She Sold Us a Second Chance

"On results day, I'll have a way to turn back time and take us all back to the exam room!" Lily Parker, the prettiest girl in our class, stood at the front of the room, threw up an arm, and shouted it at the top of her voice. "Sign up with me! Just $999. If it's a scam, I'll pay you back ten times over! "You'll even get a polished answer key for the college entrance exams. Guaranteed not to get flagged for cheating!" The classroom erupted. In the corner, I didn't even look up. I'd found the same method three days earlier. And I'd decided against it. For one simple reason: time inside that exam room was completely broken. Thirty seconds for English. Twelve hours for math. And between papers, three days and nights of hunger and thirst you couldn't survive twice. Chapter 1 I was still smirking when Lily finished counting hands. "Forty-nine. Wait... why are we one short?" Dozens of faces turned toward me. "Nora, you're our class president. Why aren't you signing up? "It's only $999 for a guaranteed future. You can't lose!" I tightened my grip on my pen. "I'll trust the score I earn myself." Lily strutted down from the front of the classroom and looked at me with open contempt. "Oh, spare us the speech. You think I'm scamming everyone. "Lucky for you, I get one free trial. Let me open your eyes." Before she'd finished speaking, Tyler Brooks toppled backward in the seat in front of mine. His eyes lost focus. His limbs jerked. He looked as though his soul had left his body. As startled cries rose around me, I sensed it. Something in the room had changed. The broom in the corner was standing upright. The exam countdown had vanished from the board. And the practice paper in my hand had been torn to pieces. Then Tyler opened his eyes. He wiped blood from his nose and dragged in several ragged breaths. "Holy shit. I really went back! "My spirit was the only one in the room. I swept the floor, wiped the board, looked through everyone's papers..." Applause broke out. Someone leaped onto a desk and cheered. I stared at the scraps of the questions I'd been reviewing. Anger surged through me. "So you looked. Why did you have to tear mine up?" "Aw, does our precious class president still think she's special?" This was the same Tyler who used to beg me for my notes. Now he kicked my desk over and shoved me down onto one knee. He stood over me, gloating. "We're all about to get the highest scores in the country. We can do whatever we want!" Desks, pens, and papers scattered under his feet. He couldn't stop grinning. When he turned to Lily, he sounded even more pleased with himself. Pulling several thick stacks of cash from his wallet, he shoved them into her hands. "Take my whole month's allowance. Keep the change! "One condition, though. This stays in our class. Don't go telling anyone else!" Before long, Lily's wallet was bulging. She couldn't stop smiling either. As she passed me, she paused deliberately. "Admit it, Nora. You want in. "All those years of studying, and you'll still lose to us because we'll have the answers. Such a shame. "Because I'm not taking you back." Her words drew more hostile looks in my direction. "Right! Leave her here!" "She's always first in class, always looking down her nose at us. It's our turn to shine!" Anger closed my throat. I stood and gave them one last warning. "You only get one chance at these exams each year. You should take them seri—" "Shut up already!" They tore up their papers, crushed them into balls, and pelted me with them. Lily whipped the class into a frenzy, then led everyone out to celebrate. At the door, she turned and pulled a face. "Madam President, you can't come back in time with us, but you're welcome to come party. "Back room at Rialto's. Drop by when you're sick of studying!" Chapter 2 Ten minutes later, all that remained was the wreckage. I silently picked up my chair. My phone buzzed. Mr. Whitaker, our homeroom teacher, had sent the class a message. "Good luck on your entrance exams, everyone! Once they're over, you can have all the fun you want!" My eyes narrowed. All the fun I wanted? Fair enough. What could be more entertaining than attending fifty classmates' funerals? Their souls would be gone for three days. Surely a few frantic parents would have them buried by then. I studied for another three hours before leaving the classroom. On the way home, I came across Lily's latest post. "Real legends party right before the most important exams of their lives. Some of us are even brave enough to hand in blank papers!" Loud music and clinking glasses blared from the video. Everyone had been drinking. Their faces were flushed. Looks like she'd already spent a fair chunk of those sign-up fees. Interesting. Turning back time wasn't cheap. The cost rose exponentially with every extra person you brought. And if someone paid but got left behind... I smiled to myself and went back to reviewing vocabulary. Morning came quickly. For once, the school gates were crowded with parents, dressed like it was graduation day and clustered around Mr. Whitaker. Too bad their children had already settled on a plan the night before. Walk in. Put their heads down. Nap. They'd even agreed to check that everyone handed in a blank paper, so there would be nothing to erase when they went back. The bell rang. The college entrance exams had begun. I'd barely finished the multiple-choice section when snores started rising around me. Tyler had been assigned the seat next to mine in the exam hall, and he was drooling everywhere. God, he was loud. I raised my hand. "Their snoring is distracting me." The proctor roused my classmates. They woke reluctantly, and Lily turned scarlet with anger. She didn't care that the proctor was right there. "What the hell is wrong with you, Nora? "Just because you take forever to answer a few questions doesn't mean you get to ruin everyone else's sleep!" I ignored her and kept writing. During the later exam sessions, the seats around me were empty. Someone had left a message on my desk, though. LOSER. I wiped it off without letting it bother me. At last, the three tense days were over. When the final bell rang and I came outside, the waiting