“Hurry up Miguel, you’re taking too long, compadre.” Charlotte yelled and Miguel released a frustrated sigh. Charlotte rolled her eyes as she grabs her bag with all of her books. She had her cup of coffee, with few creams and 4 little packets of sugar. While Miguel was taking his time, Charlotte had the time to taste her coffee, which it was bittersweet, like tea.

“Hurry up!” Charlotte yelled again. She wasn’t willing to fight with him in the mornings, as the usual. “Sheesh, which nationality is this now? Portuguese or Barbadian?” Miguel asked as he arrived downstairs, tired, needing a cup of coffee.

“Both.” She responded and headed out to their usual train stop where they head off to their high school.

The rush hour had begun and for them, they look at it like hell had broken loose, in their perspective of course. “We always deal with the rush hours, every day of the school year.” Charlotte states.

For others, they’re used to it, well, maybe because they are always in a rush hour to get to their normal workplaces, as for them, their school.

“Can I say how much I hate rush hours,” Miguel says, frustrated at the sight in front of him, “If people want to live, I’d recommend them not to live here.” “You got a point,” Charlotte states, “I’d move to California.”

“Ha, California.” Miguel says and Charlotte had to agree. The Times Square, 42nd street station was crowded, even for just the 1,2 and 3 trains. They just needed to take the 1 train to 18 avenue to get to their destination.

So far, it was mission impossible, as every morning when they come and wait for their required train.

“Anything special tonight, Charlotte?” Miguel asked as the 1 train came and they stepped into the train compartment and stood side by side together.

“No, why?” She asked her best friend.

“Just asking because my mum wants you to come over.” He simply says and Charlotte had to think about it. The space around the train was unbearable, since they couldn’t even dare move around to feel comfortable to get to their stop.

“And may I ask why?” Charlotte asked. She knows that Miguel’s mother loves her coming over, but now, she thinks that his mother is like an annoying relative, just like in a book she read.

“It’s simply to help her with something that she doesn’t even try to explain to me.” Miguel answers sadly.

“Oh well, that sometimes happens, right, asking one person to help and not even daring to ask the other one.” She says. They stood silent, looking around at the people who were sitting on the chairs. There were few office men and women who were reading in their tablets, some were playing some game and there less than few students, heading off to school, in the train compartment.

Slowly, people started to clear out, walking out of the train to their stops and the train fully stopped when they had arrived to their destination, 18th avenue.

“Finally, I couldn’t take the crowdedness any longer.” Miguel sing-songs as they walked up the stairs to the nearest exit available.

Charlotte had to check the time, since Miguel took a long time to get out of her apartment, always being fashionably late, as she likes to call it.

“Miguel! Hurry up, I’m serious, we are going to be late, thanks to you.” Charlotte begun to yell at him. Miguel rolled his eyes as Charlotte grabbed his jacket sleeve and begun to run.

Miguel started to protest about it, knowing how she was whenever they are late for something, like a soccer game or just simply going to get the school supplies.

“It’s your fault, Charlotte Paolini!” Miguel yelled as they came out of the train station and speed walking towards the school, just 5 minutes to spare.

“Oh, so now this is MY fault, isn’t it? Look who’s talking, the one who took the longest time to get out of the apartment to catch the 1 train.” Charlotte fired back.

“Well because SOMEONE shut my alarm off.” Miguel fired an answer back, earning a few confused looks by the bystanders.

“I didn’t do it, it was my older half brother who did that.” She respond with the honest truth. Her half brother, Xavier, turned off Miguel’s alarm clock as a prank and Miguel overslept, well almost, if it wasn’t for Charlotte.

“When we get back, I’m yelling at your brother.” Miguel says as they finally arrived at the school before they were late. “Well, don’t put the blame on me if he states that it was my fault.” Charlotte says and Miguel nodded. They headed off to their lockers on the first floor to gather their books,then after, go to their designated carts to retrieve their laptop for their classes.

