as young adults, the truth was that we moved in different circles during Junior and Senior High, and while we were going to be making many changes, they didn’t all need to start on the first day.
After practice we all met in a nearby park, sitting together at one of the wooden benches that dotted the area. We had the area pretty much to ourselves, and wouldn’t have to worry about a parent coming in and hearing us talk about things they wouldn’t be prepared to understand. It was pretty obvious the younger hormones were kicking in, because there was a lot of physical contact between the various couples as we sat down to talk.
“Ugh, this is going to drive me insane.” Trevor groaned as Todd sat next to him.
“You’ve got a barn, invite me to dinner.” Todd teased him and Trevor growled.
“You’re coming to dinner.”
“Geez, twist my arm, why don’t ya?” Todd laughed.
“Where are we going?” Sean asked Brandon.
“There’s some bushes over there.” Brandon said with a jerk of his head.
“We have those reserved.” Davey added.
“Business first?” I asked, hating to break up the horny banter. I knew only part of it was from actual horniness. Most came from the fact that we’d succeeded in fooling several powerful people over several very tense years.
“Yeah, okay, how do we prevent World War III?” Davey asked in a mock-serious tone.
“We kill the bad Russian.” Trevor offered.
“Better yet, we kill the scientist.” Todd offered.
“Um, didn’t you guys hesitate at…” I started to suggest but Brandon shook his head.
“That was different.” Brandon said. “Those guys were innocent.”
“Yeah.” Trevor agreed.
“Yup.” Todd added.
“Well, we’ve got years before that is necessary.” I pointed out. “In fact, we should probably wait until we’re at least sixteen or seventeen and don’t have to depend on others for transportation.”
“But you have an idea about how to do it, right?” Davey asked.
“I’m thinking either a car accident, or poison.” I admitted. “I’d lean towards car accident but we have to make sure it’s fatal. We’ll spend a few months observing him and his movements, and work out a more exact plan once we’re older. They don’t come back until 1988, remember?”
“That’s right, so there’ll be in plenty of time.” Sean smiled.
“Okay, so what about between now and then?” Trevor asked. “Do we just lay low, be normal students or whatever, keep the fact that we’re fucking like bunnies a secret and just live life or do we do something?”
“Sean, you said when you came back that my plans to help alleviate the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union didn’t work.” I stated. “Is it fair to say the problem was what I expected, that there wasn’t enough time between 1988 and 1991?”
“That was what you decided before I came back.” Sean answered. “You said ground work would have to be made several years earlier in order to get a better impact.”
“So, a question for all of us.” I said and was glad that the playfulness had died down. Everyone was as serious as could be right now. “Do we live our lives as normally as possible, not showing we already know what we’re learning in classes, or do we do something different?”
“You’re not talking about admitting to the government we’re time travelers, are you?” Davey asked suspiciously.
“Hell no.” I snorted. “That’s just asking for trouble, especially once they believe us. No. You know, we’re just an extraordinary group of geniuses who manage to learn very fast and learn at a very accelerated rate. If we play it right, we can be finishing up high school by the time we’re fifteen, and we can be in the right schools, at the right time to advance the right theories to the right people a few years earlier.”
“But, our friends…” Todd started to protest and then he sighed. “Why do I see your faces being in my future for decades?”
“We’ll make other friends along the way, but at least we’ll always have each other to fall back on.” Davey said with an appreciative look on his face. “I mean, think about what we’ve been through, what we’ve done. I know all of you will always be important to me for the rest of my life.”
“Aw, how sweet.” Sean said in a mock-moan, but everyone had embarrassed smiles on their faces.
“So how do we do this?” Trevor asked. “I mean, is there anyone who isn’t onboard with this idea?”
“Nope.” Several of them said at once. Then everyone looked at me again. Even though Sean had come back in the last timeline, I was still the ‘oldest’ of them, and had all the knowledge of the original Davey Jones at my recall.
“For now, we just ace every quiz, every test and we make it very obvious to our teachers that we’re extremely bored with their work.” I explained easily. “They should get the hint within a month, and if any of them don’t we’ll take other steps through my aunt. Their next step should be to give us new assessment tests, where we’ll do everything but the absolutely most difficult questions. I don’t think any of us except maybe Davey and Trevor will have problems with the math parts.”
“Yeah, I might fail that part.” Davey said with a chortle. He’d always hated math.
