“So tell me what you remembered,” Joshua said as he handed me a glass of water. “Every detail of it. Don’t leave anything out.

  So I told him everything I remembered and when I finished he remained quiet for a moment before saying “So what happened after you heard the response?”

  “I woke up and it was today.”

  “And whatever sent you here made you forget this was your past.”

  I nodded and Joshua’s frown deepened. I didn’t like that frown because he was about to tell me something I was going to like even less.

  “This is bad,” he said. “If you’re in the past, then things you do can have serious repercussions.”

  “Like that movie The Butterfly Effect.”

  Joshua nodded. “Like the alternate ending version.”

  Yup, I liked what he said a lot less now. “So I’d better follow the script to the letter until I figure out what I’m supposed to fix.”

  Joshua gave me a blank look, but it was replaced pretty damned quickly with comprehension. “So you mean you can go on autopilot? You have to work to not follow what’s already predetermined?”

  “If by predetermined you mean what’s already been done, then yeah.”

  Joshua smirked. “Sorry, I’ll try and use one syllable words from now on since this is important.”

  Important was an understatement. I had the feeling that whatever gave me the wish did not have my best interests in mind. It felt more like an excuse to get rid of me for whatever reason. Which fueled my determination to get things done right.

  “So what do we do?” I asked.

  “You wished you could relive that moment to handle it better,” Joshua said. “How do you think you could handle it better?”

  I gave him a confused look. “What do you think I meant by that?”

  He shook his head. “No, I want to hear it from you. Spell it out for me.”

  I barked a laugh. “That’s funny, the non-magic user trying to spell anything.”

  Joshua made a frustrated sound. “You know what I meant, Izzy.”

  “Okay, fine. I want to make sure Manny survives. He’s a bully now, but he deserves a chance to be better.”

  “But since now you know you’re in the past, we have to be very careful how we fix this problem,” he said.

  “And by we you mean me,” I said, catching the hidden meaning. The more ignorant Joshua was of any hints to the future, the better off him and the future would be. I’ve seen enough movies and TV shows about how bad it was to alter the timeline. I did not want to be That Guy.

  “So how do you propose we save Manny with minimal alterations to the timeline?”

  I thought about it. Then I thought about it some more. Telling Joshua might cause more harm than good. Not having the spell cast on Manny might screw things up, which made me wonder how much we were screwing it up right now.

  Then an idea hit me. Maybe we could still have the spell cast on Manny and keep the timeline somewhat protected.

  “Joshua, how do you counter a spell?”

  Joshua looked at me as if I’d asked him to solve world hunger. “I’ve never tried to do that. I’ve been working on casting them, not countering them.”

  “Sounds like we’ve got some research to do,” I said, getting up and moving over to his bookshelf. “You start from the top shelf, I’ll start from the bottom.”

  “It’s weird seeing you actually wanting to study,” he said as he pulled the first book from the top.

  I grinned as I grabbed a book from the bottom. “Guess all it took was a desire to keep my timeline mostly intact.”

  Between Joshua and me, we searched through almost all of the books, breaking only for dinner, and then much later I found something in a book called Herbal Magick. I mouthed a silent plea to let this be the last book because it was getting late. Like, close to Midnight late. Which meant I’d be back to the start of Wednesday.

  I dunno if my plea worked, but I found exactly what I was looking for.

  “Bingo,” I said, pointing to the page for Joshua to see.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  After reading the page his eyes met mine. “Milkwort, huh? I hope this will work,” he said.

  “According to the book it’ll protect you from enemy tricks and false friends, remove negative energy and provide spiritual and physical protection from negative sources.” I read the rest of the info and grinned. “Hey, it helps with attracting a beneficial partner in love.” I looked at Joshua. “Maybe you should get some for yourself.”

  “Nice to see your sense of humor’s back after your little panic episode.”

  “Too bad you’re not going to be able to use that against me.”

  Joshua shook his head. “If you can keep everything from falling apart I’ll call it even.”

  Doubt filled my head. What if I screwed this up? I’d probably just start over but what if I fixed things in a way that made my present worse somehow? I had to admit if anyone could do it, it’d be me.

  “I see that look in your eye, Izzy. You’re doubting yourself.”

  I held up my thumb and forefinger, barely spacing them out. “Just a little bit.”

  “Magic is all about confidence. Visualize what you want to happen, and it’ll manifest itself. You’re the most stubborn person I know. If anyone can bullrush their way through magic, it’s you.”

  I tilted my head at Joshua. “You know, I have no idea if that was a compliment or an insult.”

  Joshua glanced at the clock. “I guess you’ll have all day to figure that out.”

  I followed Joshua’s eyes to the clock. 11:59. We managed to find the potential solution to the problem. All I’d have to do is figure out how to implement it. No problem right?