“So, you still coming over after what I said about my mum.” Miguel says, waiting for their response as they got their laptops and trying to get out after a crowd of students surrounded them while trying to retrieve other laptops.

Charlotte was undecided, she had the afternoon planned to spent her time with her older brother and half-brother. If she let them down, she’ll blame herself, unless she moves it to another day. But that will be impossible, her brother leaves back to New Mexico for his University classes next week.

“I think I won’t be able to because I already planned to spent my afternoon with my brother and half brother.” She responds to Miguel, guiltiness on her voice.

All of their classmates greeted them as they passed by and they gave the gesture back to them, and some……….not so great.

“What class do you have now?” Miguel asked, stopping at the nearest staircase. “At the moment, I have Chemistry. 2nd period, I have Earth Science, I’ll see you in Earth Science.” Charlotte says.

They looked at few freshman students a bit lost, it’s just the start of the school year. “Do you know where this room is located?” One freshman student asked Miguel and Charlotte as he showed his timetable.

“Down the hall.” Miguel responds and the freshman thanked Miguel for his help.

I just want to get over with Chemistry. She didn’t want to take Chemistry and Earth Science in her sophomore year but her parents talked with the principal and she was okay with her taking both of the science classes this year.

And that meant taking both tests in her sophomore year.

"Alright Charlotte, I'll see you in Earth Science then. Until then, farewell Charlotte." Miguel says and waves, heading off to his Geometry class.

********

"Adrian, let's go, please," Alli states, excited to go to the lake, "I mean, how bad would it be?" She states and Adrian sighed. He asked himself many questions and one of them was 'why were they best friends'.

His answer was, ‘I don't even know’. "Fine but we are coming home in half an hour, that's it." He states as Alli smiled.

Adrian was over at Alli's home, which it wasn't that bad. It had many expensive pots that had many meanings for their country and the kingdom itself. But here's the catch, Alli's half Spanish.

As part of the Spanish monarchy, Alli can choose between marrying an Englishman or a Spaniard man. Her choice, not his.

As they stepped out of the small castle home, Alli started walking to the lake, where they both met for the first time after years of their families knowing each other and actually became best friends until now.

Adrian wasn't in a very good mood in the bright sunny day, he wasn't because of his older brother, the one who always annoys him in many ways. Alli takes notice and stopped walking, to face her best friend.

"What's the matter, Adrian, looking dreadful." Alli states, looking at him carefully.

"My older brother as the usual, always crossing the line, who never leaves me to have my own time." Adrian says to her.

It's always hard to handle many siblings, he thought. Two brothers, one sister, a half brother, three more brothers, stepbrothers and another sister.

Step-sister, to clarify any confusion.

"Just relax," Alli says, looking at Adrian’s facial expression, "I'll come over one day to put this to a stop."

That was one of the reasons why Adrian loves her. Walking in a nice silence, they've passed the marketplace, where Adrian and Alli always pass through to buy something for themselves as they always take a walk.

As they arrived, they sat down at the cliff of the hill, looking at the lake ahead of them. Adrian just noticed that Alli wasn't wearing her usual dresses, she was wearing male clothes, and her hair was up in the hat, making others believe that she was a boy.

The view of the lake was like looking at heaven, making them relax from all of their problems, the sun set was as powerful as the sun and the moon, the light reflecting on them, the orange-red light was mirrored by the water, making the sun set even more beautiful.

"Adrian, come on, let's go for a swim." She says it out of the blue. "Risking your brother’s clothes? No thank you.” he responds to her, not willing to get into trouble with her brother.

Her blood related brother, not her half brother.

“Come on, please?” Alli asked.

“No Alli, not risking it.” Adrian responded, not willing to jump with all of the clothes on.

“Come on, please? This one time.” Alli pleads him. The wind was blowing, the sun was setting. The sun’s colors were like a burning flame of the candle, a candle light guiding through the dark. He’s not risking to jump into the lake with clothes on, sorry, not his type.

