TRILOGY OF TIME

"Xander! Izzy! It's time to wake up!"

He was having the weirdest dream. He'd heard his mother's voice, but she'd been dead for thirteen years. Xander rolled over only to discover his bed was much smaller than he remembered, and he crashed onto the floor.

Mentally, he quickly assessed the extent of his injuries. At his age, Xander wouldn't be surprised if he'd broken something. His eyes blinked open, and he gasped. Had falling out of bed fixed his eyesight? He'd needed to get glasses when he turned sixty and was nearly blind at this point.

But that no longer seemed true-he could see just fine.

Xander sat up and found that while the fall had jarred him, he was okay. He felt better than he had in years. All his aches and pains seemed to be gone. Then he glanced around, and the room seemed familiar.

"What the fu-?" Xander asked himself, but caught himself before he swore.

This looked like the room he'd lived in as a teenager!

He glanced down at himself, and his arms and legs resembled a boy's.

'Did I really die and get sent back to do my life over?!'Xander thought.

He jumped up and rushed to his dresser, which had a mirror above it, and saw his teenage face staring back at him.

"I told you two to get up. It's your first day of school, and you don't want to miss the bus!"

Xander rushed to the bathroom because he knew he'd never get ready if Izzy got there first. He quickly did his business and brushed his teeth. Then he saw his hair and winced. That haircut meant he'd been sent back to middle school.

Before they moved, his mom had taken him to get a haircut. Little did he know when he got into the chair that the older man cutting his hair had just retired from a long-time position on a Marine base. His job had been to give each jarhead the same cut: high and tight. Because the barber only knew one way to cut hair, Xander became the beneficiary of a military special.

The haircut hadn't at first registered because, before he died, Xander wore a flattop. He remembered slamming a baseball cap over the atrocity. When his mom pulled up to take him home, she demanded to see it.

"Only if you promise not to laugh," Xander pleaded.

She'd looked at him impatiently.

"Just show me."

Xander pulled his cap off, and his mom burst into hysterical laughter. That led him to tell everyone at his new school that he'd lost a bet to his dad and that he didn't always look like a freak. It wasn't the best impression a new kid could make on their first day of school.

During his first life, he'd tried everything to get out of going. But the old soul he was now just shrugged. Xander knew he'd make friends, and the teasing would die down after the first week. Before, he'd been mortified, which caused him to be shy and lose confidence.

Speaking of the move, his dad, Wayne, was a contractor and had built them a new house in West Fork, Arkansas. They'd moved from Dallas, Texas, because his mom's parents weren't doing well. She'd convinced his dad to move there so she wouldn't have to put them into a home.

Xander had always wondered about the ruse of his grandparents not being well because Grandma and Grandpa Davidson didn't act sick when they arrived. The first time through, Xander never questioned it.

Later in life, he discovered the real reason for the move: his dad's wandering eye. He'd had an affair with his office manager. But what caused Xander's mom to force the move was his dad getting caught banging one of his clients' daughters on a job site-the client's seventeen-year-old daughter. When the client tossed around threats of a lawsuit and possible criminal charges, Xander's parents decided it was time to leave town.

His dad promised to be faithful. Needless to say, when Izzy left for college, his parents divorced.

Looking back, Xander wished they'd separated sooner because his dad was a mean SOB, the type who never lost an argument and made you look like scum for opposing him. Wayne also felt free to deliver a backhand if he thought you'd disrespected him.

Growing up, Xander had loved visiting his grandparents. They lived in West Fork, near Fayetteville, on the north edge of the Ozark Mountains, in the middle of a forest on seventy-five acres of land with a cold spring.

His dad had built their house on Xander's grandparents' land. Wayne had chosen a spot on a ridge that overlooked the town and designed the home to blend with the area's architecture. It had a Victorian-era flair with a modern interior.

Xander's sister banged on the bathroom door, breaking him out of his morning reverie. Isobel was two years younger, in sixth grade, her last year of grade school.

"Xander! Get out! I have to get ready," Izzy pleaded.

Xander opened the door and smiled at his sister. She'd died young of lung cancer. Izzy had run with a wilder crowd in high school and took up smoking. She'd been 34 when she finally succumbed, leaving a daughter whom Xander had taken in when Izzy's deadbeat husband disappeared. Three years later, the husband died in a car accident. He'd gotten behind the wheel drunk and killed a family of four.

Izzy had a sweet disposition but had never been a morning person. He hugged her.

"What the...!" Izzy complained.

"Can't a brother love his sister?" Xander asked.

Izzy gave him the stink eye.

"A weird one, maybe," she huffed, pushing him out of the way.

Xander chuckled as he strolled to his room to get dressed. He first stepped over to his closet to grab a casual button-up shirt and then stopped himself. Did he really want to get his ass kicked the first day? His haircut would put a big enough target on his back, on top of being the 'new' kid. Xander wouldn't stand a chance if he showed up looking like a seventy-year-old.