“That should give the teachers a conundrum to deal with, and we’ll probably be accused of cheating.” I continued with a laugh. “So, we’ll probably end up taking the tests again, and we should perform about the same. After a lot of head scratching, our parents will probably come talk to us about skipping a grade or two. Maybe even sending all of us to a special school. We should end up freshmen somewhere, and from there it’ll be a few years until we get our high school diplomas and move on to college.”
“No sports then.” Trevor said with a frown.
“Well, we might be able to figure something out there, although we’ll definitely be at a disadvantage with our lack of development.” I said with a shrug.
“We can always do three-on-three.” Davey said, and then blushed as a few of the guys chuckled. “Sorry, not on our backs.”
“Don’t get kinky, Jones.” Todd grumbled playfully.
“What careers do we get this time?” Sean asked. “I mean, I like physics and all, but I’d really like to go into computers.”
“I really want to focus on computers too.” Brandon added. “Some of the stuff that was coming out there before we left, it was pretty damn cool.”
“I want to do the political stuff again.” Davey said with a smile and then he shrugged when everyone groaned. “Hey, I like it!”
“I know.” Todd added. “I’m not sure what I want to do right now.”
“Me neither.” Trevor added.
“We don’t have to decide now.” I reminded them. “You’ve got a year or two. Remember, we’re going to know more than other kids our age, but that doesn’t necessarily make us geniuses. We’re still going to have to learn things, but we’ll have a head start. That’s the main thing to remember. When we get back into college, it’ll be slower going again.”
“Got it.” Trevor murmured. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, Todd needs to see my barn and what it looked like in 1981.”
“Have fun.” Davey leered at them and he grinned at me. “Want to walk me home, Brian? You might not know this, but your place is on the way to where I live now.”
“Sure.” I agreed while Brandon and Sean got up, heading for some bushes without even a word to us.
“I do love you.” Davey said softly as we began the walk home. “You know, I’ve got some changes to make with my father.”
“Stopping him from molesting Jenny, yes.” I agreed.
“If we leave too soon for some advanced school, I won’t be able to do that.” Davey said. “Any suggestions on how to go about this?”
“Start with Jenny.” I offered and he nodded.
“You mean talk to her about inappropriate touching and stuff, and how even if it was your parent you should tell someone, or better yet, scream as loud as you can to stop it from happening?” He threw out several ideas, all of them good.
“I think we’re on the right track.” I replied as we kept walking and talking. When we got to my place, we walked up and in the front door together, and for a moment we both totally forgot that my parents had not met him yet.
“You’re home late.” Mom said a little tightly. “And who is this?”
“Oh, um, yeah, sorry mom.” I said with a wry grin. “This is my new best friend, Davey Jones. I thought you should meet him since you’re going to be seeing a lot of him from now on.”
“Well, that was quite an introduction.” Mom said with an odd look on her face, but she smiled at Davey and shook his hand. “I think my son might have just fallen in love.”
“It might be puppy love.” Davey said dead-pan. “I better watch it in case he decides to start humping my leg.”
The look on mom’s face was priceless, and I couldn’t decide if she was going to not like Davey, or fall over laughing. She ended up laughing so hard there were tears in her eyes.
“Oh my, your Uncle Rich is going to love hearing this.” Mom said to me as she began to get control over herself.
“That’s your uncle in the City, right?” Davey said to me with a wink. “You’re going to have to take me to meet him sometime.”
“How about this weekend?” I asked and looked at mom who was looking at us with surprise. “Do you think Uncle Rich might like some visitors?”
“I’m sure he’d love to have you guys visit, but um, Brian, are you sure that…” Mom’s voice trailed off as she looked uncomfortably at Davey.
“Don’t worry, ma’am, Brian’s already told me about his gay uncle, and no it doesn’t bother me at all.” Davey said with a smile. “My dad’s the hellfire and brimstone preacher, not me. I tend to take a more relaxed view of the world.”
“I see.” She said with a twinkle in her eye. “Brian, where did you find this guy?”
“On the way to school.” I answered.
“Well, would you boys like a snack or something?” Mom asked as she recovered.
“No thanks, ma’am.” Davey said with a smile. “I need to get home before Mom gets off work. She probably expects me to have done my chores instead of goofing off with this lug.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you.” Mom said with a genuine smile. “I’ll have to meet your parents some day.”
“I’m sure you will, ma’am.” Davey said with a twinkle in his eyes and I walked him to the door. She was still watching us, so we couldn’t kiss, but he did mouth ‘I love you’ before turning and walking away.