But he decided to go with his guts.

“Fine, I’m doing this for you, Alli, alright?” Adrian says and she nodded, satisfied that she convinces me. She dived into the lake, grabbing Adrian’s collar and jumped into the lake.

Adrian closed his eyes, not willing to watch, but Alli was smiling, feeling the winds blow on her and Adrian, feeling fresh after all of the wind on his face.

“Come on Adrian. Open your eyes.” Alli states to him as they already hit the water, feeling all of his clothes stick to his body. It wasn’t a good feeling that his clothes stick to him.

Adrian did as Alli told him to and opened his eyes and looked around, the people, their clothing style, how the air around them smelled like. And it was worse than back in the village they live.

“Alli?” Adrian asked as he looked at the scene in front of him. He wasn’t sure if this was suppose to happen or floating on the lake they have jumped on.

“Yeah?”

“Um, are we suppose to float or go to the future?” He asked her and her head shot up.

“This is not happening.” Alli responds, freaked out about the surroundings around her. Her brother’s hat dropped besides her as her wavy brown-black hair dropped besides her shoulder. Her blue-grey eyes flashed with fear, blood slowly dripping from the huge cut underneath her eye, dropping to the fountain water.

“Where are we,” Adrian asked, looking around, “this is not home.” There was tons of people walking, with suits, some in track pants with a gym type sweater. The air they breathed in was like poison to them, spreading through their body, as a burning fire inside of them, burning slowly through their body. The view of the buildings was new for them, questioning themselves about it. Adrian tasted blood on his bottom lip, dripping onto his clothes and all of his clothes had already sticked to his body like seaweed from the sea. Adrian was furious with Alli on the inside but on the outside, he looked calm.

“Oh god.” Alli says and started to calm down a bit. Adrian didn’t know what to do, some people looked at them, shocked to see their open flesh and blood dripping off from the open skin.

“Are you two okay?” A man’s voice asked and they turned to the direction to the voice that asked them.

“We need a doctor.” Adrian responds, wiping off the blood from his lip. The man nodded as he decided to call someone that they didn’t know. Many people surrounded them, looking at them carefully as an ancient artifact.

This is the worst mistake of my life, Adrian thought.

“Miguel, look!” Charlotte states, running a hand through her wavy black hair. Miguel looked where the crowd of people where, his grey eyes going wide. “We should have a look then.” He says, biting his bottom lip, not too hard.

Charlotte wasn’t too confident about it, but shrugged. She wanted to know what’s happening over there.

Having a confused look on their faces, they walked up, with their bookbag strap on one shoulder and their binder at their right arm, and tried to peek over through the crowd.

“What happened?” Miguel asked one of the people from the crowd.

Most of the people looked at Charlotte and Miguel, one of them even studied their faces while attending a young teenager, about their age. The winds didn’t blow as much as the forecast predicted, the leaves on the tree shining with the reflecting light of the sun, and they listened to the fountain waters, as if they were making music of their own.

“Why’d you want to know?”

“We want to know what happened.”

Most people of the crowd made some space for them to walk to get a better view, while others, not helpful much.

“Stay still, young man.” Another man says. Charlotte and Miguel got a better view of the young man,mostly a teenager about their age, standing up from the fountain he’d must have fallen.

“I’m fine, really, my friend here needs a doctor.” He says as he starts to walk around a bit, stretching out his legs. Charlotte could see the cut on his bottom lip, bleeding a lot from some fall. They turned their view towards his friend and saw that her cut was much worse than the boy. Her cut was about 3-4 inches wide, cutting almost everything from the bottom of her eye.

*******

“No, young man, you need to stay still.” The same man spoke at the same time Adrian stopped walking.

