With a dramatic thwack, the science teacher smacked the whiteboard at the front with a metre-long ruler. Underlined in big, capital letters were the words, SCIENCE PROJECT TIME!!! Complete with a little smiley face drawn at the top.
Madison let her head rest atop her paw, half-listening to the words being verbally said, while the other half of her brain was basically a jumbled mess consisting of ear-worm song lyrics being repeated over and over again, imaginary scenes of alien animals drinking from a lake, once again wondering if she could swim in her younger self's body, this was going to be a two-person group project, remembering that Akeidat enjoyed anything related to the ocean, wondering if she should recommend their parents to bring them to a nice beach- but sand always gets in your hooves, and she didn't want that, the deadline was just two weeks away, and oh, yes, she should get a pedicure for her hooves, soon, and hang on, two weeks? That's around when the comet was going to arrive- until her stream of thought was interrupted by someone calling her name.
Charles stared at her, uneasily.
"Team?" her friend asked.
"Whuh-? Um. Sure," Madison said, tersely. She looked around, saw that the other groups were already starting to chat, and decided it would probably be wise to follow suit. She began, first, "So, what are we gonna do?"
Charles blinked, like she wasn't expecting someone to ask for her opinion. She opened and closed her mouth, several times, until she tried, "...Maybe we can... do somethin' 'bout... flowers?"
"Sure, if ya' wanna go for generic," Madison snorted. She leaned back on her seat, thinking. She sort of vaguely remembered what was happening, here; she was about sixty percent certain that these projects were going to be for the school's yearly science fair. She didn't remember what any of the projects she did were, but she did remember that Charles had been her partner in them all, until after she disappeared. Those last two years, she did them with a teacher.
She pursed her lips. Charles' disappearance... now that she thought about it, didn't it happen around the same time as this year's science fair?
No time to pursue that train of thought, now; though she kept it tucked at the back of her head, swirling with the rest of her thoughts and memories. She needed an actual project idea.
"How about ast- um, how about space?" Madison suggested. Hey, she wasn't an expert; but she still knew more than the average ten-year-old. Even just mentioning that the Milky Way was a barred spiral galaxy and how that differed from irregular and non-barred spiral galaxies was probably more impressive than sticking two weeds in clear versus dyed water and seeing how that demonstrated the function of the xylem.
Charles raised a sardonic eyebrow, "Ain't space... also kind of generic?"
"Maybe," Madison conceded, "But there's- there's a lot we can do with space, yeah? The Solar System, galaxy shapes, pulsars, the, uh, the life cycle of stars-"
Charles shook a few locks of fur from her face, "Okay, I get it."
Madison grinned, excitement buzzing beneath her skin at the chance to show off the little knowledge she had. The first order of business was to meet at the library; Madison figured doing so during recess would suit their needs just fine.
When the time for recess came along, Madison hurried through her meal. She didn't know what they were going to do once they'd actually reached the library, but surely, it'd be fun. Nothing could go wrong when it came to spending time with childhood friends.
If only she could find her. She wasn't waiting in or outside the library, nor was she in the classroom. The canteen yielded no familiar faces, either.
This wouldn't be the day Charles disappeared, Madison knew. When that happened, will happen, her absence was obvious from the early morning, when she failed to show up for assembly and attendance-taking. Charles had a perfect attendance record, until then. But this was not that day; they'd sat together this assembly.
She found her, eventually, at one of the school gardens, far at the back, where most students didn't go. Madison wasn't even sure if students were allowed here.
She peeked from behind a pillar, watching discreetly as the girl... marched around? Madison tilted her ears upwards, to listen.
"Stems tall, soldiers, stand proud," Charles commanded the plants, "At-teeeen-tion! You're going to need to perfect these strategies when we launch our attack on- uh..."
Charles was playing soldier with the school plants. Oh, that was just adorable; she could just pinch the little thing's cheeks. It was also mildly disturbing, but mostly adorable.
"On the rock legions!" the kid decided, continuing her march. She kicked a leg high, and- huh, did Charles always have cloven hooves? "They live on the mountain far away from here, but you can never be too prepared!"
Charles paused, then pointed an accusing finger at an unsuspecting tree, "Don't talk back to me, soil-der! I'll have ya' executed for the disrespect! I'm the legendary General Charlie Hudfren, and I'll-!"
It was then that Madison chose to make her entrance.
"Hi-" she barely greeted, only to be met with a high-pitched scream that sounded kind of like the whistle of an old-fashioned train.
"Wh-" Charles swivelled comically around, "Um. Howdy."
"Hi," Madison repeated, amused, "Uh, what'cha doing?"
"Nothing," was Charles' singular answer. The ripples of the garden's pond was the only sound filling the girls' ears.
Eventually, Madison politely cleared her throat, "We should, uh... we should go to the library."
