“Class, please start preparing for your history every-Monday-surprise-test
for Monday even though you have tomorrow as well as the whole weekend to study.
Julia dear, even if you don’t
prepare, I’m sure I won’t need to be disappointed. Everyone knows very well
that-”
Alex certainly wasn’t interested in hearing her lunatic and crazy social
studies teacher boast about Miss Queen Bee, the topper of the class. She simply
slipped her iPod out and slid the earphones into her ears.
The chorus of Baby was just going to
start when her best friend tugged on the earphones and pinched her from under
the desk.
“Owe!” she bellowed, “That hurts!”
Nick signaled towards the teacher with his eyes.
Miss McLean (also known as Miss Bananas) shot her the death glare. “Miss
Alexandra Josephine, even if you do prepare which is likely, it will not make
much of a difference. Perhaps, your 50% will change to 51 instead of 49. Am I
not right?”
“Miss Bana- I mean Miss McLean, actually my overall percentage is 90, not 50.”
Death glare. Again.
“As I was saying,” Bananas continued, “Mr. Nick, I would advise you to find
some better friends, friends who are . . . more normal. I will get going now.
School will be over in another two minutes.” Bananas paced out of the
classroom. As soon as she was out of sight, as if an alarm had gone off, all
the students filed out into the corridor leaving Nick and Alex behind.
“Nick! Thank you so much! You just saved my iPod.”
“Yeah, whatever! I’m your best friend and the first rule of friendship is-”
“No sorry, no thank you. I know, I know.”
“But, you could treat me to some ice cream.”
“Um… Alright!”
They set off for the ice cream parlor and bought two scoops
of Chocolate Crunchy Delight each. On their way back, they were crossing a
retired scientist’s house when Nick said, “I want to explore this place.”
It looked at least seventy years old, if not more. Dirty and muddy. Garbage
covered the gardens and broken glass filled the driveway.
They walked around the building and into a park. The thick, tall trees made it
look more like a rainforest than a kitchen garden. They walked further in when
Alex bumped into some creepers, “Ah!”
“Only you could cry after hitting a plant Alex,” Said Nick.
“I am not crying Nick.” Alex touched the creepers and felt something hard. She
was just going to check what it was when a man wearing a white coat and had
grey hair came running from behind(who Alex guessed was the owner of the house-
the mad retired scientist).
“What are you kids doing in my house?” He screamed. “Trespassers! I will call
the police if you don’t go away immediately. Now!”
They ran as fast as they could and finally came to a stop when they had reached
Alex’s home.
“What they say about the mad scientist is absolutely true. He is extremely
hyper,” said Nick, panting.
“Anyways, it is late now. You should hurry and go home. Bye!” Said Alex.
She went to her room and looked at the watch. Uh-oh! It was
already 6. She opened her textbook and started studying. But, she just couldn’t
get her mind off the thing she bumped into at the scientist’s house. It was
definitely something big or else the scientist wouldn’t have made such a big
fuss about it.
* * *
The next day, after school was over and Bananas was done praising
Julia for absolutely no reason at all, Nick and Alex ran to the scientist’s
house.
“Was it important for me to come with you?” Asked Nick, exhausted.
“Shh! We need to sneak in.”
“I’ve done so many mischievous things like stealing someone’s secret diary,
putting a rubber lizard in a teacher’s bag-”
“So you were the one who did that!”
“-But never have I needed to sneak into someone else’s house!” Cried Nick.
Alex tiptoed behind the guard who hadn’t been there the previous day with Nick
tagging behind.
“That was easy!” She exclaimed. Finally, Nick pushed aside the creepers. They
both gasped. Now, in front of them, was a humungous, round metallic ball like
structure with buttons everywhere. There was a door to it, which was convex in
shape and read : PULL . Nick pulled it. Suddenly, alarms rang all around them,
the scientist came running towards them with a tube light in his hand
(seriously, a tube light?).
“You again!” He gasped, “My time machine! Why did you uncover it? I do not like
looking at my messed up inventions!”
He was nearing them now, holding the tube light as if it were a sword. 10
meters. . . 9 meters. . . 8. . . Alex wasn’t just going to go without traveling
in the first time machine ever. . . 7. . . She had to hurry. . . 6. . . 5. . .
4. . . There was no time to think now. She entered the time machine, pulled
panic-stricken Nick inside and shut the door. Quickly, she entered the number
776 for the time period and selected a place in Greece as the location. Alex
worked quickly, ignoring Nick’s blank expression and the terrified look of the
scientist’s face.
The time machine started spinning, and so did their heads. After what seemed
forever, the spinning stopped at last.
“Where are we? Why does this place look so old when we are in the future?” Alex
looked at Nick for an answer.
“Alex, we’re in Athens,” a look of sudden realization dawned on his face. “To
answer your question, we are not in the future. We’re in 776 BC!”
“Welcome, to the past,” a deep voice said. “You are in 776 BC. Use this guide
to help you find your way around. Do not lose it. If you lose it, we won’t give
you another catalogue for your next journey.”
A square shaped sheet who’s side was not more than an inch came out from a slot
in the machine. Nick picked it up and opened it. Opened it again. Once more.
One more time. Again. And again. By the time he was done unfolding it, it was a
square sheet of paper who’s side was now 20 inches.
They kept walking, admiring their
surroundings when Alex suddenly stopped.