“Tell me why do I need to stay still if I’m not the one who’s badly injured?” He responds while he paced himself again, not minding what will happen to him. “You need to stay still, like your friend here.” He stated, pointing at Alli. Adrian rolled his eyes at the man, not caring about anything.

“I’m not that injured, just a busted lip.” He murmured to himself as he sat on the nearest bench next to Alli.

Alli gave him a half smile as he sat down next to her and crossed his arms. This wasn't what he expected to turn out to be.

“Why are we here in the first place?”

“I don’t know actually.” Miguel responds to her. The truth is that he knew why he should be here. For Adrian, it all made sense now, the cars, the tall buildings and the toxic air.

It appeared in his dream, all of it appeared in his dream, it felt like puzzle pieces put together as one.

It was an hour that they were here and they haven’t thought of anything to get rid of the massive crowd surrounding them.

“Excuse, excuse me.” Two voices yelled as they came towards Adrian and Alli. They shoot each other a confused look and turned their attention to the two teenagers in front of them.

“Who are you?” Adrian asked them as they set their book bags in front of them and the boy inspected Alli’s eye. “Oh, sorry for not introducing to you guys, I’m Miguel,” The boy says,”and that’s Charlotte.” He finished off, pointing to the girl that was inspecting his busted lip.

“Hello.” Alli greeted them with a small smile while Miguel inspected her eye. “We didn’t catch your name.” Charlotte states while grabbing a napkin out of her pocket.

“I’m Adrian and that’s Alli.” Adrian introduced themselves and they nodded. The man looked between both Miguel and Charlotte.

“How do you two know about this?” He asked Miguel and Charlotte. “Oh, well, we have some nursing programs in our high school and my friend here,” Charlotte pointed at Miguel, “he takes the class. I learned a lot from him.

“Alright, we’ve been here for the past hour waiting for the paramedics and they haven’t arrived.” He responded and they nodded.

Miguel had cleaned her right eye up and tried his best to disinfect the wound underneath her eye. “Well, your wound of your eye will be healed in a week but then it’s fine, your eye isn’t damaged.” Miguel states and Alli nodded.

Miguel took the time to study the clothes Alli and Adrian were wearing. Miguel noticed that they weren’t wearing the clothes they usually wear. It looked like the clothes from the 1500’s and their accents were different.

“How did you guys get here?” Miguel asked them, curiosity kicking in. “I don’t know, we were back home in England, of course, in 1516, jumping off a lake, thanks to Alli.” Adrian states as he sent a death glare to her.

Miguel’s eyes widen as Adrian stated the year they came from. “Yo- you came from that year?” Miguel asked, struggling to get an answer out of him. Adrian and Alli looked at each other and nodded.

“Yeah, we did. But we don’t know how to get back, that’s the problem we have right now.” Alli states as she got up and started walking. Adrian did the same thing and walked besides her as Miguel walked besides her. Charlotte grabbed her bag and catched up with them.

The crowd of people left while they were attending Adrian and Alli, which it was a good sign for them. “Do you have any family members in this time period?” Charlotte asked as she walked besides Adrian.

Alli and Adrian looked at them like they were crazy, they didn’t have any family members during this time.

“No we don’t have any, we came from the past, 1516.” Adrian states to both Charlotte and Miguel.

Charlotte’s eyes went wide, just as Miguel’s eyes went about 10 minutes ago. Adrian and Alli were waiting for her response as they walked down the path of the park, with a slight breeze blowing them.

“I- wow.” Charlotte stated as they arrived to the N train station and descending the stairs to get their train home, to Times Square.

“That’s why their accent is different.” Miguel states as they swiped their cards, helping Adrian and Alli to get in from the entrance of the platform. “Yeah, and that’s why we are wearing these clothes.” Adrian states as Charlotte eyed up and down at his outfit, along with Alli’s outfit.

“Let’s just go home guys, and we’ll give you guys a lift, since you don’t know who your family members are & came from the year 1516.” Charlotte says and got on the N train to Times Square with the others.