"Hm," Charles hummed, "Okay."
The walk was painfully awkward. She should say something, surely; but Madison found herself a little nervous; pondering the things Charles might be interested in. She was a pre-teen girl; what did little girls like? Dolls? Tea parties? Was she too young for things like lipstick and makeup? What age did kids start gossiping about their celebrity crushes?
She needed to do this right. This was her one chance of having the best two weeks for the rest of her life; surely, she couldn't afford to screw this up, could she?
No, she couldn't. Madison wasn't sure if she could live with herself if this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to exist happily as a child again passed her by. There was nothing left for her in the present; just more disappointment.
She would not waste her youth a second time. She wanted to grab this happiness by the roots and fully indulge herself with it; there was no conceivable way she'd ever feel this way again. This needed to be perfect.
They were suddenly stopped in the hallway by a stranger.
"Are you guys aliens?" the kid asked; glimmering turquoise eyes beaming from a snout of neatly-trimmed, strawberry-red fur. Madison vaguely recognised them to be a classmate. but while it tingled at the back of her head, she couldn't place a name to that face.
"...Huh?" she asked, nothing short of bewildered by this line of questioning. Beside her, Charles hadn't been talking during the entirety of their walk together in the first place, but now her mouth snapped shut, pursing into a thin line.
"Hello? I asked you a question," the kid pressed, their chin tilted high and condescending, "Or do you not speak English on whatever planet you're from?"
"We're, uh... not aliens?" As soon as those words left her mouth, the kid's grin widened, venomously.
"Oh, you are aliens!" They said, "Hey, do an alien noise for me!"
Charles whimpered, and the bully repeated it, mockingly; and that's when it all clicked into place. Madison frowned, "Mind leaving us alone?"
"Mind leaving us alone!" parroted Kasie Forte. Ringleader of the class's popular kids, and obnoxious bitch extraordinaire. Madison was more just annoyed with her, than anything; one didn't spend an odd twenty or so years dealing with snippy college lecturers, snobby bosses, and angry customers and clients without growing some sort of backbone; but...
"No one cares about what you want," Kasie stepped forwards, and Charles' stepped back, "You're-" an awful word Madison would never dare to repeat. Now, the smart thing to do would be to just walk the other direction, and not give her the satisfaction of getting aggravated. Madison knew this.
But she looked at the way Charles- just a kid, was silently taking it all; and Madison was furious.
"Could you shut up?" Madison growled, "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Maddie, don't-" Charles all but begged.
"Neh-neh-neh-neh-neh," Kasie shot back, "You're not allowed to talk, fucking fatass."
Madison simply squinted in disbelief. Extra rude. Meanwhile, Charles tugged Madison's arm, "Let's just go."
"What? No," Madison snarled back at her in disbelief, "She's mistreating you, that's not okay."
Well, technically, she was mistreating both of them. But Madison figured the well-being of some old loser who nagged and peer-pressured for a living was less important than the well-being of an innocent ten-year-old.
"I'm used to it!" she pleaded.
Meanwhile, Kasie twirled her finger in the cuckoo sign, by her head, "Yeah, go to a mental hospital! Then everyone would finally forget what your disgusting faces look like, ugly freaks!"
Madison bit back a roar. She could feel her temper rising- that's ableist, that's not how this works, you're a real piece of work- but holding one's tongue was a valuable skill when it came to her line of work, for as much marketing seemed to revolve around yapping until someone bought your product. You don't owe competitors information.
"Maddie!" Charles hissed, yanking her back. Looking into Charles' eyes, Madison then stepped forwards, towards where the library was, and Kasie stepped in front of her in turn.
"Let us go," said Madison, coldly, curtly.
"No," Kasie replied, grinning, "You're not allowed to move."
"Piss off," Madison grumbled, stubbornly pushing past her. As fur brushed against fur, Kasie shrieked dramatically.
"EWWW, you touched me!" she faked-gagged, shrinking away, "I'll tell the teacher you said a bad word!"
With that fundamentally hilarious sentence, and Kasie's dramatic exit, Madison resisted the urge to giggle. Beside her, Charles looked at Madison with eyes the size of oak leaves. Once they were alone, Madison huffed, "Well, she sucks."
"I want to slice her up and feed her remains to a pit of Venus flytraps," Charles agreed, with a blank stare. Certainly not expecting that blunt response, Madison let out a loud and hearty cackle of appreciation.
The library was more for Charles' benefit, than anything. Most of what a library for children had on astronomy, Madison probably already knew. In fact, she was willing to bet that she had, once upon a time, read every single one of the books about space stored here. The library had basically been her own little hideout.
"Are we doin' the Solar System?" Charles whispered.
Madison looked over the book in Charles' paws, and shook her head, cringing. She'd forgotten that dwarf planets as an actual term hadn't been invented yet; and including it as part of the roster of planets was sure to induce actual damage to her sanity, when she knew otherwise.
