by Eric Krause

Created on: June 05, 2009

1932 ALL OVER AGAIN

Jenny Banth sat in the back room of the Orange Grove High School library. Ms. Regal, the head librarian, had left Jenny in charge while she went to the office. Not that it was a big responsibility. She was an honor student, and no one ever came in during fourth period unless they were assigned by a teacher. Jenny looked out onto floor of the library and noticed a few stray books that needed to be shelved. She supposed she should, but that could wait until Ms. Regal got back.

As Jenny scanned the rest of the library, she almost lost her balance and tumbled out of her chair. A strange lady was shelving books in the history section. Where had she come from? The only two ways in were through this room and the main entrance, and if she had come in that way, an electronic chime would have sounded. There was also a fire exit in the back, but that would have triggered a loud alarm. Maybe this was a person from the school district who had the key to the fire door. Ms. Regal might have known and forgotten to mention it.

Jenny stepped out onto the main floor. The woman didn't look at her, but Jenny got a better view. She had a plain look to her, sort of the old-fashioned stereotypical librarian-type. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, kept her hair in a tight bun, had horn-rimmed glasses, and wore an ankle length pink dress with yellow flowered prints. The mystery grew with the fact that Jenny didn't recognize the cart the lady was shelving out of.

Just as she was about to walk over, Jenny smelled smoke. She looked around but didn't see any fire. The woman didn't seem to notice, so Jenny ran to the entrance. The smoke smell was so heavy she expected to see flames shooting out from somewhere.

Jenny stepped outside and let out a gasp. The campus looked so different. The first thing that jumped out at her was the grove of orange trees where the quad should be. It was a little forest surrounded by a small white picket fence instead of the asphalt picnic area. She took a few steps towards the orange grove when she noticed the math building on the other side of the quad. Just fifteen minutes ago it had been its normal beige with brown trim, but now it was light green with orange trim, the school colors. Everything looked so new, and the Language Arts building was nowhere to be found. She felt a bit light-headed, so she headed back to the library. She must be hallucinating. Hopefully Ms. Regal was back. If not,

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