parents crowded around to ask how it had gone. One woman stepped directly into my path. "Were the exams easy this year, sweetheart? "Everyone else in your class keeps coming out early. You're always the last..." I recognized her immediately. Denise Parker, Lily's mom. I raised an eyebrow. "They were hard. "Your daughter couldn't answer the questions. She talked the others into giving up, too. "They handed in blank papers." Chapter 3 The parents froze. Denise's face crumpled. With trembling hands, she called her daughter. "Where are you? Get back here. Right now!" A few minutes later, Lily hurried over with an iced latte in her hand. The moment our eyes met, she knew who'd talked. She flung the entire drink at me. "That's what you get for making up lies about me!" Cold liquid ran beneath my collar and down my neck. Lily turned to the parents. "Please trust us. Don't let someone with an agenda mislead you! "These are the most important exams of our lives. With my help, everyone in our class is going to do amazingly well! "So relax. Let your kids go away and enjoy themselves now that it's over. On results day, we're going to blow you all away!" Each claim was more ridiculous than the last. The parents looked torn between astonishment and doubt. But she wasn't finished. She turned back to me with a sneer. "Oh, I almost forgot our poor class president. I guess you can't afford a vacation? "Perfect. I've got a job for you. Put together fifty copies of the exam answers." I gave a cold laugh and shook my head. "Can't. I'll be busy finding you all coffins." Before I'd finished, she threw several stacks of cash at me. She made sure I saw how much more was in her wallet. Right. That idiot Tyler had paid extra. Enough to make her feel rich. Enough to send her hurtling toward disaster even faster. What good would printed answer keys do? They couldn't take them back anyway. A smile tugged at my mouth. I stopped arguing and quietly picked up the money. It would cover some nice funeral flowers. Seeing me give in, Lily laughed so hard her eyes watered. "Wow. Money really does solve everything with you. "It's settled, then. If those answers aren't ready on results day, the whole class is coming after you." She sauntered away, leaving the parents staring after her. Denise rubbed the faded hem of her shirt and approached me uncertainly. "Is what my daughter said true?" I gave her a pitying look and walked away without answering. I had plenty to do. Prepare the answer keys. Prepare for the funerals. Work out which colleges I wanted to apply to. The days flew by. Then results day arrived. Wearing a long black dress, I reached the classroom and found Lily outside, nervously rummaging through her wallet. "That's weird. I didn't think I'd spent that much... "Nine ninety-nine each. Why does it feel like I'm short?" She fumbled through the cash, trying to count on her fingers. I'd already seen enough. "Stop counting. That doesn't even look like thirty thousand dollars." I leaned closer. "You're screwed, Lily. "You can only take a few of them back. What do you think the ones you leave behind will do to you?" I hadn't bothered to lower my voice. Then I stepped aside. Our other forty-nine classmates were approaching, their faces dark. They'd heard every word. Chapter 4 "What now, Lily?" Tyler was the first to turn on her. His lips trembled with anger. "We all paid in full. What are you trying to pull?" "Nothing!" Sweat gathered on Lily's forehead as she rushed to deny it. Her voice softened. "I wasn't keeping track. I spent a little too much. "Just give me some more. If this goes wrong, we're all screwed!" The classmates who'd been so friendly to her now stared coldly. "Nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars was expensive enough. You messed up. Why should we pay for it?" "Aren't there loan apps? Borrow it!" "Once you get the highest score, you can pay it back with the school's prize money!" I couldn't help laughing. Under their watchful eyes, Lily opened one loan site after another until she'd scraped together the money. The classroom clock read ten in the morning. Someone entered their candidate number on the results site, eager to watch their future change. Then footsteps filled the corridor. "What's going on? Why's my mom here?" "Wait, is that my dad? He's supposed to be back home waiting for me to call..." The group at the front of the room broke into confusion. I cleared my throat. "Relax. I invited them. "You're all guaranteed to succeed. Why shouldn't the people closest to you get to witness it?" The door opened, and the parents came in. Lily quickly arranged her face into something resembling confidence. "Please, take a seat. "I'm sure you remember me. Outside the exam hall, I promised our whole class would do well. "Now you get to see just how well." She snatched the fifty sets of answers from my hands. I laughed inwardly. While everyone was distracted, I took the classroom key from the teacher's desk. Then I sat down with the parents and watched the front of the room. Lily hit Confirm. The students on the right began convulsing. One after another, they collapsed. "What's happening? I thought we were just checking their scores!" The parents rushed forward in panic. But the students on the left, Tyler among them, began screaming for a different reason. "I saw the exam room! Why did it throw me out?" "Lily, get up! You borrowed the money! Why didn't you take me?" The parents' screaming drowned them out. "Honey? What's wrong? Please, don't do this to me!" "Their hands are getting cold. I can't feel a heartbeat. Somebody call an ambulance!" Tyler suddenly snapped out of it. "No hospital! Lily said their souls have to return to the same place. We should leave them in the classroom!" "What are you talking about? Get out of my way!" Denise picked her daughter up and hurried toward the stairs. At the classroom door, her foot caught on the scattered answer sheets. She fell, taking Lily down with her. Three scratches opened across Lily's cheek. At that moment, the big screen at the front lit up. The overloaded results site had finally responded. Window after window appeared. Every classmate's score was the same. Zero.