“What happened Alex,” asked Nick who was chewing on a half-eaten apple which he
had found in the time machine.
“Something special had happened in history in 776 BC, I just can’t recall what
it was,” she replied.
“I have a feeling you’re right but, I too can’t remember.”
Five minutes later, a small crowd had gathered over there.
“However good the other participants may be, Eudoxia is the one who will win,”
they heard one say.
“No! He may be good but cannot be better than Acacius,” said another.
“Loukianos would win the games,” said the third and they broke into an
argument.
“They are still looking for one runner. All
the athletes haven’t yet been finalized,” said the wise one.
“Of course! Now I remember,” said Alex, “The first ever Olympic Games were held
in 776 BC!”
“You’re right,” said Nick, “But hadn’t Coreubus won it?”
“Yup! That’s what had happened.”
They went to a restaurant to get a quick bite. They learnt
that the catalogue could print money.
“Two portions of your best salad please,” ordered Alex.
“Coming right up,” the waiter smiled and went away.
After a long wait, the food came. “Yum!” They both exclaimed. It took them
hardly two minutes to gobble their salads up,
“Waiter! The food was amazing. I would like to thank the chef personally, if
possible,” said Nick.
A while later, the chef came out and the two ninth graders
thanked him.
“Coreubus feels pleased to have been able to make two youngsters such as
yourselves happy,” said the chef.
“Wait a second! You’re Coreubus?” Asked Nick and Alex at the same time.
“Well yes!”
“Do you run fast,” asked Nick.
“Well, yeah!”
“Why don’t you participate in the Olympics?” Asked Alex.
“Everyone would laugh at me. How can a chef win the Olympics? Nobody will
encourage me, they’ll only discourage!”
“That’s not true,” said Nick.
“You can’t not participate. You won the Games after all,” blurted out Alex.
“Thank you for the encouragement and just by the way, the Games will take place, it’s not an event of
the past that I won it.”
“And the last day for the try-outs is today,” said the waiter.
Nick and Alex exchanged a look. They pulled him out of the restaurant, taking
no notice of his howling and following the directions in their map, ran to the
arena where the selections were going on. The people were warming up and when
they saw Coreubus, they started laughing. He was almost in tears. Alex felt
extremely sad as well as angry but before she could say anything, the selectors
called the participants to the starting line. Nick pushed Coreubus there too
and Alex wished him luck even though she knew he didn’t need it.
ON YOUR MARKS. . . GET SET. . . GO!
The runners started sprinting as fast as they could but Coreubus was jogging,
slowly. 1 lap done. 2 laps over. Last lap now and he was coming last! The
participants were out of energy, but not Coreubus. He started running,
sprinting, faster, faster, FASTER! He had overtaken twenty-four people, only
two left now. His face beaded with sweat, Coreubus ran as fast as he could and
overtook another person. Five yards from the ending line, he was shoulder to
shoulder with Pelagius. 2 yards, 1 yard. . . and Coreubus overtook him! He had
won! Coreubus was the fourth runner for the Games!
He came running to Nick and Alex and gave them a tight hug (squashed them
actually). He asked them to support him at the Games too, but they had
somewhere else to go.
They went back into the time machine and entered the time
period 1498 AD. The machine spun. Their heads spun. At last, it stopped. When
they came out of the time machine, they were on a ship in the middle of the sea
with an old man who looked about forty standing next to them. He looked pretty
tensed. “For countless days we’ve been at sea, no luck in finding even one
country,” he said.
“Vasco-de-Gama,” exclaimed Alex, “Hello, sir,”
“who are you and what and what are you doing on my ship?”
“We mean no harm, sir,” said Nick, “We can help you find the way to India.”
“India? What’s that?”
“It’s the country you found, I mean are going
to find,” said Alex.
Luckily, for de-Gama, Alex had learnt the map of the world
by heart. She knew exactly where India was and Nick knew the route they needed
to take but, the problem was- they didn’t know where they were at the moment.
“I am extremely hungry,” said Nick.
“When are you not?” mumbled Alex.
“Here, I have an apple if you want,” said de-Gama. He handed over the half
eaten apple to Nick.
“That looks old,” said Alex.
“Hmm, it is. I started eating it on the first day of my adventure.”
After a long pause, Alex broke the silence, “Well, that’s great! Nick can tell
exactly how old an apple is just by looking at it!”
“It’s six months old. So?”
“Ewe! But Nick, the good news is you can tell us how far we are from India.
Exactly where we are. Knowing that were six months into the quest, you can tell
us the way!”
The guys didn’t seem to understand the idea at first but then a smile flickered
across Nick’s face.
“1024 nautical miles East and then 500 South,” Said Nick.
“That would take a very long time,” said Alex, “We should really get going now.
It’s very late.”
Vasco de-Gama thanked them and they traveled back into the present-2013. When
they looked out, they saw the scientist in the same position as he was before
they had gone. Time hadn’t passed.
They opened the door and beamed at the scientist. That surprised him. They told
him about their adventure once he had
calmed down a bit.
“How can you hide such a good invention?” Asked Alex.
“Meddling with time isn’t a very good thing. It’s dangerous and can be used in
a wrong way.”
“Alex, I think we should go now. Thank you sir for this unforgettable
adventure,” said Nick.
The two kids went back to their own houses.
Alex couldn’t wait for Monday and the test. She couldn’t fail it. After all, she
was a major part of it!
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