While his internal old man remained firm in his 'I don't give a fuck' attitude, there were some things you just didn't do. Instead, he opened his dresser drawer and pulled out a t-shirt with some anime characters on it, which he vaguely remembered. Xander put it back and found a plain red one instead. No need to be labeled a nerd, too. It would be best for him to try to fit in so he could make new friends. No one wanted to hang out with the new 'special' guy.

When he stopped to think about it, Xander found himself amused that he was trying to fit in. But life would have been easier the first time around if he'd done it, so that was what he would go with. His goal was to have a better life this time, and having friends would go a long way toward achieving it.

He caught Izzy coming out of the bathroom.

"How do I look?"

She blinked because he'd never asked her something like that before.

"No, seriously. It's my first day at a new school, and I have this messed-up haircut. I don't need to be the poster child for total losers," Xander explained.

"You'll probably survive your first day."

He would take that from Izzy.

"Thanks."

He tried to walk around her to go downstairs, but his sister put her hand on his chest to stop him.

"Why are you acting weird?"

The hug was probably a red flag. Xander said he loved her and ... well ... they didn't do that, if he remembered correctly.

"I've decided that our move will give me a chance to make some changes."

She considered that for a moment and nodded.

"Just quit the hugging," Izzy said and pushed him out of the way so she could go to her room.

As he walked downstairs, he figured everyone in his family would probably notice a difference in him. So his off-the-cuff remark about making changes should be the party line, which he shared with his mother as she served him breakfast.

"That's probably a good idea," his dad said, peering over the top of his newspaper. "When you get home, you can mow the yard. Doing something useful would be a welcome change."

'Yay, Dad! Way to benefit yourself with every utterance I make,' Xander thought.

"I'd be happy to," Xander said, shocking both his parents.

"Well, okay, then," was his dad's snappy comeback.

His dad, at all of five-seven and a hundred-forty pounds, walked around like a banty rooster, strutting around and bossing everyone in sight. He was also very fit because he wasn't afraid of physical labor, unlike most of the other contractors Xander had met. Part of that was due to his dad being cheap. If he didn't have to hire someone extra, then he would pocket the profits.

His mom almost towered over his dad at five feet eleven, which made them look funny when she wore heels. People could never understand how such an odd couple would be together. Thankfully, Xander had taken after his mother in terms of height. Size-wise, Izzy took after their dad and looked like a little pixie when she grew up.

Luckily, Xander and Izzy got their looks from their mother. Not that their father was ugly, but anyone could see Xander's mom was out of his dad's league. They were both blond-haired and blue-eyed.

Izzy showed up with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, her everyday style. She'd also put on a red t-shirt. The little shit winked at him when he saw what she wore. It told him he'd gotten his look right.

Xander had forgotten the hell that was the school bus. As the last ones to get on, he and Izzy would have to sit next to the kids no one else wanted to, since the bus was almost completely full.

Another downside of being the last ones on was that they'd be the last ones off at night, since the bus followed the same loop in the morning and evening. Xander would either have to endure this hell for the next three years or find someone to give him a ride. He could probably get into a fight, and then his mom would have to drive him. The problem with that would be that his father would kick the shit out of him, so Xander saved that plan as a last resort.

He let Izzy get on first. When he climbed on, he saw three open seats. One was with a future neighbor, Brian Miller. Brian's younger brother, Tim, had become one of Xander's first friends in the past timeline.

Brian, three years older, had something wrong with him. He was a loner, but Xander vividly remembered a group of guys playing in the empty lot next to Tim and Brian's house. Brian opened the back door and pulled out his dick.

"Ever see a real dick before? If you want, I'll let you suck it."

When Izzy moved to sit next to Brian, Xander grabbed her arm and pointed to a seat further back. There was no need to expose his sister to the perv. He would have a quiet word with her later.

Xander also skipped the empty seat next to Brian, leaving the seat next to Karen Merritt as his only choice. What was the most politically correct thing to say about Karen? 'Fuck it.' Karen embodied her stereotypical name, the class snitch who would boldly point out people's faults if she felt justified. God help you if she decided you'd broken a rule.

She was also rotund, to the point that when Xander sat down next to her, part of his butt hung over the edge of the bench.

All that meant he'd just sat down next to undoubtedly the most hated person in school.

"Hey. I'm Xander."

Karen appeared confused because she wasn't accustomed to anyone talking to her unless it was necessary.

"Karen," she said, folding her arms over her chest.

Her body language screamed her discomfort at the attention. Xander's old self would've caught the hint and stared straight ahead, realizing his mistake. Instead, Xander turned and smiled at Karen.

"Good to meet you. You're officially the first person I've said hello to. I'm new."

"If you hang out with me, I might be the last person you say hello to," Karen said.

"Too bad for them, then. That is, unless you don't need any new friends."

"I don't even know you. For all I know, you could be a survivalist living off the grid."

"Nice one," Xander chuckled.

Karen's expression communicated her confusion.

"Would it be okay if I wait to get to know you before I decide if we can be friends?" Karen asked.