The Chaos Theory

by

Ben Wuest

It is said that a simple flutter of a butterfly's wings
could cause a typhoon halfway around the world...

This one's for Trent...
Prologue:

Time Travel

It is thought that time travel is the reason for chaos. That a simple flaw in time can cause the most complex disasters known to man. But if time travel is the reason for these flaws, then who is traveling? In my own opinion I think that someone or something has that power to travel back in time, yet it is kept secret. But why? Maybe one thinks that it is for the best to keep to one's self? Or maybe one thinks it's too soon in time for time traveling to be released out into the world?
Or maybe one wishes to create chaos?

---------- Ben Wuest

Coran Young could sense the dangers coming closer to him. Had he not done such a dreadful thing in the past, maybe this would not be happening to him. Whatever the case, he knew he couldn't stay for long in this place he was hiding in.
He shifted, feeling the numbness remove itself from his foot that he'd been sitting on for the last hour or two. His shifting echoed throughout the large ventilation pipe he was sitting on fifty feet above a long steel bridge where moments ago hundreds of cops had ran down in an attempt to find him.
He had just killed him...
***
Six years earlier...

"I'll be back for you, I promise." Coran whispered into Ella Gordon's (his girlfriend) ear.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "I'll be waiting for that day." She said.
Coran waited until she released him before walking over and getting into the front seat of his mother's Sable. He watched Ella stare at him from her spot on the sidewalk in front of their sold house from the rear- view mirror. Tears streamed down her face and then they turned around the corner and she was gone.
Coran choked back his tears and he pulled out his journal:
August 1st, 2004,
Today is my birthday. It was the quietest birthday ever for it was also the day that I told my friends that I was leaving. At the party nobody ate their cake or ice cream, but just hugged me every so often until we finished opening my presents.
We're moving to Nebraska City, Nebraska... home of Arbor Day... Great. It's four hours away from here and I'm pretty sure that someone like me will have a hard time fitting in. You know, with my illness and all. But who knows? This could be for the best.
***
"Well, Coran, what do you think?" Natasha Young, Coran's mother, asked as they pulled up the long driveway to a massive house. They pulled up in front of the three-door garage and she parked the car and they got out.
The house was white in color, of course, it was night though so it could have been some other color, and very beautiful. They walked up to the back door and she unlocked it and they walked in. Immediately they found themselves in an intersection of three areas of the house. To their right was a large kitchen with a bar and two refrigerators. To their left was a closed sliding door. Ahead of them was a staircase leading down.
"Come on, let me show you around!" Natasha said cheerfully. She grabbed his hand and led him through the closed sliding door first. "This," she said, pointing to the many closed boxes covering the room, "will be the office. See? I already have your computer desk set up for you."
She led him through the office to a door. They went through and Coran saw his old twin bed mattress and frame leaned up against the wall of the small room. His face cringed, "Oh, don't worry, this isn't your room. This is the guest bedroom, just in case we have, you know, a guest."
She then led him through the next door where they found themselves in a hallway. "To our right is the living room, you can explore that on your own later. To our left is the bathroom." She opened a door in the hallway and he saw four shelves and a clothes chute, "This is the hallway closet, obviously." Natasha said with a nervous chuckle.
She pushed open the door at the end of the small hallway and led him in. Her and his father's king-sized mattress was leaned up against the wall, their dresser was in the corner and there were many boxes. "This is clearly my room. It's nothing special, but just to let you know, it's mine."
She led him out of her room and brought him through the living room, through the kitchen, and down the stairs into the basement. "Almost the entire basement is just yours, Coran. There's a very large bathroom with a large shower, like the one's in the locker rooms at your old school. And there's this large living room and over here," she led him through the living room and opened a door and into a large room, "is your room." The room was a fairly decent size, much larger than he'd ever had of a room and it satisfied him.
His bed was already set up and he immediately jumped onto it and looked around his room. It was clearly the only room his mom had spent time on for all of his stuff was set up. His dressers were set up in the corner of the room as was his second computer right next to his bed. His bookshelf sat next to his queen-sized bed and in the middle of the room was his TV. At the end of the room was a large curtain-closet that his mother had made him back home in Kansas.
"Thank you mom," Coran said smiling, "It's great."
"Really? Well thank you." She said. She walked across the room and sat on his bed next to him and squeezed his shoulder. "Listen, Coran, I know this is all going so fast; First your father dies and now we've moved away from all that we've ever known, but maybe there's still hope after all, you know? Maybe life will be easier here." She said. She gave him a kiss on his forehead and got up from the bed and walked to the door. "You'd better get some rest, son, school starts in two weeks." She turned off the light, "Happy birthday, son. Sleep well." She said before closing the door.
***
August 18th, 2004

