Chương 11: Mum’s the Word

"So? How was your first day as a high schooler?" Olivia let out an exhausted sigh as she slid into the passenger seat of her dad's car. The bulky form of her backpack collapsed to the floor between her feet with a soft thump.

"Pretty good. I'm not drowning in homework yet, so I'll take that as a good sign."

"I'd hope not. Who even gives homework on the first day?"

"My Geography teacher, apparently." She gave her dad a wry smile as he pulled away from the curb.

"What? Why?" Her dad asked incredulously.

"There's no way she even had time to teach you anything."

"Nope. That's why she framed it as a take-home pre-test. But really it's just homework." The man shook his head with obvious dismay.

"That's just cruel. Absolutely cruel. It should be illegal." Olivia shrugged.

"It's fine, really. I'm almost finished with it already." She'd managed to get most of it done during lunch, given that there was little else to do. She wouldn't sit with the band kids for a few weeks yet—in her previous go-around, it had taken at least that long to work up the courage to approach them. Meaning she would be in a self-imposed exile for a while yet. It worked out fairly well, given that her attempts to sneakily work on the assignment in other classes had been met with rather stern rebukes.

Despite the fact that they weren't doing much else. She'd honestly forgotten just now much more high school teachers cared about that kind of thing.

"Look who's all on top of it," her dad praised with a smile.

"Just try not to work too hard, ok? School's not all about grades. You're also here to make friends and have fun." She smiled. The amount of care her dad showed warmed her heart, especially now that she had kids of her own. She understood his desire to see her happy on a much deeper level now, felt it resonate in her soul. … Though I guess I'll have to disappoint him a little bit when it comes to making friends. For now, at least. If only she could tell him not to worry.

His little girl would turn out all right in the end. Better than all right, honestly. She still remembered the pride on his face at her and Jason's wedding, his face when he'd held George for the first time. Her resolve steeled. All the more reason to be careful. They chatted for most of the short ride home, Olivia sharing details about the rest of her classes and teachers. When they pulled into the driveway, her dad popped open the trunk. She followed him around the car with a questioning look.

He hefted a pair of plastic plant pots out of the back, hemispheres of closed flowerbuds erupting from their tops.

"It's mum season. You didn't expect me to come home without some, did you?" She couldn't help but shake her head. Her dad ran a small garden center downtown, tending to the couple acres' worth of plants while she was at school. It was more of a hobby than something he did to make money—although the various elderly women around town were more than happy to keep him in business.

It allowed him a lot of flexibility and kept him occupied well into what should have been his retirement years"Oh sure, mom can't bring work home, but when you do it…" She teased. He shrugged unapologetically.

"Hey, at least my work makes the yard look pretty. Help me out with the other ones, will you?" Olivia didn't hesitate to grab another couple of pots, her eyes widening as she realized that there were a half dozen more plants of various types crowded in the back. She'd honestly forgotten how overboard he tended to go with these things. Though her arms reminded her of just how much she'd put them to work with her morning exercises these past couple of days.

After setting the pots out front and massaging her embarrassingly sore muscles, they headed inside. Olivia sat down to knock out the last of her Geography homework before anything else. It would be nice to not have it hanging over her head for the rest of the evening.

"Do you think mom will be home for dinner tonight?" She asked as she rummaged through her backpack. Her dad gave her an odd look.

"No? Why, did she say she would?"

"No. I just… wondered if we should wait for her," Olivia clarified. Her dad gave her a strange and slightly strained smile.

"I don't think so. You can text her to ask, but… Just because she got out of there early on Saturday doesn't mean it'll be a regular thing, sweetie." This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Olivia grimaced slightly. His gentle tone made it clear that her question had come off as a naively hopeful one. The answer should have been obvious—her mom getting home was a rarity, she knew that. Yet just writing the woman off without so much as a second thought…

It wasn't something that Olivia was used to doing. Not anymore. Though perhaps she would be, soon. After finishing the trivial amount of homework, she spent a bit of time researching more information online as her dad worked with his newly acquired plants. A few hours later, she found herself salivating at the smell of baked bread and marinara sauce as a dinner of frozen pizza baked in the oven—fresh ones, not Saturday's leftovers.

They quickly moved over to the dining room table to enjoy their greasy, cheesy bounty while watching TV. It was yet another pastime she wasn't quite used to, given how much videos and the internet had grown to usurp cable's former grip on entertainment. It also felt pretty odd to watch one of the old shows she'd grown up with again.