“He’s quite a character.” Mom repeated when I shut the door. “I take it you had a good first day of school?”
“You wouldn’t believe how good of a day.” I told her with a smile. The night was odd, I realized as I had nothing to do, really. The few chores I finished before dinner, and something in me wanted to be out, celebrating with my friends, and with Davey, but I knew that could not happen just yet.
I spent several hours watching television with my parents, talking with them a little before heading into my room for bed. Twice while I thought about Davey I managed to jerk off, amazed at the sharpness, the almost overpowering level of sensations that rushed through my body. It really was different.
“I don’t mind walking, mom.” I told my mother the next day as I waited for Davey. He showed up with his sister in tow. She really was a cute little girl, but she was giving Davey the oddest looks. It wasn’t until we left her at El Vista and headed on to our own school that I found out why.
“When I got home last night, I found she’d gotten into my room, taken all my Star Wars action figures and had them in her room playing with her Barbie dolls.” Davey chuckled. “You should have seen her face. She was sitting there, fully prepared for me to launch into a tirade and for us to get in a fight.”
“What did you do?” I asked with a smile. Oh yes, younger siblings could do such challenging things all the time.
“I told her that when she was done, she’d better put them back where she found them.” Davey laughed. “Then, later, when Mom got home she whined that I was telling her what to do!”
“What did your Mom say?” I asked.
“She asked what I’d told Jenny to do, and Jenny told her that I was demanding she put away my toys.” Davey laughed with a shake of his head. “Mom turned to me and before she could say anything, I said ‘The toys she took out of my room and was playing with in her room.’ Mom turned right back around and told Jenny if she didn’t do what I told her, she would be grounded. I swear, if I’d known I’d get that sort of reaction, I’d have done that the first time around.”
“It is nice having an older perspective.” I said.
“Yeah, but there’s nice things about being younger again, too.” Davey said with a look I knew all too well. His voice dropped an octave. “I thought I was about to leap out of my body when I came last night thinking about you.”
“Yeah, me too.” I admitted with a slight blush.
“So, when are we going to sneak off somewhere?” He asked me.
“Come over to my house after school.” I told him. “Mom’s going to be gone to her sister’s.”
“Sounds good to me.” Davey said with a smile. “We can break your bed in again.”
“I like that idea.” I said before we met up with our friends at the end of the bike path across from the school. We were fifteen minutes early, but everyone was there.
“We need to talk some more about this whole idea.” Trevor said after we’d gotten the greetings out of the way. “I’m not sure if I want to go this route, and Brian, you’re always talking about how our biggest problems stem from us not fully thinking our way through things. We need to be careful about this.”
“I agree.” I told him.
“Good.” Todd added his agreement and everyone nodded their heads as well.
That afternoon, in my house void of any parents, Davey and I managed to get our clothes off and explore our younger bodies. The equipment wasn’t full grown yet, but oh the feelings they generated! Both of us were far too noisy when we climaxed, and we lay there on the bed, together, panting and totally drained afterwards.
“That was too good.” Davey said softly. “I’d forgotten what it was like. No wonder people get screwed up having sex too young. It’s just too intense for thought.”
“Yep.” I agreed with him before slipping into a light doze. Fortunately Mom’s car in the driveway woke us both, and we got dressed in plenty of time before she made it inside.
“Oh, hi Davey!” Mom said with a smile when we came out of the bedroom. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“Brian and I were doing some homework.” Davey said with a theatrical sigh. “Those darn teachers! They’ve already got us doing homework!”
“I’m sure you’ll survive.” She said with a little laugh.
“Were you serious about going to the City this weekend?” He asked both her and me at the same time.
“I did talk to Rich today, and he’s free if you boys wanted to visit.” Mom said with a look at me.
“That sounds good.” I agreed.
“My parents said I could go, but they want to meet you and Mr. B first.” Davey said to her.
“Do you think your parents would like to come over for dinner on Thursday?” Mom asked.
“As long as we bring my brat of a sister, they’ll probably be delighted.” Davey said and she laughed.
“Oh, you have a sister?” She asked and he answered, talking about Jenny for a good five minutes. Poor Mom, Davey had her number already and she didn’t stand a chance against his manipulations. He’d have her eating out of his hand by the end of the week, and it was fun to watch.
Oh yes, this was going to be the best timeline ever.
This story brought to you by a lot of hard editing from Emoe, and
beta-reading by Trebs.
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