Actually; that then brought to mind; how many of the concepts she knew would be anachronistic? Did people even know about the Kuiper belt? Ceres? The Laniakea supercluster? The Boötes Void? Madison cursed her inability to remember numerical facts. Maybe she could look it up online? But students weren't allowed in the school computer labs except during infocomm class. Did Wikipedia even exist in 2000? Perhaps she could use the computer at home, then; but- wait, no, forget looking up anything, because this was 2000, and they still had slower-than-Neptune's-orbit dial-up internet that wasn't always guaranteed to work.
She peered over Charles' shoulder, her eyes landing on one of the pages.
"This one," Madison decided, pointing at the diagram below, featuring galaxies of shapes that varied from whirlpool-like to plain orbs of light, "Galaxy classification."
This was nice, Madison thought, as they brainstormed ideas. How long had it been, since she'd got to spend time with her childhood friend, like this? She wondered where Charles had gone. Where was she, in the present? Did she remember her?
Eventually, the bell rang, unceremoniously cutting the peaceful moment short. The piano chimes of some old classical music snaked its way through the school halls.
It was hours later, as the two friends had been walking from school grounds to the nearest bus stop, when they came across, laying on the sidewalk next to an apartment building, a broken flowerpot, still containing a bundle of blue flowers, rooted in a pile of soil that spilled out of the cracks. It must've fallen from one of the apartment's windows.
"Those are Forget-Me-Nots," Charles observed, kneeling in front of the broken pot.
Madison blinked owlishly at her, "How'd you know that?"
"Reading," was all the information Charles was willing to supply. She stepped away for a moment to rummage through her bag, eventually pulling out an honest-to-God, small, handheld polaroid camera. The thing was gaudily coloured, clunky, and noticeably several years old, judging by the scratch marks. Madison could vaguely make out the rectangular outline where what was probably the ELGOLAND sticker once resided.
She'd have made a joke about the rainbows, had she not also known that openly admitting you were queer in the 2000s was a one-way ticket to being called every slur under the sun. She doubted most kids Charles' age even knew queerness was a thing that existed, anyways.
Not twenty years in the past.
Charles held the camera close to herself, walking so that the sun was positioned behind her, and snapped a picture of the fallen flora.
Carefully, she zipped open a smaller pocket on her bag, stuffing the still-developing polaroid inside.
Madison couldn't help but be a little bit nosy, leaning forwards a slight amount, just quick enough to catch a glimpse of a small, brown exercise book within the bag. As Charles turned around, Madison quickly shifted her gaze back towards the fallen pot, trying to look natural.
"They, um... they look pretty," commented Madison, absent-mindedly.
"They look so sad," remarked Charles, mournfully, "I'm sorry your pot's broken, Mister-Miss Forget-Me-Not."
"Mister-Miss?" Madison repeated, a little amused. She supposed the use of Mx. as an honourific wouldn't be as well-known, quite yet.
Her friend flushed, "Reckon those are the right words; 'cus the science teacher says flowers have both male and female parts, for pollination, right?"
Madison blinked, "I guess."
Charles was still looking at the fallen flowers, her paws twitching. At this rate, they were going to miss the bus.
Then Madison had an idea, "Maybe we can bring 'em to the staff office?"
"...What?" Charles looked at her as though she'd grown a second head.
"Tomorrow, before all the classes start," Madison elaborated, "Maybe we can, uh, ask the folks there to plant it in the school garden? But then we might need, the- um- need approval from the higher-up folks..."
"Or we could ask for tips from the, uh, the science teacher on how to take care of it, so you can bring 'em home," continued Madison, to an increasingly alarmed-looking Charles.
"We can't just do that!" Charles squealed.
Madison cocked her head, quizzically, "Why not? Just. Walk in there, and ask."
"What if they scold us because it's not important school stuff?" her friend pointed out, "What if it takes too long, and the teachers scold us for skipping class?!"
Yeesh, this kid was a bundle of nerves. Honestly, the worst Madison figured could happen would be some mild grumbling. S'not like getting yelled at by a Primary School teacher was gonna show up on her future resume, "Oh, please. Don't be so silly. What if we just, uh, go now? School's gotta still be open for all the- all the CCAs, right?"
"No!" the other girl exclaimed.
She crossed her arms, hiding one paw in the sleeve of the other, wrapping around herself, nervously, "I don't wanna."
A hush fell over them. Charles looked back at the flowers, gloomily, "They're probably already gonna die, anyway. It's pointless."
Another pause.
"Well, fine," Madison grunted, frustratedly, gesturing for Charles to move forwards with her, "If we have nothing to do here, then let's just catch the bus, yeah?"
Charles nodded, "Yeah."
And that was that.