"Huh!" Her dad commented as the episode ended.

"Well they've definitely got me curious where they're going. Especially with the whole cheerleader thing."

"It was a pretty good opener," Olivia agreed with a nod.

"I think I like the time traveler guy more, though. Do we have the next one recorded?"

"Nope. The first episode just came out last night. We gotta wait till next weekend to see what happens." He explained, already tediously navigating through the menus to set up another recording.

"But I've got high hopes for this one! Way better than that sitcom we tried last week." Olivia smiled. It really was a good show. The first season, at least. After that it went downhill fast. But there was no sense in spoiling that, now was there? With a sigh of contentment, Olivia pushed back from the table and stood.

"All right. I'm going to go upstairs for a bit… unless you need anything?" Her dad shook his head.

"Nope. Unless you feel like digging holes for those plants?" She chuckled.

"No thanks. I wouldn't want to take away from your fun. Or kill the poor things from sheer proximity."

"Well, you've already cursed the ones you helped carry over."

"That's on you. Should have thought of it before asking for help." Olivia took the cardboard-textured remains of her crust and tossed them in the trash. The parts she had eaten were starting to make themselves felt, though not nearly as much as they had been in the future. It was a small blessing, and one she didn't intend to push. Then, she retreated to her room and flopped onto her bed. A long breath escaped as she sank into the fluffy comforter and closed her eyes.

The day had proven longer and more exhausting than expected. Between the strict regimen of scheduled classes, the boredom of sitting through them, and the stress of being constantly on guard about her behavior, she felt so incredibly wound up. It was worse than if her classes actually had given her busywork, in some ways. Especially since I don't know how I did in the grand scheme of things. She frowned, her eyes opening to stare up at the ceiling. How many minute details had she changed today?

How many deviations from her past life? Was she completely off track already? Or had she managed to walk that tightrope well enough for today? I'm pretty sure that some things are already different. Lexi helping me out is the big one. But does that even matter? Is that so big that I need to worry? Another sigh. It would be impossible to tell, not for a long while yet. It was a bit problematic that her ideal scenario involved a lot of boring predictability as a necessary consequence of her actions.

But it couldn't be helped. This… might be a bit more difficult than I thought. It's only been a few days and I'm already this stressed… It wasn't just the constant feeling of walking on eggshells, either. The real killer was something that she didn't expect. The isolation. Obviously, there was the isolation from her family and friends and everyone else in her old life. That was no surprise, even if it did hurt like hell.

There was also the intentional isolation she'd inflicted upon herself, given her younger counterpart's difficulties with socializing. But there was also a more unexpected kind of loneliness as well. Even if she did want to open up and connect with her "peers", the fact remained that she wasn't a high schooler. Not really. She was a grown woman, with priorities and perspectives that would simply be foreign to these kids. Relating to them wouldn't be impossible, but… Well, I guess I don't have to. Not yet, at least.

Besides, maybe it won't be that hard. They sounded like they were talking about pretty normal stuff during English, anyway… The thought didn't exactly help. Digging in her pocket, Olivia retrieved the blocky plastic rectangle of her phone. She thumbed at the buttons, idly scrolling through the short list of contacts contained within. One entry in particular jumped out at her. She hesitated, staring at it longingly as the temptation to call her husband welled up once more.

As strong as the temptation was, giving into it would be stupid. All she'd likely do was get ignored. Her husband wasn't good at answering the phone even when he knew who was on the other side. And if he did answer, what would she say? Something insane that would lay the foundation for a lot of uncomfortable questions when they finally did meet. At minimum, leaving evidence of a prior call like that could wind up disastrous. The rational part of her mind made it abundantly clear why it was a terrible idea.

Yet Olivia stayed that way for longer than she cared to admit. Eventually, she shook her head, breaking the spell. I'm trying to feel less lonely, not more. She reluctantly tucked the phone away once more and chastised herself. If there was relief to be found, it certainly wasn't there. And if she fell back on that as a possibility every single time she felt even the slightest bit sad… then this would be a long few years indeed. She tried to work on outlining more of the future she remembered.

But it wasn't long before she found herself simply staring into space as her mind spun with anxious thoughts. Blinking, she slumped in resignation. Maybe I should take a bit of a break. I'm… not quite feeling it right now. Perhaps sequestering herself away wasn't the right approach to take here. After all, she wasn't alone. Not really. Pushing back from her desk, she headed for the door. Maybe her dad wouldn't mind hanging out. Well, so long as it didn't involve her "helping" with his plants.