  “Okay, Joshua. Wish me luck because it’s all on me, isn’t it?” I said.

  Joshua nodded. “Best of--”

  I was laying in bed staring at the ceiling before he could finish. I didn’t even need to check my phone to know it was Wednesday again.

  Time to get busy.

  I went on autopilot. I showered, got dressed, and went down to talk to Mom. She tried to get me to eat a real breakfast but I opted for protein shakes. Before I knew it I was in my Jeep getting ready to go to school. So far no deviations from the script. Even eating breakfast like a normal person might be a terrible risk. I didn’t want to get back in the present and find out we got invaded by Cthulhu.

  First period. Dodgeball. I won again. The coach tried to recruit me but I declined. So far so good. Autopilot was working. Having to take the pop quiz again was disappointing because I was getting used to passing it, but I couldn’t risk it. Everything had to be exactly as it was the first time around.

  Sorry Miss Jarnigan. I know how disappointed you are, but I can’t risk a Cthulhu invasion.

  Third period was the library. I started feeling anxious because I knew what was coming up. The confrontation with Manny. Sure it was going to end with him getting a swirly but for a second… just a brief second… I considered talking to him. It would be the nice thing to do. Learning about Manny’s home life made me feel sorry for him.

  Sorry, Manny. You’re just going to have to settle for surviving our encounter in the gym.

  When I saw Manny knock Joshua’s books out of his hands I did feel some satisfaction of shoving him into the bathroom all the way to the toilet. I didn’t get the same feeling when I applied the swirly, though.

  When I finally let him go I leaned back against the sink with arms folded across my chest. He said I was going to pay, but I declined his not so generous offer. Izzy did the usual complaint about me stepping in and I ignored it.

  When we were in study hall I actually tried to look at the pages he was transcribing from his old book of Witchcraft. I caught the word ‘impotent’ and a shiver went down my spine. He had been working on the spell that day. Had he spent more time on it maybe he wouldn’t have botched it and gotten Manny killed as a result.

  Hindsight is 20/20. There was nothing I could do, not without risking major changes down the road.

  He then asked me if I could give him a ride to Candleworks and of course I said yes. I needed to do one thing off script, and hopefully it was a risk which would pay off.

  After school we went to the strip mall and I followed the script. "I'll be in there," I said, indicating the health food store which I knew was no longer in business. "When you're ready to go just come and get me."

  "Okay." Joshua slid out of the Jeep, and I watched him enter Candleworks. Then I took out my phone and started a timer for two minutes. It’d give me enough of an alibi to pretend I was trying to visit the store before I went to Candleworks.

  When the timer rang I walked over to Candleworks and saw the usual sight of Keith helping out the skinny kid who always tried to be subtle at checking me out.

  And it was then I almost dropped the pretense of autopilot when I finally freaking noticed a clue I’d been missing. How the Hell did I not catch it? It was a struggle to give the kid a brief nod. It was a huge struggle to do the small talk with Keith.

  "What the hell happened to Maximum Effort?" I asked.

  "Ah, yeah. They closed us down this week, Israel. Sorry about that."

  And then I went off script. I had to. There was no choice, but after realizing the clue right in front of my face, I believed it wasn’t going to hurt anything. “It’s okay. Hey, do you have some of this in stock?” I showed him my phone which had the item I was looking for, and he nodded.

  “Yeah, the third aisle on the right. You can’t miss it.”

  “Thanks. When you see Joshua can you tell him I’ll meet him at my Jeep?”

  Of course Keith said he would and I quickly went down the aisle to grab what I needed. I bought the entire stock just in case. There was probably little room for error and too much of a good thing wouldn’t hurt. At least I hoped that was true.

  After I made my purchase I left the store and met Joshua at my jeep who of course noticed the bag. “Did you buy something from Candleworks?”

  I nodded. “Saw some herbs that I thought Mom would like to use in her cooking,” I said, hating myself for lying even if it was for good intentions. “You know how she likes to make those weird dishes.”

  “What is she making tonight?”

  I shook my head as we started the drive to his place. “I have no idea, but I’ll bet it’ll be weird and that you’d love it.” I glanced at him. “Want to come over?” I knew what he was going to say, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

  “I’d love to,” he said and for a second I thought I was going to freak out until he continued with, “but I have to do some stuff at home.”

  Yeah, and by stuff he meant ritual. Fortunately I had a way to let him do his thing and stop it without him being none the wiser.

  After I dropped him off I got ready for the confrontation with Dad at home. Of course Mom told me he wanted to talk and after I went through the script which ended with me storming out of the house I got ready for the other confrontation.

  Only this time I hoped it would end differently with both of us surviving instead of just one.