Coran walked down the halls of the Nebraska City High School, unfamiliar to the environment so he came early to find his classes before school started. He saw large groups of unfamiliar people talking to each other or walking around or looking at him odd. He just pulled back his blonde hair and kept walking no matter what. Music was playing from the speakers in the ceiling tiles and he walked to the beat of the music.
He came around the corner and crashed into a blonde girl, both of their books and papers flew into the air as they fell into the air. "Watch where you're going, kid!" The girl exclaimed as she brushed her hair out of her face and got up. She was obviously one of the 'popular' girls, Coran saw this by the way she was behaving and how she was dressed.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Coran said. He brushed back his hair with his fingers like he always did instinctively when he got nervous.
Their eyes met for only a second before the blonde girl asked, "You got a problem or something, kid?" she asked with a southern accent that he couldn't place.
Coran smiled nervously and they both began to pick up their things. "I'm sorry, I'm new here and I'm very nervous. I guess I just.."
"What's your name, kid?" the girl asked.
"Um, I'm Coran. Coran Young." Coran said, "I'm a freshman," he added.
"I see. My name is Morgan Jane, but to you I'm just Morgan. I'm a sophomore." She said, not near as unpleasant now. In fact, she smiled at him. "Where you from, kid?" she asked.
"I'm from Colby, it's in Kansas. I can tell by your accent that you're not from around here either?" he asked.
"No, I'm from Houston, Texas. I moved here about three years ago." After both of them had their books and papers stacked up again she asked, "Do you need any sort of help finding anything?" she asked.
Coran smiled and let out a soft chuckle, "I'm so lost right now it's not even funny! I need to find the art room, if you don't mind."
Morgan let out a little laugh and pointed to the door next to them labeled ART ROOM. Coran blushed, "Oh, ok, thanks." He said. Morgan laughed and pulled open the door to the art room.
"See you later, kid, maybe we have a class together." She said.
"I hope so, Morgan, thanks again." Coran said.
"You bet." Morgan said. She closed the door and saw her boyfriend leaned up against the wall next to her.
"What was that all about?" he asked.
"Nothing, Michael, let's just go." Morgan said.
"Was he flirting with you?" he asked, alarmed now.
"No, he's just a friend." Morgan said.
"Well, friend or not, I don't want you talking to him." Michael said.
"Well, you have friends who are girls, are you going to stop talking to them too?" Morgan argued.
"That's different!" Michael snapped.
"How, Michael? How is it different?" Morgan asked as both of them walked down the hall.
"It just is, ok? Just, don't talk to him, maybe he'll leave you alone." Michael ordered.
"Well maybe I don't want him to leave me alone." Morgan said, continuing to not look at him as she walked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Michael asked.
"Nothing, just drop it, ok?" Morgan said before swerving into the next hallway toward the staircase.
Michael stopped at the bottom of the staircase and said, "I'll see you later at lunch, ok?" he asked.
"I doubt it." Morgan said before they both went their separate ways.
***
Later that night, Coran was looking through many of his father's old journals. There were hundreds of inserts about his many finds about time travel and the chaos theory. He used to lock himself in his office for days researching these two theories, never telling a soul (with the exception of Coran that is) about his finds.
"I think I've found the way to travel back and forth in time, son!" Bill Young said in the late summer of 1997.
"Well, tell me!" Coran said, a wide smile spread across his face. He was proud of his father's determination throughout the many years of his research on these two theories.
But a frown came to Bill's face, "I'm sorry son, you're just too young for the truth. I'll tell you what though, son, I'll write down the answer to the riddle in one of my journals if you'll promise to keep it secret from everyone, including your mother. Ok?" he asked.
"I promise, dad. But, why not you just tell me when it's time?" The seven-year-old Coran asked.
"Just in case, son, just in case." Bill said, although Coran never would've understood what he meant by that until now...
"He knew he was going to die." Coran said, his eyes growing wide with realization. "He knew he was going to die, so he left me all of these clues!"
Coran flipped another page in his father's journal. June 12th 1997, I've made a recent breakthrough that may be the key to time-travel, it read, Now all I have to do is piece it all together and in a matter of days I can have the answer that I've been looking for.
Coran knew that this was the right journal, he knew that the answer was only a few pages away.
He knew that soon he could have the power to reverse his father's death...
***
August 19th, 2004

