Amazing Grace ~ Part 1

*************************************

Claire started to laugh as she hit the pause button on YouTube.

"What's so funny?" Taryn asked, looking over at her.

"Aw You won't get it." Claire giggled.

"What are you laughing at, Claire?" Charlie called from the living room.

"Okay, fine." Claire relented, "I'll show you."

"This is going to be good." Taryn whispered as she came over to watch.

Claire dropped to the ground and started to do push-ups. 
"Okay, first I'll bench a thousand then I'll go and play volleyball, the best game in the world that I'll never stop talking about!" Claire shouted.

"Are you making fun of me?" Taryn asked.

"Bingo." Claire winked.

"Oh oh! Watch this. I'm going to clean the whole house, alphabetize everything and boss everyone around." Claire said in a high-pitched voice.

Charlie rolled her eyes and kept cleaning.

"Ha ha! I'm going read books because they're so much more interesting than my boring life!" Claire chuckled, "That was Ruthie, if you didn't get it."

"You think I'm boring?" Ruthie asked in a hurt voice.

Claire jumped. She hadn't seen Ruthie come in.
"Um, you weren't supposed to hear that." Claire mumbled. "I didn't mean that, it's just-"

"No, It's okay." Ruthie interrupted. "You were just speaking your mind."

"Oops. I didn't mean that." Claire said.

"Claire! That was mean! And- and heartless!" Kit shouted.

"No," Claire protested, "You don't understand. I-"

"Whenever someone is different from you, you pick on them!" Kit accused.

Claire blinked, "Wait, I... what?"

Kit began to walk away, "It's no wonder no one likes you."

"No one... likes me?" Claire whispered.

"Wow," Taryn interjected, "That escalated quickly."

Next Morning...

A note was found on Claire bed, along with her glasses.
Dear Ruthie, I'm so sorry. It was a joke, but I guess it wasn't really funny. I'm going to go find someone who does like me, but I'll be back.
Love, Claire.

Charlie was panicking.
"Where could she have gone?! And why didn't she take her glasses?!"

"Well, maybe she went somewhere she didn't want to stick out and glasses would make her too easy to identify." Ruthie suggested.

All Kit could do was sit on the floor with the note and repeat, "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have said those awful things."

"Taryn!" Charlie cried, "Why aren't you panicking?!"

"Because," Taryn whispered, "We can't do anything."

"We can call the police!" Charlie answered.

Ruthie walked over to Taryn and slipped an arm around her shoulders.
"What do you mean?" Ruthie asked.

"I-I've done something bad...really bad." Taryn replied.
"What?" Ruthie was confused.

"I, um, re- reactivated the Time Machine." Taryn mumbled.

"You, you what?" Charlie asked.

"And it's gone." Taryn added.

"Well, if she went into the past, it's no wonder she left her glasses here." Charlie said.

"What do we do?" Ruthie asked.

"I guess, we trust she was telling the truth in her letter. Let's just hope she comes back safe." Kit said.

The End of Part 1