"Coran? Coran, honey, you're going to be late for school if you don't hurry up!" Coran's eyes opened slowly and he lifted his head off his computer desk in the office and quickly got out of his chair, he must've overslept!
He ran down the stairs and into his bedroom and quickly scrambled through his dresser for a different pair of clothes to wear to school today. "Honey? Are you awake?" he heard his mother call from upstairs.
"I'm awake mom, I just overslept." Coran called as he hopped on one foot, struggling to get a sock on his left foot.
"What time did you get to bed last night?" his mother called.
His mind did a quick flashback and he saw the alarm clock in his office reading 1:32 AM. He knew she'd get angry or start asking questions if he told her that so he lied, "It was about eleven-fifteen, mom, sorry." he called up.
"Ok then, what were you possibly doing that was so important?" she asked.
Drat! Now I have to lie again! His mind cursed. "Homework, mom." Coran replied.
"Ok, son. Hurry up, you have two minutes until the bus is going to arrive." Natasha called down to him. "I'm going to work now, son, have a good day at school." She said.
"Ok, mom, bye!" Coran shouted from his room deep in the basement.
***
Toward the end of science class, Coran was writing in his journal when a boy sat next to him and asked, "What are you doing?"
Coran stopped writing and glanced to the boy, who was looking at his journal. He set his pencil aside and closed the journal slowly, answering, "Nothing. Do you need something?" he snapped.
The boy lifted his hands, "Hey man, I was just trying to start a conversation." He held out his hand, offering a shake, "My name is Jared Forest, freshman."
Coran changed his attitude at this and smiled and shook his hand, "Coran Young, also a freshman."
"Nice to meet you Coran." Jared said. "So what is that?" he asked.
"It's a journal, I've been keeping journals since I was five. It was my father's idea." Coran said, now packing his journal into his backpack.
"That's cool. What were you writing about?" Jared asked.
"Do you always ask this many questions?" Coran snapped.
Jared blushed, "Sorry, I just got interested. So what does your father do?" he asked.
"My father is dead. He was killed in June." Coran said quietly.
"Oh..." Jared bit his bottom lip, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
Coran nodded, "Yeah, well now you do." He said quietly.
There was a long pause before the bell went off. "Hey, what are you doing tonight?" Jared asked as they both walked out of the science room.
"Nothing much, I guess, why?" Coran asked.
"Well, tonight's the welcome back dance at seven. I was just wondering if you wanted to come?" he asked.
Coran kind of shied away at this, "I... I don't know how to, you know..."
"You don't know how to dance!?" Jared asked.
"Well... no, not at all really. I'm not really into that kind of stuff." Coran said.
"Do you at least know how to swing dance? That's one of the most useful dances, it's the inspiration to all of the modern-day dances." Jared said.
Coran shook his head, "I don't know how to do any dances... at all." he said.
Jared shook his head in disbelief, "No way, man, you have got to be playing with me, everyone has their own inner dance... Nothing?" he asked once more. Coran shook his head no. Jared let out a sigh, "Fine, meet me in the gym after school today, I guess I'll have to teach you."
***
"And one, two three, one, two three..." Jared said as he and Coran twisted their arms and then their bodies to his beats. "You're getting it." Jared said as they continued with few errors.
But he spoke too soon; Coran and Jared's feet got twisted as well and they both fell to the wooden floor of the gym. "Ow," Coran said. Behind him he could hear a slow clapping.
"Bravo!" a familiar female voice called from the entrance of the gym. "Bravo."
Coran and Jared got to their feet just as Morgan Jane walked up to the two of them. "Please, Jared, is that all you can teach him? You two barely covered the dance." She scolded, "If you would please, Jared." She said, motioning for him to step aside.
She lifted Coran's hand and they both began to dance to the fast claps of Jared's hands. Their arms extended and then she spun into his arms and then spun out again and they twisted their bodies once more. "Do you know how to waltz?" Morgan asked as they spun.
"What's a waltz?" Coran asked.
"I'll take that as a no." Morgan said. "Ok, I'll teach you." she said.
"How much longer are we going to do this?" Coran asked.
"Well, let's see." Morgan said as they once again spun, "The dance is at seven, it's four now, so... three more hours." They both laughed.
***
Michael Ko was passing the gym on his way to his locker to get his things after his meeting ended when he heard Morgan's laughter. He was about to go into the gym when he saw her dancing with that one boy... that Coran guy. His rage built up, yet he continued on his way to his locker. He would deal with Coran at some other time, like tonight at the dance. He knew that before the week was up Coran would be regretting ever meeting Morgan...